Oh Wow! I had a feeling (for no particular reason) that the hiatus was just a kind and gentle way to fade off into the sunset. Great to see the boys are suiting up and getting back together for the major milestone 20th!

Fady

El Mirage @ ReverbNation

Brian glad you got to go to that since you can’t make it out here.

hope you get over the cold soon.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

The first band was The Venturis -- a couple of kids who looked like brothers. I think Ivan said the guitar player was 16 and the bass player looked a year or two younger. The consensus in the room was their dad was the drummer, ha! This was a very nice surprise. As their name suggests they played a lot of Ventures nuggets, with some Link Wray and The Munsters & Batman themes thrown in for good measure. They sounded great and it was heartwarming to see kids really into this type of music! Dad (?) rocked on drums too.

Kitten & The Tonics was another great surprise. Kitten (?) played stand up bass, and even in heels she had to fret high over her head. Her and the band were very good, the guitar player was smoothly rolling out rockabilly style licks on his Jazzmaster. I guess their drummer was a loaner for this show, but he was fantastic as well. They played a lot of surf style tunes for these surf themed show, and they were joined by a very large dude for some rockabilly style vocal numbers. Great fun!!

The Madeira played next and wow this brought back memories! I had not seen The Madeira live since 2019 and it was like time had stopped. Also, very LOUD!!! They ran through their greatest hits and brought big smiles to me as it was so good to hear those songs again. Also a great reminder of the songwriting breadth these guys have. Patrick and Ivan together have written some truly amazing songs and it was great to seem live (and LOUD, did I mention that??).

Next up was The Chris Casselo trio and wow what a surprise this was! This guy is a phenomenal guitar player, just over the top good. He was a rockabilly roots rocker type guy who could finger pick and do it all. Super funny and witty on stage too. Super fun to watch and a jaw dropping guitar player. He mentioned his latest album was co-produced by Eddie Angel and I believe former Los Straitjackets drummer Jimmy Lester often plays with him (though not this time). His band was top notch as well, with a very sharp drummer and super agile standup bass player.

The Volcanos were next!! It was pretty surreal for me. 20 years ago I was at the first Madeira show with the Volcanos also on the bill (albeit as a 3 piece), and here we all were again!! Incredible! And the Volcanos, much like the Madeira, were still crushing it at the top of their game! I've been lucky enough to see the Volcanos I dunno, 6 or 8 times over the years and this might have been the best I've seen them. They killed it! It was so, so good watching Chris and Rick trade licks mid song while Billy was going nuts on the drums. Definitely a thrill to see one of my favorite bands again, and so grateful everyone is still doing this 20 years later. I have some videos of the Volcanos I'll try to get uploaded and post here.

I had never been to Grand Rapids before, or the Tip Top Deluxe, but just a quick word on the venue: the people who run it obviously dig this type of music, they had posters all over the walls of various surf and rockabilly bands. The food and the people were great! Thanks to them for hosting this fantastic day (and night) of music!

Again, shout-out to Guy and Roger, it's so cool seeing fellow surf fans over the years. Also shout-out to Dave, the Tip Top Deluxe regular who came over to chat with us.

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
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"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

Some photos

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
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"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

Kind of bummed out, my phone is new and apparently I didn't have the best settings for video set yet. But here's Sand Crab!

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
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"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

WHOOPS! Apologies, I will update the title.

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
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"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

Oh wow, hello Charley! I regret not meeting you all! I really enjoyed your set!

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
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Enjoy the tension building twin lead guitar attack of AVALANCHE!!

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
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"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

BEATNIK BANDIT!! Checkout Billy's drum solo!

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
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That's all I got. I put all 6 of these in a playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E6JjUxVQqM&list=PLCPgncK_sTnGw8BHMmcsdqV_ibbawXmH-

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
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"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea