The Avengers show photos and review

The Avengers show turned out to be totally awesome. It can be pretty hit and miss going to see punk reunion shows or punk bands that are gettin' on in age, it's usually either great or a total let down. Thankfully, this was one of those great shows, probably the best show I've been to this year. I missed the Paul Collins Beat, but from what I heard, they were excellent. I did catch Pansy Division and they were totally on it. I actually thought they had broken up years ago, but I guess not, they blasted out fun, fast pop punk and had the whole audience dancing. I recognized a bunch of their songs from when they were popular about a decade ago.

By the time The Avengers were setting up, Funhouse was packed. I mean really packed, they even opened up the back parking lot and had it fenced in for crowd overflow. The old punks were out in full force! I spotted Kurt and Kim from the Fastbaks, Alan Milman who put out a pretty obscure early punk 7" with the band the Alan Milman Sect (but most people locally know him as a grouchy record store owner), and tons of gray hair and people from old bands. For the first time in a decade, I felt young at a punk show! Needless to say, it was sweaty and hot inside. The Avengers sounded great. Penelope Houston has had quite a solo career, so her voice was still super strong. With a 40 minute set and one encore, the band played about every song off their one studio LP and couple singles, even including their covers of Money and Pain It Black (the latter was excellent). My only complaint would be the two kids trying to look like Suicidal Psychos in the pit that were pushing and shoving so much that they hit me off guard and my beer bottle bammed into my nose gashing it and making me bleed. But talking with Penelope Houston after they played, she said, "Cool, you bled for our band!" Ha ha ha. Penelope was super nice, hanging out for 30 minutes after the set talking with people and posing for photos. What a great night! I definitely recommend catching The Avengers if you get a chance. I have a feeling it will be just a handful of shows and then that's it. It was a rare opportunity to see a band I loved growing up and they more than lived up to my expectations live. One final pic with me and Penelope Houston:


On sorta a side note, there were a couple local band guys pretty fucked up and acting like hipster jerks to other people, along with snorting coke in the bathroom like it was the fucking Cha Cha. During The Avenger's set when they broke into "Thin White Line" and I looked over to see one of them nodding along all fucked up and thought, oh the irony, I wonder if they even know the lyrics.

The Avengers LP re-issued and they're touring again!

I wrote a full article on old San Francisco punk band The Avengers last year back here. Needless to say, I've always been a fan of the band, in part because of Penelope Houston's kick ass sneering female vocals and in part because of her great lyrics that were often quite smart satirically. The band had only had a brief career from 1977-1979, probably the highlight was opening for the Sex Pistols. Most of their recorded material, including their LP, was released after the band broke up. I remember scoring the LP back in the late-'80s for a few bucks at a used record shop in Seattle's U-District. By the time the '90s rolled around it was out of print and fairly sought after. CD Presents, who put it out, also did a small run of CDs, which I picked up too.

Thanks to Lookout Records releasing a CD of outtakes and live tracks in 1999 and another label putting out a live Avengers CD in 2004, the band gained a lot of new fans and sparked the interest of their old ones. So much so that Penelope Houston decided to get the band back together for a handful of shows before continuing with her solo career.

Flash forward five years. It appears that someone finally wrangled the rights for the Avengers first LP out of the hands of CD Presents. Amazon now has the CD listed for presale and says it's being re-issued on September 22nd with a second CD:

"Though not released until 1983 the Avengers' self-titled record (aka The Pink Album) features the band's recorded output from 1977-78, from the glorious first wave of punk rock. The Avengers were San Francisco's preeminent punk band, led by Penelope Houston's snarling vocals and Greg Igranham's distorted guitar riffs, and one of the first anywhere to feature a female lead singer. Featuring a second CD of previously unreleased live and studio material."

Sweet! If you've never heard the band, check out their MySpace page. And it gets better for those of us on the West Coast, they are also touring! The Avengers will be playing Funhouse September 11th, this is a show not to be missed!

Here are the full tour dates:
Sep 11 2009, The Funhouse, Seattle, Washington
Sep 12 2009, Dante’s, Portland, Oregon
Sep 13 2009, Musichead Medford, Oregon
Sep 16 2009, Blue Lagoon, Santa Cruz, California
Sep 17 2009, The Uptown, Oakland, California
Sep 18 2009, Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, California
Sep 19 2009, Galaxy Theatre, Santa Ana, California
Sep 20 2009, The Echo, Los Angeles, California

The Avengers

Thirty years ago many of you weren't even born and I was just a young kid, but this whole punk rock thing was already in full swing and there were a couple powerful women leading the charge. Pictured above is Penelope Houston, fronting her band The Avengers in 1978 (photo courtesy of longtime 10 Things contributor Bob Kondrak).

Houston was raised in Seattle and in the mid-'70s attended Fairhaven at Western Washington University in Bellingham (incidentally, at the same time as famed Northwest poster artist Art Chantry). By 1977 she moved to San Francisco and became the lead singer of The Avengers. The band gained attention in the burgeoning '77 punk scene through their debut 7" on Dangerhouse (which now sells for $200+ on Ebay) and opening for The Sex Pistols at Winterland. Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones went on to produce the second Avengers EP, which was released just after the band broke up in 1979. Houston went on to have a lengthy solo career.

Most of The Avengers record releases were posthumous, I picked their LP up in the mid-'80s, it was on Canada's CD Presents. The LP and early singles are fantastic, the music is catchy punk and Houston's vocals are not only strong and powerful, but at times searing and vicious (like on "Thin White Line" and "The American in Me.") "We Are the One" remains for me in my top 25 punk songs ever written... even though I broke down and sold my copy of it because it was worth so much.

Penelope Houston completely ignored fan calls to play Avengers songs live throughout her solo career and in interviews said the band would not get back together... but she had a change of heart in 2004 after another CD of old Avengers material was released and the band received yet another wave of attention. Houston reformed the band with the original guitarist (Gred Ingraham) and a bassist and drummer from The Plus Ones. They did a handful of live shows before ending... I really wish I could have caught them live. The thing that annoys me up the most is in 2006 Houston joined Pearl Jam on stage to perform "The American in Me" at the Bill Graham Civic Center, but at least it gives me hope we might hear more Avengers stuff from her in the future.

Between June of 1977 to June of 1979 The Avengers played just over 100 shows and headlined above bands like X, the Go-Go's, and the Dead Kennedys. While their moment was brief, they burned brightly and left a legacy of great material behind them. You can hear a few songs here.

Discography:

• 1977, "We Are the One" 7" (Dangerhouse)
• 1979, "Avengers" 12" (White Noise)
• 1983, "Paint it Black" 7" (CD Presents)
• 1983, "Avengers" LP (reissue of earlier material, CD Presents)
• 1999, "Avengers Died for Your Sins LP/CD (unreleased material & outtakes, Lookout)
• 2004, "The American in Me" CD (Live 1979 recording from the Waldorf, DBK Works)