SAN DIEGO ARTS : Pop Music

- Hard-core rock ‘n’ roll fans tired of discotheques or Top 40 nightclubs now have an alternative to spending Saturday nights at home, listening to old Jimi Hendrix or Johnny Winter albums and wistfully reminiscing about how people used to pay more attention to a good guitar solo than to Madonna’s bellybutton.

Since last month, Tequila Landing on West Point Loma Boulevard has been a weekly host to jam sessions that give some of San Diego’s most talented pop musicians the chance to get together on stage and churn out blazing renditions of the vintage rock, blues, and rhythm-and-blues standards on which they were weaned--with appropriate visual accompaniment.

The musical free-for-alls, which start at 9:30 p.m. and are open to the public, are produced by Robert Vaughn of local rock band and Island Records artists, Robert Vaughn and the Shadows.

At Saturday night’s jam, for more than four hours, Vaughn and three of his fellow Shadows joined members of two other San Diego rock groups, the Snakes and Allure, in doling out faithful interpretations of such classics as Hendrix’s “Red House,” Winter’s “Rock Me Baby,” B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone,” and Otis Redding’s “Respect.”

The entire time, the audience was treated to a continuous backdrop screening of the landmark 1960s surf film, “Endless Summer.”