Cooler by the Lake is a very good and very funny novel by Larry Heinemann. It's also the phrase that ends every single weather forecast in Chicago—the meteorologist gives the forecasted temperature, then adds that it'll be cooler by the lake.
Cooler by the Lake is also the name of this band, album and DVD, and I have a suspicion that this meager review can't really do it justice. Musically it sounds something like Scorpions with a sense of humor, or Scorpions blended with the New York Dolls, but without the heroin. Rory Lake claims in the letter he sends out with this nifty package that he plays in "the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band of all time."
He does.
Really.
This band embodies all that matters about rock ‘n’ roll.
Rock ‘n’ roll isn't just music. Sometimes it's less than music. It's a club you belong to with your friends, and anybody who belongs to it is your friend, and it's about some pseudo religious experience that happens when you're yelling into a microphone and slamming your hands across guitar strings or into drums and watching people bob up and down as you do it. Or it's about bobbing up and down while you watch people do what I just described.
The main thing you realize when you're listening to this cd is that these people have fun. And when you watch the dvd you realize that they have a lot of fun. I was twenty minutes in and thinking that they'd be a fun band to hire for a wedding. Lo and behold, they do a tongue in cheek ad suggesting you hire them for your wedding. You can call them on www.rorylakepresents.com, according to the ad.
I can't figure out if I should like this cd and dvd more than I do, or whether I should like it less than I do. Which suggests that it doesn't matter whether I like it or not, because Rory Lake knows damn well that he plays in the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band that the planet has to offer.
And that's all there is on earth, and all ye need to know.