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This review appears on www.adancersplace.com
by Ben T.
Friday I went up to see Deja Groove at
Skagit Valley Casino. Fortunately Romy Jacobsen, of Notorious
Sensation, volunteered to accompany me on the 1-1/2 hour drive
to Bow, WA. Having met Jeff Powell at the Pop Tart photo shoot,
she was eager to see Deja Groove. Notorious Sensation's singer
is sweet, gentle, feminine, beautiful, elegant, and a little
bit crazy, like I could ever say no to her:)
I had promised Deja Groove I was going
to come out to the 13th Avenue, the previous week, and I met
with an old friend instead. So I felt I owed Deja Groove,
and it was an interesting evening.
 Skagit
Valley Casino is just north of Mt. Vernon, in Bow, WA. The
coverbands perform in the "Winner's Lounge". It
is a clean, comfortable environment. The stage is huge, and
the dancefloor is about 8'x10' wood, and fills up crowded
for any good song. As with most casinos, there is no cover
and drinks are inexpensive for the patrons, but the bands
are not allowed to drink.
This night there was one table of costumed
young people. The women in the party were costumed as a prison
guard, nurse, and fireman. They danced a lot, and would drag
other patrons, mostly women (or guys dressed like women),
onto the dancefloor. They would never ask me to dance, but
the first time I left Romy, they were all over that:) It didn't
occur to me till later that Blonde Romy, in her red dress,
looked like she was channeling Marilyn Monroe, which fit in
well with the crowd that evening.
Deja Groove was magnificent. Romy loved
their music selection. The band consists of Jeff Powell on
guitar/keyboard/vocals, Eric Weber on guitar/vocals, Juston
Bobrowski on drums/vocals, Charles Valentine on bass/vocals,
and last, but never least, TinaLou Arciaga on vocals and keyboards.
Years ago they were focused on doing funk and disco. Since
then they've brought in Top40/Dance and even some rock, looking
more for that which is high energy for the audience.
The band was tight, but more importantly,
they were entertaining, which is always the bottom line. TinaLou
sold every song she did, with a 'take no prisoners' style
that captured the attention and hearts of the entire audience.
With the wind and rain storm outside,
the power went out. Immediately power came back on to the
Casino, not so much the Winner's Lounge. Here is when I became
aware that the Spazmatics were playing upstairs.
Technical note... power going out is not
a good thing for band equipment. Some equipment is meant to
be powered down, before it is turned off. Deja Groove lost
a couple guitar pods. Jeff presumed there must have been a
power spike before it went out. Skagit got the Winner's Lounge
going on an auxiliary generator, for everything, but the lights.
So, in the Halloween darkness, Deja Groove hammered everything
together that they could and started playing again.
I heard from other patrons that, the minute
the power went out, the Spazmatics packed it up and went home.
All I knew for certain was a lot of people showed up in the
darkened Winner's Lounge, dressed for the evening and ready
to dance.
I rarely go out to see a band because
they are good or bad, though bad can be fun sometimes. I generally
go because of the character of a member, or members, of the
band. It meant a lot to me that, rather than sitting around
complaining about broken equipment or lack of lighting, they
sucked it up and found a way to keep performing. My only regret
is that I wanted to talk with, and learn more about, TinaLou,
who is as amazing a person offstage as she is an entertainer.
Unfortunately she was busy most of the evening, and I never
really got a chance to talk to her.
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