HaSkaLa’s enlightened Rusty’s Surf Ranch, on Mar. 8. Evangenitals and Riverside were the opening acts.
Steven Schub and Darby McCullough are the co-lead vocalists, David “Supa” Mastas is the guitarist, Brad Watson is the keyboardist, Julie Gibbs is the bassist, Sarah Woods is the saxophonist, Kyle Pouzou is the trumpeter, Eric Bassi is the durmmer and Thom Foolery is the trombonist of HaSkaLa. Schub is also the harmonicist and toy trumpeter.
Before HaSkaLa began their set with “Pressure Drop”, Schub asked if there was a trumpet player amongst the sea of hands. Later, he requested everyone to bark like dogs and seals and asked if they were ready to “skank”. They granted his requests and followed up with cheers. During the performance, Mastas performed a guitar solo.
Mastas kept his guitar solo going and he was later accompanied by Bassi, for “Obscene Love Machine Supreme”. Schub kept the beach vibe going and asked everyone if they could flap their flippers. The spectators clapped their hands rhythmically. As the music continued—he jumped in the abyss of people and back on stage with the microphone in his mouth, as if it was a mouthpiece to his snorkel.
During “Cyrano’s Nose”, Schub asked if everyone knew how to pogo. The majority of the band jumped up and down on stage and the onlookers did the same below. As Mastas was jumping, Schub hovered his hat over his head and jumped alongside with him. Afterwards, Watson joked and said it felt like a herd of elephants.
After “Us Über Alles”—Schub advised the audience their next show will be held at The Mint, on Mar. 21. He went onto introduce “Like Churchill Said” and quoted Winston Churchill by reminding them to never give up. He made sure the word “never” stuck and repeated it several times, before following with “give up”.
For HaSkaLa’s encore, they performed a Beach Boys medley. The series of songs included “Little Surfer Girl”, “Surfin’ Safari” and “Surfin’ U.S.A.”. In the introduction, Schub wanted to pay tribute to the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, Charles Manson and Pouzou in one flail swoop. While HaSkaLa continued to play an instrumental, Shub introduced members of the band and the music came to an end.
“HaSkaLa”, “Woke-Up. Wake-Up!”, “Cyrano’s Nose”, “The Revolt”, “More Is More”, “Flip-Dog Down”, “Our Love (Is A Car Crash)” and “Neither Her (Nor There)” were also part of HaSkaLa’s set.
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