The Zeros
This band is an homage to 70’s punk at its best. All the way from California, this high energy group brings back the styles of the Ramones, the Clash and the Sex Pistols with true passion and talent. In fact, they actually played with The Clash once and have been joined on stage by Patti Smith. The female bassist was fantastic- the speed and precision of great punk is something many bass players have difficult time with, but she obviously loved the music enough to go to the trouble of mastering the riffs. The music is heavy and fun, but the volume was a little over the top (not sure if it was the band or the sound techs, but with this style of music, damaged eardrums are par for the course). Unfortunately, the loud instruments drowned out the vocals which is a pity because knowing what the music is actually written about makes it easier to review properly. Their second song made me think of such recent iconic punk as The Violent Femmes and Green Day (earlier albums). It wasn’t super fast, and more danceable than one might expect. The band creates the perfect atmosphere for their show with their on-stage energy and enthusiasm. The true punk-loving audience members requested an encore, which was much harder and faster, closing their set with a hard-core punk ass-kicking number.
