Tuesday Night At Seattle’s Crocodile Cafe Brings Supergroup Dead Men Walking For A Wild Party Show, by Holly Homan

It’s a Tuesday night, but Seattle’s Crocodile Cafe is packed pretty tight to see super group Dead Men Walking. When I say super group, I mean Captain Sensible (The Damned), Slim Jim Phantom (Stray Cats), Mike Peters (The Alarm) and my personal favorite, Chris Cheney of the Living End. This was not a show to be missed. I was not disappointed either. This show was one wild party. The band began with some straight up rockabilly, playing a cover of Smash It Up (rockabilly style), but then changed to a harder rock sound when they performed The Alarm’s Come On Down (which everyone sang along to).

When it came time to perform the only Living End tune (Prisoner Of Society), Chris Cheney claimed he’d lost his voice, but I saw no evidence of this claim. He sounded fantastic and he still looks damned fine too! He played a strong lead guitar throughout on his Gretsch.

The straight up rock and roll sound continued when Mike Peters took over lead vocals on another Alarm song, Sold Me Down the River, but switched to rockabilly again when Slim Jim sang a couple Stray Cats songs (Rock This Town and Runaway Boys). Later on he performed Rumble In Brighton Tonight, but changed the word Brighton to Seattle, while he slammed away on his stand up drum kit.

Meanwhile Captain Sensible looked a bit buggish in his oversized sunglasses and an artists tam. For most the show Dave Dederer (Presidents of the USA) was on stage with them, playing rhythm guitar and sharing in vocal duties. Then part way through local legend Kurt Bloch (most famously of The Fastbacks) joined them and the original quartet was now a septet with a lot of guitars. They performed a raucous, downright nasty and dirty rendition of the old Damned hit Neat Neat Neat. Kurt was as energetic as always, jumping all over the stage while churning out his signature searing guitar licks.

All six came out for the encore, which included a rocking version of the Presidents’ song, Lump. A toy white horse was brought out, which Captain Sensible sat on while the band lit into a wild rocking version of You Gotta Fight for Your Right To Party. And as I said, this was one big party with a very good turnout for a Tuesday night. My only criticism is that they didn’t do more than one Living End song. One was not enough and they played a couple Damned tunes, about three Stray Cats tunes and two songs from the Alarm repertoire. They could have done at least one more Living End song. Still, this was a minor disappointment. This show was worth staying out late on a Tuesday night for

Opening the evening was a band from Greece calling themselves Barb Wire Dolls. And these guys can rock! The foursome consists of two dudes and two dudettes (Isis Queen – vocals, Pyn Doll – guitar, JayJay Doll – bass, Krash Doll – drums). Barb Wire Dolls are what hard core punk should sound like and look like. They are pure, raw, in your face energy. Lead vocalist Isis Queen is all over the stage, gyrating, twisting and whipping her long blonde tresses. Drummer Krash Doll slams the skins like a possessed wild animal and was drenched in sweat almost from the onset. Guitarist Pyn Doll looked every bit the hardcore punk — a skin head with a leather jacket, who at one point used a can of beer as a guitar slide. Only bass player Jay Jay Doll looked sweet and innocent and barely moved a muscle. The contrast was what made the look of this band complete. And boy could they ROCK! Their live performance was nothing short of amazing. Hard core punk fans should surely check them out next time they come through Seattle. They are a force to be reckoned with and the perfect appetizer for this wild party night.