The New Waves at the Golden Tiki, Saturday Feb 10, 2018

I've been trying to get out to see the New Waves literally for years and since this was a Saturday night gig and drummer Turbo's birthday, I finally made it out. It seems that I am one of the last to see them, considering that the Tiki was more crowded than I have ever seen it this night.

As might be assumed from their name, the NW's do 80's New Wave tunes in a instrumental surf style - a funny gimmick, but one that people obviously love, as the packed house would attest. The three Mosrite guitars (more or less, one taking the guitar parts, one taking the keyboard parts and one taking the melody, although this would overlap and change depending on the song) were bolstered by the tight rhythm section as the blew through songs by the Cure, Gary Numan, the Knack, Devo, etc. Some songs transferred more successfully than others in my opinion, but that could be due to me not being a big 80's fan, as the audience was singing along pretty much the entire time. That's kind of a great gimmick on its own - almost like live karaoke! The plethora of effects gave them the proper mix of surf sounds and 80's tones and they looked snappily new wave with their black'n'red outfits. Everyone is a solid player and they certainly give the audience what they want! Fun time!