Here is part 2 of my Exotica 2005 show report, dug out from the archives of the SG101 Yahoo Group. Enjoy!
July 9th 2005 Chicago (well... Berwyn to be precise)
This is part 2 of my report on our Exotica High Speed Weekend. This
part deals with the Exotica event. Part 1 was the previous night's
Surge/Nebulas/Madeira show in Indianapolis.
After a bleary eyed drive up from Indianapolis and wrestling with
Chicago traffic we arrived at Fitzgeralds for the Exotica 2005 main
day of music. Fitzgeralds consists of several buildings connected by a
large open area. For the Exotica event, they fenced the open area off
and covered most of it with a large circus like tent. Inside the open
area were a whole bunch of vendors, selling Tiki and other exotic
stuff...clothes, masks, mugs, trinkets, etc. It was a really nice
setup and the place was pretty clean and family oriented (compared to
other surf band venues I have been in - LOL). Lots of kids were there,
surprisingly. There was a stage in the outside area, under the large
tent. There was also another stage in a good sized room in one of the
back buildings. Unfortunately, there was some competition between
stages (overlap with bands), so you couldn't see everything you
wanted.
While we waited during the mid-afternoon for the "real" entertainment
to start, we got to see Hawaiin dancers and a duo of acoustic and
steel guitar players. Later that evening they had a fire dancer.
Catching a flaming baton in the back of your knee without burning
yourself is pretty damn impressive.
Soon I started recognizing people...first there was the guy in the S3
shirt. I later learned this was Jet Powers. Then some Nebulas started
trickling in. And then the Madeira. And an umasked Eddie Angel and
Pete Curry. Kaiser George was buying booze at the bar. Around this
time I got to meet Michael Miller and the rest of the Los Cobras guys.
"Miller" is an SG101 regular and his band (from Grand Rapids MI ?)
submitted "Watery Grave" (a good track IMHO) to the mp3 comp. Los
Cobras is just about to release their CD and I had a very nice time
talking to them. I enjoyed hearing about seeing the 3D-Invisibles and
the Zombie Surfers first hand. Cool! Best of luck with the CD release
guys! (Miller and *and* his wife won consecutive prizes during the
raffle...I think it was rigged!)
Let's see, about then Ivan introduced me to Gregory Nicoll and Jet
Powers. Very nice meeting you! The Surge guys also made it up. They
seemed like old friends by this time.
Around 4:00pm the Nebulas began setting up inside. I took a quick peek
outside and caught a song or two from The Neanderthals at the outside
stage. This looked like a total riot, with the band dressed in furry
caveman outfits and Lone Ranger style masks, and I wish I could have
caught their entire set. Pete Curry must have been filling in for
their regular bass player. The lead singer, Johnny Rabb (?), was a lot
of fun, pounding on a drum with a caveman club while screaming himself
red-faced. And the ever present Eddie Angel guitar licks sounded
mighty damn good in a primitive rock-n-roll way. But, my heart was
with surf, and I had to catch the Nebulas again, so it was back
inside.
The Nebulas did a quick sound check of Steel Pier, which sounded
awesome, and it actually brought people inside to see what was going
on. This was a good sign. After that I was honored that Dano and Eric
asked us for a couple of song ideas for the set (they took us up on
High Tide, Tuco's Lament, and Godfather - thanks guys; apparently
Mandalore is a forgotten tune :( .
I think it was at this point that I got to see Mike and Sandy from the
9th Wave again. I last saw them 2 years ago at the previous Exotica
event. Nice to see you guys again.
After a short delay and intro from an emcee type of guy whose name
escapes me...the Nebulas emerged...da da da...wearing their skeleton
masks, top hats, and suits! I can't even begin to tell you the effect
these had on the audience. First of all you have these leering skull
smiles looking at you. And while they wore the masks, they had no
chit-chat between songs, they just hammered one song after another -
bam bam bam. It was great. People started coming in the door when the
music started, and seeing the looks on their faces when they saw the
band was priceless. Shock and awe. About 3/4 of the way through the
set they tore off their masks (before passing out I presume) and
started some chatter with the audience. It worked really well and the
crowd was really, really digging them.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I really felt this performance was
about 3 times better than the previous night's, and that is saying a
lot. They played more songs from their first 2 CD's and less of the
newer unreleased tunes. The room sounded much better and I could hear
everyone clearly. The whole band was really on fire...Rudy was getting
his tuff aggressive Mosrite tone and Jim was really ripping it up with
fast fills. Eric was bouncing up and down and Dano was keeping the
boooching alive. They played their surfy cover of Bus Stop again (this
is really growing on me - I must hear this again!), and played another
cover song in my "gee I wish I could hear this song live" category:
Exotic by the Sentinals. Hooray, I can cross that one off. Wow...that
really kicked ass. I just love the throbbing bass line and guitar
work. They did a great job on that one. Tuco's Lament was a great song
to break up the high energy set. It has such a cool sad melody. They
closed with 2 covers: Bodies Under The Bridge and the Godfather. One
of the many enduring memories I have of the whole night is watching
Mike double pick (or is it tremolo pick :) the last verse of The
Godfather a million miles an hour so fluidly. Pretty damn cool. It was
a very impressive performance and I was so glad I got to see it. On
top of that, they had a great crowd who were really going nuts for
them. That had to feel very good.
I think it was in the aftermath that I finally got to meet Unsteady
Freddie. I hope we can cross paths again Freddie at many more great
surf shows.
The Madeira were up next. I don't think I can add too much to the
heaps of praise I gave them in part one. Their performance, to me, was
just as fantastic as the previous night's, and on top of it, the
acoustics were much better. Another outstanding job. The large crowd
was also really into it; there were people offering the band beers,
trying to find out where they were from, etc. They got a great
response. And they demanded, and received, an encore! Apparently they
only had 1 song left that they all knew, DD's The Victor. Gregory's
attempts to get them to play Red Sunrise failed. Ha-ha. The only
incidents I recall were Ivan unplugging himself by stepping on his
cord, which he quickly realized, plugged back in, and then leaped back
into the song *mid-phrase* which I thought was impressive. And Todd
was hiding in the back...he needs to get moved up to the front! Just
another really, really great job. I was really quite amazed at how
well songs like Express to Baghdad went over. It seems people are
ready for non-blooze scale music after all.
So then we ran outside to catch the Exotics (from Milwaukee) who were
about 1/2 done with their set. I will admit I do not know very much
about them, although I have seen the soul/surf combo The Nelsonics,
which features, I believe, the bass player and drummer.
Anyway, I will definitely be checking these guys out more, I'd
appreciate pointers from the list. I got the impression they only had
1 full length and this was the first time they had played together in
years. The bass player had a striking red Wilson Brothers bass
(VMB-75?) with the Ventures logo on it, and the two guitar players had
Eastwood Mosrite clones (a beautiful medium blue and a
yellow/cream/gold one). The drummer was playing a 3 piece kit standing
up. These guys were fantastic! As I ran up they were playing Cecilia
Ann, and playing it true to the original! They then proceeded to blast
through some surf tinged party rock-n-roll, with really great crowd
interaction with lots of smiles and infectious grooving. They had the
outside crowd dancing, and even gave away a blender (!) to the best
dancer in the front row. Actually they couldn't decide so they gave it
to two young girls who didn't know each other. I'd have liked to stick
around and see how that got resolved. I'm also not sure what happened,
but they had the lights turned out on them during one entire song...I
don't know if they were getting told to finish or what, but they kept
going. A very fun performance and I'm really glad I got to see them! I
hear they are playing out again, by all means catch them!
Los Straitjackets were up next. A crowd magically formed while I was
talking to people, so we got a bad spot near the back. This wasn't
just your average LS show, it was a "Summer Twist Party", featuring
Kaiser George (of the Kaisers?) and the World Famous Pontani Sisters.
The show consisted of about 1/2 the normal LS set and was interleaved
by vocal twist numbers sung by Kaiser George and usually had the
Pontanis dancing. It was a big fun colorful party. I'll probably be
pelted with rocks and garbage for saying this, but I think I would
have preferred the standard LS set. It was fun and everything, but the
twist numbers did nothing for me musically. The Pontani Sisters are
definitely easy on the eyes, however. At one point they held a twist
contest, pulling up members of the audience. Pitted against two
hopelessly outclassed guys was the 9th Wave's Sandy, who easily pegged
the Twist-o-meter. Funny. They definitely had the crowd in the palm of
their hand and put on a damn entertaining show. This was the first
show for me with new drummer Teen Beat who replaced Jimmy Lester
recently.
For some odd reason, the promoters put a band on after LS, and it was
Cocktail Preachers on the inside stage. By this time it was really
late, and the folks were were staying with wanted to split. I did poke
my head in and caught a few minutes of the first song. Just enough to
see that the CP's were doing "the right thing (TM)". I have apologized
profusely to Phil Tiki in a private email. I heard through the
grapevine that the CP's did a great job and even had audience members
jump up on stage and dance. Awesome!
Congratulations if you are still reading my longest post ever. I
should have some photos and some video clips posted "real soon now".
Overall, an amazing event, I sure hope they do it again next year.
Taken with the previous night it was definitely a high speed weekend
that I will remember fondly for a long time. It was great seeing all
of my old online friends again, as well as meeting several new
friends. Thanks to everyone for being so cool....and especially to
those who play, love, and support live surf music.
BN
