Dick Dale at Pappy and Harriet's
Surf guitar legend Dick Dale cemented his place in rock early in his career with now-classics like "Let's Go Trippin'," "Surf Beat" and "Misirlou." Dale played them all last night at Pappy and Harriet's, complete with anecdotal accompaniment. Dale explained how Quentin Tarantino first approached Dale's bassist about using his music in a film. Tarantino left a note for Dale with the bassist and it was promptly thrown away, as he didn't know who Tarantino was. Eventually they got in touch, and later "Pulp Fiction" featured "Misirlou" in arguably its most famous scene.
Dale's son Jimmy brought a humorous element to the set: that mixture of love and annoyance that can only happen with family. Let's just say that there was frequent eye-rolling and an apparent desire for less storytelling. The Dales rounded out their set with some covers, including "Hey! Bo Diddley," "I Walk the Line" and "Fever," pausing to discuss the economic crisis and thank the troops for their efforts overseas. Dick and Jimmy closed with "Amazing Grace," and did no encore, they had to be up early the next morning to get to their next gig, Dale said.
Before he began the set, Dale gave the audience a sort of guitar build tutorial. He explained the reasoning behind his guitar's thinner-than-average body: it prevent charlies horses in one's side. He also said it was important for a guitar to be made entirely of the same type of wood, in order to achieve the best sound. Dale's guitar was cherry red, and his son's was a special edition Fender covered in pictures from the album "Surfer's Choice."
