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Oktoberfest returns for third festival
By Darci Jordan
Staff Writer
Friday,
October 03, 2008
Springfield, Ohio — You can get a taste of Germany without hopping a plane this
weekend at the third annual Oktoberfest by Springfield Kiwanis.
A family oriented event, Oktoberfest was revived by Kiwanis
in 2006, and continues to grow each year.
"We try to be as German as possible," said Crystal Justice,
president of Resource Solutions for Non Profits.
Last year, the festival played host to about 8,000 attendees,
up 4,000 from 2006.
"If you can survive three years, you're going to make it," said
Justice, event coordinator.
Oktoberfest, held at Veterans Park, features all local vendors
and money raised stays in the Springfield community.
With this festival, Kiwanis hopes to raise $10,000 for children's
charities.
Entertainment will begin at noon today, Oct. 3, with Richard
Weiner, a solo accordion player.
"It's hard to book 20-hours of entertainment," said Justice.
"(rock band) Rufus X reworked their set for the event. They
changed their drum line to (German-influenced) 'oom-pah-pah' ... it will be interesting."
Not losing sight of the big game, Ohio State fans can watch the Buckeyes
battle Wisconsin on a big-screen television Saturday at 8 p.m.
Oktoberfest runs from noon to 10 p.m. today and Saturday, Oct. 4,
"We try to make it an atmosphere of quality," said Justice.
A complete line-up of entertainers and more information is available
at kiwanisoktoberfest.com.
Band
takes Oktoberfest to the garage
Terry
Davidson and the Barracudas will fire up some '60s nuggets
By Andrew McGinn
Staff Writer
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Extras
SPRINGFIELD —
Technically, it's oldies music.
But let's just see Phil Dirt and the Dozers try anything by the Sonics, Standells or Seeds.
It's music that's still as ugly as Rat Fink and as cool as Adam West doing the Batusi.
So let the Dozers play all the Beach Boys stuff before they started taking drugs —
Terry Davidson and the Barracudas will handle the hard stuff.
"It was just attitude more than anything," said Davidson, whose Columbus garage
band will headline the first night of Oktoberfest on Friday, Oct. 3, in Veterans Park. "If you listen to the Standells,
some of that stuff is almost punk."
And it was popular.
The Standells alone made the Top 40 in 1966 with "Dirty Water."
A side project for Davidson, who used to play locally at Donahue's Tavern with his blues
band the Gears, the Barracudas was the name of his first band from 1965 to 1967.
He got the idea to resurrect, not just the old name, but the whole era — from boss
cover tunes to go-go dancers hired from the ranks of the Columbus Destroyers cheerleading squad — when somebody much
younger approached him one night three years ago to autograph an album.
Without him even knowing, a cover of Tommy Roe's "Hooray for Hazel" by an 11-year-old Davidson
and the Barracudas had made the cut of a garage-rock compilation series, "Teenage Shutdown."
He immediately saw the potential, then gladly accepted 20 CDs from the compilation producer
as payment.
"There's a market for this," he said.
But whether they had hits like the Standells or they were kids playing basement pizza parties
like Davidson, they were one and the same in '66.
They all wanted to copy what was coming out of England
— regardless of skill level.
"Who doesn't like the Beatles?" asked Davidson, now 53. "But it was out of people's reach.
When you heard the Rolling Stones, it was more from the gut.
"As long as you've got that feeling in your gut, you can produce good music that people want
to hear."
Springfield News-Sun
September 11, 2008
Andrew
McGinn
BARRACUDAS
TO PLAY OKTOBERFEST
Oktoberfest is set to
return Oct. 3-4.
The annual event, presented
by the Springfield Kiwanis, once again will feature two days of free music and more in Veterans Park from noon to 10 p.m.
The Columbus-based Barracudas,
a revived garage-rock band from 1966, will headline at 8
p.m. Friday with vintage covers of the likes of the Standells, Blues
Magoos, Yardbirds, Beatles, and more.
The local rockabilly/roots
rock band Crazy Joe and the Mad River Outlaws will headline at 8 p.m. Saturday.
The event also features
artisans, carnival rides and OSU vs. Wisconsin game at 8 p.m. Oct. 4.
For more information,
go to kiwanisoktoberfest.com
Springfield Kiwanis Oktoberfest 3
Official Kiwanis Press
Release
This year ring in the
fall season with the 3rd annual Springfield Kiwanis Oktoberfest. Enjoy
delicious food, rides, free entertainment and so much more. This fall festival,
held in Veterans Park, is quickly becoming known for being a great outdoor festival for the entire family.
The Kiwanis Club of
Springfield hosts the annual Oktoberfest to raise funds to support various children’s programs in the community.
Oktoberfest is made
possible through several local sponsors. “We find that our sponsors love
to be a part of Oktoberfest,” says Crystal Justice of Resource, event coordinator, “we do our best to make them
a part of it in any possible way. They love the festival, they see that Springfield loves to attend
and bring their families, this is why it continues to grow as a successful event for the Kiwanis.”
Oktoberfest will maintain
their tradition of showcasing high quality, family friendly entertainment. Highlighting
the stage this year is The Barracudas feat. Terry Davidson, Crazy Joe & The Mad River Outlaws, and Rufus X. For a complete stage schedule and info on the acts as well as details on the entire festival, visit www.kiwanisoktoberfest.com
To be a vendor at Oktoberfest,
or to place an ad in our official attendee event program, call Wayne Justice at 937-831-1639.
By Andrew McGinn
Staff Writer
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Without a doubt, Crazy Joe and the Mad River Outlaws is the best local band ... that almost
never plays locally.
After a few spins through the band's new album, "The King of Nerd-A-Billy," the band's near-total
absence from Clark County is even more regrettable.
But it has little to do with snobbery (although Joe and the boys do have a pretty amusing song
in their catalog about the proliferation of mullets in Springfield).
Instead, it has everything to do with something quite simple — where could a '50s-style
rock band led by a 20-something electrical engineer with thick black glasses even play?
One of their earliest shows here, at Forever Sports, drew all of about 12 people. (The band will, however, return to town to play the free Oktoberfest at 8 p.m. Oct. 6 in
Veterans Park.)
What these guys do — twangy roots rock with the occasional surf turbo-boost — has
"niche" written all over it.
Too bad, too.
With "The King of Nerd-A-Billy," Greenon High grad Crazy Joe Tritschler gives 12 reasons to
hail, hail rock 'n' roll.
The music is definitely retro, but it's not exactly like sitting through one of those Time-Life
infomercials, either.
For starters, nobody in the band — Greenon grad Hep Cat Matt Duffey on bass, North grad
Honest Rob Heiliger on rhythm and Kettering native Reliable Brian Hoeflich on drums — is old enough to have a preconceived
notion of the "good ol' days."
So what ensues over 12 songs will be a history lesson for some and a reminder for others.
This is what the inside of the original rock 'n' roll melting pot sounded like when the ingredients
— country, pop and R&B — came to a boil for regional little record labels across the U.S.
Recording for Dayton-based Atom Records (get the disc at atomrecords.com), the Outlaws should
be commended for a one-two punch of good taste and great musicianship.
Two tracks alone — the opening cover of Johnny Horton's "Wise to the Ways of a Woman"
and the original "I Knew You'd Be the One" — could pass for recordings done by Buddy Holly and the Crickets in middle-of-nowhere
New Mexico.
The entire disc was recorded on analog tape for that vintage sound.
A cover of Sam Cooke's 1962 tune "Nothing Can Change This Love" scores big points in the taste
department.
The big revelation on the disc, though, is the rise of Crazy Joe as a guitar-slinger.
On the instrumental "Flight of the Beverly Bumblebillies," he somehow merges "Flight of the
Bumble Bee" by Rimsky-Korsakov with the "Beverly Hillbillies" theme — and it works. You can picture his fingers flying
about as fast as a hot rod down the drag strip.
If you can fault these guys with anything, it's that they're sort of like Civil War re-enactors.
Their era of choice in history ain't ever coming back.
Then again, nobody ever set out to leave the likes of Buddy, Elvis, Bo and Little Richard in
the dust of the past.
The Beatles and Stones idolized this music.
By happenstance, everybody else started following the Beatles and Stones.
Crazy Joe is merely re-routing evolution.
Oktoberfest might be a few months away, but it's never too early to think about bratwurst and
beer.
Last year the first Oktoberfest drew about 4,000 people and raised about $8,000 for the Springfield
Kiwanis Club and its community programs.
Organizers want to more than double attendance and proceeds, said Crystal Stevens, president
of Resource, which is working with Kiwanis on the event.
To do so, Stevens hopes to get more community involvement in the festival, which is set for
noon to 10 p.m. Oct. 5 and 6 in Veterans Park.
That includes adding an artisans fair, and more local food vendors and musicians.
"We really need to expand our activities and we really would like to do that through the community,"
Stevens said.
She is looking for artisans who make items that generally cost $10 or more, such as paintings
and crafts.
Vendors or artisans who want to participate should call Stevens at (937) 360-4261, preferably
in the next 30 days.
Bands booked include Crazy Joe and the Mad River Outlaws, Ryan Judy, John Lippolis and Friends,
Argo Lynn, Drexel and the Randys.
Local bands that perform original music and want to play should contact Wayne Justice, Resource
manager of operations, at 360-5235.
"We would like to be known for great music," Stevens said.
Another feature this year will be a 8.5-by-12.5-foot screen to show the Buckeyes football game.
Last year's attendance dropped during the game, Stevens said.
"Dad can do what he wants to do, grab a brat and a beer and watch the game," she said.
The Retired Teachers Association's Annual Car Show also will be held this year during Oktoberfest,
along with the return of rides, games, and German food and beer.
The proceeds benefit a myriad of Kiwanis programs, including scholarships, adopt-a-school projects
and other education activities.
"They're doing great things for children," Stevens said.
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The Springfield News-Sun
Ex-Zippers to come to town for a
swinging Oktoberfest
By Andrew McGinn- Staff Writer
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Tom Maxwell still talks about the time he turned
on MTV and saw Daisy Fuentes trying on swimsuits to his song, the Squirrel Nut Zippers' "Hell." And yet he somehow still thinks
that's weird. What he's overlooking is the fact that a calypso about damnation could even make it onto MTV. But in the '90s,
anything still was possible — and the Zippers proved that by selling more than a million copies of "Hot," an album recorded
in a week.
"I hardly remember 1997," Maxwell said this week
from North Carolina.
Long after people stopped cramming into swing dancing
lessons, Maxwell and his Zippers pal, Ken Mosher, have hit the road again. The Maxwell/Mosher Band will play Oktoberfest in Veterans Park on Oct. 6. Now just inside their 40s, Maxwell and Mosher look back on their days
in the Zippers like two guys who never understood what the fuss was about. One day they were traveling around the South, playing
what sounded like Oingo Boingo in 1930s Harlem, and the next — well, let Maxwell tell it.
"We were hit by lightning," he said.
"All of a sudden, you're on stage in Birmingham and it's 50,000 people." The swing revival was on, and the Zippers went from
coast to coast sparking zoot suit riots. Never mind they didn't play swing. But there they were on Dick
Clark's "New Year's Rockin' Eve." And that was their music in a Super Bowl commercial for Intel.
"I remember seeing the Gap commercial
and it's all these beautiful people wind-milling," Maxwell recalled. "They played this Louis Prima song that Setzer covered,
and it said, 'Khakis swing.' " I said, 'That's it. It's over.'"
The Zippers got in a platinum album and
a gold follow-up — 1998's "Perennial Favorites" — before the fad tanked. "At the end of the
day, we were a one-hit wonder," Maxwell confessed. But what a hit, and what a time to be making music
that was so defiantly retro.
Maxwell and Mosher, both of whom left
the band in 1999, have continued on that path, only as songwriters for movies and television. They scored "My Mummy," a yet-to-be
released film that was shot locally in 2004 by New Carlisle native and Coen brothers storyboard artist J. Todd Anderson. "It's in people's DNA," Maxwell said of the music. "People might have seen Warner Bros. cartoons or 'Tom and Jerry'
as kids. It's such American music. It's not black or white. It's not rich or poor. They don't think, 'This is old.' "
The only problem, as Maxwell sees it, is that, "America
tends to be amnesic.
"You go to Copenhagen and they hate you
because you're American," he said. "Then they're showing you all these Louis Armstrong records they bought." In 2004, given the number of movies and TV shows that have licensed Zippers' songs, the duo got into the publishing
game themselves.
But if you live in Turkey, you knew that.
"Our re-recorded version of 'Hell' was used for a
Rinso commercial in Turkey," Maxwell bragged. "We recently got a copy of this absolutely hallucinogenic advertisement for
Turkish laundry detergent."
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