The Damned came to town on a 40th anniversary tour for their third album, “Machine Gun Etiquette” on Saturday, while the the classic L.A. punk band X, who played before the British punk legends, is still a year from the 40th birthday of its debut “Los Angeles.”
So you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a nostalgic night at the Pacific Amphitheatre when these two played, and sure, there was a lot of gray hair in the vintage punk band T-shirt-wearing crowd in Costa Mesa.
But you’d be mistaken. The music remains remarkably fresh, and the musicians played it with a purity of passion that was reflected back at them by the audience, which knew the songs, word for word, by heart.
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Both bands, as well as opener the Reverend Horton Heat, were enthusiastically received. But perhaps there was a bit more excitement for the Damned, who’ve played here less often than the hometown heroes of X, so that is where we begin.
The Damned
By its third album, the Damned had progressed beyond the blazing punk rock that had made them stars at home — even before the Sex Pistols and the Clash — with their 1976 single “New Rose,” which was the first by any British punk act.
And that versatility was on full display as they opened their set on Saturday with eight of the 11 tracks from “Machine Gun Etiquette,” playing them in the order they appeared on the album, from “Love Song” through “Smash It Up.”
Singer Dave Vanian and guitarist Captain Sensible are the two originals left in the band, but they’re the key guys. Vanian, whose rich baritone remains one of the great punk voices, appeared in the proto-goth style he’s always worn — pale skin, jet black hair, an Edwardian frock coat over a waistcoat and tuxedo shirt, and black gloves — the green footlights at the microphone stand casting him in a vampiric glow.
Sensible wore his trademark red beret and dyed blond hair, the Joker to Vanian’s Dark Knight, perhaps.
Early set highlights included “I Just Can’t Be Happy Today,” one of the album’s singles, and “These Hands,” which Vanian introduced as “Transylvanian drinking song,” and you could in fact picture the undead swaying in song, a stein of something red in hand, as the song’s devilish waltz played on.
“Smash It Up” closed out the album performance with a rush of melodic mayhem.
“‘Machine Gun Etiquette,’ in record shops now!” Vanian announced at the finish. “What’s a record shop?”
“What’s a record?” Sensible replied.
The rest of the set offered up a pair of hits, “New Rose” and “Neat Neat Neat,” from the band’s debut, “Damned Damned Damned” — the first full-length release by an English punk band — before an encore of “Curtain Call” and a closing cover of Elton Motello’s “Jet Boy Jet Girl” that had the crowd singing along to what Vanian accurately described as “a truly filthy song.”
X marks the band
X is a remarkable band not just because it’s survived more than 40 years now and has all four of its originals — singer-bassist John Doe, singer Exene Cervenka, guitarist Billy Zoom, and drummer D.J. Bonebrake.
The band is a legend I’d submit because it long ago transcended the limits of punk rock, expanding its sound to include country, rockabilly, even a swingin’ kind of jazz. They make — as their pals in the Blasters named one album — American music, the sound of a country in all its rich diversity.
They opened with “Beyond and Back,” a not unexpected choice, but from there the set list changed significantly from the band’s recent shows — when you have as many great songs as X you can do that — with songs such as “Because I Do” and “When Our Love Passed Out On The Couch.”
The band’s love of classic rock — the ’50s for them — led to its popular cover of the Jerry Lee Lewis song “Breathless,” and from there to one of the great working-class anthems ever, “The New World.”
Midway through their hour on stage, Doe introduced longtime X friend Craig Packham to the drum kit so Bonebrake could step out front and play the vibes on a few gentler songs that Doe said the band often skips for want of a sideman.
“Come Back To Me” featured not just Bonebrake on the vibes, but Exene’s terrific vocal and a saxophone solo by Zoom, serving as Exhibit A in the Case for X as More Than Punk. “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts” took that and ran with it, the dreamy swing and gentle rush of pure beauty.
“So if you wondered if there’s going to be another jazz odyssey the answer is no,” Doe said as Bonebrake moved back behind the drums. “You get one per night.
No worries, for the final run of songs offered a blitz of the fast-paced of the punkier yet still sophisticate fare of its earliest albums, starting with the instantly recognizable opening notes of “Los Angeles,” the title track to the 1980 debut.
From there the band zoomed through numbers including “Your Phone’s Off The Hook But You’re Not” and “Motel Room In My Bed” — never let it be said X didn’t know how to come up with a killer title — before wrapping up with the Doors’ “Soul Kitchen,” also from the debut, and a psychedelic storm through “The Hungry Wolf.”
The Reverend Horton Heat
The psycho-billy trio led by Jim Heath opened things at the very unpunk hour of 6:30 p.m. and so had a smaller crowd than what was to be. It was good, solid stuff that included the title track of the band’s latest album, “Whole New Life,” a cover of Motörhead’s “Ace Of Spades” prefaced by Heath’s amusing story about touring with that band’s leader Lemmy Kilmister, and “400 Bucks,” done in response to a shouted request from the crowd.
The Damned and X
With: The Reverend Horton Heat
When: Saturday, July 6