Billy Boy on Poison

The Whiskey a Go-Go

Hollywood, CA

January 6, 2007

By Cameron Dye
(SugarBuzz Hollywood)

Photos By "big j"

For some time my friend Mike Gurley (dada, Butterfly Jones, The Nightcaps) had been telling me about this band he’d been working with called “Billy Boy on Poison” (a variation on a Malcolm McDowell line cleverly chosen from “A Clockwork Orange”). He explained to me that most of the band was between 15 and 16 years old and they had to be seen to be believed. I caught one of their Whiskey shows in September and got what he meant right away. They weren’t just kids but a genuine “we’re here to take over the room and have a good time” rock n’ roll band with a solid repertoire strapped to their hip. Singer Davis LeDuke had the (mostly under 18) crowd gleefully swallowing mouthfuls from the palm of his hand that night.

On this one, the adolescent juices of the expanded audience have been warmed up and are ready to run wild. The buzz among the grown-ups is that the A and R guys have caught on and are here to maybe do talk some business. Here’s the good news: “Billy Boy on Poison” doesn’t seem to give a fuck. Their apparent mission tonight (and on any other) is to make some mischief and put on a rock show for their peers that rivals the last one.

Davis LeDuke is a teenage runaway marionette in the spiritual mold of Bowie or Iggy. Like the best of them, he believes he’s real and so do we. His manic joy is truly infectious to all. He’s flanked once again by Dash and Ryan, who reliably hammer out relentless guitar riffs as if they could go all night. Julian’s the new bass player who fits this front line like a well oiled glove and Jessi, the drummer and only girl in the band (though, like her cousin LeDuke, she appears to flirt with the idea of gender bending) commandingly drives each song from the back riser.

Billy Boy on Poison produces some edgy pop nuggets dripping with British sounding hooks and delivers each one with the same jubilant New York Dolls attitude that has eluded too many bands until recently. (Best exemplified here in the platform heeled strut of “Saturday’s Child.”) But these guys are too young to show any signs of excess baggage (even though on this night they cheekily introduce a new song they call “Falling in Love with A Higher Power and Other Twelve Step Programs”). They’re not angry but they handily get inside the angst and theatrics of “Angry Young Man” (as in “every nice young girl needs one . . .”) This band just seriously plays rock n’ roll because it’s fun. (And they’d probably have a ball accompanying the party that destroys your house when your parents have left town for the weekend.)

http://www.myspace.com/billybop

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