Pale Lips
Festival Beat 25

«Do you like the Ramones???» and she looks straight into my eyes.

Better not to commit myself, «Kind of …», after all, I don't even know her, I’m meeting her for the first time in my life today, «Why???».

«No, it's nothing, it's just that we're about to start this stuff here, it would be nice if you sang with us».

«Alright, I'll give it a shot».

To be honest, it didn't really go down that way, but that’s more or less the gist of it.

Actually, she is Canadian, and so are the other three, and she barely speaks Italian, just the basic ciao, thank you, I love Italy, and the minimum rockeuse travel vocabulary.

Then, I'm one of the audience, while she’s on the microphone and sings in an all-female band. When she sings and introduces the songs, she doesn't really look anyone straight in the eye but glances at all those eyes staring at her, wondering if anyone understands what she's saying, «Maybe I’m insulting them heavily, and if they go yeahhhhh and make approving noises, it means they clearly don’t get it; worst-case scenario, they start insulting me back and it all turns into a brawl, like a perfect punk concert».

So, I still don’t know the names of her and the other three Canadians, but I do know the band, Pale Lips, pale lips; until yesterday afternoon, I didn’t even know who they were, today I’ve developed a terrifying crush on them.

And I admit, a lot of it is because of this whole thing about liking the Ramones, for them and for me; and I think it's something like «Amor ch'a nullo amato amar perdona …», so I can’t help but feel love for those who love the Ramones.

Anyway, they start this song, and I think it's a Ramones cover, because if their Italian is limited, my understanding of Anglo-Saxon is even less.

«R.A.M.O.N.E.S.», damn it, they’re covering Motorhead!

I start shouting «Bad boy rock, bad boy roll, gabba gabba, see them go», but something’s off because “gabba gabba” wasn’t sung by the girl on the microphone, and I would’ve caught that if she had sung it.

«No way, it’s not a cover» because, as incapable as these four girls may be, «R.A.M.O.N.E.S.» by Motorhead and any Ramones song I would always recognize no matter what.

It’s their stuff, «R.A.M.O.N.E.S.! HEY! OH!, LET’S GO!» and a very short solo all built on the riff of «Pinhead».

I can't understand anything else from this piece, and not much else of what they continue to play, by now I’m flat on my back at their feet.

Among the little I understand is that all four of them are very young, not even reaching their twenties.

They’re playing today just like my beloved Corvettes played in 1977: a highly flammable mix of Sixties female vocal groups and certain garage rock, the kind found in very rough collections like «Teenage Shutdown», not «Nuggets» or «Pebbles», too much evolution in those grooves.

They have no concept of musical technique whatsoever.

What they're doing anyone watching them could easily do.

Rock 'n' roll is for the young, and going to see rock 'n' roll concerts is dangerously becoming a thing for the old; maybe because when you’re young, you perform rock 'n' roll, and when you’re old, you no longer have the energy to perform it and just watch those who do.

In fact, all four of them have overflowing vitality and the adorable senselessness of twenty-year-olds, and even charm to spare, since not all twenty-year-olds are charming.

Of course, the first thing I wish for them is to stay young forever and above all never become the new Donnas, in which case it would be better if they disbanded once they return to Canada.

«We’ve never sweated so much at a concert».

Probably they’ve never played at six in the evening at the end of a hot June month.

They were supposed to be the appetizer for the evening event.

For me, they were the appetizer, starter, main course, side dish, fruit, dessert, coffee, digestif, and bitter, all offered by the house.

And this little page entirely for them, their adolescence and carefree garage punk, I felt it was necessary to write it.

Because that song is called «Mary-Lou Sniffin’ Glue», there you have it.