The Mad were one of the more interesting New York shock bands during the transition between “punk rock” and what would become known as “New York Hardcore.” The band put out two incredibly awesome seven-inchers, the “Eyeball”/“I Hate Music” single and the “Fried Egg” EP—originals of each go for major bucks on the collector’s market.

The band was, perhaps, best known for their two tracks (“I Hate Music” and “The Hell”) which appeared on the widely-distributed New York Thrash cassette released in 1982 by the ROIR label.

Their theatrical lead singer, Screaming Mad George, went on to fame as a special makeup effects artist, working on films like Big Trouble in Little China, Predator, and a couple of the A Nightmare on Elm Street sequels.

The video below comes to us from Paul Tschinkel, who recorded it for his punk and new wave cable TV show, Inner-Tube, which ran for ten years on Manhattan Cable. We’ve written about Tschinkel and Inner-Tube here before.

In the video, which was recorded at the infamous Max’s Kansas City, we are treated to a wild performance by Screaming Mad George and The Mad—with surprisingly good audio and sound for the time. One wishes that the video lasted for more than one song, but the song is great—sounding a bit like a slowed-down Bad Brains of the same era (1979)—speaking of which, Schinkel also recorded some amazing songs from the Bad Brains for Inner-Tube the following year, which you can watch HERE.

We wonder if there is more footage of The Mad in the Inner-Tube vaults. If so, we’d love to see it!
 

 
Max’s Kansas City is famous for hosting acts like the Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, Television, Suicide, and the whole downtown punk scene of the mid-1970s, but it also was the venue for an early gig by Bad Brains, the legends of DC hardcore. The original location of Max’s Kansas City on Park Avenue South and 18th St. closed in 1981. It’s said that Bad Brains and the Beastie Boys played the final gig at that location, but the evidence is mixed: this exhaustive page on the venue states that that lineup was scheduled but cancelled.

Bad Brains were there two years earlier, however, and fortunately for us the gig was exhaustively documented. The date for the show is commonly listed as February 1979, but that’s not correct. The date of the show was Sunday, December 16, 1979, a fact that is corroborated by two pieces of information, the poster above and the comment by H.R. during the show that it was drummer Earl Hudson’s birthday that day. (Also H.R.‘s younger brother, Hudson turned 22 in 1979.)

Bad Brains opened for The Mad, an interesting band fronted by a native of Osaka, Japan, who used the name Screaming Mad George. The Mad only put out a couple of singles at the time, but there retrospective CDs were released later on. Screaming Mad George did the poster for the gig. He also transitioned out of punk music into special effects for Hollywood movies, working on such 1980s classics as Big Trouble in Little China, Predator, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.

More after the jump…