Copyright 1993 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
                            St. Louis Post-Dispatch

                  April 24, 1993, SATURDAY, FIVE STAR Edition

SECTION: EVERYDAY MAGAZINE; Pg. 3D

LENGTH: 392 words

HEADLINE:  SUPERCHUNK:  2-PRONG GUITAR ATTACK

BYLINE: Louise King

BODY:

WHEN the punk-rock band Superchunk played Mississippi Nights on Thursday, I
witnessed an odd occurrence. A few songs into the set, a family, or what
appeared to be a family, got up and left.  Mom and Dad had pained  
expressions on their faces; the little girl was holding her fingers in 
her ears against the aural onslaught; and the teen-age boy looked 
thoroughly unaffected.  My conclusion: The generation gap is alive and 
well and fueled by college radio mainstays like Superchunk.  The 
four-piece group from North Carolina speaks to all those disenfranchised 
youths finding difficulty in connecting to theirparents or younger sibs.  
It's the same old story, only the current batch of young people also has 
to deal with a world gone awry, in more ways than one.

Superchunk's music is an intense and genuine expression of rebellion, 
angst and, at times, despair.  The band achieves that with blaring noise 
levels, driving guitar riffs and a battering ram of a beat that barely 
pauses between songs.  I had heard the band offers an intelligient 
lyrical message, although I was unable to discern more than a handful of 
words through the din.  The strong, two-pronged guitar attack, on the 
other hand, stood out prominently, adding to the enjoyment level of the 
show.  It took only about a half dozen 3-minute whirlwind tunes to whip 
the small but vocal crowd nearest the stage into a frenzy of activity. 
Their motions mirrored those of lead singer Mac McCaughn, who bounced 
around the stage like a beach ball at a Jimmy Buffett concert.

Watching the band perform, I was reminded of an early R.E.M., before Michael
Stipe learned to enunciate and connect lyrically with his audience.  
Here the music so overpowered all else, including the band members' 
personalities, that it was difficult for all but the group's most 
hardcore followers to see beyond the excitement of the moment.  This is 
high energy, quality musicianship, but delivered at such a frenetic pace 
that it is impossible to pick up its deeper message. The wild, unbridled 
passion and garage-band feel of Superchunk is not without its merits.  
Opening the show was Rocket From The Crypt, a non-descript entity seeming 
to have trouble deciding upon a musical course of action. The group rock 
'n' roll attacks.