Paradise Rock Club, December 8, 2008
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | December 12, 2008
LETTERS TO CLEO’s Kay Hanley no longer has to suffer grunge purgatory. |
"I guess it's been a while and a long time too/Everything's still the same and so are you," sang Kay Hanley when her band, on the first of two sold-out nights, finally got around to breaking out "Awake." And I guess it was partly true. Letters to Cleo did pack the Paradise many times before disbanding in 2000. But was everything still the same? And were we?
Watching Hanley sing now, without the baggage of comparisons to her more tormented contemporaries, you can see how timeless and ageless she is, like a shock-blonde Peter Pan freeing her inner 14-year old. The whole band seemed to get teenage kicks from Hanley's enthusiasm, especially the über-sweaty hair-flinging drummer. Stacy Jones is one of those Bonhamy power hitters who can give hard-rock oomph to even the tamest and blandest of ditties. Show closer "Rim Shak" found him rocking a hair-metal stripper-pole beat, and the song's jarring contrast with the rest of the set was a glimpse into what might have been if the band had tipped their hand more toward their rockist contingent.
Most LTC songs ride familiar waves of broadly stroked riffless major chords mixed with a few left turns and minor keys; the result is often a bouncy rock that you rarely hear in these more twitchy post-millennial 808-friendly times. Back in the day, these über-bounce moments would have resulted in moshing, stage diving, crowd surfing, etc. Monday's more, uh, distinguished audience opted to show its appreciation with mass head bobbing and the occasional thrown devil's horn. At their height, LTC were in a kind of grunge purgatory: their Melrose Place-y shimmer made them hard to rock out to, yet their slamming crunch and occasional almost-metal moments must surely have led to many an awkward dorm-room make-out sesh. In the late '70s, this purgatory was called power pop. And when LTC encore with their cover of Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me," it's like hand in glove.
Related:
Boston music news: August 24, 2007, Kay Hanley, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things - side, More 
- Boston music news: August 24, 2007
Last summer, it poured on the "Hot Stove, Cool Music: Fenway Park Sessions" fundraiser, putting a damper on an event that was already a bit down.
- Kay Hanley
Kay Hanley may have relocated to LA, but when she returned to T.T. the Bear’s Place, she was greeted by a packed crowd who hadn’t forgotten past triumphs.
- The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things - side
- J.T. & me
Once upon a time in Harvard Square there was a short-lived venue called the Market Theatre. The space truly altered the face of performance art in Boston by taking on avant-garde projects and obscure playwrights, and turning them loose on mainstream audiences. It was awesome.
- Hot Stove Cool Music
It would be as unfair to call the second annual Hot Stove Cool Music benefit concert at Fenway Park a week ago last Wednesday a disaster as it would be to confirm that it was an unqualified success. Slideshow: Hot Stove Cool Music, July 12, 2006
- A winning combination
Fans of the Sox and of local rock once had at least one thing in common: a big inferiority complex.
- Slideshow: Letters To Cleo
LTC at the Paradise
- Kay Hanley gets personal with Gary Cherone
Another excerpt from Hanley's interview with Extreme's Cherone
- ’S no joke
A roomful of local nominees and friends made it to the Paradise last Wednesday.
- Jeanne Connolly, 1957-2009
Jeanne Connolly, who died Monday after a 16-month battle with colon cancer, was the ebullient presence behind the bar at T.T. the Bear's Place for more than two decades.
- Judas Priest
It’s a ridiculous album, sure, but also the most grandiose metal record likely to be released this year.
- Less
Topics:
Live Reviews
, Cheap Trick, Peter Pan, Stacy Jones
