One Hit Wonders Night #2 @ Rancho Relaxo

A few months ago, Two Way Monologues hosted a special evening at Rancho Relaxo wherein a whole bunch of local bands got together and played covers of all of their forgotten one hit wonder songs of the past. Although I had intended on attending, I was unable to do so. Apparently, the evening, masterfully entitled One Hit Wonders Night, was a rousing success, which made me determined not to miss it should they ever attempt to try it again. Well, just over a week ago, this is exactly what happened and although I have nothing to compare it to; I couldn't imagine an evening being any more fun.

The bands that were showcased that night were some of the newer bands in the city, and that being the case, I was largely unfamiliar with most of them. But hearing them play songs that, for the most part, I knew quite well, provided me with an excellent opportunity to hear what these acts were capable of, without having to keep myself entirely steeped in unfamiliar territory.

The first band of the night was The Stepfathers, who are a rock band from here in the city. So far, they don't have much in the form of recorded output, but they're in the process of trying to establish a reputation as a face melting live band. For their set on this particular evening, they chose some of the dancier hits of yore, kicking things off with Stardust's 1998 hit Music Sounds Better With You. Their version didn't stray too far from the original but it was an excellent way to get the party started for the evening. The band kept themselves in synth heavy mode by wasting no time with their segue into Gary Numan's Cars, before ending their set with Culture Beat's dreaded hit from 1993, Mr. Vain. I always hated that song, but they added a bit of a fun edge to it, making it fit in nicely with the evening's vibe. It also wouldn't be the first time that night that a band would take a personally despised tune and make it tolerable for me.

The Quantam Jitters are another new band in the city who were scheduled to perform next, but for reasons that I can't remember, they were unable to do so. Lead singer Bruce Clement was clearly determined however, as he took advantage of the opportunity to perform an acoustic solo set. He opened with Stars by mid 90's alternative band Hum. That was followed by the similarly styled, yet mildly psychedelic tune I Got A Girl by Tripping Daisy, which is a song that I had actually forgotten all about. It admittedly took me a few minutes to clue in to what it was while he performed it. The highlight of his set however was his acoustic version of The Dandy Warhols' Bohemian Like You; a controversial choice by his own admission, based on the fact that the Dandies are apparently one of his favourite bands.

Up next was Matt Bahen of The Schomberg Fair; a band that I've seen perform a couple of times and of whom I've grown quite fond of. He was the first artist of the night to take his wonders of choice, and really make them his own. He opened with an alt-country take on Blind Melon's No Rain, which is a song that I've always enjoyed, (although I would argue that Tones Of Home was a minor hit of theirs as well, and another great one at that.) His folksy cover of The Proclaimers' I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) was less successful, but still quite interesting. He really capped it off though by taking it upon himself to cover Patrick Swayze's She's Like The Wind which is a song that I have gone on record as declaring to be the absolute worst song of all time, hands down! Bahen's take on the song was very admirable indeed, as he transformed it from the smaltzy pool of dreck that it once was, and turned it into something that sounded as if it was straight out of the Neil Young catalog. Wholly entertaining!

Wendy Leung is another artist that I have reviewed in the past who specializes in sweetly serene piano ballads. This time she had a full band at her disposal who she masterfully referred to as The Exposed Leungs. This made her set far more upbeat than one would expect as she opened with a cover of Wheatus' Teenage Dirtbag. Her bandmates falsetto during the song's final bridge brought the house down. The next song she did was the Top Gun classic Take My Breath Away by Berlin. You'd think that she would have showed her piano-meets-stellar-vocal abilities off by playing this one straight, but when she announced that this song would remind us of the time when Tom Cruise was still normal, you just knew that she was going to power pop it up a little bit for us, and that she did. She ended with that head jerkin' at the Roxbury classic: What Is Love? by Haddaway.

Next up was Blanc and White who are a groovy new band from the city who specialize in some very fresh indie pop sounds that showcase just a hint of funk. Their choice of covers was accurately conducive to their sound as they chose Elastica's 1994 hit Connection, Modern English's 1982 hit I Melt With You, and Norwegian band a-ha's 1986 hit Take On Me. although most of my Norwegian readers will be sure to inform me that a-ha was NOT a one hit wonder. (Yes, I know here in Canada they basically were, but those a-ha fans can be pretty expressive from what I've heard, and I wanted to do a preemptive acknowledgment of such.) That last song enabled the audience to sing along at the top of their lungs which, I've noticed, is not all that unusual whenever this song is played. Classic.

Jeff Geady is a man that I do not know personally, but as soon as he hit the stage (under the moniker Fresh Blintz,) I recognized him as a Rancho Relaxo regular who I happen to see milling about everytime I attend a show at the double 'R'. Turns out that he's a pretty talented guy too as he opened his set with an acoustic version of The Verve Pipe's Freshman, I song that I heard to death on the radio back in 1997. The next two songs of his set are another couple of songs that I can't stand, namely Biz Markie's Just A Friend and LFO's Summer Girls which contains possibly the worst lyrics in recorded music history. Geady and his friend with the ipod had a lot of fun performing those songs and the crowd responded favourably to their performance. Their final song was a grand guilty pleasure of mine: Len's Steal My Sunshine, which culminated in Geady singing his part from the audience while several people hopped up on the stage and helped by singing their hearts out.

The last act that I saw that night was the Rancho house band Santa With Muscles, fronted by man who has served our drinks on several occasions, the charismatic Greg LeGros (pictured above). They were easily the most entertaining band of the night as they blew us away right from the get-go with a powerhouse version of Der Kommissar which was a hit in Austrian for Falco in 1982, and redone in English by After The Fire in 1983. Their next song was Pulp's Common People, although it became clear rather quickly that they were performing the William Shatner/ Joe Jackson version. He warned us beforehand that he would not be able to hit the high notes for his next song, but Steve Perry's Oh Sherrie was the most hilarious thing I've seen in a long time. He didn't really know the lyrics but nobody cared as he hammed it up big time to this one. The band was so tight and talented and LeGros was such a captivating front man that I never wanted their set to end. They did have one more song to perform though, and after LeGros informed us that his father is George LeGros of the legendary 60's band The Buckinghams, he went on to perform their biggest hit Kind Of A Drag which also sounded great.

At that point, the wife and I had to take our leave, which meant that we had to miss what was an apparently amazing set by The Lovely Killbots, as well as a surprise performance of That Thing You Do by Amos The Transparent, who I was able to speak to briefly as they showed up shortly before I left. Upon searching around, it doesn't look like they got around to performing the song after all, which means that maybe I'll get a chance to see them do it the next time around. After the success of this second installment of TWM's One Hit Wonder Night, I'm sure that this will be a glorious and oft-repeated tradition.

Photos: One Hit Wonders Night #2 @ Rancho Relaxo on flickr.