Formed in San Francisco during the early 70s, The Tubes distinguished themselves as much more than a rock band. The group incorporated theater and dance into provocative and satirical early songs like \u201c White Punks on Dope.\u201d By the 80\u2019s, the sprawling seven-piece multimedia troupe found MTV-era success with top-ten single \u201c She\u2019s a Beauty .\u201d
With a large company of musicians, crew, dancers and actors in the early days, the Tubes weren\u2019t often accused of being in it for the money. \u201cWe never made any,\u201d says lead singer\/songwriter Fee Waybill with a laugh. \u201cWe spent every dime on production. Every year, we\u2019d dream up this fiasco that took 40 people on the road for eight months in a bus. We\u2019d make three million dollars, and it would cost us four.\u201d
The Tubes\u2019 latest release is \u201c Live at German Television ,\u201d capturing a 1981 studio performance. Songs include \u201c Talk to Ya Later \u201d from breakthrough album \u201cThe Completion Backward Principle.\u201d
\u201cIt\u2019s really a good piece from our heyday, during a big Euro-tour with the girls and the works,\u201d says Waybill. \u201cWe do well in Europe, and we were in Germany last year. A guy who owns a record label there found this TV station, Radio Bremen, that had the film in their vault. Our promoter said, \u2018Did you even know this existed?\u2019 I said, \u2018Hell, no, I don\u2019t remember that. 1981?\u2019 We saw it, and we all went, \u2018We\u2019re so young! We\u2019re so handsome!\u2019\u201d
The Tubes now travel as a lean five-piece troupe, with four founding members. Theatricality remains important, and Waybill adopts various personas including wasted glam-rocker Quay Lewd. \u201cI\u2019m still doing eight or ten costume changes per show,\u201d says Waybill. \u201cThis show is called the Mondo Pulp Tour. It\u2019s a dual tribute to the movie \u2018Pulp Fiction\u2019 and the pulp art movement.
When they made those wildly-colored magazines in the early \u201950s, it was called pulp because the paper was so cheap. It was garish and sexual with lots of cleavage, superheroes, villains, guns and monsters. I\u2019m doing costumes and characters that fit that.\u201d
Waybill becomes a Gene Rayburn-styled game show host while satirizing consumer culture during \u201c What Do You Want From Life? \u201d
\u201cSometimes the product sarcasm gets lost on the millennials,\u201d he says. \u201cWe grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. It was 150 [degrees] outside, so what are you gonna do? We sat inside watching TV all day long \u2013 westerns and game shows like \u2018Let\u2019s Make a Deal,\u2019 \u2018Concentration\u2019 or \u2018Match Game.\u2019 We\u2019re definitely TV babies.\u201d
Jeff Elbel is a local freelance writer.<\/p>\n

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