Except he's too cool to do something like that. But you can go here and he'll say: "It was a weird strange community, before punk was kind of cool or trendy. All these desperate people -- that photographer Jenny Lens -- strange people looking for something new ... kids ... like a strange Mad magazine picture of people. There were already bands and fanzines like Back Door Man that were raw rock and roll style, Detroit-style rock, the pre-punk thing. Bands like the Motels, who became something different. At first they were much more raw. Bands like the Dogs and the Imperial Dogs -- that was Don Waller's band. And they were hard-edge, kind of like a Stooges-y, MC5 sort of thing."
And just last month ... Kid Congo and Don Waller shared some tales from these dark ages at the Stories bookstore in Echo Park, appearing along with Cole Coonce, Annette Zilinskas, John Tottenham, Pete Weiss, Gordy Grundy, and Margaret Wappler. (Photographic evidence supplied by South Bay homeboy George Waddell.) 'Twas all part of the Part Time Punks shows held at the nearby Echoplex, where Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds were performing later that evening (Oct. 11, 2009).
Kid's side-splitting story -- starring himself, Pleasant Gehman, Jane Wiedlin, Margot Olaverra, and Bing Crosby's grandson -- involved Quaaludes, prescription speed, alcohol, shoplifting, and a night in the Hollywood police station.
Wearing an original Imperial Dogs T-shirt, Don offered "Big Star," inspired by an evening with Lux Interior, Poison Ivy Rorshach, Alex Chilton, Phast Phreddie Patterson, and Tom "The Punk" Gardner.
He also told some choice Imperial Dogs' stories -- taken from the booklet to the Live! In Long Beach (October 30, 1974) DVD -- involving the F.B.I., Patty Hearst, a stolen wheelchair, some blood capsules, and a bogus chain-whipping that sent half the Rodney's audience screaming onto Sunset Boulevard. Good times ...
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