Barry CourterSocial-media sites can be a pretty cool place for folks who enjoy the occasional stomp down memory lane. They can also be a great place to wallow in the banal. A couple of recent Facebook threads got me thinking about past local bands.
Actually, they got me thinking about the ones who truly moved the music scene forward. I’m focusing on the ones who, for the most part, called the area home, at least for awhile before they moved. I can only go back so far, and I don’t claim to have seen them all, so please add your own names. I’m really not thinking about current acts here, because I do that all the time.
Overland Express (later just Overland) was the first I remember believing could and should actually make it. Two of the most popular local cover acts that did well here and toured as regional acts were The Targetz (later 37 Targetz) and the Malemen. They are still killing it, by the way.
Musical Moose makes my list of pioneers for two reasons. First, both of my older brothers were in the band, so obviously I was a fan; but in the ’70s and ’80s, they were among the very first to play original alternative music, to promote their own shows and to come out with cassette tapes of their original recordings. Such cassettes meant you were legit.
They, along with acts like Bend Sinister, were not content to play cover songs and they looked for nontraditional places, meaning bars, to play.