the living testament.

Gravy Train!!!!
@ The Knitting Factory, July 25 2005.

A lot has changed in the two years since Gravy Train!!!! released their hella dirty, hella danceable debut, Hello Doctor. For starters, Drunx has been replaced by the aptly-named Junx, (imagine half the clothes and double the gay-chic of Andrew McCarthy’s quirky sidekick, Hollywood, in the 1980’s flick, Mannequin). Oh yeah, and Chunx has noticeably lost most of her chunk, moving from Burger Baby to Ghost Boobs. You follow?

There’s no doubt that Gravy Train!!!! could have easily coasted by forever, fueled by shock value alone. Sure, Gravy Train!!!! is gimmicky and often over the top, but they are undeniably the best at what they do. Though the new album, Are You Wigglin?, includes a track called Pussy Sauce, the sound here is way more mature. Okay, well maybe not mature, but certainly more developed. Even if the best song on the twenty-two minute album happens to be a cover (I Wanna Wanna Wanna Wanna Wanna Wanna Wanna Get Rid of You), Wigglin still proves Gravy Train!!!! to be the sexually-liberated phoenix rising from the ashes of the short-lived and long –dead electroclash movement, churning out new songs with lyrics that could make Peaches blush and keyboards that leave Le Tigre to lie flat as a cat nap.

The Train managed to pack another show at The Knitting Factory. But more noteworthy is the way they made even the too-cool-for-dancing kids dance themselves into sweaty summer oblivion. Junx proved to be the best addition to the band, swinging his pink pom-poms and flinging his trunks into the audience while informing rowdy dancers, “We’re not here to be shady. We’re just here to be fierce.” Still, the seemingly harmless on-stage dancing and off-stage diving soon emboldened a few front row titty-grabbers to grope Chunx, who I then believed punished New York City, leaving You Made Me Gay out of the short set and choosing instead to close the show with other old favorites such as, Titties Bounce and Sippin 40’s. Despite the awkward tension of the show, Hunx proclaimed it to be one of their best ever and I concur, having once again been convinced that Gravy Train!!!!’s synchronized dance moves and impromptu humping never flunx.