Three days removed from recovering from my incredibly painful “Eye-Ache” after watching the crowd at The Beginnings (Chicago Tribute Band) I regrouped with NK & Homework to switch gears and watch Wicked Peach - self proclaimed New England’s Ultimate Rock Cover Band at the Wolf Den last night.
Contrary to Sunday night and much to our collective relief, it took exactly 20 seconds after entering the bar at our familiar front row standing spot that we saw several eye-pleasing patrons. Mind you, this was no Dierks Bentley-type of crowd where you feel movement down below when you watch the ladies, but it definitely kept your interest as the evening wore on. More to come on the crowd later...
On to the show – Wicked Peach played a vast array of tunes spanning the 80s and 90s during three sets lasting over 3 hours. The 4 member band is solid and made up of 2 talented guitar players who both take lead vocals, a good but plain-looking bass player and a very skilled drummer. Here’s the cliff note summary... First the good – they played many tunes and nailed most and got the small but animated crowd dancing. The bad....they played so many tunes by so many artists that some weren’t so good - (as noted on many other Rock Logs, this is the main difference between a Tribute Band and a Cover Band).
There is a bad but common element to every cover band that I have seen – and it needs to be addressed. STOP playing Journey songs!! You can’t sing like Steve Perry - so don’t attempt “Don’t Stop Believin” or “Any Way You Want It” – the audience will survive without those tunes. Other sub-par Peach covers included Def Leppard & The Steve Miller Band – both musically fine, but vocally off.
Wicked Peach, however, did an excellent job with groups like Nirvana, Green Day, Sublime, Train, 3 Doors Down, Lincoln Park, Black Crows, and even a impressive version of Buck Cherry’s “Crazy Bitch”. Also, the dance floor was loaded with ladies for many songs highlighted by Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me” and Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl”. Some audience members were good dancers and enjoyable to watch – others probably would have been better served to boogie in their seats.
Last night we witnessed two guys who must have coconut sized cuhonas because they stepped up to the dance floor and fearlessly danced their own style without thought to what they looked like to the general public. First off – was a blubbery bearded rollie-pollie dude whose non-stop solo-4step-square dance attracted much attention - and to our amazement he ended up scoring a dance or two with a half-tanked woman. Next we saw the unceremonious return of Troy D – who, try as he might, couldn’t get one female to acknowledge him on the dance floor for the whole evening despite his ghetto-type hand gestures and Italian looking swagger.
We watched a good band last night and remained safely away from the dance floor – perhaps we are nutless, but we walked away satisfied and with our pride.
Randall
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