The album of ‘The Last Pogo’ concert (which, unlike the movie, omits Teenage Head and the Viletones)

In 1978, Toronto (and some Hamilton) punks answered Scorsese’s The Last Waltz, a movie lousy with Canadians, by putting on their own star-studded farewell concert at the city’s Horseshoe Tavern. The Diodes were missing from the bill, but plenty of other Canuck punks made it: Teenage Head, the Viletones, the Ugly, the Mods, the Secrets, the Cardboard Brains, the Scenics. The resulting concert film, The Last Pogo, is so outrageously Canadian as to make Robbie, Joni, Garth and Neil look like a bunch of rank Topekans. It is in fact more Canadian than a Molson delivery truck parked at a Tim Hortons.

It’s a shame the Viletones do “Last Guy in Town” instead of “Screamin Fist,” but during the thrilling climax, Teenage Head blows away any lingering disappointment with their sublime “Picture My Face”—the only song they’re allowed to play before the Man pulls the plug, and the punks smash up the club.

Director Colin Brunton revisited Toronto punk in 2013’s The Last Pogo Jumps Again, a survey of the scene from 1976 through 1978 that includes notable acts omitted from the original film, such as the Diodes and Simply Saucer. Crash ‘N’ Burn, the 1977 documentary about the Diodes’ government-funded Toronto punk club of the same name, is essential viewing; however, of the versions now playing on YouTube, only this crummy-quality one is intact.