GIG REVIEW: The Dickies + Crashed Out, Newcastle University, Friday 21 July 2023
Back when I was a lad, The Dickies and Dead Kennedys were the only US bands that mattered to young teenage punks where I lived.
Sadly, I never saw either band in their original incarnation, but was lucky enough to catch the Jello-less DKs in Newcastle back in 2017.
Apart from a couple of songs at Rebellion one year, I’d somehow managed not to see The Dickies, and when this gig was cancelled in 2020 and again in 2022, I feared I never would.
Bubblegum-punk
Imagine my delight when this re-arranged date was confirmed by JS Promotions, which meant I was going to get a taste of The Dickies‘ bubblegum-punk at last.
What’s more, it was double bubble time, as the originally intended support, local lads Crashed Out, from just down the road in Jarrow, were still appearing too.
The Oots, as they’re known, have an arsenal of street-punk bangers under their belt, and are past masters at warming up for bigger bands, as well as their own gigs.
They’ve been around the block a few times in their 28 years together, and their latest album, 2022’s Against All Odds (reviewed here) is the best they’ve done.
This gig was just drummer Ricci’s second back after a few months out recuperating from an operation, and he took to it like a duck to water – handy, as it was pissing down outside.
The 45-minute set flew by, with oldies One Of The Boys, This Is Our Music and Cushy Butterfield rubbing shoulders with new songs like Against All Odds, Urban Zoo and Raise A Toast.
The end arrives all too soon, with a blazing cover of the Angelic Upstarts’ I’m An Upstart followed by traditional closer The Jarrow Song (“the first punk song, written by Alan Price in 1973” as singer Chris Wright would have it…).
Suitably warmed up, the crowd are ready for some vintage Los Angeles punk rock, and The Dickies deliver it right from the off. Known for not taking themselves too seriously, tonight they largely rein in the goofing around and just play the songs people want to hear.
The five-piece – still including original members Leonard Graves Phillips on vocals and Stan Lee on guitar – surprise us all with the opening song, a faithful cover of the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy In The UK.
Phillips says he auditioned the song many years ago, and has only sung it once since (at the previous night’s show). It’s a banging start, guaranteed to get the crowd onside, and from here on they can do no wrong, slamming through 21 songs in an hour or so on stage.
Covers were always a big part of The Dickies, and we were treated to turbo-charged versions of The Moody Blues’ Nights In White Satin and Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, which were lapped up by an audience who probably still have their original 7″s in tatty picture sleeves.
The band’s debut album, 1979’s The Incredible Shrinking Dickies, is a punk rock classic, and a clutch of its quickfire songs are dusted off: Give It Back, Curb Job, Waterslide, Got It At The Store and Poodle Party. I felt 13 years old again and sang along to every word. I wasn’t alone.
For a band who’ve never split up since they were formed in 1977, they have a fairly small back catalogue: just seven studio albums, with the most recent, All This And Puppet Stew, released back in 2001.
Recent years have produced a handful of singles, including 2021’s A Gary Glitter Getaway, which prompted cartoon villain boos from an audience old enough to remember the leader of the gang when he was a pop icon, not a nonce.
Phillips has said there will be one last album, however, and there was one new-ish song, I Really Hate Punk Rock, which for me was one of the highlights of the set, along with The Germs’ cover Golden Boys from the Idjit Savant album, You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla), and the closing Gigantor.
Encore time, and it starts with an instrumental (“‘cos Leonard needs a break“), Rondo (The Midget’s Revenge), which shows – as if there was any doubt – that this band really can play, and the night comes to a climax with – what else, Banana Splits – the song everyone associates with The Dickies.
There’s far more to them than that though; they wouldn’t have been cited as an influence by multi-million-selling bands like Green Day and Offspring if they couldn’t play. They can certainly do that, and sound much beefier than I imagined.
Will it be the last time they grace us with their presence? I hope not, because although they’re getting on in years (Phillips and Lee are both 66) and have had health issues, they take us back to a time which seemed simpler, and have proved their enduring appeal.
The Dickies are playing a short UK tour which concludes with an appearance at Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, headlining the Club Casbah stage on Sunday 6 August. If, somehow, like me, you’ve never seen them, you know what to do.
