The still-touring The Rubinoos tend to close their main set with their anthem “Rock and Roll is Dead.” Like a lot of the work they’ve been doing for more than a half century, it could be taken with a wink and a grain of salt. After all, when they used it to close their Sunday gig at the rockin’ Hank Dietle’s Tavern in Rockville, they’d been disproving it the whole time.
Formed by Berkeley high schoolers at the dawn of the ’70s, they began their own love with rock ’n’ roll by leaning into its roots, practicing doo-wop street corner harmonies that’d serve them throughout their career. At Dietle’s, a cool dive amid dismal office towers across from a shuttered mall, they began their early evening show and closed their encore displaying this a cappella prowess with a couple of songs from the 1950s, starting with Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers’ “I’m Not a Juvenile Delinquent” and ending their encore with the Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman.”
Their love for the arcane cover song has served them well over the years, scoring them a minor hit with Tommy James & the Shondells’ once-controversial “I Think We’re Alone Now.” On stage, basking in the retirement age rocker energy of the room, they began its loping baseline with a long story about the time they played it on American Bandstand.
They bring a vibrant authenticity to songs not often played live in small bars—or played so well—from the Electric Prunes “I Had Too much to Dream (Last Night)” to the Stingrays’ surf instrumental, “Stingray” to their stab at the Byrds’ experimental “Eight Miles High” in the encore.
A bracing cover of Badfinger’s “No Matter What” showed they had the vocal and instrumental chops to pull it off. A goofy cover of Ennio Morricone’s theme from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly paid impressive attention to the original grunts, chants and arias. And their version of the Flamin’ Groovies’ “Shake Some Action” is arguably better than the one conjured up by what’s left of the originating band.
But The Rubinoos were never just a cover band. Instead, their power pop has been fueled by the innocent charm that came from their love of music, even infusing their originals with nods to their 45 collections. From their latest studio work, From Home, co-written and produced by Chuck Prophet, came their paean to the drummer behind “Have I the Right?”, Honey Lantree, in “Honey from the Honeycombs.”
Their original “Phaedra” tips a hat to the subject of an old Lee Hazlewood song, “Some Velvet Morning,” and their “Do You Remember” recalls their singing of the Troggs and the DeFranco Family in the past.
Today’s Rubinoos benefit from the longtime staying power of the lineup, despite a couple of periods of hiatus here and there. Bassist Al Chan, who kept commenting on the club’s party atmosphere, is the newest addition, having joined in 1980. Otherwise, the frontline of Tommy Dunbar on lead guitar and Jon Rubin, nominal frontman, are joined in harmonies not only by Chan but by hard-hitting drummer Donn Spindt.
Rubin also introduces the songs, bringing along some stories to accompany their best known numbers, as when they were recording “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” in London, while waiting for old fogies The Who to wrap up. It all made for an entertaining and long-awaited set from the band—their first in the DC area appearance since they opened for Elvis Costello’s Armed Forces tour in 1979. They have long ago realized that fun is now and was always the essence of what they do, and it’s contagious in their modest shows.
The show opened with a set from Dot Dash (above), the reliable local power punk trio, who described themselves as coming from about a mile and a half away. Their solid set had its own highlights including their catchy “Tense & Nervous,” which notes “You gotta have a heart to have a heart attack.”
