[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form] The Endless Summer band-members grew up with vinyl. They remember hits of the 60’s though 90’s and they rock them. “I guess you could best categorize our music as Beatles to Doobies,” said Kurt Jarvis, lead guitarist and band leader.
Going to an Endless Summer show, listeners will hear some bluegrass and country with the band’s rock staple, and an occasional surprise like “Sweet City Woman,” with Jarvis on banjo. “Our music is an eclectic mix of recognizable songs and dance tunes,” he said.
Other numbers that show the band’s appeal are called “medium paced rockers,” by Jarvis. These are former hits like, “Why Can’t We be Friends,” by War; “Hummingbird,” by Seals and Crofts, and “Draggin’ the Line,” by Tommy James.
“We don’t do any Reggae because there are a lot of other bands here that do a good job with that and it’s just not part of our background,” Jarvis said.
Endless Summer formed in Kona when Jarvis’ friend from Oregon, Russ Kendall, moved to Ocean View in 2012. “We had played together in 1974,” Jarvis said, “and when Russ arrived in Hawaii, we started amassing equipment. My wife, Serena (Jarvis) started singing with us a couple years ago, and then we all decided to be a band,” he said.
Two years later, they are a band and their name, Endless Summer, captures the essence of what they want audiences to experience when they play. Jarvis said he would be happy if audience members came to their show and said, “Wow, those guys are having a lot of fun up there, let’s do it too.”
Jarvis gives himself permission to have fun, frequently walking into the crowd while playing, where he’s likely to pop a backbend and hit some screeching high notes above the guitar’s 14th fret.
Kurt Jarvis plays lead guitar while Kendall plays rhythm, supported by the use of backing midi tracks for bass and some keyboard. To the critics of live bands using recorded music as backing, Jarvis said, “people have been listening to bands playing with recorded tracks for a long time, even if they don’t know it. There are some groups that don’t use any but many do,” he said.
Endless Summer doesn’t include any vocal or guitar backing tracks, “that’s all live,” Jarvis said. “We work the most on our vocals and harmonies. Everybody sings, and that makes it work. Our band has no central figure and we all work on the vocal mix.”
The band’s songs will bring back memories, and you will see three (or four, depending on whether or not they have a drummer), people enjoying themselves and their music. Energy sells, and while the members are not in their 20’s anymore, they’d like to fool you into thinking they are.
Nobody will have to guess whether they’re having fun – or not – they are, and they invite audiences to join the party and have some fun on the dance floor.
Catch Endless Summer during their next gig on Valentine’s Day Feb. 14th, 9:30 – 11:30 at Humpy’s downtown Kona. More information about the band is on their Website http://www.ipbuddy.com/es/
BY – Gregory Ormson.
Photos BY – Robert Stahl
Leave a Reply