Reggie and Full Effect

How far can you take one joke? That’s really the only question that comes to mind on August 30 at Chicago’s House of Blues. Reggie and Full Effect, you see, are walking out on stage. Seconds ago, before their entrance, a recording of Hank Williams Jr. singing the theme to Monday Night Football was playing while the word REGGIE blinked in white Christmas lights on the empty stage. Now, as the band trots onto the stage, a man in a bear suit accompanies them. As they take their places, the bear (later identified as “Hungary Bear”) tosses off the costume’s headpiece, revealing a face painted like a skeleton’s. He screams, “Let’s get it on!” and the band launches into an agro-metal introduction, “Apocalypse WOW!” The crowd loves it. Though tickets were still available during opener Midtown’s set half an hour earlier, bodies seem packed tight together for the free-associative fun of Reggie. The band, a side project of Get Up Kids keyboardist James DeWees has, over its cultish-career path, ably cobbled together its fan base with songs that are by turns genre send-ups and pitch-perfect homages to DeWees’ favorite music. Tonight, the Full Effect are in fine form. Dressed in matching black suits, and all sporting red pants and women’s wigs, the group attacks each song with delight, crushing through the often contrived chords with a spinning sense of showmanship that more than compensates for the pop rock chord progressions and painful metal-head yelps customary to the band’s albums. Leaping down to the stage barrier, DeWees lavishes in the attention heaped on him by his loyal fans. Regularly singing songs while sharing his mic with his fans, he seems to miss the intimacy provided by the dirty clubs where the Get Up Kids got their start. Then again, his unabashed id seems on full display. It is just as likely that he relishes the immediacy of watching his devoted fans sing lovingly along to the nonsense lyrics he tosses off. Focusing much of the set on the act’s most recent disc, Under the Tray, the set balances absurd twists with poppy tunes. After playing their song “F.O.O.D. AKA Aren’t You Hungary” (which is about “Food and how much food rules”), they slide into “Congrats Smack and Katy”, a radio-friendly tune that lamentably never quite hooked into the mainstream. Shortly thereafter, they roll into what one imagines is an homage to metal gurus Slayer, playing a fairly pitch-perfect cover of “Reign in Blood”, the most notable substitution being an ’80s influenced-keyboards for the songs speed guitar. But this is not only a concert. This seems more like improv comedy, as Hungary Bear cavorts with fans and Reggie banters in between songs about John Mayer. As the set winds down, he tells the crowd that the Full Effect are leaving with no encore. Instead, two more acts will play. ”One’s from England. The other’s from Finland,” he says. The crowd gives an anticipatory cheer. After a brief pause, DeWees comes back out solo, dressed in an over-the-top silver outfit, a George Washington wig atop his head. He introduces himself as Fluxuation. Speaking in an affected cockney accent, DeWees does his take on British pop stars. Rolling around (and occasionally falling) on a pair of rollerblades, he foo-foos his way through two spot-on New Orderesque parodies, the better of which, “Mood 4 Luv”, features the line “I’d like to run but I don’t have my running shoes with me.” Fluxuation makes a quick exit, and the band walks back out, now dressed in black robes. One member holds a vial of fake blood in her hand, occasionally drinking it and spitting toward the crowd. The drummer jumps like a monkey across the stage, a grinning devil’s mask now concealing his face. DeWees reappears with large black-horned headgear on. He introduces himself as “Klaus from Common Denominator,” tells the crowd this is their first song, and plays “Linkin Verbz”, a ridiculous metal song that urges the crowd to “buy a t-shirt.” Then, not missing a beat, he reintroduces himself, saying again “This is Klaus from Common Denominator,” and sings possibly DeWees’ best send-up, another death metal tribute, this one titled “Dwarf Invasion”. It’s difficult to convey what one feels after such a set. Amused, yes, but also a little confused. While DeWees’ lyrics are often ridiculous, his songs come complete with tight hooks, and his delivery is more akin to a cover-band fan than sneering critic. Overall, it’s hard not to be a little enthralled by his antics, even if, at times, the joke starts to get old.