Last Band Standing proudly encourages what the Onion used to call “the despicable practice of drinking” on both sides of the stage. Fans join band members in rounds of shots to see who can drink the most and still maintain their dignity, or at least follow a set list. Hell, just remembering how to play their songs in the face of adversity, otherwise known as whiskey, is sometimes enough for a win. After missing LBS IV for a rather silly reason and not remembering much of LBS III, I was determined to make a better showing this year. Despite nursing just two glasses of wine the entire night, my bar tab was nearly $40. Such is the way of Last Band Standing.
Who actually “wins” is always a subject of much debate. This year my vote would go to the Runners Up. Playing their last official show as a band, they were given more shots than a college kid on their 21st birthday. I’m actually surprised the High Noon had enough shot glasses. We were actually responsible for the first round, buying any after that would have just been cruel. As the buyers taunted them to drink, the band begged for mercy. “After this song, I’ll do two, I promise,” singer/guitarist Erika begged (it should be noted she was last year’s winner, even though she didn’t play), while Bob Koch just stared them down, “Can’t you people see I am already drunk?” In fact the only member of the band who didn’t seem to mind the wealth of alcohol was nothing-but-trouble bassist James Leaver. “Who said we don’t want any more shots?” he laughed, downing two more.
Despite the fact that Bob claims to not even remember most of what happened on stage, they still sounded great. I’m going to miss their ridiculously poppy songs and enthusiasm. At least they put out a CD that captures their quirky, irrepressible charm earlier this year, and the girls in the band have already formed a new venture the Hemlines, sure to feature a few Runners Up songs. At one point their protest led them to ask why they hadn’t done this to the previous two bands, Goat Radio and Shazy Hade. Other than the obvious fact that neither of them were playing their last show, the other answer was that the audience wasn’t that drunk during their sets. “Looks like you caught up,” James laughed at Goat Radio’s John Wiedenhoeft as he stumbled on stage, I’m assuming to defend his band’s honor. I don’t even think he said anything before stumbling off again.
I think that’s why they like to play first, during Goat Radio’s set he was not only coherent, but quite chatty, giving several of his trademark, rambling introductions to their songs. It had been a long time since their last show (June), but the rust didn’t show. Songs like “Nadine” and “Hell on Wheels” were still barn burning rockers, but disappointingly there weren’t any new songs in the set. I know Wied has been job hunting since being laid off from the State Journal, but c’mon; he hasn’t had time to put together the artwork for the CD that they released last year at Last Band Standing? As a world class procrastinator myself even I have to be impressed by that. The good news is that they seem to be back on track as far as playing shows and already have a happy hour show booked for February.
The first time I saw Shazy Hade they were inexplicably the first band on a bill that Okkervil River was headlining. I had enjoyed Eric Shinker’s (Shinky) previous band, the booze-loving, Robert Pollard-channeling New Recruits the one time I saw them, but the best thing about Shazy Hade that night had to be their name. A too loud, too long set had scared me away from them ever since. I was hoping they would be better tonight, and they were. Most of the songs were ranting three minute pop songs, and in between, well, there was more ranting. As he babbled about how we should all get out and take a walk every once in awhile and about how happy he was to be there on January 17th (it was the 16th), I spent most of the set trying to figure out why I didn’t hate it.
The Motorz have been on hiatus even longer than Goat Radio, playing what they kept calling a farewell show at a MAMA after party back in May. As this show approached, lead singer/songwriter Kyle Motor insisted they weren’t even going to do any Motorz songs, they were just going to do Cheap Trick covers all night. While I can’t think of any band that could have actually pulled that off better than the Motorz, I would have been disappointed if that’s all they had done, and I found myself singing long to all of their much-loved songs about girls, cars and summer. They finally did get around to doing perhaps the ultimate Cheap Trick song toward the end of their too-short set. Despite the fact that the cheers were obviously louder for a Motorz song during an informal poll, Kyle insisted “Surrender” had won.
The Motorz have broken up once before, but with a new line-up and a show in front of an enthusiastic crowd I am hoping that maybe they will realize once again that they are all on the same page. While he isn’t as good a guitar player as he was a drummer, the completely adorable Josh Motor seems to be having even more fun than he did before. Watching the enthusiasm of the new drummer, who is “playing in his favorite band,” I have to hope they start playing shows again. It just doesn’t seem to be fair to him if they don’t.
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