By Amber Shaffer, SDAM Staff Writer
©Copyright 2024 SDAM.com/Amber Shaffer

Bobby Fantasy's like a blonde, surfer-boy version of Elvis. Okay, not really, but I felt like a rabid Elvis fan watching him croon songs about "the power of love" while shimmying his cute booty and smiling sweetly. He is quite possibly the most appropriately named artist EVER. He and his backing band, The Turtlenecks, clad in kahkis, and you guessed it, navy turtlenecks, had me dizzyly spinning between laughing hysterically and wanting to faint all night long. Which is exactly the way they want you to respond. You only learn about shows like this if you know hip scenesters who have an ear to the underground and like to turn people on to new stuff. Fortunately for me, I have three such friends, all of whom contacted me within the same hour to tell me my life would be forever changed after seeing Bobby Fantasy. I mocked them, but now find myself having Fantasies I have no control over... Twigg's is made for acoustic sets. Bobby and The Turtlenecks brought several acoustic guitars and a mandolin, but they also snuck in two keyboards which they played back-to-back like Lisa and Wendy from Prince's band the Revolution, a violin enhanced with pedal effects (!!) played by a deadpan Turtleneck, moroccas, congos, an egg shaker, and Bobby's own clucking version of a beat box to round out the rhythm section. They opened with "Make Out City" which instantly had my friend and I gripping the edges of our chairs and each other's knees, and eventually had her all over me. Other songs, like "Lover Don't Lie" and "Holly" were about - strangely enough - love. With his J.Crew clad boy band feigning seriousness and sexiness behind him, somehow the songs of Bobby Fantasy manage to be both tongue-in-cheek and earnest. When he smiles and sings, "We all need a girl inside our lives who loves to hold us every night" you can't help but sigh like the sappiest person on earth. During the last song, "Rip Into the Outside", Bobby Fantasy, who earlier in the evening decided to re-christen himself Bobby Destruction, ripped open his shirt and teased the audience with his half undone pants (which he hadn't realized had slipped down so low). I was laughing so hard I was crying. Then, to top it all off, he started dancing, and it was so cute I thought I was going to die, because between the laughing and the "awwwwing" there was no way I was going to catch my breath. Now I recognize that my readers (huge legion that you are!) do not all have the same connections that I do (i.e. the President, VP, and Secretary of the Bobby Fantasy Fan Club) to keep you in the loop, but you too can be alerted instantly of Bobby Fantasy's upcoming shows just by visiting his Web site and signing up for the mailing list. You can also listen to the "Make Out City" mp3 with your friends and see if they react the same way mine did. Learn more about Bobby Fantasy.