On the Road Again
Live Review

The Chrome Cranks
Club Shanghai, Toronto
Nov. 17, 1997

Just like those dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, Peter Aaron of New York's Chrome Cranks is a genetic engineering experiment gone horribly wrong. On the surface, the emaciated frontman looks like the perfect package: a hybrid of Keith Richard's junkie pose, Iggy's hyper-intense eyes and vocal chords spliced from Nick Cave. But somewhere during this cross-pollination process, the monster rose from the operating table, killed the scientists and took to the streets. And on a cold Monday night in November, he made a visit to Club Shanghai...

The Chrome Cranks were opening for kindred West Coast junk-rockers Geraldine Fibbers, but it was obvious that most of the crowd (including the Fibbers’ Carla Bozulich) was in the mood for the New Yawk-style product. Upon taking the stage, Aaron grabbed the barren Shanghai ceiling frame, shaking it as if to test its sturdiness; once drummer Bob Bert stomped out the intro of "Lost Time Blues," neither crowd nor club was safe. Each of the backing Cranks have been doing the garage-skronk thing for years - Bert with both Sonic Youth and Pussy Galore, guitarist William Weber with G.G. Allin's Murder Junkies and bassist Jerry Teel with the Honeymoon Killers - but Aaron's engrossing psychotic presence has lit a firecracker under this veteran crew. By the time the Cranks rumbled through the closer "Dead Cool," Aaron was climbing walls, acquainting his face with the Shanghai floor and wrapping his microphone cord around audience members (that is, when he wasn't crashing into them). No one was hurt, but next time you might not be so lucky.

- Stuart Berman