By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
March 15, 1991
A few days before my 17th birthday in 1983, INXS was scheduled to play a 21-and-older show at the Park West, which left me in a quandary. On the one hand, I really wanted to check out this new band that had a sound like nothing I’d heard before. But I also was cowed by the fact that the only fake ID I had said I was 32.
INXS won out.
Armed with our laughably fake IDs and enough money to pay for the two-drink minimum at the club, my friends and I headed for Lincoln Park, where we rubbed elbows with the musicians just as they left the sound check. While waiting in line, we saw scads of other kids around our age waiting to get in. Most of us got in and we witnessed a show slick enough to make the music sing, but sloppy enough to make the evening interesting.
Back then, no one knew or cared what INXS was. The band was billed as “In Excess” in some cities, and few people knew its songs, other than the deliciously raunchy single, “The One Thing.”
Forgoing the intimate clubs they once played as unknowns, the Australian rock ‘n’ rollers are on a half-year tour that will bring them to the Rosemont Horizon, 6920 N. Mannheim (559-1212), for concerts at 8 tonight and tomorrow night. Tonight’s show is sold out.
In the eight years INXS has been climbing up the rock charts, the band members have become bona fide superstars. And Michael Hutchence, whose pockmarked face is beautifully airbrushed in videos, has become kind of a physical double of the Doors’ Jim Morrison, moving in a sinewy fashion as he stalks the stage.
Combining the growling vocals of Hutchence with Kirk Pengilly’s sweet sax and Tim Farris’ vibrant guitars, INXS’ latest album, “X,” is a stylish followup to its 1987 predecessor, “Kick.” The band has maintained a stirring style that makes it one of today’s most invigorating and popular groups.
On the last tour, Pengilly told me he was concerned some critics were dismissing the band members as stylists who cared little for substance. It is true that the majority of their songs don’t espouse any message stronger than to get out and dance. But ultimately, what good is a rock ‘n’ roll band that can’t deliver that message?
Ideally, all groups would have the ability to move an audience both physically and emotionally, as Bruce Springsteen and U2 do. But if you can’t, you may as well be INXS.
Until INXS, I was always a few steps behind. At 5, I fell in love with Elvis. When puberty set in, the only records I bought were by the Beatles. And I didn’t get into the Sex Pistols and punk rock until after Sid Vicious died.
It wasn’t until I reached adulthood and discovered INXS that I finally found a current group that mattered to me. It was a strange thing liking a group from the present, but INXS made the transition easy to take.
WEEKEND JAM: Combining a sound that falls somewhere between Herman’s Hermits and the Cure, Senator Flux creates a great variety of punk-edged pop songs. The group from our nation’s capital will perform at 11:30 tomorrow night at the Cabaret Metro, 3730 N. Clark (559-1212). Animal Farm and the Shelves are the scheduled headliners.
Also at the Metro at 11:30 tonight, Stump the Host will perform its soul and western musical stylings. One of the best new bands to emerge in the late ’80s, Stump the Host is homegrown. The musicians’ harmonizing is beautiful and makes their lyrical songs sound uncommonly good.
Dubbed the Beatles of South Africa by some hyperbole-happy press, Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens will perform at 8 tonight at the Park West, 322 W. Armitage (559-1212). Their music sounds nothing like the Beatles, but is nonetheless exciting in its own highly danceable way.
The man whose first name is an onomatopoeia for the way he delivers his songs, Waylon Jennings will perform at 8 tonight at the Star Plaza Theatre, Interstate 65 and U.S. 30, Merrillville (559-1212 or 219-769-6600). Hits by Jennings, a protege of Buddy Holly, include “Rainy Day Woman” and “I’m a Ramblin’ Man.” The elastic-voiced hometown favorite, John Prine, will be Jennings’ special guest.
Tad the band consists of four well-fed musicians who look like lumberjacks. Tad the man is a former lumberjack and butcher from Idaho, whose 300 pounds make him an unlikely and interesting frontman. Playing in a fast, loud, punk-metal style, the band will get heavy at 10 tonight at the Lounge Ax, 2438 N. Lincoln (559-1212).
