POP MUSIC REVIEW : Musical Chaos From Seattle Grunge Bands

Now that wool beanies and heavy-duty boots are selling in malls across America, the music that launched the grunge style seems to be suffering the effects of overexposure. Six Finger Satellite and Big Chief, both on Seattle’s Sub Pop label, would have packed the Whisky a year ago on hip value alone, but their show there on Wednesday drew only half a house.

Headliners Big Chief came on stage with a slew of special guests. In addition to the quintet’s core, two horn players from Freestyle Fellowship, a bongo player, a keyboardist and at times two additional singers packed the tiny stage.

The fusion of jazz, Curtis Mayfield bass lines and Big Chief’s muddy hard-core collided for an initially interesting kickoff, but before long all semblance of order collapsed.

Although chaos is par for the course in post-punk, this was about as entertaining as a high-school marching band warm-up. The scattered music didn’t pull together until Big Chief stripped down to its core members and played its regular brand of hard, sludgy material--which was still far from riveting.

Six Finger Satellite managed to concoct one of the most obnoxious and shrill guitar sounds in recent memory over repetitious riffs that seemed to never end. Though they may have been trying to achieve total sonic anarchy, it was about as revolutionary as a leaf blower under your window at 6 a.m.