Be Early or Be Outside

Spencer Barnitz calls it “spy music at the beach.” Club owners call it “money in the bank” when Spencer the Gardener packs their joints and makes the minions dance. The popular Santa Barbara band probably will do just that in its first local show in nearly six months, at Charlie’s in Ventura Friday night.

Be early, or be outside watching.

Spencer the Gardener is the only band from Santa Barbara that has a following in Ventura. And with the possible exception of Lion I’s, no Ventura bands make it in Santa Barbara. A few years ago, Spencer the Gardener played to a crowd of about eight people in his Charlie’s debut. A year later, the band, along with Lion I’s, drew several hundred to the Ventura Theatre for local band night.

Barnitz, a former landscaper, decided Spencer the Gardener sounded better than Spencer the Landscaper. Last October, the band nearly became Spencer the Past Tense when a drunk driver slammed into the group’s van after a gig in Riverside, ringing Spencer’s bell to Big Ben proportions and critically injuring drummer Bo Fox.

The band has played a pair of Santa Barbara gigs but without Fox, who still isn’t ready to hit any drums. The happening horn section is intact, and there will be plenty of pop rock gems off the band’s two albums to keep everyone dancing.

The show kicks off at 9:30 p.m. Opening, and worth the $5 admission by itself, will be that raucous rockabilly outfit, J.D.’s Last Ride, featuring the one and only Marjorie Extract on vocals. She may need a tan, but she can blow the windows out of Charlie’s with a voice as powerful as Patsy Cline on steroids. Charlie’s is at 362 California St. Call 648-6688.