THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 17, 1996 TAG: 9606170002
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music review
SOURCE: BY SUE VANHECKE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 41 lines
The night of Newport News native Ella Fitzgerald's passing was a nostalgic celebration of local music-making at Norfolk's Boathouse.
The occasion Saturday was ostensibly a one-time-only homecoming concert by disbanded '80s jangle-rock faves Waxing Poetics; it seemed more like a rock 'n' roll high school reunion with the raft of local music scene-makers - old and new, residents and expatriates - in attendance.
Hampton Roads' rendition of R.E.M. took the stage after a spiny set of angular, Helmet-esque ranters from the acerbic Norfolk trio Combine - who left the feel-good, Poetics-pop crowd visibly stunned - and a canned intermission compilation that included Portsmouth rockabilly Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps.
The Poetics were introduced by Big Al Staggs of Left Wing Fascists and former Poetics road manager Marc Yevlove.
The five years since their packed farewell gig quickly fell away as the foursome - vocalist David Middleton, guitarist Paul Tiers, drummer Bil Shearin and ex-M-80 Rob Katherman on bass, sitting in for the out-of-town Jeff Bailey - launched into spirited reads of ``Blue Eyed Soul'' and the Brian Eno cover ``Needles in the Camel's Eye'' from their 1988 sophomore LP ``Manakin Moon.''
The Poetics - who are all still active musicians - played with maturity, particularly Tiers, who made his staunch leads snarl and sing.
Middleton, looking bohemian cool with his goatee and specs, voiced with control and conviction, shouting dramatically into his electric guitar on the anticipatory ``Jet Black Plastic Pistol'' from the third Poetics album, 1990's ``Bedtime Story.''
Katherman, a longtime band friend and fan, did an admirable job filling in, supplying, with Shearin, a solid rhythmic engine.
Surprisingly, the Poetics' material, some of which dates back to the early '80s, still sounds fresh and vital, in literate, muscular-yet-melodic contrast to today's increasingly mimic and too often mindless alternative rock fare.
Not surprisingly, radio-friendly tunes like encore-anchor ``Baby Jane'' kept the enthusiastic crowd of several hundred dancing and singing along with sentimental glee. by CNB