Redd Kross at Camden Dingwalls

Redd Kross

Dale Crover

Camden Dingwalls, 12 November 2024

After attending the entertaining chat between the McDonald brothers and Thurston Moore for the launch of their book, Now You're One Of Us, last month, I finally got a chance to see Redd Kross live again on the last show of their European tour, in what the band has been calling the "year of Redd Kross!"

I haven't been to Camden Dingwalls in years, in fact I had to look back on my blog to find out exactly when and it was ten years ago to see Angel Olsen! I used to love this end of Camden, with its market and variety of record shops, but I was shocked to see how much it had changed: so many more big buildings and shops, definitely a lot of gentrification going on and way more touristy too. 

It was dazzling to see the change in just a decade (I must admit I did prefer the grotty, indie version of Camden of my youth), and not surprisingly things around Dingwalls were different too. Before the entrance was at the back. It was here, many years ago, we sat on a sunny evening before The White Stripes played and listened to Jack White (chilling outside too with his friends) chatting about the show Brass Eye. Now, the back of Dingwalls is surrounded by a snazzy food market and the entrance is near the canal. Inside though, Dingwalls remained just as I remembered it (thank god).

I found a spot at the front (as usual) and immediately spotted the legendary Dale Crover chatting to people as he made his way backstage. Crover of course is, most famously the drummer for The Melvins (who Steven McDonald now plays bass for), briefly a member of Nirvana and has recently been drumming for Redd Kross too. Tonight he's also pulling double, or even triple, duties, doing a DJ set (which he seemed to do from the back of his drumkit) and then a solo acoustic set, that was surprisingly rocking. 

Most of the set came from his new solo album, Glossolalia and it turns out not only is Crover a fantastic drummer, he's a great guitarist too, adding lots of punky attitude on songs such as Doug Yuletide, Kitten Knife and Rings. All while I was watching him, I kept thinking, he looks a bit like Neil Young, then it dawned on me, Crover actually played the young Neil in the video for Harvest Moon! Almost as if he felt my sudden recognition, he introduced the next song as "by my boy Neil" and gave us his version of Harvest Moon. It was such a lovely surprise, and even though I see he's been covering it for all this tour, it was made even more special by the fact it was Neil Young's birthday. 

Crover ended the set with another cover, but this time a track by his own band, The Melvins, The Bit, brilliantly turning the droning, riff-filled song into a cool abrasive acoustic number. It was great to see him opening for the band and I really enjoyed both his sets (DJ and acoustic).

It's been a long, long time since I've seen Redd Kross live! It was actually before they took their hiatus in the late 90s, but I saw them a few times (even going to see Stone Temple Pilots once just because they were supporting) and, as I said on this blog before, interviewed them once for my short-lived fanzine. Because of this, Redd Kross have always had a special place in my heart.

A lot of the audience appeared to be my age or older, which was nice on one hand as it means, a lot of people remember them fondly and probably feel the same way about them as I do (there was a dedicated Japanese lady at the front who had a whole photo album of pictures she had taken at their shows over the years), but also made me a little sad, as Redd Kross definitely deserve to be discovered by new generations. Hopefully the new book and documentary will ensure this though.

When they finally emerged from backstage, the band were all wearing white outfits that had been splashed with paint and looked a bit like they had emerged from the set of a slasher movie, so yes, they looked incredibly cool! I must say, Steven McDonald, with his super long hair and energetic moves, barely looks different than when I last saw the band back in 1997. Jeff looks older but rather regal now, with his glasses and short hair.

They began the set on a joyous note, the power pop-tastic Switchblade Sister, with Jeff still sounding every bit as good as I remembered and Steven jumping around and swinging his bass, while making all manner of entertaining rock star faces and poses. There were a few tunes from two of their most recent releases (the just released self-titled album and the 2012 comeback LP, Researching The Blues, funnily enough they didn't play anything from 2019's Beyond The Door, which had the same line-up as on stage tonight), namely Stay Away From Downtown, Uglier and Stunt Queen, which all sounded great, but I must admit I got most excited when they began the opening riff of Huge Wonder. 

The album Phaseshifter is where I first got introduced to Redd Kross and I wore that vinyl thin, I played it so much. In preparation for this show I played it again and I still knew every word and it is without a doubt an album where every tune is a banger. They only played three songs from it tonight but each one was so exciting to hear live again: the heavy goodness of Jimmy's Fantasy (where Steven invited us to sing along as audiences have been all this tour) and the joyous Lady In The Front Row! Sadly no Visionary but I was still thrilled to have got those three.

Also completely glorious was the poppy wonder of Annie's Gone, where Jeff put down his guitar in order to give all the moves and even at the end, covered his head in a glittery scarf as the stage lights went crazy. At the Rough Trade event Steven admitted that Third Eye, the album Annie's Gone is from, is his least favourite as it brings back bad memories for him, but it only seemed to bring back good memories tonight as the crowd went absolutely wild for it and the band were definitely feeding off that energy.

From the 1997 album Show World, they gave us the two most Beatle-esque moments of the night, Mess Around (which everyone was singing along to - if there was any justice in the world this would have been a huge hit back in its day) and their soaring cover of The Quick's Pretty Please Me. There was also one sole song from the underrated 1987 album, Neurotica, the Kiss-inspired track (at least to my ears) Peach Kelli Pop.

But of course, this tour was promoting their new self-titled double record and there were plenty of tracks from that too, the punky Emmanuelle Insane, the slightly psychedelic sounding Candy Colored Catastrophe and the melodic Steven sung I'll Take Your Word For It (which reminded me of Big Star). 

Steven mentioned how filmmaker Andrew Reich has spent years putting together the new documentary, Born Innocent: The Story Of Redd Kross, which is currently making the rounds at film festivals at the moment, and asked them to contribute a new song. The track, also called Born Innocent (which was the name of their first album too) is on the new record of course, and sounds like classic Redd Kross and, as Jeff told us, it tells the story of how the band came to be. They played it almost at the end, which felt super appropriate, and rather nicely they then played Linda Blair the first song from that 1982 album, Born Innocent (which also had a rather nice snippet of The Beatles' bluesy I Want You (She's So Heavy) in the middle) , giving a satisfying feeling of coming full circle. 

For the encore, Steven told us, because this year really has been the year of Redd Kross, with the new album, the book and the documentary all coming out, for this tour they've been trying to play something from every era of the band and this includes going all the way back to the start of their 45 year career, and playing the first song that Jeff ever wrote, Annette's Got The Hits! 

What a thrill to hear them play their first ever song and incredibly it still sounds so vibrant and full of energy: so crazy that a bunch of teenagers created it! Staying with their first EP, Red Cross (before they had to change the spelling) they also launched into the punky joy of Cover Band and Clorox Girls. I don't know how much they had played these first songs from their long career in recent years but tonight they definitely sounded re-energised and fresh, as if they are getting a renewed thrill from delving into the first songs they ever wrote.

To round it all off they then played a couple of songs that obviously had a huge influence on the band and had me grinning from ear to ear: Crazy Horses (the batshit crazy Osmonds classic from 1972) and then, what they called the ultimate rock n' roll song, Deuce by Kiss (the McDonald brothers spoke at length at the Rough Trade event about what Kiss meant to them growing up and seeing them live for the first time).

I don't know how they did it, but throughout the 21 song set, they managed to keep the energy at a high, with the McDonald brothers and guitarist Jason Shapiro, bouncing around the stage for every song and Dale Crover proving why he's considered one of the best drummers of all time. At the end Jeff was even climbing up on the monitors and amps, and Steven was jumping down to the audience and playing his bass at the barrier next to the crowd. He was doing little scissor jumps, swinging his long hair and dancing through the whole show, it was pretty incredible.

What fun to finally see Redd Kross again! They are definitely one of rock's most underrated appreciated but certainly most important and influential bands there is. Hopefully they are finally getting their dues!