The Protomen and Friends Keep Fighting the Good Fight

As a relative newcomer to Nashville’s music scene — by which I mean I didn’t grow up or go to college here, and have been actively engaged with local music only since 2018 — I was unfamiliar with the lore of The Protomen. I won’t attempt to summarize 20-plus years of musical excellence and community-building in one review. I can, however, tell you what I experienced on Saturday, the conclusion of the Protomen’s epic three-night run of shows celebrating their long-awaited album Act III: This City Made Us at Marathon Music Works.

The Protomen have cultivated an avid base of music fans, video game fans, sci-fi fans, and fans in the sweet spot of this Venn diagram of subcultures. The sold-out crowd was full of people in Protomen T-shirts (with or without silver face paint and other regalia of Protomen cosplay), or else wearing a variety of alt-fashion items common to the music worlds of punk, goth and metal. The story is inspired by the long-running Mega Man game franchise, but the 1980s cyber fashion favored by the band and emulated by the fans not only nods to the visual futurism of Blade Runner, but also reminded me of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video (also from 1982) and 1984’s post-apocalyptic bike-gang feature City Limits.

The night’s music began with multi-instrumentalist Tim Cappello, who performs on the Act III track “Light’s Last Stand.” Among others, Cappello has played with Tina Turner and Peter Gabriel, and he’s a solo artist and composer. What’s attained him cult status is his appearance in the 1987 vampire classic The Lost Boys, in which he lends his virtuoso sax work to a cover of The Call’s “I Still Believe” during the mother of all beach parties. (Yes indeed, he is that sax man!) Unsurprisingly, Cappello warmed the crowd up with “I Still Believe,” wearing his trademark leggings and tank top with chain belt and necklaces, and inviting the audience to “do the Star.” (If you haven’t seen The Lost Boys in a while, or maybe fewer than a dozen times, that’s the twisty arm-waving dance Jami Gertz’s character Star does during the scene.) Still buff and muscled at 71, the energetic Cappello also played “Tequila” and showed off his Pee-wee Herman dance moves before coming out into the crowd to play sax among the ecstatic fans.

It doesn’t get more rocking than a set from Music City’s reunited garage punks Diarrhea Planet, whose high-energy, four-guitars-strong show clearly delighted the packed Marathon Music Works. These solid shredders ran the gamut from punchy punk-inflected short jams to anthemic shout-alongs to slow numbers that had the audience swaying while holding up their cellphone flashlights. (Who uses lighters anymore, in public anyway?) I recognized “Kids” and “Platinum Girls” from the DP oeuvre, but clearly the crowd was more familiar with them than I was (seeing as the band played their farewell shows around the time I started going to shows here). Nashville is always glad to see DP onstage again, and expresses their enthusiasm with great gusto. This was a pretty perfect way for Diarrhea Planet to prep for their headline gig the next night at Eastside Bowl — which was also a quick sellout, and which, according to another Spin operative, was a fun, sweaty time, complete with a barely ironic set-ending cover of Limp Bizkit's “Break Stuff.”

While excited fans waited for The Protomen to emerge, screens on either side of the stage showed colored, fuzzed-out visuals and the sound of a numbers-station broadcast filled the speakers. This may have been my first Protomen show, but I’ve seen a lot of concerts, and I can tell that they put immense and intense work into the visuals, props, conceptualization and light design as well as the music. Yet the visuals do not overshadow the music — they enhance it. I’ve rarely seen a more seamless multimedia story played out on a stage with so many people on it, all playing multiple instruments at different times. With the live performance of the entirety of Act III, The Protomen created a rallying anthem for times that seem increasingly dystopian, and there was rarely a moment during the set when the audience’s fists weren’t high in the air while we sang along.

Gambler Kirkdouglas’ powerful vocals — reminiscent of Laura Brannigan or Bonnie Tyler on “Holding Out for a Hero” — were showcased several times, beginning with “Hold Back the Night” early in the set. Lead singer Raul Panther III’s still got it too, with a voice that can evoke raspy emotion or thrilling calls to action. Reanimator Lovejoy’s drumming was otherworldly, as were the guitar solos by Shock Magnum and Sir Dr. Robert Bakker. Commander B. Hawkins and bassman Murphy Weller masterfully commanded the synth textures woven into the sound. Onetime regular member Master Blaster popped out to enrich a few songs with trumpet, and longtime Protomen fans were delighted by a surprise guest appearance from former guitarist Heath Who Hath No Name. Cappello returned to play saxophone when it was time for “Light’s Last Stand,” and again during the encore when The Protomen played their version of “I Still Believe.” 

Act III and its predecessors make up an epic anthemic rock opera about resistance to authoritarianism, and it’s done with artful and phenomenal musicianship. The live performance is a potent reminder that rock ’n’ roll is far from dead (despite what various critics have proclaimed practically since rock was born). Hope, too, is alive and well — something The Protomen have been telling us for more than two decades. As Kirkdouglas said early in the show: “Congratulations. You are the resistance.”

Features

The Protomen Go to 11 on ‘Act III’

• Lance Conzett