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Prolific punks defy age at reunion tour show

The prospect of a band celebrating 31 years of making music, though impressive, is not entirely uncommon. However, when the band in question still tours with all four of its original members, it begins to separate itself from the herd. Since releasing their first single in 1977, punk outfit X has not only been the captain of the celebrated L.A. punk scene but one of the greatest American bands of all time.

Hailed for their unique spin on punk, which consists of equal parts Chuck Berry to the Ramones, X enlisted The Doors’ Ray Manzarek as the producer of their masterpiece debut album, Los Angeles. Subsequently, Manzarek produced the next three X albums and, grouped with Los Angeles, they make up one of the greatest series of albums any band has ever made. Since X’s first four albums are widely considered the band’s golden era, Friday night’s reunion performance at the Barrymore Theatre presented material exclusive to those tried and true albums which left the crowd breathless but satisfied.

The cold, wintery March night heated up the moment X hit the stage, as the band launched into the first song off Los Angeles, “Your Phone’s Off The Hook, But You’re Not.” Although the band members are all past the 50-year mark, they roared through songs with an intensity not often seen today in musicians half the age of these punk pioneers.

X next rattled off three tracks from their sophomore record Wild Gift, including the song “We’re Desperate,” which first appeared as the B-side of their original 1977 debut single. The band’s next song was the haunting “Riding With Mary,” which invoked the spirit of Easter with the lyric “Her sister’s getting married today/ And the saints of Easter smile.”

Although a sizeable portion of the audience consisted of people in a similar age group as the band, the modestly aged crowd still managed to explode into a frenzy as X played the opening riffs of one of their finest songs, the title-track from Los Angeles. From there, X continued with a smattering of songs included the politically charged tune “The New World,” where singer/bassist John Doe gave a nod to Wisconsin’s weather by changing the lyric “Hey buddy, do you got a quarter?” to “Hey buddy, do you got a snow plow?”

Since X benefit from playing their whole set for nearly 30 years, guitar whiz Billy Zoom cheerily stared off into space as he tackled some impressive riffs and solos on songs like “Beyond and Back” and “Johny Hit and Run Paulene” without missing a single lick.

As the night wore on and the crowd’s energy continued to rise, X still managed to up the ante as John Doe simply called off songs from the stage to the rest of the band. The result was X blasting through fast-paced numbers like “Motel Room In My Bed” before ending the first set with their frantic cover of The Doors’ “Soul Kitchen.”

Opting to do not one, but two encores, the crowd was treated to the likes of “Blue Spark” and “Because I Do,” both from record No. 3, Under The Big Black Sun, during the first encore. But X impressed once again when they returned to the stage with all cylinders firing for encore No. 2 as they ended the evening with three of their best songs. First up was their portrait of a living paradox, the song “White Girl” from Wild Gift, but following that was the last track off Los Angeles, “The World’s a Mess, It’s in My Kiss.” Although the song was written three decades ago, it still reverberates with as much pertinence in 2008 as it did in 1980. To put a cap on the evening, X selected the track “Devil Doll” from 1983’s More Fun In The New World. Fueled by Billy Zoom’s turbo-charged guitar riffs, “Devil Doll” provided the audience one last opportunity to expel what was left of their energy, and the crowd obliged with abandon.

As the band exited the stage and the crowd slowly dispersed, both were covered in buckets of sweat as X proved that, though older and wiser, they certainly have not lost the energy that made them one of the standout bands of ‘80s punk. Singers John Doe and Exene Cervenka, who on albums harmonize better than almost anyone, ebbed and flowed together even more perfectly in a live setting. On a night that saw the band perform every song off but one, not one soul left the Barrymore dissatisfied, and X once again proved that very few can match the intensity and focus of their music.