Harvey Danger |
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Tue. July 14.1998 3:04 AM EDT |
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Harvey Danger Make Merry For HeadlinersQuirky Seattle pop-rock band opens New York show with flourish, even impressing main act Semisonic. by Contributing Editor Brian Hiatt |
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Harvey Danger singer Sean Nelson (pictured, right) showed off a set of deliberately fey stage moves. ( ) |
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NEW YORK -- The headliner for the night was Minneapolis
modern-rock act Semisonic, but, judging by the crowd, it could just as easily
have been Harvey Danger. "All I can say is [the band] kicked royal ass. That's about as
It was only the second time Harvey Danger have ever played New York, according to lead singer Sean Nelson, and yet the quirky, Seattle-bred pop-rockers were greeted like hometown heroes at the show. While Semisonic played to a full house and seemed to have left everyone satisfied, they owed something to their warm-up act. A substantial portion of the evening's crowd made it down to the club early enough to catch the opener's set and, after a performance to be remembered, were primed for the headliners by the time they took the stage. Harvey Danger's low-budget, underproduced debut album, Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone, has spawned just one memorable single, "Flagpole Sitta" (RealAudio excerpt), which pokes fun at modern-rock culture ("I wanna publish 'zines/ and rage against machines/ I wanna pierce my tongue/ It doesn't hurt it feels just fine"). Still, a large group of enthusiastic, wildly moshing fans near the front of the stage appeared to be familiar with the band's entire repertoire. When Danger bassist Aaron Huffman launched into the descending bassline that introduces "Private Helicopter" (RealAudio excerpt), a stand-out track that hasn't received the radio and video exposure of "Flagpole Sitta," fans reacted immediately and applauded the song as if it were an old favorite. The cherubic, apple-cheeked Nelson, whose appearance suggests a cross between former Pixies frontman Frank Black and Conan O'Brien's TV sidekick, Andy Richter, proved to be a captivating, if decidedly odd, frontman. His blondish curls poking straight up from his scalp, Nelson wore an untucked button-down shirt and blue Army surplus pants. He showed off a set of deliberately fey stage moves, occasionally shaking a tambourine or an eggshell shaker as he sang his off-kilter lyrics in a strong, but slightly nasal voice. Semisonic's loose, confident headlining set included two covers of songs from fellow Minneapolis native The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, as well as most of Feeling Strangely Fine, the band's second and latest full-length album. But even Dan Wilson, the hip-swiveling lead singer and guitarist of Semisonic, took a moment onstage to acknowledge the great performance by Harvey Danger. "They're a fucking great band," Wilson said. "They're really cool." Lead man Nelson also provided some of the set's musical highlights when he abandoned his microphone for a small keyboard and propelled the band into hard-driving improvisations that sounded like nothing on its album. Guitarist Jeff Lin functioned mostly as a member of the rhythm section, enthusiastically pounding out power chords on several shiny new Fender Strats. On slower songs such as "Problems and Bigger Ones" (RealAudio excerpt), Lin added tremolo effects for atmosphere. And, at one point, in a nod to Jimi Hendrix, Lin managed to play an impressively melodic solo using only squealing amp feedback. Lin also provided prominent vocal harmonies when the band finally broke into a revved-up version of "Flagpole Sitta," which sparked a mass sing-along and ended with a pounding, gleefully noisy jam that also marked the close of the band's 45-minute-long set. "It's one of the greatest live performances I've ever witnessed," Avi Freedberg, 18, of Passaic, N.J., said of Harvey Danger's set. "I think that if ['Flagpole Sitta'] had come out two months earlier, they would be the headliners." |
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