SCARCE

Practically every one of the 70-plus people packed into the tiny Kendall Café last Friday night to see Scarce's first official gig since June knew exactly what the trio's frontman, Chick Graning, intended when he greeted the anxious crowd with those extra expressions of "very." Six months ago, just weeks before A&M was scheduled to release the band's major-label debut, Deadsexy, and days before the trio were booked to play semi-acoustic at the Green Street Grill with new drummer Joe Propatier, Graning was stricken with a brain hemorrhage. Everything was put on hold while doctors waited for his condition to stabilize enough for surgery; for a time, the prospects of a full recovery seemed grim. So, yes, it really was very, very, very, very nice to have him back, looking no less torn and frayed then he has in the past, though somewhat less glamorous in jeans and a T-shirt instead of his usual tuxedo shirt.

With a beaten-up and stickered dobro in hand, Raskin to his right with her electric bass, and Propatier sitting behind nothing but a snare drum, Graning launched into a skeletal version of "Glamorizing Cigarettes," one of the 12 energized tracks from Deadsexy. (The dobro, as Graning later told me, is a gift he received from Chris Whitley in the hospital. Whitley scratched "All love and whatnot" into the wood on the back of it.) He strummed and sang tentatively at first, like someone recently awakened from a long slumber. But by the final verse, he'd shaken off any initial lack of confidence and was ready to try out "Rains of Kansas," one of the two new songs the band pulled out for their set.

A melancholy countryish tune that worked perfectly in this stripped-down setting, "Rains of Kansas" led into "Freak Shadow," one of Deadsexy's rockier tunes, which culminated with Graning and Raskin harmonizing on an urgent refrain of "I wouldn't miss a minute of this." There were touching moments, as when Raskin smiled proudly at Graning as he nailed the guitar solo in "Honey Simple." And there were unsettling ones too: Graning's brittle yet forceful voice injected an arresting sense of desperation into the chorus "Where is my quickness?" on "Sense of Quickness." But even he had to flash a smile when he got to the line "I'm given to catastrophes" on the set-ending "Karona Krome."

Even without a pounding kick drum, overdriven guitar, or Raskin bouncing around and throttling her bass, most of the set bristled with the raw and edgy melodic tension that made Scarce an exhilarating live band when they exploded out of Providence two and a half years ago. The night, which ended on a high note with two encores (a haunting cover of David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" and a moving version of Graning's rewrite of the classic "Cry Me a River"), wasn't an exercise in tightness. And it certainly wasn't meant to be. As Graning half-joked before the first encore, "We didn't practice this one but, hey, you only live once."

The Kendall Café show was one of three low-key gigs the band have scheduled so far. They were set to play acoustic at Providence's Met Café this past Tuesday, and they have an invite-only electric show booked at Brownies in NYC tonight (November 16). Assuming all goes well - and if Friday's show was any indication, it should - A&M will release Deadsexy early next year (February 27 and March 5 are the dates being tossed around). In the meantime Scarce, who were definitely on the fast track before Graning's illness, are happy to take things a little slower. As Raskin told me before the show, "Things really happened very quickly for us before all this happened to Chick. Right now we're determined to be patient. The doctors told Chick that full recovery usually takes about a year, and it's only been six months. But Chick is really doing so well."

- Matt Ashare