Band finds strength in numbers

Jonathan Weber

Friday, June 25, 1999 | 3:20 a.m.

When someone tries to tell you there's no Hootie, don't believe 'em.

More than a dozen players crammed onstage at the Hard Rock's Joint after four encores Tuesday night. Hootie was in there somewhere. Had to be.

Just short of midnight, openers Cowboy Mouth, a guest guitarist from Toad the Wet Sprocket, all four Blowfish and two tour managers jammed into tight quarters onstage and filled the club with a bring-the-house-down cover of "Love the One You're With."

Perhaps Hootie doubled on the already luxurious three-part harmonies backing Darius Rucker's soulful lead vocals. Maybe he jumped in on one of the many percussion fests that featured all sorts of long-lost friends from South Carolina who "helped make the band what it is today."

He may even have been the guy running out to trade Rucker healthy guitars for wounded ones (once every couple of songs). Hands shoved in his pockets, folded in front of him or pounding his chest, Rucker showed expression between those guitar changes. Once he got a guitar that would last, the baseball-capped baritone belted out more than two hours of Southern-folk sing-alongs.

And can he belt 'em out.

Rucker's goose-down voice soared to the Joint's upper deck and into the rafters. It ignited the all-ages crowd with the opening lines of "Let Her Cry," "Hold My Hand" and "I Only Wanna Be With You." Rucker sang sweetly over the acoustic-driven stompers "Time" and "Drowning," which took on a mature-sounding bossa-nova life of their own. Not your average folk hippie stuff.

Human pogo-stick/Hootie guitarist Mark Bryan kept things moving in both the Blowfish and Cowboy Mouth sets (as guest guitarist). He gave thanks repeatedly to the fans, bands and label execs for showing up, admitting he "didn't see (label execs) showin' up in Kansas or Detroit. Maybe there's a gambling problem."

"Oh, you think it's funny now," Rucker added. "Wait 'til (they) show up at your door askin' for money."

After the first encore, drummer Jim Sonefeld asked Cowboy Mouth vocalist/drummer and longtime friend Fred Landry to sit in while Sonefeld split lead vocals with Rucker. Landry obliged, joyfully bludgeoning Sonefeld's kit.

Landry, a 250-pounder with a cherub's face, had already beaten the Cowboy Mouth set senseless, pulverizing his four-piece kit into submission. Then he ended the set with a stirring a cappella rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," stealthily luring the crowd into submission.

The second of two sold-out shows will be tonight. Perhaps the real Hootie will be introduced. Maybe the bus driver (a long-lost friend, no doubt) will sit in on bongos. Whatever happens, there'll be plenty of hand-holding, gentle swaying, love, peace and Hootie in the air.

HOOTIE AND THE BLOWFISH perform at the Hard Rock Tuesday night in the first of two concerts.

ETHAN MILLER / STAFF