Winger

Before Kip Winger was the butt of many jokes, the Denver-bred Bon Jovi doppelgänger and his bandmates undoubtedly had busloads of Betties on standby in every zip code and were printing their own money, thanks to two consecutive albums that went platinum (a feat nearly unheard of in today's digital age). Little did they know then, however, that they were headed for heartbreak. Nirvana soon staged a hostile takeover of the Hessian empire and branded Winger and its shaggy-maned counterparts as Nevermattered. A few years later, the act was further rendered laughably irrelevant when a haplessly dorky character named Stewart began appearing on Beavis & Butt-head perpetually clad in a Winger T-shirt. More than a decade later, the band is back with the original lineup and a new album that's said to rival its 1988 debut. That's good news for Lucid Fiction, the band that won the local battle at Danny's Bar & Grill in Lenexa this past weekend for show-opener rights.