To commemorate the 80’s classic The Goonies hitting the quarter-century mark, residents of Astoria, Oregon held a special Goonies 25th Anniversary Celebration during the first week of June. Goonies fans from all over the world congregated at the quiet little fishing town to meet the cast, tour filming locations, eat Goonies-themed food, participate in the “Truffle Shuffle” 5k race, and even view a Goonies art exhibit. But the highlight of the fan festival was the “Goonies Rock Concert”, a four-band tribute to the flick headlined by Corey Feldman himself, performing with his band Truth Movement. Held at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds – which is normally a venue for local horse shows and pumpkin-growing competitions – this promised to be an exciting event for locals and fans alike.
Opening act Troy’s Bucket rocked the gathering crowd, and are the only punk band ever to politely apologize for “All the feedback”. Next up were bluegrass band The Whiskey Rebellion, who treated the audience to a mean fiddle rendition of Ah-Ha’s “Take on Me” that whipped the crowd into a frenzy. Both bands performed songs which they had written about The Goonies – The Whiskey Rebellion even shot a Goonies-themed video, which played in the background.
Up next were pop-punks The Ataris, who performed their hit album So Long, Astoria, whose title is an homage to the flick. Guitarist Aaron Glass was decked out in sunglasses, and frontman Kristopher Roe made a point of saying, “He doesn’t normally wear sunglasses at night – no 80’s pun intended.” The band had toured the famous Goonies house earlier that day, and in his excitement, Glass had left his specs behind and had to don prescription sunglasses for the show.
The crescendo of the night came when Feldman’s Truth Movement hit the stage to entertain fans who were eager to see the child star’s musical debut. Truth Movement is an all-star prog-rock outfit boasting Steve Fazzillo, Avril Lavigne’s keyboardist, and backup vocalist Daisy De La Hoya, a reality TV starlet who got her break through another 80’s icon when she was the runner-up on “Rock of Love 2” – the Flavor-Flav style dating show starring Poison rocker Bret Michaels. (De La Hoya later got her own VH1 spinoff, “Daisy of Love”.) The band were performing their concept album, Technology Analogy, that Feldman says is heavily inspired by Pink Floyd – even boasting collaborations from various Floyd contributors.
“Scotty Page (Floyd saxaphonist from 1986-1989) was here with us tonight playing sax,” explains Feldman, “And John Carin, who’s been with Floyd for about 25 years, wrote & produced seven of the songs on our album – very lucky to have him; and Storm Thorgerson [creator of the famous Dark Side of The Moon artwork] designed the album cover.”
The stage filled with smoke and laser lights as Feldman purposefully walked to the mic clad in a Grim Reaper-style cape, throwing it off during a crescendo to reveal a suit and glow-in-the-dark t-shirt. Truth Movement’s stage show is an epic production with non-stop theatrics, lights, props, and costume changes. The ominous opening segued into the deceptively lighthearted “Breezy Day”, where two bikini-clad lovelies pranced on stage to toss a giant beach ball back and forth. Later in the show, Feldman ran offstage as De La Hoya began took the stage clad in lingerie and holding glowing hula-hoop, twirling around during an instrumental sequence. Feldman then burst back onto the stage wearing a neon polka-dotted suit as a man in a giant robot costume appeared, playing the character of “Mr. Corporate Robot”.
So what inspires these extravagant shows? “Madness!” laughs Feldman. “Basically, the inspiration is watching great shows like Pink Floyd or Michael Jackson – those big, high-concept shows.” And Feldman paid tribute to late friend Jackson during a special 80’s encore, with a “Billie Jean” cover – complete with sequined glove and moonwalk. Afterwards, Truth Movement continued the Pink Floyd homage with a rendition of “Another Brick in The Wall”.
But don’t think he’s sucking up natural resources with his larger-than-life lightshow: The performance was the band’s second “Off the Grid”, using biodiesel generators to power the special effects. “We’ve done a lot of research to try to find different ways to not only be more green in our day-to-day lives, but when we’re touring and when we’re putting out albums,” says Feldman. He says decided to become involved with environmental causes after working on a film in Berlin. “I looked around and noticed how green everything was, and the fact that they were so progressive, so forward-thinking, and all of their alternative methods of energy that they had – I was so impressed by it,” he recalls. “I went, ‘Hey, there’s something to this, we need more green’, and that’s where the whole concept started.”
Goonie-turned-Hobbit actor Sean Astin pitched in during the show to auction off an autographed Fender guitar to raise money for Feldman’s green initiative, decked out in the “Technology Analogy” cover art by Thorgerson as well as Goonies cast signatures.
But if you missed all the fun at the Goonies gathering, don’t fret: Truth Movement will be performing at the “Lost Boys” gathering in Santa Cruz at the end of this month.