12- The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, August 13, 1997 i" 1 e Guitar heroics abound at smokin' Seahorses concert 4 B,.Aaron Rennie Daily Arts Editor Led by John Squire, the nimble- fingered guitar superhero formerly of Stone Roses fame, The Seahorses burst into The Shelter in Detroit Sunday night and played a hour's worth of melodic rock 'n' roll. Despite the rather cramped condi- tions and short time allotted for them to play, the four members of The S horses appeared to be having a good time performing together on its first U.S. tour. Before the show, lead singer and guitarist Chris Helme sat down with The Michigan Daily to discuss The Seahorses' music and life on the road. Helme said the tour has thus far been "good, yeah. It's tiring, but worth it." The Detroit concert was the band's fourth in as many days, but, as was later apparent, Helme's voice was by no means worse for the wear. (Nevertheless, Helme was preparing some herbal tea to soothe his vocal chords, just to play it safe.) Despite a couple songs of filler material, "Do It Yourself," The Seahorses' debut album, is quite wor- thy. Yet the British press has often been harsh to the band, unlike the generally support- ive U.S. media. Helme attributes R this disparity to the fact that the Th American press The correctly views TheT Seahorses as a new band, whereas the British expect the same kind of magic out of a John Squire group as The Stone Roses routinely produced. "(The U.K. press) wanted a third Stone Roses album," Helme said. "But even if we (gave them one), they still woudn't have liked it." However, the group - Helme hi specifically - has one strident sup- porter in the upper echelon of the British music scene, Liam Gallagher. The Oasis frontman recently said that Helme is the only current singer he respects. Helme happily accepted the compliment, and returned one of his own. "(Liam's comments were) nice. I like his voice as well." E V I E W Helme has also been e Seahorses impressed by the Shelter, Detroit new albums from Spiritualized, Asst at, 1957 The Charlatans and "Radiohead, even though they don't write proper songs." Earlier this summer, The Seahorses performed in the monsoon-like con- ditions of the massive Glastonbury Festival. "It was a good laugh," Helme said. "The stage was sinking and the sound was terrible." The group, however, will play some more gigs in the U.K. in the next couple of months, including opening up for U2 in Scotland. Then "John and I will spend three months writing (new songs)," claimed Helme. At The Shelter, though, The Seahorses did great justice to its cur- rent batch of songs. Bassist Stuart Fletcher and drummer/backup singer Andy Watts proved quite able, adding some versatility and power to their rhythms presented on "Do It Yourself." Watts and Helme harmo- nized marvelously, an asset some- what downplayed on the album. As for Squire, well, he must be from another planet. The lead axman easily duplicated his stunning fret- work heard on the album, and aimed for the stratosphere in his improvised, five-minute solo in the set closer, "Love Is The Law." Despite his lack of direct audience interaction - he mostly gazed at his guitar and rarely looked at his throngs of fans - Squire was still the epitome of cool: Shaking his ever- present mop of brown hair and arch- ing his back while digging into another lightning-quick solo, he looked like he's barely aged from his late-'80s, baggy-era Roses days. Squire still gets super-clean tone from his arsenal of guitars and 4 Marshall amps, and can match chops with any jam band wanker, as was evident on songs such as "I Want You To Know" and "Round The Universe." All in all, it was a fine show, despite a rather bland set by the open- ing band Mansun, and the brevity of The Seahorses' set. Maybe next year, after releasing what Helme claimed will be "an overproduced" sopho- more album, The Seahorses will return for another blockrockin' per- formance and expand its already- growing Stateside audience. I U AVOID THE RUSH GET YOUR FALL TEXTBOOKS NOW AT MBS 665-4990 M - F 9 - 6 www.michbook.com BOOK & SUPPLY SAT 930-5 SUN 11-5 317 SOUTH STATE STREET E I 6 0