The Hard Lessons

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Before the three went on stage, I asked singer-guitarist Augie Visocchi if he was Italian. To answer, he stood on tiptoe, waved his hands theatrically, and shouted a stream of Italian into my ear. Then he ran off to perform.

Observer photographer Adrian Wylie and I settled in right up front. Augie and key-

boardist-vocalist Korin (KoKo) Cox took up the front half of the stage, with drummer Christophe Zajac-Denek at the back. KoKo, a shimmering young blond with soaring vocals, held the bass line and accompanied the guitar with vintage organ or humming synthesized keyboards throughout the show.

Augie and KoKo started off singing a few verses accompanied by some bare riffs and hand claps and then launched into driving drum-and-guitar-driven swagger. Augie slung one arm around a stage pole, held the microphone out over the crowd with the other, and commanded us to sing. "You guys sound great," he said, and jumped atop an amplifier to play to the crowd, flirting. The girls next to me were standing on their stools and dancing.