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(1983 review of one of the Plantations first-ever gigs)

LIVE ACTION

Bruce Joyner & the Plantations
Music Machine, Hollywood, April 30

What do you do if you're a disillusioned high school teacher from a small town in southern Georgia where the only radio station burned down under suspicious circumstances? Of course, you head out to Los Angeles to break into new music scene. Bruce Joyner (formerly of The Unknowns) has done just that, and with his new band, the Plantations, played one of their first-ever gigs recently at the Music Machine.

While the Plantations dress in "standard" - i.e. completely idiosyncratic - rock clothes, Joyner takes the stage attired in Confederate Colonel white, and, with the cane he leans on for support, presents a completely incongruous and intriguing image. Here we have a man looking like he belongs under magnolia shade sipping a mint julep, fronting a gimme-a-beer new wave band.

The group started out a little slow and unsure, not really warming up until about a third of the way into their set. The difference came during "Feel the rhythm", a fine dance tune about, well, dancing. After this point, the songs explored different styles - reggae, salsa - and the music became a whole lot more interesting. Joyner's lyrics have a kind of unabashed earnestness you don't hear much nowadays, like in this snippet from "I Believe" : "I believe in the rain/I can see it fall from the sky/I believe in pain/I can see it in your eye/I believe in freedom/Everyone should be free…" A little ditty called "Wastelands" featured straight ahead, rat-a-tat guitar chord backing by Dave Green and bassist Steve Rodriguez, and would sound like a hundred other punked-out tunes except that the singer was singing about moonshine and killing and burying bodies under backwater Georgia pines. You just don't come across that everyday in L.A.

While not necessarily showing musical brilliance, the band did show a lot of promise; not only the aforementioned axemen, but also drummer Jim Itkin and especially synthesizer tickler Bob Watts; As Watt's confidence grew during the performance, his riffs and effects got better and stronger. I especially liked the "windchill" sounds on "It's Cold at Home".

Bruce Joyner and his Plantations (all Californios) are only a scant three-and-a-half months old. They struggle with opening shows and bad sound mixes, but they already have their own style. And while that other Georgia new wave group may sing about "Private Idaho", Joyner is still working the deep South out of his system. Will we have a sort of Faulkner of song here. I don't know. In the meantime, pass me another julep.

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