Wang Chung

So my band was asked to open for Wang Chung in a little club in my hometown of Rockville Centre, NY. Me and the guys were cracking Wang Chung jokes for the couple of weeks before the show because, really, Wang Chung?

So its the night of the show and we do our set and me and the boys are sitting in the club snickering our Wang Chung jokes, waiting for them to take the stage... what the fuck? They turn out to be absoutely AWESOME!

What was really suprising is not the fact that they were good but how they took their (in my now re-evaluated opinion) pedestrian material and transformed it into honest to goodness GREAT ROCKIN', THINKING MAN'S POP MUSIC! I Swear they almost bordered on Prog but still kept their dance/pop intact, quite a feat! Great musicianship, great stage presence and great show.

Obviously I was never a fan of Wang Chung but their take on old songs specifically "Fire In The Twilight" and a semi acoustic " To Live and Die In L.A." were absolutely brilliant. Their set turned up one suprise re-invention after another.

Guess what? Now I'm a fan...



[buddylove.us]

Cool story! I presume this was a recent show?

Yea, just last month. Read my blog for all the details...

[buddylovetoday.blogspot.com]



[buddylove.us]

I love when that happens -- you're dragged off to a show, or have to sit through an opening act you don't really like, and then they turn out to be great. I didn't really like Treat Her Right until I saw them open up for Guadalcanal Diary. They put on such a great show that I immediately bought their first couple of albums and was damned impressed. Saw Rick Springfield a couple of years ago and felt the same: great show, lots of energy and fine playing. I did not, however, rush out and buy Working Class Dog, though.

I always felt sorry for Wang Chung, who weren't a bad band at all, but who produced a single that was kitsch before it made it through the first rotation. They were always pretty good musicians. Nice to read the praise, too. Considering the source, that's pretty high, in my opinion.

I thought perhaps this was another band for the "I could've sworn they had a TP entry" category, but I see that they do, under the original spelling of Huang Chung. Which I have to say seems a bit confusing to me.

I never heard the Huang Chung album, but I seem to recall it had a lot of pretty vocal fans. Trent Reznor was praising it in an interview a few years ago, and I think Jon Young had it on his end of year Best of for Short Takes the year it was released.

There's a recent interview of Wang Chung's Jack Hues on Popdose:

[popdose.com]

I don't care that much one way or the other–although I've long felt "Fire in the Twilight" is the best thing on the Breakfast Club soundtrack–just thought I'd share.

Oh hell. How did their big tune go again?

"Everybody somethin' somethin' tonight?"

...

Seriously ... did they not have a previous (minor) hit before that one?

The band did have a Top Twenty U.S. hit before "Everybody ________ ________ Tonight." The song was "Dance Hall Days," from the album Points on the Curve (its first album as Wang Chung, rather than Huang Chung).

They also recorded the soundtrack to the film To Live and Die in L.A. The title track received a fair amount of radio airplay (at least where I live) and just missed the Top Forty.

And don't forget "Fire In The Twilight" which was on The Breakfast Club soundtrack.



[buddylove.us]

My (ex) wife used to listen to Wang Chung so I'd probably recognize it if I heard it.

We also saw Treat Her Right open for the Diary. THR didn't make any impression and for the life of me I could NOT get their name right in my memory. My wife, however, liked them and later kept searching for their album after I recalled their name once as "Be Nice to Her" and once as "Shape Up, Already".

(And speaking of Trent, she had the same reaction when then-unknowns NIN opened for the Chain and Pretty Hate Machine entered the house rotation on repeat. I still cringe today).