The Totally Tubular Festival we got tickets for in January started in Seattle on the 26th of June. Recently, I saw that the story I ran on the festival had been getting a lot of hits in the PPM dashboard. I imagined it was because the shows had begun, but eventually, I got the notion to perhaps head to the tour’s home page to see if there was any new data I should be aware of. When I got there I was surprised to see that there had been a small shakeup in the tour’s lineup.
Unfortunately, The Romantics had to bow out of the tour due to an “unforeseen medical situation.” Yikes, I hope whatever it is passes quickly. I was disappointed to see that since their hooky Garage Rock was one of the balancing flavors in the Tubular stew. Is there anyone who doesn’t like hearing “What I Like About You?” I can’t imagine it. So to cover on late notice, two other bands have been recruited to work into the schedule. Both are acts with Record Cell representation, so it’s still a good thing.
THE TUBES
The Tubes have the Romantics slot in the front end of the tour, with the band playing from the start in Seattle, up until the Washington D.C. show on July 14th. I have to say that as much as I was looking forward to hearing “What I Like About You,” I’m also looking forward to hearing the iconic “White Punks On Dope.” The $64,000 question is… will Quay Lewd be singing it onstage??! I would imagine that in this kind of package tour, there might not be room for the traditional “production values” that usually typified a classic Tubes performance. Fee Waybill’s Glitter Rock God of a frontman character is baked into the artistic DNA of The Tubes…will they capitulate to the demands of a multi-act lineup? Join us next week in the aftermath. Meanwhile, here are the dates where The Tubes will be featured on the tour.
- June, 25 – Seattle, WA
- June 27 – Sacramento, CA
- June 28 – Santa Barbara, CA
- June 29 – Los Angeles, CA
- June 30 – Oakland, CA
- July 3 – Phoenix, AZ
- July 6 – Denver, CO
- July 9 – Irving, TX
- July 10 – Houston, TX
- July 12 – Huntsville, AL
- July 13 – Raleigh, NC
- July 14 – Washington D.C.
WANG CHUNG
Meanwhile, I will be just missing seeing Wang Chung for the first time since The London Victory Club in Ybor City in May of ’87 by… that much! We went with Mr. Ware then, and his drumming buddy Ray, to see the band who had just exploded with their number two smash, “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” a few months prior. While that song is a given in their set, I was really hoping to hear “To Live + Die In L.A.,” a near-hit [#41, sadly] of theirs that has grown in my esteem over the years with it’s diamond-cut elegance representing what the band means to me more than the pop hits. The Chung will be playing in the following dates of the Totally Tubular Festival.
- July 16 – Bridgeport, CT
- July 17 – Boston, MA
- July 18 – New York, NY
- July 19 – Atlantic City, NJ
- July 20 – Bushkill, PA
- July 23 – Montreal, Canada
- July 24 – Toronto, Canada
- July 26 – Detroit, MI
- July 27 – Cincinnati, OH
- July 28 – Cleveland, OH
In any case, let’s be thankful that the promoters have picked sensible replacement acts and wish the best of luck and health to The Romantics. Against all odds for this sort of thing, I still like all of the bands in the tour’s lineup; a small miracle for a retro 80s tour.
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Post-Punk Monk 
Nearly re-haired Thomas Dolby is doing one of these and I have seen video of his set on social media and if these are complete (and they appear to be) that’s a really short set.
I’d be game for the HoJo, Haircut 100 and ABC triple header myself. Still think they should do a three way medley for the encore all together: Things Can Only Get Better/Fantastic Day/Brighter Than The Sun – break out the bics!
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Tim – Setlist.fm (I peeked) has all of the acts in the 5-7 cut length with Tom Bailey getting a full hour. I was kind of hoping that Dolby and Bailey would get 45-60 min each. But I’m still happy to see Men Without Hats with 7 songs. I’ll happily pay my (low) ticket fee just for that. Not to mention Annabella Lwin doing six excellent Bow Wow Wow tunes. Thrilled at what she’s working into the set. I’m sacrificing kittens so I get to hear “W.O.R.K!” And I think that Dolby’s Hair is a potential band name!
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TDMR is opening with covers of Blue Monday and Heroes and then doing the major US hits, so if you want to hear SCIENCE! and Hyperactive your bases are covered. No deep cuts here.
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hello tim,
i disagree, its been so long that most people don’t know europa and the pirate twins, or one of our submarines, unless you’re a huge fan.
yes, hyperactive wasn’t that big of hit either.
still, they were all cool reworkings, and he was able to recreate the sounds very effectively for his own music.
later
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ne gative1
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I saw The Tubes several times in the 80s. Their own auditorium shows were just tremendous fun! The one time I saw them at a multi-artist stadium show (Santana, Journey, Ronnie Montrose’s Gamma — free tix!), it just wasn’t quite the same. Solid musically, of course, but no spectacle, sadly.
I do wish the best for whoever in The Romantics has the medical issue, but as for “What I Like About You”, for me that’s a song I’ve heard enough to last the rest of my life! I’ve always thought “Talking In Your Sleep” was far superior.
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Having recently had an unexpected and lengthy crisis which has forced us to go deep into capitol D Debt I missed getting tickets to that Seattle show. This was something I had bookmarked and wanted to go. Longtime Romantics fan myself as well as Dolby.
Why am I surprised you’re a fan of the Tubes? This is a band I completely “get” but try as I might I just can not get into.
Would love to see Whang Chung someday as well.
Sigh…
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postpostmoderndad – Sorry to hear you had a crisis that affected your budget. Though the tickets for this in Raleigh were cheap as things go ($54 after fees) I understand not crossing budgetary lines. Hopefully the crisis has been fully addressed in the process. I get the distance from The Tubes. Their ironic theatricality can overshadow the music and they have a crass edge. Not crazy over their hits, but I’m still in awe of WPOD. It rocks a fine line of campy scorn and hidden compassion like little else.
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hi mr monk,
some more notes about the festival.
only caught ‘i want candy’ as the last song of the set, and
it sounded well done.
the men without hats set was solid, and excellent. they are not
as synth sounding though, with more emphasis on real drums, and guitar.
ivan has a ton of energy, and kept it through all the songs. they did play all the hits i knew.
the tubes – (might be duplicate)
i only know the two AOR songs, talk to ya later, and shes a beauty.
both sounded excellent. They even wore the same color outfit, of
shirt, tie, and jeans as he did in the video. he was holding up ok.
overall, the thompson twins stole the show with a solid set,
and great lighting and choreography and sound, with men without hats doing just as well.
as an addition for us, and FINALLY being able to cross it off my list.
modern english was added, and i got to hear at least 6 songs (2 from their new album), and 4 classics, including of course ‘i melt with you’. excellent.
later
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n eg ative1
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negative1ne – On their debut EP [Stuff America 1980] MWH were definitely a bass, guitar, drums plus synth band and personally, that’s my preference. Glad to hear it. I’m looking forward to hearing “Antarctica.”
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The whole show was great (Boston, July 17). The standout was Men Without Hats. The other bands varied from 50% to 10% of their former ‘selves’ and were nice for nostalgia, but Ivan was 95% as good as he was when I saw him in 1985! He’s amazing and played a perfect set of their hits.
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Dan Martin – Welcome to the comments! You too??! Do you mean to tell me that Men Without Hats were always that awesome???! Now I’m really sad I never had the opportunity until now! And yeah… that set was perfection. They were the band I had been looking forward to the most so there was anticipation, but not really much in the way of expectation. Then, in 5 minutes, they blew me out of the water.
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