Beyond Baroque on Sept. 5<\/a> \u2014 where Cervenka will join Hyatt for a reading.<\/p>\n ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1788090280_713_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Exene Cervenka and John Doe in the Louisiana countryside in 1980.<\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
Michael Hyatt<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
Michael Hyatt<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
A band built on chance encounters\u00a0<\/p>\n
X\u2019s story reads like a constellation of happenstances hurtling toward inevitability. In 1976, Doe and guitarist Billy Zoom answered each other\u2019s ads in the Recycler. That same year at a Beyond Baroque poetry night, Doe met Cervenka and saw punk lyrics in her writing. Ray Manzarek of the Doors, after seeing X live, offered that very night to produce their debut album in 1979.<\/p>\n
A year later, Los Angeles helped cement L.A. punk, with a sound and sensibility markedly different from contemporaries the Germs and Black Flag.<\/p>\n
A release party marked by tragedy<\/p>\n
For the album\u2019s release party, Hyatt said, X played two back-to-back shows in April at the Whisky a Go Go. Before they went on stage, Cervenka was told that her sister had been en route to the show when she was hit and killed by a drunk driver.<\/p>\n
Three months later, Hyatt took this portrait of the band after another show at the Whisky.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1788090281_446_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
X at the backstage area of Whisky a Go Go in July 1980, three months after the sudden death of Exene’s sister.<\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
Michael Hyatt<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
Michael Hyatt<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
\u201cI placed Exene against that plywood panel,\u201d Hyatt remembered. \u201cMy goal, maybe on an unconscious level, was to capture the emotion related to the tragedy that happened three months prior.\u201d<\/p>\n
The iconic rooftop shot<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1788090282_268_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
A photo of X taken two days after their 1981 Greek Theatre show.<\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
Michael Hyatt<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
Michael Hyatt<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
In August 1981, X played in front of a crowd of 5,000 at the Greek Theatre.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aThey had reached the height of their powers,\u201d Hyatt said.<\/p>\n
He wanted to capture that zeitgeist. So two days later, he met the group at the rooftop of their rehearsal studio, which Hyatt scoped out at a practice session prior to the big Greek show.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went up and I thought, \u2018Wow, this is a fantastic spot,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cGot a little bit of the skyline off in the distance of downtown L.A., but you’ve got the Roosevelt Hotel right there too.\u201d<\/p>\n
After three rolls of film, Hyatt said one shot clearly stood out.<\/p>\n
Four decades later, still at the front row<\/p>\n
![\"Four](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1788090284_335_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
At X’s Houston show in 2024, Hyatt photographed a married couple that went on a first date to see the band in 1980.<\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
Michael Hyatt<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
Michael Hyatt<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
In 2024, X went on tour for their final album, Smoke & Fiction. One stop was Houston, Texas.<\/p>\n
They\u2019d played in Houston on their national tour in 1980, at a long-defunct punk venue called the Island.<\/p>\n
In the crowd at the Island in 1980 was a young couple on their first date. A couple years later, Hyatt said, they got married.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there they were, 44 years later, right up front cheering on X \u2014 who they saw on their very first date,\u201d Hyatt said.<\/p>\n
Still together, wearing matching X shirts.<\/p>\n
X: On the Road & At the Crossroads, 1980-2024<\/b>
Photo exhibit and book launch. Exhibit runs Sept. 5 \u2013 Oct. 17 at Beyond Baroque, 681 Venice Blvd., Venice<\/p>\n
Reading:<\/b> Saturday, Sept. 5, at 2 p.m. Featuring Michael Hyatt; Exene Cervenka; L.A. music journalist Chris Morris, who wrote the book’s foreword; and poets Iris Berry, S.A. Griffin, Brendan Constantine and mike m. mollet.<\/p>\n
Reception & book signing:<\/b> 3 to 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
Free and open to the public; reservations<\/a> recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"X ruled early LA punk. This photographer followed them up close and personal Michael Hyatt has a new…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1032869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,5337,413259,2136,413258,3893],"class_list":["post-1032868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-michael-hyatt","tag-photos","tag-punk-band","tag-x"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117184291846130007","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1032868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1032869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1032868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1032868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1032868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1788090279_431_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n