Tiki Oasis 2015, Crowne Plaza, San Diego, Part 2, Friday August 14 - room parties

On Friday night we bounced back and forth between two room parties one hosted by San Diego's Casbah club and one by Las Vegas' own Frankie's Tiki Room.

We managed to see good portions of two sets by bands in each room. We were warned not to miss SD's the Schizophonics, so made the effort and were supremely rewarded! I knew of drummer Lety Beers from her drumming in the fabulous all girl garage band, the Rosalyns (who would play on Sunday night) and here she is joined by husband Pat Beers on guitar and vocals and bassist Kyle Hoffman. It is pretty damn near impossible to properly convey the Schizophonics experience - Lety is a wild pounded who never lets up, Kyle bounces around while helping hold down the proverbial fort with his fluid bass lines while Pat, dressed in a silver jumpsuit for the evening, literally flails around the room, flying off of walls and people, somersaulting and humping his guitar and he barely touches and yet continually plays. My best description was a mix of garage, funk, soul and punk with touches of Hendrix (certainly guitar bits taken from the man), James Brown, the Who and even Roxy Music (who they covered). Non-stop action and musically I was reminded of relatively newer bands like the Flash Express, Dollhouse, and Black Moses. Truly a highlight of the weekend - just spectacular!

In the Las Vegas room, we had the Swank Bastards, LV's premier surf/instrumental band who, for the occasion featured not one, not two, but three drummers, throughout the night. I got pix of Clay Heximer (Thee Mapes, the Gentlemen of Four Outs - pictured immediately below) and Gerry "Turbo" Proctor (the New Waves and many more) but somehow missed Courtney Carroll - sorry, CC! Besides their current burlesque dancer, Ivana Blaze, they were reunited with former, hula-hooping dancer Szandora LaVey and as the crowd and the dancers enjoyed multiple beverages, the two woman danced together and made the room even steamier than it already was! The Bastards did their usual high-end, excellently-played instrumental music, with lots of originals and crazy Black Sabbath covers! Las Vegas was well-represented!

Second set of the Schizophonics - note how the spaceship-themed backdrop continued to shred behind them as Pat trounced the room a second time! In was exhausting simply watching them!

And late-night hijinks from the Swank Bastards, Ivana and Szandora!