3 Guys Called Jesus
at North Park Lions Club, 1986
Here’s a cut from the only extant video I know of 3 Guys Called Jesus, the band I formed in 1985 with Steve Duke (bass, vocals) and Robert Labbe (drums, vocals) and played in until I left San Diego in February 1987.
This performance of my song “Small Vegetables” dates from May 16, 1986, when 3 Guys opened for Specimen and the Tell-Tale Hearts at the North Park Lions Club. (Ray Brandes and I have swapped anecdotes about Specimen’s antics that night; the conditions were just awful at the time but made for a funny story in retrospect.)
More shots of 3 Guys Called Jesus!
Many thanks to Jimmy Jazz for shooting this performance and to Dave Fleminger for adding it to YouTube’s Che Underground video channel!
Editor’s note: Dave Fleminger kindly digitized a demo of “Small Vegetables” 3 Guys recorded in my garage on my four-track cassette deck:
3 Guys Called Jesus play “Small Vegetables”: Listen now!
Tags: 3 Guys Called Jesus, Jimmy Jazz, Matthew Rothenberg, North Park Lions Club, Robert Labbe, Specimen, Steve Duke, the Tell-Tale Hearts
May 26th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
BTW, Dave Fleminger’s going to digitize a performance of this song by the Ho Hos, which Robert and I formed in SF with Jeff Lucas and Steve Lam … That recording is actually intelligible, although I sort of like the frenetic quality of this horribly mixed, chaotic version.
May 26th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Great song, Matthew! I remembered 3 Guys as having a more punk edge than Noise 292, so I guess I was right. Did you guys record any demos?
May 26th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
>>Did you guys record any demos?
Dave: Thanks! There’s some demo stuff floating around, and lots and lots of really lo-fi live cassettes.
I’m a little scared to share them … I was totally punching above my weight class as the sole guitarist in this group (after the departure of the very talented Ryk Groetchen) … Reliving my technical limitations makes me wince a bit, but I am proud of some of the songs, and Robbie and Steve were so cool to play with!
May 26th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Here the Amazons’ live version of the song, recorded in 2001 with Jason Brownell (bass, vocals) and Todd Barker (drums, vocals).
May 27th, 2010 at 6:57 am
… And I just updated the post to include this crunchy garage demo 3 Guys recorded at about the same time the NPLC video was shot.