Daffy Disco Music is Back, Like It or Not : The Boogie Knights, a ‘70s-style band started as a lark, is packing in crowds at clubs around the Southland.
The Vietnam War mercifully ended in the ‘70s, and that was about as good as it got. The decade was known for bad cars, bad clothes, bad hair and worse music.
Now who the heck would want to recapture the vapid mindlessness of those dumb old days? As it turns out, almost everybody.
The Metro Bay Club in Ventura will be packed to the rafters Saturday night with dancing fools. All will be sweating to the oldies of the Boogie Knights, who tripped over the lunch box of one of the Village People, and plopped out of a polyester time warp. Everyone will be there except Richard Simmons and John Travolta.
Dusting off the ghosts of the Bee Gees sounds a bit like wearing a Nehru jacket with a “Kick Me†sign on the back.
This musical aberration is not limited to Ventura. The Boogie Knights play five nights a week, sometimes more. Their week begins on Wednesday at the FM Station in North Hollywood, then on to Pelican’s Retreat in Calabasas on Thursday, Friday at Metropolis in Irvine, Saturday in Ventura, then Sunday in Phoenix. The ‘70s are back, and they won’t go away. Yikes.
“Hell no, the ‘70s never sucked,†guitarist J.J. Vernon Woods said. “Everybody was right, then everybody was wrong. Everybody liked disco music at first, but then they got too much of a good thing. It’s like eating too many cookies. You have to rest for a week or so, but you still want to eat more cookies.â€
The Boogie Knights seem to know what they’re doing. As a lark, the band put on a retro disco show a few years ago. They’re still laughing--all the way to the bank. The boys in the band, all of which are successfully avoiding a dreaded day job, include Woods, Vinnie Joseppi Portelli on drums, Corderious Washington on bass and singer Dwayne Vernon Woods.
“We did it as a joke for a Halloween show in Victorville,†said the guitar player. “From that gig, it just became a landslide. From Victorville, we got another gig at Sergio’s in Westlake Village. Then out of that one, we got a couple of more gigs. The Boogie Knights have yet to find an audience that didn’t love them.
“Old people dig it because they remember the music; and young people dig it because they’ve never heard it before.â€
Retro ‘50s rockabilly stuff has a limited appeal and only so many tattooed leather fans can stand around comparing Brylcreem coupons and worrying about their blue suede shoes.
What about the ‘60s retro scene? Imagine a bunch of hippies standing around with smoke coming out of their ears and for whom “Wow, man†is the correct answer to any question. That’s called a Grateful Dead concert. So what’s the attraction of those silly ‘70s?
“Disco music is a lot more accessible than, say, doo-wop. Hardly anybody does doo-wop anymore,†J.J. Woods said. “A lot of what was going on in the ‘70s is still going on today. Groups sample all the songs that we do. We just want to have fun, play some good music, and create a disco inferno. Actually, we want to be ‘bubblicious’--that’s our real goal. The Boogie Knights are always the best night in town.â€
Just as used record bins are havens for Steppenwolf albums, so is a thrift store the graveyard for polyester, and the Boogie Knights are doing their fair share to buy it all. When they play, they dress to impress. They wear platform shoes, bell bottoms, the dreaded polyester and Afro wigs.
“A lot of stuff I wear, I got from my girlfriend’s father, who actually used to wear the stuff,†J.J. Woods said.
Before the disco daze became so lucrative, the Boogie Knights were a real rock ‘n’ roll band, perhaps with normal hair.
“We all used to be in a band called Roxanne that was signed to CBS in the late ‘80s,†J.J. Woods said
“We never made a record. We all still have side projects, but nothing is taking off right now. We also have a fake history of the band. We tell people we were a real band from Detroit that broke up in 1980 when disco ended. We regrouped when we all moved to California.â€
Sometimes when alcohol and dancing mix, good sense flies out the window. So what does the band do when a drunk threatens the band with serious bodily injury if they don’t play “Free Bird�
“They never ask for that stuff,†J.J. Woods said. “If anything, they want to hear ‘Stayin’ Alive.’ You know, we’d like to get Rick James out of the joint to play bass, maybe Sly Stone on guitar and Maurice Gibb to sing--that would be a cool band.â€
There appears to be a rupture in time that even Bob Vela with power tools can’t fix. I guess it beats bringing back the Inquisition or the Cold War.
‘Scuse me, baby, what’s your sign? And oh, do you know how to get this green stuff off my neck from these phony gold chains?
Details
* WHAT: Boogie Knights.
* WHERE: Metro Bay Club, 317 E. Main St., Ventura.
* WHEN: Saturday night, around 9.
* COST: 5 bucks.
* PHONE: 652-0100
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