hey, y'all,

sorry for the off-topic post. nothing about islam in this message.

i took my 12 year old daughter and our 18 year old punk rock neighbor
girl to see the band last month at Tremont Music Hall here in
Charlotte. what a GREAT evening. although i've seen X 4 or 5 times
over the years, and we saw the Knitters in the summer of 2005, i'd
never seen Billy Zoom play, and AJ had never seen the band we both
love so much.

we grew pretty weary of Henry early on, and strategized our move
wisely. when he went off, and the crowd streamed out for a smoke and
a beer, we made our move to the front center rail. i put the kids up
front, and stood behind them to bodyguard them...and where they
wouldn't see me grinning and singing along and generally acting like
the starstruck teenager i was all evening. i wasn't the only parent
with teens upfront.

what a show! from the opener - we're desperate - every song was one i
REALLY wanted to hear. they could've played 75 songs and that
would've been true. AJ has been listening to X since she was about 9,
and knew every song. the band was on fire - Exene's stage presence is
mesmerizing, and when you're close enough that she locks in on you
and sings to you for 20 seconds, the effect is almost more than one
can take. john's certainly grown more relaxed as a performer. billy
zoom - ohmygod. the sounds, the chords, the sheer joyous noise of it
all. and the grin. i swear, hardest-working performer, and enaging.
he seemed to make eye contact with everyone under the lights, one
after the next.

the band was ever-so-kind to the girls. billy would look at emma -
who never smiles - and mouth "smile!" exene made a point of making
eye contact with them, and john leaned over a couple of times between
songs to ask if they were OK. AJ ADORES exene's singing and writing,
and for a 12 year old girl, it meant so much to her to see exene
again, and to hear the songs she loves to sing along with. what a
thrill for the both of us.


it was savage, heartfelt, powerful, serious, fun. we had the best
time ever. the girls were thrilled - especially AJ, who plays X
pretty regularly when we haul her soccer team around.


anyway, not a pro review. everything except 'breathless' was from the
first 4 albums. it was just what the Times review said, every last
song a gem, every note and flourish as right but punk, as hittin' the
note but seemingly spontaneous, as if the band were old pros,
auditioning for their very first gig.

i thought, at the end of everything, that someday i'd look back on a
gig from the late 80's in phoenix, when my baby brother's band opened
for X, that that would be the one i'd carry around in my heart. turns
out, it was this one, and i suspect AJ will carry it too. her heroes
turned out to be even better players - and people - than she or i had
any right to expect.


cheers!
ron e. charlotte

PS: it was SO intensely performed and felt that even after a month, i
can just replay parts of it in my mind. how deeply satisfying.

PPS: the posters for the 'as the world burns' tour are wonderful. and
billy zoom - punk legend, nice guy indeed!