X at Nokia Theater! Woo hoo!



Last December, X came to Roseland Ballroom and it sounded like an awesome show. Billy Zoom was back in the band and everything! Trouble was, I'd already made plans with Mom to go see HER favorite musical group in the whole world...the group she was dying to see...the group she'd loved for decades.

Peter, Paul, and Mary.




AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!

The things I do to be a good daughter...

Anyway, last Wednesday was a prime opportunity to make up for it. Henry Rollins and company opened, and Mr. Rollins seems to be following Iggy Pop into the Land of Ageless Punkdom. And X? They. Just. Ruled. I'm not just saying this as someone who's been an X fan half her life. They were amazing. And Billy was back with the band, taking pictures of the audience. They slipped up a little with the lyrics to "Beyond and Back," and Exene wasn't too happy, but John Doe shrugged it off: "Aw, who cares?" They roared through decades-old songs like they'd been written yesterday. Oh, let's let the New York Times sum it up:

Though the original members of the Los Angeles punk band X have convened now and then since 1998, it was still strange how magnificent the band sounded at the Nokia Theater on Wednesday. It was a nostalgia trip, no doubt. But it reaffirmed the value of some nostalgia trips....

Having imagination, bad habits and no money isn’t celebrated in our culture anymore: it’s a dingy way station to the jackpot, and one tries to forget it. But X arrived at the end of the romantic-failure tradition and worked its concerns into a modest number of stunning songs, maybe 30. All of Wednesday’s set list came from that pile. One kept expecting a lull, or a confusing change of intent: something from one member’s solo career, an awful new song or whatever. There wasn’t one.


The above photo of X comes, of course, from the band's official web site (follow the linky). The band also has a MySpace page. (I'd be a bigger fan of MySpace if the layout were nicer, but hey...)

All I can say is...it was a weeknight show that set me back 40 bucks and it was totally. fucking. worth it. It was worth it!

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