In the mix of sight and sound it was the music that took center stage Friday at the third creative explosion of painting and tunes at Gangplank. From hip-hop to techno to surf, Desert Bloom 3 rocked the mothership.

All the while, 10 artists focused on getting their visions on canvas, ready in time for an auction at the end of the evening.

The appropriately Twitter-handled @jackalert (AKA Jack Smith) broke out the beats first as the show started late. The rumble through the crowd said Dfactor – up next – impressed as they pumped out power-pop punk tunes.

Even the Red Bull gals made a quick appearance at Gangplank, handing out the free energy to a place that – at least in front of the canvas and behind the instruments – dripped it already. Gankplank is a tech-oriented, co-working location in Chandler, Arizona that also opens itself to community events. Desert Bloom was free to anyone who wanted to come and could move. (Disclosure, Desert Bloom is organized by guys who have become friends since I first wrote about and attended the last Desert Bloom back in July)

With “I’m Single” cards taped to their backs, Rebecca Burkhart and Amy Kopinski Donohue, shared a canvas and painted some of the first strokes of the evening. In simple terms, they had fun with cupcakes, and blue birds on a wire. Jamie Mulhern crafted a large owl next to Shannon Elizabeth Harden’s doll. Victor Moreno went all Pushead with his dripping zombie skull in white; Jay Fotos matched him with Frankenstein in perfectly simple white strokes and splatter spots.

It was not quite so traditionally gender-specific last time, but that’s the way it broke down Friday.

About the middle of the evening Sunday Morning Drive buried their usual acoustic mellow and offered an amped up version of off of last year’s self-titled release. They also threw in an inspired version of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.” Talking to them after their well-received short set they said a slightly more aggressive sound was in their future (full interview later this week) with enough song to fill a few CDs worth.

Surfside IV was the most well-known of the bands. Given such “diva” status, they kept the crowd waiting; a crowd that nevertheless showed their enthusiastic support once the Fez-hatted ones fingered the first surfabilly notes.

Unfortunately, I left before Stern Savage and Consumer were scheduled to play. The hip-hop head Savage is gathering rep around Phoenix with mix tape releases and a label, Arizona Stronghold Music. Though he started in ’98 he took a hiatus to, as he describes it, bring something that he could be proud of back to the scene.

(photos added Sept. 22) © Soundlust.com/Temple A. Stark

DJs and Bands (plus Twitter handles)
Jack Smith (@jackalert)
Dfactor (@Dfactor)
Sunday Morning Drive (@SMDBand)
Marvin Forte (@MarvinForte)
Surfside IV (@thesurfsideiv)
Stern Savage (@SternSavage)
Consumer (@Consumer)

Artists (plus Twitter Handles)
Rebecca Burkhart (@design_gal)
Tony Deschiney
Nicholas DiBiase (@hepnova)
Amy Kopinski Donohue (@thefabulousone)
Shannon Elizabeth Harden (@chanonista)
Jay Fotos
Victor Moreno (@victormoreno)
Jamie Mulhern (@maventheavenger)
Denny Riccelli (@dennmann17)
Christine Slomski (@LadySlomski)

Opetaia Foa’i led Te Vaka through an almost
2-hour performance Saturday night at Mesquite High School
Photos by Temple A. Stark/Soundlust.com

Their type of performance you usually only see surrounded by commercial tourist trappings or resorts. And what that does it seems to me is to emphasis that these are costumes rather than real history and real people behind it. That it turn, denudes the idea that there’s anything worth paying attention to beyond mere entertainment. Saying all that, when the curtains parted and revealed a huge rock and roll drum set, anyone who was paying attention knew it was going to be different. This dance, drum and song performance held in Gilbert, near Phoenix was at a high school, with an audience of appreciative men, women (and kids) starved for the authenticity that a group like Te Vaka brings.

With a couple of low-impact, local acts leading off the event, and one rugby team pouring out the aggression (though perhaps less so if it makes you giggle at times) the evening started slow, but relaxing. Two woman and girl groups of dancers from a local dance school brought the hip-check and rhythm one might expect. And a 14-year old boy (who’s name I missed) crooned out Corinne Bailey Rae and Sade numbers.

Then the curtains parted, smoke filled the air and contrasting lighting set the stage for an evening that more and more as it went along began to develop meaning for the crowd. “To the Future” really made the room come alive. It may have been one of their hits; a song about all that mothers teach, and particularly what the mother of lead songwriter and founding member, Opetaia Foa’i, taught him.

Foa’i told Soundlust before the show that celebration is a major part of the band but education about disappearing environmental beauty and cultures has to get out, “To highlight issues of concern in the South Pacific is an important part of Te Vaka. Respect for the past and right up to the present time.”

He said one of the most important issues for him is keeping the history of discovery alive for the generations; like “the original pioneers that sailed the Pacific Ocean conquered it with the simple canoe and left their mark on the unique cultures of each Island.”

The band is 15 years old and in teenagehood the band continues to explore its surroundings, but can now ask the right questions.

“It’s way more satisfying now that’s for sure,” Foa’i says. “Arriving at this point where my culture is highlighted on stage is all that I ever wanted to do with music, even if I didn’t know it back then when I first started out.”

I haven’t watched many bands using languages other than English, so explanation was welcome and needed. Foa’i did most of the talking. But with traditional drums (pate), flute, guitar and the drums, dancers in grass skirts (men and woman) and tribal tattoos (just the men) he was never the entire focus.

At one point, with so much going on, I wished I could see the group perform without amplification, without microphones or anything else on stage but the dancers, their movements and their play. It just seems they can carry off an “acoustic set” with aplomb and great solo sounds from the tribal drums, flute and guitars.

“If you see our show you will understand that positive force,” Foa’i says. “For example the group is involved in programs to get kids off street drugs. This is contrary to many other Pacific groups who promote the opposite.”

Tonight they’re in Denver, Colorado at the Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom. Saturday catch them at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in Irvine, CA and Sunday they wrap up their short American tour at the World Beat Center in San Diego, CA.

…

The Phoenix music scene generally stays underground. Sometimes – as a fan, anyway – it’s better that way since intimacy remains.

That, and they stay hungry, bringing the raw and the edge out through voice and instruments. Again better for fans than band members but …

Miniature Tigers got their start in the Sol Valley. Cute as they are the band shows themselves Tuesday, July 27 at the Rhythm Room, ripping through a set to celebrate the release of Fortress (Modern Art Records). It’s their second release as they delve further into the weird.

The Spinto Band, Roar and the perennially overlooked Kinch are all part of the bill. Show starts at 8pm. Tickets available at Stinkweeds, Hoodlums, Zia and Ticketweb.com, or at the door.

And dearly beloved locally, Snake! Snake! Snakes! (a copy editor’s nightmare that) got themselves a self-titled EP out. They’ll hit the Rhythm Room August 11. All ages, and they’re that type of band to appeal to grannies in the old folk’s home and ten-year-old rocking out at home.

Gospel Claws and Sister Cities get some serious set time that night on the RR’s small stage – reach out and touch someone!

(Check a listen to two songs from the EP here, and “The Mountain Fire” via Phoenix New Times)