The Tomorrow Show
With Tom Snyder
Punk & New Wave

Review By Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck
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  I knew that this would be a fascinating DVD to watch. The Tomorrow Show With Tom Snyder: Punk & New Wave is a snap shot of a new decade in music and a precursor of what was to come transitioning from the late 70's to the early 80s. I skipped over the other non-music guests to get to meat of this two DVD set, there will be time later on to view everything this package has to offer. I rarely watched the Tomorrow Show when it was on the air but I found out how compelling it could be for its time. Snyder was a very tough interviewer and told it like it was. 

When he was interviewing John Lydon (formerly Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols) and his partner in PIL, I felt as frustrated as Snyder (Snyder voiced his disdain and was visibly upset) during the course of the interview. Lydon was antagonistic, obnoxious, just a miserable little prick really, I wanted so much to punch him in the face. That is really the only segment I did not enjoy. The roundtable session with Kim Fowley, who is very intelligent and knowledgeable regarding the music industry, and the legendary promoter Bill Graham, critic Robert Hiburn, performers Joan Jett, who seemed like a shy little girl and the dynamic Paul Weller of The Jam, joined the spirited conversation. I found it very stimulating and enjoyed all the different point of views offered.

Elvis Costello was somewhat boring but Iggy Pop most certainly made up for that. Iggy is all energy and he looked pretty down and dirty in the street with his missing front tooth. I could never figure out why he presented himself this way, at least he could have fixed that front tooth before going on network TV, oh well, its punk rock baby and Iggy was all about the take me or leave attitude, it was WYSIWYG 100 percent of the time. Wendy O and the Plasmatics, with their loud and brash punk music and the sexy lead singer prancing around in revealing clothing and screaming in such a way you could hardly understand her, was lets say different. They added a little theatrics and awe to the show by torching and blowing up a beautiful car right on stage! I did not enjoy their music but I did think the interview with Wendy was good. Patti Smith was very strange, totally out there, which came as no surprise really. The Jam gave Tom a good interview and the best part of the entire package was the interview with the Ramones, although Snyder was not on hand, it was a great to see all of the Ramones together playing and talking it up.

The live footage of all of these bands is priceless, well worth the package; the interviews are the icing on the cake.

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