REVIEW AND PHOTOS BY ROBERT FOLSOM
A swift kick in the pants, that's what that was when Eddie & the Hot Rods took the stage Thursday night at the Record Bar. Their balls-to-the-wall, full-throttle sound apparently wasn't for the hygiene-minded. "There's not very many people here tonight. Must be bath night," lead singer Barrie Masters joked about the small size of the crowd.
Those who were there, though, were treated to some legendary British pub rock sounds by a band that wasn't afraid to work up a sweat.
Masters and the rest of the Rods - Chris Taylor and Richard Holgarth on guitars, Dipster on bass and Simon Bowley on drums - started their set with "Teenage Depression," the single from the 1976 debut album of the same name.
These days Masters is the lone original member, but the lead guitar work of Taylor and Holgarth updated the band's punkishness with a sizzling overlay that nonetheless remained true to that British amp-and-cab crunch. It's a sound that set ears to ringing the way the air pressure from Bowley's kick drum set pant legs to waving.
And never mind the sentiment. This may have been a retro-themed show and lineup, with touring mates Johnny Madcap & the Distractions and Prima Donna setting the mood in sartorial style, but the Rods still made a solid argument for adolescent abandonment.
Last night I dreamed I died, passed on to the other side/No stairway to heaven, no peace for the wicked, Masters sang as he began the three-chordish "Why Should I Care." He may not have the high notes he once did - the voice ages; there's no way that he could - but what he sang, he delivered without strain.
The song "Power and the Glory" started a flurry of segues that could make a reviewer forget to take notes, so animated was the band, its own power contagious. Then Masters invited the audience to sing along on their version of "The Kids Are Alright." The front-and-center crowd needed no prompting; someone grabbing a mic stand and adding a vocal to the mix was not unusual, nor was it unwelcome by the band.
"Gloria" was up next, continuing the covers, with Masters quoting Tom Petty's "Breakdown," the lines about not being "afraid of you running away, I get the feeling you won't."
After playing "Do Anything You Want to Do," what could be considered their biggest radio hit, Masters said their last song of the night was for Prima Donna. Then the Rods launched "Hard Drivin' Man" with a drive, all right, and guitar solos that brought to mind Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll."
One hour after they started, the Rods wound things up with their encore of Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild," pub-rock style, with some of their tour mates joining them onstage.
Local fave Cretin 66 played second on the four-band bill. The band's short-song, high-energy blasts weren't blunted by a slow turnout. If anything, Screamin' Mikey C put so much into his vocals, you would have thought the RecordBar was packed to the rafters and not just with volume. Highlights were "Hot Potato," "Pabst Blue Ribbon" and "Knievelkore," with a bit of helmeting theater.
At the end of Cretin 66's set, Mikey C summed up the evening:
"Rock 'n' roll, April 30th, two thousand nine!"
Here's the Hot Rods set list. Add "Hard Drivin' Man" and encore, "Born to Be Wild."
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