Calif. Town Lifts Blasters Ban

Davis’ No-Blasters-Allowed policy dates back to 1982 when the band played the Sacramento-area college town and members of the capacity-plus crowd began pushing and shoving, according to Los Angeles Times blog “Pop & Hiss.” The show ended in a riot with police, helicopters and, eventually, “a civic ban on all things Blaster.”

But attitudes can change over 30 years and earlier this week Davis Mayor Joe Krovoza, who happens to be an avid Blasters/Dave Alvin fan, boarded the train carrying Alvin’s “Kings Of California Roots On The Rails” tour to rectify his city’s Blasters prohibition.

Krovoza, who boarded the Oregon-bound train near Berkeley, Calif., rode with Alvin to Davis on a 40-minute trip where hizzoner spent most of the time asking him about his music.

Krovoza also presented Alvin with a formal proclamation absolving the band and its members of any misdeeds and welcomed the group to return to Davis, presumably for a show and not another riot.  After the ceremony witnessed by approximately 20 passengers concluded, Alvin called his brother Phil who still fronts The Blasters and reportedly said something along the lines of “You’ll never guess what just happened.”

Click here to read the complete Los Angeles Times/”Pop & Hiss” article.