I saw the Tubes on Saturday night at the Independent. It was cool for me because, as a representative of KUSF, I was given a upstairs pass. This allowed me to have the best seat in the house. I had a raised chair on the balcony and only one or two other people who stopped by every now and then to take pictures. I felt like I was in the Elvis room, or perhaps the Boy in the Plastic Bubble.
I’ll begin by saying that the opening band was Triple Cobra and I was not expecting much from them (I didn’t care for their new CD). But they were pretty good. They all wore Louis XIV outfits and there were two beautiful amazon dancers who had choreographed dance steps that were quite amazing to watch. The music rocked too. I may revisit their CD.
Now for the Tubes. They are not young, but they really seem to enjoy what they’re doing - and what they’re doing is rockin’ (mostly) in the same way they always rocked.
I remember my friend’s aunt telling me that she saw the Tubes in 1973 and they kept leaving the stage and coming back in different costumes, and that each costume represented a group of songs. Well, now it’s just Fee Waybill who changes costumes. The band plays on while leaves, does a quick change and returns for the next group of songs. The costumes became more and more outrageous until he was just wearing chaps and male thong underwear (and this is a 59 year old man!).
The songs were mostly good. I say mostly because I don’t really like the slow dance (or power ballad tunes) - except for “Don’t Touch Me There” which they didn’t do. I also didn’t really care for the hits from the 80s that popular on MTV. But they did an incredible version of “White Punks on Dope” and “What Do You Want From Life.”
Fee Waybill is a great entertainer, and very accessible too. He sort treats the audience like a bunch of old friends, and tells a lot of stories. After the show he, and the rest of the band, came out to the T-Shirt stand to meet the audience and sign records.
All in all it was a great show and I’m glad I went. I would recommend it if you ever liked any of their songs - be it the 70s or the 80s - you won’t be disappointed.