Cat’s Cradle Carrboro, NC
Website: facebook.com/gangoffour
Contact: ryan@kmmltd.com
Players: Jon King, vocals, melodica, microwave; Hugh Burnham, drums, backing vocals; Gail Greenwood, bass, backing vocals; Ted Leo, guitar, drone guitar, feedback
Emerging from a basement in Leeds, U.K. around 1976, Gang of Four, drenched in their irresistible “post-punk, social-criticism, barbed-wire-truths, sharp-corners” format, are still dangerous and are still finding something to say.
The Gang have gone through a few lineup changes over the past 48 years, some tragic (Dave Allen, Andy Gill), and what emerged at The Cat’s Cradle is the last two original members plus a monstrous new bass player, a new guitar player, and a re-interpretation of the catalog that will make die-hard punk-funkers— and newcomers, too—lose their minds.
This show was as Charlie Tuna-packed as the room could get, and the big stage gave plenty of room for Jon’s King-Crab-Walk and a microwave oven which he later used to keep time by beating it senseless with a baseball bat. Innovative, exceptional, and delightfully entertaining.
They set the tone with “Ether,” then a five second pause before roller-coasting into “Natural’s Not In It,” which exploded into “Not Great Men,” which segued seamlessly into “Damaged Goods,” which got the crowd even more worked up.
Gail Greenwod is a hard-rockin’ bass elf with a résumé as long as your arm (think Tina Weymouth meets Joan Jett on a bus driven by Wendy O. Williams). Her driving counterpoint on all the material was the inexhaustible Hugo Burnham, who was dwarfed by Jon King—when you could find him standing still. Ted Leo blended the best guitar lines of Steve Jones from his Sex Pistol Days while bringing the razor wire sting from his time with The Pharmacists into his own gyrocopter twist-a-monkey, bash ‘n trash groove.
After a 10-minute break, The Gang came back with Jon King setting the beat to “Essence Rare” by taking a baseball bat to a white Microwave oven. It was followed in quick succession with “Contract,” “Tourist,” and “5:45.” Another deliciously provocative element was the flashing cinema stills projected onto the back wall with various messages from the anti-establishment niche where The Gang of Four once reigned supreme.
The Gang closed out the evening with one of their most famous anthems, “Anthrax.” After 48 years, countless shows, and too many songs to sing, The Gang of Four will live on forever.
