Tiki Oasis 2015, Crowne Plaza, San Diego, Part 1, Friday August 14

Since we were only able to take 2 days off of work, we were not able to arrive at Tiki oasis 2015 in San Diego until late Thursday night, so unfortunately missed the Bali Hai intro night with the Tikiyaki Orchestra, who we really wanted to see. So, just had a couple of drinks in our room and rested for the next day's adventures.

We arrived at the outdoor main stage off of the pool in time to catch the landing out of the outter space, outta site Ding Dong Devils, featuring old friends Edwin (Moist'n'Meaty, This is Edwin and much more) and Max (Vooduo, Lords of Altamont and lots others). The triple D's had a full-fledged crew of space cadets introduce the band and induce the audience to dance. Highly visual (I would expect nothing less from any band with Edwin), the group had wild outfits, props, body paint and even cool songs referencing the event! Great, fun start to the day.

Clouseaux followed with an authentic exotica/lounge sound, complete with marimba (vibes?), percussion, horns and a steel guitar that emulated a theremin. Very cool sounds, but maybe a bit laid back - although absolutely proper for Tiki Oasis - for the afternoon crowd. Still, they were quite entertaining and all super musicians. I would definitely check them out again.

We needed some fuel at this point, so went inside to the Crowne Plaza's diner, which afforded us a view of the stage, albeit from a bit of a distance (hence the small photo) for the Outta Sites. The employees at the diner were a bit overwhelmed by the Oasis, so service was excruciatingly slow, which meant that we saw the entire OS set from our table. This co-ed combo covered 60's garage numbers while dressed for the occasion in Star Trek uniforms, including their go-go dancers!

The headliners for Friday night were the costumed aliens, the Phenomenauts, doing a similar set to what I saw last year in Vegas at the Dive Bar, although there was a young lady on keyboards and guitar this time. The lighting and special effects were tons of fun and the toilet paper shooter was an audience fave! The sound is a creative mix of new wave, pop-punk, surf and whatever else that comes to their mixed-up, cosmic minds! A boisterous, spacey ending to the official evening!