Rockabilly Space Force to land at Panida

November 8, 2023

By Reader Staff

The five-piece band Rockabilly Space Force will make its planetary debut in Sandpoint for a special show Friday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. at the Panida Theater.

Hailing from Spokane by way of Deimos, the small potato-shaped moon orbiting Mars, Rockabilly Space Force is known for being an out-of-this-world rock ensemble playing the music of Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and the Comets, Janis Martin, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and more. These Space Age tunes are appropriate for all ages, and will certainly get the crowd at the Panida up on their feet dancing.

Courtesy photo.

Fronted by Maui-based multi-instrumentalist and singer Dayan Kai, the band also includes the talented Olivia Brownlee on vocals and stand-up bass, Robert Folie on sax, Andy Bennett on drums, and Garrin Hertel on vocals and guitar.

The rockabilly sound dates to 1950s America, blending western musical styles like country with rhythm and blues to form the classic sounds of rock ’n’ roll that made those decades so popular for music.

RSF is touring around the West to help promote the podcast The Adventures of the Rockabilly Space Force, which is slated to launch in the fall on all podcast streaming services, with a 16-episode season.

The podcast will sound like a 1950s radio show, with the story following the band roughly 75 years in the future as its members navigate the “Second Space Gold Rush” in the inner solar system, living on Mars’ moon Deimos. Each podcast will be 10-20 minutes long and includes a freshly recorded song, many of which are covers of rockabilly classics, both famous and obscure, as well as some original songs written by Kai and Brownlee.