CENTERSTAGE

CENTERSTAGE

DEPARTMENTS

“WE GOT THE BULLS BY THE HORN...”

X JERRY LEE LEWIS FIREHOSE

Universal Ampitheatre, Los Angeles

December 11, 1987

by Bill Holdship

“This is no punk rock show,” John Doe said halfway through X’s set, and he wasn’t far from the truth, considering what punk’s come to mean during the last few years.

This show could’ve almost restored your belief in rock ’n’ roll as something that crosses many boundaries, as a wonderful continuum and so forth. What you had was (supposedly) two of L.A.’s hottest bands with a rock ’n’ roll legend sandwiched in between. Lewis, after all, was a punk prototype back like 30 years ago— and being the self described “only motherhumpin’rock’n’rollcountry&westernrhythm &bluesgospeipopsinger (say it fast) left in this biz,” the Killer was kinda ready to rock. The possibilities seemed endless.

“If we look out of place,” said Firehose’s Ed Crawford, “it’s because we feel that way.” Which probably had more to do with the venue, for if this had been a traditional modern Jerry Lee Lewis crowd, they wouldn’t have known what to make of the band’s short, quirky Captain Beefheart meets garage rock combinations. But this wasn’t a typical Lewis crowd. There were a lot of people to see two local heroes made good—and some were even holdovers from those speedmetal days.

But this mostly young crowd loved Lewis. They seemed thrilled just to be seeing a genuine rock archetype, and Lewis probably hasn’t heard such thunder greeting him since those wild days of yore. Actually, it was a fairly standard Lewis set, albeit shorter, and Lewis was feeling mighty good, if you know what I mean. A couple of Chuck Berry tunes and “Chantilly Lace,” before slowing it way down for “Help Me Make It Through The Night,” and what may well be the greatest Hank Williams interpretation of them all on his version of “You Win Again,” this time coneluding with: “And as oP Hank Williams often said to Miss Audrey, probably on his knees” (he drops to one knee) “Oh, darlin’, you win again.” The crowd went apeshit.

He mentioned his own name in the lyrics. . .oh, maybe half a million times, and greeted the audience with: “Lewis is my name, money is my game, women is my fame. Merry Christmas!” He was drunk or crazy or, more likely, both—but very likeable (more so than he’s seemed in a long time). He joked about his current marriage, Jimmy Swaggart, and said (out of the clear blue sky): “Elvis was my friend, and I’m ^lad, because if you can say you have five good friends in this life. . . but I can just hope that Jerry Lee Lewis will go down in history like Elvis, ’cause anyone says they’re better than Elvis Presley was onstage, they’re takin’ something Jerry Lee’s never tried before.” These ’50s guys are genuinely nuts\

He concluded, naturally, with “Great Balls Of Fire” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ ”—and just kicking the piano bench out from behind him got another roar. Of course, he’s been doing the same schtick for so many years now, he can do it with his eyes closed. He doesn’t even perform some of his very best tunes. And he’s still terrific.

It was X who finally performed “Breathless”—and there was no union between Lewis and the band as had been rumored (naturally) ever since the gig was announced. There was some consolation in the fact that Brian Setzer played guitar— along with Kenny Lovelace—for Lewis’s entire set. This was a treat because Setzer can really imitate all those great guitar sounds. But even though Lewis slapped his hand several times, and fell to his knee in front of him at least once, Setzer’s presence wasn’t mentioned until Lewis had left the stage and Lovelace thanked him. The message here was obviously there’s only one star on that stage when the Killer’s performing.

To be quite honest, I told my companion that if X weren’t real good, we’d split before the end of the show. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised. I’ve had doubts, not seeing them since Billy Zoom departed, and not giving See How We Are the attention it probably deserved. Well, they were terrific, as well.

Surprisingly, without Zoom, the band isn’t nearly as loud as they used to be, and everything’s become a great deal more intricate. The highlight of the show was a five-song mid-set appearance by the Knitters, the band’s acoustic offshoot (this time with Johnny Whiteside on stand-up bass), appearing again for the final encore of George Jones and Woody Guthrie cover tunes (come to think of it, those guys were punks, too—and they didn’t look nuthin’ like Johnny Rotten).

Newcomer Tony Gilkyson plays more melodic licks than Zoom did, they’ve reworked most of their old material, they did a fine metallic cover of Dylan’s “Positively Fourth Street”—and those harmonies by John Doe and Exene brought to mind the Jefferson Airplane (back when that was one of the coolest compliments you could give someone) more than ever. In fact, they were better than I’ve ever seen them before. They’re recording a live LP in Los Angeles as this is being written, and it’s definitely one to look forward to. Now, more than ever, X are one of America’s best rock ’n’ roll bands.