Thursday, Jan. 22 2009
Strange sounds in even stranger combinations, The Turf Club’s first run at a Joke Band Festival was totally weird and still somewhat entertaining. Musician Sean McPherson of Heiruspecs recruited the evening’s five-band lineup by intriguing folks to put together the band they’ve always dreamed of creating while highly intoxicated. The results: a three-man doo-wop band, two friends oozing with platonic love, solid raps with not so solid back-up vocals, a harmonious female county trio and an emo goth band.
Each band had 10 minutes of stage time to wow the crowd with either humor or pure talent. Some were successful while others were simply confusing. Here’s a quick review of each:
Dude Wop- Three dudes with beards, each in a white suit coat and bow tie singing classic 1950s do-wop. Musician Martin Devaney was part of the trio, as well as a man who dropped the ‘f bomb’ every three seconds. Songs included “Chapel of Love”, “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” and the bassist’s moment of glory, “Blue Moon.”
Jus Friends- A sappy duo of bffs singing songs about what else but friendship. The guy was a total reminder of Napoleon Dynamite’s brother Kip, both in looks and nerdy personality. While he was introducing a song, an audience member yelled “shut up, you suck.” Instead of getting angry, he told ‘Bill’ to “hit it” as he promised to “touch your heart a little.” The friends sang “I’ll Be There”, Fievel Goes West tune “Somewhere Out There” and the Family Ties theme song “Without Us.”
Twinkie Jiggles (aka Sean McPherson of Heiruspecs) – Photo by CR
Twinkie Jiggles & MCTC – Mr. McPherson got on stage with the mic in hand, spitting some awesome raps with little Devaney being a creep by his side. McPherson’s vocals were definitely worth a serious listen but Devaney’s purposefully high pitched Sesame Street voice was a hilarious distraction, especially during the freestyle battle when he said, “I just wanna have sex” and something about taking his pants off.
Poontwang- Three ladies backed by a full band. Not a country fan myself, this group sounded far too much like a real group to be funny and/or pleasant. One of the singers wrote an original song for the group, but once again, it was just to legit to be a joke.
BOK- Metal maybe? Goth perhaps? Emo rock? Not sure if the band really knew what was going on either. The four piece consisted of a bass, a big man playing tiny keys and a drummer wearing a Mexican-wrestler death mask. Uber dramatic, slow and way too loud, the only vocals I managed to hear were, “you are all going to die.”
