In concert, Buckley falls from "Grace"

Fort Worth Star Telegram: December 2, 1994

By Dave Ferman FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM 

  DALLAS-As a recording artist, Jeff Buckley is a young man to watch.

  His songs, which alternately shimmer and slam while mixing folk, hard rock and psychedelia, are are led by a voice that can go from delicate expressiveness to a yowl worthy of Robert Plant to keening operatic falsetto.

  His full-length debut, Grace, seduces and suggests, invites the listener in, leaves one to wonder where this odd, vulnerable little guy came from.

  As a live performer, though, Buckley (son of '60s folkie Tim Buckley) still has a long way to go. His Wednesday show before a small crowd at the Deep Ellum bar 21st Ammendment contained some of the allure of Grace-but not nearly enough.

  The trouble lies with both the material-which frequently goes from a delicate opening  (often with Buckley moaning wordlessly) to a steady hard rock and then back down to mellowness again-and with Buckley's rather introverted stage persona. He mumbles. Or tunes up endlessly. Or says nothing. Or tries to do a Don Kirshner impression but quickly gives up.

  The live interpretations  of his material were often indistinct and a bit shapeless. The evening started out promisingly enough, with Mojo Pin, but things quickly went flat. Not only does much of Buckley's stuff sound pressed from the same mold, but his voice, so intriguing on CD, was just not up to the size of even the rather intimate club, and the songs lost their lyrical punch.

  Also, Buckley and his nondescript backing band (bassist Mick Grondahl, drummer Matt Johnson, second guitarist Michael Tighe) often could not match the nuances and dynamics achieved on CD; one notable exception was a long, evocative version of Last Goodbye.

  What we were usually left with, basically, was a lot of songs that sounded similar performed by a guy who appears distinctly distracted and ill-at-ease. Buckley is a promising perfomer, but unless things change radically, it's preferable to stay home and listen to Grace-and whatever else he'll release-rather than going to see him live.