Tuesday Tune-Out: Sweatheart @ PhilaMOCA.

Text and image by Chris Malo.

This month, PhilaMOCA‘s Tuesday Tune-Out is being curated by Cinedelphia Film Festival. For the first installment last night, Sweatheart was on stage and 1983 rom-com Valley Girl was on screen.

Never heard of Sweatheart? Shame on you. They describe themselves as “Approachable Stadium Pop, Man Jams (with Women) or Community College Rock. No wait, 80’s Screwball Comedy Soundtrack Rock…from Philadelphia.” They know how to have fun and have fun with their music.

Cold weather outside. Good music and good people inside. The room got packed as the film started, and ran almost halfway through before intermission. After overcoming some technical difficulties, Sweatheart – decked out in ’80s garb, began playing some choice gems from the film’s soundtrack.

One of the interesting facts about the film was that the music was seemingly the biggest obstacle in completing the movie. Due to clearance problems and high financial costs, there are actually several different versions of the film and soundtracks in circulation. Sweatheart chose to bang out songs both on and cut from the official soundtrack.

They covered “Johnny Are You Queer?” “Who Can It Be Now?” “Girls Like Me” (which lead singer Rose Luardo admitted, “No one in the band likes this song.”), “Jukebox (Don’t Put Another Dime)” and “Eaten by the Monster of Love.” The band also ran through some of their own tracks, including “Soften the Pain” and “Couple of Pegs.”

Before leaving the stage to watch the second half of the film, guitarist Brian Langan put down his axe and stepped behind the keys for a stirring solo rendition of the movie’s “I’ve Got Angst In My Pants.”

It was magical.