The Donnas
Spend the Night (2002)

review by: Mike Webb
Date: 3/24/03

There's nothing like a really good rock'n'roll album. You know – the kind of record that leaps out of your speakers, grabs you by the neck, throws you up against the wall, humps your leg, and then laughs at you as it grabs your last pack of smokes on the way out the door. The Donnas Spend The Night is that album.

Let's not kid ourselves. The carcass of rock & roll has been lying dormant in Kurt Cobain's attic since April 1994, and if you're over 30, you've heard and seen all that rock has to offer. It's dried up, burned out, and unlikely to make a recovery. But somehow, The Donnas manage to breathe a little hellfire into it, and these ears are grateful.

Spend The Night starts off with a cowbell and duel, thundering guitars that could be at home on any AC/DC or Sex Pistols album. Then when Donna A lets it rip with "We're over, I'm done, yeah it's time to have some real fun. So I'm callin' all my ladies, we're gonna key your Mercedes," you know it's on. Sure the lyrics are dumb, 'party all night, screw all day' missives, but I'm not looking for solutions to the crisis in Iraq here.

Spend The Night is pretty much your standard 3 minute, loud, goofy, guitar-driven, adrenaline rush, rock'n'roll affair. The production is a tad slick, but not too glossy, and some of the guitar leads are straight out of the Ace Frehley 'how to be a rock guitar god' manual. But that's not enough to make you want to turn this record down.

The Donnas "concept" may look and sound like a Ramones-type gimmick, but it's got more swagger 'n attitude than either the Strokes or Green Day. Those boys could definitely learn a thing or two about rock'n'roll from The Donnas.