Ted Nugent

8 p.m. Thursday, July 31. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard

Jul 30, 2008 at 4:00 am

Without Ted Nugent, the infrastructure of independent music as we know it could be drastically different. In the '70s, hits "Cat Scratch Fever" and "Stranglehold" struck a biting, Marshall-amplified G-chord among childhood friends Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye, both of whom have cited the Nuge as an early influence. Without Nugent, Rollins may have never joined Black Flag, which means no Damaged album and no cameo in Bad Boys 2. Similarly, in a Nugeless world, MacKaye might have never started Minor Threat — and with no Minor Threat there would have been no Dischord records and no Fugazi. No Fugazi means the bassline to "Comedown" by Bush wouldn't exist. With that said, I can offer no more of a ringing endorsement than this: See Ted Nugent; the space-time continuum may depend on it.