Jay Reatard at the Lexington

Jay Reatard at the Lexington

28 November, 2008
by: Domzig

The problem with punk rock nowadays is that most of the people playing it aren't really punk rock. Sure, No Age might play a few Urinals covers, but when was the last time you saw Randy shrug off a bottle to the face a-la Sid Vicious in The Filth and The Fury.

Not so with Jay Reatard, most times I've seen this guy, he's done something crazy from walloping some guy who was trying to stage dive with his guitar to necking a ton of whisky and attempting to play, so I'm a little alarmed to hear that he'd quit drinking a couple of weeks before this show at The Lexington. I mean without the booze where is the craziness going to come from?

Still, without the antics, there is a chance to concentrate on the music, and tonight he's the tightest I've seen him. Looking like he's just steeped out of a some mid 80s bum-fuck nowhere suburban garage, Reatard's mix of garage rock, skate punk, Dead Kennedy like sneering and bubbly pop riffs hits like a bitch slap to the face, erasing the cobwebs of a day spent staring at computer screens and the sleepiness a couple of beers brings on. 

At the best of times a Jay Reatard show feels a bit like a knife fight, and tonight the tension is ramped up buy the guy's sheer energy. Confrontational, melancholy, and with a ‘fuck-it let's party' arrogance, Jay Reatard gets in your face, sweeps you up with his energy and deposits you at the end sweaty, bewildered and wanting more. This is punk the way it should be: loud and manically frantic.

Ending with a 15 foot leap into the crowd (that looks really, really painful), I can't but think that here's a guy who really means it.

Click here to see who else is playing The Lexington. For a list of everything else that going on in London, click right here.

Domzig