Middle Aged Dad Jam Band Makes Cleveland Debut at Beachland on September 18

Actor, musician and director David Wain grew up in Shaker Heights where he played in various cover bands at University School and Shaker High School. He subsequently
met at Ken Marino at New York University in 1988 where they co-founded the sketch comedy group the State. Self-professed "wannabe rock stars," the two collaborators have also become middle-aged dads, so it only makes sense that they would've gotten together recently with a group of other old friends (some dads, some not; some middle-aged, some not) to start a cover band they've dubbed Middle-Aged Dad Jam Band.

When clips of their jam sessions went viral on social media, they found themselves hitting the road for gigs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York. The Middle Aged Dad Jam Band makes its Cleveland debut when it performs on Monday, Sept. 18, at the Beachland Ballroom.

In a recent phone interview from his Los Angeles home, Wain talks about his Shaker Heights roots and band's origination.

You grew up in Shaker Heights and played in cover bands. Talk about that experience.
I was always involved with bands in different ways. I grew up with Craig Wedren , who went on to become a big professional musician with Shudder to Think and a composer. As kids, we would go in the basement and jam. These bands emerged out of middle school like Immoral Minority, who I first managed, and Batman and Robin and another one was Freudian Slip. We would play in Battle of the Bands and berate [the late local rock writer] Jane Scott to try to get her to mention us in her column. She did sometimes mention us, and I think she even came to see us one time. There was a whole fun scene of people I hung out with while growing up. I went to University School and then Shaker High. We all just played in different bands. When I was 19, I formed a band for the sole purpose of touring summer camps. It was called the Rocking Knights of Summer. Another thing I did was the summer after my senior year of high school was this Smiths cover band called This Charming Band. We also had Seven Chinese Brothers, which was an R.E.M. cover band.

Your musical influences are all over the place.
My father was in the radio business and had Top 40 radio stations and was at one point the owner of WNCX. I listened to all the pop music of the ’80s and as I got older and started hanging out on Coventry, I discovered the ’80s alt scene. I remember seeing the Replacements at one of the smaller clubs, and it blew me away.

What made you form this band?
Coming out of the pandemic, I started doing the same thing. I got together in the garage with buddies and played covers of bands we like. A lot of them go back to Shaker Heights and some go back to college. We started posting online and people really liked it. Now, we have this Middle Aged Dad Band that’s touring all over the country.

How’d you first meet Ken Marino, who sings in the band?
I met him in New York on the first day of college at NYU. We became friends immediately and began working together in comedy in the group that eventually became the State. We have done many projects together over the years. Now, we both live in L.A. He grew up listening to more R&B-ish and New Orleans stuff. I’m learning from him more about Dr. John and certain areas of classic rock that were things they didn’t play on WMMS. I taught him stuff he didn’t know about like the Cars and the Violent Femmes and those types of things.

The live show features skits too?
The real fun of it is the banter. It’s almost equally a comedy show. It’s mainly music, but we try to keep it entertaining and do a lot of shtick throughout the whole show, which is a lot of the fun of the show.

Are the skits improvised or scripted?
It's somewhere in between. We’re not completely flying by the seat of our pants. It’s a loose, casual, fun show.

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