BAD BRAINS, October 24th 1979, CBGB's
It was a Wednesday evening on October 3rd 1979, Screaming Mad George’s band The Mad was performing at Max’s Kansas City on Park Avenue South and 17th St in Manhattan. They had finished their set and were playing George’s new song “Don’t Be Stupid” as an encore. Seconds after the song ended, Dave from the Mad came to the mic and spoke: “In about five seconds we have the Bad Brains, … from Washington D.C.!”. The crowd murmured “Bad Brains? Bad brains?”.
Who was this band? They weren’t on the bill that night. The four mysterious band members quickly took the stage, with one taking the mic and boomed out “THE BAD BRAINS!”
To the best of my knowledge, this was the Bad Brains first live New York performance. Unannounced, brought on stage by Screaming Mad George, they played five songs that night; SuperTouch, Regulator, You’re a Migraine, Pay To Cum, Atlantis.
I was recording The MAD on audio tape for a potential film I was going to shoot. That night I was using a NAGRA 3 reel-to-reel recorder when the Bad Brains took the stage, I kept the tape running. Half way through the first song the tape ran out, I quickly reloaded the new reel picking up half of the second song, and the remaining three songs of their set.
Those last full three songs, You’re a Migraine, Pay To Cum, Atlantis, are the sound track for my film.
It was later that night at Screaming Mad Georges Bowery loft, I approached the band who were staying at Georges loft and said “…I like your music and I’d like to film your band…”. They agreed , and H.R. said to stay off the stage while filming.
The Bad Brains next performed on with The MAD at TIER 3, a small club in SOHO/Tribeca on West Broadway Monday October 15th. This was their first official New York gig. Their second club date was Wednesday October 24th 1979 at CBGB’s, it was this date I chose to shoot the film.
I arrived at CBGB’s on the 24th, three weeks after their New York debut at Max’s, Armed with four 100 foot rolls of B&W negative 16mm film (3 minutes per 100ft roll), a spring wound Bolex camera with three prime lenses, 17mm, 25mm, 75mm, I shot the band over two sets, focusing on the three songs I had on tape from October 3rd.
Over the next six months I edited the film, post-dubbing on an upright Movieola, matching it to the October 3rd recording, now transferred to 16mm full coat magnetic. I edited the roughly ten minutes of film down to a final seven minute three song film. By May of 1980 I had the first answer print.
My film ran in a few film shows; New York City, Toronto, San Francisco. To my knowledge the film last ran in 1986.
Around mid 2018 I decided I should have the film restored. The original materials were beginning to emit a vinegar odor, forty year-old movie film has a tendency to shrink, become brittle, the black leader used on the A-B rolls can loose density, etc.
The original 16mm magnetic full coat had become compromised, with a large portion of the audio sounding as if one were underwater. The lab ended up taking the audio from the original optical sound negative. Aside from some pops and clicks, this was an improvement.
Additionally I sent the original ¼ inch Nagra tapes to audio specialist Dan Dugan in San Francisco to see about recovering the original audio. Dan told me that sometimes these old tapes stick together, and have to be slow baked to free them. My tapes however were good, turns out were in perfect condition.
I sent the film elements to ColorLab in Maryland to begin the restoration process. It took over a year to get a times print that I was happy with. I had the film scanned to high-res digital as well as 16mm inter-positive, inter-negative, and finally a few release prints. These new 16mm elements should last another 50 years.
I took the Nagra audio and dropped it in to the digital file using Adobe Premiere, Adobe Audition. The 16mm prints have the original transfer from the 1979 optical track, which includes some pops, cracks, etc, but otherwise sounds good.
Barry Masterson, April 2024