live @ Metro Cafe 5.21.2000
Seattle, Washington-based rockers The Makers early reputation was made in part by live shows that frequently ended in fisticuffs---often beginning when the audience attempted to pummel the band’s singer after he had insulted them one time too many. Nobody punched Michael Maker at the Metro Cafe Sunday night, but by the end of their thrilling set, the singer and his band were so drenched with sweat it looked as if they had endured a 12-round bout.
Touring behind their new Sub Pop Records’ album “Rock Star God”--a startling shift in sound that has more in common with the 1969 Rolling Stones than original Makers’ garage-rock models like The Sonics--the hour-long set balanced the old and new Makers’ personalities with galvanizing abandon.
Bassist Don Virgo and drummer Jay Amerika provided the requisite crotch-throb rhythms throughout the set, but it was guitarist Jamie Jack Frost’s roaring power chords that provided sonic fuel for songs like “Razorblade” and “Sex Is Good Food”, allowing frontman Maker to soar. Howling and convulsing, climbing atop the speaker cabinets and along the bar, gulping the audience’s drinks, Maker was the consummate rock frontman, evoking Mick Jagger and Ian Svenonius with aplomb.
One especially exciting title the Makers performed is unsuitable for a family newspaper, but “(Are You On The Inside Or The Outside Of Your) Pants”, “Looking For A Supergirl” and “Better Way Down” all bristled under the band’s whipcrack control of dynamics. Despite claims from garage-rock purists that The Makers have sold out, their performance revealed instead a rock band that has grown by retaining their early power, while shedding their adolescent singlemindedness for a more focused perspective. The result was a near-flawless set of no-frills rock and roll.
Washington Post, May 2000
