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Greg Hawkes And
Eddie Japan
Played The Cars Music Perfectly
 Greg Hawkes and Eddie Japan |  Greg Hawkes |  David Santos |  Emily Drohan and Greg Hawkes |
|---|---|---|---|
 IMG_4407rt |  Emily |  Greg Hawkes |  IMG_4391rt |
 Eddie Japan |  Kasim and Greg |  Chuck Ferriera |  Emily and Greg |
 Greg Hawkes and Eddie Japan |  Greg Hawkes |  Kasim Sultan |  Greg |
 Kasim Sultan and Greg Hawkes |  Kasim |  Kasim and Greg |  Greg |
 Kasim |
October 12, 2026
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Greg Hawkes, keyboardist for The Cars along with Boston's Eddie Japan provided a great evening of music from The Cars on Saturday night at Robins Theatre.
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The band kicked off the show with three songs from The Cars mulit-platinum selling album Heartbeat City that included "Magic," "You Might Think" and the title track.
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Hawkes told the audience that this was the furthest west the band has ever performed, noting that they usually stay on the east coast. The way that they performed these Cars classics, this band should tour coast to coast.
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The musicianship in this band is spot on. The tones that Eric Brosius and Bart LoPicollo get from their guitars are eerily similar to that of Elliot Easton and Ric Ocasek. Greg Hawkes still uses the same synthesizer that he used on all of The Cars records making the sound exactly like you heard it almost 50 years ago.
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As a special treat, the band played the entire first side of The Cars debut album which included the first three singles the band released which were: "Good Time Roll," "Best Friends Girl" and "Just What I Needed."
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The band ran through several Cars hits like "Candy-O," "You're All I've Got Tonight" and "Bye Bye Love." A few deep cuts also made the set like "Moving In Stereo" and "I'm In Touch With Your World" in which Hawkes called it The Cars most quirky song.
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In the middle of the set, Hawkes said that he wanted to play some songs from a few other bands that he has toured with over the years. So they broke into "Elanore" by The Turtles, "Only The Lonely" by The Motels that featured Hawkes on saxophone and "I Saw The Light" by Todd Rundgren that featured special guest Kasim Sulton on bass and lead vocals.
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Sultan stayed on stage to sing The Cars only number on hit "Drive," just like he did when he was a member of The New Cars.
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The show came to a close with "Shake It Up" and "Let's Go."
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It was great to hear The Cars music played live, especially by one of the people who helped create it.
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Photos and review by Greg Drugan
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