Peace on Earth. And Chickens

WBCN XMAS RAVE

OUR LADY PEACE

JIMMIE'S CHICKEN SHACK

at

The Paradise

Dec. 1

WBCN XMAS RAVE

OUR LADY PEACE

JIMMIE'S CHICKEN SHACK

at

The Paradise

Dec. 1

Rock radio station WBCN 104.1 took over the clubs of Boston on Dec. 1 for its annual Xmas Rave, an event that had nothing to do with either Christmas or raving. Although most of the action took place on Landsdowne St., the two most notable shows spilled over elsewhere, including Our Lady Peace and Jimmie's Chicken Shack playing at the Paradise.

However, apparently everyone with interest opted for tickets to another show, because the crowd was dead at the beginning, dead at the end and only showed signs of excitement briefly in between.

Entering from the freezing temperatures of Commonwealth Ave. into the Paradise venue was like moving from one frigid environment to another. The club was fairly packed while The World is My Fuse thrashed and moaned, but most just stared blankly at their drink or attempted to participate in the well-worn "I'll scream in your ear, then you can scream in mine" concert conversation technique. Yes, The World was not enough.

The entire set was muddled with the worn-out sounds of songs divided into soft verses and hard choruses. The lead singer thrashed around the stage like a tough guy but wore a shirt, pants and hairstyle that seemed designed for Ricky Martin. Granted, the group played a decent riff once in a while and certainly were not the worst bad ever to grace the dingy Paradise stage, but they were all but ignored. Even Jimi Haha, lead singer of Jimmie's Chicken Shack, picked up on the unfriendly vibe, saying towards the beginning of their set "Who's the best band at the BCN Xmas Rave? The World is My Fuse! Yeah! Who the fuck are those guys?"

Jimmie's Chicken Shack got the venue bouncing, dancing and laughing more than the other bands, but this was not achieved without significant prodding. After opening with two unpopular tracks from their new album Bring Your Own Stereo, Haha decided to be honest with the uninspired onlookers: "Look, you have two choices. We can either play the song you know--the one you are probably already sick of--and then leave, or you can stay for a whole concert and act like you are already sick of all of our songs!"

In a sign of appreciation, the crowd jumped and swayed to a few tracks from the previous Jimmie's Chicken Shack album, Pushing the Salmonella Envelope, but the energy didn't last for long. Midway through the set, guitarist Jim McD tried but failed to lead the crowd in a simple rocking dance accompanied by a repetitive two-note riff. McD jokingly responded with "This is the easiest fucking dance in the world! What is wrong with you people?"

It seemed to be a turning point in the mood of the crowd members, who threw their fists in the air for the bouncy pop-rock radio hit "Do Right," performed almost exactly like the studio version save for some funky jam stylings added at the end. Haha tied his dreadlocks into a lasso that flailed about his head as he pranced to the rhythm of Che Lemon's bass and Jim Chaney's drums.

Soon after, in the only dominant sing-along moment of the entire concert, the crowd chanted the refrain to "Lazy Boy Dash": "Son, you better get up/You better get up while you can." The crowd certainly did get up for the rest of the set, and the band's final song, the angst-ridden mid-'90s hit "High" which spawned some friendly, energetic shoving. The Paradise was finally rocking.

However, this energy was not maintained. Our Lady Peace was once a band that could fire a club up with their heavy riffs, unique vocals, full sound and turbulent lyrics. Now they only dabble pretentiously in gimmicks, creating some amazing singles but never acquiring a sustainable feel.

Clumsy was the first stage of this transition, an album that successfully drew upon a mix of artful designand precise production, and this trend reached its unfortunate apex in their latest release, Happiness Is a Not Fish That You Can Catch, a self-conscious album that substituted earnest glam-rock sheen for talented composition.

Our Lady Peace's live performance magnified their level of ostentatious posturing. Lead singer Raine Maida achieved neither the dreamy falsetto of Radiohead's Thom Yorke nor the endearing whininess of Smashing Pumpkin's Billy Corgan, but instead settled for a lesser euphony in between. Unlike tours associated with their previous albums Naveed and Clumsy, Maida spent much of the set without a guitar in his hands. Instead, he stumbled around the stage with a placid stare of indifference temporarily disturbed from time to time by unconvincing posture. New keyboardist Jamie Edwards followed Maida's scales precisely on the Moog in a valiant, yet ultimately futile, attempt to hide all of the notes that his frequently sour, straining voice flagrantly missed.

Although the crowd was made up predominantly of Our Lady Peace fans, most showed little involvement in the show other than singing along. The band's performance of "Superman's Dead" was half-hearted, demonstrating little of the surging, brooding spark that made the single so popular in 1997. Guitarist Mike Turner, equipped with gigantic headphones, wasted more time trying to look like he was playing amazing riffs than actually sounding good.

Although the band's performances of "Starseed" and "Clumsy" were promising, the rest of the set was predictable and disappointing. The usually moving ballad "4am" inspired as many yawns as it did raised lighters, and the new single "One Man Army" lacked the boisterous rock-and-rant that explodes from the studio version. "Undress your soul/Show them your vigor" crooned Maida with a wincing face and artful cadence, but that vigor looked like it was suffering from some shrinkage