Critic's Choice

The Fire Theft

A A A Comments By Jason Heller Thursday, Oct 2 2003

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Prometheus, says the myth, stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. For this heinous transgression, he was chained to a rock and forced to listen to an infinite loop of the new Dashboard Confessional album. (Or maybe it was having his liver torn out and eaten by an eagle every day. Same difference.) The moral, of course, is as old as Adam and Eve: There are some things only deities were meant to know, and woe unto those who decide to get all uppity and shit. It's not surprising, then, that a band called The Fire Theftis trying to pull a similarly empyreal heist. The gods they're stealing from, however, aren't Zeus and Yahweh -- more like Peter Gabriel and Yes's John Anderson. And the thing being stolen sure ain't fire. Y'see, after a decade of peddling epic emo as Sunny Day Real Estate, Jeremy Enigk, William Goldsmith and Nate Mendel (yes, of the Foo Fighters) have reformed sans longtime guitar pal Dan Hoerner -- and it appears that they've completely jacked the celestial ornamentation and pomposity of classic '70s prog rock. But before Robert Fripp noticed the gaping hole in his firmament, the Fire Theft forged an album -- and what an album it is: Riffs sweep majestically like the aurora borealis across constellations of ether-washed pop as Enigk's voice bobs wistfully through the troposphere. The piano ballads alone are pastoral enough to conjure hobbits. Ever wonder what Guided by Voices would sound like if they sobered up, learned Locrian scales and forsook Cheap Trick in favor of Kansas? Well, wonder no more. Don't miss the Fire Theft at the Larimer Lounge on Sunday, October 5, where the trio will be assisted by keyboardist Nick Macri and astounding Heroic Doses guitarist Bill Dolan. You never know -- you might just hear angels. Or at least Supertramp.