INSECT SURFERS - REVIEWS

The Surfaris, Paul Johnson and the Packers, Insect Surfers - Gazzaris, Hollywood, October 8, 1987

      O.K., banish me from credibility for reviewing a show I had a hand in booking, but, hey, almost no one else showed up, so I'l like to take this opportunity to give credit to where it's due and deserved, to the Surfaris of today. I burned them in a review in D.A.G. # 1, as their set at the Forum left a lot to be desired, and I must continue to belch about a creeping sense of horrid "nostalgia" in a portion of their act. There's no need for it, when you have a band who is above and beyond all nostalgia cliches to begin with. As proven by the opening set by the Insect Surfers', surf music is far from a thing of the past. Dave Arnson's introduction to "Zuma Slam" accentuated this, and perhaps the best aspect of the evening was to hear a group like this through Gazzari's monumnetal sound system, usually wasted on the drudgery of heavy metal bozos. When applied to a real rock'n'roll band (as opposed to loud and pretentious primp-posers), it's enough to make a performer's eyeballs wide with amazement!...and it's here also that I will commend the Insect Surfers for their sound. What makes them so special is not their linkage with authenticity (which makes them great to hear in the first place), nor their variety-oriented approach (which is brilliant enough to include both instrumentals and vocals---Arnson tells me one of his biggest influences is the SURFIN' U.S.A. album!). It ain't even their unique approach of trade-off lead guitar-extended surf jamming (which only leads to excitement and never falls into that dangerous territory of ponderousness which ties a group to the despicable term "Progressive"). Nope, it's none of these, and to break the rule of three, it's not even the absolutely bitchen way that Arnson leaps, squirms, and wriggles around the stage while playing guitar for added punctuation. You wanna know what makes the Insect Surfers so fabulous?...!...? It's the way they take all of those things, melt them in to one bottle of goop, fill them into a mold, and cook up some incredible edibles that would satisfy the thirstiest hunger for SURF! The ambidextrous Danny Sullivan not only plays lead and rhythm guitar, but also sax and keyboards, while occasionally glancing behind himself to get an extra charge from the surfing movies usually being screened behind his band somewhere. Not only that, these guys both come up with some brilliant originals to boot (that doesn't mean someone should illegitimately press 'em up!) The bass player and drummer both look like refugees from the last trip to Mexico, and they are living with the same attitude they had down there!...and you know what? Somehow, Dave Arnson looks like he stepped right out of a"Murph The Surf" cartoon by Rick Griffin, directly into REAL LIFE...heck, dem are the kind of people ya gotta have around!

Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile! by Domenic Priore, Dumb Angel Gazette

The Insect Surfers are being sponsored by Body Glove.