Kevin Bronson on June 12th, 2013

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Those were heady times, 1978. Punk rock had encroached on Los Angeles’ power-pop scene; bands who would come be known as New Wave appeared; and in Chinatown the stage was being set for a venue rivalry between Madame Wong’s and the Hong Kong Cafe. It was then that a five-piece out of Orange County, the Furys, starting making the rounds. Fronted by songwriter Jeff Wolfe, the Furys cultivated a pop-punk sound that has been described as somewhere between the Weirdos and the Knack. (Their ex-manager recalls a dust-up between the Fury and the Knack at the Troubadour here.) The Furys roared off and on in various incarnations for the better part of a decade, one of their early singles, “Say Goodbye to the Black Sheep,” earning a spot on a 1993 Rhino Records “DIY” compilation titled “We’re Desperate: The L.A Scene [1976-79]” along with X, the Germs, the Weirdos, the Last and the Dickies. The Furys, who reformed for show at last summer’s International Pop Overthrow, are working on a four-disc retrospective that compiles their three singles and B-sides, a 1986 EP, 14 unreleased songs (four of them new), interviews, live recordings and a documentary DVD. And since the Furys also own the distinction of having been the first rock band to play Madame Wong’s in October 1978, opening for Gary Valentine’s the Know, Wolfe and his mates are reconvening in Chinatown on Saturday night as Chinatown marks its 75th anniversary.

||| Stream: “Say Goodbye to the Black Sheep”

||| Live: The Furys play at 10 p.m. Saturday at Chinatown Summer Nights, which features six bands including headliners Nightmare & the Cat (11 p.m.). The music starts at 6 p.m. with Cobalt Cranes, followed by Sister Rogers, Jutty Ranx, Rainbow Jackson and then the Furys and the headliners.

Photo by Cesar Cuevas