For the past seven years, funk-enamored mammals from all walks of life have congregated to annually celebrate the mythical bristles that exist above one’s whistler at San Diego’s one and only Mustache Bash. A slammin’ shindig of foxy bell-bottomed Betties and sequined sauce buckets, the ‘Stache Bash was resurrected last Saturday, March 8, at the Horton Grand Hotel for another all-day party that redefined style.
Featuring live sets from The Pimps of Joytime, The Routine and, of course, The Mustache Bash Family Band, the event shattered preconceived notions of space and time and opened an intergalactic portal securing contact with extraterrestrial funkonauts—can you dig it?
Mustache Bash co-founder and bassist for both The Routine and The Mustache Bash Family Band Nick Hein doesn’t beat around the bush.
“The Mustache Bash is a time for no judgment and just pure funkification, everybody livin’ their lives to the fullest and gettin’ back together. The Mustache Bash exists to keep it real,” Hein said. “The funk’s gotta happen, baby. The funk just is. The funk is unavoidable and you just have to embrace it.”
The power of music turned to medicine as a crowd of more than 600 ingested the likes of James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic, Sly & the Family Stone and Tower of Power. Audience members found themselves terminally funkifized as the carnal growl of the P-bass intertwined with tightly syncopated drum beats, issuing a frenzied haymaker directly to the loins.
Party attendee Chanel Proell wasn’t jiving about the shagadelic scene as she got down to some primo sounds, bringing down the house in bell-bottoms of fire.
[quote]“Everyone is coming around for the same sort of love of this music and this energy, the vibe of everyone making an effort of dressing up,” Proell said. “I love my bell-bottoms—I bust them out every chance I can get.”[/quote]
Founded by eight San Diego State alumni, the ‘Stache Bash originated on a fateful day in 2008 on Countryside Drive by campus. Its potent seed has been growing inch by inch ever since, having evolved from an intimate, privately-held party into the massive carousal it is today. Co-founder Tony Savino reflected upon the creation like a proud father.
“We wanted to throw that one party that we could do every year forever and that everybody would want to come back to … and it turned into The Mustache Bash,” Savino said. “We’ve been doing it for seven years and it’s grown ever since. Now we’re booking nationally touring acts, and before we know it the goal is to turn it into a real music festival.”
Mustache Bash Family Band member Ben Palmer expressed similar sentiments.
“It’s become a bonding experience,” Palmer said. “We’ll see somebody on the street with a good must’ and be like, ‘Yo dude, that’s a good mustache! Why are you growing that out?’ And they’ll be like, ‘I’m growing it out for The Mustache Bash!’ That is awesome. It brings people together.”
Having kept close to its roots, the event’s organizers are determined to keep the corrupting influence of money from spoiling their sagacious rager—not a dime was pocketed from ticket sales for personal gain. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
“The thing is The Mustache Bash doesn’t take a profit,” co-founder Mike Sasaki said. “Everything that we have in surplus goes back to the party.”
“Literally everybody who walked into the door got $5 to be able to buy a drink,” co-founder Dustin Elm continued. “It’s not about the money, it’s about having a great time … We’ve never had a fight at The Mustache Bash, people don’t argue, people just don’t do s–t like that here—it’s good times!”
For those that missed it, fret not, for the next Mustache Bash is just a year away, giving plenty of time to scour San Diego’s various thrift stores and brew some serious steez. And remember these fine lines designed by the mind by Mr. Nicholas Hein:
“You’ve got to funkifize. The way to funkifize is to fully express yourself with no filter. And that’s the funk.”
Photos courtesy of Julia Richardson
