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[I am having a great summer. Two great shows in 2 months. I dont get to do
show reports to often (being in the midwest), so forgive me for the length,
enthusiasm, and excessive cross-posting....:^) ]
Iowa City is home of the University of Iowa and Gabes Oasis, a bar/venue
that hosts live music just about every night of the week. In fact, if any
indy band tours the midwest and decides to stop in Iowa, chances are its at
Gabes. You could set your watch by Man or Astro-Man? stopping there every 6
months or so (in fact one of their stickers was stuck to one of the PA
speakers ha-ha :). Its pretty much your typical college dive with layers or
graffitti and bathrooms from hell....and very little air conditioning.
I heard only about 1.5 weeks ago that Los Straitjackets were coming and I
didn't much care who else was playing with them that night. I was so there
(my 3rd time seeing LS...bless them for touring the midwest).
It turns out there were 4 bands on the bill before Los Straitjackets. Here
we go:
Sherman Hillside Stranglers: 3 piece with a cool name, mostly did single
minded instros with a couple of vocal tunes. Guitar player played some kind
of brown Gretsch into a Hot Rod Deluxe or maybe a DeVille. Bass player had a
funky looking bass, maybe it was a Gretsch too (or just a pawn shop
special). They kind of sounded like a darker Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet
without too much dynamics. One or two of their songs had my leg pumping
though. Don't know anything more about them.
Black Milk: band from Des Moines, had an eclectic mix of members. Bald
computer science geek looking guitar player, large and short female drummer
(very good), sharp dressed energetic bass player, and singer who looked like
your typical lead singer from a Judas Priest cover band circa 1988. You know
you're in trouble as you watch the band set up and you see the lead singer
tie a scarf to the mic stand. They played some angry alt-rock-punk. Not my
thing. Guitar was a black Gibson ES-135 through a zillion pedals; pretty
ugly tone.
The Nelsonics: A very nice surprise!! I thought someone on Cowabunga had
said something about them in the past. The flyer advertised them as "Surf
and Soul Revue from Milwaukee (featuring former members of The Exotics)".
When I saw them set up a Farfissa organ I got out of my seat and stood up
front. These guys all dressed alike, black shirts and white pants.
Guitar/bass/drums plus the critical swing man who played
organ/Theremin/saxaphone/tambourine/vocals. These guys were fun, energetic,
and very competent musicians. The first number made me smile: big twangy
guitar, smooth organ, pounding drums, and a fast bass line. Then they
launched into a cool version of The Shadow's "The Savage", complete with
organ and theremin! Wow! The rest of their set alternated between some r&b
vocals and surfy/spi/loungy/ska'ish instros. Very cool. They made a good
impression on the crowd. Their original stuff has cool names like: "Agent
Longboard", "Bikini Bullfight", "20 Fathoms Down", and "The Relaxed
Ambassador". Another good cover was "The Cruel Sea". The organ player
actually played organ and sax at the same time in a couple of places. Funny!
I chatted briefly with guitar player John after their set and bought their
first CD: "The Nelsonics" on Tiki Tone records. Nice guy. John played a left
handed shoreline gold Strat, it looked like a '62 reissue. He also had a red
lefty DiPinto Galaxie as a backup (Danny Amis and him were comparing their
DiPintos before their set). The Bass player was playing one of those
Telecaster style basses (I think - the one with the huge pickguard that
covers the wrong half of the body). Guitar and farfissa were run through
Fender Deluxe Reverb reissues. No reverb units, but that didn't stop them
from kicking their amps to get a reverb crash... I highly recommend these
guys to all surf/instro/LS fans. I'm listening to their CD now, its great.
No vocals on the CD, unlike their live set.
The Bent Scepters: These local heroes broke up in the late nineties, and
were a fixture at Gabes during the mid-90's. I couldn't tell if they were
reuniting for this one show or what. They toured quite a bit in the midwest,
and have a album or two out. One of their songs (their lone instro I think)
appears on Eddie Angel's Rock Don't Run Volume 2 (Spinout Records). The
place really filled up for these guys, lots of their old fans came out to
see them. In fact, I think most of the crowd came to see them. They played a
very high energy garage rock set, and the crowd loved it. The floor shook
from all the dancing! Lots of women present. The guys were very charismatic,
lots of "rock star" goofy faces, and wacky onstage dancing. The music wasn't
really my thing. It was good for what it was, but it was a bit repetitive.
And the vocals were buried in the mix so bad you couldn't hear the singer.
They are a 5 piece: bass, drums, guitar, lead singer, and guitar/organ
(borrowed the Nelsonics Farfissa). They brought some drunk friends up on
stage to hit beer bottles with drum sticks. Guess what? The bottles broke.
Glass on the stage for Los Straitjackets. Not cool. Guitars: black Squier
telecaster, sunburst Japanese Jazzmaster; bass: baby blue (or maybe sea foam
green?) Gibson Firebird.
Los Straitjackets took the stage around 12:20am. People actually left after
The Bent Scepters! I parked myself right in front of Eddie this time.
Lately, LS have been touring as "Los Straitjackets Rock-n-Roll Party
featuring X and The World Famous Pontani Sisters", where X has been a
vocalist (Big Sandy, Peter Zaremba, and/or Deke Dickerson). Tonight there
was no singer, just the Pontani Sisters. I detected some agitation with LS
while setting up, it was really late, super hot, broken glass on the stage,
and one of the other bands had apparently used (and mic'ed) Eddies amp
without asking. But when they came out, they came out swinging; their usual
high energy and happy selves. I love how Danny runs right up to the edge of
the stage thrusting his guitar neck out into the crowd without waiting for
anyone to move out of the way. They were in top form as usual. They rocked
hard and those that stayed loved it. Pete was also in good form. Jimmy
Lester had forgotten his medallion, so everytime they did the kiss the
medallion thing, Pete would lean over and look at Jimmy like Dude, wheres
your medallion. Ha-ha.
I wasn't sure what to think about the Pontani sisters before I saw them. But
then the band introduced them and they came out about 3 or 4 songs in for
"Itchy Chicken". All of my doubts vanished instantly. I am glad my wife
didn't come with me this time. YOW! Let me repeat that, YOW! As if there
isn't enough to look at anyway: glittery DiPinto guitars, wrestling masks,
choreography, fantastic musicianship, etc. and now you have 3 extremely
attractive dancers wearing tiny sombreros, lone ranger masks, plenty of cool
tattoos, fishnets, go-go boots, and little else. And they could dance like
crazy! I didn't know what to look at! I was trying to study Eddie's
fretboard burning fingers (only 1 foot away from me), but kept getting
distracted by a Pontani sister only 2 feet away. The ladies definitely
brought the craziness up a notch! They changed costumes a couple times
during the set. They would come out and shimmy for a number or two,
dissappear for a while (changing), then come out a few songs later. For the
Love Theme from The Titanic, they came out in these ballerina costumes,
complete with ballerina shoes. The band stepped back, and they did this very
cool and funny interpretative dance to the music. They were amazing, they
did that ballerina circling thing up on their tippy-toes (forgive me, the
ballet isnt my area of expertise). They knew their stuff, and smiled the
whole time! Cool!
As a consequence of all the bands that night, LS played a pretty short set.
Only about 10 or 12 songs. Highlights for me were Itchy Chicken, Casbah,
Pacifica, Calhoun Surf, Kawanga, Car Hop, Straitjacket, Rockula, Tailspin,
and Sing Sing Sing. They played 2 songs I had not heard before. New ones?
You should have seen the kicks the Pontani Sisters did during Sing Sing
Sing. By this time it was so hot, I was soaked through my shirt. As soon as
Sing Sing Sing finished, Jimmy Lester bolted out the back door gasping for
air, I thought he was going to pass out from all that awesome drum work. It
must have been murder under those masks. The girls were likewise sweating
like mad doing all that dancing. The crowd was just nuts and pounded on the
stage until they came out for an encore: Bat Man, Out Of Limits, Our
Favorite Martian, and Telstar. The girls did the Bat-tusi from the old TV
series during Bat Man! Great! One of my favorite moments was during Telstar.
Eddie was inches from me playing the verse. He then clicked on his reverb
for that very cool high-chorus part and I was in heaven. People have said
bad things about the DiPintos, but Eddie can make a card-board ukelele from
Sears sing. He had a great tone coming out of that thing. And then I had to
just turn my head 10 degrees to watch a Pontani sister shimmying along
beside him. I was on aural and visual overload!
The crowd screamed for them to come out again. But it was 1:20am by now, and
heat exhaustion was imminent. LS did a very wise thing. They came out one
last time and played the theme from Midnight Cowboy. A nice lullaby like
song to bring the energy down. Then they said goodnight.
All in all, a fabulous night! Thanks to The Nelsonics, Los Straitjackets,
and The World Famous Pontani Sisters!
BN
PS. LS are real road warriors. Tonight they play in Lincoln Nebraska, and
the next night in Indianapolis, Indiana! Thats a killer drive, and theyll
have to cross Iowa once again. Insane! (Have they heard of the travelling
salesman problem?)
PPS. Check it out! The Pontani sisters have an exercise tape featuring the
music of LS! (See links below):
Links:
Los Straitjackets:
Pontani Sisters:
The Bent Scepters:
The Nelsonics: ????
