Music, The Features, We Love Music

Hot Ticket: Buzzcocks @ Black Cat, 9/4/14

After the Sex Pistols shook up the U.K. music scene in 1976, new music groups exploded across the country, and perhaps the city of Manchester cultivated the most intriguing of the bands that resulted.

Among them: the Buzzcocks, the legendary punk popsters, who have released a new album, The Way, this year.

It’s remarkable that the Buzzcocks have managed to stay together despite an extended breakup in the ’80s; more remarkable that the band retains two of its original members in vocalists and guitarists Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle; and absolutely most remarkable that the new album (funded through PledgeMusic) sounds pretty good from the tracks I’ve heard.

In support of the new album, the Buzzcocks visit the Black Cat tonight to launch a North American tour, and they are sure to play lots of classics, including “What Do I Get,” “Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)” and “Orgasm Addict,” as well.

Buy tickets online or at the door (although I warn you, they sold out at the last minute when the Buzzcocks last came to the Black Cat on May 11, 2010, as We Love DC reported then).

The Buzzcocks
w/ Loud Boyz
Black Cat
Thursday, Sept. 4
Doors @8pm
$25
All ages

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music

We Love Music: Buzzcocks @ The Black Cat 5/11/10

Buzzcocks at The Black Cat 5/11/10
courtesy of Buzzcocks.

Woo-hoo!!!*

Buzzcocks launched the U.S. leg of their “Another…Bites Tour” at the Black Cat on Tuesday night with an exuberant set of their classic, reverb-drenched, pop/punk, sing-a-longs. Since their early-90’s revival, original members Shelley and Diggle have been performing non-stop in the US and UK. Right up there with Stiff Little Fingers, Buzzcocks are one of the longest running and quality-consistent graduates of the original UK Punk class. To mix it up on this tour the band are performing their brilliant first and second albums back-to-back (both released in 1978) along with “other hits”. While album-entirety shows are becoming quite trendy of late (not that I mind), for Buzzcocks I think this dual-album attack is a great move. As their legacy becomes tied more and more to their ability to write amazing singles (as collected on the essential “Singles Going Steady“) this dual album tour is here to remind us that Buzzcocks were also responsible for crafting some brilliant albums; each with an energy flow, sonic imprint, and lyrical themes that deserve their place in rock history as well. Actually Tuesday night’s show did much more than gently remind us of this fact; in typical Buzzcocks pop-roar fashion the show served as a blaring klaxon alarm that made the relevance of “Another Music in a Different Kitchen” and “Love Bites” impossible to ignore.

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