Riot Fest, which also features Philadelphia punks Dead Milkmen, is a highlight of an extraordinarily festival-heavy coming weekend, including the citywide Philadelphia Film & Music Festival (under whose umbrella Riot Fest falls), and the star-studded indie Popped! Festival on Friday and Saturday in FDR Park.
Last week, Doe talked by phone from his home north of San Francisco about balancing turmoil and contentment, and resisting the urge to tell kids to get off his lawn.
Question: You're doing Los Angeles with X, and you've also got Keeper, this very strong solo album of new songs. How has your attitude toward the X songs changed over the years?
Answer: When we first performed Los Angeles, we were performing it to people that it was about, that shared the experiences of the songs that they were listening to. There was a direct and immediate connection between us and the audience.
If punk rock did anything, it brought women into the foreground as players, not just window dressing. And it broke down the barrier between performer and the audience. And that still exists. And I think anybody who was in punk rock or still is now is proud of the fact that we did that.
The audience may be different, but human experience isn't that different. So if you're 17, and you're living in Philadelphia right now, [and you're] up at the front with some underground band at a club, it's the same.
Q: The title of The Unheard Music, the 1986 X documentary, speaks to the changes in the music industry. Were there more barriers to getting your music heard then?
