I saw the Tubes at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium in I believe 1977. It was one of the best shows I have even seen, way ahead of their time in many respects in terms of the stage show.  Fee Waybill was on his game and they did all the "hits" with all the props.  I saw them again in Santa Cruz in about 1980 and they kind of sucked.  They had been broken apart a bit and the back up singers were not involved (like Re Styles) and Fee relied way too much upon a punk character and had scaled all the other roles way back.  Big disappointment.  They still play around a bit today, but I have not checked them out.  Last year, I did see Prairie Prince drum for Paul Kantner's Starship or whatever he's calling it today, and Prince was dynamic.