The Zeros and Jemina Pearl @ Southpaw

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Friday, 18 September 2009 12:27

Tuesday night at Southpaw was a classic case of youth versus experience as 22-year-old Jemina Pearl opened for venerable ’70s punk band The Zeros. Pearl rose to some notoriety as frontwoman for Nashville, Tennessee-based brat rockers Be Your Own Pet, which called it quits last year after an all-too-brief but raucous ride in the limelight. Now, Pearl is on her own, armed with a slightly more mature sound that’s still as hook-laden and petulant as that of her former outfit.

Pearl took the stage around 9:30 p.m. to a sizeable but dispersed crowd. Wearing skintight leather pants, a loose top cut just above her midriff and platinum blonde hair, Pearl looked as if she could have time traveled from the audience of an early Zeros show—if they hadn’t formed about a decade before she was born.

On stage, her demeanor turned as violently as her songs’ chords changed: Her face was very expressive as she sang, smiling with an over-the-top sweetness one second before degrading into an angry scowl the next.

Though the lyrics she spat (and there was plenty of spitting, especially when she got some of her hair stuck in her mouth) may not have been the most riveting on paper, her charged delivery made her words electrifying.

The music showcased a more fully realized pop-punk aesthetic than the skittish and sometimes-abrasive songs Pearl helmed while with Be Your Own Pet. The tongue-in-cheek love song “I Hate People” (which features Iggy Pop on her upcoming album) put Pearl’s voice in near crooning mode, while “Nashville Shores” was leavened by creamy melodicism layered upon a juicy bass groove. Pearl isn’t going soft, however, as “Selfish Heart” would attest—a scathing send up to “a boy in a band stealing [her] dance moves,” in which the vocalist’s signature brattiness was pushed to the foreground.

Speaking of dance moves, Pearl was anything but static on stage. She shook, fidgeted and hopped incessantly, as if she was performing punk rock calisthenics. But for all their youthful energy, Pearl and her band didn’t seem to rouse much response from the crowd, most of whom were
clearly waiting for the night’s headliner.

The Zeros looked remarkably well preserved given their age and sounded just as good. Giving a crash course in their catalog to old fans and neophytes alike, The Zeros, playing the last date of their East Coast tour, took the crowd back to the Los Angeles punk clubs of the mid to late ’70s.

Sharing a microphone, bassist Hector Penalosa and guitarist Robert “El Vez” Lopez sang effective leads and backing vocals, while vocalist/guitarist Javier Escovado mugged for cameras during solos and incited the crowd with his howling voice on audience favorites such as “Knocking Me Dead” and “Don’t Push Me Around.” The Lopez-led syrupy pop-punk gem “Beat My Heart Out,” a song he said he wrote when he was 16, was another highlight.

Experience seemed to conquer youth on this night, but with an album due out Oct. 6 featuring the aforementioned Iggy Pop, Thurston Moore and others, Pearl should have brighter days and more attentive crowds ahead.

Words and photos by James Barone