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A huge Southern Surf Syndicate salute to Agent #023 for this fascinating and
very encouraging report on the recent gig! This certainly bodes very well
for next weekend's outdoor performance at Drive-Invasion. <big smile>
And although the late great Rip Thrillby may not have "been there smiling
down on" the Penetrators during the gig, it looks like he was sittin'
squarely on your shoulders while you filed this great report. <bigger smile>
See ya next Sunday!
--AGENT #044
>From: Twangler <>
>Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 22:59:32 -0500
>
>Greetings,
>
>The weekend is coming to a swift end and I sit before the keyboard in
>an old familiar state of mind and body once experienced far more often.
>A slight ring in the ears, lungs and sinuses that would jump out of my
>mouth and beat me about the head if they could for subjecting them to
>far too many cigarettes in an unventilated bar. And lest we forget the
>affects free draught beer has on the central nervous system.
>
>Not a fantastic state to be in had Saturday had not been such a great
>night for the Southern Surf Syndicate.
>
>The locale was Egans in Tuscaloosa Alabama. Since the Chukker closed
>it's doors, this is about the only bar left in town for bands that
>don't play hippy jams or alt rock cover tunes geared for the greek
>scene. Egan's is on the small side and patrons are forced to literally
>walk through the band to get to the can. Polite folks wait to go
>between songs, but not always and it's really not considered rude to
>walk through during a tune. The crowd is right on top of and behind the
>band which makes for a fantastic atmosphere for playing in my opinion.
>
>This was the first weekend of the University of Alabama's fall session
>so we set up a tag team gig with The Vindicators from Nashville. Bucky
>G Lover's new band (formerly of Thee Phantom 5ive). The game plan was
>to revive the tag team set format. The Vindicators would start with a
>30ish minute set, then within 5 to 10 minutes, we'd play about a 45
>minute set, back to the Vindicators for about a 40 minute set with us
>closing the joint down at 2am.
>
>The Vindicators brought with them a good mix of Garage originals and
>covers flavored with a little bit of country at times and a couple
>instrumentals from Henry Mancini to Bobby Fuller's "Our Favorite
>Martian." This was only their second public gig and were very well
>received and played tight with energy and feeling.
>
>It's been nearly 2 years since we've played Tuscaloosa and we had only
>played there sporadically before that so in many ways we were a brand
>new band playing to a brand new crowd. There were obviously a few
>familiar faces in the crowd but in a college town the bar flies move on
>and replenish often. We were about to find out what the new generation
>thought of instrumental music Penetrator style.
>
>We opened with "Good cop bad Cop" straight into "Aunt's Invasion."
>Before launching into "Night of the Drunken Cheerleaders" I decided to
>address the crowd which now stood shoulder to shoulder about 4 feet in
>front of us stretching all the way to the front of the bar. I generally
>don't believe in microphones and didn't bring my megaphone with me so
>that meant I'd have to yell at the top of my lungs. Within about 5
>seconds my vocal chords were stripped but the show must go on.
>
>The fun of a 'tag team' gig format is as the name suggests, it's
>loosely based on professional wrestling. So, hurling insults at the
>opposing band is very much encouraged. This is also quite fun playing
>with a 'vocal' band. Much fun was had referring to those "Yankee's"
>from up north in Nashville needing a sissy PA system etc...
>
>Anyhow, the first set was great with the minor exception of playing the
>first chorus of "Lamento a Go Go" on the A string instead of the D.
>What a joy it is to stare at your hands trying to figure out why it
>sounds so incredibly bad (and loud) when you know you're on the right
>fret - or are you? So you start playing going up and down the fret
>board but to no avail. Finally as the measure comes to an end - Eureka!
>wrong string. Too late to rein that one back in so you just move on.
>
>The Vindicators second set featured their instrumentals highlighted by
>"Our Favorite Martian" which we happened to play and beat them to the
>punch during our first set. Of course that provided Bucky G plenty of
>ammo to fire back at us. The Syndicate's medical advisor, Dr. Duke
>Stupor, was in attendance and prescribed us each a Glen Livet. A fine
>alternative to draught Budweiser but with our more difficult songs to
>come in the second set, I resolved myself to the fact that at worst, it
>would be interesting.
>
>The second set was right on target featuring songs like High Tide, The
>Truant, Guns Don't Argue, HPS Theme, Carl's Bad and the Southern Surf
>Syndicate theme song. As we were told to make the announcement for last
>call, we played Mr Eliminator and ended the night with Redlined. Rip
>had often opened shows with that tune and as the evening came to an end
>it seemed to be the perfect song to end it with.
>
>I'm not one to believe "Rip was there smiling tonight" as someone
>mentioned. I figure he's got better things to do but it was an eerie
>feeling as the night came to an end how much it felt like many of the
>gigs of years ago for the first time. If that makes any sense to you.
>As we were trying to load out, the Egan's folks were trying to talk us
>into coming back to play on Sept 9th. No decision on that one yet. A
>guy who owns a local pizza joint called "California Underground" loved
>it so much he claimed we now have free pizza for life. I have no
>problem with that.
>
>We'll be back in Atlanta next sunday at 4 o'clock for Drive invasion.
>We could always fall on our face but I'm really looking forward to it.
>Either way, we're going to have a good time and that's what it's all
>about. When we played our first gig 11 years ago we said we'd play
>until it wasn't any fun anymore. It's still fun...
>
>Happy Reverbs!
>Spanky
>023
>
>ps I only have two pictures from the evening that I'll try to post in
>the pictures list section
>
