Misc. Reviews

Having recently seen Blue Cheer perform in Detroit, here's some advice (and a couple warnings) I'll throw the way of those considering checking out the seminal San Francisco rockers. For what's essentially an oldies act, Cheer didn't bore the crowd with irrelevant new material or shit from that mid-'80s metal album The Beast Is ... Back. The band wisely culled most of the set I saw from its exquisite 1968 record Vincebus Eruptum.

Blue Cheer.

Details

9 p.m.

Admission is $18-20

861-5016

www.cafedunord.com

Café du Nord

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More About

• Paul Whaley
• Eddie Cochran
• Dickie Peterson

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That said, the group has definitely lost the pace — certain songs lacked that initial sense of groove and instead just slowly wheeled on past. The performance as a whole dragged, 12 tracks stretched out over an hour and 20 minutes, complete with a laborious 15-plus-minute rendition of "Doctor Please." The version of "Voodoo Chile" was reprehensible: a full-on 15-minute ramble that transformed any notions of witnessing rock legends still at it. Hearing it performed live, I was suddenly stuck inside the House of Blues watching Generic Old White Dudes flail away at a standby that should really be retired from any and all setlists where the band members' names don't end in Hendrix.

I'll give Blue Cheer credit for this, though: It's still fucking loud. I can now begin to believe the legend that the band recorded its first album out on a pier, the sonics too loud to be contained in any studio. And while bassist/vocalist Dickie Peterson's voice has slipped away from the uninhibited twinge that was key to the attitude of his defining version of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues," he (along with drummer Paul Whaley) still rocked that number out, and that counts for something.

The overall reaction from the Detroit crowd was either pure delight or collective cringe (with an exit by some during the first 10 minutes of the set). Personally, though, I say 'tis better to allow Blue Cheer blow out your eardrums than to just let its din fade away.