Remember the ’90s at Summerland Tour

Nineties nostalgia is in the air - quick, someone get the Glade!

Settle down, we're just kidding.

The music of that decade ruled, along with the awesomely absurd sitcoms that reigned during the day.

"Sister, Sister" and the Spin Doctors?

That's culture, America.

Currently, a quintet of bands who hit it big during the Clinton administration are performing together as part of the Summerland Tour 2012.

In honor of the show coming to town this weekend, we thought it'd be fun to match the bands on the bill with the '90s sitcom character that they're most evocative of in order to develop a better understanding of both.

Sure, it's a high concept.

Kind of like Candlebox and "Home Improvement," right?

■ Band: Sugar Ray

Sitcom character: Joey Tribianni from "Friends"

Joey Tribianni was the affable airhead who could get the ladies to disrobe quicker than a Macy's dressing room. He was a struggling actor, with vague artistic aspirations, and a cool, yet approachable vibe. Basically, he was an update of the Fonz, but with even lower SAT scores. Mostly, though, Tribianni was all about the chicks. The same could be said for Sugar Ray, whose hunky frontman, Mark McGrath, rivaled actor Matt LeBlanc (who played Joey) in terms of female crush factor and also possessed the same likable demeanor. McGrath has never taken himself, or his band, too seriously. Like Tribianni, he was the antidote to the stuffiness that occasionally surrounded him, a human whoopee cushion. It didn't matter if the fellas didn't always feel him - their girlfriends certainly did.

■ Band: Everclear

Sitcom Character: Grace Kelly from "Grace Under Fire"

When Everclear frontman Art Alexakis hit it big in the mid-'90s, it was like Charlie Brown finally making contact with the football and then turning around and planting a Nike right in Lucy's grill. After all, Alexakis was alt-rock's leading hard luck case back in the day, a former drug addict with an incredibly tumultuous childhood marked by the suicide of a girlfriend and the death of his brother by heroin overdose - all when he was still a teenager. Similarly, Grace Kelly (played by comedian Brett Butler) was a recovering alcoholic and a divorced single mom with an abusive ex. Her career arc paralleled Everclear's as well: She starts off as a ham and egger at an oil refinery before eventually working her way up to a more prestigious position at an ad agency. And then, it all goes downhill from there - kind of like Everclear's CD sales after 1997's aptly titled "So Much for the Afterglow."

■ Band: Gin Blossoms

Sitcom character: Uncle Jesse from "Full House"

Like the Gin Blossoms, Uncle Jesse was a rocker with an affinity for band names stupid enough to make Forrest Gump do a palm slap to the forehead. (Hot Daddy and Monkey Puppets, any one?) Jesse (portrayed by John Stamos) was a mild-mannered rebel with a swath of Elvis hair bigger than his vocabulary, a dude with the veneer of danger but really, he was soft enough to have been manufactured by Nerf. Likewise, the Gin Blossoms made radio-friendly alt-rock safe for junior high dances. When they sang of cops chasing them around on their breakout hit "Hey Jealously" you had to stifle a laugh. What, was there a jaywalking sting that day?

■ Band: Lit

■ Sitcom character: Otto Mann from "The Simpsons"

Not sure what's more cartoonish, an animated bus driver who gets stoned more frequently than adulterers in Indonesia or two brothers (Lit's A. Jay and Jeremy Popoff) who channeled hair metal hedonism to '90s alt-rock to become the scene equivalent of morning wood. Both are fond of partying hard, parking their rides on the front lawn and more partying, only harder. It'd be fun hanging with any of 'em - until you reached a field sobriety checkpoint.

■ Band: Marcy Playground

Character: Paul Buchman from "Mad About You"

Ahh, the sensitive '90s dude. You remember Paul Buchman (Paul Reiser), the testicle-challenged husband of the much hotter Jamie Stemple Buchman (Helen Hunt), a pairing almost as hard to fathom as the ludicrous notion that men actually have feelings. He's the kind of guy who puts the toilet seat down, listens to women when they speak and most definitely buys Marcy Playground records. Can't you just see him crying himself to sleep, softly humming the band's "Sex and Candy" as he learns that the Dockers sale at JC Penney's has come to an end? Life is hard. These dudes? Not so much.

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.