THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 5, 1995 TAG: 9509050055
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Concert Review
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
A night after backing punk pioneers Iggy Pop and Lou Reed at the concert celebrating the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Soul Asylum came to the Boathouse. Not only did they kick out the jams, the Minneapolis band at one point apparently took out the electricity.
Near the end of ``Can't Even Tell,'' a hit from the ``Clerks'' soundtrack, the PA stacks went out, leaving only amplifiers and drums to deliver the final chords. Singer Dave Pirner was effectively struck dumb. Then the lights went out.
After a few strangely calm minutes during which some fans headed for the beer bars, power was restored and the group finished its set.
Soul Asylum's aplomb in the face of such a potentially momentum-shattering setback was a reflection of the show's overall tone. Frequently accused of star-tripping and betraying its punk-inspired muse in the wake of two platinum albums, ``Grave Dancers Union'' and the current ``Let Your Dim Light Shine,'' the four did about the only thing they could: They rocked, hard.
Pirner was his usual finely agitated self, shaking every bone in his body while barking and crooning his lyrics. At the end of ``Somebody to Shove,'' the convulsive singer smacked himself in the forehead to ``push out'' the song's last line. This was no easy ride.
That was underscored by the dark intelligence underlying most of the evening's set, drawn largely from ``Union'' and ``Light.'' ``Shut Down'' knowingly borrowed a title from the early Beach Boys to put across some Pirnerish angst: ``If I don't get what you want and you don't get what I need/We become oblivious/To the obvious/Just dysfunctional.''
Soon, though, the band drolly led its audience on a singalong of the chorus of ``Misery,'' the summer radio hit that smartly mocks the notion of Soul Asylum as any kind of spokesmen for Generation X: ``Frustrated, Incorporated.''
There was also a rousing version of the ballad ``I Did My Best,'' which opens with the great line ``Pulled up to the dressing room without a dress.'' And despite reports from earlier in the tour that the group had stopped playing ``Runaway Train,'' the ubiquitous radio and video smash from ``Union,'' they gave a flawlessly done, committed take of the tune.
All this and a (mostly) straightforward reading of Alice Cooper's ``Only Women Bleed'' to begin an encore that wound through several pre-``Union'' numbers before ending up with some ``I Wanna Be Your Dog'' and ``Back Door Man'' couplets borrowed from Iggy's Hall of Fame gig. Punk rock! by CNB