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Roger and The Wraybands
The Hellbenders
The Cocktail Preachers
Heartland Cafe, Chicago 5/14/2005
I started to chicken out about going to this a week earlier because of
the distances involved. I live in the NE central part of Iowa. But I
always have my motto WWJBHD? (What Would Jeff Bigtikidude Hansen Do).
And then I read that Mike Rosado went to freakin' Nova Scotia to play
with The Urban Surf Kings. So in the spirit of those great leaders and
role models I decided to make the long and arduous trip.
First of all, a shout-out to the venue. If you are ever in the Rogers
Park area of Chicago, go look them up for some great vegetarian food
and an excellent bar (note to the Nebulas: they have Duvel). But don't
fret meat-eaters, they also serve buffalo, chicken and fish. On the
other hand, starting the show at 10:00pm when you have 4 bands on the
bill is not a good idea (more on this later).
Up first was Roger and The Wraybands, who I was completely unfamiliar
with. What a nice surprise! This is a 4 piece band with Roger on a
beautiful sunburst Jazzmaster and the rhythm guitarist had a equally
cool surf green Strat (actually the lead parts were maybe 80%
Jazzmaster / 20% Strat). Sonic blue Jazz bass. Tattooed drummer. There
was a low wall between me and the amps, so I didn't get a good look.
They played all covers as far as I could tell, but played them with a
very high degree of technical skill and sharpness. I am always
thrilled when I hear surf songs live for the first time (since I don't
get out of Iowa too often), and these guys really checked off some
songs I've been dying to hear live. They started with Walk Don't Run
'64 and then went into Surf Rider. Very cool trad tunes. Okay I got
them pegged on the surf spectrum. But then they veered off into
obscuro land with a cover of Moon Relay by The Vistas from that
Diggin' Out comp. WOW! This is so cool! More great trad tunes:
Midnight Run and Maleguena. They also moved into the modern bands with
great covers of Satan's Pilgrim's All Day Party and Los Straitjacket's
Beach Bag. They had great stage presence and were a lot of fun to
watch. Great job guys! Excellent!
Next up were The Hellbenders, the biggest baddest cowboy band south of
an area slightly north of Detroit, Michigan. The Hellbenders are a 4
piece band that features 3 of the guys from one of my favorite surf
bands, The Volcanos. Their CD "Today We Kill, Tommorow We Die" is
never far from my CD player. I had never thought it possible that I
would ever get a chance to see these guys play, but lo and behold they
came to Chicago and that was close enough for me. So up strode the
band wearing cowboy hats and they proceeded to blow everyone away. It
was so good I was nearly cryin'. WOW. Rick (aka Arch Stanton) was
playing his white Jazzmaster but pulled out his super bad-ass baritone
Danelectro for extra low-down twang on a few numbers. Chris was
playing some kind of P-90 equipped Gibson (not an SG) with one of
those funky vibrato systems. Tombstone Bill was playing a cool
copperburst Dano longhorn bass. Lonesome Billy the drummer was not
tattooed as far as I could tell (sorry I know jack squat about drum
kits). These guys simply tore the place up with their cowboy and
spaghetti western rock. From my memory, here are some of the songs
they played: All I Can Do Is Cry, Ghost Riders In The Sky (complete
with awesome Yippee-Ki-Yays and Ohs), Unmarked Grave, Siboney, Johnny
Cash's Big River (how cool is that!), Winchester Justice, Today We
Kill... Tomorrow We Die, and Gunfight at the OK Corrall. This last
song features a super long vocal yell by Rick that had everyone
cheering. And, I shall never forget this, they played The Big Gundown
by the "Maestro", Ennio Morricione. During the whole drive over I had
my fingers crossed chanting to myself "please play Big Gundown, please
play Big Gundown"...AND THEY DID! It was so incredible to see their
stunning arrangement of this spaghetti western theme, complete with
interlocking and interleaving guitar parts, it was dizzying! These
guys are the best! WOW WOW WOW! The Hellbenders RULE! The crowd really
dug these guys.
After that, it was midnight I think, and The Cocktail Preachers took
the stage. This was the 3rd time I have seen them, and each time they
are truly better. This was also another great performance that had me
grinning from ear to ear. Stevie was playing his green custom
Jazzmaster, Bruce his ice blue Jazzmaster, and Phil had a cool looking
fiesta red P-bass. The very tall drummer was tattooed I believe, and
he wore a bitchin' faux leopard skin fez.They started with Podolor's
Quiet Surf, which is another song I had never thought I would hear
live, but now both the CP's and The Madeira are doing it. Awesome!
This song kind of set the tone for their set. Very suave, very
melodic, exotic, and slightly mellow. They played several songs in the
style of their recent (and excellent) CD "The Exotic Moods Of...".
Kind of laid back and lounge-y covers of Kawanga and Hawaii 5-0 (which
closed the set). I got to tell you, I'm not a huge fan of the song
Hawaii 5-0, but I really like their slow take on it (and for a great
fast version see Slacktone). I really like their orignal songs
Margarita Meltdown and the moody spy-ish sounding I Think It Means
Death. I was also totally thrilled to hear their excellent cover of
The Enchanted Sea. AWESOME! The CP's also threw in some very cool but
non-traditional covers as well. First, Bruce did an excellent job on
the frantic lead guitar on Fugitive, a favorite cover by Laika & The
Cosmonauts. Yet another song I never would have guessed I would have
heard live. And then, to feature their drummer, a cover of The 50 Foot
Combo's Drums A Go Go. Again, how cool is that! Another fantastic job!
What a show!
By this time it was 1 am, and one more band was left. Only a dozen or
so souls were left. My deepest apologies to Mr. Scary Larry and The
Gravetones. I was staying with a friend who lived an hour away, and
facing the long drive back to Iowa early in the morning we had to bug
out. I am sure it was my loss. I also deeply regret not getting a
chance to say much more than "Hi" to the bands. Still, it was a
fantastic show, and many, many thanks to the CP's for getting it set
up.
I just saw Dick Dale 2 nights earlier...Satan's Pilgrims is next
month, and then in July it's The Madeira, The Nebulas, The CP's again,
Los Straitjackets and more...what a summer this is turning out to
be...!
Here are some web links to the bands: (under heavy construction
- not official yet)
BN
I'm jealous that you got to see the Hellbenders live. I hope they take the
Lewis & Clark
Trail out West sometime. Did you get some video to put on your site?
joe
--- In , "Joe K." <norcalhodad@y...> wrote:
> I'm jealous that you got to see the Hellbenders live. I hope they
take the Lewis & Clark
> Trail out West sometime. Did you get some video to put on your site?
> joe
I am really sorry but my better half could not accompany me. She does
all the audio/visual work on the team. Someday I need to figure out
how to use our camera...
BN
Steve from the Cocktail Preachers stumbled across this. It's a blog
entry from someone at the same show. He's not a surf fan, and it's
interesting to see things from his perspective:
BN
