An excerpt from the forthcoming book, “The Complete Interviews Punk77” Tommy Gear: We wanted to expand our outreach, and had heard that things were happening in San Francisco. Our main source of information was Penelope Houston whom we had known from Seattle. We were also aware there were some kindred spirits up there. Still, going to San Francisco was really a challenge. Was what we were doing in LA going to work in San Francisco? A lot of people in San Francisco have an attitude about LA, so we had that stigma to deal with. We did play there and did well, and it became a place for us to play and we had a good relationship because we could draw a good audience. It was a comfort zone for us. There weren’t too many other places to play. There were other clubs such as the Keystone in Berkeley but they catered to mainstream bands. Punk rock had a stigma, so these other clubs didn’t want to book bands like The Screamers. James: What were some of the differences between the music and the scene in San Francisco and LA? Tommy: There are very different cultural environments between LA and San Francisco. In LA, it is a corporate industry, hothouse effect, and the bands that developed there are very self-conscious and their precautions are contrived. In a way,The Screamers fit in, and there is nothing wrong with that. In San Francisco, there was less of that self-consciousness, and they were doing it for the sake of doing it and not expecting to become the next big thing. Playing in San Francisco was kind of like playing in Seattle. Don’t take it too seriously. Going to LA presented more of an opportunity, and we knew people there.
The Screamers’ greatest downfall was that we were too easily bored.
Screamers first show in San Francisco was July 28 & 29 1977
Randy Gzebb and Stephan Salit formally of “Thrill of the Pull” have a new band called “Octavian Winters” and a album available at :/album/the-line-or-curve?fbclid=IwAR2-kjLvwS0my3XLp7HaCISiykXAd3c38ToCOCwNOXkBl5ZHfTAOJviUUuY If you like your music deep and dark this is an album to get.
#thrillofthepull
