Totally Tubular Festival Brings Tommy Tutone, Modern English, Men Without Hats, & More
It’s 1983, and if you’re in high school like I was, you were probably knocking down a whole $3.05 minimum wage, and possibly spending all that hard earned cash to see these HUGE bands when the were in their absolute PRIME! Fast forward to 2024 and all the greats from that era took the stage for a fantastic night at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles, California at the traveling Totally Tubular Festival.
This is by far one of the coolest shows I have seen in a long time, and each and every song had the whole crowd of nearly 6000 people at the YouTube Theater(connected to SoFI Stadium up in LA, screaming out the lyrics as if the songs dropped a month ago!
There were smiles aplenty from everyone ranging from their 20’s to their upper 70’s!! The love from the crowd to the bands, and vice-versa was just heart warming! The evening started with a short set from The Plimsouls , featuring the original frontman Eddie Munoz, playing their huge hit“ Million Miles Away” that was featured in the hit movie “ Valley Girl” with a very young Nicholas Cage, and Deborah Foreman. The crowd loved it, and Eddie bounded across the stage multiple time, just like when they played at The Brighton Bar in the 80’s.
We then moved on to Tommy Tutone, the guy and his band that brought us such legendary and Iconic hits such a “867-5309”! Urban legend has it that everyone in America from coast to coast had to change their phone numbers, because people would call that number all the time! Tommy looked and sounded great, he still had the pipes, and the guitar skills to rock the house, and had quite the beautiful bassist, and I believe the guitarist was an original member as well (sorta looked like Brian May from Queen).
Then came the percussive and monster hit makers BOW WOW WOW. Annabel Lwin literally rocked the house, never missed a step and danced her way back and forth across that stage, and their drummer was absolutely on fire and didn’t tire one single time. They broke it down with “Do you wanna hold me" then slaughtered the crowd with “I Want Candy ?”
The night was just getting started as some of the heavy hitters were yet to come. Here comes The Tubes with a lot of the original band members, including Fee Waybill, with his very unique voice and singing style, Roger Steen who absolutely shredded on the guitar, and they really knew how to put on a show, having great banter with audience and checking up on people in the upper deck.
They played the hard driving hit “Talk to ya later” which was a great catch phrase in the 80’s, and then brought down the house with “She’s a beauty”, which I think i watched on MTV videos about a gazillion times. I have to say that by the end of the night, my face was hurting from smiling so much.
Now comes Mr. Personality himself, Ivan Doroschuk from Men Without Hats! This guy had an unbelievable stage presence plus made it fun and silly, and you couldn’t help but watch him dance and prance around the stage.He busted out all the great hits including Safety Dance, which hit #1 on Cashbox and Billboard Dance charts back in 1983. If you could bottle the fun and excitement and energy that Ivan brings to the stage, you could be a billionaire. Personally, I didn’t want his performance to end, but there were still a couple more groups to go.
One of the groups everyone was excited to see was Modern English with Robbie Grey, the original Singer, with his very posh British accent and he came out in an ascot to boot. Robbie really brought the emotion a bunch of their really popuat songs, but the one that the crowd was dying for was ‘Melt With You”, also used during, and at the end of the movie “Valley Girl” The crowd was on their feet the entire time, and Modern English just absolutely nailed their music, exactly how it was written 40 years ago.
For the final two acts we had Tom Bailey from the Thompson Twins, looking dapper, with his beautiful all-female band mates, dressed in all white. We not only were treated to fantastic music, but a pretty awesome light show to boot. They knocked out such giant and legendary hits as “Hold me now, “Lay your hands on me”and my personal Favorite “ Doctor, Doctor”. Again, the music was spot on and his voice and music were impeccable. A true showman, who was used to playing sold out arenas, and now brings that same music we all used to love to the stage. Tom was absolute MAGIC.
Finally the night ended with the much loved Thomas Dolby. He came out in this huge trench coat, and you’re thinking “where the heck is the band??” They then put together a super cool video presentation of his life and times, and how he met David Bowie. He proceeded to play “Heroes” and “Hyperactive”, and again the crowd went crazy for “She Blinded Me With Science”.
It’s been said that music is the biggest time machine we have, and if words like “Rad, Gnarly, and Totally Tubular” were in your normal speak, then this is the show that you HAVE to see…you’ll kick yourself if you don’t! Please go on TOTALLYTUBULARFESTIVAL.COM and grab a ticket right away, because if you don’t, I think you’ll be sorry.
Review & Photos by: Todd Sher
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