Tiki Oasis 19: Saturday Night Rockin’ and the Tiki-Stardust Party

Major Tom at The Patron Tiki Stardust party at Tiki Oasis 2019 “Catch The New Wave” at the Crowne Plaza in Mission Valley San Diego. All photos by Billy Bennight.

After a short recharging session, Pete and I met up with his sister, Liz H., at the pool as the early part of the concert had just begun. We grabbed some alcohol and soaked up the atmosphere. The sun was setting and the courtyard area of the Crowne was repopulating for all that the evening would entail from rocking set by Tim Polecat, Debora Iyall of Romeo Void and Josie Cotton.

Tim Polecat at Tiki Oasis 2019 “Catch The New Wave” at the Crowne Plaza in Mission Valley San Diego.

My interest in live music escalated when Tim Polecat entered the stage. He was livelily prowling the stage as he belted out tune after tune. I’ve known Tim Polecat for around 15 years. In that time I hadn’t made any of his live gigs. Saturday was the night I finally got to see him sing his signature song “Make A Circuit With Me” on Tiki Oasis stage. He put on a great show and he made an excellent subject to photograph. Up next was Debora Iyall of Romeo Void. “Never Say Never” is a personal fav. Debora performed a full set hitting the fans with “A Girl In Trouble”, the more popish and radio-friendly hit from the Romeo Void catalog before laying into a rousing version of “Never Say Never.” The crowd by this time was densely packed waiting Josie Cotton to close the night before the notorious Tiki Oasis room parties began. Josie played for around an hour with the biggest group of devotees wrapping around the stage for the show-stopping hit “Johnny Are You, Queer.” She had her full band and they were tight and energized completely rocking the Tiki house!

We headed out quickly to the room parties before everyone piled into the elevators. As it happened, there was a good size crowd at elevator one so we made out was the elevator two. People were eager to get to the party room jams above us. Sixth and seventh floors had the most party action. Liz had spotted the Patron “Tiki-Stardust” party on the seventh floor. With Tiki and Bowie, how could we miss! There was a long line with lots of anticipation outside we weaved and bobbed and we finally squeezed in. It was hot and the free cold drinks were flowing. Patron had put together two different handcrafted cocktails. One was garnished with a slice of dried blood orange and orchid and the other was spritzed with, what we think, was aerosoled bitters sprayed on the top of the drink. A cold drink is always a great add-on in a hot room. We cozied up to the DJ who was spinning some amazing jams and on each side two Go-Go dancers were gyrating and getting their groove on. It was a cool scene!

Once we left there, we headed over to “The Sky’s Gone Out” party. San Diego native Dick Pleasant was at the door with Daisy Duke to welcome us in. Once again the beauty of these room parties are their unending flow of rum-based beverages. “The Sky’s Gone Out” party was no different. We lingered on the balcony enjoying the view of the Crowne’s courtyard lit with palms and pool. I got a little light-headed from the heat and we all headed down to cool off. On our way down I ran into Sugar Willams and Tim Polecat. I congratulated him on his show and we spoke a bit more before we landed downstairs.

Pete took off for the evening and Liz and I hit the burlesque. Eventually, when we arrived outside the Lagoon Room where Liz spotted El Vez, the Mexican Elvis. He was having a great time with a group of women getting selfies with the star. We hung out for a bit and I shot El Vez with the ladies and then with Liz. I told El Vez how much I had enjoyed the time he hosted the Miss. Tiki Oasis Beauty Contest in 2015 where he stated to was almost too drunk to go on with the pageant. He remembered it well and we both laughed about it. That was a great memory! After this, we entered the burlesque performance. At this point, the dancing was over and the crowd had sat down to watch Milly Marie perform her balloon dance. It was some bodacious BBW action at its finest. After her show, I considered it too late to stay any longer. There was a lot of Tiki to take on the following day and I wanted to be rested. We opted to call it a night to re-invent ourselves when the sun rose again.