Young at heart and young on stage is how The Smithereens still feel after performing together for more than four decades.
“We play like we’re teenagers and we really feel that same spark that we did when we started playing,” drummer and founding member Dennis Diken said in an interview with MassLive.
“We still feel like we’re kids with that energy and passion and we’re going to do it as long as people want to come see us and we have the ability to do it,” he said.
The Smithereens will bring its youthful jubilations to The Center for the Arts in Natick on Friday, April 11. From looking at the low ticket warning online, it is clear that the demand for the band’s live shows is still high after 45 years.
“There’s just no reason to stop,” Diken said. “Music to us has always been about how it made you feel. I think that’s such a powerful thing and a real gift to be able to give and take because we give it to the audience and we get it back too.”
Fans can expect to hear The Smithereens’ signature songs including “ Behind the Wall of Sleep,” “Blood and Roses” and “Girl Like You” at the band’s Massachusetts show. Aside from the hits, the band mixes in some deeper cuts and covers.
“We always try to play what we think folks are going to hear and we also try to keep ourselves happy,” Diken said. “We want to play music that we dig and the songs we dig and keep us feeling fresh and energized.”
This year marks The Smithereens’ 45th anniversary. In 1980, Diken formed the band in Carteret, New Jersey, alongside singer Pat DiNizio, bassist Mike Mesaros and guitarist Jim Babjak, whom Diken first met in 1971.
Diken, who was entering his freshman year of high school, had played in his first band over the summer. However, it wasn’t what he wanted, leaving Diken to have “a pretty clear vision of what I wanted to have in a band situation.”
The musician was hopeful to meet someone in high school with the same “musical sensibilities” as him. So, Diken determined that if he could find someone who could play “I Can’t Explain” by The Who there would be some common ground established. What happened next was incredible.
“The first day of freshman year, the first period, earth science, the first row in the first seat, there’s this kid sitting there, and he opens up his loose leaf, and I’m in the second row, and he has color pictures of The Who plastered inside his loose leaf,” Diken recalled.
“I introduced myself after class that day. I asked him if he played any instruments. And in fact, he played guitar and he liked The Who, but he also liked the Rolling Stones and the Beatles,” Diken said. “I said, ‘Wow, this might be good.’ So we started playing together that week.”
That kid was Babjak, with whom Diken has maintained an unbreakable bond ever since that chance encounter in 1971.
“That type of bond and that type of passion when you’re a young person, shared passion, really helps forge some very strong bonds and eventually deep roots,” Diken said. “We have a lot of love and respect for each other and it just never wavered.”
After DiNizio died in 2017, The Smithereens continued to play live shows as a trio (Babjak, Mesaros and Diken) with various guest vocalists.
John Cowsill, best known as a singer and drummer with his siblings’ band The Cowsills and the Beach Boys touring band, is performing with The Smithereens as the band’s frequent frontmen — Marshall Crenshaw and Robin Wilson — were not available this time around.
“He is a really good frontman, even though he spent many years behind the drum kit,” said Diken, whose relationship with Cowsill dates to 1991.
The Smithereens enlisted The Cowsills to sing backup vocals on the band’s song “Now and Then” on The Smithereens’ 1991 album “Blow Up.”
Diken, a big Beach Boys fan, developed a friendship with Cowsill and stayed in touch throughout the years, eventually recruiting him to front The Smithereens on their current tour.
“He is anything but an introvert and he does a great job,” Diken said of Cowsill. “He really appreciates the music and it’s a gas to have him on board.”
The Smithereens had a string of hits in the late 1980s through the mid-1990s including “Blood and Roses,” “Only a Memory,” “A Girl Like You,” “Too Much Passion” and “Behind the Wall of Sleep.”
The band has released a dozen studio albums, including the critically acclaimed “Especially for You,” “Green Thoughts,” and “2011,” which was re-released on clear vinyl for the very first time this year. This was also the last album The Smithereens recorded with DiNizio.
“We always felt it was a pretty strong album,” Diken said. “We were really happy to be able to make that available again because people like it. So there’s no reason it shouldn’t be out there. And we’re just delighted that it’s out there and people are reacting to it again.”
Diken said The Smithereens are working on new music, but have yet to record anything. He is hopeful the band will get back in the studio at some point this year.
