Brit snap, crackle, and pop
By JIM SULLIVAN | February 14, 2006
Ah, Britpop. We’ve loved you, we’ve missed you, and last Friday night at the Paradise, we — a capacity crowd — were happy to welcome back Britpop stalwarts Supergrass. Call ’em the Kinks of their day. So Kinks-ian that Gaz Coombes and Mickey Quinn took the stage first, looking like a younger version of Ray and Dave Davies as they played duo acoustic reworkings of “St. Petersburg,” “Caught by the Fuzz,’’ “Sitting Up Straight,” and “Low C.” Kinks-ian, too, in Gaz’s “St. Petersburg” refrain: “Three days and I’ll be out of here, and that’s not a day too soon.” And, in the “ooh”-ing vocals.
Like the Kinks, Supergrass have sailed under the mainstream radar in the US for more than a decade despite their successes overseas. Twelve years down the road — a century in rock years — the band haven’t just survived, they’ve matured. “Caught by the Fuzz,” one of their first singles, was once a punkish salvo about a drug bust. Stripped of its Buzzcock-ian pop clamor, the song’s once breezy refrain — “I should have stayed at home tonight’’ — took on dark undertones. A mid-set keyboard duet between Gaz and brother Rob Coombes offered yet another quiet, somber respite, as they echoed early Roxy Music with a song titled “Roxy.’’
But when all four were on, Supergrass cranked up the volume. They revisited the manic pop thrills of their younger days, closing the set with the deliriously compact and uplifting “Pumping on Your Stereo.” They returned with the slow and sad “Fin,” its “lonely road to a promised land” and “broken lives on the mountain side” offering yet another moody swing. It’s a track from their latest, Road to Rouen (Capitol), a disc layered with strings, piano chordings, and production that’s nothing short of Beatle-esque. A crappy vocal mix kept Supergrass from matching the range and depth of Rouen at the Paradise. But that didn’t diminish the kick of seeing a band who started out as teenagers present themselves as older, wiser, and more than capable of delivering the goods.
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