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July 25, 2007
Roger at the Red Door
I checked out the Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers concert at The Red Door music café in Watertown Tuesday night and left the show wondering once again why this band isn’t hugely successful.
Clyne flirted with stardom as the driving force behind The Refreshments, which had a minor hit with “Banditos” off its 1996 debut album Fizzy Fuzzy Big and Buzzy. The group’s music also is known by fans of the Fox animated series “King of the Hill,” for which The Refreshments supplied the theme music.
I admit to not knowing much about Clyne’s “new” band — which released its first album, Honky Tonk Union, in 1998 — until a copy of the group’s latest, No More Beautiful World, came across my desk a few months ago. I popped it in my car stereo and it’s managed to stay in a heavy rotation ever since.
That’s why I was moved to drive the 35 or so miles from Bridgeport to Watertown at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday. Not exactly a prime party night. However, I wasn’t disappointed in the show or the little rock club which hosted it.
From what I gathered talking to a bouncer, The Red Door’s owner has a connection with Clyne and that’s how he ends up playing the venue on his stops in Connecticut. It really is a great place to see a concert, especially an act with a national following, but it specializes in bringing in local bands for weekend shows.
Clyne and his bandmates put on an incredible performance, gracing the stage for more than two hours and running through his four-album catalog, as well as a handful of songs from his days with The Refreshments.
Clyne’s music is All-American rock ’n’ roll, with a southwestern flair. The characters in the Arizona native’s song often drift across the border to Mexico and you can feel that country’s pull in the music.
Surprisingly, Clyne also adds a reggae beat to some of his tunes and it never seems forced or derivative.
The 200 or so people at The Red Door kept the energy level high as they very often sang along with Clyne or, when prodded, sang the lyrics for him. And Clyne is a true rock star with his stage patter and his interaction with audience members. It’s good to know that even in a remote outpost in Connecticut, Clyne is popular enough to draw people out on a Tuesday night and that they are all familiar with his music.
It’s a shame Clyne toils in relative obscurity while so many lesser talents play to thousands of people each night in amphitheaters across the country. If he’s disappointed, it didn’t show Tuesday as Clyne was engaging and seemed to really be enjoying himself.
There were a few glitches at The Red Door where the sound was a little off and the lack of air conditioning was more and more evident the closer I got to the stage. It was very much like a smaller version of New Haven’s Toad’s Place, right down to the smell of the beer-soaked wooden floor.
Posted by Sean on July 25, 2007 6:36 PM
