| Maximum RNB??? I started off the month of September/01 by catching a set of Toronto's Maximum RNB, fully expecting to hear rhythm and blues and wondering how they had managed to get themselves booked into a club known for "punk" or "alternative" music. I was absolutely delighted to find that they were not, in fact, R & B (which would still be a good thing), but straight-ahead rock'n'roll with heavy punk leanings, or was it straight-ahead punk with rock'n'roll leanings? Never mind - they were great! It was a full-throttle, high-speed sonic attack and surely not meant for the faint-of-heart. A gentleman standing next to me, when I enquired of his opinion, nervously stated, "I need a cigarette...and I don't even smoke!" I thought that summed up the performance quite nicely! Anyone who has listened to a lot of punk music knows that the lyrics are often unintelligible, shouted out at maximum volume, and that it's totally acceptable and even expected in this genre. Punk music, to me, is all about expressing emotions, whether they be anger, delirium, confusion, or just being plain, outright fucked-up. Now, before you start getting visions of some pale, skinny players with spiked-up hair, growly voices and safety pins suspended from their eyeballs, stop right there. While they don't have a deliberately "marketed image", lead vocalist Max Brand is black, very soft-spoken offstage, wears thick-lensed glasses tied around his head, has a somewhat robust figure and shakes his moneymaker like James Brown! Hard to imagine a character like that vocalizing a la Johnny Rotten or Kurt Kobain, isn't it? But he pulls it off just the same, doing it totally his way! And, yes, to be honest, I don't think he has the "correct" vocal depth, for those punk purists out there, but punk, or rock'n'roll for that matter, was never meant to be "correct", was it? His excellent backing players consist of wild, dark-blond dread-locked Keith Carman on lead guitar, (with a similar coiffed friend in the audience), "manic" Mike Childs on drums, Keith Maurik on rhythm guitar, and Mike Sydney on bass. All the songs were originals I had never heard before, and while captivated by the relentlessly driving lead and bass guitar riffs and drums, I kept getting auditory flashbacks of high-energy rock from the good old days (e.g. "Razmanaz", "I Can't Explain", and "Let Me Get Next to You"). Simultaneously, the songs retained the exciting urgency and undercurrent of latent violence of any prototypical punk/grunge band. And it still astounds me how people can listen to very fast rock or punk music and not be physically moved by it! Even Max was somewhat physically restrained that night, perhaps due to the small space in which he had to work - no strutting the catwalks that night, although he did manage his trademark splits right there in the middle of the club! In any case, Maximum RNB was a great opener for so-called "punk" band, Sector Seven, who were celebrating the re-release by Sonic Unyon of their two original CDs in a single package, called "Dual". While I only got a chance to hear a couple of songs prior to an obligatory departure, I would have pegged them as being more thrash metal than punk (and it too was sounding good), but there it is again - that labelling thing getting in the way of having a good time. Maybe that's what the moniker, "Maximum RNB", is about, after all! Keep your eyes and ears peeled for upcoming gigs, possibly with Teenage Head, and stay tuned for an official release of originals by Maximum RNB (highly endorsed by one Greg Godovitz), including the amazing instrumental "Tequila and Bullets", "My Life Story", "Break Me or Kill Me", "Motor Cash Blues" and "Let's Roll". By D.D. (Drop Dead!) Rocker |
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