European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 05, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Rock and humor by Deedee Arrington Doke assistant City editor f h do believe the kids want to Rock. And i do m h believe the kids will h that prediction by shaggy maned Norman Blake of teenage fan club came True last week at the Batsch Kapp club in Frankfurt Germany. Two teams of Rock s Good humor men played a double Reader that night for those who wanted a Little harmonizing and Melody to go with a driving Backbeat. Teenage fan club from Glasgow Scotland and the posies of Seattle wash., went about their business with humor and the determination to play their hearts out winning not a few hearts Back in return. It was one of those rare shows where two bands truly belonged on the same Bill. The scots Sweet pop and the seat leites tuneful but harder edged Rock Don t sound alike but the assorted pieces of stage personalities style and music happily meshed. I m a big posies fan said senior airman Paul Jackson who travelled from Ramstein a to see the show. They be got really Good voices. They sound really Good scotsman Ian Crawford of bad Homburg Germany on the other hand likes his countrymen s band because you can Tell they re a scottish band. They re not trying to copy Pearl Jam or the other american grunge teenage fan club s Jokester Blake was a master of ceremonies for his band s set merrily throwing out asides to the audience and jokes to his band mates Between songs from their albums thirteen and bandwagon esque As Well As snippets from standards like there s no business like show business. Blake also threatened tic styling of songs by the Stone Temple pilots and the be gees but he reneged doing instead captivating covers of Alex Chilton s free again and the 1910 fruit gum co s Goody Goody gumdrops during the band s encore. That s an amazing song Gerard love said of the late 60s 1910 fruit gum co. Tune during an interview. It should have been a hit but people around then were on acid at the time and they wanted to hear the doors playing blues music which is Boring. They weren t interested in pop music on its albums teenage fan club is highly listenable if a bit Mellow. But the songs undertones kick in a live performance adding a dry fizz and a Wink to the sweetness. One suggestion the band could have left out an extended play of feedback at the end of its set without dampening anyone s spirits or enthusiasm. The first team up to Bat tha might was the posies a longtime Seattle favorite that s still struggling to assert a Strong musical identity on the International and National fronts. In an interview earlier this year with the Baltimore Sun posies guitarist Singer Ken stringfellow joked that his group needed a visual image like the Bee girl who jolted Blind Melon s song no rain and self titled album to Platinum popularity. Onstage the posies blasts you with action hopping lurching and lunging about. Stringfellow and fellow guitarist Singer Jon Auer never stand still forcefully throwing their weight around the stage. The posies current album frosting on the beater if More serious in tone than the musicians themselves seem. A single from that album dream All Day sounds a Good bit like the Blue Oyster cult s Don t fear the reaper. Live or recorded however most of their stuff is pleasing to the ear and their excitement last week was infectious. We Don t have Many gimmicks. We just play music said drummer Mike Musburger backstage. Bassist Dave Fox the newest Posie sported a to shirt depicting a figure tossing a Swastika in a garbage can. Fox who is balding and likes to Cut his hair close to the Scalp said he was warned not to do that on the trip to Europe Given the High profile assumed by Neo nazi skinheads. He decided to Wear the anti nazi to shirt he bought in Berlin As an additional statement against nazism. I just did not want to be mistaken for a nazi said Fox who until a few months ago was serving espresso Coffee for a living in the Seattle area. Stringfellow and Auer proclaimed the Frankfurt gig the most successful of the four they had played in Germany to Date. I mean like totally Danke Schden Auer told the audience. " during teenage fan club s encore Auer returned to the stage to play wrapping up the evening successfully for All. Nice Guys. Nice music. Nice show. From left teenage fan club guitarist . Vorman Blake signals his appreciation to the crowd posies Jon Auer rocks with the beat Ken stringfellow strikes a passionate chord. Is photos by Ken George t 7&a&&�v.yas5 fan club members Are fans of the past by Deedee Arrington Doke assistant City editor if there s a trend among musicians to admit to their musical influences in their Public Midnight confessions teenage fan club May be partly responsible. Influenced by the beatles the Byrds and 70s cult band big Star the four scots in teenage fan club gratefully acknowledge and Praise bands of eras gone by in their melodic pop. But complains bassist Gerard love their honesty sometimes works against them. As soon As we say we like someone it s a putdown on us because we re scottish you know we re thieves to steal All the great English music and keep it love Good hum redly groused last week during an interview in Frankfurt Germany. It s crazy but it s a form of very sort of Laid Back racism. It s really kind of annoying you know you just want to slap their love and his band mates Are touring with a 3-week-old album thirteen under their belts. It s the third Alburn for the foursome whose 1991 bandwagon esque was popular in the United states but sold Only 2,000 copies in Germany. Thirteen on the other hand is Selling Well even in Germany. We be already sold like 400 percent As much As the last one love said. Although love and his band mates Aren t teens they do constitute a staunch fan club of music. That s Why they re in the business love said. We do it because we re fans of music. We do love and genuinely like music the elfin love said. And they be made enough of a Mark that musicians they looked up to in their formative years now join tic s unofficial fan club by inviting them to share a stage or a recording Date. Among them Are Alex Chilton of big Star renown who earlier notched pop music history As one of the Box tops and David Crosby a one time Byrd and part of Crosby stills and Nash. Chilton love said does like our band which is Good because he s a really fickle kind of person. He s a great Guy and is Dow Arlington Dok Gerard love says teenage fan club likes to tour with american bands. He s a very Good musician. He s got All these crazy stories. You la be having a few drinks with him and just listening to the Guy s life very of Crosby love said he s phoned us up a few times. He wants to record with us. I think we d All love to work with teenage fan club has an Affinity for american bands such As current tour mates the posies and prefers to tour with them. For some reason we get along better with them love said. Maybe it s because a lot of american bands Are fans of the beatles you know. In Britain the beatles Are seen As a band that your mum and dad like but you can t really like them in a since teenage fan club toured earlier this year with nirvana love said Many expected thirteen to have a grunge influence. Love playfully exploited that expectation on the album s opening song hang on with a cacophonous heavy beginning that mellows into a Sweet Melody line love sings in his Choirboy Tenor. He also toyed with musical expectations on the closing song Gene Clark named for another of his musical heroes the dead former Byrd. The song was kind of an instrumental Type Neil Young Jam. And then All of a sudden i though Why not kind of mess around with people and add the vocal thing at the end that was just the Way it worked love said. Beyond explaining the occasional flights of whimsy love refuses to scrutinize the band s songs for a Structure or formula. I think analysis trivializes things too much he said. All our songs Are kind of Happy mistakes to a certain extent. Mine Are pop singles 1. I d do anything for love but i won t of that meat loaf 2. All that she wants. Ace of base3. Just kick in s it escape 4. Again Janet Jackson 5. Dream Lover Mariah Carey 9. Hey or. D.j., Zhane 7. Gangsta lean. Drs 9. The River of dreams. Billy Joel 9. We oomph there it Stag team 10. Anniversary Tony Toni tone top albums 1. Vs., Pearl Jam 2. Counterparts Rush 3. Bat out of hell ii Back into hell meat loaf 4. In Uteri nirvana 5. It eon.eazy-e9. Common thread the songs of the eagles various artists 7. Music Box Mariah Carey 9. River of dreams Billy Joel 9. In pieces Garth Brooks 10. Janet Janet Jackson country singles 1. Does a love you Reba Mcentire with Unda Davis 2. Easy com. Easy to George Strait 3. She used to a mint Brooks & Dunn 4. Almost goodbye Mark Chesnutt 5. Just like the weather Suzy Bogguss 6. 7. That was a River Collin Raya 9. No time to kill Clint Black 9. Mercury blues Alan Jackson 10. Half enough Pirrie Morgan country albums 1. Common thread the songs of the eagles various artists 2. In pieces Garth Brooks 3., greatest hits volume two. Reba Mcentire 4. Easy coma easy go George Strait 5. A Tot about Uva and a utile bout lev Alan Jackson 6.1 still believe in you Vince Gill 7. Teu a Why Wynonna a. Almost goodbye Mark Chesnutt 9. Confederate Railroad Confederate Railroad 10. Hard Worklin Man. Brooks & Dunn re singles 1.jutklckln it escape 2.oangstauan,drs 3. Anniversary Tony Tom tone 4. Can we talk. Tevin Campbell 8. Breathe again tool Braxton 7. Right her human Natur downtown Sov a,8hoe0, 9. Coma inside intro10. Never keeping secret baby face. Rap singles 1. What s next leaders of the new school 2. Self free. Onyx 3. Stay real Erick Sermon 4. Let me ride. Or. Dre 5. Valley of the Skliut trends of culture 9.outtahere, 7. Snoop Salt a Pepa 9. Paint the White House Black George Clinton 9. Soul by the Pound common sense 10. Make room tha Alka Poliks adult contemporary classical albums 1. The River of dreams Billy Joel 2. Dream Lover Mariah Carey 3. Reason to believe Rod Stewart 4. Hopelessly Rick Astley 5.fleldaofgold,sting 0.1 Donl Wanna fight Una Turner 7. Fields of Gray Bruce Hornsby 9.1 9. Another sad love song ton Braxton 10. Rain Madonna 1. Gorecky symphony no. 3, Upshaw London sinfonietta 2. If you love me Cecilia Bartoli 3. The impatient Lover Cecilia Bartoli 4. In concert Carreras Domingo Pavarotti 5. Bel Canto Kathleen Battle 6. An English lady mass Anonymous four 7. Made in America Yoyo a 9. On Woolls night Anonymous four 9. Heavy clan sex various artists 10. Hovhaness mount St Helens Seattle symphony orchestra complied by billboard breeders Short and to the Point a recent tuesday night exemplified Why Small a prices Good bands and frosty Eves Don t always mix that was the night alternative music s newest sister act Kim and Kelley Deal and fellow breeders Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson played the Batsch Kapp in Frankfurt Germany a smallish club that was packed to the Gills. Outside the cod air demanded a heavy coat. Inside you could barely move or breathe because of All the Coats and bodies. Maybe physical discomfort is the right condition in which to see the breeders however. It s a gentle reminder to not have too much fun. The group s album last splash tops the College album charts with its Short Pithy outbursts of music similar in effect to Blondie s stripped Down pop of the 70s a Businesslike Bree iness without banality. The Frankfurt show was equally to the Point it lasted just about an hour including the encore. The breeders began in 1989 As a sideline for Kim Deal then of the pixies and Tanya Donelly one of the throwing muses. English bassist Josephine Wiggs signed Ori in time for the band s 1990 album pod. Last year marked the arrival of Kim s twin Kelley among the breeders ranks and the departure of Donelly who left to create belly. The Frankfurt show was an anniversary of sorts Wiggs announced. She and Kim met for the first time at the Frankfurt train station in the summer of 1988. This Drew applause from those who could move their arms enough to clap and cheers from those who could t. The breeders complemented their own repertoire including just want to get along and invisible Man with a cover of an old heavy. Do you Guys know Aero Smith at All Kim Deal asked in a rasp that sounded remarkably like cracking gum before kicking off lord of the thighs. A come even the breeders did t escape the steamy conditions their fans encountered. The heat from All the bodies and outerwear Rose along with the stage lights intensity to the musicians onstage within the hour. I m a sweaty. Mess. Turn those things off Kelley Deal ordered when the lights bore Down on her. She finished the set with a Towel wrapped around her head. The band returned for an encore that ended quickly abruptly and much to the Point much like a goodbye without regret. Deedee Arrington Doke the Tornado from left Freddy fender Flaco Jimenez Augie Meyer and Doug Sahm. Tornado head Jam the Texas Tornado a blend of country Rock reggae and mexican music will headline the country Jam at the new kaisers Lavern special events Center in Germany on wednesday. The group is made up of Freddy fender accordionist Flaco Jimenez and Doug Sahm and Augie Meyers who performed As members of the sir Douglas quintet in the Early 60s. Members have known and performed with each other for 25 to 35 years resulting in the nickname the grateful dead of also appearing on the show will be Shylo and Texas Pride. Doors open at 7 . Tickets and additional information Are available by calling 0631 -411-8897, or contacting Kaiserslautern Uso offices at Kleber Cavern Vogel Weh Ramstein and Lan Stuhl. 18 tin Stais and Stii Pis Friday. November 5,1993 Thi stars and stripes 19
