In order to seed our show report database, I thought I would dig out my Exotica 2005 show reports that I had posted to the SG101 Yahoo Group last summer. So, in case you missed it, here is part 1 of my Exotica 2005 report. It has been edited slightly to correct some minor factual errors.
July 8th 2005, Indianapolis - The Melody Inn
My wife Shari and I drove to Indianapolis and Chicago for the start of
an incredible weekend. Here is part 1 of our report. In the words of
the Penetrators, it was indeed a "High Speed Weekend" consisting of
long drives, very little sleep, great surf music, and meeting lots of
cool people.
It's hard to believe but I have made the annual trek to Indianapolis 4
years in a row now (I was there twice last year). Patrick from
Destination: Earth! / The Madeira is instrumental (pun-intended) in
setting up a Surf Rock gig or two every summer there. This year was no
exception, and it was killer. A big thank you to Patrick for the Indy
gig. Bravo.
First up, all the way from Atlanta (!!!) was The Surge. This band is a
three piece, with Eddie Catcher on the white Jazzmaster guitar, Mike
on the white P-Bass (props for the bridge cover!), and Elliot, aka
Illya "Stix" Stechkin from The Penetrators, on drums. I was very
excited to see these guys, as The Penetrators are one of my all time
favorite bands. They had a nice backline; Eddie is an amp/guitar whiz
who restores and recovers all kinds of amps, chopping them up to make
them piggybacks. Eddie had a '68 Dual Showman Reverb head inside
a more traditional blonde head cab with 2 15" blonde speaker
cabinets. And yes, a reverb tank topped things off. Mike also had 2
15" cabs with a modern (?) bass head put into a vintage style
piggyback head chassis, all blonde, of course. Cool!
I believe they opened up with Squad Car and went right into Movin'.
These guys were very good, and I had a huge smile on my face from the
start. Both Eddie and Mike are really great players and it was quite a
thrill to see S3 Agent #013 in action on the drum kit. They played a
lot of covers, but also a handful of really fantastic originals. I am
hoping that they will release these originals soon, as they were
excellent! Songs that I remember include a great version of Jon & The
Nightriders Storm Dancer, The Shadows Man of Mystery and The Savage,
The Wedge, Bulldog, and Deora by The Volcanos (whoo-hoo!). And who can
forget the surfed up cover of The Pink Panther! They closed with a tribute to
Penetrators lead guitarist Rip Thrillby; I'm not sure I got the title
right, but I think it was "Rippin': The Legend of Scott Rogers".
I knew next to nothing about these guys before the show, but was very
lucky and fortunate to catch them. Again, I hope they can record their
originals and get them out. Look for them!
I got to talk to Eddie a bit off and on during the rest of the night,
he's a truly friendly and interesting guy. He showed me a "family
photo" of his guitars and amps, it was jaw dropping. In addition to
restoring amps and tinkering with guitars, he has a home studio in his
basement, and builds racing boats. He actually saw the Astronauts in
1965 in Atlanta, and told me about meeting the guys! The Astronauts
are his favorite band, who started him on his love of instro-surf. He
told a great story of how he never stopped listening to surf-instros
his whole life, but continued to play other types of music in cover
bands through the years. Then one fateful day he walked into a bar in
1995 and saw the Penetrators. He immediately quit his other bands and
started the X-Rays (I think), which played instro-surf around the
Atlanta area for 7 or so years. I'm gonna try and twist his arm and
get him on the SG101 list, I think he'd be a great resource. I also
have to add how cool and friendly Elliot and Mike were...we were so
lucky to catch the Surge! A very nice surprise.
(I also learned the Penetrators are going to be playing over Labor Day
weekend in Atlanta...!)
Next up, fresh from an astonishing 16 hour drive, were the Nebulas.
This was the 2nd time I had seem them play (I caught them 2 years ago
in Indy), and it was only a month ago that we were awestruck Satan's
Pilgrims fans along with Nebulas Jim, Eric, and Dano in Seattle and
Portland. So it was very good to see them again. Mike had his white
Mosrite guitar with two, yes, two, Showman amps (although I later learned
he only played through one due to technical difficulties!), Eric with his
white Mustang bass, and Dano with his white Jaguar. All Showman amp
lineup too. Hell yeah. Jim was playing his green drum kit with the
light inside the bass drum illuminating the Nebulas logo. I think Mike
had a Fender reverb tank while Dano had his new Guyatone tank (it's
kind of jarring because it has Marshall like cosmetics; but it sounded
great). The last time I saw them play, their second CD had not come
out yet, but they went ahead and played a lot of cuts from it. This
time was the same way, they played maybe 50% unreleased new material
and 50% from their first 2 CD's. The new stuff is really good, I
cannot wait until they record it and get it released. I think their
first song of the night was the unreleased Retribution, and it is just
what you would expect from the Nebulas, tough, mean and just bad-ass.
Because there was so much unfamiliar material (for me), I can't quote
too many song titles, but let's just leave it at this: wow. Intense
stuff. In the cover department these guys really shine. They go for
the good gems. First of all, they did a totally shredding version of
The Penetrators Redlined, which got a big reaction from the Surge
guys, and well, everyone in the place. Awesome. Another great reminder
of last month's Satan's Pilgrims extravaganza was their rippin'
version of Ichabod Crane from the Creature Feature CD (the modern
classic of our times). A fantastic and unexpected surfed up cover song
was the AM radio staple "Bus Stop" (In fact, my wife heard this at the
grocery store this morning!). They totally surfed it out and it really
worked very well! I hope they record this at some point. Great fun!
Rhino Chaser, from their first CD, was also to die
for...mean...tuff...intense. The closed with Frankie N. Stein's "Bodies Under the Bridge".
I can't say enough good things about these guys...they are definitely one of
the best bands in the genre today. I don't know how they managed to stand
upright after a 16 hour drive, but they really delivered and the crowd really dug these guys.
I'll have much more to say on them in part 2 of the report..so stay
tuned for that.
The final band of the night was The Madeira. For those of you who
don't know, this is a band featuring Ivan from the Space Cossacks,
Patrick aka Commander 007 from Destination: Earth!, Dane on drums, and
Todd on bass. The Madeira started out as a side project between Ivan
and Dane, and you can hear their early work on the Monster Party 2000
disc. But now it has grown into a real band with the addition of
Patrick and now Todd (this was his second show with the band). These
guys have been cooking up great things in the past year, and are just
about set to record. Based upon what I have seen and heard this is
going to be a fantastic release. The Madeira play a very hard hitting
brand of surf music featuring whirling exotic melodies, pounding
drums, and frantic, brain scrambling rhythm guitar. Sandstorm seems to
start all the sets I've seen, with Ivan playing haunting, echo'ing
chords solo to lull you in. Then the rest of the band kicks in with
pulverizing fury. It is an intense song that will jar your teeth
loose. From there the band ripped into about a dozen originals with a
handful of covers. El Caliph is a menacing grinder of a song where you
can almost see the Orc army in Lord of The Rings marching along too. I
was also totally thrilled to hear them play a relatively new song
written by Patrick called Burning Mirage. Unbelievable..this will be a
standout track for sure. Also watch out for Cordoba, another favorite
of mine. Desert Drums is also very notable, and as you might imagine
features some really awesome drumwork that had everyone cheering Dane
on. I also really love their choice of covers: Dilmohammed by The
Treble Spankers complete with crashing reverb tanks (people actually
danced to this!!!), Express to Baghdad by The Atlantics, a stunning
version of Paco de Lucia's Almoraima (how did you pick this one
guys?), and the song that brings the house down, Intruder by the Surf
Coasters. Patrick and Ivan's playing complement each other so
well...Patrick is one of the few people I have ever seen pull off that
intense manic Shadows/Atlantics style of rhythm guitar playing. Seeing
him play on Tsar Wars and The Victor is exhausting! He's amazing! The
Madeira are definitely a killer, killer band and these guys were on
fire that night. I know I'm already laying it on too thick, but I
thought the roof was going to come down during Tsar Wars. Each
successive verse got crazier and more intense than the other. Wow. And
who can forget the dizzying Space Cossacks tune Transylvanian Orbit
which has been renamed to Ricochet in this incarnation. To avoid
pounding the crowd to death, the Madeira also have a couple of really
cool slower numbers: The Secret Route and Crescent Moon. All I can say
is WOW and thank you! Keep your eyes peeled for their new CD, which we
will hopefully see later this year on Double Crown Records.
Oh yeah, the gear...Ivan was playing his gold strat into his new Fender
Dual Professional with Weber California speakers...it sounded awesome.
This was the first time I had heard him without his Vox amp. Patrick had a
dark blue strat, playing through a reverb tank into an evil Twin. Todd had a
sunburst Jazz bass going into a Fender tube amp rig. Dane also had a new more
trad style drum kit, it looked very similar to what the Volcanos
drummer has.
Wow..that was the end of the first night...great music and great new
friends. Coming up in part 2...the Chicago Exotica event...but I'm
gonna have to recharge after writing this lengthy novel here.
Shari also snapped literally gigabytes of photos and video clips...I
think I might be running out of room on SurfGuitar101.com, but we'll
see...those will come a bit later. Look for those "real soon now".
I also cannot say enough how much fun I had this weekend. There is
nothing better than real live surf music and meeting all the cool
people in the scene..the bands and the fans.
