What do four working-class white guys and a Japanese girl from San Diego have in common with David Bowie, Ally Sheedy, and Francis Ford Coppola? Come see Midnight Radio perform at the 35th annual San Diego LGBT Pride Festival to find out! Can’t wait that long? Okay, hint: They are all die-hard fans of John Cameron Mitchell’s 2001 film, Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Midnight Radio was born out of five strikingly similar reactions to Stephen Trask’s brilliant musical composition for the film. Bass player Jeff Wiederkehr and guitarist Jason Cooper had each separately seen Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and were blown away. Wiederkehr suggested their band, The Long Duc Dongs, incorporate a cover of the song “Angry Inch” into the set list. Cooper agreed, but felt they needed to play the entire story-driven soundtrack. Cooper reached out to drummer Steve Shain. He loaned the film to Shain with the warning, “Watch this movie. It will freak you the f*** out!” Shain waited a month before watching the film. But once he got around to it he had to watch it twice, because he was so floored by the soundtrack that he forgot to pay attention to the story. Shain said of Trask’s music, “The soundtrack hit me instantaneously – it was just… mesmerizing.” Shain, who Cooper says, “Embodies the spirit of the headband,” was on board. Now they needed to find their Hedwig.

For anyone who hasn’t seen the movie or play, Hedwig was born Hansel before turning into the female-ex-pat-from-East-Berlin who had to “leave something behind,” so she could marry Luther, the American soldier, and come to America as his wife. After a botched sex-change operation, Hedwig becomes a glamorous-larger-than-life-queen-of-the-trailer-park-rock-star-diva with a “one-inch mound of flesh,” where her “penis used to be” and her “vagina never was.” Luther leaves Hedwig, and she begins her desperate search to find true love with her missing other half: Enter Tommy Speck, a classic rock-loving, church-going, super-hot teenager who is turned on by Hedwig’s music.

Hedwig educates Tommy about rock ’n’ roll, and when Tommy “graduates” she gives him his name: Tommy Gnosis. Tommy leaves Hedwig and takes her songs – and her heart – with him on the road. Tommy becomes the acknowledged rock star, playing sold-out shows, while Hedwig, the true goddess of rock, follows his tour performing a series of awkward shows at a string of Sizzler and seafood restaurants.

Wiederkehr, Cooper and Shain had their work cut out for them. Who could possibly embody an East German transsexual seeking to heal her heartbreak through rock ’n’ roll? The guys knew they needed someone to help them bring Mitchell’s storytelling and Trask’s transformative song writing to rock clubs around San Diego – not to the theater stage. This meant the person had to be able to tell Hedwig’s story strictly through music. Oh yeah, and he had to be able to become a super fabulous glam-queen who could jump around on stage in platform heels and pull off a killer East German accent. “Ladies and Gentlemen, whether you like it or not,” meet John Boaz.

By day, Boaz is a white-collar guy who drafts book contracts for a living. If you saw him on the street, never in 100 million years could you imagine him as Hedwig. Unless you also knew that he has a degree in theater from UCLA, and that Hedwig and the Angry Inch is one of his favorite movies. (He’s seen it more than 30 times!) It might also help you to know that his musical influences include the gender-bending king of glam, David Bowie, Rock Lords T. Rex and AC/DC, and The Flaming Lips, a band known for putting on one hell of a show. Glam. Rock. Theatrics. Bingo! After one audition, Wiederkher, Cooper and Shain knew they had found their Hedwig.

Midnight Radio was almost ready to roll. But they still needed a Yitzhak, Hedwig’s oft-belittled Eastern- European husband and not-quite co-star. As when it had cast Hedwig, the band lucked out when it immediately found someone who surpassed its highest expectations. The guys sought a woman who could overpower Boaz’s voice and hold her own on stage without drawing attention away from Hedwig. And she had to be willing to wear a beard and act like a dude. “Please welcome,” Jana Aoki as Hedwig’s, “Man Friday through Thursday, Yitzhak!” Do not hold your applause. Give it freely to this 23- year-old accountant, because her voice blows the wig right off the shelf and the beard off of your face – whether she is screaming in, “Exquisite Corpse” or floating Boaz’s vocals on a “sea of marshmallow foam,” during “Sugar Daddy.” As John Boaz says of Aoki’s talent, “Her awesome voice lurks behind quiet intensity.” Indeed, it does.

Aoki, Cooper, Wiederkehr and Shain began Hedwiggin’ one late Wednesday night in Shain’s cramped rehearsal space in spring 2008. Each of the five members of the band had personal reasons for pursuing glam-rock leanings through the music of Hedwig, just as all of their fans – gay or straight – are able to identify with some aspect of Mitchell’s screenplay. Bassist Wiederkher believes it has something to do with the fact that, “Everyone is gay.” While guitarist Cooper says, “Powerful music crosses all boundary lines of gender, race, sexuality, etc. Hedwig is just plain and simple kick-ass music with a compelling story line that anyone living can relate to on some level. Love, loss, separation, struggle for identity – Hedwig calls to everyone.”

Though no one loved the band’s original name, it earned bookings to perform shows at the Nuart Theater in Los Angeles as well as at the Ruby Room in Hillcrest. Now called Midnight Radio, the band has gone through a keyboardist or two, but the core members remain dedicated to the project. As they continue to play together, the band has expanded its set to include covers of songs that pay homage to Hedwig’s musical taste. When it revisits the Ruby Room to play a Pre-Pride set on Friday, July 17, listen for the band’s musical influences to emerge in covers of songs by David Bowie, T. Rex, Kiss, The Who, Blondie and Black Sabbath, plus a few goodies from the movie soundtrack and the off-Broadway cast album. Definitely do not miss the “Short and Sweet” set at the Pride festival on Saturday, July 18, on The Pride Stage, from 6 to 6:45 p.m. One more thing: don’t forget an umbrella, just in case you’re treated to a Car Wash.