Smells Like Nirvana and Dead Original (who may or may not be the same band) are ready to rock the stage of Grumpy’s Bar & Event Center in Readlyn, Iowa on Friday, April 7, 2023 at 8 p.m.
They have performed in Iowa a handful of times before, making stops at Wooly’s in Des Moines for most of them, but are eager to return.
Mike Keeran, owner of Grumpy’s Bar & Event Center, is happy to have them.
“We’re super stoked,” Keeran said. “Our fan base is super excited to get somebody like that coming to Readlyn, Iowa.”
Keeran stumbled upon the band when he was looking at a list from The AMG, “an independent, full-service entertainment company that supports artists in all career stages.” (theamg.com)
“We were basically shopping around,” Keeran said. “They [The AMG] sent me a kind of a list and I started listening to music. I got to them, and I went, ‘oh, my goodness, these guys are just so good.’ You hear a tribute band every once in a while and you’re like, ‘really? You guys are not a tribute band, because you don’t sound like them,’ and these guys did. I was like, ‘I’m going to call AMG back and say let’s get this rolling. These guys are good.’”
The band is made up of vocalist and lead guitarist Paul Wandtke, bassist Mike Petrasek and drummer Christopher Scheutz.
“A lot of people don’t know that we’re the same band. They see Dead Original, and they see Smells Like Nirvana and come to a show and go ‘oh my god, they’re the same band,’” Wandtke, said. “And it’s really funny because we are the same band but because it’s two different names, it’s confusing. And we like it that way. We like to be a little mysterious. We make jokes on stage like, ‘Let’s give it up for Smells Like Nirvana’ or vice versa. Like ‘let’s give it up for that opening band, oh, boy, they sucked.’”
Wandtke has played in the Grammy-nominated metal band, Trivium, drummed for the hit musical “Rock of Ages,” and drummed for Kill Hannah during the band’s main support run with The Smashing Pumpkins.
But something deep inside was telling him that fronting was where he really wanted to be.
“But I was always scared,” he said. “So, after eight years of doing Smells Like Nirvana, I finally wrote an album and that’s what Dead Original is.”
Dead Original’s first album “Bought and Sold” was released in early 2021 to positive reviews.
“I thought it was going to be received next negatively, but people like it. They really enjoy it. And it’s been really cool to finally do it and get it together.”
After working to sound like Kurt Cobain for so many years, it was freeing for Wandtke to be able to sing something original.
“When you’re doing a tribute, you have to be in a different mind space and try to pretend to be somebody else,” Wandtke said. “And as a big fan of the band, it’s really intimidating. When you do your own original stuff, you can be yourself, you can wear whatever you want, you know, stuff like that.
“Not to take away from what we’re doing though. It is freeing and exciting to play the Nirvana songs because everybody sings along and It’s so cool. As a as a big fan of Nirvana, it makes me think like, ‘wow, this is what it was like for Kurt Cobain? Hearing people sing the songs in front of him?’”
And for a lot fans, that translates into the performance.
“Just in general, most of the fans that we’ve seen are like, ‘man, I’ve seen Nirvana’ and just talking to them is super cool,” Wandtke said. “As a fan of Nirvana to hear somebody go, ‘ I saw Nirvana live and you guys really brought it to the table, you did you did a good job.’ I’m like, ‘oh, that’s cool’ because I never saw them live, only through YouTube videos.”
The band will be touring around the country for much of the spring and summer months. You can find Dead Original’s album “Bought and Sold” on all streaming platforms or via deadoriginal.com.
General admission tickets are $15 at the door.
Event link: https://tinyurl.com/3xxz3k3j
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