Imagine a teenaged or post-teenaged female who writes and sings songs featuring the following lyrical themes:

1. You suck for not accepting me the way I am—but someday you’ll be sorry for picking on me!
2. I’ve been hurt by the umpteenth guy. Here’s a song about it.
3. Damn, baby, you’re so fine! I want you right now. No, right now.

You’ve seen and heard this many, many times before, so why should you bother with another artist of this type? Well, if that artist is Shannon Cole, I’ll give you three reasons…other than her being a Jersey girl.

For one thing, there’s her voice, sounding as if a mad scientist spliced the genes of Joan Jett and Avril Lavigne and then threw in a top-secret ingredient whose identity he’d die to protect. Is her voice nasal and snotty or robust and full-bodied? Smooth or rough? Delicate or powerful? Why, yes it is!

Finally and most importantly, Shannon Cole simply ROCKS, as a visit to one of her shows proves amply.

I first met and saw Shannon at Dr. Watson’s Pub in Center City Philadelphia, a laid-back, down-to-earth venue which has recently established itself as the place to be for local rock. Having been impressed by a show of hers in March, I knew it would be a pleasure to cover one of the sets in her April, 2008 residency at Doc’s.  April 17^th was the night I chose, and Shannon proudly took to the stage with her band: Shawn Rody on bass, Jon Williams on drums, and her right-hand man/jack-of-all-trades Joe Caliva on guitar and backup vocals.

It was easy to forget that there were only three instrumentalists and two singers on stage, for the sound this foursome produced filled every corner of the room and got plenty of people dancing.

The band’s tight musicianship served to frame Shannon’s confident vocals, her long notes controlled and elegant and her wild screams pulsating with raw rock ‘n’ roll angst.

Shannon knew how to work the stage and the room. She strutted, ran, jumped, and danced all over the stage, accompanying her singing with animated gestures and facial expressions. She ventured into the crowd to rock out with her lively spectators. She incorporated an inspired bit of audience participation into “Let’s Do It,” her ode to, well, doin’ it.

Seeing her in action, I could not help making the following observation: Shannon Cole is sexy without being what we typically think of as sexy. In “Does It Bother You,” she rattles off a series of inquiries such as, “Does it bother you that I’m not a Barbie doll? Does it bother you that I’m not Jessica? Does it bother you that a zero doesn’t fit? Does it bother you that I’m barely a B?”

No, it doesn’t bother me at all. Shannon looks and acts like a real girl. With her baby face, her ever-changing hair color and style, and her sometimes flamboyant wardrobe, she comes off as the quirky, cool neighborhood chick who just has fun with who and what she is—and you can either take her or leave her. Now, that’s sexy.

Musically, the set was of course full of her own angry tunes: “Stupid Boys,” about all the guys who’ve done her wrong; “Expired,” about a record company that wanted to change everything about her; “I Am Me,” whose title should be self-explanatory; and so on. While the whole set was enjoyable, some of the songs she performed didn’t really offer anything new lyrically or musically.

There were, however, some flashes of true brilliance. “Love Song Gone Wrong” really moved with that classic chunky guitar-rock sound, and as always, Shannon’s downright unorthodox phrasing put it in a league of its own. Fittingly, “What A Joke” was a humorous divergence, while “I Hate That I Love You” featured killer hooks which came off particularly well in a live setting.

Shannon’s interpretive skills were on display in the two covers; her amazing rendition of Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” proved that there was a hard rock song lurking beneath that synth-pop veneer all along! Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” was an odd choice, but Shannon did well by it and it allowed her to pass the mike to various intoxicated patrons who thought they knew the lyrics. Still, I saw her do “Helter Skelter” in March and she really tore the place up with it; a drunken sing-a-long on a pleasant pop-punk ditty just can’t hold a candle to that.

In all, the show demonstrated that Shannon Cole is a nascent talent with a lot of room to grow and a lot of development ahead of her, but with the chops, the drive, and the charisma to live up to her full potential. That she is already an immensely entertaining and satisfying live act puts her ahead of much of the competition and I look forward to seeing her get better and better as time goes on. But I do have one complaint: at one point she saw me rockin’ out, stepped off stage, walked right past me, grabbed two girlfriends of hers who were standing behind me, and brought them—not me—on stage to dance with her. After that, she’s lucky I still gave her a positive review!

For music and more information: http://www.shannoncolerocks.com

http://www.myspace.com/shannoncole