walter lure

if you had asked me 10+ years ago "who is walter lure?" i would have stared back at you blankly; meanwhile i knew by heart all the words to songs like "chinese rocks" and "born to lose." i never really paid attention to people's names until more recently, when i realized that these old punk dudes are out playing shows as themselves. working at a record store has also helped with that. so, walter lure was in the heartbreakers with johnny thunders; naturally i wanted to see him play a solo show at the one and only brighton bar.

oh, so a few months ago i went to this strummerville thing at the bowery electric in new york. i'm not sure why i didn't write about it. i saw jesse malin in january, and as he was talking to me, he mentioned the strummerville show he put together and said i should go. so i did. because that's the kind of person i am. but seriously, i fucking love joe strummer and the clash and i saw that there were going to be a bunch of cool people performing: h.r. from bad brains, ivan julian from the voidoids, bob gruen (the photographer), obviously jesse malin, and also walter lure. i'll do a whole post about this sometime, probably, maybe. but anyway walter lure did "i fought the law" and i honestly wasn't impressed. which was disappointing to me, because i wanted to like him, but it really bothered me how he kept saying "and the law won" when there are not supposed to be words there. you know what i mean right? here, watch the video. so yeah. everyone only did one song, sometimes two, and that was his one.

but i still wanted to see him again! i figured that might have been weird for him, maybe he was having a bad night, maybe they didn't get to rehearse (a lot of people were reading notes as they performed; everything was a little haphazard but overall a lot of fun. i'm not trying to shit talk, honest), maybe he got stuck doing a song that he didn't know that well? who knows. so me and ryan (show buddy extraordinaire) went out saturday night to see walter lure and the waldos. ryan claims that he is not a punk fan (he thinks they can't play their instruments; i have so much to teach him) but he loves the new york dolls, therefore he loves johnny thunders, which is how i got him to go to this show with me.

we ended up loving every opening band. curtis suburban, rama amoeba, frankenstein 3000, and ingrid and the defectors. at one point, before the show started, i went to the bathroom and when i came out, ryan said "holy shit, marc bolan is here." um. what? "no seriously. wait until you see him. it's marc bolan." i finally did see who he was talking about; the singer/guitarist from rama amoeba (all the way from japan you guys!) looks like fucking marc bolan. the hair. the shiny suit. we were both really excited. they were a ton of fun to watch, too.

anyway- so walter lure! the dude who drummed and sang for curtis suburban was drumming for him too, which made me happy because he's really fucking good. so, the girl who used to love this guy without knowing who he even was got to hear him sing/play "chinese rocks" and "born to lose." you bet your ass i was singing along. i also got to hear "pirate love" and "too much junkie business" and "all by myself." seriously, it was so much fucking fun. i'm really glad i didn't let that weird clash song ruin his rep for me, because i would have missed out on a fantastic night. it was fun to turn and look at everyone watching him, too. i love going to shows like this because the people there are usually out of their minds with excitement (obviously this includes me as well).

before the show, he was wandering around, and i found myself standing next to him at the bar. i was alone. he was alone. i looked at him and then looked away as he looked at me. i had no idea what to say to him. it kind of looked like he wanted to laugh, and then he walked away. so after the show, ryan approached him and asked him to sign my poster for me (brighton usually gives out show posters to the first bunch of people to show up; i still have my hugh cornwell one from the first time i was there). and then i grew some balls and asked for a picture with him, and he said sure. then i said "i don't have a flash on my phone, we'll have to go over to the stage. it's too dim here." he rolled his eyes at me, but he was smiling, and i followed him over to the stage. he sat down, and i squeezed in next to him, and he put his arm around me. it's actually turned out to be a really great picture. i thanked him, we shook his hand, and then left.

i really appreciate opportunities like this because i wasn't born yet when these bands all got their start. no, i'll never see johnny thunders perform since he died a month before i turned 5 years old; i'll never get to see jerry nolan (drummer for new york dolls after original drummer billy murcia died, and also for the heartbreakers), since he died the year after johnny. but i got to see walter lure, which is pretty fucking special. he looks like he's still having fun, which is enough for me.

like a motherfucker, y'all.