“If I could get Spanking Charlene in a studio”, Tomas Doncker says following the bands astounding set for the Eric “Roscoe” Ambel curated evening at Sullivan Hall, “I’d record the band first and then get Charlene alone and just let her concentrate on singing and just really singing the hell out of it.”
Translation: Tomas was bowled over by the garage rockers Spanking Charlene. With feet planted on the stage, legs wide, Charlene McPherson is an overwhelming presence on stage, a force of nature whose two albums, Dismissed With A Kiss and Where Are The Freaks, while good in their own right don’t captured the rapturous sight of band rocking out to “Liar Liar” or the chaotic distillation of “Dismissed With A Kiss” or the pure pleasure of a sax solo while Charlene drenched with sweat shakes her body.
Leaning heavily on Where Are The Freaks, the winners of Sirius Radio’s and Little Steven’s Best Unsigned Band Of 2011 are signed now and with Roscoe producing the album is fine but some things have to been seen to be believed. Charlene and her primary foil, lead guitarist Mo Goldner bring it so devastatingly onto a stage it blows everything around them to cobwebs. Over little more than half an hour, the band devastated everything around them, before the first song, “The Other Girl” was over, it was obvious we were in for a real mindbender. Comparisons to McPherson’s vocals abound, Tomas says Exene Cervanka and Chrissie Hynde, but she reminds me of the late great Poly Styrene without the Girly Englishness.
On stage Charlene is the center of attraction, a cheerful attractive vision of female power, she leads us on singalongs with “Where Are The Freaks” and “Dismissed With A Kiss” and then, in a new song, “Liar Liar”, she wails along to the sax and it is invigorating and awesome. Reviews seem to thin these songs are specifically angry or for that matter specifically female, but I don’t quite hear that. Her scream, before the sax solo is a musical intensity and the sound is more no new york than the Clash.
With two guitarists and a sax tonight, the sound is really fuller and really throttling, the energy level through the roof and the songs hurtle at you like explosions of melody and guitar riffing. Adding Ambel as a second guitar, even if only for one night, pays big dividends on “Secrets” and the entire 40 minute set goes by too fast. Charlene is an amazing band leader, it is one of those things that you either can or can’t do and Charlene is so totally in the moment you can’t look at anything else.
I can’t believe I live in a world where Spanking Charlene doesn’t break pop.
Grade: A