Recording: Members of Century Palm + Germaphobes

Artist: Members of Century Palm + Germaphobes

Song: 6060-842 [The B-52's cover]

Recorded at The Dance Cave (DEATH TO T.O. V), October 30, 2015.

Members of Century Palm + Germaphobes - 6060-842

For its massive fifth year of Hallowe'en covers, DEATH TO T.O. upsized from its home at The Silver Dollar/Comfort Zone to Lee's Palace and the Dance Cave. That allowed it to keep its sprawling two-stage upstairs/downstairs dynamic even as it accommodated a bigger crowd than ever. Besides curating no fewer than seventeen (!) short sets, Dan Burke and Elliot Jones also kept things running on schedule, with one set starting quite crisply as the one on the other stage ended for nearly the whole night. And as always, the bands put in a lot of work — not just musically, but a lot of the time in trying to capture the look and mannerisms of the band they were covering.

Jesse Locke and Alexander Hamlyn from Century Palms supplied the new wave rhythm'n'throb, and up front Germaphobes' Paul Erlichman nailed Fred Schneider's sing-speak while Liz Collins and Julia Dickens served as vocal foils Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson. Mostly concentrating on the band's ace early stuff (though the post-Ricky era was acknowledged with the sublime "Roam" rather than the ubiquitous "Love Shack") the set ended with "Rock Lobster". The group completely captured the spirit, holding a joyfully-goofy sock-hop party on stage.