It’s not every gig that you get to hear a story of how Blue Oyster Cult left behind a pentagram made of Swiss cheese in the dressing room in Lancaster, PA. But that was one of many stories (lies?) that Jack Terricloth, aka Peter Ventantonio told between numbers on Friday night as his 9 piece band rocked the hell outta Chicago. It was loud, overly dramatic, (theatrical in fact), and an intoxicating cross of punk meets cabaret act. For fans of this group these were not unusual occurrences. Jack tells a lot of stories/lies, the show is always a SHOW, hordes of young people show up in costume – decked out to imitate or compliment Jack’s 50s nightclub look. With his hair buzzed skinhead short (the original skinheads, not the hate-filled wannabes) and his tailored suit with cufflinks, he bangs a giant drum, he grabs the “Elvis mic” off it’s stand and snarls into the crowd, spitting out the words of “Tattoos Fade”
There are rumors going around,
you can feel history coming about,
you’re never sure just where it’s going to stay.
You suffer through lingering doubt,
you wish someone would spell it out
but things don’t work that way.
There’s so much going on faces in the crowd
belong to a team on which you’d love to play. You’re hoping for some permanence
but there really is no place for this.
Your tattoos, they’re gonna fadeOur youth like wax drips down,
in puddles around our legs
it hardens and catches us to the quick.
You’re putting a lot of importance in
something you’re just playing a part in,
you should take what action you can get.
What you’re sure you’re carving in stone
on your flesh
you’d do better living more and commemorating less. There’s much i don’t want to remember,
there’s not a thing I’d wish last forever.
You’re tattoos are gonna fade.It’s not as important to persevere as to doubt. When you’re so angry nothing matters,
you be brave ’cause everything counts and
I’d never be so unsubtle
as to write this on my sleeve
unless I was sure I could change it
when I was ready to leave.
There’s much I don’t want to remember,
there’s not a thing I would wish last forever –
or let me put this another way:
I know you’re hoping for some permanence
but there really is no truth to this.
Your tattoos, they’re gonna fade.
Tattoos Fade mp3 (hang in there at the beginning, it starts slow) East Coast Super Sound Punk of Today ….. (unfortunately out of print)
I hung on the edge of the crowd, stage left, by the bouncers (a handsome butch, yumm! and smaller, younger guy) and watched and danced and sang along, avoiding the churning middle. The Tart doesn’t like to get crumpled, my dears. Reggies was packed, both levels full of fans who knew the songs, shouted the lyrics with their fists in the air and egged Jack on just the way he liked it. This is a punk orchestra, my darlings. It’s fast but not so much as to not hear the words. It’s sung not screamed, it’s a little bit of ska, has a bit of Joe Jackson to it, and definitely punk at its roots. The lyrics are smart, they spout politics, encourage drug abuse and running from the cops, anti-consumerism, religious sacrilege, anarchism and dropping out of school! And at the same time also state “There has never been a time …..When brains have not won over brawn …..We will live to see the dawn” (Me vs. Angry Mob).
(nope not my photos, credits below)
In a sense World Inferno is all about Jack, the songs are biographical; in truth or in fiction, we’ll never know and it really doesn’t matter in the end. We’re here to see the story unfold. One of the most amazing elements of a World Inferno show is the amount of rage at society that rises out the noise of all that music, but every person in the club left with a feeling of solidarity and should I say, joyous hope? Jack makes you realize how angry you should be and makes you dance because of it. It’s brilliant. No other performer I can name can take you to the heights in the name of Paul Robeson and encourage you to fight the system with the fury of a 16 year old, but also in the end, make you realize it’s not the fighting that matters the most.
We argued about the big stuff
Money, drugs and sex
Self-determination, choices and bad mistakes
And our self-respect
I ended up counting coins, buying pills, stressing out
Then passed out caught in
The Velocity of LoveI am bored of the big stuff
So we fucked up, I want my hope back
Trip me up I’ll get you back
My friends are all fucked up
We ended up flipping out, smashing glass, grasping hands, biting lips
Falling hard into
The Velocity of LoveWe ended up flipping out, smashing glass, grasping hands, biting lips
Falling hard into it
Counting coins, swallowing pills, acting up
Then passing out right into it
The Velocity of LoveFrom one preacher to another
If fame is what you want you’ll get it
One fine fuck up to another
If a fight is what you want you’ll get itIf money is all you want, then money’s all you’ll get
I’d rather be drunk and in loveLet’s not get mean about the big stuff
You know I never cared
How product gets moved from place to place
How money’s thrown from here to thereWon’t end up counting coins, not buying in, nor pissed off, or stressed out
I’m all caught up in it
I’m flipping out, I’m smashing glass, I’m grasping hands and biting lips
I’m staying desperate
Hell, I’m not counting coins, not buying in, not stressing out, I’m snapping sails
Far away from all that with
The Velocity of Love
And indeed, after a stunning 20 songs the band ends with a waltz, of all things (!) Taking a lucky fan onstage for a dance with him, Jack encourages the crowd of young pop-punks and slightly older once-upon-a-time punks to waltz to “Heart Attack ’64″ from the album Addicted to Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre’s Twentieth Century . And we do dance, with perfect strangers and with friends. It’s a melee but no crowd surfing on this one. If The World Inferno Friendship Society comes anywhere near your town, go see this show. You’ve been prepared. xoxox
here’s my favorite World Inferno song, from Red-Eyed Soul. They didn’t play it last night and I’m kinda glad because the intimacy of this one is impossible to perform in that kind of venue.
Me and The Mad Monkettes mp3 Red-Eyed Soul ….. buy it
And do go and see this fantastic review with a much better description of what the band is about musically, than I am able to give you!
special thanks to Silverunity over on the wonderful, ass-kicking blog, Battle of Midwestern Housewives for turning me onto this and so many other great bands
photo credit: upper left upper middle upper right bottom row
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