Ted Bowne of Passafire - more photos... photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer

This is supposed to be a concert review, talking about a concert performance, and in fact there was a real music story at the show as well, but try as I might I just couldn't get it. No matter which angle I played I just couldn't get to the real story.

If one looked hard early in the night you could see Paul Leary of Austin's legendary Butthole Surfer's hanging out backstage in the wings watching the show. Later during the Pepper set the band acknowledged his presence and mentioned that he had produced their latest CD release Pink Crustaceans and Good Vibrations .

How in the world did the guitarist for one of the strangest punk bands hook up with a bunch of surfer dudes? The impact of his work was evident in the song "Musical 69" which sounds very unlike Pepper's normal sound. I would have loved to spend some time exploring the dozens of questions I had with Yesod and Paul, but was unable to speak with them. I did get a roadie to hand one of my cards to Paul and I did get to say hello to Yesod after the show, who had been set upon and cornered by a pack of pre-cougars. He definitely wasn't of a mind to chat about the record so I faded into the background.

Skart of The Supervillains - more photos... photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer

Oh well. I guess I will leave THAT story for someone else.

Back to the show.

Opening set was by the band Passafire, a 4 piece reggae/dub outfit out of Savannah, Georgia. Fronted by the lanky Ted Bowne on vocals and guitar and with brothers Will and Nick Kubley on bass and percussion respectively and Adam Willis providing the keyboards, these guys pumped out cool rasta rhythms to a sparse and slowly filling audience. I caught these guys opening for Pepper last year during their Antone's gig and passing Ted later in the crowd he recognized me and said hello. Passafire is touring in support of their new disc Submersible and this spring got a chance to open for Van Halen in Reno.

Next band on the roster was The Supervillains, a band that I caught opening for Pepper this spring. With some fat horns these guys aren't quite as laid back as Passafire. This 5 piece from Orlando also has a new disc out on the Law Records imprint, called Massive, and has been compared to the band Sublime. With vocal duties shared between the flame orange haired Dom on drums and natty dreaded Skart on guitar, they have a lot of energy onstage and are very interactive with each other and the audience both onstage and off, and I saw several of them wandering around in the crowd between sets.

Finally Pepper closed the show. With 2 encores and exceeding their set time by 20 minutes or so, they beat the curfew by a comfortable margin of 10 minutes. With all the running, jumping, and bouncing around Pepper really ought to consider releasing their own workout video. To describe their set as high energy would be like describing Siberia as a bit nippy in the winter. They did the bit with Yesod's grandmother again, inviting her onstage to taunt the audience with profanity, and they brought members of Passafire and Supervillains back onstage throughout their set to have them sit in on songs. I was kind of surprised the didn't invite Paul Leary out to play a song, but they did acknowledge him.

It was a fun set. It was a fun show. If I was going to throw a beach party, these are 3 bands I would invite.

I just wouldn't let them near the women.

Kaleo Wassman, Yesod Williams and Bret Bollinger of Pepper at Stubb's BarBQ - more photos... photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer