Finding music via the
web and streaming
services hasobliterated not only
distance, it has alsoobliterated time.
Culture
44 NEWSWEEK.COM JUNE 28, 2019
But when I went to see them in
Brooklyn, I was a little worried. They
were playing a small concert venue,
opening for L7, a punky, all-woman
band that starred mostly in the ‘90s.
Opening acts often get screwed. The
sound is terrible; the crowd is indif-
ferent (if there is a crowd at all) and
the sets are short.
But Le Butcherettes killed it. The
sound was powerful and clear and
they won over the crowd with a fast
and furious 30-minute set. The floor
was less than half full at first but had
filled up by the second song. The
band basically rocked the crowd away
from the bar and merch table.
As for Ian Hunter, there was no
one he needed to impress at the
City Winery in Manhattan. He was
there for four sold out nights—
that’s around 1,200 tickets, I would
reckon—for the celebration of his...
hold on...80th birthday.
Hunter was the front man for ‘70s
hard rock/glam band heroes Mott
the Hoople. As the story goes, the
band was about to break up when fan
David Bowie offered them a song he’d
written if they would reconsider. “All
the Young Dudes” went on to be a big
hit and reignited their career. Mott
eventually called it quits in 1974 and
Hunter went off into solo-artist land.
I had lost track of him myself
until an internet search a few years
ago when I stumbled upon Hunter’s
website. As it turned out, Mott was
reuniting with the original lineup
for a series of shows in London. Of
course, I went. And when I returned
to the States, I dove into Hunter’s solo
catalogue: “Cleveland Rocks” is well
known from The Drew Carey Show;
a band called Great White charted
with Ian’s “Once Bitten, Twice Shy.”
And Barry Manilow of all people had
a big U.S. hit with Ian’s “Ships.”
Although well into senior citizenterritory now, Hunter has managed
to keep producing good new music—
unlike peers like Billy Joel who seem
to have stopped writing years ago.
Hunter’s last three solo albums could
be a great career for someone else.
In any case, no worries about
the show I attended. A very fit-look-
ing Hunter fronted his group, the
Rant Band, through a 90-minute
set that included material from his
solo albums such as an amazing,
newish, song, “Dandy,” a tribute to
David Bowie. He threw in a Mott hit
or two, including, of course, “All the
Young Dudes.”
Everyone in the audience who
could still dance, did.