Coming to you from the studios at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66. It's the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast Hey everybody, it's Ray the roadie and this here is Hollywood Mike. Hi Mike.

I'm very excited tonight. Yeah, where are you excited? You'll never guess what happened to me. You're right.

I probably wouldn't do you're right It's something to do with your hair. No, no, I want a thousand bucks in the lottery No, lucky day. Really? I did.

How'd that happen? I don't know And it came up thousand bucks I was like, this is awesome that'll buy a nice bottle of bourbon. Oh, yeah Yeah, a real nice bottle bourbon. Yeah.

Yeah, they don't even get you like a hand-selected barrel proof pour Yeah, yeah, maybe I'll buy a barrel with it No way no Jack Daniels is four thousand dollars a barrel at at Costco. Okay, I gotta win some more lotteries I mean, I've heard not that I'm a lush right? No, I understand Understand that we're gonna be doing that later, right? Yeah promised you promised I guess we will definitely be doing bourbon later on. Okay, you know, it's not like the place we go to is members only Oh, that's true.

It's open to everybody. Yeah, maybe we can get members only to buy us one Yeah, but tonight We do have members only Loving the crowd loving the crowd. I mean, it's all dudes in the crowds all dudes in that crowd I don't know what that what's with that crowd.

Yeah, you even have a female eats it Well, I guess that would be the reason why it's all dudes. Yeah She's cute. The rest of you guys are ugly That's right We all got faces for radio son did somebody Leave a saucer of milk out or something.

Somebody seems to be coming back again and again Mr. McKenna, we can't get rid of them like that one sock So, I think that's a first I'm doing good I think that's a first For our first three Pete. Well, I'm gonna be here also in June and I believe I'm gonna be here in July So yeah, very good with you guys. No, no kidding.

So talk about an eclectic individual I mean you were here with the TD Clark band, right and you're here at your own band You're playing all kinds of different music to man's got to make a living. Yeah Why I do other things besides music Let me that makes sense how long you been with these guys The year and a half going on two years is two years. Yeah lead guitarist.

Obviously. Yes Yes, sir. And who do we have next? I'm Caleb Tullis and I play the keyboards I am the second version of the keyboard player and I've been with the band for two years Were you were you cloned or something exactly? Yeah, you have it.

Do you have a navel? I mean, are you born? Yeah, I mean what do you do when your navel itches and you don't have one yeah, I don't know Fortunately, I have a belly button and I check it It's a lint it's a lint magnet, but whatever that's right. Yeah, I came into the band During the Christmas season and the previous keyboard player Gave me a lot of training and I fell in love with the band and with the music with the crowd and with the venues And with the summer Activities and it just it went above and beyond. So that's that's why I'm sitting next to The guy who's been here three times because I want that to be me.

Yeah, there you go You know and his name isn't doc. We've had so many bands come in here The keyboard player is always named a doc. Mm-hmm always I think it's because of Prince in the Revolution.

Sure Yeah, we don't have stage names yet. Yeah. Yeah, but you will I mean you can't have an 80s band But I haven't some kind of weird name I'd like to go by Lisa Ford Right or Lisa Katera Like that too that means two things that could be a name and you could also go to your Cadillac dealer dealer and Lisa Katera Come on that was an 80s commercial you guys are an 80s band and you didn't pick up on that.

Where is your Well, you guys are too young but I know you probably remember the Cadillac commercial, you know, Lisa Katerin or some idiot that goes Who is Lisa Katera? That was an 80s commercial Yeah, and who do we have next I'm Izzy Campos. I've been with the band. I want to say like six months.

No, am I off not even six like three Okay, maybe like two and a half. So I'm like we'll meet right in the middle kind of deal Yeah, but yeah, honestly, it feels like it's been like a lot longer, you know, he must be the drummer Actually the vocalist believe it are you really yeah. Wow.

No, obviously I wasn't born in the 80s But you know my parents neither was those things that they introduced me to the music and I gotta say man It's uh, I like it more than what we have nowadays We're gonna get to that topic in a moment But before we get ahead of ourselves We're gonna go through and finish introducing everybody because that's the one thing that I want to talk about. Oh, it's making a comeback, baby Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, we're gonna talk about that.

So we have Lisa Ford Duna I joined about in December and I feel like I hit the ground running with these guys. I've had about Eight shows with them so far. So it's you are just a baby in the band then.

Yeah Yeah, I started right after he did actually did you guys? Did you just add a bunch of new music because she joined the band or did she start singing stuff you were already doing? Yes. Yes, they stay added. These guys are workhorses.

They added everything so fast There's a bunch a bunch of female songs because I'm their first female singer in the band. So they had to add a bunch of female female lead vocal songs What's your I'm sorry. So what's your what's your portion is of the setlist? What songs are you singing? Oh, I'm doing I'm doing material girl.

I'm doing kiss me deadly by Lita Ford 99 red balloons black velvet by Elena Miles. We're kind of hitting everything The rock the pop and little blues with that black velvet. So we just have a lot of fun with it Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, definitely Jones. Oh, you have to join. Of course those two.

Yeah. Yeah Yeah, I think that's a I think that's a lot. You're an 80s band female singer Pat Benatar.

Yeah Or We also do words by missing persons a little bit of a deeper cut Nobody does that nobody does that? I actually had that song on it as a 12-inch single back in the 80s when it was pressed for the first time Actually, I actually had that I was a DJ and I used it to mix in with other stuff and it went really well Wow, everybody would always come up to me and say what is that song? You know? Yes They were asleep Yeah, you can actually get like there's actually stuff on YouTube and then performing live they were actually a really good band and They were more of a rock band than an electronica band as they as they would come off as on a record really Excellent drummer. Yeah, Terry Basio. Yeah Lisa Lisa loves the Terry the Terry Yeah Yeah My name is Pete.

I'm the drummer. Mm-hmm, and I joined up when Paul asked me to audition on my birthday All right, and actually I got the job on my birthday. So I went home and There was a little cake waiting for me.

I said, hey guys, I'm in a rock band now. All right Yeah, that's pretty cool. Pretty cool.

Was it was it your first one? I mean it was my first birthday. No, no I Went Google Yeah, yeah. No, but you said it like it was your first band.

You'd ever been in. No. No, no, I've been in Probably a dozen or more Decent bands and nail them all quick 25.

Yeah Let's see Yeah, but no it was It was a good audition. It was fun in a typical audition in our basement you know the old the old style just jam out see what happens, but You know, this is a band that does its homework and like Lisa said we're workhorses we We we put a good thing together and we're we're working hard trying to make it even better Right, right. Excellent.

A lot of good additions. These two new singers have really brought Some some some good vibes to the to the scene and a lot of a lot of positives. Excellent Oh Pete should note that it is his house Where we rehearse and we call it the lair Okay, and for me it is a sacred space and not a single soul outside of this band has seen a picture of This space.

It's a very sacred place. No true. It is Yeah, the lair is is a really nifty place and you guys were bringing up bourbon Of course, we've got three or four separate bottles of bourbon down there of various types of the and the giant cubes, you know We we we know what to do with bourbon at the end of our rehearsals So does this gentleman too because you know when he was here with one of the other bands You know, they wanted to get their podcast released a little bit sooner.

So they brought us a bottle of Buffalo Traces kind of like payola And I'm guessing you were the founder of this band I yeah, I guess everyone kind of looks at me as the OG it's you know de facto leader just because you know, I actually started the band with Guy by the name of Stu Meyer who was our original keyboard player. He decided to take off for the Sunny Shores of Florida and that's how Caleb came into the band But yeah name sounds really familiar to me well Meyer, of course is a pretty common last name, but Yeah, I mean he was really kind of nude. It was his first band.

Okay, so he Stu still does some competent compositions He'll he has his what is it the the art score the art scores? Yeah, so he'll take and create original music either guitar or keyboard music Inspired by different pieces of art and he's got you know, he's on iTunes and other platforms with that particular outlet, right? He's a he's a talented guy for sure. I think Johnny Mathis did that Did he yeah, I wanna Lisa We yeah, you can you can do that actually You Know we keep Ray around cuz he adds the dad joke humor. That's right.

I'll be around all week Yeah, that's right. And you know, there's six of you in the studio. I Can I'm a musician as well so I can only really only count the four So I'm gonna forget all of your names Yeah, so I might be sure I'm you know, you might be hey you by the end of the podcast or wherever it whatever it Is but mr. Keyboard, I'm sorry Caleb Caleb Caleb So when you left the band, you said that the previous keyboard player kind of showed you a few things kind of yeah So it was so when I'll be showing the amicable parting of ways Yeah, no, it was I mean again with with Stu being a founder.

He was very much into Seeing this project continue, right? So when as he was leaving the band I mean he even sold Caleb his keyboard with all of the Programming. Well, I mean he was able to completely hit the ground running and You know Caleb's a tail on enough musician. I mean he has still had to learn the parts and everything but yeah A lot of that programming was done and I would mention Mike too because Mike was a singer for six years.

Yeah Yeah, like there's a revolving door. No Mike moved away five hours away and That's a long way to come for it's a long Right. Yeah, it was it's been a pretty stable platform.

I mean, you know for a while there we you know, we had Five piece it was it was very stable I mean like any band you have changes here and there people move away people, you know, just kind of fall out of it but this iteration I would say is probably the Gives us the most diversity For you know any any previous version we've had okay with Izzy's vocal range and then You know having a female singer in Lisa It just opens up a ton of doors for us to go in different directions and really, you know Pick songs that the crowd gets into and keep us inspired and you know can really to your point like we were talking earlier about you know hitting the festival circuit and Hitting the bigger bars and clubs and stuff, right, right and are you also the bass player in the band? I am excellent excellent. Now. I I'll admit when it comes to 80s bands in 80s music I am usually most intrigued with the keyboard player.

So I'm gonna pick on you the most because Man, you got to know your shit. I mean you really do and You know that it's not so much that it's not so much that it's a piano anymore. It's a computer.

Yeah Well, the goal that I always have is to find a really good drummer to put all the blame on We're speaking really highly of the the previous keyboard player and that's exactly who he was he was a really good programmer and Essentially taught me how to program and these guys know I've done my own programming with this band Mm-hmm. I would say I've done some really good programming on some really fun songs. Yeah One being Rio where you have a running arpeggiator and Iran.

Yeah For me and the way my brain works if there's three things going on at the same time and I have to Be in control of that and if there's a sudden hiccup or a stop that That gets my nerves going up just a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, it's fun.

Yeah. So what's your setup? I play a chord chrome. Okay, and I have a Yamaha MX 49 on top as I pretty much auxiliary sure just back up just in case or just some filler Okay.

Yeah, and then I play with a Key Largo pedal that has Multi-channel input that is really a secret mixer on the floor, right? Right. Yeah. Wow So you got everything kind of going on over there? Yeah.

Yeah, there's a huge spiderweb, right when I'm done setting up my keyboard Yeah. Oh, yeah, I bet and and so I'm I watched a couple of your videos and yeah in the whole bin saw this stuff and Because I've got this image in my head of you and the bands that you've been here with and I've heard the music that you've Played before and I'm thinking man. How do you go from that to just playing? 80s where it's almost You're almost like a minimalist.

I'd say and a lot of that 80s stuff Well, and if we can enhance it, we'll enhance it you know the one thing that You know all of us have seen so many of the 80s bands or different cover bands and how many of them are using tracks everything we're doing is 100% live right, you know, and So like a song like material girl There's plenty of space to be creative to do some of those keyboard parts, but on guitar, right? Right, right So does your guitar rig change at all with this band from other? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah completely Playing the same guitars or completely different guitars different guitars.

Yeah Wow and amplifiers as well yeah, they They kind of frown on amps so I Sneak a Fender Vibro Lux in okay, and I have pedals and things like that. But yeah Frown on amplifiers. Okay, you've just all right.

I hate everybody else in your band now except for you. No That was my goal This way I'll be back and they're done I guess because I just I can't do it. I mean, I mean, you know, I'm a guitar player There's no way I could perform without an amp.

It doesn't sound the same I don't care how much you think it does. It doesn't Yeah Importantly from it doesn't feel the same under the fingers either. That's that's a big thing for me It doesn't feel the same under the fingers.

But anyways, so I bring my own amp. I actually bring a microphone and Mike Yeah, yeah, I'm not doing an XR out. Yeah, right like, you know, a lot of the people are doing today, right? Right, right, right, right because I can tell the difference in that sound as well.

I I tried it one time and I was like Okay, I've got this beautiful amplifier Why do I want to use a direct box that has a modeling feature on it? So my beautiful lamp doesn't sound like my beautiful lamp anymore, you know That's that was the philosophy behind it. So well part of the reason Part of what we're doing and trying to create on stage again is this trackless operation, right? But also a super clean stage where in-ear monitors. We're not using any wedges It's a super clean look kind of like what the 80s was trying to create and in a way We've accomplished that there is an amp on stage and it sounds phenomenal And Brian is getting complimented literally at every gig about the tone and the quality that he's that he's playing but at the same time a nice clean look on stage without with a lot of stuff laying around and Trying to keep it as clean as possible is pretty much what we're trying to do so So on that note If you're concerned about the stage, but the appearance of the stage in the whole bit costumes or no costumes You playing a role For a long time we would come on stage with the jackets Okay, everyone had and I think everyone still has a members only jacket Okay, I still have mine tucked in the closet, but then you start sweating Yeah, okay you saw the jackets we're done yeah, right I mean that's usually the way it would run is we'd get about three songs in all of a sudden those things are coming off I think in the you know, especially once Caleb joined the band You know, he bought a jacket, but then we're like, what are we doing here? We got it.

We got it. We got to spice things up a little bit So I think we've all kind of picked up different kind of personas. Yeah in terms of you know, what we're doing you know, I have a You've seen the pictures.

I have a vest that has patches for all Different bands we're doing and you know Brian looks like a ZZ top guy with sunglasses and stuff and every day. Sure. Yeah You know Caleb a lot of times words like a jumpsuit or you know Devo yeah, buddy calls me Devo.

There you go. Yeah, you're shaming. No, yeah, that's actually that's actually a Cool persona to take on something like that cuz real simple just go down to the auto parts store and get lean like a one-piece jumper Yeah, no, he doesn't need the hat but I mean you don't need it but it would add to it Yeah, talk about being comfortable.

Yeah, you don't even have to wear underwear in that Yeah, there weren't hats they were energy domes I stand corrected. Wow. I mean he's like nerd now right in front of our eyes He's like really into the 80s music.

Yeah, I knew that. Yeah Wow energy don't they don't circuit their music anymore But they do circuit the energy domes So you guys have you guys haven't been in the band very long where that so you've been how long you said well Maybe six months six months may if that and you bought a members-only jacket Actually, no not yet. I did buy a lot of stuff.

Where the hell you gonna find a members-only jacket now You got a eBay or something Man There are some people buying I don't see Lisa wearing a members-only jacket though No, I have my own like my own outfits and fun costumes. I mean, it's the it was the 80s For women, I mean their leg warmers their lace gloves beaded necklaces Everything's so colorful. Don't fool yourself a lot of fun.

Don't fool yourself guys wore that stuff in the 80s They probably shared with their girlfriend Yeah, it's it's definitely a fun I I don't even want to find pictures of myself in the 80s I actually actually truth be told back in the 80s. My hair was longer than yours I'm growing it and I'm trying to embody it and I had I had a pair of red Parachute pants and my first guitar was a hot pink washburn with one knob and one humbucker That's and and and and people told me people told me that I looked like Vito Brada from White Lion Because my hair is naturally curly when it's longer So it you know and girls used to always feel like do you do you get like a spiral perm? No, this is just my hair, baby I Run your fingers through it. I've got a picture of you with makeup and nail polish.

Yeah, I was wearing makeup and nail polish I did there like a lot of those 80s from just recently recent women's section to you know, yeah It it happens But uh, yeah makeup and nail polish. I was in a band in 77 called star trooper. Oh gosh, so buddy Wiggleman and You know and the boys but anyway star trooper and one remember that one-armed bandit remember one-armed and it was an offshoots star trooper, okay went on tour with those guys in Michigan and Southern, Illinois and stuff for a little while and You know all of us had spandex outfits and wear and I make up and sweating our butts off it's just unbelievable unbelievable, but I Digress.

Yeah. No, that's Because you really have to talk those people those of us who lived through the 80s I mean, I graduated from high school in 1988. I grew up in the 80s It was it was awesome time and you can't jump over The adventures you would go through trying to take leather pants off after you've been sweating all day long Nothing was nothing was more difficult to remove than leather pants except for parachute pants Parachute pants will literally stick to your body.

Oh, yeah Yeah that material that material yeah, so we started getting on a conversation a little bit earlier about 80s music is coming back Right. Yeah, and it is it is so expand that then since you started it expand on it. I Just noticed that a lot of my friends especially nowadays.

They're they're just turning on the older beats, you know It's really nothing much else to it for me Yeah, like just me like my parents and everybody else. It's just it's so good, you know, right? There's a time that like really embodied creativity a lot more rather than Mass production like we see nowadays, right, you know And again, you were focusing on the on the keyboard side of things in this melodic situation You know, the the 80s is sometimes frowned upon but to be honest I Wasn't a huge 80s fan until I joined the band and then I started to dive into some of these tunes, right and they are Incredibly melodic. There's a great bunch of vocal professionals in that decade Thousands of songs that are really potentially danceable enjoyable wonderful to sing and play drumming Again maybe not Metal maybe not as intense as some of the metallic stuff that we see but at the same time the nuances That's what that's that's what it's been about for me is in terms of drumming is finding those little nuances those little pieces of fills That people recognize and really add to the song trying to be as accurate as possible I think that's been the mantra of our band essentially create as accurate a reproduction of the song as possible Mm-hmm, so I get asked to join 70s cover bands occasionally and I think about it for five minutes and then I go I'd be so bored playing the same patch for a three-hour gig and one thing I love about this band is I have close to 130 different patches and it's just Not to mention Pete and I are probably working Just we're the ones sweating our butts off The keyboard player and the and the drummer are working very hard and in an 80s cover band with no tracks Yeah, that needs to be the title of this podcast, by the way We're like There might be like an electronic Drum track and in the original song and once Pete gets his his beat going he will He will keep it through consistently through the whole song.

And yeah Well, thank so there's something else as well I want to bring up to why another big reason 80s is making a big comeback Because we see so much of it in pop culture nowadays like you just a lot of TV shows like what like stranger things like They're bringing all that older music back and now you have this younger generation Listening to that and they're like, you know what? We like this music more than what we're listening to right now. Mm-hmm So just a lot of things that we see, you know on the internet on TV all those kinds of things More and more people are becoming becoming aware of it than ever before So great. Yeah, you know, I saw a very interesting documentary.

I was in Philadelphia earlier earlier this week and I flew home yesterday and It's not a long flight So I'm looking at the the free television programs and movies and stuff like that and I came across one thing The only reason I picked it was because it was an hour and 29 minutes long Yeah, I wanted to be able to I wanted to be able to finish something and not go home and I didn't see me into That right and it was the documentary about Donna Summer And and it was so unbelievably interesting. I was enthralled in it number one She went, you know, she went through so much throughout her life But the music that she was doing in the 70s to this day Anybody that's trying to do any type of electronic sampling Learned from the people produced that produced all of those Donna Summer albums back in the in the late 70s and into the early early 80s all you have to do is listen to like the song on bad girls, but Donna Summer and Where you've got that driving it's it's a sound that's not made by any instrument known to man it's just like this kachuka thing with a lot of reverb over and over and They there was a section where they pulled that track out of the song and the song fell apart There was nothing there was nothing to this and then they put that back in again And that was like the glue that hold the entire song together And then they started playing all kinds of other songs like, you know, here's that sound again. Here's that sound again? Here's that sound again? And they went all the way through two songs that have been on the radio within the past like three years That all have that sound in there.

Yeah, so there's so there's a common thread in there for sure and and I think of in terms like Not so much the electronic type music. I don't even know what they would have called it in the 80s But today we call it electronic music, right? Yeah I'm thinking more of the the rock and roll type kind of stuff from the 80s is Is the stuff that you're hearing now more frequently on the radio for sure, you know And we've been working on that as well. I mean, we're we're we're running the gamut literally Depeche Mode erasure Bon Jovi poison It's all over the map for what we're trying to do.

We're really trying to give the audience I've likened us to in a sense and I said this before We're we're essentially an 80s tribute band. We're paying tribute To the music that was played during that decade, right? There are a lot of guys that are out there that you know What every tons of bands that are out there just basically focusing on a single group Maybe intermixing a couple of other bands in their sets, right? But essentially we're a banjo we were guns and roses were whatever. Mm-hmm We're essentially paying tribute to a decades worth of material and picking things from all over Those those ten years and finding ways to get it done accurately and making people happy in a sense creating a I Don't know what jukebox.

Yeah of music for them to choose from right? They never know what we're gonna do We we we rerun about 90 songs roughly and we choose 36 or so for for a night for lucky. Mm-hmm. So, you know, it's constantly mesh In fact Paul's set lister are essentially pulled out of auto He pushes play on a computer and it creates a set list for us and we might tweak it a little bit But that's it.

Right. We just do those songs that night, right? Yeah, we are really, you know and with having two new singers We have about a 90 song catalog. Okay we've recently kind of taken a different approach to how we structure our set lists and Kind of look at What songs are more popular and you know try to pick more of those? But the Pete's point.

Yeah, I'm basically just running stuff out of a spreadsheet with a random number generator and it's like These are the songs that we're gonna do for, you know, maybe not every gig But every couple gigs were changing stuff up, right and we're trying to get to the point where you know You come out to see us This this this Friday you come see us next month. It's gonna be a completely different show. Sure you know, I think that as as As a as a band nowadays if you're playing in, you know The Chicagoland area overall whether you're up in Lake County or out and you know DuPage County or down south someplace as you hit those areas again, even if it's not at the same venue You got to mix it up, you know a lot of those those tribute bands where it's like, hmm, you know You have a short set list.

So every time you see him, you're gonna hear the same songs You know, and that's one of the other things too, I think that's Hopeful was not relying on tracks is just it allows us to do that. Every show can be different because it's not a Set sequence, right? Yeah. Well, I think it's the perfect time to hear one of those songs.

I think we should okay Why don't we let him get set up and we'll be right back should be quite interesting. Actually, you're listening to the rock-and-roll Chicago podcast I'm Christy from crime cave podcast I've had a huge interest in true crime since my days of watching marathons of snapped back in the mid 90s I needed an outlet to talk about the cases that have haunted me for a very long time With each episode under 20 minutes. I shine a light on some of the most bizarre cases in the last 50 years Join me in the crime cave Hi, I'm Rick Anthony I'd like to thank my radio brothers Ray the roadie and Hollywood Mike for allowing me to tell you about my podcast The someone you should know podcast we spotlight musicians authors and interesting people and we like to say we're making a difference one artist at a time The podcast is heard twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays and you could check it out on your favorite streaming platforms and on the web At someone you should know podcast.com. That's the someone you should know podcast with me Rick Anthony Making a difference one artist at a time and for the first time tonight members only Oh It's the terror of knowing what this world is about I Gotta go get my parachute pants on I'm not helping you take them off Boy that was that was uh, okay.

I would have never put those two songs together. No, that was awesome. Pretty cool.

Yeah, nice job Brian Brian creates the magic typically it's it's he's a fantastic musician. He's a magician because he's been here three times. Yeah, right Yeah Musician or magician you said he's a magician Physician Yes You know, my hearing is not what it used to be, you know, I don't know stop picking on me I think it might be a magician.

I'm tricking everybody could be Maybe he's a mathematician because he's been here three times. No, he's not He's been here three times But he's never been in the lair with a bottle of bourbon. That's interesting You know that whole thing that he did with you guys bringing in that bottle of bourbon.

That's Remember that well, it actually wasn't his idea. He was just he was bourbon adjacent He was bourbon adjacent now that was good That was I never really would have thought putting those two songs together Yeah, you guys perform that that way in your show or do you just don't tell me you guys went to the lair and rehearse that just for us We we generally do I mean we're not really an acoustic act Although, you know, I think with some of the stuff we've done recently, maybe we'll start splitting off and doing some some, you know duo and trio gigs, but Yeah Yeah. Yeah, it's always an option so Yeah, it's we do perform those It's obviously a little bit more True to form a lot more keyboards, you know, sure.

Of course, of course You know, but right before we took the break we were talking about, you know, the different different stuff that you guys do and What I was kind of thinking of is you almost have to do that I I think I think you almost really have to do that because you know when people talk about 80s music There's so many different things. Some people will imagine, you know stuff like Human League and Pet Shop Boys and a lot of electronic driven music But then also in the 80s you had singer-songwriters like like Dan Dan Vogelberg, right, you know, and then you had real heavy metal Then you had hair metal which wasn't the same right and then you had Bands like Bon Jovi who they tried to call them heavy metal, but never in the world like the arena rock You know, you know heavy metal that was you know arena rock. Yeah, that'd be a good thing to say arena rock Right there was certainly I mean and I mean I would I wouldn't put Bon Jovi in a class where they kind of started off As a hair metal band or hair band, right? They kind of ascended to that arena, you know Or they and they sure they tried to like I remember when they tried to turn Guns and Roses into a hair metal band and Axl Rose came out with all kinds of aquanet in this poof tear and he Decided he to walk off the stage He said nope not gonna do it Yeah, I mean well and and you know, honestly that's in in terms of everything we've talked about and all those different genres I mean when you look at how we market the band, it's you know, it's hair New wave and pop rock and that's kind of how we you know, put things out there I think that covers a lot of the bases in terms of The genres that would be Popular I mean not to say that Dan Fogelberg would be wouldn't be popular But I don't see we a whole lot of you know, women going out and having some drinks and dancing to Dan Fogelberg Should have a wow factor though, you know, yeah, I mean just after you've just jumped everybody up and down and then you slow it down Longer than See now you're on to something see now you're writing this stuff down.

Yeah. Yeah, that means we'd have to give you a royalty though This band really does have a vision though of the ultimate 80s band or the ultimate dance party because you're dancing to Probably what 80 to 90 percent of our tunes definitely all night and You're you're definitely getting a break on your ears through a handful of our songs We do a couple slow songs throughout the night or just we slow it down So people can go grab a drink or if they want to do a slow dance But this is the ultimate dance party. You're you're gonna remember something.

We bring a bunch of glow sticks Yeah, of course, yeah, you have to you have to why why not and if you guys aren't doing it as a slow ballad You absolutely have to always by climax Yeah, it's a duet, you know in that song was like at the top of the charts for how many friggin weeks Probably became one of the most popular wedding songs in the 80s and it was actually a really good song I had that 45 free if you guys that's a that's a that's a black disc Parents had a little whip it by Devo 45. That was probably the only 45 I saw that they had Wow We had a gig yesterday and Why we had people after it was a private event down in normal, Illinois and we had people afterward come up and they're like Oh, wow, you played that song and then you played that song. I can't believe like you played everything like example We we went from like jump to like let's go crazy We had 99 red balloons and then we did enjoy the silence by Depeche Mode So we were like just everywhere and just everyone was just loving it and having a good time And we love to see people just having a great time.

Mm-hmm, so Kind of like a radio station yeah, yeah, and the great thing about having it as like a dance party is when everybody goes on the dance floor and You see everybody dancing and you know, you try to give off that energy Right, and then they kind of bring that right back to you. So it's kind of just like You know that relationship with the crowd like each everybody's driving each other's energy. So with the whole dance party thing, you know I really enjoy that part.

Yes, we were reflecting energy much like Caleb's shiny little Devo suit Yeah Yeah, last night was a great great crowd. Yes. I like what you said Is he just we're and Pete said this many times, but we're trying to bring the crowd on stage as much as possible You know not not physically, but yeah, take take my mic.

Yeah, sing a song. Go ahead Yeah, just come on stage with us. You're part of this too.

Yeah, and When you catch a glimpse of that and whether when they catch a glimpse of that, it's it you're making a memory Right then and there and so are they and yeah, I have made some of the best memories of my life in this band Oh for sure. He's so lovey-dovey Right, he is right we have we've had a hell of a lot of fun with this team and it's it's it's getting it's getting better It's getting better and better. It is getting better these two added singers have just been a ball of fun and learning material girl and Programming it and learning some of these songs I didn't think I'd be able to play and this band has just been a whole new world of opportunities Izzy sounds just like Queen or Steve Perry.

Mm-hmm, and And That's always a shocker to the crowd when we do don't stop believing by journey and the lights come on and everybody everybody is on the dance floor that song and Yeah Even like the homeless people outside they like they hear that song Well, what else have you prepared for us because I think we should hear a little bit more Just like heaven, okay All right, you will be right back. You're listening to the rock and roll Chicago podcast Hey, it's Ray and Mike and we got some great information for you Yeah, we just wanted to remind you about the fundraiser for the Illinois rock and roll museum on route 66 Which is taking place on October 27th at the Renaissance Center in downtown Joliet You'll be able to get tickets at Cadillac groove shows if you see Mike or myself somewhere will have tickets you can get them at Museum they're only $5 also at Cadillac groove calm You will be able to purchase them online as well. Very good.

They're gonna cost you $5 a ticket There's gonna be a $10 cover charge to get in the day of the event and for your $10 We will give you two more additional tickets as well as some Cadillac groove swag and the lucky grand prize winner will win the band Cadillac groove and winner must be present to win and remember that and Cadillac groove will play for whatever event It is that you would like for us to play for you know conditions to apply. That's true We do get out there and get your tickets right away And now for the second time tonight members only Oh I Love I Like that and you gotta played a little bit of something for everybody that's right That's what I like about it. That was good.

That's good, but you guys can all sing too, man I wonder what it's like to be in a band where everybody sings Pretty pretty scary when you've got in-ear monitors You're listening to it all, you know, you're hearing it all. Yeah crazy. Yeah, and then sometimes, you know You have the band members.

They just try to mess you up on purpose and they'll do stuff like oh I love rock and roll. We were doing a sound check and he kept on kept doing like a whistle like a gym whistle And I had to try my hardest not to laugh just goofing around. Thanks, Caleb.

Yeah, we're having so much fun Yeah, Brian and I occasionally untie each other's shoes on live stages, you know, just just in case You really want to have some fun just have your sound guy put a microphone up for somebody in the band But only the sound person and that one person knows about it And while you're all performing they can just like turn over to that microphone and like start telling you a joke or something That always makes I mean you should I mean honestly like Good example is some of the shenanigans that happen when we play fight for your right? Oh, yeah Good lord on stage or off stage on stage. Yeah, like these two are Push We don't like each other he's a guitar player. I'm a keyboard player.

I don't want to be on stage But he's been here three times You won't be here a second time Keep it up. You might not leave this room No, that's good, you know, you have to have that chemistry it's called show business. Yeah, right You got it.

You got to show the party and show the fun as well. Yeah for sure So you guys have quite a few dates what's going on? What do you guys have coming up in September? What do you have? Yeah, we're really busy August was awesome you guys rocked it we read all those shows we need September though Oh We got to think about September's a work in progress. I think now because he's gonna be you know, leaving and going out of town Yeah, so when it does come come around where can people? find your So you are our full schedule is always online at www.members only 80s band.com you can also find us on Facebook at Members only 80s band as well as Instagram members only 80s band We don't really have a whole lot of footprint on Twitter slash X at this point, but Seems like you know Twitter and X are kind of a more of a movie star and you know Millennial kind of platform.

I think a lot of our fans are more like You know the 40-something crowd 40 50-something crowd Yeah, you can go to buy space right yeah, yeah, yeah, right Yeah, so It's it's amazing though. I mean I say that I mean our main demographic is certainly that kind of 40 to 50 maybe in the early 60-something. Yeah, but quite honestly to Izzy's point you come to our shows and the 20 and 30 somethings are certainly Partying.

Yeah It was It was a bunch of people like my age bunch of Millennials like 20s 30s And they had it they had an 80s party going on everybody was in their 80s garb, and it was just good time, so Yeah Ladies are definitely back. We've got some some rabid fans that are bringing Table mounted Fluorescent something or others Flamingos that are you know with we know who they are we're looking through the through the lighting and suddenly on the day It's like they're flamingo girl and her pals are here, okay? You know so it's it's it's been very interesting to see the the demographics We're getting a lot of younger people and again. You know they're they're just coming to have a good time It's it that's all we're interested in in doing creating a good time Having people reminisce a little bit have fun do some dancing follow us there We've got a little over 4 some 4,000 followers an hour, so it's been building up over time it's just a matter of keeping on going and And and and creating an atmosphere of fun right this is not blow your ears out You know you get absolutely nuts and and and you know mosh pit action We're talking about get on the dance floor have some fun with your hubby or your girlfriends.

Enjoy it some time Go home and say man. I just lost me man. I want to mosh pit and blow my ears Just like that head banging thing you know so sometimes I do go overboard You know with the energy that I bring you know so you know sometimes I got a tune that back last night doing flips Yeah, so it's like it's definitely like a change of pace doing this is more like Laying back more of a groove.

Yeah, or as you know you know we're probably so that like yep Yeah, go nuts, but you're right. I mean everybody loves an 80s party I just watched the movie you know few nights ago You know maybe about a week ago or so and I can't remember I think rebel Wilson was in the movie or something like that, but somebody got invited to a party And she goes no way I hate that bitch next time. I see her.

I'm gonna cut her she goes, but it's an 80s party She goes what time does it start? Hey, you guys should find that clip somewhere and start your show with that I Wish I could think of the movie. I wish I could think of the movie I'm pretty sure it was it was with rebel Wilson something about one of her girlfriends broke up with I'm sure we can ask Siri And she'll be able to tell us Well hey we I had a lot of fun with you guys so did I thanks for being here I'm gonna have a hell of a time getting these parachute pants off after they're gone It is what it is yeah, all righty guys, thanks for coming out. This is a lot of fun.

Yeah, thank you Yeah, thanks for having us For sure man, I'm sweating through my parachute pants. Oh gag me with a spoon Maybe that was the 70s That was definitely the 70s. Yeah, that definitely was she yeah Wait was that just an Edith Bunker imitation.

Yeah, I tried. Yeah, I tried a very poor one Poor one that was great. Yeah, those guys sounded good I mean we got six people in the studio.

That's uh, I think that's our maximum capacity I think that's the closest I ever sat to you in my life Yeah, but It was great. They sounded really good, and they got a good thing going there man. It's like like I said It's like a radio station.

Yeah, you know what I have to admit I had a preconceived notion of what another 80s cover band is gonna sound like mm-hmm But they're doing a little bit of everything a little bit of everything. Yeah, so it's not just all that, you know Electronic stuff right people think of or associated with the 80s, right? They forget you forget there's other stuff out there, too Yeah, right now. Yeah, so that was great So thanks for listening and make sure you join every Tuesday for another exciting episode of the rock and roll Chicago podcast See you next week Hey everybody, it's Ray the roadie and this is Hollywood Mike of the rock and roll Chicago podcast If you've been joining our weekly program We have great news for you just tune in to road to rock radio on Mondays at 7 p.m Central time and you can hear a rebroadcast of one of our past episodes then again on Thursdays at 7 p.m You can hear our most current episode brought to you by the Illinois rock and roll museum on Route 66 So go to road to rock org scroll down and click on radio station That'll bring you to the road to rock radio a station committed entirely to the great music from Illinois from Chicago blues born on Maxwell Street To today's rock and roll and everything in between 24-7 all music with its roots in, Illinois The rock and roll Chicago podcast is edited by Paul Martin theme song courtesy of M&R rush The rock and roll Chicago podcast does not own the rights to any of the music heard on the show The music is used to promote the guests that are featured