Gang of Four Bring the Noise to Exit/In

Many of us experience a very specific sense of trepidation when going to see an artist who’s been around  a while. There is always that little tinge of fear that you bought a ticket as a sign of respect to the elders, and you’ll never really know the satisfaction of experiencing a primal rock machine in its prime. The best I usually hope for is an adequate performance, a set list that doesn’t omit my deep-cut favorites and to never hear the words “This is a new song” come through the house speakers. 

The tension mounts a bit when there’s a new lineup, or else some or all of the members haven’t played together in some time. The current iteration of Gang of Four has both of those conditions to contend with. Building on the momentum of last year’s Grammy-nominated box set Gang of Four: 77-81, the anti-capitalist punk quartet announced a rebirth. Returning to the stage for this tour were frontman Jon King, drummer Hugo Burnham and bassist Sara Lee, with David Pajo of Slint and Papa M fame to fill the gap left by the 2020 death of founding guitarist Andy Gill. On hearing that they’d be playing Exit/In, I acknowledged two immediate feelings: I desperately wanted to see it, and it might be terrible.

The Mother Church of Elliston Place had an impressive age spectrum for the gig on Saturday night. Among the gray-hairs, I saw about as many people who could perhaps be their kids — a true testament to the enduring appeal of Gang of Four. Making my way across the densely populated floor, I couldn't take two steps without seeing familiar faces of local record-store clerks and collectors who only unearth themselves in cicada-like cycles to catch events of this magnitude. 

Snarling, seething blues duo Black Venus got the night going. Batting leadoff for an all-star-level lineup is always a tricky proposition, and reactions were mixed to the twosome’s high-octane performance. Three people I spoke with compared Black Venus to their fellow Ohio transplants The Black Keys — but also to Blueshammer, the painfully plastic fictional bar band from Ghost World. 

Any concerns I had about the current iteration of Gang of Four were bulldozed by the first alloy-tinged strum of Pajo’s guitar. From the opening salvo of “Return the Gift” and “Not Great Men” from the Gang’s 1979 debut Entertainment!, the set felt like a disco-punk Home Run Derby. King, decked out in a collarless cornflower-blue shirt, never stopped his kinetic frenzy. His energy and charisma commanded the room and frothed over like a beer can in a paint shaker as he responded to the precise rhythms Burnham was laying down behind him. Lee, who first played with the band from 1981 to ’85, buoyed the classic tunes that predated her tenure with a funky groove that got headier as the show progressed. Pajo, meanwhile, proved himself an off-season acquisition for the ages. He was true to the ferocious, steely noise that the late Gill brought to the band while weaving his own signature elements into the structure. 

The show was everything I’d have asked for, and more. On some of the songs, a backing vocal duo added a soulful dimension to the sound; Brooklyn Vegan identified them at an earlier show as Dolette McDonald, who performed with the Gang and many others back in the day, and Tess Burnham, Hugo Burnham’s daughter. Per tradition, King brought out his baseball bat to pulverize a microwave during “He’d Send In the Army.” Once the consumer appliance was suitably battered, he lifted it over his head and chucked it off to stage left, as if executing the finishing move in a foreign-object match. 

The earnest catharsis shared by the artists and the audience had gravity like a black hole, pulling us all together at an ever-increasing velocity. The crowd chanted along as the Gang closed the main set with “To Hell With Poverty,” seeming unified in our disgust that this Marxist anthem — written more than 40 years ago — still feels appropriate for the current state of inequality in the world. Clearly, making and consuming art about major social issues doesn’t solve those issues. But it’s not all for naught. With socially conscious art like Gang of Four in the world, it’s easier to stand up when the tide of garbage threatens to pull you down.

A minute after they departed, the band returned for a four-song encore that began with “Capital (It Fails Us Now)” and ended with their first single “Damaged Goods.” King, his blue linen sweat-soaked to a deep navy, gathered the whole group for a collective bow amid the deafening roar of the crowd.

As the house lights went up, I started to make out the faces of people I’ve known the whole time I’ve lived in Nashville — a class reunion for the sort of folks who don’t attend class reunions. The consensus was that our expectations had been exceeded by miles. King & Co. are a vibrant post-punk force of nature, and this was one of the most powerful performances I’ve seen on this stage — a high bar indeed.