{"id":955,"date":"2016-12-27T20:41:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-27T20:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=955"},"modified":"2026-06-27T20:43:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T20:43:21","slug":"buzzcocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=955","title":{"rendered":"Buzzcocks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

June 2006, 40 Watt, Athens, Ga<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The immediate thing I remember about that night, aside from the all-star crew of Athens musicians who came out to witness the Buzzcocks\u2019 first show in Athens, was how loud it was. I came with earplugs but it hardly mattered \u2014 this is the show where I lost my ability to hear the letter \u201cJ\u201d properly. I\u2019m oking, I think.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s fine, because really, getting to see these godfathers of punk in such a venue is certainly worth a letter or two. It was one of those bands who formed after seeing the Sex Pistols in Manchester (along with Joy Division), and through 30 years of records, banding and disbanding then banding again, they proved to be a venerable part of musical history.<\/p>\n

The band, with original members Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle in tow, was actually touring on a new album called Flat-Pack Philosophy<\/em>, the band\u2019s eighth studio release. And while the band would play songs from the album \u2014 early in the show to load the back of the show with the older stuff \u2014 they were solid (as you would expect from a band with such experience).<\/p>\n

But when the band started cranking into the classics such as \u201cI Don\u2019t Mind,\u201d \u201cWhy Can\u2019t I Touch It,\u201d \u201cWhat Do I Get,\u201d \u201cFast Cars\u201d and \u201cEver Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn\u2019t\u2019ve),\u201d there wasn\u2019t a single person in the room who left unhappy. It wasn\u2019t a big crowd, but I doubt you could find a person in the room who wasn\u2019t in a band \u2014 and some of those in big, big bands. The Buzzcocks, and their influence on so many, made fanboys of people in bands playing to stadiums. Respect was paid.<\/p>\n

Shelley and Diggle, both having recently turned 50 in 2006, were lively and enjoying the moment. That year the band joined the Vans Warped tour, sharing stages with musicians 30 years younger, but they were up for the challenge. It seemed like they enjoyed this night, though, because the crowd knew them and got what they were doing. The encore, which included \u201cOrgasm Addict\u201d and \u201cBoredom,\u201d was pure, loud, to-the-bones punk, which to me the Buzzcocks always were.<\/p>\n

The Ramones, Clash and Sex Pistols are considered the main trio of punk forefathers, and they are all-time greats. But the two former bands, while starting as punk, became more melodic and dynamic because of it. The Pistols are the shooting star because of their brevity, but the Buzzcocks always wore the mantel of loud punkers, the ones who would best influence the Black Flags, Fears and Bad Brains of the world.<\/p>\n

It was a night of music to remember, and not just for the buzzing left in each ear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 2006, 40 Watt, Athens, Ga. The immediate thing I remember about that night, aside from the all-star crew of Athens musicians who came out to witness the Buzzcocks\u2019 first show in Athens, was how loud it was. I came with earplugs but it hardly mattered \u2014 this is the show where I lost my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[45,164],"class_list":["post-955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts","tag-40-watt","tag-buzzcocks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":957,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions\/957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}