Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.
Don’t delay...this is the last year of the Vatos gigs and tickets are nearly gone for both shows!

Johnny Vatos “Mr. Formally of Oingo Boingo”
sez:

I hope you get to see one of these shows before it goes away. By 2008 it could be too late! October 26 and October 27th ’07. Hi everyone just a note to let you know about this very temporary event! The shows were really very exciting but I was figuring about three year’s tops! Three full seasons’s to play the crap out this stuff and move on. I like to kick-ass at all times! The bacon has to sizzle! It has to snap, crackle and pop! So while I can, I will! BT4 is going make us smile and kick-ass with the big guy’s. He really takes Elfman’s music to that place we all love. “Orgazma”
That is what Vatos has declared!
“ORGAZMA 07”
A series of exciting strung together orgasmic moments in a time space continuum that allows you to release all decent inhibitions of the time space continuum that still might inhibit you from enjoying “Johnny Vatos” the music of the former ensemble formally known as Oingo Boingo, Steve Barter, John Avila, Sam Phipps, BT4, sex, lust, music, wine, tequila, food, body parts, and girl singers. )
No, this is not a reunion. Danny does not believe in reunions and is lobbing in congress to ban all rock reunions. (I heard him say that in some interview, I thought it was funny)
Nobody is playing this music with any balls, I had to!
Before I got to old I wanted to do it right!

I was lucky to find BT4. His heart and respect are inspirational
October 26TH House of Blues Los Angelus
October 27TH House of Blues Orange County
(They add more days if needed so hurry!!!!)
This years show is billed, “JOHNNY VATOS & FRIENDS”
It’s the same Steve Barter, John Avila, Sam Phipps, BT4, sex, lust, music, wine, tequila, food, body parts, and girl singers as last year but better!

Steve Smith's concert review: SGHS buddy Johnny Vatos OINGO BOINGO show @ the Anaheim House of Blues
CONCERT: Former Oingo Boingo drummer JOHNNY VATOS TRIBUTE TO HALLOWEEN
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2007
HOUSE OF BLUES, ANAHEIM
By Steve Smith

Steve Smith and Johnny Vatos 

"Great guy John Hernandez, aka Johnny Vatos, drummer for OINGO BOINGO/SGHS alum (1969 – we initially became friends when he was a senior and I was a freshman and we played in the 13-member SGHS orchestra together) headlined a 2 1⁄2-hour concert at the Anaheim House of Blues Saturday night billed as JOHNNY VATOS TRIBUTE TO HALLOWEEN (see the reason below).
 
Throughout the ‘80s and early ‘90s, the quirky, eccentric alternative “New Wave” outfit known as Oingo Boingo staged a series of annual SRO (standing room only) multi-night concerts at the 14,000-seat Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre (now called the Verizon Amphitheatre). While famous internationally with a massive following in Asia and Europe, they became bona fide legends in Southern California.   
 
BACKGROUND TO SATURDAY’S SHOW: It’s can be confusing, but for years, Boingo founder/leader/singer/songwriter Danny Elfman pretty much forbade any former band members from using the name Oingo Boingo or Boingo in concert. Elfman also forbade a lot of the band’s best-known hits from being performed. Elfman has gone on to become one of the most popular, successful and wealthiest movie and TV composers in Hollywood. To deprive the other band members of the opportunity to make a decent livelihood performing the music they themselves helped create and made popular since the late 70s seemed selfish and petty.
 
Thankfully, that ended recently. Elfman has dropped his objections. John gathered four of the core members of the group (guitarist Steve Bartok, bassist John Avila and saxman Sam “Sluggo” Phipps) as well as an unofficial member who played with the group (keyboardist accordionist Doug “Legacy” Lacy), as he’s done since 2005, but this time they were allowed to play their hits and they didn’t have the shadow of an Elfman lawsuit hanging overhead.
 
The guys were able to re-group under John’s banner (he was always the most visible and outwardly personal and personable band member after Elfman). These guys should have the right to perpetuate their legacy and the band’s great music, which included a couple big hits “Dead man’s Party,” Weird Science”) and a ton of minor hits, including “Just Another Day,” “Not Your Slave” and “Stay.”
 
Anyway, it appears that John et al are now free to preserve their legacy in concert and preserve it they did on Saturday.
 
The show had been promoted in the HOB’s schedule, including print ads for about three months. Earlier in the week, John emailed me asking for some promotional help with the shows. On Thursday afternoon I called the HOB and was told that tickets sales were just under 50% of capacity (about 1,050). I gave John a small list of contacts at Indy 103.1FM and KROQ-FM (the station that made Boingo SoCal legends) and also arranged for John to appear on our morning newscast, KDOC’s “Daybreak OC.” We ran a 3 1⁄2 minute segment during both the 7 am and 8 am segments and played some of the music from his tribute band during our closing credits.
 
I have no idea how much of a contribution it was but when John and the band took the Anaheim House  of Blues stage at 9 pm Saturday night  the Anaheim House the place was freakin’ PACKED! And to top it off, the fans were nothing short of rapturous! It was a fantastic crowd that came to see the fantastic band John assembled!
 
I can’t tell you how happy I was and am for John! After all, not everyone can look downright angelic in a 50s prom skirt and Charlie Watt’s “Ya-Ya’s” bare breasts t-shirt! Haha!
 
John really went the extra mile for this performance, utilizing 17 musicians, including a four-piece string section, three horns, two keyboardists (including Lacy) and two female backup singers – and a roadie dressed as Jesus. And his new singer, a younger Boingo nut named Bt4 (actually Brandon) is great: an incredibly passionate, animated punker who does Elfman justice without being a clone.  They were nothing short of amazing – and talk about tight…wow!
 
Highlight’s included the melodic “Not My Slave,” “Out Of Control,” “Skin”; an acoustic “We Close Our Eyes” and a hard-driving, funky “Pain” as well as show enders “Only A Lad” “Dead Man’s Party.”  
 
My only suggestion would be that they eliminate two or three of the similar-tempo’d 2/4-time punk tunes from the early years (they performed almost their entire 1981 debut LP, “Only A Lad”) in favor of more familiar songs with greater sense of melody, such as “Stay,” “Is This,” “Just Another Day,” or “Cinderella Undercover.”
 
Unfortunately, the band can’t head out on long tours because it’s very expensive; and guitarist Bartok’s schedule that includes serving as Elfman’s soundtrack orchestrator is too busy.
 
But let’s hope the band secures a corporate sponsor so that they can embark on short two-to-five-concert mini-tours. They should have every right to perpetuate their own legacy – especially since they’re doing it to packed houses of ecstatic fans (Friday’s show at the Hollywood HOB on Sunset was also jammed) and they’re doing it in such fantastic fashion!   
Steve  -  -  -  - - PS, it was flattering that John took the time to give KDOC (and me) a nice thank you from the stage near the end of the show."   

SET LIST
Overture
BOINGO STUFF
1. Little Girls (1981)
2. On The Outside (1981)
3. Controller (1981)
4. Not My Slave (1987)
5. Outrageous (1987)
6. You Really Got Me (1981, by Ray Davies)
7. What You See (1981)
7. Elevator Man (1987)
8. Water (1995)
9. We Close Our Eyes (1987)
10. Can't See (Useless) (1994)


From Elfman’s NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
11. Jack's Lament
12. Sally's Song
13. Oogie Boogie's Song


SLUGGO’S SET (on sax & vocals)
14. Nature Zone
15. American Car
16. Monster Mash


BOINGO STUFF
17. No One Lives Forever (1985)
18. Capitalism (1981)
19. Pain (1987)
20. New Generation (1987)
21. Perfect System (1981)
22. Take Your Medicine
23. Nuclear Babies
24. Skin (1990)  
25. Out of Control (1990)
26. Nasty Habits (1981)
27. Forbidden Zone (1980)


ENCORE
28. Only A Lad (1980)
29. Dead Man's Party (1985)