Barefoot Hockey Goalie injects the humor

“The band is stretched out, due to life, work, and families, so we don’t get to gig much anymore,” says Barefoot Hockey Goalie bassist Matthew Pray. “I currently reside in Chino and run a martial arts studio, teaching Taekwondo.”

“I’ve been living in Pacifica for the past 15 years, teaching fourth grade,” says guitarist Tony Acquarelli. “Blair [Hatch] the singer and Greg [Farrar] our drummer both live and teach high school in San Diego.”

As such, the band’s gig on Friday, July 21, at Sleep Bedder will be a rare chance to catch one of their costume- and prop-heavy stage shows. CD releases have included bizarre mini-rock operas such as Darius, An Interview with Thomas Edison, and Fedik’s Butcher Shop, the latter about Estonian butchers and their adventures in America, with songs about raccoons and hoodlums.

For this show, “We’ll be performing two operas, Darius: A Rock Opera and Kid Champion,” says Farrar, who coaches high school sports and works for the San Diego Gulls office. 

According to Hatch, “The opera Greg referred to, Kid Champion, is about an over-the-hill boxer who sells his soul to the devil to win a YMCA tournament.” The 2011 EP was recorded in San Diego with Marcos Fernandes.

Attendees will also get to hear new music. “We’re planning on recording a couple of new songs for a new rock opera we’re working on,” says Acquarelli, “a love story about a most gifted sign-spinner and the girl who won his heart and got him to put his headphones down and put a T-shirt on.”

Asked to describe their stage shows to anyone unfamiliar, Pray says, “We practice a form of musical terrorism, playing on the edges of control and disorder. We try to make each show special, and interaction with the audience is part of what makes the fun. Playing the same old ‘my baby left me’ blues gets so boring, so we inject humor and tell stories with our songs.”  

Adds Farrar, who has manned the skins for most Barefoot performances and projects since the late ’90s, “This band fuses two of my favorite things, sports and music.”