On April 22nd, downtown rock & roll gallery Lethal Amounts presents “School Days”, featuring photography from 1970s punk and rock concerts in Los Angeles, taken by an unknown but talented photographer named Barry Kleven. As a teenager, the late Kleven borrowed cameras on the sly from his Catholic high school and took them to shows, making his way up front and even backstage, but his scrapbook was only discovered by his family after his death. In a box headed for the trash, Kleven’s nephew found an impressive collection featuring The Ramones, The Runaways, Blondie, Cheap Trick and more, performing in small clubs around town.
What better place to admire his work now than Lethal Amounts? The exhibit opens at 8pm on the 22nd and runs through the weekend.
Image via Facebook Event
Hi Barry was my best friend we went to all these shows together we were at the Damed April 18th 1977 that’s how I found this sight he lived with me and my family for about 2 years in Cerritos we drove his little white rambler or my black Chevy van to all the shows house parties of Van Halen in the valley to the night they were signed at the whiskey he had to have thousands of pictures all in black and white miss those times our first ever show was Black Sabbath at the Long Beach Arena first time we seen the Ramones A little dinner House in Norwalk we were hooked from then on Blondie and Devo at the whiskey The picture of Rodney was that a record store in the valley thanks for saving these I knew they were one of a kind
Just a little more The Ramones picture is from March 13, 1977 the golden west in Norwalk California the runaways was at the Starwood September 13, 1976 the Damned was April 18, 1977 Blondie was at the Starwood we seen or the 25th and 26th of April 1978 got the shirts Blondie is a group black shirt pink letters Jimmy Lee of Slade was April 15, 1976 A picture of Rodney was at a record store in the valley with the Damned should have lots of pictures of the Damned at that record store in that box to also pictures of the Talking Heads at a car dealership in the valley on a Sunday night