Two Reviews of Toronto Shows - 1982 and 1984
By Wilder Penfield III

1982:

"You must be revolutionary too -- can I take you home?"

I'm sure the lass I overheard was kidding. Or almost sure. At a concert by The Clash, some radical stances are serious.

For It wasn't top-40 brainwashing that drew 19,000 plus -- The Clash's biggest-ever audience in North America -- to the Grandstand Sunday night, but a lot of other things, some of them radical-political. (Some of them social.)

And if there exist a lot of free-floating longers for commitment (pick an issue, any issue), why shouldn't The Clash cater to them too?

England's best-known rock politicians have established an enviable reputation for integrity and for seriousness of purpose. It allows them absolution in advance for being too naive for their audience (or too sophisticated), or for not being much fun (or being too much fun). "You know, people ask me all the time if we're still punk" says bassist Paul Simonon in the current Musician (highly recommended), "and I always say,'Yeeh, we're punk.' because punk means not having to stick to anybody else's rules. Then you look around and see all those bands that are afraid to break the rules of what they think punk is. We're punk because we still have our own version of what it means. That's what it is: an attitude. And we'll stay punk as long as we can keep the blindfolds off."

Says Joe Strummer: "I know nuclear doom is prophesied for the world, but I don't think you should give up fighting until the flesh burns off your face,"

Their standards are their own. So what if Strummer's vocals are as vague as guitarist Mick Jones' concept of in-tune? So what if many of the melodies were banal and the Iyrics inaudible? The Clash operated like crack hit-men, with original drummer Terry Chimes driving them through a punk-paced set, and they played the songs that people knew they stood for, and any other songs people were sure to know, and they didn't flinch when the people (once again) breached the stage during the second srt of encores -- they were hot, and the intensity is what counts, and we believed in the intensity and fed on it.

I found it strange to be at a rebellion party, to be dancing -- everybody was dancing -- in front of photos of undernouriahed third-world children.

But if The Clash want to spread the word big, they have to play in the big leagues, and that means reaching people, and that requires showmanship.

More power to them.

In Black Uhuru they had an uncommonly compatible opening act. Black Uhuru is -- of all things -- a kick-ass reggae band, and with the help of some of best rhythm players in the business, it eamed an uncommonly effusive encore demand. (The Clash know they are not the only band that matters.)

The Clash themselves will soon be opening a series dates for The Who. Not everybody in The Clash organization is pleased with the decision-- said one defector after Sunday's show, "I don't work with oldies bands." But The Who could hardly make a braver gesture than involving their heirs apparent in their final tour of duty.

1984:

The latest edition ol The Clash gets an A for effort. And last night at the Gardens they made other ratings seem irrelevent. If there was less of a sense of expectation then at the Grandstand summer belore Iast (and at 9,000 this time, less than half the turnout,) this could have something to do with the lack of new music since, and the question mark of three new members.

The question mark can now be eliminaled. Recently enlisted guitarists Nick Sheppard and Vince White have added a touch rockabilly resilience to the band's hard drive. And drummer Peter Howard has helped wind the team as taut as they have ever been.

Or maybe it just seemed that way because singer Joe Strummer once again appeared to have something to prove last night.

Strummer and bassist Paul Simonon are the only holdovers from the original 1976 London line-up. And without recently-departed guitarist Mick Jones, they appear to have rediscovered their focus.

For better or for worse they didn't take the easy way out. No dramatic changes of pace were in evidence. They played everything an old-Clash fan would want to hear, and they did so in ways that should make for new ones.

As a result, these punk pioneers seem to have more going for them now than when they started.

Initially, what Strummer wanted to prove was that he can be as provocative (disagreeable) as ever. "Are there any great groups in this city?" he demanded. And when there didn't seem to be any unanimity in the response (despite the musically and politically acceptable opening-act example of Messenjah) he announced that our PR was bad.

Welcome, Joe, to a city which, like London, is too rich to afford an automatic reaction to that question.

Then, after introducing the bandmembers, he said. "My name is Pierre Trudea, are you ready for war? "

This from band whose authorized introduction addressed to "flat-toppers," "pill-poppers," and other presumably disaffected members of their presumed peer group -- was: "If you want to be out of control, now is the time!"

What redeemed the concert was not their ersatz integrity but their real (-istic) intensity.

Gone were the photos of undernourished third-world children. In their place were a dozen standard-sized color TVs, flickering rhythmically.(Surely they weren't showing videos!) Aside trom that, the show's only bright color, this was your basic white working class rock band, on your basic black industrial set, in your basic black (and white) garb, sponsoring the white side of your basic black-and-white issues.

But their power -- and also my principal objection to it -- is in the blinkers they sport so bravely.

I doubt they accomplished anything new last night, for unfamiliar lyrics were also inaudible, but I think this was the band they wanted to be when they introduced themselves at the Rex Theatre five years ago. Maybe it was enough that we rediscovered their commitment, and can look forward to deciphering the content when they finally release another album.

Any bets they at least don't tell us they want us to dance?