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Don’t be afraid, it’s Incubus on Sunday night

Rick Chandler

It might be more appropriate for them to play on Friday the 13th, but no – Incubus will invade the Harveys Outdoor Arena Concert Series on Sunday, July 15. Just as well – these guys are not the evil bad boys that one might expect from their name. In fact, they got their start thanks to a large helping of innocent, schoolboy serendipity.

When Calabasas teens Brandon Boyd, Jose Pasillas and Mike Einziger formed the band Kansas City Shuffle while in high school in the late 1980s, they never expected to get booed off the stage during their first gig. But that’s just what happened. The group, however, stuck together; Einziger changing the name of the band to Incubus after finding that word in a thesaurus.

Then when he was in the 11th grade, as the story goes, Einziger found a $100 bill on the ground, and used the money to enter the band in a “Pay to Play” gig at The Roxy in Hollywood. Following that came shows throughout Southern California, including strip clubs such as The Troubadour, and the band was on its way.



They produced their first studio album in 1995, “Fungus Amongus,” the first of six by the band that has become famous for such singles as “Drive,” “Wish You Were Here,” “Talk Shows on Mute” and “A Crow Left of the Murder.”

Incubus will play at Harveys with Simon Dawes.



Some have said that Incubus blends 1960s protest rock with ’80s punk, and Brandon Boyd agrees.

“I think the two are one and the same,” said the vocalist, in an interview with the web site Blue Sky Link. “The Punk movement and the Hippie movement are all part of the counter culture. This is an over used term, but … we are all Hippies at heart and believe in peace and love.”

The band consists of Boyd on lead vocals and percussion; Einziger on guitar, vocals, piano and string arrangements; Pasillas on drums; Chris Kilmore (who joined in 1998) on turntables, piano, samples, organ and decks; and Ben Kenney (2003) on bass guitar and vocals.

Their latest album, “Light Grenades,” was released in November 2006 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 165,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week. The album has since gone gold in the U.S.

Above all, when you see them, don’t be afraid.

“We’re not that scary,” Einziger said. “You see, during the daytime, we all look like a bunch of sissies. At night, we turn into big, angry, ugly monsters.”


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