Here's a real treat for The Space Cossacks fans: a video of our entire set at the Surfari USA show in Atlanta at the Variety Playhouse on June 21st, 1997! I had no idea this actually existed, but the video was just uploaded to YouTube by the fantastic Guy Moore, the DJ of the Rockin' & Surfin' Show on the w.a.I.f. Cincinnati 88.3 fm radio station. The video was shot by Rockin' Robert, the original DJ of the Rockin' & Surfin' show who sadly passed away some years ago but left Guy his collection of video recordings. Guy says this one was among his very favorites. He also shot most of the rest of that day's show, including sets by Jon and the Nightriders, The Penetrators, The Volcanos and more - a true historical treasure-trove! (Stay tuned for those, coming soon.)

I believe this is the earliest video footage of the Space Cossacks in existence. We had been a gigging band for just a year at that point, and had only released a budget cassette of covers. Our first official releases were about to come out at that point: "Solaris Stomp" on the Deep Eddy Records comp "Reef Madness" and two songs ("Neutron Sabre" and "Shark Attack") on a vinyl split-EP with the Penetrators on Solamente Records. The recording sessions for our debut album "Interstellar Stomp" were still many months away, but we were already playing a lot of those songs live, as you can hear here. Quite a little trip back in time!

HUGE thanks to Guy for finding this and making it public! He's the BEST! I'm sure all of the Cossacks fans will love seeing this! (And don't forget you can hear us playing a lot of these songs live again in DC on the 29th (The Space Cossacks 20th Anniversary Reunion!! W/ Atomic Mosquitos and Beachmover), in Atlanta on the 30th (Southern Surf Stomp! w/ The Space Cossacks, The Mystery Men?, The Penetrators) and Long Beach, CA on August 13th (9th Annual Surf Guitar 101 Convention)!

Ivan
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Wow, the Mystery Men were around back then?
Just kidding, must be a different Mystery Men?

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That was great. Who were all those young people?

He also shot most of the rest of that day's show, including sets by Jon and the Nightriders, The Penetrators, The Volcanos and more - a true historical treasure-trove! (Stay tuned for those, coming soon.)

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This is amazing! Can't wait to make some time to sit and watch the whole thing. BIG kudos to Guy once again! I so wish that I knew what was going on back in those days, dammit! The Variety Playhouse is probably my favorite venue in town to see live music, and the idea of a big surf show with bands like The Space Cossacks really blows my mind. Was this the band's last time in Atlanta?

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Splendidly! The worth of the video, I suppose, is that it's just in time). I wish I see live performing of that times of such themes as "Transatlantic Orbit" or maybe "Navajo Star" (real blowmind for me). Thanks for sharing!

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Hey, thanks very much, all! Very glad you're enjoying the video! And yes, indeed, HUGE props to Guy Moore for doing the work to put this up on YouTube! It was a true surprise to me to find out this exists - and once I saw it, a very pleasant surprise, indeed!

DENjector wrote:

Splendidly! The worth of the video, I suppose, is that it's just in time).

Not a coincidence - Guy did that quite intentionally.

I wish I see live performing of that times of such themes as "Transatlantic Orbit"

That one we used to play quite a bit back in the day, but it wasn't yet written (or at least finished) at the time of this show.

or maybe "Navajo Star" (real blowmind for me).

Actually, that one we never played live. It was an album-only track. But thanks, really happy to hear that you like that one so much! People rarely bring up that track.

Onslow_Beach wrote:

Just finished watching the entire set - friggin' incredible! The band is so tight and just on fire, it's insane to hear your comments Ivan about the timing of this relative to the recording of the album - this feels like a performance well after the recording and release.

Thanks, Fady! Interstellar Stomp was recorded September 5-9, 1997, so two and a half months after this show. I believe we played all the original songs we had at that time, so the songs like Transatlantic Orbit or The Space Victory Theme, etc. still had to be written or finished. And I don't know how many would notice this, but my solo on The Spy Satellite is improvised here, and mostly completely different from the recorded version. (Later on I 'composed' it and played it the same way each time). But yeah, not bad for having just recently written and learned most of these songs!!

Despite the triple conversion (Hi8 > VHS > DVD > digital/PC) and the recurring minor skips, this archive is just phenomenal and the audio quality is mind blowing for being nearly 2 decades ago. Such a treat! A true gem and amazing gift to us all. Super lucky to have Rockin' Robert's personal library handed off to Guy and Guy making the effort to share with the world. Really looking forward to the other sets from this day - the line up is unreal.
And clearly, super stoked to catch a set or three of the reunion next month in SoCal!!!

Ivan
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