Following two cancelled tours, Redd Kross finally made it to the UK which coincided with the release of their new studio album, the self-entitled double album, ‘Redd Kross’ or ‘The Red Album’, in homage to their musical inspiration – The Beatles. Brothers and co-founders Jeff McDonald (vocals, guitar, percussion) and Steve Shane McDonald (backing vocals, bass) along with the rest of the band made up of Jason (guitar) and Dale Crover (drums) exploded onto the stage wearing paint splattered, long white shirts.
After opening on bubblegum pop song, ‘Stay Away from Downtown’, the band launched into the new album tracks, first with ‘Stunt Queen’. They performed their best known and debut single, 1990’s ‘Annie’s Gone’, with Steve’s metal bassline, Crover’s rumbling drums and the cross-contrasting guitars; it sounded timeless and saw Jeff singing from underneath a glittery cloth. They then returned to their latest material with the crushing bass creep of ‘Emanuelle Insane’.
Redd Kross went straight into the next song; they included covers in their set, playing ‘Pretty Please Me’ by The Quick that features on their 1997 ‘Show Time’ album; with Jason’s punk sounding guitar and arpeggios. Moving back to their “eponymous” double album, they performed single ‘I’ll Take your Word For It’, a psychedelic Beatle-like track, and their main album single, ‘Candy Coloured Catastrophe’, which sounded exactly like the record and had melting pedal effects. They also played two 1993 singles, the streaming anthem of ‘Jimmy’s Fantasy’ and Beatles inspired ‘Lady in the Front Row’, with Jason climbing the stage gear and Steve grappling his bass over the crowd.
The band ended their main set on the bashings of the title of their debut album, ‘Born Innocent’, now the last track on the new album and also the name of their new band documentary which is being screened at this time. They also performed ‘Linda Blair’, named after the actress in ‘The Exorcist’ film which inspired the band’s name and mixed it with a snippet of feedback filled The Beatles’ ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’.
Redd Kross returned for an encore starting on the first-ever song they wrote 45 years earlier, ‘Annette’s Got the Hits’, and ended an explosive night rocking out to two covers, The Osmonds’ ‘Crazy Horses’ and ultimate rock ‘n’ roll song, ‘Deuce’ by KISS, which was sung by Steve.
12/11/24: Redd Kross @ Dingwalls, London.
Photos © Ayisha Khan.
© Ayisha Khan.