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Turbonegro
October 8, 2007
Slim’s, San Francisco, CA
By Dan Wall
Set List: We’re Gonna Drop the Atom Bomb,
Everybody Loves a Chubby Dude, Back to Dungaree High, Turbonegro
Must be Destroyed, Sell Your Body (to the Night), Denim Demon,
Sailor Man, Do You Do You Dig Destruction, Wasted Again, Ride
With Us, Fuck the World, All My Friends Are Dead.
Encore 1: The Age of Pamparius, Prince of the Rodeo, Get It On.
Encore 2: I Got Erection, Dead Kennedys song with Jello Biafra.
90 minutes.
The last time
we visited with Norwegian rock gods Turbonegro, the band had
just trashed the Fillmore in San Francisco at the end of a 2005
tour that looked like it might finally break the band big time
in America.
In retrospect,
it doesn’t look like Turbonegro will ever be huge here, but the
group continues to build on its sturdy yet small fan base (known
as the “Turbojugend”) with yet another record (Retox) and
its current tour that sold-out two show’s at SF’s Slim’s last
Monday night.
For the
uneducated, Turbonegro is a Scandinavian band (the Backyard
Babies, the Hellacopters, Hardcore Superstar and Glucifer are
just a few of the other biggies over there) that loves and
respects American bands from the 70’s like KISS, Alice Cooper,
the Stooges and the Ramones, and mixes those sounds and
influences into a storming mix of styles that is both exciting
to listen to and fun to watch.
For years,
it was thought by those who followed the group from afar that
the members were gay (and with songs like “Rendezvous with
Anus,” “Rock Against Ass” and “Sailor Man,” it isn’t hard to see
why), but I’ve been told by those close to the group that’s it’s
not true and just part of the act, and rumors now abound that
some of the guys have actually found religion.
At this
point, I could care less if these boys are gay, purple or from
Mars, because Turbonegro rocks as hard as any band I’ve
discovered in the past five years. These guys can play straight
up rock, punk or metal, and do it with a sly grin on their
faces. And at this show, the individual members looked much more
normal than some of the press photos might indicate, and the gay
vibe was hardly played out at all this time around.
The stage
show remains part early Alice, part KISS and part Village
People. Dressed in various costumes (cowboy, soldier, sailor,
etc…), the band hits the stage with less make-up on than Paul
Stanley but more than the Pussycat Dolls, and start the thunder
that is “We’re Gonna Drop the Atom Bomb.”
Before we
move on, we need to discuss vocalist and ringleader Hank Von
Helvete, who just might go down as the weirdest lead vocalist in
rock history. Dressed in a star and stripes jump suit that’s
straight out of a Southern states mobile home park, with long
hair, beard and heavy eye shadow, Von Helvete let it all hang
out-literally. Thank God it was just his beer belly and not his
Johnson, or things would have went straight off the chain. He
led the crowd in sing-alongs (yes, the crowd knew every word,
despite the band’s relative obscurity here in the States), told
jokes and occasionally came off like a normal guy-which isn’t
easy with all the craziness of a Turbonegro show going on around
him.
I’ve yet to
decide the sexual orientation of guitarists Euroboy and Pal Pot
Pamparius, and reserve judgment until further notice. Both of
them look like they would have fit in with the Spiders from Mars
back in the 70’s, and Euroboy is quite a player to boot. The
rest of the guys, bassist Happy Tom, guitarist Rune Rebellion
and drummer Thomas Dahl (subbing for Chris Summers) look pretty
normal to me, and when the jackets and helmets (or caps) come
off mid-set, these guys don’t look any nuttier than Velvet
Revolver.
The crowd
was as spastic as any I’ve ever seen at Slim’s, and actually
caused a mid-set break when the barricade in front of the stage
went down. Hard to believe that this could happen at a club that
Boz Scaggs opened back in the late 80’s, but this band
definitely fuels this sort of reaction-the crowd seems to be as
loony as the band.
None of this
would matter if Turbonegro didn’t deliver the goods onstage, but
deliver it did, blasting through 17 of its best songs (and one
surprise) during its 90 minutes onstage. Without the usual stage
show the band employs in Europe, the group played on a simple
stage (Marshalls and Ampegs, always a good thing), just enough
to keep the party going. And the group shut things down with
punk legend Jello Biafra from SF’s Dead Kennedys onstage for the
second encore.
Turbonegro
isn’t a new band-the group released its first album back in
1992, but the group has refined its sound over the years.
Originally known as a “death punk” band (as evidenced by the
roaring versions of “Denim Demon” and “I Got Erection”), the
band has evolved over the years into a mainstream rock group
with melodies, some punk and a bit of metal mixing together into
a tasty rock and roll casserole. It all comes together on songs
such as “Sell Your Body (to the Night)” and “Get it On” (which
borrows heavily from the Ramones classic “I Just Want to Have
Something to Do”), huge songs with massive riffs and choruses
that sound great live.
Gay or
straight, friend or foe, rockers or punks-it’s doesn’t really
matter, since Turbonegro is a highly entertaining rock and roll
band that is finally getting its due here in the states. Perhaps
bassist Happy Tom summed up Turbonegro’s career path the best
when he said,” most rock and roll bands start out as a riot but
end up as a parody. We started out as a parody but ended up as a
revolution.”
It was a
great show all around, with openers Mondo Generator (featuring
former Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age bassist/vocalist Nick
Oliveri) and Year Long Disaster turning short yet impressive
sets. Mondo Generator sounds heavier than the Queens and plays
shorter songs than Kyuss, but Oliveri has always been an
interesting character and can craft one heck of a catchy punk
rock song. Year Long Disaster tries to pack 2-3 riffs into each
song, which is never a bad thing, and most of the time, sounded
pretty darn interesting. All this for 30 bucks-what a bargain,
and how many times can you say that about live rock and roll
these days.
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