Who’s Been Talking?: Johnny Thunders In Concert

The last recorded concert of the late New York Dolls guitarist occurred in Osaka, Japan just weeks before John Genzale’s (AKA Johnny Thunders) corpse was discovered in a New Orleans hotel room. The event is a festive affair with Johnny doing a kind of cabaret show with backing band The Oddballs, featuring blonde buxom bombshell Alison Gordy adding vocals, and an impossibly young-looking Stevie Klasson on rhythm guitar. Johnny is clearly on his last legs, but glimmers of the snotty former leader of the Heartbreakers comes through on Thunders’ classics like "Pills" and "Born to Lose" (AKA "Born too Loose"). Jamey Heath’s sax playing adds a nice layer of bluesy inflection to Johnny’s rockin’ sound. The look of the footage is fuzzy, the concert lighting strictly amateur and the camerawork questionable, but the sound quality good on this momentous document of a gifted songwriter and guitarist ravished by heroin. Aspect ratio is 4:3, with sound processed in Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. (Concert—Four Stars, DVD features—Zero Stars). Not Rated, 99 mins. (MVDvisual)