Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 16, 1995 TAG: 9506160036
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Oh yeah, and a pretty good show.
Wednesday night at the Salem Civic Center, the hot rock act Hootie & The Blowfish opened its first-ever arena concert tour as a headline act.
Salem was originally picked as a sort of tune-up date for the Hootie tour before it moved on to Philadelphia and other bigger venues. It didn't appear that the Columbia, S.C., band needed much of a tune up, however.
On the strength of terrific lead singer Darius Rucker, it appeared Hootie was ready.
Maybe Hootie has even arrived.
``The Today Show'' was in Salem to tape a segment on the band that is supposed to air Monday. And if the packed civic center - which guitarist Mark Bryan acknowledged as ``an incredible amount of people'' - is any indication of future shows, then Hootie has come a long way since the last time the band played in the region, at the South Main Cafe in Blacksburg.
``It's going to be a long, long hot summer, and we're going to be playing a lot of places,'' said frontman Rucker. ``Thanks for making number one pretty cool.''
It was Rucker who really carried Wednesday's show, although he was solidly backed by guitarist Bryan, drummer Jim Sonefeld and bassist Dean Felber. The foursome also carried along a multi-instrumentalist who has toured with R.E.M.
Rucker has such a soulful powerhouse voice. It is what sets Hootie apart in an era when so few rock bands have a distinctive lead vocalist.
The relatively cheap $15 ticket price also might have helped bring in the crowd Wednesday.
Plus, like Rucker's distinctive vocals, the band has another rare attribute for a rock group these days: a sing-along quality combined with enough grunge punch to make it both accessible and anything but boring.
Some of the highlights included ``Time,'' ``I'm Going Home'' and the radio hits, ``Let Her Cry'' and ``Only Wanna Be With You,'' that propelled Hootie to headliner status.
Also memorable were the band's three encores that included its other big hit, ``Hold My Hand,'' plus spirited cover songs of David Bowie's ``Ziggy Stardust'' and Wilson Pickett's ``Mustang Sally.'' For these, Hootie was joined by members of the opening act, Dillon Fence.
The group's two-hour set ended appropriately with its own song, ``Goodbye.''
The opener Dillon Fence, a semi-regional band from Chapel Hill, N.C., came out a little harder-edged and more abrasive than Hootie. The group was powered hard by Scott Carle's drumming, Chris Goode's bass lines and the dual guitars of Kent Alphin and Greg Humphreys.
It was Humphreys who drove the group, though, handling most of the lead guitar parts, plus lead vocals. But it was apparent that Humphreys and company lacked Hootie's appeal or accessibility.
Humphreys' vocals were too often lost in the sound mix or drowned out by the blare of the music. There were no stand out songs. The band played too long - an hour. And after awhile, it all just seemed to make the audience restless.
by CNB