Comentarios a cargo de Domenic Priore

Amigo y representante del grupo, coordinador del proyecto This Is The Event y padre, junto a Audrey Moorehead, del programa de televisión It's Happening, en el que los de San Diego aparecieron en su momento, Priore (gran conocedor de lo que dio de sí la música popular californiana de la década de los 60, a la que ha dedicado fanzines y libros de referencia) desempeñó su notorio papel en la andadura de la banda. En 2004 nos mandó estas reflexiones acerca de The Event:

The Event were really an incredible band, the problem is that they were doing all the coolest stuff that, of course, became popular much later. But these high school-age guys, they were on it with all those RUBBLE compilations and doing obscure European Psych. Today, there are magazines like MOJO and UNCUT and others that make this kind of music seem more acceptable to a large audience, but back in 1987-1990 when The Event were together, hell, there was only one mag who cared about this stuff, and that was STRANGE THINGS ARE HAPPENING. Of course, that mag didn't last too long and didn't have the wide readership that something like MOJO does. Anyway, what I think in retrospect is that bands like Oasis and Blur came along later, many groups copped a Mod/Psych vibe, but in 1987-1990, The Event were in the wilderness, alone.

Now you have to understand that those very years, the Paisley Underground of L.A. had already well died out – The Bangles were left but they had one hit that sounded more like Celine Dion ("Eternal Flame") than anything cool like their Paisley stuff. The '60s Garage Punk movement was also just over... The Unclaimed, The Crawdaddys, The Tell-Tale Hearts were no more. Clubowners were going more for a Stooges sound than say The Who, John's Children or The Creation, know what I mean? The major clubowners in California were not booking anything unless it sounded like the Glam Metal bands or, the hardest kind of Punk.

The Event came on like a sonic boom, Ben was a brilliant drummer, Tim had bitchen songs and was a powerful guitarist, Mike could be a real tripmaker on bass and Ken was a tough vocalist who could stand in front of that band and make an impact. So they were powerful, but had much more colourful music than was allowable at the time for booking. Today (even during the late '90s), they could have had a large international following, been on tours and the whole bit. They were one of the rare exceptions where Mods loved 'em as well as Garage people. They just crossed each group's self-imposed rule bit... Those kind of scene "rules" (are you a MOD or are you a PSYCH?) are the enemy of any kind of art. So now, The Event would fit in with this more wide-open vibe happening in the current version of what's been called alternative rock.

On their Voxx album, I think "The Game" came out fantastic, but in general, the album was rushed. I feel more time should have been spent on the vocals, especially the harmonies because those added power to the songs. Voxx really did the record as a favor to Mike Stax, myself and Audrey Moorehead, who were/are long-time friends of Voxx/Bomp. We did everything we could to get them signed to Voxx, because no one was interested in a cool Mod/Psych band at the time, whatsoever. But I don't think Voxx really understood at that particular time how to sell something "'60s" because the label was in L.A., and at the time, people in L.A. couldn't really see outside of the very repressive attitude going on in the local nightclubs. It was all this noise bullshit, and Voxx/Bomp didn't really understand how to market something like "Pop-Think-In" to either the previously obliterated scene, or the nascent '60s interest that was evident from the release of the RUBBLE comps and STRANGE THINGS ARE HAPPENING.

Strangely, a couple of years later other forces in L.A. would break other backwards cool movements such as Rockabilly, Swing, Exotica, Surf and Burlesque. But Voxx/Bomp really had no part in any of that. Mark Neill may be the best record producer in the world today, I have a ton of respect for him, he's up there with the stuff Nick Lowe did for the Pretenders first single "Stop Your Sobbing" and the early Elvis Costello & the Attractions stuff like GET HAPPY, I really mean that. Mark just didn't have enough time to do the Event's vocals right, or, to record enough songs for a full album or CD, or to even develop the songs from their powerful live presentation to something that could carry that into a combined vocals/band thing the way The Who managed on tracks like "The Kids Are Alright" (Brunswick version), "Pictures Of Lily" or "Dogs". That's what we were hoping to get out of the sessions.

Toss the whole thing into 1994-1997 or even today's post-Britney "Garage" environment and yeh, you'd have a better understanding of what the band, and their supporters, were trying to do. Today, they'd be on Conan O'Brein show, Late Show with David Letterman and all the other places that Soundtrack Of Our Lives just played. But The Event never played L.A. with its late-'80s, dyed black-hair Rock idiot mentality, let alone New York City. But I really felt, and feel, that The Event got to that Network TV-worthy level once they matured to the ripe old age of 17... Just before they went off to college. That's probably the best thing they ever did, was to get the hell out of conservative San Diego and live in a groovy place like the Bay Area.

Nota: Agradecemos a Scotty Defiler que nos enviara el scan del flyer que reproducimos, el de un concierto celebrado en la ciudad de San Diego en el otoño de 1987.