Time and Time again I've mentioned that one of my all time favorite bands is The Who. One of the things besides the music that really turned me onto the Who was the guitar smashing. To me Pete Townshend's guitar smashing represented the ultimate form of rebellious artist expression and youthful rage. Pete's guitar smashing was really the first punk rock act.
As much as I love what's going on now in rock music, I sometimes feel it can get stagnate and boring. I really wish more bands would put some kind of modern take on the guitar smash it certainly would make a band like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart a hell of a lot more interesting. Come to think of it the only way I'd see The Pains of Being Pure at Heart live is if the guitar player smashed his guitar and lit it on fire ala' Hendrix and then destroyed Peggy's keyboards with his flaming guitar..that would make that band really interesting!
The clip below is one of Pete's more infamous guitar smashes. The clip is from the old Smothers Brothers TV show and I think is one of the Who's first appearances on American TV. Keith Moon, the drummer of the Who gun powder in his bass drum and so when Pete began his guitar smash at the end of the song the bass drum was set to explode, but Moon put too much gun powder in it and the explosion was so great that one of the symbols on the drum kit flew off and cut Keith on the arm and Townshend blames the explosion for some of his hearing loss. This clip is so bad ass!
One band that I like a lot and who sort of did a modern take on the guitar smash is Beach Fossils. The story of Beach Fossils take on the guitar smash goes a little like this; Beach Fossils was playing an outdoor show in Long Island City last fourth of July and the bass player either became so frustrated with the sound or he was suddenly possessed by Pete Townshend's rebellious rock spirit and he threw his bass in the East River in some sort of a rage and created an indie rock legend! People in the Brooklyn indie rock circles are still talking about that story nearly a year later.
Below is the clip of Beach Fossils playing the song "Sometimes" live Bruar Falls in Brooklyn.
As much as I love what's going on now in rock music, I sometimes feel it can get stagnate and boring. I really wish more bands would put some kind of modern take on the guitar smash it certainly would make a band like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart a hell of a lot more interesting. Come to think of it the only way I'd see The Pains of Being Pure at Heart live is if the guitar player smashed his guitar and lit it on fire ala' Hendrix and then destroyed Peggy's keyboards with his flaming guitar..that would make that band really interesting!
The clip below is one of Pete's more infamous guitar smashes. The clip is from the old Smothers Brothers TV show and I think is one of the Who's first appearances on American TV. Keith Moon, the drummer of the Who gun powder in his bass drum and so when Pete began his guitar smash at the end of the song the bass drum was set to explode, but Moon put too much gun powder in it and the explosion was so great that one of the symbols on the drum kit flew off and cut Keith on the arm and Townshend blames the explosion for some of his hearing loss. This clip is so bad ass!
One band that I like a lot and who sort of did a modern take on the guitar smash is Beach Fossils. The story of Beach Fossils take on the guitar smash goes a little like this; Beach Fossils was playing an outdoor show in Long Island City last fourth of July and the bass player either became so frustrated with the sound or he was suddenly possessed by Pete Townshend's rebellious rock spirit and he threw his bass in the East River in some sort of a rage and created an indie rock legend! People in the Brooklyn indie rock circles are still talking about that story nearly a year later.
Below is the clip of Beach Fossils playing the song "Sometimes" live Bruar Falls in Brooklyn.
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