Creepy, kooky Sextones return to old June Lake haunt

Tim Parsons / Tahoe Onstage
Shining: The Sextones play T-Bar Social Club’s Halloween Bash on Saturday.
Tim Parsons / Tahoe Onstage

The Sextones will take time from working in the lab to travel to June Lake on Saturday for the T-Bar Social Club’s 3rd Annual Halloween Bash.

“Monster Mash” and Crypt-Kicker Five covers might not be played but guitarist Mark Sexton promised a spirited show.

“We will wear costumes and we’re going to exude the holiday spirit, but no specific Halloween songs are on the set list,” he said. “But we might make our music extra spooky, add a little more tension to the chord progression. Make it real tense and spooky.”

Every great horror movie has a sequel and The Sextones played the inaugural T-Bar Halloween Bash.

“We had a great time and I am glad Jamie (Schectman, the owner) thought of us for this time around despite all the craziness in the world and how hard it’s been for him to run his business,” Sexton said.

The T-Bar Social Club was the first in the nation to require a vaccination card to attend a show. The health measure was and remains a controversial topic in the tiny Eastern Sierra town.

While live shows were put on hold for more than a year, the Sextones used the time to work on a new album. Just one playing session remains before the songs will be mixed and put to vinyl. It is produced by Kelly Finnigan, who is the lead singer of the Bay Area indie-soul band Monophonics.

“It’s a whole new energy and a much more focused version of our sound,” Sexton said. “It’s very much focused in the style of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s Northern soul.”

Sexton said the band was inspired by artists such as Curtis Mayfield and Mayfield’s first band, The Impressions, Baby Huey, Isley Brothers, Delphonics, Black Ivory and The Brothers of Soul.

We will have horns and strings — orchestral elements that was common in those older RB arrangements – a lot of falsetto,” Sexton said. “Songs I would play if we were in a DJ set. A rare groove DJ effect.”

The band’s three founding members – Sexton, bassist Alex Korostinski, drummer Dan Weiss — are 2006 Reno High School graduates. The fourth member for the Halloween show is Sexton’s younger brother Chris, a keyboard player. So how does a high-desert cadre acquire such a soulful taste in music?

“It just goes back to us growing up with good music around the house,” Sexton said. “Alex’s dad was in a band. Dan’s dad was into (Latin jazz) Tito Puente. For me it was Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield and the Rat Pack.

Weiss recently moved to Seattle, where he plays in an instrumental group, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, along with acclaimed guitarist Jimmy James. The band’s newest member, the drummer is affectionately known as Vanilla Weiss.

Sexton and Krostinski’s side project, Whatitdo Archive Group, recently made an album, “The Black Stone Affair.”

“It was a publicity stunt we made up, a lost soundtrack from a 1973 spaghetti western,” Sexton said. “We had fake names, director and producer. We made a trailer and had a photo shoot with turtlenecks. It was a fun project. We did a lot of homework and we nerded out hard.”

Tim Parsons

  • 3rd Annual Halloween Bash
  • Band: The Sextones
  • Where: T-Bar Social Club, June Lake
  • When: 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 30
  • Tickets: $31
  • What else:
  • Vax card required for entry
  • Prizes awarded for best costumes
  • Shuttle service from Mammoth Lakes available

Related story: Dan “Vanilla” Weiss joins Seattle supergroup.

ABOUT Tim Parsons

Tim Parsons
Tim Parsons is the editor of Tahoe Onstage who first moved to Lake Tahoe in 1992. Before starting Tahoe Onstage in 2013, he worked for 29 years at newspapers, including the Tahoe Daily Tribune, Eureka Times-Standard and Contra Costa Times. He was the recipient of the 2011 Keeping the Blues Alive award for Journalism.

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