By 2005, The Reducers had been together for 27 years —longer than the Ramones, and certainly long enough for the punk-rock spark that ignited the New London foursome in 1978 to have faded some. Nope. The group sounds as vibrant and ferocious as ever — if not more so — on “Live: New York City 2005,” a 16-song concert album recorded that June at Arlene’s Grocery. The Reducers released the recording on Bandcamp on New Year’s Eve 2020, more than eight years after calling it quits in 2012. (The album will be available May 28 on all digital platforms.)
On 13 originals and three covers, Hugh Birdsall, Peter Detmold, Steve Kaika and Tom Trombley burn through the setlist like they still have something to prove. Everything is tight, taut and serrated: Birdsall and Detmold play guitar parts that chase each other, offer counterpoints or lock into unison, while Kaika throws down springy basslines and Trombley pounds on the drums as though they had wronged him. The quartet careens around “Fistfight at the Beach," the jangling chords that open the song powering up into a fierce riff that frames vocal harmonies on the refrain, while thrumming bass pushes the guitars along on “San Antone” and anchors “I Call That Living” while guitars squall and cymbals clatter. They never really lay back, but “Meltdown” slows the pace, if not the intensity, as Detmold yowls out a full-throated melody over fuzztone guitars.
Mostly, The Reducers sound like they’re having the time of their lives, probably because at that moment, on that stage, they were — they always were. Even the Ramones were just going through the motions by the end, but The Reducers never let up. What started as just another cover band in the late ’70s eventually became perhaps Connecticut’s most iconic local group. “Local” here isn’t meant to somehow diminish the band: they played music because they wanted to play music, not because they wanted to be famous, and they stayed in New London because that’s what worked for them (there’s more about that in this story I wrote for the Hartford Courant in 2006). And it did work for them: The Reducers had swagger without pretension, musical chops without sounding fussy and they seemed cool without trying, because they weren’t trying — they were just playing. By capturing a great band at its best, “Live: New York City 2005” is a reminder of just how fun The Reducers were.