Concrete Blonde, On Its Own Terms
By: DAN NAILEN - The Salt Lake Tribune
March 15th 2002 6:50pm
The story is familiar: a group seemingly destroyed by industry
back-stabbing returns to the music scene older and wiser, in control
of itself instead of dealing with "the system." Such is the case with Concrete Blonde, the brainy Los Angeles
rock trio that had a major hit in 1990 with "Joey," enjoyed a series
of college-rock favorites, and broke up after the album-tour-album
grind wore down the musical connection between bassist Johnette
Napolitano, guitarist Jim Mankey and drummer Harry Rushakoff. After
releasing the under-appreciated "Mexican Moon" album in 1993,
Concrete Blonde disappeared. Here we are in 2002, though, and the trio is on the road, with a
stellar new album, "Group Therapy." Napolitano says this time
around, Concrete Blonde is doing it right. "We finally realized that we know what we want and what to do
better than anybody else, and why not just do it?," Napolitano said,
talking during a break from the tour that brings Concrete Blonde to
Salt Lake City tonight. "This has been the easiest it's ever been.
It's all ours. "We're not trying to compete with the Top 10. We're just living
on our own terms. . . . We're grown-ups now. We've been doing this,
we've been out there, we know who our people are." The good vibes started when the three, all in their 40s, hooked
up to jam last summer. Within a couple months, Concrete Blonde had a
new album in the can and was ready to tour for the first time in
seven years. Not wanting to do any sort of retro tour of old hits,
the three did not play any of their old songs until they had written
and recorded "Group Therapy." Since January, the band has toured two weeks on, two weeks off,
to crowds that are "lots better than we expected," Napolitano said.
Like any band that disappears for years, Concrete Blonde did not
know whether anyone cared that it was coming back. The warm
reception helps Napolitano enjoy being onstage, something she once
dreaded. "We pretty much cull [songs] from every album, so everybody's
happy," she said. "It's a nice place to be, because I remember back
on the first tour when all we had was one album and I looked down
[at the set-list] and that was all we knew! I was like, 'This is so
hard.' I'd start clenching up because four songs down was the hard
one and I'd be nervous. Now it's really great. "We try never to get too far away from what people are coming to
see. We don't want people to come away saying, 'Well, that was a
self-indulgent experiment.' We're conscious that people work for
their money and when they come, we want to show them a good time." Fans of older Concrete Blonde should have no problem getting into
the new "Group Therapy." Between Napolitano's powerful, deep vocals
and Mankey's distinctive guitar, the new songs could have arrived on
the band's 1987 debut as easily as this comeback effort. Songs like
the glimmering ode to Roxy Music, "Roxy," and acoustic-fueled "When
I Was a Fool" are already concert favorites, fitting nicely to the
dark ballad "Joey" from 1990's "Bloodletting" or the churning "God
Is a Bullet" from 1989's "Free" album. Concrete Blonde is recording a live album on this tour, and is
thinking of making a video to keep the band in the public eye this
spring while Napolitano takes a month to study flamenco in Spain.
It's all part of the band's renewed dedication to approaching rock
music on its own terms. "I'm out to do what we want to do, what comes naturally,"
Napolitano said. "It's a channeling experience more than anything
else. Whatever comes through is going to come through. "The whole reason to create art in general is to leave something
behind." <BD+>At XScape <BD-> Concrete Blonde, with opener Mojocar, plays at XScape, 115 S.
West Temple, tonight at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $22 and available at
all Ticketmaster outlets.
 (C) 2002 The Salt Lake Tribune. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved
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