Two of West Coast punk’s most accomplished performers — Exene Cervenka and Kevin Seconds — were recently on tour together, and we caught them playing solo acoustic sets at One Eyed Jacks in New Orleans in March. Kevin opened with some high-energy songs that were all the more impressive for the relatively sparse attendance. The songs were great, and he just projected an incredibly friendly and cool personality, both on stage and in person. He lives in Sacramento now, and I happened to be going there the following week for a conference. When I asked him between the two sets about places to go while I was there, he was full of great advice (keeping up my string of getting good travel tips from rock stars, starting with Jens Lekman and his hometown of Gothenburg). I had an awesome time in Sacramento; it is definitely not just a boring government town. Thanks, Kevin!
Exene, on the other hand, can really play the grande dame — which is not to say she isn’t awesome, just that she ain’t afraid to bring the attitude when necessary. There was a fair amount of chatter among the audience during her set. That’s bad enough during an electric set (at least when you’re trying to get a halfway-decent recording), but it is a royal pain in the ass when it’s just one person on guitar. Finally, she just quit partway through one song, saying, “Even I can hear what you’re talking about up here!” Right on, Exene. Things got quiet real fast.
So here you have a pair of tracks from each of these legends: “There’s A Hole” and an as-yet-untitled track from Kevin Seconds, and “Already in Love” and “Surface of the Sun” by Exene Cervenka, showcasing her country stylings.
Download: Kevin Seconds: There’s a Hole/Untitled (Live)
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Download: Exene Cervenka: Already in Love/Surface of the Sun (Live)
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