There’s something special that happens when vocalist Exene Cervenka, bassist-singer John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer DJ Bonebrake of rock band X are together. Subtle nods and facial expressions speak volumes among the quartet, whether onstage, in rehearsals or in the studio.
“It’s crazy, it’s weird, it’s magical and the audience can feel that, too,” Cervenka said during an interview at her home in Orange.
It’s that undeniable chemistry that has kept the quartet plugging along since it formed in Los Angeles in 1977. Though X is heralded as one the most influential early American punk rock acts, and was able to scratch the surface of mainstream success in the early ’80s, the band has struggled to make a full-time living off of some of the genre’s most beloved recordings.
Still, with members now in their late 50s to mid-60s, X thrives on performing. A handful of years ago the group started playing one-off gigs where it would perform an early album in its entirety. Now X will be treating Orange County fans to full versions of its first four albums – “Los Angeles” (1980), “Wild Gift” (1981), “Under the Big Black Sun” (1982) and “More Fun in the New World” (1983) – one each night, over four consecutive evenings beginning Thursday at the Observatory in Santa Ana.
After the O.C. stint, the band will head off on its summer-long How I Learned My Lesson U.S. tour, which lands the band back in California just in time for an appearance at the Kaaboo festival in Del Mar on Sept. 19.
Cervenka said the band is thrilled to get back in front of these audiences and says that there are still times that she looks around at her fellow players during a performance and experiences an overwhelming sense of both excitement and gratitude.
“One of the things that keeps us together is that we’ve been chosen by some divine force or a total random accident to still be together, and it’s just too much to disrespect by stopping,” she said. “I know we’re happier now than we’ve ever been and get along better than we ever have. Every show we know could be the last show. If you think that way, you’ll be a better band, you’ll play better and you can’t ever take for granted that you can play music. You have to be very grateful, appreciate it and love it because you really are lucky to do it – anybody is.”
AN HOMAGE TO RAY
It was no easy undertaking, to go back and relearn and rediscover songs off the first four records, some of which had never been played live. A dozen or so of Zoom’s split guitar parts, added percussion and even horns on the latter two albums encouraged the band to bring in multi-instrumentalist Michael Kilpatrick to help fill in those gaps on stage.
Bonebrake and Doe say songs like “I See Red” and “Drunk in My Past” off “More Fun in the New World,” and “Dancing With Tears in My Eyes” and “Come Back to Me” off “Under the Big Black Sun,” have quickly become some of their new set favorites.
“I really like playing ‘Come Back to Me,’” Bonebrake said during a phone chat while on the road with another band in Philadelphia recently. “It’s a beautiful but really sad song about Exene’s sister passing away and it’s heart-wrenching every time we play. I can’t imagine how Exene can sing it and bring back those memories, but she does it and it’s beautiful.”
X’s first four albums were produced by the late Doors keys player Ray Manzarek. Cervenka said she never thought of these types of gigs as any sort of tribute until she was asked during an interview if the band doing all four albums in their entirety after Manzarek’s passing in 2013 was a bit of an homage to its unofficial member.
“I thought, ‘Well of course!’” she said. “It is absolutely that.”
Bonebrake has numerous fond memories of working with Manzarek and describes him as “authoritative but never controlling.”
“He had a laissez-faire sort of attitude, but would on occasion come in and guide us,” he said. “Like at the beginning of ‘Los Angeles,’ he came in and said ‘That (drum) phrase is really good, why don’t you play it twice.’ He had practical things to contribute but a spirit that you can’t describe. He was there to make sure we gave our best performance possible.”
Cervenka added that she always felt safe with Manzarek at the helm and though the band switched producers after the fourth record, it certainly wasn’t because of any bad blood. In 2012, Manzarek joined X during a performance at the Roxy as part of the annual Sunset Strip Music Festival, which was honoring the Doors. It was a night the members of X will never forget.
“When Ray passed away I was really shocked,” Cervenka said. “He was one of those people you can never imagine the world being without. He had the best life of anyone I’ve ever met. He made it the best life. He was a great human being and he changed the world, he changed our world, for sure. It was great to have him in our lives again, and that show at the Roxy, that was pretty amazing. He was like a spark, just always inspiring people.”
LIVING IN THE NEW WORLD
Living in the present time is something Cervenka says sometimes she simply can’t wrap her head around. She has always loved thrift store shopping, searching for old records and collecting knickknacks, antiques and unique pieces of art and jewelry. She has happy memories of friends gathering at someone’s house just so they could all listen to a brand new record. One of her favorite things that Zoom ever quipped was when he confided that if he could move anywhere, he’d move to “20 miles outside of 1963.”
“I was like, ‘I’m with you, man,’” she said. “I would find it very difficult to be a young person right now. That’s the thing about getting older. It’s painful, hard and demeaning and you’re totally left out. You walk into a room and everyone is like ‘Oh, whatever.’ It’s all about youth. When I was young, I didn’t realize life was about being young. Part of why people loved our band was because we were young and why people loved me is because I was young. You forget that as you get older because you’re only getting older on the outside. I’m grateful I’m older now because I got to live in a time that was really great. We all get old and die – I mean, if we’re lucky we get old.”
Despite having influenced a wide variety of musicians in the punk, folk and roots rock genres, members of X still hold down day jobs or perform in other music projects to make ends meet. Cervenka does office work in a friend’s shop in Santa Ana, while Zoom, an Anaheim resident, repairs and builds amps and equipment at the Billy Zoom Custom shop near Old Towne Orange.
Bonebrake is in “about a million” other bands, he joked, while Doe is still performing while also working on a book titled “Under the Big Black Sun,” which will feature chapters about the L.A. music and punk scene thus far written by Doe as well as Mike Watt, Jane Wiedlin, Henry Rollins and Cervenka.
“It’s much more discipline than I’m used to,” Doe said about the novel undertaking. “I have to make myself sit down and do it. I like performing and I like writing songs and I’m about three-fourths of the way through finishing a new solo record. But I’ll get the book done – I’ve just got a lot of (stuff) going on.”
Though X may never see the monetary compensation it deserves in its lifetime because of the contracts the band inked decades ago, its bread and butter is still these live performances, and the members recognize it wouldn’t survive without its loyal fans.
“Everything about X is my favorite,” Cervenka said. “I’ve made so many lifelong friends from being in this band and I love meeting new people, too. I love playing live, I love the guys in the band and I still look at them and think things like ‘Oh my God, I’m in a band with DJ Bonebrake! That’s amazing!’ I love not knowing exactly what’s going to happen, but at the same time kind of having an idea of what will happen. I absolutely love it all.”
Contact the writer: 714-796-3570 or kfadroski@ocregister.com
