The Monsters of College Rock on Tour
Last night was a reminder that I’m getting older. Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows, Minus 5, R.E.M. side man, Robyn Hitchcock side man), Peter Buck (R.E.M., Minus 5, Robyn Hitchcock side man), Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate) and Linda Pitmon (don’t know her pedigree beyond drumming with Wynn for years) played One Eyed Jacks, and for many in the graying, balding crowd (who easily outnumbered the young and hair-ful), the most exciting moments came when Wynn revisited 1982’s The Days of Wine and Roses. That’s not a knock on McCaughey’s material, The Baseball Project (an album of baseball-themed songs that they released earlier this year) or Wynn’s subsequent output; it’s more a tribute to the enduring tension hardwired into those songs. Even when Buck put down the bass and added the Rickenbacher chime to “That’s What You Always Say,” the song’s central nervousness remained.
The gray in the audience matched the gray onstage, but aside from the vintage of a handful of songs, it wasn’t a gray show. Wynn and McCaughey may have made their first splash more than 20 years ago, but they remain song machines, crunching out reliably intelligent, catchy songs that rock. The show also didn’t feel old because everyone onstage seemed comfortable with who they were, gray and all (Buck seemed comfortable being the designated Bill Wyman), and the lack of pretense freed up the evening to be about a bunch of songs.
McCaughey and Wynn and many of their contemporaries (including members of the Continental Drifters) occupy an interesting space. They were once part of a cutting edge that moves on as cutting edges do, leaving them not quite members of the establishment (didn’t sell enough records), not quite punk (too old) but not quite singer/songwriters (too rock). They’ve become a gold standard for a level of craft and independence, and if that’s not as sexy as the New Thing, it’s also far more reliable.
