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By ALAN K. STOUT [email protected]
Friday, March 03, 2000 Page:
Lit may be a “modern-rock” band, but the group’s members grew up
listening to a wide range of music. They name bands like Iron Maiden, KISS,
Van Halen and Dokken as influences, but they also cite Frank Sinatra and Elvis
Costello as favorites. It’s an odd combination from the band that scored last
year’s smash, “My Own Worst Enemy” – a song about waking up in the morning
and regretting your actions from the night before. (Or, worse yet – not
remembering them.) The song was named the Billboard No. 1 modern-rock track of
the year and helped the band’s “A Place In The Sun” LP earn platinum status.
Throughout all of this success, the band has toured across the United States,
Europe, Canada, Japan and Australia. (The group plays at Tink’s in Scranton on
Thursday.) And for a band that banged it out for years in Southern California,
it feels like a Cinderella story. “It’s been crazy,” says bassist Kevin
Blades. “It’s everything I ever dreamed about. Some of the venues I got to
play, some of the bands I got to play with. Selling a million albums – I
didn’t know if we’d ever do that. That just seemed like such a far-fetched
goal. All of us sudden, we had a gold record, and platinum was right behind
it. It’s a crazy feeling. “When we were doing our album, I bought tickets to
go see KISS on Halloween at Dodger Stadium. Less than a year later, we’re
being paid to open for them. It’s incredible.” But not an overnight story.
Blades, singer A. Jay Popoff, guitarist Jeremy Popoff and drummer Allen
Shellenberger have actually been playing together for 10 years. “We knew each
other in junior high, but finally hooked up in high school,” says Blades.
“We just hung out. All four of us loved heavy-metal music, like Iron Maiden
and stuff like that. That’s what brought us together in the first place, and
we just went from there.” After an EP in 1996 and an independent release in
1997, the band signed with RCA Records. Blades says the years of banging it
out in the bars were tough but the band always remained focused. “You get
discouraged and get a little nervous,” he says. “Every year that goes by,
you’re doing the same thing. But we were always very successful, as far as the
club scene, and always had a really big following no matter what we did. And
as cliched as it sounds, we were happy to just be playing.” Blades says the
band used its years in the clubs as an educational experience. “We looked at
it as our college,” he says. “We were always trying to learn and put things
into the show and were constantly writing. We were always keeping ourselves
busy and striving a lot harder than a lot of other bands around here. We used
to go out all hours of the night, plastering posters on the side of the
freeway promoting shows and doing crazy stuff. We were always pushing the
envelope a little bit, even with the shows.” The band’s wide range of
influences, he says, may be why it has been able to reach a wider audience.
“I find that a lot of younger kids like us, but I find that a lot of older
people do too. We’re all in our mid to late 20s, so there’s like 25 years of
influences – from the whole grunge era to punk, metal and pop rock. Jeremy and
A.J’s dad was a pop DJ, so he always brought home pop albums for them.”
Blades says that even a stint on last year’s “Warped Tour” had an impact on
the group. “You kind of get into other people’s music, especially when you
meet a band,” he says. “Maybe if you don’t even like their album, you meet
them, you learn to accept their album, and all of a sudden, you like it.
That’s happened to me a lot of times. You’re around a bunch of bands you’d
never listen to, you meet the guys and end up being on the side of the stage
watching them, and you kind of get into their whole vibe.” Blades says that
like its influences, Lit likes to add a touch of theater to its shows. He adds
that the band members are glad to be back playing inside, where they can
present a more visually appealing show.
“We’ve put our minds together, and we’ve come up with something that looks
pretty cool,” he says. “You’re going to see some Lit vibe, for sure.”
WHO: Lit
WHERE: Tink’s Entertainment Complex, 519 Linden St., Scranton
WHEN: Thursday, March 9
ADMISSION: $12 in advance, $14 at the show. All-ages/21 to drink
INFO: 346-8465