COLUMN: NIGHT BEAT: Mike Weatherford

MIKE WEATHERFORD

MORE COLUMNS












Hootie & The Blowfish, who are on the road with former General Public and English Beat member Dave Wakeling, play the Thomas & Mack Center Thursday.

      Hootie & The Blowfish took so long to play an arena concert in Las Vegas, people who only live in the Top 40 moment might think their time has come too late.
      The pop-rock quartet always played the Hard Rock Hotel on past visits, to the point of frustration for fans who were shut out during its peak summer of 1995. The band last visited in September 1998 to warm up for a tour that's been going all this year.
      "Time flies when you're on a bus rolling around America," says drummer Jim Sonefeld.
      "I'm excited about coming out there and finally playing a big room," he says of Thursday's concert at the Thomas & Mack Center, East Tropicana Avenue and Swenson Street. The band has been playing amphitheaters or city festivals all year, so it's used to larger crowds.
      "We've had a few years under our belt. We definitely feel comfortable up there," Sonefeld says. "We've got a great stage setup, we've got a big backdrop and light show, and (singer) Darius (Rucker) is working real hard to stretch out to the people in the wings and in the back."
      However, Hootie's regular-guy image makes it impossible for the band to fall back on special effects or heavy production. Guitarist Mark Bryan "still wears shorts and his Converse high-tops," Sonefeld notes. "We try and just create a warm atmosphere."
      Few bands are in the position of the college friends from Columbia, S.C. They became a pop-culture phenomena in 1995 after their debut album, "Cracked Rear View," sold about 16 million copies -- sales that rival Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon."
      "I think we tend to be followed by families and all ages instead of one singular demographic," Sonefeld says of a fan base that's "not all your traditional record buyers. If you sell 16 million of one record, people come out of the closet to buy that."
      But that kind of success creates intense expectations for subsequent albums -- not unlike a movie sequel to "Star Wars" or "Jurassic Park." Because the band's second album sold "only" 2 million copies, their third one had make-or-break expectations.
      As bassist Dean Felber noted last year: "If this album's very successful and it's perceived that way, I think people are going to perceive us as someone who's going to be around for a while. If it's perceived as being a failure, I think people are going to kind of write us off."
      Now, almost exactly a year later, Sonefeld reports: "I think we're doing fine. We had a platinum album again, and ticket sales on the tour were as good as anybody else in our position. ... Everybody feels real comfortable with how the summer's gone."
      Hootie's next step might be unusual for a band back on the upswing: solo albums.
      "It's by no means signifying a breakup, it's just good timing with a natural break in our tour, and the desire for people to put their own music out," Sonefeld says. "We're all very supportive of each other."
      Bryan has an unreleased solo album in the can, and Sonefeld wants to do some of his own singing. "We all write songs, and as the years go by you have a big stack of songs that you've written by yourself that you'd like people to hear," he says.
      Hootie is also known for helping out musicians from the group's bar-band days -- Edwin McCain, Shawn Mullins -- by taking them on tour as opening acts. But Thursday's opening act has an English accent. He's Dave Wakeling, from the English Beat and General Public fame.
      "We met him at a show in San Diego this summer. ... We were immediately like, `Come and tour with us,' " Sonefeld says. Wakeling is no beginner, but still fits the second qualification for an opening act: "Somebody we can help out, or somebody we just want to see every night. It's quite selfish, but what the hell," Sonefeld says.
      Tickets are $28 for the 7:30 p.m. show.
     
     Not just a swinger
      Brian Evans isn't ready for you to file him away with all those swing revival discs just yet.
      Evans arrived in town last November to play the Desert Inn's lounge at the height of the neo-swing craze, and he decided to stay on as a resident.
      But the 28-year-old singer plans to debut some original songs from a new album that doesn't necessarily fit the swing mold when he plays today at Sunset Station, 1301 E. Sunset Road in Henderson. Tickets are $15 for the 7 p.m. show.
      "It's going to be a smooth show. (The song selection) isn't going to be all over the place," he says.
      But he's a ticketed attraction, not a lounge act, so "I don't have to worry about who's going to come screaming from upstairs," he says. At the Desert Inn, "I was hired to do a certain thing. It had to be all swing and Sinatra-style crooning."
      Evans says he's "looking forward to taking what I've been doing to a new level." His upcoming projects include an album recorded with his friend Peter Billingsley, who as a child starred in the cult movie favorite, "A Christmas Story." Billingsley reads Christmas stories and Evans sings holiday standards on the album due Nov. 15.
     
     Ten Years After
      If your Woodstock memories involve Ten Years After instead of Kid Rock and Korn, you'll want to shake out the tie-dye when the electrified blues band headed by guitarist Alvin Lee reunites for a show today at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South. Tickets are $22 and $27 for the 8 p.m. concert.
     
     Mark Huff
      Mark Huff, a singer-songwriter who knows the local music scene better than anybody in town, is also his own toughest critic.
      Working for himself at his own Exodus Records label, Huff shelved an entire album that didn't come out the way he had hoped. A few of the songs have been carried over, however, in re-recorded versions on a new disc, "Skeleton Faith," that is seeing the light of day.
      The Mark Huff Four debuts the album in a release party Saturday at the Boston Grill & Bar, 3417 S. Jones Blvd. Undermind and Burn open at 9:30 p.m.
      Huff is a Bob Dylan disciple, but the new album is a little harder rocking, influenced by guitarist Scott Rhiner -- a longtime veteran of local blues bands who knows the Vegas music scene as well as anyone ... except maybe Huff.