Surf music is a genre marked by thunderous and steady drum beats, is dominated by the virtuoso electric guitars and is so guitar-focused that it rarely includes any vocals at all. Surf guitar, rather, tells its stories of surf and sun with instrumentals. It has made it's way into the mainstream with such well known hits as "Wipeout" by the Surfaris, "Bustin' Surfboards" by the Tornadoes and more recently, was spotlighted in the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction in the form of "Misirlou" by Dick Dale and his Del-Tones.

The Diamondheads' name comes from a volcano that cuts an impressive silhouette along a piece of Hawaiian coastline famous for it's surfing. Not that surfing is a requirement to play surf music anymore. In fact, of all the Diamondheads only the drummer, Dave Bradley, is an experienced surfer.

The Diamondheads are a band that is fun to look at, let alone listen to. The quartet all sport Hawaiian shirts, the drummer twirls his drumsticks like a majorette leading a marching band and the guitarists play vintage Fenders -- one baby blue and the other a pastel aqua. 

Highlights of the show featured a cover of "Journey to the Stars" by classic surf band, The Ventures, which featured a solid tribal sounding drumbeat reminiscent of a set of waves rapidly pounding the shoreline coupled with a spacey stroll-through-outer-space sort of melody. Another cover, "Any Way the Wind Blows", was a tribute to surf guitarist, Frank Zappa and brought shouts of "Cowabunga" from the crowd.

The strains of "Surf West, Young Man" featured a bouncing, trotting cadence of guitar rhythm straight out of the Bonanza TV series theme song, and I certainly wasn't the only one who noted the tune's country western influence. After it was over, the sound technician in the back of the room shouted, "Thought you were "gonna play "Rawhide" after that!"

For the most part, The Diamondheads' guitars sounded smooth, twangy, and metallic, almost like steel guitars more likely found in honky tonks and cantinas rather than at beach bonfires. Yet, this is the signature style of surf guitarists everywhere, which only goes to show that they're cowboys too, the only difference is they don't wrangle cattle, they wrangle waves.

The Diamondheads' latest CD can be purchased at Atomic Books and Record and Tape traders.