LMF - BoDeans

Okay, look, I've never been a big BoDeans guy, but how long can a Waukesha guy go on babbling about live music without mentioning these sons of Waukesha who have been doing it for 25 years. BoDeans have been a very popular local act for many years. While they are basically a club act on the road, they can headline the Marcus at Summerfest.

Their impressive debut 1985 debut album, Love & Sex & Hope & Dreams made them a favorite on college radio, and a Rolling Stone reader poll declared them the best new band in America soon after. In about 1986 (7th grade), my older cousin Kurt got his first cd player and starting replacing his favorite record albums with cds. I was on the lucky end of that transaction, as he gave me about 40 records that nobody my age was really hearing - at least not in my little town. REM, The Clash, Violent Femmes, etc. It's hard to overstate how much that inherited collection influenced my love of music. That BoDeans record was among them. The rhythmic, plucky guitar and vocal harmonies of "Fadeaway" caught my attention right away. I still like that song.

Anyway, these guys went from obscure local act in the early '80s to semi-known college radio stars in the mid to late '80s, to a nationally known act in the '90s, probably best known nationally for the theme song ("Closer to Free") for the tv. drama, Party of Five, as well a song prominently featured on the soundtrack and in the college football drama, The Program.

Regardless of how much you do or do not enjoy their style of music, these guys can put on a live show. They can play, they can sing and their songs translate well on the live stage.

If you think you don't know them, check out these links. You do know them.

Some Sconnie kids doing a cover of "Fadeaway"
A truly acoustic, totally unplugged performance of "Only Love"
Opening credits of Party of Five with "Closer to Free"

Of course, since this is Live Music Friday, I'll leave you with a live performance of the Waukesha lads before the home crowd at Cutler Park in Waukesha for Harley's 105th anniversary celebration last summer. If you've watched The Program forty times like most guys my age, you'll recognize this track, Good Things.