December 21 - 28, 1 9 9 5

THE AMPS: KIM'S NEW DEAL

When Kim Deal debuted the final version of her post-Pixies Breeders at Axis three years ago, she was drunk, her sister Kelley was a struggling guitar player, and the band seemed woefully under-rehearsed. It was as if Deal had her mind set on being reborn as a garage-rockin' tomboy, even if it meant undermining the sublime hooks and melodies that were so integral to the songs she wrote for the Breeders. The tension between Deal's reckless inner tomboy and the part of her that possesses an alluring, girlish voice and sophisticated sense of melody slowly sorted itself out. The Breeders live sound eventually blossomed into a kind of raucous dream-pop, a compelling blend of bar-band bluster and winsome charm.

When Deal debuted her new post-Breeders Amps at the Paradise last Friday night, she was drunk, her sister Kelley was in a halfway house in St. Paul, and the band was reasonably tight and rather muscular. But some of the naive magic that made the Breeders so likable, and that Deal has no trouble retaining on the Amps' Elektra debut Pacer, was missing. The bar-band guitar basher in Deal -- the side of her personality that seems to treasure the low-brow pleasures of anonymously rocking out -- won out over the pop-savant. It made for an evening of solid, if not-quite-focused, rock that only hinted at the tuneful transcendence of the Breeders and of Pacer.

In a pre-tour phone interview with the Phoenix just over a month ago, Deal emphasized the Amps had been born of necessity: Kelley was out of commission, Breeders bassist Josephine Wiggs was spending some time with her girlfriend Kate Schellenbach (of Luscious Jackson), and Kim was itching to play some shows. So she and Breeders drummer Jim Macpherson drafted a couple of Dayton locals (guitarist Nathan Farley and bassist Luis Lerma), put together a set of Deal's new songs, and started playing select gigs opening for friends' bands like Guided By Voices. As Deal put it, "I don't have to think about the Breeders right now, so I've chosen not to."

Dressed down in Levi's cords and a Batman T-shirt, Deal emerged a few minutes before the Amps gig to put a snare by her microphone stand and leave set lists for the rest of the band. Unlike most bands that play the Paradise, the Amps had their amps up close to the front of the stage and the drum kit on the floor instead of a riser. Calculated attempts to communicate a low-key, bar-band aesthetic? Probably. But with two churning guitars overpowering Deal's vocals, the opening "First Revival" seemed to naturally make that point.

The rest of the set featured all of the tunes from Pacer and a couple of covers, including a surf instrumental, Guided By Voices' "Shocker in Gloomtown," and a punkish song by the Tasties, the Dayton band that opened the show with Lerma behind the drum kit. Except for dedicating a thrashy encore to Wiggs, Deal didn't mention the Breeders or play any of their tunes during the hour-long concert, though "Shocker in Gloomtown" should be familiar to any Breeders fan. (The band recorded it for the B-side of a single and played it live regularly.) But the Amps didn't click in a way that would suggest that this was Deal's new, full-time band. It came across as intended: as an unpretentiously gritty way for Deal to let off some steam while the Breeders take a little break. And a decent if unmemorable chance for Breeders fans to admire Deal and shout things like, "We love you Kim!"

--Matt Ashare