It was a hot night in the Valley, but that didn’t stop the faithful La Familia to come out and support their favorite band, TRIBE OF GYPSIES. It was great to see all the old school fans, musicians, like Ray Burke and Leanna, Sean Dailey, Crazy Pat and Nino and everyone else who has waited to see this energetic band once again, live on stage. Anticipation was the key word tonight. Not only for their return to the stage, but with their new vocalist and new songs from, Dweller On The Threshold (released July 20 on JVC/Victor). So we waited with pride and talked to each other about the good old days until 12:30 am when the lights went dim to the sound of “Mero, Mero Mambo” a song from their self-titled disc from 1997. As the song came to an end, I noticed a figure walk on stage as the band started playing “Rays Of The Sun”. Low and behold to EVERYONE’s surprise, it was none other than Gregg Analla himself, the man who sang on the studio version and the last two Tribe CD’s. Gregg and his lovely wife Marguerite flew in from New Mexico, unannounced. He told us that he just wanted to say hello to everybody and wanted to see the band from a different perspective. Just before the show, Roy Z. graciously got him to get up onstage and to “pass the torch’ to newest vocalist Chaz West. It wasn’t a surprise though that Gregg could walk off the street, onto the stage and sound as though he’d rehearsed for weeks. Then the crowd welcomed Chaz to the mic as he sang new songs and old. There was “Ride On” from the latest CD, “Firedance” also from the self titled and “Turn Around” from their first EP. Then it was time for a bass solo from Juan Perez while Roy took care of his broken string. The rest of the band, Dave Moreno on drums, Elvis Balladares on percussion, Ray Rodriguez on keyboards and the secret weapon Christian Byrne on acoustic guitar, kept the vibe going. But when Roy came back, he came back with a vengeance, playing behind his head. The crowd went crazy as Roy went into a familiar lick, an Edward Van Halen lick. Yes, the Tribe do a Tequila laced version of “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love” with a chaser of three new songs; “After The Summer”, “Flying Tigers, Crying Dragons” (which had Roy ripping a solo on one knee) and the final new song, “Desolate Chile”. Only to be called back for the classic of all Tribe classics, “We All Bleed Red”. The word is, is that the TRIBE will be back for more shows, so look for the new CD and check out www.tribeofgypsies.com to see when their next show will be. WARNING! You do not want to miss it, like the Atomic Chaser did. He was sorry to have missed it and everyone can’t wait to see him AND Tribe Of Gypsies, next time around.