My wife and I went to see the Spazmatics in concert the other night. They're a cover band that dresses up in vintage 1980s geekwear and covers the New Wave hits that were the soundtrack of our youth.
We discussed whether our enjoyment of such fare made us as pathetic as my in-laws, who listen primarily to KRTH (an oldies station) and go to see old guys dress up in leather jackets and ducktails to sing 50s and 60s doo-wop songs. I said no, because we were only enjoying the concert ironically.
We both know that 80s music is the epitome of rock and roll, and as proud members of the Reagan youth (kids who grew up with jelly beans in the oval office, not young Republicans) we still get chills for the B-52s and Oingo Boingo, but we don't limit our listening to nostalgia radio. We still listen to and buy new music, and KROQ is still my primary preset.
Am I protesting too much? Perhaps. But there's one thing I know is true: listen to all the Yellowcard, The Game, and Gwen Stefani you want -- they'll never match up to Social Distortion, Run DMC, and Cyndi Lauper.
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They're huge, apparently -- this is their full-time job. I've fixed the spelling of their name... [whoops]. I think they play all over the country.
Actually, there are several different "Spazmatics" groups who are owned by the same production company (they say they're all "cousins"). As of this post, I only know of three, however. The CA group performs every Friday night at Universal City Walk (unfortunately their last show of the summer season is 8/26), every Saturday at Sunset Sation in Henderson NV (about 20 minutes from Vegas) and every Sunday at The Dragonfly Bar in Hollywood. The TX Spazmatics perform in the Fort Worth area and the OH Spazmatics perform in the Toledo area. Thus far, I have only been able to find a website for the TX group (www.thespazmatics.net). I live in the LA area and have seen the group only twice, with the second time being tonight (8/19) and they put on a great show. "Kevin" the lead vocalist has an incredible voice and is assisted by 3 very talented musicians (bass, guitar, drummer). Being that they have no horns or keyboards, I have to believe their performance is electronically enhanced by a synthesizer. Don't let that discourage you as their sound man is apparently equally as talented as the musicians as everything blends together nicely and before you know it, you're singing along to the likes of Aha's "Take On Me" and Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax".
I had The Spazmatics play a private party for me up in Northern California last year and they were awesome. They had parents out of their seats dancing and others stage diving off of flower pots. It was awesome. I first ran across The Spazmatics in Los Angeles, at a night club called Dragon Fly I believe, and it was packed. People were spraying beer all over the place, it was nuts!!! If you are having a party soon, and are looking for a band, these are the ones' you want.
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