T.S.O.L. - The Early Years Live

I remember when this was one particular show (T.S.O.L. @ Chapman College) was broadcast on Flipside's cable TV show back in the late 80's! hahahahaha Yeah, I suck. This DVD has 2 gigs live from T.S.O.L., both from 1983, in support of their Beneath The Shadows LP. Anyways, a really lackluster performance from T.S.O.L. in the first gig, playing to a crowd of bored looking college kids at lunch time. Al Flipside filmed it, so the sound varies as he's moving around, and it's OK if you skip right past that and watch the real gem on this DVD - the Target video. Long bootlegged, this performance (Thoughts Of Yesterday - Word Is) is mind blowing, and a bit of a jip. There's only 2 songs on here from that gig. Why not the entire show? The listing on the DVD cover isn't even what's played (The Other Side - She'll Be Saying - Code Blue) so obviously it exists... FAWK! This footage is soooo great to see. Drunken Punks twirl and swirl and thrash about while the band supplies an amazing soundtrack to it all. Pro shot, and definitely cleaned up from the copy I had of this years ago. Same with the first gig. It never sounded or looked that good before, so someone definitely put some much needed TLC into this in order to get this stuff as good as it is. Bonus materials include a 2007 clip of Code Blue being played live in Long Beach, where Jack lectures some little kid mid-song about the proper etiquette of stage diving which is funny to see, and a lackadaisical interview with Jack and Ron by Al Flipside and Pat Brown (yeah, that Pat Brown of Vandals song fame) about Communism, the legendary S.I.R. riot (oh what a night that was!), gigging around town, Touring, Recording, beating up Posh Boy @ the Galaxy and drunken shenanigans behind the Orange curtain. There's also some reading from Jack Grisham's upcoming book about being chased by Cops and almost killing himself over some chick, spoken in a very Jim Morrison-esque manner. Bien spooooooky! heh heh heh This is a good little DVD from T.S.O.L. Definitely a must have if you're a fan like me. Available from MDV Visuals.

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