- March 5 , 1999 - Slim's - San Francisco, CA
 A new take on the roots of hard rock? That's what was shown on this day in San Francisco when the band Fuel performed with a great pairing of opening acts.
What could have been just another night of wondering which rehashed musical style would be heard ended up with a solid undermining of so many of today's musical rip-offs. Very soon after the lights dimmed it became apparent that there are new sounds in rock today. True that some parts mixed within were influenced by known stylings, but with so much energy and originality brought in that created a passion not seen for quite some time
Fuel, by far, was the band that everyone had come to witness, but know that the opening acts did not disappoint in the least. If anything, the two distinctively separate sounding bands only added to the collage of sounds this evening.
Opening band Mayflower 4 are a wonderful testament to the honesty and free-spiritedness of the late 70s rock sounds that most people unfortunately have not been exposed too. 70s radio surely had never played all the finest hours of the bands of their time, but luckily with today's more permissive society these sounds are getting the exposure they deserve, but with finer production and performance. Mayflower 4 took the flow and ideals from time gone by and added a power and emotion quite their own to it. There were flairs of recognizable strains, but this is a band that could well hold its own in today's market. To top of the wonderful flow of the music, Mayflower 4 is headed by truly inspired lead vocals.
 Next up was San Francisco Bay Area favorites, Local H, whose hit "Copasetic" spawned several other well-known songs for the band and has earned them quite the reputation and receptive audience. This is a band with some definite "Nirvana-esque" influences. However, after the vocal references, Local H adds their own twist to things by first being a, primarily, 2-piece band - guitarist/vocalist and drummer - with an added walk on (and off) guitarist and singer - and no bassist. Somehow Local H pulls off one of the heaviest sounds. This is a band who loves to experiment with ideas that, true, have been used in the past, but with new input. Among these are their use of feedback, vocal effects, and a theremin (made famous by Jimmy Page during the Led Zeppelin days). If one is to judge by a crowd's reaction, then Local H will surely make their mark before too long.
Finally came the awaited return of Fuel, one of the most striking bands to perform in a long time. When Fuel hits the stage, there is no mistaking it. From the first notes, the band hits you in the head with their mere presence - visually and aurally. Fuel is a band of certain competence who hold the audience from the get go. The driving rhythms of drummer Kevin Miller and bassist Jeff Abercrombie to the full crunch of guitarist Carl Bell followed by the keen and crisp vocals of Brett Scallions, Fuel appeared seemingly to come out of nowhere but left the crowd no place to hide.
The band performed most of the songs from their newest release "Sunburn" with dazzling display, especially on songs like "Untitled" and "Jesus Or A Gun". There was a great intro to current radio hit "Bittersweet" that led the audience right into the grip of the song. "Shimmer", the song that spawned the Fuel craze, also shone during the set. Fuel played several songs not from "Sunburn", including one off of the Godzilla movie soundtrack called, "Walk The Sky", along with new songs (slated for the next CD), "Scar" - sung by guitarist Carl Bell - "Sister Mary Anderson", a wonderfully powerful pop song with lush harmonies, and awesome heavy song entitled "Solace". Aside from just the sheer musical prowess that the band presents - Carl's flavored fretwork, Jeff's steady, thumping bass, and Kevin's direct and heavy beats - singer Brett Scallions is a very proficient vocalist who not only knows how to use his original vocal style, but knows how to master the crowd with his onstage appearance, stalking and taunting the crowd with a clear sneer and biting attitude.
One amusing point was when Brett mentioned the song off of the Godzilla soundtrack, commenting that, "Yeah, I know it sucked", and said that Fuel did the soundtrack because of all the other cool bands on it - ending with a comment about Puff Daddy that drew some distinct "Boos" from the audience, to which Brett responded, "Yeah, he can kiss my ass too". Brett then said that, "It's a shame how people these days can take classics from the 60s and 70s, throw some rapping over it and then call it art. Don't let it happen. Don't let these guys fuck up great music from the past.", but then jokingly added, "Let bands like us fuck it up. We can fuck it up worse." before launching into their next tune.
Concluding the show, at the encore, Fuel came back onstage with some friends for an impromptu jam session of two covers before closing with a final song of their own. Joining Fuel in performing Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" and AC/DC's "Highway To Hell" was the guitarist/singer for Local H, singer for Mayflower 4, and former San Jose resident turned Stone Temple Pilots' drummer, Eric Kretz, in an amazing ending to a great evening of music.
If one wonders were the future of music is going, one need to only look to reinvent the past into something tangible and great. Fuel does just that by bringing back the incredible power that live rock 'n' roll used to deliver along with the sheer dynamics of what great songwriting can bring. The only questions to ask at the end of the show were - Can Fuel even possibly write a bad song or give a bad performance? One would have to instantly say, "doubtful."
- Written by and Photos © 1999 Philip Anderson
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