Beavis Be Damned — Winger Just Keeps on Rocking
By Ron Gonzales FOR THE JOURNAL
What place does the band Winger have in the great canon of heavy metal music?
If we are to believe MTV’s Beavis and Butt-head, who famously dissed Winger during one of its shows, Winger would be on the bottom rung of the hair metal ladder, looking up.
“God, I really must’ve done something to get under his skin,” Winger frontman Kip Winger said of Beavis and Butthead creator Mike Judge. “He even put my name in a (Judgecreated) ‘King of the Hill’ episode like 10 years later.”
Truth be known, Winger doesn’t even consider his collaboration with guitarist Reb Beach, drummer Rod Morgenstein and keyboardist Paul Taylor to be “metal” at all, though the wailing guitars and heavy downbeats might say otherwise.
“The main difference is that all of us came from a musicianship background more than a ‘Iwant-to-be-a-rock-star’ background,” Winger said. “(We are) out because we love to play music together and continue to challenge ourselves.”
Actually, the word “challenge” is key when considering Winger. As in, its songs did seem to challenge the music listener a little more than certain other hair metal bands.
The minor vamp at the end of the band’s very popular “Headed for a Heartbreak” hinted at Kip Winger’s lifelong study of other genres of music, and Morgenstein somehow found a way to squeeze an offbeat in between Beach’s chunky rhythms. Still, Winger is left with the stigma, but in recent years only seeks to utilize its acclaim to continue to write and record new music.
Kip Winger dedicated the band’s album “IV” to the troops overseas, and said that more than just creating a shout-out, he tried to write the album from the perspective of a soldier.
“I wrote ‘Right Up Ahead’ and ‘M16′ specifically about that, what it must feel like (to be in that situation),” Winger said of two songs that appear on “IV.”"I’m like, ‘Wow, your head must be splitting open trying to fight for something you believe in.’ ”
The band also recently released its first-ever live DVD, simply titled “Winger Live.” The DVD captures a full performance, and the band runs through much of its back catalog as well as songs found on “IV.”
Albuquerque band TwoThirtySeven opens tonight’s show.
Winger
With TwoThirtySeven
WHEN: 7:30 tonight WHERE: Sunshine Theater, 120 Central SW HOW MUCH: Advance tickets are $17 and are available through Ticketmaster outlets, 883-7800 or online at ticketmaster.com
(c) 2008 Albuquerque Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.