Dead Kennedys
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Image courtesy of musicfeeds.com.au
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know the very first thing you’re going to say…Dead Kennedys are coming out, “but there’s no Jello man!” Well, hold on, get a grip people. There’s always been more than just the one member of legendary San Franciscan political punk outfit Dead Kennedys, and it would be an outrage to downplay the current lineup. The other three very important, crucial, original members are right here, coming to a stage near you. Sure, Jello Biafra is an iconic personality that helped define an essential time in the late 70’s to early 80’s North American musical and political landscape, and influenced an international generation of angst and alienation that still echoes today, but he did so with the unwavering support (most of the time) and dead-eye musical aim of Klaus Fluoride, East Bay Ray and DH Peligro in their short but epic existence. There were many changes of lineup here and there over time, but the three abovementioned were the stoic members, along with Jello, that created that dangerous band that flew with rage headfirst into their surroundings, causing reactions that reverberated far past their horizons. For all their shambolics (the court cases, the in-fighting and the ongoing feud), they totally and utterly affected music history through the controversy that was their very essence. An essence that was important, educational, and sophisticated through its raw power, its unfaltering words and its very philosophy. There are many bands that come under the banner of Punk, but only a few stand out miles in front the peloton. Since 2008 they have been joined by Brooklynite Ron “Skip” Greer on vocals (formerly of the Wynona Ryders), who by his own admission is there “to pay honor and be a good support to the vocals” (Smashed Chair).
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 Image courtesy of sceneinthedark.com
I arrived at 170 Russell as The Bennies kicked off. These guys are one of the darlings of the Punk/Rock scene at present and they’re a solid band oozing energy and mixing Punk, Metal, Ska, and Psychedelic Rock. They do a pretty cool cover of The Clash’s “Bankrobber” (being a Clash fanatic, a cover nearing the integrity that band represents is hard to come by) and their albums Party Party Party with The Bennies and Rainbows in Space are really worth a listen. Melbourne has always had a very special music scene, especially in independent, underground bands and The Bennies are part of the burgeoning influx of acts mixing music genres that Melbourne and Australia, is throwing out there. Looking forward to seeing where these guys head to, both musically and exposure wise, because they are tight and interesting, and ready to evolve further. They will be supporting NOFX on their upcoming Australian tour and have now headed to the US for the first time.
But of course, tonight, we’re here to hear the headliners… |
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They arrive on stage… Alright, Klaus and East Bay Ray may be looking quite a bit older, but you’d think DH Peligro is ageless, and Ron “Skip” Greer is definitely the (comparatively) young gun of the group. The audience member’s ages and (sub)cultures vary dramatically too, many epochs apart, but it all works. I share a smoke and banter with a 40-50 year old punter who’s brought his teen nephews along to let them experience what he knows, first hand. For me, seeing a band of their caliber, 28 years after the original, prolific and prophetic incarnation disbanded, it is hard to know what to expect. You want the danger, unpredictability, and excitement that their thousands of shows were known for.
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The atmosphere of a DK’s show should be a wild ride, so I wait in somewhat nervous anticipation as to how all this is going to unfold.
The first song is “Forward to Death”. Now, if I’m ranting to the converted, then you know where we should be involuntary cognitively about NOW! Crowd going crazy, nuts, slam pit madness, stage invasion and flying bodies, gore and galore. Well, maybe tonight we are just a little more reserved; the energy a little more subdued. Eighty-three odd seconds later, the band kicks into “Winnebago Warrior” then, the legendary “Police Truck”. Okay…energy levels and excitement are rising and the mosh pit is starting to fire up. We get “Buzzbomb” then “Let’s Lynch the Landlord”. Most of the house is jumping about now! "Jock-O-Rama” is next and is awesome.
The first song is “Forward to Death”. Now, if I’m ranting to the converted, then you know where we should be involuntary cognitively about NOW! Crowd going crazy, nuts, slam pit madness, stage invasion and flying bodies, gore and galore. Well, maybe tonight we are just a little more reserved; the energy a little more subdued. Eighty-three odd seconds later, the band kicks into “Winnebago Warrior” then, the legendary “Police Truck”. Okay…energy levels and excitement are rising and the mosh pit is starting to fire up. We get “Buzzbomb” then “Let’s Lynch the Landlord”. Most of the house is jumping about now! "Jock-O-Rama” is next and is awesome.
Image courtesy of thedwarf.com.au and Carbie Warbie
At a typical Dead Kennedy’s concert in Jello’s days, you would get a lot of political, social off-the-cuff impeccable wordsmithing and prose intermingled with gesture, poise and pose. Jello is one of the great mouth pieces; an immense, captivating presence. If you’ve never had the pleasure of listening to the ton of spoken word records around by him, I implore you to do so! So, it would be very hard to fill that position as the replacement vocalist. Ron “Skip” Greer gives a praiseworthy performance. And he should feel proud of his role in the band; he fits the mold, and does justice and respect to the keynote speaker position he has to fill. He gives us a bit of a political satirical message: about being on the dole, working for it, and getting rid of it because they’re all just lazy so-and-so’s. “Well I don’t think Tony Abbott has gone far enough and a few select out there would agree with me”…. queue “Kill the Poor” and man, I tell you, the atmosphere finally fully ignites. They really rock. That was the moment in the gig that I started to fully appreciate what I was witnessing and inevitably started to lose myself in it. From that point on, the gig flew straight ahead, all engines roaring.
"MTV Get Off the Air” rocks and “Area 51” keeps it going. Then the all-party anthem “Too Drunk to Fuck” gets most people singing every lyric at the top of their voice, including the ad lib vomit noise effects at the end. There’s gritted teeth everywhere. The people are happy; they’re getting what they came for. “Moon over Marin” is next, mellower but no less cool. Then the band do introductions, little solo manifestations intertwined with some neo-Jazz rhythms, till DH is introduced and gives us a message about racism and how much it sucks that then catapults the moment into a whiplash causing song (and my favourite part of the night) “Nazi Punks Fuck Off”…. Whoar!!! The crowd is going nuts, which is amplified further through the next classic “California Uber Alles”! At an important point, the music quiets down enough to allow the crowd to sing in their ‘Ocker’ accent (an interesting, very weird affect!) the classic lyrics “Now it’s 1984, Knock-knock at your front door; It’s the suede denim secret police; They have come for your uncool niece; come quietly to the camp…” which ends the set, leaving us desperate for more.
"MTV Get Off the Air” rocks and “Area 51” keeps it going. Then the all-party anthem “Too Drunk to Fuck” gets most people singing every lyric at the top of their voice, including the ad lib vomit noise effects at the end. There’s gritted teeth everywhere. The people are happy; they’re getting what they came for. “Moon over Marin” is next, mellower but no less cool. Then the band do introductions, little solo manifestations intertwined with some neo-Jazz rhythms, till DH is introduced and gives us a message about racism and how much it sucks that then catapults the moment into a whiplash causing song (and my favourite part of the night) “Nazi Punks Fuck Off”…. Whoar!!! The crowd is going nuts, which is amplified further through the next classic “California Uber Alles”! At an important point, the music quiets down enough to allow the crowd to sing in their ‘Ocker’ accent (an interesting, very weird affect!) the classic lyrics “Now it’s 1984, Knock-knock at your front door; It’s the suede denim secret police; They have come for your uncool niece; come quietly to the camp…” which ends the set, leaving us desperate for more.
Image courtesy of thedwarf.com.au
And quickly they’re back on. “Bleed for Me” is the first encore song flowing into the awesome “Viva Las Vegas” and then, every single body on the planet’s favourite DK’s track “Holiday in Cambodia”. East Bay Ray’s haunting eerie guitar in this song can never be replicated. You always know where it came from even if you hear just a whisker of the riff. A cracking rhythm section, DH and Klaus don’t miss a mark on the page. They head off stage briefly but thank god they return for a second encore… only one song, but another classic I was hoping for: “Chemical Warfare” (which strangely broke into “Sweet Home Alabama”). And that’s it, despite the audience wanting more. I guess you need to call it a night at some stage. Even though there’s at least another dozen songs I wish they’d played, I can’t grumble! They were worth it.
So overall? OK, it wasn’t the same euphoric adrenalin pumped blast that would have played out in 1979 or 1984, but you’ve got to expect that. Time has moved on, and with time, things eventually change and evolve; morph into something else, a different beast. The current tour is more a celebration of what it was (which is kind of sad), rather than what it is. There are some bands today that do engage the socio-political edge of music, but we haven’t really moved far from what the Dead Kennedy’s did for us, and maybe that’s just a statement of society now. They tried to encourage us to take action and use our brains (“You will be next… unless…. you…. Think”, the classic coda to “Nazi Punks Fuck Off").
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They are from a different age, but in their protest of that age, you can hear today’s news and feel an unfinished struggle still going on. They were always ahead of their time, and today their songs still resonate as much as they ever have. If you listen to something like “Kinky Sex Makes the World Go ‘Round”, just tweaking a historical character or two, you may think that this song was written now! “Life Sentence” has reverberated between my ears since the moment I heard it. And Dead Kennedys are the type of band that we are really missing today; a band that puts themselves in the line of fire, say what they mean, mean what they say, and won’t stand down in the face of repulsive moral conservatism and censorship. Rebel Rock! There are few bands that will be noted in the epitaph of music that influenced generations through social/political meaning; Dead Kennedys are there; inscribed.
Pete Ferenczy |