The Most Exciting Musician in Rock Amps Black Cat Backstage

Jay Reatard's trio executes near-perfect punk

WASHINGTON -- I've written it before, and the live show only confirmed it, Jay Reatard's got a sound closer to original punk rock than any artist out there. While his host of singles often rely on synthesizers and acoustic guitar -- sounding more like new wave and garage rock -- on stage, it's pure punk. Those other influence aren't lost, though which helps Reatard avoid sounding the same song after song. There wasn't much variance at the Black Cat Backstage Tuesday, but each song, within an aggressive, breakneck punk formula, found its own discernible melody and hook -- something the Ramones accomplished three-and-a-half decades ago when they pretty much gave birth to punk rock at CBGBs.

Over the past couple of years, Reatard has released one LP and an astonishing number of singles that prove he's the most exciting recording artist around, even on the songs that sound like they were recorded in a bedroom. On Tuesday, he showed D.C. he's possibly the most exciting live artist, too. The band kicked off the set with "An Ugly Death." Despite the band's angst, many of the tunes are love songs, or unrequited love songs, with a sense of hope overwhelmed by disappointment and disenchantment, and "An Ugly Death" captured that perfectly as Jay sang in the chorus, "An ugly death for a pretty girl. For you, for me, for all to see." One letdown came early in the set, when "My Shadow," Reatard's best song on wax, sounded lazy and flat and uninspired, but the rest of the set was even more impassioned and energetic and lively than on record, and Jay proved that by sandwiching "My Shadow" between incredible, searing renditions of "It's So Easy" and "Oh, It's Such a Shame," which soared in the chorus. The chorus usually does. Reatard singing "Hammer, I miss you" in the chorus of the song by the same name just flew off the stage, with a heartfeltness that sticks in the brain like gum in the hair. Ditto "Fading All Away" -- as Reatard sang "Time may heal wounds, but I will kill you, slowly, fading all away," making it sound sweet and endearing -- and "Nightmares" -- as he pleaded over and over "I'll keep searching for you" like a lovable stalker. The sociopath you can sympathize is challenged more on "Trapped Here" -- "Relax, relax, relax, my little victim" -- where he sounds more homicidal, but he still sounded full of heart.

There was hardly a lull in pace and never a break in sound. One song done, Reatard would announce the next and the band would rip right into it. When he abandoned his Flying V for an acoustic for "All Over Again," he let the feedback keep the soundtrack properly noisy and unchecked, just as he did when he returned to the Flying V and when he left to go back stage for another Flying V, a classy, white edition, to replace the one that carried him through half the set.

About the acoustic guitar, the two songs he played with it didn't revert to the softer acoustic sound he's opted for in the studio. Plugged in, he sounded like a couple of electric rhythm guitarists playing in sync. In addition to being an engaging singer -- with a range that runs from Britophile to a cartoonish Geddy Lee -- Reatard is phenomenal on the guitar, at once playing the rhythm and the lead -- hitting the strums and bending solos simultaneously -- with remarkable crispness, a crispness his bassist and drummer matched, an impressive feat considering the speed at which they play.

There would be no encore, but how could there be? That would require a break. Instead, the band built up to "Let It All Go," which through pleading -- the repeated "And now I need you" -- and desperation -- "Say you want me. Say you want me. You never want me. You never want me. Say that you need me. Say that you need me. You never need me. You never need me." -- builds to the ultimate disappointment: "And now it's too late!" Reatard howls. The song perfectly sets up the heartache, like the entire set leading up to it, but Jay resolves the pain, repeating "Let it all go" over and over as the song sets. He thrashed about for this, without his guitar (he'd tapped a young'n from the crowd to take over), then abruptly exited, as quick as everything else about the set.

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