The first time I saw X, a riot broke up even before they started playing, the public was young and wild and the legendary LA punk band must have represented revolt for this young guys, who transformed the show into some wild crowd surfing party…. I had to leave the first rows at the risk to get crushed and hit in the head, but that was more than a decade ago. The crowd was calmer and much older at the Annenberg Space for Photography where X was giving a free show during KCRW’s Sound in Focus series. Older, but still very loyal to X, cheering up, singing along and checking out each song of the setlist when the show was over.
The first thing they mentioned was Billy Zoom’s absence because of his cancer treatment, ‘He’s gonna be good,’ said John Doe with a firm confidence. Jessie Dayton, a regular in the John Doe Band, was filling in for Zoom and the band sounded as authentic as ever. They were selling some ‘Support Billy Zoom’ shirts to help him get on his feet again but the mood of the show was definitively optimistic as they were browsing their large catalogue of punk anthems. Despite this set back and a few more years under their belt, X gave us a show as explosive as ever, with badass Exene and wolf-like John Doe on vocals sharing their signature dissonant harmonies. They looked good in this high-class place, all denim and vintage dress at the bottom of Century City’s tall buildings, and obviously, Exene is not wearing vintage jewelry and cowboy boots because it looks cool, looking at the outfits of a few women in the crowd, she has been the trendsetter for a long time.
X has been on a roll these past years, in 2014 they did a series of shows at the Roxy, playing en entire album each time, and they repeated the same experience at the Observatory last month… meanwhile, they have not been resting for a minute, as they have been busy playing around New York, Chicago, San Francisco among other places,… They are legendary and still not recognized as legends, but still playing punk rock shows with a renewed energy. They started with a few less familiar songs (at least to me) they continued with a long set, progressively injecting their most famous punk anthems such as ‘The Hungry Wolf’, ‘Los Angeles’, ‘The New World’ announced as ‘a song for next year’. Every song was sung with a real abandon into energy and as fast as they could… Could we possibly play this one faster?’ said John Doe after ‘I’m Coming Over’. And they repeated the song, only much faster.
Their sound was alternating between plain punk rock to country noir, to more rockabilly tunes, and it took me a while to recognize that they had even covered Jerry Lee Lewis’ ‘Breathless’, repainting the song with the X mark, so that I could not really tell… I guess the title was appropriate considering how they were rushing through their catalogue, they did the same with The Doors’ ‘Soul Kitchen’, and this totally escaped me.
‘This is a song for Billy’, screamed John Doe who didn’t catch his breath very often, and this may have been before ‘Devil Doll’… ‘She won’t get out of bed!!’ At one point, Exene went on the side of the stage to drink a bit, I thought she may have had some difficulties, after all she has been battling (or not) MS, and I am still not sure… but she came back with a vengeance as ferocious as ever.
The voices were still clear and strong, Exene’s was the mean fire while John’s was the bluesier and colder part, an ex-couple and a tandem forever, who have been twisting their country rock roots into another species of raw punk rock with a frenzy on stage. I was expecting crowd surfing at any moment,… well, not really considering the average age of the crowd around me, but this is what could have happened with the same people, only 10-15 years ago.
Setlist (probably partial)
World’s a mess, It’s in my Kiss
It’s Who you Know
Because I Do
White Girl
Nausea
Devil Doll
Motel room in my bed
Soul Kitchen (Doors cover)
Your Phone’s off the Hook, But You’re Not
Sugarlight
Beyond & back
Adult Books
Breathless (Jerry Lee Lewis cover)
In This House I call Home
I’m Coming Over
The Hungry Wolf
Year 1
Los Angeles
The Unheard Music
The New World
Many more pictures of the show here
