The benefits of being a surf band that plays condo pool parties..

Playing heavy surf with the Royal Aces at a huge pool party in Denver on a summer afternoon is a beautiful thing...very funny to have Jersey Shore types of kids come up and tell us that we are "crushing it". I had to check with the bass player to be sure whether that meant we were ok or terrible...

It's a beautiful thing, man. Just looking at that picture I can imagine nothing but cool. Thanks for posting.

Out of curiosity, what's your set list? And what would you say your top two songs are?

Cowabunga!

Nice job... I think that babes in bikini's adds a lot... are there 2 dudes looking at their phones.

Do you play with a totally clean sound?

You guys ooze coolness

Surf-Rock on a hot sunny day, outdoors, by a Pool, LOTS of purty womerns in Bikinis ... The ROYAL ACES rock my world!

Hope you get to do many more of them.

I don't see any mics....total surf instrumentals?......cool of you ask me! nice concept no PA......

cheers ce24

Very cool! I played in a retro styled country band (60s Bakersfield style) and people went crazy when we played "walk don't run"

Thanks for the posts, guys!
1) Our set list is pretty big (we often play full four-set gigs, so we've got a lot of tunes). Amazingly, good old Wipe Out always gets a big response, every time, without fail. We combine surf classics (Penetration, Baja, etc) with Link Wray stuff and instrumental versions of rock tunes (White Wedding, That Thing You Do, etc), and that gets us a lot more gigs. When it's time for the slow, pretty tunes, we get good results from Sleepwalk, In My Room, and our instrumental version of Skeeter Davis' "End of the World" - sounds great with deep Tele twang and reverb! And, we do an instrumental medley of Please Please Me/This Boy which goes over really well. A medley of Memphis/Bo Didley/Wham also gets them rocking, and Misirlou almost causes riots at times.
2) I do indeed play clean almost always, through a Fender reverb tank, into a 1965 Showman into a 15" Weber California, with an overdrive pedal used just a few times, for Ghost Riders, Misirlou, and a couple of others where I want just a little extra punch and sustain.
3) We are all instrumental. We just plug a microphone into the Showman for occasional banter with the crowd.

We are playing way more than I thought we would, as this material is going over so well at every type of event - black t-shirt rocker joints, biker rallies, parties, venues of all types, car shows, etc.

I was just thinking of you the other day. Glad to hear that you're doing well. Do you ever see Kevin anymore?

Seek out an album called "Sway" by the Blue Hawaiians. (Their steel player is the guy on the Sponge Bob Square Pants cartoons). They do a slow instrumental version of Hawaii Five-O that they call "Martini Five-O." Work up a version with your band. People love it once they recognize it.

I only see a pink bikini. What were we talking about?

Hey Paul - if you look closely, you'll see that Kevin is the bass player in this surf extravaganza. And, I know that Blue Hawaiians tune very well - it's on my rotation, along with the fabulous Blue Stingrays (not a single tune on their album I don't like).

Fezz - right there with ya...and I PLAYED at the gig!

:cool:Very, very cool.:cool:

Tell Kevin I said howdy, too!

...I'm a bit surprised nobody has mentioned the coconuts...

Great band concept. I think there is room for more of these types of things. The niches are not as small as most of us believe them to be.

I can't see the picture on my home computer. I can't even see my own pictures when I post them. Of course I'm on the ancient "dial up." Time for a trip to the library to get out of this bloody heat!

I dig the surf green drums......"Telstar' just went to the turntable in the jukebox of my mind.

I dig the surf green drums......"Telstar' just went to the turntable in the jukebox of my mind.

Will do, Tim.

And Wally - our drummer has several beautiful sets of classic 60s Premier and Ludwig sets. They all go great with the surf thing!

That's awesome! I would love to play in a surf band!

This is awesome! Let's all join surf bands!!!

The two bikini ladies seem sort of neglected. I wish I could have been there to comfort them.

Yeah, I'll bet there opportunities o' plenty out there for ya'll's band. I suspect that in every major city there is someone in charge of booking bands for the Springfield Summer Concert Series (for example), and their boss has just told them, "I need you to line up 20 bands to play Thursday evenings on the square. Here's your budget, and for the love of God don't just hire 20 classic rock cover bands!!!"

Right, Big John - here's a sample of what's coming up: a 40th anniversary party at a nice downtown Denver restaurant (where we will tone it down to the "soup and salad" sonic level), followed the next day by a big Tiki themed car show and vintage swimsuit contest, where we can roar. A week after that, an afternoon luau event at a long-time Denver blues bar that wants to try the surf thing, then a wedding party for a young hipster couple who really love the twang/reverb genre, another car show, and a gig at a great, high-energy neighborhood club where we can really rip, etc.

I really thought when we started this surf project that it would be such an obscure niche kind of thing that we might just play once every couple of months! I didn't know it would be such an active enterprise with ladies trying to eat the bass player!
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll28/fenderfan1/meadstreetf.jpg

Wow! It is great to hear that your band is busy.

Fenderfan, I knew that there was something I liked about those drums....great looking set.
AS for the girls in the background, maybe ya'll need to hire some 'ringers' to get the dancing going on....teach those young ones how to do the Swim, the Frug, the Monkey, the Pony, Walk the Dog....Man, those were some good days.

Ah the occupational hazards of an instrumental surf band!

How do I get on your mail-list? (Or Facebook list or whatever you guys are using...)

Paul - we have a Reverb Nation page at www.reverbnation.com/theroyalaces, and we are also on Facebook. And, thanks for asking!

Wally...great minds: We have a plan to film a video of a pro dancer doing classic go-go dancing as we play, similar to the way the very cool Pontani Sisters have been filmed dancing to the outstanding modern surf band, Los Straitjackets:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unfhJCciNjI

I've been on a huge Laika and the Cosmonauts kick lately, and you've convinced me: the North Country needs an instrumental surf band. How well do you think it will go over at Amish barn-raisings?

Hey Rich, I see you're in Potsdam...I grew up in the Ithaca area and went to undergrad at Brockport.
I'm imagining that barn-raising, with Laika's "Piedras Negras" playing in the background - a good song for sturdy, industrious work!

I'm Philly born and bred, but married a North Country woman, so here we are. I've been OD'ing on Laika's "Absurdistan" album lately - surf rock and '70s TV themes that never were meet ProTools.

At yesterday's big car show gig, this great couple was really jivin' big time, and the crowd formed a big semi-circle around them, just watching. Then, several other retro-style young couples joined in, too, which was fascinating to watch from the stage. When this shot was taken, we were doing a pretty high-energy instrumental of "You Can't Sit Down".
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll28/fenderfan1/tiki-takular1.jpg

...And Hendrix said we would never hear Surf Music again :)

Hey FF, with the Royal Aces, just out of curiosity, how did you find people who wanted to play surf?

Kind of my dream to start one, but it's hard to find people who care or know much about surf. It's such a cool genre though.

Good question - I had done blues for a long time here in Colorado, and then decided that it would be a lot of fun to play surf, so I just placed a Craigs List ad, and was fortunate enough to hear from a drummer and bass player who had done a lot of surf together, and had lost their guitar player. Everything just took off from there, and it has been just the most perfect band - we're all older guys, so there's no drama; we don't haul a PA, and we do only hard-rocking surf and rock instrumentals so the whole list is absolute fun to play. And, to top it off, people, venues, and special events of all types get a kick out of it, and we keep getting a lot of excellent gigs (and only have to split the dough three ways).

What ever happened to Jill Watkins?

We had a great time, and a long run, and then just amicably decided that we were finished with that project. Jill now has fun singing with a blues band called Jockamo.

Surf without a whammy bar?

No way! I'm lost without a bar - that's one of many reasons why I love my Reverend Eastsider S (I'll hold myself back from launching into my Hour of Praise for that great guitar, which instantly became my Number One). In the photo, the bar might not be apparent, but it's there, and it is a fantastic vibrato bar - extremely silky and smooth, and stays right in the position where you want it.
In the car show photo, with the young couple dancing, you might notice I'm playing a Strat. It was 100 degrees and I had to re-tune the Eastsider so many times that I finally snapped the high E string, so I had to grab my backup sienna burst Strat.

What a little cutie!