Review and Photos by BARRY LEVINE
NEW YORK CITY — Poor Lincoln Center will never be the same. It wasn’t long into Gossip’s 20-song set before their rabid fans rushed the two aisles to get as close to the front as possible.
By this point, the dance-punk act’s fierce frontwoman, Beth Ditto, had already shed her shoes and was romping barefoot on the splendiferous stage of the Wu Tsai Theater in the grand and chandeliered David Geffen Hall.
As chaos ensured, it was announced to the crowd in perhaps a request for decorum: “This is where the Tony Awards are held!” As if, that was going to stop these Gossip fans from dancing in the aisles!
The classy Lincoln Center, home to opera singers, ballet stars and virtuoso concert musicians, was letting its hair down for an American Songbook series honoring women, punk pioneers and rockers with tributes to trailblazing acts like Fanny, Poly Styrene and X-Ray Spex, the Slits and others.
On this night, April 6, indie rockers Gossip and Bronx-bred ESG performed sets in honor of Fanny, the first all-female act to release an album on a major label.
Fanny was founded in the late ‘60s by California sisters (by way of the Philippines) June and Jean Millington. They became a rocking foursome and caught the attention of producer Richard Perry, who convinced Warner Bros. Records and Reprise to sign the band. In the ‘70s, they opened for Slade, Jethro Tull and Humble Pie, and received critical praise for their 1973 Todd Rundgren-produced album, Mother’s Pride.
Their 1974 album Rock and Roll Survivors produced a hit single in “Butter Boy,” written by Jean about a brief fling with David Bowie. Fanny appeared on The Sonny and Cher Show and American Bandstand. And the group later inspired the Go-Go’s, Bangles and Runaways.
With five albums to their credit and two Top 40 hits, June and Alice de Buhr, the band’s drummer, accepted the inaugural American Songbook Award, curated by Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre along with singer and composer Tamar-kali, after intermission before Gossip took the stage.
Musician great Toshi Reagon, who introduced June and Alice, noted that “Fanny had to move through a thick mound of sexism, misogyny, homophobia and racism. They were asked, ‘Where was the band?’ at many of their early gigs.”
In accepting the award, June gave shoutouts to Steely Dan, Jeff Beck, Steppenwolf and Dr. John.
“We pretty much played with everyone who was out there on the road,” she said. “And we learned from them all. We really felt it was important to be our best, every show, every night.”
June added of her sister, who suffered a stroke in 2018: “I wish Jean were here. I really miss her.”
After the award ceremony, Gossip hit the ground running, bathed in a great light show. Seeing Beth Ditto perform, in her sequined party dress, was for me, the highlight of the evening. No wonder the 44-year-old grunge queen is a magazine cover star across the pond in England. She really knows how to rip it up and as some reviewers have remarked, she’s a soul-baring live wire with core-rattling vocals and equal parts Joan Jett and Adele.
Reared in small-town Arkansas, and her adopted home the past two decades in Portland, Ore., Beth has called herself “fat, lesbian and blatantly feminist,” and always fighting for LGBTQ+rights. And she’s a hell of a talent.
Beth and crew moved from indie Kill Rock Stars and queer punk circles to Columbia Records in 2009, and came alive again under mega producer Rick Rubin following a 12-year hiatus. They dropped Real Power, a new album last year — some 24 years after releasing their debut record.
Beth was supported on stage by Nathan “Brace Paine” Howdeshell (guitar, bass, keyboards), Hannah Blilie (drums), Teddy Kwo (bass) and Bijoux Cone (keyboards, guitar).
Gossip opened with “Nite” and “Jason’s Basement,” and then sizzled into “Don’t (Make Waves).” Later there was an excellent electropop “Love Long Distance” and an “Act of God,” a song from Real Power. You had to admire the slashing guitars on “Heavy Cross.”
I, myself, was in the aisle bopping to Beth and company’s electrifying performance and infectiously danceable tunes. And all the way through, making their set even more fun, was Beth being a wisecracking comic. After one song: “From Walmart to the Super Saver to the Lincoln Center,” and at another point: “I was born in a Yoko Ono-Kurt Cobain sandwich.”
Before Gossip’s set concluded, Beth broke down in tears when she brought up to the stage her longtime manager Tara Perkins. “It’s our last show with Tara,” Beth cried. Tara was equally emotional. “I used to watch them play in their living room when the cops would show up,” she said.
ESG (Emerald, Sapphire and Gold) opened the night. Like Fanny, they were formed by sisters — Renee Scroggins and her younger siblings Valerie, Deborah and Marie, along with a family friend, Tito Libran, in the late ‘70s.
On stage, it’s still a family affair. Renee and Marie were joined by Renee’s daughter Nicole Nicholas (bass) and her son Nicolas D. Nicholas (percussion). They were joined by Mike Giordano (drums).
ESG mixes punk, funk, hip-hop, rap and Latin — and they have it down when it comes to grooving. It was a buffet for the senses with a myriad of percussionists, hitting congas and scraping wooden agogos.
They opened with “Come Away,” and went on to such crowd favorites as “Watching,” “The Beat” and “Strange Creatures Dance.” They had the audience up and out of their seats and it felt like we were in a South Bronx house party when they tore into “U.F.O.,” “Erase You” and “You’re No Good.”
Renee, let it be said, is still a hoot at age 65. “I played almost everywhere,” she told the crowd. “But Lincoln Center? Lincoln Center is classy.” She got that one right.
GOSSIP SET LIST:
Nite
Jason’s Basement
Don’t (Make Waves)
Eyes Open
No, No, No
Arkansas Heat
Fire Sign
Yesterday’s News
Love Long Distance
Listen Up!
Act of God
Yr Mangled Heart
Turn the Card Slowly
Move in the Right Direction
Crazy Again
Dimestore Diamond
Four Letter Word
Men in Love
Heavy Cross
Standing in the Way of Control