Beefeater played their first show in the summer of 1984 at Washington DC's Food for Thought. The band mixed punk with funk and jazz, and Tomas Squip's lyrics dealt explicitly with politics and spirituality. The combination of Beefeater's pointed approach with Rites of Spring's intensity became the inspiration for much of the music that would come out of the Washington punk scene for years to come, even if it sometimes arrived in reactionary form. 

Beefeater released two albums on Dischord Records, "Plays for Lovers" (1985) and "House Burning Down" (1987), both of which were combined on a single Dischord CD in 1992. 

Photo: Tina Atkinson