We’re From The 80s And We’re Here To Help

Electric Six @ Bowery Ballroom 9/25/2010

After Hours / Naked Pictures (Of Your Mother) / Dirty Ball / Body Shot / Future Is In The Future / Jam It In The Hole / Improper Dancing / Danger! High Voltage / Slices Of You / It Ain’t Punk Rock / Formula 409 / Dance Epidemic / I Buy The Drugs / Down At McDonellzzz // The Rubberband Man / Gay Bar / Gay Bar Part Two / She’s White

Electric Six audiences are always a weird mix of misfits. There’s not really any obvious profile for E6 fandom, though there’s pretty much always a lot of rowdy dudes. This is generally a good thing about their shows — some bands are cursed with super self-conscious fans, but Electric Six crowds are all but guaranteed to be incredibly energetic and eager to participate. I would have loved to have been more involved for this show. I was feeling pretty sick, and so I only had enough energy for so much movement, and could not even try to sing along because my voice was so busted. Nevertheless, it was a good time, and the typical highlights — the fist-pumping for “McDonellzzz,” the extended breakdown and improvised “my drummer…” rant in “Future Is In The Future,” tons of ultra-straight dudes flipping out for “Gay Bar” — were as great as ever. At the end of the show, Dick Valentine told the audience to “tell others what you saw here tonight.” Well, consider that done. You’re going to have a good time at an E6 show. Try it the next time they come around your town.

Electric Six “It Ain’t Punk Rock”

Not long ago, Dick Valentine was saying something to the effect of how a lot of his lyrics were just him saying nonsense that sounded good in the tune. This is a time-tested strategy for a lot of pop music, and it’s certainly the case for “It Ain’t Punk Rock,” a song that deliberately fucks with you by starting on a line that seems pointed — “it ain’t punk rock ’til the punk rockers say it’s punk rock” — before taking a turn into Valentine singing the phrase “number eighty-eight” over and over again for no discernible reason other than that it sounds good. If there is a point to the song, that would seem to be it — you can make any dumb thing sound cool, and what is punk rock other than a bunch of stuff that sounds and feels cool? But you know, people get to declare what is cool or not, so you know, it only gets to be punk rock if other people say so.

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