I cannot think of a better way to end the Investors Bank 2020 Hot Summer Nights Concert Series at the Village Green in Summit, NJ, then watching renowned New Jersey cover band The Nerds perform in front of a live audience Tuesday night. 

Playing since 1985, The Nerds have built a loyal legion of fans all over the world. And approximately 250 people had the glorious opportunity to see them for free. 

I, for one, always wanted to witness The Nerds in perosn and wasn’t disappointed one bit. 

The Nerds kicked off their show with Christmas Eve / Sarajevo, which Trans-Siberian Orchestra made famous. It’s not an easy song to play, but they rocked it to the fullest. 

The band went into a few of my personal favorites: Prince and The Revolution’s Let’s Go Crazy and being a heavy metal brat, I enjoyed the Nerd’s version of Poison’s Talk Dirty to Me. 

Fronted by Jim “Spaz” Garcia, who sang and played lead guitar, The Nerds performed Wild Cherry’s Play That Funky Music White Boy, with Peter “Stretch” Oltmanns banging out that unforgettable funky baseline. The group even changed up the tempo with New Jersey’s own Frank Sinatra’s Summer Winds. 

Oh, What a Night and The Nerds played that, too, mixed in with a little Led Zepplin. 

They followed that up with Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline and a resounding version of Gun N Roses’ classic rock track Sweet Child of Mine, sang by Mike “Mongo” Spiro, who hit those difficult-to-reach high notes and also dazzled the crowd with his fantastic keyboard work. Plus, Jack “Biff” Yocum’s rhythmic drum playing.  

Yeah, Rock n Roll, baby. 

To keep everyone dancing, The Nerds fast-forwarded it to 2015 with Flo Rida’s Welcome to My House and DNCE’s Cake by the Ocean. 

Paying homage to this great nation of ours, The Nerds dropped the curtain on the show by playing The Star-Spangled Banner.

For more information and tour dates, visit the-nerds.com, and like them on Facebook.

Watch the video below of The Nerds playing Toto’s Africa.

— Jerry Del Priore