Dayton937

Things to do in Dayton | Restaurants, Theatre, Music and More

Daddy Katz

Confirmed Dead Dick Hammer Sighting at Daddy Katz

By Leave a Comment

In a year of predicted end of the world prophecies and reported zombie attacks it only makes sense that the epidemic of the undead makes it way to Ohio, in October no less. It appears some of the undead where purposely brought here for our entertainment. It’s been proven that some zombies still have the skills and talent they died with and can still move with reasonably descent mobility and rock star swagger.  They even play nice, unchained walking around, mingling with their human foo…, counterparts patiently watching them willingly lower/weaken their defenses with strong mind numbing beverages.  Throughout the show there were several patrons that slowly with particular unintentional precision began imitating the walking dead resembling the awkward pace established in many a zombie flick. Whether this mirrored behavior was some kind of voodoo zombie dust used by the band to ensure a midnight snack isn’t clear.

But what I can say is, everything was cool when I left, what happened after, I can’t account for. All I know is that I woke up in one piece, unscathed. I’ve attempted contact with several other people without luck. Memories are still foggy and I have dream like memories of an older gentleman running around half crazy before the alleged attack and Dead Dick delivering a baby on stage but then again, someone could’ve put Zombie Absinthe in my Coke without me knowing.  After a few pots of coffee and several email queries later the following is my best recollection of events that transpired. I can’t accurately describe or prove everything that happened that night really did but as a journalist I have a public duty and commitment to the truth that must be adhered to. So… this is what I remember.

 

The Loveless

Daddy Katz, next door to Truth & Triumph Tattoo is a retro shop specializing in vintage antiques, costumed culture and everything and anything cool brought in the best local rockabilly, blues and country acts Saturday October 6th for a crowd of whooping, hoot n hollerin’ good ole boys, hot inked up biker chicks, some nice kittens, a few skirts, a broad or two, a few greasers and of course…. zombies.  Kinda like Roadhouse but everyone was ‘nice’. The bonfire was blazing and the party was jiving in the old backdoor garage tonight.

The Loveless, named after Willem Dafoe’s first movie was the first group to perform with Dead Dick watching quietly in a dark shadowed corner. The three man jam started out feeling a little Devilish. Guitarists Bret Cottongim’s wolverine sideburns were shaved razor sharp ready to fend off attacks if needed. He did some fancy finger dancing on HellBound, Dead End and the Dead Dick Hammer approved Grave Robbin’ about a doomed cemetery snooper and his girlfriend going to a cemetery lookin’ for a dead rich guy and he ends up diggin’ his own grave. Never trust a dame in a graveyard slick. Upright bass player Tommy Kirkendall plucked the thick strings with precession ready to use the grandfather violin as a club if necessary.  Happy days were back again with some easy ridin’ rock and blues with a southern twang.

Miss Cherry Lee and the Hotrod Hounds

Up next for your listening pleasure ladies and gentlemen, Miss Cherry Lee & The Hotrod Hounds. Opening up the first three numbers, stood the man in black (from the waste up anyway). Then Miss Lee made her entrance singing with the spirit of Rockabilly’s first lady Wanda Jackson with a sassy, sultry, swing.  They played tribute to the pioneers and forefathers of the genre as they rocked this town back to the good ole 50’s. She takes Kim Lentz’s fiery redhead flare on The Swing. She preaches from The Dresser Draw Bible (there’s no failure to communicate here) before they break out The Great Balls of Fire and watch Johnny B. Goode.  Tonight everybody’s got Rockabilly Fever and Miss Lee and The Hotrod Hounds mark their turf leaving us Breathless.

For those who’ve seen his face and lived to tell about it there’s an old legend that goes somethin’ like this. October 30th Richard Hammer and his trio, going to the biggest gig on their careers ran into some bad weather and somehow ended up at the bottom of the Green River. Now many many years later, freshly scooped out of their graves and ready to resurrect music from the evil clutches of the mainstream, Dead Dick Hammer and The TBA Band have returned to wreak havoc and bloodshed. But Richie wasn’t always a Dick, back in the day he was an honor student, big brother, on the glee team and captain of the football team. Later he relocated to Memphis and was a studio musician for some of the biggest names of the time, but due to copyright can’t be mentioned, (I would’ve asked but he flashed his rotting teeth smile at me stinking of fresh meat and I took the hint).  After his awakening his devoured his squeaky clean image turning into the dark, psychopathic, perverted, heartless but surprisingly well behaved Dead Dick we saw in front of us. At least while the crowd outnumbered his band anyway.

Dead Dick Hammer

Dead Dick’s biggest fan, a young lady of grave cadaverous beauty Miss Doreen Laveau tragically took her own life after the accident near the location of The Trio’s final resting place at Wells Family Cemetery in Temple Hill Kentucky. Such fatal devotion didn’t go unnoticed when Dead Dick and drummer Dr. (Doc) Kong unearthed her and through unknown/nefarious means gave her, her step back. Some say she was taken to a castle and electrified on a dark stormy night, but that’s never been proven. Now she plays bass next to her hunky, honkytonk hereafter hero like a good little living dead girl should. Undead drummer, Dr. Kong from parts unknown, actually he hails from the deepest darkest parts of the Amazon, and yes, you should believe him. A licensed professional witchdoctor by trade and this is what he said to me, he said…. well not much really besides grunts and ting tang walla walla bing bang. He deviously smiled at me reaching into his overalls so I stuck a business card in his mouth and ran.

 

Skull 13 makers of cool shot glasses, kreepy key chains, magnets from hell and other just plain weird stuff proudly presents straight from the cemetery gates of Plot 13 (gotta love irony) and the dirty dead six feet under south comes the rotting psychobilly creatures of undead dread Dead Dick Hammer & The TBA Band aka The Embalmers, for the Dayton show. He lets the crowd pick a new band name every show, lets them think they have some power over him. Leaving a dirt trail behind them with every step they played a set of high energy, nasty rock n roll hits and near victim misses. He thanked everyone for not shooting him in the head, yet. Performing with the slick swagger of his passed on pal The King, electric gypsy teeth playing of the wizard (he doesn’t eat nonliving things) and the classic duck walk of ole Mr. Maybelline. He also played guitar with a bike wheel. From what was left of his throat and vocal chords after a career’s worth of Jim Bean compounded by rot came the voices of a few famous rock n roll misfits including Glenn Danzig, the King of Graceland, and a little bit of Randy Travis. One look at Dead Dick and we have the unwanted answer of what Mr. Travis will look like, ten years after his demise. They brought along hell’s version of the good old time gospel hour. Dead Dick Hammer could very well be the darker more animated version of Hank Hill.  He promised everyone that came up and participated wouldn’t be followed home and stared at through the window.

The whole gang at Daddy Katz

They played a death defying set of daisy raising originals like My Baby She Like It Rough (a TMI tune of his personal life). Then came the Res-Erection the hard rock thumpin’ CD opener, the You-Tube friendly Last Call and another TMI tune from the black lagoon. They play an ode to poor sweet Annabelle and another for Sweet Sweet Connie, Dick promises he won’t hit cha but he will do something else.

All in all it was a great night of country rock n roll, drinkin’ and well behaved (for the most part) zombies. Representatives from Truth & Triumph were stationed, guns ready to give Mr. Hammer some new ink or slow him down in case he decided to give chase.   Skull 13’s other worldly connections came through and Dead Dick Hammer came to Dayton.

The Shangrila Of Spirit

By Leave a Comment

Mahalo To Festiki

Several years ago, when Bill Winger opened Daddy Katz in Moraine, I met up with him to try and understand the clientele that he was catering to: the tiki culture. His shop seemed to be a virtual catchall of kitsch, with black velvet Polynesian themed paintings, Surf Ohio clothing, old bicycles and skates, hot rod memorabilia and a variety of other items that seemed to have little or no relation, but at the same time, seemed to encompass a larger cultural statement, all set to a rockabilly/exotica soundtrack. When we first sat down, Bill said:

“It does go back to a much simpler lifestyle. I think people were much more interested in enjoying life. Maybe they weren’t as stressed out. I don’t know, because at that time, I hadn’t even born yet. Now, people who have lived through that time period might tell you something different. But, we look back at those times and thing, ‘God, life was easier back then.’ That’s part of the draw with what’s going on with this.” Bill went on to explain that, “There are large groups that are getting bigger out there that really enjoy the old tiki lounge/bars. They enjoy a properly mixed drink. You go to a lot of restaurants and ask for a Mai Tai and they slam it together and say, ‘Here!’ A real Mai Tai needs to be mixed with proper ingredients and care and served properly. The people who are into the tiki culture appreciate that. I mean, you can tell a properly mixed drink versus this crap that they give you at some bars. According to some of the tiki sites, there are some groups out there. One of the groups is the FOM, the Fraternal Order of the Moai (FOM) and they are an organization which cultivates the old tiki bars and restaurants and the things like the properly mixed drinks and some of the lifestyles that it represents.”

Fast forward years later to 2009 and I find myself reviewing an event that fully represented this culture: Festiki. Festiki is the brainchild of Ron Kaplan, a friend of Bill’s and the creator of the cult fashion statement known simply as Surf Ohio. Ron’s concept was that this sense of lifestyle was more of a state of mind rather than a place, which he so eloquently demonstrated with his ubiquitous surfer riding the crest of a mythical Midwestern wave. Last year’s festival kind of came out of nowhere and there were very few people (speaking strictly of those who weren’t already in the loop) who knew exactly what to expect. There was a feeling of trepidation on Ron Kaplan’s part as he sought out sponsors for Festiki’s first outing.

“This is only year two and I can certainly remember last year going to potential sponsors and having many of them cock an eyebrow, saying, ‘Surf Ohio, what?’ or ‘What’s Surf Ohio?’” Kaplan said dryly. “It’s kind of like a joke: if you have to explain the punchline, then it’s most probably a lost cause.”

Yet, against all the fears of failure, the 2009 Festiki, by all accounts, was a huge success. It offered the public a radically different experience from the usual fairway kiosks and funnel cake trailers. Under a vibrant caul of rockabilly/surf sounds, the crowds mingled in a relaxed atmosphere of a shared experience. In relating to the creation of Festiki and the issues he faced the first year, Kaplan explained that:

“Well, I really kind of created it intuitively…the event almost channeled itself through me. As I got the idea for it, like a lot of big ideas, it’s a lot of small ideas over time that come together. I was, though, pleasantly surprised. Given the number of meetings I had with potential sponsors, so many of them looked at me like I was kind of nuts, I thought, ‘Gee, is that going to the public’s perception too?’” Kaplan went on to say that, “I think people got it though, and that’s why they came out in droves. The other thing was just seeing it all unfolding and everybody just having a great time…that was really heartening and I knew then that I absolutely was going to do another one. Of course, I had and have a great group of volunteers and vendors and suppliers helping me.”

This year’s Festiki promises to be bigger and better, without falling into the the cavernous commercial abyss that other festivals seem to fall prey to. Festiki is more of an organically conceptualized event where leisure and relaxation are the key elements rather than a frantic headlong run in an attempt to have fun. At Festiki, one can wander about, checking out the enlightening displays, gaze in awe at the spectacularly detailed award winning sand sculptures created by Ted Siebert, partake in Polynesian inspired cuisine or just lie back and relax as the waves of rocakbilly/surf music wash over you. This is more a communal communion of cultures as opposed to the individual desperation of distraction that passes for entertainment nowadays. During our conversation, Kaplan describes it as “the ultimate staycation.”

“There are a lot of people that can’t take that trip. I mean, you can’t go to the Gulf Coast because it’s all covered in oil, and maybe you can’t afford the condo in Hilton Head this summer for the whole clan, so for ten bucks, at least for a day, you can feel like you went to the shore and kicked back under the rustling palms with your beverage of choice and listened to some great tunes.”

As for the “great tunes,” you can catch The Space Cossacks, a surf revival band out of Washington, D.C. Then there is Vegas 66 from Columbus whose style is given the all encompassing description of “swingin’ surfa-rocka-psycho-punka-jazza-you name it.” Other bands include Tyrd Fyrgysyn and the MasterXploders, the Maderia, Crazy Joe and the Mad River Outlaws and, rounding out the bill, Dayton’s own Nick Kizirnis Band, whose surf music has graced several television shows. Other entertainment included Surfabilly Freakout, a troupe of Djs serving up a distinctively eclectic portion of music ranging from exotica to psychobilly music. The beautifully expressive Leilani Duteil brings the traditional hula dance to Dayton, accompanied by vocals and guitar work of Francis Llacuna and the characteristic sound of the slack key guitar played by O’ahu native, Curtis Silva. The Soul Fyre Tribe lights up the night with their martial arts inspired fire dancing. One thing to keep an eye out for is the unparalleled artistically destructive display presented by Kevin Moore, the “hot rod tiki carver,” who will carve a giant tiki by hand, then set it on fire using the flame thrower dual exhausts of his blacked out rat rod.

Festiki will be held on August 14th from at the historic Old River Park, which is located on River Road, with access to it from behind 1611 S. Main St. Admission is $10 for those 18 and up, $5 for students 10 to 18 and those under 9 are admitted for free. The events start at noon and run until after 10 pm. A portion of the proceeds goes to the Surfrider Foundation, for not only education in surfing activities, but also to keep the coastal areas pristine. Festiki is a production created by Surf Ohio and the Fraternal Order of the Moai. For more information, go to the Festiki website at http://www.fraternalorderofmoai.org/festiki/ .