Hair Theatre: “In Obscurity”

Our Che Games for May 2009 show at San Diego’s Casbah regrouped nine legendary bands and ignited countless personal reunions. The crescendo of the two-night event was the triumphant return of the incredible Hair Theatre, seen here performing “In Obscurity” for the madding throng.

Seeing Hair Theatre perform together again was a personal highlight. This band amazed and delighted me from the first time I saw them play a party in Leucadia in 1983, and the reunion of members scattered along the West Coast was more than I could have hoped for when we first conceived this event.

Watch Hair Theatre play “What Should I Say” ca. 1984!

The electrifying performance includes vocalist Sergio, bassist Sergio Castillo, guitarists Cesar Castillo and Paul Allen, and drummer Steve Broach. The video was shot by Eric Rife and edited to audio by Dave Fleminger.

Listen to Hair Theatre in the ’80s:

9 thoughts on “Hair Theatre: “In Obscurity”

  1. Thank you, very much.

    nü-metal? This is what Plasticland, Echo and the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes should have been.

    The real deal, baby.

    I would have loved a double bill of Hair Theatre with Electric Peace. Paths that never crossed, I’m afraid.

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  2. >>This is what Plasticland, Echo and the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes should have been.

    Jeremiah: Testify! I think it’s hard for the uninitiated to realize just how innovative Hair Theatre was in the early ’80s.

    In successive years, a number of bands that superficially resembled Hair Theatre in some respects (e.g., the hair!) achieved international success. Good for those bands, but it does make it harder to explain the sheer originality HT brought to the stage.

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  3. I’d love to play with Hair Theatre again. Thanks you guys. I would loved to have seen you at that show Jerry, maybe I’ll see you at a future show. I don’t know if HT will perform again. The band had a long history. They almost “made it” at one time or another after I left the band. I think the record companies (remember those?) wanted nu-metal and HT didn’t want to deliver.

    I do want to put a DVD out of the whole HT show. Eric Rife managed to video almost all of it (if anyone has video of the first minute of Meet Me Outside, let me know), and Jason Brownell recorded the sound on some excellent mics. David Fleminger mastered the sound from his two-track digital recorder and synced it to the video. The only things holding that up are a lack of time, money and some technical glitches. I had problems with sync when setting up the menus. Perhaps some video/computer guru can help me with that.

    The only review of Electric Peace I can find does sound like they had a commonality with HT. We were informed by the post-punk sounds of Bauhaus, Joy Division, early Cure etc. as well the late 60’s sounds of The Doors, The Stones, Jimi Hendrix and so on.

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  4. I can’t even begin to say how exciting it was watching them that night. They were so good… sounded just the way they used to. It really meant a lot to me.

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  5. Yeah, Little Serg was 15 when I joined the band. He’s an amazing player. He has a really melodic approach to the bass. Cesar was 16 and solid on guitar. Sergio would come up with vocals, chord progressions and beats (he played drums in a punk band, I think). Steve would start with Sergio’s beats and then create this complex sound. He did stuff that sounded like he was playing with double bass drums on a regular kit. It was really cool being able to join a band that was a complete unit already, and just play on top or add a texture here and there.

    The influences I cite were stuff Sergio and I especially listened to a lot. Serg was way into the Beatles and 60’s psychedelia too. We went to tons of shows by local and L.A. psych bands like the Tell-Tale Hearts, Nashville Ramblers, Manual Scan, Trebles, Morlocks, Three O’ Clock, Pandoras and well, the memory gets fuzzy, but all that stuff filters in there somewhere.

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  6. Paul --

    “It was really cool being able to join a band that was a complete unit already, and just play on top or add a texture here and there.”

    Don’t be over-modest! Your playing is a critical part of this “layered sound”. I was surprised and amazed at the maturity and expression of your playing in Hair Theatre -- at that time and again, now. I am sure I never said so, then.

    Little Sergio’s melodic approach to the Bass is exactly what I like so much. Jeff Lucas and Dave Fleminger both had this, in different ways, too. Sergio is all about running these scales, and knowing what tonic note -- or whatnot -- to emphasise a counter-melody to the big riff. He does this, right on, with Steve’s downbeats, for that groove the rhythm section absolutely must have. I hate when the Bass just *plonks* like the left-hand on a piano.

    Your “texture” tended to be bright counterpoint to the Little Serge / Steve groove. You aren’t just added colour to a funtioning unit -- your guitar is the completion of a very rich and complex sound -- built out of identifiable, basic parts. There are so many groups that were vastly more recognised, who didn’t have a patch on Hair Theatre.

    The only reason I’m glad Hair Theater didn’t “make it” is because of the really horrible lives that end up being led by band members in the wake of a mainstream commercial success. But… Why not you guys alongside Flaming Lips or Butthole Surfers? There was surely room for you, and a welcome one.

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  7. Wow Jerry, you understand HT’s music better than I do. I hear what you’re saying, but a lot of what Little Serg and Steve do is mysterious to me. Thanks for the accolade. I do feel that we had a really good chemistry. All the guys understood how to play dynamically and not overplay each other or the material.

    Maybe with such encouragement HT might be convinced to play again. I think some members might want to just leave it here. Personally, I hadn’t been doing much musically, and it was really a gas to get together again. I wouldn’t want to be stuck reminiscing, when our musical tastes and experience have changed so much. But a few more shows would be a lot of fun.

    I don’t remember you’re breaking down the music Jerry, but I do remember hanging out with you in many different situations. You were one of the people, like Lou Damian, who showed up at all the different genres of events. I don’t remember if we went the Hare Krishna temple together, but I was reading your comment about it somewhere else on the blog. I could effortlessly visualize you, dressed to the nines, doing the James Brown to the Hare Krishna beat.

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  8. Q: “What do you call a guy who hangs out with musicians?”

    A: “A drummer?”

    “No, Jerry Cornelius.”

    I think it’s flattering that you credit me with a greater understanding of Hair Theatre’s sound than you, Paul. I couldn’t make the music -- and all of my descriptives are based on hanging out with the people we know who played and played and played.

    Yeah, at the ISKON centre, I’d discreetly shuffle a step right, and a little shuffle back left. With the hand-claps it was a little more like the Temptations than James. Tom Goddard and I had eyes for a couple of young Tamil girls in coloured saris. They never appeared without their parents, of course…

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