The Central Coast is blessed with many stellar live music venues, both indoor and outdoor.
But there’s one flying under our local entertainment radar that’s an absolute hidden gem: the 300+ seat Templeton Performing Arts Center.
Located on Templeton High School’s campus, the TPAC boasts a large stage, great sound system and comfy seats with perfect sight lines due to its vertical configuration.
The only drawback is a tiny lobby that limits audience schmoozing and concession sales. Other than an old-school drinking fountain, no refreshments were available at this performance. (Note to high school administrators: make some extra cash for your students with a snack bar like they have at football games).
Another not-so-hidden musical gem is Roy Orbison impersonator Wiley Ray and his talented Big O Band that presented Roy Orbison Returns on Valentine’s Day February 14.
Ray plays the legendary crooner to a T, complete with dark, mop-top hair, thick-rimmed semi-sunglasses and an operatic tenor voice.
Backed by eight standout local musicians and singers, Ray did a semi-chronological history of Orbison’s up and down career from his time alongside Elvis to his resurrection with rock supergroup The Traveling Wilburys just before his untimely death in December 1988 at age 52.
The song that put him back in the spotlight—the rousing, catchy “You Got It” that he co-wrote with Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne—was performed flawlessly by Ray and his band, along with Orbison’s other big hits like “Candy Man,” “In Dreams” and the ubiquitous “Oh, Pretty Woman.”
But Orbison sadly never achieved the fame of his rock ‘n’ roll peers. As Ray noted, his “Blue Bayou” sold a million copies in 1963, then 10 years later Linda Ronstadt’s cover version sold four million. Go figure.
It was also cool to see so many familiar Central Coast musicians performing on stage: Rachel Santa Cruz, lead guitarists Hunter Nakazono and Dwight Harrington, Ron Labrie on keyboards, and drummer Jeff Sorenson.
Ray, who hails from the Central Valley, only stages a few Roy Orbison Returns concerts statewide every year, so make sure you catch it next time around.
And if you’re lucky, it will be at the TPAC.