Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: Bitter End, New York NY

DR. HOOK and the Medicine Show celebrated the release of their second album, Sloppy Seconds (Columbia), with a party in the Bitter End last Thursday, and a properly sloppy affair it was, too. It also turned out to be frontman Dennis Locorriere's birthday, so when the group finally straggled on, beneath the Exile on Main Street-type pictures (taken at their L.A. opening) that graced the wall behind the stage, they leapt into "a singin' invitation to this party here" from the new album, 'Freakin' at the Freakers' Ball', which got the proceedings off to a good start. There was a funny song about bullfrogs and the people who eat their legs at $5 a pair, and it rocked out in fine style. "Remember," cautioned Dennis, "when you walk past a pond you'll hear the bullfrogs cursing at you." "Not me," responded lead vocalist Ray Sawyer, "I'm a vegetarian."