Local rock music aficionados and beach bar patrons have been buzzing for weeks in anticipation of the major announcement. Who might it be? Who could rock the Windammer on the Isle of Palms with a life-size, life-like rock show, featuring four gruesome creatures? Hailed as the one of the most unique shows ever at the 400-seat facility, the answer came to this morning.
Not to be shown-up by North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey, who recently announced the dates for life-size reptilian experience “Walking with Dinosaurs” (an event scheduled for April 9-13 at the North Charleston Coliseum), Isle of Palms Mayor F. Michael Sottile held a major press conference this morning on the beachfront near the IOP Pavillion to officially announce the “Biggest Show in Isle of Palms History.” *
“This is for adults of all ages,” Mayor Sottile said*. “North Charleston may have a huge, animatronic T. Rex, but when Playlist blasts into the version of T-Rex’s ‘Bang a Gong’ at the Windjammer on March 22, and roar and shake their heads, everyone is going to listen, look, and wonder.”
“It’s unlike anything that’s ever been in the beach club scene,” Windjammer manager Bobby Ross said. “It’s incredible.” It will take two-mini vans to deliver the amplifiers and drum gear and two hours to set up the production, he said.*
“We take the audience on a journey back in time and show how the headband-wearing rock stars might have actually looked and sounded in their prime — huge, sometimes frightening, sometimes comical monsters — that fought for survival every day of their lives,” said show director and Playlist bassist Chris McLernon (pictured with the band, on the far left). “Our musicians move exactly like they are real, with all the roars, snorts and excitement that go with it. The realism is mind-blowing.”
The longest guitar solo in the production is a 62-bar riff (from nose to tail) during the rendition of “Rebel Yell (a tune in 44/ time, originally by Billy Idol). Lead singer Jason Cooper will maneuver around the stage.
Sottile urged corporate sponsors to help get as many young adults and thirty-somethings as possible into the show*. “This is an opportunity to give an experience to some aging rock fans who might not have a chance ever again,” he said.
Proceeds from the Playlist concert at the Windjammer on Sat. March 22 benefit the Charleston Charitable Society’s “Make a Wish Foundation.” Tickets are $10 and available at the door the night of the show.
*these things may not have happened at all!
(apologies to the Post & Courier’s Warren Wise)
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