Nostalgia Post #5: The Clash @ Convention Hall 6.1.82

Thursday

Aug062009

Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 7:58 PM

The Clash stopped by the Asbury Park Convention Hall June 1st, 1982. An excerpt from a review of the show & videos are below.

Peforming in the stark 4500-person capacity Convention Hall, a relic of a building constructed in the 1920s, the Clash ripped off a searing two-hour set of political rock and reggae. Their energy level was equal to, if not greater than, their climactic efforts at the Bonds club in Times Square last year. They acted like a band on a mission, bashing out a marathon show and then rearing back for seven encore tunes, spanning the grisly "Somebody Got Murdered," the foreboding "Armagideon Time," the angry "Straight to Hell" (a vicious swipe at British militarism) and the enduring cowboy rocker, "I Fought The Law."

Chimes, who was actually the band's original drummer and played on its first album, showed his mettle down this stretch. He played with a heavier rock bass beat than the more jazz-influenced Headon and was tireless. He wouldn't leave the stage, nearly stealing the show by flamboyantly calling the band back for yet another two songs, including the antipolice anthem "Jimmy Jazz."

The night had begun dismally with an awful set by the nine-woman New York band, Pulsallama, a crude, shrieking group that mentioned its name in every song, for which the members were hailed with a monsoon of debris from the impatient crowd.

Following a calvary charge trumpet call, the Clash, who have named this war-like tour "The North American Campaign," quickly turned the mood around. Dressed in army fatigues, hats and shades (looking like a jungle guerilla), Strummer immediately slugged through "London Calling" and "Safe European Home." It was early proof that his April AWOL stint in Paris (taken because of overwork, he later said, though it caused the cancellation of an entire British tour) had not diminished his dedication.

Proceeding apace, the Clash rifled off familiar political anthems: "Guns of Brixton," "Working For the Clampdown" and "Spanish Bombs," a Spanish Civil War lament that Strummer introduced provacatively by saying, "This is not a Bruce Springsteen number, this is supposed to be poetry." It was a humorously caustic dig at Springsteen (whose home turf is Asbury Park) and was done, Strummer confided later, "to wind the crowd up." Needless to say, it did. [Black Market Clash]