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It was an impulse move. At first, Jubilee Olivas didn’t think he had it in him to jump the span from the stage to the rafters. But he did. And after he hung in front of the audience for a few moments he wondered what to do next. “I thought, well, I can monkey bar it. I didn’t know how cool that was, so I just rolled with it.” Then he saw the cross beams. “I thought it’d be cool if I could Batman it, but I never got that far.” His band, the Red Not Chili Peppers, had finished their set. There was nothing left for Olivas to do but dismount from the open beam ceiling at Winstons.
On a Sunday night in September, the Red Nots won a best of three-band duke-out to advance to the next step in Winstons Battle of the Tribute Bands. They will be joined on the big stage at the Ocean Beach Oktoberfest by other winners from both Winstons and Club 710 in Pacific Beach for the Battle of the Tribute Band finals. “It’s the championship round. Winner takes bragging rights, and some cash.” Olivas thinks as much as $2500 dollars is up for grabs.
The Red Not Chili Peppers came together two years ago, more or less in response to an ad posted on Craigslist by bassist and Flea mimic Jonathan Savage. “I thought, what the hell, I’ll sign on. It turns out that Izzy (drums) and I auditioned on the same day.” With Olivas in the role of front man Anthony Kiedis, an ex-metalhead named Kenny Kim plays Dave Navarro-meets–John Frusciante style guitar.
The Red Nots have since played L.A. and Orange County clubs and local shows at Soundwave in Mission Beach, the Griffin, Queen Bee’s in North Park, Winstons, and the Belly Up in Solana Beach. Last year, they were nominated for Best Tribute Band at the San Diego Music Awards. They did not win. The award instead went to 40 Oz. to Freedom, a local tribute to Sublime. Right now, Olivas says, the Red Nots are rehearsing and tightening things up. “We all realize we haven’t reached the full potential of what this band can do.” The goal, he says, is to quit their day jobs. Jubilee Olivas is by day an athletic director at a Chula Vista high school.
At any given moment there are a number of Red Hot Chili Pepper tribute acts performing around the world, including Barcelona’s Californicators, Higher Ground from Florida, Britain’s Red Mock Chili Peppers, and the Funky Monks, from Carbondale, IL. It is a decent gig, as tribute gigs go; the real Peppers won seven Grammy Awards in their time and have sold over 60 million albums. Not bad for blue-eyed funkster crossovers from L.A. that, in their earliest days would do anything to get attention including, but not limited to, dressing up as man-sized electric light bulbs or performing in the nude with only tube socks covering their naughty bits.
Ah, but to be more Kiedis-like. This is the challenge that faces Jubilee Olivas at present. He admits that his performance in this department is slightly lacking. He says he’s been told that “My vocals just aren’t quite there.” He says he’s learning to be more imitative than to put his focus on musical polish. “It’s an attitude. It’s inflection. Really, it’s not much about singing when he [Kiedis] hits it live. I try to sound too accurate, I suppose. Kiedis has bad habits,” he says, “and I need to absorb those.”
It was an impulse move. At first, Jubilee Olivas didn’t think he had it in him to jump the span from the stage to the rafters. But he did. And after he hung in front of the audience for a few moments he wondered what to do next. “I thought, well, I can monkey bar it. I didn’t know how cool that was, so I just rolled with it.” Then he saw the cross beams. “I thought it’d be cool if I could Batman it, but I never got that far.” His band, the Red Not Chili Peppers, had finished their set. There was nothing left for Olivas to do but dismount from the open beam ceiling at Winstons.
On a Sunday night in September, the Red Nots won a best of three-band duke-out to advance to the next step in Winstons Battle of the Tribute Bands. They will be joined on the big stage at the Ocean Beach Oktoberfest by other winners from both Winstons and Club 710 in Pacific Beach for the Battle of the Tribute Band finals. “It’s the championship round. Winner takes bragging rights, and some cash.” Olivas thinks as much as $2500 dollars is up for grabs.
The Red Not Chili Peppers came together two years ago, more or less in response to an ad posted on Craigslist by bassist and Flea mimic Jonathan Savage. “I thought, what the hell, I’ll sign on. It turns out that Izzy (drums) and I auditioned on the same day.” With Olivas in the role of front man Anthony Kiedis, an ex-metalhead named Kenny Kim plays Dave Navarro-meets–John Frusciante style guitar.
The Red Nots have since played L.A. and Orange County clubs and local shows at Soundwave in Mission Beach, the Griffin, Queen Bee’s in North Park, Winstons, and the Belly Up in Solana Beach. Last year, they were nominated for Best Tribute Band at the San Diego Music Awards. They did not win. The award instead went to 40 Oz. to Freedom, a local tribute to Sublime. Right now, Olivas says, the Red Nots are rehearsing and tightening things up. “We all realize we haven’t reached the full potential of what this band can do.” The goal, he says, is to quit their day jobs. Jubilee Olivas is by day an athletic director at a Chula Vista high school.
At any given moment there are a number of Red Hot Chili Pepper tribute acts performing around the world, including Barcelona’s Californicators, Higher Ground from Florida, Britain’s Red Mock Chili Peppers, and the Funky Monks, from Carbondale, IL. It is a decent gig, as tribute gigs go; the real Peppers won seven Grammy Awards in their time and have sold over 60 million albums. Not bad for blue-eyed funkster crossovers from L.A. that, in their earliest days would do anything to get attention including, but not limited to, dressing up as man-sized electric light bulbs or performing in the nude with only tube socks covering their naughty bits.
Ah, but to be more Kiedis-like. This is the challenge that faces Jubilee Olivas at present. He admits that his performance in this department is slightly lacking. He says he’s been told that “My vocals just aren’t quite there.” He says he’s learning to be more imitative than to put his focus on musical polish. “It’s an attitude. It’s inflection. Really, it’s not much about singing when he [Kiedis] hits it live. I try to sound too accurate, I suppose. Kiedis has bad habits,” he says, “and I need to absorb those.”