Legal Weapon Pg 2

Released in March 1983,"Your Weapon" starts off with "What a Scene", inspired by Kat's love/hate relationship with the L.A. punk circuit. The line "the smoke from those goddamn cigarettes" is fitting for anyone whose clothing, and hair, still reeked of clove the day after a punk show. My mom, not knowing what that smell was, assumed it was marijuana and once tossed my stinky pants and shirt into the swimming pool. "What a Scene" is one of the several songs on the album where the tough, but sometimes vulnerable, lyrics paint an unflinching picture of L.A.'s, and particularly Hollywood's, early 80s punk scene. Kat contrasts her usual hellbent vocal style with bluesy,soulful vocals on "Bleeders" and "Only Lost For Today", with the latter track even containing a short acappella part, which was somewhat adventurous for a punk singer. Kat Arthur was probably one of the few lady punk vocalists who could have pulled it off. "Your Weapon" also features Legal Weapon's rebellious signature "Equalizer" which was always a fan favorite at the band's live performances.

In addition to the departure of Steve Soto and Frank Agnew, original drummer Charlie Vartanian also left the band prior to the recording of "Your Weapon". The story goes that he intended to join the army, but that ended up falling through, and he actually was on drums the night in Phoenix when I saw LW for the first time in April 1983. New drummer Adam Maples couldn't make the trip for some reason (Kat joked from the stage that night that Maples had stayed behind because he was going to be in a parade) and Charlie filled in.

The mostly mid-tempo songs on "Your Weapon" tend to be more musically ambitious compositions than was common in the L.A. punk scene at the time, with long instrumentals, guitar solos, and many of the songs clocking in at well over 4 minutes. Kat was, however, wary of drifting too far from the hard-edged sound LW fans were accustomed to. In a 1983 interview with Midwest Uprising magazine, she stated that the previous album, "Death of Innocence" would be "Our only attempt at mainstream. And that's as far as I, personally, want to take it". A curious comment, considering the creative direction the band would take for much of the next decade.

It was the night of the band's first performance in Phoenix, on April 9th,1983, that I first encountered Kat Arthur. She was quite a sight. Her look at the time consisted of a black-on-blonde frightwig of a hairdo, a ton of eyeliner, and a palor of what she'd describe as "Kabuki makeup"- much the same look she had in Dina Douglass' great "Through the Ferns" photo that was taken in Kat's garden and appeared with a memorable interview in NO Mag in early 1983. Excessive beer consumption had also given her a somewhat rotund appearance that, along with her famed husky voice, led a few observers to compare Kat to actress Mae West. After the show, I approached her as she was talking with JFA drummer Bam Bam (JFA had opened that night). She had in her jacket pocket a stack of Legal Weapon stickers that she had been handing out. I came up to her and asked for one of them. Kat turned to me with that menacing look she always seemed to have, and without saying a word, handed me one.

In their first appearance in Phoenix, Legal Weapon performed at "Madison Square Garden" a makeshift storefront wrestling arena in a bad part of town that was used for punk shows on Saturday nights. Affectionately known as "Mad Gardens" it is where some of Phoenix's most memorable punk moments occured. Bands would actually play in the ring, inside the ropes. I'll never forget the sight of Kat ducking between the ropes to enter the ring/stage. She looked like a contender. Before the doors were officially open, some concertgoers had already begun hanging out near the door. Since the door was open, the band could be seen doing a run-through. As the band launched into its soundcheck with "No Sorrow" some girls standing next to me asked, "Is that them? Is that Legal Weapon?" I sensed a certain anticipation in their voices. I hadn't seen these girls before, and they didn't seem to be Mad Gardens regulars. I imagined they had seen LW in one of their New Wave Theater appearances, and were sufficiently impressed by the band's performance on TV to come out and see them in person. Legal Weapon always seemed to have a certain appeal, particularly to girls, who saw in Kat Arthur a sort of role model- a woman who could front a rock band with confidence and authority, drink guys under the table, and who wasn't about to take any crap from anyone.

Mad Gardens wasn't too close to my house. The bus service wasn't great back in those days, so if I couldn't bum a ride from someone it wasn't uncommon for me to walk the several miles to the venue. On the occasion of Legal Weapon's Phoenix debut I gladly walked for about two hours to Madison Square Garden. I had heard the band's first 2 records the previous year and was impressed with Kat's singing, so I was expecting a good show. Problem was, that five dollar bill I thought was in my pocket when I left turned out to be a one dollar bill, and I found myself four dollars short of the admission price. Not good. Going all the way home to retrieve my fiver was out of the question, and I wasn't about to miss this show, so I decided on a drastic move. I would attempt a time-honored punk tradition and sneak into the show. This proved to be easier than expected.

Legal Weapon opened their set with "No Sorrow" and ended it with the same song, and played almost everything from the debut E.P., the "Death of Innocence" LP, and the just released "Your Weapon". The highlight of the set was "Equalizer" from Your Weapon, a song that was to become the band's signature. The band's full-throttle energy and Kat's overwhelming stage presence made for a memorable evening at Mad Gardens. I had a new favorite band.

I had enjoyed the show so much I began to feel guilty about not paying to get in. With only a dollar in my pocket, I couldn't even buy a copy of "Your Weapon" that the bandmembers were selling after the show. I decided to go out to the local record store the next day and buy a copy of "Your Weapon", and mail the 5 dollars to the band's P.O. box that was named on the record. A couple of years later, Kat would tell me, "If you do something good, it will always come back to you". Sure enough, a few weeks after I sent the 5 dollars, along with a note saying how much I had enjoyed the show, I was surprised to see a package arrive in the mail. Kat had sent me a Legal Weapon T shirt. She enclosed a note in which she seemed bemused that anyone would bother to reimburse a band after sneaking into a show.

More than 6 months later, on Halloween night 1983, Legal Weapon returned to Phoenix, and of course I was wearing that shirt. The band was late in arriving, and one of the opening bands was halfway through their set when Legal Weapon bandmembers and "road mistresses" began wheeling amplifiers in through the back door of Mad Gardens. Almost immediately after entering the building, bassist Eddie Wayne recognized the LW shirt I was wearing. "Are you the kid who sent the 5 dollars?" he asked. Apparently they had been talking about me during the long drive from L.A. I confirmed that it was indeed me, and Ed and I talked awhile before LW's set. Later in the evening I met drummer Adam Maples and the 2 road mistresses Annie and Susan, 2 girls with heavy New York accents that the band had befriended the previous summer on their tour of the east coast and midwest.

British hardcore band Discharge had been scheduled as that night's headliner, but they had canceled at the last minute, so Legal Weapon assumed top billing. Road Mistress Susan said she'd introduce me to Kat Arthur. Susan says that Kat is eager to meet me. A bit overwhelmed at meeting such a legendary figure from the L.A. punk scene, I politely addressed her as "Miss Arthur". Kat rolled her eyes at that honorific, and her first words to me were, "You want a beer?" and before I could even answer, she said, "Here. I'll give you mine." She handed me her large glass. Kat was never one to mince words, casually refering to one of the opening bands, The Feederz, as "those fuckers" as she and I continued our conversation, almost oblivious to the Feederz' set.

After a while, it was once again time for Legal Weapon to take the stage. After climbing through those ropes again, they tore through their set, just as they had the previous spring,and even dedicated a song to "the guy who sent us the 5 bucks" ("No Sorrow", of course). After the show, Kat hears that I walked all the way to Mad Gardens and tells me to get in the band's van and they'll drop me off at my house on their way back to L.A. In the van, a joint is being passed around, and Kat is clowning with a black leather mask she says she bought in a bondage store. There's a Misfits tape on the van's tape player. Kat tries to guess my age, and guesses 18. I smile and say "19" and Kat looks to Susan and smiles. "What an Age!" Kat was 25 by then, so I could only imagine what mischief she got into when she was 19. At some point during the evening, Kat's menacing demeanor seemed to melt away, and she even smiled once, the first time I had ever seen that expression on her face. We hit the road. Guitarist Brian Hansen is at the wheel. About halfway to my house from Mad Gardens, it becomes apparent to everyone how far I had walked to that evening's show. Susan looks at me and asks, "Are you crazy?" I just sort of nodded as if to say, "Yeah, I suppose so."

It was 2:30 in the morning by the time we arrived at my house. Before going inside, I leaned into the van's passenger side window and gave Brian directions back to the freeway. Kat, sitting in the passenger seat, grabbed my hand and says, "Take care of yourself." I wished them a good trip back, and before the van sped off, Adam, Ed, Annie, and Susan bid me good-bye. It had been quite a night.

Just a few days later, I was surprised to receive a letter from drummer Adam Maples. We had exchanged addresses at the show a few nights earlier. Adam said he'd send me some LW flyers as he accumulated them. The one he enclosed with his letter was for a show the band played just 3 nights after the Phoenix show. Legal Weapon had appeared at the Music Machine in Santa Monica, along with the Cambridge Apostles, a band that featured former Bags vocalist Alice Armendariz. In his letter, Maples wrote that LW had just acquired a 5th member, a lady rythym guitarist named Margo Reyes. Reyes, who had recently left the all latino band The Odd Squad, was a friend of Patricia Morrison, and once was in the all-girl band Femme Fatale with Morrison and Alice Armendariz prior to the formation of The Bags back in the early days of the L.A. punk scene in the 1970s. Like most of Legal Weapon's other "5th members" Reyes was a short-timer; she had already moved on by the time I visited in 1985. Adam went on in his letter that several record labels were interested in Legal Weapon. This would mark the beginning of a period of great oppurtunity, but also great challenges, and ultimately dashed hopes for the band.

More than a year would go by before my next contact with Legal Weapon. After not hearing from Adam Maples in awhile, I sent off a letter to the band's P.O. box in April 1985. A few weeks later I received a response from Kat Arthur. "Hey, long time no see" Kat wrote in a letter dated May 29, 1985. She continued in her letter about the band's stormy relationship with A&M Records, which had been in negotiations with the band for the better part of a year. Apparently, the label's creative department was bent on repackaging Legal Weapon for a mass audience, and recording sessions had progressed poorly. The creative geniuses at the label had decided Legal Weapon needed keyboards, saxaphones, and acoustic guitars- and even suggested Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham be brought in to play on some of the tracks. This all proved to be just a bit much. The band pulled out of any further discussions with A&M and decided to complete the album on their own. The stripped down version of the recording was released June 1, 1985 on the band's Arsenal label as "Interior Hearts".

The 4th Legal Weapon album, "Interior Hearts", was a major change in the band's sound. It had been more than 2 years since the release of "Your Weapon", in which LW was beginning to slowly drift away from the basic punk sound of their earlier records to a more nuanced hard rock sound. The new record would move even deeper into pop territory, with some of the songs having a country/blues feel (a musical hybrid known as "Cowpunk" was all the rage in Hollywood in the mid 80s). Even without all the studio sweetening that A&M had insisted on, "Interior Hearts" was Legal Weapon's most polished effort yet. The album has been criticized by some as too pop-sounding, but it's actually one of my favorite LW recordings. Kat Arthur delivers some of her most memorable vocals ever on pop gems "Damaged Memories", "Interior Hearts", "Too High" (co-written by longtime Iggy Pop drummer Hunt Sales), and a rousing rendition of the old Sam & Dave song "Ain't That a Lot of Love". The album's most raucous track, "Charades", cements Kat as one of rock's truly great female vocalists.

After some criticized the album's "thin" sound, a louder "rock mix" was created- with louder guitars and a punchier overall sound- it's this mix that was rereleased by Triple X in the early 90s. The remixed version is the most commonly heard version of "Interior Hearts", and it certainly rocks harder than the 1985 edition- but the original mix is not without its charms. Kat has a versatility as a singer and songwriter that is well suited for some of the more polished power pop on "Interior Hearts".

With the new record getting mostly positive notices from the mainstream press (punk purists were grumbling that LW's new, more accessible sound represented a sellout), the band began planning its next move. A new U.S. tour was in the works, and plans were beginning to take shape for the first Legal Weapon video.

Kat had recently gained some on-set experience while appearing as a backup singer in a video for the country-rock band Lone Justice, where she shared the stage with lead singer Maria McKee, as well as with additional backup singers Bobbi Brat and blues belter Candye Kane. Ms. Brat, who was the leader of another L.A. punk band, Red Scare, was known to have a rather strong personality- not unlike Kat's- and the two had clashed on a number of occasions when Legal Weapon shared the bill with Red Scare. Despite the bad blood, the video shoot for the song "Sweet, Sweet Baby" went smoothly, and the video was in rotation on MTV by mid 1985.

While I was in L.A. that summer, Kat drew up a storyboard for the new album's title track "Interior Hearts". One afternoon, the band and I dropped by a Hollywood video production studio, where a video producer and friend of the band cued up clips from some of the more creative music videos of the day. The halls of the old studio building were lined with framed animation cels, as the building was supposedly the birthplace of cartoon character Woody Woodpecker. By the end of the day, we all ended up watching porno videos in the control room. The Interior Hearts video would eventually be completed in early Fall 1985. I never saw it.

By the time the summer of 1985 began I was back in touch with Legal Weapon (this time through a correspondance with Kat Arthur) and was eager to see the band perform again. The new record had been released in early June, and LW was doing a few "warmup" shows around L.A. in June and July before a planned U.S. tour.

I was surprised to learn that a 2 night stand had been scheduled for Phoenix with Legal Weapon sharing the bill with D.I. on July 24th and 25th at the Mason Jar, which by then had replaced the now shuttered Madison Square Garden as the main venue for punk shows in Phoenix. With the band scheduled to stay in Phoenix on the night of the 24th, I decided to make a few calls and see about getting them a hotel room. My dad had once been the assistant manager at the Sheraton Plaza in town, and he still knew the manager there. After a phone call or two, I managed to get a comp room for the night of the 24th. The shows ended up falling apart because of a problem with the booking agent that left the band worrying about not getting paid, and I was also unable to get the message about the hotel room to the band in time. Kat told me later that if she had known about the room, Legal Weapon would have played the shows.

To avoid further communication problems, Kat included her phone number in a letter and said to call next time. She even suggested that I call sometime just so we could talk. When I called a few days later, I informed Kat that I was planning on being in L.A. later that week. That's when she offered to pick me up at the airport.

"Quiet Practice" night on Whitley Terrace. The band has set up for a practice session in the front room of the Whitley apartment, with towels and blankets thrown over the drumheads to avoid disturbing the neighbors. The building's antique electrical system gives bassist Eddie Wayne a shower of sparks from a wall socket when he tries to plug in his amplifier. As the band starts their practice session, I realize this is the first time I've seen them perform since October 1983, nearly 2 years earlier. There's a boom box cassette recorder set up to record the evening's practice set. One of the songs I heard on that night sounded new. It was only an instrumental at that point, but the tune would become a staple of Legal Weapon's set over the next several years. Eventually entitled "Push", the band would record it many years later on their 1991 album "Take Out the Trash".

After the A&M debacle in early 1985, it appeared that Legal Weapon's chance at big label success had slipped away. Many times a band that insists on maintaining an artistic vision will be labeled as "difficult", but due in large part to the mostly positive reception of the "Interior Hearts" album, major record labels continued to be interested in Legal Weapon. Kat Arthur's distinctive vocal style and songwriting ability were big reasons. At one point Kat was offered a solo deal by Island Records, but she turned down that offer, largely as an act of loyalty to her LW bandmates. Eventually, the band would get its second chance at the big time when they inked a deal with MCA in summer 1986. It would not be long, however, before the same big label pressures that plagued the band at A&M would once again trouble them at MCA.