Band Element of Surprise, Ventura County CA

Do you <3 classic rock? Strange pairings of music, such as Richie Valens & the Ramones meet Deep Purple? You may appreciate us. We're the band Element of Surprise! We may get thru the song-or it may go horribly AWRY. You pays yer money & you takes yer chance! We play a very eclectic mix of classic & alt rock...if you live in the SoCal area & listen to either KLOS or KRTH-101, you've heard most of our songs. We're a 6-piece consisting of Pat on vocals & percussion, James on lead guitar, Hector on bass, Rob on drums, newest member Danny on acoustic and electric guitars, and your humble scribe Rita on rhythm guitar/keyboard/harmonica and vocals. We've been together for 5 years (longer than some marriages!) and have had some memorable gigs. I started this blog to keep a list of them--and to chronicle our RISE-TO POWER! Well, not really--all of us have a day job, and we're all over 45 (except for Danny, who is young and impressionable!) so this is more of a hobby. But we all have an abiding love for music, and we have healthy self-images, and some of us are major hams, so here we are. Walking down the street. We get the funniest looks. From everyone we meet. Hey hey--no, stop, that's plagiarism. Anyways, I don't expect anyone (other than MY FRIENDS & FAMILY) to ever read this, but if you do and you have an interest in an elderly garage band on the first level of getting started gigging, welcome and well-met. If YOU have an interest in starting a band and are curious about equipment, etc-let us know. Maybe we can help you avoid a TON of trouble.
Well, cheers, and see you "on the cover of the 'Rolling Stone,'"
Rita aka MrsMMars :-)



Sunday, February 28, 2010

It wasn't a gig, but it sure beat the 4377 out of karaoke!

On Saturday 2/27, the Colonel & I were invited to a jam session/house party by a friend at work whose hubby has the pipes from Hell. MAN that dude can sing! He's in a band that plays private parties, etc. It was great fun. I was invited to sing with them, and what a BLAST. My 2nd rock n roll wish came true, as I sang the (low) harmony to 'Straight On,' one of my all-time favorite Heart songs. (The first? To sing 'Rock and Roll' by Led Zeppelin on the stage of the Hard Rock in Las Vegas...but that's another story. ;-) I sang back-up for 3-4 more songs, notably 'Heat Wave,' which I hadn't done in front of people since I was 15!, 'Rain' by The Cult (another of my favorite bands,) a Doobie Brothers number, and a couple of others I can't recall right now, due to the generous and tasty amounts of wine that were flowing. The Colonel volunteered to drive home, so I took full advantage! :-)
I thanked our host (well, hopefully he felt that way) by performing 'I Can See Clearly Now,' originally by Johnny Nash but covered by (yet another) of my fave bands, Soul Asylum. I borrowed an Ovation 12-string guitar and warned the crowd I would be screwing it up, but they were in a very forgiving mood.
We had such a good time! And we didn't have to lug 80,000 pounds of equipment back home! *And* they told us to come back! So I count this as more successful than many gigs we've performed. ;-)
Stay tuned for the saga of the next Upcoming Moose Lodge tale...
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