Radio station WHFS 99.1 rung in the holiday season Saturday with the "HFSMas Holiday Nutcracker." This year the bands on hand were Everlast, Cake, Soul Coughing, Garbage and Hole.

Concert goers were greeted first with the sounds of the Hula Monsters, a kind of blend of Hawaiian folk music and country. This noise may have matched the warm weather, but it got an unfavorable reception from the audience. After this, Mary Prankster stepped to the stage, armed with only an acoustic guitar and red leather pants, ready to hype the crowd up. She managed to accomplished this, despite her Ani DiFranco wanna-be attitude and her (appropriately) prankish delight in saying "fuck" as many times as possible in a three song set.

After this wholesome beginning, formal introductions to the event were given by way of Santa, two ballerinas and a couple of DJs from the radio station. Everlast then took the stage, delivering his brand of beat-driven funky blues. Although this sound was more interesting and aesthetically pleasing than good ol' House of Pain, it lacked the fun and energy. Everlast wasted no time in solving this dilemma, playing rock-remixes of House of Pain's "Legend" and "Jump Around," proving he can still rap and giving hope to those who want the old Everlast back.

The crowd was in for a surprise as Everlast exited the stage and none other than Mr. Isaac Hayes ("Shaft" to the oldies, "Chef" to the newbies) replaced him. He announced Cake in a legendary voice drowned out by roaring applause.

Faced with the challenge of following Chef, Cake played it cool and used a big disco ball to spice up their performance of such hits as their cover of "I Will Survive" and their latest hit single, "Never There." Lead singer John McCrea tried to play band leader to the audience, but probably would have had better luck trying to lead moshers in a country line dance.

Enter Soul Coughing. The crowd couldn't help but embrace their white boy hip-hop jazz funk style, and at least half stood up to dance their appreciation. Despite their non-MTV style, the band captivated the young audience with their raw intensity. When lead singer M. Doughty wanted the crowd to sing along on "Super Bon-Bon," they did so without pause. The band played several songs from their new album "El Oso," such as "Rolling" and "Circles," but their set also included oldies like "Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago" and "Bus to Beelzebub." With irresistible energy and command of stage and crowd, Soul Coughing was by far the highlight of the event.

Although Garbage and Hole were obviously the bands that the majority of the crowd was there to see, both gave rather mediocre performances. Garbage's Shirley Manson, in her new "Sporty Spice" wardrobe, came out flicking off the crowd and being as sassy as possible in her delivery of the band's super-produced techno-rock. Sadly, it appeared the band had opted to lip-synch several of their songs, which left only Shirley's acrobatics to entertain the audience.

Hole came to stage in much the same manner. Courtney Love was doused in her punk style as cocky as she ever was. If there's one thing Hole does well, it's pass off noisy pop music of as if it were punk, and there was plenty of that at HFSMas. With a set made up of popular singles from their last two albums, Hole delivered a "greatest hits" style performance. This may have gotten the crowd going, but it was about as interesting as listening to a Hole album at home.

Even though this year's HFSMas ended on a weak note, the show was still ripe with Christmas gifts for good girls and boys. It's not hard to see why the show sold out in 24 minutes.
 
 
 

by Chad Von Hinken
Broadside - George Mason University Student Newspaper, December 7, 1998