Many members of punk rock’s first wave are gone, and few of those who remain can still be seen on stage, so it’s actually pretty goddamned remarkable that, in 2010, the Buzzcocks are playing the Crazy Donkey. Now before we get too deep in hyperbole, it must be noted that this is not the very original Buzzcocks lineup (that one featured Howard Devoto, later of Magazine, who was a Buzzcock only during the group’s earliest incarnation, from 1976 – ’77). Nor is it exactly a variation of the band’s second lineup—the one that actually made a substantial musical impact on the three classic albums released between 1978 and 1979. Still, by any reasonable definition, these are the Buzzcocks—featuring co-frontmen Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle, both of whom have been with the band since ’76, two years before the band’s full-length debut, and a year before punk’s impact was first felt around the world.
In a sense, it might be said the Buzzcocks are not truly part of punk’s first wave: Because they were influenced by the Sex Pistols, the Buzzcocks were necessarily a reaction to punk. And perhaps therein lies some of the band’s appeal—though they were among the very first to do so, they did indeed offer a refined take on punk: a tightly coiled, highly melodic strain with explosive energy and complex lyrical themes. Nowhere are these traits better exemplified than on the band’s best-known (and, perhaps, best period) song, “Ever Fallen in Love (with Someone You Shouldn’t’ve),” which may be the most obvious primogenitor of the entire pop-punk genre, and also ranks with any song written by anybody ever, in the entire history of rock music.
Of course, that’s not the full story of the Buzzcocks. Any band still standing some three-plus decades later is bigger than a single song or sound, especially when that one band was born in such a tumultuous Petri dish. Still, it is somewhat frustrating to note that while those who surrounded them have gone on to immortality (the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Joy Division) and those who followed in their footsteps have gone on to make countless billions (Oasis, Green Day, Nirvana), the Buzzcocks stand in the shadows of both. Perhaps it is fair to say the Buzzcocks haven’t received what’s due to them, and perhaps it is simply the vagaries of history and fortune that have rendered them something less than legends, but this is merely an explanation for why they will be at the Crazy Donkey, not Mount Olympus. Regardless of the setting, these are gods, and you ignore them at your own peril.
FARMINGDALE
The Buzzcocks @ The Crazy Donkey
1058 Rte. 110. 631-753-1975. $20-$23. 6 p.m.
