They said Denver wasn’t ready for covers so we got stuck with bullshit originals instead. What a fucking bummer.
Joking aside, Me First And The Gimme Gimmes are on tour with Schizophonic and Still Animals. Me First are a cover band, and so I thought it would be fun to do a cover review! Something that’s never been done before!
I excitedly told my friend this idea and he said it was called plagiarism. So I grabbed my dick and told him to plagiarise that.
Now I lost my only friend. But it’s not plagiarism, it’s a cover! Of Variety’s review of Backstreet Boys. Because Backstreet Boys seems like an appropriate foundation for MFGG.
……….
Call it a near-flashback. Sitting at LoDo’s Summit Music Hall, I felt like a teenager in the United States of America watching Backstreet Boys’ “Into the Millennium” tour on a VHS mailed to me by an American pen pal. Mesmerized as the man band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes walked up on a stage before a sea of awestruck fans dressed in “ABBA” and “MFGG” shirts, it was wildly reminiscent of that time 20 years ago, when the quintet flew onto the stage on hover boards (citation needed). The opening uke chords of the opening tracks, the recognisable beats because they only play covers, and the constant teasing of themselves and the audience, only heightened the time trip.
The 1999 vibes were felt well before the show kicked off. Back when I was 4 and eating booger sandwiches.
An MFGG concert is never short of nostalgia, but the group’s current trek is the most “Quinceanera”-like show yet, with a set list featuring almost all covers. And for fans attending the group’s two Southern California stops that was just fine. “I’m sorry you had to see that,’” Spike, age unknown, enthused, the Pre-2K energy shared by groupmates. Read on for the five best moments from LoDo’s Wednesday night show.
The opening
Fans unaware of the opening acts may have been surprised to see a carbon copy of a teenage Littrell performing a solo set. Indeed, it was either Still Animals or Schizophonics, neither of which are one person and neither of which bare any resemblance to Brian Littrell. While it’s not the first time the aspiring punk crooners have opened for bands, this time they’re all grown up with their own music, fanbase and stage presence, which had fans dancing along as they performed singles that no one yet knew but probably soon will.
The set list
I didn’t take a picture of the set list, but not one original song was played, and that I can confirm, despite what I said before and what I’ll say after.
The stage
While it wasn’t quite in-the-round, this current tour stage features scrims, which gives a similar feel as basically all other shows. Created probably by some local printers and venues, the set-up features lights, pyrotechnics (not true) and the golden ticket which is the “DNA Circle,” a hole in the middle of the stage (what?).
The prime spot offers the unique sensation of dancing in the middle of the stage amid the dizzying but welcome dilemma of which way to look when you have 180-degree MFGG views.. “How old are you Guillermo? 14? And what do you do? A zoologist?” Spike, age unknown, teased, before talking about homeless blowjobs.
The emotion
Something about the late ‘90s pop scene sparked intense feels, whether it was the fierce rivalry between the United States of America and the Soviet Union, the deep investment in Britney Spears’ romance with Justin Timberlake or the tears that flowed as teenage girls finally got to see idols like MFGG in the flesh. Most fans have since grown up and adapted to lives that didn’t culminate in marrying CJ Ramone, but the boys still evoke the same deep emotion. After 1 MFGG show, I didn’t shed any tears, but I did enjoy hearing the opening chords of the song they played first (see “set list” above), having previously given up hope of ever seeing such an old favorite live. My only gripe was that the moment was overshadowed by Michael Jackson running out onto stage. They said he was a hologram, but he looked very real.
The a capella
Back in their formative years, the guys regularly performed a capella covers of songs like Boyz II Men’s “End of the Road,” (citation needed). “That’s how we got our record deal, but we didn’t have our own songs,” said 57-year-old Joey Cape. “So we had to sing songs by other artists. I’m proud to tell you that today we still don’t have any of our own songs.” While I can’t be alone in thinking it a bit odd that after all these years they still haven’t released one original song, there was no denying the magic of their combined harmonies as the fivesome huddled around like the good old days with nothing but their voices and also all their instruments and also not everyone sang.
………..
I’m sorry for making you read a cover of Variety. That shit is boring and difficult to read. But, like Madison’s Quinceanera, sometimes the audience is just wrong. You guys aren’t the right audience for Variety – pretentious rich people are! As a sorry, here’s a review of the openers for y’all in a tone that makes sense:
One thing this tour isn’t short of is cocaine judging by the openers. Still Animals, the first band, a bunch of excited extroverts.
That’s fun to watch and interact with – random stories of excitement in between songs that no one knows yet watching some dudes vie for your attention? Sick. Wicked. Cool. I too have a Ford van and I too would lose my shit if Me First and the Gimme Gimmes called me to go on tour for some reason.
And then there’s Schizophonics. Some bands make complaining about the Denver altitude a meme, and some bands, like Schizophonics, make it a serious question. How the fuck did they not get tired at this altitude? And how the fuck does Pat Beers play guitar with one hand while letting his crack pipe hand do some free form jazz nearby? And has Pat Beers ever kicked anyone in the audience while on stage? And has Pat Beers accidentally fallen off the stage? And has Pat Beers ever puked on stage from tiring himself out? And has Pat Beers ever not caught his mic stand and hit himself or someone else with it? And has Pat Beers…
Too many questions. Go see the show for a high energy good time and professional recommendations on where to get some awesome blowjobs from homeless people. And if that doesn’t sound like a blast, well, every song is, quite literally, a nostalgic blast from the past. So there’s that.
Did you know I was on Olivia Rodrigo’s tv show? There was at least 2 seasons of it, so good luck finding me. Anyways, I added more merch to the store.
