Berkeley-founded new wave band the Motels (featuring Martha Davis) had already been reformed, renamed and routinely rejected by record labels since 1975 for being “too weird” and “not commercially viable”—then they hit the top of the Billboard charts in 1982. Proving their critics to be ignoramuses, the band scored big at the American Music Awards that year and released two unforgettable, noir-ish videos for the moody tunes “Only the Lonely” and “Take the L.” Other introspective tragi-hits “Suddenly Last Summer,” “Remember the Nights” and “Shame” soon followed, forever cementing the band and Davis into the dramatic realms of new wave history.
Fri., July 10, 6 p.m., 2009
