THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 28, 1995 TAG: 9503280056
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music review
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
THE CHICAGO alternative-rock quartet Veruca Salt shone in its second Hampton Roads appearance Sunday night at the Boathouse. Unfortunately, its set was cut short by an apparent accident in which a crowd member was injured. The young woman's injury brought a bittersweet end to a performance that had celebrated the power of female music-making.
Veruca Salt, fronted by singers/ songwriters Nina Gordon and Louise Post, took the stage after appearances by the bands Hazel and Squash Blossom. Loud - enough, perhaps, to fill a much larger venue than the 2,000-plus Boathouse - and clear, their impact was immediate.
The opening numbers of their recent gold album, ``American Thighs,'' served as their first songs here, too. Gordon's ``Get Back'' and Post's ``All Hail Me'' amply demonstrated the group's imaginative command of pop hooks, hard-rock muscle and idiosyncratic lyrics.
Despite reports of a somewhat shaky live act, the band easily proved its onstage merit. The Gordon/Post pairing's vocal harmonies, which often serve as a sort of twin lead in Veruca Salt songs, were marked by rough edges that rendered them even more appealing.
Several tunes not included on ``American Thighs'' held to the record's basic formulas of delicate melodies and heavier instrumental attacks, sometimes within the same song.
If anything was to be criticized, it would have to be the band's haphazard sense of pacing. The softer moments eventually seemed to wear a bit thin for some listeners. And the long break, full of aimless talk from the band, that followed ``Celebrate You'' wasn't exactly a go-for-the-throat move either.
Still, when the lights came up unexpectedly just one song after ``Seether,'' the outfit's breakthrough hit, it truly was premature. Veruca Salt is a band with much left to offer - and not just for one night either. by CNB