Tender Mercies Shows No Mercy in Stunning Debut

Very rarely does a new band come out of the gate and sound like they have been together for decades.

In the case of Tender Mercies, on their first national tour opening for Counting Crows, there is some truth to that. Yes, they are a new unit, but two of the members, guitarist Dan Vickrey and drummer Jim Bogios play with the Crows full time, and guitarist Patrick Winningham and bassist Kurt Stevenson played with Crows members before the 20 million-selling band got its big launch in 1991.

Saturday at the tiny Boardwalk Bowl in Santa Cruz, the band's 75-minute set was a revelation of music that sounded fresh, but classic. It was rock with a bit of a county twang, but a solid catalog of instantly-memorable songs that the bandmates have been slinging together and playing for fun for years.

A few have been covered by the Crows in their live sets, including "Mercy," "Four White Stallions" and "Wiseblood."

From the minute they set foot on the area of floor called a stage, this band showed its mastery. Each of the two guitars, bass and drums were played with the kind of authority and discipline you rarely hear from newcomers.  The melody lines were defined and perfect and the playing locked tight, despite the fact that they are mostly unrehearsed and recorded their debut self-named disc in a living room live, with no overdubs.

Guitars chimed; the bass wove them together; vocals were clear and harmonic and the drumming was subtle and elegaic. They played the 11 songs on the album and threw in another that was maybe the best of the night: "Cry," a passionate, unrecorded Vickrey song that sounded like it could have been a cover by Roy Orbison or Al Green. It will be a hit for whichever of his bands gets it on disc.

The set was a rehearsal for their upcoming gigs at the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin (SXSW) and a few select gigs at Slim's in San Francisco and the Fox in Oakland, and it showed a band that was hungry and basically inexperienced at the low levels of the music business.

"I don't even know how to start a band," said drummer Bogios, whose 20-year career has included long stints with Sheryl Crow, the Counting Crows and shorter ones with the Dixie Chicks and Ben Folds.

"We're playing a bowling alley?"

But there was no hesitation once the music started. They sounded like they had been touring together forever and they made the room feel intimate and like a giant amphitheater at the same time. The music would be just as good in a big room and deserved to be aired out there.

Only a few times have I seen a debut this strong: I saw an early Eagles' tour in New York when they opened for Helen Reddy and Sly and the Family Stone; I saw Loggins and Messina's first tour, opening for Billy Preston and Delaney and Bonnie and I caught Green Day and Big Head Todd playing together at the Fairmont in San Francisco in a private show for radio executives.

Each time I knew I was seeing bands that would become classic, even if they didn't know it themselves. The songwriting was so good and the playing so inspired, they sounded like they had been around for years.

Oh yeah, there was another show like that: Counting Crows opening for Midnight Oil at the Bill Graham Civic.

I have a strong feeling Tender Mercies will be back. And a lot of people who weren't in the room will claim to have seen them at the Boardwalk Bowl.