DATE BAIT'S FIRST EVER LIVE GIG:
OCTOBER 30th, 1988


Shot at the legendary DC Space club on F Street NW in Washington, DC at a Halloween show on October 30th, 1988. The songs performed are 2 covers: The Troggs' "Strange Movies" and The Sonics' "He's "Waitin'". Band members were Dan "Gutterboy" Bader (lead vocals), Kim Kane (guitar), Karl Straub (guitar), Jeff Zang (bass guitar) and Brian D. Horrorwitz (drums). The go-go dancers ("The Nudeniks") were Justine "Animal" Gulledge and Colleen "Bubbles" Sanzone. The show started with Horrorwitz coming out and drinking blood from the stump of a severed head while lighting up some candles on the stage. He then starts pounding a tribal beat using bones whilst the rest of the band and the go-go dancers bring a coffin out on stage and go into some kind of ritualistic dance. Suddenly out pops Kim Kane, brushing off dirt and dust, resurrected from his Slickee Boys days. Then the band jumps into the first song as seen here. The performance was shot on VHS tape by Dean Evangelista and Sandy Konigmacher and was "edited" (so-to-speak) at Third Eye Studios using 2 vcr's. Taken from the VHS release "Date Bait: Scream at the Right Time" (introduced by William Castle.)

KIM KANE EXPLAINS THE DATE BAIT CONCEPT
FEBRUARY 4th, 1989


Just before another gig starts, local b-movie star Rock Savage interviews Kim Kane, the "Bhagwan of Rock-N-Roll", in the broom closet-esque dressing room at DC Space. In the background you can hear the Beatnik Flies rockin' out.

NEW YEAR'S EVE GIG AT DC SPACE AGAIN
DECEMBER 31st, 1988


Shot once again at the legendary DC Space club, Kim Kane came out dressed as Old Man 1988 and Horrorwitz was the Baby New Year 1989, vomiting blood onto the chests of the nurse-dressed go-go dancers (hey, it was their idea!). The song performed here is a cover of the Iggy and the Stooges tune "I've Got A Right". The performance was shot on VHS tape by Eric Koger. Fasten yer seatbelts! Again taken from the VHS release "Date Bait: Scream at the Right Time".

"I'M OUTTA' HERE" DEMO MONTAGE


The audio heard here was from a jam that was recorded on Kim's crappy little mono cassette player in their "rehearsal studio" (Brian's parents' basement) in 1988, but it came out sounding great! Recorded as an instrumental before guitarist Straub had joined, the band later re-worked it into the song "I'm Outta' Here", their first single release on the DSI Records label. This clip was also taken from the VHS release "Date Bait: Scream at the Right Time".

BEATLES TRIBUTE SHOW
MARCH 4th, 1995, LITHUANIAN HALL, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND


3 songs recorded live by David Taylor and (?), edited by David Taylor. Thanx David! Skip to 9:05 to see why we weren't asked back to the Lithuanian Hall events. Alice Cooper was right: One ripped open feather pillow really DOES fill up a big room!

LIVE ON THE MALL IN DC, July 4th, 1996 - PART 1


The opening 2 songs recorded live by Paul Tambellini (aka Taz Tavio of the Beauty Queen Killers) on the "alternative" stage for DC's 4th of July celebration in 1996 down on the Mall near the White House. This stage was promoting, among other things, the legalization of marijuana. This was one of the very first shows, if not THE first, of the last lineup of Date Bait. It was thanks to Rupert Chapelle who got us on the bill for this one. The lineup at this time was Brian D. Horrorwitz (vocals), Kim Kane (guitar), Vince Vigliotti (guitar), Jonas Tavela (bass guitar) and Tim Scott aka Harry Heel (drums) with precision go-go dancing by Leslie Oakey and Mary Spock. The songs in this clip are "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight" and "13 Women".

LIVE ON THE MALL IN DC, July 4th, 1996 - PART 2


2 more songs recorded live by Paul Tambellini on the "alternative" stage for DC's 4th of July celebration in 1996 down on The Mall. The songs are 2 originals: "The Dragster of Ghostrip Hollow" and "Head in the Shed".

A FEW NOTES ABOUT DATE BAIT'S START AND RECORDINGS
~by steamed musicologist Dr. Penis

Once upon a time, a dude named Kim Kane spent 15 years playing in a popular garage band called The Slickee Boys. (Popular, that is, in Washington, D.C. and parts of Germany.) In 1987 he approached Brian D. Horrorwitz with the idea of starting a new side band. The 2 things they both agreed on was that the group had to: 1. Be "fun", and 2. Have no socially redeeming value whatsoever. They succeeded. Thumbing through the "Psychotronic" encyclopedia of movies, Horrorwitz jokingly suggested the name "Date Bait" (if you've ever seen ‘em you know why it was a joke), saying it would help them meet more girls. A short time later, when quitting The Slickee Boys, Kane told local papers about his new band Date Bait. Not having ever officially agreed on the name, Horrorwitz and the other band members were stunned to read this announcement in The Washington Post and other local rags! Oh well, looks like they were stuck with it! Their first ever gig was a Halloween party on October 30th, 1988, at a very cool little shithole club called D.C. Space. I mainly remember their early gigs as being a chaotic menagerie of drunk go-go girls, streams of thrown toilet paper, balloons, glitter, "Silly String" and lots of fake blood. Not to mention some of the best damned garage punk I had ever heard! Usually the stage was too crowded resulting in the singer Gutterboy slipping on some fake puke or something and knocking Horrorwitz's flimsy drum kit over. Often the inebriated panty-less dancers would fall down in their mini-skirts treating those in the front to a free little peep-show. Most local clubs wouldn't let the band gig there unless they agreed to clean up after their set was over. Their Halloween shows were unmatched, with on-stage spook shenanigans, bizarre costume contests, and screenings of short horror movies between sets. On average the band and dancers would get paid about $100 a show. No, not each person, that's TOTAL. Early on the boys were reportedly fronted a tidy sum to record an LP / CD for France's New Rose label. For some reason they thought they could get away with spending only a smidgen of the bread on the actual recording, and save the rest for their own use. No one really knew what the hell they were doing, least of all the studio technician! The best cuts on their debut release were the ones hastily mixed whenever the studio guy would leave the mixing room to take a dump or whatever! Well, the low-budget low-fidelity recordings were shipped off posthaste, the guys assuming that the label would "bump-up" the sound in the mastering. Nope, no such luck. "I Split On Your Grave" was issued as was, with the added coffin-nails being that the CD version had 2 wanky "bonus" cuts that never shoulda' been heard by ANYBODY, and that the cheap bastards at the label screwed up Kanes' beautifully ghoulish color cover artwork, printing it instead as a sorta' 2-color urine-looking dayglo thang. Not wanting to become kings of the cut-out bins, the band has since attempted to make sure all their later records sounded raw and rockin', the way the good lord intended. In 1991 a lot of material was recorded for a follow-up LP, but the curse of the first would follow them around like a fowl-smelling body odor, making it difficult for anyone not having seen them live to believe that these losers could really rock-out! Hard to believe, the same debut slab of smegma was reissued on a Japanese label without the group even knowing about it until a Japanese fan mailed them a copy! (They're pretty desperate for things to reissue in Japan it seems.) Tired of shopping around demo tapes and recording at "professional" studios whose engineers were weaned on Toto, Kane and company formed their own Maryland based DeCeased label. Their attitude was "Rock-N-Roll is DEAD, but WE DON'T CARE!" (echoing the sentiments of an old Rubinoos song), and often their 45 labels proudly stated this. "This is Maryland music!" they exclaimed, letting the rest of the world know that just ‘cause they were stuck playing in a sceneless city that couldn't freakin' enjoy themselves if everyday was freakin' Saturday at freakin' Disneyworld, they were still gonna tear it up!! Most recordings were made in makeshift basement studios that allowed them the freedom to experiment a bit. After 4 years, singer Gutterboy decided to chuck it in, so Horrorwitz was the natural replacement, what with him knowing all the lyrics. Little did he realize as he scrawled out the lyrics to "Goin' Nowhere Fast" back in 1990 that this unknowingly prophetic title would ring all-too-true. In their time Date Bait have released 2 CDs (1 is also on LP), 6 singles, 1 VHS videotape, and been on numerous compilations. They've opened for Screamin' Jay Hawkins, The Cramps, The Fleshtones, Wreckless Eric, and have even played twice on The White House lawn! Yes, Date Bait was the band every Washingtonian had heard of but never heard!