Four – at Waltham’s Rendez-Vous – Review

Four

at Waltham’s Rendez-Vous
by Joshua Brown

Cliché though it may be to begin this way, it was a dark and stormy night. The band was Four, who, for followers of the late ’80s Massachusetts suburban metal scene, are a reincarnation of the much-loved and often overlooked Overdrive. Fans these days will recognize Pete Lally, the guitarist of Throat Culture who also slings a mean axe for Four, or maybe singer Space, bassist for joke-metal-rap band Freeball’n, the band who won first prize in the Rockpile Battle of the Bands in ’93. Overdrive was always a good heavy metal band with the trappings of psychedelia to set them apart from the then-popular spandex craze. They’re back and twice as psychedelic, and although the pace is slower and moodier, they haven’t lost any of their edge.

Space once described Four’s music as an imaginary bar where the rock ‘n’ roll icons can all hang out together. John Lennon and Paul McCartney are tending bar. Alice in Chains are shooting the shit with their heroes, Black Sabbath. Metallica begin to feel a little out of place but decide to just get drunk and have fun. Pete Townsend is wondering where the nearest leather bar is.

The show was enjoyable and surprisingly solid considering Four had just picked up a new drummer who didn’t know any of the songs. Turnout was pretty good despite awful weather. Plans to record a full album for indie label SpiderFly, tentatively titled Four-In-Her (get it, Foreigner 4) are in the works.