On March 28, 2024, I headed out to The HopMonk Tavern in Novato California. The concert was Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys and Los Straitjackets and what a great event it was. They were epically staged performers on a perfect night for a sold-out show so we were in for a treat.
Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys were up first. This band whipped the crowd into a frenzy quickly with their Rock-a-Billy genre and the sold-out crowd was into it. The pace was up and the audience kept their enthusiasm right up with them. The set had the crowd dancing and swinging to the tunes. Songs like “Fine, Fine, Super Fine”, “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”, “Chalk it up to the Blues”, and Freddy Fender’s “Until the Next Teardrop Falls” and the audience stayed enthralled the entire set.
Follow Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys band members
Ashley Kingman – guitar
Big Sandy – guitar, vocals
Joe Perez – drums
Russell Scott – bass
Los Straitjackets finished the concert on the night. The Straightjackets are a largely instrumental band. Jamming is this band’s schtick and they are tight and pros. Celebrating 30 years of playing together and they did it with style. Sporting their signature luchador masks, they are amazing to watch perform. Playing classics as well as some new tunes that included, “Bumper Car” and “High Wire Act”. The “Chicken Song” was my favorite song of the night, which was complete with a rubber chicken doing vocals. Towards the end of the set, they had Big Sandy come up and sing a few songs with the band. Given that Big Sandy doesn’t speak Spanish, and the Los Straitjackets don’t speak English, this made for an epic collaboration in which the crowd agreed. With a few more songs, they were done and the crowd wanted more.
Follow Los Straightjackets band members
Eddie Angel – guitar
Pete Curry – bass
Chris Sprague – drums
Greg Townson – guitar
Follow Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys on social media
Follow Los Straitjackets on social media
Photographer of about 10 years, I have been shooting concerts for about 8 of those years. I started to get serious about concert photography about 6 or 7 years ago and now try to shoot as many as I can. I shoot mostly rock but, have done some country and big band stuff. I love music and since I am nowhere close to being a musician, this is a way I can be a small part of what, in the words of Henry Rollins, “gets me through the highs, the lows and everything in between”.
