Scorchers set the air afire with short
Aqua Fest set
By Michael Corcoran, The Austin American-Statesman
July 31, 1995

Copyright 1995 The Austin American-Statesman

The end of Jason and the Scorchers' set at Aqua Fest on Saturday was greeted with outrage by many in the smallish crowd, but it had nothing to do with the quartet's performance. The Austin Police Department ordered the plug pulled midway through the set because the band's volume had exceeded 80 decibels at a point 100 yards from the stage.

What made the stoppage all the more ridiculous was that the main complaint from several audience members during the show was that the music wasn't loud enough. Indeed, Jeff Johnson's bass barely could be heard, and the trademark metallic swirls of guitarist Warner Hodges sounded more like an amplified pack of mosquitoes. Ending this show because of excessive volume is a little like the health department shutting down a restaurant specializing in nouvelle cuisine because their servings are too large.

Backstage after the concert interruptus, singer Jason Ringenberg was in surprisingly good spirits. ''Well, we had a good idea going in that it was going to happen,'' he said of the plug being pulled. ''They told us we had to keep it at 80 dBs and I thought, 'Man, that's how loud it is when I introduce the band.' I think that level's a little unrealistic.''

Part of the problem could be that the band didn't go on until 10:45 p.m., when they were scheduled to start at 10, and the cops with the sound meters might've been a little more apt to act after 11 p.m. The whole main-stage program, from the Pine Cones to Doyle Bramhall and Jason and the Scorchers, was 45 minutes late, which only heated up the anticipation level for the headliners, who have a long tradition of tearing up Austin in concert.

Opening with a raved-up version of the George Jones oldie Why Baby Why, the Scorchers established themselves as a different breed of country boys, with Greetings From Nashville cementing their method of dosing the traditional country form with adrenaline.

Another great cover came with Absolutely Sweet Marie, with Ringenberg hopping up to the mike and transforming the heady Bob Dylan snarl into joyous car-cruising music. Other Scorchers staples such as Broken Whiskey Glass, White Lies and Are You Ready For the Country (the Neil Young song) followed in quick succession, but the normal Scorcher punch was missing. Where the band usually dominates all the air around it and all capacity for music, it was actually possible to think of other songs while Jason and the Scorchers were playing.

What's more, you could have a conversation standing less than 50 yards from the stage: This was not your normal Jason and the Scorchers experience.

And then it suddenly was over.

''Oh, well,'' Ringenberg said backstage, after the boos finally died down. ''I try to look at this as if we were a baseball team. We may have lost this game, but there's another one tomorrow.''

Hopefully, the band's next outing will be on a level playing field.

GRAPHIC: Aqua Festers crowd toward the main stage Saturday to catch a Southern-rock dose of Jason and the Scorchers, featuring vocalist Jason Ringenberg, cen ter, and bassist Jeff Johnson, right, before the Austin Police
Department pulled the plug on the show, citing the amplifiers' noise levels as exceeding 80 decibels.

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