Pop : X, Blasters Echo the ‘80s in Benefit for Boxer

Like recent benefits held by the Los Angeles “alternative” rock community for such issues as the pro-choice movement and AIDS awareness, Friday’s Hollywood Palladium concert supporting the U.S. Senate campaign of Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae) had some distinctively alternative twists.

The candidate herself wasn’t on hand, but the emcee was Beth Lapides, a comedian/performance artist who is “running” for First Lady (she wants to make Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” the new national anthem). And more people in the audience bragged about seeing the evening’s performers a decade ago up the street at the old Cathay de Grande punk club than discussed whether they supported (or even knew) Boxer’s politics.

Phil Alvin, lead singer of the Blasters, made several wry comments about the changes wrought by the passing years (“Is there anyone here who has not been rehabilitated?”), yet the show was anything but an exercise in nostalgia.

With songwriter-guitarist Dave Alvin rejoining for the occasion, the Blasters still stand as the premier post-punk roots-rock band, with songs capturing the American fabric both musically and lyrically. The music remains socially relevant and emotionally resonant.

X, more formally reunited after a long hiatus and at work on a new album, performed with as much vitality as when it burst out of the L.A. punk scene more than a dozen years ago. Could the same be said of, say, the Rolling Stones at the same stage of their career?

Such old favorites as “Los Angeles” and “Johnny Hit and Run Pauline” sounded no less relevant being sung by mature adults (Exene Cervenka and John Doe looking more healthy and trim than ever) rather than by angry youths, and--most significantly--several new songs sounded just as strong. Throughout, Tony Gilkyson showed off a fatter, almost metal guitar sound and seemed a truly integral element of X for the first time since he replaced Billy Zoom in 1986.

Also on the bill were rising stars Mary’s Danish (more direct, confident and heavier-sounding than in the past), always-acoustic Phranc (the L.A. punk generation’s campfire song-leader), ska revivalists No Doubt and ex-Circle Jerk Keith Morris’ new band, Buglamp. And, showing that some politics did get through, organizers announced that more than 700 new voters were registered at the show.