Five Questions; Barenaked Ladies

By JAE-HA KIM, Chicago Sun-Times, August 13th, 2001.

Their overnight success took more than 13 years to happen, but the Barenaked ladies have arrived. A band that gets a kick out of writing lyrics such as, "i just made you say underwear", the Ladies will perform Aug. 24 at the Tweeter Center in Tinley Park. Vocalist Steven Page called from the road to sound off on rental cars, "Planet of the Apes", and why Debbie Gibson rules.

On My Day Off: I discovered the pleasure of renting a car. I'd never done that before while on tour. For 30$, I got a Ford Escort that was in terrible condition and drove around. Luckily, I have an uncanny sense of direction so i was OK without a map.

The Last Movie I saw: was "Planet of The Apes". The first half is kind of crappy. It had the most awkward dialogue I've heard in a long time. But the second half was good. It was kind of like "Batman" meets "Mars Attacks". The worst thing about movies is that we as an audience are so jaded. We expect a lot and most can't deliver.

TV Stars: like us! Jason Priestly [of beverly hills, 90210] did a documentary on us, and Eric McCormack [from Will and Grace] is a big fan. We put him in one of our videos.

Teen Dreams: have their place. I had a little bit of a crush on Debbie Gibson. I was more into The Smiths than her kind of music, but i did have a cassette of her "Out of The Blue".

My Bandmates: call me Poker-Face-Page because i can't keep a straight face. When we're onstage, we're the best friends in the world. Offstage, we give each other space. When you've been in a band together for 13 years, you need to have a personal life away from each other, too.