On September 3rd 2023 we celebrated the life and legacy of SPOT, whose soul is certainly not stuck on a random Hermosa rooftop....
Under-Dog Town, A Celebration of SPOT was a benefit concert featuring many of SPOT's friends and members of bands he recorded in the 70s and 80s. The proceeds are being donated to support art and music education in local schools in Hermosa Beach and Leimert Park in LA, where SPOT lived and grew up.
In his artist statement accompanying his Ride the Wild Wheels exhibition at Pacific Coast Gallery, SPOT referred to Hermosa Beach in the 70s as Under-Dog Town, a contrast to the Dog-Town of Venice Beach.
"Hermosa Beach was the “Under-Dog Town” on which the media rarely focused its cameras. Thankfully, the town’s post-bop jazz culture made it one of the staunchest holdouts of Beat sensibilities on the West Coast. At the restless end of the 70s, the South Bay’s just as restless surf/skate/art/music counterculture was in flux and had no choice but to move forward from post-Vietnam War depression and Disco complacency, and to do so with no glamorous expectations. For better or worse, we plodded ahead not caring who the hell believed in us or who the hell didn’t."
You can read SPOT's full spiel below.
Under-Dog Town featured many of SPOT's friends from this era of restless music counterculture, including the premiere of Happy Universe (featuring members of Meat Puppets) as well as Dondo (featuring members of Black Flag), Saccharine Trust, The Last, Lockjaw and the Wrinkling Brothers (featuring members of the Minutemen).