(G) Buzzcocks @ Henry Fonda (July 26) Grade: B+
Time has a funny way of catching up with you. One day you’re penning irreverent songs such as “Orgasm Addict,” and then the next thing you know, some 30 years have passed and your band is considered part of the first generation of punk bands from the late ’70s. Tonight’s opener, The Strays, looked like the archetypal punk band: skinny boys in tight jeans and leather jackets, legs splayed with just a hint of a sneer. But they hardly elicited a response from the punks in the crowd, both young and old, who were waiting for the headliners: men in their 50s with visible potbellies and white hair. Though the Buzzcocks started with several tracks from new album Flat-Pack Philosophy, they knew what everyone was really waiting for, performing “Orgasm Addict,” “What Do I Get?,” “I Don’t Mind,” “Autonomy,” “Noise Annoys,” “Ever Fallen in Love,” “Love You More”... Each classic turned the crowd into a frenzied, crowd-surfing mob. I could smell the strong stench of male aggressiveness by the end of the night. And for a moment, it seemed Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle forgot anytime had passed at all. (That is, until the next day, when Diggle has aches in his legs after too many air kicks.)