"There's no backstage here. The last time we played here we did interviews in the van. There's no place to get away. Where does Johnny Depp hang out when he's here?"

Fastball co-frontman Miles Zuniga's question went unanswered Monday at the Viper Room, but not one of the 200 or so fans in attendance seemed to mind. On the first night of a fifteen-date club tour scheduled to debut new material and drum up interest for Fastball's Sept. 19 release of their third LP The Harsh Light of Day, the Austin trio played to a mostly full-house.

Filing in, it felt a little odd to be seeing Fastball in the ultra-hip Viper Room with the zebra striped pillars and the chunks of suspended chain link fence that separate patrons from the bartenders in back, when they seem like they'd be better suited to a backyard barbecue or an honest to goodness club with beer on the floor and everything.

Joined on this night by keyboard player Kevin Lovejoy and second guitarist Brad Vernquist, Fastball threw out a couple chestnuts before digging into the new album with "Funny How It Fades Away," a newbie that featured meandering guitars and droning keyboards and the rather stale imagery of a "candle burning bright." The acoustic rendition of "Dark Street" made it all the easier to hear the tired line about a "pain inside my heart," and to wish for greater lyrical effort.

Of the new tunes, the rollicking barroom piano on "You're An Ocean" (a part that Rolling Stones piano man Billy Preston plays on the album) sparkled and gleamed along with a guitar solo that must have been lifted straight out of a Jackson Browne song gone by. The psychedelic, drugged-out guitars and keyboards of "Don't Give Up On Me" were a stretch but worth the reach.

"Are You Ready For the Fallout?" from Fastball's 1996 debut Make Your Mama Proud provided the evening's zenith, a tune that brought the punch and sneer of early Elvis Costello along with a radio-ready melody.

Fastball's two change-ups of the night were a cover of fellow Texan Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again," complete with a shuffling drumbeat and a scorching guitar solo, and a faithful update of David Bowie's "Is There Life On Mars?" as the encore. Although both worked well, they inadvertently put the emphasis on the persistent mid-tempos and bland choruses that plague many of Fastball's original efforts.

Predictably "The Way," Fastball's hit from their last album, won the greatest applause from an audience that was surprisingly sedate. Juggling instruments, co-frontman Tony Scalzo set his bass aside to sing, drummer Joey Shuffield switched to bongos and keyboardist Lovejoy grabbed an accordion and the resulting version of "The Way" assumed a slightly Spanish flavor.

Fastball writes songs for people who wear sensible shoes, like mild salsa, think of themselves as fun-loving but try to be home by midnight, spend sleepless nights thinking about ways to get better gas mileage, are trying to cuss less, eat the right foods and are generally fitter, happier, more productive. If they were cars, they'd be Honda Accords, dependable, good at what they do but lacking any semblance of spark or flair. Typical of their uptight approach, Zuniga frequently called out to the soundman for more or less guitar and vocals mid-song. One couldn't help but wish he and the rest of his band would let a little rock & roll seep into their attack, take some chances, lighten up and let the chips fall where they may. Things just might get interesting.

COLIN DEVENISH
(August 24, 2000)