[Los Angeles Herald Examiner, March 12, 1988]

By Todd Everett
Herald Examiner staff writer

One of the sharpest craftsmen among contemporary singer-songwriters, Tonio K. pulled into the Roxy on Wednesday night to showcase songs from his recently released album to a crowd that seemed largely composed of people from—or invited by—his record companies.

K.'s Notes from the Lost Civilization is released on What? Records, a secular-oriented subsidiary of Word, the world's largest Christian music label.

Both What? and Word are distributed to mainstream outlets by A&M whose own current acts include Janet Jackson and Sting. The Roxy, consequently, was divided into fairly clearly demarcated factions: the Christians over on the right, and the heathens—appropriately enough, some would say—on the left.

The right side of the Roxy filled up early, though those who took the 8 o'clock announced start time literally were wildly optimistic; the opening act didn't take the stage until 9. Possible culprits included the record companies, the acts or the promoters, Pacificoncerts.

Through some perverse judgment on somebody's part, that opening act was writer/social commentator Paul Krassner. Known for his political satire magazine, the Realist, during the mid-'60s and more recent contributions to publications ranging from Playboy to the L.A. Weekly, Krassner has a stand-up act that deals in current issues.

And it's difficult, these days, to deal in current issues without mentioning the likes of Jimmy Swaggart and Pat Robertson.

In fact, Krassner used the night's forum, perhaps unwittingly, to take aim at a number of born-agains, to the point of questioning some of their motives: The repentant John DeLorean, he cracked, "now lays his lines of coke in the shape of a cross."

Well, you could have cut the silence with a wooden spoon.

Though Tonio K. records for a Christian-oriented label, his material isn't particularly church-oriented. He expresses a general disappointment with the human condition that's pretty appealing in its curmudgeonliness.

K. drew for the most part from relatively recent material, literate songs with a point to make and lyrics that could be understood over his less-than-world-class backing quartet.

Musically, his current strongest influences seem to be Van Morrison's rambling monologues and James Brown's punchy funk, generally—but not always—taken separately.

Highlights included his anthemic closer, "You Will Go Free," which sounds a bit like a U2 tune, the less serious "I Want [sic] to Have Sex With You" (from the Summer School soundtrack), which K. termed "one of the most misunderstood songs on the radio last summer," and the new "What Women Want." The answer to that eternal question—according to K., at least—is love.

Maybe the recently married K. has mellowed out a bit.

In any event, he'll be back at the Roxy on March 22.