Looking Back on Looking Back on The Kinks

by alanah

In the 8th grade, when the cool thing to do was to keep up to date on Mix 96’s top 8 at 8, I was listening to the best of the Kinks on cassette tape. Really, I was a very nerdy kid. So it was with a certain amount of smugness that I set out for the Kinks Konvention last night.

I was pleased to find the venue packed with hundreds of apparently like-minded folks. It was a brilliantly conceived evening, stringing vastly different local bands together on a solid thread of Kinks hits. Hipster-haircuts and Mod-era ‘dos mingled seamlessly, making me realize that throngs of hits are not the only long lasting mark the Kinks have made.

The downside to the show that none of the bands were introduced. With my Indie-mentor, Risa, sadly absent from the show, I was forced to tap on some stranger’s shoulder at the beginning of each set to ask “who are these guys?” Fortunately, my fellow-audience members were better on the band-recognition front than I. The soulful Sunday Sinners is a band I would love to check out again, but Bionic was by far the highlight of the night for me. They snagged all the gritty oldschool tunes (You really got me, etc) and had me dancing an utterly-out-of-control head-banging twist-and-shout.

Meanwhile, I was ready to wring the necks of the blasphemous band who covered Weird Al Yankovic’s Yoda. The excitement that mounted with as the innocent melody twinkled through the hall quickly deflated when the headlining band broke out into the spoof-version. What a letdown! Lola has such brilliantly hilarious lyrics that I never understood the need for a spoof. The Besnard Lakes somewhat redeemed themselves with a rendition of Waterloo Sunset, a perfect match for their floaty sound.

Absolutely nothing beat the final act of the evening where members of all 8 bands crowded on stage with the Besnard Lakes, amidst the bubble-blowing go-go dancers, and the Konvention’s mastermind Joey called claimed a song (Tired of waiting) for his own. Now I know where the inspiration for this show came from….