Rubber City Rebels are back in action

By John Benson

The band will play at Cedars Lounge downtown.

More than 30 years have passed since the Rubber City Rebels first started playing around Akron, but the band refuses to die.

No one is more surprised the legendary punk act remains active than original member and singer Rod Firestone.

“It is kind of crazy, but when you think about it, all of those bands are still active in some way,” said Firestone during a recent phone call to his Asheville, N.C., home. “They’re like vampires. You have to stick a stake in their heart, cut their heads off and scatter their parts to make them stop, it seems like.

“Name any of those bands and they’re still around playing somewhere. Even The Ramones, a lot of those guys have died, and The Dead Boys, but even the remaining guys still play.”

Among those legendary ’70s punk architect Northeast Ohio bands still playing in one shape or another are Devo, Pere Ubu and, of course, the Rubber City Rebels. The latter act was formed by Firestone and Buzz Clic (guitar), who had originally been playing around biker bars in the Akron and Portage Lakes area as hard-rock cover band King Cobra.

“From there, we sort of moved over into the Rubber City Rebels and that was around 1975 and 1976,” Firestone said. “Then the sort of emerging punk thing was coming out and we were already into The Stooges and The [New York] Dolls. Then we met The Dead Boys and Devo and Pere Ubu and those guys who were hanging out at that period.”

He added, “But we were different from Devo because they were kind of artsy and more progressive. Pere Ubu was the same way. We sort of fell into The Dead Boys category, with a hard rock angle. We had great lead guitars and stuff like that.”

Due to basically a lack of local venues allowing bands to perform original music, Firestone and company opened up their own bar, The Crypt, which acted as a Midwest punk rock epicenter. This eventually led to the Rubber City Rebels traveling to New York City and appearing at CBGBs.

While talking about the legendary Big Apple rock club, Firestone discusses the ’70s punk scene legacy.

“Today we look back with the benefit of history to say these are the great bands, but at the time nobody knew who was a great band and who wasn’t,” Firestone said. “We were all just like [expletive]-up bands playing in a hole in New York City. We didn’t realize what kind of impact it would have.”

While the Rubber City Rebels eventually followed Devo to California and lasted into the mid-’80s, it wasn’t until just after the turn of the century when interest in the seminal act resulted in new album “Pierce My Brain” and plenty of touring. The band line-up now includes Firestone, Clic, Mike Hammer (drums) and Bob Clic (bass). You can see the Rubber City Rebels back in action Saturday at Cedars Lounge in Youngstown.

“I think people will really, really be surprised they’re not going to see a bunch of old guys just goofing around,” Firestone said. “This is real. And in the Rubber City Rebels case, this is a world-class band. People have told me we’re the best live act they’ve seen.

“That’s something they shouldn’t miss, because it’s going to be different than a lot of things that they’ll get a chance to see. And that’s a great show.”