Hugh Cornwell / Popular Band / Absinthe Lady / The Fagettes / Heather The Bartender
The Church Boston MA 10/11
So I was thinking of blowing off this show but when asked by a co-worker to fill in for a previous shift I decided to go. I was pretty interested in seeing Hugh Cornwell. He was the lead singer/writer/guitarist for The Stranglers, a band that was huge in England and Europe in the late seventies, eighties (they still are). Hugh left them a while ago and I admire someone who can forsake the money to be true to his art. The Stranglers were like a prog rock/punk/pop band but most of the punk came from Hugh, himself, with his biting, sarcastic lyrics and his growling, snarling vocals.
I checked out his current band on YouTube; a trio with Fish on bass and Clem Burke from Blondie on drums. Last time I saw Blondie was in the late seventies (opening up for Iggy Pop with David Bowie on keyboards) and the last time for The Stranglers was the MenInBlack tour at the Channel in the mid eighties. So I’m thinking it will be a good show, but a lonely one, as Andy Bang cannot attend since he’s performing brain surgery at a hospital.
I arrive at 8 pm and I’m pleased to see Heather manning, or womaning, the bar. Well, at least I’ll know someone. I made sure to be here early so I could see The Fagettes. I was unaware of this band till last week when I happen to hear them live and interviewed on the radio. They sounded great and I also liked how three of them were visual artists and talked about having a visual presence on stage.
I see a couple of young girls walking around, one with a sixties headband and hairdo along with striped pants and one with a spikey David Bowie like hairdo only beehive in its dimension. I figure they must be in the band. They start to play for the sparse crowd. The first one I described is Mel and she’s the lead singer but also plays maracas, tambourine and sax (quite well, at least when she makes sure she’s on mike), the second dame is Jenn and she plays bass. They have two boys with them, Ryan, who plays very good echoey, reverby guitar ( I found out later he was in the good glam/punk band Red Invasion) and Peaches who plays drums standing up (just a tom, snare and cymbal I recall).
The Fagettes are very fun to see live. It’s like insane asylum inmates broke into a set of a sixties musical show like Hullabaloo or Shindig and grabbed the instruments and started wailing away. This band just exudes fun and anything that is lost in musical proficiency is made up for by energetic craziness. I suppose they could get lumped in the garage band genre but they’re too unique for that. They have a big girl group influence, some Jesus and Mary Chain. Actually, if the Jesus & Mary Chain joined forced with the B-52’s it might come out sounding like this. All the while Mel is jumping up and down and screaming like a deranged cheerleader while Ryan lays down his wall of guitar sound. I ask Heather what she thinks of them and she says to me they sound a bit like X, I see her point but I say, “Maybe X on angel dust. ” Check them out here thefagettes.blogspot.com/
After the set the band is nearby at the bar. I commend them and start talking with Mel and the others and feel like, well, these young folks will take off soon enough. Instead I have a long conversation with Mel and hang out with them a lot for most of the night!
One of my favorite local bands of the eighties was Bullet Lavolta. They were one of the first bands, along with The Bags, to combine metal and punk influences and were great to see the many times I saw them live. Turns out the lead singer of them, Kurt Konk, shows up and knows the folks in the Fagettes quite well. I get to meet and hang out with him, also.
Just when I think that things can’t get any better a young lady starts going around with a tray giving out free alcohol (“Alcohol” is one of my favorite Fagettes songs, by the way). I’ve already said, “Yes,” when I found out its Absinthe, something I always wanted to try and I get a nice free t-shirts as well.
By this time the second band is playing, They’re locally quite popular and do their thing well, but they’re just not my thing.
Now it’s time for Hugh Cornwell and he starts with an old Stranglers tune “Toiler of the Sea.” He alternates nicely between old Stranglers songs and new tunes as well. I’m not missing the keyboard part which was mostly a Bach lick played over and over. I never realized what a monster drummer Clem Burke is- as a former bass player I lust after his style (would love to play with him). Fish is really good, too, on bass and can duplicate any Strangler parts when needed. Hugh is very self-effacing and comical, introducing old songs as if King Henry the Third was around and referring to Napoleon. He puts on a great show and I’d love to see him play again.
Afterwards I actually helping Hugh set up his area to sell his wares. I compliment him on his integrity and he goes, “Yes, I must be quite mad, don’t you figure?” And later when I say it’s a shame to see The Stranglers as a mere nostalgia act he says, “But I’m glad they do it, it’s like advertising for me, my songs.” I also got to talk a little with Clem Burke, who was mostly ignored. He was a regular guy, but I was a bit in awe.
I, also, introduced Mel to Hugh and also, explained to him who Kurt was (Kurt talked with him at a gig some 25, 30 years before and remembered him as being very kind, which he was this evening, as well).
So it was a perfect evening. I had a blast!
(Jim Slimedog)
