X and Calexico Share a Consonant - and Fans - at the Wiltern Saturday

Categories: Last Night

Still a few years off from Social Security benefits and Denny's Grand Slam Senior discounts, L.A. punk band X headlined the Wiltern Saturday, pushing the oldsters and youngsters back into a shared protopunk nostalgia.

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Tyler Koblasa
X and Calexico headline the Wiltern December 19, 2009

Despite their age, punk is X (and the Blasters, the Ramones, and the Clash), and still eclipses the overproduced punk scene of today.

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Anna Webber

But time goes on; what started in Los Angeles as an aggressively modern shit-talking syncopation movement is now overshadowed by the crap-punk that a lot of us who aren't 12 year-old skater punks hate. X still blows that slop out of the water - even if they've joined forces with the North Pole the past few Christmas seasons to play suburban family faves like "Jingle Bells" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."

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Anna Webber
General view at the X/Calexico show Saturday

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Anna Webber

Exene Cervenka showed up to a punk-rock show in a post-colonial, floor-length, black neck-high frock; lace ruffles fell out of her long black sleeves.

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Anna Webber
Exene Cervenka onstage

Calexico was one of the two opening bands for X, but the only thing the two performers shared is a common consonant. Calexico is a Tuscon, Arizona descended Tejano-flavored band; their name is derived from the California Mexico-border town (which, randomly, I passed through earlier in the day en route from a desert hike near Mexicali).

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Anna Webber

Calexico transcends roots rock, Americana, Indie, whatever. The 12-piece band Saturday drew the attention of two semi-different crowds, and reveled in a world occupied by things like the Day of the Dead, cacti, and steak tacos. They didn't play any Christmas covers or two-minute hard-edged rock songs; rather, they charmed with atmospheric mariachi (ever think that was possible?) and delicately spurred us, broke us, and dusted us off.

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Anna Webber
Joey Burns of Calexico

With great lyrics and a striking sound, the band deserves much more attention than they've gotten, considering they've been a band since '96. Thematically, they pulse and kick and wistfully conjure the dreamy, wide-open southwest, and charmed us into a world that, like New Mexico's catch phrase, is a wide sage desert, a "land of enchantment."

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Anna Webber
Calexico at the Wiltern

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