FIRE GOOD, PTERODACTYL BAAAAAD!!!!
by Jarrod Whittington - 10/16/2001
If the surviving members of The Doors and Three Dog Night were booked for the same time slot at a mid-70's Arena rock/Jam Festival and both refused to leave the stage until lightning struck and the heat fused them into one band, which then proceeded to bust out some funky jams, some stoned high school kid in the back would probably yell, "Maaaaaan, they're just rippin' off FIRE!"
Of course, for that to happen you'd have to ignore the one-directional arrow of time, since Columbus' own FIRE did not emerge until twenty-five years after this fictional flesh-searing event.
Nevertheless, on their debut live CD, FIRE serves up a copious blend of late 60's jam-based rock with the surprise element of, gasp, pop sensibilities! Recorded at the Northberg Tavern in Columbus last December, the CD attempts to capture FIRE's dynamic live show a squeeze it into a portable format.
With drummer Justin Herdman and bassist Anton Pollina laying down a funk-style background, guitarist Aric Dado, keyboard-player Brent Mullin, and singer Joe Downing breeze through songs that are decidedly retro, yet still hold their own in the midst of the post-cynic alternative glut of contemporary music. After a short instrumental prelude, the CD kicks off with the aptly-titled "Brighter", a song that opens with a sexy slap-bass line and then launches into a groove reminiscent of L.A. Woman-era Doors with Ray Manzerak's organ (ahem, you know which one I mean) being replaced with John Paul Jones' "Trampled Under Foot" mellotron extravaganza!
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Following closely on its heels is "No Blame", the first song to conjure the Three Dog Night reference with its quirky pop melody and canine-friendly Jeremiah-was-a-bullfrog-ish guitar riff. This is, I would imagine, what Homunculus' parents' band sounded like. It also appears to be a crowd favorite, judging by the "whoos" and "yeahs" that are audible in the background.
Other album highlights include: a sixteen-minute epic called "Dog Days" that, like all good epics, roves through several different songs before finally coming to rest on its genesis verse, and "Alabama", a piano-driven pseudo-dixieland tune.
It becomes clear from one listen that FIRE is a band that likes to make people dance, and I have been told that the band bleeds dynamite on stage. Rumor has it that they'll stop at nothing to make a booty get jiggy.
Though I couldn't, in good conscience, classify FIRE as a jam band, their strength certainly does lie in the free-for-all instrumentation that pops up here and there. Keyboards seem to be the dominating instrument in most songs, but the guitarist gets off a number of good licks and, as mentioned before, funky bass lines pervade throughout the album.
While lead singer Joe has a nice baritone voice that carries off in a "I'm-soulful-but-I-can-still-crush-you" sort of way, it sometimes approaches uncomfortably close to that of Creed, shattering the illusion that you've been magically planted back in the era of free love, and away from the corporate rock machine that spews out robotic Vedder clones, their mouths eager to spray commercial bile all over the unsuspecting American public, those poor hapless victims of consumer culture who writhe in.. woah, where am I?
Anyway, the point is that probably the best way to experience FIRE is through the live show, which you'll have a chance to do on October 25th when they play the Smiling Skull. Or Thursday October 15th at the Union with Caravan.
