KRBE's Plugged-In Christmas
Matthew Sweet/Lisa Loeb/Deep Blue Something
Numbers, Houston, Texas
December 5, 1995
by Marc Hirsh
originally published in the Public News, December 13, 1995
Welcome to Christmas, KRBE style. This nifty little present was another example of why the station, regardless of music choices, is the best in Houston. Sure, tickets were impossible for those without KRBE cards and difficult even for cardholders, but spirits seemed pretty high inside Numbers.
Openers Deep Blue Something were a lot louder than expected. The drummer's complex parts fit in poorly with the band's pop songs, which sounded the same, although maybe my eardrums gave up. They pressed on regardless. They showed off, they pandered to the hometown crowd, they played "Breakfast At Tiffany's."
They were also the only act allowed an encore, which they squandered on a version of "Dear Prudence" closer to Siouxsie than the Beatles original. Hint: announcing that your cover of a Beatles tune was due to the recent buzz surrounding the band sounds pretty shallow. Still, they were harmless. Let the kids have their fun.
Lisa Loeb came next and showed what a crack band can do without showing off. It was nice to hear a band get loud without just cranking the guitar up. Especially impressive was guitarist Mark Spencer, who showed taste, restraint and how to make lightning-fast country riffs cool.
Loeb seems to have become something of a spokewoman for slightly privileged but still kinda angst-ridden girls. I merely categorized her as my guilty pleasure for the year while these young women were apparently taking her words to heart. Who knew?
Still, better her than Alanis Morrisette, although performing a song with a stuffed cat perched on her guitar before throwing it into the crowd and saying, "I'm sorry I don't have enough cats for everybody" borders on obsession. Loeb sang a lot of, well, love songs, and they were pretty good. She even avoided acting petulant when Spencer's guitar thought it was at a Sonic Youth gig. Ignoring the feedback, she apologized and didn't get snippy, which would have been unsurprising, if not within her rights.
Matthew Sweet faced similar problems, and although he tried not to take it out on the audience, he sure seemed frustrated and cold. After five minutes of complaining about the mix, Sweet mostly fiddled with his gear.
The unexceptional lead guitar that marred Sweet's latest 100% Fun tailed him to Houston. Ivan Julian, the weakest of Sweet's three main guitar cohorts, accompanied Sweet on stage. He played alright, but "Divine Intervention" doesn't work with standard punk-pop soloing.
Still, Sweet played all (well, most... well, some) of the songs we wanted to hear (at least, those of us who stayed the crowd thinned noticeably after Loeb). Sped-up and frenzied versions of "I've Been Waiting" and "Girlfriend" were great, although the same approach to "Ugly Truth Rock" crushed it. Maybe Sweet wanted to leave from the opening "Superdeformed" to the umpteenth ending (I stopped counting after 6) of "Sick of Myself" was only 50 minutes. Which is fine, I guess. After all, Deep Blue Something came on around 8-ish, and Sweet's drummer kicked over his kit at 12:30. Four and a half hours and three national bands (well, two and a half) for nothing is a fair deal. And it was a school night.