Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Rezillos - 7 Door Sedan -- U Street Music Hall - Nov 13 2012

7 Door Sedan - U Street hosts a truly odd throwback punk show tonight and begins with a local twin-guitar quartet that I have not seen before. They start off with a good bar-room rocker that has just enough NY Dollsy trash-sleaze to make it interesting. I was kind of expecting to drift off in concentration as they continued, but they kept pulling me back in with some really good hooks, wah-wah guitar solos, and solid musicianship. They kind of remind me of the many solid bar bands that jumped on the punk/new wave bandwagon way back in the beginning like a Hammer Damage from Cleveland. Not a bad thing, but it shows a band that can flex into a few variants of rock music. Thankfully they have the skill to make for an interesting set. Good execution tonight and the growing crowd enjoyed it.
The Rezillos - Add this to the list of bands I never even dreamed of seeing live, either now or 1980. I remember playing this album on my radio show back in 1979 and 1980, enjoying their incredibly punk/pop sound evident on cuts like "Flying Saucer Attack" and "Top of the Pops", both featured early tonight. This Scottish quintet features 3 original members, most importantly retaining singer Fay Fife and singer/guitarist Eugene Reynolds. Their crazed energy in the vocal work and stage moves is what gave the Rezillos their charm and put them comfortably between punk and new wave with attractive pace and guitar bite to fans of the former along with dance moves and pop hooks for fans of the latter. The band looked and sounded great, with Fay Fife having tons of energy and wearing a great green dress right off the 'Germ-Free Adolescent's cover (yeah, I know-different band). The sound was a little muddy at first, but the guy at the Board figured it out and things popped with that great crunch for the rest of the 50-minute set. And they capped it off with their great rendition of a bizarre Fleetwood Mac song, "Somebody's Going to get their Head Kicked in Tonight". The crowd was really digging it all and it was a very simple, direct, energized hook-up tonight between band and audience. It was nice to feel the vibe and see the smiles.


Quote of the Night: From Eugene Reynolds "Was anyone at the Black Cat in 1980?" A few people clapped meaning I misheard the thick Scottish accent as it probably would have been the Atlantis with that year or the Black Cat at a more recent time. Either way, it's great that they made a rare visit to this side of the pond.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

the 1980 show was at the old nine-thirty club...and it was the revillos, not the rezillos. i was there. they were great. but the amount of hair spray they used probably put a hole in the ozone directly above NW DC! danny i

David Hintz said...

Fabulous, Danny, thanks for the update. The crowd last night was filled with many of us grizzled veterans which is fun and keeps time rather still, provided I take off my glasses so the fuzzy vision hides the age lines.