{image1}While Summerfest arguably booked Stereophonics five years too late, at least the Big Gig got around to acknowledging the Welsh trio, whose latest disc, "Language. Sex. Violence. Other?" -- their fifth -- appears to be taking them to something of a new audience.
Beginning with 1997's "Word Gets Around," Stereophonics were one of the great hopes of Britpop. Their small-town, slice of life songs, built on blazing guitars and singer Kelly Jones' classic era Rod Stewart growl, set them up to be a new incarnation of that most "British" of bands, The Jam.
So, how come at Summerfest's US Cellular Connection Stage on Tuesday night Jones, bassist Richard Jones (no relation; everyone is Wales is named Jones!) and relatively new drummer, Argentine Javier Weyler, sounded more like AC/DC than Paul Weller and company?
Well, mostly because the group has traded those melodic -- even if gritty -- story songs for riff-laden rawk anthems with titles like "Pedalpusher."
As the sun began to set, with the Milwaukee skyline as a backdrop, the Stereos launched into a 15-song set that started with a trio of blistering, if not terribly dynamic, tunes from the new disc: "Superman," "Doorman" and "Pedalpusher."
But it wasn't until Kelly and the boys dipped back into the archives that we were really reminded just how far down the retro rock road they'd traveled.
The transcendent "Just Looking, " from 1999's "Performance & Cocktails" simmers through the verses to build to an explosive chorus in a display of well-paced rock and roll dynamics that ought to be in the textbooks at rock schools around the globe.
"A Thousand Trees" and "Local Boy In the Photograph," which closed the hour-long show, are from that seminal first LP, which at Summerfest, Kelly Jones -- in black shades and a black leather jacket -- described as an "album of small town stories and rumors ... and tragic figures."
His material since then would get a boost from the inclusion of any one of those elements. "Mr. Writer," from 2001's "Just Enough Education to Perform" is a whiny rant aimed at (ahem) music critics. And God only knows what most of the songs on the new disc are about.
If Kelly Jones' voice often got lost, swirling around in that concave roof above the stage, the band sounded taut and forceful. The new material was hard-hitting and at times, perfectly groomed for stadium performance. Especially "Dakota" and "Rewind" with their plangent Edge-style guitar lines and drums that on the former meshed with a programmed thrum and on the latter mimicked Larry Mullen Jr.'s tribal beats from "The Joshua Tree."
With flashes of old brilliance and some satisfying new moments in the new work -- especially the catchy choruses and pleasing chimey-ness of "Dakota" and "Rewind" -- there's still hope that Stereophonics can avoid becoming a parody of Bad Company. But with Kelly Jones singing, "I don't know where we are going now" (in "Dakota") perhaps he's the first to admit that it's time to stop and check the map.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
