WORDS & PHOTOS BY FIESTABAN PHOTOGRAPHY!
After an 18 year hiatus, The Make-Up was back on Wednesday for two sold-out nights at Zebulon LA, with their “Gospel Yeh Yeh” style which is one part Liberation Theology, one part Beat poetry, one part Baptist revival and three parts rock ‘n’ roll.
Their opener Crush, a multi-instrumental duo consisting of Zumi Rosow and Cole Alexander of The Black Lips were a complete contrast to the cohesive power of The Make-Up, with Crush’s experimental rag-tag frenzy ranging from atonal rap songs to saxophone-hewn punk ballads to fuzzy psychedelia. These two were a bit dizzying to watch, working from chord progression sheets written on torn scraps of paper strewn across the stage, yet they still brought a sense of street-wise anarchy and an atrocity exhibition to the anxious crowd.
All donning tight blue crushed velvet suits by way of Little Richard, The Make-Up made up for lost time, mixing their unique blend of garage rock, glam, soul, 50s doo-wop, indie-funk and Pentecostal hymns into far-Left-leaning anthems on sex, drugs and Hegel. It’s not every day you see a band spouting anarcho-syndicalist Marxist messages about freedom, insurrection and utopian ideals, while also bringing the boogie for the people to the people. Lead singer, Ian Svenonius, now 51, has the spirit of a man 30 years younger, spending nearly every song crowd-surfing, frenetically jump-kicking, yowling and grooving to songs like “Every Baby Cries The Same”, “U R My Intended”, “I Am Pentagon” and “They Live By Night,” finishing with closers, “Born On The Floor” and “Black Wire Pt. 1”. Original band members Michelle Mae, Steve Gamboa and James Canty let Svenonius toss coal into the stoker, building and giving him the freedom to let off his much-needed steam, while they adeptly kept the train rolling on the tracks. The show was more of a ministry than a concert (Svenonius has remarked in interviews that he views African-American gospel, not blues as the progenitor of rock n roll with its high energy and catharsis) with lots of audience participation, call-backs and “fifth member” action. A voice all his own, Svenonius’ unique falsetto shriek lies somewhere between Prince á la “Kiss” and Marc Almond á la “Sex Dwarf” and his lyrics and spoken word interludes tap into a quasi-Dadaist, Byron-esque fever dream mixed with Gonzo journalism (saying things like “they have these microphones and they hope that someday someone will say something totally deranged…” and “...we know there are lots of forces against you, the national sports leagues creating more content for our Silicon Valley overlords, but you’re here tonight…”). If it’s been a while, do yourself a favor and look up their 1998 and 1999 classics In Mass Mind and their singles collection I Want Some. This is music to start a revolution by and The Make-Up will not be televised.
THE MAKE-UP
CRUSH
DECEMBER 4TH, 2019
ZEBULON, LOS ANGELES, CA
PHOTOS BY FIESTABAN PHOTOGRAPHY!
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