Last night the missus and i went to see the LA punk band X at Slim’s in San Francisco.
My wife was, in her mid to late teens, a full-on punk rocker who spent lots of time in the punk scene in San Francisco in the early '80s. She’s mellowed now into a middle-aged university professor, but she still loves the music and, despite her 5’3" frame, isn’t afraid to get physical in front of the stage. I’m a few years younger than her, and while i had friends who listened to the Sex Pistols because they were “anti-authority,” i never really had much exposure to punk rock growing up in suburban Sydney. Since then, however, i’ve come to appreciate the genre, including Aussie proto-punk and punk bands like Radio Birdman and The Saints, which i missed as a kid.
Anyway, X is my wife’s favorite band, and i’m a big fan too, and we’re always keen to see them live, although we hadn’t had the chance for a few years. The last time was a show in Baltimore, before we moved out to the west coast. We stay with my wife’s mother in San Francisco over the holidays, and luckily our visit coincided with SF leg of X’s current tour.
This show was particularly appealing, because this year is the 30th anniversary of their album Los Angeles (generally considered their best), and the 25th anniversary of a documentary about the band called X- The Unheard Music. The plan for this show was that the video would be shown in its entirety on a big screen, and then X would play the whole Los Angeles album from start to finish, as well as a bunch of other stuff. To round out the occasion, The Doors keyboard player and early X producer Ray Manzarek was going to join the band on stage.
The whole show was excellent. The movie was lots of fun, with some great music, some great early footage of the band doing interviews and just hanging out, and some great timepiece footage of LA scene in the late '70s and early '80s. It also discussed some of the musical background of the members, and showed that, despite the fairly common notion among non-fans that punk is a refuge for the musically untalented, the members of X were and are multi-talented musicians.
Seeing the band walk onstage to begin their set was something of a reality check after seeing the movie. Most of the footage in the movie was almost 30 years old, and the contrast between the youthful X of ca. 1980 and the X of 2010 was pretty stark. These guys are just about old enough to be my parents.
Of course, this fact was also reflected in the audience. There aren’t too many music gigs these days where i feel like i fall below the median age (i’m 41), but much of the crowd was considerably older than me. In a few cases, it was clear that there were parents at the gig with their kids, sort of a pilgrimage to show the youngsters, “this is the music i used to see when i was your age.” There was also a decent-sized group of late teens and twenty somethings. But most of the audience looked like they needed to be in bed by midnight. And i include myself in that group.
Anyway, any concerns about the effects of aging on the band were pretty soon dispelled once they started playing. They’ve still got it. Of course, Billy Zoom on lead guitar has never really expended any excess energy onstage; he’s one of the least flamboyant guitarists i’ve ever seen, and makes Mark Knopfler look positively animated by comparison. He looks like he could play for another 20 years. He stands there with a great big grin on his face, and still indulges in his trademark habit of making extended eye contact with audience members. Understandably enough, he focuses much of his attention on attractive young women. While i certainly don’t begrudge him the adulation, what was cool 25 years ago almost starts to seem a little bit creepy now that he’s in his 60s. But his playing is still fantastic.
Lead singer Exene Cervenka is another member who doesn’t get too physical. She’s been dealing with MS for over a year now, so hasn’t been in perfect health, but there was no evidence of it in her performance. He voice is still strong, and still perfect for the band’s music, and she still appears to get lost in a trance as she grips the mike and wails away.
It’s bassist John Doe and drummer D.J. Bonebrake who seem most likely to keel over from a heart attack on stage one day. Both of these guys are very physical in their performances, and while they both still look great and seem to carry it off without a problem, it must be more tiring for them now than it was a quarter-century ago. It was nice to see Bonebrake on stage, because the last time i saw X, he was taking a break and was not with the band.
Anyway, the show was excellent, from the track-order playing of Los Angeles through to a bunch of other favorites. Ray Mazarek came out on three separate occasions and added his keyboards to a total of about 6 or 7 songs. The nature of X’s music meant that you had to listen reasonably closely to discern Manzarek’s contribution, but it was possible to pick up his distinctive keyboard sound on quite a few of the songs. It was also somewhat surreal watching him play, and realizing that the professorial-looking guy sitting at the keyboard had also, in another life, played the iconic solos on songs like “Riders on the Storm” and “Light My Fire.”
I spent the whole show right near the front, about 10 feet back from the stage. My wife was even closer; she likes to get near the front because she’s short. Showing my age, i managed to get through about a half-dozen songs before i succumbed and put earplugs in. Very un-punk of me, i know, but it saved me some discomfort; today my ears are still ringing even after having the plugs in for most of the concert.
The audience was reasonably tame, as a whole. There was a small mosh pit in the middle of the floor, near the stage, and a few people whose main purpose seemed to be to crash into as many other people as possible, but for the most part folks were pretty content to bounce up and down in one spot. Another characteristic of the modern gig was also annoyingly present throughout the performance: people holding up their camera phones to take pictures or record video. Some people seemed to spend more time doing this than actually paying attention to the music, and a few even became annoyed when other people bumped into them and caused them to miss their shot.
The show wound up at about 11:30, and while we weren’t actually in bed by midnight, the Mission bus got us home just after that, and we were asleep about a half-hour later.