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Giving them what they Want - By Jon Busdeker
mailto:jbusdeker@newsadvance.com
434-385-5524 The opening chords to the next song interrupt the hoots, the howls and the applause. Everyone knows this one. Almost immediately, there’s a rush to the dance floor. It’s a Saturday night at Rubs, and a local band named Skweezbox is entertaining the rowdy crowd of middle-aged women, 20-something metal heads and couples out for a night on the town. This diverse audience might be impossible to win over playing songs with original lyrics, creative guitar licks and ultimate drum solos. So, how does Skweezbox keep the crowd’s attention? Give ’em Van Halen. Give ’em AC/DC. Give ’em Lynyrd Skynyrd. Skweezbox is a cover band, and on this night, the four guys on stage will tear through more than 50 songs made famous by other bands. It’s their job, like all cover bands, to be a living jukebox and play the songs everyone knows. Hard Day’s Night “Big wheels keep on turnin’, carry me home to my kin,” sings the lead vocalist. By now, everyone knows the band’s playing “Sweet Home Alabama” and the dance floor fills with gyrating hips and relaxed inhibitions. An overweight woman shakes her booty. Her dance partner, clad in Harley-Davidson gear, shuffles his feet. Across the room, there’s a guy with long hair wearing tight, faded jeans rocking out on his air guitar. While focused on the invisible Fender Stratocaster, he manages to sing along with Skynyrd’s southern anthem. “Sweet home Alabama, where the skies are so blue. Sweet home Alabama, Lord I’m coming home to you.” At the end of the song, there are hoots, howls and applause. What’s Skweezbox gonna play next? Anything they want, as long as the crowd can sing along. From Monday to Friday, during the daytime hours, the four guys that make up Skweezbox - Dave Wright, 40, on vocals; Keith Woody, 34, on bass; Todd Martin, 39, on drums; and Loder, 29, on guitar - go to their everyday jobs as cabinet makers, electricians and steel workers. The guys are family men with wives, kids, house payments and responsibilities. But come Saturday night, they’re on stage ripping through crowd favorites like “Bodies” by Drowning Pool, “You Really Got Me” by Van Halen and “Live Wire” by AC/DC. Skweezbox has been together since December, after the breakup of two separate cover bands. When members of Skweezbox got together, it wasn’t a difficult transition because each member has been playing cover songs for more than 15 years. And they don’t do it for the money. They play music because they love it. “We get to get out and be young,” said Woody. Since forming, the band’s found a home at Rubs, playing twice a month, but they’re looking for other gigs at other venues. “We just play where we can play,” said Martin. And that’s not easy in the Hill City, they said. In a town not known for its music scene, Lynchburg can be a rough place for a band, especially for bands that aren’t cover bands. Skweezbox sticks to the favorites because that’s what people want to hear. On a typical night at Rubs, Skweezbox will play for four hours and cover everything from ’70s disco to today’s hits. “If we don’t know it, we’ll learn it for the next time,” Wright said. “… We try to keep it fun.” At one point during its show at Rubs, the band had 15 couples on the dance floor slow dancing to a spot-on cover of Price’s “Purple Rain.” Later, they threw in “Cumbersome” by Seven Mary Three - a Lynchburg favorite. It’s a song they play a lot. “It’s hard to get excited playing (a song) the 501st time,” Woody said. But, they agreed, once the crowd reacts, by dancing, clapping or singing, the band will get into it and crank it up. After their night of living the rock ‘n’ roll dream, the guys were back to work on Monday morning at their normal jobs. In two weeks, they’ll be back, once again at Rubs, entertaining a crowd with cover songs. “It gives you something to look forward to,” said Woody. Worx for the weekend At 8 years old, Steve Prusak learned how to play the keyboard. By 21, he was touring the United States as a member of Percy Sledge’s backup band. At 33, he moved back to Virginia and gave up touring, but he didn’t want to give up being a musician. In his hometown of Roanoke, Prusak found a group of musicians and started The Worx in 1991. Now, more than 15 years later, The Worx is one of the most successful bands in Virginia, with a tour schedule that’s booked a year in advance. And Prusak, 50, attributes his success to playing the songs people love. The Worx is a professional cover band that travels around Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland playing to audiences of different musical tastes. “We don’t do set-lists,” Prusak said. “We go by request. We feel the crowd out every night.” A lot of cover bands, he said, play what they like and don’t think about their audiences. “That’s what kills a lot of cover bands,” he said. The Worx plays everything from Top 40 hits and country music to metal ballads and alternative rock. In all, Prusak said The Worx has a catalog of about 250 songs. “The whole secret of being a cover band is being versatile,” Prusak said. In his years working in the music business, Prusak has discovered how different Virginia is compared to the rest of the country. “Virginia is kind of weird,” he said. He said people in Virginia don’t like going out and hearing four hours of original music. No matter how good a band is, he explained, people want to be able to sing along. “You can’t cram original music down people’s throats and expect them to like it,” Prusak said. “… People just don’t support it.” Also, he said, there’s a lack of venues in Lynchburg and Roanoke for up-and-coming bands that play original music. One of the main problems is money. In order to have a successful concert hall, it takes a decent P.A. system and a sound technician to run it. Smaller clubs, without the funds, can’t provide a good music-going experience, he said. The Worx has found its niche performing for large crowds at professional venues like Cattle Annie’s and at Friday Cheers. Those big places want bands that will bring out the most people. The Worx has adapted to the music scene of Virginia and stuck with cover songs, he said, so the band could be successful. “That’s our love, playing music,” he said. And, unlike the hundreds of original bands that have since hung up their guitars, The Worx has managed to stay on top of its game by playing it safe and performing cover songs. “You can play music for a living, and you can do it the guaranteed way,” he said. • The Worx will be at Cattle Annie’s on March 23.
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