Dylan Koch is a disc jockey and content writer for KCPR. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang Media Group.
Who doesn’t love an underdog story? A come-from-behind victory, a last-minute blast of heroism, the flipping of expectation ‘pon its soggy head? That’s all anyone wants out of sports games and motion pictures, and… rock n’ roll music.
At SLO Brew on Wednesday, Oct. 21, lowly opener Sam Blasucci and his wonderful band stole the show from right under the noses of his good friends and headliners, Allah Las.
Blasucci’s band consists of: bespectacled man on congas, casual girl drummer, dancing bassist in rose-colored lens and piano player who looks like someone I once knew. Our man stood at the front with his beautiful ES 335 guitar, which he played upside down, high E string at the top. Blasucci’s guitar work was fierce and eloquent, matched only, perhaps, by his excellent songs, Latin-tinged soul-pop-rock confections that had each and every trucker-hat in the room bouncing up and down.
For 30 minutes, Blasucci and band swung and sashayed and “rocked out.” I wasted five of them trying to think of ’70s bands to compare them to, when what I should have been doing was enjoying the very, very good music, because before I knew it, Sam was done and it was time for Allah Las.
Allah Las were fine. Good, even. They did a Bo Diddley-style instrumental that was a lot of fun.
At their best, they sounded like what the Velvets might have sounded like if they had spent 1967 hanging out in a palm-frond shack on the beach with Miki Dora, instead of in the back room at Max’s with Warhol. At their worst, they sounded like a beer commercial: boring surf pablum, reverb-guitar-and-crunchy-vocal-Whatever-Who-Cares-I’m-Asleep!
But their buddy Sam (who sat in tastefully with Allah-Las on organ and cowbell) really didn’t do them any favors by being so god-damn talented all over the place right before they went on. The poor guys never had a chance.
Buy Sam’s records, go to his shows, call his home phone — he’s fantastic.
