Zero Boys: Havin' a hardcore blast in '82/ Photos

ZB's! (Mark Acosta photos)

By Andy

Found in mom's wallet? Nope. These are some killer shots from Mark Acosta of Paul Mahern and the Zero Boys rippin' it up at The Barn at Alpine Village on July 3, 1982 in Torrance, CA. Joining them on the stacked bill were Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, MDC and The Detonators. 

Thanks Mark!

The Indianapolis, IN, foursome has always been a fantastic, raging punk-pop band that we first heard on Maximum RocknRoll's radio show in '82. "New Generation" was the tune we knew and we pushed our way up front at The Barn to sing along with Paul Z.

From "High Places" to "Drug Free Youth," the band blitzed through its set and forever left an indentation on my brain. "Vicious Circle" is one of the top punk efforts of all time. 

Here's a 2015 recollection from drummer Mark Cutsinger of The Barn extravaganza: "I do remember the oceans of people singing along with our songs! Which was astounding to me because we were so far away from Indianapolis! And I remember it was very much fun playing on a bigger stage than normal. I also remember the ambulance being called more than once. And people bloodied from jumping off the PA stacks. Dead Kennedys and Minor Threat were awesome."

Here's what Paul Z told us in 2013 about the "Vicious Circle" album, which arrived in my mailbox in Redondo Beach, CA, along with the sterling first "Master Tape" comp on one fine day in '82: "We rehearsed every day for probably two months before we made that record. I've been a recording engineer for the last 34 years, and I would say that there's probably only been a couple of other times in my career where I've witnessed anyone come into the studio nearly as prepared as the Zero Boys were to make that record. We recorded the record in a day. And you can tell that-- there's a certain immediacy to it that you don't get on a lot of records anymore."

** Both comments are from previous stories on this blog.