From: kbennett@sumax.seattleu.edu ( Slacker Goddess)
Newsgroups: alt.music.alternative
Subject: Sugar/Throwing Muses/Boo Radleys Concert, Seattle -- Comments
Date: 18 Nov 92 21:27:47 GMT
Organization: Seattle University

From kbennett@seattleu.edu Wed Nov 18 13:24:35 1992
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 13:24:26 -0800 (PST)
From: "K. Lena Bennett - Slacker Goddess" <kbennett@seattleu.edu>
Subject: Sugar/Throwing Muses Concert Comments
To: GRUNGE-L <GRUNGE-L@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu>

This is from the Seattle show at the Moore Theater.

Boo Radleys opened.  They might be good on record (I havent heard it) but
they are boring live.  Too much between-song patter (in unintelligible
accents), uninspired playing, weird appearance from a slinky-costumed
female who played trumpet (???) for about 30 seconds each on 2 songs.  I
hate to say somehting this sexist, but she must have been someone's
girlfriend because who can afford to take a trumpet player on an overseas
tour for only 60 seconds of music per show?

Throwing Muses is one of my favorite bands and they cooked.  The players
might have seemed rather detached in terms of stage chemistry (as someone
from Portland mentioned yesterday) but they worked together really well
musically.  My admiration for the drummer especially accelerated.  It's
certainly obvious that he's one of the original band members, through all
of the personnel changes -- he's quite impressive and talented, through
all of the weird time changes and everything else -- and is part of what
has made the Throwing Muses sound.  The material that worked best was the
newer songs that were developed for the 3-piece lineup:  Furious (wow!),
Firepile, Pearl (got big applause).  They did a couple songs from The Real
Ramona (some fool in the audience asked for "Not Too Soon" -- duhhhh), and
a lot of songs from Hunkpapa.  They also did "Hate My Way," which is so
stripped-down that it really worked with the short-list lineup.  "Mania"
also worked well stripped-down, and the reworked "Devil's Roof" (one of my
all-time favorites) was funky and exciting.  A lot of the other stuff,
though, you could tell that she was just playing the rhythm guitar part,
with a couple of hints of the lead lines thrown in here and there, but
they didn't work as well.  They're moving towards a more rhythm-driven
sound, and after they've settled into it more, it could really work. 
Kristen's amazing songwriting, as always, stands at the front.  I'm not
familiar with who the bassist is -- a black man -- is that Bernard Georges
that I've heard about?  Anyway, they're the only non-local band I've seen
twice, now, and they did a totally different song set than the one they
did last year.  

Sugar was good.  They were loud.  Bring your earplugs if you go to see
them.  They did about 2/3 of the songs from Copper Blue, and about an
equal amount of new material, 4 of the songs were sung by the bassist.  If
anyone can tell me what other bands he's been with (I remmber reading
somewhere but I forgot), I'd appreciate it.  They *didn't* do any Husker
material, if that's what you were about to ask.  Bob's voice was doing
really well -- I read in the Rocket that last time he played the Northwest
the weather gave him a sinus infection and ruined his show, so from then
on he takes prescriptions whenever he comes here -- and he was getting
into it.  The band worked together really well, although after seeing
David Narcizo's intricate and detailed drumming with the Muses, the Sugar
drummer seemed much more straight-ahead and workmanlike -- but that's
certainly appropriate to the songs.

Anyway, don't know what else to say.  If you have still yet to see this
tour, I say, "go, it's worth it."

Lena

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