Los Angeles rockers Bang Tango got lumped in with the Sunset Strip neon circus of the hair-band era, though now two decades removed, it was clearly something fresh and vital. Taking the flamboyant charisma of the glam-metal scene and adding a funked-up, bass-heavy groove and sinister sense of stylish street sleaze, its 1989 “Psycho Cafe” debut yielded a minor MTV hit in “Someone Like You.” Following a host of lineup changes and eventual breakup, frontman and sole remaining original member Joe Leste returned the band to active recording and touring in 2004.
The band’s current offering — “Pistol Whipped in the Bible Belt” — is a potent dose of sticky barroom-floor hard rock. Leste is still spewing venom with his razorblade rasp, as evidenced in the thick Marshall-stacked undercut of “Dick in the System.” “Bring on the World” harkens back to the infectious, stonewalled funk of the band’s debut. “Have You Seen Her” is a bone-aching ballad; Leste vents his pain like a dejected pub patron at last call, and the track builds to more of a gripping Southern soul than fluffed-out melodrama.
“Live Life” snarls with a party-punk, Sex Pistols-by-way-of-Aerosmith feel; virtually no studio polish is used to touch up the gritty underbelly of the band’s snot-nosed approach. “Drivin’” is not far removed from the tattoo-parlor rock ’n’ roll of Buckcherry, while the campy, ska-like rhythm of the title track closes the record with a decidedly tongue-in-cheek tone.
To borrow a line from the album’s title track, “it’s good to get it goin’ on again.” So it is with Bang Tango, a little less funkier than its heyday, but heavier on the authentic grimy swagger that is lost on many of today’s contemporaries.
Rating: W W W 1/2
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