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BY RICHARD MARTIN, rmartin@wweek.com
One night in November, I walked into LaLuna to find a scene that recalled the Catholic masses of my youth: A few hundred seated people looked solemnly up toward the stage as if it were an altar, and at the three casually dressed young musicians as if they were pastors and priests. I doubt anyone was having a religious experience. It was just an attentive audience listening to Acetone, a low-key Los Angeles trio opening for Spiritualized that night.
"I don't mind people sitting down and watching," says vocalist and bassist Richie Lee, who's about to leave L.A. for Acetone's latest tour. "I like it when people really listen. The worst thing is when people talk over your music." Chatty crowd syndrome is becoming less of a problem for Acetone as more music fans become acquainted with the band's refined, resonant records, such as the recent self-titled release on the Neil Young-owned Vapor label. Lee, guitarist Mark Lightcap and drummer Steve Hadley play their instruments with the type of finesse and grace more often attributed to figure skaters than to rock musicians. They bend notes to infuse a suppleness into the smoothly crafted rhythms, making mid-tempo songs like "All the Time" and "Might as Well" sound simultaneously sturdy and fragile. Lee's voice is placid and patient, waiting to unveil each enunciated syllable at a precise point in the song. The country and roots influences that Acetone acknowledged on I Guess I Would, a 1994 EP of Gram Parsons, Kris Kristofferson and John Prine covers, carries over to new tracks like the ponderous "Shobud" and the sprightly "Waltz." Just as the band's music emphasizes seething lows and calculated highs, Acetone's career has had ups and downs. The band was signed to the Virgin-affiliated label Vernon Yard in what Lee calls "the post-Nirvana big-money craze." Band and label became irreconcilably displeased with one another during the recording of the uneven but often powerful '95 album If You Only Knew. According to Lee, the label failed to promote the band's shows and faltered when it came to distributing the record. At the same time, Acetone emerged as a favored touring partner for some of England's simmering superstars: Oasis, the Verve and Spiritualized would come to enlist the trio as an opening act during the next two years. Dropped from Vernon Yard, Acetone found a new home with the fledgling Vapor, which turned out to be beneficial, according to Lee. "When we were on Vernon Yard, we were overwhelmed by everything," he says. "The label was never happy with us, and it made it difficult to write. This time, it was like, 'Let's make the record we want.'" Now back on solid ground, Acetone embarks on a headlining tour of its own. Lee hopes to attract audiences familiar with his records, ones that will treat the band with the respect and even reverence it experienced at LaLuna a few months ago. At any rate, this tour won't be any more trying than opening for Oasis. "With Oasis, there were a lot of teen idolizers," Lee says. "No band was good enough, because they were just there to see Liam. Oasis could have come out and farted and it would have been good enough." |
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