Bay Area Ska Buzz What did you think of the show? Check out the Bay Area Ska Board to see what others thought of the show. Friday, January 18th: Chris Murray, Vic Ruggiero, and Dan Potthast at the Tempest. Being a poor working college kid, money is always tight. Finding good music, concerts and company aren't always financially possible. I smelled a good show in the air. An all acoustic ska show at that. Being a major fan of ska since the early ninties I am always down for a good show. Especially Chris Murray, Dan Potthast and Vic Ruggero together in San Francisco. I was able to work my magic with the promoters to get in for free. They wanted bodies there regardless. No problem, I was more than happy to oblige. A few possiblities for my friday night popped up and not everyone was over the age of 21, I tried to get those over 21 to come out. A good show should be shared with friends and not missed. About two hours before the show was going to start the other possibilities all faded away. What was left was for me to spend my last amount of money on gas, bridge and parking. Friday night, January 18th and I am headed to the city. Not only that a new bar in a part of the city I am really familiar with. The Tempest is around the corner from the 5th & Mission parking garage and the San Francisco Chronicle. It's a block away from the Cheiftan (A great Irish pub if your interested in a new watering hole) and most importantly a block and a half away from Bucca Di Beppo! When I got to the Tempest, it seemed like an odd place to have a bar. It's on a side street in between 5th & 6th and Mission & Harrison. You could probably find this bar now without ever having been there. The thing that bothered me was this place looked familiar to me and I have NEVER been here. For those of you out there who were addicted to MTV just before they stopped playing video's they had this great show called Real World. This is Puck's old watering hole. This is the bike messenger bar! As I arrive Hebro is sound checking. I transplanted myself to the Bay area about six years ago and have been active in the ska scene since then. These guys looked really familiar and I couldn't peg why. In discussion with someone else there, Hebro members had been in a few local ska bands that I had heard of but never seen. I must have spotted them at various shows. Suddenly, my attention drifted away as I heard Hepcat. Not a band covering Hepcat but HEPCAT! These guys were sound checking to one of my all time favorite songs from the almighty, Dance Wid Me and they nailed it dead on. You can only do two things to a Hepcat tune, play it great or crash and burn. Instant respect, they did a wonderful job. Now I am excited to hear these guys all the way through. About this time Dan, Chris and Vic all filtered in and it was close to the time of starting. Bucca Di Beppo being provided for the performers and those who were there early. Thanks, free food is alway appreciated. What I love about the ska community is most of the artists aren't rock stars, they don't want to be rock stars and don't act like rock stars. It was nice to hang out with these wonderfully talented musicians and talk about things in the ska world. Hebro started their set and it was great. Two guitars, three vocals, a weird drum click sounding thing and Kazoo's, yes Kazoo's! Let me tell you, after hearing about three kazoo solo's, I am convinced that this is one instrument that is lacking in popular music. In reflection, I think I liked Hebro the best mainly because I had never seen or heard them before. I had no expectations to blow, I was just amazed. Dan came on next and had a great set. Dan is living the Santa Cruz area, it's relativly local to the Bay Area. I highly recomend catching one of his solo set's. Great voice, funny lyrics and pure entertainment. I thouroghly enjoyed Dan's set. Highlight's: Streetlight, Puppy dog. Chris got to stage a little bit late due to a vocal warm up in the backroom which was the kitchen right next to the stage. The bass player from Monkey & and the bass player from SOL were back there. Maybe they should have shut the door. We could hear them singing over the house music and the inbetween-set-conversation. Being a fan of Chris since the mid ninties when 4 Track Adventures came out I am overjoyed at how much Chris has been playing the Bay Area in the last six months. Please keep coming back. For those of you unaware, chris has an amazing voice, he's an excellent song-writer and puts on a damn good show for being a one man band. This night, Dan was his guitar tech and roadie since Chris pulled a rockstar move. He broke not one, but two strings during his set. Chris played a fairly even amount of material from both of his solo albums and a few King Apperatus tunes. Highlights: A duet with Dan on a song they co-wrote on tour together and the all star jam of Monkey Man with the bass player from Monkey, the bass player from SOL, Dan, Vic and the boys from Hebro which ended his set. Ah and finally Vic Ruggero's set. I had heard rumors that Vic's solo material is more rock and rockabilly/country type of stuff. Who cares? I was excited to hear anything that had come from the main songwriter of the Slackers. Amazingly the Slackers fell from my ska radar and I got into them about a year ago. I haven't stopped listening to their stuff since then. Vic's voice and songwriting ability was what I came to see. Wht was interesting was hearing Vic play some Slacker's tunes in this acoustic setting and with his rockabilly flair. Vic, thanks for the attempt at playing Wasted Days. One of my favorite tunes, he couldn't pull it off with out the rest of the band but the effort was appreciated. Highlight's: the entire set. When Vic was done he went into the "backroom" to grab his discs to sell. We didn't stop yelling until someone grabbed him and made him come back onstage. We got about three more songs out of him. An amazing night. For those of you who didn't make it out who are over 21 years of age. Your excuses are feable and weak. You MISSED OUT on a great intimate night of wonderful music and good times. The most interesting part was how it felt like a poetry slam or spoken word event. Instead of coffee everyone had cocktails and beer. There wasn't really any dancing. Unusual but still a great night. Thank you Hebro, DAn, Chris & Vic as well as Bay Area Ska for putting this event on. Definitly one of the highlights of the year and a great way to start off 2002.