This choice calls to mind the relativity of a lot of these things. I didn't see The Who at The Cavern in 1964. Or Bowie on the Ziggy Stardust tour. Or The Sex Pistols at the 100 Club in 1976. I didn't even bother to go and see the Jesus & Mary Chain when they were playing my own university campus in my first year in the midst of the riot encouraging infamy of their early days.
But I did see The Sonics play the Newcastle Riverside in May 2014. I really did. I can virtually see the 'so what?' shrugs of my reading audience. The Sonics? Weren't they one of those Sixties Garage bands that Lenny Kaye and old hipsters in black and white hooped tops and thinning bowl cuts go on about? Might be slightly more impressive if you'd seen them in Tacoma in 1963.
The Sonics actually go back to 1960 which I imagine puts them before Iggy, Lou, Alice and pretty much anybody else in the Punk Rock stakes. So you think you're cool. They are definitely cooler. Their records are pure, raw, tight, driven R & B while sounding distinctly Punk at the same time. They have no end of lean, mean, attitude. They're among the very best.
They were well into their Sixties by the time I caught up with them. It mattered not one jot. They still had more tricks up their sleeve than 95% of bands will ever know. They managed to seem like a set of very nice gents while giving off more attitude than a gang of seventeen year old muggers can muster.
I kept eye contact with the swaggering six foot two sax player Rob Lind for the last few songs of the set and in return he handed down the night's set list after they were finally done. I've still got it somewhere in my flat.It's not always about seeing a band at the moment in history they'll be most remembered at. Sometimes, it's just about seeing them at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment