anyone remember THE SONICS? Raw garage punk! Saw them last night...

[kiwidave]

These guys wrote the book on garage punk, and did so in 1963/1964 out of Tacoma, Washington.

They split at the start of the 1970s and reformed in 2007 to appear at several European garage-punk festivals, including the Ray Davies-curated Meltdown fest in London a couple of years back, to huge acclaim from two generations who never had the chance to see them. Including me!!

Been digging their shit since 1980! Huge excitement here on their first visit Down Under.

Now pushing 70, these guys STILL kick ass and do credit to their legacy which inspired Iggy and the Stooges, The Cramps, The Ramones, White Stripes, and millions of other lesser but still great rock'n'roll bands.

They've been touring Australia for two weeks as part of a scuzzy superbill including Redd Kross (also awesome!), The Fleshtones, Steve Wynn, The 5678s from Japan, and others.

Last night they inexplicably played a small veterans' club in suburban Melbourne in front of 300 people and tore the house down (as they did at the big line-up gig earlier this week here).

Strychnine. Psycho. Have Love Will Travel. Cinderella. Boss Hoss.

If you don't know those 24-carat originals of theirs, you don't know punk! Have Love Will Travel was used in a Land Rover TV advert a few years back.

They make the early Stones sound like The Carpenters.

Here's a couple of pix from last night... UNBELIEVABLE.

[PeteJ]

Here you Go
The Sonics - LIVE in Australia - YouTube

The Sonics - 'Lucille' Live 2012 - YouTube