NIGHT LIFE: THE CLUB SCENE : A Blast of Rock : The Georgia Satellites will hit the Ventura Theater with three chords and a cloud of dust.
The Georgia Satellites are about as subtle as a car wreck. In your living room. They are your basic rock ‘n’ roll band, and a better bar band would be tough to find.
The band has been around for 10 years, and has released three albums’ worth of rockers featuring no synthesizers, no foofoo backup singers, no mousse, no laser light shows--they’re not even cute. The Georgia Satellites are as pretentious as a locomotive. They’ll be headlining the Ventura Theater on Friday night.
The band plays Woody Hayes rock ‘n’ roll, three chords and a cloud of dust. They’ll undoubtedly create enough sweat among the patrons to end the drought at the very least. The dual lead guitars of Rick Richards and singer/songwriter Dan Baird supply the pyrotechnics while Rick Price thumps along on the bass and Mauro Magellan beats on the drums.
The band has been touring since November in support of its most recent album. Despite critical acclaim, the new one, “In the Land of Salvation and Sin,†isn’t doing that well. As far as sales, in a recent interview Baird described them with a Bronx cheer.
“It’s doing about like the second album,†he said from his Nashville home. “But it’s a good record, I think. It shows a bit more diversity. We used to be in it for the beer, but not anymore. We’re getting too old for that stuff.â€
The band hit it big with its self-titled 1986 debut disc. The album had one of the best songs of the ‘80s, “Keep Your Hands to Yourself,†and went platinum. You can bet the house that they’ll play that one.
“We get a pretty wide variety of people that come to our shows,†said Baird.
The typical younger crowd shows up, he said, “and we get some older people who want to rock out, and even some Cure fans who are tired of going boohoo all the time.â€
Baird offered some real incentives for showing up to see the band. “People should come because there’s the possibility that we can blast your heart in. There won’t be any laser shows or guys wearing mascara--just four guys trying to make it real with guitars and drums.â€
This will be The Georgia Satellites’ Ventura debut. A dream gig? The Georgia Satellites, Bob Segar, Dave Edmunds, The Flamin’ Groovies and those local lunatics, Raging Arb & The Redheads.
Oh well, maybe next time.
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