//Neon Rewind: The Verve Pipe – Freshman//

December 11, 2008 by TJ
Filed under Neon Rewind

After interviewing up-and-comer Eric Hutchinson for a Limelight Spotlight, the NL crew sat at the Hard Rock Cafe enjoying the sights, sounds, and food. As we chatted about how awesome Eric was (and how many times I uttered the word ‘awesome’ during the interview) we were quickly hushed when an acoustic performance of a familiar song started playing on the wall-mounted TVs. The song: “Freshman” by The Verve Pipe.

Remember back to 1997. Diddy was Puff Daddy. Mase was a hot rapper. Beyonce was just some girl in that new girl group with that “No, No, No” song. MTV was still playing music videos (sorta). And modern rock was alive and well and living mostly on VH-1. That’s where we discovered TVP.

The Michigan band had been around for many years but it was the haunting guitar riffs and cumbersome lyrics of “Freshman” that propelled them from the underground post-grunge scene to mainstream rock idols–if only for that year. Who knew a song about a teenage girl having an abortion then committing suicide would become such a cult classic? The success proved hard to follow-up as subsequent releases failed to live up to “Freshman”’s heights. Now, TVP quietly plays shows across the US but they’ll always have this smashing success.

OK. So, admittedly, this is a bit outside of the usual poppy goodness we post about here at Neon Limelight, but that’s the beauty of this site; our musical taste is all over the place, and hopefully a few of you will either remember this song with us or discover a hidden gem.