HOW DOES MUSIC FEEL TODAY? REDD KROSS

Hello readers. Welcome to another edition of “How Does Music Feel Today?” This is usually a PAID subscriber feature but Redd Kross are on tour RIGHT NOW and I don’t want a single one of you to miss the opportunity to go see them because they are quite simply THE BEST FUCKING LIVE BAND IN AMERICA! (and they are taking their sweet sauce to Europe too!) PURCHASETH THY TICKETS POSTHASTE!

As you may know from my last newsletter it’s a heavy, heavy week. We had to put down my sweet, funny, old-as-dust terrier, Jerome yesterday. I’m happy to say his passing was soft and peaceful. The vets did a wonderful job and he was able to let go. It was such a relief as he had really taken a turn over the weekend. He became a bit of a prisoner in his little body. (Why is it that animals only choose to have age-related strokes outside business hours, ON the weekend!? Every fucking time, I tell you! I think that’s their sense of humor coming to poop and pee on the floor one last time…) And if that wasn’t heavy enough, tonight my old horse Norman is saying goodbye too. He is very sick and not having any good times anymore. That said, the vet came and gave him a special cocktail of drugs to make him feel “groovy” for his remaining hours. I am so glad of it. He is the smartest, most forgiving entity I have ever known. I don’t know how I’m going to handle this one…

What does this have to do with Redd Kross you ask? Everything. I knew THIS week was coming; heavy deadlines, beloved dog and horse troubles as well as burn-out and getting all my ducks in a row in too-short a time before I leave to mix this record in Portland. The end of several eras were coming at once, so last week I gave myself a treat and bought ManFriendJeff and I tickets to see my favorite live band, Redd Kross at Lee’s Palace in Toronto. We didn’t go to Toronto just for that, but to also catch up with loved ones, eat incredible food and visit one of theee finest guitar stores, Capsule Music, owned by my old friends, the sweet-as-pie Kesper brothers. I don’t ever vacation or take time off, but I allowed myself four days total (two driving, two living “the life”) to try to cut loose and release some tension. Did I eat too much? Yes! Did I release some tension? Yes! Just enough to make space for what was coming, which is not an exact science, obviously.

The night of the show we walked to Lee’s with my beloved friend Don Pyle. The night was perfect Toronto summer; hot as balls and tinged orange in the sky. No garbage strike and a Monday night calm in the air. There wasn’t that charged edge of people on an overcrowded street, desperate to get hammered and fight or mate. It felt safe and hopeful outside. Haha! 

Lee’s was sweltering as I expected, but a cold water set me right. It wasn’t overcrowded and the sightlines were great. I have played Lee’s SO many times and even made part of a record here with the mighty Sadies. It was so nice to just be there to see a show. I quickly found several dear old friends that I had no idea would be there, yet wasn’t surprised that they also love Redd Kross. I have spent much of my life in Toronto and this felt like coming home to a real music community, a scene that fit like a glove. Oh, how I’ve missed and needed this feeling. Wherever you are, never take your local music scene for granted, it’s a sacred space. Tip those bartenders, be kind to the crews.

I have loved Redd Kross so long I can’t even remember when I started? Neurotica was the first record of theirs I bought. I started hearing their music at around 15-ish which makes close FOURTY years of fandom. Wow. And they have never disappointed me! I remember seeing them for the first time on their big Third Eye tour in Seattle. (I still have the poster.) Good god, man! I was trampled. It felt great. I didn’t see them again until my 43rd birthday in Portland. Their album Researching the Blues had just come out and they played TWICE in the same day at two different venues! It was a superior way to spend one’s birthday. Twenty years prior I had gone on my second tour ever with my best friend’s band, CUB, subbing for Valeria on drums. We happened to be opening for some of my other musical idols, The Muffs, who, happened to contain my FAVORITE rock n’ roll drummer of all time, Roy McDonald, also of Redd Kross. It was TOO MUCH FOR MY BRAIN! And there, on my 43rd birthday at the Doug Fir lounge Roy and I were reunited. It had been at least ten years since I’d seen him. Needless to say, Redd Kross tore my face off for the first show and scraped my skull clean for the second. Their precision, incredible singing, high energy and great sense of humor gave me fuel to finish the difficult The Worse Things Get album. I was so depressed and seeing one of my all time favorite bands who had never diminished in power propped me back up. I am forever grateful.

Monday July 29th 2024 at Lee’s palace was a little different, Roy wasn’t there to play drums but sweet Dale Crover of The Melvins was! If you can’t have Roy, Dale is a superb alternate! He even opened the show! I’m not going to tell you every song they played, or critique the show here, I just want to talk about the joy. About three songs in I was unbridled with my fist in the air singing loudly along with “Stay Away From Downtown” as physically happy as I can remember being in a long time. The guitars were buoyant and exquisite, the harmony singing first rate. It was a sound the audience actually rode like a rollercoaster. Such magic elation! The band were loose and funny and clearly comfortable in their deep skills. They closed out the show with “Deuce” by KISS and the crowd went mental. Partly, I’m sure, because they prefaced it by explaining that we really needed to “bring it” to the “rock n’ roll party” because for all we knew they could have Paul Stanley on speed dial because they do live in LA where “all the stars live” and if they reported to Starchild that we did not deliver who knows what the consequences would be? Who would take such risk? Not us. 

It also turns out that RK had been in town the night before promoting their new documentary film by Andrew Reich. I was beyond bummed that I missed it but what do you do? They not only have a film, but a memoir AND a new record out! Check it out here. What a band. What an inspiration. What a night. What a “vacation.”

I saw people that I need. People who have loved ones in common who are gone now, but we keep thinking they are going to walk around the corner any second. People gone way too soon. I was immersed in a humid cloud of feelings. It was like a little steam shower I needed. Thank you, Redd Kross. Thank you, Toronto. And thank you dear readers for letting me talk it out with you. XO

Here are the mighty Jason Shapiro, Dale Crover, Jeff and Steve McDonald tuning pre-show. I don’t like to use a phone during the show. You know this.