By Jason L. Brow
Surf music—the genre most often associated with the beach culture of 1960s Southern California—saw a resurgence in the '90s when “Pulp Fiction” featured Dick Dale’s “Miserlou.”
Around the same time as the movie, the Connecticut surf band
9th Wave started performing.
"I watched 9th Wave grow as a band. They started NESMA [
New England Surf Music Alliance] about five or six years ago,” says Bob D’Aprile, founder of Surf Nite! in Connecticut.
Influenced by Unsteady Freddie's Surf-Rock Shindig at Otto's Shrunken Head in New York City, Bob D'Aprile sought to give Connecticut surf bands a venue for exposure. Riding this wave of popularity, D’Aprile had the idea to approach a local club last year about the concept of hosting a night of surf music.
"I put together an all surf [music] night with all NESMA bands, which did pretty well. So, the club gave me another night in April. And then they gave me more dates. And with each one, I tried to program it with surf, culminating in May, with a five surf band line-up for Memorial Day weekend, featuring the Super-Tones from New York. That went over really well, considering the weekend."
Though the summer dates didn't fare well, the September Surf Nite! was a huge hit with a performance by
Witches In Bikinis.
"Ultimately, I started it to give surf bands another venue and to broaden their exposure,” says D’Aprile. “In that line of thinking [I would] match up surf bands with other genres, to expose people who liked rockabilly, psychobilly and garage to surf."
In 2007, Surf Nite! was held at Jimmy's Seaside, now called the
Seaside Tavern, in Stamford. This year, the Surf Nite! fun moves to new locations.
"I already had the gig with
Corner Pocket when someone approached me about doing
Two Boots." From there, the 2008 season of Surf Night! began, and the rest of the year looks promising.
