Friday, March 4, 2005 | 8:41 a.m.
Spencer Patterson covers music for the Sun. His music notes column appears Fridays. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-2309.
Cy Curnin never set out to be a hat designer. It just sort of happened.
The longtime frontman for the Fixx explained how in a phone interview from a New York City hotel room Tuesday.
"Scratching around on a piece of paper and designed a hat. Met a man who had some fabric. Called the buyer up at Bloomingdale's and -- boom! -- they sold out. Then every buyer in all the department stores wanted 'em, and then MTV called me up and said, 'What are you doing?'
"Then it took off, and I was like, '(expletive)! I'm making hats. How the hell did this happen?' "
Curnin didn't ponder the question for long, quickly bagging his second career to concentrate on his primary job, vocalist for the British rock band most famous for sending hits "One Thing Leads to Another" and "Saved By Zero" up the charts in the 1980s.
"(Designing hats) was actually good fun, but I got bored of it rather quickly," Curnin, 47, said. "After a while the buyers were saying it had to be this color and that, and I was like, 'Bye. I'm not into this.' So I sold it off and got back into music."
Curnin and the rest of Fixx's original lineup -- guitarist Jamie West-Oram, keyboardist Rupert Greenall and drummer Adam Woods -- perform at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay tonight. Bassist Gary Tibbs (Adam & The Ants, Roxy Music) rounds out the live lineup.
Local act Sweetest Infection opens the 21-and-over show, with doors scheduled to open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 and $30.
Even when Curnin was doing his hat dance in the mid-1990s, the Fixx never ceased being a band, despite numerous media reports about comebacks and reunions since. According to Curnin, the group simply slipped off the radar.
"We were on the dark side of the moon for a minute, but we were still all together," he said. "It's hard to sustain a public image or persona forever, unless you're the Beatles or Madonna and you get to the plateau where you're just omni-rock gods."
The Fixx released its first album in seven years in 1998, then went five years before its next studio effort, 2003's "Want That Life." Curnin said the band mixes a few songs from those discs into the set every night, but the music sounds at home among the older material.
"We play the hits and work in what we're doing today, and surprise, surprise, it doesn't sound unlike the band," he said. "It's not like any strange departure or anything. I haven't started playing violin or banging a steel drum. It's still Fixx music. It's just 2005."
Though several Fixx songs are staples of FM's 1980s format, and the band signs on to play nostalgia bills from the decade from time to time (one recently had them alongside Tone Loc and Rick Springfield), Curnin disdains the idea of being pigeonholed.
"Other music movements have titles like 'rock band' or 'funk band' or 'blues band,' but if you're from the '80s you're called an '80s band," Curnin saiid. "What the (expletive) is that? It's a time span, and it's tough to grow out of.
"I have this nightmare that I'm gonna be 80 and still being introduced as an '80s band."
But Curnin concedes that he also retains a special place in his heart for the decade that saw the Fixx reach its commercial peak. And that he's pleased the sounds of the era are making a comeback in the music of acts such as the Killers and the Faint.
"What was good about the '80s was that it was the last original music movement," Curnin said. "House was really born in the '80s, and what's good about some of the dance and trance stuff that we hear now, these chill-out things, all came from '80s experimenting, getting people into a sort of enormo-dome of sound.
"And then it got very claustrophobic again in the '90s with grunge, angst and brats having tantrums. And then the clouds lifted and there were stars up in the sky again, and people liked the sparkle of the '80s again."
Music notes
Rapper Sage Francis is set to perform Saturday night at Jillian's (450 Fremont St.), provided his voice holds up.
Last week, Francis was forced to cancel two shows in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Boise, Idaho, after developing a painful throat condition. He was also unable to schedule a phone interview for this column, understandably opting to rest his vocal chords.
Though his music remains largely an underground phenomenon, the Rhode Island native has developed a solid following. His thought-provoking rhymes highlight latest release "A Healthy Distrust," his first solo venture.
Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $7.
Rockin' anniversary:The Hard Rock Hotel will mark its 10th anniversary with a concert-filled weekend at The Joint from April 29 through May 1.
Coldplay kicks off the celebration April 29. Tickets are $153 and $303 and go on sale at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Hard Rock box office, at Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at 474-4000 and at www.ticketmaster.com.
Bon Jovi plays The Joint on April 30. Tickets go on sale at noon Saturday through the Hard Rock box office and Ticketmaster. Prices had not been determined at press time.
Up after Bon Jovi is Nine Inch Nails, which is slated to take the stage around midnight on April 30. Tickets are $85 and go on sale at 5 p.m. today through the Hard Rock box office and Ticketmaster.
A press release issued by the hotel also hints at a "surprise act" that will close out the anniversary party on Sunday. The release also promises that "some of the biggest names in hip-hop" will perform throughout the weekend at Hard Rock nightclub Body English.
Paul Oakenfold is also slated to spin a DJ set Sunday at the Hard Rock's poolside area, Rehab.
Coldplay (April 30) and Nine Inch Nails (May 1) are also each scheduled to headline the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., the same weekend.
Kennedys makeup: The Dead Kennedys have rescheduled last weekend's postponed House of Blues show for April 14. The punk band called off the original gig when guitarist East Bay Ray flew to Northern California to deal with a family emergency.
Tickets to the makeup show are $17 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday at the House of Blues box office and through Ticketmaster. Refunds for the Feb. 25 date are available at original points of purchase.
On sale
Alan Jackson stops at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 22 with support from Sara Evans and the Wrights. Tickets are $45 to $85 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday at the MGM Grand box office and through Ticketmaster.
Dwight Yoakam plays the Club at the Cannery on July 2-3, with opening act Reckless Kelly. Tickets are $39 to $59 and are on sale now at the Cannery, by phone at 617-5585 and at www.cannerycasinos.com.
Olivia Newton-John lands at Buffalo Bill's Star of the Desert Arena in Primm on April 23. Tickets are $27.45 to $43.95 and go on sale at noon Saturday at the Star of the Desert box office and through Ticketmaster.
Kottonmouth Kings play the House of Blues on April 23. Tickets are $17.50 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday through the House of Blues box office and Ticketmaster.
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