“It’s such a fine line between clever and stupid.”
As I watched Buckcherry in concert I couldn’t help but be reminded of that line from the 1984 classic This Is Spinal Tap. In many ways they kind of exemplify that concept. After all, this is a band whose biggest hit was all about loving the cocaine and whose latest release, simply entitled Fuck, is a concept album of sorts, the thematic concept being that all of the songs have the word “fuck” in the title. See? That’s clever AND stupid. Furthermore, with songs like “Crazy Bitch” and “Too Drunk…”, they lean towards Spinal Tap-esque parody while still presumably being sincere about it all. And then there’s the band’s name, which is basically a goofy spoonerism of Chuck Berry. OK, perhaps they lean more towards the stupid than the clever, but stupid has its place, and these guys are not without their lunkheaded charm.
Some of that charm came across when singer Josh Todd addressed the crowd:”For those of you who don’t know us, we’re called Buckcherry. We’re from Los Angeles, California. Sometimes we like to wear tight pants.” More of their big, dumb rock n’ roll persona was on display in Todd’s stage banter as he waxed philosophical on the merits of g-strings and told the crowd, “If you ain’t dancin’, I don’t wanna see you no more!” Also, the drummer had some serious wind machine action going on continuously throughout the evening and the moment that he and the bassist were left alone onstage to jam was legitimately one of the highlights of the show.
The pièce de résistance in their set though was their cover of Icona Pop’s “I Love It” slightly rewritten as “Say Fuck It” so as to fit into the aforementioned “fuck” theme of the new EP. The crowd reacted strongly to the song, despite the fact that most Buckcherry fans likely wouldn’t be caught dead listening to the Swedish pop act were it not “rocked up” by the band. It was a move that definitely showed some cleverness while still serving up a decent helping of stupid. Turned up to 11, of course.