For the last few years local musician and all around nice guy Pete Barker has organized an annual 80’s tribute night titled “Don’t You Forget About Me” — this year the show happens on Saturday August 23 at Harlows. The event features several of Sacramento’s finest original bands doing their best renditions of songs from the era that brought us Madonna, Depeche Mode, and Max Headroom. We sat down with Pete to talk about how this annual show got started, how it’s evolved, and some things he’s learned along the way…
Sacramento Press: For people unfamiliar with “Don’t You Forget About Me”, how would you describe the show?
Pete: So it’s 10 bands. Every band gets a year from the 80’s and they play a short set of songs that were released in that year, not the year necessarily that they were on the charts or anything because sometimes that’s different, but the year that they were released. And it’s a very kind of tight, concise 15 or 20 minute set where a band gets to pick what they’re going to do. And it’s also a really specific, it’s a very intentional thing on my part that I don’t have tribute bands doing it. For one, we’re big fans in Sacramento music scene. And I didn’t want this to be a tribute band thing. I wanted it to be an opportunity for bands that have their own thing going on, that have originals and all that to still come out and do this. And I didn’t want carbon copies of the songs, you know? I wanted bands to come out and do their own interpretation of these songs — that’s what original bands do. So it’s not a tribute show in that kind of traditional sense. You know, someone’s going to come out and do “Father Figure”…it’s not going to sound like George Michael. It’s going to sound like that band covering George Michael. And that was kind of like the impetus for it.
SP: So did you start “Don’t You Forget About Me” yourself? Was this your creation from the beginning?
Pete: Yeah, the first one was, I think, 2016 or 2017. And it was kind of peak Old Ironsides tribute show era. It’s like “dead rock stars” and, if someone died, there was a tribute show within a few months there…and I just always had this idea. I thought the 80’s is such a big, fun block of music, but I wanted to have some structure to it. I mean, I love “dead rock stars” for what it was, but it was just a big lump of stuff, you know? And I wanted to kind of be able to narrow the pool that people were picking from and give the audience a little bit more of a directed idea of what they’re expecting. You know, this band’s doing 1981, expect a set of songs from 1981. So I wanted to take that idea that they had and that I was watching happen a lot at Old I, and kind of refine it a little bit. I pitched it to Mark Gonzalez, who was the booker at the time and he was into it and it just kind of took off.
SP: Executing the show in that fashion, with original bands doing covers…it reminds me of when Jerry Perry used to do the Mustard Seed School benefit shows. That was a similar kind of idea, it was original bands doing covers with a theme — all songs by female artists, or all 60’s rock, etc. I think you have the same end result here; were those Mustard Seed benefit shows on your radar when you were putting this together?
Pete: I wasn’t aware of those shows, the Mustard Seeds School stuff, but I collaborated a lot with Jerry. When I had this idea in my head, I took him out to coffee at Old Soul, picked his brain…like, what works, what’s the timeline, how do you talk with the bands about this or that, etc. So, I had a blueprint from Jerry Perry before I even started hatching the idea because I was I wanted to do it really intentionally. And that was another thing — “dead rock stars” was just one of my favorite nights of the year, but it was not intentional. And that was by design, you know, it was very like, we have 30 bands and they’re going to just play just a ton of stuff. And I wanted to kind of curate this, so I wanted to have a plan. I wanted to develop the idea before I jumped into it. And so, yeah, I took Jerry out for coffee a couple of times and kind of got an idea for the right way to do it.
SP: And now it’s you and Brent Seavers running everything at “Don’t You Forget About Me”. Has Brent been involved the whole time too?
Pete: No, actually this year Brent said, “hey, I want to do the backline for you”. Brent is just so great. He’s just like, “I want you to not worry about any of that stuff at all — let me handle the logistics of the stage.” And so I was more than happy to hand that off to him. He’s already done a great job of just covering that part for me and making it easier.
SP: So it’s one night, it’s one show. How many months does this take out of your year so this all goes well in August?
Pete: It’s about a six month timeline. Actually, the moment we finished the show last year, and it became super close to selling out, I was just so excited to get to the next one. So I was bugging Harlow’s like, “when can I hit you up for another date”? And they said, after the New Year. So I emailed them on January 2nd and said, what do you think about August 23rd? So, technically I had the date in the books in January, but I didn’t want to start the clock ticking that early, so I started hitting up bands in like February or March.
SP: This is an all-ages show, which is kind of a rarity for Harlow’s. They let you make an exception to put everything together at their venue?
Pete: Yeah, kind of. Kind of an exception, they won’t let us go past, I think, 10 or 10:30. So that’s why it’s got an earlier start. The doors are at 4pm, the show starts at 5. And so I don’t know if that’s just something to do with their license or their internal policy, but to do it all-ages, we start it a lot earlier. And frankly, it’s better that way anyway. People appreciate the fact that if they’re coming out for a really long show, they’re still going to be home well before midnight. Harlow’s has been great because it wasn’t always an idea to do an all-ages show, but my kids were really little when I started doing it. Now they’re teenagers and they all wanted to go. When I started running through the ideas for all-ages, it just kind of worked out and Harlow’s was a great partner for it. I think they do all-ages things every now and then, but I think that we’re relatively unique on their calendar for having an early show that’s all-ages.
SP: For the last several years, the show has been a benefit for Girls Rocks Sacramento. Has it always been a benefit from the beginning?
Pete: It kind of evolved. The first couple of years, it just surprised me how well the show did, and nobody got rich doing it. We were breaking up the door up by 10 or 11 in some cases. But, then the year that Roe V. Wade was overturned, we really quickly pivoted and made it a benefit for a nonprofit that works out of Texas that was working to counter a lot of the really horrible things that were happening over there.
After that experience and raising a few thousand dollars, I was looking for something and then Larisa Bryski (Executive Director for Girls Rock Sacramento) jumped in at last minute a couple of years ago to help fill in because a band left. It was too late in the game for me to really make this a benefit because it was almost literally two weeks before the show. But I talked to her about it being too late to do it for this show, but can we make this a benefit after this year? So last year was the first year we did it as a benefit for Girls Rock Sacramento. We raised just a hair over $4,000 — this year, my goal is to hit five thousand.
SP: You’ve got some raffle prizes that people can get tickets for as another way to raise money, in addition to buying a ticket and attending the event. What are some of the raffle prizes?
Pete: Yeah, so we’re still developing some of the ideas and there’s still some things that haven’t come through yet, so I can’t like put it out there. But Larisa, well Girls Rock Sacramento, has a beautiful brand new PRS guitar with some hardware that they’re going to donate – it’s going to be awesome. And Gabe Nelson, local musician that you know, he’s just an amazing guy…he donated a bass guitar that was custom built for him. He played it in Cake and recorded “The Winter” on the “Showroom of Compassion” album with it. It’s really cool just listening to this song, and I’ve got this bass in my living room right now that he recorded it on. So someone’s going to walk out of there with that bass.
SP: Other than attending the event, can people buy raffle tickets? Or do you have to be at the event to win?
Pete: The thing of it is, and I recognize that we’re doing this as a benefit, but I also am doing this because the bands have so much fun doing it, you know? Originally the raffle was a thing to help make sure that there were people in the house for every band that was there. Because, you know, you’ll have bands that have been just sweating these sets for six months and then if they’re the band that plays first and there’s 15 people there, it’s just not a fun experience — for them, me, or anybody else. So the raffle tickets are going to be, if you’re in the door for the first band, you’ll get a free raffle ticket. We’re going to raffle at the end of the night, probably like right before the last band plays. So if folks want in on it, they got to stay for the whole show. Now, you can buy tickets while you’re there, but you’ll need to be in the room to win. If folks want to donate to Girls Rock, they can do that any time. And if they want to send someone there with some money to buy raffle tickets to win it for them, that’s great too, but you’ve got to be in the room when we pull your ticket.
SP: Are you looking for other local entities to donate more raffle prizes?
Pete: Yeah, for sure.
SP: How can people contact you about donating?
Pete: My email address is p.brentwood.barker at gmail.com. There’s also the Instagram page: @dontyouforgetaboutmesacramento. If folks want to reach out, we’d love to talk to you.
SP: You’re playing in one of the bands this year. Other than your own band, is there a particular band that you’re looking forward to seeing most this year?
Pete: Well, so I’ve had problems in the past with bands dropping off the bill, sometimes at the last minute. And so it’s very much become a legacy thing where like, if you’re a band that has done a good set and if you’ve been dependable and helpful, you’re in. So it’s been kind of a locked lineup to some extent, but we’ve got a new band this year, the Lucky Shots. which is Brent’s newer band. And we’ve also got this band called Wonderful Drugstore that’s my friend Guido. He’s got some people in this band that everybody knows but they would have never expected are going to show up on stage and they’re going to be in this band and I’m really excited about that.
SP: Regulars in the music scene, but not necessarily known for being in a band.
Pete: Exactly, and I love these folks. I was so excited to hear who Guido’s lineup is, because, well, he’s got Kevin Coughlin playing drums and everybody knows Kevin — he’s only the best drummer in Sacramento. But there’s the guitar player, and a couple of the singers in this band are folks that I’ve been trying to get on here for years. I’m just so excited they’re going to be in it. So I love the chaos of like having this new band and I love, you know, my buddy Guido. I know he’s putting a lot of work into it and that’s going to be an unknown quantity to me. I know Sgt York is going to go out there and kill it. I know Natalie is going to go out there and kill it. I know Joe Gibbs and CTX are going to kill it. And I’m sitting in with Leaping Blennies this year, they’re always great. But Wonderful Drugstore is going to be a new one that I’m just really excited to see.
SP: Circling back to the Girls Rock Sacramento part of it real quick… when the Girls Rock Sacramento season ends, there are usually girls that have formed a band and played live on stage. That’s been part of the show in the previous years, too — you’ve had some of the kids come on and play. Is that happening again this year?
Pete: Yeah. So we didn’t even have a band name at the time that we went to press on the posters. So it just says “Girls Rock Alumni Band”. But the band is called Wisteria. I don’t even like necessarily using the word “kids”, but it’s some players that graduated from the Girls Rock Sacramento program. They’re stage ready and just ready to kill it. And as you saw last year, it’s not a token gesture to have them on there. Like, they’re absolutely 100% good enough to carry their own weight as far as this show goes — it’s just so fun watching them. As a parent of teenagers, it just makes my heart swell a little bit, getting to watch it happen. And it makes the show mean something a little bit more when like you’ve got some of the folks up there that you’re directly working for. You’re directly working for their benefits. So it’s just cool getting to see them out there killing it. It’s awesome.
SP: Can folks buy tickets in advance online somewhere?
Pete: On the Harlow’s website. There’s an online fee you’ll have to pay if you go online, not as bad as Ticketmaster. Harlow’s is not like that. But if you can get to the ticket window at Harlow’s when somebody there, you can buy them in person without fees.
And it’s going to be the funnest night of the year — it always is. I’m always surprised when I see who shows up because, well, the first year I did it, it was just a lark. I was just doing it for fun. And we almost sold out Old Ironsides. Up until this point, I’ve never gotten people that I don’t know to come to one of my shows — so it’s really fun now. Last year we had a line almost going around the block of people trying to get in, we came literally within like 15 people of selling out the room. And I don’t know who these people are, I don’t know where they heard about it. But it’s like just the most amazing gratifying thing that I’ve ever had in my musical life as far as finally doing something that people are having fun watching and doing and being a part of, you know? So I’m wondering what people are jumping in and getting advanced tickets. I got people sending me pictures of their tickets — it kind of blows me away sometimes that people are having as much fun with it as they are and they’re as into it as they are.
SP: How many years has it been at Harlow’s?
Pete: This will be the third year at Harlow’s, and we did two years before that upstairs in the Scarlet Room. Okay. And then, for three years, we were at Old Ironsides.
SP: Moving into bigger rooms now too.
Pete: Yeah. I mean, I love Old Ironsides, but we just outgrew the room. It was crazy how full the place was. And nobody could get to the bathroom. So it was time to move up. With that many bands coming on and off a stage too, it kind of helps having a layout like Harlow’s where there are two ways to get onto the stage, both from a left and right side just for efficiency’s sake. And there’s an actual green room backstage where people can go put their stuff.
SP: For this many moving parts, it does help to have the physicality of Harlow’s when you have 50 to 60 musicians to deal with back stage.
Pete: Yeah. I mean, the stage at Starlight Room is better now than it was the first time we were up there. And their green room is great. It’s a lot bigger. But logistically, the downstairs room is perfect for us. And it’s the right size, you know? It’s not like I have aspirations for this to grow into the Memorial (Auditorium) or anything like that, but if it got much bigger than Harlow’s, I don’t think it would be as much fun as it is? It’s definitely like a mid-room kind of event. And Harlow’s has just been such a great partner with it, they just make it so fun to be there.
SP: So it’s an 80’s show every year. And you have a rule about playing the songs in the year that they were originally released. And there’s another rule about no covers, which I’ve seen you refer to as the “99 Red Balloons rule” — a band can play “99 Red Balloons” if they are doing 1983, the year Nena’s version was originally released, not the year 7 Seconds released their cover version (1986). Was that a thing you just thought of to give the show more focus or was that a lesson learned after bands played the same song in previous years?
Pete: It’s funny — I’ve called it the “99 Red Balloons rule”, but it’s just confused people. There’s people that are like, “so we can’t play 99 Red Balloons?”. No, it’s not what I’m saying? And I have it on good authority that someone is playing 99 Red balloon this year. But that was a preemptive thing that I got from talking with Jerry Perry, about structuring it to make sure that people aren’t hearing the same song in multiple parts of the night…but for the most part, I think having that rule and that structure kind of adds to the fun of it because you have a more limited pool, but also there was one year that someone got the year wrong and they played a song that wasn’t in their year and then the band that did have that year played it in the very next set. We all had fun with it, but that was the kind of thing I was trying to avoid. But, yes, it has to be the year that the song was first released. So, like, “I Want Candy.”… that’s a cover from, I think, the 60’s, which makes it ineligible entirely. Same with “Come On Feel The Noize” and stuff like that…which is a shame because, Quiet Riot’s version is a lot of fun.
Also, depending on what year you’re working, some years are deeper than others. There’s some of those middle years, like, you really end up having to like get creative with stuff. To this day, my favorite song that’s ever been played was when Leaping Blennies did a rockabilly version of “Mother” by Danzig. And because they had 1988 and they were like, well, there’s not a lot to work with…they did “My Prerogative” by Bobby Brown, straight into a rockabilly Danzig cover! To me, that was totally the spirit of the show. You went Bobby Brown into Danzig, seamlessly, you know? Those are not songs that that band would cover in either case on a normal day. Because they had to dig into kind of like the B list and the C list, they found a couple of songs that people knew, and they recognized them, but you wouldn’t have expected them to be covering it because they had to dig a little deeper.
SP: Is that usually the type of feedback you hear from bands? That this is a fun challenge?
Pete: I do. Like, 1988 and 1989 are tough years for some folks. 80 and 81 were still very post-punk, and a lot of the stuff that later became called alternative music was, just hits, you know? And that was a big scene with Talking Heads and B-52s, all the more late 70’s stuff that carried over. And that up until like ’83, was a really deep part of the decade. And 1984 was massive with a lot of different things. But then when you get to 1985 and 1986, those two years are a very distinct thing to themselves — there’s a lot of stuff that people just don’t recognize. It’s like there just weren’t as many radio hits that year or something. I don’t know. Which is impossible. There’s the same number of hits every year. And then 1987 was maybe the biggest year of the decade as far as U2, Guns N’ Roses. If you look at the albums that were released in 1987, it’s just a monster list of mega, mega, mega albums. But then it gets to 1988, 89 they’re much more challenging years. Because it’s just not as much to pick from.
I think that at the late part of the 80’s, culturally, we were really trying to duck what the 80’s were, you know, up until that point. It was all neon and parachute pants and all that stuff. And then 88, 89, that’s when Nine Inch Nails released their first album, and The Pixies were hitting the radio, and it was it was starting to become the stuff that Nirvana was in 91 — there was a little bit of a cultural identity. And so when people are thinking 80’s, the stuff that they are thinking of is pretty much 87 and before. But there are artists like Celia Croy who last year covered “Head Like a Hole”, by Nine Inch Nails and it was amazing.
SP: And she’s not an industrial artist in her typical presentation of music. She is very much a singer-songwriter, a little more on the country side of things.
Pete: Absolutely. And so that was a really bold move on her part, and she just killed it, it was great…
I really have to say that the reason this show has gone so well is because I’ve just been lucky enough to find some bands that just put their guts into it, and the reason that some of these bands have been on there for five, six, seven years is because they’re great and they work so hard — they are so helpful as far as like getting from A to B, you know, and getting to the finish line on this thing. And I can’t even stress this enough, if the bands were just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever…this wouldn’t have been a success. This was a success.
SP: Is there a future vision for the show? Do you see it going some number of years, then changing direction at all? Do you have a longer goal with it of any sort?
Pete: No, I don’t. I just want to do it until it’s fun, just year by year and keep doing it. I’ve had people say, well, you should do a 90’s show. I’m not opposed to any of that. Or a 70’s show, or something like that. I think at a certain point, every good idea becomes stale. So there will be an expiration date on this show at some point. And I don’t know when that is, but I’ll know when it happens, I’m not going to run it into the ground. This has been a thing that became way more than I thought it was capable of being. And I’m just enjoying every minute of it and it’ll stop before it starts hurting my memories and my recollection of the show. So I don’t have a plan, but as long as it’s fun, I’ll just keep doing it.
Don’t You Forget About Me, Volume 8: An All-Ages Benefit for Girls Rock Sacramento happens on Saturday August 23 at Harlow’s in downtown Sacramento. Tickets are available at the Harlow’s box office or on the Harlow’s website.
