JERRY JOSEPH 5/2, UNCOMMON GROUND; 5/3, HOUSE OF BLUES; 5/4, EXEDUS II What this west-coast singer-songwriter is doing playing Exedus II’s Reggae Spring Fling I can’t imagine. But while he hasn’t got a lick of Jamaican riddim, his new solo demo does display the right ratio of irony to passion, a soulfully husky voice, and a good sense of dynamics. The coffeehouse gig is probably the best place to appreciate him; the Fabulous Thunderbirds headline on Saturday.
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ROYAL TRUX, GASTR DEL SOL 5/3, EMPTY BOTTLE I enjoy vertiginous lurches of reality as much as the next acid casualty, but this bill is so diabolically mismatched that I’m beginning to suspect the Empty Bottle of having a Grubbs-O’Rourke content requirement. Prepare to be hypnotized and then slammed against the wall really hard–not so much by Royal Trux’s degenerating throb as by the beery and confused crowd that’ll undoubtedly be crammed into the ill-designed space. Two Daves–Pearce (aka Flying Saucer Attack; see Critic’s Choice) and former Slint guitarist Pajo (aka M)–open.
LOVE CAMP 7 5/6, LOUNGE AX If you then need reassurance that psychedelia still lives, this Brooklyn trio should help restore your faith. Though the usual Love comparisons get trotted out, its mostly terrific new Live in Las Vegas (a studio album with canned crowd noise at the beginning) made me think much more of the 80s psychedelic revival–a more raucous Rain Parade, a more upbeat Dream Syndicate–so it’s hard to tell where exactly in the space-time continuum the band’s sense of retro is located. Love Camp 7 plays it lush but loose, and stuffs it full of those over-the-top harmonies I used to think Americans just couldn’t do with a straight face anymore. Starball, an all-female force of garage-punk nature, opens. r Dave Davies 5/7, House of Blues Certainly many of Dave Davies’s contributions to the Kinks were underacknowledged–“Death of a Clown,” “Rats,” and the only good song on 1984’s Word of Mouth, “Living on a Thin Line,” were his. But in the lifelong sibling war, Ray walked away with all the wit and charm, so sadly this mopefest with members of the Smithereens (“playing songs of the Kinks and the Smithereens”) and host Mancow amounts to the last stand of a has-been, backed up by never-weres, presided over by a wannabe.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Photos of “Royal Trux” by Nina Gouveia.
