At Trumbull, rock and roll gets a chance to live

JULIA TIERNAN/YH The Punk Rock Revue rocks out old school.

It felt like 150 degrees in the Trumbuttery on Saturday night when the soulful strains of "Mmm...Bop" rang out from the stage. Pearly Sweets (a.k.a. Abraham Levitan, TD '00) was warming up the crowd with drummer Carl Ehrhardt, TC '00.

If there was one problem with the Yale rock scene last year, it was the lack of crowd interest. You'd go to a show, lean up against the wall (because no one stands in the middle of the room), and lament the fact that there wasn't "more of this." You'd feel isolated and oppressed because no one at Yale cares about music, and because most of the students at this American cultural center all but make fun of you for having a dissonant opinion about the Dave Matthews Band. And the worst thing was, the few shows that did exist hardly provided relief because they weren't really fun.

But if Saturday night's "rock 'n' roll dance party," featuring the Punk Rock Revue, the Eddie Gunther Sound, and Pearly Sweets & the Platonics was any indication of what's to come, freshmen who spent most of their high school careers making mix tapes for their best female friends will reap the benefits of a brand new Yale music scene.

The Punk Rock Revue--a hastily assembled real classics cover band featuring Levitan, Ehrhardt, Karl Tupper, BK '00, and Tom Noerper, BK '97--played for about 45 minutes while the Trumbuttery filled up. That they'd rehearsed only once was evident, but their spirited renditions of tunes by the likes of the Stooges, the Cars, and Alice Cooper set a loud, hot, drunk precedent for the rest of the show. Levitan and Noerper took turns singing and throwing themselves into the more than responsive audience, reminding us that what this school needs, more than it knows, is a rock star.

Every song was thick and sloppy, and after Liz "Ziggy Stardust" Hazen, TC '00, sang the Dead Boys' "Sonic Reducer," the forces of rock really came together. As Levitan said, "We're making some noise now. Someone could come down here, and what could they do?" It didn't hurt that by this time almost everyone present had consumed much of the well-known, misnamed, Milwaukee Best.

Anyone who has seen Pearly Sweets play solo knows that he is just that good. As a songwriter and performer, he has the pop ear of Elvis Costello and the charisma of Stevie Wonder. In songs like the groovy "Paper on the Tray," Levitan's Motown singing style manages to echo older music without aping it. In "Khaki Girl," he is funny without being a joke: "Puffy Combs seems such a fake / He's cashin' in on `Every Breath You Take.'" But when Levitan recruited the always tight Tupper and Ehrhardt (the Platonics) as a rhythm section late last semester, he turned what had been a good nightclub act into something the kids could jump around to. By the time the 'Tonics took the stage, they were playing to a Yale rarity: a full and especially boisterous crowd.

Too many attendees departed before the Eddie Gunther Sound hit the stage. Led by Noerper, veteran of the '80s New York-based band Drunks With Guns, the Sound make loud a virtual category. Many of their songs are instrumental, and those that aren't, like "Job for You," feature mostly unintelligible shouted lyrics. You can hear the rebellion in their strong, uncompromising rhythms, paired with unnerving chords.

Though they use repetition to effect, their heavier numbers (like "Tryptic Suite") wield it as a weapon, while their more melodic songs (like "Pretty Flowers") gently rock the listener.

While Pearly Sweets's music has a classic feel, the Eddie Gunther Sound's is stunningly futuristic. In performance, their music comes across as forward-looking--creative and experimental without being self-consciously avant-garde. If a common thread connects the two acts, it's the sureness of their live shows; both play like pros. And if other shows here are as inspired and inspiring as Saturday's, maybe the number of kids jumping around will continue to grow.

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