Incredible Casuals Keep Beachcomber Happy Hour Casual

By: Susan Blood, June 8, 2012

LOU McMURRER - Cape Cod's sand dune cowboys, The Incredible Casuals (clockwise from lower left) Aaron Spade, Johnny Spampinato, Rikki Bates and Chandler Travis.

I first heard the Incredible Casuals on a mix tape, given to me third hand when I was working at a resort in Colorado. I had never seen them; I had never been to the Wellfleet Beachcomber. But that's how the Casuals work: they will find you. Everyone has a story.

For 32 years, the Incredible Casuals played the happy hour spot at the Wellfleet Beachcomber. Their show, which their fans extend off the stage and into the parking lot, is iconic summer fare.

Self-described as “loud, drunk and out of tune,” they are never actually out of tune. They are sometimes drunk. They are always loud.

“It's like they only play one song. It's two hours long and they take little breaks in the middle but it's still the same, incredibly fun song," said Rich Conte, a fan who moved to South Carolina but never completely got over the band.

Last year the Casuals dialed their Sundays way back, deciding to play only a handful of gigs. This season, they were scheduled for the Sundays of opening and closing weekends, but they've already added another, this Sunday, June 10. Here's what their frontman, Chandler Travis, had to say about that:

“Last year started playing less because we were worried we were making a spectacle of ourselves, but now that we're playing it less, we seem to like it even more,” Mr. Travis said.

“We've gotten to be part of this rare thing, this treasure, practically...that we're just still so tickled to be a part of—not to mention, pickled. We still get to play loud and everyone else gets to dance like total idiots, both vanishing art forms, both uniquely satisfying.”

Novelist Ann Wood says, “every single musician in the Casuals is notable in his own right and when they get together, well, they're not like anything else. You could call them The Beatles of Cape Cod. Plus, George Carlin loved them; you can't get any better than that.”

No. You can't.