It’s always cause for excitement when X come to town. And this time around, with The Reverend Horton Heat sharing the bill, the atmosphere in Irving Plaza pushed past simple enthusiasm over seeing a concert, and into the realm of a full-tilt celebration.
The Reverend set the crowd up perfectly, tearing through an hour-long set, filling the club with his rip-roaring honkytonk stylings, grinning and picking and strumming and searing. Scott Churilla pounded the drum kit tirelessly, and Jimbo Wallace kept everything on track with his rumbling bass licks. They kicked off the show with a sequential run through their catalog (one song from each of their albums, in order), barreled through a number of their other classic tunes, played a couple well-chosen covers, and inspired no end of stomping and twisting and toe-tapping and boogieing from the audience.
As for X, they simply tore the house down. John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom, and DJ Bonebrake comprise one of the greatest live acts around, and these shows were awesome even by their lofty standards. The anthems of disaffection and love and political anxiety, the ragged-tight harmonies, the perfectly-crafted guitar lines – the entire room was transported by the music filling the air.
The chemistry between the band members is enthralling, a dynamic built on years of collaboration. Billy Zoom stands with a fixed grin at the front of the stage, coaxing melodic riffs from his guitar strings, and occasionally breaking character to sing along. Exene and John are a study in contrasts – she moves around the stage, waving and weaving, conjuring up the very notes; he swaggers and stomps, thrashing at his bass, a prototypical rock star in his natural element. And DJ Bonebrake sits in the back at his drums, thundering along, tying it all together.
The setlist changed slightly from show to show, shuffling the running order for maximum impact, playing ‘Breathless’ one night, swapping it out for ‘Sex And Dying In High Society’ the next, moving ‘Soul Kitchen’ from the end of the main set to the close of the encore. The second night even featured the band commemorating Jimi Hendrix’s birthday; Bonebrake playing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ on a miniature flute, while Exene and her assistant led the crowd in a rousing singalong. And as ever, they spun stories of freeways and late-night TV and broken hearts and speeding cars and romantic entanglements. They played rock and roll, and everyone danced.
Photos © 2012 Marnie Ann Joyce. Additional photos from this event can be seen here and here.