"If I've told them once, I've told them a thousand times. It's 'Smithereens' here (holds hand up high), and 'puppet show' here (holds hand low)"

-- Pat DiNizio upon noticing the sign which read "Here Tonight - Smithereen"

It has almost become cliche to compare the life of a touring rock band with that of the fictional "Spinal Tap," as depicted in Marty DiBergi's brilliant rockumentary "This is Spinal Tap." However, I'm one to wallow in cliche, so I guess you'll just have to put up with yet another comparison.

Much like the "Tap" tour portrayed in the film, many of the sites fall into what I would categorize as "questionable venues." Mostly minor outdoor "festivals," with the most bizarre sounding gig being the "Atlanta Beach Volleyball Jam." Sunday, June 22 at "Sam's Place" in Houston, Texas was no exception. During its regular life, "Sam's" is one of those places where the twenties mating ritual occurs to a never-ending series of worn-out cover bands.

Once each year they rope off their parking lot for a faux beach party, with some of the proceeds going to charity. To give you a picture of the event, before the 'Reens, the afternoon consisted of radio DJ's doing their usual fast blather, bikini-clad "babes" participating in the semi-finals of some suntan lotion contest, and one of those forementioned cover bands (The Houligans) doing an adequate if unimpressive job rocking the crowd.

As such, by the time the Smithereens took the stage, many of the liquored up frat boys had left, but the crowd was still pretty evenly divided between folks there to see the band, and folks that were just there. The first, most obvious thing about the show was that bassist Mike Mesaros was missing in action. According to DiNizio's stage announcement, he had "just got married, and is taking the summer off to honeymoon." Taking his spot in the band was one Jamie Hoover. Most Smithereens fans know of Hoover from his guitar playing with his own band, "The SpongeTones," or from his live and session work with producer Don Dixon. A quality player and an adequate fill-in, but not Mike.

Photo by Clarence Persails Jamie Hoover covers all the basses.

With nothing new to promote, the set-list was pretty standard:

Only A Memory
War For My Mind
Everything I Have Is Blue
Long Way Back Again
Groovy Tuesday
Behind The Wall Of Sleep
Over And Over Again
Drown In My Own Tears
Green Thoughts
A Room Without A View
Yesterday Girl
Cigarette
Top Of The Pops
Miles From Nowhere
Blues Before And After
House We Used To Live In
Blood And Roses
---------------
A Girl Like You

Babjak broke a string during "Miles From Nowhere," so DiNizio launched into a jazz-odyssey version of "Blues Before and After." Definitely the highlight of the evening.

Also notable was an electric version of "Cigarette," featuring DiNizio, Babjak, and occasional tapping from Diken. This brought an end to what had been an evening of "stump the bass player," as the set-list included several other songs which Hoover had not rehearsed with the band. After they established that the bass player definitely did not know "Cigarette," Pat bet Jim $5.00 that he (Babjak) couldn't make it through an electric version of the tune. The result of the bet was not settled on stage, although DiNizio did say that he had "never quite heard the tune done that way before." Definitely a first, especially considering the thousands of times Pat has played the tune to audiences everywhere.

In general the guys played well, but the sound crew let them down. It's a given that a makeshift stage, and an outdoor venue will sound mediocre, but the mix emphasized the worst aspects of such surroundings. All that came through clearly was the lead vocals, lead guitar, and some of the drums. The poor mix could be attributed to lack of a soundcheck (the show was delayed as Dennis Diken didn't arrive at the venue until after the announced 8pm showtime), but even given that fact, adjustments were not made.

Photo by Clarence Persails Spontaneous, but not combustible.

Although it was great to see and hear the band together again, this really did feel a bit like the end of the "Tap" film. This feeling was enhanced by the fact that on the day of the show, I attended the film "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion." A bit of a trifle, but still quite funny. However, "Blood and Roses" is part of the soundtrack mainly to evoke nostalgia. Other acts on the soundtrack include eighties stalwarts such as the Go-Go's, Bananarama, and Culture Club. Beyond the nostalgia factor, it would seem that all these acts (sadly, including the 'Reens) are just as stuck in the "Where are they Now?" bin as Spinal Tap was when they heard "Cups and Cakes" on the radio. All we can hope for is that if and when the Smithereens do their "Smell the Glove," it will have a tune that hits as strongly as "Sex Farm Woman" did all those years ago...

Show ratings:

Summing things up, any Smithereens is better than no Smithereens, therefore I'll give the experience a C. Most of that can be attributed to the fun and energy of the band, as the setting and the mix were both well below par.