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JOAN JETT and the big punk rock traveling circus
Warped Tour rolls into Riverbend Wednesday
from: news.cincypost.com
by Rick Bird, Post staff reporter
JOAN JETT already sounds like she'll have plenty of stories to tell about how she spent her summer "vacation."
This summer the punk diva is showing the young'uns how its done, headlining the 12-year-old touring punk-fest and mosh pit frenzy known as the Warped Tour that features more than 30 bands.
"I'm having a blast. It's a big punk rock traveling circus," Jett said in a recent interview while on the road with the Warped Tour, which rolls into Riverbend Wednesday.
"There is a lot of camaraderie between the bands. It's a block party, summer fair, cookout, all rolled into one."
Jett indeed fits right in with the scene, with plenty of street cred with the younger mosh pit crowd. She began her career more than 30 years ago at age 15 with the RUNAWAYS, and her new album, "SINNER," her first in a decade, is full of edgy sexual and political angles that is as provocative as anything the current indie rock scene has been putting out.
Still, she can't escape the "classic rock" tag. For this tour, many rock writers have often dubbed Jett "the godmother of punk."
"I guess you need a frame of reference. So, I don't mind," said Jett, 47. "It is cool, because some of the bands come to me and want to talk about their experiences."
Sounds more like she is the hip big sister.
"Yeah, I like that better," Jett says with a chuckle.
Jett has proven on the tour that she can be relevant to a young audience, with her Warped set already getting show-stopping reviews. She usually plays the sweaty summer venues in her leather bikini, her muscular arms slinging the guitar, armed with her pouty anthems from "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" to "Bad Reputation."
And Jett is getting noticed on the tour for her potent new songs, ranging from knocking the political establishment to explicit tunes about bi-sexuality and dominatrix fetishes.
Perhaps the centerpiece is the raucous "A.C.D.C.," about a bi-sexual woman, a 30-year old song originally done by glam rockers Sweet. It plays perfectly in these gender bender days and is a perfect song for Jett's treatment. And it seems to be a perfect out-of-character role for Cincinnati native Carmen Electra (Tara Patrick), who stars in the video.
Electra is seen kissing a girl, then getting in a limo flirting with guys. She ends up at a JOAN JETT concert as Jett sings "A.C.D.C./ She got some other lover as well as me/A.C.D.C./She got some other fella as well as me."
"I just thought wouldn't it be great to get someone like her as sort of the template for this treatment. She was totally into it," Jett said about landing Electra for the part. "It's provocative. It's a great rock 'n' roll song. I think it's something people expect from me and we sort of live in this girls-gone-wild world these days."
Gee, what's next? Britney Spears in Jett's kinky tune "Fetish?"
"I don't think so," Jett chuckles.
Indeed, Spears once covered Jett's "I Love Rock 'n' Roll," a version Jett says she has never bothered to listen to, noting she has never been sure about Spear's inspiration for the cover. "A writer asked her why she covered it and she said she, 'always liked Pat Benatar's songs,'" Jett said.
Jett has been pushing the envelope her whole career, even though she has never made any public admissions about her own sexuality, insisting that is a private matter.
"I realized long ago, just being a woman playing a guitar is a political statement in itself," she said.
When Jett split from the jailbait novelty act the RUNAWAYS, it was a couple years before she could get a record contract. No record company would touch the teen punk guitar-slinger, turned down by 30 labels. She became a feminist punk pioneer, launching her own BLACKHEART RECORDS, a move unheard of at the time and beginning a 25-year collaboration with manager/producer /cowriter KENNY LAGUNA. (Blackheart celebrates its 25th year this summer beginning with re-issues of Jett's out-of-print early recordings).
Jett remembers that trying to launch a solo career was a bleak personal period.
"For a brief moment, after the RUNAWAYS broke up, I thought about joining the military, because I was so lost in my life. I met Kenny and we wrote songs together, so I never had to take that route. But it makes me realize that could easily be me, and the (soldiers) are just like me."
That affinity for soldiers is one reason Jett, with little fanfare, has tirelessly played dozens of concerts a year for U.S. soldiers at bases in the U.S. and around the world, from Turkey to Afghanistan. As she puts it: "They don't drive the policy. I'm just there to play for human beings who love rock 'n' roll."
Would she play Iraq? She says she would, if asked. But she says that high-profile USO gig sort of misses the point.
"I'd rather go to Afghanistan, the Philippines, Honduras. There are a million places we have troops that everyone forgets about. When I do go, troops say, 'Oh, my God, no one remembers we're here.' I like to go the places people aren't really thinking of them."
Jett says this past Memorial Day she had the privilege of laying a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, joined by her father. Earlier in the day she had lunch with troops and signed autographs.
"That feels so almost tacky. It's not enough. You are just giving them an autograph for the sacrifice they are making. You feel silly doing it."
Meanwhile, Jett has her own political say on her new album with the biting, rowdy opening cut "Riddles," a knock on political doublespeak in general - and at one point George W. Bush in particular - as she sings: "Clear skies baby/Healthy forests/No Child Left Behind/Wake up people/Big Brother is watchin' you/They're takin' all your rights away/Don't claim that you represent me cause/I don't believe a word that ya say."
"It's not about name-calling," Jett insisted about the tune. "It's just commentary about what's going on in this country and the way we are spoken to, which tends to be Orwellian almost."
"I just want to be able to talk to people. I feel we are so rigid, we don't dialogue at all. There are many issues I would agree with conservatives about. But once you shut it down, you build up your walls."
Jett is doing a little dialoguing of her own by simply being on the Warped Tour, acting as a mentor to up-and-coming bands and also bringing out parents of her own generation to the concert - attending with their kids.
"It's a lot different than when I was growing up," she said. "The kids and the parents are able to enjoy the same music, as opposed to the kids rebelling against the music their parents listened to. It is a bonding experience for sure."
IF YOU GO
-- The Warped Tour is noon to 10 p.m. Wednesday at Riverbend. All tickets $32.50.
-- While Jett is technically the headliner, that doesn't guarantee she will play last. Warped promoters change the lineup daily.
-- For an accurate schedule check out www.warpedtour.com the day of the show.
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