Journey Tribute Band Brings Love Back to La Crosse
November 08, 2015 • Ryan Stotts For the La Crosse Tribune
It’s been a long time since Tony Love’s performed in La Crosse, but the good news is he’s coming back.
The 37-year-old Love, an alumnus of Viterbo University, set out for Los Angeles to find fame and fortune in 2002 — and that’s just what he did. He’ll return to the Coulee Region with the highly acclaimed Journey tribute band DSB, which plays Viterbo’s Main Theatre on Friday.
“I’m going to have a hard time not crying,” said Love, who spoke from his home in Venice, Calif. “It’s a bit of a homecoming.”
He did a lot of shows in La Crosse during his time at Viterbo, not only with the university’s theater department but also with the La Crosse Community Theatre and Open Air Players.
One outdoor performance of “The Tempest” sticks out in his memory — because of the mosquitoes.
“No matter how much spray we used,” he said, “they had their way with our blood.”
Once the bites healed, Love knew his calling was to break into the Southern California music scene, so he moved west.
“I basically taught myself to sing and play bass,” he said, “because those guys were getting hired to play live shows.”
The singing he learned at Viterbo, and he had high praise for professor Jerry Benser, who at the time helped him find a voice that could hit the back wall.
That came in handy when Love found himself with DSB band members on CMT’s top show, “The Singing Bee.” Now the band tours everywhere, often called the “next best thing” to the iconic 1980s band Journey, of “Don’t Stop Believin’” fame.
The networking, associations, coincidences and plain old good luck that have led Love to his professional career he speaks of with humbleness, gratitude and a tinge of mystery, but they’re not so mysterious to those who knew him growing up in Lansing, Iowa.
He played weekend gigs with his dad, Donald, as a kid, everything from sandbars to riverboats. That’s where the old-time country standards first entered his repertoire.
“‘Red River Valley,’” Love said. “That was my song with him for the longest time.”
But he also made a name for himself in the school’s band, where he played a trio of instruments: The sax and the piano, for sure, but also the tuba.
“I really needed tubas,” said Jane Remmen, Love’s retired band teacher at Eastern Allamakee Community Schools. “People don’t realize how important that instrument is.”
Remmen knew, and she also knew Love was one of the smartest and most natural musicians she’d ever taught. She got him to play the tuba.
Now, all these years later, Remmen and a group of friends are traveling to La Crosse to see her former student perform with DSB. She’s thrilled, she said, because up until now, she’s only seen DSB online.
As for Love, well, on the subject of his success she’s pretty clear.
“I think it’s fantastic,” she said, “but, honestly, I’m not surprised.”
Remmen isn’t the only one planning to see Love’s much-praised professional friskiness on stage. His aunt, Grace Wellendorf, who lives in Onalaska, will be there, too.
“We’re so lucky to have them,” Wellendorf said of DSB. “I’m not sure Viterbo can handle all that music.”
In fact, her beloved nephew told her to sit in Row 13, “Or we’d have an amp up our ears.”
She’s thrilled to be seeing him perform, she said, and he’s always been talented, often picking up an instrument (or sitting down to one, as the case may be) and playing by ear.
“And, he’s cute, too,” she said.
Coming to Viterbo with his fellow DSB members is a real honor, Love said, but best of all?
“I’m having fun.”