PURE HELL

at ONE BIG CROWD, a one night tribute to A7

December 6, 2008; The Knitting Factory; NYC

I couldn't have been more excited to see Pure Hell play and what I saw blew away all my best expectations. I had no idea they'd gotten original guitarist Chip Wreck back in the band. When I listen to Pure Hell songs like "I Feel Bad" and "Future" at home, I can't believe his playing. There's more than a hint of Hendrix to Chip's style and, well, he's just one of the all-time great guitarists in punk. Stinker, AKA Kenny Gordon, Pure Hell's singer is an intense frontman. His eyes were mere slits and showing only their whites for most of the band's set but he was still in great frontman form.

For decades, they seemed to be largely overlooked and, even amongst people who know their punk rock, very obscure but in recent years there's been a renewed interest (largely, I'm sure, do to the looooooong overdue release of their first album, the tapes of which had gone missing for decades). Seeing the band play was the highpoint of the A7 reunion for me. Original bassist Lenny Steel is still in the band, looking decades younger than he is, and he still rocks as much as his bandmates. The new drummer (original drummer Spider died some time ago) fits in perfectly. The blew away probably something like 90% of all the oldschool bands I've ever seen and I've seen most of them. Go see them if you get the chance.

That's pot smoke in front of Stinker. Some massive tough guy leaning against the stage was puffing away like crazy, shouting at the band about how much they kick ass, and occasionally bashing one of his gargantuan elbow into my camera.

To go back to the Main A7 tribute page, click here, or for individual galleries click one of these thumbnails....

FATAL RAGE	76% UNCERTAIN	PAYLOAD	ANTIDOTE	THE ABUSED	MEMBERS OF FALSE PROPHETS
NIHILISTICS	BUTCH LUST AND THE HYPOCRITES	MAJOR CONFLICT	REAGAN YOUTH	Miscellaneous photos