Veteran Rocker Nina Gordon Softens Her Sound

Ex-Veruca Salt Singer Pleases Cleveland Crowd

Aging Well: Gordon's new sound, while less aggressive, proves fresh and original. (photo courtesy www.touchandgo.com)

My first trip to the Odeon was to see Nina Gordon, who, as the ex-Veruca Salt and master of cool post-grunge songs like "Seether" and "Volcano Girls," was the heroine of my early teen days. She's on her own now, touring to support this year's release, Tonight and the Rest of My Life, produced by Bob Rock (whose work includes Metallica and Def Leppard) and recorded with Jon Brion (of Aimee Mann fame).

With this record, Gordon has proved that her songwriting capabilities can go far beyond studies in palm-muted power-chords and catchy but cryptic-metaphor slathered lyrics. I wasn't sure how I felt about the new sound, though, since I had actually heard one of the songs played on a soft-rock station, and knew Gordon had toured with Lilith Fair (please excuse my bias against anything related to Sarah McLachlan).

So I hitched my ride to the Odeon and figured whatever happened, a Tuesday night in Cleveland had to be more exciting than sitting in the late night study lounge. The opening band was Paloalto, a new band from Los Angeles whose debut self-titled album was produced by Rick Rubin for American Recordings. (Rubin has produced just about everyone: Mick Jagger, Trent Reznor, Slayer, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty, Love and Rockets and even Sir Mix-a-Lot.) The album combines a fresh variety of musical endeavors, though some of the songs are tainted with an overly radio-friendly style.

"We're Paloalto. We're from LA. We're a rock band. We're sort of a dying breed," frontman James Grundler announced to the crowd, followed by random cries from audience members enforcing this claim. Apparently Paloalto has a small following of fans who really do believe they're one of the few genuine rock bands around.

They've been compared to Radiohead, though a quite Americanized version. This comparison is really not applicable, though, once you get past the eerie similarity between Grundler's voice and Thom Yorke's. The band is influenced by a lot of Brit-pop, obvious in songs like "Too Many Questions" which sounds like it could have been written by Supergrass on an especially introspective and somber day.

Above all the pop-friendliness of Paloalto is an intrigue created through a medley of guitar sounds that unfold in almost every song. There's the recurrent creepy ethereal guitar effects, then a healthy dose of abstruse American-style solos, care of lead guitarist Jason Johnson. Johnson told me his favorite band is Guided by Voices, and that J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. saved him from thinking rock was dead. The point of Paloalto's sound really seems to be this one guitar, in fact. Without it, you would have some pretty cool mellow rock led by an excellent voice, but it would probably just blend into the overflow of top-40/Matchbox 20/radio static.

The band is completed with keyboards and guitar by Andy Blunda (formerly of Fastball), Alex Parnell on bass and Florian Reinert on drums. So, I must say that Paloalto was refreshing and fun to watch, though I'm not completely decided. At least download the mp3 of "Throw the Brick," a confusing song that will first make you think you're on the set of the first Jurassic Park movie and then mysteriously transport you to an arena rock concert.

Nina Gordon came on shortly, accompanied by boyfriend Stacy Jones (formerly of Letters to Cleo and Veruca Salt, and currently in American Hi-Fi) on drums, Josh Lattanzi on bass, Patrick Warren on keyboards and Mike Einstein (also from Letters to Cleo) on lead guitar. Gordon plays rhythm guitar, but I was disappointed to see that she delegated all of the solos and most of the substantial guitar parts to Einstein. (In Veruca Salt she would play all of her own stuff, so why not now?) She performed most songs from the new album as well as a couple older songs to please the Veruca Salt fans.

Though Gordon has always written pop songs, her new songs display this fact on a shiny silver platter, complete with all the garnishes. Her lyrics are genuine and heart-wrenching, often of the sweet, sugarcoated variety. The songs read like a diary of her departure both from Veruca Salt and a long-term relationship, exhibited by lyrics like "No one is to blame but we'll never be the same/There's no use in trying/I can't be what I was," or "Four days in the haze of the biggest mistake I've ever made and now I've got to get out of this place 'cause everybody knows/ Even the ones who don't."

Gordon's sound is much more adult-contemporary than Veruca Salt's moody pop-rock, making it the kind of music anyone can listen to and feel complacent, as proved by the odd conglomeration of professor-types, moms and adolescents who made up the concert's small crowd. She can still rock, though, and she demonstrated that she hadn't forgotten her roots in a guitar-heavy sound, with lots of distortion.

I like Tonight and the Rest of My Life, but anyone who's expecting a replica of old Veruca Salt from this album should stay far away. Instead, think Aimee Mann or a toned-down Juliana Hatfield, and you're getting closer. Gordon's performance was definitely not as energetic as it was with Veruca Salt, though her voice, by turns powerful and vulnerable, has become an emphasized part of her routine, something never demonstrated in her earlier days. My fear that Nina had become too soft-rock has been quelled by seeing her live, and that was really my goal. Now I can rest in peace.