The Review (University of Delaware)
Friday November 15, 1996 Vol 123 No 20

Front page photo, above the fold: Cracker keyboardist/ accordian player Kenny Margolis rocks out at the Stone Balloon Wednesday night. The band relied on songs from the critically acclaimed 1993 album "Kerosene Hat" and their latest disc, "The Golden Age." See story, B1


Photo with article on B1: David Lowery offers a spirited rendition of "Get off This" Wednesday.
THE REVIEW / John Chabalko


No cheese with this Cracker

BY LEANNE MILWAY
Editor in Chief

  
  "Waah waah waah"' went the opening harmonica.
  "My generation - I offer no apologies. I hate my generation," sang three slightly familiar voices.
  Who are they?
  Cracker. At the Stone Balloon. Wednesday night.
  It was an easy mix of older classics from 1992's self-titled debut album, their 1993 platinum release '"Kerosene Hat,'" and slower ballads and rock pieces from the newly released "The Golden Age."
  There was hard-hitting bass, non-stop tambourine, frenetic guitar playing, overly loud vocals.
  Lyrics ranged from the clearly accentuated "Don't want to hear about Mr. Right 'cause he's out of town tonight - baby come and spend sometime with Mr. Wrong," to the guitar- heavy, lyric-blurred "Id like to devour you, but you, you'd probably devour me.
  A country twinge over typically alternative chord progressions. A scratchy voice raised in a yell. What does this mean? Cracker, of course.
  The guy twisting and shaking his shoulder-length blond hair on the small stage wore a green rayon shirt over a black T-shirt matched with light brown corduroy pants emphasizing an excessively skinny frame.
  This was David Lowery, lead singer of the band he co-founded with Johnny Hickman. Spotlighted under red-tinted gels, the voice singing to the slightly older audience was more scratchy in equal proportion to the amount of muscles showing in his sinewy neck. His mouth was stretched in an effort to emphasize the notes.
  With such distinctive pieces as "Teen Angst" and "Low," Cracker was a crowd pleaser. Though the five band members (and assorted road crew) did not show any enormous excitement when playing their hit singles, the band managed to leave the $15-cover-paying crowd with a beer-tinged smile on its collective face.
  "Get Off This," one of the more popular songs off '"Kerosene Hat," was a definitive crowd pleaser. with the extended chorus of numerous Â·Â·na na nana's" prompting Hickman's lead guitar to deliver an impromptu (or so it seemed) guitar solo. Shaking his Jon Stamos hair (he was a hair stylist before he joined the band), lifting an indifferent eyebrow to the disproportionately male audience -- Hickman and the rest of the band wooed them -- slayed them -- in the beer-stained aisles.
  And bass guitar player, newcomer Bob Rupe. may have scared away front-row patrons with his evil grimace of concentration, but his dedication to the chord movements was phenomenal.
  So what do they do next? But of course -- launch into a polka of Czechoslovakian origin.
  Huh?
Did it matter that no one knew the words? Or the language?
  Nah. The thumping bass, which prompted a migraine headache, erased such thoughts as the audience concentrated on the pianist's accordion-playing or the bassist's ape-like countenance.
  "You guys expected something more alternative," Lowery mumbles into the microphone. "We're not Gavin Rossdale. We're no Bush here.Â·'We're musicians and supposed to be so much weirder than you f***ing normal people," he continued, his blond hair curling around his neon green collar. "You guy f***ing disturb us."
  Was he bothered by the mildly sedate crowd in the Balloon dance pit? Did it matter to him that the majority of people knew most of the word the band's repertoire, not to mention such hits as "'Movie Star" and "Low," which were played with a self-conscious faith to the album version?

see CRACKER page B4


Cracker rocks the Balloon continued from page B1

It didn't seem to matter.
  "I just had to vent there," Lowery said, apologetic or not. He went on to lead the band into "Lonesome Johnny Blues," bringing the audience to attention before easing into "Euro-Trash Girl" off the group's second album.
  And after two encores, the band left the stage to smoke a few cigarettes (after bumming several from the audience) and contemplate another evening on the road.
  Tonight, though, they shared a moment's glory at the Stone Balloon.
  And who wouldn't be impressed with that?

