June 26 Opening Night Dance Party!

The Bonedaddys – World Beatniks

L.A.’s favorite Worldbeatniks The Bonedaddys kick off the summer in fine, groove-filled fashion. The Bonedaddys have been a perennial favorite with Twilight Dance audiences, bringing their mélange of beats, funk and dance grooves to the Pier since the earliest days of the concert series. The 13 grooves on their new release "waterslide" are a merry-go-round of styles, ranging from funk, rock, blues, Mambo, Soca, Latin, rock-steady and psycho-billy two-step to an Afro-surf twang meets spaghetti-western instrumental; The Bonedaddys are a musical gumbo stirred up in light refracted through a prism called Los Angeles.

Crown City Rockers – Hip-Hop Soul

Imagine Herbie Hancock meets A Tribe Called Quest at a party…where the deejay has a Jimi Hendrix hangover…but he’s rockin’ Stevie Wonder and Biz Markie…sounds like the Crown City Rockers are in town!


Crown City Rockers is a genre-blending Soullective whose music is original, powerful and provocative all in the same breath. With an organic blend of lush, funk-drenched grooves, riveting classic soul samples, sharp live instrumentation and of course old-school inflected rhymes, Crown City Rockers is a welcome breath of fresh air in today’s commercially cluttered Hip-Hop cosmos.

July 3 "One Hawai`i"

An historic Hawaiian Music and Hula Gathering in Santa Monica!

On the eve of Independence Day the Santa Monica Pier Twilight Dance Series Presented by Amoeba Music presents "One Hawai`i" - An Historic Gathering of Hawai`i's top musical groups, performing together for the very first time.

"One Hawai`i" features Keali`i Reichel, Hawai`i's top selling artist together with Na Leo, the most popular female group in the history of Hawaiian music. Both Keali`i Reichel and Na Leo have sold well over a million recordings and have sold out concerts around the world. Additional performers include Grammy winning slack-key guitarist Bryan Kessler, original founder of the Hawaiian Style Band, Randy Aloya, bassist from Kalapana & guitarist Ben Vegas. "One Hawai`i" will also include Weldon Kekauoha, award-winning Hula Halaus and special guests. Reichel is known not only for his artistry as a performer, songwriter and recording artist, but also for his work as a teacher of Hawaiian culture to the rest of the world.

This is L.A.’s first chance to see the biggest stars in Hawaiian Music on one stage…for free…as an special gift from the 50th State to the Mainland! For Pacific Islanders or anyone that loves Hawai`i, this show is a must, as we also attempt to break the Guinness Book of Records for largest hula dancing gathering ever!

July 10 Spanish Harlem Orchestra – Salsa Supreme!

Greatest Salsa orchestra in North America!

Since their arrival in 2000, Spanish Harlem Orchestra (SHO) has established itself as a standard bearer of contemporary Latin music. Directed by world-renowned pianist, arranger, and producer Oscar Hernández, the thirteen-member all-star ensemble has reintroduced the classic sounds of New York City Salsa to music lovers worldwide. United We Swing, SHO’s third album, is a stunning follow-up to their 2004 Grammy award-winning album Across 110th St., and their 2002 Grammy nominated debut, Un Gran Día En El Barrio.

“Our music style is the original sound of New York old school "Salsa dura" (heavy salsa) that was played in the early years by our pioneers,” says Oscar. SHO’s sound pays tribute to the legacy of Manhattan’s Palladium Ballroom, “the home of the mambo,” that catered to Mambo dancers and featured the bands of the BIG-3: Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez and Machito.

Spanish Harlem Orchestra hearkens back to the era and neighborhood romanticized in Leonard Bernstein’s “Westside Story” and Ben E. King’s “A Rose in Spanish Harlem.” The unique identity the band has forged is grounded on the musical legacy of El Barrio, a pulsating Eastside community in NYC located to the south of 125th St that gave rise to Boogaloo, Latin Soul, and Salsa. “I’m from the Bronx,” concludes Oscar, “but if you’re a Latino in NYC you always have a connection to Spanish Harlem.

July 24 Bachata Roja Legends – Classic Music from the Dominican Republic – A Major Event!!!

Legendary Dominican Republic artists in first ever California performance The Bachata Roja Legends Concert – Unsung Heroes, Rediscovered Icons

Dominican Sounds of the Classic Cabaret Era

In celebration of the recent, dazzling iASO Records release “Bachata Roja – Acoustic Bachata from the Cabaret Era” that showcases classic Dominican Bachata stars from the ‘60’s–‘80’s, the Santa Monica Pier Twilight Dance Series Presented by Amoeba Music is thrilled to present the California debut of the venerable and enduring legends who appear on the album. These musicians, unsung heroes, charted the course of Bachata’s rise to international popularity as they struggled to create one of the greatest Afro-Caribbean dance styles under a brutal dictatorship and decades of censorship that suppressed artistic and musical expression.

Rediscover the early icons that pioneered romantic, guitar-driven ballads and irresistible dance rhythms – singers Ramon Cordero, Augusto Santos, “El Chivo Sin Ley” (The Lawless Goat), guitar giant Edilio Paredes - and discover emerging bachatero star, singer-guitarist Joan Soriano a.k.a. “El Duque” (The Duke) from today’s younger generation. This concert will open with a special performance by the delightfully spry, 80-something Dominican sonero Puerto Plata whose iASO “Mujer de Cabaret” has received wide international acclaim.

July 31 Sanctified Americana: Michelle Shocked & Mike Farris

Two stellar Americana artists: Michelle Shocked brings her "Mighty Sound" to the Pier along with the first ever performance in Los Angeles by Mike Farris, part of a series of engagements that include Bonnaroo, Strawberry Music Festival, Hardly Strictly in Golden Gate Park and Austin City Limits.

Michelle Shocked is one of the true originators of what is now commonly referred to as “Americana” music. She is an artist possessed of an iconoclastic, restless and always independent and adventurous creative spirit. Michelle releases "Soul to My Soul," a collection of all new songs, this Fall. The new album is the follow-up to her 2007 live gospel set "ToHeavenURide," recorded at the Telluride Festival.

Mike Farris’ journey brings him from lead singer in the Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies to his tent-revival of an album "Salvation in Lights." Recorded at the same Nashville house-studio where White Stripes/Raconteurs leader Jack White recorded Loretta Lynn's award-winning Van Lear Rose album, "Salvation in Lights" uses the musical language of spirituals, timeless stories of struggle, some of which are centuries-old slave spirituals, and soul to tell a uniquely redemptive story.

August 7 Oliver Mtukudzi & Rocky Dawuni

Afropop from Zimbabwe and Ghana

Oliver Mtukudzi - Zimbabwean Icon

Oliver Mtukudzi is the best-selling artist in his home country of Zimbabwe, Africa.
Lovingly called "Tuku" for short, Oliver began recording in the mid-1970s as a member
of Wagon Wheels, a band that also featured Thomas Mapfumo. After Wagon Wheels
rolled to fame in Southern Africa, Tuku formed Black Spirits, the band that has backed
him throughout his career.

While Tuku's music is undeniably contagious, inspired by the hypnotic rhythms of the
mbira (thumb piano), it is his lyrics that have captured the hearts of his people and fans
worldwide. The words to his songs, performed in the Shona language of Zimbabwe as
well as English, invariably deal with social and economic issues. In the face of political
turmoil and a horrific AIDS epidemic that has swept the African continent, Oliver's humor
and optimism creates an appeal that crosses generations and borders.

Rocky Dawuni - Reggae and Afropop from Ghana

Rocky Dawuni burst on to the African reggae scene in 1996 with his debut recording
"The Movement." His music explores social issues and spiritual consciousness and
seeks to promote love, justice and righteousness; "It's about hope in the human spirit
and allowing God to empower us to attain the unattainable."

Rocky Dawuni produces the annual Independence Splash in his homeland Ghana. This
highly anticipated event is held on March 6 every year in Ghana's capitol Accra. Rocky
also hosts a weekly soirÈe Afro FunkÈ at Zanzibar, right here in Santa Monica. Rocky's
latest album "Book of Changes" showcases his Afro Roots sound, blending elements of
Afrobeat, Dub, Reggae, Hip-Hop turntablism and traditional African rhythms.

August 14 Global Songstresses / Indie-Pop Singers

Carmen Consoli - Italian Chanteuse / Sicilian Sciantosa / Italian Cantatessa

The Sicilian-born Carmen Consoli is the most successful female singer-songwriter Italy
has ever produced. The 33 year-old musician is known for her unflinching emotional live
performances of songs that examine broad themes of love, illness, solitude and
friendship from a feminine -- and feminist -- perspective. Her innovative mixture of Italian
song with indie-rock influences, bossa nova rhythms and jazz and blues-inspired riffs
have engendered a sound unique on the Italian music scene.

This Italian chanteuse, or better yet "Sicilian Sciantosa," has been likened to ani
diFranco and Alanis Morissette. Consoli's albums sell in the millions and she has been a
multiple honoree at the MTV Italy Music Awards as well as at the Taormina Film Festival
for the soundtrack of the international hit film "L'Ultimo Bacio" (The Last Kiss).

Consoli is serving as Artistic Director of the summer 2008 Etna Music World Festival in
Sicily. In May 2006 she was named a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and in 2005
Consoli was chosen to represent Italy at the Africa Unite concert in Ethiopia celebrating
the 60th anniversary of Bob Marley's birth.

Tonight's concert is Carmen Consoli's debut performance in California, a long-awaited
and much-anticipated premiere!

Juana Molina - Argentinian Avant-Garde Singer

Juana Molina is a respected and popular singer/songwriter from Argentina who has
achieved great popularity in several countries around the globe. Her quirky, atmospheric
songs bring to mind other modern chanteuses, as Juana is often compared with Bjˆrk,
Beth Orton, Lisa Germano and KT Tunstall.

Juana Molina is not easily classified though - as her music blurs lines between simple
categorization. The lyrics on her albums are sung in her native Rioplatense Spanish,
accompanied by acoustic guitar, among other instruments, and features elements of
ambient and electronica. Juana's idiosyncratic, genre-bending music most easily might
be described as Folktronica.

Juana has released four albums: Rara (1996), Segundo (2003), Tres Cosas (2004) and
Son (2006). Her second album was named "Best World Music Album" by Entertainment
Weekly and "Tres Cosas" made the New York Times Top Ten Records of 2004.

Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers

Sometimes music is a collision of opposites. Realities clash and coexist, and the tension,
while sometimes strange and unpredictable, results in something undeniably beautiful.
For Samantha Crain, these colliding realities stem most notably from her unlikely artistic
heritage; a Native American from Oklahoma, the state that gave us both The Flaming
Lips and Woody Guthrie. Her artistic vision embodies equal parts Radiohead and Bob
Dylan, balancing darkness and light, life and death.

Her sound is deeply rural and southern, but also itinerant and urban. Like Jack Kerouac
before her, Crain is lost on the subway, sleeping in boxcars, leaving lovers behind, and
dining in small town obscurity all within a few short days. At the age of 21, that's saying
something about this emerging artist who kicks off this special night of Global
Songstresses.

August 21 The British Invasion once again...on the Santa Monica Pier!

Peter & Gordon

First came The Beatles, then came...Peter & Gordon! In June 1964, Peter & Gordon
became the very first British Invasion act after The Beatles to take the number one spot
on the American charts with "A World Without Love." Dubbed the "Everly Brothers of the
British Invasion," Peter & Gordon scored Top 40 hits with "I Don't Want to see you
Again," "Nobody I Know" and "Woman" - all written by Paul McCartney - plus "Knight in
Rusty Armor," "Sunday For Tea" "I Go to Pieces" "Lady Godiva" "To Know You is to Love
You" and "True Love Ways."

After Peter & Gordon broke up in 1968, Peter Asher became an enormously successful
producer, first as the director of A&R at Apple Records, where he worked on James
Taylor's first album. After relocating to Los Angeles, he became one of the principal
architects of Californian rock in the 1970s, producing Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and
others.

Peter Asher and Gordon Waller reunited for a special benefit after over 35 years in 2005
and this will be their first concert appearance in Los Angeles since the '60s!

Gerry & the Pacemakers

Gerry & the Pacemakers came from the same Liverpool scene at the Cavern that
spawned the "Mersey Beat." One of the top Liverpool beat groups of the early 1960s,
Gerry and the Pacemakers followed the Beatles and many other British music groups on
the "British Invasion" of 1964. Remembered for such hits as "I'm The One," their biggest
U.S. hit "Don't Let the Sun Catch you Crying" and "Ferry Cross the Mersey," which
became the title of a touching and beautiful film homage to their home town.

Gerry Marsden wrote much of the soundtrack for the film, sometimes referred to as
Gerry & the Pacemakers' version of A Hard Day's Night. The band played themselves,
winning a sort of Battle Of The Bands. The Fourmost, Cilla Black and a number of acts
from the era had cameos in the film and live performances were filmed in the now world
famous Cavern Club.

Gerry & the Pacemakers were TV regulars on The Ed Sullivan Show, Hullabaloo,
Shindig, Ready Steady Go! and featured in the legendary TNT/T.A.M.I. Show concert.
Today, Gerry Marsden has been featured on PBS music specials and is in great demand
in the UK, where he is booked for months at a time at seaside resorts, making his U.S.
appearances quite rare.

August 28 Toots & the Maytals - Jamaican Reggae Legend!

Toots Hibbert is one of the great voices in music; a legend whose career spans every
development in Jamaican music, from ska through rock-steady to reggae. Toots and the
Maytals, originally called simply The Maytals, shaped the sound of Reggae with a
unique, original combination of gospel, ska, soul, reggae and rock. Comprised of leader
Frederick "Toots" Hibbert, Nathaniel "Jerry" Matthias, and Henry "Raleigh" Gordon, the
childhood friends are credited with giving the music its name, first using the word
"reggae" in the song "Do the Reggay" in 1968.

Toots & the Maytals won the 2005 Grammy award for best reggae album "True Love."
The album consisting of new versions of their classics recorded with legendary
musicians such as Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards, as well
as today's most popular artists today such as No Doubt, Ben Harper, The Roots, and
Shaggy. Their latest "Light Your Light" has again been nominated for Grammy for Best
Reggae Album. Also nominated in the reggae category are Burning Spear, Stephen
Marley, Lee Perry & Sly & Robbie. This marks the 4th nomination for Toots since the
Grammies have had a reggae category. "Light Your Light" is the 1st album recorded for
Concord Records on their Fantasy label. Produced by Toots & Richard Feldman, it is a
must have for all Toots fans.

Toots and the Maytals have helped to chart the course of Jamaican music with unrivaled
delivery and dynamism, setting new standards of excellence, and becoming the most
enduring of all Jamaica's groups.