The Dan Band - This Week In Moneypenny

The Genie is out of the Bottle...

Hectic week! Barely had time to squeeze in some fun. You know I'd never fully let that happen, right?

When I found out I was set to cover The Dan Band at the Royal Oak Music Theater, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I hadn't heard much about Dan or his Band, but I knew they got their rise from their cover of Bonnie Tyler's 1983 classic "Total Eclipse of the Heart" as seen in the movie Old School - one of my favorite movies. They have also been featured in The Hangover, other movies and several TV shows. Besides that, I didn't know what we were in store for or what this would look like. My assistant and I got to ROMT and found it very well attended with a college humor crowd, proving that Dan has an established following. There was plenty of time to down a few beers while waiting for the band, which is a necessary ingredient for this kind of show.

To clarify, The Dan Band isn't a band at all, it's a flurry of high-energy, top-shelf karaoke. The act consists of two deadpan dudes crisply dressed in suits and Dan, an enthusiastic jukebox hero who resembles a gas station attendant, complete with name tag, backwards hat and chain wallet. Dan was generous with the audience participation and the crowd response was fun to watch as it seems that dudes get as giddy as their girlfriends when other men get onstage and shake their asses. The songs they bring to life are a medley of girly pop classics from today and yesteryear that they fortify with plenty of well-timed swearing. Just when you're wondering if Dan has lost his nuts in a fruity cocktail, he drops an F-bomb and grabs his crotch. Dancing with reckless abandon, they shoop, shuffle and put their back into choreography that any 13 year old girl would be proud of. In lieu of playing instruments, they use props to create a very physical kind comedy, including back-flips, leaps through hoops and healthy dose of nipple flicking. It's like an irreverent, three-man Broadway show for the bar-scene. Dan does his job and he does it well, because even though he gets up there looking like a hard-working everyman, I guarantee that no one in that theater was thinking about their damn day job while those guys were on. They seem like the kind of average guys that one might drink with all the time, only amplified and stripped of all shame.

Pop music is never in short supply and neither are work-weary people who need an easy laugh after a long week. I have a feeling that there will be plenty of The Dan Band around in the future. They embrace our guilty pleasures so that we don't have to, and then exploit themselves for our amusement. I think there's a strong market for that.

Everyone likes to point and laugh sometimes. Thanks, Dan!

It's already the weekend! Bottoms up...

Cheers,
Moneypenny