By popular demand, another Wallflowers classic from the recent Canadian airlift joins the Che Underground play list. Wallflowers lead singer Dave Rinck has famously referred to “Funland” as the “anthem” of the first Wallflowers lineup, and bassist Paul Howland writes of “Funland”: “That one is probably my single favorite Wallflowers tune. That one and ‘Rubber Room’ kind of cover the whole Wallflowers sound for me.”
“Pinball was quite important to the original Wallflowers,” Rinck writes. “We hung out in arcades a lot (especially Funland downtown, which inspired a song of the same name), and at one point I even acquired a pinball machine, which we played for 24-hour marathons.”
“This one’s called ‘Funland’ … It’s really FUN.” Jerry notwithstanding, Dave Rinck had hands-down the best audience-rallying skills of anybody on our scene … I loved how he’d cajole everybody to move down closer to the stage so he could interact, even when there were, like, four people in the room. I always envied his unsinkable commitment to working the crowd (existent or otherwise) and making everyone have a good time!
“Don’t have enough money to get high.” Ah, the memories!
Where the hell is Tommy Clarke? I tracked him as far as Seattle, where he’s reportedly cooking at upscale restaurants … But there the trail ends. Can we send out a search party … or a team of truffle-sniffing swine?
When Funland, Horton Plaza and Tasha’s Music City went away, the spirit of The Wallflowers went with them, and much of what I knew and remembered of San Diego.
On the run to the outside of everything.
The days around Funland, with “Bombs Away” and the other Rulers Of The Wasteland.
Best audience skills? Of course there’s Dave Rinck, but I think Sergio really existed in his own category, and our immediate forebears, Ron Silva and Bruce Joyner, were also masters of altering the orbital gravitation in audiences!