Frankie Machine: Rock In a Hard Place

You had to feel sorry for the LA-based quartet Frankie Machine last Saturday night at Boston's Hard Rock Café. The band are just three years old, and at the end of March they'll release their debut album, One, on Mammoth. Yet there they were being punted around with two other hope-to-break acts (the cuter yet crunchier Neve and indie-cred-handed former Squirrel Bait singer Peter Searcy) on a Jolly Rancher-sponsored tour of Hard Rock Cafés and music-biz conventions (Gavin done; South by Southwest coming up). Sorry because the black-clad LA-rock-culture-oozing men before the dozen or so kids, moms, and dads looked tense, as if they were attending a job interview.

No spring chickens, they were playing for folks whose Saturday-night highlight might otherwise be gawking at Van Halen's gold record for Diver Down and downing a burger and shake. And a free show it may have been, but local rock fans either didn't bite or didn't know about it, because for Frankie Machine's opening set I had the feeling I was gate-crashing a yet-to-get-going party.

So it wasn't a very convivial situation. And though Frankie did a fine job delivering their catchy, melodic, hi-energy guitar rock, much of their set was lackluster. Highlights included the disc's punchy first single, "Sell Me," and "50/50," which was driven by guitarist Creston Funk's searing riff and hammered by drummer Gary Benson punk roots. At least in these songs, Frankie Machine cut loose from the dowdy/moany modern-rock pack.

But though Ryan Martin has the voice to sing the heart out of the great Split Enz number "I Got You," he seemed as frightened of it as FM's namesake junkie (played by Sinatra in the film The Man with the Golden Arm) was to face up to his life. As a couple of mums danced, gleefully recognizing the '80s hit, the song came across as a mere half-arsed triumph that relegated Frankie Machine to another twig on the tall-enough-to-topple tree of radio-friendly modern rock -- the wallpaper music of the pierced generation. And when Martin sang the chorus to "Sell Me" -- "Do you want to kill me/Do you want to sell me?" -- with more conviction, the answer became clear: yeah, dude, they do.

-- Linda Laban