It’s far too soon to rule out the Flesh Eaters. By now, the band members are all on the verge of being old, but no matter. What they bring to the stage is about 200 years’ worth of collective rock-and-roll skill. Seasoned but willing would be the better choice of words to describe this band. The Flesh Eaters began as a side project in Los Angeles in 1977. Chris D (the D stands for Desjardins), also known as “Jack Nicholson from Hell,” started the band with members from Los Lobos, the Blasters, and X, to name a few. When the Flesh Eaters hit San Diego, most of the original crew will be along for the ride: Desjardins, Dave Alvin, John Doe, DJ Bonebrake, Bill Bateman, and Steve Berlin. The idea behind the Flesh Eaters was to build a soundtrack around Chris D’s punk poetry, which was mostly on the level of B-grade horror flicks. The Flesh Eaters came up with ferocious, pounding, two-minute songs they didn’t really think of as punk music, but it was.

Being a side project, the Flesh Eaters goofed around for a few years as a loose-limbed band of a kind one might hear at a backyard kegger or at a private warehouse party. They solidified in the late 1970s and over the years cranked out an impressive dozen full-length albums and a seven-inch. The early Flesh Eater records sound rough, mostly because the band was learning who they were and how to produce their sound, but 1981’s A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die still shines as their best work. If you want to familiarize yourself with their catalog, you’ll need to be into your record player. Most of their past is only available on vinyl, and not because it’s vintage and cool, but because that’s how things were done back then. The Flesh Eaters are the real mojo.