POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Independent Gear Daddies at Whisky

If the leader of a young Minneapolis-area band was trying to be super-cool in his group’s Los Angeles debut, he might throw in an overlooked Bob Dylan song or obscure Paul Westerberg tune to document his savvy rock tastes.

Instead, the Gear Daddies’ Martin Zellar augmented his own songs Thursday night at the Whisky with a well-known hit by Neil Diamond, a move that caused about half the audience to assume initially that it was a joke. No one has called Diamond hip in a long time and Minneapolis bands are known for sly, irreverent wit.

But it was soon clear from Zellar’s gently affectionate rendition of “Sweet Caroline”--one of many wonderfully appealing songs Diamond wrote early in his career--that he wasn’t trying to be humorous.

Zellar was, however, sending out a signal that the Gear Daddies are an independent bunch--prone to take chances. And it wasn’t the only sign in the 40-minute set that suggested this is a band with integrity and vision.

There wasn’t much flash about the group--even by often anti-glitter college/alternative rock standards. They didn’t attack the stage with a feverish intensity or play at break-neck, post-punk speed.

Instead, they performed the songs with a natural, almost back-porch demeanor that underscored the convincing observations about trying to sort out some of life’s everyday complications.

“Sweet Caroline”--an endearing celebration of good times after some bad ones--isn’t the kind of song that Zellar would write.

He tends to write songs that James Dean might have favored if he had ever led a rock group: lean, melodic, almost understated tales of wondering why you don’t fit in and trying to figure out if you ever will--tales that often involve fractured relationships.

“Yeah, I feel sick and I feel used / You ain’t the boy I thought I knew,” he sings in one song. He adds in another, “I don’t want to wear your crown / ‘Cause I’d only let you down.” Yet elsewhere, he pleads, “Don’t give up on me yet.”

Predictably, a young band with a new, just-released album would make sure it crammed as many songs as possible from the album into its performance. Tours are designed to promote the album, right?

But Zellar and the Gear Daddies--whose soulful, stripped-down approach combines the softer moments of the Replacements with a bit of the country coloring of the early BoDeans’ albums--didn’t concentrate on songs from the album.

Opening for the far more energetic and much-admired Soul Asylum (whose latest A&M; album is a hit on the alternative-radio circuit and who’ll open for the Pixies on Dec. 13 at the Universal Amphitheatre), the Gear Daddies came across almost as a tortoise in a rock world more accustomed to hares.

But there is a growing yearning in the rock community for new voices and approaches, and this is a potentially great band--one whose underlying sense of heart and craft may eventually make it one of the winners of the ‘90s.