This Thurs, June 11, 2026!

Boston, MA - Intergalactic Balkan Surf Jazz is back

Greetings from Amtrak! I'm headed down to NYC today for a wedding of a long-time Orchestrotica and personal friend I've known since the original incarnation of what was first known as the Waitiki Orchestrotica first traveled to Mexico (~2004? I can't count that far....). You never know who you're going to meet at a dinner in Mexico City with Brother Cleve, and now I get to see him get married!

When I look back 20+ years of Orchestrotica adventures since then, it's been a real blast - maturing the Esquivel Megaband into it's own project, then extending the umbrella to our main touring group (the quintet), and a few years back, giving birth to Czarna Wolgastar, our latest incarnation as a small guitar-fronted trio.

The trio was first conceived in Kansas over post-show pints with Darrell Brogdon after the quintet performed at the Lied Center with help from Kansas Public Radio and D's show, the Retro Cocktail Hour. Maybe one too many pints contributed to the idea, but by the time left, there were aliens involved, a Polish urban legend, and lots of musical ideas for re-interpreting the traditional surf sound as a mixed American/Balkan jazz-meets-waves sound that rocks, twists, and dives. (What the hell is in the water in Lawrence, KS?)

Well, you can hear the results this week!

Czarna Wolgastar (cwtrio.com) is back in Boston/Somerville @ the Burren on 6/11 for our second annual Mid-Summer Reverb: A Retro-Futurist Surf Spectacle.

(Aside: I just performed with my celtic group, Ishna at the Burren last week. On that note, our debut album just dropped in January -- Sli Amach -- check it out, and if you buy direct, which is always the best way to support artists, let 'em know in the notes that I sent ya!

But I digress. Really far. In fact, if we had a marketing department, they would be yelling at me and telling me "Brian, one "call to action" only in the email! Why are you promoting an album and a concert!?" Well, while I'd love to have a marketing department here at Orchestrotica HQ, we don't and so I get to shoot myself and the band in the foot just as much as I want. The Ishna album has gotten some pretty stellar reviews, and we know that, being a global email list, you can't all trek to Boston to see some alien trio play music on a Thursday night. So, take that marketers everywhere -- 2 calls to action in a single promotional email -- because we can and haven't learned our lesson the hard way yet.)

With this digression (yes, "digress" has a noun form) complete, we now return to regularly scheduled alien programming and ask you to join us this Thursday if you're in New England. We got some American songbook selections, 007, Spaghetti Western sounds, and lots of originals by our guitarist/composer/arranger Tev Stevig whom most of you know from the quintet. Special guest and ludomusicologist Dr. James Heazlewood-Dale joins us on bass! I met James in the jazz scene in Boston and he played our last Florida tour with the quintet. Ludomusicologist you ask? Oh yes, the study of video game music is a real thing. Get to know James here.​

So what's that going to do to our sound?

Find out Thursday. Get tickets here—aliens of all stripes, solids, foreign and domestic are welcome. If my 6 year old son can make it out on a school night, so you can you!
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All the love,
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Mr. Ho / The Orchestrotica / Czarna Wolgastar