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I bet you didn't know that there is a Burt Reynolds tribute band called Hooper. They're not a Burt Reynolds cover band because -- and you might not know this about him -- Burt Reynolds wasn't actually in a band. But there is a Burt Reynolds tribute band and fortunately the bass player is a friend of a friend so I got to see them at Lakeside Lounge. I never would have known. And really, who would have thought?

Hooper pays tribute to the 1978 Burt Reynolds vehicle
"Hooper", but the favorite song of the night, "Jet Car", is actually about Dom DeLouise as Captain Chaos in "Cannonball Run." The band Hooper was billed as the "Best stunt band in America" but I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say that they are the best stunt band in the whole U.S. of A.

In fact, they were so best that we all went out and kind of tore it up in a packed karaoke bar after the show. A "Law and Order" regular sang Richard Marx ballads, Aussies were jumping up on tables and pulling their pants down, hot churls were screaming after taxicabs on Avenue A, and before I knew it, it was ten in the morning. There was some other stuff that happened in between closing time and 10am but I'll plead the fifth on that part as I wildly and illegally cannonball off in Adrienne Barbeau's pink hotpants.

(File under the File It Away file: In searching for Barbeau movie stills I discovered that some bar in Baltimore has a Cannonball Run Theme Night. Hello.)