The Longboards, The TomorrowMen and The insect Surfers at The Purple Orchid 8-7-15

This was a dream come true for me. I have seen The Insect Surfers before. But as they were one of my faves I looked forward to seeing them tonight. The fact that they were with The TomorrowMen was a bonus. I had seen the The Longboards the night before. They would fast become one of my favorites of the event.

The Purple Orchid is a Tiki Bar in the grimy Oil Refinery district of El Segundo. It was a perfect venue and I fell into the best seat in the house.

Jeff 'Big Tiki Dude' Hanson is the producer and promoter of the convention and the impresario of all events related to the convention. He is relentless in his pursuit of surf.

The place was charming and I fell in love with the owner right away. His drinks bubbled with dry ice.

I met Sean Berry of Double Crown records as soon as I entered and stood and talked with him for a moment. Just as we spoke this guy got up and walked away from his chair at the bar. Boom, my butt went down with a thud. Best seat in the house.

The Longboards were on first.

I fell in love the evening before, the bromance was in full bloom tonight. The Longboards are not only accomplished musicians, but they present great theater. They have choreographed moves and loosely prepared volleys of guitar theatrics.

The Longboards are: JORDI PORRAS (Bass) ALFREDO ROMERO (Guitar) Ander Bada, (drums). Sorry for the caps, I just copied from their Facebook page here:https://www.facebook.com/pages/THE-LONGBOARDS-Surf-Band-Official-site/194481570589133

They were as fun as it gets, presenting a formidable opening act. The following bands better bring their good stuff. As I found out, The Longboards bring their A-Game to every note.

Viva Espana! These guys made me glad to be alive. As the weekend wore on, I was privileged to rub elbows with them several times. They were sweet and giving guys, I hope to see them again soon.

The TomorrowMen were up next. They beamed in and brought their futuristic music.

They have new CD and played a mix of the new stuff with some of their old. The theme is Futourism and they wrote some great tunes for the latest endeavor. You can buy the digital file here: https://thetomorrowmen.bandcamp.com/album/futourism. or purchase the CD here: http://www.doublecrownrecords.com/

The place was packed and I had folks standing in front of me so getting good pics was a problem. The stage was about the size of a postage stamp.

Laika, the drummer is back there somewhere. The TomorrowMen are: Mycroft Eloi, Skyles Angstrom, Grommet X and Lazarus Longfellow. The names they have taken for their shows in this century are: Danny Snyder, Ferenc Dobronyi, Treyf Bacon III and Laika Bald.

I was so happy to see them again, lucky for me I was going to be able to see them 2 more times during my stay in southern California.

The Insect Surfers were on next. They are a venerable surf band that has been active since the 80's. The cast has changed but David Arnson has been the main agitator since day one.

Here he is doing what he does best...making people smile.

The Insects play a raucous brand of psychedelic surf with heavy metal overtones. It is right up my alley. The Insect Surfers are based in LA: David Arnson, Guitar, Jonpaul Balak, Fender Bass, Michael Abraham, Guitar, Jeff Utterback, Drums.

Jonpaul is in several of my favorite surf and exotica bands. He is in The Tikiyaki Orchestra (http://www.tikiyakiorchestra.com/Site/HOME.html), The Insects and plays regularly with other surf bands. He is high demand and is asked to play with touring bands. Recently he sat in as bass-man for The Threesome. This weekend he was in the Jesters Tribute band.

He is also the most excellent DJ and curator of Fiberglass Jungle, an internet surf radio program. He is my link to the history and present of surf music. I am a relative newbie and he educates me every Saturday at 2PM PST on Luxuria Music. Find it here: http://www.luxuriamusic.com/

The Insects brought out their crazy fans. All of a sudden I could not see the band even though I was 5 feet away from David. Here is some of the ensuing madness, loved Barni.

The place got crazy fast and David and the bugs took advantage playing some of their best stuff.

Michael always had a smile on his face. Happy people make happy music that makes happy people.

David added his sombrero when he played the spaghetti western stuff.

I was privileged to see this great band again. I will remember this night .

Moonbase was on next but it was midnight and I had to pace myself. I was going to see them the next day anyway. I left with a happy buzz in my head. Thanks to Jeff, The Purple Orchid and all the bands for the great fun.