Day Tripper

"Unguarded Moments: Backstage and Beyond"

by Shaun Brady

Opening reception Fri., Dec. 5, 6-10 p.m., free, exhibit runs through Dec. 31, Metropolis Gallery, 154 N. Prince St., Lancaster, 717-572-9961, metropolis-store.com

As a quick scroll through rockandrollconfidential.com reminds us, all you really need to be a rock portraitist is a camera, a brick wall and some friends in a band.

Of course, Darby Crash was always much more image-savvy than those legions of aging keg-and-leathers cover bands could hope to be, and pegged his friend Theresa Kereakes to document the Germs virtually from its birth. At the time, he wasn't yet Darby Crash, but the then-Bobby Pyn already placed notoriety before notes in his concept for the band. Theresa K's 1977 snapshots of the Germs' first rehearsal are a remarkable document, and served as her entrée to the West Coast punk community.

"Unguarded Moments: Backstage and Beyond" is largely composed of intimate glimpses of that scene in the late '70s and early '80s. Gathered together, the collection of candid moments seems like the society pages from some vintage zine. While there are occasional images of hobnobbing celebs — Bob Dylan swallowed by a crowd, Keith Richards or James Garner out for a little nightlife — it's the portraits of legends in their infancy that are most valuable. There's Joan Jett and Billy Idol having a drink, traces of baby fat still on their cheeks. Stiv Bators and Dee Dee Ramone goofing off, young enough that they still enjoy the occasional lucid moment. And oh so much Rodney Bingenheimer, when he actually was the age that he seems tragically frozen in to this day.