While the name Surf Guitar 101 may conjure up images of a classroom, this longstanding web home of surf music afficionados is also the namesake of the world’s premier festival of surf music (think Dick Dale, not Beach Boys), now in its 16th year. While the dress of attendees tends to run toward Hawaiian shirts, concertgoers take their surf music extremely seriously. Featuring 27 bands over three days from all over the world and covering most subgenres, the festival acts not only as a gathering of the tribes but an exposition of the best that instrumental guitar music has to offer. Friday kicked off with the Manakooras, featuring members from all over the southeast, offering their brand of exotica-tinged surf, featuring steel guitar conjuring up sunset on the islands. Next up were the Insect Surfers, now in their 45th year, with founding member Dave Arnson bouncing all over the stage and leading bass player exemplar Johnpal Balak (who featured in at least five over bands over the weekend!) and the rest of the band through a set celebrating their history, from their new wave beginnings to their current hard edged and moody guitar instrumentals. The evening ended with Bay area progressive surf band, the Mermen, who treated their dedicated fanbase to a lengthy atmospheric set of droney psychedelic surf.
Photo credit: Storm Surge of Reverb
Not arriving in time to catch the Strings Aflame from Mexico, Saturday started for this scribe with a 2 pm set from the Lords of Atlantis, featuring Ivan Pongracic, Econ professor and veteran of the Space Cossacks and Madeira, who made the most out of the Fender Showman backline, playing a stellar set of lyrical, yet powerful Shadows-influenced surf, including a catchy as hell tribute to the late Dick Dale, “Long Live the King!” Martin Cilia, a latter-day member of 1960’s Australia surf legends, the Atlantics, was up next, followed by crowd favorites, the Whys, an infectious all female Japanese trio. The international flavor continued with an entrancing set by the Scimitars, a recently formed combo playing middle eastern flavored surf and featuring Ron Mosessco on guitar and Saz (a long necked lute), as well as a belly dancer who, among other things, balanced a scimitar on her head without stopping her gyrations; Dirty Fuse from Greece, featuring Eri Kapetanaki on guitar and bouzouki; and Surfer Joe (a/k/a Lorenzo Valdambrini), an Italian surf music evangelist, who plays classic surf guitar, runs a company, which manufacturers reverb pedals and other essential surf musical gear, and annually produces the Surfer Joe Summer Festival, the European version of the Surf Guitar 101 Festival, in Livorno, Italy. Up next were the Surfaris, featuring original member Bob Berryhill, his wife, and two sons, who regaled the crowd with stories of their days on the early Southern California surf scene, including the recording of surf classic, “Wipe Out.” The evening concluded with unhinged sets from New York’s Coffin Daggers (making their first ever L.A. appearance), the Untamed Youth, and the Ghastly Ones. Untamed Youth, who have performed infrequently at reunion gigs since their formation in 1987, were led by guitar and roots rock historian, Deke Dickerson, and played a rollicking set of surf, frat, and hot rod music, climaxing in a salute to every teenager’s favorite cheap libation, Pabst Blue Ribbon, which involved dousing those portions of the crowd who had not seen the band before with healthy amounts of the subject beverage. Dressed as undertakers and looking like the house band at 1313 Mockingbird Lane, the headliner and main attraction of the weekend, the Ghastly Ones, performing for the first time in 14 years, thrilled the crowd with their spooky garage punk take on surf.
The final day of the festival was spent allowing the ringing in my ears to subside, before venturing back to the Golden Sails in the afternoon to catch the sweater and tie clad Volcanics play a set of classic first wave surf and the Nebulas, sporting Ghoul masks and all Mosrite guitars, playing a set of hard-edged surf. The evening featured northwest favorites, the Boss Martians, focussing on their instrumental side with a high energy set of classic surf featuring saxophone and the manic intensity of frontman, Evan Foster, followed by the Outta Sites, a band led by Los Straightjackets drummer, Chris Sprague, who played a fun name-that-tune set of instrumental versions of 60’s secret agent themes and British Invasion numbers. The evening ended with the return of the Coffin Daggers, this time playing a set of all Eleki tunes (the Japanese version of surf music, influenced by the Ventures, and extremely popular in Japan in the 60’s). Cowabunga!
