Dennis Quaid and Sharks

After publishing this preview, the Dennis Quaid and the Sharks show was canceled so a benefit could be held for the victims of Hurricane Harvey.

Art imitates life, which is busy imitating art: not exactly what Oscar Wilde wrote in 1889, but you have to wonder if that’s truer when you see Dennis Quaid the actor tearing up a Jerry Lee Lewis song with his band the Sharks, knowing that Quaid played Lewis in Great Balls of Fire! in 1989.

As a general rule of thumb, celeb bands trip my internal odious meter, but not so much this one. Quaid seems genuinely unselfconscious and humble as a front man, and he sincerely rocks the big stage.

The Texas-born singer/guitarist is 63 and is likely better known as an actor, having appeared in an astounding number of films and television shows. The Sharks are a side thing, kind of a mid-life return to something that made him happy as a teenager: playing in garage bands. He’s in reasonably good company. Consider Kevin Bacon, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe, Johnny Depp, Eddie Murphy, Bruce Willis, Keanu Reeves, Billy Bob Thornton, and more. It was an invitation from Harry Dean Stanton, another actor-rocker, to get up on stage one night with his band that is said to have awakened the dormant musician within Quaid.

The Sharks experience in and of itself is a lot of good-time bar cover songs that are practically etched into our collective subconscious by now through endless replays. But they still get us up to dance, chart-toppers from old-school bands such as the Doors or Van Morrison.

The Sharks crank out some originals as well; Quaid has written and recorded his own stuff in the past, including “Closer to You” from the film The Big Easy. Not dazzling, but fun, Quaid seems to get much latitude from audiences in general and from the members of his band in terms of his routine. But not so much from Jerry Lee Lewis, who is said to have turned Quaid down as vocalist for his biopic.

The Blitz Brothers also perform.