I didn’t see the New York Dolls the first time around, but it’s hard to imagine that David Johansen ever looked more degenerate than he has looked during the Dolls reunion shows. A man in his mid-50s (I’m guessing) with all the accompanying lines and wrinkles slimmed down to 160 or so pounds and dressed in a belly dancer’s diaphanous blouses, loin cloths over his jeans and a pirate’s hat carries a serious air of debauchery. He’s playing rock star, just as he played Buster Poindexter, the singer for the Harry Smiths and countless movie roles, and it’s a testament to his acting chops that he pulls off the role as well as he does at his age.

Everyone has their favorite Doll, but the current incarnation is Johansen’s show. At a SXSW Dolls reunion show, Syl Sylvain looked more like a Staten Island yenta than one of the final survivors of a band that was as legendary for its indulgence as for its music. That might be why he survived, but his fingerprints on the music aren’t obvious on record. Instead, this band of ringers sounds reminiscent of the professional bands that Johansen hired for his first post-Dolls solo albums. As such, the songs move with a reliable power I don’t associate with the Dolls, and on record, the only songs with something on the line are the new ones, “Rainbow Store” and “Dance Like a Monkey.”

In the latter, Johansen sings, “Come on shake your monkey hips / my pretty little creationist,” and proves there’s still some wit and danger in the machine. Johansen’s obviously enjoying the rhyme, as well as the song’s attempt to get the Christian conservative to shake it on the dance floor. That the seduction comes from the aging Johansen in half-drag and it’s working is proof that the Dolls—or at least David Jo—still have some wild life left in them.