Gene Dante and The Future Starlets

A Boston band with a history of glam rock excellence behind it, Gene Dante and the Future Starlets have released a new single, which stands on its own and is an example of changes to the music market.

As a friend who performed in theater with Dante some years ago, 'We Are All Whores' is much the man. Dante's sense of humor and commentary on society is a slashing attack from the opening chorus: "We are all whores behind closed doors, we get off when we're talked about..."

In your face production (with Dante's vocals front and center) and power chords make for a Bowie-esque ride. "If love is the drug, we're the disease..." The hooks, the sound, every damn bit of this song makes 'We Are All Whores' commercially viable, but for once it does not sound contrived, compressed and auto-tuned to death.

Hard to say this anymore about music, but for once the combination of lyric, music and production worked. Up next for the band is an IndieGoGo campaign in order to produce a video. - Broadwayworld.com

The Romantic Lead is a fabulous concoction of glam rock and bare-faced
sexuality. It combines Dante's previous theatric roles in Hedwig And The
Angry Inch, Beauty And The Beast and the touring Rocky Horror Picture
Show with an abundant appreciation for David Bowie. The result is an
abrasive, guitar-driven record that's impossible not to love. The Romantic
Lead plays out like the rock operas for which Dante has become known. "A
Madness To His Method" is the introductory scene in this 11-act
journey, "C Star" is the heavy, sweaty, not-safe-for-work sex scene,
and "The Dreamers" is the love scene — or perhaps the heartbreak scene,
depending on your interpretation. Like Dante's theatre roles, this
record is for the unconventional. Its originality and calibre of talent
is beyond admirable, but intended for those with an open mind. If you
like it bold and if you love your rock with a dose of opera, then Dante
is your new hero.
- Chart Attack

The band: Gene Dante (voice, guitar), Jim Collins (bass), Scott Patalano (guitar), Tamora Gooding (drums, percussion)

The sound: A tribute to David Bowie

"I grew up on big rock like Motley Crue and Queen," Dante said. "When I started listening to Bowie at the end of high school, the lyrics were a lot more interesting than anything else I heard. And the diversity of music - it's like there was a ballad and it would morph into a show tune or something a little more jazzy."

The name: Dante says the Future Starlets' name embodies three things he feels passionate about: optimism, Hollywood and science fiction.

The history: The first version of Gene Dante and the Future Starlets came together in 2006, but the current lineup joined forces last year after Dante realized he wanted to share his original music instead of playing in a Brian Eno tribute band.

"I was always writing songs and I wanted to make my own music," Dante said. "I was friendly with everybody before we joined the band. We all get along. No catfights or wrestling."

The songwriting: "I'm constantly writing," Dante said. "If you want to be a great baseball player, you go out and you practice. If you want to be an architect, you go to school and take geometry and science classes. You have to write a lot if you want to be good. You write a lot of (expletive) and keep writing and writing and writing until a good one comes along."

The album: Gene Dante and the Future Starlets finished recording their sophomore album earlier this week, but do not have a release date yet. But Dante is psyched to have the enthusiastic support of a label, Omnirox, for the first time.

"This is a great, professional deal on a bigger scale than I've ever worked before," he said. "It's a new, interesting time. Exciting and scary at the same time - like your first time bungee jumping or hang gliding.

The attitude: "I'm not really a scenester," Dante said. "I'm a little more reclusive. What I don't want to do is be the hippest kid in town. That means nothing to me. I don't want to be the king of Boston. I have zero interest in that. And to pre-empt any retorts, I don't want to be queen of Boston, either. I just want to make music and hope the audience finds it and they like it."

The show: Check out Gene Dante and the Future Starlets tomorrow at T.T. the Bear's Place in Cambridge, with Sidewalk Drivers, Mercy James Gang and Vivian Darkbloom. - Kerry Purcell

✰✰✰✰ (3.5 stars) -- That Gene Dante is certainly a bit of a renaissance
man. Getting his start as an actor (he has appeared in productions of
Rocky Horror, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Beauty and the Beast),
Dante is also a songwriter and singer, as evidenced by his 2009
release, Romantic Lead, credited to Gene Dante & the Future
Starlets. Despite his theatrical background, Romantic Lead is not
exactly as bombastic as say, early Queen. Musically, the guitars sound
Strokes-like at times ("Purity of Intent," "Photosynthetic"), and while
songtitles like "Brian, My Darling" would suggest Bowie-isms, Dante's
voice sounds comparable at times to Queensrÿche's Geoff Tate (without
all the unbearable opera singer on steroids shrieking), especially on
the album opening "A Madness to His Method." With Romantic Lead, Gene
Dante may have come up with a new style: streamlined theatrical rock.
(Greg Prato)
(http://www.allmusic.com/cg../amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wnfi..xztkldte)
- ALL Music Guide

GENE DANTE & THE FUTURE STARLETS
“The Romantic Lead”
(Omnirox Entertainment)
✰✰✰✰
(4 stars) — After a couple spins of “The Romantic Lead,” it’s easy to
believe that frontman Gene Dante has an extensive background in musical
theater. He’s toured with “The Rocky Horror Show,” staged and starred
in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and portrayed the Beast in “Beauty and
the Beast.” Dante and the Future Starlets have managed to incorporate
those dramatic skills into an energetic, fun record.

Embracing the glam-rock sound of David Bowie and T. Rex, Dante and his mates rock
their way through an enjoyable 11-track collection of tunes that drip
with emotion and theatrical overtones — almost as if each track was
written for an as-yet unproduced rock opera. Among the highlights here
are opener “A Madness to His Method,” “The Starlet Hits the Wall,” “OK
Sunshine,” “This Is the Closing” and the sprawling set closer “To a God
Unknown.” (Jeffrey Sisk, In Tune Magazine / The Daily News)

- In Tune Magazine

Faces On Film / Fancey / Gene Dante and the Future Starlets / The Sterns / Taxpayer?Bill's Bar?Boston, MA?September 29, 2006?This review appeared in the December 2006 issue of Northeast Performer Magazine. Reviewed by Miriam Lamey.


Gene Dante and the Future Starlets continued the showcase and played an utterly amazing set. A few opening sound problems were completely forgotten as the band exploded into their first piece. Their outstanding stage presence was due to the band's exciting, theatrical performance, to which the audience warmed. Singer Gene Dante acted the true rock star, wholly dedicated to his top-quality singing and guitar playing. This glam-rock band, sounding reminiscent of Placebo and David Bowie, presented impressive passion and energy.
- Northeast Performer Magazine

DANTE'S PERFORMING DILEMMA: ROCK OR THEATER?

Author: Jonathan Perry, Globe Correspondent?Date: May 12, 2006 Page: D18 Section: Arts


There is a big difference, Gene Dante says, between rockers who can act and actors who think they can rock.

"Rockers who act? Bowie. Actors who rock? Hasselhoff that's the difference," says Dante, a reflexive cringe creeping into his voice over the phone from Puerto Rico when other dubious actor-turned-rocker efforts are mentioned: Bruce Willis. Don Johnson. Leonard Nimoy. Dante, a musician and actor who grew up around Boston, left for New York, and recently moved back, is perhaps best known around these parts for his title role in the Boston production of the rock musical, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," in which he channeled an East German glam-rock star struggling with the aftermath of a botched sex-change operation.

But Dante identifies himself as a musician first a rocker who can act who previously fronted the under ground Boston pop outfit Bound.4.Venus. He's just issued an EP, "Gene Dante and the Future Starlets," which makes the convincing case that his androgynous off-Broadway alter ego indeed left her mascara'd mark on the singer-songwriter.

"Hedwig is very Bowie and Lou Reed-inspired, and just hearing the music, I knew I wanted to be in that show, and I wanted to play that part," recalls Dante, who drew raves for his performances. "It was the type of music I wanted to write and sing. Just as Bowie, Reed, Bryan Ferry, and even Queen and Kiss had left their stamp on me when I was a very young boy, I knew Hedwig would leave her stamp on me, too."

Over the course of eight tracks, covering nearly 30 minutes, Dante distills his lifelong crush on glam's eyeliner-rimmed epoch into an astoundingly accurate appropriation of the "Ziggy Stardust" era. Tracks such as "The Crack in Your Glass Slipper," "A Method to His Madness," and most obviously, "Spaceager," gleam with glitter-encrusted splendor. Meanwhile, Dante's stage-trained croon carries the DNA of Bowie and Mott the Hoople's Ian Hunter.

Dante and the Future Starlets which include guitarist Eddie Nowik and upright bassist "Dark" Mark White (both from the Boston avant-weirdo octet the Bentmen) and drummer "Cutty" (from Reverend Bob and the Darkness) celebrate the EP's release tonight at the Middle East Upstairs with guests the Glass Set, the Sterns, and Ad Frank and the Fast Easy Women.

"As a kid, I found it much easier to identify with and be fascinated by rockers than actors, because with a rocker I merely need the music and maybe a picture to lock in," says Dante, whose close relationship with guitars and makeup dates back to his grade-school days, when his aunt bought him his first LPs, Kiss' "Alive II" and Queen's "News of the World." "As a writer in a rock band, you certainly have much more of a personal connection with the material because it's yours."

In theater, where an actor's job is to convincingly interpret someone's else's vision, "you have to contrive that [personal connection]," he says.

After his success as Hedwig, and well-received performances as Riff Raff in a European tour of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," the title role of the Beast in a stage production of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," and work with the Boston Rock Opera, Dante moved to New York. Although the goal was to further his acting career, he wound up taking more bartending shifts than acting classes. All along he kept writing pop songs and later realized he could write them just as easily here.

"I had acting friends who would wear [business] billboards on their back, and I realized quickly I didn't want that," Dante says. "I don't believe in doing the Andrew Lloyd Webber medley on the Pacific Princess cruise line just because I'm an actor who can sing and dance. I believe in reading a script and asking whether I believe in it whether or not it's going to get me seen. When it was evident that acting wasn't working out, I moved back no worries, no regrets, and no what-ifs."

Not surprisingly, Dante's theater experience colors what he's doing with the Future Starlets: restoring to rock the showmanship and spectacle that, he believes, is all too often missing.?
"Too many rockers neglect the execution of what truly is theater. They don't want to say [the word] because theater has such a negative, namby-pamby connotation of putting on a show and putting on a front," he says. ". . . But when people come out to see you and are paying money, you owe them something."
- The Boston Globe