When “Almost Famous” screens on a LED video wall as big as the stage at EPIC Event Center, the night will be about more than just reveling in the cinematic gold that is the “Tiny Dancer” tour bus scene.
It’s a whole experience meant to give fans a deeper dive into Cameron Crowe’s 2000 coming-of-age movie set during the 1970s rock scene. Twenty-five years after the film’s release, they’ll get to hear from Marti Frederiksen, who provided the vocals for Jason Lee as lead singer of Sweetwater, the fictional band a 15-year-old William Miller (Patrick Fugit) winds up covering for Rolling Stone.
While not exactly a household name — at least not when you’re talking about a movie cast that boasts Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Frances McDormand — Frederiksen has worked with a who’s who of music acts as a producer and songwriter, including Carrie Underwood, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Daughtry, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Mick Jagger, Richie Sambora and Sheryl Crow.
For the “Almost Famous” Experience on Oct. 3 at EPIC in Ashwaubenon, Frederiksen will perform some of the Sweetwater songs from the movie as well as some he has co-written or produced for other acts. He’ll also sit down with comedian and “That Metal Show” host Don Jamieson for a fan Q&A about what it was like to be a part of “Almost Famous.”
Unlike the majority of the shows at EPIC by nationally touring bands and comedians, nobody else in the country is getting the “Almost Famous” event. It’s original programming created in-house by the staff, and there are plans to do more of it.
“We just love it,” said Ryan Vander Sanden, general manager of EPIC. “We’re over the moon about this idea, this project, and we hope it continues to get bigger and takes off.”
The Verve Pipe lead singer Brian Vander Ark performed in January at Ashwaubenon’s EPIC Event Center as part of the “Rock Star” Experience. He had a role in the 2001 movie and provided Mark Wahlberg’s singing voice for the final number in the film.
EPIC’s first original movie-music-Q&A show was for ‘Rock Star’
It all started last year when the EPIC was looking for a way to put is own spin on some of those movie event tours out on the road that pair a beloved film with one of its stars for a night of nostalgia and behind-the-scenes perspective. A screening of “Home Alone” followed by a moderated interview with star Macaulay Culkin, for example, or Cary Elwes joining audiences for a discussion of “The Princess Bride” after it shows.
EPIC staff wanted to go a step further by incorporating live music into the mix, so they brainstormed iconic movies that would allow for a concert component and came up with “Rock Star,” the 2001 movie starring Mark Wahlberg as a tribute band singer who gets asked to be the lead singer of his all-time favorite band, Steel Dragon.
They invited Miljenko Matijevic, the lead singer of real-life band Steelheart who was the voice of Wahlberg’s Iggy in the film. They extended the same invitation to Brian Vander Ark, lead singer of ’90s band The Verve Pipe, who was a member of Wahlberg’s fictional tribute band and was his singing voice for the final number at movie’s end.
At the “Rock Star” Experience in January, the movie was shown and then each artist did a 30-minute acoustic set before sitting down with Eddie Trunk of SiriusXM for a Q&A about the film. The live music venue “movied it up” with a red carpet, red velvet ropes, table seating, popcorn and pizza.
“I’ve been part of thousands of events, and it was one of my personal favorites that I’ve ever been a part of. That goes for the whole team here. We were all just like, ‘That was the best,’” Vander Sanden said. “It was such an immersive kind of experience just because you came in, grabbed a cocktail, watched a movie, have a piece of pizza, drink a beer, get up for 15 for a little break, a couple of small acoustic sets, the Q&A. The three components we felt was the secret sauce.”
It was such fun EPIC management gave staff a homework assignment to come up with five other music movies that could be given the same treatment. Titles like “Purple Rain” and “The Dirt” came up, but they eventually settled on “Almost Famous,” and they’re already thinking about the next one.
“If these things go well, we’d love to keep doing them and take them on the road even if we could. We believe, all of us, that it has the kind of potential,” Vander Sanden said.
Going to the ‘Almost Famous’ Experience?
Doors for the “Almost Famous” Experience open at 6 p.m. Oct. 3, followed by the show at 7 p.m. Tickets are $37.33 to $57.96 at etix.com.
Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or [email protected]. Follow her on X @KendraMeinert.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: EPIC Event Center combines music, movies, Q&As for one-of-a-kind shows
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