Formed in 1978, hardcore punks No Alternative were an immediate hit on the San Francisco scene, playing dozens of shows with such like-minded purveyors of aggression as the Germs, Black Flag, D.O.A., Flipper, and Negative Trend.

Despite their demand as a live act, No Alternative only managed to commit a handful of songs to vinyl during their original run. The group’s three-song Backtracks EP appeared on Subterranean Records in 1980, while Johnny Get Your Gun and Dead Men Tell No Lies surfaced on local compilation LP’s.

KALX deejay Terry Hammer was on hand to capture the soundboard mix for this previously unreleased November 1980 set at the Mabuhay Gardens. The band’s lineup included Hugh Patterson (aka Johnny Genocide) on lead vocals and guitar, Jeff Rees on bass, and Greg Langston on drums.

The final two tracks on this release - Witch Doctor and Working Class Boy - are previously unreleased studio recordings. This is another entry in Liberation Hall’s “Sounds from the San Francisco Underground” series.

1. Damned To Hell
2. The Good Die Young
3. Right To Die
4. Boy With A Needle
5. Mary Sue Ellen’s Clique
6. Folsom Prison Blues
7. Be Bop A Lula
8. Rockabilly Rumble
9. Fucked Up
10. Dyin’ In The U.S.A.
11. Life Of Suicide
12. Witch Doctor
13. Working Class Boy

This exhaustively energetic live recording (dedicated to Kerry) opens on the static speaker guitar fuzz of Damned To Hell and the rambunctious The Good Die Young and then comes the pulsating Right To Die, the genuine head banger Boy With A Needle, the drum-led rocker Mary Sue Ellen’s Clique, before we get the languishing, at first, punk-a-licious thereafter Folsom Prison Blues and the dutifully rambunctious Be Bop A Lula.

Along next is a hard rocker Rockabilly Rumble and the screeching Fucked Up and they are in turn backed seamlessly by the bass-led Dyin’ In The U.S.A., then, and introduced as This one’s a fucking happy song called Life Of Suicide, and I hope you all commit it, the show then rounds out on the stealthly guitar prowl of Witch Doctor, coming to a frenetic close on the drum-led Working Class Boy.

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