walt reeder

Walt Reeder Entertainment

Walt Reeder Entertainment - full service agency proudly representing some of the most respected and dynamic performers in the R & B, Hip Hop, Gospel, Reggae, Soul and Funk industry.

Buying from Walt Reeder Entertainment is more like an investment in a great product. Our credentials as the oldest black owned booking agency supersedes any other in the country.
Walt Reeder

Public Image Ltd. Lead a Fiery Sermon in Los Angeles

 

The piercing sound of John Lydon's voice is still like no other. During Public Image Ltd.'s two-hour concert at Club Nokia in Los Angeles on Sunday night, he sang with a mixture of biting antagonism and real vulnerability, filling the theater with a fiery wail and compelling new songs from the reunited post-punk originators.

 

Sunday's concert came near the end of the band's three-year touring journey, which included the release this year of This Is PiL, the band's first new album in two decades and a return to form, as Lydon demonstrated in L.A. "We come from chaos/ You cannot change us, " he shouted during the album's "One Drop" against sharply echoing guitar lines of Lu Edmonds. "Cannot explain us/ And that's what makes us."

 

Dressed in a two-toned shirt, bright orange suspenders hanging behind him, Lydon comfortably mixed his past and present, with song choices stretching back to PiL's 1978 debut, First Issue, recorded shortly after he left the Sex Pistols. The sides of his head were cropped short, leaving a blond tuft of hair on top, and earrings dangled from both sides. Between songs, he soothed his throat by lifting a liquor bottle to his mouth, taking a swig, gargling and spitting it out.

 

The new album's "Reggie Song" shook from searing guitar with an Arabic flavor as Lydon sang, his hand raised. He grunted his words through a stretched-out "Bags" (from 1986's generically titled Album) over a deep bass rumble with slices of guitar. When a fan slurred back a lyric between songs, Lydon turned with a wicked grin. "With a voice like that, that why I'm up here and you're down there."

 

The concert was filmed as part of an ongoing documentary project on the band, which Lydon unexpectedly reconvened in 2009 after a long hibernation with the lineup of Edmonds, drummer Bruce Smith and bassist Scott Firth (who also operates the laptop). It was a homecoming for Lydon, who has lived in Los Angeles and Malibu since the Eighties, and he teased locals for cheering not quite loudly enough: "Laid back as usual? That's OK, la la. I live in la la."

 

Lydon has spent many of the last 20 years working on television, and reunited first with the Sex Pistols in 1996, but he has been unwilling or unable to create new songs with the groundbreaking punk act. His history with PiL is much longer, and it was the outfit in which he expanded and experimented with his voice. The PiL reunion inspired him to write again, and he is already making plans for another album with them.

 

Onstage in L.A., he came alive in a different way from the Pistols, with a deeper repertoire to draw from. Standing in front of a huge circular "PiL" logo and rope netting, the band ripped through the decades, from 1989's "Disappointed" back to 1979's agonized "Death Disco," as Edmonds played a multitude of string instruments, even sawing a bow against a tear-shaped bouzouki.

 

Lydon often spoke cryptically to the audience. He noted the impending election by declaring, "Vote for the right one and let it not be in the name of religion," just as Edmonds began the ominous chords from "Religion," an early PiL track from their debut. The anti-religious screed was stretched to epic length and took on extra bite at Club Nokia, reflecting the aftermath of abuse allegations in the Catholic church in recent years. Lydon made that connection overt, too, adding new lyrics to the original: "I fear no evil except for the priests/ Look what they've done/ Lock up your children." The song continued as he introduced the band, calling Edmonds "Jesus Christ" and adding, "The guitar will cleanse your soul." Turning to bassist Firth, he said, "Beelzebub, turn up the bass, turn up the bass."

Walt Reeder Walt Reeder Entertainment
Green Day have canceled the rest of their concerts scheduled for 2012 and have postponed 2013 shows in January and early February while singer Billie Joe Armstrong continues treatment for substance abuse. After withdrawing from the Voodoo Music Experience last weekend in New Orleans, the band has nixed dates starting with a November 26th gig in Seattle through their December 10th show in Tempe, Arizona. The rockers have postponed 2013 tour dates from their January 7th show in Green Bay, Wisconsin, through their February 8th show in Las Vegas.

"Obviously the timing for this isn't ideal, but Billie Joe's well-being is our main concern," bassist Mike Dirnt said in a statement that also announced that Green Day have moved up the release date for ¡Tré!, the last installment of an albums trilogy. "We feel bad we have to delay our tour, so to make up for it we want to give our fans the music earlier than we had planned," drummer Tré Cool said. "If we couldn't be there to play it for you live, the least we could do was give you the next best thing."

¡Tré! will now come out December 11th, instead of January 15th. ¡Dos! is still set for a November 13th release. Armstrong entered rehab last month after exploding in a tantrum onstage during the iHeartRadio festival in Las Vegas. For a full schedule of canceled or postponed tour dates, visit the band's website.
Walt Reeder Entertainment Walt Reeder