Dick Dale A Concert Review	May 30, 1996 The Cubby Bear Chicago, IL A Review and Photos by The Dude on the Right

Now, in the afternoon, I had heard a couple of radio station interviews with Dick Dale, and with that I realized many an interesting fact. I learned that Dick tours with his family and his 4 year old son plays drums with him on stage, I learned that he had a guitar designed for him, and I also learned that he had speakers designed, way back when, that coined his name, I believe I heard, as the "King of Loud." I thought, "yea right, King of Loud, shouldn't someone like AD/DC or Metallica be called the King of Loud?" Well, I now know, and agree, that Dick Dale is the King of Loud, because at the Cubby Bear Dick kept the sound dude busy, kept turning it up, and I think his amps go to 12, not just the infamous 11, because that had to be one of the loudest shows I've ever seen and, even turned up that much, the music was still crisp. For his great guitar work, it needed to be. And you know, I wear earplugs at shows now. It kinda sucks, but in college I stood in front of too many speaker stacks taking photos so it's either the earplugs or a horrible ringing in my ears. This night, they didn't help. That's just how loud it was.

In his band there are really five members, although four are on stage at one time. There's Dick on guitar, the bass dude, and three drummers, although there are only two on stage at a time. He has his normal, kick-butt drummer, his 4 year old son, Jimmy, and and also Jill who came in for a couple of songs too. Let me say this, Jill kicks ass, for a chick. Alright, she would kick ass for a guy too, she really rocked, and Jimmy, you would never know he was only four if you listened to him. He played the cutest little drum set I've ever seen, had all the women going "Look at the little cute kid playing drums," and he kicked ass too. But then there was Dick Dale.

I never really heard the term "surf guitar" before, but now have a new found appreciation for the term, thanks to Mr. Dale, and it's really hard to describe in words, other than it's like that song at the beginning of Pulp Fiction. You can play it fast, you can play it slow, but it always has that distinctive sound, and it was cool. I was amazed at how talented this man was, how well he performed, and how he kept the crowd rocking the entire night. I'll be honest, I didn't know many of the songs, but was entertained. I did hear "Ghost Riders in the Sky," I believe, and "Fever," and he rattled off the names of songs before he played them, but my ears by that point only heard his guitar. But, hey, the music was cool, and there were a couple of other things impressed me about Dick Dale.

One of those impressions was how he broke a guitar string and doesn't have a back-up guitar. Nope, he told the band to keep jamming and re-strung his guitar on stage. It was almost like a challenge for him to not break the music for the sake of a guitar string, and he even turned tuning his guitar into music. For your information, it was his 48 gauge string that broke - I know because he told us. The other thing that impressed me was how he, during "Fever," strolled over and played bass guitar. Yea, okay, not really impressive you might say, but he played the same guitar the bass player was playing. No, not separately, they played the same guitar at the same time. Dick was playing the lower bass lines while the bass dude was playing the melody on the higher strings. I don't know, I just found it pretty cool. And, oh yea, he also plays trumpet, which I'm told, he learned on his own. I was really impressed at the multi-talented aspect of Dick Dale, and his guitar playing just plain rocks.

This job sends me to see bands I normally wouldn't bat an eye at, but many too many times I find that there are so many talented individuals that I have been missing - and Dick Dale is one of them. Some guitar players play great, but Dick Dale is a great player. Some people are talented guitarists, but Dick Dale is a guitar talent, and some people play to sound great. Dick Dale plays a great sound. I had a blast, but always more importantly, the crowd loved him. Dick Dale gets TWO HUGE THUMBS UP!!!! If you like guitar talents, loud music, and a good time, get out to see Dick Dale, and don't just say "Who the hell is Dick Dale?" That's it for this one - L8R!