The Gories; Death @ Lincoln Center

The Gories; Death
@ Lincoln Center
New York, NY - July 31, 2010

Well this was an odd one. A heady mix of punks young and old and aristocratic Lincoln Center patrons who shushed those punks and told them to sit down came out for the first half of the second half of the Ponderosa Stomp at Lincoln Center's Out of Doors festival at the bandshell shaped like a split-open pearl onion. This year's theme was "Detroit Breakdown" courtesy of some little old man from Lincoln Center and a jew-fro'd Motor City connoisseur named Dr. Ike. I am not making any of this up. This is not a scene in a Pynchon short.

By all rights and merits, I should be flipping my lid and doing a dance across I-80. During the Detroit Craze, there were two bands that existed some 10-15 years before that were constantly cited as the direct roots of all that was happening at that time. One of those bands were Goober & The Peas. The other were the Gories, the band that would eventually give us the Dirtbombs, the Demolition Doll Rods, and a thousand bastard sons of the Motor City garage rock scene. Both bands have reunited. If this was 2003, 4, 5, even 6, I'd be doing the curly shuffle. Instead I am merely giddy on the inside, full of nostalgia for that nostalgia of a few years ago. By coincidental aid, I recently read the trip down memory lane called We Never Learn, written by Eric Davidson of the New Bomb Turks. It paid heavy focus on the Gories, (and a little bit at the end about the retro garage craze of the early 2000's which was were I came in). I noticed Mr. Davidson in the crowd but didn't get the opportunity to tell him he wrote a good book which shares another certain writer's penchant for run-on sentences and over-the-top descriptions of rock bands.

So this is what those Gories records would sound like if they knew how to play their instruments better! Hitting the notes (all two of 'em), tight and crisp, full of that same energy and raw power but with a deference to professionalism . Hopefully, it still offended the ears of the resident patrons. But only if they knew how it once could have been - a loud, sloppy, stain-your-dress mess. It's nice to see Dan Kroha perform in actual clothes (red shirt with white polka-dots do make the man). It's nice to finally see in action the mysterious, long heard about Peg O'Neil, whose drumming style and stage presence caused some in the crowd around me to observe that she was reminiscent of a another former Detroit resident who drummed in a simple garage band. Of course that drummer arrived well after Peg left the scene so this was a chance to see how that whole puzzle came together. And of course, it's nice to see Mick Collins period.
This was a real treat. "Thunderbird ESQ" and "Nitroglycerin" LIVE and by the band who made those songs. Mick singing the blues - THE BLUES! MICK! I'd never thought I'd see the day. And while all the memories of that time flowed back (not the original time of the Gories but the time in which they were remembered), it didn't feel like a nostalgia show. It felt immediate. It felt like some things were meant to resume and pick up where you left off. If only for 45 minutes.

Death came to Lincoln Center. It was still a medium-paced set, like the one at Europa, but it got a little sweatier and a little more ferocious by the end, as the band fed off the swelling number of people choosing to stand by the barrier and in the aisles. Credit goes to one young man in a green shirt who refused to let the stiffs carry the day. A one man pep rally, the lad danced and half-moshed by his lonesome, which convinced others to at least stand with him and bob their heads. Truly, rock n roll and good decency came together. Which is kind of like Death - the ultimate sounding in loud, talented rock n roll but played by gentlemen with distinct class.

Death @ Europa

Death; Rough Francis; Sister Anne
@ Europa
Brooklyn, NY - April 2, 2010

Once upon a time in the 70's ghetto of Detroit, the three brothers Hackney made loud, bellicose, but soulful stabs at the gut of rock n roll and were ready to turn the world of rock on its head. And the record industry knew it. But the brothers called themselves Death and the lord almighty of records (Clive Davis) said thou can'test call thyselves Death for tis unsellable. And maybe he was actually right but we will never know for Death chose not to compromise and with that promptly concluded themselves. They moved to Vermont and became a diverse concept of projects, namely gospel and reggae, the name of Death having been retired. One of the brothers passed away, and the world seemed destined to not know the word and sound of Death until one of the surviving brothers' sons (Bobby Sr. begat Bobby Jr.) discovered the work of his father and uncles and so began the crawl from out of the ashes and history and the rebirth of Death.

For The Whole World To See overwhelmed the Indie rock world last year. Treated as a fresh, new release because it actually sounded fresh and new, the short LP of what would have been, could have been, the most critical rock record between Fun House and Never Mind The Bollocks, ushered in not only a renaissance of Death appreciation (to say nothing of outright discovery) but the return of Death itself. Death alive again. Bobby Sr. and Dannis Hackney playing shows.

So Death came to Europa. And those years of rural Green Mountain gospel and reggae definitely had an effect on the brief explosion of urban melodic noise that was the reason we all came to see Death. Despite coming to the stage in the dark, in Grim Reaper cloaks, with a gospel-era photo of their late brother David overlooking them, all giving us a taste of the rock spectacle that might have been, the reincarnation of Death is mellower, tamer than what was put on wax all those years ago. This is best encapsulated in "Keep on Knockin'". What was an utter hurricane of controlled fury has become a more laid back, jammy affair. So it was a bit of a come down from the anticipation. But - the spirit was there, and the brothers Hackney were graceful and eloquent and warm and loving to the unbelievably packed crowd. It was a giant family experience and for that it was worth it.

And it really was a family experience. Bobby Jr. brought his band Rough Francis to the stage and they really captured the essence of that original burst of Death. Perhaps better called "Son of Death", Rough Francis started off like a sloppy garage band but became tighter and tighter as their set went on, peaking in a rampaging cover of the Damned's "New Rose". Who knew how rowdy things got up in Burlington.

Sister Anne are a local straight-from-the-source punk band. Mixing badass heavy riffage with girly delight, Sister Anne could be compared too easily but not offensively to the Slits. And the presence and ferocity of a soul-tinged lead singer also easily draw comparison (in all the good ways) to the Bellrays. But there is a spark of originality and showmanship in this band, and an appeal all their own.