Must see and do at Viva

These are my suggestions of bands and happenings that you don't want to miss during Viva. Some are suggestions, like the Jive lesson, but the music acts are what I am not going to miss while I am there.

Thursday

2:00 PM                         Sweet Pea's Hooch-n-smooch                         Bienville Room

8:00PM                          Lil' Mo & the Dynaflos                                   Ballroom

11:30 PM                       Modern Don Juans                                         Ballroom

12:00AM                        Hi-Qs (I know it's an overlap!)                       Bienville Room

1:00 AM                         Los Straightjackets                                        Ballroom

Friday

1:00-4:00 PM                Sophia Wolff's Jiving Class                             Ballroom

5:00 PM                         Charles Pheonix Slide Show                           Showroom

                                       (tickets at box office during the day) 
8:30 PM                         The Horton Brothers                                       Ballroom
10:30 PM                       Jessie and the Orbits                                       Beinville Room
12:15 AM                       Big Sandy and Los Straightjackets                 Beinville Room
1:45 AM                         Sureshots                                                        Ballroom

Saturday

4:00 PM                         Blasters                                                           Car Show

6:00 PM                         Jerry Lee Lewis                                               Car Show

8:00 PM                         Rhythm Shakers                                               Ballroom

9:00 PM                         Gizelle                                                              Ballroom

11:00 PM                       Sonny Burgess and the Pacers                         Ballroom

2:00 AM                         The Caezars                                                     Ballroom

Sunday

Daytime:                        Tiki Pool Party                                               The Pool

6:00 PM                         Roy Rapid and the Rhythm Rock Trio              Brendens

6:30 PM                         Jive Contest                                                    Ballroom

9:30 PM                         Kim Lenz and the Jagauars                            Ballroom

11:30 PM                       Rockabilly Stars                                              Ballroom

This is my preferred list, although I will probably skip the jive lesson and I will squeeze in Frankie's Thursday late afternoon. Sorry burlesque fans, I would rather be watching bands play.

If you are getting into Vegas on Wednesday, try to get to the Wild! Records Pre-party at The Las Vegas Country Saloon, 425 Fremont Street, Downtown Las Vegas.

Rockabilly dancing...for the uneducated

As I have mentioned many times in my blogs, I love to dance. I didn't always know how to dance, since I have a husband that doesn't know how. After years of watching the dance floors at rockabilly shows, longingly, I asked my friend Christian to teach me how. I want to use this blog to show some of the different styles of rockabilly dancing.

There are basically 3 styles of dance, Strollin', Jivin' and Boppin'.All three have a different style of music. It's hard to discern the different types of music at first. Boppers are faster and more up tempo than jivers, and strollers are a little more R&B, which is the best way I know how to describe it.

First, there is strolling. Strolling or "strollin'" is mostly a girls dance, although there is usually some drunk guy along the edge of the dance floor trying to stroll with the girls. Strollin' is kind of like a peacock dance. It's the time when the girls get out and strut their stuff so all the guys can admire them, and all the girls who decided to sit it out can talk shit about them.

Don't forget to shut off the music before you watch the videos!

Here's a clip from youtube that was taken at the High Rockabilly in Spain:


 Now we'll go onto jiving. Jiving is partner dancing. It is different from swing dancing, primarily because it's more free form and there is not really organization to it or counting steps involved. Some dancers do incorporate swing dance and jitterbug moves into their jive. Jiving is partner dancing that is all about feeling the music and once I figured out how to follow, I could dance with anyone that could lead.



Now we move on to boppin'! Boppin' is really just free form dancing. Sometimes it looks like retarded 80s dancing, but sometimes, I just can't stop staring when some really good boppers are out on the floor. There are some standard type of skipping steps that a lot of people do, and I don't really have much style when I bop. I just have fun moving to the music.


Hope you all enjoyed this, although I know more than half my readers are good dancers, themselves.

Another Friday night of dancing

Pictures stolen from Aaron Dunmore and Raul Castro...

Tanoa was spinning

Met a cool girl from back east...we have mutual friends

Wore my cowboy shirt and a red pencil skirt with my buddy chewed cowboy boots

E and Jake

Jiving with Oran

  The crowd

Gabby and Morgan

Jose, Raul and I

Viva Rockabilly Fridays in San Francisco!

At last! Our Friday night record hop is back and last night was the kick off in the new location, Retox on 20th near 3rd in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco.

Three of our four rotating DJs were spinning, Rockin' Raul, Tanoa Samoa Boy and OkieOran. It was Raul's birthday, so when he wasn't on the decks he was jiving 2 or 3 girls at once

That's Gabby from "Sewing is Hard" on the left

 Lola Devlin got a jive with the birthday boy

It was such a great crowd. Retox has a pretty decent dance floor and there is more room to dance than at Jay N Bee. I will miss Jay N Bee, but Retox is a great substitute. The owner Scott was great and loved having us there. 

Here's some pics from the night

 Oakie Oran at the decks

 My jive guru, Christian

Jessica double fisting!

Bootilicious!

  Jake was excited about Rockabilly Fridays coming back!

 Oran having a twirl with Michelle

I'm having a twirl with E...does Tempermental Broad recognize that skirt?

 My turn with the birthday boy!

I am sure I will be posting more blogs about Fridays...or at least pictures. I'm so happy to have it back and have the opportunity to see my City friends once a week again.

 

I love to dance...can't wait for the Bombshell Bop!

Bombshell's Bop

The club I belong to, the Bombshells is planning a big show on October 9! It will be held at the Historic 23 Club (Formerly DeMarco's 23 Club) in Brisbane.

I hope you local people can make it out! It also happens to be on my birthday, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate than with rockin' music and my good friends.

You can check out the bands playing here:

Dale Rocka and the Volcanoes

Arsen Roulette

Jailbreak

BBH 2010

I've blogged a bit about the history of Booze Broads and Hotrods in a prior post. I talked about years past and 2009 when we made the big jump from a club to a hotel. This year, we went all out and decided we wanted to put on our dream show, which was to book Carlos and the Bandidos.

The Bombshell's philosophy toward our show (this philosophy was started by Rachelle) was to bring music acts to the Bay Area who have never played or haven't played for a very long time. Our main motives are selfish because we want to see the band play and we are the only ones willing to book the show, but also a "thank you" to the San Francisco Rockabilly and hot rod scenes for giving us what we love.

None of us girls profits personally from the show, it all gets re-invested in next year's show. This last year was really the tops, here is the flier:

 The show was scheduled the week after Vegas, and we like having that weekend. There were people who came from LA, and some from England and Spain who had been over for Viva. That is one reason we time it that way. Also, it is a nice way to treat those "post-viva blues" people get after Viva Las Vegas.

I am just going to post pics from the show, and will do a later post about my adventures with Bandidos and how I have forced Neil to be my BFF. 

I will tell the BBH story with photos...lots of photos!

The Giant Tiki built by Notch

Cars

Tanoa, who DJ'd the Car Show

People who came to the show:

Chris from London, Jess and E from SF

Dorian and Jess

 

Moi and friends from LA and Spain:

 

 Jess and I with my BFF Neil

Yes, we are feeling up his Moobs

My Imaginary Husband looking at a car

Raul, Tanoa and Monica

Mouse showed up

 

Tanya and Leah working the car show

 

Japanese Rockers bopping

Bombshells Working Hard! 

Plus Dez our Partygirl-Bombshell helping us out from Chicago

Tanya in a Black and Gold Squaw

 

Cute Couple Dancing

Rachelle is a Bandido!

 

One of our Vendors

Now the Bands!!! (and La Cholita)

La Cholita

Jailbreak

The Rhythm Shakers

Santos

Carlos and the Bandidos!

Here's a few of me working hard...picking up after Cholita and trying to figure out who won the trophies in the car show!

Here's a great video of the car show