Rock'n'roll is scarce today. The foremost of only a few remaining rock clubs in Uppsala is Fredman's on Queen's Street. Around 10 on Tuesday night Phil Alvin - together with John Bazz, Keith Wyatt, and Jerry Angel kicked off on the minimal stage. The Blasters, live in Uppsala.
As some may know The Blasters is a group first formed in 1979 in Downey, California by Phil Alvin (vocal and guitar) and his brother Dave Alvin (guitar, quit the band in 1986), with John Bazz on the bass and drummer Bill Bateman. Right from start, as well as today the band played "American Roots Music", influenced by blues music, rockabilly and rhythm'n'blues.
The Blasters energetic live performances gained a local following, and they became fixtures of the early 1980s Los Angeles punk rock scene, performing alongside X, Black Flag, The Gun Club and others.
Rhythm and Blues saxophone legend Lee Allen joined The Blasters for their last two albums, and toured with them as well. Steve Berlin (later of Los Lobos) joined, playing barytone sax, and Gene Taylor joined as well, perfoming boogie woogie style piano. Dave Alvin--always the group's primary songwriter--left the band in 1986 for an acclaimed if sometimes only moderately successful solo career. Phil Alvin has led various incarnations of The Blasters intermittently since then.
The Blasters lasted toured Sweden in 2004. The Uppsala gig didn't sell out, but consiering the time of year as well as the time of week, local interest in the band proved OK. The early portion of the night was the best, with the bass track in at least one of the pieces being powerful enough to make my breastbone resonate. Now and again that punkish wall-of-sound-feeling could also be detected. Myself not being equally impressed with blues and rockabilly in the Blasters fashion, some other parts of the gig felt close to boring.
It was striking assessing the crowd this night. Right next to me stood a guy with long greyish hair, looking round about 50 y/o. Apparently rock music is now the music of the middleaged to elderly. Phil Alvin himself is in his fifties, and bears a striking resemblance with Swedish TV-buffoon Ronny Jönsson (Phil does however possess the personality that Jönsson so desperately was seeking). It struck me that the best place to pick up middle aged chicks in Uppsala is in a joint like this.
But to be fair, the most frantic dancers in front of the band were girls in their 20s. Maybe the groupie still exists?
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Note: The section on the band's history was knicked from Wikipedia. Therefore the wikipedia copyright rules apply to this posting.
