Band reunites after 35 years

Greg Beaver let his dream slip away 35 years ago.

But for one night he’ll have a taste of what could have been.

Saturday night is the night. Alfy’s Pizza in Lynnwood is the place.

The eager crowd will quiet down and after a few warm-up guitar riffs spill out of the speakers, Beaver’s band, The Masters, will kick off its first show in nearly 35 years.

By all accounts, The Masters were the hottest band going in south Snohomish County in the late 1960s.

6 p.m. Saturday Alfy’s Pizza, 4820 196th St. SW, Lynnwood 425-775-5459.

Modeled after bands such as The Beatles, The Byrds and Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Masters wore white turtleneck sweaters under shiny golden collared shirts and mixed crafty guitar riffs with three-part vocal harmonies for a sound that became a local favorite.

The band was Beaver, now 54, on vocals guitar and keyboards, Mike Beriault on guitar, bassist Tom Tuura, and drummer Rob Tuura.

“These guys are the most talented people I’ve ever come across,” Beaver said. “Mike Beriault and I were on the same page, the bassist and drummer were brothers. I the success of the band was that we could almost read each other’s minds.”

The Masters were consistent winners of local battles of the bands, they opened for big-name bands at Parker’s Ballroom in north Seattle before it became a casino, and were featured on a compilation album that featured the best bands in the Pacific Northwest.

But the dream came to a halt when Beaver’s father, Frank Beaver, then-editor of the Lynnwood Enterprise, was shot and killed.

Greg Beaver doesn’t like to talk about the incident much, but the confusion and emotions around it to the band’s ultimate demise.

“All my life for the last 30 years, I’ve kind of regretted the band breaking up,” Beaver said. “I kick myself about letting the band slip through my fingers.

“The Masters was the pyramid of anything happy I ever did.”

The happiness made its way back, at least for a little while, when Mike Hall, a member of the Class of 1969 reunion committee at Meadowdale High School called around Christmas last year.

Hall, who’d played bass in one of the competing bands back in high school, asked Beaver if he could get The Masters back together for the class’ 35th reunion at Alfy’s Pizza Saturday night.

Beaver, who’d jammed with Beriault over the past five or six years, asked his old partner if he’d be up for it. He was, and so was drummer Rob Tuura. But bassist Tom Tuura, who now lives in Georgia, couldn’t make it.

Hall stepped in and the foursome was complete.

But times had changed. Rehearsals now were pegged around work schedules and other commitments.

A little rust had to be shaken off.

“Rob said he hadn’t picked up his sticks in 35 years,” said Beriault, now 53, who actually graduated in the Class of 1970. “But he’s so naturally talented he just stepped right back into it.”

Beriault said it’s been interesting to look back on the band’s heyday.

“To me, we were just kids having fun playing,” Beriault said. “It’s been a fun experience to relive.”

Beriault said he hadn’t realized as a junior in high school that the studio recording sessions were for a compilation album.

“There were a lot of things that went on during that time, and I wasn’t tuned in to what the band was doing,” he said. “I’m still the kind of guy who, you just tell me where to be and I’ll show up.”

The rehearsals have gone well, even though the sound isn’t quite as tight as Beriault would like. But he knows that isn’t what’s important. Just like classmates will see friends they haven’t seen in 35 years, they’ll be happy to see a band no one’s seen in just as long.

“I think people will be in to the fun and nostalgia of it and have a good time,” Beriault said. “It will be a laid back kind of thing. We’ll play a few sets and mingle, and just hope for the best.

“As long as everyone has a good time and we don’t get kicked out, it’ll be fun.”