Fish party!

Pisces people began circling the Merrow early for birthday-girl Laura Jane Willcock’s annual Fish Party. Ensuring this year’s festivities would hit the high-water mark, Willcock booked three hyperactive rock-and-roll bands to school the multitude of excitable fish heads.

The Honky’s out of Huntington Beach popped the cork with their amped front porch boot-scootin’ rockabilly. Bret and Broy Hazzard with bassist Sean McCarty and drummer Evan Caleb Yearsley took us on an eclectic tour of their extensive songbook, setting the tempo and the hook deep.

When the Tighten Ups hit the stage, Willcock, one of the hardest working entertainers in Southern California was in her element and lit that candle! This brassy San Diego band, so aptly named, proceeded to scream through Ike, Tina, and a bitchin’ Stones romp. Laura Jane admits to being just a few Tequila shots shy of enlightenment when Joey Harris ripped into his Beat Farmer chestnut “Ridin’.” Another highlight and almost an anthem for any Tighten Ups set is their rendition of “Suspicious Minds.”

The house was frothy when ThunderLux hit the stage. Coinciding with the release of their new self-titled EP, ThunderLux is the latest project of Willcock, Thomas Yearsley, and their long-time friends Leo Dombecki and Emily O’Bannon-Robles. Working from their EP and soon-to-be completed full-length, the band launched into what Laura Jane describes as “really kind of a neat rock-and-roll vibe from midcentury, with a little cartoon influence, like the Archies and Josie and the Pussycats.” That said, all I can add is that ThunderLux rocked the Merrow harder than the Flintstones on a bender!

• Concert: Fish Party!
• Date: March 3
• Venue: The Merrow
• Seats: Center stage