"Shout Above the Noise" Radio Show

Reactions – Great Classic South Florida Pop Punk
by Dave Getzoff

About four years ago, my friend Ian Wilkins and I were sitting in my car drinking a beer outside of a bar in Allentown, PA before going to see our friend's rockabilly band, the Roadhogs. He was telling me about a CD-R compilation that his wife, Tina, had just received in the mail that someone had made for her. He said, "Dave, you are going to love this stuff, there are some really great late '70s pop punk bands from Florida on it, you have got to hear this. It is way up your alley." Now, Ian has really good taste in music and he is also well aware of what I am into, so I kinda got the feeling that I was in for a real treat. I was! I borrowed the comp, made a copy, and listened to it over and over. The comp was a four-band split that featured south Florida bands from the late '70s and early '80s. The bands were The Reactions, The Eat, The Cichlids, and Charlie Picket. All the bands were very good, although the Reactions were my favorite. At the time, I had only heard one song by the Reactions called "In Society", which was featured as the first song on the Killed By Florida LP compilation. The only info mentioned in the liner notes was: "This 1980 track is sorta cute except that it rocks so shut the hell up. The only known band dumb enough to have John Salton on bass rather than guitar." I thought that "In Society" was the best song on the Killed By Florida LP, and the other five songs on the comp that I got from Tina and Ian were just as good if not better. I was thinking, "Man, this is top notch, catchy as hell, vintage American pop punk, I'm surprised this band is not more well known." So, I was determined to find out more info on the Reactions and hopefully, more music as well.

So, on and off over the next four years I searched the Internet for more info on this band. I discovered that the band released two four-song singles. The first single was called Official Release, which was released in 1980. On this record, the songs "Tonight" and "Marianne" are among the greatest obscure American pop-punk recordings I have ever heard. These songs are high-energy, raw teenage punk love songs. The second single was released in 1981, and it was called "Love You". The "Love You" single featured a song that wasn't on the disc I got from Tina and Ian. So I was hoping to get a hold of this somehow.

In the earlier part of this summer, I finally found a breakthrough on this band. I surfed in on a website called "The Pete Moss Memorial All-Night Record Shop". This site featured several cd-r releases from the south Florida punk scene. There were two CD-Rs released of the Reactions. They featured both four-song singles as well as two complete live shows from 1980 and 1981. Some people might think that $12 is kind of expensive for a CD-R; however, I was determined to hear more music from this band.

The CD-Rs arrived, and I wasn't disappointed. I finally got to hear the other studio track, "Rebel Rousers" (which is a real gem), as well as two complete shows. The sound quality of the live shows was quite good considering that the music came from tapes that were a quarter of a century old. The 1980 show was taken from a WSHE radio broadcast. The rest of the songs were top-notch vintage American pop punk rock n' roll as well. I would guess that the Ramones, Dickies, Buzzcocks, and the Clash inspired this band. On the 1981 live disc, the band opened up with the Clash song "Police On My Back", and they also played "Pressure Drop". Those songs were not originally by the Clash, but I think that the Reactions were inspired by the Clash's versions. There are also a few reggae/punk numbers in the live set.

It really impressed me that the two live shows featured completely different songs on the two discs. The two shows had 100% different songs without a single repeat. The 1980 show featured 17 live tracks, and the 1981 show featured 15 live tracks. The band easily had enough material to have released two full-length records during their brief year and a half existence from 1979-1981. I think that if this band had toured around the county and released a full-length album, they would have been huge. I have seen rumors on the Internet that unreleased studio tapes exist, although I haven't found any leads on that. Hopefully someday!

The Reactions were:

Isaac Baruch: Guitar
Joey Maya: Drums
John Salton: Bass
Tony Suppa: Vocals
--- Dave Getzoff October 24, 2006

(originally posted on Now Wave Webzine on October 24, 2006)