Totally Tubular Festival @ Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 7-28-24

The last night of the inaugural Totally Tubular festival happened in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio this past Sunday night. This featured some of the biggest bands of the 1980’s. Some of the acts rotated around between various cities but for this show, the crowd got to see: Thomas Dolby, Tom Bailey of the Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey, Modern English, Wang Chung, Men Without Hats, Annabella’s Bow Wow Wow, Tommy Tutone and The Plimsouls.

The show started at 5:30pm with The Plimsouls featuring Eddie Munoz. Munoz is the sole original member still with the group. They were really known for the single “A Million Miles Away,” that was featured in the 1983 film “Valley Girl.” Munoz moved about the stage with the rest of the band was they played a 4 song 15-minute set.

Up Next, was Tummy Tutone. Tutone immediately addressed the crowd while taking the stage saying that, “I’m the 867-5309 guy. He also went on to say that he is 76 years old. Tutone jammed as much music as he could into the short 15-minute set by doing a medley of his songs, a cover of Cat Steven’s “Wide World” and finally, the song he is known for in “8675309.”

Following up Tutone was Annabella’s Bow Wow Wow. Annabellla split from the original Bow Wow Wow and created her own version. The other version is still led by original bassist Leigh Gorman. Their 20-minute set was comprised of 5 songs including a few minor hits in “W.O.R.K. (N.O. Nah No! My Daddy Don’t)” and “Do You Wanna Hold Me?” Then came the clincher “I Want Candy” where everyone got on their feet and sang along to Annabella Lwin.

Following that up were Wang Chung. The band is still led by original members bassist Nick Feldman and guitarist/vocalist Jack Hue. What impressed me was they surrounded themselves with a full band and they sounded terrific! Of course, both songs “Dance Hall Days” and “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” got the biggest responses. They also threw in a cool cover of the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go.”

Right up next was Men Without Hats. The band did a fun set that included doing their most popular song not once, but twice. They opened up with the regular version of the “Safety Dance” and closed with the extended version of the song. I don’t think anyone minded as the band sounded great led by Ivan Doroschuk, who was wearing all black. I thought their show was one of the highlights of the evening.

Next in line was Modern English. They played a 6 song 30-minute set. Modern English are still led by original frontman Robbie Grey. They were the only band who were on the bill also promoting new music. They released a new album called ‘1234’ back in February. The new songs “Long in the Tooth” and “Crazy Lovers” were performed and to me, sounded a lot like classic Modern English. Of course, the band closed with their biggest hit in “Melt with You.”

Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey were next up. I saw Bailey perform a few years back and was lukewarm on that performance. I was hoping for things to change after a second look around. I have to say, out of all the sets, I was disappointed with his the most. Bailey sang over to a prerecorded track through the entire show. To me, this and the overall performance seemed to lack energy. The other bands had a full band (minus Tomas Dolby) and all sounded full and great.

The headliner was Thomas Dolby. It was strange choice for the headliner. I thought Dolby did what he was there to as he had programmed music and did interesting things on his synthesizer. Even though I never seen him, I had a feeling on what to expect. I was correct on all fronts. He did sprinkle in some harmonica playing in addition to his keyboard and synthesizer work. After performing his biggest hit “Blinded Me with Science,” a lot of the artists joined him on stage to close out the show and tour with “Hot Sauce.”

I’m so glad I got to go to this and see all the bands of my youth who were MTV darlings at one point or another back throughout the 1980’s. I never thought I got to see all these hits performed by multiple bands in one place under one roof. Even though the attendance was very sparse (around 2,300 count), the people who were their all had a great time I can assure you. The only thing I didn’t understand was the order of the lineup. Outside of that, I’m hoping they aim to keep this going every year and to bring a mix of different bands along with it.

Thomas Dolby setlist:

Blue Monday (New Order cover)

Europa and the Pirate Twins

One of our Submarines

“Heroes” (David Bowie cover)

Hyperactive!

She Blinded me With Science

Hot Sauce (Everyone from other bands joined on stage as this was the last song for the tour)

Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey setlist:

Love on Your Side (Thompson Twins song)

Lay Your Hands on Me (Thompson Twins song)

If You Were Here (Thompson Twins song)