Thanks to everyone who came out to the Emergenza Festival Showcase at Momo’s on Friday Sept. 29. My roots R&B band Manteca Beat played in the “battle of the bands” and we got a great response, so we are moving on to Round 2, which will be held in May 2007 at the Parrish. Seems like a long ways away, and it is. By then who knows? We could be doing a world tour or, my other, darker fantasy, holding down the house band slot in the lounge at the regional internment camp for dissidents and doubters. But anyway, that’s months away, and we have many things happening until then…

The Emergenza Festival is an international year-long event. I believe it originated in Italy over 9 years ago, with the purpose of helping to bring unsigned bands into the limelight. Bands around the world compete for slots in the various elimination rounds, culminating in a final competition round which will be held in the summer of 2007 in Germany. The website for this lumbering juggernaut of musical momentum is: http://www.emergenza.net/eng/default.asp
Manteca Beat is happy to be part of the doings, and we’ll see where it all leads. My philosophy is “Just play.” In that spirit we will just play music as best we can, survive as best we can, and hope no one gets hurt too much in the process (especially ourselves).

I want to thank my musical cohorts who lent their talents for the showcase and helped Manteca Beat kick some butt:
Kenny Felton on drums, Brian Vose on bass, David Hamburger on guitar, Andrew Moorhead on keyboards. What a band!
Photographer Emily Ng also lent her talents to document the show.

Plans for the fall include finishing the debut CD and playing some choice venues to showcase the new material. Check the calendar for dates, and also visit the Manteca Beat web page at http://myspace.com/mantecabeat.

Until the next time, may your groove be greasy.

-PK