Halloween '08 with KELP

[KELP]

Following our Trick or Treat run with the kids, we passed our younguns' off to the wives and proceeded to The Mercury Lounge in Goleta, CA. A small hidden club (and they like it that way), the theme of the night was Alice In Wonderland. Our pretty host dressed as Alice had decorated the club with cards and scenese from Alice while the Disney flick was shown on one of the walls. A DJ was spinning (okay pressing keys on his laptop) tunes between sets. It was dark. Really dark. And we were drunk. Really drunk. Not our best show but we still managed to have a good time.

The next day I picked up Sam in my van and headed South to Los Angeles. Our GPS got us safely to The Redwood Bar And Grill where we would play that evening. Our contact went by the monicker of "Lucky". Nice guy who greeted us and directed us to an area where we would stage our equipment. The club is normally decorated with a nautical them. The framed pictures of ships on the wall have giant octopus tentacles dragging the ships under the waves. Ship lights, wheels, etc. decorate the establishment. The food, I was told, was quite good. But I was more interested in sipping on some grog before we played.

The sound in the Redwood is huge. We played a long set to an enthusiastic crowd. We all agreed that we had redeemed ourselves after our previous show in Goleta. And the act that followed us was AMAZING! The husband and wife team of Vooduos were like a garage/billy version of the White Stripes..if they were the living dead! Dressed as Zombies, he on Danelectro guitar and she standing in front of two drums beat the hell out of some great stuff. Simply amazing. I would drive a 100 miles to see these guys again.

The final act was Thee Cormans. An homage to the "B" movie monsters of Roger Corman. Drummer wearing a gorilla mask, bass with a Frankenstein mask and the guitar player wearing what looked like a giant fuzzy pickle for a head, reminiscent of Sigmund and The Sea Monsters. The drummer proceeded to insult the crowd, flipping them off at every chance. The songs were indistinguishable as they played their matching Danelectro Hodads. I'm a simple caveman who doesn't dig the insult rocker schtick. We kept our distance as they were pretty scary without the masks and huge, with the exception of tiny Frankenstein on bass.

Great club and friendly staff. If you're in LA and it's a Saturday night, look to see who is on the menu for their "Saturday Night Fish Fry". You'll be glad you did!