X – Palladium-Times Square – 8.31.23
The first time I saw X was at The Palladium on 14th St. followed by an afterparty at Danceteria back in 1982. Both those musical institutions are long gone. The Palladium-Times Square occupies a space under an office building housing Paramount Media, home to MTV. It was originally the Astor Plaza movie theatre but after a massive renovation became the Nokia Theater Times Square then Best Buy Theater and later PlayStation Theater. It a shiny comfortable space, one that you would never associate with the punk rock scene of Los Angeles in the late 70’s. But here were X in their original configuration: bass player John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom, drummer D.J. Bonebrake, and controversial singer Exene Cervenka playing to a decent size crowd.
During the Covid pandemic Exene made the news by posting some controversial thoughts on her since deleted twitter account. She’s since made an apology concerning her remarks. I can’t help but think her postings may have hurt attendance for this show. Tickets were going for half price on Groupon. One of my friends passed on coming with me after I informed him of her ideas. While I and a majority of people disagreed with her, I convinced myself to go by reasoning that’s impossible to know and agree with the thoughts of every musician whose concert I attend – and frankly, I don’t want to.
Anyway, back to the show. X played a solid career retrospective as well as a few new songs from their upcoming album. The set included fan favorites “Los Angeles”, “Breathless”, “Soul Kitchen” and “Your Phone’s Off the Hook, But You’re Not”. A loyal fan base lined up hours before the doors opened so they could get up to the front rail and record the whole show on their phones. I did witness one person doing this at least until I moved further back. A small mosh pit broke out on the floor. It was like the last 40 years (and Twitter) never happened.
The Squirrel Nut Zippers opened the show with a fine, very entertaining performance of New Orleans dixieland jazz and more.
Author
Eric K. Andersen is a former record company weasel who currently goes to a lot of concerts and takes pictures. You can find his website by clicking the link icon below.