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Big Blue Beach Rock Thank You To All

Thank you to all the bands, The Aquatudes, The Clams, The Knuckledusters and Big Fat Combo, for putting on such a great show last night,Nov. 17, at the Zen Bar in Farmington, CT . The turn out was phenomenal and the music was equally spectacular. Many hugs & kisses to Rockabilly Willy, Bobby D, Perilous Cheryl, Joey Zone, Joey the doorman and most of John Carlo, the owner of the Zen Bar for just being such a great guy.

The music started with The Aquatudes rippin' up the reverb playing both originals and classics. Tom, Dick & Fred are so tight you would never have guessed this was their first appearance as a trio. The Knuckledusters brought down the house when they hit the stage. The saxophones and the vocals blended well with an incredibly powerful bass & skins combo. Together, this five member band from Boston, got the fans in the club a hoppin' and a boppin'.

Next up, Big Fat Combo, who opened with Folsom Prison Blues. This set the stage for a full dance floor for the next 45 minutes. Who could sit still when BFC plays? No One! Closing the night, The Clams. They were stripped down trio with a new bass player, Scott to his family, but to me, he's smokin'! The night ended the night much like it began, reverb-erating and wet. I love when the Clams just play it & say it like it is, surf, plain and simple. No vocals needed when you have musicians like Dano, Brain and S'clam (Scott + Clam = ...)

And if the music wasn't enough for you, we also gave away 5 raffle prizes that night, including 4 tickets to the next show which is...

Saturday, Dec. 22 @ 8 pm - Holiday Rock w/ SPF-4, Slick Fitty, 9th Wave & Jason James & Houserockers

check out the poster at www.myspace.com/bluestingraye or go to www.thezenbar.com

Kauai, Hawaii Sunday October 7th 2007. It had been raining most of the day and i wondered as i drove to work at the Sheraton if we would be inside or outside. Most of the rain here on Kauai at this time of the year is "showers" and the beach is usually the last place it rains so we had a chance of playing outside by the beach where it's so cool and the sun is setting and there's a good crowd waiting to get a photo of the sunset at just the right moment. Also performing tonight in a church just down the road from our gig is the Duo Tones, you know, Paul Johnson from The Bel-Aires and Gil Orr two guitar playing surf music icons, but as usual, if you're a working musician, most likely you have a gig when somebody good comes to town and that was the case tonight but there's always a chance and we were hoping that they would come see us.

Conrad Mathews, our drummer, had gone early to their sound check and talked to them about doing an interview on his Monday night radio show (8-10pm Hawaiian time on http://www.kkcr.org) and also invite them to check out The TakeOffs over at the Sheraton. When i got to the Sheraton at 6pm it was beautiful. No rain and the daily free Mai Tai hour and hula show was just ending and it was decided that we would play outside. Cool. We got set up and played for an hour and right at the end of the set it started raining and we had to do a full bail....not just us, everybody scampers looking for shelter, but we have to do a complete tear down and there's no time to think just pack the guitar, turn off the amp, pull all the cables and adaptors and stuff them in a bag and run. It was break time anyway so we just cruised and it stopped raining and the sky cleared up so we decided to go back out there and set up again which we did, and played another set. Yeah, you gotta wipe down all the chords and cables and stomp boxes and tuners and your wet guitar of course (hey! i made a pun!!) and it's a MAJOR pain in the ass to do a quick bail like that but it's such a sweet gig that you're back out there!

(Editor's note: this was posted to the Slacktone Yahoo Group by bksmithey@yahoo.com)

Colorado enjoyed its first ever Slacktone show last night. The show was opened by local instrumental band "Get 3 Coffins Ready". 3 Coffins played a nice set of reverbed, surf-y instrumentals with a bit of a Link Wray-ish rebel vibe. This was my first time seeing them, I thought they sounded great and kicked off the evening nicely.

Slacktone started off with "Coffin Closer" and flew through another couple of songs in quick succession. I've see Sam with Dick Dale a few times, and Dusty with DD a few years ago and also recently with Agent Orange, but I think they were playing last night with more energy than I've ever seen (not easy to do in this thin air!). Those in the crowd who hadn't seen Dusty before couldn't believe their eyes and ears; after a few songs were played some guy from the crowd jokingly yelled "play faster!" which brought a laugh from those around him and a smile from Dusty.

First off: DAMN!! It was cold up there. Not freezing, but not far off. Good thing I took plenty of warm clothes. Bill(Lava) and Kristena, and a few others said it was funny to see me not in my usual shorts and t-shirt.

After Kyle picked me up at the airport, we went to his house and he showed me his surf music collection, and his gear (Damn!!) that he had at his house. He said he had lots more at the in-laws, Double Damn. Around 4 pm we took off to go to Thatch. Its a new tiki bar, but has alot of old tiki decor that used to be in the Old Kon Tiki in Portland, then was in The Jasmine Tree (asian resturaunt), but is now in this new tiki bar, that just opened. Its got a great vibe of a old tiki bar because of the decor, but you can tell its a new business. We were only there for a short time, but the 2 drinks we got were perfect, (Mai Tai and a Trader Vics version of a Zombie) and the food that others had smelled great. Check it out if in the Portland area. Then we went over to the Alibi, for the annual pre show-meet up. There were between 20 and 30 surf and tiki people there for the gathering. Its always great to have some spare time before or after a show to talk to people in person that you usually only talk to over the net. So where ever you go, make plans to meet up before or after with others that will be there too. It helps to make it more of a friends/family vibe, than just people at a show.

I enjoyed this show a lot.
Surf Cinema honing their craft, with their entertaining barrage of classic Surf-tinged pop video.

Pollo Del Mar doing a select set of "Best Of".

The Whys succeeded in charming the audience with the same kind of "Joi de Surf" that the Surf Coasters brought in years past. The fronting females have the sex-appeal, Japanese charm and the randomly choreographed moves, but also have the talents. With a solid drummer, the band was both tight and raw-edged, which put them squarely in the class of capable garage Surf acts. I just can't get enough of female bass players who do glissandos!

I believe Dandy Don Vigeant did the venue-specific poster for The Blank show and KFJC did the co-sponsoring. See the remaining shows because you will come away smiling!

bIG wAvE Dave
Bass, The Aquamarines

Moe's Alley (Santa Cruz, CA) hosted a great display of progressive Surf and Instro music with Shig and Buzz and The Mermen. Yes, it was Jim Thomas' birthday, but it was also a nice forum to see the scarcely observed, but talented, Shig and Buzz as show openers. Well, they have evolved over the years and now do very progressive versions of instro faves, such as Flight of The Bumble Bee, Dark Eyes and Caravan. This Shadows-inspired band did not disappoint their longtime fans of the Double Diamonds days with tunes like Lost Train. The keyboards and electric violin add both showmanship and a talented dimension of progressive sound to their mix. Black shirts white ties and stripes. Johnny "Berzerker" Hamilton now slots in on bass for S&B. Grins all around and an encore for this opening act! Nice!

The Mermen: well, the orignal lineup with Jim Thomas, Allen Whitman and Martyn Jones truly define classic Mermen music. There's a jamming synergy among these players that cannot be duplicated. They played some recent material, but satisfied my craving for one of their all-time concert greats- Pull Of The Moon. Psycho effects in tow up on the wall. Great show.

All the usual local suspects were in tow at this event, including many of Jim's personal friends. Stretch Riedle and Matt Kora was there with his "open invitation", Jaime (of course!) and the omnipotent Phil Dirt, who the Mermen owe much of their notoriety to were all in attendance. Good to see you clubbing, Mr Phil!

-bIG wAvE Dave
Bass, The Aquamarines

First off, this is my second outing to see The Intoxicators! at the Jetsetter. The first was cut short so we only managed to catch the first set-and-a-half; the second, I rushed down to West Palm straight from my own band's rehearsal, so I missed the first set, but did catch the last two. So, in the interest of fairness, this is more-or-less a combined show report. Moreover, it's a heads-up - and my way of saying that this is band you really need to see should you make it down to the Sunshine State...

A bit about the venue:
Enter: The Jetsetter Lounge. Easily one of the coolest venues in Florida, this joint has vibe to spare. The walls are adorned with Shag paintings, surrounded by retro-60's-mod furniture. The outside is a lush tropical garden flanked by Easter Island styled statues. And the waitresses - good Lord, the gorgeous waitresses - could have stepped out of any episode of The Avengers, or any Connery-era Bond flick. Not to be understated, this places oozes cool, even if it is kitschy.

Now, there is no song-by-song review here, as I only just got my first Intoxicators! cd after the show Saturday night (or was it early Sunday morning?), the songs are still a bit unfamiliar, but the original material that stood out was "Gary 2," (I love the lead riff on that tune), "The Great Snatch...," (more swing than surf, but catchy as hell), and "Human Canonball," and an impressive arsenal of cover material too abundant to list here.

A quick congratulations to all the bands in the 10-band whirlwind KFJC Surf Battle on Sunday 6/4/06 at Hotel Utah in San Francisco!

This event has certainly created a great annual tradition for San Francisco, (thanks to Ferenc!) not to mention a fund-raising benefit. I thought it was cool that was being streamed over the internet. Surf goes worldwide (web)! The bands keep getting better each year and each year a few new bands pop out of the woodwork and show their stuff.

Hats off to The Reducing Agents and The Neighbors. It's never easy as the rookies, but the crowd overwhelmingly approved. The RAs have great Surf Punk energy and The Neighbors created a great mood with You Only Live Twice.

Nowadays, veterans such as The Del Mars, The Coppertones, The Lava Rats, Like A Cosmonaut (aka Surf Cinema), The Pyronauts and The Berzerkers each gave great performances. Of course, the "schtick award" goes to none other than Meshuggah Beach Party, with mine boy, Rabbi Mel, leading his ragtag revised minion to new twanging heights...yeah, like Brooklyn's Crown Heights? And Pollo Del Mar's progressive mayhem (that's drummer Jeremy's doing) capped off a great afternoon of Surf.

I guess the theme of the day would be guest star duty - Surf Band Bill (from The Lava Rats) played with The Reducing Agents on bass (way cool!); Lava Rat Taylor doubled on drums for The Coppertones; Paul Pyronaut doubled on rhythm as Jono Jones in Pollo Del Mar and Dino doubled as...well, Dino! I doubled-over at the bar ;-P

Already looking forward to next year.

Anyone with more comments, please add to the thread!

bIG wAvE Dave Becker (Fan extraordinaire)
Bass, The Aquamarines

Well the day started off pretty gloomy and foggy. Which I like , but people kept complaing when the sun was gonna come out. Well they got their wish, it cleared up and got hot, too damn hot in my opinion.

First up for us was a new band that most of us hadn't seen yet. The Marauders( sp?) I guess the drummer was in an original band from the 60's by the same name. But I don't know much of the history there. I heard that they had opened up for Dick Dale's New Years eve show at the Coach House. They are all older guys, but with some nice equipment. Old Showmans and Twins, and some huge late 60's or early 70's monster Fender bass amp that must have weighed about 150 lbs. They did mostly covers, but snuck in a few originals. Pretty trad. sounding, with a little bit of modern keyboards on tunes like Telstar. They did the not too often covered Bullwinkle pt.2 by the Centurions. Gotta dig that tune.

Hey All,

A great big Kudos goes out to Ted and Adrien for another fantabulous job on putting together another killer line up of bands. Some new, some new line ups, and some glad to see they are ok and still playing.

Big highlights for me:

The debut in front of the surf crowd of the Pacific Head Hunters, a real energetic group of young guys tearing it up with Sax also, and a mix of Trad, and Modern sounds.

Kelp, always good to see the Santa Barbara Boys come down for a Visit to South Bay.

Marty Tippens new band Flowmaster. He usually plays drums in this new band. But his guitarist was away, so he took the guitar duty, and got a guy to fill in on drums. Killer reverb and pickin as always Marty!