X the band recently released a new, and final record called Smoke and Fiction.  I wrote all about it, and all about X in general here:  Record Review: Smoke & Fiction, the Final Album from X (Plus: Ranking the X Records & Live Shows - a Deep Dive Into X) — Pencil Storm.  Along with this brilliant swan song of an album, they embarked on one last tour.  Fortunately for me, the limited number of dates on the tour included one in Virginia, an hour and a half from my house.  Despite the relatively close proximity, my wife and I sprung for the hotel and made a proper Saturday night out of the show.  Here’s a little bit about our travels, and a review of the show…

TOUR POSTER OUTSIDE OF THE STATE

We had two good friends from Newport News, VA in on our plans and so we headed out in the early afternoon with the expectation of meeting up at the hotel around 4:00 p.m.  There is a decent hotel about a seven-minute walk from the theater.  After checking in we learned our friends were already down the street at Audacious Aleworks, a brewery I was unfamiliar with.  After the Google lady took me around the block twice and still didn’t get us to the brewery, we found it ourselves and realized we could have walked to it twice as fast.  I had a session IPA and declared it to be excellent.  Visit this place if you’re ever in the area.

After one more pre-dinner beverage in our hotel room we were off to Claire & Don’s Beach Shack which is directly next door to the State Theater and it is outstanding in every respect.  You will feel like you are really at the beach at a cool locals spot rather than stuck in the hustle of Northern Virginia just outside of D.C.  The blackened grouper sandwich, guacamole & chips, fries and ceviche were all amazing.

After dinner we walked next door about five minutes before 7:00 p.m. doors.  The line was longer than any we had ever seen at this venue.  I guess I should have known given that I already knew the show was sold out.  We got inside about 7:15 p.m. and fortunately we had reserved a four-top table early on (well worth the $12 per couple charge) and we got possibly the best one in the entire venue, right on the rail of a raised area.

There was no opening act announced, but at 8:00 p.m., Dead Rock West came on to play a set.  The band is a duo consisting of Cindy Wasserman and Frank Drennen.  My wife and I saw them open for X at this same venue several years ago.  They are enjoyable, and I was happy to have an opener, but I am going to move on to the main attraction.

I guess it was close to 9:30 p.m. when X hit the stage.  Right off the bat I was encouraged to see Exene bouncing around and looking fired up.  Billy Zoom still had to sit during the show, but he looked good and played like the guitar wizard that he is.  He’s one of my top five favorite guitar players for sure.  The first three songs were of course good, and the band sounded good, but until we got to “Adult Books” (from Wild Gift) I wasn’t loving the song selection.  Two of the next four after that, “Flipside” and “Bitter End” were from the amazing Smoke and Fiction record with “The New World” (from More Fun in the New World) and “Water & Wine” (from Alphabetland) sandwiched in between.  Now we were off and running!  The amazing Los Angeles debut record was well represented with a total of six songs by my count, but I do have a minor beef in that regard.  “Los Angeles” is an essential song, and we got that.  I was thrilled to hear “Nausea,” and it was one of the best songs of the night.  But deeper cuts like “Sugarlight” and “Soul Kitchen” are such disappointing choices when you consider that they left out “Johnny Hit and Run Paulene” and “Your Phone’s Off the Hook, But You’re Not.”  Oh well, enough bitching.   The excellent “Ruby Church” and the title track from Smoke & Fiction were more highlights.  The encore was only okay, with three quieter songs.  Initially, only Exene and John Doe came out for “See How We Are.”  The band joined for “Come Back to Me” and “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts.”

I SAW A WOMAN WALK BY OUR TABLE WITH A SETLIST AFTER THE SHOW AND SHE KINDLY HELD IT UP SO I COULD TAKE A PHOTO OF IT.

All in all, it was a killer show, it just wasn’t the perfect final show as far as the set-list goes.  Nonetheless, I love this band dearly and I have since 1981.  I wouldn’t have missed the opportunity to see them one last time for anything.  And they sounded really great for a band whose members range in age from 68 to 76 years old.

OUR VIEW FROM ABOUT THIRTY FEET AWAY

JCE WITH ONE LAST SOUVENIR

X WRAPPING UP ONE OF THEIR FINAL FEW SHOWS

JCE, or John to his friends, was born in the Nation’s Capital and grew up in the VA suburbs of D.C.  He is 61 years old, he has a wife of 33 years, and a grown daughter.  He leads a bit of a double life, working by day as the chief administrative officer of a VA county, and spending as many nights as possible listening to live rock n roll with his wife at any club that has a decent band within 100 miles or so of their house (and sometimes further).  He’s a rock n roll lifer.