Return of the Dead Men
November 6, 2005
On October 29, 2005, Oingo Boingo alumni Steve Bartek, Johnny “Vatos” Hernandez, John Avila and Sam Phipps threw a Boingo-style Halloween party with guest appearances at The Grove in Anaheim, California. Specifically billed as a fun Halloween party and not a Oingo Boingo reunion, the guys agreed on a set list of slightly obscure and/or lesser-played Oingo Boingo material, plus some re-workings of a couple more popular tracks. The song list was carefully planned in the name of fun and, most of all, with respect to the remaining Oingo Boingo members who could not attend.
October 27, 2005 Rehearsal
It’s 10 A.M. and I find myself in the industrial section of town in Duarte, California trying to locate the rehearsal room for Johnny Vatos’ Tribute to Halloween show. There are many suites in this little area with all sorts of work going on; door manufactures, machine shops, automotive work...the perfect spot to find some of Southern California’s finest musicians banging away this early in the morning. Carrying an upright bass case through the parking lot and into one of the suites, John Avila thankfully tips me off to the correct room.
Rehearsal is about to begin, and almost everyone is here... Johnny “Vatos” Hernandez, Steve Bartek, John Avila, Doug Legacy, Bear McCreary, Bt4 (Brendan McCreary), Raya Yarbrough, Felice Hernandez, the Supernova string section and a horn section (though I missed their names; apologies guys).
Everyone warms up with “Water” before Carlos De La Paz arrives. It’s an odd shaped room for such an ensemble, so a few more PA monitors are brought in for the string and horn section before starting the next song “Take Your Medicine.” A few more adjustments to the monitors and it appears everyone is ready to go...
I won’t go blow-by-blow into each song rehearsed, but they ran through each song a couple times, including “Pain,” “Pedestrian Vultures” (a medley of “Pedestrian Wolves” and “Vultures”), “Lap of Luxury,” “Better Luck Next Time,” “Helpless,” “Country Reptiles and Western Samurai (Reptiles and Samurai),” “Nuclear Babies” and “Change.”
The song list is very impressive, pulling out some lesser-known songs and rarities... Not only have some of these songs not been performed in ten years, a couple haven’t been played live in nearly twenty six! Everything sounds great, “Forbidden Zone,” “Nuclear Babies” and “Pain” in particular. Bear McCreary, who has been working on the arrangements and sheet music for everyone for some time now, has really put in a great amount of time and work and it really shows. You wouldn’t have guessed that rehearsals for this amount of material started only three days before...
A good amount of time is spent to perfect the vocal harmonies on “Nuclear Babies,” and few more adjustments and changes are made to “Change” (ironically). Originally planned as a small acoustic set, John Avila’s backing vocals and upright bass lines to help timing are too good to leave out...
Alas, rehearsal has now run over a bit, and Food For Feet is up next for their rehearsal... Time to go. If everyone sounds only half as good at the show as they did today, a good time is in order...and they still have tomorrow to work out any last details and run through the last couple songs they didn’t get to.
October 29, 2005 Sound Check & Performance
Show time! Well, in a few hours...until then, there is lots of work to do. I arrived at The Grove around 9:30 A.M. for the initial stage setup and sound check. Because it’s his party, Johnny is already here, prepping the arrangements and working out details with the stage and sound crew. I get the pleasant news that the show is now being recorded, both audio and video...nice! There aren’t any specific or definite plans for a release; we’ll just have to see how everything comes out when it’s all over. The show is being recorded via a mobile recording station parked out back, so plans begin to get all the wiring and cabling to live in harmony with The Grove’s own live setup.
Doug Legacy begins his setup, and the stage hands start to get placement ideas while Johnny and his drum tech start to get his set together. Steve Bartek arrives shortly thereafter and gets his rig in place, making a few adjustments to his effects board and getting his guitars in order. Setup for such a large ensemble of players seems to go smoothly as everyone arrives and gets set up, though the hours seem to be flying by fast... A lot of time is spent getting all the instruments sounding good into the mobile recording rig, but it will be time well spent.
Johnny does some more drum swapping and finally gets the set down the way he wants, complete with his classic bass drum head from “Farewell” that he dug out of the closet before the show. The sound guys move on to getting guitars and bass down, so Steve, John and Johnny start playing bits for the sound guys to dial in. Somewhere along the way, John gets hooked on the bass line to “Only A Lad,” and Johnny really wanted to try playing the song... So, for perhaps the first time in ten years, Steve, John and Johnny were recalling the parts and remembering the structure, but as a three piece with Johnny on vocals...great fun.
After Doug, Bear, the Supernova string section and horn sections were finally dialed in, it was time for a full band rehearsal... “Pedestrian Vultures” (a medley of “Pedestrian Wolves” and
“Vultures”) is the obvious choice, as it contains all the ensemble elements and is plenty long enough for the sound guys to dial things in. The band is sounding great, but the PA sound is inconsistent throughout the venue. Others notice it as well... I’ve attended a few concerts here before and was never happy with the sound, but I never had the opportunity to explore different areas of the venue to find any sweet spots. There aren’t any. The hope is that things will deaden up and even out once the venue is filled with bodies. The Halloween Band continues to sound check, belting out “Take Your Medicine,” “Pain,” “(Country) Reptiles and (Western) Samurai,” and “Nuclear Babies.”
Sam Phipps arrives for his sound check with Steve, Johnny and John, going through their four song set including “Nature Zone (Woke Up Clipped)” and “Monster Mash.” Food For Feet also get in a few songs for sound check, including “Retire,” “Rhythm” and “Faith, Hope.” It’s really great to see Food for Feet again! Alas, it is time to wrap things up, as things are getting late... It is nearly door time and the crowd is already outside waiting to get in.
As for the show itself, I had a great time! I wish I could tell all about it, but I really didn’t document it much, as the show was being recorded and I just wanted to enjoy the show... The Halloween Band sets were great and the highlight of the show, of course... Their performances were top notch, fun and very few stumbles... I really enjoyed the song selection (though many of the Top Twenty Oingo Boingo Greatest Hits crowd were a bit disappointed...). Seeing Sam Phipps and the Food For Feet set was really, really fun. Johnny Vatos’ Garage Band were good and performed some of the more popular Oingo Boingo tunes (such as “Help Me” and “Just Another Day”), but not without some stumbling spots...perhaps a bit too much material was taken on given the short five days to rehearse. Still, good fun. Hearing Doug Legacy sing “Try to Believe” again (as he did on the Doug & The Mystics album “New Hat”) was the highlight of their set for me.
There is tentative talk about throwing a similar party again next year, which I really hope happens. Doug also proposed some Doug & The Mystics shows in the near future to the other guys (Steve, John, Sam, Johnny)... Hopefully we’ll have a lot to look forward to this coming year.
Cheers!
the Webmaster
