In December 1988 the woman who would become my wife and I first conversed at a show by an Bethlehem, PA garage-rock band called The Creatures. This band played Philadelphia a lot, wearing black suits and never straying from garage-rock conventions. Unlike a lot of bands that adhered that closely to re-creating an era that was long gone, they didn’t get bogged down in anachronistic hairdos. Although their songs were as stoopid as could be expected from any no-holds-barred garage-rock band at that time, they delivered their material with some real snarl. Their drummer was one of those tall, thin guys who seemed capable of driving a dance beat while playing nothing but fills. Their bassist looked like a chubby, nerdy cartoon version of my own band’s bassist. I think he even played a Gibson Ripper, which my close personal friend chickenfrank initially played when he joined our band as the bass/guitar swingman, filling in for whichever of our two original members in those roles had decided to “retire” or go whitewater rafting for a given show. The Creatures’ singer and leader had a strong, if stiff, stage presence. He reminded me a bit of Herman Munster, had Herman taken the stage with whatever garage band it was that appeared on an episode of The Munsters. There may have been a second guitarist, too, a blond guy who functioned as Malcolm Young to the lead guitarist’s garage-rock Angus. The lead guitarist was the main attraction for me, however, in the half dozen shows I caught by The Creatures, another chubby, mop-topped guy who looked like he loved nothing more than digging into his riffs and shouting all the requisite backing vocal parts that the band’s no-nonsense garage-rock songs required.

Around the same time I started dating this woman who would become my wife I learned that the lead guitar player, who went by his initials, JT, also led his own band, The Original Sins. They made a deservedly big splash with their debut record. The Original Sins were The Creatures minus their lead singer and plus a wicked organ player. The Original Sins were still squarely in the garage-rock camp, but they were more intense and had more range and emotional depth. JT would bark out a series of Stooges-influenced “outta-my-head” songs, actually seeming a little out of his head as he delivered his rave-ups, and then shift gears with something more introspective and poppy, something more akin to one of Big Star‘s feelin’-kinda-strange-but-it’s-all-right numbers. I missed the suits, and over time, as the band continued to follow JT’s increasing flights of fancy, sometimes missed the early Animals-like focus of The Creatures’ material, but – no offense to the abandoned leader of The Creatures – I was happy that JT gained his “independence” and got to lead his own band. (This is not to suggest that he was tied down, or anything like that, when he was the guitarist for The Creatures – I never knew their history or intra-band dynamics.)

For purposes of discussion, have you ever followed a band, keyed in on a particular musician who did not seem to be the leader of said band, and then get to enjoy seeing that musician go off and start his or her own thing?

By the way, I believe the leader of The Creatures kept his band going and may still play to this day.