Seeing the youthful-looking John Doe perform at Iota in Arlington Monday night was almost impossible to believe: It was 28 years ago that he joined Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom and D.J. Bonebrake to form X, the breathtaking Los Angeles punk band that became one of the most influential of its era.
Doe is 49 but has a raggedy boyish appearance, looking like a much scruffier Jackson Browne. His songs are scruffy, too: paeans to the have-nots and long forsaken. "This one is for all you lovers out of love," Doe said before one song.
The eternally youthful John Doe played Iota on Monday night.
(Jim Herrington)
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Indeed the bad-luck crowd finds its way into many of his gritty rockers including "The Losing Kind" and "Heartless," both from his new CD, "Forever Hasn't Happened Yet."
But if Doe's subject matter is often grim, he isn't. Doe joked with fans between songs, talking about how he once rented a $60-a-month studio apartment near George Washington University. He also threw in unexpected covers, such as a souped-up country shuffle version of Bob Dylan's "She Belongs to Me" and a classic bar-band take of the Janie Bradford/Berry Gordy rock gem "Money (That's What I Want)".
Fans of X, whose last album was released 10 years ago, were sated with versions of "White Girl" and a solo-acoustic encore of "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts." The latter sounded more topical and hard-hitting now than when it was first released in 1983. Great songs (and great songwriters) never seem to grow old.
-- Joe Heim
