Gray Matter, Taking It Back to the '80s
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When singer-guitarist Geoff Turner was 16, his band Gray Matter recorded "Retrospect," a song that states, "I'm seeing things that never could last."
That was in 1985.
After 15 years apart, the members of Gray Matter reunited Friday for a one-off show to celebrate the Black Cat's 15th anniversary -- drummer Dante Ferrando owns the joint -- and Turner proved his 16-year-old self wrong. The band played a tight, spirited concert to a wound-up crowd that included D.C. scenesters who were there back in the day, aging punks who wished they were there and young Turks who weren't even born yet.
Gray Matter's fast, passionate and melodic songs helped define the D.C. punk period in 1985 known as "Revolution Summer," whose influence extends internationally today -- albeit in a mall-friendly version called emo. While Gray Matter is overshadowed by its amazing peer group Rites of Spring, the band's "Take It Back" EP has the same resonance and power as Rites' lone, legendary album. Gray Matter played "Take It Back" in full on Friday, along with older songs from the "Food for Thought" LP, as well as the later and still-great Turner songs "Thog" and "Swann Street."
It's hard to believe teenagers wrote tunes as well constructed and potent as "Chutes and Ladders" and "Burn No Bridges," and Gray Matter's reunion performance delivered those flamethrowers with the same intense sparks of emotion that ignited them.
When Gray Matter finished the show with "Retrospect," it may have seemed an appropriate choice. But when Turner sang, "Images grow dark with age," he proved his teenage self wrong again. Gray Matter's image still burns bright.
-- Christopher Porter
