The Meatballs Were Excellent

The Rain Parade - Live at Bunky's, Madison, WI (11/8/84) Part 1
The Rain Parade - Live at Bunky's, Madison, WI (11/8/84) Part 2

My family celebrated my twelfth birthday with dinner at Pino's, an Italian basement restaurant in downtown Madison. Considering my Dad hated everything Italian, foodwise, it was pretty cool we got to go there. I'm sure he had a steak. (He knew the owner, I remember, but he knew lots of people. Madison was a pretty small city when he was growing up in it and by the late 70s he'd been a businessman in it for a quarter of a century. You get to know people that way.)

Upstairs of Pino's was Bunky's, which is what Pino's used to be called. If you want to be less confused, read about it here. Anyway, Bunky's was now a "nightclub" - a term always a little too glamorous for Madison, I think. Especially in the 70s. I remember looking up the stairs to the club and wondering what it was like, what kind of stuff happened in a "nightclub"?

A few years later I found out, when Bunky's started to host punk shows. I saw quite a few there - it was a good venue. Big and open with a low, large stage and an excellent real dance floor (vestiges of nightclub glory, one supposes). I saw Mojo Nixon (right after his second album came out I think - first was best). I saw The Mekons. I saw a lot I can't remember. I saw dozens of local bands.

But I didn't see this show. Damn.

NOTE: Another show I missed, that same fall, was The Church. My buddy Doug and I actually made it to the door - it would have been my first show at Bunky's - but the cover was ten bucks. Ten bucks! for a punk show! in 1984! That was all we had between us. We were disappointed kids that night.

I've been told The Church were also taped. Wouldn't be surprised if by the same person. I talked to a guy who was at the show and he remembers another guy with a taping unit. If anyone has it...please?