TURNER — The video opens with a man in a hazmat suit dancing jauntily down Lisbon Street in Lewiston.
He’s got an old boom box radio cradled in one arm as he twirls disco-style along the sidewalk in front the pawn shop, drawing bemused stares from the locals.
It’s a goofy image and a fun one, and that’s just what the band Skösh had in mind when they shot the video for their newest song.
Good times, disco-style, that’s what it’s all about — the Buckfield-based band’s new song is titled “Circle Electrik,” after all, and it’s meant as an homage to the eclectic kind of fun that was once had at a club of the same name in Turner.
Not that the band members remember the place — since the Circle Electrik had its heyday in the 1980’s, they’re too young for that.
The band Skosh performs their new song “Circle Electric.” Skosh
Skosh drummer Jedidiah Allen explains.
“We had always kind of set aside Circle Electric as a theme that we wanted to use for a track,” he says. “And that was born out of our parents, our aunts and uncles and pretty much anyone in our general area over the age of 45 who had some pretty good recollections of The Circle. We always heard about it as this kind of magical place. If there was some crazy story based on a party or event, it usually had happened there.”
The Circle Electric bottle club was located on Route 4 in Turner. In the 1980s, it was considered one of THE places to be, if you lived in the Twin Cities area. The club closed in the 1990s and burned down in April of 1997.
Locals remember it as a funky kind of place, with a lighted dance platforms, fish tanks on one wall, an old ’56 Chevy on another. The parties at the club, they say, would last until sunrise.
The song “Circle Electric” has a definite disco vibe, which Allen says fits perfectly into the theme of the club it honors.
“‘Circle Electric’ as a title,” Allen says, “uses it as a kind of state of mind. It’s an embodiment of fun times.”
Collin Miclon in hazmat suit peers in a Lisbon Street window as part of a video for the band Skosh’s new song “Circle Electric.” Skosh
Like every other band in the area, Skosh suffered a bit of ennui during the COVID lockdowns. Unable to play live shows, they turned their attention to writing. While working on the newest single, a couple of themes came to mind.
“We’re kind of marrying the feeling that people had for The Circle with the way a lot of us felt during the pandemic — this longing for the good old days; for just wanting to get out and dance and have that release,” Allen says.
Then came the video, directed by Jedidiah and his brother and band mate Eli Allen, and which was conceptualized, shot and edited by the band.
For acting talent to be featured in the video, the band called in favors from friends. Jedidiah’s boss from the marketing group PatraCompany even helped with the filming of the video, and that’s really where the fun got going.
After jiving along the sidewalk in front of the Lewiston pawn shop, our friend in the hazmat suit is next seen dancing down an alley. A short time after that, he’s break dancing with a group in a park and then grooving, bobbing and arm-swinging his way across the Longley Bridge between Lewiston and Auburn.
Who is that brave soul in the protective suit giving such a performance in broad daylight?
Collin Miclon in hazmat suit dances down a Lisbon Street, Lewiston sidewalk as part of a video for the band Skosh’s new song “Circle Electric.” Skosh
That’s Collin Miclon, a high school friend of the Allen brothers who volunteered for the gig.
“I’ve known them for years,” Miclon says, “and I honestly wasn’t all that taken aback when they asked if I wanted to dance through the streets in a hazmat suit.”
Although he’s quite the dancer, as evidenced in the video, Miclon normally might have been apprehensive about such a public exhibition. As it happens, the theme of the video helped with that.
“Having the anonymity of the gas mask certainly helped with any anxiety about dancing in public,” he says, “but it was still a very strange and hilarious couple days of shooting. The bridge shot was particularly fun — I got a lot of smiles and honks from people passing by. I think generally anybody who caught a glimpse of what I was doing got the general gist of the idea behind the video; of finding the joy and fun even in challenging circumstances, and the collective cathartic release people are hungry for after so long in quarantine.”
Near the end of the video, Miclon sheds the hazmat suit and goes running along the sidewalk. The final scene features him jumping in the air in celebration. That was mostly a genuine reaction.
“Honestly,” Miclon says, “I was surprised how good it felt to just get out and dance and be goofy, and I absolutely love how the video came out.”
The video also features clips of the band playing in what appears to be a bona fide disco. It’s not. It was actually shot in a barn.
“We turned it into our own makeshift disco,” Jedidiah Allens says.
The song itself heavily features the trumpet work of professional musician and music instructor Stephen Pickard.
Formed in 2008 in Buckfield, Skösh has gigged extensively across the state and New England over the last 12 years. The band, including the Allen brothers along with band mates Peter Richard and Jake Van Paepeghem, has shared billing with acts such as The Charlie Daniels Band, Randy Houser and Twiddle.
The “Circle Electric” video went public on Tuesday. By Wednesday, it had been viewed more than 3,000 times and shared by 68 people. The video was quickly establishing a following and on Facebook, it included many comments from people who have their own fond and blurry memories of the Turner club.
“Love it!” one woman wrote. “Anyone 45 or older would remember the amazing times had by all at Circle Electric. All you young people should ask your parents.”
“We’re just blown away by how many people are excited about it,” Jedidiah says. “You know, it means a lot.”
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