One doesn’t usually associate the ’Sco with a New York City rock club, but on March 19 Montreal’s Datsuns and NYC’s own The Mooney Suzuki turned Oberlin’s one and only night spot into just that, circa 1978. Nostalgia for rock’s glory days, if it ever had any, mixed with the smell of beer and BO to create a truly strange brew, and the sweaty push and pull of the Oberlin contingent in attendance was as intoxicating as any oat soda.
Both acts pulled from the A-list of party-ready rock of the past 30 years from the Kinks to the Black Crowes, from the Rolling Stones to the Strokes, from the Yardbirds to the White Stripes. Their music made a good time nearly impossible to avoid.
Oberlin’s own The Facial Expressions, though, should be given credit for setting the excitement. In front of his bandmates’ jagged guitar, (junior Jason Klauber), and drum frenzy (first-year Dean Bein), junior Andrew Leland, making like a Blues Brothers-era John Belushi, ad-libbed rants about “breast milk and G.I. Joe” and other often inaudible dribble. Their hilarious rock ’n’ roll circus was a real guilty pleasure, and everyone among the half circle standing around the threesome’s meager set-up in front of the stage couldn’t help but smile at their antics.
Screaming at the audience in a thick French-Canadian accent after their opener’s fiery set, the Datsuns took the stage looking like true ’70s rockers in their second-hand clothing, flower motifs and long hair. Their Calvin Klein ready waif-like bodies fit their aesthetic nicely as they dove into their own brand of furious maximum R & B. Kitschy high school choruses like “super gyration, rock ’n’ roll generation” took a while to seep into the crowd’s veins, but once they did, the Obie and the odd punk alike were jumping and shaking like true West End speed freaks. The first tremors of a mosh pit could even be felt as the Datsuns built their relentless crunch song after song, riff after riff.
Part of their appeal, after all, was their unabashed embracing of rock histrionics and their obsession with crowd participation. The lead-guitarist bent backwards like Gumby for almost every one of his many solos, and at one point he held his guitar over his head like some medieval sword in the stone as the feedback crooned behind him. The rhythm guitarist wasn’t adverse either to the occasional cliché, as he did his best Pete Townsend impression tearing into his Gibson windmill-style. But the peak of the group’s audacity came when the lead guitarist head-butted a female audience member’s chest during one of his forays into the masses.
After a long set by the Datsuns, headliners The Mooney Suzuki bumrushed the stage and proceeded to blend the now restless, anxious fans into a big damp puréed mess. Dressed from head to toe in black, The Mooney Suzuki thrilled the ’Sco to the adolescent rock sounds of their first record, 2000’s Get Ready, and their soon-to-be-released, Electric Sweat.
Though the baritone of lead singer and rhythm guitarist Sammy James Jr. had a style worlds apart from the frantic shriek of the Datsun’s front man, the group was even better at working the crowd to a fever pitch. Tunes like “Electric Sweat” and “I Woke Up This Mornin’” transformed what was once just a few overly enthused kids into a full-blown mosh pit, with more then half the crowd participating.
As did the Datsuns, these New York boys made a point of running willy-nilly into the moist arms of their fans, and as the crowd would surge backward to receive them, the BO became almost as overwhelming as the band’s music. Though the Suzuki’s set wasn’t nearly long enough to quell the passion of their fans, the foursome made their mark nevertheless.
They, like the Datsuns, pulled their inspiration strictly from rock’s three-chord canon. Therefore, without much ingenuity, these groups relied almost entirely on their sincerity and showmanship to win the crowd over. Anyone who likes their rock tweaked and artsy wouldn’t have enjoyed these bands’ zest for rock’s simple past, but the energy of The Mooney Suzuki especially was just irresistible. Seeing these bands, one realizes how much fun rock ’n’ roll was, and how much fun it can still be.