White Riot

The 1978 London show was a very visible public denunciation of the Neo-Fascist Nazi Skinhead Punks.  It directly influenced Jello Biafra and The Dead Kennedys, who wrote Nazi Skinheads Fuck Off.  Just a couple of weeks after graduating from high school, I saw this show at the Lincoln Memorial, where the U.K. Rock Against Racism movement has morphed into Rock Against Reagan.  The Beach Boys were playing their second straight year of a free show at the Washington Monument, and this was more or less a counter demonstration.  I'd seen The Beach Boys the year before, got drunk, passed out, and woke up to fireworks exploding over my head.  By 1983, I was looking for something different, and headed into the District with a couple of friends.  We brought along a boom box, and I remember smoking a joint on the steps of the FBI headquarters while listening to the Mothers Of Invention's Freak Out album.  The Dead Kennedys came on last, as night fell, after a pause in the show because their had been a large fireworks display coinciding with the end of The Beach Boys' set, and the Park Police wouldn't let the Punk Rock show go on during the fireworks.  When the Dead Kennedys began to play for the 5000 or so people gathered for the Rock Against Reagan event, the 500,000 people who had come to see The Beach Boys started to head home, and many of them stumbled onto the Punk Rock show, which made for some dropped jaws and some interesting contrast.  The show was great.  It was the first time I ever witnessed a real mosh pit and stage diving.  The most unforgettable moment was when Jello got down on one knee, pointed over our heads, and yelled "Here comes Ronnie!", as two Park Police helicopters came screaming down the Mall towards us, then circled over our heads shining klieg lights down into the audience, like some outtake from Apocalypse Now.

This is a soundboard of The Dead Kennedys set that day:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qSHjUT4Dy1M

D.R.I.'s set:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JYcU0W0kPCM