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Teenage Head


Teenage Head - University of Windsor - SAC's Pub

University of Windsor - SAC's Pub
1985-01-22


Michael Panontin
*This is a slightly abridged version of a review that originally appeared in the University of Windsor newspaper The Lance in 1985.

Teenage Head's latest effort, Live in an Endless Party (Ready), makes no other pretence than to be just that - music to party to. And party they did, as hordes of students swarmed the dance floor like pot-bellied UAW pseudo-studs parasitizing Playboy bunnies at the auto show. Even would-be inerts shook booty, transforming a sedentary pit like the Pub into a flowering inferno. Like any party worth its weight in hangovers, beer-drenched salami-heads blabbered the usual incoherencies (try this one..."I try to disengage myself from reality"). And, like clockwork, transient yokes hitched up and headed homeward to make babies. Ah, the party life, eh?

But in light of all this excess "fun" running rampant throughout the Pub, I'm a mite bit fearful of admitting that, ultimately Teenage Head bored me. I mean, what if some hero finds my insulting his favourite band offensive and corners me in the West building of the Leddy Library and POUNDS THE LIVIN' SHIT OUTA ME! Scary thoughts.

But really, though their sets were lengthy, the sound pristine (not to mention loud) and the execution as taut and professional as any of the Joe Louis megavets, Teenage Head came across as little more than an exercise in nostalgia. To say that it has all been done before would be understating what Teenage Head are all about - hell, this is the Ramones meets the Dogs meets the Pistols meets Ducks Deluxe meets every bloody 1977 band ad infinitum!

Teenage Head catapulted their smash-hit list at us one by one from 'Let's Shake' to 'Tornado' to 'Picture My Face' (I'm almost impressed!). But covers of the ancient classics like 'Little Sister', 'C'mon Everybody' and the Ig's 'Cock in My Pocket' (co-written by his mother dontcha know) were as bland as raw spaghetti. Rock and roll like this just ain't my cup - I should have known when Mr. Twisted Sister walked on stage, his hair length inching its way startlingly close to his coinslot.

The whole night was not without consolation, though, as Windsor's favourite wunderspeciman Little Stevie, who "just flew in from town" (?!?), came out of retirement to disrupt things as usual (is this a preview of things to come at SAC's?).

(photo: Glenn Warner)
         
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