By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
May 22, 1987
According to John Avila of the rock group Oingo Boingo, “Boi-ngo”– the title of their latest album – is Japanese slang for “big breasts.”
“Don’t quote me on that, though,” Avila said, laughing. “I’m just the bassist, not the linguist. That’s not why we chose that name, though. It was just an interesting title that’s a play on the group’s name. It sounded like fun, and all of us agreed it was a catchy title, so we used it.”
During the 1970s, when they were known as the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, various members dressed up like clowns and gorillas and ate fire on stage.
There won’t be any of that when they play at the Riviera Night Club, 4750 N. Broadway, at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets are $15 at the door and at Ticketmaster (559-1212).
But Avila said they’ll more than make up for the “lack of theatrics” by providing a variety of music that most people won’t be expecting.
Though critics have tried to pigeonhole Oingo Boingo as a quirky new wave band, the guys in the group like to think of themselves as serious musicians with eclectic tastes.
“We don’t ever want listeners to be able to predict how we will sound,” Avila said. “That’s why I don’t really like to be labeled `new wave,’ or whatever, because it falsely gives potential concertgoers the wrong impression of what we are like. Although we have some songs in our set that sound new wave-ish, we’ve got others that are 180 degrees in the opposite direction.”
Avila, who previously played in several jazz-oriented bands, said the group was influenced by everyone from Elvis Presley to Led Zeppelin to Bob Marley. Various group members also are into West African music,
Balinese Gamelon, Javanese and reggae. And while singer and frontman Danny Elfman is responsible for writing the group’s songs, Avila said each member has a strong influence on what Elfman writes.
“Danny might have a great idea going for him,” Avila said. “But then he’ll hear one of us humming a tune or listening to some real good jazz, and he’ll remember that when he sits down to write our stuff. Everybody tends to think that if one guy writes the band’s material, then he’s got to be a tyrant or something. But in our case it’s fairly
democratic. That’s why we’re called a group, and not a singer with a backup band.”
Although Oingo Boingo released its first album, “Only A Lad,” in 1980, many record buyers still think of it as a new band. On the West Coast, where the group is based, it easily sells out 15,000-seat dates. But on the East Coast and the Midwest, it hasn’t fared as well and are playing smaller clubs.
A major breakthrough for the band was when it performed the title track to John Hughes’ film “Weird Science.” Though the members doesn’t consider that to be one of their best songs, it was their first Top 40 hit. They attribute the success of that song to their younger, teenage fans.
“What’s really kind of strange with this group is that when we first started out, a lot of record company people thought no one would like us, that our music was too wild to reach an audience,” he said.
“But it turned out it was the kids who embraced us and were willing to give us a chance.”
“Critics really never have been kind to us,” Avila continued. “And that’s fine. They have a right to their own opinions. It’s pointless for us to try to write for them, primarily because we never would want to do that. It’s the record buyers who we should be concerned with.”
The eight men in Oingo Boingo are good friends, which comes in handy since they work together about 10 months a year. Although they all like being in the band, they’ve agreed to end the group once it stops being fun.
“We call it our anti-dinosaur pact,” Avila said. “We don’t want to become a parody of a group. When we’re all in wheelchairs, we don’t want to have to be on stage performing for a crowd of 10. There’s got to be more to life than that.”
