Bandstand
RZA opens show, brings down house
By Bunny Matthews
Even Jed Palmer, proprietor of the club that bears his name, was surprised last Friday night. Approaching the mastermind behind Radioactive Xenophobic Androids (better known as RZA), Jed declared, with the enthusiasm most men reserve for spectacular field-goal attempts: “Man, I had to come up close to see who was getting two encores, and I find out it’s Lenny Zenith! Lenny Zenith!”
After all, RZA was supposed to be the night’s opening act — the band that everyone didn’t come to hear. This minor technicality did not stop the audience, though, and for a while, it looked as if a third and maybe fourth encore were to be part of the evening’s program. But RZA simply ran out of songs. Lenny flew through “Boys” (once the domain of Ringo Starr in his collarless-suit days) for the second time and called it quits before things really got out of hand.
With Lenny Zenith, one learns that the bizarre touch is often just the right touch. A couple of Decembers back (and also at Jed’s), Lenny and a primordial version of RZA gave one of the most entertaining rock performances this writer has ever witnessed. At the time, RZA was composed of Lenny, who was still in high school (Ben Franklin and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts) and sporting hair streaked with peroxide; a classmate, Gretchen Edwards, playing an economy-size synthesizer; and a primarily jazz-oriented drummer from New York named Julian who left the band almost immediately after joining.
WHAT WAS WRONG with a host of young bands in those days (and these days) was their dalliance with the idea of being the New Orleans Ramones — dumb, fast, simple, loud and dumb. The Ramones are accomplished minimalist artists, mind you. We simply don’t need the 40,000 imitators.
Lenny Zenith and associates, refreshingly, were never Ramones imitators. At the fondly recalled gig of antiquity, Lenny had the entire stage floodlit with white lights — a startling effect when one is used to viewing bands barely illuminated by a single flickering red bulb. The band played real songs rather than power chords, and by and by, the fellow in totally ridiculous drag joined them onstage and shimmied madly while RZA reheated the surf classic “Wipe-Out.”
Then, Lenny sang “Daddy Don’t,” decidedly the most cheerful anti-dad-abuse anthem ever composed. The fellow in red continued his dancing, and during the refrains…
Listen to “Daddy Don’t“
RZA 1980 featuring Becky Kury, Jimy Negrotto, Charles Wehr and Lenny Zenith. Recorded by Buzzy Beano on the Westbank