Major damage occurred at last night's surf show at Blakes on
Telegraph, in Berkeley, California. Headliners Messhugga Beach
Party smoked the place, as did the El Dorados and last minute
replacements for the TomorrowMen, the Skegs. Three smokin'
bands... drunken sorority hotties coming out of the woodwork...
what's not to like???

I was crushed when I heard that the Tomorowmen had to cancel,
due to Danny Snyder's serious finger injury. But the Skegs filled
in admirablly on short notice. They did everything from scortching
Link Wray tunes to smooth, atmospheric Henry Mancini and Miles
Corbin (AquaVelvets) tunes. The Skegs are a very fine band, and
I recommend that you check them out, if you get the chance.

The El Dorados were up next, and feature Mark Scardello and
Stu Brandt (both ex-Aquamarines. Stu also plays for Messhugga
Beach Party). Messhugga Mel Waldorf filled in for their usual
2nd guitarist, and besides his stellar fretwork, added some energy
and humor to the procedings. I dunno who the bass player was, but
he was top notch. I don't know how to describe the El Dorados
sound, but Mark's lead guitar work was pretty dry, and sounded like
he was playing in the 2 & 4 in-between settings on his strat. Because
of the dry lead sound, it reminded me a bit of the Ventures. Mark
has a lot of blues styling in his playing. Mel had the drip going though.
Mel, as always the consumate pro, never missed a beat. However
you want to describe it, the El Dorados were very tight, played with a
lot of energy, and in general, tore it up.

Despite his very serious finger injury, Danny Snyder said before the
show that he was going to play a couple songs with the Messhuggas.
At the time I thought it was a probably foolhardy, but extremely
courageous thing to do. Well, Danny... I mean Shecky, came out
and played about 2/3 of their set, even playing the lead lines on
"Theme from Exodus", "Jezebel", and another tune!!! If I'd have had
my eyes closed, I would not have been able to tell from the sound
that he did not have the use of his pointer and middle fingers! It
was absolutely unbelievable!!! The crowd was blown away, and
repsonded in kind. Of course Mel, Steve, Karen and Stu smoked,
as always. Most of the crowd was on the dance floor for most of
their set, including the ditzy, drunken college girls, who on several
occasions, jumped on stage, once falling into Stu's drum kit, and
causing the band to stop while Stu moved a few things back into
place. Danny's wife then became bouncer, attempting to keep
these blotto chicks off of the stage. In all the surf shows I've seen,
I've never seen women go wild like they did for the Meshuggas
(was it the beards?). Heck, your usual surf show consists of a
bunch of guys, with the only women there being wives and girl-
friends of the bands playing, with maybe an occasional woman
tagging along with her husband or boyfriend to watch the show!
In spite of the disruptions, I'm not complaining, by any means.
It was a fun show that I will not soon forget.

Kudos to Danny for his heroic performance, for arranging and
promoting the show, and to the bands for their stellar perform-
ances. Blakes was an ideal venue. A nice setup, with the spacious
concert area being downstairs, removed from the restaurant, pool
tables, etc. Let's hope that there will be plenty more surf shows
in Berkeley in the months and years to come. It was a very fun night.

Bob

Bob

Last edited: Jun 16, 2007 00:14:22

Wow!!! What a night!

Danny, what happened to your fingers? And how serious IS IT?? (Can you even type??)

Ivan

PS I think the 'usual 2nd guitarist' of the El Dorados is Mark English, formerly my bandmate in the Space Cossacks. What happened to him, why wasn't he there?

Ivan
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Bob thanks for that stellar review,you captured forever a very foolish chapter in my life. I want to add because I'm sure Bob meant to but forgot, that Karen Dobronyi did a fabulous job on her new Nord electronic piano/organ. As for the 5 drunken irish lasses, well, my wife was fighting to keep them off but I was fighting to keep them on

I echo Bob's sentiments towards the other bands - they were fantastic. Special thanks to The Skegs for covering for the Tmen. Mark E is no longer with the El Dorados, though he remains amicable and was in attendance last night.

My hand - let's just say all you guitarists (everyone else too) out there keep your fingers away from the business end of a pneumatic framing gun. I've used them for 20 years, but that doesn't prevent one microsecond of very poor judgement to do a heap of damage. Right thru my left index finger middle knuckle, split the bone and shot thru the knuckle joint, not to mention the puncture wound going completely thru the finger. Doctors are confident that as long as I follow orders (like not playing the guitar ) I should fully recover in 6 weeks.

Still, it was pretty exhilerating to play thru 15 songs with only a ring finger and pinkey. You'd be very surprised what you can accomplish once you get past the barrier of thinking you can't do something. When tremolo picking, you're only using one finger, what's it matter whether it's the index or ring finger? Same for muted drip rhythm parts. The other song I played lead on was Sabbath Prayer from Fiddler on the Roof. The MBP worked up a psychadelic Doors influenced version, look for it on the new CD sometime this Fall.

And no Ivan I can't type, I'm dictating to my dog

Someone shot video, I thnk Mel's wife Jessie. Look for it soon, we'll announce when it's posted.

Now, where's that bottle of Vicoden...

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

Danny.....sorry about your injury...your discription of it made my fingers turn blue....ouch!! RobbieReverb....what a great review!! Blakes....man do i have some stories about Blakes but never mind that.....Vicoden and surf music...i know something about that too having had 2 surgeries on my SPINE!! I hope they have more surf shows there and boy do i wish The TakeOffs could come up there and play...maybe someday. Danny, i think you and your wife need a couple weeks on Kauai. If we all thru in a $1.........!! Anyway we wish you a speedy recovery and much ALOHA.
The TO's

The TakeOffs
"Kauai's Only All-Instrumental Surf Band"
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-TakeOffs/312866840587

DannySnyder
Bob thanks for that stellar review,you captured forever a very foolish chapter in my life. I want to add because I'm sure Bob meant to but forgot, that Karen Dobronyi did a fabulous job on her new Nord electronic piano/organ.

I can't believe that I forgot to mention Karen's great keyboard
playing. She was awesome. Karen and Mel had to step it up to
cover Danny's understandable inability to play chords.

Danny, I know your finger was sore last night, but it must be
achin' like a mofo today. Take good care...

Bob

Bob

It sure was a fun show - thanks to everyone who came to the show, thanks to the Skegs for filling in on short notice, thanks to the El Dorados for having me sit in, and thanks to Danny for figuring out how to play half our set with half the usual number of fingers!

As for the party girls, if someone would ever have told me I wouldn't enjoy a room full of drunk Irish girls falling all over me I would never have believed them.

Mel

Damn, I'm kicking myself for missing this one! But, I can't say I have regrets -- I spent much of the day in a beer pong tournament in San Jose with my own gaggle of hot sorority girls. I carried my teammate to a fifth place finish out of sixteen teams.

Three kegs later, everyone gave the tournament a rousing thumbs up.

~B~

a few pictures. First, the El Dorados:
image

Next, Danny's cast. He played lead guitar like this. Seriously.
image

Finally, some of the Irish lassies. The one in the green skirt laid down some air guitar. Not visible in this picture are the ones who pulled off our beards and fell onto the drums.
image

Danny - How serious is the injury? Well you still be able to do the Huntington Beach Surf Museum gig?

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DannySnyder
Nothing wrong with my right hand

nyuk nyuk..... you do realize that that smiley is actually holding up its left hand (with only two fingers!)....?

btw, Danny talks a bit about his injury and about MBP and the Tmen in the new sg101 podcast ..... go check it out!

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"When in Italy, if the menu says something's grilled, don't assume it is."

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