Trip the Spring Strikes a Chord With Judges at ‘Texas Tuneup’

Trip the Spring will take a trip this spring to play at a major alternative-rock showcase in Austin, Tex.--the young Orange County band’s prize as the victor Wednesday night in the “Texas Tuneup” competition at Bogart’s.

The Fullerton band’s tight musicianship in a folk- and progressive-rock vein carried it to a narrow victory over This Great Religion. Using a system in which they each could apportion 21 points, the five contest judges awarded 56 points to Trip the Spring and 49 to This Great Religion, according to Bogart’s booking agent, Stephen Zepeda. Each band had won a previous semifinal round in the contest, which was sponsored by Bogart’s and the Pacific News & Review, a local entertainment weekly.

Trip the Spring, whose five members range in age from 20 to 24, earned a showcase slot at the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference, a magnet for music industry scouts seeking out alternative-rock talent. The showcases take place from March 20 to 24 at various venues in Austin.

“We haven’t had any substantial label attention yet,” Trip the Spring’s bassist, Andy Hong, said after the results were in, noting that the band, together one year, hasn’t even begun to send out demo tapes to attract record-company interest.

Hong said the band’s thoughts will turn now to financing the Austin trip, which will mark its first appearance outside California. “I’m sure we’ll figure it out and get there,” he said.

The spoils for winning the Texas Tuneup include $805 cash, which Bogart’s owner Richard Greco said was Trip the Spring’s share of door proceeds as the winner of the finals and last Friday night’s semifinal round. Randy Matin, editor and publisher of the Pacific News & Review, said the paper will try to help the band line up club shows on the way to and from Austin so it can earn additional money to finance the trip. As contest winner, Trip the Spring also will be featured on the cover of the News & Review’s March 15 edition, Matin said.

This Great Religion’s members were upbeat after their narrow loss. “We like doing a good show, and a lot of our fans were here and they liked it,” said the band’s bassist, Justin Meldal-Johnsen. “We felt (a sense of) interchange and communication” while performing. “That was a victory.”

Both bands were able to top the level of intensity they had shown in their semifinal victories.

With its emphasis on harmony passages between Liana Dutton’s flute and Hong’s bass, Trip the Spring often recalled early Jethro Tull. There also was a hint of Jefferson Airplane in the vocal harmonies between Liana Dutton and her cousin, lead singer Kevin Dutton. In keeping with those ‘60s progressive- and folk-rock influences, Trip the Spring’s 32-minute set emphasized long, episodic pieces that recalled the expansive jamming of bands like Tull and the Airplane as the music shifted between airy acoustic and stormy electric passages. It was no shock that the set included a trippy song about reincarnation called “Old Soul” and ended with the Dutton cousins proclaiming that they were “skeletons in space, looking for the light.” Rounding out the band were drummer David Dutton (Kevin’s brother) and guitarist John Kraus.

Such ‘80s British sources as the Smiths and U2 figured in This Great Religion’s sound, which centered on Anthony Hoffer’s high-tech approach to the guitar, full of echoes and other electronic effects. Singer Maria Hall fronted the Long Beach/Canoga Park band with a wistful, airy voice and a quietly beguiling stage presence. She flashed a smile that could launch a thousand ships, but it wasn’t quite enough to earn her band a passage to Austin.

The judges were Tim Grobaty, music writer for the Long Beach Press-Telegram; Dave Hansen, vice president of Dr. Dream Records; David Swinson, former booking agent for Bogart’s; George Valdivez of WEA record distributors; and Anthony Arvizu, drummer for National People’s Gang. Arvizu was recruited as a last-minute stand-in for a Restless Records representative who Zepeda said had canceled.