The Wipers
The Power in One (Zeno)
by Jon Sarre
The Power in One is right. Guitarist/singer Greg Sage has led The Wipers in various incarnations since he started the band in Portland, OR over twenty years ago. Now he’s down in Phoenix and doin’ everything (but drumming) by his lonesome self. I’m askin’ “Why?” Sure, The Wipers were a seminal punk band, one of the first on the West Coast, but why the fuck does Sage want ’em to be one of the last punk bands on the West Coast (or, to be accurate, in the SouthWest)? A couple years ago, I actually posed that very question to Greg. We were in this bar and we were both pretty messed up, and he basically told me to go fuck myself. Sure, he was entitled to say that, cuz what he does is none of my business, but I still think it’s a valid question. Why go on? The songs sound good and all, but they’re not what you’d call “compelling,” kinda one dimensional, in fact. Call it the power in one dimension of Greg Sage.
(PO Box 97281 Phoenix, AZ 85060)