The Dwarves / The Queers / White Dynamite / Decent Criminal
Thunder Road, Somerville, MA 6/18/16
I’m here because it’s my punk daughter’s birthday, though it’s not really her birthday and come to think of it, I’m not really her dad. But I promised I’d take her to a show.
“Don’t you want to go to Circus De Soleil,” I asked, “How about tickets to see One Direction?”
No! She stamped her feet, threw herself onto the ground, crying, and pumped her fists wildly into the rug- “I WANT TO GO SEE THE DWARVES!”
I get there before she arrives. I see Carolyn and her boyfriend, she is the former roommate of Jo who is soon returning from L.A. I mention to her that this was the club known as “Radio,” And that’s all I have to say about that because I feel it’s wrong to talk poorly about the dead.
While I was sitting outside waiting for the show, I noticed a young guy who struck me as from not being from this area. I felt like he might be in one of the touring bands. When I do stroll in, once the music starts, I see him onstage and playing bass with Decent Criminal, a band from Santa Rosa, California.
On their facebook they say they play rock’n’roll but that’s what Little Richard and Chuck Berry play and there’s none of that here. But they do play pop/punk with a little bit of Pixies like alternative thrown in there as well. And they’d fit quite well in a style that was known in the early eighties as power pop.
These guys are innocent in their music and lyrics, maybe coming from a place that is probably a lot nicer than Somerville. That being said- these are pretty good songs played by a pretty, decent band. They share vocals, tossing them around much like I do mentioning genres, and I feel it would be criminal not to give a thumbs up to their set.
White Dynamite is the next band to play. They’re comprised of local veteran musicians who, at one time wanted to reach the rock’n’roll dream and now that they see it’s past them, want to have some fun mocking their previous aspirations. In my five decades of seeing local bands there has been several bands like this and there’s nothing wrong with that as it’s all done in good fun.
They dress all in white, perhaps in a mirror image of how bands seem to dress all in black, nowadays. And they have a great front man, good songs and rock with a capital “R”. Watching them on the video screens around the club it feels like I’m watching a music video. Not the type of band I’d go out of my way to see but entertaining.
A favorite song by them has the lyrics, “I’m looking for romance/ Got my werewolf underpants.” And “I Wanna Die” is a good song as well.
The Queers are one of those bands that sprouted up in the eighties but got popular during the nineties, the decade Andy and I were missing from the music scene. We’re playing catch up with a lot of the punk bands that first influenced all the current local young bands and fans.
But I can easily see that The Queers have some of the best pop/punk that can be produced, meaning music full of passion, fun, energy, and excitement. They blitz through songs without pause, before the next tornado of sound sweeps through the club. They do a cover of “Cretin Hop” by The Ramones somewhere in the middle and end with “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker” by the same band.
After the set I say to Carolyn, “So what did they play, 47 songs?” But no matter how many what mattered was how true and real and raw it all was because this was punk with a capital “P”. And though I saw them once before, this set was superb and I’m sure they’ll win the set of the night.
The Dwarves are one of those bands I know of but I’m unfamiliar with- I know they have naughty lyrics and have been controversial. I spend half the set holding my hands over my daughter’s ears.
I will say that their style is unique and is all over the place. Sometimes they’re hardcore, sometimes garage/punk and sometimes they play “soul” which sounds more like blues to me- but anyways, though I don’t love the set I appreciate that they are a band that is very hard to pin down. And when the singer, who doesn’t appear to be that young, is crowd surfed to the back of the club I’m very impressed.
I’m explaining to Carolyn, though Lindsey’s not my real daughter, I feel so proud when someone compliments her to me.
I remember seeing her band Whoopi Sticks play at Club Bohemia once, and while she was playing, I was talking to someone I knew from one of the other bands. I was saying to him, “Yeah, this is her first band. She wanted to drum and sing lead vocals. You know, I tried to talk her out of it.” (As it’s difficult to do even for someone with experience.)
“Why did you do that,” he said to me. “She sounds great.”
I didn’t have an answer for that. I just beamed with pride.
When people compliment TNB I surely appreciate that- but my words pale in comparison towards the community I write about.
I’m mighty proud of my words but it will never match the pride I have for all of you. The punk community! The island of lost toys, the misfits of society, the individuals who don’t really fit in with life.
Don’t fit in because your souls are so bright and strong and wonderful that they don’t mesh with the cruel, cold and callous world we inhabit.
So maybe my punk daughter is my real daughter, maybe my life as Slimedog is my real life. Maybe the punk community is what I’m really a part of. Maybe the words I write are more “me” than myself. Maybe more real than the “real” life I live. Maybe my thoughts and feelings and beliefs are more important to me than myself or the life I lead.
But, you see, it’s really no “maybe” to me.
(Slimedog)
