The full name of the outfit that is currently on tour to promote the 40th anniversary of the rather excellent record album Young, Loud and Snotty, is “Dead Boys Featuring Cheetah Chrome and Johnny Blitz.” Of course there is no true reunion possible given the premature departure of Stiv Bators from the planet. Chrome and Blitz have gone full “Ripper” Owens and installed the lead singer of a Dead Boys tribute band as their singer. From the looks of the promo pic, he’s gonna wear stripey shirts and have a dog collar around his neck. In their current Wikpedia entry is a quote from Cheetah saying he thinks “Stiv would be very proud of our choice,” which is a weird thing to think about… how someone, Stiv Bator specifically, might feel about their replacement being a tribute band guy.
But having seen Cheetah Chrome do his thing a couple of times in the last ten years, I think it’s likely that the experience of hearing those songs played live, all right next to each other, is going to get your motor running. Because those riffs of his, and the way he plays them, are among punk rock’s most rarefied pleasures. And I’ve never seen Cheetah not deliver the goods on the guitar. So why not? Go to the Viper Room and drive home hanging off the roof of your Uber, flashing your naked ass at 75mph on the freeway. It’s what we ALL used to do in the seventies, kid, and this is the music we listened to while we were doing it.
Dead Boys at the Viper Room, 8852 Sunset Blvd., with Street Walkin’ Cheetahs, Vicious Licks and Sin City Rejects. Tickets $15 in advance, available here.
