Lydia Lunch Retrovirus

[ateolf]

Thursday was my first time ever going to Gonerfest. But Lydia Lunch was a damn good reason! Anyway, I'll give a breakdown of the show. Bênní was first. His stuff was pretty good. I'd heard him before and was interested in seeing his stuff again. Pretty retro synthwave and a little by-the-numbers, but pretty good nonetheless. Next was a band called Bummer's Eve that I wasn't expecting much of, but they were surprisingly not bad. They were definitely in the standard Goner garage mold, but pretty okay for all that. They were fuzzed out (I mean, not insane levels of fuzz, but nicely saturated at least) and their best quality was having even the vocals fuzzed out. It was a nice perk. Next was Aquarian Blood who I like and was looking forward to seeing again. They were good as usual. The next band was the only stinker in the lot. They were called Gino and the Goons. They were godawful. Definitely stereotypical Goner garage stuff, but in the most boring way possible. They prided themselves on getting everyone to "dance" (i.e. mosh). Lots of Chuck Berry riffs and generic garage rock staples. They even spent a good deal of time commanding the audience to dance. Like, they even had a bit where they kept playing the same part while the singer faked holding the audience hostage by saying they wouldn't stop playing even if they got banned from Goner and the other bands were mad at them until everyone was dancing. I called their bluff. It was all stupid. Also annoying 'cuz at one point (actually around this time) the mosh pit reached farther back and I got half knocked over. Annoying shit. Anyway, all is good 'cuz Lydia Lunch Retrovirus was next! I tried to go in not knowing anything about what the set would be like, but I did take a glance at the program while we were waiting for the shows to start and got pretty excited by the description (who's in the band and the range of her career they span, as in all of it). The only sad thing is they didn't do any Teenage Jesus and the Jerks songs, but they did do an 8 Eyed Spy song ("Love Split with Blood" of course) and the band was incredible and everything they played was really good. They also did a cover of "Final Solution." So the band was Bob Bert on drums, Weasel Walter on guitar, and Tim Dahl on bass (not familiar with the last guy but his playing was pretty awesome). It was all a nice hunk of noise rock. Weasel Walter was very animated, also sweat a lot. Also, Lydia Lunch exhibit a nice little bit of local understanding that made a nice contrast with the previous band. At one point in her banter she took a few funny jabs at Nashville. The bass player in the previous band was wearing a Nashville shirt. I mean, I wouldn't expect the outsiders to know of our cities' superficial rivalry, but it was all the more impressive Lydia did. Anyway, they were really good and it was great finally having see both Lydia Lunch and Bob Bert in person. A great way to finally break into Gonerfest. There's a few more days, well one was yesterday, but that's the only one I felt the need to go to. Hit the merch room before leaving and at Lydia's table picked up a Teenage Jesus and the Jerks shirt and Lydia Lunch Retrovirus: Urge to Kill on cd. Yesterday it was being tired at work but afterwards Mary Beth and I went out and ate at Lucky Cat (making up for missing it on our anniversary). Then we watched the new episode of the new season of The Good Place. Now it's a new morning!