by homey81

On the last Saturday, 19 April, I happened to be in Berkeley (exactly Albany) during stopping over my trip between Hawaii and the Netherlands. On that day, there was a concert in 924 Gilman Street (it is both the address and the name of the club). I heard the news of concert tour by Mike Park, who was one of the pioneers of “The Third Wave of ska (or skapunk)” in Bay Area, forming and disbanding of numerous bands including Skankin’ Pickle, the Chinkees and Bruce Lee Band. However, since a couple of years ago, he has become a solo singer-songwriter who sings with only the accompaniment of his acoustic guitar alone. But the show on that day was different.

The show was organized for the memorial/tribute of the late Lynette Knackstedt, a (female) guitar player in Skankin’ Pickle who died on 7 December last year.  The concert was for donating for her and her family and organized by Mike himself. [Accoding to Mike Park, other bands were the Boars(60’s garage punk featuring Lars from Pickle on Organ and vocals), The Bar Feeders(SF MISSION punks, good friends of Lynette), and Lucifer’s Strip Club Band(Lynette’s last band, playing burlesque type jazz, lounge, swing music)].

Although I (and Jaeyoung) missed Mike’s solo performance because of stupid reason, we could enjoy the performance of Skanaking Pickle’s songs like “I am in Love with a Girl named Spike,” and “I missed the Bus.” It has been long since Mike Park played with full band set and he himself seems to be inspired, swithching singing songs and blowing saxophone. I did not know that ska is so energizing and the sound was quite different from that I heard through CDs ot mp3s.

Although I could not record the show, you can enjoy Skankin’ Pickle’s live performance clip. Alas, already 15 years ago… : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Z8jCWB5pM.

Joon