The Sonics - Irving Plaza, NYC - 4.7.15

by Bruce Alexander
Posted: May 2015
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- photo by Bruce Alexander

The Sonics, a band formed in ‘60 in Tacoma Washington by then teen-aged guitarist Larry Parypa are still performing, which is quite amazing. The audience was a mix of young hipsters and older people that are the band’s contemporaries.

This group were the original frat party band along with The Kingsman and The Wailers. With the Garage Rock Revival going strong they reformed in ‘07, (after a few other brief reformations), to play two sold out shows at Warsaw, a small club in Brooklyn, NYC.

They’re back again promoting their first new album in over 40 years, called The Is The Sonics. The band hit the stage and broke right into their classic tune “Psycho.” It was followed by a song from their new record, “Dirty Robber.”

This five piece band of old dudes have the energy of young punks ready to tear the roof off. The band currently consists of Gerry Roslie - organ, piano, lead vocal, Freddie Dennis - bass guitar, vocal, Larry Parypa - lead guitar, vocals, Rob Lind - saxophone, harp, vocals and Dusty Watson - drums.

The crowd danced up a storm when they performed “I’ve Been Shot Down.” They did a killer version of ” Little Sister.” When they stormed into “Money” the fans went wild.

Gerry Roslie explained that he loves The Kinks and that Ray Davies is one of his favorite singers. They then broke into a great version of The Kinks’ “The Hard Way” from the Kinks’ ‘75 record “Schoolboys In Disgrace.” The Sonics include this cover on their new album.

Next they played their take on “Louie Louie,” which sounded great. After doing a song from ‘80, “Sinderella,” the band left the stage. They returned for an encore, playing two classic tunes, “Strychnine” and “The Witch.”

The Sonics show was like a firecracker. It blew up and went out with a bang!