Hello all!

I'm writing from Santa Barbara, CA, from the house of Kelp's lead guitarist Paul Fritz. He unbelievably generously offered us the use of his house during our two days without gigs (tonight and tomorrow). We just spent a few hours on the beach, just fantastic.

We're having an unforgettable time. The first three shows were a lot of fun, though HOT AS HELL!! It does seem that Madeira gigs make God very angry. Since our beginning two years ago we have played after a 3-foot snowstorm with record lows recorded (-20F), after a major hail-storm combined with severe flooding - and now we brought midwest style weather, including high humidity, lightning and thunderstorms, and 90F+ degree temperatures, to Paradise that is usually SoCal. The state is having blackouts, too, and they're predicting record high power usage over the next few days. Well, all we can do is hope they don't hit SoCal on Wednesday and Thursday, or NorCal starting Friday.

Other than the weather, everything has been going very smoothly. It's been such a pleasure to meet or see again so many SG101 people, as well as other surf music fans we have made friends with in the past. Jeff AKA Big Tiki Dude has been incredibly generous and treated us to a lovely barbecue in his awesome tiki-filled home - thanks Jeff! And how nice to finally meet Tiki Tena! She's been to every one of our shows so far (as has Jeff), and she always brings joy and good vibes wherever she goes! (As well as some awesome Mai Tais yesterday at Jeff's!) We met Captain Springfield AKA Warren, another great, great guy. We met DP who rarely comes out of his desert abode! There have been others but their identities escape me at the moment - sorry! Of course, there were all the band people, too. The Sand Devils were very impressive, and I think their CD, once they get around to recording it, will be eagerly embraced by this list. It was a real pleasure to meet Ran and Hans of the band. They're both really great guys, and it was a lot of fun chatting with them. Hans also put us up in his beautiful house in SD - you gotta love the surf music community! People have just been bending over backwards to do what they can for us. Thank you all! Rick, formerly of the Surf Report, was there too. I never met him before, but he proved to be a prince of a man as well.

The Insect Surfers and the Glasgow Tiki Shakers put on fantastic shows, really dug the hell out of them. And Slacktone's half-an-hour set was mindblowing. The intesity was unbelievable. Dusty's shirt was COMPLETELY soaked with sweat after just half an hour! The Pitcher House gig was marred somewhat by an asshole club manager/security who kept screaming at us to turn down - in the middle of songs! He did it to Slacktone, too. But we adapted and overcame. The Huntington Beach show was awesome except that it was so hot (it was outside) that I actually starting getting a heat stroke or something as we started playing - I was experiencing heart palpations two songs into our set! Had to focus on breathing in regularly so not to pass out! Tends to put a crimp into one's playing, but besides a few clunkers on the first few songs, I think we played a really good set. I was so out of it at the beginning I actually forgot to put the trem bar into my Strat before we started playing! But we were received extremely enthusiastically by those present which made all the sweat and heart failures worthwhile! It was especially great to see John Blair again, I was so happy he made it out. Baja Marty was there too, and was just full of hugs and smiles and compliments. Sherm Clow AKA Rev. Willis flew in from Utah, and I hadn't seen him in eight years. The same for Doug Snyder, the surf music superfan - what a joy to see him again (you may remember he was in a bad car accident some years ago). Anyway, I'm rambling... We're just having a great time, and we hope to see you at one of the next five shows.

Ivan, Dane, Patrick and Todd
The Madeira

The weather forecast is looking much better for the NorCal leg of this tour. The forecast according to weather.com:

Saturday, July 29, Nevada City, CA - High 80s!
Sunday, July 30, San Francisco - 60s!!!

Was it Mark Twain who wrote "The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco" ?

See you in Nevada City.

Don

Did they play a long set? Were they forced to turn down? Was it a resturant, resturant with a stage, or...?

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

Brian
Did they play a long set? Were they forced to turn down? Was it a resturant, resturant with a stage, or...?

Brian, All,
the Baja Cantina Shows that Jamie from cowabunga books,
are in my opinion really alot of fun to go to.
It's a resturaunt/bar and they play in the bar area facing out onto a patio. Not a stage necessarily, but a little raised area that usually has tables on it. A 4 piece band has a really hard time fitting there.
They look out at the crowd thru 2 4ft. by 4 ft windows that are raised and opened up, hung by ginat metal hooks.
I usually sit behind the band inside as it sounds a bit better behind(fuller)
where outside you get the midrange but not much lows or highs.
Plus there is all the talking and smoking on the patio. But the area behind was reserved for a party of 15 or so. So we sat right out side looking at the band from 4 ft away. pretty intamate. It is toned down compared to a bar or surf museum show. But Not so bad, There were many times when Ivan played real high on the neck, that I got the Ice pick in the ear thing. But He really didnt like playing at that volume
I think. Of course standing 6 in. infront of Bill McGlynns Vibrolux amp probably made it hard for him to hear himself. If there was a way to tilt it back, or raise it to ear level I thihnk he would have realised it wasn;t that quiet.
The bands usually play 3 sets of 45 or 50 min.
I think they did 3 sets of about 35 or 40 min.
Many covers I didn't know they knew.
Hopefully they will post the set lists,

I think that was everything they knew.

It was a excellent show in my opinion, hope they weren't too disapointed with the situation.

Jeff(bigtikidude)
4 down 1 more to go for me

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Looking forward to FRIDAY! I hope they don't over-play tokyo gardens, that room is TEEEENY, and it gets way too loud fast. Bring ear protection if you come!

Anybody comming to the fresno show???

THe NEpTuNeS

YEAH it cracks me up when people say they "grow raisins" nope they kill grapes!!!

THe NEpTuNeS

That was harsh mr Goodman!

THe NEpTuNeS

Hi all...

following the San Diego show...I had to travel to San Fran for work all week, so I missed the other SoCal shows. Thanks for the SoCAl reviews and pics, though. I am now back in the Mojave Desert, so I will be missing the Hotel Utah gig in SanFran on the 30th!!! Can you believe my timing? Please post a Hotel Utah review...inquiring minds want to know.

Re: San Diego: man, The Madeira and the Sand Devils absolutely kicked my butt!!! I totally dug the San Devils energy and stage show, and it was an absolute GIFT FROM GOD ABOVE to be able to hear the Madeira live.

Thanks be to the Madeira for traveling out West and kicking our unworthy arses with total reverb intensity...

Thanks be to Ran and the Sand Devils for their rocking cool show and excellent t-shirts...and the excellent after-show hospitality and convesation...Kudos!

I will post some pics shortly...

-dp

Tom--

Is there any chance you might be able to set up a show for The Neptunes and the Kilaueas in Fresno? They have Friday, September 8th open. They would need to borrow amps, drums and reverb for the show. I know they'd love to play with you guys. They are working on tour posters and I'm trying to add one or two more dates before we wrap it up. Please e-mail me at records@dblcrown.com

Thanks for the show report below - sounds like a great show!

Thanks,

Sean
Double Crown Records
www.dblcrown.com

Thanks to Ivan, Dane, Patrick, and Todd for rocking Tokyo Garden last night! it was great to see Matt (thanks for the fresno shirt!) and Paul at the show. For fresno it was not a bad crowd, I tried some new promotional tactics and the new band members invited some fresh new faces. The Neptune set was plaqued with technical problems and a lot of clams from me... but of course we had fun wariming up the folks in attendence.

The Mediera set was great as expected, I really apreciate the musicianship required to play a difficult room like Tokyo Garden, it's really hard to hear in there, but they managed to keep it together, never loosing track of each other for more than a measure the one or two times it happend.

Ivan was just as I had expected, effortless and smooth, a truely great right hand, Patrick was really the surprise of the evening, WHAT A FREIGHT-TRAIN!!! His right hand was a complete blur the whole time! Todd and Dane held the band to tempo with perfection! I find it amazing when a drummer sits down to a strange set and plays so clean! Not a missed hit the whole night! Todd did a grat job! the poor guy was wedged between the drums and the stage wall, yet pulled off the gig with grace!

I hope the Madiera keep it together, and continue delighting audiences for years to come!

Thanks for playing fresno and enduring the WORST part of town, you are welcome back any time!

Tom

Sean
Double Crown Records
www.doublecrownrecords.com

Surf CD's / Vinyl / Fanzines / DVD's
The Desolate Coast - Without A Planet CD
Hipbone Slim aka Sir Bald - Wiggin' Out With CD
Continental Magazine - Issue #36 w/21 Song CD

San Diego Photos from the DaveBlog:
( http://namemustbesinglewordwithnospaces.blogspot.com/ )

The Sand Devils line-up:

Clint Beachwood (by EXIT) digs The Madeira:

The Many Faces of Ivan:

Todd Playin' The Bass:

Action Patrick:

UltraLargeTikiDudeJeff:

Kristena (aka TikiTena):