In a sexy little periwinkle colored Club called “The Canby” somewhere in the depths of the LA Valley, the Mars Rocks musical conglomerate, an edgy array of superstar talent, decided to blast off one more time following their successful concert benefitting The Mars Society at The Globe Theater in LA last Friday. Both factions, Revolushn and The Hailers feature some of the most legendary and globally infamous musicians exampling, Scott Page, saxophonist and guitarist from Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Toto, and Think:EXP and drummer Dave Kendrick from Devo. The night also introduced a mash up between some of Revolushn and the Wisconsin band called, “The Koke Band”, and marked the LA Debut of Sohojohnny, New York based solo recording artist.
Revolushn Frontman, No Mansfield has played with artists including: Aretha Franklin, Sir Rod Stewart, No Doubt, Berlin, and Devo, to name a few and also might be the most understated and underestimated guitarist on the entire planet. The free spirited musician is also a scientific engineer who created the design for the Mars habitat, causing him to live in a box in the Arctic with Mars Society founder, Robert Zubrin. The San Francisco Psyche band also includes, Olga “Bundles” Schubert, a classically trained keyboardist imported directly from the Red Army in Russia where she was a medical doctor, who was forced to flee the country with her young daughter. Dave Kendrick, from the iconic bands Devo and Sparks is considered by many to be one of the best and most vibrant Drummers this planet has to offer. The two newest members vocalist Kim Aston and bassist Neil Nyburg definitely rock and are a colorfully purple fit for the accomplished dynasty. The band on occasion borrows the epic child prodigy Scott Page from Pink Floyd who made his television debut at age 6 on the Lawerence Welk show with his very famous dad, Bill Page. Together they rage on, rocking the planet with wild, rebellious, and schizophrenic melodies like, “Dinosaurs”, (hitting over 200,000 thousand views on YouTube) and “Martian Shanty Town”, “Dark Matter”, “Sputnik”, and more out of this world raves….Eddie (Spaghetti) Kobesko was also a special edition to the already wild lunatic fringe.
Revolushn is No Mansfield’s creation of love. Love of music, love of the art, love of his wife, (Bundles), and love of the outlandish. The group is fun, macro-chromatic, sparkling and completely fabulous. It’s like danger in the sky, the turbulence frightens you for a minute but the adventure grabs your attention and keeps you awake.
The Grammy nominated Hailers are a strong Celtic, awe inspiring, passionate, and vivacious band led by founder Robert Mills, guitarist, singer, songwriter, and total rocker. After over a decade of playing together this group is ready to become a house-hold name. Consisting of April Carson on bass, Billy DiBlassi on drums, Lori Herek and Patti Smith on back up vocals, Harlan “Spector” on keys, the very cool Al Keith on percussion and once again the best sax player on Earth and Mars as well, Scott Page. The Hailers have their act together musically playing and creating tunes that are well executed, and that very obviously come from the heart and sole of writer Robert Mills.
Mills created the group originally in his native Wales. When locating to the US he started it up all over again and has been rocking the states since then. The band is animated, effervescent and alive. They capture the human spirit and share it!
Amidst the Martianesque madness No Mansfield opened with a band that defiantly wasn’t Revolushn. The Koke Band consisting of Ed Omera singing lead, Eddie Kobesko on bass, Quinn Omera on drums, No on guitar. Along with The Koke Band New York solo artist Sohojohnny gave his LA live stage debut in a rousing cover of “Jumping Jack Flash” by The Rolling Stones. He was a regular blast!
Sohojohnny, (aka John Pasquale), has a heartfelt passion for music, and derives joy out of sharing it with the world. He is known for his outrageous extravaganzas benefitting The American Cancer Society. This past August he produced a 12 hour disco event with disco’s best including artists such as Denny Terrio, Harold Melvin’s Blue Notes, Tavares, and many other legends. He will be releasing his debut single shortly. His LA live stage performance was dazzling.
The evening was an enthusiastic jamming fusion of all three bands jumping in anywhere and everywhere they wanted which was just cool. The talent in the room was overwhelming in the best possible way and truly a night to remember!
Review by Eileen Shapiro