Liquid Liquid makes time melt away

Liquid Liquid drummer Scott Hartley and vocalist Salvatore Principato have energy to spare at Lincoln Center Out of Doors. (Photos copyright 2009, Christine Maurus)

If you think you don’t know the band Liquid Liquid, you’re probably wrong. If you know Grandmaster Melle Mel‘s White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It), you know Liquid Liquid. The hip-hop track’s bass line was lifted straight out of the track Cavern, by the Eighties NYC-based post-punk band.

Liquid Liquid lasted bare three years — from 1980 to 1983 — but the band’s high energy and rat-a-tat percussion sound made a lasting impression on music lovers and the music. The quartet — drummer Scott Hartley, bassist Richard McGuire, vocalist Salvatore Principato and percussionist/marimba player Dennis Young — made a triumphant return to New York City last night at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, taking the stage after the conclusion of Rhys Chatham‘s A Crimson Grail for 200 Electric Guitars (Outdoor Version).

Scott and Salvatore.

The membes of Liquid Liquid haven’t been playing together regularly for more than 25 years. They reunited at NYC’s Knitting Factory in 2003 and got together again last October at the Barbican Centre in London. But they sounded amazingly tight and the crowd responded enthusiastically. ‘

All four band members seemed energized and totally engaged — thrilled to be performing before an appreciative hometown crowd. The sound was crisp and the beats were just as hypnotic as the day they were created. People in the audience who saw Liquid Liquid in the Eighties were amazed that the players had barely aged and hadn’t lost a bit of their drive.

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For me like many in the crowd, who until last night only knew the band through the few recordings available, last night’s show was a revelation. They were an absolute joy to see and hear.

Dennis Young, marimba player and percussionist, is focused.

Richard McGuire temporarily abandons his bass for a hooter.