With purple mountains' majesty looming everywhere in the distance and a jangling midway calliope as nearby counterpoint, revered local legends Afterglow played their first live set in almost 40 years on August 8, 2008. It was opening night of the Siskiyou Golden Fair in Yreka, Calif. - just north of Mt. Shasta and 20 miles south of the Oregon border - and the band wasn't quite sure what to expect. They were a knockout!
Eager fans lined up from here all the way down to the corn-dog stand for over an hour to get Afterglow memorabilia signed by the hometown heroes in between their two live shows. Mopping the sweat from his brow long after the sun had set on this glorious day, Afterglow drummer Larry Alexander admits he was blind-sided by the raucous response. "I thought we'd go over to the table, sign a few autographs, then rest up in the trailer for the second show," he says. The band's encore set had to be delayed to accommodate the horde of autograph-seekers, a few of them bearing original vinyl copies of the LP, now worth a small fortune on the international garage-rock collectors' market.
As if a live appearance by band members singer/guitarist Gene Resler, bassist Ron George, keyboardist Roger Swanson and Alexander on drums (singer/guitarist Tony Tecumseh was unable to attend) wasn't enough for the swelling county fair throng, tonight also marked the world premier of Afterglow Unearthed, a fascinating band documentary. Lovingly made by Calvin and Julie Kennedy of Medford, Ore.-based Freedom Films, the 40-minute work weaves the band's history around the first Afterglow reunion and picnic, held in August, 2007 at the Alexander family homestead in nearby Ft. Jones.
Now the base of operations for Alexander's thriving Resource Center Media Group, the grounds were once used by Afterglow as a rehearsal space, back in the day when the combo was known as the Medallions. That was just before the quintet bravely ventured down to San Francisco in the summer of 1967 to cut album sessions with famed Golden State Recorders producer Leo deGar Kulka.
Fast forward to 1995, as Sundazed licenses the Afterglow master tapes from legal owner Leo Kulka and releases their legendary album on compact disc to the delight of garage-rock fans worldwide. An exhaustive search for the band members comes up totally empty.
And so it remained until early 2007, when a group of Alexander's employees, led by the indefatigable Patrick Desmond, excitedly discovers the band's only album for sale on the Sundazed website - in both CD and vinyl formats! It's been a whirlwind of activity for the resurrected rock stars ever since: appearances on local TV and radio, recording sessions for unreleased vintage material - and now big stars at the Siskiyou Golden Fair!
"This has been so much fun, I still can't believe it's happening," says a bewildered Resler, now a real estate broker and current mayor of Isleton, Calif. George, currently working and living in San Francisco - ironically, just a few blocks from the original site of Golden State Recorders - is equally thrilled at the band's prospects. "I bought a new electric bass, just for the occasion," he chuckles. "And I've learned how to play it again." Swanson, now a CPA in Chico, Calif., says, "This is a great environment and a great place to be." Adds Resler, "It's a miracle, life coming back around and giving us a second chance." Alexander sums up the Afterglow rebirth succinctly: "Life works in wonderful, strange and mysterious ways. Whatever it all means, this moment today was great!"
Fast forward to 1995, as Sundazed licenses the Afterglow master tapes from legal owner Leo Kulka and releases their legendary album on compact disc to the delight of garage-rock fans worldwide. An exhaustive search for the band members comes up totally empty.
