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Live Music Brunch with The Thugz - Tribal Hippie Underground Zone |
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This event is all ages
The Thugz
Behind the stage at the Pink Elephant tavern in Monte Rio is a painting of an old-time bar scene in which a large-breasted, scantily clad bartender serves a customer while a similarly adorned woman dances with a bear in front of the bar. This picture served as the backdrop on a misty December night when the band, The Thugz, brought their road show to the tavern known to locals as "The Pink", every Thursday.
The band's name is an abbreviation for the phrase "Tribal Hippie Underground Zone." Their music consists of originals and Grateful Dead songs, mixed with songs by Bob dylan, Lucinda Williams, Bruce Coburn, Donovan Leitch and other artists.
Mike Campbell, who founded The Thugz, said he and the band members like the Dead because "their music encompasses so many styles and has an element of improvisation." The dance floor at The Pink was alive with bodies, young and old, grooving to Mike Campbell on guitar, Sylvia Murphy on keyboard, Chris Lushington on a headless, 5-string bass(for an extended lower range), Andre de Channes on guitar and Ian Favell on Drums. Mike and Sylvia do most of the singing, and the band harmonizes well, working from a repertoire of over 150 songs.
Campbell was born in Bangor, Maine but was transported to Fremont, CA at age four by his parents. The family had a cabin in Cazadero where they took frequent holidays. When Campbell fled Fremont in the 1960s to "escape the asphalt," he said, the river area seemed a natural connection to his past, as well as a place with many live music venues.
"All the San Francisco bands like the Grateful Dead came from the city to play here," Campbell noted. He recalled long-gone venues like the old Rio Nido dance hall and the roller rink behind the Rio Theater.
Nowadays, Campbell observed, the music scene is shrinking. "There are a lot of musicians but not many venues," he said.
Campbell lives up the coast in Timber Cove where and Murphy also lives in the Timber Cove area.
Both Campbell and Murphy are teachers by profession. Campbell taught music at Tomales High School and Murphy, a Berkeley native, currently teaches at Fort Ross School.
Campbell, whose first instrument was a bugle his father brought back from World War II, found it a natural progression to join the school band as a trumpet player. He had learned to enjoy "making a lot of racket," he said.
When the Beatles hit the scene, he immediately wanted a guitar, like everyone else. His parents told him only "riff-raff" play the guitar and bought him a ukulele instead. Campbell recalled with a smile that listening to him try to play rock music on a ukulele drove his parents "nuts," so they finally gave in and bought him a guitar and he hasn't looked back since.
Andre de Channes on guitar. He is also a DJ at The Krush (KRSH 95.9 Santa Rosa), a native of Montreal, and played in such bands as "East Of Eden", and Los Angeles based band, "Velvet Chain".
The other stellar addition to The THUGZ is drummer extraordinaire, Ian Favell who is a talented multi-instrumentalist. Ian's sense of timing along with his excellent musical sense, make him seem like he's playing the drums melodically and not just beating them up. Ian has also played bass with the Bob Lucas Trio (jazz), The Heavies, Soulvine, and The Crazy. |
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