Photo credit: Sam Shea
If you’re a seasoned concertgoer, it’s usually pretty easy to predict how a certain show is going to play out, even as the particulars of the setlist and presentation offer their small surprises. Every once in a while, though, there’s an upcoming gig that seems like both a sure thing and a dicey proposition. This night with The Buzzcocks is a good example. On the one hand, the pioneering early punk band’s legacy is unimpeachable, with their hooky, melodic take, full of amphetamine tenseness and razor-sharp guitars, still exerting its influence today. On the other, they’ve also been floundering and inactive of late. Before the new The Way, there had been no original material in eight long years, only a live release and a jaw-droppingly pointless rerecording of their most classic hits. Yet if a few things didn’t bode well, giving The Buzzcocks the benefit of the doubt paid off.
Even the Rave seemed to be a little uncertain about the band, consigning them to their dinky afterthought of a basement stage, a venue better suited to one of those scam battles of the bands, and releasing a flood of free tickets in an effort to put more meat in the seats, not that the respectably sized crowd—mostly aging record collector dorks with a sprinkling of teenagers adorably sporting their freshly minted ’77 street punk looks—wouldn’t have turned up anyway based solely on the strength of the gems from the back catalogue. The band, which after countless lineup changes features founding guitarist/singer Pete Shelley and longtime guitarist Steve Diggle along with new additions Chris Remmington on bass and Danny Farrant on drums, was more than happy to oblige when it came to trotting out the oldies too, even opening with “Boredom” from their highly influential 1977 debut EP, Spiral Scratch.
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The hits kept coming from there, including much of the absolutely essential 1979 compilation Singles Going Steady, from “Autonomy” to “Orgasm Addict,” making up most of their 75-minute set, although they of course also touched on cuts off the new album, many of which, like “People Are Strange Machines,” are surprisingly solid. The band was a little stiff, but still effective, especially since Shelley’s signature voice hasn’t changed much with age, and while the sound seemed to be mixed for a bigger room, boasting a lot of wattage but sacrificing much of the clarity you’d hope for with songwriting as precise as this, it was about as good as you could reasonably expect having been lured down to the Rave basement. Friday’s show had the potential to be a letdown, but all things considered it’s good to have The Buzzcocks back in action.
