The Paradise Lounge is a fun place to go, though old timers will tell you it's past its prime. The main floor has three rooms, two bars and two stages. Two opposing stairways lead to a balcony, which overlooks the main stage, a pool room, two bars and another stage. A band is always playing somewhere and one can roam from place to place, upstairs and down. This makes it popular, no matter who's playing, for singles, trendies, and out of towners, as well as those actually interested in the music. This last Saturday night, March 13th, at The Paradise, we got a taste of Italian surf music from COSMONAUTI, billing themselves as "The International Ambassadors of Surf". They were supported by local favourites POLLO DEL MAR (Chicken Of The Sea) for a very hot one-two punch of surf instrumentals -and several vocals from COSMONAUTI.
Mention must be made on how well PolIo Del Mar played. (ED: Oh, I'd forgotten about them - I was still enjoying the sensual undulations.) This was notable especially as regular drummer Chris Thomas was recuperating from an operation. For this show, Jefferson Tuner (bass), Jono Jones and Ferenc Dobronyi (guitars) were supported by Jeremy Rexford on drums. The band joked that they'd only had a brief rehearsal that afternoon. However, the music sounded too tight for that and subsequent enquiries proved that there were three rehearsals - still impressive though.
Annabelle Lee was dedicated of course, to Edgar Allan Poe. The Blue Rider was a mellow, melodic piece with an Endless Summer feel. Gate brought the tempo and energy level back up and it was followed by the set closer Insecticide, one of my favourites, with bits of numerous surf classics inserted throughout on this marathon live version. An exciting conclusion to an excellent set. The members of PolIo Del Mar chided me in friendly fashion for not writing about them sooner. They had seen the San Francisco by-line in several issues of New Gandy Dancer. I hadn't seen them in the last year and was happy to finally catch up with them. They have become one of our top local bands - emphasis on local. They have no interest in touring; being married and / or settled and they like it that way. Look for their new CD towards the early part of the summer.
Several numbers - First Kiss, Exotic Fever, Mexico Beach - had overtonoes of a Mediterranean flavour giving the tunes a breezy, sun-drenched feel, which of course, didn't mean they didn't rock. Death of a Matador had a noticeableDick Dale influence (Death of a Gremmie?).The band also did a nifty instro of The Zombies' She's Not there.
To steal a quote, "If Oregonians can mariachi and Czechs can rock, then certainly Romans can surf." COSMONAUTI convinced San Francisco, or at least the packed house at The Paradise Lounge. Arrivederci. |
The seeming demise of surf and related instrumental
music has hopefully been but a lull, as between wave sets. With the upcoming
VENTURES / MERMEN show billed as the "First Surf Stomp of 1999"
(actually the third counting DAVIE ALLAN / PHANTOM SURFERS and this show);
the April show "Surfin' Senorita", with POLLO DEL MAR and HERB
(Tijuana Brass tribute band); THE RED ELVISES (Siberian surf band) and with
THE AQUAMEN opening; and two new bands which remain to be seen and heard:
CASINO ROYALE (with several members of HERB) and the surf and spy of THE
INSPECTORS, things are looking up and we haven't hit summer yet.
Pollo Del Mar kicked things off on the downstairs
stage with Teleport, which many of you will know from the Three-Headed Gidget
CD (courtesyof NGD), as well as their own CD, The Ocean Is Not For Cowards.
A smokin' opener! The first four numbers in fact, were performed in the
same order as on their CD. For Death Valley Daze and Playa Pistola, the
band invited exotic hula gogo Queen Katherine to dance in front of the stage.
In her colourful Tahitian head-dress and flowing grass (synthetic?) skirt,
her sensual undulations added a zesty tropical air to the show. Several
inebriated yokels began "dancing" with her, but fortunately for
all, they were not long on their feet .
The drummer didn't miss a lick, at least nothing
the audience would notice and Jeremy's bass drum work stood out in particular
with lots of nifty double kicks on his DW pedal. Take Your Clothes Off and
Moon Over Marin continued the surfing excitement. Next up, a hard-driving
Cutlass Supreme. The guitars were rippin'! Queen Katherine rejoined the
band for a leisurely combo of Diamond Head / Mr Moto. That easy going pace
accommodated the swaying dancer to a "T " - though most of us
prefer both tunes at a much quicker tempo.
COSMONAUTI were a real treat, appearing on
the same stage (the two bands shared drums and other equipment.) I didn't
know what to expect having never seen nor heard them. The four piece band
- Stefano ' Justo' Giustinani and Andrea ' Joseph' Lauri on guitars, with
a tight rhythm section made up of brothers, Massimo ' Jnr' Petrozzi and
Alessandro 'Petrosh' Petrozzi on bass and drums - rocked out a set of almost
completely original material with strong melodic content and lots of reverb!
The Ventures are the most obvious influence,
and they did a nice instrumental Secret Agent Man. Sea Storm was an interesting
variation of Pipeline. There were numerous high points with such surf stompers
as 7th Level, Green Bay, Bad Moon and Local's Only (not the Surf Punks anthem,)
just to name a few.
Hailed as Italy's greatest surf band, COSMONAUTI
are travelling around the U.S. without record company support (sounds familiar).
Their manager is backing the whole deal - what a guy! And thanks to him
for a copy of the band's debut CD, Just Surf ,which is quite enjoyable,
with vibes and marimbas on the exotic numbers I mentioned, creating an even
more sultry, Latin-surf feel.