doors that slam

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I wouldn’t have guessed that I’d ever get to see the Homosexuals play live, but there they were last night at East End. Well, “they”: Bruno “Wizard” McQuillan backed up by a much younger band. Who, to their credit, were tough and agile enough to navigate the songs’ constant abrupt turns. Even so, it was weird to hear e.g. “Soft South Africans” and “Hearts in Exile” played as straightforward punk rock songs. (And weirder still to hear some of those songs open up for jamming: I would also not have expected “Walk Before Imitate —> Drums/Space.”) The set list was basically most of The Homosexuals’ Record, with a few choice additions—one or two new songs, “You’re Not Moving the Way You’re Supposed To,” etc.

To paraphrase a poster that one sees a lot around Portland, the same traits that make for a monumentally annoying conversationalist also make for a terrific punk frontman, notably semi-coherent peace-and-love speechifying and a habit of inserting a falsetto “wooooooo!” into conversation every half-minute. The show had one of the worst encores I’ve ever seen (Bruno sitting behind the drum kit, interminably attempting to demonstrate how a reggae beat should be played correctly, then grabbing a guitar and making up a couple of songs on the spot, then playing a few more drum solos), but I still walked out glowing from how much fun the main set was, and how good it was to hear those songs in a live setting.

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This page contains a single entry by Douglas published on March 23, 2009 1:21 PM.

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