The holiday season is the perfect time to get a band back together.
First of all, everyone comes back to town for the holidays, so it’s easier to get people together for a show. That goes for both band members and the prospective audience, explained local singer-songwriter Joe Kidd, whose group Joe Kidd and The Gash will reunite for an upcoming concert on Nov. 21, Thanksgiving Eve, at O’Sullivan’s Pub in Santa Maria.
“We’ve actually done this before,” Kidd explained. “I think I just like playing shows period, but the night before Thanksgiving is interesting because most people have the next day off, right? And you’ve normally got a gaggle of people over at your house, or people traveling, coming home to see their parents or in-laws or whatever, and there’s just this great need to get the hell out of the house.
“What’s a better way to distract yourself from all the family goings on and all the extra people in the house … than to go out and have a few beers and watch the bands play?” he added.
O’Sullivan’s Pub already has a special significance for Kidd. It’s been his musical home, as it’s been for so many loud rock groups in the valley, for years thanks to a long friendship with owner Josh Snow, Kidd explained.
And years ago, when Kidd came back to town after chasing his musical dreams in Southern California, the pub and its owner were instrumental in Kidd rebuilding his band. He met all of the group’s band members returning for the Nov. 21 show–drummer Ben Cabreana, guitarist Greg Lloyd, and bassist Miguel Socias–through the pub.
“If it wasn’t for Josh, this incarnation of Joe Kidd and The Gash would not exist, so, you know, I’ve got some loyalty,” he said. “My personal opinion, and I know there’s some great places to play some shows in Santa Maria, but O’Sullivan’s is my favorite.”
The last time the group performed was at O’Sullivan’s in February of 2016, Kidd explained. The concert was slated to be the “last show” at the pub before it would close and remodel to become something new, but that didn’t quite pan out. O’Sullivan’s is still there and shows are still ongoing.
Kidd said that Snow has an open attitude toward local bands that produce their own original music, which makes his pub a bit of a standout venue in town. Most places want “cover bands,” Kidd said, so he and other singer-songwriters have felt comfortable to play loud, try new stuff, and be weird at O’Sullivan’s.
As a songwriter who likes to “challenge” listeners, Kidd has found an audience there that is up for one.
“Our music, as Joe Kidd and The Gash, it isn’t for everybody,” he said. “A lot of bands that play at O’Sullivan’s are like that.
“My favorite musicians and my favorite music I’ve always had to work to love,” he added. “You have to give a little piece of yourself and work to understand what the artist is trying to do. In doing that, you kind of form your own bond with that music and that musician.”
The audience at O’Sullivan’s is a receptive and returning one. I was at the Joe Kidd and The Gash’s last show, or what we thought was O’Sullivan’s last show, and recall many familiar faces, familiar bands, and those familiar songs.
“That’s how I’ve met so many people who I’ve come to know and really respect and enjoy looking forward to see,” Kidd said. “It’s a very willing crowd of people that I think are like-minded, and I always feel comfortable there.”
Another group is reuniting for the Nov. 21 Thanksgiving Eve show, Kidd explained. Bad Jeans, a local rock group that hasn’t performed for a few years will play together again as one of the opening groups.
Coming back together musically has been great for his bandmates, Kidd said. They’re all close friends and have managed to find the time through kids and careers to get together and play. For the show, Kidd hopes to dust off some of the band’s older songs and re-live some of their early days.
“It’s nice to take it from a different angle,” he said. “Some of these songs we haven’t played in five or six years and we really need to nail those things. And it’s because we can look at it from a different perspective too.”
Unlike so many bands that he played in when younger, which were dead set on “making it” and fell apart when they didn’t, Kidd was focused first on the music. And that’s how his friends are, he said, compelled to be creative among the rest of life’s demands.
That’s actually the meaning of his band’s name. Far from “The Gash” being sexist joke, he explained, it’s actually a song reference.
“So there’s this Flaming Lips song, it’s off The Soft Bulletin, and it’s about this guy who’s running a race and everybody else is running in the race and they’re all banged up, and this guy has a gash in his leg,” Kidd explained. “And he’s saying, ‘You know, I can’t make it, I can’t run, I’ve got this gash in my leg, it’s preventing me from running, and everybody else is beat up too, they may not have the gash, but they just keep going.’
“Well, music is my gash,” he added. “Music is the part of me that prevents me from living a normal life like everybody else.”
Managing Editor Joe Payne isn’t normal either. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 15-22, 2018.
