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Natural Selection
09/22/2003 8:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Rob O'Connor
Years ago the term 'bar band' implied a bunch of white guys playing the blues. Every town had its variation. Tastes change and now hard rock cover bands are more often found in these watering holes. Typically, the quality varies but the agenda is the same: to pummel the masses into submission with aggressive hooks and a singer with a diploma from the Eddie Vedder School of Herniated Growling. When one of these groups shows an extra spark--generally the ability to stay together--they are signed to a major label, hooked up with expert producers and engineers to make a killer album and then sent to tour until a band member dies or every hard rock fan in the free world has bought the CD. Then it's time to record another CD and start the process all over again. Exhausting, but that's show business. Fuel's a quartet from Pennsylvania whose third album continues their streak of angst-filled hard rock. Unspectacular, but unrelentingly professional--layered harmonies, massive guitar walls--no doubt Fuel will be overtaking radio and hard rock video outlets, in turn giving bar bands the world over a chance to add some new moves to their itinerary, proving that arena rock does not need an arena to flourish.
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