C60

Riding the hardrock wave

By Sean Richardson

YOU COULDN'T pick a better time than right now to be a pure, unadulterated hard-rock band from Boston, and C60 are the Hub's latest homegrown success story -- albeit an unlikely one. Known as Cobalt 60 during their first incarnation, in the early '90s, they broke up soon after releasing their first and only EP, in 1994, not to be heard from again until they crawled out of the cobwebs for a one-off reunion show at Bill's Bar, in Boston, last summer. They thought they were doing the show purely for kicks, but it turns out people missed them more than they expected: the show sold out early, and soon after they were approached by Jeff Marshall, owner of the Monolyth label, about recording a CD. A year later, they've had a hit single, "Crazy," in rotation on WFNX and WBCN, and a debut disc, C60, in stores. The band hit the Lucky Dog Music Hall on Friday, November 24.

For a band like C60, getting airplay alongside the Beastie Boys and the Dave Matthews Band on commercial radio is akin to winning the lottery. And the members of C60 are the first to admit how lucky they've been. When I talk to singer Keith Smith, drummer Jay Potts, guitarist Dan Mullen, and manager Hugh Burnham, Smith uses one word to explain their good fortune. "Love. People just liked `Crazy.' We put some work into making sure the people who liked us the first time around got a chance to hear the new stuff. When they all heard it, they loved it."

Burnham, a major-label A&R vet and certified punk legend (he was the original drummer in Gang of Four) who also produced the disc, is more philosophical. "It's a mixture of a number of things. It's a song that works really well with what else radio is playing right now. We don't have a record company with a big promotion team to help get it on the radio. We're a Boston band that mean it, the radio stations know it, and we've given them something to play that works. People are calling in and loving it."

Indeed, "Crazy" has new-metal smash written all over it. Opening with a sinister riff from Mullen and a ferocious scream ("C'mon!") from Smith, it breaks into a Facelift-era Alice in Chains funk-metal groove as Smith howls, "Turn on my TV/Covert slavery/No good news today/Gotta find a better way." Mullen lets off a sleazy trill-and-whammy-laced solo at the halfway point that judiciously complements the anger in Smith's lyrics. You can call it derivative if you want to, but there's no doubt it rocks.

"I remember when we first played `Crazy,' it was like it was a live show in our practice space," says Mullen. "Dan came out with the riff and we all just jumped all over it," adds Potts. "That's the way it happens with us a lot of the time. That's what's cool about this band. We took that hiatus and played with other bands, but when we got back together, it was like, `Oh yeah.' There's just this magic."

When Cobalt 60 flickered out, in '94, that magic had disappeared. They had become more of a business than a band, and everyone agrees that their renewed vitality has everything to do with the hiatus. Smith spent time in Europe and on the West Coast, all the while cultivating his newfound respect for pop songcraft. "I jammed around with this great punk band in Germany and learned a lot about writing songs. Before that, as a singer, I was always trying to project and be the front performer. By playing guitar and sitting back, I grew to understand more about hooks and song construction, where things belong in a song.

"A lot of people worry about selling out. If you're really a musician and you love your craft, then you can find a way to make something that makes you and the public happy. I've grown to really like the new Limp Bizkit record. They're not afraid of pop. To me some of the greatest bands had hooks. Whether it was the Bad Brains or the Misfits -- or even someone like Britney Spears -- music is all about hooks and things that attract people. Limp Bizkit is one of those bands that understood that and wasn't afraid to be heavy and hooky at the same time."

C60 puts the band's heavy foot forward first, opening with "Crazy," "Devil by the Deed" ("That song's got threefold hate," says Smith with a mischievous chuckle), and the raunchy "Never." But C60 also reveal a gentler nature here, particularly on love songs like "This Crush," "Your Way," and "Gone," where Smith shows off his sensitive side while maintaining his dark outlook. "I mastered screaming my ass off when I was 22. I know I can scream with the best of them. At this point, I'm going to sing."

After recording the album, C60 brought in second guitarist JR Roach, the former drummer with now-defunct local hardcore stalwarts Sam Black Church. (Bassist Andrew Padua rounds out the line-up.) Burnham had suggested getting a second guitarist, and Mullen conceded it would make it a lot easier to duplicate the sound of the record live.

The band have landed a few prize gigs this year, playing the second stage at the Tweeter Center when Kiss came to town last summer and the parking lot of the Palladium before the second of the two free Limp Bizkit shows there in July. Like Tree and Sam Black Church before them, they've made sure to hit the suburban club circuit as well as the traditional Boston venues. "The agent comes up with these shows," says Burnham, "and I'm like, `Where?' But then I think, `I haven't heard of this place -- and that's why we should play it.' " Potts adds, "Those kids hear you on the radio and they go nuts for you when you come out their way."

Lately, Smith has been dealing with kids going nuts a little closer to home -- at the Brookline grocery store where he works. "There's a squad of 15-year-old girls that come in and serenade me once a week. There's all these kids that come in and ask for autographs. At first they [the store people] started yelling at me at my job about it, but now they don't mind 'cause they realized all these people are buying stuff."

For his part, Smith doesn't seem too worried that C60 are appealing more to radio-listening teens than to the local rock cognoscenti. What really gets him is a more widespread problem with the scene. "The kids are the ones that keep rock and roll alive and the independent bands can't get to them because no clubs will do all-ages shows. At least [they could] do loose 18-plus shows. When I'm on stage, my inner child runs the place. Those are my peeps."

C60 join Dr. Bewkenheimer, Bent, and Wonderlick at the Lucky Dog Music Hall, 89 Green Street, Worcester, on Friday, November 24. Call (508) 363-1888 for cover.