CHICAGO — The true story of tribute performance duo Lightning and Thunder is the heart of the movie “Song Sung Blue,” which hits theaters on Christmas Day.
Married couple Mike Sardina, or Lightning (Hugh Jackman), would portray Neil Diamond, and Claire Sardina, or Thunder (Kate Hudson), would back him up, while often performing as Patsy Cline. And sometimes ABBA. The movie portrays the couple’s ambitious efforts to become a successful tribute act.
Those lucky enough to get to see the duo perform know that they were so good, so good, so good.
The real Mike (Lightning) and Claire (Thunder) Sardina, married Milwaukeeans, began performing in Chicago in the ‘90s at venues like the Cubby Bear (renamed Chubby Bear in the film), Hi-Tops, the Elbo Room and House of Blues, and gained a strong local following.
Mike Sardina died in 2006 from a brain bleed after a fall in his home. He was 55. Claire Sardina still lives outside of Milwaukee. In the new film “Song Sung Blue,” which opens Christmas Day, Hugh Jackman plays Lightning and Thunder is portrayed by Kate Hudson, who already received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. Chicagoan Jim Belushi does a fine job as Lightning and Thunder’s multitasking manager, another working-class person chasing a brighter light.
On the eve of the movie’s release, Lightning and Thunder fans like Urge Overkill’s King Roeser, Metro owner Joe Shanahan and others recall the tribute duo as absolutely earnest about their love for the acts they were portraying, as well as just being really nice people to work with.
A Momentous Evening At Danny’s In Bucktown
Mike Sardina created the Lightning and Thunder personae in 1989. Terry Alexander was co-owner of Danny’s in 1990 when he booked Lighting and Thunder on the suggestion of a co-worker who had seen the still-unknown team in Milwaukee.
“We just wanted him to perform,” Alexander told Block Club. “He said, if you book me you have to book his [then-]girlfriend who does Patsy Cline. We said, ‘Of course! This is great.’ We paid $200 and a pizza from Bobalu’s on Damen.”
Alexander helped Danny’s put up DIY leaflets in the neighborhood using Diamond’s 1972 “Hot August Night” album cover as a template. Danny’s was packed for its inaugural Thunder and Lightning performance.
Lightning jumped on the bar as he sang the Neil Diamond anthem “America.”
“I was behind the bar,” remembered Alexander, now founding partner of One Off Hospitality (Avec, the Publican, Violet Hour, etc.). “Everybody was putting their hands over their heart [for ‘America’]. The guys from Urge Overkill were there. I distinctly remember that. They always had great outfits.
“[Lightning and Thunder] were the nicest people. They ate their pizza, and there were two or three pieces left over. They wrapped it up and put in their station wagon, and after the show, they drove straight home.
“Those guys had a dream, driving around their beat-up station wagon to Bucktown in the early 1990s to a bar they had never heard of. You had to root for them.”
In an email from Europe, Urge Overkill guitar-vocalist Eddie “King” Roeser wrote, “They [Lightning and Thunder] admired Urge’s sense of showmanship and stagecraft — the lost art of showmanship in the grunge era, which sadly was lacking a sense of humor and fun.”
Lightning and Thunder opened a 1993 record release party for Urge Overkill at Metro. Urge famously covered Neil Diamond’s “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” which wound up in the 1994 Quentin Tarantino film “Pulp Fiction.”
“There are cover bands, and there are tribute bands. This was a tribute to Neil Diamond. Urge thought it was tongue-in-cheek, but when they got on stage, they realized they were totally pro. Everyone paid attention, as opposed to ‘I’m going to the bar for a drink,” Metro owner Joe Shanahan said.
“Every time [Lightning and Thunder] came to Chicago, I’d go see them. They were nice people.”
Kenn Goodman is founder of Chicago’s Pravda Records and now-keyboardist for the popular Expo ‘76 tribute band. When Goodman was a member of the fun-loving New Duncan Imperials in the ’90s, the band shared several gigs with Lightning and Thunder.
The first time NDI played the old Elbo Room in West Lakeview, the club hired Lightning and Thunder to open. “They were fun and kind of odd,” Goodman said. “For us it was perfect … The crowd took it all in. We liked it so we did it again. They were friendly and fun and it was just the two of them, so it wasn’t cumbersome.”
In 1995, Chicago actor Jamie Vann and his roommate hired Lightning and Thunder to play a Halloween party at the Lincoln Tap Room on the North Side. They had seen them in a small Chicago club.
“Mike had a flyer he handed out at the end of the night,” said Vann. “My roommate calls the number and Mike answers, ‘Lightning!’ It was hilarious.
“The way Lightning and Thunder traveled, we didn’t provide anything,” Vann continued. “He had a couple lighting effects he brought to the stage. He brought his own microphone. Thunder ran the [tracking] tape in their own tape machine. She came up first as Patsy Cline. They did a couple of duets, [like] ‘You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.’ But what was most endearing was that she stood off to the side and took cues from him to hit him with the spotlight or to start and stop the tape. He loved the crowd.”
A Story Made For The Screen
“Song Sung Blue” isn’t the first time the saga of Lightning and Thunder has graced the big screen. A documentary with the same title was released in 2009, and caught the attention of director Craig Brewer (“Hustle & Flow,” “Black Snake Moan” and the 2011 “Footloose” remake), who helmed the new film.
The duo’s relentless pursuit of their dreams through hardships and tragedies makes them perfect for cinematic treatment. Mike Sardina’s father poured molten metal for a living, but was also a jazz guitarist. His mother made car seats and automotive products. In 1970, Sardina enlisted in the Marines and began a tour of duty in Vietnam. He was a recovering alcoholic, and often punctuated his stage sets by saying, “One day at a time, ladies and gentlemen!”
Sardina got the nickname “Lightning” in 1972, when he briefly played lead guitar with the Milwaukee soul group the Esquires, who had a national hit with 1967’s “Get On Up.”
Claire Stingl studied cosmetology. She met her future husband in 1987 when she auditioned for his band Positive Traction, a mash-up of Jimi Hendrix and Elvis Presley.
They were married in the summer of 1994 at the Wisconsin State Fair Park. On Dec. 2, Hugh Jackman presented Claire Sardina with a commemorative engraved bench to be placed at the state fair park when he visited Milwaukee to promote the film.
In 1999, Claire Sardina was hit by a car while planting mums in the front yard of their Milwaukee home and lost the lower half of her leg. But only months later Lightning and Thunder were performing again. The last songs Lightning and Thunder sang together were “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” and “Wonderful Beautiful,” a doo-wop ballad Mike Sardina wrote when he was 13 years old.
Elevating Past Kitsch Into Local Stardom
One secret of Neil Diamond’s songwriting is how he is able to make lonely moments feel big and connective. Those songs became the perfect therapeutic interpretations for Lightning and Thunder’s real-life woes, as the pair continually embraced the spirit of Diamond’s songs and the joy of playing for appreciative audiences.
“For me and a lot of other musicians when you’re playing a gig in that moment, you’re escaping all the other weird s—t going on in the world. You’re there just to do that. And so is the audience, wanting to escape and being lost in that moment,” Goodman said. “Everything [Lightning and Thunder] went through, the addiction, the accident — and meanwhile they were driving to Chicago and loading up a club with their weird sets of gear. And for an hour they’d be entertaining people and themselves. It was probably therapeutic like it is for a lot of entertainers.”
Chicago’s live-music heyday of the 1990s made it easy for the pair to play out often. “In Chicago, that was the era of Urge, Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins,” Shanahan said. “That was a $10 ticket [Lightning and Thunder and Urge Overkill]. It was sold out. And you walk in the room and see Lightning and Thunder. It was so good. And Neil Diamond wasn’t ‘cool’ in 1993.”
The performers elevated past kitsch with their sincerity, like when they sang “Forever in Blue Jeans” with Eddie Vedder at Milwaukee’s SummerFest in 1995, easily winning over the Pearl Jam crowd. The movie has the event taking place inside a theater.
“Sometimes people think a Neil Diamond impersonator is making fun of a big characterization,” Vann said. “If you’re a fan of the actual performer, you appreciate it when somebody shares that. That’s what Mike did. He really delivered Neil Diamond.”
Goodman added: “They were sincere. They weren’t doing it as a joke. It wasn’t meant to be funny, but that happens. That was their thing. That was their American dream.”
And the obvious love between Lightning and Thunder — who performed together for 17 years and were married for 12 — was an integral part of the pair’s stage success. As Neil Diamond himself said of the 2009 documentary, “I’m honored to have my songs be part of this love story.”
“Song Sung Blue” will be released in theaters on Christmas Day. (At this writing, it has an 80% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.)
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