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Still In Hollywood: The Return of Concrete Blonde

Yes, it’s true! If you care about such things at all you know that Concrete Blonde is back with a new album, and a new tour.  Concrete Blonde made its mark in the 80’s and early 90’s with their dark, bluesy, slightly-punky, slightly-cowboy rock sound.  I myself used to sit in my room listening to Concrete Blonde’s well-known album Bloodletting over and over again.  The song “Joey” is probably their most well-known “mainstream” song, although they are considered to be classic in the underground.  The black-clad crowd have always loved the song “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)”, “Walking in London” and “Someday”.  Lead vocalist/bass-player Johnette Napolitano has one of those strong, raw, whiskey-voices, which was unusual among the little-girl whiny voices that characterized the period.  Their cover songs are also delightful, such as James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World” or Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”.  They were also known for their tight songwriting, in-your-face lyrics, and political go-to-hell stances.   One of the greatest regrets of my life was that I missed their 1994 farewell tour to promote their last album  Mexican Moon, and that I missed it due to well, stupidity.

Imagine my joy at discovering that I would have another chance to see Concrete Blonde play  live.

I’ve consulted with people who saw the Group Therapy tour in other cities, and evidently I saw one of their tighter, better shows.  They proved that after 8 years, they’ve still got it! Johnette is a goddess! She rocks, she howls, she whispers, she prowls.  The sheer power of her vocals blew me out of the water.  The music was amazing and they were very together.  Some people prefer a light show and costumes, but as for me, I prefer to catch the vibe of three people on stage in a packed club playing their hearts out.  Fortunately, that’s what I got!


I have no doubt that Concrete Blonde could have been booked into one of the bigger venues in town, but they sold out a club that held between 200 and 250 people.  The deep bass on “Bloodletting” was amazing!  Johnette prefaced the song “God Is A Bullet” with the words “You know, it SUCKS that this is still relevant”.  They played many recognizable tracks from their new album. Of note were the powerful “Valentine” and “Fried”.  But of course they also played their more famous old stuff such as the aforementioned “Bloodletting”, “Joey”, and “Someday”.  And of course, their wonderful cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows”, which ended up on the Pump Up The Volume Soundtrack back in the day.  I was glad I got to hear one of my personal favorites, “It’ll Chew You Up and Spit You Out”.  I LOVE that song!  “There’s a million stars, It’ll blow you away/ It’s all so concrete blonde/Still in Hollywood/Oh yeah thought I’d be out of here by now”.  Their name-providing anthem still resounds and rocks, especially in the days where it seems that Hollywood has become even more shallow and plastic than previously. Johnette can still sing to tear your heart right out.  The last encore of the night was Johnette singing “Tomorrow, Wendy”, a gorgeous song about a woman with AIDS, totally acapella with help from audience members.  That woman has got some powerful energy. And I will ALWAYS want to be Johnette Napolitano when I grow up!

           

It's official: Concrete Blonde can still rock!
If only that were as apparent on their new album.

Group Therapy has, in general, a gentler, twangier lounge-sound than their earlier albums. Although Mexican Moon hinted at this change to a southwest latin-inspired sound, Group Therapy  comes right out and states it.  Concrete Blonde is older, and maybe a little tired, as they’ve moved away from their angrier, hard-rocking sound.  I like their new album, but more as a nice background than something I put on because I can’t get some of the tracks out of my head or because I’m in that MOOD, that rockin’-out mood.  Its perfect for tonight, a rainy almost-spring night, it sounds like spring in another part of the country where the climate warms faster than the Midwest.


This is the sound of a group who’s settled outside of the edgy L.A., and settled some of their personal doubts and debts, too. The lyrics speak less of angst these days, and more of figuring things out and letting go. “Fried” rocks, as does “Valentine”, but the other songs tend to fade into the background a bit.  Nice, but not innovative.  Well-done, but not as memorable as their earlier albums.  Their powerful live performance led me to expect something different from their new album when I had a chance to listen to the album after the show. The song “Tonight” sounds like it could have come from Mexican Moon – era fiddling about in the studio,and that’s pretty good.


Concrete Blonde’s melodic flowing sound is inoffensive, but my favorite moments are still when I hear the raw vocals and emotion of Johnette’s singing, such as in “Valentine”.  Where I hear the pounding basslines and her screeches and spoken-word and bluesy ramblings, ah yes, that’s the Concrete Blonde I know and love. They may not pack the punch they used to, but they can still get all riled-up from time to time. So I guess I’d rate this album 3 stars, under the “How-the-Mighty-Have-Not-Fallen-But-Maybe-Stumbled-And-Limp-A-Little” category.

 

 

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