 The band played their first big shows at Stuyvesant HS (where Orbach, Lipman, Carse and Vercesi attended '77-'80) and auditioned at CBGBs in January 1980, eventually playing there over 20 times and setting the house attendance record in November 1982 upon the band's return from a self-financed, self-booked tour of Holland.After packing CBs and tiring of owner Hilly Crystal's curmudgeonly miserliness the band moved up to the larger Ritz on E.11th St.Soon after they were opening for such acts as UB40 (3 times), Thompson Twins, Terence Trent D'Arby and Bad Manners, to name a few.