Younger customers and theater buffs of all ages who walk through Potawatomi Bingo Casino this week might see advertisements for the Off Broadway show Friday night and think of "The Fantasticks," "Hair," "Rent," "Stomp" or another well-known production that gained notoriety on the fringes of the Great White Way.
If you listened to FM radio in Milwaukee in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the phrase "Off Broadway" conjures entirely different images:
Warm summer nights;
Cutoff jean shorts;
Marathon Frisbee sessions;
Feathered hair and big combs;
Black satin jackets;
Concert T-shirts with three-quarter length sleeves;
"Young Milwaukee Night" at County Stadium;
And, in the background, the unforgettable power-pop songs of Off Broadway, a Chicago-based band that hit the charts with the album "On."
It is that Off Broadway -- Cliff Johnson, Rob Harding, Mike Gorman, Mike Redmond and Ken Harck -- that will play a free show with opening act Enuff Z'nuff at 8 p.m. Friday night.
Though it's hard to fathom in this era of overnight Internet sensations, reality show star machines and crumbling record labels, Off Broadway was a huge regional band in the Midwest, particularly in Chicago and Milwaukee.
"On," which was released by Atlantic Records, featured radio-friendly hits like "Stay in Time," "Full Moon Turn My Head Around" and others. Much like the Michael Stanley Band captivated fans Cleveland, Off Broadway played to huge, appreciative crowds in Chicago and Milwaukee but failed to gain much traction nationally.
When the second album, "Quick Turns," sputtered, the band was overshadowed by contemporaries like Cheap Trick, REO Speedwagon, Journey and others.
By the middle 1980s, I had forgotten about Off Broadway until a college roommate dropped a needle on his copy of "On" during an impromptu party. Even though it was only a couple years old, the album had a "retro" feel. After we emptied most of a case of Bavarian Club beer, he put the album away and I didn't think about Off Broadway again until I heard about the Northern Lights show.
For many, the show will represent a night of nostalgia. For others, it will be a night of discovery and a reminder that good things don't always happen to good bands.
Here is a YouTube clip of the band at a recent show:
Host of “The Drew Olson Show,” which airs 1-3 p.m. weekdays on The Big 902. Sidekick on “The Mike Heller Show,” airing weekdays on The Big 920 and a statewide network including stations in Madison, Appleton and Wausau. Co-author of Bill Schroeder’s “If These Walls Could Talk: Milwaukee Brewers” on Triumph Books. Co-host of “Big 12 Sports Saturday,” which airs Saturdays during football season on WISN-12. Former senior editor at OnMilwaukee.com. Former reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
