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Back in the 1980s, Disneyland banned people with punk clothing or hairstyles. Thats why its so bizarre today to see fans with spiked hair slam-dancing at a venue on Disney property. This time, the cause of the commotion is Throw Rag, a Southern California outfit that combines strong doses of punk, psychobilly, country, and bluesy rock. The band mixes fury and reckless fun like no other.
The music is fast and aggressive but very tightly played. Throw Rags lead guitarist, Dino, displays as much skill as any musician in rock and Franco Fontana is a great bassist who often gets overlooked because of the manic performances by his band-mates at the front of the stage. The lead singer, Captain Sean Doe, bellows darkly witty songs about religious guilt, working-class life in the California desert, and alien abduction. The lyrics keep pace with the bands sound, creating jarring, fast-moving images, often of decay: a bad-liver weekend / glass eye winking / your lobotomys been thinking.
Live at the House of Blues captures all of Throw Rags diverse elements. Hang up and Bag of glue are two powerful, visceral songs that helped the band win the punk portion of its fan base. They make an easy transition from their most entertaining country effort, (Only drink on) Days that end in y to an infectious new punk song, Swing-set Superman. Table 4 3 draws Throw Rags components together more closely. A song about infidelity and revenge, it combines an opening reminiscent of the Sex Pistols Pretty vacant with riffs drawn from rockabilly and surf music. The lyrics are country and Sean Doe spits them out bitterly while dancing like a hyperactive Sammy Davis Jr.
Jacko, the washboard player, sings lead on a couple of tunes and his convulsive dancing and smart-assed interaction with the crowd keep the show unpredictable. He and Sean Doe both let the music carry them away to the point of exhaustion, and they employ a variety of weird dance moves in the process. When an instrumental segment comes up late in the set, and Sean Doe puts his microphone down and proceeds to stomp around stage yelling, you know there is nothing fake about the shows intensity.
The DVDs producers at Kung Fu Records provide a front-row experience with eight cameras and lots of close-up shots. Likewise, the editor resists the urge to focus only on the two singers, and for the benefit of the under-age and the squeamish, the Captain and Jacko (narrowly) avoid the nudity that characterized some of the groups earlier performances. The film offers a memorable look at a unique band, but theres still the question that has baffled critics: what sort of music is this, anyway? The members of Throw Rag say that theyre just a rock group, but the psychobilly label isnt far from the mark, since the bands shows capture the delirious spirit (if not the sound) of that styles founder, Hasil Adkins. At its core, however, Throw Rag is punk rock, creating a new form of chaos out of unlikely elements.