SILLY STORIES FROM OUR LATEST GIGS: the Nard

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, March 28, 2010

Almost show time! =o)

It's 10 am on Sunday morning. The Colonel is working on his latest song (which, of all the ones he's written, is probably the most commercially-viable and I'm counting on it making us a gazillion bucks--or at least enough to pay off the Guitar Center credit card, LOL.) It's windy as hell outside, we're playing in El Barrio (which in Spanish means, "not a nice place") and the town is called The Nard. What else can we say. Oh yeah--we get to bring our PA system which weighs about a million pounds--and we have no roadies. Grumble grumble. ;-) Well, you can't say we don't love the rock. Although judging from the set list, there will be precious little rocking forthcoming. If you happen to chance by, come say hello! We'll be in the school behind Our Lady Of Guadalupe church on Juanita Way. Sigh. Time to go load up the Element.