Think Like A Key 2025
A farewell to charms: Annie Golden and her golden boys bow out in style – go down fighting and defiant to the end.
Live
Nothing screams “punk” more eloquently than a good subversion or self-sabotage – as opposed to a bad one. This sextet were only well aware of such a fact when they entered a Manhattan studios in the blissful spring of 1981 to show the audience, who amassed there to witness the ensemble concert-imitating session, that there would be zero fucks given to the crowd’s thirst for favorites from the group’s first three albums. On the other hand, though, the NYC collective couldn’t care more about their flock and, putting those platters behind, the CBGB-trained artists treated the punters to a blistering set comprised exclusively of fresh cuts. None of the fourteen pieces performed there and then didn’t seem to receive any sort of offstage existence, not before the band’s post-Millennium return and not after, but thanks to pure luck, the recording of one of the classic lime-up’s last outings survived to emerge now, in pristine quality, to add a missing chapter to their history.
Unlike a certain fellow female-fronted combo who run in parallel lines, these guys may not have fully embraced pop trends of the era, yet even rock ‘n’ roll numbers like “Little Bit Of Action” which opens the set have enough sweet hooks in their shuffle, male voices carrying Annie Golden’s pipes – buoyed by steady groove courtesy of Bob Racioppo’s bass and Zeeek Criscione’s drums. However, while Artie Lamonica and Ron Ardito lay down lazy, Keef-influenced licks on the catchy “Nancy” and add delicate riffs to the retrofuturistic “Lost In A Rhyme” and muscular twang to “Tears Comin’ Down” to marry girl-group emotionality to aloof new-wave sheen, it’s the almost sublime “Don’t Say Forever” that reaches for timelessness on the wings of warm vocal harmonies and instrumental interplay. Simmering in the shimmer of John Piccolo’s ivories, “Laura’s In The Lion’s Den” roars with a rhythm-and-blues rapture, and “Hangin’ On A String” taps into the ’80s spirit with equal delight, whereas the moderately heavy “Whoever Thought” goes for a cosmic-folk vibe, and “Boomerang” would have flown into the charts, had the band released the song on a single.
There’s nuclear energy on these tracks, “Like A Satellite” taking it to the outer space, and it’s a great injustice that the timebomb they pack didn’t go off at the time to propel the band up there. Subversion or self-sabotage? To have the concert document dusted off now is a rare treat.
*****
