By Danielle Tarloff
Halloween is the perfect time to dress up as someone else. Northeastern alumnus Rich Savoie and his band Sad Marvin agree, but they didn’t want to stop there. This Halloween, the band will geek themselves up to look like Weezer and play an entire set as the famous power-pop group at 9 p.m. at O’Brien’s in Allston.
The group, consisting of vocalist Adam Leiter, guitarist Greg Hallowell, drummer Matt Doyle and bassist Corey Schofield in addition to Savoie – lead guitarist and a 2002 graduate, was unsure of the Halloween show in the beginning.
“There was a little bit of hesitation at first from a couple of the people in the band just because it wasn’t seen as being a beneficial thing to the band to do an all cover show,” Savoie said. “You’re not really getting your music out.”
But as the band practiced the material, it got more excited.
“Honestly, I only think it’s going to be better for us. The main reason is because we’ve heard from a lot of our fans that are really, really excited about the show,” Savoie said. “They are really psyched to see us do Weezer, so they are telling a lot of their friends ‘Hey I don’t know if you’re going to be into this band but they’re doing a Weezer cover set.’
“So there are a lot of Weezer fans that are going to come and see us. And maybe they’ll pick up a copy of the album and remember our name and maybe hear more about us.”
Weezer does not come across as an obvious influence on the band’s sound. Sad Marvin’s EP Acquaintances with Myself, self-released this past August, is more likely to draw comparisons to Incubus, Pearl Jam and 311, or a combination of the three, Savoie said.
“I think in terms of our individual styles, we’re all over the map but Weezer is one thing we can all agree on,” Savoie said. “So it may not pop out in our normal writing so much, but it’s definitely something that we all love.”
“Say It Ain’t So” off the band’s self-titled debut, referred to as “The Blue Album,” is a frequent number in Sad Marvin’s set list. The Halloween show is going to include more songs from their first release as well as from Pinkerton, their second, Savoie said.
Sad Marvin officially formed two years ago, but Savoie and Schofield have been collaborating since high school. They went separate ways and then found one another again in Boston, while Savoie was majoring in electrical computer engineering, to begin putting together material for what would become Sad Marvin.
The group finds Boston to be a challenging but nurturing environment for an original band, Savoie said. They have been able to work their way from playing small bars to major venues like The Paradise Rock Club, Avalon and a sold out album release show at the Middle East Downstairs.
While school and personal obligations have prevented the band from breaking out of the metro-Boston area so far, Sad Marvin hopes to hit the road in January to see how many new fans it can win over, Savoie said.
“The good thing is everybody really wants to go out and pile into the van and do a tour,” Savoie said. “And now that we have enough swing and friends in other bands in other cities, it’s going to be so easy to put together an east coast tour.”
Sad Marvin’s version of Weezer will be joined by Three Nouns playing songs by The Police and Killer Canary doing its best to impersonate Kurt Cobain and Nirvana at O’Brien’s on 3 Harvard Ave., in Allston. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. for the 21+ show, which will cost $6; for more information log on to www.sadmarvin.com.
