The Good, the Bad, and the Reatarded: Jay Reatard, Tokyo Electron, the Lamps and the Guilty Hearts @ the Scene January 18, 2007

When did the black leather studded belt, so ferociously worn by young punks decades ago, become a fashion statement slung on the hips of a young blonde possibly with Hot Topic tags still on the floor of her car? Going to the Scene bar amuses me sometimes. Such was the case at the Scene on January 18^th, the night of the Jay Reatard show.

This show was amusing and yet sad at the same time. However, my original rant from which this post was spawning has thankfully been given some rest time and will not be as harsh as originally planned. Let me explain if you will…

Four bands played tonight: The Guilty Hearts (I’m almost positive this was the name of the first band- only because another band was going to play and then couldn’t and I can’t be held responsible for remembering these things), the Lamps, Tokyo Electron, and Jay Reatard. The first band had a decent performance, but I will admit to losing attention and wandering off. But, I would give them a second listen to because they did have some elements of garage that I like.

The second band, the Lamps, I thought would be great due to the hype of their following here in Los Angeles. When one speaks of garage music and L.A., inevitably everyone mentions this band. But why? There are singers who have weird voices and that is what makes them, but then there are those that are just not good. I could not listen to this band because I could not stand his voice. And unfortunately the music just was not there for me either. Sigh. I thought to myself that the scene is doomed if people were going to be hyped for this, but thankfully I was able to catch another band (The Ettes) shortly after this show that challenged the dull constant drone that I thought the scene around here was to become. [They’ll get a decent write up in one of the 2 shows I’ve caught them at recently. Soon, I promise.]

Tokyo Electron was third. They make more of the faster tempo punk-garage music that was a good lead into the Jay Reatard set. They were satisfying. I’m not going to rant on about them because they came, did an awesome job and convinced me that I need to go buy some of their records.

Jay Reatard stole the show, although, I guess if you are headlining then it IS your show, but whatever, you get my point. Loud, fast and cussing through spit, he sped his way through many of the songs off his newest album, Blood Visions- opening with the song of the same name. The set was relatively short but packed so much into so short a time that it was almost exhausting.

If there was one thing I’d like to do after seeing this show, it would be to kidnap a good number of the garage bands coming out of Memphis and stick them here in LA. Once can only hope that this influence will spread here, and quickly.