A Little Bit Country, a Little Bit Underground

This Memorial Day could be a memorable day for local music fans. Added to Monday’s regular menu of entertainment at area clubs will be an underground-music festival in Mission Hills and a battle of the bands in Mission Valley featuring some of the area’s best country acts.

“Groove” is the title organizers have given to an eight- acts-in-eight-hours program that will convene local and out-of- town bands at the Better Worlde Galeria in Mission Hills. San Diego’s Contra Guerra will kick things off at noon, followed by local folk singer Larry Brown, the Static (from L.A.), the Fugitives (South Bay) and the Odd Numbers (San Jose). Closing the show, in order of performance, are local headliners aMiniature, the Shambles and the Hoods.

If the flavor of “Groove” tastes vaguely familiar, it should. A couple of the featured bands have participated in the locally produced “New Sounds of the ‘60s” revues, the annual underground-music marathons that attract bands from as far away as Europe. Bart Mendoza, the local musician-entrepreneur who is largely responsible for the popular “New Sounds” series, acknowledges that Monday’s program can be considered a bite-size spinoff of that event.

“ ‘Groove’ is one of our for-the-love-of-live-music shows,” Mendoza said by phone Monday. “There haven’t been any big, all-ages underground shows since the last ‘New Sounds.’ So a bunch of us thought, what the heck, the people who run the Galeria love original music, and some of the bands (in Monday’s show) have gone over well there. The club’s acoustics are amazing, the stage is huge. It should be perfect for this sort of thing.”

The admission-donation to “Groove” is $4 at the door. The Better Worlde Galeria is located at 4010 Goldfinch, half a block north of Washington. For more information, call 260-8007.

Ask a local country music fan to name his favorite San Diego band and you’re likely to hear one of the following: Silverado, Prairie Fire, Linda Rae and Breakheart Pass, the Savery Brothers, Coldheart. These home-grown acts are as good as it gets, so the fact that all five will be competing in Monday’s “Battle of the Country Bands” gives the event an added dimension. But there’s more than bragging rights at stake: The grand prize is $1,000.

The friendly shootout will be staged at In Cahoots at 5373 Mission Center Road (where Confetti used to be). The doors open at noon, and the action begins at 2:30 p.m. Another local country talent, Calman Hart, will perform a post-competition concert about 6:30 p.m. There is no admission charge. For more information, call 291-1184.

And speaking of country battles, eight finalists in the latest talent contest at Leo’s Little Bit O’ Country vied for top honors before a full house Sunday night at the San Marcos club. For the most part, these performers are not close to joining the ranks of the pros listed above, but what they lacked in polished skills they made up for in heart and effort.

At the end of the two-hour playoff--which concluded an 11-week series of qualifying competitions--vocalist Nikki Perry walked away with the grand prize of a South Pacific vacation. Runners-up, in order, were the Anderson Brothers, Charlie Morse (a regular at Hamburguesa! in Old Town) and Dawnetta Lynn.

SPORTS DESK: Judging from the action at the recent Pearl Jam concert, America’s most intrepid platform divers will not be in Barcelona this summer; they’ll be in Tijuana doing full-gainers from the balconies at Iguanas. The club is already well known for its “mosh pit”--the area in the middle of the floor where attendees play bumper-bodies during punk and metal shows. But Iguanas is gaining equal notoriety as a magnet for kamikaze types who hurtle themselves onto the crowded dance floor from the third-story balcony, with scant regard for life or limb.

Perhaps the divers at the May 10 Pearl Jam show were inspired by lead vocalist (and former San Diegan) Eddie Vedder’s death-defying climb to the top of a 30-foot-high lighting column, from where he jumped into the eager and protective arms of the crowd. Whatever their motivation, several chute-less paratroopers took the direct route to the floor during the show. One of them even hid his identity behind a large chicken mask. After landing on the crowd, he would evade anxious security guards by removing the mask and losing himself in the throng, only to turn up on the third balcony with mask in place. He did this three or four times.

A less-fortunate soul did one too many Greg Louganis impressions, paying for his recklessness with a crushed shoulder. The human cannonball was escorted from the club by guards. Shortly thereafter, he was seen--shoulder and arm hanging limp at his side--trying to pay his way back into Iguanas.

GRACE NOTES: One of the biggest shows of the summer will bring country-crossover superstar Garth Brooks and opening act Martina McBride to the 32nd Street Naval Station on July 18.

As one might imagine, a concert by someone of Brooks’ star power necessitates extra effort in preparation and production. That is especially true in light of Brooks’ appearance last summer at the Miramar Naval Air Station on a blockbuster bill with the Judds. Apparently, the Miramar site was not equipped to handle the needs--musical and otherwise--of the 30,000-plus fans who showed up. Among many inadequacies were the sound system, the number of portable toilets, concessions and parking.

Well, Brooks’ San Antonio, Tex.-based promoters want to allay any fears of a similar debacle taking place this time around. The 32nd Street facility, they feel, is more experienced in handling shows of this size, and the presenters are promising “state-of- the-art” sound and lighting systems and video screens. They’re also taking extra precautions to ensure the comfort and convenience of what could easily be the most massive concert audience of the year. Tickets, priced at $17 (plus service charge), will go on sale at all TicketMaster outlets June 27.

BOOKINGS: (Tickets for the following concerts will be sold at all TicketMaster outlets unless otherwise specified.) Ian McCulloch, former lead vocalist of Echo and the Bunnymen, will perform June 26 at Iguanas. Tickets ($17.50 in advance, $20 at the door) go on sale Friday.

CRITIC’S CHOICE: THE HARD-CHARGING SOUND OF aMINIATURE

Local nu-rocker aMiniature is a hard-charging, chew-the-scenery band with a growing following. Its tunes “Weepo” and “Safety” take up one side of an excellent new “split single” on San Diego-based Topsy Records (side two features Drip Tank’s “Cut” and “Quencher”), currently on sale at several area “independent” record stores. aMiniature will be joined by Sybil, Deadbolt and Crankshaft for a 9 p.m. show Friday at the Casbah, 2812 Kettner Blvd. For more information, call 294-9033.