No, it’s not 1994, but at The Blade’s 40th annual Northwest Ohio Rib Off, it might as well be.
When you’ve got the event opening with performances by Gin Blossoms and Sponge, it’s enough to make you want to wear flannel in the summertime.
It will be a three day celebration of bones and beats at The Blade’s 40th annual Northwest Ohio Rib Off presented by Dunn Chevy in Oregon running Friday through Sunday at the Lucas County Fairgrounds.
This year eight pitmasters will vie for the title of best ribs. People’s Choice and Judges’ Awards will be presented Sunday.
Providing the musical entertainment for this year’s finger lickin’ good festival are ’90s alternative stalwarts Gin Blossoms and current country music superstar Brett Young. Detroit alternative band Sponge, famous for such ’90s hits as “Molly” will open for Gin Blossoms on Friday at 8 p.m.
With both a gold and platinum album to his name, Young is known and loved for such hits as “In Case You Didn’t Know” and “Mercy.” Country artist MacKenzie Porter will open for Young on Saturday at 8 p.m. Young was not made available for comment due to illness.
Sunday is family day at the Rib Off with local Van Halen tribute band Jump providing a free concert at 5 p.m.
Admission is free from noon to 2 p.m. Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, admission begins at noon and is only $10 per family and includes games, inflatables, face painting, and more. Family day is sponsored by Durocher’s. First responders and their families get in free on Sunday with an ID. Tickets will be available at the gate.
Other activities include a cornhole tournament with cash prizes, scheduled for noon on Saturday. Teams can register at nworiboff.com.
Sponge
By his own admission, Vinnie Dombroski of Sponge is sort of “dumb.”
Dombroski had the chance to cast Molly Ringwald in the music video to what would become Sponge’s signature song, their 1994 hit “Molly.” And he didn’t.
Thirty years later, Dombroski regrets that decision, rock ’n’ roll hindsight being 20/20.
“She wanted to be in the video but we were a bunch of [idiots] and we thought it was just silly. Like it would somehow have made us look a little less serious, so we decided not to have her in the video, but looking back on it now, it was a big mistake,” said a mournful sounding Dombroski. “We should have had her in the video and it would have been a great way to piggyback to get more exposure for the song. We’d be looking at that video today. That was a bad business decision.”
With his cell phone connection wavering due to being in the mountains of West Virginia, Dombroski is a big deal in his native Detroit, where the name Sponge is uttered with a breath of reverence — or given some good natured hometown ribbing. These guys carried the torch for the Motor City during the 1990s alternative wave that swept across the nation.
Sponge roared out of Detroit in the early ’90s on the strength of their debut album Rotting Pinata , which featured such hits as “Plowed” and the band’s signature tune “Molly,” a love song that does still reference Brat Pack queen Ringwald. Fun, quirky, and hopelessly catchy, “Molly” was one of those great ’90s songs that you bought on cassingle (remember those?) and played on your car tape deck.
Dombroski made a blip on the music radar a few years ago when he appeared on the most recent full length Insane Clown Posse album Yum Yum Bedlam , an experience he recalls with joy.
“Violent J reached out to me about remaking a song by the band T’Pau and I was like, that was a great idea. We had to change the lyrics, but I like, that’s cool, man. They’ve been really good to us over the years and it was a great opportunity to do something with (ICP). It was a priviledge to be on Yum Yum Bedlam ,” said Dombroski. “On this other project I have, we’ve got Violent J on some tracks. It’s just a great collaboration, it’s always been so cool. Sponge did the Gathering (of the Juggalos) last year and that was an absolute blast.”
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Sponge’s Gold album Rotting Pinata . Dombroski said Sponge will release an album of covers of songs that were popular in 1994 this fall. In the meantime, Sponge’s yesteryear hits still get airplay on ’90s nostalgia radio programs.
“If you told me 30 years ago that they’d still be playing our songs on the radio, I would’ve laughed,” said Dombroski. “I wouldn’t have believed it. Fast forward until now when we do shows that people actually come to and they want to hear those songs. It’s just mind blowing. I would not have expected it.”
Gin Blossoms
The Gin Blossoms were one of those bands that did the whole rock star thing right.
First, they conquered their hometown of Phoenix in the late ’80s and struck Gold and Platinum both creatively and chart-wise with their second album New Miserable Experience , which contained the now classic ’90s cuts “Hey Jealousy” and “Found Out About You,” then they contributed to some classic soundtracks of the era ( Empire Records and Wayne’s World 2 ), and by the time the decade was over, they had established themselves as rock legends of the chain wallet era.
But the great thing about the Gin Blossoms is that they never went for any of that ’90s nostalgia stuff. They’re still putting out albums featuring the great hooks and catchy rhythms that would still sound awesome on a mixtape.
Gin Blossoms lead singer Robin Wilson had just gotten out of a haircut appointment when he called The Blade last Friday.
“I don’t have much hair left to speak of, unfortunately, but whatever,” said Gin Blossoms lead singer Robin Wilson in an interview.
The band took the name Gin Blossoms from Kenneth Anger’s notorious book of salacious movie star gossip Hollywood Babylon . There was a photo of a rosacea afflicted W.C. Fields with a caption saying the actor had “terminal gin blossoms.”
“I never really read the book but I leafed through it,” said Wilson. “Our bass player Bill Lee and our original guitarist Doug Hopkins read it together and I believe it was Bill that discovered the photo of W.C. Fields with the caption that said he had ‘gin blossoms.’ I think it’s a great band name, I think it’s one of the 20 greatest names in rock history. I think Grateful Dead is the best one, the Rolling Stones, Gay Bikers on Acid, I’ve always loved that one. Echo and the Bunnymen. But I think Gin Blossoms is just a great name for a band.”
Though the Gin Blossoms had several big hits during the ’90s, their hit single “Til I Hear It From You” from the Empire Records soundtrack stands as one of their most memorable songs. Wilson recalls this time in the band’s career as one of the most pressurized. Shortly after the band had scored a successful album ( New Miserable Experience ), founding guitar player Doug Hopkins died.
“We were under a lot of pressure by our label. We were told we needed to write a hit and it was the first thing we had to do right after losing our founding guitar player Doug Hopkins,” said Wilson. “They told us we needed to write a hit and it was going to be the lead single on this movie soundtrack.”
Wilson said the band co-wrote the song with Marshall Crenshaw in January of 1995, recorded it in February, shot a music video in April, and then by June the band was performing the song on The Tonight Show .
“It was a whirlwind. It was a moment where we defied all of the pressure that was on us and delivered a hit and we could also see the machinery of the music industry working behind us,” said Wilson. “It was six months between us being told to go write a hit and then delivering it. It was an exciting experience and we pulled it off under tremendous pressure.”
Today, the Gin Blossoms enjoy a reputation as being one of the most active live musical acts working the tour circuit. The band hasn’t toured for a while, but according to Wilson, they still play a lot of gigs.
The bands most recent album Mixed Reality was produced by Don Dixon, who famously produced albums from R.E.M. and The Smithereens. Dixon is considered a pioneer of the “jangle pop” genre, under which Gin Blossoms are usually listed.
Wilson described working with Dixon.
“Don is a pretty intense guy,” said Wilson. “I pissed him off during the mixing of the record, we all left town, and I was so obsessed that I flew back to North Carolina to hover over him while we mixed the record. It really drove him crazy. At one point he was so frazzled by all the suggestions I was making that he asked, ‘Why did you hire me?’ And I told him, ‘Don, we hired you because we needed an authority figure that we all respected and you made some of our favorite records.’ So that kind of softened him and he came over and gave me a hug.”
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