Wednesday night I wandered over to the dusty Kern County Fair. You know the place. It’s where the dust storm of 1977 left most of the remains of its terrible storm. Every year fair-goers stampede it into a swirling sneezy frenzy.
OK, I’m being harsh only because I’m sneezing while writing my report of hanging out at the Smashmouth concert at opening night of the Kern County Fair with Matt Munoz from Bakotopia and two friends of his who shall remain nameless.
Images: Smashmouth At Kern County Fair
I got a call that Matt was going to support an old friend of his, Mark Steven Cervantes, who is the Smashmouth percussionist. They have a drummer too. I don’t remember his name although I do remember he wore the same cowboy hat when drumming recently for Dwight Yoakam who performed at the annual Buck Owens Birthday Bash.
Cervantes is a buddy of Matt Munoz from the early days of Munoz’ still long-running band, Mento Buru. Can you say Ricky Ricardo of Bakersfield? You’ve had to have heard the Latino ska of Mento Buru somewhere in Bakersfield over the past 15 years.
Upon the start of the show, Munoz and company were on a quest for beer. We were at the Budweiser Pavillion. So what the heck? No beer in the pavilion? I wasn’t in a drinking mood, but followed along…
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Pretty soon we were back in the pavilion where Munoz and company got kicked out of the VIP ghost town. The VIP section was separate from the stage and was nothing but empty chairs and a beer tent. OK, a few chairs were occupied. (They said it was overcrowded…huh?)
None to worry. We had all-access passes (except to the VIP area) which allowed us to camp out on stage; a little to the side of course where a woman’s baby almost ran onstage a few times.
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After a few classic Smashmouth tunes Munoz’ Cervantes motioned for Munoz to come over and play the congas.
Munoz did, and in style. Though the congas were tuned a little high, they still sounded good. Munoz rocked while Cervantes smashed symbols and drums.
After the concert we made our way to the dressing room. I filmed Cervantes and Munoz talk about music history and old friends. In the video you can see Smashmouth lead singer, Steve Harwell mill about the room, and I have great video of their rock star lair, complete with alcoholic beverages, chips and salsa.
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I then had a conversation with Cervantes about a dream he has of musicians helping underprivileged youth. It’s sort of a School of Rock thing, with a bit of a different spin.
Of course we talked about the Simpsons too. But that’s another discussion.
It was a great night, a bit dusty, but with some rocking fresh tunes and classics from Smashmouth’s early days. Oh yeah, they even rocked with some Van Halen!
I kept a set list from the show and gave it to my kid…
2 comments:
Well hell. I thought that was you and went back to introduce myself but, by the time I got to the food stand, you and your food were goners.
Sorry about that. Was just grabbing a polish sausage and trying to hurry my way to the gig.
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