Redd Kross is one of the best American bands of all time. Right behind KISS and the Ramones. I’ve seen them well over a dozen times over the past 37 years and they never disappoint. They played songs spanning their whole career: “Annie’s Gone”, “Switchblade Serenade”, “Linda Blair”, “Peach Kelly Pop”, “Uglier”, and more. And let’s not forget The Greatest Song Of All Time: “Stay Away From Downtown”, which is just the most perfect song ever made. I’m not joking. But this is certainly NOT a nostalgia tour. They got a new self-titled already critically acclaimed album (probably which will be known as the “red album”) to promote and they played a few songs from that too.
I know “Neurotica” is widely noted as being their “signature album” and “best” by most fans, but you know what? I didn’t even miss a lot of songs they didn’t play off it. Classic songs like “Frosted Flake” and “What They Say” are among their best, but they didn’t play them. And it didn’t matter at all. There’s just too many great songs in their catalog to play and I regard “Researching Their Blues” as my favorite Redd Kross album. I know that’s all subjective. My opinion. So far. (I haven’t heard the new one yet as I was waiting for this show to buy a copy to directly support the band).
This is the first night of their tour, so it was nice to see the band fresh and ready to ROCK. They were excellent, as usual, and are just getting warmed up. So see them now! Any chance you get! They closed the set off with KISS’ “Deuce”. My wife always describes Redd Kross as KISS meets the Beatles, and she’s not wrong. I tried to get up front to get some great pictures, but unlike the last few times I’ve seen them at the Casbah, the place was PACKED and people lined up to get their spots in the front row long before I could, so these pictures the best I could get. I saw them closing down their gear at the end of the set and got a band photo. Gave them my card for this blog and was showing the pictures on it to Steve McDonald. One was Nirvana at the Casbah (reviewed HERE) and I forgot to mention that Dale from the Melvins, who was literally 5 feet away from us, played drums on that show! Talk about coming full circle!
Redd Kross has a documentary called “Born Innocent” which is making the festival circuit and should be available soon. You can see the trailer HERE. They also have a book coming out soon! And of course the new self titled album which is available at all the usual places.
On the way back to the car, a violent but jovial old punk rocker told my wife he liked her style.
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