Three Years in the Making

A little more than three years ago, I was watching an episode of The Cake Boss, which began with a girl going into the shop and asking for “the totally awesome Buddy.” It turns out she was in an ’80s tribute band called Back to the ’80s. They were going to do their 80th show so they wanted a 1980s-inspired cake to help celebrate. Easily my favorite episode of the show. I even wrote an article about it. When researching for the article, I found that the band’s real name was Rubix Kube. And I hoped to be able to see them perform some day. Earlier this year, my sister asked me if I wanted to go see some ’80s tribute band that was coming to Foxboro, Massachusetts, which is a little less than an hour from my home in Rhode Island. It sounded great to me (of course), but I was on a cruise on the date they were coming. I was bummed. So what do I do? I torture myself, and look up the band information. Oh my God, it was Rubix Kube!! Ugh, I was extra disappointed. I told my sister to let me know if she heard that they were coming back. As my loyal readers know, I finally got my first smart phone recently. One of the first texts I got it was from my sister saying that the awesome ’80s band was coming back to Foxboro the day after Thanksgiving. And I was free, and able to go!

The Night Has Arrived

So, Friday night, my wife and I, my sister and brother-in-law, and my best friend and his wife gathered at the Showcase Live which is in the same complex as Foxboro Stadium, where the New England Patriots play. As anyone who lives in the Northeast can attest, or if you watched the Patriots-Broncos game earlier that week, we’ve had a drop in temperature, and it has been freakin’ cold!
We took our jackets off at our cars so we wouldn’t have to carry them or wear them in the venue, and made our way across the freezing, windy parking lot to get into the Showcase Live.

We were a little early, so there weren’t too many people there yet. We had some drinks and caught up with each other. Meanwhile, there was nothing but’80s music playing over the speakers. There were reserved tables along the sides of the room, and there was a huge dance floor in front of the stage. And the stage was covered with all kinds of awesome ’80s memorabilia, such as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (this one really was harmless), Bill and Ted’s telephone booth, and several ’80s album covers. There was also a big screen behind the stage where a slide show was being displayed with all ’80s pop culture items, such as the cast of Diff’rent Strokes, the “Where’s the Beef” lady Clara Peller, and as you can see from the picture, Tom Cruise from Top Gun.

All of a sudden, the music volume got turned way up, and “Seperate Ways” was playing. What a way to get pumped up for the show! After a couple of more songs, The music got turned up even more when “The Final Countdown” began playing. When the song started, a 10 minute countdown began on the screen. This was followed by “Welcome to the Jungle”.

Showtime!!

After the countdown reach zero, something familiar appeared on the screen:

and then we were greeted by this astronaut

And the band opened with Loverboy’s “Working for the Weekend”, and we were off. And for just about every song they played, a slide show of the artist who they were covering would be shown on the screen.

Also at the beginning of the show, I saw somebody come out from the back of the stage, and take a picture of us. And it was posted on the band’s Facebook page:

Yes, that’s me in the center. Here are some pictures I took (with my smart phone!)

Guess which song they were playing here:

I was “Like a Virgin” myself, as this was my first Rubix Kube concert. The guitarist on the right is Steve Brown from the band Trixter. Trixter’s first album came out in 1990, and they are best known for their songs “Give It To Me Good” and “One in a Million“.

Here is the band Getting into the Groove:

Oh, I got some video too!! Here is a verse of “Beat It”

Here is a full song – “If I Could Turn Back Time”:

Here is a picture of the band performing “Let’s Go Crazy”. The red balloons you see are left over from a previous song. I’ll give you one guess as to what song that was. (Hint: I believe there were 99 of those bad boys getting knocked around!

Here is a verse of “On the Dark Side”. This was the first time the band played this song:

“Straight Up”, this was a great show!

Oh yeah, they went there! Keytar in the house!!

Break out the hair! Here is the full song of “Here I Go Again”

The show closed with 2 great songs. First was “Video Killed the Radio Star”. The singer had a little megaphone, so it sounded a lot like the real song. What a great show! They could have closed with that. But, then they closed the show out with “Don’t Stop Believin'”. First, they had the audience sing the first verse. Then they started over playing the whole song, with several people joining the band on stage. The whole night was a great ’80s party. I can’t wait to go again!!

Things I Learned

In closing, here are a few things I learned from my night with Rubix Kube:

1) Showcase Live actually has a coat check. So we don’t need to freeze our asses off if we go there again in the winter.

2) The Smurfs ripped off the J. Geils Band! Go ahead, sing The Smurfs song, and then compare it to the beginning of “Centerfold”! The band mentioned it, then had us sing The Smurfs song, and they went into “Centerfold”.

3) Superman was not the only one who changed in a phone booth. Whenever a band member was going to have a wardrobe change, they would go through the Bill and Ted phone booth.

4) For somebody that runs a web site called Return to the ’80s, I really need to get some ’80s clothes to wear next time! I mean, I don’t even have a t-shirt with a band/movie/television show on it. I’ll try to do better dressing the part next time!

I loved this band, and I love the ’80s even more now, if that’s possible. I definitely will be back when they come again. And I would highly recommend seeing them if you get the chance.

Follow @returntothe80s