By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
July 31, 1997
(NEW YORK) The crowd at the Mercury Lounge wasn’t sure what to make of Big Blue Hearts when the four musicians made their New York debut.
Dressed in black suits – with a big old cowboy hat for the 6-foot-5 bassist – the San Francisco-based musicians looked slightly nervous, peering at the skeptical crowd.
Then they launched into an opening chord and played some of the prettiest rock ‘n’ roll music since Roy Orbison warbled “Crying.”
The pierced-tongue set was intrigued by the band’s seamless, romantic songs, which told vivid tales of elusive love and redemption.
“Who’s this?” one trendy asked another, skimming the list of groups scheduled to play that night at the Intel Music Festival. “They sound incredible.”
During the 30-minute performance, Big Blue Hearts showed why Geffen Records snapped up the musicians just months after their first gig ever.
“Our first show was on Jan. 13, 1996,” said vocalist-guitarist-songwriter David Fisher, 26. “Then on April 24, Roberta (Petersen, an A&R rep for Geffen) flew in to see us play. We didn’t even have a demo tape. First, she offered us a demo deal. Then over the weekend, she called and said, `I want to sign you.’ I just lost it. I was so happy. I was running all over the house because I’ve wanted this since I was a little kid.”
Drummer Paul Zarich, 26, added, “Wait, you left out the best part. What she said was, `I couldn’t sleep all weekend since I saw the band play.’ How flattering is that?”
Sitting in their label’s New York offices prior to the Mercury Lounge date, the musicians – also including bassist Michael Anderson, 29, and lead guitarist Jamie Scott, 27 – were pumped to promote their stunning self-titled debut album. They’ll open for Joe Walsh at the Vic on Aug. 26; tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday at Ticketmaster outlets (312-559-1212).
“The best part of being signed is getting to travel around and play for people,” Scott said. “I think it’s safe to say that we’d be doing this even if we didn’t have a record deal. To get paid for it is just a bonus.”
Added Fisher, “We don’t make the kind of music that you put on at a keg party. It’s something you listen to when you’re with someone.”
It’s the kind of music Fisher wrote when he was breaking up with his girlfriend of more than six years. While the songs aren’t wholly autobiographical, they convey the feelings he had as his relationship fell apart, he said. (“You and I/We were two young kids in love who didn’t know better/And we dreamed/About our lives/Promised to ourselves that we’d stay together.”)
Fisher’s heartbreaking delivery has been compared to both Orbison and Ricky Nelson, but the most frequent one is to Chris Isaak.
“We get the Chris Isaak thing a lot, and I’m a big fan of his,” Fisher said. “But we’re half his age and have different sensibilities. In all seriousness, though, if you put on our CDs back to back, you won’t hear much of a similarity. My voice is totally different. . . . It’s definitely a compliment, but I don’t want people to peg us as that.”
Thoughtfully, and not without tact, he added, “They might not be interested in hearing us if they think we’re going to be all melancholy like him.”
