A whole new angle:
Mid-Life Crisis finally records
Sunday, August 27, 2006
By John Sinkevics

The Grand Rapids Press (Click here to jump down to CD Review)

They thought they'd found the perfect name for a group of 40-somethings rediscovering their passion for rock music: Mid-Life Crisis. Turns out, it's such a good name, dozens of bands around the world have adopted it after experiencing a similar age-inspired epiphany. There's even a Mid-Life Crisis club of sorts on the Internet so fans can compare all the groups, from Texas to the Netherlands.

And to think Grand Rapids' Mid-Life Crisis was almost named Faces for Radio, a proposal thankfully rejected by members dreaming up an appropriate name for their first public performance, in 2002.

" It just hit everybody," drummer Steve "Doc" Bloom, 43, said of keyboard player Kevin Paul's Mid-Life Crisis suggestion. "Our wives already were joking that they'd rather have us play in a band ... than go buy Corvettes or motorcycles or find girlfriends."

Since that first, East Grand Rapids block party gig, in June 2002, the eight-member band of rock retreads (look, most had been in bands as teens and 20-somethings but hadn't picked up instruments in years) has established itself as West Michigan's preeminent classic-rock band, a vastly popular act that plays everything from Billy Joel and Bob Seger to Stevie Wonder and Steely Dan. They've opened for the likes of Eddie Money, Blood, Sweat and Tears, America, Dave Mason, Three Dog Night and The Tubes, and performed at every major festival and celebration in West Michigan.

" I never dreamed I would be playing outside of my living room in my 40s," said Paul, a vice president for Fifth Third Bank who'd played in a band at Michigan State University. Until the idea of forming a group came up in a chat two decades later with bassist/trumpet player Dave Doran, an attorney, Paul was listening to Elton John and "just playing and singing to the couch."

Time had come to record

Now, this eclectic bunch with solid day jobs -- doctor, lawyer, banker, legal secretary, kitchen designer, plastics engineer, butcher and custodian -- is finally ready to unleash its first studio album: more than a dozen original tunes tackling issues of middle-age, from fretting about joint aches and college tuition payments ("The Worry Song") to poignant tributes to parents ("Song for Mom," "My Father's Shoes," "Away"). (See Local Spins on this page for a description of the CD, "It's All Good.")

They'll formally release the album at The Intersection, 133 Grandville Ave. SW, on Sept. 22, a Friday night event that's also a fund-raiser for the Grand Rapids Public Schools Student Advancement Foundation. Crittenden and Troll for Trout will open the show, Mid-Life Crisis will perform the album, then the groups will merge for a set of cover tunes. (Tickets are $5 in advance through Ticketmaster or $10 at the door.)

Mid-Life Crisis had been writing and collecting originals -- sometimes playing them publicly or in the Northeast Side "meat locker" warehouse where they rehearse -- for a couple of years but never had time to properly record them, Bloom said. Michael Crittenden eventually convinced them to do so at his Mackinaw Harvest Music studio. "We got bit with the bug, the recording process, the creativity. It was intense, but it was really invigorating," Bloom said.

" We've gotten pretty good at sounding like a broad range of musical groups, doing covers, going from the Eagles to Chicago," said Paul, 47. "Being able to take that diversity of sounds and apply it to our own music gave us, I think, a pretty unique product: three different lead vocalists, guitar-centric songs, piano-centric songs, different writing styles, but hopefully with enough of a common thread to pull it together."

Where they're at in life

That thread might be the band itself, or as Paul puts it, "the right mix of individuals that are at the same stage of life that have the same constraints of career and family."

Band members Paul, Bloom, Doran, Tina Beveridge (vocals), Greg Morris (guitar), Terry Kehoe (guitar), Tim Sobie (saxophone) and Chris Kohne (sound guy, bass) have terrific chemistry, perhaps because of their phase of life, perhaps because they share a love of music from the 1960s and '70s. This sort of musical bond and the need for a creative outlet drives plenty of baby-boomer bands I know, those that gig regularly and those that never emerge from their basements or garages.

" We find it so much more fun than when we were 20," insisted Bloom, a physiatrist (physical therapy specialist) who hadn't played drums in 10 years before joining Mid-Life Crisis. "Back then, we were doing it for money and to get girls. Now, we probably have as much fun getting together for jams at the meat locker as gigging. It's a great feeling. The idea that rock 'n' roll is a young person's thing is absurd."

Said Paul: "I think we approach music from a different perspective, and we can afford to buy the equipment now."

Of course, waiting five years to record that first studio album has produced plenty of pent-up demand: Members already have sold a "few hundred" copies of the CD to eager friends and fans and made it available on cdbaby.com well before the CD-release bash.

Any dreams of grandeur?

Does that mean these midlifers are trolling for a major-label deal or some big breakthrough as they approach their golden years?

Not hardly.

" If we did ever hit the big time," Paul quipped, "we'd have to keep that a secret from our wives."

Send e-mail to the author: jsinkevics@grpress.com

©2006 Grand Rapids Press
© 2006 Michigan Live. All Rights Reserved.

New Releases by Area Artists Sunday, August 27, 2006 By John Sinkevics The Grand Rapids Press

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