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LOCAL BAND FOAM RUBBER OFFENDS NEIL DIAMOND FANS

Every Halloween, Chicago's south-side rock/cover band, Foam Rubber, chooses a theme for their Annual Halloween Show. In 1999, they recreated Elvis' famous Madison Square Garden Concert. In 2000 they were the Beatles.

At this year's show at Sluggers in Orland, they lampooned an easy target: Neil Diamond.

It's all done with love and an extremely low-budget -- with crooked wigs, cheap costumes and corny accents. The band provides a refreshing alternative to musical acts that take themselves a bit too seriously.

Patterning themselves after other local favorites like Stevie Starlite and the New Duncan Imperials, Foam Rubber is pure tongue-in-cheek camp.

Paul Frigo, ordinarily the band's drummer, was Neil Diamond. Usually he wouldn't be allowed anywhere near a microphone. "Paul can't sing very well," said Soter Nomikos, one of the bands' four (yes four!) guitarists. "But Paul knows how to work a room," said Soter, "Besides, it's not about how you sound, it's about how you look -- and he looks fantastic!" Paul was wearing a "puffy-shirt" with the front unbuttoned to reveal his hairy chest and a glitter vest. The rest of the band was wearing similar "puffy shirts" of various colors.

OK, I know what you're thinking, who cares what they were wearing -- can the band play well? Yes, considering that Neil Diamond is a favorite to no one in the group.

"I hate Neil Diamond," said keyboardist Dan Kotheimer. "But we learned all these stupid songs because we knew it'd be a funny thing to do."

"We like to make fun of cheesy rock," said Jeff Bogdan, lead singer and rhythm guitarist. The band made use of all the "tools of cheese" like a smoke machine, two confetti cannons and strobe lights. Meanwhile Paul "I can't sing very well" Frigo did his best Neil Diamond impression to all the hits including Cherry, Cherry, I’m A Believer, Love On The Rocks, I Am, I Said, Cracklin’ Rosie, Sweet Caroline and Forever In Blue Jeans.

Toward the end of the set, lead guitarist, Gary Murfee, a 250-pound former athlete, dressed as Barbra Streisand to perform the duet "You Don’t Bring Me Flowers." His falsetto stole the show.

Foam Rubber likes to mess with you. You get the feeling that they are good musicians who don't practice enough. They invite women up on stage for trivia games and give away odd prizes like used Jazzercise T-shirts signed by the band.

Foam Rubber closed the Neil Diamond set with the ultimate-in-cheese song, "Coming to America." Amidst the flashing lights and confetti, Paul enthusiastically repeated the chorus: "Today!... Today!... Today!" The band continued playing as Paul left the stage, and Jeff sang "Paul's gay!" instead of "Today."

"Some say we are juvenile," said Bogdan. "I say they are right."

(First set songs were: #1 Cherry, Cherry, #2 I’m A Believer, #3 Love On The Rocks, #4 I Am, I Said, #5 Thank The Lord For The Night Time, #6 Cracklin’ Rosie, #7 Forever In Blue Jeans; #8 You Don’t Bring Me Flowers, #9 Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon, #10 Sweet Caroline, #11 America.)

The second and third sets were decidedly less cheesy. The band played classic rock standards by the Rolling Stones, CCR and the Beatles with a few hillbilly-influenced originals thrown in for good measure. Paul was safely behind the drums, far away from microphones for the rest of the night.

Photos from the evening, upcoming show dates, MP3 audioclips of original material and other juvenilia can be found at Foam Rubber's website, www.oocities.org/thefoamrubber.


 
 

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