Review by Jordan West
Photos by Ron Lyon
Los Angeles based rockers X, in the midst of what the band members have called their final tour, made a stop in Orange County at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, and, as they have done for a long time, made quite a ruckus. The band, who arose out of the beginnings of the Los Angeles punk rock scene in the late 1970s, and still include all four original members, were celebrating the release of their ninth album entitled Smoke & Fiction.
The evening started with a set from singer and guitarist Jonny “Two Bags” Wickersham, who is known to many as a guitarist in the Orange County-based band Social Distortion. Two Bags and his five-piece band played a very sharp set, and featured Eleanor Whitmore on vocals, keyboards, violin, and mandolin, as well as her husband Chris Masterson on guitar. The band’s sound is well-crafted “roots rock” and they finished their brief time on stage with a great cover of the Rolling Stones classic “Sweet Virginia.”
Legendary rockers Reverend Horton Heat was next onstage, and unfortunately for us fans, his set was cut short due to time constraints with the venue. The Pac Amp has a strict curfew, as it has for years, as well as sound monitoring that must satisfy the surrounding neighborhood restrictions. RHH is led by singer guitarist Jim Heath, who just blazes on his orange colored Gretsch guitar from start to finish, no matter how much time he is allowed onstage.
Appearing nattily dressed in a two-tone western-styled jacket, Heath led his trio, featuring long-time bassist “Jimbo” Wallace and drummer Jonathan Jeter in some revved up rockin’ material, including crowd favorites “Psychobilly Freakout” and the double entendre “Big Red Rocket Of Love.” Jimbo’s standup bass slapping, combined with Jeter’s locomotive drumming, set a fine bed for Heath to showcase his guitar skills.
He played a few numbers from his recently released album of cover songs Roots of the Rev (Volume 1) including Willie Nelson’s “Three Days” and Eddie Cochrane’s classic “20 Flight Rock,” which featured Wallace on vocals. The band then blasted out a few odes to classic cars such as “400 Bucks” and “Galaxy 500” before he told the disappointed crowd that he would have to cut the show short, teasing them by saying that “Jimbo was tired.” The band then treated their fans to a crushing, set-ending blast of Motörhead’s iconic “Ace Of Spades” that brought most of us to our feet, and a huge applause shook the amphitheatre.
As the PA system played the familiar refrain of the “Rumble” by Link Ray, the members of X, singer Exene Cervenka, bassist and vocalist John Doe, drummer DJ Bonebrake, and guitarist Billy Zoom casually strode onstage, to a loud welcome. Their minimal equipment, a drum kit and a few amps were dwarfed by the large stage at the Pac Amp, but it didn’t matter. Almost immediately, the air was filled with the frantic sounds and pace of X’s brand of punk, blues, and roots rock.
Opening with “The Phone’s Off The Hook, But You’re Not” from 1980’s Los Angeles album, it was off and running with a 21-song set that touched on most of their recording career. Tonight, it was all up-tempo songs, mostly clocking in at three or four minutes tops. They played quick and right-to-the-punch numbers, such as “In This House That I Call Home” and “Adult Books” that rocked much harder live than their original recordings. “Hello Orange County!” exclaimed Cervenka (she and Zoom are both OC residents), who clearly had lots of friends in the audience.
“Who would like to hear a new song?” asked John Doe, and the band launched into “Flipside” as well as “Sweet Til The Bitter End” both from Smoke & Fiction that are right in sync with their past catalog. No surprises, just straight-ahead rock, with Doe and Cervenka’s unique harmonizing, Bonebrake’s fast paced drumming, and Zoom’s grimy guitar riffs, which really is the grease that makes the gears flow. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? The crowd seemed to enjoy hearing the new songs, and there would be more.
After a false start and count in by Bonebrake, X cranked out their quirky cover of the Otis Blackwell classic “Breathless” that had Cervenka squealing and twisting to the beat, as the crowd sang along. A highlight for me, as always, is the performance of “The Hungry Wolf” that brought me right back to my first summer in LA, and hearing it played on radio station KROQ — which, as far as I was concerned, was the only station to hear exciting new music when it was released in 1982. Again, Bonebrake’s drumming and Zoom’s guitar sound on this particular number make my head spin and my adrenaline rush every time I hear it played. Especially live.
“Water and Wine,” the first single off their surprise comeback album, 2020’s Alphabetland, is a quick toe-tapper and Cervenka really hit her stride during “The World’s A Mess It’s In My Kiss,” which she seemed to be singing with a huge wave of conviction. Even though it’s been a long time since the song was released, its message is still very relevant. The hypnotic “The Unheard Music” was dedicated to LA icons the Doors, as well as their late keyboardist Ray Manzerek, who produced the first few X records from which many of the numbers were represented during the set.
A few more new songs from Smoke & Fiction were well received. The title track and “Ruby Church” could be from any of X’s last few albums. Their style is just very simple, incredibly familiar and all their own. Instantly, you know that it’s an X song. I look forward to listening to it some more.
John Doe again addressed the audience by saying, “This next song could be a sing-along.” As the band cranked out their hugely popular “Los Angeles” from the album of the same name, many in the audience, including the drunken, out-of-key guy behind me, took it to heart, and attempted their best to obey Doe’s wishes. Continuing the madness with “Johnny Hit And Run Pauline,” the chorus can be hard to spit out after one too many Modelos, and those around me seemed to prove that fact.
The pounding, tom-tom beat and vocal strain of the droning “Nausea,” a personal favorite of mine, slowed things down just slightly, before X ended their set with a double hit of revved up whammy with “Motel Room In My Bed” and their sped up, complete remake of the Doors “Soul Kitchen.” which initially caught the aforementioned Ray Manzarek’s attention to the band. As I mentioned, he was so impressed that he produced their first two records and became a life-long fan and friend of the band.
At song’s end, X left the stage to a twinkling “X” backdrop and a huge roar from the crowd. They returned soon, and thanked the crew as well as the opening bands, before the familiar sounds of Billy Zoom’s guitar chords cranked out a blistering version of “White Girl,” a crowd favorite from their 1981 Wild Gift LP that had all in attendance totally in tune with the band onstage. They followed that with their rip-roaring take on “Wild Thing,” which the band released as a single in 1984 and was previously made famous by the Troggs, who hit the top of the charts with it in 1966.
X continued with their demonic pace with the double time of “Devil Doll” that ended the show with a bang. The crowd saluted their heroes with screams and whoops. As he has for many years, Billy Zoom lingered onstage for quite some time, smiling, and shaking hands with the people in the front rows and posing for pictures.
Would this be the last time I would see X? No one knows for sure. These days “Farewell Tours” turn into “Eternity Tours” and if that happens, a band like X would be one I will continue to see again and again. Their music is timeless, as well as both familiar and topical. Their 2023 release and reportedly “final” album Smoke & Fire sounds great and ranks right up there with my favorite new releases. The band seems happy and content from what I saw and heard, and I look forward to seeing what happens next. To borrow a line from one of their songs — “See how we are?”
~ Photo Galleries ~
Jonny “Two Bags” Wickersham
Reverend Horton Heat
X
