Old Punk

The band X, those cerebral punks from Los Angeles, chose Albuquerque, of all places, to launch their 40th-anniversary tour. They did their best to trash a sweaty El Rey Theater on May Day.

We approached with trepidation, because, let's face it, the band members are geezers now, and we're not kids anymore either. But damn if they didn't scorch through a set that relied heavily on their first three seminal albums that kicked off the '80s. John Doe and Exene Cervenka harmonize as well and as poorly as they used to. DJ Bonebrake thumps that rumbling rhythm. And Billy Zoom electrifies it all on guitar. Billy has slowed down of late, battling some ailments in recent years. He wears glasses now but still sends that avuncular contented gaze out to the crowd. And he sits at stage left instead of standing in that famous spread-legged stance of his. He still achieves the original goal of not towering over his bandmates.

Zoom threw in a few saxophone riffs (guitar pick on his forehead for safe keeping), and Bonebrake took a break from the drums a few times to dabble on the vibraphone. It's not often that you go to a punk show and get both an extended drum solo and a vibraphone solo, much less from the same musician.

I've seen X here and there over the years. At the House of Blues in Chicago in the '90s (red hot); Doe performing solo at the Double Door a few years after that. I'm sure the whole band requires a lot more naps than they used to, but for about 75 minutes they whipped the crowd into a frenzy with indelible hooks, ferocious energy and heartfelt songs.

Among the highlights, some of the following songs:

Late in the show, the title track from the epic debut album, "Los Angeles." Get out!



"White Girl":



The show-stopping Doors cover "Soul Kitchen":



BONUS TRACK
One of our favorite clips, from the documentary "X: The Unheard Music," DJ Bonebrake explaining the origins of that complicated tribal rhythm he coined back in the day: