By: David de Young
 The Buzzcocks (publicity photo) |
Pete Shelley - vocals /guitar Website: http://www.buzzcocks.com |
A long time ago, The Buzzcocks were instrumental in helping me survive high school in the small, backwards farming town in Illinois where I grew up. Last night, 20 some years later, they got me drunk and showed me a damn fine musical time.
In the early 90's I saw the practically undisputed godfathers of punk-pop Buzzcocks live for the first time at First Avenue. I remember being disappointed and even a little depressed, possibly because the show came at a time when I was resenting the fact that the past was slipping away, and that one of my favorite bands was getting old, pudgy and losing steam. But even then, I do recall Steve Diggle's energetic performance helped me to keep the faith.
In contrast, last night's show was a wham-bam-power-packed-fast-paced and fun-loving sing-a-long, slam dancing, beer-spilling good time. From openers "Boredom," "Fast Cars," "I Don't Mind," and "Autonomy" even the bass-heavy somewhat muffled mix at the start didn't keep anyone from enjoying the show. When Diggle switched guitars a few songs in, the mix improved and the sound was off my mind for the rest of the show.
I'm not the only fan who again thinks Diggle added more than his fair share of the oomph to the Quest show last night. Pete Shelley, to his credit now appears to be aging more gracefully than 10 years ago, his gray hair fluffed up a little like Charlie Harper of Buzzcocks contemporaries the UK Subs, although I hazard to guess Shelley is probably in better shape.
Even with the Quest's view-killing pillars, it was fairly easy to find good place to stand and see the show as it was far from sold out. The crowd was respectably sized, however, definitely at or above critical mass. Perhaps $20 was a bit too much to get anything but the hardcore fans out (I saw some people I hadn't seen since Wire played First Ave some months back.) Even in 2003 the Buzzcocks remain far from a super group despite the fact that they are in some people's minds (at least mine) one of the best and most influential bands of the past 30 years, their influence being seen in everyone from Nirvana to the Dead Kennedys.
At the Quest show, Shelley, Diggle, Barber, and drummer Phil Barker brought out the heavy artillery right from the start, playing through half a dozen older songs first before splicing in new songs from their new album "Merge" (Merge Records, 2003) towards the middle of the set. Diggle's new songs impressed me as much as his oldies like "Sitting Round at Home" and "Harmony in My Head," as did the newer Shelley songs off the new album. These songs featured pop-punk energy, and real passion that more than rivals a lot of the pop-punk fluff that's around these days (think Sum 41, Good Charlotte and Blink-182.)
Shelley and bassist Tony Barber were sometimes caught looking at each other in something that resembled boredom as Diggle milked the crowd. Mid-set there was a bit of a controversy onstage that might have had something to do with the fact that they had to cross out about 7 songs in order to fit the time allowed. One fan told me that she thought Shelley wanted to play them all whether they ran over or not, but Diggle wanted to stick to edited list to make sure they got done on time. (Despite it being a rather un-punk viewpoint, I think keeping to the time was the right decision as the Quest is pretty strict. Within minutes of the show's end the burley bouncers were rounding us up and telling us to make a quick exit or be subject to the $10 charge for the next show.)
The set proper ended with "Noise Annoys," and "I Believe." From the enthusiasm of the crowd I conclude that I am not the only one who every few years needs to raise a hand and scream the cathartic final words, "There is...no...love...in...this...world...a...ny... more!"
A triumvirate of greats followed as encores: "Why She's a Girl From Chain Store," "What do I Get?" and "Ever Fallen in Love?"
According to my brand new Buzzcocks 2003 US Tour shirt (that I plan to sport proudly at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark next week) the Buzzcocks will wrap up this tour in Ft. Lauderdale on July 19th after a few more Midwest dates this week.
Location Info:
The Quest Club
Artist Info: Buzzcocks
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