Typical Girls: Women in Punk/Post-Punk/Underground Music (Circa 1975-1980s)

[weasel walter <weaselw AT juno.com>]

whoa. i saw the "a minute to pray . . ." line-up of the flesh eaters play last night at slim's in SF and it totally didn't suck at all. in fact it was much better than that . . . it was great!

 

the 1981 album is such a classic, solid hybrid of punk, roots-americana, EC-comics-through-Bataille-lenses lyrical weirdness and avant-rock experimentation that the songs seem like they would be just plain impossible to fuck up when performed by musicians of this caliber. my hunch proved to be correct. although one should naturally be skeptical about a group that hasn't played together in 25 years (and only played together a few times even then), but the band (with chris d., john doe, d.j. bonebrake, steve berlin, dave alvin and bill bateman) thundered unerringly through the entire album, "pony dress", a few latter day flesh eaters tunes, plus an encore of the gun club's "she's like heroin to me" and the sonics' "cinderella". They opened with "digging my grave", nailing the lurid tempo and feel immediately. it was chilling to see the whole thing take off from the get-go. It took the band a few songs to fully warm up, but by the middle of the set they were absolutely venomous, particularly during an intense version of the slowly accelerating "river of fever" and while the group navigated the polyrhythmic double-snare avant-punk sound maze "satan's stomp". Dave alvin ripped off some truly bloodcurdling solos during the set, his piercing tone accented by slap-back echos. john doe seemed to be the most valuable player, shoving the morale forward, headbanging mercilessly with greasy hair in his sharp suit. chris d.s' goblin shriek never quite reached the fullest levels of intensity, but he was clearly still in control of his weapon and he deployed it with laconic undertaker calm.

 

if you love "a minute to pray, a second to die" and you're missing these reunion shows, you're totally, totally blowing it . . . grab an extremely rare opportunity to see the flesh eaters in LA or at All Tomorrow's Party in the UK and then kiss a mythical group goodbye forever.

 

ww