Review Summary: And I need you now tonight, I f*ckin need you more than ever.
We’ve all done it. Whether alone in the car or in the company of people you might be trying to impress, you hear a nostalgic, probably cheesy pop song that is usually only enjoyed in ironic fashion, and decide to alter the lyrics. As in, you decide to drop a few variations of the word “f*ck” in the mix, both to establish a knowing sense of smarminess and to entrench your stance as a musical authority. Or maybe you just like to cuss.
Regardless of the motive, it’s fairly safe to assume that Dan Finnerty is, for the lack of a better word, a f*cking genius. Finnerty’s genius does not necessarily reside in his musical ability. Sure, he can carry a tune well and has an energetic stage presence, but no one is going to conjure up images of any rock legend in their primes. His guile resides in the utterly shameless exploitation of two distinct characteristics humans cannot resist; vulgarity and irony. The fact Finnerty chooses to exclusively cover impossibly catchy yet universally cheesy female vocal pop songs establishes his mastery of irony, as cheesy pop is the master of all things ironic, without it, nobody would ever listen to it. When Finnerty decided to throw a few “f*cks” into the mix of a watershed girl-power pop song (Total Eclipse of the Heart), he found himself appearing on arguably the greatest frat boy comedy of the decade (Old School). Surprisingly enough, although Dan hasn’t done a damn thing different in the last 7 years, he manages to keep popping up (Starsky & Hutch, The Hangover), always wielding the same act without a single worry of his campy, sophomoric platitudes growing stale. He knows as well as we do; we love this sh*t.
The Dan Band’s live album, creatively titled “The Dan Band Live,” is a perfect summation of what the band and our own embracement of cheesy, nostalgic songs are all about. There are two studio bonus tracks, the famous cover of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and the Dan Band original “I Wanna Rock You Hard This Christmas,” which has a chorus declaring “let's have a merry mother f*cking Christmas,” a simple, yet effective microcosm of Dan Band wordplay. Although the two studio tracks are borderline essential, the meat of the album resides in the live performances, which is a breakneck paced, well performed montage tinged mastery of just about every girl pop song you would never admit to liking in an un-ironic fashion. Most would never be caught dead listening to Toni Basil’s “Mickey,” Wilson Phillip’s “Hold On,” Irene Cara’s “Flash Dance,” Suzanne Vega’s “Luka,” TLC’s “No Scrubs” etc by themselves. Add a crowd, a few well placed f-bombs, an unleashed sense of energy, and all of a sudden there are a lot of fists pumping and lungs expelling great effort to sing along. In other words, if you put on an En Vogue/Salt n Peppa/Abba/Christina Aguilera playlist alone in your car, you’re probably going to be labeled a homosexual. When the Dan Band incorporates them into a live montage, you’re the coolest guy at the party.
In other words, you should probably get this.
