A clipping promoting an appearance by The Law in 1980. The band, and their stage names, from left to right: Charlie Chesterman (Chuckie Suicide), Tim Johnson (Tim P. The Very Dangerous), Kevin Hensley (Billy Disease), Mac Stanfield (MacPaul) and Tad Hutchison (Bolt Upright). Image courtesy of Mac Stanfield
By Jane Burns
Summer is a time for reunions, when people gather to remember how things used to be or even who they used to be.
And so it goes, sort of, for a short-lived but influential Des Moines band whose music will get some more play again, more than 40 years after they left the scene. On Aug. 8, the lineup at xBk includes a tribute to The Law, a punk/New Wave/name-your-genre group of five guys who worked hard in the early 1980s to make a mark in their hometown of Des Moines before leaving, disbanding and going on to other things.
A group called (Not) The Law will take the stage at xBk, featuring original bassist Mac Stanfield and other local musicians playing “King Size Cigarette,” “Reason for Treason” and other songs that Des Moines’ early-’80s cool kids might remember.
“I’m actually a little nervous about it,” said Stanfield, a 1981 graduate of Roosevelt High School who is now an attorney.
It was one of his classmates, Ted Irvine, who pushed for the tribute show, even though a full reunion is no longer possible. The lead singer and main songwriter, Charlie Chesterman, died in 2013.
“He’s been wanting to try to put something together, just a one-off, just to play the songs again or hear them again,” Stanfield said of Irvine, who was at every Law show back in the day, “down front, yelling and breaking things.”
The Law wasn’t Des Moines’ first punk band. That was probably Chesterman and Law bandmate Tim Johnson’s earlier group, White Lunch, which formed in the late 1970s. It was a ragtag operation that took any gig they could get, including Mary Brubaker’s morning TV show on KCCI. Besides putting together bands, Chesterman organized shows and events and, with his then-girlfriend, created fanzines. For Chesterman, it was all about creating a scene, and that DIY ethic fed punk as much as loud, fast or angry music.
“We weren’t very dangerous,” Stanfield said of The Law. “We put out our own records and tried to find places to play. That element of the punk ethos, we were definitely a part of.”
The group played across the Midwest, including Des Moines’ legendary club So’s Your Mother at the corner of Forest Avenue and MLK Jr. Parkway. (It’s now the site of the Polk County Central Senior Center, which missed an excellent opportunity to call itself So’s Your Grandmother.) The Law toured primarily during summers and holiday breaks because some members were in college while Stanfield was still in high school. His scrapbook includes his dad’s not-so-punk letter to a venue owner giving teenage Mac permission to play.
The Law released a four-song record in 1980 and recorded a live cassette just before the band broke up the following year. That music, along with a 1980 Hawkeye Cablevision performance on a local MTV-era show called “High Society,” created the foundation for the rest of (Not) The Law to learn the songs for the upcoming xBk show. Stanfield had to relearn them; he hadn’t played most of them since 1981.
That year, The Law left Des Moines to try to make it big. They chose Boston, but nothing happened for them and they broke up. Chesterman stayed in Boston, Stanfield headed to college. A few years later, Chesterman hooked up with some Boston musicians to form a new band, Scruffy the Cat, and Stanfield returned to join him.
Scruffy the Cat had more of the success that eluded The Law. The punkish- and roots-rock band made critically acclaimed records, got some MTV play and toured endlessly. They never made it big but drew a devoted following. The band’s music is available on streaming services. (Another member of The Law, Tad Hutchison, moved to Seattle and joined another alternative band, The Young Fresh Fellows.)
Scruffy never recorded any Law songs but performed some live from time to time. They got a surprise one night when another band on their bill played “King Size Cigarette.” “They had no clue there was any connection to the guys in Scruffy the Cat,” Stanfield said. “They said, ‘We just heard it on a radio station in New Jersey and liked it.’”
The xBk show features (Not) The Law, 10 Watt Jukebox (the Des Moines band 10 Watt Robot performing covers) and Stanfield’s current band, the High Bidders. The High Bidders write and perform original material and are recording music for an undated release.
Despite Chesterman’s move to Boston, Stanfield said his friend left a mark in his hometown, thanks in part to The Law and the community of music and artists Chesterman encouraged.
“The impact of Chesterman is huge around here, the influence he had on a number of bands that started up around here,” Stanfield said. “I don’t know why he’s not in the Iowa Rock ’n Roll Hall of Fame. He should be.”
(Not) The Law with 10 Watt Jukebox and the High Bidders, 7 p.m. Aug. 8 at xBk, 1159 24th St. Tickets are $20.
