Fez
Joined: Mar 22, 2006
Posts: 197
Florida
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Posted on Aug 19 2012 11:12 PM
I can't believe it has been a week since the convention. It's been a crazy week at that. I've wanted to put my thank you's out there for a few days now... so here goes...
First, Thank You to BIGTIKIDUDE, his family, friends (Kristena, Marie, JonPaul, Dusty, Lorenzo, & Ran to name a few), sponsors (Bob Walk (The Surf King), Lee Joseph, The Quilter's, Whorehay from Radio Free Bakersfield, etc.), bands (El Ray, The Exotics, Madeira, Insect Surfers, Dynotones, Ninth Wave, Los Venturas, Tequila Worms, Slacktone, Jon And The Nightriders, The Nocturnes, and The Rumblers), and everyone that helped out with this event. It was special to every member of The Intoxicators! and Disasternauts.
The lineup of bands was stellar.
The loaned equipment was top notch.
The beer was cold... and the pink potato salad was tasty... 
OK... with the thank you's out of the way... here's some random thoughts…
Friday Purple Orchid. - I didn’t realize it until later… but this was the first time that The Intoxicators! had played together since June…(Gary lives in Atlanta… the rest of us in Florida) Had lots of fun… then got to watch The Exotics and Insect Surfers absolutely Kill It!!!
Saturday Starting Gate – I showed up around 8AM and watched everyone get ready for the show. Seeing the people getting ready for the member jam was pretty cool. I really wish that I would have signed up for it…
I saw all of the bands that played during the day… Every band had their own take on surf music… not a dud in the bunch! from Ninth Wave with the “surf flute”, Dynotones with the green fuzz Mosrite, Los Venturas with their 70’s funk style.
I thought The Rumblers, El Ray, The Madeira, and The Exotics were all fabulous…
Jon and The Nightriders absolutely blew me away!!!! 
Saturday Doll Hut – This was the show that I was most nervous about for the entire weekend. The Disasternauts are generally Gary, and myself (Brian) from The Intoxicators! and a friend or two. We e-mail a group of songs to the people playing with us, and sometimes the first time that we actually all are playing together is onstage… This lineup was Gary, Brian, Jonpaul, and George. Aside from about an hour rehearsal on Friday in our hotel room (without drums and amps) this was the first time that this lineup had played together… George learned the songs over the last 2 weeks…
Don’t know what it sounded like but it was super fun to play…
Next up was The Tequila Worms. They were pretty amazing… fast and sweaty surf punk… very nice…
Then Slacktone melted my face… I love these guys…
Sunday Huntington Beach Pier – Wow! The weather was perfect. We got to see all of the out of town bands again. We love them even more now…
El Ray’s set was my personal favorite. There was no stress on that stage whatsoever. They had ditched the suits that they wore the day before…El Firetone made the whole place laugh informing us that he had written a song about America’s favorite food… “Cheese In A Cup!” El Twang kept the rhythm where it needed to be… El Fuerte was absolutely brilliant on the drums… smooth and precise…La Chiquilla had a smile and a bassline that tied the whole thing together… One of my favorite bands all weekend
The ocean air kinda killed the tuning on Gary’s guitar during our set… other than that everything sounded pretty good for us…
Hanging out for beers and fish tacos at Dukes with everyone was a treat as well…
Sunday Don The Beachcomber – The jam session in the Corky Carroll room at Don The Beachcomber was more than stellar… All of The Intoxicators! (except George) got to sit in with Paul Johnson and Jim Frias.
I remember playing with Max, Carol, Jamie, Dave Becker, Mike, Tim, and Gary also… I think there were one or two more…
Anyway, this past week has been crazy… Delta lost Adam and George’s guitars in Atlanta on Monday… They ended up on a plane to Detroit… We didn’t hear any news on them until Wednesday evening… A Delta employee saw that they had been sitting around for 2 days… there were no luggage tags on them at this point… He looked us up by The Intoxicators! sticker on George’s case… saw my facebook post saying Delta where are our guitars… and e-mailed me… pretty amazing that we got them back…
I loaded my pictures to facebook on Tuesday... but for those that can't see them... I have loaded some of them to The Intoxicators! website...
Here's the link http://www.intoxicators.com/sg101conv2012.html
Cheers!
Brian
The Intoxicators!
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bigtikidude
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 25530
Anaheim(So.Cal.)U.S.A.
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Posted on Aug 22 2012 02:23 PM
IvanP wrote:
I'm still reeling from the Madeira's 5-day California tour - so much was packed into those five days, it's a bit overwhelming. But here are some comments and memories - sorry for the excessive length! I don't blame you if you don't read it, but I tried to break it up into different days, so you can just read the parts you might be interested in:
Wednesday, August 8th:
The rest of my band arrived to San Francisco late Tuesday, and picked me up around Noon on Wednesday. We spent the afternoon at Ferenc's gorgeous home in Marin County, squeezing in a practice in his garage, just to shake off the cobwebs. Headed down to the Elbo Room in the Mission section of SF, where we were playing with two non-surf bands that night: the Hampton Wicks, a pretty authentic mid-'60s garage band, who went on first, and the headliner Cellar Doors, who played a mix of '60s garage, late-'80s/early-'90s UK alternative stuff like Jesus & the Mary Chain and Stone Roses, and even stuff like the Pixies. Both bands were just phenomenal, and it was a really fun night - though each band seemed to have its own fans, and they didn't seem to stick around for the other bands, preferring to be in the downstairs bar instead. A bit of a shame, really. Fortunately, we had the SF surf fans turn out in good numbers and we had probably 40+ people there during our set, quite respectable for a Wednesday night. It was great to see two of the Deadbeats again, and of course Ferenc and Danny were there, too, as well as Steve of the TomorrowMen, Lorenzo and his g-friend Anne, Bruce of the Reef Riders, William of the Illuminoids (who drove 6-hours one way from Oregon to see our set, and then turned around and drove home!), and a bunch of other people. This was our full-on show, only the hard-rocking stuff, no ballads, and I think the soundman got into the spirit of things a bit too much, as he cranked the PA! (It wasn't my fault, honest - I was using Danny's brownface Bandmaster and only had it on 5!) All in all, it was just a great night, we played surprisingly well, the other bands were hot, good turnout, and the only downside was that we did a terrible job selling merch, which was going to be a key component of us being able to come close to breaking even for the tour, so we decided to really pay much closer attention to that at subsequent shows, which we did, with great results. Are we really musicians or just t-shirt salesmen??? It seems more and more like the latter....
Thursday, August 9th:
Thursday was a day of rest - sort of like slowly climbing up to the top of the rollercoaster, serene and peaceful until the insanity starts, which it did on Thursday night and did not let up until we got home. Dane and Todd decided to go hiking in some of the beautiful areas of Marin County, while Patrick and I stayed behind to enjoy Ferenc's hospitality. Around 5:30 we headed down to Forbidden Island in Alameda for the show. Our first time there, and what a great place! We set up the gear for the TomorrowMen set, and after some excitement when the plug for Ferenc's Vibroverb fell off and us electrical geniuses wiring it back on wrong (thank God Danny arrived when he did!), we had some pizza and got ready to play. The TomorrowMen went on first, playing an acoustic set for the first time ever, and man, it was SO GREAT! I know it was a big experiment for them, but I thought the experiment was a complete success. Hearing all those tracks on acoustic guitars really brought out the Latin vibe in so many of the songs, which frankly I had never noticed before. But all of a sudden it was like I was hearing the songs for the first time, and like they were being played by some Mexican band! I just loved it. I hope they do it again in the future. The band played great, too, and it was just a fantastic set. By the time we were ready to go on, the club had really filled out (not difficult, it's a small place, probably about 60 people there), and the audience seemed primed and ready to go. We also experimented a bit, and played a very quiet set, concentrating mostly on our mellower stuff - the opposite of the night before. They said it couldn't be done - the Madeira quiet?? Unthinkable! But it worked! Honestly, think that was one of my favorite shows we ever played. It was truly enjoyable to play more melodically and with more feel, instead of just blasting the audience away. And the vibe in the club was fantastic, the audience greeting us very enthusiastically. As soon as we were finished, we were nearly mobbed by all the people wanting to buy our merch and getting signatures. Pretty amazing. Danny and Ferenc were extremely helpful with all this, too, walking around the club with our merch and kinda forcing people to buy it! You guys are the BEST! We definitely made up for the slow sales the night before. Anyway, I will always have very special memories of that night, and thanks to Ferenc and Danny for making it happen. They really treated us so well those two days, lending us all their gear, making sure everything was right, etc., we are truly grateful. But now it was time to set off on our own, and around 11:30 pm we drove off south, to get a jump start on the long trip down to San Diego the next day and hopefully avoid the really bad rush-hour gridlock around LA.
Friday, August 10th:
We drove for a couple of hours and crashed in a motel off rt. 5. Four guys per room, two guys per bed - ah, the glamour of rock'n'roll! I didn't get much sleep, but we had to leave by 9 am in the morning, so were up at 8 or earlier, with Todd driving our Ford Flex the entire way (he actually likes to drive and doesn't seem to get tired out by it in the least - he's inhuman!). Fortunately we had the time to stop in on Jeff's BBQ party, and we spent about an hour there, getting to meet Los Venturas for the first time, who proved to be really great guys, and seeing so many old friends: Josh and JonPaul, Jeremy of Aqualads and Fady from North Carolina, three-fourths of the Exotics, Gary of the Intoxicators, Jamie of the Mystery Men and Bob from Atlanta, and a few others who are escaping me right now. It really was quite a surf party! We had some great food, and got back on the road, thinking we had about an hour and a half or two hours at the most from Anaheim to San Diego. Three hours later, we finally made it. (I don't know how you SoCal people live with all this traffic!) We checked into a Motel 6 by the airport, again four guys per room, and relaxed for an hour before heading to the show.
Once we arrived, both El Ray & the Secret Samurai were already there. Jeremy and Fady were there, much to my surprise, and also Ran was there, and it was so great to see him, Ryan and Steve again. We slowly met the four El Rays, too, and then it was time for them to go on. My expectations were pretty high, but they completely obliterated them. I've been a fan of El Ray since probably '01 or '02, shortly after the release of their debut album Shoot from the Hip, and have kept up with the band ever since, getting all their subsequent releases, all of which I love. Getting a chance to play with El Ray was one of the most exciting things about this California tour. And though I was tired as hell, having gotten about 3 hours of sleep the night before, their set just blew me away from the first second, with El Firetone's introduction: "This is a terrible story of being stuck in an elevator - it's called Stuck in an Elevator!!" Classic! They played a simply awesome set that night, top notch musicianship AND showmanship, and I felt reenergized. They turned out to be unbelievably nice people, too, and it was a true pleasure to chat with them both that night and the subsequent two days. Probably the highlight of their Friday's set was "Space Car 2001", which is simply an epic song. I'd say probably one of the very best songs from post-2000 surf music in general. The Secret Samurai went on next, and more than held their own, which is really saying something! Ryan's tone was HUGE. His guitar playing continues to improve by leaps and bounds, and it was already scary good five years ago! He's really developed a very personal style within the broader surf parameters, nobody plays like Ryan. The last time i saw them play was two years ago when the Cossacks played with them in SD, and this time they sounded overall more solid, more energetic, tighter, and with higher-level of musicianship, including Steve whose bass playing was aggressive and impressive at this show. They played a bunch of new songs, too, which sounded great. The next album should be a really good one! Finally we went on, and proceeded to do what we do. Ryan warned me while we were planning the show to try to keep the volume under control at the club, so we threw in a bunch of slower tracks in the setlist, but it turned out that the audience, possibly primed by the high-energy sets by El Ray and the Secret Samurai, didn't seem to be in the mood for the mellow stuff. So we changed things a bit on the fly and gave them what they wanted. It was a great show in the end, with a surprisingly good turnout, and the club owner was very happy at the end of the night, which is always a good thing.
Saturday, August 11th:
We finally got to bed around 2 am again, and slept until about 9 am. This was the day of the Convention, and it was going to be a very long day - we definitely needed some rest to survive! By the time everybody showered and we got packed up, it was 11 am, and it took us two and a half hours to make it to Los Alamitos - way too long! So, sadly, we missed all the early Convention stuff, the jam, the Ninth Wave and the Intoxicators, but by the time we got there, the club was packed and hopping! No surprise, since the Exotics were playing and sounding just unbelievably good! We played two shows with them in mid-June in Chicago and Milwaukee, and I was just blown away, but it sounded to my ears like they brought it all up a few more notches for the convention! We got to catch about 15-20 minutes of their set, and also started setting up our merch table. Everywhere I looked there were familiar faces, and some of them started coming up and saying hi. Honestly, the next four or so hours are simply a blur. I just went talking from one person to another, catching up with old friends, helping run the merch table, and trying to squeeze in some band viewing whenever I could. I saw the Nocturnes blow the roof off with Baha-Ree-Bah and Third Star to the Left (one of the moments of the day for me: young Maxx turning to me and saying, they're playing a Space Cossacks' song! LOL! I corrected him on that one...); Paul Johnson with his team of ringers (Dusty, Matt Quilter, Ron Eglit) slaying the audience with many of his own classics; Los Ventures plying their oh-so-cool Euro-suave-spy grooves, and El Ray blowing everyone away with Spacecar 2001. Unfortunately, I couldn't really concentrate on El Ray's set, since we were going on after them and I had to get ready, but I caught the first part at least. I have to say that I was extremely happy with our set at the convention. We played as well as we ever have, and I could tell the whole band was really feeling it. Opening with Eddie & the Showmen's Far Away Places went down exactly as we hoped it would, and everything after that was just a blur. Thank you all who were there for giving us such a great reception! The only bummer for me is that I was not warmed up enough to play Mar Gaya as the second song in the set, and was definitely struggling with the double-picking - damn! Well, live and learn. The rest of it all seemed just fine. And it was an unbelievable thrill to see Mr. Paul Johnson himself right in front of the stage during our last few songs, and to have him greet me coming off the stage and lay some massive compliment on me - I was so out of my mind and hyper at that point that I don't even remember what it was - but whatever it was, it was incredible to hear it from him! Feeling a great sense of accomplishment, I was able to just relax - only to have my mind blown away by Jon & the Nightriders. I caught the great majority of their set, and though I've seen them play in this and other lineups on multiple occasions, there's no doubt in my mind that this was BY FAR the best I've ever seen them play! They brought it 150%! The old songs sounded as vital as the day they first recorded them, and the few new songs they threw in, including a great version of Bali Hai, were all seriously hot. May there be a new recording soon! Just the PERFECT way to wrap up the convention. (BTW, most bands, including J&TN and us, acknowledged Baja Marty's spirit, which definitely seemed palpable in the room. It was very emotional at moments, and you saw a lot of fists being raised in the air in his honor and memory, both by the musicians and the audience members. I have no doubt that Marty was there that day with us - and I'd like to think he truly dug what he saw!)
And that was it. We all had to get out of there in a hurry once the clock struck 8 pm, since the club turned up hip-hop and dance music, which is a very effective way to get rid of a bunch of surf nuts in a hurry! Ferenc, Danny, Dusty and the Madeira went for some incredible Jewish deli food nearby, which was really nice. The Madeira decamped to our motel room at Don's Turf Motel to change before heading out to the Doll Hut to see the Disasternauts, the Tequila Worms and Slacktone. We only caught a few songs by the Disasternauts, but they were kicking serious ass!! Gary is such an amazing guitarist, and I was blown away by how great of a job JonPaul did on bass, given that the band is based in Florida and JonPaul, well, is not! For the next couple of hours I ended up mostly talking to people again rather than watching bands, but I could hear both the Tequila Worms and Slacktone quite clearly outside, and they were both hot! In particular, I have to say that I think that was the best I've ever heard Slacktone sound. They may as well have introduced their set with the following: "So, all you guys that played the convention, you think you're hot stuff, yeah? Well, watch THIS!" They took everybody to school, and demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that they are still simply at the very top of the heap. It was a humbling experience. I did get to go inside and watch a few songs full-on, including an astonishing version of Bells of St. Kahuna, plus a few songs at the very end. It was just a thrill. After it was all over, we finally got to bed at 2 am again, ears ringing like the bells of St. Kahuna!
Sunday, August 12th:
Got off to a bit a late start - what's new - but we were really trying to make it down to the HB pier by 11 am. We left Don's at 10:20 am, and stopped by McDonald's for some grub. It took us another forty minutes afterwards to make about 10-12 miles! G@#-D@#$ SoCal! I could never get used to that. the end result is that we missed most of the Los Venturas' set, which was a bummer. We settled in afterwards and got to see another fantastic set by El Ray, and then see the Intoxicators for the first time ever - man, I really enjoyed those guys! Though Gary was having some tuning issues with his guitar (as was El Firetone, come to think of it - the beach air was a bit hard on guitars), he still completely delivered and I was left really impressed by his playing. A s#!+ hot guitarist, and a great band in general! I have their two CDs, and there are many excellent tracks on both, I highly recommend them! It was our turn next, and we decided not to play dress up, for better or worse. It was definitely more comfortable. It was such a fun show for us. Very relaxed, great vibes, both due to the surroundings and all the friends in attendance. It was a perfect way to cap it all off. The Ninth Wave went on after us, to a growing audience which seemed really into them, finally followed by Exotics, who again stepped up to the occasion and showed they truly are a world-class band. If there was any doubt in anybody's mind before the pier show, there was none afterwards. They sounded huge, playing deeply in the pocket and showing absolute mastery of trad surf . These guys don't play trad surf, they are trad-surf! It just pours out of them.
A bunch of us gathered at Don the Beachcomber's afterwards, and after a big satisfying meal, Patrick, Dane and I were truly honored to play first with Maxx Kominsky, jamming on DD's The Victor and the Wedge, and then being invited back up by Paul Johnson for Mr. Moto and Squad Car. What a way to wrap these five days! Paul was incredibly kind, and, as always, a true gentleman. What a pleasure and privilege to get to play with himl He is always so generous with him time and his compliments, and his continued involvement in modern surf music is deeply appreciated by many of us younger punks.
Unfortunately, we had to get up at 5 am the next morning to make our flights at LAX, so we had to cut the night short and return. After packing everything, I was asleep by 10 pm - but woke up at 3 am, and lay there for the next two hours with various events of the past five days running through my head, like somebody had pushed a random memory play button in my head. The funny thing is that I didn't even mind! I was just lying there with a huge grin, reliving all the great moments, especially from Saturday and Sunday. It was simply a very special few days, that I will never forget.
Thanks so much to Jeff for doing an AMAZING job this year! He seemed much more relaxed and confident, and it was really nice to see him like that, enjoying himself. I think he's got this thing figured out by now. Thanks also to all the other people that made this all happen: Kristena, JonPaul, Craig, Linda & John, Matt and Dusty for their amazing gear, and everybody else who was involved and gave of their time. Thanks also to Ferenc, Danny and Ryan for making the first three shows of our mini-tour so fantastic! I surely hope to see everybody again next year! I'll add at the end that the thing that I will probably remember the most from this convention is the amazingly deep feeling of camraderie and friendship. It was everywhere. So many hugs, so many smiles, so much laughter, tons of joy. That's probably the best way to describe this whole event for me: just incredibly joyful. Despite the occasional squabbling on the forum, we DO really have a special thing going on in this community. I've grown deeply fond of many people in this scene, and I cannot wait to see you all again. The one thing that kept this convention from being basically perfect was the absence of Brian Neal, which I personally (and many others, I know) very much felt. The two of us attended last year's convention together, and I really missed him this time around. I know that it was pretty hard for him to not be there this year (I believe the first one he had to miss), and here's very much hoping that this will be the only one he'll ever miss!
Ivan,
awesome review. It makes me kinda bummed I missed the 2 Nor. Cal.
shows you guys did, especially the FI show. But I needed to be down here for the 2 Pre convention shows with the Euro bands and equipment etc..
I agree with you on the Spirit of Marty being in the room for the convention, and all weekend. I'm not a religious guy, but I could definitely feel him, and the love for him from the "surf family"
Also about Brian not being there, that was the one down side.
I felt like I was piloting a ship, without a captain on board.
I truly hope both of you can be there next year.
I have some good surprises up my sleeve.
Thanks again for coming/playing/being here/ and most of all being a friend.
The only other thing I wish, is that for a bunch of out of towners that came for SG101, to be able to stay for Tiki Oasis.
It was an awesome 1 2 punch
— Jeff(bigtikidude)
Last edited: Aug 22, 2012 14:25:35
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bigtikidude
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 25530
Anaheim(So.Cal.)U.S.A.
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Posted on Aug 22 2012 05:45 PM
Fez wrote:
I can't believe it has been a week since the convention. It's been a crazy week at that. I've wanted to put my thank you's out there for a few days now... so here goes...
First, Thank You to BIGTIKIDUDE, his family, friends (Kristena, Marie, JonPaul, Dusty, Lorenzo, & Ran to name a few), sponsors (Bob Walk (The Surf King), Lee Joseph, The Quilter's, Whorehay from Radio Free Bakersfield, etc.), bands (El Ray, The Exotics, Madeira, Insect Surfers, Dynotones, Ninth Wave, Los Venturas, Tequila Worms, Slacktone, Jon And The Nightriders, The Nocturnes, and The Rumblers), and everyone that helped out with this event. It was special to every member of The Intoxicators! and Disasternauts.
The lineup of bands was stellar.
The loaned equipment was top notch.
The beer was cold... and the pink potato salad was tasty...
OK... with the thank you's out of the way... here's some random thoughts…
Friday Purple Orchid. - I didn’t realize it until later… but this was the first time that The Intoxicators! had played together since June…(Gary lives in Atlanta… the rest of us in Florida) Had lots of fun… then got to watch The Exotics and Insect Surfers absolutely Kill It!!!
Saturday Starting Gate – I showed up around 8AM and watched everyone get ready for the show. Seeing the people getting ready for the member jam was pretty cool. I really wish that I would have signed up for it…
I saw all of the bands that played during the day… Every band had their own take on surf music… not a dud in the bunch! from Ninth Wave with the “surf flute”, Dynotones with the green fuzz Mosrite, Los Venturas with their 70’s funk style.
I thought The Rumblers, El Ray, The Madeira, and The Exotics were all fabulous…
Jon and The Nightriders absolutely blew me away!!!!
Saturday Doll Hut – This was the show that I was most nervous about for the entire weekend. The Disasternauts are generally Gary, and myself (Brian) from The Intoxicators! and a friend or two. We e-mail a group of songs to the people playing with us, and sometimes the first time that we actually all are playing together is onstage… This lineup was Gary, Brian, Jonpaul, and George. Aside from about an hour rehearsal on Friday in our hotel room (without drums and amps) this was the first time that this lineup had played together… George learned the songs over the last 2 weeks…
Don’t know what it sounded like but it was super fun to play…
Next up was The Tequila Worms. They were pretty amazing… fast and sweaty surf punk… very nice…
Then Slacktone melted my face… I love these guys…
Sunday Huntington Beach Pier – Wow! The weather was perfect. We got to see all of the out of town bands again. We love them even more now…
El Ray’s set was my personal favorite. There was no stress on that stage whatsoever. They had ditched the suits that they wore the day before…El Firetone made the whole place laugh informing us that he had written a song about America’s favorite food… “Cheese In A Cup!” El Twang kept the rhythm where it needed to be… El Fuerte was absolutely brilliant on the drums… smooth and precise…La Chiquilla had a smile and a bassline that tied the whole thing together… One of my favorite bands all weekend
The ocean air kinda killed the tuning on Gary’s guitar during our set… other than that everything sounded pretty good for us…
Hanging out for beers and fish tacos at Dukes with everyone was a treat as well…
Sunday Don The Beachcomber – The jam session in the Corky Carroll room at Don The Beachcomber was more than stellar… All of The Intoxicators! (except George) got to sit in with Paul Johnson and Jim Frias.
I remember playing with Max, Carol, Jamie, Dave Becker, Mike, Tim, and Gary also… I think there were one or two more…
Anyway, this past week has been crazy… Delta lost Adam and George’s guitars in Atlanta on Monday… They ended up on a plane to Detroit… We didn’t hear any news on them until Wednesday evening… A Delta employee saw that they had been sitting around for 2 days… there were no luggage tags on them at this point… He looked us up by The Intoxicators! sticker on George’s case… saw my facebook post saying Delta where are our guitars… and e-mailed me… pretty amazing that we got them back…
I loaded my pictures to facebook on Tuesday... but for those that can't see them... I have loaded some of them to The Intoxicators! website...
Here's the link http://www.intoxicators.com/sg101conv2012.html
Cheers!
Brian
The Intoxicators!
Brian,
It was all my pleasure having you guys out here.
I am sooo happy to finally have seen and met you and the rest of the band.
thanks for the cool review of the weekend.
— Jeff(bigtikidude)
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Firetone
Joined: Feb 26, 2008
Posts: 81
Copenhagen, Denmark
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Posted on Aug 22 2012 08:10 PM
Hi Everyone.
I think I kinda landet again after the US tour.. right now I´m at my job as a Hospice nurse, I got a nightshift, witch is really really perfect, since I just got over the jetlag:-)
I feel just lige El Fuerte put it after the Convention gig, "I like this playing even more than my real job". He was right, what a lifelong experience it was being with you all, in a pool of the worls best surf!
Thank you so much for having us, and beeing so great hosts!
I want to thank you all and if I somehow forget you in my little story here, I didn´t mean to!
Like Ivan and Brian/Fez has, I will also try to go through the days from start to a end.
Aug.2. Arriving in SF was great! We all left the families and for the guys, the kids, at home. Allready missing them and exited over the whole thing, I was super "overgeared" and couldent wait. But yet, we had no idea what was going to happen.
In the airport we picked up our borrowed guitars, send from Reber Stein in Alaska. We could not believe it when we saw them! Twang´s guitar was a exact copy of the one he playes in Denmark, a "sister model" of the only two ever built. So now he been with them both.. Mine was a Jazzmaster and looked like my own, 66 model - only older and more pretty - and time would show us they sounded just GREEEATTTT!!
The first night we had a excellent "3-types cheese bacon burger" and a beer, and just felt good and tired.
Aug.3. We did some sightseeing, "the rock" from a distance, guitarcenter(!) and such things.
Before we left DK, Ference had been so kind and let us mail some things to his place, so we could pick them up in US. (And what a cool guy you are!) Thanks alot for the help, we meet Ference by Golden Gate bridge, had a coffie and said "hello".
Later we went to a Tiki-bar, Smugglers cove, where we for the first time met Bill, JonPaul, Jeff BTD and Josh. Here were these super nice guys, buying us coctails and beeing all cool and looking like the real deal americans to us:-). "Wow - what a great welcome" I thought!
Aug 4. Another day filled with sightseeing and "de climating" and in the afternoon, off to KFJC where we played the 45 min concert live. I was all nervous, and did not know what to expect, but everyone was relaxed (Cousin Mary was super chilled), and covered in a "down to earth - we have all time in the world" atmosphere. We had some sodas and pizza, met Los Venturas for the first time. We also met Phil Dirt, met out newest best friends JP, Josh, BTD, Bill, Bruce, and many more. Everything went great, I was relived and happy and thought "this might work after all"
Aug 5. Up and got to Mel Waldorf´s home in Alameda before hitting the Forbidden Island. How nice can one man be?!! We had lunch and jamed in his basement, playing our first ever cover "Poseidon" with him. A tune Mel wrote, and we covered om our first album. At Forbidden Island I was hit by the geniute atmosphere in the place, the people and the drinks.. the Poolboys and Venturas played excellent, and we enjoyed them very much. Danny S and Ference played with pure skill and excellence and the inspiration hit me like a hammer. All Smiles and great tunes.
After the concert some of us went to a Mexican rest. where JohPaul was dared into drinking a bowl of the hottest hotsauce EVER made, and I knew I finally met the real deal! The real crazy deal:-)
Aug 6. Tourists
Aug 7. Tourists
Aug 8. Played at the Pike in LB, with Venturas. First real time to meet the guys, and figure out who was who. A fun night that involved our great new friends, a guy named "Remo" who had birthday and had a song named after him "Remo über alles". And much more
Aug 9. Hang loose all day, again, sightseeing, getting more stuff for the loved ones at home...and to The Redwood at night. It was my first live enconter with Insect Surfers. I have a couple of their CD´s but was happy to hear them live. GREAT GREAT set! Like rock ´n roll in surfin´style -throwing guitars around. We also met Jeremy and Fady for the first time that night.
Aug 10. To the Fender factory tour (woo hoo) and to Jeffs house. The prime of hosting and leadership there Jeff! No time wasted, a pool, family, tikimugs, beers... We wanted to stay but still drove to San Diego there we saw the beach and had excllent thai food. I haven´t been talking much about food - but believe me when I tell I could write all day about the food we had, I´m lovin´it!
Getting into the "Tin Can Alehouse" was great! Secret Samurai was allready there. Ryan was a excellent host for us. Their show was one long lesson in excellence... Aggresive - but not mean, superfast - but not showing off, if you know what I mean. And then the Madeira.. Seeing the drummer in "El Ray" t-shirt (and Ryan as well) made my day! I had heard alot about this band, and it was true. They totally blew me away! Once again, these normal great sweet guys that just enjoy playing and does it really well. Nice one! Fady, and Jeremy and Ran showed up and we had a great time. Ran was a great inspiration for me when he played in the Astroglides. I remember listening to the band on the internet many many years ago and I was honored to meet the man himselves.
Aug 11. The big SG101 day! First there was the jam. I was lucky to play with members from Exotics, Insect surfers and Joshboy - and had fun doing so. My whole day was just perfect, the bands was amazing, and the mixture of styles was nice to my ears. All the bands was new to me, Live playing, and I loved it. The Exotics, Intoxicators and Dynotones I really digged bit time! And all og Lorenzos druming. Its like he knows every surftune in the whole wide world!
I especally felt the connection between the bands. It´s not like in Danish Rockbands, there everything is a battle. At the convention everyone enjoyed and told each other if they thought a band "was the greatest on earth". Really nice and positive! GREAT!
After the convention we drove with Fady and Jeremy to the afterparty, and saw more crazy cool bands! Worms and Apes... What´s up with them Slacktone..? How good can one band play?! I´m just asking.
Aug 12. Off to the beach! I think I mentioned on stage "a wet dream come through".. But it really was, again amazing! The bands I started to know, and enjoyed more and more day for day, and the swimming and the Mr. Johnson and all! I felt super lucky and blessed by the people we met on the tour, and this sunday was the top for me. Almost had a little tear in my eye looking at you all!
Aug 13. On the "Surf-history-tour" Jeff set up. It was fun to see the places (I bet no other Danish surfband ever been there...) and hanging around our new friends from Carolina. The weather was beautyful and the vibe was the best.
We drove to yet another mall, had sushi and left for the last show on "The El Ray does California tour"...
Playing the last shot at Spikes was a bitter sweet feeling. We had fun playing, and finally I was able to listen to Los venturas set, relaxed and happy. Great band! So cool to come from the same continent as them!
We said our "farewells" and I was stoked when JonPaul gave me his Tiki Hana figure, he had been carrying around his neck all week.
I´ll take good care of it!
So much more to say and so many more to thank, but I´m having a hard time playing "spelling bee" here...
Tons of love to you Jeff BTD. You are the man!
I´ll just post this and send love you Y´all!
Jesper
— El Firetone,
www.elray.dk
El Ray
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