A totally off the hook night of old school rock at the Static Bar as the Collateral Damage Tour comes to Topeka. Catch this rare opportunity to see the legendary Black Oak Arkansas with Jim Dandy along with the return of WARLOK, and special guests from Cape Girardeau, Drivin' Rain with Timexx Nasty.
Click Here to see the limited edition commemorative shirts for this show!
Because of the lemons that life sometimes hands out, this will be the last forseeable return performance at the Static for Warlok. Time to add some tequila to the lemons and go out swingin, come out and celebrate the end of a great run with us.Due to new project scheduling conflicts, we will be having a new drummer for this gig.
John Wooten has been working hard to get up to speed with us and is ready to throw down as the newest Metal Mutant of the Night. Check out his page on MySpace. He is bringing a new menu to the table, should be a real treat for you all.
For the many out of town messages we have received, we have made arrangements with the Best Western Motel in the same parking lot for a very special discount for our concert attendees. When contacting the motel, rooms will be reserved under "Static", you must mention this and the concert to get the discount.. You need not be out of town to take advantage of this, if you just want to party down hard with the rest of us, everyone attending is welcome to take advantage of this offer!
Best Western Inn
(785) 272-9550
2831 SW Fairlawn Rd
Topeka, KS 66614
By the way, if you are coming from out of town, please post a comment with your RSVP, and tell us where you are coming from!
ALL AGES SHOW, 21+ with ID to drink. Day of show tickets will be $17. $14 advance tickets will be available at the Static Bar or you can reserve yours right now by PayPal. This will be a 5+ hour show, so come ready to rock!
People are coming from all over the U.S.A. to be in this special event, so get your tickets early. If you don't have a credit card or PayPal account, you can call the Static at 785-783-7221 on how to reserve yours now!
Black Oak Arkansas Tickets - $14. Use the "Add To Cart" button below to reserve your tickets by credit card or PayPal account.
More info, history, photos, CDs, DVD and more on Black Oak Arkansas at the BOA Reunion Website.
.. width="425" height="350">..>
In 2006, its hard to believe that Black Oak Arkansas was once one of the world's most popular bands of the early 70s. Led by the spandex-clad, sandpaper-voiced Jim "Dandy" Mangrum, BOA was the original party band, combining boogie-driven paeans to the pleasures of the flesh with a cockeyed spirituality that belied their redneck roots. And if they werent exactly virtuosos, it hardly mattered; on a good night, there was no band on earth that could tap into the untamed, primitive juju of rock n roll like Black Oak Arkansas.
Originally dubbed The Knowbody Else, the group was conceived in 1965 as a dodge to escape school, work, and the army. With the aid of some stolen musical gear, Mangrum and his juvenile delinquent buddies (guitarists Ricky Reynolds, Stanley Knight and Harvey Jett, bassist Pat Daugherty, and drummer Wayne Evans) repaired to the hills of Arkansas, where they developed an oddball sound influenced as much by backwoods snake handling rituals and Eastern philosophy as by musical contemporaries like the Beatles and The Byrds. An eponymous debut for the Stax imprint was dead on arrival, but by 1970, the group had found a home on Atlantic, and an ally in Ahmet Ertegun, who saw potential in Jim Dandys increasingly ribald stage persona. As Mangrum said in a 1997 interview, "Ahmet told us he liked the sexy songs, and we liked doing em, so we started going more that way." Ahmet suggested that they change their name to Black Oak Arkansas to fit in with his other new find, Black Sabbath.
The renamed groups Atlantic debut, Black Oak Arkansas (1971) established a clear blueprint for almost all the BOA albums that followed: nods to kin and country ("Uncle Lijah," "The Hills of Arkansas"), leering, tongue-wagging tributes to the sexual prowess of the groups washboard-strumming frontman ("Hot & Nasty"), and forays into hippie-inflected mysticism ("Lord Have Mercy On My Soul"). The twin releases that followed in 72, Keep The Faith and If An Angel Came To See You, Would You Make Her Feel At Home, expanded on the groups eclectic musical brew. By 1972, the word on the street was that Black Oak Arkansas was a party, and the group quickly became a hot ticket on the concert circuit, based on their freaky, high-energy stage performances, and Mangrums overt sexuality and charisma. They outsold other contemporaries such as the Rolling Stones, and introduced opening acts such as KISS to eager audiences.
The years of hard touring paid off with 1973s seminal Raunch & Roll Live. Combining concert staples like "Hot & Nasty" and "Mutants of The Monster" with new classics like "Hot Rod," "Gigolo" and "Getting Kinda Cocky" (all bracketed by Jim Dandys bawdy between-song monologues), Raunch is one of the defining live albums of the 70s, perfectly capturing BOA in all its sweaty, tongue-in-cheek glory. The groups fortunes increased with the follow-up, 1973s High On The Hog, which spawned their only radio hit, a swamp-boogie take on LaVern Bakers R&B classic "Jim Dandy," with scorching vocal repartee between Mangrum and vocalist Ruby Starr. The duos vinyl chemistry quickly became part of the road show, with Starr joining the band (both musically and biblically, by her own account) and living with them at their communal compound in the hills of Arkansas. Quoth the Dandy to this author: "She wasnt the prettiest gal in the world, but she had a big heart, I miss her every day." (Starr died of cancer in 1995).
Musically, Black Oaks focus seemed to shift after High On The Hog, with albums that espoused more of a generic party vibe. 1974s Street Party and 1975s Aint Life Grand spawned several BOA hits (including "Son of a Gun" and their straight-ahead reading of George Harrisons "Taxman"), but they ultimately proved to be the last hoorah for the classic lineup of the band. Throughout the end of the 70s, Mangrum continued recording and touring with a series of new Black Oak lineups. By 1980, with upstarts like Van Halen (and their admittedly Jim Dandy-influenced frontman, David Lee Roth) redefining "party rock" for a new generation, Black Oak was shuffled to the back shelf.
By the middle 90s, perhaps in response to the bloodless, no-fun climate of the alternative rock world, interest in Black Oak Arkansas seemed to be on the upswing, spurred on by several strong greatest hits collections, and a King Biscuit Flower Hour live set.
BOA is now back in action with original members Jim Dandy and Ricky Reynolds, drummer Johnnie Bolin (brother of legendary Deep Purple guitarist, Tommy Bolin), guitarist Hal McCormack, and bassist George Hughen-- and a new (and well-received) studio album, The Wild Bunch continues to tour,, fueled by Mangrums boundless energy and enthusiasm: "I am the true Jim Dandy. It is a dandy world, it is a dandy life and I got me a dandy wife. Anybody can be a dandy, anyone can be a legend, Im the living proof."
On September 16th, Topeka will be the witness to that proof!
