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30 years ago today, the East Bay's Testament played on back-to-back nights. Some of my friends in SoCal went to the 12/16/89 show at the Santa Monica Civic. Back home in San Francisco, my girlfriend KJ, my brother, our old schoolmate Skull, and a host of other friends went to the 12/17/89 show at The Warfield in San Francisco.
Testament had their classic "LEGACY" lineup:
Louie Clemente on drums
Eric Peterson on guitar
Greg Christian on bass
Alex Skolnick on guitar
Chuck Billy on vocals
They just needed someone whose name began with the letter Y, to spell LEGACY.
They were in support of their album, Practice What You Preach, and these California shows were a homecoming of sorts. The studio album was recorded at Berkeley's Fantasy Studios. Producer Alex Perialas tried something different here. He had the band play together in a room. Then he added Chuck Billy and vocals later. So it really does sound more cohesive.
Their 12/17/89 concert actually sounded quite like the Practice What You Preach studio album, but with more body and power, and with less grain. This cleaner sound provided an interesting take, on Testament's older material. You see, we had seen Testament plenty of times before, primarily at the small The Stone nightclub, up on Broadway. There, they had a much more black-&-blue sound, as found on their 1988 album, the New Order.
At the Warfield, Chuck Billy had such a commanding presence. He'd put a foot on the speaker at the foot of the stage, urge the crowd on, headbang, and just be an effortless, awe-inspiring power. In fact, if you ask KJ for her honest opinion, she'll say that, of all the myriad concerts she's attended, she was most in awe of that Testament show.
We were all students. That is, none of us worked, or had an income. Nevertheless, we bought t-shirts.
Audiophiles are constantly carping that my photos do not show the guys. It's like this. Even if we had cameras, we guys did not bring them with us. When the girls used their cameras on us guys, they liked taking shots of our butts. But here is one the girls actually took of the guys (sigh, only 4 of us guys showed up that day. The rest were girls, few of whom could hit the ball out of the infield), while we played sports at North Beach Playground, now called Joe DiMaggio Field:
L-R: Skull with an Overkill patch, Lummy donning the Testament shirt, Tsan-Man in SF Giants garb, and future doctor DK, guarding the boombox.
I'm not sure which girl (Amy? Bernadette? Shelly?) took this photo, while we were on the back of a 22-Fillmore bus. We were escorting Prasad, Michael, Phuong, Stephanie, and other millennials to/from the Marina. But anyway, that is Lummy rocking a "Perilous Nations" shirt. That song features Greg Christian's bass intro.
Anyway, that 12/17/89 Testament concert moved the needle so much, I knew I had to leave mass-market mid-fi. At the same time, the December 1989 Stereophile featured reviews of relatively affordable (under $1200) solid state power amps from Adcom, B&K, Forte, NAD, and PS Audio. Indeed, during Spring Break 1990, I would make that break from mid-fi. I scrounged my birthday and Christmas monies, and bought an Adcom GFA-535 power amp.
The original Atlantic Practice What You Preach cassette, CD, and LP are not bad. Not exactly news to learned audiophiles, but for best sonics, get the SHM-CD, WQCP-1353.
So there you have it. 30 years ago today, that Testament concert was the impetus to get out of mid-fi. That, of course, led to us exploring that market segment called high-end audio. The successful products enable you to enjoy Testament as deeply as, or even more than, you did in 1989.
The real deal,
-Lummy The Loch Monster
Follow Ups:
A great flashback (and trip down memory lane) for a great band.
I only caught them one time, in the early 2000s, for a reunion show they did with Exodus, SOD, and a few other bands at the Maritime Hall.
Your era of San Francisco is (in my opinion) the last golden era of that city. Broadway used to really swing (your mentioning of the both the Stone and the Mab are a testament to that). There was also the Chi Chi club and the Cocodrie. Of course up by Cafe Trieste there was The Saloon by Grant and Vallejo, and don't forget the Purple Onion on Columbus down there by Clown Alley. You had the Lusty Lady for dirty dancing and Clown Alley for burgers. Within a 4 block radius it was absolute paradise!
Those were the last vestiges of the cheap arcades, music clubs, and bars that catered to beatniks, soldiers, sailors, tourists, and heshers.
Great band. Happy New Year!
I saw Testament at The Masquerade in Atlanta, must have been '97. I remember Chuck Billy putting his foot on the speaker. Boy, was he big.
I was on the lighting crew on tour with them for the European leg of their tour with Megadeth back then.
Lovely lads, seemed genuinely surprised that they were actually making money!
At the end of the tour they gave all the unsold tshirts to the crew. I ended up with half a dozen of the ones in the linky which I gave away to mates who actually liked their music. Should have kept them!
That said Megadeth's Dave Mustaine was clearly a troubled soul, surprised (pleasantly I might add) he is still alive.
Anyway that was my 2nd and last tour as a crew member. Touring sucks unless you are the artist, sound engineer or may be rigger.
Became a welder instead building stage sets.
Made stage sets for Metallica on 3 occasions and they were the polar opposite: What a bunch of A holes!
I saw a band in San Fran back around 1980 called Y & T. I think it was called the Old Waldorf, is that right?
It was a gobsmacking show to say the least. TIA
*Jack of many trades, Master of a few
I believe that Bill Graham closed the Old Waldorf around 1983. But that was when we were in middle school. The only rock concerts we went to back then was when our parents took us to the bigger venues, such as Concord Pavilion, Cow Palace, Oakland Coliseum, and Shoreline Amphitheater. So we'll have to ask veteran Bay Area audiophiles about the Old Waldorf.
After Old Waldorf closed, a go-to club was Mabuhay Gardens, on Broadway. But that shut down, just as we were getting old enough to go to clubs by ourselves. Thus, our favorite small venues became The Fillmore (I lived a couple blocks away), The Stone (Broadway and Montgomery, across the street from the old Mabuhay Gardens), and The Warfield (mid-Market). There were also clubs on Valencia and in Potrero Hill.
Y&T were yet another East Bay band. Their live shows were full of energy, sadly not captured on their studio albums. Moreover, their light-hearted stab at glam rock, "Summertime Girls" became their most widely-known song.
Anyway, my friends and I had seen Testament several times. That 12/17/89 show was what inspired me to leave mass-market mid-fi. You then had a thirst for knowledge about what lay next. Of course, audiophiles now like to give me a bad time, for reviewing unaffordable audio products. But were it not for the music, maybe we don't get to this point.
That Y&T show was incredible, so full of energy. The waitresses went crazy too. Leonard Hays was fast with the single bass drum.
I saw them first time at a place, a warehouse called 'The Warehouse' on the peninsula with maybe 20 people standing around. Dusty and dark.
I have their 2 original London label vinyl. I wish they had better production back then. Dave Menniketi was amazing singing while playing.
Thanks and have a nice holiday!
*Jack of many trades, Master of a few
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