Goldfinger bonds with punk-rock audience

Call them crazy, call them intense, or call them Goldfinger, but please, stop calling them a ska band.

REVIEW
	Goldfingerl Nov. 15, 1997 St. Andrew's Hall, Detroit

Goldfinger is one of the more popular pop bands rooted in punk and ska flavor and ideals to come around in the past few years and their hybrid sound defies a definitive label. Their latest stop at St. Andrew's Hall in Detroit this weekend had a label, though, and it was madness.

"Everyone has to be labeled," lead vocalist John Feldmann said in an interview before the show. "If people wanna call us a ska band, whatever. I mean, we're not. Anyone who knows ska music would never consider us a ska band."

The majority of the public would, though. Goldfinger, especially with its latest release, "Hang-Ups," has incorporated a lot more horns, along with other new elements, to really round out their punky sound.

"We always try to tour with ska bands to steal their horns," Feldmann revealed. They didn't need to steal anything to make "Hang-Ups," though, as members of Reel Big Fish, No Doubt, the Skeletones, and Fishbone lent their services and volunteered to play on the record. And now, Goldfinger tours with its own horn section.

The crowd was out in full effect to see Goldfinger, despite horrible driving weather and a long wait out in the freezing cold. Save Ferris opened up the show with a bang. They're a new pop-ska and swing outfit from Southern Cali whose lead vocalist

Goldfinger took St. Andrew's by storm this past weekend.

Monique wears a dress and high heels, and sounds remarkably like Gwen Stefani of No Doubt. It was their debut performance in Detroit, and they got the crowd rockin' and skankin' early. Even though their songs started to sound a lot alike by the end of their 40-minute set, they were quite entertaining.

With the crowd warmed up good and ready, Goldfinger finally hit the stage about 20 minutes late. They opened the show with "Answers" from their self-titled 1995 debut, which went over well with the crowd.

From the beginning, the true appeal of Goldfinger shown through: they put on an awesome punk rock display.

As Goldfinger continued their set, mixing songs like the straight ahead punk attack of "Anything" with new tracks, like the poppy "My Head," and the ska-core-ish sounding "Chris Cayton," the crowd continued to get more and more restless. Chaos hit, though, during the hilarious "Fuck You and Your Cat," during which Feldmann jumped up on one of the speaker stands on the side of the stage, and leapt down into the outstretched sea of arms.

About a half-hour into the set, "Dangerous" Darrin leapt out from behind the drum kit to point at his Wings' jersey for the millionth time, before he grabbed the mic and started into a sarcastic hardcore version of the current radio hit "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba. Then, he climbed up the speaker stack on the other side of the stage and leapt, too, returning to the stage under a full moon, if you know what I'm saying.

Goldfinger has met with some commercial success, too, which was evident as the crowd sang along verbatim with the new single "This Lonely Place." During the MTV hit, "Here In Your Bedroom," the band invited about 30 people up on stage to sing back-up as testament to its popularity. The success is something Feldmann's not ashamed of either.

"I don't think music's a thing you should hide in your pocket," Feldmann said, "I think you should share it with as many people as possible."

After a short break, Goldfinger returned to round out their 70-minute, 25-song set with the intense "Miles Away," as well as a cover of the Cure's "Just Like Heaven," during which Royce of Detroit's own punk-ska heroes The Suicide Machines came out on stage to sing along. The set ended with the brand new "20 Cent Goodbye" and a psycho-hyper hardcore version of Duran Duran's "Rio."

It was a fitting end to a super show: tongue-in-cheek humor mixed with hard-edged punk, pop bliss, and danceable ska music. And it sums up the Goldfinger quite perfectly. Remember though: they're not a ska band - just a good one.

11-21-97