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According to wedding anniversary norms, a celebration of thirty five years together involves a gift of coral. That sounds a bit daft for a punk band to go shopping for (where would one even begin to search for something like that?), so instead Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible commemorated this occasion by dusting off their debut LP and blasting it straight into the pores of the sold out room. Has it really been that long since the return to primal rock shoved the noodly prog rockers off the music stage? Damn. And of course this goes with saying to the readers of this fine publication, but the material has more than held up to the ravages of time. Even the members have, with Vanian still striking a debonair, detached cool that others can only dream of, and the Captain looking sprightly and full of life, grinning like a maniac the entire time.
The band’s lineup has been stable for the last several years, but notable founding member Rat Scabies hasn’t been in good graces for a while now, and it wasn’t a total surprise that during the performance of Damned Damned Damned, his “Stab Yor Back” composition was entirely omitted, not even a mention of its existence of him (unlike last time, where Sensible relayed a lengthy grave robbing story). The fast material played well, with the well-known hits like “New Rose” and “Neat Neat Neat” not completely overshadowing lesser cousins like “Fish” or “Born To Kill.” The finale was capped with a nod to their forebearers, with the renamed “1970” from The Stooges hitting all the targets perfectly.
One thing that The Damned did exceedingly well as a first wave punk band was to transcend the genre rather quickly. No matter how great a snarler like “Neat Neat Neat” is, running in place album after album would get dull, and that’s exactly what The Damned avoided by branching heavily into skewed pop, psychedelia, and goth. By choosing to play their 4th album, The Black Album underscored this point quite nicely, but one could make an equally strong case had they delved into Machine Gun Etiquette or the criminally underrated Strawberries, where songwriting and technical prowess grew leaps and bounds from their origins.
That gamut was on display immediately, with the keyboard-driven “Lively Arts” swirling about the room, and the Captain’s sartorial choices changed from his punk togs (jean vest, tight zebra-striped trousers) into his more playful side (some sort of blue velvet school boy outfit). Punk roots still showed clear with the punch to the jaw of “Drinking About My Baby” but sooned melted to a harrowing psychosis of “Twisted Nerve.” Sensible dispatched the end of “Sick Of This And That” by proclaiming it was only the first show and he was already sick of the generic track. Ah, the pitfalls of playing the full album. The upside is to hear something like “Curtain Call,” a near twenty minute epic that would never normally be played, and one that shows the true stretch of the band.
The night closed with a piledriver, from “Love Song” to “Anti-Pope” (where Vanian shot a quick barb to Sensible, saying he couldn’t keep up with the breakneck vocal lines) and “Smash It Up, pts 1 and 2” all from Machine Gun Etiquette, but not before Sensible teased the crowd and said the encore was to feature the greatest song ever written, and gave the crowd a choice between “Love Song” and his solo lightweight pop chart hit “Happy Talk.” Happily, love won out in the end.
I didn’t know much about The Legendary Shack Shakers when I walked into the club, and I was pleasantly surprised to see none other than Duane Denison (The Jesus Lizard, Tomahawk, etc) playing guitar. The band’s main sound is a rockabilly sound steeped in three week standing ditch water that’s a mix of used motor oil, snake blood, moonshine runoff and stale urine. Leader/singer JD Wilkes is a perfect mix of David Yow, Jerry Lee Lewis and the ADD-afflicted kid that used to sit next to you in math class, flicking boogers at you and constantly kicking at the legs of your chair. Pure fun all around.
