Stormtiger
I finally got a chance to listen to some of the Space Rangers CD and it is top notch. I've only heard half of it so far but it is already a favorite. The guitar tones are SWEET! I meant to tell those guys to visit Time Warp Music in Venice, they have lot of vintage gear there that can't be found in Ulm.

I've seen The Insect Surfers a few times but they sounded better than ever at the convention. Those dancing girls didn't hurt either.

Exene was at the convention! Burnin' House of Surf.

Muck gets sweet tone out of his jaguar!!

It was damn good seeing you again Dave! Sorry we didn't get to talk more. Hopefully it won't be a year before we cross paths again!

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me

"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

I agree DP. Slacktone really, really brought it. WOW WOW WOW! I have some videos I can't wait to upload.

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me

"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

The entire SG101 event was great!!!! Start to finish, seriously!!

But my personal highlight of the day had to be seeing Jon and the Nightriders on stage, even if it was just a couple songs.
It was totally unexpected and I never thought I'd ever witness that!

Paul
Atomic Mosquitos
Bug music for bug people is here!
Killers from Space

It's 380 miles door to door from my home in Northern California to the Starting Gate in Los Alamitos and it took the whole drive home to try to process all the good feelings I have about this weekend. The music was outstanding and now I can picture the bands when I play their tracks on the radio. I still can't believe how many raffle prizes I won - it got embarrassing! - all of the music will go on the air at KFJC! Thanks to everyone who contributed to this event - and I will NOT miss the Fender tour next year.

Greetings to the many fine people that I met..
Cousin Mary
KFJC 89.7FM

Am i allowed to write something really long on this forum?

SG101 SoCal Weekend !!

FRIDAY
I took advantage of as much surf immersion as I possibly could this weekend! Friday nite @ Don The Beachcomber's was great, seeing Outer Wave, Wadadli Riders,Atomic Mosquitos ,and Space Rangers. WOW!
LA's own Outer Wave are essentially a cover band, but i have to say that due to their immaculate delivery, they can make the originals sound every bit as good as or better than the originals! They have actually become one of my favorite local bands. Any band that can go from The Halibuts, Mermen, and Los Straitjackets to the Pharos, Lively Ones and, well, the hopelessly obscure(that's a GOOD thing) is A-OK with me. The Wadadli Riders are a true gem of a band, featuring a great coed (yay!) rhythm section, and i still can't believe how good a guitarist Lorenzo has become. Formerly an awesome drummer in his band, he has now become an architect of the Fender surf guitar sound, coaxing all kinds of reverbed inflections from 'the drip' to staccato runs. Plus they pull off a great Astronauts vocal! The Atomic Mosquitos were next, and happened to feature my old punk rock buddy Mark Noone ,from DC's 1st punk rock band 'The Slickee Boys' , filling in on bass! They were a true example of how a band that sounds goodOK on cd can sound absolutely ASTOUNDING when experienced live !! They were INTENSE !!! Mind-meltingly, faceblastingly INTENSE!! Now one o' my fave bands! They also graciously had me up to help sing backing vocals on the Slickee Boys' MTV hit 'When I Go to the Beach'. After seeing the 'Mosquitos, I thought that the evening's excitement was over. So i was totally unprepared with how good Ulm, Germany's 'Space Rangers' were.They are tight, melodic,have awesome tones and tunes, and the bassist 'Evil Dan' is a really funny front man with an incredibly dry sense of humor. It's always good to see a band that uses keyboards really well,too, which Jochen rocks back and forth til you think it's gonna fall over.Falko=flawless drummer..What was great about 'Space Rangers'? well, uhh, everything! And guitarist Muck was, like Lorenzo, another excellent Fender sonic architect.

SATURDAY
I was up til past 4am getting merch together, changing strings, checking pedals,etc, and so pathetically overslept in getting to the SG101 venue.Plus the inevitable Murphy's Law kicked in as my freeway exit was closed and backed up a mile or so. BigTikiDude Jeff greeted me (and my subsequent 1150AM arrival) with the stern words "All I asked is for your cooperation". Fortunately Tiki Tena and family had some space next to her in the vending area that i was able to fit into.On my other side were the Wadadli Riders and Space Rangers, where Evil Dan was drawing some great comic cartoons throughout the day. I managed to catch the last of the 'Legends of Surf' jam.It was a veritable Mt Rushmore of surf -Jon Blair,Jim Masoner, Jim Frias, Tom Stanton, Bob Spickard, Paul Johnson, and so on.. we are so blessed that all these cats are still into playing music! I managed to pop out intermittently from the vending table to catch bits of all the bands sets.First up-- LA's 'Men of Mystery', a crack Shadows tribute featuring the expert whammy bar action of lead guitarist Abdel.Tell him to bring back 'Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt' to the set! Meanwhile back outside, Ghastly Ones Norm was doing a photo session w/ his new project, The Finksville Five,who were mugging furiously and surrounding a calmly seated Paul Johnson. Norm gets bonus points for always having great style aesthetics for whatever he's working on! Can't wait to hear the band! And speaking of style, Arizona's'Surfside IV' did a cool set of garage-y surf, sporting tailored suits,white plastic-rimmed dark shades,and fezzes! Nice version of 'Jack the Ripper' w/ an extra turnaround at the end'! I talked to ' T-Ray' at the bar a little later on, and realized after a few sentences that he was the guitarist and not the bassist! It was impossible to tell as they are both about 7 feet tall and still sporting the shades ,suit ,and fez! His son Lawrence later won the AWESOME guitar raffle! Next up were the Wadadli Riders, Space Rangers, and Atomic Mosquitos -see Friday paragraph above! For our set we had arranged for some go go dancers, because for me, (if you've seen me at shows),surf music always sounds better with dancing.Farrah and Karla were more burlesque style, and Barni and Zenoubia are more into Bollywood, so we had dancers in stereo for the audience . We also broke out our 3-foot lava lamps,which we seldom use as they take 3 whole hours to warm up!! Marty Tippens(Men of Mystery) is a great new guitarist for us as is JonPaul on bass. We will finally be doing some new recording this year,too. And speaking of dancing, a great contributor was 9th Wave Sandy, sporting a great go go outfit n' boots(she also plays keyboards,folks).Guitar partner 9th Wave Mike Rosado was also a true pleasure to meet in person as we have corresponded for over a decade! What a cool couple! Next-my favorite surf cd last year was the 'Frankie and the Pool Boys' , so it was with great satisfaction and joy that I finally got to see this all-star band live ! They were entertainingly dressed as tourists ,and i loved Danny Snyder's camera around his neck! Some dude named Dusty sat in for a song,too.Finally, to round things out, The Space Cossacks took the stage, and it wasn't until this point that the crowd finally decided to get on their feet and crush up to the stage. Guitarist Ivan is another great 'architect of reverb' (as i told him last year) and squeezes out some terrific tones from said 'verb.Bassist Catherine was badass in leather pants, well, hey-- she's a Cossack!! Great great stuff from start to finish. Huge thanks to Reventlo Matt Quilter for providing the vintage Fender backline (how COOL it is to play out of that stuff)! It's always great to experience the extended 'surf family',which is what YOU are if you are reading this ! We've got a great community and this IS the golden age, my friends !!

I was a little starstruck to have 9th Wave help me with getting stuff back in my truck and then onto Don's for more SURF!! The Glasgow Tiki Shakers shook the place 9pm to 12 (much to the delight of me and many other SG101ers) They always deliver a great time. Tonite they surprised everybody with a set heavy on Beatles songs done instro style!! It was funny to hear people singing along...!
((NOTE-At this point i accidentally deleted this entire post and had to type all this preceding text again from memory. Think i got it all. Back up long essays intermittently, folks!))

SUNDAY
At Suzy's in Hermosa Beach ! Again I pathetically missed the 1st band 'Point Doom',but heard good things.(Their name is a parody of 'Point Dume, near Zuma Beach) . I did get to see a full set of energy maniacs Surfside IV again, bonus points for using a drumstick as slide on 'Squad Car'! And again ,The Space Rangers and Wadadli Riders !! One is truly blessed to have seen these bands 3 times in one weekend, holy cow!! Evil Dan had people rolling in the aisles again with his spoken intros, and Jochen stood atop a table at one point playing the tambourine! Wadadlis again proved themselves as an awesome surf party band , and I got to witness the bass prowess of Nikki once again.The Eliminators (now featuring Jon Blair!) turned in a fine set(new spaghetti western!), and, yes true to previous reports, Slacktone were on fire! There was a lot of dancing at this show which was nice to see, bands really feed back on it! On Saturday at the 'main' festival , I 'd realized that I own a hell of a lot of instro band T-shirts. So Saturday I took them all with me and changed shirts every half hour or so !!.As it turned out I still had enough for Sunday, which was convenient anyway as that dancing stuff can sweat/heat you up!!

Later that evening , at Don's (yahhhghh! ONCE AGAIN!),Reventlo Matt was hosting surf karaoke 7-10pm! He had 4 guitars, the vintage Fender amps ,and prerecorded backing tracks(drums/bass) to an astonishing number of surf songs. He played along with a few (he is REALLY GOOD, folks) and invited people up to play to different tracks. I got to play Mr Moto and Baja with my favorite superhero,Carol 'Surfmom' Busbey, and SHE got to play w/Space Ranger Muck on a few tunes.Playing along to the tracks was a mixture of excitement and terror, just like a good amusement park ride! Muck wowed everybody, and us peeps were insanely stoked by the arrival of Paul Johnson, who also threw down some 'mad licks' !! I met even more SG101ers (hi Dave B,T-ray,Jamie!) while enjoying my fave drink there , the Lapu Lapu. Ahh, such a great weekend! And i still had one clean shirt!
3 Balls of Fire Mike Vernon set up a Link Wray tribute here in LA last year, and my spiel there was that should be a movement to erect a statue of Link Wray in every state of the union !! Well, i just would like to add to that,-- that now we need a statue of Brian Neal and Jeff Hanson (well,SOMEWHERE) !!!!!

rocketh,
David Arnson

Due to a shit-storm of bad luck and misfortune (I'll leave out the sordid details), I wasn't able to get down there this year, and it's still killin' me! ':suicide:'

Thanks for all the great reviews, photos and videos. It looks like an incredible series of events. Kudos to BTD, Tena, Brian, Matt & all the participants who made it happen. I feel fortunate to have attended the last two years, and I guarantee I will be down there next year.

Not all was lost: I did catch the MBP, Wadadlis, Space Rangers, F&tPB's, Deadbeats show at Forbidden Island the prior Sunday, and then the Cossacks, Mosquitos, F&tPB's show at the Hotel Utah this Sunday. But not seeing all theSG101 bands that I missed, the jams, the surf legends, vendors, the pre & post show, tours, BBQ's, and reconnecting with so many old and new friends is something that cannot be replaced. See you all next year. I promise!

(Jeff, you have permission to open a big can o' whoop-ass on met next time I'm down.

Bob

insectsurfer
and my spiel there was that should be a movement to erect a statue of Link Wray in every state of the union !!

rocketh,
David Arnson

I'm with ya on that one Dave! Thanks for the very detailed rundown of this year's convention according to a Insect Surfer.

Reverb, It's A Way Of Life!

Finally we got back in Italy. Jeff, Ferenc, Ted, all people of SG101, THANK YOU very much.
We loved to come, we had much much fun and everything went well.

Hope to see you guys very soon!

Lorenzo "Surfer Joe" Valdambrini
(www.surfmusic.net)

thanks Jeff: cool video!