CITIZINE REVIEWS
Three Live Returns
The Vibrators, Dinosaur Jr., and Chuck Dukowski are back and doing it live.

The Vibrators, Cell Block 5,
The Generators, The Deep Eynde
at The Anarchy Library

DOWNEY, Calif. September 11, 2005 -- Time for another Punk Rock Social down at the Anarchy Library. The show started at 2 p.m. with a free keg of beer and carne asada tacos to attract punkers early. I had very important Sunday afternoon goofing off to get at during this “free beer” time, so this review begins about 8 p.m., when the Punk Rock Social (not the one at the Knitting Factory) night time action was about to explode with a figurative stagedive into The Deep Eynde.

The Deep Eynde.

There were no actual stagedives, and no one would get moshed tonight; really the only danger was from a friendly grope here and there. The Deep Eynde is a fun band. The singer has really big eyes and makes this look where you can see the whites of these two balls, and that’s when you know the song is set to begin. Total pandemonium did not erupt when they played, but you could feel the pressure as they pushed hard through each song to promote their big recent release on Disaster Records, the Shadowland LP. Deep Eynde guitarist Daniel DeLeon is formerly of ‘90s S.F. sexpunk group the Insaints, who also had their recorded material put out by Disaster last year.

The Generators.

The Generators followed serving up several tattooed arms-lengths of traditional punk electricity. They got some catchy tunes, and a punk chorus urging you to sing along, and how can you resist classic punk style like this? The crowd sure couldn’t resist the singer’s earnest pleas for shots of Jäger, then Vodka & Red Bull, and then a round of anything. Near the end of the set, he proclaimed he was “running on pure liquid,” the fuel of choice for The Generators.

Cell Block 5 followed and features Daveo, formerly of Social Unrest (1980-81). Their lead guitarist makes all these funny faces with pseudo-super-underbite like Popeye. These guys are on tour with The Vibrators (and are providing most of the gear for the tour) and also recently opened for Lee Ving’s Fear in Long Beach.

 
Cell Block 5.

Before the Vibrators took the stage, a long-awaited raffle ticket was finally drawn to see who would win a CH3 skateboard (board only) courtesy of Punk Rock Skateboards. After some misdraws, a girl ended up getting the prized board. The Vibrators then came on stage and played brilliantly.

The band formed in 1976 as a four-piece and by 1979, they were very popular, especially in Britain. They broke up for a period in the early 1980s, but since 1982, the Vibrators have existed in one form or another, and now are a trio featuring original drummer Eddie and lead singer/guitarist Ian Knox, along with the more recent addition on bass, Pete.

Knox, who turned 60 years old this year, is pretty cool for an old guy. The Vibrators played great songs like “Politician,” “Troops of Tomorrow,” “Automatic Lover,” “New Brain,” “Baby Baby,” (their biggest hit, apparently) “Disco in Moscow” (excellent song!), and as an encore “Brand New Cadillac,” a song made famous by compatriots the Clash. This was a show worth seeing, and how many more times are you going to see The Vibrators?

Dinosaur Jr.
at The Palace

HOLLYWOOD August 17, 2005 -- Reunited trio Dinosaur Jr. roared into town for a stop on their first West Coast tour, playing to a big crowd at the Palace Theatre on Vine. Alaska opened the show, but due to their very early start, I missed them. The headliner would go on at 9:45 pm, pretty early even by L.A. standards.

Modey Lemon followed Alaska and had one song where the guitar and bass player alternated between artsy keyboard rock, and a monster sound of guitar rock chorus. Later songs weren’t quite so invigorating. Their set ended with (of all things) a wall of guitar distortion and feedback, pounding drum and bass. It was noise rock and reminded me of going deaf like all surviving 1960s noise rockers. Would Dinosaur Jr. be able to out-noise Modey Lemon?

The blue and green Dinosaur Jr. banner was drawn. Faceless longhaired roadies readied the stage -- drums, amplifiers, instruments. The band appeared, and began to play, Murph and Lou facing one another with J standing stage left. Dinosaur jammed out on many songs from their first album including “Forget the Swan,” “Does It Float, “ “Pointless,” and “Gargoyle,” not to mention heavy metal classics “Mountain Man” and “Bulbs of Passion.”

J Mascis’ heavy metal riffery is still the most exciting thing about Dinosaur Jr., and the loudest part of the band’s sound (sometimes even drowning out the rest of the band during his solos). You can tell J Mascis wanted this reunion to last as long as possible for the adoring fans because a number of extended guitar wankfests were inserted at the conclusion of more than a few songs.

Lou Barlow’s singing is pretty good relatively speaking. He sang on half of the early Dinosaur songs, so tonight he probably sang lead on five of the songs. Lou also used some crazy echo effect on his voice (to make him sound scarier) on certain early “hardcore” Dinosaur Jr. songs.

Some guy in the mezzanine kept yelling for the band to play “Freak Scene.” The band was about to do an encore (included in the $27.00 price of admission) and I assured this anxious fan that “Freak Scene” would be the next song they would play. Dinosaur Jr. played “Just Like Heaven” instead, with whammied and wah-wahed lead guitar, and a sight to behold, the most harmless mosh pit in the business. At last, they played the song we've all been waiting for and then departed (a two-song encore). Dinosaur then returned for one last hard rocker with Lou on vocals to close the show with a bang.

Chuck Dukowski Sextet
at Liquid Kitty

WEST LOS ANGELES August 14, 2005 -- With a calming wave of the hand, Chuck signals the end to another experimental avant-garde blast from the Chuck Dukowski Sextet. There are only four members in the Sextet but Chuck shies from calling the band a ‘Quartet,’ just because of the rumblings of ‘war ‘in the midst of the word. Sextet conjures up a more pleasing vibe.

There’s no guitar in the CD6, leaving Chuck’s lead bass as the leading light to guide the sound. Accomplice and sax virtuoso Lynn Johnston is armed with two clarinets and three saxophones, using this weaponry to form complicated ejaculations of noise that repeatedly puncture the air before evaporating again as Chuck the conductor signals a moment of silence with a wave of his hand. While many punk songs have only four chords, the combination of Chuck’s wandering bass and Lynn’s horny exclamations make your ears think they are taking in hundreds of notes at once.

The CD6 closed with the big crowd-pleaser “My War” and lead singer Lora really gets into the punk rock aggression. While it's true that the band's manic bass and sax playing can induce “sensory overload” in unsuspecting human witnesses to the power of CD6, once you get familiar with the songs’ odd rhythm changes and unexpected sounds, you'll see, hear, and feel, that this band had created something esoteric but truly original. Look for a full-length record from the Chuck Dukowski Sextet in early 2006.

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