Roaring Lions

When the band yells “How’s it going, Ventura?” and the answer is right out of the Tasmanian Devil’s Guide to Cordiality and goes something like “AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!” then you know the bartender’s been busy.

By the time the crowd’s reached this point, they’d probably cheer for Saddam Hussein (if he bought the drinks). They’d definitely cheer on the band, any band, even one playing chain saws.

It’s the Desperately Seeking Anyone Mating Ritual on a Friday night wherever Lion I’s, the best-drawing band in the area, is playing. Four sets by the Lion I’s will probably pay the rent on any joint. The stage is even crowded, but that’s because there are eight guys in Lion I’s. Every club owner would book them every night. Too bad they only do weekends.

The band is the only crossover band that’s big in Ventura and Santa Barbara. They outdraw Raging Arb & the Redheads by plenty in Ventura and are equals with Spencer the Gardener, Tao Jonz, Crucial DBC and Common Sense in Santa Barbara. Urban Dread does well in the east end of Ventura County and is making inroads in the west end.

On the Fourth of July, Lion I’s and Raging Arb drew more than 900 people to the Ventura Theatre. That’s why Lion I’s gets more than a grand when they play. That’s why it also cost you from $5 to $7 to check them out, an unprecedented sum in this area to hang out in a bar.

Anyway, when Bruce Conaway’s big bass riff kicks off “Gimme Some Time,” the place bursts out dancin’ all over the big dance floor. Even the tight three-man horn section is already dancing.

Trombone player Jeff Harris, sax player Larry Price and trumpet player Alan Lomax won’t make anybody forget the Temptations, but they get their steps down and twirl their instruments around like gunfighters in a “B” Western. Bobby Galyan is an accomplished frontman who jumps around like his shoes are on fire, inciting the crowd to do the same. Usually, by the third song, there are so many dancers, the band is gone from view unless you’re dancing up front.

Still billed by club owners as a reggae band, Lion I’s is more a rock, soul and R & B band than the pure reggae band it used to be. Some of the slow songs are reggae-like, and “Closer” is sort of an English beat-style, reggae-on-steroids rocker.

“We’re not so much of a reggae band as we used to be, but we have definite reggae influences,” said keyboard player Guy Jeans, who, along with Galyan, writes most of the songs.

“I don’t know what to call it, jungle music, maybe,” Lion I’s guitar player David Spasiano said. “There’s some definite reggae influences, some ska stuff like the English beat.”

The bottom line is basic physiology. The women go to meet the men. The men go to check out the women. They dance. The band provides a four-set soundtrack of raucous reggae-flavored originals. And the world dances, mon.