Count on music to make Beach visitors feel right at home

On a 90-degree night last week, four college-aged guys, all in dress shirts, black pants and vests, climbed on a riser in front of Sunsations, the T-shirt and beach towel superstore at the Oceanfront. Just five people, including one of the guy's girlfriends, stood nearby to listen.

One look at the band, called 4 Shore, and one might think their act is well outside the canon of beach music. This is something new, something different.

The group is part of Beachstreet USA, the city program that pays for street performers to draw crowds and win over tourists.

For the artists, the street is a competitive environment. Within earshot, a magician wearing a tuxedo T-shirt doused his corner of Atlantic Avenue in lighter fluid as heavily synthesized beats played in the background. Less than a block away, a rockabilly blues band noodled away.

Vacationers stopped to listen. The audience was sunburn. They were dads who performed air guitar and teenagers in polo shirts and jean shorts who danced comically.

In front of 4 Shore's stage, a few heads bobbed to the beat of the bass.

"Verrry superstitious," sang the band members performing the Stevie Wonder classic.

As they pumped their choreographed arms, a man walked by pretending to ride an ostrich. A person dressed as the mayor of Beachstreet greeted visitors. A bus stopped a few feet away, its engine shouting down the music for a few verses.

Soon, the group was on to the next song.

"Baaaaaa de yaaa, dancing in September."

A woman carrying a plastic shopping bag walked by, broke her conversation mid-sentence, smiled and started dancing. Obviously she appreciated the Earth, Wind & Fire jam from the 1970s.

Beach music is fun. Beach music is palatable.

"Talkin' bout myyyyyyy girl."

The band was deep into The Temptations hit by the time three dozen people had gathered. They were not crowded together, instead they stretched the entirety of the block. They leaned against the buildings.

The band's been told to stick to the oldies. Keep it to the stuff everyone knows. So maybe a Brian McKnight number doesn't make the set as often as they would like, but Motown? Motown is ubiquitous, Motown is on at the grocery store and in the bank lobby and covered by the alt-indie band in the coffeehouse.

Motown isn't what you'd expect when you spot a band of college-aged students. You'd expect something original, a trailblazing new sound, a different take on a Top 40 hit.

A typical set for 4 Shore includes The Temptations, Earth, Wind & Fire, Boyz II Men and *NSYNC. The group wanted to pay homage to the acts that inspired them.

"Old school," said Allyn Walker-Bey, one of 4 Shore's singers. "It works."

Beach music is safe.

Last week, 4 Shore's closer was the 1992 Boyz II Men hit "End of the Road."

Women sang with their hands on their hearts. A middle-aged man, struggling to look disinterested, rocked back and forth on his heels. Nearly 50 people, many of them couples, lined up and smiled, arching their eyebrows to each other as if to say, "Not bad."

Beach music is everyone knowing the words.

For those seeking something new, the beach isn't the place to be. The Oceanfront is a place for classics, from doo-wop to Broadway to rock.

Beach music is tried and true.

For a city interested in attracting tourists and bringing them back, beach music works.

On vacation, with custard dripping between their fingers and sand stuck between their toes, tourists like what they can hear anywhere else. At the Oceanfront, they want to listen just a little bit longer.

Mike Gruss, (757) 446-2277, mike.gruss@pilotonline.com