(not mine - I didn't stick around long enough to make a grab for it...)
This
one, sadly, represented the first time I actually voluntarily left before the
end of a headliner’s set that I’d actually come to see, since the Drive-By
Truckers’ gig in 2011 (gig 815, over 13 years ago!). And it really should have
been a triumphant return for Redd Kross, California’s veteran exponents of 60’s
psychedelia-tinged, melodic powerpop delivered through an early 90’s grunge
filter and with soaring helium harmony overlay, thanks to the main-men
MacDonald brothers. Our paths had crossed infrequently down the years, their
last time crossing the pond being back in 2007 (a thoroughly entertaining if
slightly self-indulgent gig 720), and I’d actually booked for a 2020 RK gig at
this very venue, which inevitably was postponed multiple times then cancelled
due to the dreaded Covid. So I’d happily booked for this, a subsequent return
in support of a sprawling but typically grunge/glam infused and buoyant new
self-titled double album release.
A bad day and poor weather almost made me think twice, but I nonetheless set off just before 7, splashing down an utterly awash M4 and finding a parking spot half in, half out of a loading bay up the road from the venue. Doesn’t matter, it’s free now anyway! Quiet early doors (maybe I wasn’t the only one having second thoughts), but the venue filled up as support Dale Grover joined us at 8. A “performance” of 2 parts from the erstwhile drummer of 90’s grunge punkers The Melvins (and subsequently guesting with da Kross on sticks on this tour), the first being an eclectic DJ set of 50’s doo-wop and 60’s surf-psych (Big Bopper’s “Chantilly Lace”, and “The Stripper” by my namesake The David Rose Orchestra being notable selections), before he then delivered a short set of morose proto grunge/ bluesy stuff aided by a battered acoustic. Could’ve been Melvins songs, I dunno! I must say I enjoyed his friendly and deadpan demeanour (“thanks for coming early to see me – not many bands would let the drummer open up the show!”) better than the material, though…
Ran into old Level 3 face Mark Carter, recovering well after recent spinal surgery and already out gigging. Good man! Popped down the front, house left; busier now, but still plenty of room to move around. Redd Kross took the stage prompt at 9, all in matching paint-splattered white suits, kicking into the thunderous strutting glam stomp of opener “Switchblade Sister”, and it was unfortunately immediately apparent that tonight would be quite the test of endurance. The. Sound. Was. Awful!!! “Sister” sounded like an avalanche, the huge guitar noise rumble completely overwhelming the nuances of the material and particularly those helium harmonies, and the subsequent “Stay Away From Downtown”, such a thrilling amphetamine luge ride on CD, sounded as if said luge was being channelled down a steel pipe lined with barbed wire.
I initially thought that said sound issues may have been due to my being right near the lead guitarist’s monitor, so when the sound hadn’t improved after a couple more numbers, I moved across to a couple of rows back, house right, between vocalist Jeff MacDonald and his bassist brother Steven. T’was little better there, though, and the vocals were still submerged, so I tried right at the back of the venue, only for the sound to be echoey and reverb-heavy there. An airing of my frustrations to the lady on the front desk elicited an offer of foam earplugs, so I tried these out and ventured back into my house right spot. Thus “plugged”, the sound was muffled but at least not overwhelming, and to be fair the band were giving it loads throughout, Steven in particular rabble-rousing between numbers with comments such as, “[Kiss’] Paul Stanley hopes we have a rock’n’roll part-aaaay tonight!” A mid-set “Mess Around” was easily the best sounding number of the night for me, the guitars being turned down in the mix for this one, and my one earplug in, one out arrangement at least enabling me to hear the brothers’ sublime and melancholy harmonies.
Unfortunately,
“Mess Around” was the outlier for tonight; “Jimmy’s Fantasy” was again a
guitar-smothered noise-fest, and after my favourite Redd Kross number, the
sweeping clarion call of “Lady In The Front Row” was thoroughly roughhoused, I
frustratingly called it, back in the car before 10 and splashing home by 11. A
real shame, this one; I don’t blame Redd Kross (well not entirely… a further
chat on departure with the desk lady revealed that they’d brought their own
sound-guy over, and seemingly wanted the volume set to full-on-rock, so
I guess they’re not totally blameless), but this was just possibly the worst
sounding set I’d endured since that ill-fated Bob Mould set at “Shiiine On”
2019 (gig 1,161), itself another relentless onslaught of noise. I guess I was
due a clunker, just didn’t want it to be da Kross after so long… but tonight,
in the words of one of their new numbers, was, for me at least, a Candy
Coloured Catastrophe…
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