Memoir reflects on Kid Congo’s adventures with The Cramps and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Back in the ‘60s Brian Tristan grew up in La Puente, California, a largely Hispanic suburb of Los Angeles. In the mid-’70s he loved glam rock and the budding punk rock scene in Hollywood.

In 1979, Tristan met Jeffrey Lee Pierce while standing in line for a Pere Ubu show at The Whiskey a Go Go and they soon formed the band Creeping Ritual which later became the Gun Club. Tristan joined The Cramps in 1980, took the name Kid Congo Powers, and later played with Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. He now performs with The Pink Monkey Birds and The Near Death Experience, who released a new album on Oct. 14 “Live in St. Kilda.” Now 63 years young, he lives in Tucson, Arizona. The Sentinel recently spoke with Kid Congo Powers about being in Wings of Desire, his nightmare at Miles Copeland’s house and his memoir Some New Kind of Kick released on Nov. 1 by Hachette Books.

Haunted House

Q: In your book you write about being in The Cramps and sleeping at Miles Copeland’s house. Copeland’s father helped start the C.I.A. and organize coups and assassinations and helped install U.S.-friendly dictators like Saddam Hussein. You had a strange experience at his house.

A: I made records with The Cramps and we went to play in London. The Cramps were on I.R.S. Records at the time, Miles Copeland’s label. Miles was out of town and we stayed at his beautiful house and the first night we were there I noticed all these artifacts. I said, “These look like museum pieces, these replications are really good.” And Lux (Interior) said, “His father was in the CIA. These are probably things they just picked up overseas.”

I woke up in the middle of the night and I really felt like I was on acid. The room was tipping to the side and I was trying to walk down a hallway that went on forever. It was so strange! The next morning we’re at breakfast in the kitchen and I said to Lux, (Poison) Ivy and Nick (Knox), “I got up to go to the bathroom and this weird thing happened.” I described the hallway and this hall of mirrors type-thing and Lux said, “The same thing happened to me, exactly like you’re describing.” So, we thought “This place is haunted!” I asked Lux, “How does Miles live in this house with this?” Lux was like, “Oh, Miles has no conscience. This wouldn’t affect him at all!” So, we had some strange, ancient intervention going on and we’re convinced it happened because two people experienced it, not just one, Kid Congo continued, It’s a strange story. I hope those pieces found their way back to their rightful homes.

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds

Q: Tell me about hooking up with Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds in West Berlin.

A: The Gun Club decided to move to London after our tour for the “The Las Vegas Story” record in 1985. Immediately upon moving to England, we broke up. I was a little bit at loose ends and I went to a dinner party with Mick Harvey and he asked if I wanted to fill in on the Bad Seeds tour because Barry Adamson was leaving the band. Mick was going to move to bass and they needed a second guitar player. I said, “Of course, yes.” So, I went to West Berlin to rehearse with them and one of the first duties was to do the scene in Wings of Desire, recalls Kid Congo.

When I went to Berlin to play with The Bad Seeds I was like, “Oh, this is why they’re here!” I could unbutton my shirt, talk louder and just be myself again. I fell in love with the vibrancy of the scene and the freedom and creativity of it. I thought, “This is a place where film, dance, performance, visual art and all kinds of music all meet up. And it’s all encased in West Berlin, surrounded by the East.” I moved there on May Day and they’re well known for their Mayday rockets and demonstrations. In Kreuzberg there were cars turned over and tanks going down the street and the Aldi market was burning down and there were drummers in front of it drumming until it was flatly done. I just thought, “This place is amazing.”

Wings of Desire

Q: Tell me more about being in “Wings of Desire.” It’s a beautiful film.

A: It was incredible to be in “Wings of Desire” and meet Wim Wenders. After it came out, I saw the film and loved it. The way it depicts Berlin was very true. Henri Alekan was the cinematographer and had made those Cocteau films. Wim Wenders made a big announcement, “You’re being filmed by a legend and you’re going to look amazing.” He wasn’t wrong. The results speak for themselves.

Berlin had incredible freedom, but also incredible isolation. You could see war. West Berlin was half bombed out and half modernly rebuilt. If you went over to East Berlin you’d realize, “This is where the old buildings are.” That divide was very distinct. Luckily, I had a ready-made creative community to go into, for better or worse. There were extreme hedonistic values going on and there was a darkness to Berlin. I just followed my lead and, of course, got in trouble. I had a much bigger issue I was dealing with at the time. I was set adrift into a culture I didn’t know and a language I didn’t speak and many encounters ensued.

East Berlin punk

Q: I went to East Berlin in the late ‘80s. I didn’t know at the time, but there was a vibrant punk scene with clandestine concerts, often at churches. Mark Reeder helped sneak Die Toten Hosen into East Berlin. Were you aware of the East Berlin punk scene?

A: I knew Mark Reeder. I never saw any concerts but I was aware from my West Berlin friends that there was a scene in East Berlin. I knew they would give people in the East cassettes from West. People knew about The Gun Club and The Cramps, even though there were no sales of official records, because there were a lot of tapes in circulation. It was an underground operation. I encountered that also when I played in Ukraine with the Berlin group Die Haut. People knew Die Haut, Lydia Lunch and Kid Congo through trading cassettes that were terrible, tenth-generation copies of music. When we went to Ukraine, we met many kids who were well aware of Western underground music.

Chicano punk

Q: How important is it that your Chicano/Latino heritage is recognized?

A: It’s incredibly important. This is something I didn’t think a lot about in my younger years. But it was always there. Jeffrey Lee Pierce is a Chicano as well, from The Gun Club. We always spoke about this and identified with Mexican-American culture. We always spoke about Cholos and Cholas at school and about the music of the lowrider community. That was very influential. They loved “the oldies” as we called them. They were into Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath and Santana, mixing psychedelic music with Latin culture. Jeffrey and I hardly ever talked about it in an interview, but it was definitely important for us.

“s an older person, I became aware that a lot of Chicano people were very proud of the fact that I was a Chicano in these bands. I don’t take it lightly. I think back to my sisters in the ‘60s, loving Thee Midniters and being so proud there was this local Chicano band from Whittier that had a hit record. Latin music has always been there and I’ve been influenced by it all along. I take great pride in that. I’m still very much in touch with Alice Bag and my Chicano contemporaries and we do let people know that our stories are the stories of weird immigrants and that it can be a beautiful thing. If it doesn’t destroy you.