This Thursday's Lost 80s Live concert (now in its 20th year) is catnip for a Gen X 1980s music lover like me. I mean, this is the music of my youth, including Musical Youth who is scheduled to perform.
But there's another appealing event happening this same night: The Byrom Brothers show at Pelezzio (on the corner of 19th Street and Chester).
Lost 80s Live is the kind of 1980s revival one would expect from a concert like this, 10 acts playing short sets packed with their hits (or hit). The Byrom Brothers show, however, is going to be its own kind of revival.
The show (put together with the help of Southern California guitar dealer/promoter/manager Howie Hubberman) will conclude as a regular Byrom Brothers show with the usual players, but will start with the band's lineup modified: Adrian Diaz will take over for Tanner Byrom on drums and Brett Cox will join frontman Monty Byrom on lead guitar.
Bassist Prescott Niles from The Knack will take over for bassist Gary Rink in this special configuration that will perform as a de facto version of Niles' band, "My Sharona" and all.
With its killer hooks, electric vibe and a stellar drum performance — and drum sound — from their underrated drummer Bruce Gary, "My Sharona" spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was the biggest song of 1979. It sold more than 10 million copies as of 2010 and was used to great effect in the movies "Reality Bites" and "Super 8."
Even now, the song still sounds timeless. Those drums! That guitar! That solo! That chorus! It's the pinnacle of power pop that broke the genre for a generation. The band's 1979 debut album, "Get the Knack," was, at one time, one of the most successful debuts in history.
"When people say, 'I heard you're one-hit wonders,' I say, 'We're one-take wonders," Niles said. "Because a lot of that album was one take. 'Sharona' was a run-through by the way, and (album producer) Mike (Chapman) thought it was brilliant. I'm very proud of that."
As of now, Niles is the only original member of the band performing live. Guitarist Berton Averre has been waylaid by illness, frontman Doug Fieger passed away in 2010 and Gary passed away in 2006.
The Knack's latest release, "Live at the House of Blues," recorded on Sept. 25, 2001, is a live double album released in April that works as a fine primer to the group, an exciting retrospective of the band's history and a fiery representation of the power the band was capable of. It's also a somber, thoughtful sonic artifact of undeterred defiance given that the show occurred two weeks after 9/11. It's currently available for sale and on streaming.
On the day of that recording, The Knack also released its last studio album, "Normal as the Next Guy," which included the song "Girl I Never Lied to You," co-written by Monty Byrom.
Niles will be pulling double-duty this evening. After playing with Byrom and the reconfigured Knack at Pelezzio, he'll perform with Missing Persons at the Lost 80s Live event.
How does Niles feel about playing a double-header? The guy, who jokingly described his age as "younger than Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger — many years younger," replied, "I think it's (expletive) great!"
"It's a privilege and a pleasure to be playing and the fact that Monty is going to honor me by playing these songs with me," Niles said.Â
Missing Persons has played in Bakersfield many times, most recently at the Fox Theater in June with Dramarama and Oingo Boingo Former Members. The band is best known for its lead singer Dale Bozzio and the superb 1981 album "Spring Session M," with its iconic album cover and hit singles "Words,""Destination Unknown" and "Walking in L.A."
Missing Persons is also a family affair for Niles. His son, Gabe, will play drums with the band at Lost 80s Live just as he did at the recent Fox Theater show.
When I mentioned that Gabe had big shoes to fill, considering the band's original drummer, Terry Bozzio, is regarded as one of the greatest drum set players in history, the elder Niles responded, "A size 12, probably."
While the headliner for the Lost 80s show appears to be A Flock of Seagulls ("I Ran," "Space Age Love Song"), I'm more excited for Wang Chung.
"Dance Hall Days'' is one of my favorite songs of any era and the band's synth-heavy soundtrack for the 1985 William Friedkin-directed crime thriller "To Live and Die in L.A." is a straight-up stunner steeped in mid-'80s sunkissed sparkling menace and cool. Everyone will Wang Chung tonight.
British second-wave ska pioneer The English Beat is also no stranger to Bakersfield (the band's former drummer, Rhythmm Epkins, is based here) and of all the acts on the bill, I believe its has the most hits to choose from to properly hype the crowd and raise the enthusiasm level to 1.21 gigawatts. Frontman Dave Wakeling consistently delivers and he and his bandmates put on an engaging and enjoyable show.
And through it all will be the constant, Prescott Niles, performing multiple times on the same night with two of the most significant bands he's ever played with. One spot will celebrate a specific era in time and the other spot will celebrate where we are and what the future can possibly bring.
Will there be more shows with this revamped Knack? More with Byrom and Niles? Time will tell and we all know how much time likes to throw a party for itself. In a way though, isn't that what nostalgia ultimately is?
Lost 80s Live Tour, featuring A Flock of Seagulls, Wang Chung, The English Beat, Men Without Hats, Missing Persons, Musical Youth, Stacey Q, Naked Eyes, Animotion, Annabella's Bow Wow Wow, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Mechanics Bank Theater, 1001 Truxtun Ave.; $35-$65, available at AXS.com
The Byrom Brothers with The Knack, 7 p.m. Thursday, Pelezzio, 1901 Chester Ave.; $20 at the door, no reservations
Cesareo’s pick
MG Bailey, noon to 2 p.m. Sunday, Jerry's Pizza & Pub, 1817 Chester Ave.; no cover
Hailing from Homewood, Ill., Matthew G. Bailey, who performs as MG Bailey, is the epitome of the modern-day one-man band. He will be performing at Jerry's Pizza & Pub on Sunday afternoon.
While the majority of solo performers are perfectly content performing with just one or two instruments, others have supplemented their stage set-ups to add some sonic diversity and weight to their sound with electronics and percussion.
Some players utilize loop stations to create layer after layer for them to sing or solo over or to bring in as different sections of a song after creating them. Other players choose to accompany themselves by playing drums with their feet while they play another instrument, sometimes creating custom percussion rigs to make that possible.
This maniac Bailey? He uses them all. The patterns he creates with his left foot on a snare drum border on tap dancing, such as the double-tap train beat he plays on the song "Worst Best," the opening track off of his 2017 album "Long Time Comin'."
Expect a backyard-party kind of vibe, which is exactly what this event should feel like because all it takes is one person to start a party.
