I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: May 18, 2018] Pepperville

Pepperville describes themselves as “New Jersey’s best classic harmony rock band.”  They specialize in “the classic sounds of 1960’s and 1970’s harmony rock, as well as other great music from the 1950’s through the 1990’s.  We feature the best of the Beatles, Monkees, The Who, Rolling Stones, Hollies, Beach Boys, Doors, and many more.”

A friend of mine started dating a member of the band (I’ll keep all of this anonymous!).  So we decided to show support for them by going to see the band live.

They were playing The Station in Bernardsville, a delightful dining establishment.

I have never gone to see a cover band before.  I have never gone to a restaurant for the purpose of watching a band before (I have of course been to a restaurant while there was a band, but that’s different).  I had something of an existential crisis while there.  I believe that as a patron I should respect the band by watching and listening to them.  I dislike it very much at concerts when people talk during songs.  A band is not there as background to whatever it is you are doing.

And yet a cover band in a restaurant is there by definition as background to whatever it is you are doing.  

Cover bands are inherently strange anyhow, especially when you have professional cover bands touring and charging quite a lot.

The particular genre of music that Pepperville covers makes sense since you’ll never see The Beatles or The (full) Monkees or the Hollies live, so this is a nice substitute.  And yet, there I was ordering food, talking to people, and worse yet, I was in a chair that put my back to the band.  Such rudeness.

Clearly no one else had any problem with talking and laughing and being louder than the band.  But I was there also to socialize with friends, so I wasn’t even really supposed to look at the band all that much, I guess.  And yet, they were there right behind me (and were quite loud).

Well, existential crisis aside, Pepperville was delightful.  They played a really fun mix of, as they promised, Beatles, Monkees, Hollies, Beach Boys, early Who and much more.  I like how everyone took turns singing (which gave nice diversity to the different band they were covering).  And musically, they sounded great.  My only complaint is that they included a Steve Miller song (I think it was Steve Miller)–a song distinctly not of their era.  I see now in their blurb that they do play some 90s music as well, but really, if your logo is a Monkees guitar and your name comes from the Beatles, you should stick to that era, no?

Of course not a soul in the place minded at all that they broke out of their era (although the guy in the band I talked to during intermission said it did bug him a smidge).  But everyone in the bar just danced and sang along and had a grand old time.  Weird.

And the food was good too.

I recommend Pepperville for your next event where a cover band is required.