The Apemen
The Apemen cruisin' trough the slums of San Francisco! The Apemen: USA tour in a nutshell by Phil Dirt There was the time that those Viking bonzos the Apemen came to town. They were on an arts grant from their government, qualified by playing at a single gig in Washington. On their way back, they stopped in at KFJC.
The long version goes something like this: The Apemen were quite something on disc. I wanted to get them into the Pit at KFJC for a live performance. It began with a letter that evolved into several phone calls traded between my house and the Netherlands. The Apemen agreed to play at KFJC when they came to America on vacation. It seems that they were able to get an arts grant from the Netherlands government to play at Garage Shock in Bellingham, Washington. In the interest of economy and ease of travel, they were planning on bringing just their guitars. I agreed to set the band up with a drum kit, two Fender guitar amps, and a Fender bass amp. I made some calls to friends, and soon enough had the equipment set. The drums and bass amp were supplied by the Berzerkers, one guitar amp by Rick Escobar of the Woodies, and one by Uncle Al. Everything looked good, but then...	Three days before they were due to show up at KFJC, I got a phone call from the band up in Bellingham. It seems that while on their way to the US, they stopped in England and picked up a keyboard player. Could I arrange for a Farfisa. Well, that was a bit much, but the Berzerkers came up with a D-7 keyboard from the infamous Papa Don of "Windsurfing" fame. Again, it looked good. On the day of the performance, Berzerker Dino Francesconi also brought his Stratocaster just in case. About a half hour before the Apemen were due to arrive at KFJC, I got a call from Oakland. They lost their bass player somewhere! He went to the store three hours earlier and never came back. They were on their way out to look for him. Then the bassist calls and says he's on his way, but doesn't know where the band is. Well, an hour and a half later, they arrive at KFJC. The first words out of their mouth came after looking at Dino's Strat. "Is that the only guitar?" They had come with nothing. Uncle Al raced home, returning with his Strat. A frantic phone call to an ex-KFJC staffer got us a bass after about 45 minutes, which was Brought over from the East Bay. Then the bass player says "But I'm left handed" to which I replied "you're gonna play it!" They played the loudest fastest highest energy surf set I've ever seen... crazy men with a vision of surf honed in Holland. With the first tune, Uncle Al and I looked at each other, and we knew it was all worth it.