Kissin' Cousins

BluCoats drummer Wade Johnson recently appeared in a new Left-Handed Productions documentary called Teen a Go Go. I watched it last night on Netflix (they have it on instant view) and found it not only interesting, but also encouraging.

Teen A Go Go is about the bands of the mid to late 1960s of Fort Worth, Texas. Because Fort Worth was on the Chitlin Circuit, by the '60s it was rich with R&B and Blues traditions that young musicians (inspired by that new band from Liverpool, England) adopted and reworked as their own. During the 1960s a number of "a Go-Go" teen dance clubs sprang up, venues that spotlighted local bands and Go-Go dancers. Teen A Go Go was by far the most popular of these places.

Some of the bands opened for national and international acts; the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds even borrowed gear from all-girl band the Kandy Kanes. Many recorded singles, but not one of these bands broke the glass ceiling that covered the areas that lay beyond New York and L.A. to become stars. Band members are interviewed in this film; some are still performing and some went on to take up other life careers, but they all have one thing in common: if they could go back in time and do it all over again, they would do so in a heartbeat.

Of course, all of this sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it? Our own Tri-Counties had a scene very like the one in Fort Worth and the link between them is Wade, who first lived in Thousand Oaks and now lives in Texas.

I think that anyone who's into the Garage bands of the 1960s will really like this film. Check it out! Just click the image of the cover to find out how you can get the DVD, or look it up on Netflix.