Harmonic Convergence -- Spin Doctors, Soul Asylum And Screaming Trees Come Together At Gorge

In concert

Spin Doctors, Soul Asylum and Screaming Trees at the Gorge in George, 7 p.m. Sunday; $22.05 to $28.90 plus service charges; 628-0888. -------------------------------------------------------------------

The combination of the Spin Doctors, Soul Asylum and Screaming Trees makes up not only the summer's most alliterative billing but one of its best.

All three are hard-working bands for whom recent commercial success has come after years of road slogging. These bands didn't learn their songs from their first albums - they've played in front of hundreds of crowds, and they know how to put on a live show.

They come from different points on the compass, both geographically and musically. But taken together, the three bands represent some of the best strands of alternative, guitar-based rock.

The aptly named Spin Doctors built its audience base out of long, jam-oriented shows on the East Coast, where the band used to play regularly with the equally jam-happy band Blues Traveler. (The Blues Traveler's John Popper, in fact, once played with two members of the Spin Doctors in a band called the Trucking Company.) The Spin Doctors' funky grooves get crowds whirling, and its late-1991 album, "Pocket Full of Kryptonite," has done the same thing to cash registers. "Pocket Full of Kryptonite," after a slow start, has sold more than 3 million copies.

Of the three bands on the bill, the Spin Doctors is the closest thing to an overnight sensation - it took them only four years to hit the big time.

Last year, the Spin Doctors toured with Blues Traveler and Phish on the HORDE tour. (HORDE, possibly the most awkward acronym in the English language, stands for "Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere.") Bands on the HORDE tour have been tarred with a "neo-hippie" brush by critics, but the Spin Doctors, while they acknowledge their admiration for the Grateful Dead's loose style of playing, have shown that their fan base extends far beyond the ranks of junior Deadheads.

Soul Asylum started out as a punk band in Minneapolis 10 years ago, under the shadow of the Replacements and Husker Du. The band released six albums before hitting it big with "Grave Dancers Union," which has sold more than a million copies.

Like any punk band that releases a hit record, Soul Asylum has been accused by some of its hard-core fans of selling out. Indeed, the band's sound has mellowed on its latest album, which even includes a couple of acoustic ballads. But in its live performances, Soul Asylum keeps a gritty edge. And Soul Asylum's songs still have the same kind of punk, outsider's perspective, the heart of an awkward kid on the edge of the playground, that they always did.

Lead singer Dave Pirner says he sees a continuity in what Soul Asylum has been doing all along and what it did on "Grave Dancers Union."

"I sort of think that it's all folk music, whether it's really fast or really slow," Pirner told Rolling Stone in the band's recent cover story. "You've got three chords, an attitude, a story. I always thought punk music was folk music."

Screaming Trees, of course, needs little introduction to fans in its home state of Washington.

A beer-drinking, flannel-shirted, hard-rocking band out of Ellensburg, Screaming Trees rose to national attention on the strength of one hit single. The band's song, "Nearly Lost You" was the first single released from the soundtrack to the movie "Singles."

While that song helped attract attention to Screaming Trees, it's the band's loud, high-energy shows that continue to draw new fans.

From the hard crunch of Screaming Trees through Soul Asylum's folk-punk to the Spin Doctors' foot-moving vibe, the show Sunday should provide a first-class tour through some of alternative rock's best. Tickets are still available.