Suburban Legends

[marcometer]

Ok well there is this band called Suburban Legends who were my favorite band for about 4 years or so. They started out as a ska band. Chances are you have seen them if you went to Disneyland from 2002-2005. They were the house band for Downtown Disney and played at Tomorrowland inside Disneyland. They are still the ONLY band, that is allowed to play their original songs inside the park. Anyway they have gone through some major line up changes as well as sound. They have drifted pretty far away from their ska roots, but are still a fun band to watch. I worked at a venue in Texas while I was in the Army and booked a bunch of shows for them from 2003-early 2005. So I became friends with some of the band members mainly Brain Robertson (trombone) and the late Dallas Cook (trombone, RIP).

 

Anyway they now play pop-rock/funk with horns. But they still play their old ska songs at shows, which makes me happy. Plus they do ska covers of Disney songs like Under The Sea & I Just Can't Wait To Be King. I still prefer the old band (when Tim was the singer) than the new one, but I still like them, just not as much as I did back in the day. But they are still on my top 10 list of favorite bands. Anyway if you haven't heard of them, here's a taste of their sound, new & old:

 

Old sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMCOHwjC0g0

 

new sound:

 

Oh and one of the most annoying things about the new sound and line-up are the "fan-girls", girls who know nothing about the band or their history who are only at the shows because they think certain band members are "hot". Maybe I'm just not used to it because I've always known them as a ska band, and ska bands don't have fan-girls. But I guess when you get a band with "good looking" dudes, that kind of stuff happens. Eh, what can you do. I just miss the massive skank pits which are now no more than 10 or 15 people now, when they play old songs. Im just hoping maybe they'll make another album, that's more on the ska side than pop or at least have a couple of ska songs for the old school fans.

 

current line-up:

top left: Brian Klemm (guitar), Vince Walker (vocals), Derek Lee Rock (drums) bottom left: Luis Beza (trumpet), Brian Robertson (trombone), Mikey Hachey (bass)

 

old line-up:

top left: Derek Lee Rock (drums), Chris Mauer (bass), Brian Klemm (guitar) bottom left: Dallas Cook (trombone), Aaron Betrham (trumpet), Tim Mauer (vocals), Brian Robertson (trombone), Vince Walker (trumpet)

 

they've had different line-ups before including another singer, but these were probably the 2 that lasted the longest and most memorable.