1-5/7-78: The Screamers play the Whiskey in LA, CA. Tomata opens the show by ripping through a 50-foot-wide wall of black plastic.
Lineup: The Screamers, Rubber City Rebels and Baby Blue.
Setlist (1-6-78): The Beat Goes On, In A Better World, Punish or Be Damned, Anything, GO Guy, Magazine Love, Vertigo, Sex Boy, Violent World. (1-7-78): Vertigo, Beat Goes On, Magazine Love, Don't Pay The Whore, I Wanna Hurt, (Peer Pressure?), Anything, Punish or be Damned, Violent World, I'm Going Steady With Twiggy.
Reviews: "There's more variety here than in the usual three-chord punk sound. Its instrumentation... leads the sound into an electronic area, where it develops pleasant hypnotic patterns and occasionally approximates a more conventional rock band sound."(1-5-78) - Richard Cromelin, L.A. Times. Read the whole review.
"...Gear, ya look wonderful, you're a maniac, you're violent, yr hot-shit and ya know it. Tomata, yr only the most desperately unhinged personality this side of anywhere, and you've got perfect, spasmodic control of the stage. Yeah, K.K., yr the best drummer in Hollywood, ya play while ya fall across the stage, someone's plugged ya into an electrical-outlet. Jeff, yr great...", Pleasant Geham, Lobotomy Magazine #3. Read the review.
Recordings: On the middle day of this engagement, January 6th, the Screamers' and Rubber City Rebels' sets was filmed (32 minutes for the Screamers, black and white) for the documentary "Never mind the Sex Pistols--here's the Bollocks." UCLA has a copy. The footage is also available on the bootleg videocassette "Live 77-79."
The last day of this engagement was (audio) taped. Good quality.

1-20-78: Party at the Screamers house (Wilton Hilton). Reviewed favorably.
Reviews: "Heard about those swingin' parties; have ya? This was no exception! The place was loaded with loaded 'personalities' ... Tomata served ice-cream, potato salad, and p-nut butter sandwiches.", Pleasant Geham, Lobotomy Magazine #3. Read review.

2-16/19-78: The Whisky, LA, CA.
Lineup: Screamers, Deadbeats, F-Word.








2-24-78: The Screamer play the first night of a benefit for the Masque Club at the Elks Hall in downtown LA, CA.
Lineup: Zeroes, Dils, Eyes, Screamers, Germs, Controllers, Deadbeats, Bags.
Setlist: I'm Going Steady With Twiggy, Punish or be Damned, Vertigo, Peer Pressure, Violent World.
Reviews: "The show climaxed with the Screamers who lived up to its strong local reputation with a well-placed set ... lead singer (Tomata) fashions a style of techno-punk completely his own.. Keyboardist Tommy Gear... delivers vocals with equal fervor. The Screamers have a unique, high-voltage personal that should take them a long way."-Kristine McKenna, L.A. Times. Read the LA Times review #1. Read LA Times review #2.
"The poor lighting took away from Tomato's exciting stage presence, but the Screamer's set was, as always, great."-Basic Black #1. Read review.
"I've seen few performances that reached this kind of perfection.", Generation X #5. Read the review.
Recordings: Geza X made a professional audio recording of this entire event. A company called Year One (run by Exene of X fame) did a "Live at the Masque" series. They managed to release three installments, but could not obtain permission to use the Screamers set. Tapes exist and circulate.
Photos: From Wasteland #3

3-78: The Screamers' interview with Flipside Magazine is released in Flipside #8.

3-15-78: Screamers play the Marquee Club in Arcadia, CA. First appearance of "The Girl in the Car with the Glasses and the Gun."
Lineup: Screamers, X, Alley Cats and the Flesheaters.







3-23-78: Easter Dance at Camarillo State Mental Hospital, Camarillo, CA.
Lineup: The Screamers
Reviews: "The affinity was obvious-anxiety level music for anxiety-wrought minds... All attention was focused on the Screamers, however, as they ascended the stage. Some were repulsed and others were fascinated... (The performances) was a welcome deterrent to the confined, regimented existence of those less fortunate that us."-Bob Taylor, Slash Vol.1 #10. Read entire review.
Pictures: From Slash:



3-25-78: Straighta Head Ballroom, San Diego, CA.
Lineup: Screamers, Pop!, Zippers, Gary & The Blind Dates
Reviews: "They opened their set by proclaiming, 'We'd like to thank the first groups for playing you music of the 1960s and 1970s, now we'll give you music of the 1980s,' and they backed it."-Mikel Toombs, Slash Vol.1 #10. Read the entire review.


4-8-78: The annual Artists and Lawyers Ball at the Elks Lodge, LA, CA.

4-13/15-78: The Screamers sell out the Whiskey in LA, CA. "122 Hours of Fear" is introduced and a new version of "Eva Braun" is introduced. The band play in front of a wall of construction-site scaffolding.
Lineup: Screamers, Zeros, F-Word.
Reviews: "Screamers' set vintage, and the elaborate scaffolding behind was hardly used. Entering a subdued phase?" - Slash Magazine Vol. 1, #10. Read entire review.


4-78: Jeff McGregor goes back to school. Paul Roessler becomes the new keyboardist.

5-78: Screamers begin their first West Coast tour.
An interview with the Screamers is published in the May / June issue of Synapse, an electronic music magazine.

They are also featured in Trouser Press #28 in the Los Angeles scene report. "The idea here, I guess, is to reduce the intrinsic elements of R'n'R down to nothingness, then start over and wind up with some kinda avant-gardness or, geesh, I give up." - Karlo Ferdinand and Jim Green, Trouser Press.

5-13/14-78: The Screamers play Mabuhay Gardens, San Francisco, CA.
Lineup: (5-13): Screamers, The Zeros, The Mutants (5-14): Screamers, Zippers and Space Trash.


5-18-78: The Screamers play the Beaver Hall, Portland, Oregon.
Lineup: Screamers, Products, The Reds(??)
Reviews: "The synthesizers were played aggressively, and their sounds were set for trebly distortion. They did arty monotonous stuff as well as more hook laced rock songs. The drumer was tight and aggressive, and Mr. du Plenty raved archly, aggressively forcing prolonged eye contact regularly with each individual member of the audience. Us lumber-jacks had never seen anything like it." - Joe Carducci, Rock and the Pop Narcotic, 2.13.61, Los Angeles, 1990.


5-19-78: The Screamers finally return to Seattle, WA, playing the Bird (in exile). The Bird, a Seattle new wave club, was for this event, located in the Carpenter's Hall.
Lineup: Screamers, The Telepaths and The Enemy.
Setlist: Eva Braun, The Beat Goes On, Magazine Love, I Wanna Hurt, Peer Pressure, Vertigo...
Reviews: "The beat has gone from Robert Johnson to the Beatles to the Screamers. Hello, reggae. Hello, African drums. Hello, Tibetan chants and drones. This is the flip side of disco. Hello, LeMonte Young and that sixty-cycle hum. This is the big beat. Technological primitivism," John L. Wilson, University of Washington Daily, May 1978. Read the entire review.
Pictures: Courtesy of Michael Campbell.



5-20-78: Live on KRAB radio, Seattle, WA.

5-21-78: Screamers play in the windows of Dreamland, a clothing store in Seattle, WA.

5-23-78: Screamers play Mabuhay Gardens, San Francisco, CA.

6(?)-78: A four page feature called "A Better World Begins With You," detailing the Screamers' history, appears in Slash Magazine #10 1/2, which was given away free to celebrate Slash's anniversary.

Summer 78: Geza X produces a "live" demo session. Committed to 4-track are: "Beat Goes On," "Thru The Flames," "Sex Boy," Anything," "She's The Girl," "I Wanna Hurt," "122 Hours of Fear," "Government Love Affair," "Peer Pressure," "Punish Or Be Damned," "Peer Pressure," "Better World," "Vertigo," "Magazine Love," "Violent World," and "Eva Braun." Virtually the Screamers' entire set at that time is recorded.
Recordings: A two track dub of the tape was circulated(the original was erased by Tommy Gear), and was the source of the "Demos 77-78" LP, which featured all the tracks except "Eva Braun." "Eva Braun" can be found on the "Trying To Be Like Jesus" CDR.

6-15-78: (canceled) The Screamers were scheduled to play Beverly Hills Highschool in LA by former band member and student, Jeff McGregor. The show was canceled though, due to the school's reaction to the flyer's content.







6-22-78: Rock Corporation, San Fernando Valley, CA. A biker bar.








6-26-78: Mabuhay Gardens, SF, CA.
Lineup: The Screamers, The Mutants, The Offs, DV8, Avant Guarde

7-78: The Screamers are in the Los Angeles Times Calendar.

7-1-78: The Whisky, LA, CA.
Setlist: Eva Braun, 122 Hours Of Fear, Matar Dolores, She Frightens, Magazine Love, Vertigo, Sex Boy
Recordings: Audio taped, included, but mislabeled on, "A Better World" 2xCD.

7-3-78: Stardust Ballroom, LA, CA.
Lineup: The Screamers, the Weirdos, Crime and the Controllers.
Setlist: Violent World, 122 Hours of Fear, Magazine Love, Anything, Punish or Be Damned, Peer Pressure, Last Four Digits, Vertigo, Better World
Reviews: "The Screamers and the Weirdos appeared with San Francisco's Crime and the Controllers at one of the biggest punk gigs since the ill-fated "Punk fashion show" at the Palladium. The high ticket price of this event at the Stardust Ballroom, and the somewhat misleading promotional devices for the show (being advertised as having a "bitchin van ... bitchin tan" contest), left many of the Punk purists wondering what the hell Brendan Mullen, the concert organizer, was up to." Belsito, Davis, Hardcore California.
"They played two feet higher: Tied to no trend, progressing beyond the law. The Screamers - one year later - have become caged icons of their former selves. Tomata's tight-bodied, shorthand contortions, the whack attack of his voice. Tommy Gear throwing his body around like a mallet in a rubber room. Their set was a model of surgical efficiency, ice on the bare wires of tension. In the pit beneath Tomata's teeth, the audience, like iguanas, slithered faster to the cold beat. " P.M./Gamma/Alucard, Slash Magazine #12. Read the entire review.
Recordings: This concert was videotaped (black and white), but never released, by Joe Target. Audio tapes survive and circulate.

7-10-78: Abbey Road, San Diego, CA.
Lineup: The Screamers, The Zeros









7-15/16-78: Mabuhay Gardens, SF, CA.
Lineup: (7-15-78): The Screamers, Snot Puppies, The Twitch
(7-16-78): The Screamers, Snot Puppies, Middle Class





7-20/22-78: The Whisky, LA, CA.










8-78: The Screamers appear on the cover of Slash #12, which features the article "The Screamers' West Coast Tour."







8-29/9-3-78: Target Studios, Oakland, CA. The Screamers produce promo videos at Target Video.
Setlist: Vertigo, Magazine Love and 122 Hours of Fear.
Recordings: The only video released from these sessions is "122 Hours of Fear," which was featured in Target's "Hardcore Volume 3."

9-2-78: Mabuhay Gardens, SF, CA.
Lineup: The Screamers played with the Dead Kennedys, Mutants and Yoel.
Setlist: (partial, ordered like the video) 122 Hours of Fear, Vertigo, Last 4 Digits, Magazine Love, Beat Goes On, Punish or be Damned, Better World.
Recordings: Recorded by Joe Target, later released commercially. Available from Target Video.
 

9-7/9+14/17-78: The Whisky, LA, CA. The Screamers play two weekends at the Whisky. For the second weekend, they were joined by Andy and Pat from Arthur J and The Gold Cups for "Sax Boy."
Lineup: The Screamers played with X on Saturday.
Setlist: (9-14): Peer Pressure, Peer Pressure(reprise), The Girl In The Car With The Glasses and The Gun, Cholo Jump, Anything, Magazine Love, Don't Pay The Whore, Punish or be Damned, Violent World, "Sax Boy"
(9-16): Violent World (Intro), 122 Hours of Fear, Beat Goes On, I Wanna Hurt, Peer Pressure, Last 4 Digits, Punish or be Damned, Violent World, (encore) Vertigo
Reviews: (9-17-78) "Well, my mom came and she liked it.", L'Amato, Slash Vol.2, #2. Read entire review.
"Three grey, seamless photo drops backed the group-- was it the Whiskey stage or Caligari's Cabinet??-- twenty foot forced shadows of KK dukin' out his drum kit and Paul skateboarding across his keys shot across the screens." Herb Wrede, Screamers Newsletter. Read the whole thing.
Recordings: 9-14-78 and 9-16-78 were both audio taped. The 9-14 show features lots of group/audience chat and is a recommended show. The 9-16 show was released, along with the 11-12-78 Montreal, Quebec show, on a tape called "Screamers" by San Francisco label Shout (Shout 1) in the late 70's/early 80's.
Pictures:

Fall 1978: The Screamers begin an East Coast tour.

Fall 78: Philadelphia, PA.

Fall 78: Pittsburgh, PA.
Setlist: Eva Braun, The Beat Goes On, Cholo Jump, She Frightens, Sex Boy, Punish Or Be Damned, Peer Pressure, Better World, Violent World, 122 Hours of Fear
Recordings: An audio tape exists and circulates.

Fall 78: Akron, OH.

10-13-78: Nunzio's, Lincoln Park, MI.
Lineup: Screamers, Boners, Bored Youth









10-17/18-78: CBGB's, NY.
Lineup: Screamers, Terrorists
Reviews: "Their music is loud, aggressive, and (chiefly because of the presence and key role of two synthesizers) spacy. They have been labeled "techno-punk." They do not make lightweight or escapist music; "purgative" is more like it. Just tuning the synthesizers when the band walks on stage is enough to shut up the crowd. "We require everyone to be courageous or leave," says Tommy." Steve Ellman, New York Rocker #15, 11-78. Read the review.

10-31-78: Horseshoe, Toronto, Ontario.
Lineup: Screamers, Drastic Measures, Card Board Brains







11-(?)-78: Private warehouse party, NY. The Screamers played in a large freight elevator.

11-3-78: Hurrah's, NY. According to KK Barrett, the Screamers played the second half of their set (divided by Eva Braun) with Robert Fripp.
Reviews: "Garb is black, although Plenty is shirtless by the set's end," Kirb, Variety, 11-29-78. Read the entire review.



11-8-78: The Rat, Boston, MA.
Lineup: Screamers, Marc Thor and The Destroyers

11-12-78: Montreal, Quebec.
Setlist: Better World, She's The Girl, Eva Braun(...), Violent World, 122 Hours of Fear, Beat Goes On, I Wanna Hurt, Peer Pressure
Recordings: A San Francisco cassette label called Shout put this concert on its first release along with their set at the Whisky in LA, 9-16-78.

December 1978: The Screamers arrive back from their tour and immediately begin work with Rene Daalder on a multimedia project. The first results are three demos, co-produced by Daalder and David Campbell: Why the World, I Am A Mensch and Scream.