Tag Archives: The Alley Cats
Louis Jacinto Photo Column – The Alley Cats
Louis Jacinto Photo Column – The Alley Cats
All of us in the first wave of Los Angeles punk were in our late teens and early twenties. We were all young and not afraid to create something new!
But being so young, we were also very good looking, across the board.
Here is Randy Stodola of the Alley Cats, just one of the handsome punks in the initial Los Angeles scene from the late ’70s.
Louis Jacinto Photo Column, The Alley Cats
Louis Jacinto Photo Column, The Alley Cats
The Alley Cats, Starwood, West Hollywood, 1979 | photo by Louis Jacinto, onodream.com
The Starwood was a huge nightclub in West Hollywood. In one section was a dance area where Rodney Bingenheimer was introducing us to all of these new great records. In another section was a bar. The nightclub also had a second level for viewing. Once The Alley Cats hit the main stage, the rest of the areas emptied out and packed the front of the stage to get a high voltage dosage of punk in all its power.
Dianne Chai (bass and vocals), Randy Stodola (guitar and vocals), and John McCarthy (drums)—just the three of them—filled that large nightclub with a fury that other larger bands couldn’t get near. They were incredible to see in performance!
Pure power!
Louis Jacinto Photo Column, The Alley Cats, 1979
Louis Jacinto Photo Column, The Alley Cats, 1979
I never saw so much energy come from a band as I did with The Alley Cats; and there were only three of them! John McCarthy on drums, Dianne Chai on bass and vocals, and Randy Stodola on guitar and vocals could out-power any four, five, or six-piece punk band anytime, and they always did.
