Generations on the Same Wavelength : Punk-Rock’s Agent Orange Will Co-Star With Their Surf-Rock Hero, Dick Dale

When the Punk met the Godfather 20 years ago in a scene from the Who’s rock opera, “Quadrophenia,” generational warfare raged.

Pete Townshend’s song, “The Punk Meets the Godfather,” was a mudslinging dialogue in which the Punk, a musical upstart from a new g-g-g-generation, thumbed his nose at an established rock idol, the Godfather. In a climactic moment, the young gun fired off a taunt that no guitar hero could tolerate: “Your ax belongs to a dying nation.”

Don’t expect that sort of scene between Mike Palm, one of the finest punks Orange County has produced, and Dick Dale, the godfather of Orange County rock guitar. The Punk has met the Godfather, and they get along famously.

One of the results of the friendship is a show Friday at the Coach House, in which Palm’s band, Agent Orange, will open for Dick Dale & the Del-Tones.

The darkly dramatic surf-rock guitar sound that Dale, now 55, pioneered in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s has influenced legions of guitarists in subsequent rock generations. Forged along the shores of Balboa and Huntington Beach, Dale’s style proved fundamental in shaping Agent Orange’s music 20 years later.

Palm, 28, grew up in Placentia, listening to a stack of scratchy 45s handed down by his two older brothers. The pile included the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, but it was the Dick Dale singles that had the greatest influence on Palm’s guitar style.

“I was listening to Dick Dale as far back as I can remember,” Palm, who lives now in Toluca Lake in Los Angeles County, recalled in a recent phone interview. “That was a pretty big influence from the beginning, that heavy guitar sound.”

“Bloodstains,” a 1979 recording that was the first Agent Orange song to get radio play, found Palm commenting darkly on a local punk scene that he felt was falling into drug- and booze-induced decline.

As a chronicle of its times, “Bloodstains” was as up-to-the-minute as that morning’s hangover. But when it came time for the guitar break, Agent Orange reached all the way back to 1961, with a direct cop of Dale’s surf sound.

Surf-guitar drama figures prominently on Agent Orange’s two studio albums, “Living in Darkness” (1981) and “This Is the Voice” (1986). “Darkness” included a rendition of the Dale surf-rock classic, “Miserlou.” In 1982, Agent Orange released “Bitchin’ Summer,” an EP devoted mainly to new renditions of old instrumental surf-rock nuggets.

Over the past few years, the band has adopted an alter-ego on stage, dubbing itself Wipe Out for preliminary sets of surf-rock instrumentals, then reappearing as Agent Orange to offer a selection of Palm’s melodic-punk originals.

As influential as Dale was for him, Palm had never seen him play live until about three years ago, when he began turning up regularly at Dale’s gigs at the Malibu club Trancas.

Dale and Palm got to know each other a bit, but the elder statesmen didn’t form a real idea of what his young admirer was about musically until two months ago, when Agent Orange opened for Dale at the Palomino in North Hollywood.

In a separate interview, Dale said he’d been forewarned that Agent Orange would draw a punk-rock crowd and might not be the best musical match for him. “I was told, ‘They’re playing that fast music; everybody’s banging bodies.’ ”

What he found, to his delight, was a perfectly compatible band.

“I was so impressed listening to them,” Dale said. “At one point I thought I heard myself out there, it was so neat. Later, I stood on that stage and said, ‘Agent Orange and Dick Dale, what a team.’

“We really fit. Most of the people there were Agent Orange fans, and they became Dick Dale fans. We had a family feeling up there (between the two bands), hugging each other, and shaking hands. I love them very much, and I really like them as people.”

A few weeks after the Palomino gig, Palm and his wife, Stephanie, took up Dale’s invitation to visit him at his ranch in Twenty-Nine Palms.

“We hung around, checked out his guitars, and checked out his surfing dog,” Palm said. “He’s got this dog that runs and jumps on a surfboard and surfs across the pool.” (Dale is an accomplished animal trainer.)

“We also talked shop, talked about gear, and I tried to squeeze a few secrets out of him,” Palm said. “He’s been a big help in getting my tone together, telling me what gear to get” to reproduce the original surf-guitar sound in its full glory.

These days, Dale’s career has caught a new wave: He recently signed with HighTone Records to record his first studio album in many years. It’s tentatively called “Tribal Surf” and is expected to be out this spring.

After more than five years of paddling in place, Palm is hoping that Agent Orange can catch a similar wave.

Since its last studio album, the trio has gone through two cycles of lineup changes. By mid-1989, Palm had parted with original drummer Scott Miller and bassist James Levesque (Levesque had replaced future Adolescents and Joyride member Steve Soto in Agent Orange early in the band’s existence).

A 1991 live album, “Real Live Sound,” consisted only of oldies and found Palm fronting a lineup that featured two former members of Social Distortion, bassist Brent Liles and drummer Derek O’Brien. Sam Bolle and Scott Lund have since taken over on bass and drums, respectively.

Palm cites uncertainty caused by the lineup changes and wrangling with Agent Orange’s old record company, Enigma, as reasons why the band has released hardly any new material since ’86. Former managers and band mates have said it doesn’t help that Palm tends to be a less-than-prolific songwriter.

Now there are signs of forward motion.

Last fall, Agent Orange released a vinyl single, “The Electric Storm,” a strong new Palm original that revealed no loss of bite in the band’s thick, swarming sound. It’s part of “Virtually Indestructible,” an album of new material the band has been working on for the past year.

Progress on the record has been slow because the project is self-financed. Besides the dozen originals that will appear on the album, Palm says, “I have 10 or 15 pieces that are incomplete musical ideas. I tend to be prolific when there’s something going on.

“I’d love to say I have a giant catalogue just waiting,” he continued. “But when I feel there’s something going on, I take off and write a lot. That’s how ‘Living in Darkness’ was. The lyrics weren’t finished, and when we started recording, it came together. A lot of (my) best writing has been (done) under the gun.”

(Rhino Records recently reissued a re-mastered “Living in Darkness” in an attractive package that includes Palm’s reminiscences about the recording sessions, as well as many vintage photos of the band. Besides the eight tracks from the original Posh Boy LP, the CD includes the “Bitchin’ Summer” EP, plus four songs from the band’s first recording sessions in 1979, when Soto was still a member.)

Palm said Agent Orange will leave Feb. 24 on its first national tour since 1988--a bid to re-establish the band outside its home base and drum up record company interest in its new material.

The five-week, cross-country tour includes a show March 21 at the South by Southwest Music & Media Conference in Austin, Tex., a prominent alternative-music showcase.

Palm credits Dick Dale with pumping up his enthusiasm for pressing ahead. “Since I’ve seen him play live and been around him, it’s reiterated the whole premise of this band: playing with conviction, putting everything into it. Dick Dale puts everything into it, and that’s what it’s all about.”

The Agent Orange leader says he still hasn’t actually played with Dale--an ambition he hopes to fulfill. But when that opportunity comes, Palm said, there will be no guitar-dueling. This Punk has no desire to challenge the Godfather.

“I’d like to play rhythm guitar with him, just stand back there and strum chords,” he said. “I love those songs.”

Dick Dale & the Del-Tones and Agent Orange play Friday at 9 p.m. at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. $12.50. (714) 496-8930.