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Live At Bibby's Show Palace

Out of Print (OOP). Lost, live album. Two surviving tracks remastered and reissued on the Blanks '84 and A Turn... And A Halt (Complete Edition) CD's.

Release Info
Cover Art
Band Memoirs

Release Info

Tracks from this album included:

Chicken Pox Blues
Brett Has the Chicken Pox
Dead Tomato
Eggheads
Elvis Presley
30.06
Five Long Days (Instrumental)

... and others

The Blanks: Christopher Araha Arohadej, Kar, Ran, and Spike

Recorded live to two-track at Bibby's Show Palace, Houston, TX. Produced by The Blanks.
©1984 The Blanks.

1984: First issue, cassette, Blanks Enterprises. The master has been lost, so this album is out of print.
1986: Two surviving tracks reissued on A Turn... And A Halt (2nd Edition) cassette.
2008: Two surviving tracks remastered and reissued on the Blanks '84 and A Turn... And A Halt (Complete Edition) CD's.

Cover Art

Click for larger image:

front cassette cover

inside cassette cover

Band Memoirs

This was a live album, obviously. It was recorded during the making of New Years in Tokyo. There was a lot of tension in the band at this time. Little Man was gone and we were in the studio trying different things. I know that previously whole albums had been recorded in one session, but not this time. It may have taken two sessions just to record the spoken intro, which announced that we were doing the album in Hong Kong. But I will get to that more on the New Years in Tokyo notes.

Because the New Years album was taking so long, we felt the need to come out with something immediate, the way we were used to. Also we had the song “Dead Tomato” ready for an audience to hear. We were particularly proud of this song and could see how long it was taking for the album to come out, so we wanted to get an audience reaction immediately. A live album seemed like the best solution. It was our first tour with a fourth member of the band (Christopher Araha Arohadej). He was a great performer and pushed us to perform songs like “30.06,” that I know I wouldn't have done otherwise. We didn't put a lot of prep time into the show but I think it came out well. The concert ended up being a benefit for a friend of ours who was ill. The original songs we wrote for the occasion, “Brett Has the Chicken Pox” and “Chicken Pox Blues” were pretty well received too.

This was our last concert until Live to the Spirit World.

– Spike

This show went very well. So well, that we ended up playing much longer than we had expected, long after we had gone through all the songs we had prepared. We conferred quickly, after each song, as to what we would play next, digging deeper and deeper into our unrehearsed repertoire. It was a great time. Unfortunately, our friend was probably too ill to truly appreciate the show.

– Ran

There is much to tell about this famous show. To say we played to a hostile audience would be an understatement. But we did it for a good cause.

The main thing I'd like to point out is the cover art now available. This was uncovered in late 2003 by Christopher Araha Arohadej. It had been collecting dust with memorabilia from his days with the band. In addition to the original cover, there was a tape in the case. We anxiously hoped it would be a copy of this famous concert. Unfortunately, the tape was not the long lost master. However, we are pleased to have recovered this album art. I also like the inside cover.

– Kar