Before playing “Love Luck” for Little Hurricane’s Tomboy Session video, singer and guitarist Anthony Catalano takes note of his surroundings. “It’s always fun to play abnormal music venues,” he says. You’d think he’d never played Americana in a vintage clothing shop before!
“I get that a lot,” Summer Duppen, owner of Tomboy Santa Cruz, tells me. She knows her shop is an unusual place to showcase live music, but she’s forged a close link with the local music scene since opening a decade ago. In fact, Tomboy is synonymous with music, thanks to the Tomboy Sessions videos Duppen has been presenting since 2016. The gorgeously produced shorts have featured top homegrown talent like the Carolyn Sills Combo, Jesse Daniel and the Coffis Brothers—whose performance of “Two of a Kind” was just posted last month—as well as visiting performers.
Moe’s Alley has come on board as a sponsor of the sessions, so it’s fitting that the club will host a celebration of Tomboy’s 10th anniversary this weekend. It’s also appropriate that the show’s headliner is the furious, banjo-driven folk-rock outfit Beyond the Lamplight, since the band’s lead singers, Ian Cook and Andrew Carew, did a memorable Tomboy Session back in 2018 with their former project Larry and His Flask.
Duppen says the involvement of Moe’s co-owner Brian Ziel has “helped us breathe life into the sessions.” The club is also hosting the monthly Western Wednesdays, of which Tomboy has long been the unofficial style supplier for both artists and fans.
“It’s all Tomboy’d up,” says Duppen.
She’s grateful to loyal customers for helping get the store through three months of pandemic closures in 2020, allowing her to celebrate this 10-year landmark.
“It was incredible,” she says. “And now business is better than ever.”
The Tomboy 10th Anniversary celebration will be held at 9pm at Moe’s Alley on Saturday, June 4. Beyond the Lamplight and Tejon Street Corner Thieves perform. $15/$20. moesalley.com. See the Tomboy Sessions at tomboysc.com.
