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St. Laurent goes unplugged at Copia
By LOUISA HUFSTADER
Register Correspondent
Itâs been a busy year for Napa musicians Bob St. Laurent and James Regan, who will play a rare, mostly-acoustic concert with their band St. Laurent at Copia on Nov. 15.

âWeâve done well over 80 shows,â said bassist St. Laurent, who plays with guitarist Regan in three very different groups: St. Laurent, their powerful rock quartet first founded in the 1980s; Urban Slack, a Hawaiian-inspired act Regan formed a few years ago; and a new instrumental trio with a tongue-in-cheek name: The Deadly (or potentially harmful) Surfinatics.

âWeâre starting to shorten it to âthe Deadlies,ââ joked St. Laurent. He and Regan developed their power-surf style while playing the corner of First and Main streets during this summerâs weekly Napa Chefs Market celebrations; next year, they hope to play the main stage at Dwight Murray Plaza.

St. Laurent and Reganâs original group, with singer Mark Tate of Napa and drummer Danny Cantrell of Benicia, reunited last year after a decade-long hiatus.

Following its packed performance at the Napa Bowl lounge early this year, St. Laurent has gone on to open for Motley Crüe and Def Leppard, among scores of other gigs at clubs and arenas around the Bay Area.

âItâs getting exciting now,â said St. Laurent. âWe didnât expect it â not to hit like this.â

At Copia, the band will present a retrospective of the past 20 years, he continued, but fans of the hard-rock sound will have to be patient: Most of the concert will be âunplugged.â

âWeâll play the first three-quarters of the show acoustic, and then warn everybody and bring it on,â said Regan, who also performs with the St. Johnâs Lutheran Church Worship Band in Napa.

âWeâll showcase the music first, and then weâll hit it hard for the last 25 percent, for those who need us to crank it up.â

St. Laurent will offer a free preview of the show when the band performs live on Kellie Fullerâs morning radio show, simultaneously broadcast on KVON-AM and KVYN-FM, Nov. 11 at 7:40 a.m.

Next stop Hawaii,

then London?

Regan and St. Laurent may go international next month: On Nov. 18, the Deadly (or potentially harmful) Surfinatics will learn whether they have won an online video contest to play the âafter-partyâ for a concert in London that will feature the reunited Led Zeppelin (details at www.ziddio.com).

Their video â shot at San Franciscoâs Brainwash lounge and laundromat â is a dizzying thrill-ride through the Deadliesâ riptide of surf rhythm.

Reganâs guitar twangs as St. Laurent and drummer Jeff Craft power through a medley of high-energy instrumentals that have made the clip one of the most-viewed on the ziddio.com site, a YouTube competitor backed by Comcast.

The video is also online on YouTube and the bandâs MySpace page, and it impressed Hawaiian surf group the Take-Offs enough that they invited the Deadlies to open for them on Kauaâi later this month, after a return engagement at Brainwash Nov. 18.

Closer to home, the Deadly (or potentially harmful) Surfinatics will be riding in the Calistoga Tractor Parade Dec. 1, and St. Laurent and Regan have also scored what the guitarist calls âthe trifectaâ of gigs: On New Yearâs Eve, Urban Slack will open for the Deadlies before St. Laurent takes the stage as headliner at the Silicon Valley location of W Hotels, one of the bandâs many sponsors.

But none of these shows will offer the intimacy of the Copia performance space, which seats fewer than 300. St. Laurent promises that on Nov. 15, the band will bring out some favorite Led Zeppelin songs and other rock classics, âso people can sing along.â

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