The Call of the Wreckin' Ball

The Knitters @ Trocadero Philadelphia, PA 8/13/05
Well after the Paul Green Pink Floyd show (see review below), which was an early show that started at about 7:30 and ended at about 9, we headed down to the Trocadero to see The Knitters, who just released their 2nd album and their 1st in 20 years, the excellent and simply titled The Modern Sounds of the Knitters. Now for those of you who don't know, The Knitters are basically X (one of my favorite bands of all time) with Dave Alvin (who was absolutely mesmerizing on lead guitar) taking the place of Billy Zoom on guitar and an additional bass player who plays stand-up bass. The material consists of covers of obscure country, rockabilly and blues songs like Leadbelly's "Rock Island Line" (of which they performed an absolutely furious and unbelievably fast-paced version), similarly spirited originals like the beautiful "Someone Like You" and the stomping "The Call of the Wreckin' Ball" (which they played 2 versions of; the original one on their 1985 debut Poor Little Critter in the Road and the new one, titled "The Call of the New Wreckin' Ball", that's on their new one) and redone X originals like "Burning House of Love" (which they played on Letterman the night before) and "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts". Although it was really late and very hot in there since there was no air-conditioning (it was on the hottest day of the summer; luckily I stood near a fan), it was still great to see John Doe and Exene Cervenka on the same stage. Now all I have to do is see the reunited original lineup of X, though they hardly ever tour over here and I missed them when they came to Philly (the closest they came to NYC) a few years ago.