http://www.rhino.com/shop/product/the-g ... germstext3
• The legendary final concert with founding member Darby Crash, presented in its entirety for the first time ever
• Unique packaging in the vein of a punk fanzine, complete with a reproduction of the handwritten set list
• Includes an 8 1/2" x 11" replica of the original poster for the show
After The Germs’ snarling debut “Forming” helped usher in the West Coast punk scene in 1977, singer Darby Crash, guitarist Pat Smear, bassist Lorna Doom, and drummer Don Bolles returned two years later with (GI), an unrelenting onslaught of primal pounding and verbal venom that influenced a generation. But it was the group’s unhinged concerts—often teetering on the brink of riotous bedlam—that elevated The Germs to exalted status among punk rockers.
Until now, only a few examples of the group’s live shows have surfaced, adding to The Germs’ mystique. Rhino Handmade presents a live album that features, for the first time ever, The Germs’ legendary final concert with Crash. LIVE AT THE STARWOOD: DECEMBER 3, 1980 features unique packaging that has a genuine DIY feel including black and white liner notes folded and stapled to resemble a punk fanzine, a reproduction of the handwritten set list, and an 8 1/2" x 11" replica of the original poster for the show.
The disc contains the entire unreleased concert, considered by many fans to be The Germs’ finest hour. Performing together for the first time in a year, the quartet played possessed, blasting rapid-fire through nearly every song in its arsenal. After opening with “Circle One” from the 1978 EP Lexicon Devil, the band bashed its way through all but two songs from (GI)—the band’s sole studio album—including “What We Do Is Secret,” “Our Way,” and “Shut Down (Annihilation Man).” “Caught In My Eye,” an outtake from the (GI) recording sessions (produced by Joan Jett), found its way onto the set list as well.
The disc also features: “Lion’s Share,” a track the band recorded in 1979 with producer Jack Nitzsche for Cruising, a film starring Al Pacino; “No God” from the Lexicon Devil EP; a cover of Public Image Ltd’s “Public Image,” and “Forming” the first song the quartet recorded together.
LIVE AT THE STARWOOD represents the band’s final performance with founding member Darby Crash, who committed suicide by overdosing on heroin on December 7, 1980—less than a week after this show.
The collection’s liner notes provide a vivid eyewitness account of the show penned by Jonathan Gold. Describing the band’s place in history, he writes: “The Germs are to the Los Angeles punk scene what Brian Jones was to the Stones or Syd Barrett to Pink Floyd—the primal creative force that was both too flatulent to live with and too vital to have come into being without.”
1. Circle One
2. Manimal
3. Caught In My Eye
4. Lion's Share
5. No God
6. Our Way
7. Strange Notes
8. What We Do Is Secret
9. Richie Dagger's Crime
10. Land Of Treason
11. My Tunnel
12. Media Blitz
13. Communist Eyes
14. The Other Newest One
15. Let's Pretend
16. Forming
17. Lexicon Devil
18. Shut Down (Annihilation Man)
19. Public Image
20. American Leather
21. We Must Bleed
22. Richie Dagger's Crime
