Hell Beach rips an opening set
Punk’s not dead and it never will be. Even as banks snatch up venues and anticorporate bands align with corporate brands, the spirit of punk will never die. Buzzcocks have always been one of the biggest driving forces behind that, even if their punk spirit is poppier and more irreverent than most. Improbably, the band is still going strong, and they brought that energy to Big Night Live on Tuesday night. It wasn’t exactly a big night at Big Night Live, as the fatal trio of Weezer/Flaming Lips/Dinosaur, Jr. were playing next door and sucked up much of the potential audience. But it allowed me to be around my true brethren – 60-year-old dudes in Damned Damned Damned shirts nursing one beer.
The night kicked off with an unadvertised band called Hell Beach (great name), who brought a tight and ferocious energy. The Manchester, NH-based quartet was playing cuts off their recently-released debut album, BEACHWORLD. Although the band is nascent, they had a great stage presence, as the singer-bassist cracked jokes and commanded the crowd, while the guitarist and keytar (!) player bounced around. The band’s brand of high-octane pop-punk made for an extremely logical opener for Buzzcocks, a linear progression of the sound that the legends molded. It was much more punk than pop, just very melodic. The singer talked about being an outcast in high school, and then joked that anyone attending a Buzzcocks show on a Tuesday was probably a loser, too (no complaints from the audience!). Their set was impressive to say the least, watch for them on the local scene!
Up next was Lovecrimes, another act I was unfamiliar with. It wouldn’t have mattered if I had had a chance to track down their music – they’ve only released one song to date! Much like Hell Beach, they’re a fresh group, working on a debut album. The band hails from Orange County, a point of contention for a few inebriated fans; the Boston-LA punk war seems to have cooled down in passing generations. Although they had a few songs that absolutely ripped, their stuff was definitely less poppy and more midtempo, akin to a slightly faster Social Distortion (but that might be the California talking). The band was more reserved onstage, but roared through as many songs as they could in a short time. Much like Hell Beach before them – watch out for what is shaping up to be an impressive debut album in the future.
Buzzcocks still Going Steady
By the time Buzzcocks took the stage, the crowd had filled out some, and the average age had dropped considerably; there were even some mosh pits later on in the set. Since the passing of Pete Shelley in 2018, the band has been fronted by Steve Diggle, a not-quite-founding member who joined a few months after the band was formed in 1976. Although he’s the last of the old crew, he showed no signs of age, ripping through 21 songs with the same youthful spunk that put the band on the map in the first place. They came out of the gate hot, with the quadruple-punch of classics “What Do I Get?,” “I Don’t Mind,” “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays” and “Promises.” Predictably, it was a set filled with the hits. Older tunes and deep cuts like “Autonomy,” “Sick City Sometimes,” “Why Can’t I Touch It?” and “Orgasm Addict” peppered the setlist. The band also played a healthy amount of their newest record, 2022’s underrated and under-discovered “Sonics In The Soul.” The songs are a touch lighter on energy, but are still distinctly Buzzcocks, and they didn’t sound even a little out of place amidst the older tunes.
The encore consisted of five songs, opening with a rendition of “Love Is Lies” that started with just Diggle on acoustic guitar and ended with a full band. It was the only moment of solitude amid an otherwise raucous set. The closing songs were the band’s most well-known and wildest song, “Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve),” and an extended version of “Harmony In My Head,” with a bunch of fun, red herring endings.
The show was not without issues, a guitar issue led to the four-note riff of “Happy” going mostly unheard, and Diggle seemed to get a little lost during “Addict.” But if anyone in the audience cared, they didn’t show it. The fact that there’s still an incarnation of Buzzcocks at all is astounding. It was a wildly fun set, and a victory lap for one of the most important bands. With no Buzzcocks, there’s no Strokes, no blink-182 – no Weezer playing next door. And although most of the band now looks suspiciously young, there are no signs of stopping. What do I get? A fun as hell Buzzcocks show.