Oysterhead mates bring Copeland out of his shell November 9, 2001 - The Boston Herald By Sarah Rodman Police man Copeland has side job How did Stewart Copeland describe the first show he performed with his new band, Oysterhead, last spring in New Orleans? "It was a lot of fun, but it was a 2 1-2-hour train wreck," says the former Police man. The supergroup - featuring main Phish-erman Trey Anastasio on guitar and vocals, primary Primus member Les Claypool on bass and vocals, and the ferociously percussive Copeland on drums - should satisfy gearheads the world over. New England fans will get to stare in open-mouthed stupefaction as technical virtuosity and noodling collide at a speedily sold-out show tomorrow night at the Tsongas Arena. That New Orleans show was also a quick sell-out, which amazed Copeland. "I was hardly even aware of the following of Les Claypool and Trey Anastasio," says Copeland. "I had sort of heard of their groups but I didn't have any idea that there would be that much interest in the show. So when the tickets sold out in 12 minutes, I thought 'Jeez, these are not my fans.' Because my fans were busy getting the kids to school. And I thought, 'Well, somebody in this band is famous.' "And then a few days later, when the tickets were being sold on eBay for $ 2,000, I thought to myself, 'THOSEare my fans,' the ones that are now CEOs with big, high-paying jobs." Prior to that much-bootlegged, admittedly derailed New Orleans performance, Copeland hadn't played drums in close to 10 years but, he says, "There were enough high points amongst all the carnage that we decided to keep on going." Anastasio was on hiatus from Phish, Copeland had some space in his busy film-scoring schedule and Claypool has mastered balancing multiple projects, so the members of Oysterhead reconvened to record their debut album, "The Grand Pecking Order." The results are often as wacky as you might expect but far more accesible and melodic than you might envision. The album zigzags from the ambient dance grooves of "Little Faces" to the impossibly clever and tasteful Zappa-esque pop of "Mr. Oysterhead" to the spacey, reggae-jazz of "Oz is Ever Floating." Copeland even contributes the voice of a maniacal tyrant on the manic "Wield the Spade." "It's got elements of all three things," he says. "It's got the waft of Phish, the thrust of Primus and," he falters, searching for the right descriptive phrase, gives up, laughs and says, "and the drums, I guess, of the Police." Speaking of which, you can blame Sting for the lack of a Police reunion, which led to the formation of Oysterhead. "Up until recently I was maneuvering and cajoling (for a reunion) and Sting would always say, 'Well, never say never.' That's because he's a tease. Then I met Les and Trey and now I couldn't give a (expletive) about the Police." Copeland calls his new bandmates titans and gushes with admiring profanities about what a pleasure it is to play with them. "Those guys are (expletives). It's absolutely wild and I'm much more passionate then I ever was when I did drums for a living." Yet Oysterhead's definitive designation as a side project is what makes it alluring for all involved. "We each have full lives," he says. "I have a career as a film composer; I like this work, I'm doing really well at it." Indeed, the 49-year-old multi-instrumentalist has scored more than 50 films in the past 15 years - from Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" to the recent 'N Sync movie, "On the Line." "I work at home, I have my pristine studio and it's all grown up. And then I have Oysterhead, which is a wild, absolute hysterical abandonment of responsibility. It's the antidote to all that professionalism. "But," Copeland says, "if Oysterhead was a real band, where you have nine months of touring and then you record and then you go tour Europe, I think that would take a lot of the buzz out of it. It's so intense because it's limited and right now we have nothing planned beyond this tour." Yet Copeland expects Oysterhead will figure into his future. "I think Oysterhead will be very long-lived but sporadic, so that keeps it intense," and he proclaims, "we're happy as clams." Um, shouldn't that be oysters?