THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 29, 1994 TAG: 9409290075
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music review
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
SPIN DOCTORS got off strong first and second volleys in their set Tuesday night at William and Mary Hall. The group sounded more muscular than its studio recordings on versions of the singles ``Jimmy Olsen's Blues'' and ``You Let Your Heart Go Too Fast.'' These displayed the multiplatinum rockers' best side, a clever mastery of pop forms played at upbeat tempos.
The next number, ``Big Fat Funky Booty,'' was the same not-bad funk exercise that opens the band's current album ``Turn It Upside Down.'' Like the rendition that appears on that disc, Tuesday's was concise, without the extended rapping it used to take on in live settings. Singer Chris Barron punctuated the work of bassist Mark White and drummer Aaron Comess with a loopy dance akin to the walk of a drunken sailor.
The show, which also included performances by three other acts and a semi-impromptu jam featuring a number of players on the bill, had already lasted around three hours by then. A somewhat lackaidaisical sense of pacing did the Doctors in. Excursions into dreamy psychedelia (``More Than Meets the Ear'') and pseudo-reggae (the tag of the pot ode ``Mary Jane,'' on which unofficial host Vinx joined in on harmonies) slowed things down and sent some listeners toward the doors.
If anything, the New York outfit was a victim of its generosity, which found it headlining (really co-headlining) a long concert with two other high-profile alternative-rock favorites, Gin Blossoms and the Richmond-based Cracker, and also welcoming offbeat Sting protege Vinx.
Gin Blossoms, the Tempe, Ariz., quintet whose 1992 ``New Miserable Experience'' has worn well - it's now double platinum and still all over the radio dial - proved more consistently engaging. After having been on the road for the better part of two years, the group delivered its bittersweet power pop anthems with a ringing panache. A slightly sped-up ``Hey Jealousy'' was particularly impressive; the late Doug Hopkins' song remains a prime slice of Westerbergian angst seasoned with teen mythos (``Tomorrow we can drive around this town/And let the cops chase us around'').
Ex-Silo Bob Rupe has joined Cracker since the band's visit to the Boathouse last fall. Their imperfectly rhymed, absurdist one-time endurance test ``Euro-trash Girl'' has also become the most recent radio hit from the gold album ``Kerosene Hat.'' Co-leaders David Lowery and Johnny Hickman played it proudly, along with a selection of other popular tunes and obscurities from their catalog. The latter provided two more highlights, the B-side ``River Euphrates,'' a canny meld of punk influences and their own brand of pickup-truck rock, and the gloriously raucous ``official Southern rock ending'' of ``St. Cajatan.''
In his two solo spots, singer/percussionist Vinx proved more intriguing on a loopy cover of ZZ Top's ``La Grange'' than during the rather vague exotica of his own originals. His obvious talent and aplomb easily won over the crowd, however, marking him a potential star. by CNB