Get ready for a crazy night with 10,000 Maniacs at SOPAC

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Popular alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs will take the stage at the South Orange Performing Arts Center on Sunday, March 26, after celebrating 35 years in music last year. Such a milestone is a major achievement for any group, and the significance is certainly not lost on the Maniacs. After all, founding member and bass player Steve Gustafson admitted they “weren’t very good” when they first started playing together in 1981, so success was far from guaranteed. The group also underwent a number of lineup changes through the years that could have easily caused it to fall apart.

But 10,000 Maniacs prevailed in a big way, spawning a string of hits that helped define alternative rock in the 1980s and 1990s. And while the magnitude of it all did not dawn on Gustafson at the time, he said he realizes now that the band’s career has been truly special.

“Viewing it 35 years later as a mature adult, married for 30 years and with grown kids, I think there’s a different appreciation for it,” Gustafson told the News-Record in a March 13 phone interview. “While it was happening, at least for me, it was quite thrilling and fun. I didn’t pay much attention to details about what was happening — I was just sort of along for the ride and enjoying the experience. Working at it like we do now, I think there’s a better appreciation for what he have and what we had and maybe where we’re going.”

The Maniacs have certainly come a long way since their first gig, which was eventful to say the least. According to Gustafson, the band had just finished playing an opening set at a bar named Molly B’s in Erie, Pa., when it decided to spend the $50 it had just made on drinks. At the time smoking indoors was allowed but the bar did not have an ashtray, so their then-drummer flicked his cigarette on the floor and put it out with his boot. This prompted the bar owner to yell at him, which caused former guitarist Rob Buck’s wife, Teri Newhouse, to come to his defense. So the owner cursed at her, keyboardist Dennis Drew cursed back at him and a brawl ensued.

While chairs went flying and the bar owner chased Drew out the door with a nightstick, Gustafson said the band quickly loaded their gear into their cars. By that point Drew was running down the sidewalk, so they drove around front and he jumped through the open passenger-side window. And the band was elated.

“We honestly thought that was the coolest thing that could have ever happened to us,” Gustafson said. “It was thrilling. (We thought) ‘Woohoo, this is great. We must be doing something right. Or something terribly wrong.’”

Success did not come easily from there. Gustafson said the band did not make much money in its early days, to the point that members would often have to sleep in tents or on the floors of strangers’ homes. Sometimes, he said, they spent what little they had driving out to a show only to learn that the person who had booked them had been fired, so their show had been canceled. It was during those times that 10,000 Maniacs learned a lot about patience and the kindness of people willing to lend them a hand, he said.

Their persistence paid off in 1987 with the release of the album “In My Tribe,” which went double-platinum on the strength of singles “What’s the Matter Here?” and “Like the Weather.” The platinum “Blind Man’s Zoo” followed in 1989 featuring “Trouble Me,” one of the group’s best known songs. Then came 1992’s “Our Time in Eden,” another double-platinum record that included the hugely popular hits “These Are Days” and “Candy Everybody Wants.”

This upward trajectory culminated in 10,000 Maniacs’ iconic 1993 appearance on “MTV Unplugged,” a performance that almost never happened. Gustafson recalled that MTV had a policy at the time of not allowing any band to perform twice on the series, which would have disqualified the Maniacs since they had performed on one of the first shows. But their manager informed the network that lead singer Natalie Merchant was about to leave the band — she went on to have a successful solo career in her own right — so the band was given another episode.

It proved to be a good decision. The second “MTV Unplugged” episode featuring 10,000 Maniacs became one of the most acclaimed of the series, and the resulting album reached multi-platinum status. The Maniacs’ cover of the Patti Smith Group’s 1978 single “Because the Night” even became their highest-charting success, climbing to No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.

One would expect that the band spent months honing their performance in order to get such an outstanding result. But that was actually not the case, as Gustafson said the Maniacs only had a few weeks to rehearse before the television taping. Fortunately for them, he said, the group members had been playing together a lot before this, so they were comfortable with what they were doing. And the band was pleased with how everything turned out.

“There’s a certain danger involved with doing a live recording because you don’t always get to go back and fix it if something goes haywire,” Gustafson said. “But we were quite excited about the final outcome of that. It was a nice experience. I’m glad we got to do it.”

That success was bittersweet though, as the “MTV Unplugged” show marked Merchant’s final performance with 10,000 Maniacs. Losing their longtime lead singer was disheartening, Gustafson said, especially since it halted the group’s momentum. But the Maniacs quickly found a replacement in Mary Ramsey, who Gustafson said fit seamlessly into the band.

Ramsey herself agreed that joining 10,000 Maniacs was a fairly easy transition since she was already serving as a background vocalist and strings player for the group. She was also in a folk duo with John Lombardo, a former Maniacs guitarist who rejoined the band when she became lead singer in 1994. But above all, she said, it was everyone’s love of music and desire to share it with the world that really compelled them to continue playing.

“We put our faith in what we do,” Ramsey told the News-Record in a March 9 phone interview, adding that she is proud of what the band has accomplished. “We’ve done so many shows, and the reactions are fantastic. The audience is what really makes it special, and it’s a mutual admiration society. That energy of the audience’s support has kept the group going, and our dedication as a group and commitment to our music and each other have kept us going. So it’s just kind of a story of perseverance.”

Ramsey said she likes to think of 10,000 Maniacs as a band of traveling minstrels from another time, and the group has indeed covered a lot of ground. Since Ramsey took over as lead singer, the Maniacs have played everywhere from President Bill Clinton’s second Inaugural Ball to USO shows in Kuwait and Bahrain. She said they even once played an outdoor show in Vail, Colo., while it was snowing, an experience she described as “invigorating.”

The band has also released several records, including last year’s “Playing Favorites,” a live album of greatest hits recorded during a concert in the Maniacs’ home base of Jamestown, N.Y. Gustafson said the band has recorded some of their performances in the past, but this concert was particularly special. So he said they turned it into an album both as a way to keep fans engaged and as a record of how they sound today.

As for future releases, Gustafson said 10,000 Maniacs are working on a new album of original material that will likely come out in 2018. Beyond that, he said the band will have to see what interests them. Ramsey said she would like to do an album of reggae music, similar to how the Maniacs did a take on British Isles folk songs in 2015 — “Twice Told Tales.” Gustafson said he thinks doing a record of American folk music would be fun as well.

Whatever they do next, Ramsey said 10,000 Maniacs will continue to enjoy touring and interacting with their fans as they will at SOPAC on Sunday. Though the group has existed for 35 years, she said it still feels lucky to be able to share its music with the world. Especially in today’s divisive political climate, she said it is nice to be part of something that has the rare power to unite people.

“We’re communicating with a language of music that is really about bringing people together and being in a comfortable zone of enjoyment and camaraderie and respect,” Ramsey said. “It’s something that we crave as people.”

To order tickets for 10,000 Maniacs’ SOPAC concert, call 973-313-2787 or visit http://www.sopacnow.org/10000-maniacs/.

  FEATURED, SOPAC