The LA Punk Rock Scene - Why Are These People Still Alive?

Did you know the Germs got back together and are playing again, and there is a new movie about them? They're like 50 years old (my age)! Still up there playing like kids. Weird. Lorna Doom and Pat Smear look fantastic too, like they spent the last 25 yrs in a health spa (check this pic).

They look healthy (mentally and physically) and happy. Check out this pic and great interview. At 50, I've concluded that there's no alternative to those three.

No way can you keep up that lifestyle for long. Don Bolles had a hard life with drug addiction and alcoholism, but he's doing OK too. Darby Crash is dead, but they've got some famous actor, Shane West, to take his place. I was into that early LA punk rock scene, and I saw the Germs live on the last day of the 1970's at the Hong Kong Cafe in downtown LA.

The lead from 45 Grave, Dinah Cancer, is back playing again, and she looks great too (photo from 3 years ago), although she was on heroin for about 12 years as I recall. She must be 50! 50 years old and still running around all dressed up like a ghoul. Haha, Morticia, here we come.

She got married a couple of times and had a kid. I knew her husband Paul Cutler (he played in 45 Grave) - nicest guy you've ever met. I also knew Darby Crash a bit and my brother knew Don Bolles (he said Don was a really nice guy).

What's weird is a lot of those really insane, craziest of the crazy hardcore punk rocker maniacs were really nice people if you got to know them. A lot of them were on star trips - they could be like, "Who are you? I'm a rock star! Why should I say hi to you?" But if you could get past that, most of them were really cool. They weren't mean, cold, nasty, unfriendly, arrogant, or anything like that. Their fans could be real idiots though.

Lorna Doom (she is really lovely in this pic) is really famous for opening the way to females in punk rock music. I also knew Ann DeJarnett and the rest of the band from Mnemonic Devices, who later went on to release a couple of albums solo.

I also know John Doe and Exene from X and Gina and Jane from the Go-Go's (That was before they were hugely famous!). Jane was a really friendly, spirited, spunky, mischievous girl - feminine but not submissive, playful and happy. She looks good in a recent photo too. She's into straight-lacing, and some people think she plays at being dominatrix. The woman I met didn't seem like the type, but who knows?

Gina was kind of an anxious introverted type at the time, but she was really nice though. She still looks good today.

Both Jane and Gina, have gone on to acting careers and the Go-Gos still play around. John Doe of X has gone on to a very successful movie career. Exene still looks good too, and X still tours. Back in the day she looked like this, and this. Live, X was out of this world! I saw them at the Whiskey a-go-go.

I saw them in 1980 at the Cuckoo's Nest in Costa Mesa and they were already getting huge in that scene, but they were not on MTV yet! I was backstage with the Go-Go's at that show. They looked like this at the time - beautiful young women!

I also knew Chuck Dukowski of Black Flag when he looked like this.

Black Flag was a big second wave LA punk band, and at that time, the scene was getting dangerous - especially Black Flag concerts, because that really brought out the morons. I remember everyone crowded around while some teenage moron "did the worm" on broken glass on the floor." You did the worm by rolling around on the ground like a worm. If you did it on glass, I guess you got cut. I certainly never did anything that stupid!

Later that nite, I got into a fight with five idiot Nazi punks at once. Obviously, they started it. All I remember was flying in the air and coming down with a Heineken bottle in my hand. One of the scumbags was lying on the ground, the beer bottle was in my hand, and damned if I wasn't going to hit him in the head with it. Lucky for him, he kicked up with his legs and send me flying again. Being a 22 year old Peter Pan type, of course I landed on my feet.

Chuck's a great guy; really friendly, and he's quite intelligent. Last time I saw him, he was sitting outside a laundromat in Hermosa Beach reading Marquis de Sade. Haha! This is how he looks now. He looks pretty good too (new band), and he's a father with four kids. That's hard to believe.

Honestly, I was into that scene from early 1979-on and I can't believe any of those people are still alive. The whole scene seemed almost suicidal.

Hell, I can't believe I'm still alive. I drink two glasses of wine a day, and my only vice is coffee. I've pretty much given up dope, except I smoke weed once in a while (but haven't in some time). I work out, I'm a health food maniac, fast regularly, take supplements and herbs, etc.