Strong Medicine Hat Rock Plays To All-Ages Audience

----------------------------------------------------------------- Club preview

Medicine Hat with 3-D S&M and Moonshine, The Crocodile Cafe, 2200 Second Ave., tomorrow, 9:30 p.m. $6. 441-5611. -----------------------------------------------------------------

The members of Medicine Hat - guitarist Ben McAllister, bassist Jason Thomson, singer Sean Bates and drummer Jason Legat - are sitting at a back booth in The O.K. Hotel having coffee, cookies and beer. Band food. The interview begins.

"This was our favorite place to play," says Bates. "We loved it here when it was all-ages. We got the hugest crowds."

"All-ages is definitely our audience," adds McAllister. "There's more all-ages that know us then 21 and over."

Legat smiles and enters the conversation.

"We played Meadowdale High School once. It was great. We'd do one every weekend if we could."

Medicine Hat's affinity for young audiences and young rooms isn't surprising. Even though they've been together for four years, they're not much older than that demographic.

"I met Sean in high school," says Thomson. "We played Metallica covers. Then we hooked up with Ben and played Queen covers."

"Don't be telling him that," says Bates. "It's a good thing I'm here to stop this stuff. I was in a band with a guy that wanted to play Steely Dan songs. I hadn't heard any Steely Dan songs. Then I heard them . . . I left."

The three were all Edmonds residents. Drummer Legat was from Coupeville.

Longevity of any sort is a premium in band land. Most groups don't make it a year. Medicine Hat is nothing if not tenacious, and the group's efforts are beginning to pan out.

Medicine Hat is getting seen, both by all-ages audiences and the club circuit. It's toured with X. In a couple of weeks the band will open for Frente! at DV8. Tomorrow night Medicine Hat celebrates the release of its first CD.

"We've done demo tapes in the past," says McAllister, "and sold them at the shows, and we always sold out. But doing a CD and putting it in stores, we don't know what to expect."

The self-titled CD is nine cuts long, all written by the group. The songs can't be classified as one genre or another. It's strong, dynamic material, well-played and arranged, not metal, not rock, but with elements of both. Bates' voice is definitely at the center, and a there's a surprising amount of harmony support.

"Everybody's in on the writing process," McAllister says. "Nothing is ever brought in finished. It's usually music first, then we leave the lyrics up to Sean."

The band says it's been like that since they first teamed up.

"We had some original songs," says McAllister. "Actually we had three ideas. We made a list of covers. We learned them, played them, they were fun . . ."

At that point the conversation begins to wander. The horror stories come out.

"We had to wait outside at the Farside because we were underage," exclaims Bates. "I thought I had to be some big rock star, so I was jumping around, falling to my knees and everyone was just standing there staring at us. It was a nightmare, but we didn't care 'cause it was a show!

"And I had a potato thrown at me once," he continues, "so I started throwing back everything I could pick up at the guy who threw the potato." Bates turns to Thomson. "Didn't you get nailed with a bunch of chew once?"

"Yeah," responds Thomson quietly. "I ate it."