Boston, Mass. – The Del Fuegos

Back in 1985 Dan Zanes was the leader of this gritty little rockin’ four piece from Boston who had gained a name in indie garage rock circles that had resulted in them being signed to the highly regarded Slash label. This was the second album for the Del Fuegos.

They obviously had a bit going for them even if it wasn’t ultimately achieved through this band.

The bands Wikipedia entry offers a bit of surprising information.

“Dan Zanes went on to a solo career and success recording children’s music in his band Dan Zanes and Friends and music videos, made popular by heavy airplay on the Disney Channel. In 2007, his album “Catch That Train!” received a Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children.

Brother Warren Zanes went on to earn two Master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in Visual and Cultural Arts. He is also the Vice President of Education at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Tom Lloyd went back to college and earned a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley before earning a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1999.

In 2003, Woody Giessmann founded Right Turn, a program offering assistance to artists in recovery from drug addiction and other mental health issues.”

All that is great and interesting but how does Boston, Mass, sound today.

Short answer : pretty bloody good.

Tom Petty was apparently a fan of this band and its clear the feeling was mutual – although the Del Fuegos are clearly a lot dirtier and less polished than Petty had become by the same stage the influence still comes through. The album was produced by Mitchell Froom who was the ideal producer of that time and he leaves the bands raw throaty swagger pretty much untouched. He adds a few organ lines himself which dont exactly dispel the Petty references but they add a little flavour to the guitar based sound.

Zanes is a cracking vocalist – for someone who made a later career as a childrens entertainer he sure made a good impression at being a whisky soaked bar band singer and his voice is what makes these songs of “local pain and sometimes gain” ring true.  He sings of strugglers on the local scene trying to find a reason to believe and while he’s not the first or the last to mine this subject matter, he does it well.

But it’s not until a little song hidden deep on Side Two that he strikes emotional paydirt. Night On The Town is an absolute gem. Zanes is found pleading for some meaning in the midst of the post teen party scene and when he “feels the nightime sighing” you cant help but relate. Everyone has been there at one time or another. It’s such a low key, unobtrusive little song but even now listening to it 25 years later its just as good as I remembered it. Night On The Town is the undoubted high point of a cool, under-rated indie band.