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‘Punk rock’ arrives hereBy David W. ChandlerWritten for The State JournalIn Rome, bands of youths calling themselves the “Metropolitan Indi ans” paint their faces and initiate ferocious street battles with police and the established Communist Party alike.In Paris, other roving gangs of young men and women are called “the breakers — they attack consumer society by pillaging the gaudiest shops.In London, a singer named Johnny Rotten stitches his torn clothing together with hundreds of safety pins. Another pin dangles from one nostril. His band, the Sex Pistols, has a record the BBC refuses to broadcast — it be comes a hit nonetheless. The group signs a contract with the English affiliate of a major American record label, but a few days later the contract is canceled after the band breaks into the firm’s offices, assaulting employees and smashing furniture.In America, a record label president addresses a scathing denunciation to radio programmers and DJs he accuses of maintaining an unspoken boycott of a whole style of music they allegedly consider too brutal and basic to be worthy of airtime. The blast gets feature coverage in music industry trade publications.Welcome to the world of the punks, and to their music, “punk rock”.Thursday night, The Ramones became the first big time punk band to play Madison. Significantly, the hall — the El Tejon Club at 319 W. Gorham St. — was neither burned nor looted;the cfowd of onlookers (with a few exceptions) neither outlandishly festooned nor unusually clotted with savage wastrels. The Ramones, you see, make up a “class punk band, and don’t have to indulge in such bitter acting out.Maybe, if this show was any indication, they’ll feel they have to. The start was promising enough, with the first tune — tough and tomd— snapping every one of the 250-300 persons present to rapt attention. But by the end of the second set the enthusiasts had dwindled to a handful, and many in the audience had simply drifted away. Adding insult to injury, the dropouts didn’t even seem particularly outraged (which would have been acceptable), just boredJoey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy Ramone were, in fact, rather boring. If, that is, you are easily bored by endless power chords (all five of them) played at crushing volume, byStage, music,Sinsinawa eventsSINSINAWA — Madison talent will be prominent in the Summer Arts Program of the Sinsinawa Education Cen ter in July.The Madison Festival Choir, di rected by David Crosby, will singgutteral “lyrics,” by lockstep rhythms and circular melodies, by declarations of rage and defiance delivered in the most classic adenoidal teenage pout.Yet for all that, The Ramones proved conclusively that they are not flukes. They have, without a doubt, the stuff of rock and roll greatness. Whether you call it moxie, chutzpah, or use a term more earthy, guts — The Ramones have it. They ooze the sheer audacity it takes to grab the world by the throat and dare the consequences. Really nothing more than a fairly tight garage band, they are carrying off a non-negotiable demand for an album (two, in fact), for a fat concert fee, for undying devotion and a hefty slice of center stage.If you think that’s not all in the best traditions of rock and roll, let me remind you that the fellow who’s now called “The King used to drive a garbage truck around Memphis He was pretty surly, too.arts in brief•through Sunday in the campus Experimental Theater. “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams will be staged July 7-10 in Barnett Theater, and Clarence Day’s “Life With Father,” July 26-31 in the Experimental Theater. All performances will begin at 8 p m.SpotlightWisconsin State JournalSaturday, June 25, 1977, Section 1, Page 11
Newspaper Details
Madison Wisconsin State Journal
Madison, Wisconsin, US
Sat, Jun 25, 1977
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Michael H.
IL, USA 30 Sep 2023
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