"Can somebody here get me some heroin?"

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Yeah! That was one of Rachel's call to the ecstatic crowd crammed into the tiny club where I had the joy of seeing the Detroit Cobras last night.

Rachel was remarkably soulful, golden-haired and throaty-voiced, while the band was dirty-slick and tight, exactly as on record - their albums sound like gigs, anyway, I mean their music is quite easy to translate live on stage... I could not believe my luck as the floortom pounding announced my beloved "Midnight Blues" as first song of the set... "Lots of bad girls here tonight!". Yeah!

Does it make sense to any of you that a *cover band* be so fucking good? Essential, even? More to the point than most of what's currently going on? What's rockunroll to you kids, if the Cobras cant give it to you? Who cares about Sleater-Kinney when the midnite blues are so ideally provided by the Cobras?

― Simon, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

hype?

― Ed, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

"Mink Rabbit or Rat" is a lot better than the new one, but live they still rip it up.

Re: cover band stigma: They play R&B - and it's always been about the song, not the singer in their chosen genre. They interpret old soul obscurities with affection and intelligence. It's sexy and energetic and fun.

The Detroit Cobras, The Go, The White Stripes, The Sexareenos, The Deadly Snakes, Beachwood Sparks, the Sadies - all these great new American bands playing great rock n roll, just when it seemed like it was turning into a wax museum.

― fritz, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Don't forget the Demolition Dollrods.

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

hmm, I'm going to nitpick: The Sadies and Les Sexareenos (Turbonegro label mates!) are both Canadian bands. Apologies.

For what it's worth, although I can't back all of the bands Fritz listed, I'd throw the Waxwings and Mooney Suzuki on the pile as well.

― scott p., Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

so are The Deadly Snakes for that matter. I guess I meant North American. Or having roots in music from the American south. Not sure really.

― fritz, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

But, but, but: "Can somebody here get me some heroin?"

I'm not sure I'd even stick around after hearing patter like that.

― Mr. Mark Lerner, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Actually, I was kind of troubled by Rachel's on-stage begging for smack the last time I saw them. I hoped she was kidding. Not a good sign.

― fritz, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Erm, people, the saying is still sex drugs and rock'n'roll, if I remember correctly. I may be mistaken...

Straight-edge? Bollocks!

― Simon, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I'm all for S & D & R & R , but I have also lost 4 friends to heroin. You don't have to be straightedge to hate it.

― fritz, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

yeah i've lost lots of people to stuff, lots of them not even dead but just as surely fucking lost. it's not funny. she probably seriously did mean it is my guess 'cause you always start out thinking, what's the big deal about THIS, it's great, making jokes about it all the time, blah blah. "all our instruments are in the pawn shop, ha ha ha" -> "i could hardly even *see* on stage last night, ha ha ha"-> "our guitar player DIED, ha ha ha". it's SATAN.

― duane, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

(detroit cobras - great group tho')

― duane, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

(sorry for the bathos...i just got out of the bath)

― duane, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

With hallucinogenics and pot there's at least room for debate, because they do have qualities that can, potentially, be creativity-enhancing.

Heroin, though, is death in a spoon, and a deactivator of human beings. Heroin chic = dumb.

― Phil, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

re: what i said above - disregard it. I read it back & went what the fuck, this won't help anyone. using soppy romantic language "lost", "the devil", who's that gonna stop. i felt like i had a moral obligation to give some sort of warning to (presumably) a young guy who still has fun w/ drugs & has just found out hey junk is FUN. yeah well it is. in real life i wouldn't do a fucking thing to stop you. i'd go score for you. i'd add 20 bucks to the price & i'd take half the stuff too. hell w/ you.

― duane, Saturday, 7 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Dunno - I think the "good drugs/bad drugs" thing (LSD good! Smack evil!) is a 'bogue polarity' (thanx Duane!). In my experience, people who believe that LSD and pot 'enhance their creativity' are deluding themselves - sure, there's all this cosmic whizbang in their head but can they articulate it? Or do they just spend their days locked in a hellish limbo, paying more attention to said whizbang than their increasingly squalid 'mundane' surroundings?
I've lost a few friends to smack and crystal meth as well, and I'll still indulge without guilt, because we're all on our own in this world, and I think respecting other people's choices is difficult (sometimes agonizingly so) but necessary. For what? Well, still working on that one.

― tarden, Saturday, 7 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

no, i wasn't saying endorsing any "pot & LSD enhance creativity" shit (it is shit, pretty much), i just thought it was worth warning someone that just thinks "junk is cool, huh-huh, huh-huh" that every idiot thinks they're stronger than it, nobody is. i used to go, oh man you'd have to WORK REAL HARD AT IT to get a habit, that's never going to happen. used it for years without it happening to me but it did happen in the end - & most people i've known don't even get the long honeymoon, they just start & then next time you see them that's *all they do*. i just wanted to point out what junk is about. yeah & i still do use it myself too (no habit for i think about 9 months but), so what the fuck do i know.

― duane, Saturday, 7 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

(no habit for i think about 9 months = yeah *real* safe)

― duane, Saturday, 7 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

(umm, can someone steer this conversation back to music now?)

― duane, Saturday, 7 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

three years pass...

COBRAS! WOO!

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 05:10 (nineteen years ago) link

I guess it's hard to tour when you're a junky.

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 15:29 (nineteen years ago) link

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