At Indie’s show, no question who the Pretenders are
Kevin Bronson on
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Radio stations’ holiday soirees make for strange bedfellows. Indie 103.1’s bustling affair Wednesday night at Club Nokia attracted a startlingly cross-generational crowd: There were graybeards who had followed the Pretenders since Back in the Day — that day being 30 years ago, when their first single was released. And there were cherubs who had worshiped the Black Kids since Back in the Day — that day being a few months in late 2007 after Pitchfork anointed them the next big things.
It was Hall of Fame meets Kids in the Hall — but the crowd(s) largely loved it, except for the teenager on the balcony who, after asking for set time information and being told that Brazilian dance-rockers CSS played after the Pretenders, squealed to her friends, “Oh good, we have another hour!”
The Black Kids gamely tried to sell the crowd on a second single off their album “Partie Traumatic” (their sticky tune “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You” having put them on the map). Then U.K. quartet Bloc Party, an L.A. crowd favorite the past few years, came on, unsurprisingly getting tepid response to material from their third album, “Intimacy,” and hitting pay dirt with oldies like “Banquet” and “Modern Love.”
Then Chrissie Hynde took over, commanding the crowd as soon as she walked onstage and counted “1-2-3-4.” Many a follower has tried to replicate that devastating quaver in her voice, which, at 57 (fifty-damn-seven), still sends chills up your spine. Playing a handful of songs off its first album in six years, “Break Up the Concrete,” the quintet hopscotched from its twangy, tasty and occasionally torchy new material to old favorites. Even some of the kids were singing along to “Back on the Chain Gang” and “Brass in Pocket” — with Hynde saying of the latter: “Here’s a song we promised we’d never played again … but, well, that’s the kind of guy I am.” Their hourlong main set was followed by a two-song encore.
If anything, the Pretenders’ presence gave a nice shot in the arm to Indie 103, which lacks the (I’ll call it) arm-twisting muscle of its local FM brethren when it comes to mounting affairs like this. The station is two weeks short of its fifth birthday — but remains a mere blip on the ratings radar. That despite having cutting-edge (and almost college-radio-type) programming; despite broader playlists; and despite a virtually indelible (at least, at this point) presence in the local music community. The station’s recent offloading of many of its specialty programs suggests a move toward the mainstream. I hope it’s not a freefall. We have enough sheep music.
Photo courtesy Timothy Norris and LA Weekly; watch for more coverage at the Weekly’s blog, Play
How is Chrissie still so hot at 57? Those legs!
i can’t believe 2008 is almost over. Black Kids were my favorite new comers of the year. And I dug their awesome choices for best of 2008.
Black Kids top 10 is a featured list on erockster.com, you gotta check it out.
I too am worried that indie is becoming broader with its programming, but I do not understand why foo fighters are on the playlist. We’ll know soon enough if they are just mining the name indie by goundflooring new music to suck people in and doing a bait and switch for stuff we already hear on kroq.
Masterson’s show was the most local music show on radio in L.A. Ive ever heard. They freakin had in studio perf’s with The Movie’s for god sakes! Indie’s new station manager is fucking it all up. Its becoming a best of the 90’s indie station.