East Coast Proto-Punk On The Sunset Strip: The Dictators Pack Viper Room

By Lisa Burke

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November 11th 2016, The Viper Room, West Hollywood CA: As any genre of music goes, there is no black and white, cut and dry, yes or no approach that has to be followed to succeed, as there are many opportunities of individual style within a set genre. In regards to the booming era of 1970s punk rock, a few different styles emerged and soared off in their own directions, and one significant early pre-Ramones punk band that washed up on the shore of New York City during that time and was one of those influential staples that other popular bands were inspired by, although they themselves never gained too much prospect on their own during their heyday, was The Dictators. Back in the early days of Twisted Sister and CBGB’s, The Dictators were forming a stable line up and counting to four any chance they could get. On Friday November 11th 2016 at The Viper Room, forty-two years after their origin, the boys were back in action on the west coast.

This show brought us four different punk bands, opening with a band called Motor 66 who apparently live for touring with The Dictators and clearly fulfilled that wish opening for them on this west coast run. I arrived in time to catch the next band The Black Mambas who are a more modern act mixing classic oldies style rock n’ roll with fast and fun punk rock. The singer possessed great energy and those ever important rock n’ roll jumps were happening in abundance to entertain and energize the crowd throughout. Their songs were all well over punk rock length which typically doesn’t exceed three minutes and is usually closer to a minute-and-a-half, which became another reason to classify them as fast paced punk-influenced rock n’ roll. I actually found them to be among the more entertaining of the evening and while nothing too out of the ordinary happened, this was good quality play-it-safe and happy rock n’ roll with a side of punk sauce.

Next up was Orange County locals The Stitches who have been around for over two decades, yet don’t seem to have fun breaking any laws as any ’90s based punk band should and they are clearly ’70s influenced. That was my biggest let down from this whole show however, that punk rock at least from where I grew up in NY was full of angst and broke rules and was full of debauchery and chaos. This was another play it safe rock n’ roll with punk tendencies band that was neither here nor there. These guys were on the mark with what they set out to do however and they managed to bring in a modernized twist to old school punk methods which was a notable accomplishment. I mean, the Ramones weren’t super angst-filled either in their actual music as they were “The Beatles of punk” only in terms of gaining mainstream respect and oozing happiness into the souls of their fans while writing very catchy hits. Generally speaking, this band deserved the spot they had and a fun time was had, although personally they softened me for The Dictators which may have put a slight damper on my experience.

The Dictators
The Dictators

The Viper Room at this point became wall-to-wall packed and the lines for the bathrooms exceeded a reasonable length. Also, at this venue, for whatever reason, probably somewhat due to the cramped space to load in and load out, it always takes an excessive amount of time that has just become second nature to me, yet it was slightly noticed as dragging on this occasion. Once the wait was finally over, the NYC badass punk rocker dudes The Dictators took the stage and gave it some decent energy. Dick Manitoba on vocals was a treat as expected, but the real unlikely show stealer was the bass player with his attitude and energy, after a while it became the only visual aspect keeping me engaged. This surf rock influenced band, as I mentioned, came before a staple in the underground NYC proto punk rock scene from back in the day, but they never took off the way some of the others who they influenced did and why is that? Well, I’m not sure I have a solid answer for it, but perhaps the lack of drama surrounding them or the simple standards in structure of their songs that they never explored further might have been a factor or they came into the light before their time because now they have a reputation they clearly lacked when they were most active. Either way, they were still a great time and deserve the acknowledgement, yet again for me today in this world we live in, this kind of music actually takes a back seat on a political stand point which makes perfect sense if that isn’t what they are about, but with a name like The Dictators and songs like ‘Pussy And Money’ and ‘Search And Destroy’ you expect more harsh dirty political punk sound. With that surf rock influence though, you get a happy go lucky problem child that gets away with a soft spanking. But their classic style will always be classic, and perhaps straying from that would do more harm than good.

Oddly, the Viper crowd was not as east coast as I had hoped on this night, perhaps because every other band on the bill was based in California, but the audience was totally engaged in The Dictators and in the end that’s the important part. Catch them if you can on tour and experience a part of history live and on a full tank.

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