That's entertainment

Fat City Let It Rip

by Mark Edmonds

It's safe to say that the Fat City Band are an institution. Hell, after more than 20 years together, a wheelbarrow load of tapes and CDs, and more gigs than anyone in the outfit cares to remember, could they be anything else? Since forming as one of the Hub's first blues bands, the group have collected scores of keepers for the golden-memories bag. Among them are jobs beside James Brown, Ray Charles, and B.B. King; studio stints with Crescent City songwriter Allen Toussaint; and the time the band played at the rededication of the Statue of Liberty while a squad of Elvis impersonators shook, rattled, and rolled.

Talk about your career highlights.

So if there is ever a hall of fame of bar bands, Fat City -- who return to the Plantation Club on Friday night -- have more than ample credentials for membership.

Despite their wild and somewhat wacky history as entertainers and longtime purveyors of some of the region's most raucous, party-hearty soul and R&B, they've never managed to make a studio disc that begged to be played more than once. Of the three projects Fat City have done this decade, two have hardly been keepers. Most recently, 1995's Rock Me! Shock Me! was a fairly listless collection of originals delivered with a rote, by-the-numbers feel. But that was a step above 1990's Animal Attraction, where the band allowed Steely Dan guitarist Elliot Randall to tie up their frisky sax/organ/guitar combo sound so badly with electronic gimmickry that you wondered while listening to its phased guitars and sampled horn sounds if they had temporarily lost their minds.

Vocalist Paul Redmond says Attraction taught them a valuable lesson. "It's sort of why we don't do anything with producers now. Nothing against Elliot, but after that we came to the conclusion that we've got too much history to give a rat's ass about some producer telling us that this is the thing that everybody's going to buy. Now, we're resolved to do what we want to do and be ourselves, so that when somebody buys a CD at a gig, they can go home and say, `Yeah, this was the band that we listened to tonight.'"

Fat City's latest disc, Let It Rip, passes that critical test with originals penned by Redmond, guitarist Dave Croce, keyboardist Joe Micarelli, to name a few who contributed to Rip's 16 tracks. There are also covers of bluesmen Freddie King's and Willie Dixon's tunes, and a country-rocker Lee Roy Parnell song. Throughout, the band appear to have overcome their awe of the studio, and as a result spend no time messing with effects or tricks. The result is one of the best outings of their career -- and one that more than makes up for the gaffes and shortcomings of their earlier discs.

Rip opens with "Life Is Short," a sassy, sax-powered, strut that saunters along to an infectious rhythm fueled by Jim Baker's tenor sax and John Litwin's energetic drumming. "She's Wild About Me" is a bouncy rock-and-roll number that leads into the gospel vamp of "Lost Time." Later on, Gulf Coastal influences form the backdrop of the bouncy "I'll Do Anything," while the throb of Philly-style soul powers "If I Took Your Love Away."

Throughout, the group build the same wall of sound they do on the road with occasional timeouts for solos by Croce, Baker, and Micarelli. Redmond, for his part, blows meaty harp, especially during a stretch where several songs, including Parnell's "That's My Story" and City's own "I Got It Bad" and "Good as Gone" move to the swagger of Sonny Boy Williamson's, Willie Dixon's, and Muddy Waters' platters.

"We started out as a blues band, and now it seems like we're heading back in that direction," Redmond explains. Mindful of the damage control the group are still doing seven years after Attraction, he adds, "At least, I hope that people who listen to the disc get that."

Redmond admits, however, that his band are looking for wide appeal and aren't sticking to any one style. "We don't want to be a blues band exclusively. I really think our emphasis is more on entertainment than anything else. It's sad to say, but when most people come to a club, half the time they don't know the music or care what you're playing. They come out for a good time. That's basically what you have to show them."

The Fat City Band play the Plantation Club at 9 p.m. on Friday, August 22. Call 752-4666.