Bad Brains, Spector 45 and Here Holy Spain
The Granada Theater
Friday, October 29, 2010
Better than: reliving my punk rock past at home listening to actual records
Before a sizable, middle-aged horde, legendary Washington, D.C. punk act Bad Brains put on a formable display of full throttle hardcore while still managing to throw in a couple of sets of reggae on Friday night. Their crowd? Men in their 30s and 40s, who all too willingly dusted off their Black Flag and
Minor Threat tees and pushed their way into the Granada Theater's
crowed mosh pit.
Or, at least, that's what happened when Bad Brains hit the stage at
around 10 o'clock.
Before that, the cool thing to do was to hang out in front of the venue
and admire all the leather, Mohawks and spiked wristbands.
Just as the Granada started filling up nicely, Bad Brains started their set off
with the rush of "Attitude." The stage diving commenced almost
immediately.
It was as violent of a most pit as I have ever seen at
the Granada--so much so that extra security was added, pushing people
off the stage continually throughout the evening.
Of course, none of this rambunctiousness fazed any members of Bad Brains.
Guitarist Dr. Know and bassist Darryl Jennifer just kept riffing along
on such punk chestnuts such as "At the Movies," "Sailin' On" and "Banned in
D.C." Frontman H.R. was the essence of composure, too, singing most of the
songs with his hands in the prayer position. And at the end of each
song, he'd simply smile and hold up two peace signs--as if that could calm
the raging pit.
The set list was comprised mostly of tracks from Bad Brains' golden
period between 1982 and 1986. "Regulator," "Fearless Vampire Killers"
and "Right Brigade" gave the old school punks lots to smile about. Still
ferocious after all these years, these songs transcend the punk rock
label. Sure, they are fast and furious, but there is much more going on
here than with your typical punk rock shouters.
The proof came when the band slowed things down and threw in the top
notch reggae of "I and I Surivive" and "I Luv I Jah."
Not that the crowd
noticed, though, all that much as the moshing continued on unabated.
Still, the
quality of Bad Brains' reggae grooves is almost as remarkable as the
band's more noted punk assaults.
My only complaint is with the length of the performance. The band was
off the stage after just 75 minutes of playing. They played 17 songs, sure, but a lot of
those songs are barely two minutes long. Ending the set with "Pay to
Cum" was perfect, but why only a one-song encore? Granted, that one song
was the remarkable "I Against I," but one couldn't help but feel that the
band had more to give.
Earlier in the night, talented local trio Here Holy Spain kicked the evening off to a
sparse early crowd; it'd be charitable to say the venue was a
quarter full. Still, Wes Todd and crew played a nice set of punkish
rock, displaying more power than on Manic, the band's 2009 debut.
Kudos
to Here Holy Spain for not being bummed by the late arriving crowd.
Same, actually, goes for Spector 45 who came out at 9 o'clock, when the
venue was
only at about a third of its capacity. Frankie 45 and the rest of this
greasy
trio demonstrated more country/rockabilly leanings since the last time I
caught them. These days, Spector 45 sounds more like Tiger Army than
the Ramones. And that's a good thing.
Critics Notebook
Personal Bias: This was my fourth time to see Bad Brains over a 20-year
stretch. At 54. H.R. has calmed down considerably. Back in the day, that
guy would be swinging from the rafters. At one show in Austin in the
'80s, the guy got gashed on the hand by a microphone stand and just kept
on going for the duration. At show's end, there was as much blood on
the stage as inside the singer's thin frame. This show was a little different.
Random Note: Good job by the venue's security forces at keeping things calm. I witnessed not a single tussle between staff and crowd.
By The Way: This show really made me wish that members of other famous
punk acts (such as Black Flag and Husker Du) would swallow their
collective pride and reunite for the sake of the fans.