Silver Scooter
Goodbye EP (Peek-a-Boo)
Silver Scooter is a band whose sense of pop songcraft seems to mellow with age. That’s not to say the Goodbye EP — a four-song precursor to the band’s forthcoming full-length, The Blue Law — is headed for Burt Bacharach territory. A better analogy might be the local band’s inevitable graduation from basement keg parties to wedding receptions for the generation weaned on John Hughes-style happy endings that never quite come true. The title track’s hopeful search for a better place would sound right at home kicking off an Eighties Hughes vehicle. Scott Garred’s sprightly guitar melodies interlock with John Hunt’s warm, Peter Hook-style bass work amid a tastefully restrained keyboard atmosphere provided by new member Shawn Camp. Garred’s gentle vocal adieu pulls the melancholy atmosphere altogether like a rainy Sunday morning. “Amateur Actors” continues this theme by juxtaposing images of a poorly staged play with life as we know it; we may envision ourselves as Brando, but the reality is closer to Steve Guttenberg. Silver Scooter also acknowledges one of their most obvious influences with a respectable cover of New Order’s “Run.” As a whole, the Goodbye EP favors the more restrained, somber side of the band displayed on last year’s Orleans Parish over the often-ecstatic pop tones of 1997’s The Other Palm Springs. While a three-beer buzz on Friday night favors the latter element, those in the throes of stressful life changes will find a slow-burning kindred spirit in the former. 
This article appears in November 24 • 2000.
