They Built this City on Rock 'n' Roll Orange Crush

Author: H. Kay Merriman

It's a cold Thursday night in February. Ice lines the treacherous sidewalks and frost coats the windows. Where is the best place to get warm and blow off some spring semester steam during Winter Carnival weekend? McCullough, of course! Orange Crush is performing!

Orange Crush, the self-proclaimed "'80s Dance Party Band," has become a fixture that marks the high-energy kickoff to Winter Carnival. Year after year, students - dressed in spandex, neon, leg warmers and sequins - fill the social space and dance and sing along to covers of '80s classics like Tommy Tutone's "Jenny (867-5309)," Dexy's Midnight Runners' "Come on Eileen" and Middlebury's personal favorite, Madonna's "Like a Prayer." But where did these guys come from? And is the love for everything '80s unique to Middlebury? Here's your chance, before you see them perform live tonight on stage (if you were one of the lucky ones to snag a ticket), to learn the story behind the pure throwback genius of Orange Crush.

Guitarist Jeremy Simonich, bassist Rich Yirga, drummer Tom Kielbania, Jr. and lead vocalist Scott Lawson came together to form an R.E.M. tribute band in 1996 in Chicopee, Mass. They named themselves after the R.E.M. hit song "Orange Crush" and also use the abbreviation "O.C."

Lawson always knew he would end up in music. "I got started because it's the only thing I really know how to do well that I actually enjoy doing," he said, but when asked for the real story behind the band's origins, Lawson admitted that there was a bit of chance involved. "I was answering a personal ad that read, 'Hot sexy man wanted for salaried position,'" he recalled. "I had no idea they wanted a singer, and when I found out my first gig was in Hoboken, New Jersey ... I still wasn't sure."

Clearly, the group began with a good sense of humor. Sometime around 2000, O.C. started to move away from playing only R.E.M. "REM wasn't popular anymore," Lawson explained. Accepting that fact, the group turned to the songs they remembered from when, as the The Buggles lyrically proclaimed, the "video killed the radio star." Lawson said the group's favorite songs to perform are "the ones that were played the most on MTV. We actually remember when there were all videos and no commercials."

The shift to '80s covers secured Orange Crush's fame. The readers of The Valley Advocate, a local newspaper of Northampton, Mass., have voted O.C. "Best Cover Band" for nine out of the past 10 years. The group was also recently inducted into The Advocate's "Grand Band Slam Hall of Fame" under the same category. But Orange Crush has received more than simply local recognition: they tour the central and southern United States and have opened for Reel Big Fish, Guster, Young Love and OK Go! Despite their growing popularity, O.C. continues to play a variety of venues from weddings to corporate events. Still, Lawson maintains the he likes the "big rock show" most of all.

The band agrees that Middlebury is one of their favorite shows. (And they are not just saying that.) "Several years now," said Lawson, recalling how long O.C. has been playing McCullough and how they joined the Winter Carnival tradition. "It started out as 'just another gig' for us, but has since become something very special and one of our most looked forward to events of the year. We recorded a DVD of the 2008 show to feature on our demo."

Midd-kids are not the only ones who are proud to sport their sequins and neon spandex for Orange Crush gigs - the band is used to seeing period costumes at their dance parties and they fully support fans' dressing up. "We love it," said Lawson. "It keeps us feeling young."

Simonich, Yirga, Kielbania, Jr. and Lawson need to keep feeling young because they lead very busy lives. "We really don't take much time off at all," said Lawson, who described the group's travel dynamic as working "pretty well. To play for over a dozen years, and still get along? That's saying something," he said. "It's a good idea to take a week off now and then. It gets a little slow around March, so I'm going to Saskatchewan to get as far away from human life as possible."

Lawson and the rest of O.C. certainly deserve a break. They recently released a new CD under the group name "O Crush" entitled "'80s All Over" that features their original material.

Aside from touring, reliving arguably the greatest decade in history and playing for hundreds of screaming spandex-clad college students, what is the best part of being in Orange Crush? "Looking back after every year and thinking, 'That was even more fun than last year,"' said Lawson.

So, Middlebury, tonight's your night. Brush up on your '80s hits, tease your hair, raid your parents' closets, dance your heart out and make sure that you stay until the end. As Lawson described the highlight of playing at Middlebury, "the very first encore will always be my favorite."

We are "agents of the free," and tonight, we've got our Orange Crush.