“In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me”

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In honor of These Paper Bullets!, Rolin Jones’ “modish rip-off of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing” which ended its run at the Yale Rep yesterday (April 5), here’s a reprint from the early days of the New Haven Theater Jerk blog:

Twenty Rock Bands Named After Shakespeare Plays

  1. Titus Andronicus. Rabble-rousing rock/punk outfit from New Jersey. Their album The Monitor has Civil War undertones, and a character in the video “A More Perfect Union” is shown reciting from a 19th century edition of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, Coriolanus and Titus Andronicus.
  2. Cymbeline. British/Spanish acoustic folk-indie duo.
  3. The Much Ado Band. “available for barn-dances and ceilidhs in Hereford, West Herefordshire, South Shropshire, Powys, Mid-Wales and the Marches.”
  4. Taming the Shrew. Jazz/metal act from Lewiston, Maine.
  5. Pericles. Contemporary punk band responsible for the album Fuck Your Etiquette.
  6. Macbeth. Self-proclaimed “Gothic metal band” founded in Italy in 1995.
  7. Merry Wives of Windsor. Celtic/folk ensemble from Pasadena.
  8. Cressida. British prog-rockers who recorded for the Vertigo label in the late 1960s.
  9. Gentlemen of Verona. Post-modern garage rock band from Belgium.
  10. Comedy of Errors. 1980s prog-rock quartet from Glasgow, Scotland.
  11. As You like it. An emo band from Belgium.
  12. As You Like It. Rock band from Denmark.
  13. As You Like It. A wedding band from Boston, Mass.
  14. Love’s Labour’s Lost. German gothic/”medieval” foursome formed in 2005.
  15. King Lear. Blues band from Arizona.
  16. Coriolanus. American industrial/electronica with heavy string sounds.
  17. Romeo and Juliet. Self-described as “a long-distance psych-rock collaboration between Jon-Michael Kerestes of Pittsburgh and Leeni of Seattle.”
  18. Othello Band. Romanian keyboard-heavy pop/rock.
  19. Merchant of Venice, Canadian alternative/punk band.
  20. Hamlet, a heavy metal five-piece from Spain.

and…

• The MAAN Band, from a 2013 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Much Ado About Nothing. Very different live-music interpretation of the play, huh?