Finnhead Getting Its Act Together : Nearly year-old band smokes, with terrific guitar solos and danceable tunes--what they call tropical rock. And the show is free.

As an intro to Finnhead’s first song of the evening, “Stand Up,” Finhead Dave himself questioned the wisdom of California’s new “smoke a joint, lose your license” law, inviting his fans to complain in writing to Gov. Pete Wilson. But before anyone picked up pen and paper and actually proved they could write a complete sentence, let alone a whole letter, the vast majority became the dancing part of the food (and drink) chain as Finnhead kicked off its first of four sets Friday night at Harbor Lights in Oxnard.

Finhead Dave offered no further advice but did provide the smoke--from band members who were clearly on fire. The process will repeat itself this Friday night. The cover charge is the ever-affordable nothing.

Finnhead consists of three finheads (surfers) and a swimmer, a guest conga player, and what every band needs, a soundman/sniper. Finhead Dave Scharnberg plays guitar and sings. Thom Mason seems to have a mind-bending guitar solo in each and every song and swears he can swim farther than the others can surf. Pat McDonald pumps that bass and Mark Leon pounds the drums. Half of them wear baseball caps. There are black lights over the dance floor, no Lakers on the TV and a harbor full of boats just outside.

The venue itself has been through varying incarnations, but as Harbor Lights seems to have the upstairs entertainment lineup figured out. Since most club owners change their format more times than Howard Hughes would change underwear in a Fruit of the Loom factory, this venue seems to believe that building a regular clientele revolves around a regular schedule. Every week for a few months, it’s been like this: Ska Daddyz on Thursdays, Finnhead on Friday and reggae with Irie Ites on Saturday.

“This is the place for us to get our act together, and sort out our music in a live situation,” said Mason. “And the owners here are really nice.”

The band will celebrate its one year anniversary come February. Its first gig was at the long gone and lamented Midnight Hour in Ventura as the Below Average White Band.

“It was a Saturday night and the club was in deep bleep,” said McDonald. “Someone canceled and the owner, Larry, asked us to play, but we didn’t have a singer. We saw Dave in the parking lot and asked him to play. We ended up playing for four hours. It was one of those ‘What do you know/What do you want to do?’ gigs. I remember we played ‘Mustang Sally’ for a long time and made up a lot of new verses. In this band, all the players are good and we even get paid for doing this.”

From that night on, everything just clicked, and now the band has 45 to 50 originals, which is a lot. They do only four covers--two by John Hiatt, one by Tommy Bolan and the wildest version yet of The Chantays’ “Pipeline.” All the players have been in a variety of bands, and Scharnberg came straight from that popular local band, Lion I’s.

“I’m a lead singer and, I think, not that good of a guitar player. I was surprised when they hired me. Man, I worked my butt off in (Lion I’s). I learned a lot but we never made that much money because we were paying for recordings and lawyers and stuff like that. I quit after about 10 months because I wanted to sing and play my own stuff.”

Their own stuff is some reggae, some Deadhead vibes, some ska, some surf music, some bluesy stuff and lots of rock ‘n’ roll guitar.

“I call it tropical rock,” said Scharnberg. “We also play surf music, but we’re not a surf band even though we have about a set of surf music and songs about the beach and the ocean.”

Friday night is pretty much it for Finnhead, partly because they don’t have a tape. And 90% of club owners and managers, right after they tell you they can’t pay much, ask for a tape. Some of them would ask the Stones for a tape, but that’s the way it is.

“We did play Art’s Bar in Santa Barbara a few times,” said Scharnberg. “Art was the only one that would hire us over the phone without asking for a tape. He liked us and his son, Art Jr., really liked us. Right now, we’re working on a seven- or eight-song demo tape, something we can sell at our shows. Plus we want to hit the road and go to San Diego, maybe up to San Francisco, and everybody wants a tape.”

In the meantime, everyone wanted to dance. Even Finhead Dave got into the act, playing a lead while dancing with The Blonde--there’s one at every gig. And, hey guys, there were many more girls than guys wanting to dance to some tropical rock by the band with the funny name.

“I grew up with a bunch of bikers, and they used to call me ‘Finhead Dave,’ ” said Finhead Dave. “I heard that a writer had called the Ska Daddyz a bunch of finheads from Silver Strand, and I thought ‘Yeah, Finnhead, with two Ns, that’s us.’ ”

To make sure everything stays mellow, Finnhead has what every band needs, a soundman/sniper.

“Oh yeah, Chris the soundman just got out of the Marines,” said McDonald. “He was a sniper. He was in the Gulf, Saudi and Somalia. Hey, he’s skinny, but he sure can shoot.”

Come out dancing with your hands up. Finnhead takes no prisoners starting around 9:30 p.m.

* PERFORMANCES: Your opinionated guide to the county’s rock music scene appears today in 11-Day Calendar. Page 15

Details

* WHO: Finnhead.

* WHEN: Friday night, 9:30 p.m.

* WHERE: Harbor Lights, 2701 Peninsula Ave., Oxnard.

* HOW MUCH: Free.

* CALL: 382-2243.