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| photo by vintage iPhone |
To All My Friends
Any opportunity to spend time with Santa Barbara rock stars
in a small intimate venue is one I jump upon. Although the artists in this
lineup are too humble to consider themselves “stars.”
Joey Cape is the frontman for local punk sensation Lagwagon,
as well as Bad Astronaut, and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Jon Snodgrass is the singer from Drag the
River, the southern rock band out of Colorado. Together with Brian Wahlstrom,
they form the acoustic act Scorpios, performing in small intimate venues nationwide
to create memorable moments between fans and local musicians.
The Scorpios “To All My Friends” tour is dedicated to Tony
Sly, the singer from No Use For A Name, and former bandmate to Cape, who passed
away a year ago. There’s a lot of Santa Barbara history here. And a lot of
local love. The guys played acoustic solo sets, and then played some songs
together, trading off instruments. And true to their promise, they
intermittently pulled up local rock artists to perform alongside them. All the
while, Cape bantered with his friends in the crowd and harassed them as they
played on stage.
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| photo by vintage iPhone |
There was a small crowd at Velvet, which made the event that
much more special. It’s always somewhat hard to write a review about a show
when you are there to experience the moment. And a moment was definitely shared
between friends.