Smoot Valley High at Luna's Cafe
Steven Bloom | Apr 27, 2010 | Comments 0
Headlines April 28th For One Night Only!
The Smooots prefer to let their music do the talking. Except between songs, when they pontificate to reinforce their “positive message for today’s troubled teens”—from one teen to another.
Of course, given that they are all, in fact, well over the age of thirty and got their start playing in bars, a good deal of SVH’s effectiveness lies in the subversive irony: Nobody enjoys a wholesome message about clean, moral living more than a crowd of late night drunks bent on debauchery.
But even the sharpest irony falls flat without sincere commitment. This cast brings it. Mike Fish (as “pervy” Uncle Rodney, filling in on drums for the perpetually ill youngest brother), Kate Haight (as the repressed ticking time bomb sister), writer S.K.Namanny (all rose-colored righteousness as the band’s self-proclaimed leader), and Jason Adair (infectious as the hyperactive middle child) are having so much fun slathering on subtext and history that the audience is instantly in on the joke, even though character is never broken.
If the concept somehow misses (it never has) the back up plan is a perfect bull’s eye: Solidly rocking, peppy tunes that will be dancing in your head all the way home.
PS If the original songs don’t grab you, ask anyone who was there which version of Outkast’s Hey Ya! they prefer.
Tell them you saw it on SacramentoComedy.Com!
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Filed Under: Comics
About the Author: Steven Bloom is Founder/Publisher of AmericasComedy.Com. He is pursuing his dream of laughing every day and associating with some of the most creative people in the entertainment industry. Steven@AmericasComedy.Com