POP MUSIC REVIEW : Flipper, Dwarves at the Whisky

San Francisco’s Flipper was one of the most visceral bands in rock ‘n’ roll, heavily distorted punk-rock stripped to its grinning skull, slowed down enough to make your skin crawl, as antagonistic as it could possibly manage, and its shows in the early and mid-’80s were among the most erratic and enervating imaginable, no two alike. Until founding member Will Shatter died of a drug overdose several years ago, Flipper was one of the most important underground bands in America.

On Sunday, co-headlining a show at the Whisky with the Dwarves, Flipper resurfaced with all its old songs and most of the attitude, a grinding, distorted bass that covered up every other facet of the sound, offhandedly bellowed vocals, total disdain for the audience. But Flipper seemed clearly unnerved by its inability to perturb a jaded Hollywood crowd, even when it seemed to treat the show as a rough onstage rehearsal. It was a great show, but probably not a great Flipper show.

The Dwarves, famous more for spewing fluids into the audience than for any music they actually perform, played industry-standard post-hard-core one-minute punk-rock songs--very fast, very aggressive, very much in unison.

It was very impressive, watching the singer get buffeted around in the slam pit without slurring a word of the vocals, watching the band dodge hurled beer and wastebaskets without missing a beat, but it was ultimately empty spectacle, and almost disappointing that the set went on for 20 minutes instead of cutting short at the Dwarves’ usual 10.