According to his official biography, Doug Martsch worked as a janitor in Caldwell, Idaho, before he put together Built to Spill as an outlet for his unrecorded songs. Six years later, his band has a major label deal on Warner Bros., an adoring underground fan base, a truckload of great recordings and Martsch still dresses like a janitor.

In worn jeans and a light blue T-shirt, Stratocaster resting against his beer gut, Martsch led his power trio through a dozen broken-hearted guitar epics before a packed house at Bowery Ballroom. Though the group concentrated on rather obscure tunes from their back catalog, side projects and upcoming album (currently slated for release in late January), drunken fans yelled out lyrics like their lives depended on it. "I screwed her and she screwed me," Martsch and his fans sang out during the single "Joyride," "and we never once had sex!" It was a moment redolent of grunge -- sharply funny, distressed, regretful. Somewhere Kurt Cobain was smirking despite himself.

Martsch's keening wail recalls Perry Farrell minus the exuberance, which was amply supplied by the band itself. The energetic rhythm section of bassist Brett Nelson and drummer Scott Plouf muscled Martsch through a grand guitar aria on just about every single song. Standing frozen, back to his bandmates, eyes focused on a fixed point somewhere stage right, Martsch lit into solo after solo, evoking J Mascis and Neil Young with Crazy Horse.

Most evocative of all was an unreleased song whose chorus was, "You were wrong when you said everything's gonna be all right." Maybe Martsch was singing to Bob Marley, because the rest of the verses conjured a ridiculous and amusing slew of rock platitudes: "You were right when you said a hard rain's gonna fall" (Dylan); "You were right when you said we're running against the wind" (Bob Seger); "Life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone" (John "Cougar" Mellencamp); "You were right when you said this is the end" (the Doors); etc. If the song doesn't land on Built to Spill's next record, it makes a fun new parlor trivia game, complete with monster riff and memorable melody.

But Matsch and Co. generally struck far more angsty notes, including "Randy Described Eternity" from last year's Perfect From Now On, and "Nowhere Nothin' Fuckup" from 1993's Ultimate Alternative Wavers. The latter was the final song of the night, and it defined the Built to Spill method: sing softly about disappointment, let anger build slowly over the course of a verse and explode into the chorus. Martsch howled "Nowhere Nothin'" over the band's roar, and all three musicians smacked "Fuckup" on the offbeat like a musical karate chop. Not bad for a guy who dresses like a janitor.

RODD MCLEOD
(November 9, 1998)