Runaway Five

The Runaway Five (Japanese:  Runaway Brothers) is a blues band appearing in EarthBound. Though most of the band members' names are unknown, the two frontmen are Lucky and Gorgeous. They appear throughout the game returning favors to Ness and his friends. The band is constantly finding themselves in debt, and Ness, coincidentally, always has something to pay the theater owner back.

In EarthBound
The Runaway Five first appear outside the Chaos Theater in Twoson. They are currently in debt to the owner of the theater, Mr. Poochyfud. As of then, Ness couldn't do anything about their predicament. Returning after rescuing Paula from Mr. Carpainter will grant Ness a backstage pass from one of the band members. Ness can pay Mr. Poochyfud back the money the Runaway Five owe with the money Everdred gave him for saving Paula. Ness, Paula, and an obsessed fangirl can then watch the show and leave. The Runaway Five return the favor by driving Ness and Paula to Threed. They then continue their trip to Fourside.

Once again, the Runaway Five get into debt with the owner of the Topolla Theater. Here they perform with the beautiful Venus until they can finally pay the money they owe. Ness, Paula, and Jeff arrive at Fourside and watch their show, learning about their debt. Soon after receiving a diamond out of a promise from George Montague they pay the owner back with the admitted more valued than their debt diamond. The Runaway Five repay their thanks with their final show. They reappear again before saving Paula from Geldegarde Monotoli helping by defeating the Clumsy Robot. They then drive Ness, Paula, and Jeff back to Threed to fix the Sky Runner.

They reappear at the end of the game during the final battle as one of the people sending prayers to Ness and his friends at Summers.

In Super Smash Bros.
Artwork of the two frontmen of the Runaway Five make an appearance in the ending when Ness is selected as the player character, where they use their clothing from Mother 2 rather than that of EarthBound, even in the English release.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee
In the intro, the Runaway Five can be seen being knocked over in Onett by Ness as he succeeds in teleporting. In the Onett stage, occasionally their bus will travel through the stage, hitting any players on the road. The sign in the Onett stage depicts the two frontmen and warns of a black bus driven by them. If the language is changed during the game, their bus will be changed to reflect it.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
The Onett stage reappears in Brawl, where their bus remains a hazard.

Trivia

 * Although their band name is the Runaway Five, when they perform they have a sixth member. The sixth member, the keyboardist, only appears during performances, and not during other parts of the game. This was not a problem in the Mother 2 version, due to the band being called the Tonzura Brothers, not mentioning any numbers.
 * The idea of the Runaway Five came from the Blues Brothers. In fact, in Mother 2, their suits were colored black. During localization the colors were changed to prevent law suits regarding the Blues Brothers.