
I hate overgeneralizing, but here I go: everybody knows the Sex Pistols. Everybody knows the Ramones. Everybody knows Black Flag.
If you’re collecting punk ephemera, here’s another thing almost everybody knows—the records are just the beginning of the story.
Before our vast social media platforms, flyers got you to there. The heartbeat of a local scene was printed on paper, run off at Kinko’s (or even a mom-and-pop copy shop), then stapled to telephone poles, dropped off at most record stores and some book stores and maybe a coffee shop or two. They weren’t designed to survive forty years. Most were torn down, thrown away, or stuffed into someone’s back pocket and used as directions to find their way to the show.
That’s exactly why they’re rare. And now, very cool. I mean they were always very cool. At least I thought so. Enough to scoop up a handful at my local record store a long time ago.
Here are six original flyers that capture a little piece of the American / Phoenix underground before anyone thought to preserve it.
They’re ready for new homes.
1. Black Flag Newsletter / Flyer ( Summer of 1984)
Not really a “concert flyer” at all—which is exactly why I love it.
This is Black Flag functioning as its own newsletter: upcoming shows, SST releases, amazing Pettibon artwork (that would wind up on two of Black Flag’s record covers), mailing address, and the unmistakable feeling that if you wanted to know what was happening in the summer of ’84 — when SST was at its absolute peak (Meat Puppets II, Double Nickels on the Dime, and Zen Arcade), this single sheet of paper was all you needed. (Fun aside: when I showed this to the band’s archivist (I won’t drop names), he showed me the original paste up).
2. Dead Kennedys / Meat Puppets / Conflict
Phoenix, Arizona — Madison Square Gardens — May 8–9, 1983.
You don’t often see Arizona punk history get much attention. Since Phoenix sits between LA and everything east of LA via I-10, a lot of bands made their way through the desert.
This flyer captures one of the most important touring bands in hardcore sharing a bill with the Meat Puppets before they became alternative-rock legends.
The “Coming Saturday May 7 Black Flag” tells another story entirely. Somebody was promoting next week’s show using this week’s flyer. That’s punk economics. And of course minors were welcome.
3. Minutemen / Human Therapy / Pilgrim State
Los Angeles — Fiesta House — February 3, 1984.
This one feels handmade because…it was. They all were.
Cut-and-paste typography.
Photocopied graphics.
No designer.
No marketing department.
Best of all? No social media director. Just enough information to get you to the right warehouse on Friday night. And trust me, you’d wanna make 100% sure where you were going anywhere near Alameda and Olympic BLVD in 1984. Especially on a Friday night.
4. Hüsker Dü / Meat Puppets
Phoenix —Madison Square Garden — October 28, 1983.
This is the sort of lineup that, forty years later, almost doesn’t seem real. Well. Maybe a bit of an exaggeration. Before “alternative rock” became big business, these bands were still driving themselves from town to town, sleeping on floors, and playing all-ages rooms for six bucks a ticket. And at the time, it was just another Friday night. And the story I always got (I didn’t make this show) was the power went out and Hüsker Dü played across the street at the Laundromat. Anyone confirm this?
5. Peter & the Test Tube Babies / The Addicts / Butthole Surfers / Hell Fire
Phoenix —Madison Square Garden — November 28, 1983.
British punk collides with one of the strangest / greatest / worst (depending on who you ask) bands Texas (maybe even America) ever produced. The designer somehow made room for Albert Anastasia, a mob execution photo, and the Butthole Surfers on one piece of paper. Completely ridiculous. Completely perfect. Commercial marketing at its finest.
6. SST “Blow-Out” Minutemen / Meat Puppets / Saccharine Trust / Overkill
Los Angeles — Whisky A Go Go — July 20, 1982.
An SST showcase! How about that?! Four of the labels foundational bands with a wonderfully perfect Raymond Pettibon illustration that could only have come from early SST. Nobody was worrying about branding. That’s for sure. They were worrying about making enough copies before the copy shop closed.
And fudging the counter to save a couple bucks.









