Sextet big on sound
By KEN MAIURI
- Sextet big on sound
By KEN MAIURI
Thursday, December17, 1998 -- I have no idea if the six all-star
musicians who make up the band Golden Smog have been best friends for ages, but after
watching them play, I'd guess they have. The sextet - Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, Dan Murphy
of Soul Asylum, Gary Louris and Marc Perlman of the Jayhawks, Kraig
Johnson
of Run Westy Run, and Jody Stephens of the hugely influential early -
'70s band
Big Star - played a raw set at Pearl Street on Dec. 7, that was as
strong as it was
wonderfully off-the-cuff.
If the essence of the band can be boiled down to one member, it's
Tweedy, who
was responsible for most of the show's fun, loose energy. He sang an
acoustic
song called "Pecan Pie.'' He made stream-of-consciousness between-song
comments, mostly about aging classic rockers trying to be hip by
adding serious
raps to their old classic rock hits. He wandered across the stage
lazily shaking a
tambourine during the song "Reflections On Me,'' with a cigarette
dangling from
his mouth, leaping towards a microphone when he realized it was his
time to add
backing vocals. Of all the laid-back band members, he was taking the
most
advantage of the spirit of the evening.
Not that the rest of Golden Smog was all work and no play - every one
of the
band members was in constant motion on stage, trading instruments,
having
conversations, hanging out. They all worked well as a unit, too.
Murphy was the
hard-rocking guitarist, leaning into the microphone and strumming his
guitar with
punk energy. Stephens filled the legend spot in the lineup, the cult
hero in the
back bringing historical weight to the group along with his solid
drumbeats.
Louris was the melodramatic one, with the epic minor-key rockers; his
turns at
the microphone made for the night's most powerful moments. Perlman was
the
quiet guy, staying out of the spotlight and simply playing his bass.
And Johnson
was the spacey slacker of the bunch, often singing off-key and
offhandedly, as
on the tune "He's a Dick.'' Put 'em together and you've got a sloppy
but super
group.
The six musicians didn't just go through the motions - every band
member
contributed to every song, joining in on some sort of instrument
(whether
keyboard or tambourine or harmonica) and adding to the loose mood.
Sometimes
there were as many as four guitars being played at once, making a
sound that was
ragged around the edges, but also rich and full. The songs themselves
were solid
(not always the case with these super-group things), making the most
out of a
mid-tempo groove. And besides such worthy originals as "Ill Fated''
and
"Looking Forward to Seeing You,'' the group pulled out an old cover
called
"Glad and Sorry.'' As the band members announced afterwards, "That's a
song
by The Faces . . . before they sucked.'' And that was the way the
night with
Golden Smog went: no rock star attitude, just six guys making noise.
A quiet night at the Bay State
Next door at the Bay State Hotel, there wasn't much noise at all.
That's because
the two main bands of the evening, Essex Green and Fan Modine, got
into some
car trouble in New York City and canceled their Northampton gig. Not
that the
Mitchells - the other band on the night's bill - minded; the
Northampton-based
quartet got to expand their set to headliner length and treat the
small, involved
audience to one of their strongest performances in recent memory. They
played
old stuff like "Underwater'' and "Tree,'' new stuff like "Flashlight
Hunter,'' and
even some untitled instrumental works-in-progress. They made the most
of the
weird situation, and ended up (just like Golden Smog) giving a fun,
loose show
that didn't skimp on big rock energy.