KICK OUT THE JAMS

Thursday, February 20, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Kick Out the Jams

The Breeders at the Huntridge, Feb. 14

She smokes, spits and swears. She writes her own songs, and one of the best ones describes a blowjob. She sometimes dons sweatpants on stage. Makeup? Forget about it.

So, if Britney Spears has a polar opposite in the world of music, it may be Kim Deal, who was in good form Friday night while leading the Breeders through a fast-paced 17-song set of weirdly melodic avant-rock at the Huntridge Theater. The show was one of two warm-up gigs before the five-piece headed off to Australia and Japan in support of Title TK, the band's first album since 1993's platinum-selling megahit Last Splash.

At their last Las Vegas appearance, nearly six years before on the same stage, Deal drunkenly faltered through a sloppy set backed by another group of hired musicians she billed as the Breeders. But she had stronger backing this time from the former rhythm section of the Los Angeles punk band Fear. And Deal's twin sister, Kelley, whose heroin habit sidelined her just as the Breeders' star began to rise in the mid-1990s, has rejoined the group and developed into a capable guitarist and more confident second vocalist.

They launched with "Tipp City," a bouncy ode to drunkenness that sent one of the oldest Huntridge crowds in recent memory (with most in their mid-20s to late 30s) into pogo mode during the sing-along chorus "You got me going!" They quickly pummeled their way through the punk stompers "Huffer," "Head to Toe" and "Full on Idle." During the noisy instrumental "Roi," the 42-year-old twins goofed on each other, hanging out their tongues and squinting in mock concentration. But Kim Deal downshifted two songs later to earnestly and sweetly sing "I am the autumn in the scarlet/ I am the makeup on your eyes" during Title TK's spare and fragile "Off You."

A ringing bass buzz fizzled some of the best songs' dynamics, including the Last Splash hits "Cannonball" and "Saints." But the drowned-out sound seemed not to bother fans even when it was especially noticeable, such as during the band's radically reworked version of the Beatles' "Happiness Is a Warm Gun." Kelley Deal won mid-song applause for a magnificent whistling solo during the wistful country ballad "Drivin' on 9," before the band finished its three-song encore with "Divine Hammer," yet another good Deal song about sex.

Still, there were no truly remarkable moments. It was simply a well-played show by a good band with great songs in front of a few hundred fans who adored them no matter what.

The Dagons, a two-piece guitar-and-drums combo from San Francisco, opened with a brief set of feverish and turbulent rock that was warmly received. But singer-guitarist Karie Jacobson's melodramatic love songs often suffered from a lack of instrumental color, repetitive chord changes and almost comically gothic lyrics that brought the Brothers Grimm to mind.--Jim Bialek