Review: The Hooters - still alive, all right
It was a night back in time, crushing on that teenage boy or girl - and dancing to the Hooters.
It was a night back in time, crushing on that teenage boy or girl - and dancing to the Hooters.
When they hit the stage at Glenside's Keswick Theatre last weekend, the final shows of their 35th-anniversary tour, it was a serious trip down Greater Philadelphia's memory lane. And they rocked the house, a house that was pushing the young end of Baby Boomer.
The Hooters are Philly's band, always have been, always will be. It was happy coincidence they played the sold-out Keswick during the University of Pennsylvania's homecoming: Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman got together playing music while both were students at Penn in 1971.
Their fans this weekend were in high school and college when the Hooters toured relentlessly in the 1980s and '90s. (They played at my alma mater in 1985 because the Catholic priests thought they were a Christian rock band).
Did Bazilian's voice get better as the night wore on? Yes, after some initial hoarseness, and so did guitarist John Lilley. Local WMMR DJ Pierre Robert, introduced the show by saying, "They're still alive, and they feel younger than they ever did."
That prompted an opening with "I'm Alive." The set list included their hits "Hanging on a Heartbeat," "Amore," "Day by Day" and "Private Emotion." Naturally, "All You Zombies" brought audience members to their feet. They performed heavily mandolin- and melodica-laced covers of Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" and the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds." After "Satellite" and "Johnny B" came the one we'd all swished our '80s big hair to - "And We Danced."
The Hooters achieved success in the mid-1980s due to endless MTV rotation of songs such as "All You Zombies," "Day by Day," "And We Danced" and "Where Do the Children Go." That led the band to open the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia in 1985 and then tour in Europe. Rob Hyman wrote "Time After Time" for Cyndi Lauper, then Bazilian wrote Joan Osborne's hit "One of Us." The group took a hiatus in 1995 and reunited in 2001.
In our youth, we may have heard the band at school, or the old Tally-Ho in Delaware, at Drexel or Temple, the Tower on 69th Street or the Chestnut Street Cabaret. The Hooters remain the soundtrack of our lives - all you people in the street.
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