Pere Ubu goes avant-garage

The vast majority of you 17 to 24- year-old university students have likely never heard of Pere Ubu, the avant-garde/proto-punk rock band who shook Lee’s Palace Tuesday night. But it’s not your fault.

Somehow, this highly influential band has managed to stay under the radar of the masses since its inception way back in 1975—save for some nostalgic name-dropping by its devoted fan base of mostly male “50-year-old ex-punks,” to quote lead singer David Thomas.

True to form, there were more than a few men in the crowd who looked like they had shown up straight from their Bay Street jobs, excited to have a night away from the kids. These particular showgoers, sweating out the sharply-pressed creases of their slacks, were fun to watch as the night progressed.

The band gave a performance that nobody of our musical generation could dream of matching. Thomas, the only remaining member of the band’s original lineup, has settled gracefully—or, maybe more appropriately, obnoxiously—into the grumpy on-stage persona he’s been honing for the past 32 years. Bald, tall, and incredibly large, he’s what an older Orson Welles would look like if he’d spent a lifetime reading Bukowski and being sarcastic.

Either the flask he was constantly swilling from was empty, or it just takes a whole lot to get a 400-pound man wasted, because Thomas delivered his dose of surly theatricality with a sharpness that would put any fine stage actor in their place. His once-tinny vocals have thickened over the years and his manner has grown gruffer, but the man has got an onstage presence to be envied.

Presentation aside, the musicianship was clean and each song immaculately delivered. The rhythm section, composed of bassist Michele Temple and drummer Steve Mehlman, maintained unwavering structure against guitarist Keith Moliné’s howls and synthesist Robert Wheeler’s theremin-noise parade. Pere Ubu isn’t a bunch of girlie-pants-wearing hipsters playing New Order knockoffs; they are the real thing.

Additional kudos go to fantastic openers, Arrows, a Guelph-based husband-and-wife duo whose delightful set echoed the golden age of indie rock.