by Scott McLennan

Guitarist Bruce Mandaro and keyboard player Mark Mercier are
taking a step beyond the acoustic stripping down of
unplugged sessions and getting downright naked.

Musically, folks, just musically.

For both men, fully clothed means being with their
respective bands - and that's Slipknot in Mandaro's case and
Max Creek for Mercier. Anyone who has experienced either Max
Creek or Slipknot knows that both bands can come on like
freight trains. Devil-may-care soloing, improvisational
noodling and boneshaking grooves inspired in part by the
Grateful Dead have earned both bands strong followings in
New England.

Yet pop down to the Plantation Club on a given Sunday, and
Mercier and Mandaro join forces to make some listening-
intensive music that finds common ground between Slipknot
and Max Creek, but has been whittled down to
bare essentials.

Playing every other Sunday (including this weekend), at the
Plantation Club, 151 Plantation St. Worcester, Mandaro and
Mercier are still feeling each other out. An acoustic bass
player has been brought in on two occasions and may be made
a permanent part of the group. A working song list is
growing weekly. And now that the shows are open to patrons
18 and older, more curiosity seekers are starting to catch
wind of the sessions.

Mandaro said he enjoys this project because it lets him
focus on his acoustic guitar playing. Mercier said the
Sunday night shows are more roots oriented and less rock-n-
roll intensive than Max Creek.

True, there is a decided backporch feel to the sessions,
except that the back porch seems to be overlooking the
French quarter in New Orleans. Mercier's style with Mandaro
takes on shades of ragtime and double-fisted R&B. When all
cylinders are firing, the results are a rollicking
countrified groove.

Both Mandaro and Mercier say they want to pursue this side
project, which makes for a good new building block in the
Plantation Club's entertainment menu. The club was recently
hit by the double whammy of having Monday night regulars
Mocha Java announce their break-up and the Joeys discontinue
their weekly Thursday gigs until they can regroup after the
departure of singer Joanna List. Mandaro, Mercier and Co.
are splitting Sundays with the band Cross the Water.

With the Mandaro/Mercier project, one can hear the bluegrass
arrangement of the Rolling Stones 'Wild Horses', Van
Morrison's 'And It Stoned Me', 'Route 66', and 'The Weight'.
Mandaro says he and Mercier know about 200 songs, and try
out at least a couple of new ones each time they get
together.

In each case the songs were recast to fit the scaled-down
setting, rather than trying to give by-the-numbers readings
of the songs.

"With Max Creek, we've done so many different covers over
the years that with a lot of them we feel they are our songs
just by the way we play them. The trick really is to give
them your own personality", Mercier said.

Slipknot, too, has made its way covering songs from the
psychedelic song book, particularly those by the Grateful
Dead and the Allman Brothers Band. More than the music,
though, Mandaro said the most important lesson he has drawn
from paying attention to the Dead is "out of chaos breathes
new forms, new ideas."

Describing his work with Mercier, Mandaro said he finds
himself with fewer restrictions, a chance to work on a clean
acoustic guitar sound, and the opportunity to bring a fresh
rhythmic approach to his playing. The two began
collaborating about a year ago, when Mandaro would sit in on
mandolin during a jam session Mercier was developing in
Providence. When that project broke down, this one picked
up. Mercier also joined Mandaro in his Bruce Mandaro Band
side project, which right now seems to be dormant.

Rest assured that this new union is not simply of low-key
charms. When the band kicked into a pairing of the Dead's
'Me and My Uncle' with Mandaro's original 'Holes in My
Soles', the intensity rated with that of a Max Creek or
Slipknot show.

The naked truth of the matter is that these guys can dress
up some old familiar tunes in colorful new threads.


©1996
reproduced with permission