The Return of Raygun

Naked Raygun made a “surprise” appearance at Subterranean last Saturday night, although the surprise was thinly veiled at best. Word spread quickly in the weeks before, and the result was that both levels of Subterranean were packed to the bursting point with rabid fans both new and old. This was the one chance “regular folk” were going to have a chance to see Naked Raygun play in a room this size in, well, forever, so folks were suitably amped for the experience.

The band’s set was heavy on “the classics,” and the crowd knew every word. This was apparent during the numerous times that sing-along vocals completely drowned out lead singer Jeff Pezzati’s own voice. While we appreciated the fervor with which every word was met, we would have like to hear Pezzati actually singing them. However, we do not hold the crowd responsible for this shortcoming. Instead we lay the blame squarely on the shoulder of whoever was running sound, since they were doing a piss-poor job of it. Naked Raygun should have been causing the walls to tremble and shake, but those in the back of the room had to strain to even hear Eric Spicer’s drums at some points. We’ve seen plenty of shows at Subterranean, so we know the system wasn’t at fault; it was the man at the board who should have done better.

But this quibble is just that, trivial, when the rest of the show is examined. It’s been years since we found ourselves in a pit that we enjoyed, or weren’t trying to escape from, but we found ourselves merrily making our way towards the front to be in the middle of the action. What the band lacked in volume, they more than made up for in enthusiasm, even if bassist Pierre Kezdy and guitarist Bill Stephens did occasionally seem a bit surprised at just how batshit everyone was going over tunes that hadn’t been played to general audiences in nearly a decade.

This didn’t surprise us one whit though. We have long maintained that Naked Raygun is one of the most enduring punk acts to have come out of the '80s, and their sound hasn’t really gotten dated at all, for the most part. As a matter of fact, the men of Raygun still stand head and shoulders over just about every punk act working the circuit / malls / VFWs today. If there was one lesson we took away from Saturday, other than always watch your head for flying boots, it was that even a lowered volume couldn’t quell the sound that is Naked Raygun.

A quick aside here: We noticed the group had A TON of (new) merch for sale. This may well have been because they were playing Riot Fest the next day, and if there’s one thing the Hot Topic punx love, it’s buying stuff. However, if they still have a lot of T-shirts / etc. left over, we at Chicagoist would be more than happy to see Naked Raygun play a couple more shows around town in an effort to sell out the rest of their merch.

We’re just sayin’.

Top photo by Joe Marinaro
Bottom photo by Diann Nails