A Short ReCap From Surf 'O' Rama

Ran (aka Kick The Reverb) of The Sand Devils
Ron Eglit of The Surfaris
Mr Moto Paul Johnson playing with The Surfaris
Jim Fuller, lead guitar of the original Surfaris
The Eliminators
The BelAirs Eddie Bertrand playing with The Eliminators
Dave and Jeff (Mac) MacDonald from OuterWave, a very hot guitar player in his own right.
Dave Wronski doin' it up.


Howdy all.

Wanted to give y'all a short review of the outrageous show last week, the 1st Annual Surf 'O' Rama at The Gaslamp Bar & Grill in Long Beach. This was a Birthday tribute for Linda Miller, the driving force of the Surfin' Sunday Concert series put on by the International Surfing Museum in Huntington Beach. Linda works tirelessly to put on some of the finest surf shows each year at the Huntington Beach Pier and the Surf Museum

This was a 10 hour extravaganza of fine surf tunage. I was held hostage elsewhere for the 1st half of the show but was able to trudge through the rain to make it for the rip-snortin' second half. My grandson Gage and I made it just in the nick of time to see San Diego's own, The Sand Devils. Mi amigo Ran, lead guitarist (formerly leading the Israeli group The Astroglides) and his buddies gave a powerhouse 45 minutes of hard driving surf. We've been waiting for an album from them but new babies have slowed the progress a bit. Important things first!



After a quick tear down and setup, The Surfaris. Yes, The Surfaris. We were treated to Surfaris old and new. Jim Fuller, the original lead guitarist did a few numbers with some of the new Surfaris, Mr Moto himself, Paul Johnson! Also sharing lead licks was the exciting Ron Eglit, 20 + years as a DelTone with Dick Dale. Ron has been playing with the Surfaris for the last 5 years now. Got a chance to meet Paul Johnson after the show and got a signed CD, The BelAirs The Origins of Surf Music. We'll be hearin' a bit of that later.


Next up was The Eliminators who always put on a fantastic, high energy show. Then they introduced their special guest, another of the original BelAirs, Eddie Bertrand. Eddie strutted out for a couple of heavy twangers to a big howl from the crowd. Gage has been listening to surf music with his Papa for many years but this was his first live surf show. He told me that he never really got it before but you could tell by the look in his eyes, he sure did now. He was seeing some historic folks of the surf genre before his eyes and right up close.


The finale performance was by Outer Wave, the coordinators of this splendid show. Their consisted of their fine interpretations of many classics of the art. After wowing the crowd with one hit after another they unleashed their special guest. And unleashed is the right term to be used here folks. 'Cause when you bring the madman Dave Wronski up on stage, you better hold on. This boy can play like the devil was inside him! Dave from Slacktone fame and many other projects exudes so much energy that it gets the whole house going crazy. I didn't get a chance to talk with Dave after the show but we swapped a few emails after the show. Can't wait to see him and the rest of the Slacktone boys, Dusty and Sam play somewhere, anywhere soon.


With our hearts soaring, our ears ringing and our bellies full of Gaslamp's burgers, we wandered back home, feeling blessed to being able to see and hear some of the finest surf folks out there, ever.

I'm not much of a writer, not much of a photographer, but I hope this gets you some sense of how damn fine this night was.


Next year...Be There!

T