gun_club_10-2-06.jpg In the early 80s, as punk was splintering into countless subgenres, bands like The Cramps, X and Social Distortion were making their mark by mixing hard-driving rock with American roots music and country. And though LA’s Gun Club may not have achieved the notoriety or success of the aforementioned bands, they were arguably just as big an influence on modern American blues-punk. Fronted by the wild, unpredictable Jeffrey Lee Pierce – by all accounts the prototypical hard-living LA rocker – Gun Club’s live shows were the stuff of legend (it’s telling that almost half of their LPs are live albums). But when Pierce died of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 37, Gun Club unfortunately joined the long list of brilliant bands whose frontmen cashed out far too early. Tonight the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown is screening The Ghost On The Highway, director Kurt Voss’ new film examining the Gun Club’s 17-year history through live footage and interviews with band members, friends and contemporaries like Henry Rollins and X’s John Doe. The Ghost On The Highway: The Story of the Gun Club Monday, October 2nd Alamo Drafthouse Downtown 9:45pm, $2 (Tickets)