Well, that was quick.
I shouldn't have been surprised, but my friend Chung Wong (a name you might recognize from similar photo quizzes I've posted here) connected the dots on this one, aided considerably -- one assumes -- by the fact that he can read traditional Chinese characters.
After posting this on Facebook, Chung dove right in to discern that the signage in between punkily pulchritudinous Wendy and implausibly tall Richie Stotts translated to: Shanghai New China Barber Shop. He then noted that there was a Chung Wah Barber Shop by Joe's Shanghai down on Pell Street. An initial Google search on my part brought this up.
This didn't quite match up, however, given some minor architectural discrepancies and the more telling lack of a fire hydrant in front (although, conceivably, a fire hydrant might have been removed since 1982).
Chung then chimed back in, saying that there had been a restaurant called Temple Garden, The Best Szechuan, Hunan & Mandarin Cuisine in New York's Chinatown at 16 Pell Street. If you look above the beret of drummer T.C. Tolliver on the far right, you can see the neon letters EMP GARD, which leant Chung's hunch some serious credence.
I did a Google Map search from 2011, and came up with this image...
This looks more likely, but ... again ... no hydrant.
Chung then hit me with this...
Look hard, and you can see the barber pole...
...further noting that the area around the poll looks like a complete match...
Lastly, Chung found that errant hydrant in front of 18 Pell (then called Ester Eng) and the barber pole. This photograph is by Christian Skrein, snapped in 1966. The hydrant in question is on the bottom right hand.
Look closely, and you might notice a giant cigarette in the background. Evidently, that's because there was an initiative, at the time, to christen the neighborhood as "a smoking district" of town. Make of that what you will.
Today, 16 Pell is a foot-rub joint. 18 Pell, meanwhile, is still a hair stylist's place, called Hair Le Pell. How fancy!
As far as the Plasmatics, towering guitarist Richie Stotts still works in rock, albeit in a different capacity -- he's a geologist. Rhythm guitarist Wes Beech works in music retail and production. Drummer T.C. Tolliver is still a gigging musician. According to Wikipedia, bassist Chris "Junior" Romanelli is now a practicing attorney.
Wendy O. Williams took her own life in 1998 at the age of 48.
Here's the lone music video made during the Coup d'Etat era, "The Damned" (no relation to the British punk band), which naturally features Wendy driving a school bus through a wall of television sets .... as one does.
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