9:30 LIVE!

Halley's Beach (recorded live at 9:30 Club)
Stingray (recorded live at 9:30 Club)
Voa (recorded live at 9:30 Club)
Wavelength (recorded live at 9:30 Club)

liner notes 9:30 Live (2 CD set) Adelphi Records 1997

      The Insect Surfers caught the wave of creative energy which infected the CD area in 1979 and were one of the first alternative bands to incorporate an instrumental surf style in their music. In May of '80, they made their first appearance at the 9:30, which drummer Buccino says, "was easily the best club in town." Speaking not only of the band but also of the scene, Buccino adds, "most of us back then...we might have been kids, but we were really having fun, and we were really wanting to try to share that with the audience." The Surfers' music clearly reflects that attitude, but if you're expecting to hear Jan and Dean revisited, prepare for a refreshing surprise. Their highly energetic and inventive music has traces of Dick Dale, Link Wray, garage and sci-fi, but it's thoroughly original and highly contagious. Founding member Dave Arnson "started the Surfers to combine the energy of the Ramones and the B-52s with the cerebral instruumental approach of Tom Verlane's Television and Wire. We found our answer in surf music or a hybrid thereof."

      The Surfers were one of the boldest (and hardiest) of the bands associated closely with the 9:30 Club. They toured extensively, sought and gained college radio airplay all over the country, and helped push the edge of the fun and friendly CD alternative scene into new territory-up and down the East Coast and on occasional forays to points west. Arnson has kept the Surfer sound going, since moving to Los Angeles and regrouping in 1985, but this holiday reunion in 1995 was special for the original members. Buccino describes it as "overwhelming emotionally." For Arnson, it evoked memories of "really exciting and colorful times" when the scene was "like a big dance party. The late 70s and early 80s were a Great time for music."

CD captures timeless appeal of 9:30 Club, Patrick Butters, The Washington Times, April 27, 1997

      For alternative fans and local music aficionados alike, "9:30 Live" is required listening. Not only does the double-CD set capture the excitement of live music at the venerable F Street club - before it moved to its current, more spacious V Street digs - but it's also an (seriously, folks) important archival piece. It captures how the burgeoning alternative scene of the late '70s spat in the eye of the buff-dried, polyester disco era that was fast skating out of American culture.

      These live recordings were made over five days, from Dec. 28, 1995, to Jan. 1, 1996, featuring the Urban Verbs, Insect Surfers, Tiny Desk Unit, Tru Fax & the Insaniacs, Black Market Baby and Mother May I.

      Insect Surfers pick up the second CD with a very cool tune titled Halley's Beach, a Ventures-sounding ditty with an impressive guitar turn by David Arnson. Mr. Arnson notes in the intro the Surfers began their career in 1979 with Bad Brains. It's good to hear "classic" surf music on a compilation such as this. Robert Fass' burst of the drums in the intro for the next cut - the appropriately titled Stingray - refreshes one's '60s sensibilities. Tom Tomlinson's keyboards reminded me of Freddy Cannon's version of Palisades Park, so I just imagined myself roaring down a roller coaster. Wavelength is a fast catchy take a la the Romantics with a little Suffragette City thrown in.

The Insect Surfers are being sponsored by Body Glove.