On a whim, I decided I'd pretty much had enough of staring at the four walls of the home office and made it a point to get out on a Friday night. After devoting some time and energy into giving a little online advice regarding a new Houston tourist wanting some hotspots (the old fashioned kind, not the Starbucks kind) to hit in town, I recommended the Continental Club, having been there once and knowing their reputation for some good regional music. Noticed that a band I'd heard of for a good long while was playing and I'd never managed to take them in. So with that, let me start with something that just needs to be said:

Witnessing Molly & the Ringwalds is a religious experience. I'm not quite sure what it is I've been converted to exactly, but I'm sold. To the uninitiated, here's the lowdown: 80s cover band that accentuates the fun of that era. Hot chicks at vox and keys ... dudes rounding out the remainder of the band. No disrespect to dudes ... I just don't swing that way and see no point in diminishing the strongest selling point of the band. Let's observe, shall we ...

This should be making more sense by now. As evidenced by the estrogen factor present (and wonderfully represented, if I may dare say so without discouraging future attendance by some of Houston's finest), the band draws a sizable portion of females as well. So I fully realizing that my own observations from the male point of view will limit the depth and understanding that I'm about to drop on the band to a bunch of weirdos kinda like me. Such is life, I guess.

Don't be fooled for a second into thinking that any mere 80s cover band won't impress you. If you've not seen this band yet, your life is severely lacking. And I say this after an early arrival to the club, catching sound check, and witnessing the capable Dekan Ringwald botch the guitar solo to a tune I dig on way too many levels (Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again"). I also had to witness the always lovely Jennifer Ringwald botch some lines in the tune - granted, I think she was fiddling with the sound system behind me. I would have turned around, stared, and gawked, but quite frankly, I didn't want the evening to start off with a restraining order. That's just bad form.

So let me add some cavaets here ... the band, musically, is not the tightest outfit in the closet. The heavy metal tunes aren't all that heavy. Some tunes suffer from the overly-even-keel tempo treatment or lack of overdrive on the guitars. There's some occassional slopiness that you'd expect of a band that pretty much does the same thing every Friday night at a club that doesn't charge at the door.

BUT ... and I cannot stress this enough ... it doesn't matter. And it shouldn't dissuade any Ringwald newbies from taking in a show (or two, or a thousand). The band is loads of fun and that radiates in beams from the stage. That was pretty much the 80s I remember (at least the musical parts). Point being, don't go there expecting to judge the band ala Simon Cowell and critique the songs that are a bit lacking. Just have fun. The band does about 90% of the work for you, and that's quite a feat. With all the bouncing, twirling, shaking, and gyrating on the stage, you'd swear that Shakira herself had nothing on Jennifer and Carrie.

Speaking of which ... where I sense I'll eventually land in some trouble is over my newfound appreciation for all things Carrie and Jennifer. Jennifer is the front and center portion of the band and bears an absolutely striking resemblence to one of my alltime favorite television crushes: Kimmy Gibler (ed. note - dont' judge me). What becomes rather evident sooner rather than later is that Jennifer's voice is incredible. Sure, there's a few songs it's not a good fit for. But the Debbie Harry is dead-on and the Rik Okasek and David Coverdale are oddly great in their own right. Kim Wilde's "Kids in America" was a personal fave from the show. Made me forget all about the fact that I never got around to requesting Scandal's "Goodbye to You." Maybe next time.

The other half of the female portion of the band is the keyboardist: Carrie Ringwald. Equally as lovely, but with a more subdued personality and all too often hidden away behind the keyboards. But more than a pretty face, there's the occassional glimpses of real talent and ability. I'd rank the keyboard riffs in The Beatles' "Get Back" as a nifty little demonstration of such. What? You didn't know the Beatles were an eighties band? Trust me, by the time they did this tune, it was late in the show and after watching both Jenn and Carrie dance around in short skirts (as well as a few beers), nobody was asking questions.

One aspect of the degree of fun is the Ringwald Karaoke, whereby those with funds for a tip drop a few bucks and a slip of paper into a bucket and you get to sing with the band backing you. Fortunately, we had with us, Uber (aka - "Big James"). What would happen by the time the band started up on the Stray Cat classic, "Rock This Town" will likely cause legions of fans to tell stories for eons about this night. I think I can safely say that the course of music history has been set on its head. From the opening refrains from this award-winning karaoke artist, backed by an award winning cover band, sheer magic happened, as a big fat man brought the house down, garnering one of the loudest applauses at the outset of his performance, as well as another ovation later, as he left early to make it to a "dinner appointment."

So there ya go ... a fun time was had by all. A rocking good band that's worth catching is now on your radar (if it wasn't already). They hit the stage at the Continental Club, Fridays at 7ish. The crowd is a blast, the beer is cheap, and you can stick around for the prime-time band afterwards if you want. Heck, you can even join the Carrie/Jennifer Ringwald Fan Club that I'm likely to start up soon. And if none of that rocks your world, well phhht! Make it to the show ... and have fun while you're at it.

SIDENOTE: Kudos to Uber/Big James for noting the Jennifer/Kimmie resemblence. After wondering who it was that Carrie reminded me of, it was our third compatriot (Ulysses) who noted a strong resemblence to former MTV VeeJay, Kennedy.

SIDENOTE 2.0 All photos gratuitously lifted from the Ringwalds' site and hosted locally so as to not drain precious Ringwald bandwidth. There's more, though ... loads more. Proceed henceforth and commence staring in amazement.