A classic night at the Rat in Boston's Kenmore Square.

The 500 Teeth of Vengeance -- better known as 500 TV -- were a three piece band composed of Joe Harvard, Clark "Dark" and "Bash" Steinberg. The songs they perform are all from their LP "All Fired Up", recorded on 16-track tape at Fort Apache South and engineered by Paul Q. Kolderie [& left unreleased until 2011]. This night at the Rat was one of less than a dozen live shows that the band played together before drifting apart as Joe left for Columbus, Ohio and Bash went on to join Soul Coughing in NYC.

Bash had played in Mr. Happy with Harvard previously, recording their 8-track LP "Love & Music: Play! Play! Play!" at Fort South in 1986-7 [the title was taken from a lyric in the Boston song "Rock & Roll Band" - Mr. Happy were a band that was rife with in-jokes, largely due to the influence of co-songwriter Ted Pine, for whom Harvard retains an abiding affection:
"Ted is a genius. Loved his Sex Execs work, and I loved where he was headed when that band was about to break up, and I wanted to work with a real keyboardist ... someone who related to keys the way I did to guitars ... as well as another writer. Plus we had Jerry [Deupree] and Bash and Dave Bone joined up after the record was done, a super line-up. If we all hadn't been so busy at the time that might've been a contender, that band."

Joe's pal Dewey is in the house to see 500 TV, along with his new band Gwar. Dewey had been in the Richmond, VA band Unseen Force, and had hooked Joe and friends Lifeboat up with a place to stay after a 1985 show at the Rocket. Joe had recently visited Richmond and been shown the earliest, and very raw Gwar home videos. Visiting for their first Hub show, the Gwar school bus had parked a few miles down Mass Ave. at Fort Apache South, where they crashed (and did some informal recordings with Joe]. With the night off they enjoyed the dank atmosphere at Boston's premier underground venue.

Prior to Mr. Happy Sebastian Steinberg had been bass player for the Shy Five and Joe Morris Trio, while Clark had drummed for the infamous Dark, as well as Life on Earth, which was genius guitarist Reeves Gabrels' last US group before joining Bowie's Tin Machine in the UK.