The Monorchid were able to continue their blistering set of classic, loud, fast, inspired hardcore, the sort of stuff that was the bread and butter of DC bands in the early ’80s. And for those of us who’d never had a chance to see the band — who broke up just as they were getting off the ground with their sophomore disc, Who Put Out the Fire?, in ’98 —it was a treat. But the Monorchid’s slam-bang punk rock isn’t what I think of when Touch and Go come to mind. No, the Touch and Go that caught my ear back in the ’80s was a haven for bands who scared the hell out of me. We’re talking Big Black and their scabrous yet surgically precise Songs About Fucking, the Butthole Surfers and their twisted Locust Abortion Technician, and the Scratch Acid/Jesus Lizard axis, which revolved around the tortured vocals of David Yow and wave after wave of serrated Birthday Party guitars supported by a rhythm section who sounded as if they were kicking the shit out of someone. It’s the label that fostered Steve Albini through Big Black to Rapeman and finally Shellac.
There was something truly threatening about a Big Black show. Most punk rock made sense; you could trace its roots and lineage back to something familiar and safe. But Big Black defied attempts to break through their hard outer shell. Where the hell was this stuff coming from? No wonder Chicagoan Liz Phair counted herself as an exile from a place she called “Guyville” on her debut album. There weren’t a lot of women involved in those seminal Touch and Go bands. And you didn’t want to take your girlfriend to see the Butthole Surfers or Big Black.
INDIE SOFT: The label that once championed Scratch Acid has now embraced the OC-friendly Ted Leo. |
The highly touted Big Black reunion that took place on the second night of the block party was, I’m sorry to say, a bit of letdown. Sebastian Durango, who no longer wears his guitar strapped around his waist like Albini, broke a string. Jeff Pezzati’s bass caused problems whenever he hit his distortion pedal. It wasn’t until the final song of the 20-minute set, “Racer X,” that they came close to approaching the menace of old Big Black. The set was, however, a reminder that what with Albini’s harsh, rock-vérité lyrics from the dark side, the industrial wall of guitars, and the relentlessly cold drum-machine beats, Big Black had created a blueprint for Trent Reznor’s downward spirals. And leave it to Albini to offer context where none was needed — which he did by reminding us that people assume nothing happened between the Sex Pistols explosion of the ’70s and the Nirvana implosion of the ’90s when in fact guys like Rusk were releasing much of the music that would feed the alternative nation throughout the ’80s.What Albini didn’t mention is that though Rusk’s way of doing business (a handshake and a small advance) hasn’t changed much over the last quarter century, Touch and Go evolved along with the alt-rock ’90s and has continued to feed on emerging trends. That could be the neo-new-wave grooves of bands like Enon, Supersystem, and !!! (not to mention the proto–neo new wave of the not quite broken-up Girls Against Boys, who showed up to play on Friday night) or the alt-country of Mekons' Sally Timms and Jon Langford, who both played quiet solo sets.
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