Photos/Writer: Ed Conway
I hate to admit, not only was this the first time I saw the band X, but it was the first time I was in the upstairs space of Empire Live and both were not a disappointment. While I had seen other venues required everyone to sit, yes for a punk show, this was not the case on this occasion. This was a good choice as the size of the audience would not have had room for chairs as it was wall to wall people from the barrier to the back bar. When we first entered the space, we headed to the rail and I kept thinking where is everyone, right up to show time. It seemed like magic as when I turned around, it was near capacity.
Starting off the night, the duo, Dead Rock West, ran through a litany of wonderful folky harmonies. With vocalist, Cindy Wasserman and guitarist/vocalist Frank Lee Drennen blending their voices perfectly with each other. This was especially clear on their cover of The Everly Brother “Cathy’s Clown,” a song always special to me as I am obviously my wife, Kathy’s, clown. The rest of their set used those spot on harmonies to great effect.
Next up, X took the stage to thunderous applause with bassist John Doe, vocalist Exene Cervenka, DJ Bonebrake and guitarist Billy Zoom heading right into “Your Phone’s Off The Hook, But Your Not,” and ran through a full set of their punk rock classics. Like most punk shows I’ve been to, there wasn’t a lot of interaction with the audience with between song banter, but instead hit each song in rapid fire succession. Being this is listed as their farewell tour, it seems fitting that they hit their debut album pretty hard with the aforementioned opening song as well as “Johnny Hit And Run Pauline,” “Soul Kitchen,” “Nausea,” “Los Angeles,” and ” The Unheard Music.” After their 20 song set, Exene and John came back for an acoustic version of “See How We Are” before the rest of the band stepped back up for “Come Back To Me” and “Bad Thoughts.”
As with Punk in general, political thought is always bubbling near the surface, whether through songs such as “New World” or in the manner of dress as Exene came on stage with the words “KLAATU BARADA NIKTO” written on the back of her jacket. For anyone not into 50s sci fi, that was the command that Helen Benson was to recite to the robot Gort in case the alien Klaatu was harmed in order to keep the world from being destroyed in the movie “The Day The Earth Stood Still.” I can’t think of a more appropriate time for that phrase than now. Happily, the crowd showed up for what may be the last appearance of the band in Albany, NY.
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