Kirstiecat | Blog

9/3/6
Beat Kitchen in Chicago

The Avengers are a band that gained notoriety in 1979 when they opened up for The Sex Pistols. (Steve Jones also did some production work for them) Penelope Houston is a feminist lead singer who sings out to a captivated audience. She was joined on this tour by Greg Ingraham, an original Avenger, on guitar as well as two members of The Plus Ones. Luis Illades, the drummer for The Plus Ones, held a great tempo throughout both sets and bassist Joel Reader was so enchanted on stage that he kissed Penelope a few times very sweetly. The chemistry between Joel and Penelope was really visible as they even at one point sang together from the same microphone.

Hailing from San Francisco, The Avengers have not ever toured the midwest or east coast of the US until now. Instead, they remained close to their city, forcing others to yearn from afar. The Avengers played a few of their more well known songs including “Teenage Rebel,” “American in Me,” and “Corpus Christi” but also pulled off a great Rolling Stones cover of “Paint it Black.” It was a great night of punk music overall between The Avengers, The Plus Ones, and The Effigies but what truly sets The Avengers apart from many other punk bands is in and of itself the presence of a female lead singer. Penelope Houston destroys that faulty notion in the music industry that women can’t rock out. With her half punk/half garage rock sound she towers over the audience bound to hang on her every word. With the presence she has, it’s hard not to look up to her.

Plus, who can’t but help love a band that posts the following on their myspace page:

A NOTE FROM THE AVENGERS: While it’s flattering to have a lot of Myspace friends, we’d like to mention that we’re not interested in having any racist, sexist, fascist or homophobic friends. If you consider yourself one of these please DO NOT send a friend request. Also anyone who voted for Bush can just take their Avengers CDs and… cash them in at the used record store, right now. Everyone has a right to their beliefs and everyone has a right to choose their friends.

Click to see more pictures, a setlist, and remaining tour dates.

SETLIST:

REMAINING TOUR DATES:

Sep 5 2006 10:00P
Avengers tour – 31st Street Pub Pittsburgh, PA
Sep 6 2006 8:00P
Avengers tour – The Church Philadelphia, PA
Sep 7 2006 8:00P
Avengers tour – The Black Cat Washington D.C., DC
Sep 8 2006 8:00P
Avengers tour – CBGB’s New York City, NY
Sep 9 2006 7:30P
Avengers tour – Maxwell’s Hoboken, NJ
Sep 10 2006 7:00P
Avengers tour – TT the Bear’s Place Boston , MA

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 5th, 2006 at 7:02 pm and is filed under music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.