Bush Tetras at le Poisson Rouge

In 1979, towards the end of the original punk rock movement in New York City, Bush Tetras formed and merged gritty funk, hard-edged punk and dissonant no wave trends with a female-dominated stance and empowering lyrics. The quartet was popular on the Manhattan rock club circuit and on college radio, but catchy songs like "Too Many Creeps" and "Can't Be Funky" did not lead to commercial success, and the band split in 1983. The original lineup reformed in 1995 and released an album in 1997, but split again in 1998. The band reformed in 2005 and presently includes three original members, vocalist Cynthia Sley, guitarist Pat Place, and drummer Dee Pop, plus newer bassist Val Opielski. Bush Tetras yesterday released Take the Fall, a five-song EP which features the band's first newly-recorded music in 10 years.

Bush Tetras tonight celebrated the release of the new EP with a headlining concert at le Poisson Rouge. The band remained true to its stirring, unpolished sound, packing a propulsion that made its listeners want to bounce to the beat but also loading a raw and tense agitation that could give the listeners the nervous jitters. Opielski and Pop synchronized to give the songs a groove-filled spine, to which Place added stinging reverb-and-distortion riffs and Sley thrusted lyrics. The total effect was a fiercely gripping combination that was as loud and as crude as a cannon and yet was utterly spellbinding. Bush Tetras influenced numerous later guitar-based indie bands, but none of these outfits are as intense and as novel as Bush Tetras.

Setlist:

1. True Blue
2. Don't Stop It
3. Boom
4. You Taste Like the Tropics
5. Color Green
6. Nails
7. Cowboys in Africa
8. Ocean
9. Out Again
10. Mouse
11. Red Heavy
12. You Don't Know Me
13. Run Run Run (The Velvet Underground cover)

Encore:

1. Too Many Creeps
2. Heart Attack