THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 14, 1996 TAG: 9606140078
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUE VANHECKE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 50 lines
ABOUT A YEAR AGO, Paul Tiers was rummaging through a box of tapes that had been lying around his apartment since he moved to New York City. The guitarist unearthed some real jewels, too: high-quality live recordings of his old band, Norfolk's Waxing Poetics.
From those tapes, recorded at Christopher Newport University, the old Kings Head Inn in Norfolk and the Poetics' farewell show at the now-defunct Virginia Beach nightclub Outer Limits, Tiers and frontman David Middleton cobbled together ``Never Were, Never There: Waxing Poetics Live.''
The new CD will be available only at the band's reunion concert Saturday night at the Boathouse.
``I figure the people that would really want it would be fans that would come to see us again,'' Tiers said. ``Therefore, we're going to sell it at the show so that people who are really interested in the band can have it.
``I like the sound of these recordings over a lot of our studio recordings, but I tend to like rawer things myself anyway.''
Saturday's concert is a one-time deal and will feature original members Tiers, Middleton and drummer Bil Shearin. Rob Katherman, formerly of the M-80s and now fronting Big Bobby and the Nightcaps, fills in for bassist Jeff Bailey, who will be out of town.
The enormously popular Poetics put out a trio of national releases on the Emergo label from 1987-90, the first produced by Mitch Easter and R.E.M.'s Mike Mills. Before disbanding in 1991, the hard-edged pop quartet had gotten a video on MTV and sold out the Boathouse five times. Opening bands included the mega-selling Black Crowes and Hootie & The Blowfish.
Thirteen years after their inception, the Poetics still get a fair share of local radio airplay.
All of the band members have stayed busy. Besides operating a home recording studio in Brooklyn, Tiers plays with Middleton in the band Splotch, and in the Floyds of Flatbush with former M-80s drummer Rusty Floyd, also a Norfolk transplant. He's also working on an instrumental album with Peter Zaremba of the Fleshtones.
Shearin has remained active with area bands like the Left Wing Fascists, while Bailey has been studying classical music and composition.
Though the group is looking forward to performing together for the first time in five years, Middleton denies any talk of a permanent reunion.
``We all have our own lives and our own careers,'' he said. ``But this is going to be fun. We have a lot of great friends here, and that means a lot to me because that's what this band was about.
``It was about four friends playing music.'' ILLUSTRATION: MICHAEL COPE by CNB