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| photo by p.dunkley |
Because It’s Fun
I have to admit, I was never a big Pepper fan. I was too old (maturity
wise) when they hit the scene. I am, however, a fan of Santa Barbara’s own 92.9
KjEE and of Playback Recording Studio. These two local businesses joined forces
to bring Pepper to Santa Barbara to perform a private acoustic show for KjEE’s
Summer Sessions.
Pepper, for those of you who may not know, is a threesome consisting of Kaleo Wassman
(vocals/guitar), Bret Bollinger (vocals/Bass), and Yesod Williams (drums).
Hailing from Hawaii, Pepper is known for their reggae rock party anthems. The
band has been touring aggressively and has not released an album in five years.
Their most recent track, “F* Around,” is getting good radio play and a new
album is due out in September.
When asked why bring Pepper to all the way to SB to perform a private
show for only forty people, KjEE’s marketing director Stephen (“Blazer”) Meade
responded, “Because it’s fun.” Yup, can’t argue with that kind of logic.
It was an odd scene. Pepper came out to a crowd of forty
Santa
Barbarians sitting crossed legged on the stone floor of the small recording
studio underneath what Bret called a “vegan chandelier” (wooden chandelier
which look oddly a lot like antlers). Kaleo
quickly claimed the crowd looked like “a game of duck-duck goose on crack.” Despite
the oddness of it all, they seemed open to the situation.
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| photo by p.dunkley |
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| Pepper, photo by p.dunkley |
The first song was an acoustic version of “Give It Up.” Not a romantic
song by far, but they held in giggles as they softly sung the lewd lyrics. This
is how they won me over. They were funny, given the situation, and very humble.
Kaleo frankly stated they didn’t understand what was going on here, then began
telling tour stories. Bret told stories of their first visit to Isla Vista,
naïve right off the Island. They even brought up their tour guy to do an
impromptu comedy skit - known to some in the crowd, but not to me.
Pepper proceeded to play five more songs, two of which were new. In
between each song they continued to banter and play with the audience, asking
questions, telling stories, ratting each other out. It was an experience to see
the party band being so genuine and down to earth. If the party rock reggae
didn’t win ya over, the charm of the Island boys did. Indeed, it was fun.