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The musical is the composer's showcase, as it requires significantly more internal cohesion and a narrative arc than a two-minute banger. From the soundtrack of the stage piece, which is being performed today in San Francisco, one can roughly discern the underlying story of "Home Street Home": A group of teenagers flees into homelessness to escape the unbearable problems in their respective homes. Sexual abuse, alcoholism, and violence are addressed simultaneously with the introduction of the characters to make their motivations understandable. This is also a punch to the gut, as the terrible things that happen to the youth contrast sharply with the cheerful and melodic presentation. It consists mostly of soft punk rock in the Fat Wreck Chords style, with dynamic arrangements of guitar music featuring piano, banjo, and whatever else is known from the various involved musicians. The music serves the story more than standing on its own. Just to make the lyrics understandable, Fat Mike has refrained from his usual 200 bpm. He can certainly write songs, and thus there are no bad pieces on the album. However, the highlights are rather rare; for me, they are mainly found in the performances of the young "Suicide," who is on the brink of suicide while drawing strength from her new role as a mother. The fun songs, on the other hand, are mostly about substances, sex, and special variations thereof (Chili Dog, anyone?). Even though these are entertaining in their own right, I wonder how prostitution and drug addiction are treated in the stage piece, which revolves around heavily traumatized individuals. Hopefully sensitively, as there is nothing to glorify here.
Even without the accompanying theater piece, Fat Mike's attempt to create a different form of music has succeeded. Still, I miss that certain something that makes specific songs from musicals stand out. I can't find a "Trust in me", no "Tonight", no "Science Fiction Double Feature". No "Joe's Garage"! With his main band, Fat Mike has carved out a stylistic niche for himself, but in attempting to cultivate a foreign field, he does not measure up to the greats of the genre. Nevertheless, it has become a nice change.
