Last Saturday my Sweetheart and I wrapped up a run of great weekends by going to Little Steven's Underground Garage a Go Go Tour when it pulled into Philly. We got to the TLA as soon as the doors opened and were front and center for all of the acts - a local band, The Frantic (decent band) ; the Charms, from Boston (rather generic chick rock); the incredible Chesterfield Kings, the Supersuckers, and the utterly fabulous New York Dolls. In between bands we were entertained by 4 go-go dancers who looked like extras on Laugh-In.
The Chesterfield Kings play like the 1966-era Rolling Stones fronted by Iggy Pop. Their singer, Greg Prevost, destroyed two mike stands right in front of us (I brought a shard of one home as a souvenir) and spent most of the set in the audience, climbing up into the balcony, trying to rip curtains off the wall, all while the Kings played a set of stuff from "Let's Go Get Stoned" and "The Mind-bending Sounds of the Chesterfield Kings" (both highly recommended). The band was BURNING and Greg seemed totally out of his mind. It was real rock and roll. We loved it. The Supersuckers were also quite good, funny and hard-rocking, doing stuff like "Pretty Fucked Up", "Born With A Tail" and "Creepy Jackelope Eye", but they should've preceded the Kings, I think. Both are excellent bands, no matter what order they play in. But the Kings really left an impression.
The Dolls were... THE NEW YORK FRIGGIN' DOLLS. One of the greatest bands in history, imho, miraculously back and in fine form. The songs from the new album were just as good as the classics. Standouts were "Pills", "We're All in Love", and "Trash" was just unbelievable. Because of the nature of the show, they played less than they did when we saw them last year. They played from about 11:30 till 12:30 or so. Encores were "Personality Crisis" and "Gotta Get Away From Tommy".
After the show we hung around for a meet & greet and got to talk to them. I asked David Jo if he had any plans of playing with the Harry Smiths again. "Well, people ain't exactly beatin' my door down for that stuff." My friend Marc asked them to "scootch together" for a picture (do they say "scootch" anywhere but here in Pennsylvania Dutch Wonderland?) and David said "Why don't you just move back a little bit instead? we don't scootch." Syl said "Do we LOOK like people who SCOOTCH?" It was like being around Groucho and Chico Marx.
The Dolls are really great guys - Syl in particular seems like an absolute sweetheart - and they're one of the best bands in America, then AND now.
And the whole show was amazing, like a trip to some wonderful alternate universe, where $20 gets you a ticket to see some of the best bands in America play right in front of you - right in your face. It was the way things OUGHT to be.
My buddy Marc took this picture.
Disclaimer: These are my opinions and not fact as realised in these here United States, lest I give my friends the idea that everyone thinks like me.
Mind you, they'd probably say the same about me, I guess. Or maybe they were always that old, and it's just my memory playing tricks on me (it's me age...) 
