“We used to complain that we could never pack the Continental Club,” Kathy Valentine said Saturday night. “Guess it just takes leavin’ to get y’all to come.”
She moved to the UK earlier this month, but the former Go-Go and perennial Austinite couldn’t settle across the pond without a few going-away shows. Alongside her Bluebonnets bandmates, a very Texan whirlwind of guest stars proved the perfect unsappy showcase for the tough-edged artist/author, who’s always been more of a rocker than her power pop reputation implies. Valentine and the Bluebonnets followed up last night, Wed., Jan. 24, at C-Boy’s Heart & Soul.
With a thunderous wave of scratchy guitar and drum-roll theatrics, guitarists Valentine and Eve Monsees, drummer Kristy McInnis, and bassist Dominique Davalos – joined onstage by keyboardist Emily Gimble – rattled through an hour-and-a-half set traversing the band’s three-album discography, a hearty blend of classic rock & roll and blues.
Davalos, with a seductive roar optimal for the group’s irreverent tunes about love and sex, usually provided lead vocals, growling through opening originals “Carboy” and “Why Ya Don’t.” While she plucked out the low end, Valentine and Monsees, mouths agape in joy, took turns ripping guitar solos, hitting the whammy bar in synchronicity.
As is tradition for goodbye shows, the evening packed covers and special guests. McInnis took the mic for “Be My Baby,” the Ronettes classic so perfect that an outsider’s take normally just makes you miss the original. Somehow, the drummer sounded miraculously close to Ronnie Spector, while Davalos and Monsees provided appropriate girl-group harmonies.
Even more fitting, the band tipped their hats to “Austin icon” Ray Wylie Hubbard with a take on his woman-worshiping track “Chick Singer, Badass Rockin’.” “I wish he was here,” Valentine said of the Texas outlaw afterward. “I think we forgot to tell him.”
A tribute to late Texas guitarist Denny Freeman unlocked the band’s love for a blues scale. Once Monsees’ dirty riffage combined with Gimble’s banged-out piano, the artists, previously locked in and tight, loosened up. “Chick Singer, Badass Rockin’” indeed, the jam session welcomed Sue Foley – a favorite of Valentine’s, who’s always sought women collaborators. Later came hyperactive roots modernizer Zach Person, who dropped a cross-generational new single “We Don’t Play” with Valentine earlier this month. Though mostly full of boomers, the room swayed in appreciation.
The evening’s biggest surprise came about three-quarters into the set when punk innovator John Doe of California act X came aboard, toting his own bass. As Valentine recalled, she first heard the Go-Go’s needed a bass player at an X show all those years ago. “If I hadn’t gone to see my favorite L.A. band that night, I wouldn’t have ended up where I did,” she said.
“Thanks for coming,” Doe replied, before launching into “The New World” alongside Davalos on vocals.
Though marking a definite end of an era, the show avoided nostalgia. “I’ll be back,” Valentine said, promising her friends in the crowd that they’d each get in hellos and goodbyes. Still, just once, she sighed.
“Maybe I should stay.”
The Off Beat: Kathy Valentine Departs “This Town”
A version of this article appeared in print on Jan 26, 2024 with the headline: The Off Beat: Kathy Valentine Departs “This Town”
This article appears in January 26 • 2024.
