Chances are you've never seen or heard a band quite like Mother of the Bride.
The group performs mostly at wedding receptions, but it's not your typical wedding band.
It's what you might call a stadium-style wedding band. It's like the U2 or the AC/DC of wedding bands.
These guys go big. They put on a show to end all shows, with pyrotechnics, confetti cannons going off and the guitar player throwing his picks into the adoring crowd like he's a rock god.
If that sounds like a funny idea to you, you're not alone. Brian Austin Green, the former Beverly Hills, 90210 star, heard this premise for a new TV comedy called Wedding Band and he was dying to do it.
Never mind the fact that he had never sung publicly and was petrified by the idea of doing so.
He plays Tommy, Mother of the Bride's lead vocalist and ladies' man.
Wedding Band also stars Harold Perrineau ( Lost) and Melora Hardin ( The Office).
We chatted with Green about this most unusual show, which premieres at 9 p.m. Saturday on TBS.
Did you ever daydream about being the lead singer in a rock band?
No, I did not sing into a hairbrush when I was a kid. The last thing I ever thought of doing was being the lead singer of something. I've always been really insecure in doing it.
So coming in and doing the show, it was really intimidating at first. I was thinking, "Man, I'm going to have to go into a studio. I'm going to have to actually sing. Am I ready for it? I don't know if I am." Eventually, I went in with the thought in mind that it's not me singing, it's the character singing.
Tommy is the greatest wedding band singer of all time -- that's how I have to step in, with all that kind of confidence. But I don't go in and sing as myself. If I did, I'd probably have a heart attack.
The band also does bar mitzvahs, high-school reunions and bachelorette parties. It will play in any style, from metal-rock to country. It creates some absurd moments. Do you have a favorite?
Yes. The band has an amazing ability to take something like a KISS song and play it at Oktoberfest. So you're singing these party anthems, but with a kick drum and a trombone and an accordion, but still doing it in a serious enough way as a musician that, aside from laughing because we're wearing lederhosen, you're still thinking this song is awesome.
We also do one that's really fun: a very Bollywood version of Party Rock [ Anthem, by LMFAO], with an entire dance number that goes along with it. It's pretty genius.
As the lead singer, how familiar were you with the lyrics of these songs going in?
I knew the melodies. But most of the songs, I've got to be honest, when I got the lyric sheets, my first thoughts were, "Oh, THOSE are the words? That's not what I've been singing all this time." Like R.E.M.'s It's the End of the World as We Know It. I think the only line I ever knew was "It's the end of the world as we know it," and the rest of the words were completely unknowable.
What kind of TV shows do you watch at home (and don't say Wedding Band)?
I've been watching a lot of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, then I'll switch to Fox News just to see the complete opposite spin of everything. Aside from that, I don't know. Top Chef, Ghost Hunters and a little Ancient Aliens mixed in there. That's the kind of TiVo happenings at the Green household.
How big do you allow yourself to dream for Wedding Band?
I want to be the first television star to win an Oscar!
