Pop Music Reviews : Royal Trux Cools Off Las Palmas Crowd

Virginia’s Royal Trux is infamous throughout the underground rock world for deconstructing Rolling Stones-style rock and redelivering it all warped and jumbled, topping it off with scraggly vocals similar to a cat fight. The band, which just released its major label debut (and best album to date) on Virgin Records, completes its sound with a matching fashion sense--trailer-park chic a la 1975.

But, Thursday at the Las Palmas Theater, the Trux tried too hard to be ironic and, instead of pushing the envelope, came off forced and contrived.

Most songs started out sounding like a ‘70s classic--”Mississippi Queen,” “Stranglehold” or “Custard Pie”--then stumbled into an art-damaged pileup. The heavy-duty grooves were ineffective under Neil Hagerty’s rambling guitar solos and the disjointed, raspy vocals of Jennifer Herrema.

The disheveled-looking singer, with her hair purposely combed in her face and wearing a heavy down vest in the hot club, cracked her gum and smoked in between growling her unintelligible lines. The cool disinterest both she and the band displayed rubbed off on the audience by show’s end, rendering the crowd detached and distant.

Royal Trux is more than just a novelty, as its long independent career and latest album prove, but it does need more than just raunch and kitsch to make a concert fly.