There’s footage on YouTube of Bad Brains playing fabled New York punk dive CBGBs in 1982, and it looks like bedlam being unleashed. The bodies of crowd members fly back and forth as, somewhere in this frantic tide of flesh, the band are playing like their lives depend on it. Onstage, frontman Paul ‘H.R.’ Hudson exudes a hyperactive energy, his skinny body convulsing and shuddering as he wails and gabbles at turbo speed. Then, just when it looks like it’s going to spill over into violence, everything stops and he begins to croon a reggae tune. Now nobody knows what the hell they’re supposed to do.
This was a typical scene for Bad Brains back then, and their ultra-kinetic live shows set the standard for punk and hardcore gigs in the late 70s/early 80s. They’ve even been credited with inventing a brand new phenomenon: moshing.
