Rockin’ at the Hofbrau House : In Fullerton, an Alternative Music Weekend Succeeds at a Non-Traditonal Venue

Rock ‘n’ roll can bring out the barbarian in some people. The Fullerton Hofbrau, a restaurant with a beer-garden atmosphere that is trying to double as an alternative rock venue, is more likely to bring out the Bavarian.

The bright, airy hall, with its tiled and carpeted floors, brick surfaces, chalet-style wooden ceiling and metal tanks of house-brewed beers, isn’t the likeliest place for alternative rock bands, which usually find themselves in darker and grittier surroundings. But given the traditional dearth of venues for original rock in Orange County, even bands that would feel most at home in the Bat Cave are apt to grab any opportunity.

Last Friday night, the Hofbrau embarked on a regular, two-weekends-a-month schedule of alternative rock offerings, and some of the musicians got into the spirit of the atypical surroundings. As Too Many Joes started the last number of its opening set, bassist Barry Stevenson held aloft a big glass mug of dark beer and let out a yell. Later, John Andrew Fredrick of the headlining Black Watch introduced a song as “one you can lift a stein to.”

The weekend, which also included a Saturday night show headlined by Joyride, was a big success, according to Steven Lamprinos, the full-time Hofbrau waiter and part-time rock singer who persuaded management to give alternative rock a try. Lamprinos said the 300-capacity restaurant was filled both nights, helping to clinch management’s willingness to make alternative rock a regular fixture (the Hofbrau had staged occasional shows over the past few months).

Until now, Fullerton, even with its college community, has had no venue showcasing college-oriented rock bands. Too Many Joes’ guitarist, Nick Benich, noted how appropriate it is finally to have such a venue in the city where the vintage Fenders that he and Stevenson play were designed and manufactured.

The Hofbrau’s series will resume with shows by Aurora Borealis and Magnetic North on April 10 and Skypilot and Moonwash Symphony on April 11. Lamprinos, who promotes the shows, said the admission price will continue to be $3 for shows by local bands. On other nights, the restaurant offers a lighter live-music mix of jazz, Top 40 and reggae.

Russell Brent, the Hofbrau’s general partner, said the success of the two shows last weekend helped him decide to invest in a sound system for the restaurant, in place of the rented equipment used for the Black Watch and Joyride.

“My eyes have been opened. I’ve been enlightened” to the possibilities of alternative rock, said Brent, whose own tastes run more toward country and rock oldies. Brent said he was “on pins and needles” when some tough-looking punkers with nose rings, shaved heads and Mohawks turned up to see one of the bands opening for Joyride. He feared slam-dancing or worse, “but everyone was well behaved, and we didn’t have any of those problems.”

Lamprinos said he hopes to book some touring bands into the Hofbrau as well as locals. But at this point, the venue doesn’t have the layout or the production capability to compete with Bogart’s or the Coach House. The stage is too small for any expansive showmanship. It also is only about eight inches high, which means that fans who want a good look have to crowd up close to see (it helps that the Hofbrau has two places from which to get a close-up look: the dance floor in front of the stage, and a raised tier along the bar). Stage lighting last weekend consisted of two red-tinted bulbs.

If the Hofbrau remains just a restaurant that happens to do rock shows, rather than a showcase rock venue with a stage and sound-and-light system geared for the big time, that will be enough. While there is an obvious need for more showcase concert clubs along the lines of Bogart’s or the Coach House, what the grass-roots rock scene needs most is a circuit of smaller clubs where bands can get out of their rehearsal rooms, acquire critically needed performing experience and build a following. The Hofbrau is a comfortable spot for doing just that.

It’s also a place where bands such as the Black Watch, which already has launched a recording career and has received some attention in Los Angeles, can begin to build a following in Orange County. The band’s sparkling set Friday night can only help its reputation here.

On “The Flowering,” its 1991 album for Doctor Dream Records, and on earlier releases issued on its own label, the Black Watch came off as a pleasant but not especially involving band that didn’t quite live up to its sources--notably the fine Australian band the Go-Betweens and the Cure in its more poppy, less histrionic moments.

The material was steeped in wistful melancholy and gentle irony, but the presentation was too temperate and unassertive to make one care deeply about singer-songwriter Fredrick’s musings. Listening to the Black Watch on record, one quickly pegs it as yet another bunch of pale, introverted, humorless Anglophiles dressed in black.

At the Hofbrau, the Black Watch showed a lot more personality and musical verve than that. Nobody in the band wore black. And far from being mired in melancholia, the tousle-haired Fredrick proved to be a wry, easygoing host--sort of a John Sebastian for the college-rock crowd.

Melancholy did color most of the 50-minute set, which consisted mainly of new, unreleased songs. But the melancholy was undergirded by muscle and bite, and instead of being chilly and insular it allowed for a counterpoint of glowing, openhearted romanticism.

Fredrick also showed himself capable of spitting out convincing anger--a clenched, set-closing interpretation of “Eleanor Rigby” set aside Paul McCartney’s gentle ruefulness and addressed the song’s theme of isolation and indifference with unrelieved bitterness.

Violinist J’Anna Jacoby was the star player in the four-member lineup, with her rich assortment of languid, sweet phrases, tension-building staccato bursts, and solos that were both lyrical and full of urgent motion. The Black Watch managed dynamics masterfully, thanks largely to drummer Randy Leasure, who played with the touch of an artisan and, when called for, the clout of a blacksmith.

One of the new songs, “The King of Good Intentions,” showed off the band’s full scope. It opened with dreamy melancholy, as Fredrick sang about personal shortcomings with a Lennonesque sigh, then built gradually with sinister momentum to a crashing ending that shook off any hint that he could abide those shortcomings with wispy complacency.

Like the Black Watch on its records, the Orange County band Too Many Joes has had a tendency to be too delicate. The band took some steps in the right direction during its opening set Friday.

The focus for Too Many Joes remains the pretty harmonies between Andrena Douglass’ airy leads and Kristine Kunego’s tawnier tones (the singers soldiered gamely through recurring feedback problems). But this time, bassist Stevenson, guitarist Benich and drummer Brad Wilson provided needed propulsion between verses. Instead of just wafting along mildly, Too Many Joes remembered to rock at least part of the time.

As appealing as the vocal duo’s harmony blend can be, it wasn’t always emotionally effective. Douglass has Natalie Merchant’s tendency to render lyrics unintelligible by swallowing the hard consonants and drawing out the vowels. That’s fine for creating a dreamy effect, but a contrasting stark quality and rougher edge would make the band more interesting, and more effective in getting meaning across.

“Say Something,” which the band’s demo tape lyric sheet reveals to be an indictment of a child-abusing adult, was all prettiness and unruffled surfaces in concert. It might as well have been a dreamy reverie about love.

An upcoming debut CD, “Charm,” may say more about whether Too Many Joes will settle for a pleasant, consistently pretty sound or find more varied expressive means.