Live review: Dead Boys / The Briefs – live in Lombard

Brauer House – 15 Oct 2022

The reanimated Dead Boys and a strong supporting cast bring a little punk magic to the western suburbs of Chicago.

I know. I know. Calling these five guys the Dead Boys is a bit of a stretch. As one commenter succinctly put it – it’s actually a Dead Boy and friends tour. Still, it might be as close as a lot of us will ever get to seeing the ‘77 punk legends. I learned years ago that there’s power in hearing the people who created the music, in this case Cheetah Chrome, performs it. And those songs!

Plus the rest of the lineup! The reanimated Dead Boys were joined by often dormant Seattle punks The Briefs, the unsinkable Suzi Moon, and Windy City punk and rollers Poison Boys. That’s why I found myself in the western suburbs of Chicago on Saturday, October 15th. The show was at Brauer House, a strange strip mall bar, restaurant and venue in beautiful Lombard.

It was my first time at Brauer House, and I mostly left with a good impression. The front of the complex is the restaurant, which also has a small stage. The food was above average for bar grub. The show was in the cavernous back room. While it was far from full, there were a good amount of people there. At least a few hundred. My only complaint is that PBR tallboys went from $3 in the restaurant to $7 in the hall, and of course there was no re-entry. 

Chicago’s Poison Boys kicked things off about 9 pm. Their style is very much in the tradition of Dead Boys, New York Dolls, The Stooges, and The Heartbreakers. They combine early punk and glam, and write some catchy songs. They opened with the title track of their excellent new record Don’t You Turn On Me. A big chunk of their set came from that record, their second full length. Poison Boys look the part too, with shaggy hair and vintage clothes and instruments. They are among the bands at the forefront of the current punk and roll resurgence. It was my first time seeing them live, and they’re definitely worth checking out. 

Rising star Suzi Moon was up next. She also opened with the title track of her terrific new album. Dumb & In Luv was well represented, as were her first two EPs. My personal favorites were “Animal”, “I’m not a Man” and “Special Place in Hell”. “99 Miles to Pasadena” was an audience favorite. Ditto “Money”, especially when Moon came down onto the main floor to serenade us and encourage the revelers to do a circle pit around her while she played. Moon is an undeniably charismatic performer, and her band is really great too. She looked good, sounded good, and had the crowd of mostly older men eating out of the palm of her well manicured hand. 

I was excited to see The Briefs for the first time, as I somehow never caught them during their most active period in the early 2000s. They looked good, if a little gaunt, in their vintage punk threads and matching white plastic sunglasses. The quartet wasted little time in knocking out a shitload of two minute bangers. My favorites were oldies like “Silver Bullet”, “Rotten Love”, “New Shoes” and closer “Poor and Weird”, all from their first album, Hit After Hit (2000). The Briefs were a really nice addition to this tour, and likely a significant draw in their own right. I applaud Cheetah for taking them out, and was really glad to finally see them. 

It was close to midnight when Dead Boys hit the stage. I must confess, I had been drinking fairly heavily for several hours by then. (In other words, from here on out you may want to take things with a grain of salt.) Dead Boys came out of the gate with “Sonic Reducer”, the first track on their undisputed 1977 classic Young Loud and Snotty. It’s a pretty nice luxury to be able to open your set with one of the most legendary punk songs of all time, and be confident that you still have plenty of material strong enough to follow it up. Most of their debut album was played, along with about half of their second and final record, We Have Come For Your Children (1978). Speaking of children – there were none. The show was 21 and over, but the vast majority of the crowd was at least twice that.

Visually, the quintet was interesting. The drummer was fairly unassuming. The second guitarist looked a bit like a younger, taller Johnny Winter, with his long straight hair and cowboy hat. The bass player resembled Andrew Dice Clay. Singer Jake Hout is officially the second longest tenured member of the band, and he does a pretty convincing impression of the irreplaceable Stiv Bators, who died in 1990. Cheetah looked kind of like a rock and roll Nosferatu. He was dressed in black from head to toe, with a black sweater that looked a bit like a cape, and giant motorcycle boots. A shaved head and some black eyeliner completed the look. 

Musically, the band seemed pretty tight 10 days or so into their fairly lengthy six week tour. I was drawn toward Cheetah’s side of the stage, and transfixed by watching his hands. Even slightly hunched over his guitar, he’s still clearly a master of the six string craft. Dead Boys finished their regular set with “Down In Flames”, then came back out with “Calling On You” and the exceptionally poignant “Ain’t It Fun” for their encore. “Ain’t it fun when you know that you’re gonna die young.” What fun indeed. It was the conclusion of a rare, sublime night of outstanding old and new punk rock.

Dead Boys Setlist:
Sonic Reducer
All This and More
What Love Is
Ain’t Nothin’ to Do
Not Anymore
Flame Thrower Love
Caught With the Meat In Your Mouth
I Won’t Look Back
I Need Lunch
High Tension Wire
Son of Sam
Down In Flames
Encore:
Calling On You
Ain’t It Fun

Confessions of a merch whore: It was weird. All the bands had tons of stuff for sale except Dead Boys. They had a single Cheetah Chrome T-shirt design in limited sizes. I understand that they’re not exactly promoting a new album, but still. Most of us would have thrown money at any kind of Dead Boys swag. I was happy to finally get the new Poison Boys album, Don’t You Turn On Me (black), and even happier to get the extremely limited Briefs (10 per date, 200 total) 3D cover version of the Singles Only compilation LP (bright blue splatter with 3D glasses).