Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Redd Kross: Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY 5/4/2017: Beneath The Valley Of The Teen Babes From Monsanto Tour

Hawthorne California's Redd Kross have been on tour this Spring, celebrating the reissue of their classic Teen Babes From Monsanto album. The band is one of the key figures from the late 70's LA punk scene (their first show was opening up for a Keith Morris-fronted Black Flag) who later morphed into a trashy, glammy, power pop, alt-rock outfit. After returning after a nearly ten-year hiatus with their Researching The Blues album in 2012, Kross have been going strong ever since.


The band graced Bowery Ballroom last week and put on an enthusiastic, ninety-minute, twenty-song set. The band had a new drummer (Roy McDonald was unavailable for the tour) in the form of Melvins drummer Dale Crover and touring lead guitarist Jason Shapiro (Robert Hecker, is a teacher and can't just up and tour anymore). The McDonald brothers, Jeff and Steve had a great on-stage rapport, with Steve providing a lot of funny anecdotes. The band were very well-rehearsed (except for one song, "It Won't Be Long", where there was a discrepancy over key and necessitated a few false starts).



The band played plenty of their loved singles; "Switchblade Sister", "Annie's Gone", "Jimmy's Fantasy" and "Lady In The Front Row". Plus a few deeper cuts; "Annette's Got The Hits", "Peach Kelli Pop" and "Neurotica". But the real treat was the band performing the entire Teen Babes all-covers album (ahem, "Rock And Roll Retrospective") in its' seven-song entirety (it's a short album). Hearing them perform "Ann" by The Stooges, "Saviour Machine" by David Bowie and "Citadel" by The Rolling Stones was a very nice treat for hardcore-fans, of which I am one.

They put on a great show with a very-well considered setlist. If you have to opportunity to see the band, by all means do.