Tuesday, July 21, 2009
The Spin Nashville Cream 8 off 8th: '80s Night 7/20/09
Posted by The Spin on Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 2:30 PM
Slideshows! Check out this one, and this one, too.
The Spin knew that Nashville Cream's '80s night at the Mercy Lounge was going to go one of two ways--either the bands were going to play sincere, earnest covers or just get silly drunk and cheese it up with power ballad after power ballad. Mondays are school nights, but we were definitely in the mood for the latter.
Plex Plex was the first group up, and kicked things off by heading straight down the sincere, earnest road, playing Sinead O'Connor's "Troy," and Chris & Cosey's "October Love Song." Bows & Arrows also decided to go the earnest route. "Just Like Honey" and "Here Comes Your Man" were nice, but a sloppy "Burning Down the House"/"Come on Eileen" medley was a bit uncomfortable.
The awesomely named Eliza the Arrow featuring Thundersnake decided to do this night up right: They were all gussied like liquored-up rock 'n' rollers, and pulled out the first genuine cheer from the crowd with "Separate Ways" by Journey. Clearly we were not the only ones in the mood for stupid fun.
The night started to go really right with Chris Crofton and the Alcohol Stuntband: We were told that we were finally going to have our "faces melted off" and the cheerful nonchalance of the onstage beer swilling perfectly accented the raucous, coked-out 1-2-3 punch of metal that featured yes, Van Halen and yes, Motley Crue. Finally, we got ourselves an '80s night.
The Non-Commissioned Officers managed to draw the crowd from the bar and put on a pitch-perfect "Time After Time" with Mama Lehning on vocals. It's becoming more and more of a pleasure to see this band play out, and the version of "Don't Come Around Here No More" they pulled off solidified that opinion.
It's no secret that How I Became the Bomb's Jon Burr is a charismatic frontman, but this night belonged to the band's rhythm section, who totally nailed "In the Air Tonight." Much of the crowd dispersed after the Bomb, but there were some kids making out at the bar who definitely stayed to see the Protomen. This was another band that took the theme very seriously, with costumes ranging from a coked-out Don Johnson to a coked-out '80s metalhead. Their Eddie Rabbit and Judas Priest covers were nice, but we couldn't help but wipe away a tear (of laughter) when the disco ball lit up during the climax of "Total Eclipse of the Heart." Well played.
The disco ball should have been the climax, but no--the night was brought to a close by Heypenny and assorted friends. The crowd had thinned even more by this point, possibly because everyone appeared to be onstage for a gross/sincere rendition of "We Are the World." The line between earnestness and mockery was at long last blurred. The beer probably had something to do with it.
Comments (28)
Showing 1-28 of 28
No. Fucking. Smiths?
No. Fucking. Cure?
Eliza the Arrow w/ Thundersnake covered great ground -- Never Tear Us Apart, Nothing Compares 2 U, Dirty Diana, and Separate Ways. Word.
Given Protomen's penchant for nailing 80's synth rock I was a little let down at first but Eclipse made up for it.
Solid Night. Almost makes me want to see 90's night. Except the grunge will serve as a painful reminder of all of the great 80's music/groups I saw last night that died at grunge's (in hindsight small) hands.
Not a bad night to walk out of the Mercy at 1:45am with the face fully rocked.
like
dislike
I was also perplexed (not Plex Plexed) by the absence of Smiths/Cure/New Order/Echo and the Bunnymen/Joy Division, but hey, maybe we'll do this again. After all, no one played Sabbath (!) on '70s night.
People have made these kind of complaints with each installment of this series so far, however, pretty much all of the songs performed fit the bill famously. The truth is that you can't encapsulate an entire decade in a mere 25-30 songs. Keep in mind that there was very little representation of the '80s underground--no R.E.M., Replacements, Husker Du. Still, I think if you are a fan of the '80s in any capacity, this should show would have been an all-killer nostalgic romp.
I was waiting for somebody to bust out Thriller. I thought for sure that was going to be Heypenny's big finish.
Yeah, I had definitely been keeping my fingers crossed for some Replacements. But Chris Crofton and the ASB eased my disappointment with GNR's "It's So Easy."
We were going to do "Thriller", then even tried to play the song under the groove of the Talking Heads "Once In A Lifetime", but the choruses could never be as big as they needed to... So we opted to learn "We Are the World" and even though our actions were misinterpreted by the Spin, it was completely heartfelt and sincere. Certainly not mocking. There are people dying, man!
non comm's Kate Bush cover pretty much made my year so far.
i'm tempted to get married just so i can hire them as my wedding band.
You could have banked on some "Mats" if the 'cutters and I were asked to be one this thing, but I guess "spindoctor" was putting the bill together. It's obvious schtick and irony was to rule the night. Anyway, it was a fun night non-the-less. Was there atleast some Hall and Oats in there?
@Wess Floyd...you hit the nail on the head, my friend. Schtick and irony, and playing dress up and playing obvious covers, and having it all limited to the same 12 bands who happen to all be friends and your friends, to boot, and pretty much only giving coverage to said bands, because anything outside the indie/twee rock realm (read: metal/hardcore punk/improvised music, unless you're somehow tied to Thurston Moore) is verboten (except of course, for Chris Crofton and the Protomen, who wear their schticks on their sleeves, and successful bands like KOL and Paramore, b/c maybe there'll be a coattail to ride), and photographically documenting it so we literally see these friendships/alliances.
My only question to the Cream et al.: Aren't you guys bored with having the same conversations with the same people who are in the same bands that play the same songs over and over (until, of course, you have a covers night to mix it up), who play at the same 4 venues, who talk to each other, though only a cubicle apart, about the same bands and make the same points and make the same kinds of attacks on folks like me, who just point out the obvious?
schtick and irony seems to have tripped and fallen on the boohoo button. you could always ask the cream if your band can play next time, it wouldn't be more pathetic than your last post.
we had a great time playing with Eliza The Arrow. We are playing this Friday (July 24th) at the exit in with The Breakfast Club. Thundersnake plays all 80's hair metal covers. The Breakfast Club plays all 80's pop. I'm pretty sure they will be playing everything that you guys wanted to hear on monday night. Come and party with us like it was 1986! Thundersnake goes on promptly at 9pm.
www.myspace.com/thundersnakeofficial
@whambulance...first, i'm not in a band, just a fan of music and trying to find some more wide-reaching coverage...second, you proved my point by your flippant response.
Kudos, however, for your name "whambulance."
schtick and irony, in response to your question directed at "the Cream et al," the answer is as follows:
Nope. Thanks for reading!
"My only question to the Cream et al.: Aren't you guys bored with having the same conversations with the same people who are in the same bands that play the same songs over and over (until, of course, you have a covers night to mix it up), who play at the same 4 venues, who talk to each other, though only a cubicle apart, about the same bands and make the same points and make the same kinds of attacks on folks like me, who just point out the obvious?"
ha wow!!!!! Man this dude hurt you guys!
So next time we throw a free, fun series of shows, we're supposed to pick bands that we don't like? Sure we know some of the people in a few of the bands that played Monday night. Are you not friends with bands that you really like? It's pretty hard not to become acquainted with musicians when you go to shows every night of the week.
We're not interested in waging "attacks on folks like [you]." I think it's the other way around. We're interested in covering bands that we think have merit/are interesting and inviting them to play shows that the attendees will enjoy. Seems like the series has been a success. We didn't rule out any bands because we think they're unhip or we're not buds with them. We just asked bands that we thought would do a good job. No hard feelings.
HAHAHA!!!!!!
"We're interested in covering bands that we think have merit/are interesting and inviting them to play shows that the attendees will enjoy."
C'mon,keep it real man!Whoever wrote that statement couldn't even believe that!
Scratch the sarcasm,haaha!But why not delve out of the normal pool a little bit and book some off the wall bands for some of these shows?What's wrong with diversity?Maybe it wouldn't seem like a party for all your friends every week staring Chris Crofton and the Protomen.
What alternate reality do you live in, Gold? REM is as corporate as the 80's get! "Socially Conscious" is a marketing term. "Underground" means an act that doesn't have what it takes to get the rocket off the ground! I agree with DDT, these proceedings do have an air of the self-congratulatory about them, although I do like The Bomb and Stunt Band.
So touring with bands like the Minutemen and helping usher in the golden era of college radio "is as corporate as the '80s get?" Obviously you've never heard of Steve Winwood or Duran Duran.
Gold's right. Losing my Religion didn't come out until 1991. They almost single handidly defined college rock in the 80's.
Maybe I'm just cynical, but IRS was a corporation and they wanted to make money.
"The One I Love" broke in 1987, which was a Top Ten hit, and REM jumped to Warner Bros. after that because they wanted a wider audience, which I concede did peak in the 90's.
From a financial standpoint, REM is a commodity similar to, but not the same as, Madonna and Michael Jackson, meaning they shift units. The reason they are known as "college rock" is because IRS didn't have the resources to work them properly! Make no mistake, REM is a pop band.
I'm pretty sure the only underground artist to hit the Top Ten in the last forty years was Beck. If you know of another, let me know.
I seem to remember a band on Subpop called Nirvana having a bit of commercial success in the early '90s. In all seriousness though "Only one underground artist to hit the Top Ten in the last 40 years." Are you insane? Also, it's no secret that R.E.M. were always gunning for mainstream success (they opened for the Police at Shea Stadium as early as 1983) but the fact is they were equally influencial on the underground music and were really one of the first bands to be tagged as "alternative" rock. That's hardly as "corporate as the '80s get." Corman, you are a master of hyperbole.
According to Gold, REM is not the empitome of corporate marketing because some hack wrote "they are an alternative to this other music over here", and plus they influenced a bunch of bands nobody cares about. The fact that REM is better than most does not make them any less of a product. They had an image which was successfully exploited.
BTW Nirvana didn't break until after they entered into an employment agreement with Geffen, so yes they're corporate too. Check your back issues of Billboard, and you will see that truly independent single releases are almost entirely absent from the Top Ten after 1966.
Vote here for best Band of the Week
Slideshows
Top Commenters
