SOURCE:  http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040820/NEWS08/408200375/1001/NEWS

08-20-04

Could be 'She Hates Me,' but fairgoers love this hard-rock show

By KYLE MUNSON
REGISTER MUSIC CRITIC
August 20, 2004

That collective shout you heard on Thursday night from the Iowa State Fair Grandstand was 9,739 people singing the chorus to "She Hates Me."

As Puddle of Mudd songs go, it was a rather upbeat and catchy tune in the dour band's repertoire of melodic hard rock that comes draped in sludgy riffs.

Scruffy sex symbol Wesley Scantlin , lead singer and guitarist of the quartet, has a pained whine that evokes the late king of grunge, Kurt Cobain. He appeared on stage Thursday with his straggly blond hair sticking from beneath a backwards ballcap, a cigarette dangling from his lips and dressed in rumpled clothes - vintage slacker stylings, all the more connection to Cobain.

Puddle of Mudd was all about lumbering power, except that one suspected that Scantlin could be a pop songwriter waiting to bust out. "Spin You Around" had the sort of sweet melody and sexual innuendo that Britney Spears might mold into a light and bubbly MTV hit.

But the Puddle of Mudd sing-alongs weren't the main attraction Thursday.

Somebody forgot to tell the headlining band, Nickelback, that it's not Kiss. This Canadian band with, yes, that ubiquitous crossover radio hit, "How You Remind Me," fired off enough towering flame and pyrotechnic blasts early in its set to cook the next day's worth of pork and beef burgers at the fair.

"You guys are one of those perfect audiences: loud as hell," lead singer Chad Kroeger said to stroke his fans.

How true: By the end of the night the crowd seemed ready to hoist Kroeger and Scantlin on their shoulders and carry them into downtown Des Moines as conquering heroes.

Like Puddle of Mudd, Nickelback specialized in songs about treacherous women and mopey men. It seems as if Nickelback in particular has perfected a template for one song and scored with multiple versions of the same - "How You Remind Me," "Someday," "Feelin' Way Too Damn Good," etc.

There was a departure when Kroeger growled his best James Hetfield impersonation and the band banged out Metallica riffs. Nickelback actually sounded menacing for the space of a song.

But by the time an audience sing-along of "How You Remind Me" matched or surpassed the volume of "She Hates Me," Nickelback had returned to its finer melodic instincts.

The first of the three bands to perform, Finger 11, was in strictly musical terms the most interesting. The lead singer's falsetto was interwoven with a pair of guitarists who slapped and otherwise abused their instruments to produce atmospheric noise as much as old-fashioned riffs. It was a subtler and more unique sonic brew.

Overall, Thursday night's hard rockers displayed more power and personality on stage than can be heard from them on the radio. But strip them of the pyrotechnics and a key hit song apiece, and could they still carry the night?

I'll be generous and give Nickelback and Puddle of Mudd a 50-50 chance of remaining popular long enough to earn a repeat Grandstand gig.

But ask any of Thursday's spectators and they'll no doubt tell you it's a sure bet that their favorite bands will be back soon.