POP MUSIC REVIEW : L.A.’s Mary’s Danish May Be the Perfect Rock Dish for the ‘90s

Mary’s Danish is an exceptionally tasty Los Angeles rock band, but not in the low-nourishment, sugar-rush way the name implies.

There is vitality and charm in the band’s manner and music, but there’s also considerable substance and fiber in its frequently dark tales of broken relationships and anxious dreams.

On Tuesday night at Bogart’s in Long Beach, the six-piece outfit flashed traits that recalled the ambition and character of such ‘80s L.A. rock leaders as the punk-accented X and country-minded Lone Justice.

Musically, there is an intelligence and craft that surrounds the group with promise. Mary’s Danish, in fact, appears to be one of the bands most capable of carrying L.A.’s ‘80s alternative-rock tradition into the ‘90s.

Led by singer-lyricists Julie Ritter and Gretchen Seager, Mary’s Danish is, however, still a young band that needs to develop greater stage command than it showed Tuesday.

Though technical problems with David King’s guitar may have contributed to a somewhat scattered focus on stage, the two women--both forceful vocalists--also seemed too content to simply move about on stage in the frantic but ill-defined way of a head-shaking fan in the audience. Perhaps wary of upstaging the other, neither stepped out front with an authority of Lone Justice’s Maria McKee or X’s Exene Cervenka.

For anyone who simply looks at sales charts, the story of Los Angeles rock during the last decade was dominated by Van Halen, Motley Crue and Guns ‘N Roses and their legion of mostly cliched, hard-rock, glam-metal imitators.

But there was a second level of bands--led by X, the Blasters and Los Lobos--that brought a sense of community and high artistic standards to the local clubs, bands inspired by the iconoclastic punk movement but that moved far beyond the stylistic limitations of that style.

At Bogart’s, Mary’s Danish not only reflected that spirit in its music, but also in its relaxed, what-me-worry way it handed the early technical foul-ups.

Midway through the first song, Seager and Ritter halted the number when it was all too apparent that King’s guitar was out of tune. Once that was dealt with, the band proceeded through other tune even though King was again soon left behind, this time due to a short in his guitar.

During a delay caused by yet another glitch, bassist Chris Wagner broke into an impromptu version of the Eagles’ “Desperado”--soon joined by the two women.

As the band began to move into the fourth tune, guitarist King wisecracked, “Look, I may not have played a song yet, but I swear I am in this band.”

The sequence was reminiscent of the spirit in the local clubs when X and allied bands--appalled by the tendencies of ‘70s corporate rock toward calculated sounds and arrogant rock star attitudes--not only made music that seemed to have relevance and heart, but broke down the barriers that had been built between performer and audience.

Mainly, however, Mary’s Danish (which also includes drummer James Bradley Jr. and guitarist Louis Gutierrez) recalled the heady excitement of that period through the quality of its music.

Against a strange but compelling blend of funk and country-influenced rock instrumental currents, the dark-haired Ritter and blond Seager kept the audience off guard as they constantly shifted between harmonizing and trading off lead vocals within a song--almost like tag-team members passing the microphone back and forth.

But this urgent, fire-alarm approach was quite appropriate because so many of the songs are about emotional disorientation--the paralyzing confusion often involved in trying to breaking away from unhealthy relationships and finding the strength to not go back.

While there were moments of lightness and humor, the more dominant colors were gray and black--a tension and uncertainty reflected in such song titles as “Ashes,” “Don’t Crash the Car Tonight,” “Well, Well (Home Is Where the Heartbreak Is)” and “What to Do.”

With the technical problems finally out of the way, Mary’s Danish, whose debut album was released by Chameleon Records, moved during the second half of its hour set through some gripping emotional terrain. The tuneful side of its music sometimes got lost in the instrumental tenacity, but the honesty and punch of the lyrics never did.

On the menu of ‘90s pop, Mary’s Danish shapes up as a most satisfying entree.