A Perfectly Cromulent Blog

Judy Judy Judy

Famed(?) early '80s new wave band The Judys reunited to play for the first time in 10 years last Saturday night as a benefit for a childhood friend of theirs who has cancer. My friend Alan knows bassist Jeff Walton (now a film and TV composer, BTW), and he e-mailed me last week to see if I was interested in seeing them play in the auditorium of their old elementary school in Pearland (now an annex of Alvin Community College). After hashing out the details of beer availability, I was in.

The Judys recorded only two full-length studio albums: Washarama in 1981 (when the band members were still in high school), and Moo in 1985. When they played at Club Foot in Austin in '81, R.E.M. opened for them. I didn't really get into the band until 1984 or thereabouts, and caught them once in 1985 (at Dr. G's in College Station, for those who care about such things). Peenman and I went halfsies on an LP copy of Washarama and, as far as I know, he still has it. And has for the last fifteen years.

But that's okay, because I got to see them live Saturday night. The show was great. They ran through pretty much their entire catalog (which isn't too hard when the average song length is 1:45), the props were in full effect, and the crowd - which wasn't as big as I was expecting, probably owing to the invite-only nature of the gig - were very into it. But don't take my word for it, check out the pics after the bump.

Generic band shot (click for larger version):

"And all I get is static:"

David rocks his high-tech synth setup for "Rerun:"

Insert obligatory Walken joke here:

A shot from stage right:

The beach ball is back: "Her Wave:"

Not so tiny bubbles:

One of the few songs my mother forbade me to play in the house[1], "Guyana Punch:"

And the aftermath:

"Milk" was one of the encores, with appropriate Moo-themed garb:

I didn't keep a setlist, but in addition to those listed above, I remember "Man on a Windw Ledge," "Mental Obsession," "Girls! Girls! Girls!," "Grass is Greener," and "Perfect Crime."

And one of the most disturbing images I've ever seen was dozens of kids rushing the stage to be doused with water during "Guyana Punch."

It's funny, Alan asked me if it felt like a flashback, to which I replied with a movie quote (which is what passes for intelligent conversation among my kind): "It was as if everyone had swelled." Less disturbing to me than the fact that the median age of those in the crowd was in the upper 30s was that some had actually gone so far as to dress as if it were still 1982. This was generally a bad idea.

Then again, we did have to drink in the parking lot. So in that respect it was very much like high school.

On the plus side, it was the first live music event I'd attended in the last five years where I felt like I might've had a legitimate shot with some of the women there. Soccer moms...all right.

I mentioned to a few people there that I couldn't believe they aren't planning on playing some more shows to raise more money. They could easily sell out Numbers three nights in a row, or reopen Rockefeller's for a weekend. Charge $10 a head, get a percentage of the bar, and bingo: $50,000.

And I suspect a couple of out-of-town APCB readers might even make the trip to Houston to catch them.

[1] "Too Drunk to Fuck" was, for whatever reason, just peachy.