Loud, fast N.Y. rock coming to the Strip
Fifty years ago, Hilly Kristal’s CBGB dive nightclub in the East Village in New York was in its infancy. There was no talk of greatness.
CBGB stood for Country, Bluegrass and Blues. It quickly, however, became the legendary mecca of punk rock.
In those early days, that meant groups like Television, Patti Smith, the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads and Mink Deville.
Something was happening, and the seedy bowery scene and its organic sound were seen as rejection of the status quo, of middle-of-the-road pop, prog-rock and the bloated excesses of rock dinosaurs.
Rock music was being redefined. Rock critic Dave Marsh dubbed it “punk.”
As ’70s punk morphed into the New Wave and into a hard-core scene, everyone from Joan Jett to the Police to the B-52s, the Damned, Elvis Costello and the Misfits made the pilgrimage to CBGB. The club closed in 2006.
On Saturday, Paper Tiger is the setting for a tribute to the wilder, more visual side of the CBGB phenomenon with some killer regional tribute acts bringing it to life.
“Love in the Doorway — A 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Golden Era of CBGB” presents Sedated, a Ramones tribute; the Misfits tribute Psycho 78; (Expletive) Out!, a Wendy O. Williams and Plasmatics tribute; the Cramp, a one-man tribute to the Cramps; and the San Antonio Spurts, a tribute to Richard Hell and the Voidoids.
It matters not a lick whether one is a ’70s punk rock aficionado or simply punk curious. There’s plenty of entertainment and rock ’n’ roll high school education to go around.
Saturday’s ticket holders will get tastes of classic, double-time 4/4 punk, psychobilly, horror-core comic book darkness, confrontational burlesque and poetic ambitions. They are the rock sounds that reverberated inside CBGB.
The tribute musicians talked about the fun they’re having.
Lance Wilson fronts Sedated. That means he’s the
Joey Ramone of the Dallasbased tribute act. It all began on a Halloween night several years ago.
“What I love about being Joey is that I command attention,” Wilson said. “There are only a handful of (rock stars) who get your attention like that. I kind of consider it my superpower. Sometimes people call me ‘Ozzy’ and that kind of offends me.”
Onstage, it works because “the Ramones truly were the originators of punk, and mostly they’re just fun,” Wilson added.
Suzy Bravo, an irrepressible performer famous
for her soul revues and uninhibited fun, inhabits Wendy O. Williams for her tribute to the Plasmatics and Williams’ solo work.
“For me, she was the greatest performer-front person that I ever saw in my life,” Bravo said. “She just did crazy (expletive), scary as hell. And she just did it with everything she had.”
There won’t be a fully operational chain saw onstage, and Bravo will probably have more clothes on than Williams did, she said. Then again, she might not.
“It’s not about that ... or my body image or what society expects. It’s about owning her power. It’s sexual, but I don’t feel like I’m performing a sex show. I feel like a beast inhabiting that persona,” Bravo said. “She stood out from everybody else, men or women. She was her own thing and so ahead of her time. The music was very overlooked. I feel like the world still needs Wendy.”
CJ Duron, aka the Cramp, takes the strippeddown, garage-rock approach of the Cramps and presents it as a one-man show. He sings, plays guitar and plays a kick drum with his right foot and an adapted snare drum with his left.
“There’s something really addictive about (the Cramps’) simplicity and rawness,” Duron said. “It’s like bringing the party. The spirit of rock prevails.”
Drummer Chad “Skulls” Gonzales formed Psycho 78 with a college buddy in 2014 out of love for the metal edge and horror-driven attitude of the Misfits.
“The Misfits was a big influence,” Gonzales said. “We were drawn to that as kids. They were different. We were drawn to the Halloween and dark aspects of it. The music was just different from your everyday punk rock scene.”
It’s a show. Psycho 78’s lead singer comes onstage in full “Crimson Ghost” attire, and the stage is decorated with pumpkins, skulls and coffins.
How do young audiences react? They sing along.