Che Underground meets Sunset Strip

(Sidewalk scenes and black limousines: On July 30, Che Underground presents Sounds of the Sunset Strip at Lestat’s Coffee Shop, featuring the Sidewalk Scene, the Ciros, Wendy Bailey & True Stories, and James Ruelas. Show organizer and Ciros reed player Lou Damian reflects on how Los Angeles’ sound of the ’60s influenced so many San Diegans who came of age 15 years later.)

The crazy thing about this July 30 show is that we relate to this music from the Sunset Strip of the mid- to late ’60s as our music, as the music we grew up with. But in actuality, we were just tots or infants when it was first published. There’s something about this music that stays within our fabric even today. When I hear a Byrds song or a Buffalo Springfield song, I know that I heard it as a young man on the radio. I know I heard that song when I was a year or two old. And it’s just another part of who I am.

The garage rock, psych rock, and blues and folk rock of that era is an important contribution to American music and the West Coast sound. This is what we always championed as our West Coast identity … in the so-called “Che Underground.”

In my opinion, there is more than one type of artistic movement. In most artistic movements, a group of artists creates from the same wavelength. However, it can also come from the other direction: The hunger of the audience or the thirst of the purveyor of the musical and artistic scene becomes so great, it moves the performers naturally in a certain direction.

This We Dug: Buffalo Springfield!
This We Dug: ‘Forever Changes’!

The relationship of the Byrds, Love and the Doors, per se, is really not that much different from the Gravedigger V, the Answers, the Tale-Tell Hearts and the Morlocks. It was more than just copying this era; it was drawing from the wealth of information and inspiring to renovate and innovate the kind of music, the music that people needed to hear.

Welcome home, Dave Fleminger!

When the Ciros come to play a tune by the Byrds or Love on July 30, it’s more than just a tribute to Arthur Lee or Roger McGuinn. It’s really spiritual in nature. Because although the music has been written, the way we take it as an art and express it fills up the room, and it becomes alive. And we smile because today, at that moment, we are the ones who are participating not only in our lives, but in the life of music.

— Lou Damian

Editor’s note: Che Underground presents Sounds of the Sunset Strip happens July 30, 9-11pm, at Lestat’s Coffee House, 3343 Adams Ave., San Diego. Admission is $7, and all ages are welcome!