THE LIBERTINES
THAT scruffy Brit band the Libertines is the single best rock act to emerge in the last decade – hands down.
At the Bowery Ballroom Tuesday, the band blew away the sold-out house by tapping the time-tested formula that made every great rock band from The Doors to U2 to Nirvana a legend: charismatic singer, rhythm-powered tunes, impassioned performance and no-gimmicks musicianship.
At this spectacular concert, just over an hour long, the Libertines delivered all that and more – minus the band’s usual frontman, Peter Doherty. (Carl Barat, the band’s co-founder, took the spotlight.)
And there’s the rub. The band, poised for mega-stardom, is teetering on self-destruction – and its sophomore album doesn’t even hit the streets until the end of the month.
Doherty’s life has played out like a “Behind the Music” episode. For the past year, he’s been in and out of rehab for heroin and crack cocaine addiction, jailed for burgling bandmate Barat’s home and arrested for weapons possession.
Barat has always contended that “Doherty has a place in the band, and can come back as soon as he cleans up his act,” the band’s booking agent told The Post. Excluding Doherty from this U.S. tour, he added, is a form of “tough love.”
Having never seen Doherty perform, it’s impossible to say if he would have made this great show even better.
Barat – who often has taken center stage over the last couple of years – was brash and com-
pelling.
With few words, he connected with the house, looking everyone in the eye, leaning into the mike aggressively and making the audience feel as if the lyrics he was singing were more than words he learned by rote.
The band held little back – especially its secret weapon, drummer Gary Powell. His propulsive, pounding beat puts him among the greats of rock drummers. He might even be better than ex-Smashing Pumpkin Jimmy Chamberlin, who’s arguably the best.
The night’s songs of rebel rock and whimsy were culled from the band’s 2002 disc, “Up the Bracket,” and its upcoming self-titled disc.
The real highlights came from the latter – songs like the breezy “What Katie Did,” “Don’t Be Shy” and “The Man Who Would Be King.”
With any luck, another very good song – “What Became of the Likely Lads?” – will be the Libertines’ next single and not their epitaph.