It’s busy and cool early evening at Tony’s Seafood in Marshall on a recent Thursday. The heat lamps are ablaze in the foggy twilight and a throng of people wait outside for a seat, but the wait won’t be too long at this welcoming, two-room saloon slung along Tomales Bay.

Inside, soup bowls appear to fly out of the kitchen and Manila clam shells pile up on the tables. The chowder’s a perfectly creamy and hearty dish for a perfectly micro-weather moment. The sun’s shining nearby as it often is in West Marin, but for tonight the star of the show is the food. Diners perch along a window counter and peer out into the bay and at the old dockworks that are part of the winsome landscape here.

Tonight it’s locals night and the crowd is heavy on flannel shirts, kindly eyes and worldly beards. Glasses clink, the waitstaff zips between the tables with plates akimbo and the locals just keep pouring in through the door and out of the fog. They’re here to revel in chef Matt Shapiro’s creations at this recently re-opened joint, now operating under the cosmic snout and ownership of nearby Hog Island Oyster Company.

Perched at the edge of the bay, Tony’s manages to simultaneously feel like both the center of the universe and the most far-flung place on earth—no mean feat. After a nearly two-year shutdown and renovation, the iconic saloon reopened earlier this year and by all accounts—my own, especially—this place rocks.

I visited earlier in May and met with Brenna Schlagenhauf, who handles public relations for Hog Island and who insisted I try the halibut crudo. More on that dish in a moment—it’s worth the wait. Schlagenhauf’s story of how she came to Hog Island is pretty simple: She stopped in for a beer and some oysters one day, and now she’s been with the company 10 years.

The “newest baby,” as she calls Tony’s, was a dream of John Finger and Terry Sawyer, the founders and partners at Hog Island, which now fields five culinary outposts in the Bay Area—from Napa to San Francisco. Entering the restaurant, there’s an immediate work-hard, play-hard feel to the place, and as Schlagenhauf notes, many of the staff stayed on after Hog Island bought the place in 2016. The fact that they waited out a two-year renovation to return speaks volumes about the generous corporate ethic at Hog Island, a Certified B corporation that’s been farming oysters since 1983.

The grilled oysters are legendary and were reportedly first offered by Anton “Tony” Konatich, a Croatian fisherman from the Isle of Iz who located to West Marin with his wife and daughter after World War II and opened Tony’s in 1948. The family approached Hog Island a few years ago “to see if they’d like to buy the family business,” recounts Schlagenhauf. “They jumped at the chance,” she adds, but went into the business “with eyes wide open,” given there was a bit of deferred maintenance to address before the joint could reopen under new ownership.

Chef Shapiro stops by the table while Schlagenhauf talks history and sustainability over a glass of wine for her and a Coke for me. The new owners embarked on a renovation that clearly hewed to maintaining the classic seaside “joint” feel of the original Tony’s. They kept the signature grilled oysters and Shapiro, who started with the company at its location at the Ferry Landing in San Francisco, set out to put some saloon classics alongside the ever-present oysters.

The menu is simple and doesn’t go overboard bragging about the locally sourced ingredients. There’s no superfluous information about where the produce or fish is sourced from, which Shapiro says is part of the deal here: There has to be a degree of trust in the chef, he says, and the chef goes out of his way to make sure his sourcing can be trusted.

Shapiro, 35, is a Queens native who’s lived in the Bay Area for a decade and calls himself a “wandering culinary soul,” he says with a laugh before turning serious again. In this business, he says, it’s all about trust. He says it a few times, but it’s not for show. His menu features those grilled oysters (they call them barbecued but they’re not) served with house-made barbecue sauce and garlic butter and are offered, he says, “as a nod toward what Tony’s used to have. People come here just to have that dish.”

The dinner hour’s in high gear as Garrett Hamner comes by the table with a big smile and a greeting. Garrett is off to seminary school in Pennsylvania this fall but first he has to refill a keg, says Schlagenhauf with a laugh. Hamner’s been working at Tony’s since he was a kid; now he’s about to study to become an Eastern Orthodox priest. He explains he’s headed east this summer with his wife and three kids—but first, that keg. Schlagenhauf departs for the night and I take some time to absorb the surroundings and décor. The light fixtures hanging over the open-kitchen counter look trés bizarre until I realize they’re actually kelp sculptures created by Inverness kelp sculptor Lina Jane Prairie.

The place smells of oysters and white wine; on locals’ night, expect to hear some tasty licks from the old-time corner-men playing American tunes. A kind of Garcia-Grisman conceit prevails that will have you tapping your toe as you scarf down some Hog Island Sweetwaters. The tables are all from the original Tony’s and the chairs are a mix of old and new—and again, the locals’ touch pervades; the furniture is wrought from cypress and produced by Marshall’s own Evan Shively. The open kitchen is clean and bustling, and the blue-and-white color scheme is so nautical, you’ll cry in your mizzenmast. And look, there’s Blue Slide’s own Gordon Bryant sitting at a neighboring table—he provided all the new tilework. The concrete countertops are also worth a lingering glance. As Sawyer explains (he’s hanging out with a beer and a lopsided grin), the countertops have the signature Hog Island oyster shells poured into them.

I’m keen on a fried oyster po’boy—hang in there, Louisiana!—and a Mexican Coke, and Schlagenhauf had insisted I try the halibut crudo. I wondered why she was so insistent. Well, I first visited Tony’s in late May and, with Gaia as my witness, I swear there’s not a day gone by since where I have not reflected, in one way or another, on that outstanding halibut crudo.

No, really: As much as I’ve held a crashing sea–into­-rocks mantra over these decades of seaside reflection, I do believe I’ve found a new mantra. The small plate ($15) features rugged fingers of fleshy halibut laid over a flower-like array of paper-thin granny apple slices, topped off with purple chive blossoms, all macerated in lime juice. If Tony’s grilled, er, barbecued, oysters were the signature dish to drive for miles to enjoy, that halibut crudo will surely become the next generation must-have dish here.

The fried oyster po’boy ($18) was crunchy-mushy, and the coleslaw, aka Hogwash Slaw, is all you need as a side to that overstuffed sammy besides the essential Crystal hot sauce. On a separate visit I wolfed down a solid platter of fish and chips with another one of those delicious $4 Cokes. I’ll save round two of the crudo for another time, and there will be another time.

I’m not sure how the rest of your summer’s playing out, but I’ll be headed to Tony’s every chance I get for some of those McEvoy olive oil-enhanced warm olives ($6), the steamed mussels ($15), and a shot of those wild Gulf shrimp with smoked paprika ($9)—and I’ll definitely head back for a $16 bowl of that signature HIOC chowder when the weather turns.

That could be, like, tomorrow. The chowder comes with a big side bowl of drop-yer-own Manila clams, and the broth features vegetables that are indeed aromatic even a table or two away (though the culprit might be the bacon). A Stemple Ranch burger whizzes by on a platter and appears to be a ruddy and worthwhile non-fish dish ($17), though it does come with house-made tartar (and Pt. Reyes Toma cheese). The back of the menu finds two-dozen wines by the glass or bottle, with a few regionals thrown into the worldly mix of whites, reds, rosés and sparkling wines. On the sudsy front, Santa Rosa’s Henhouse brewery holds up the local end of a beer wagon that also includes a Lost Coast Belgian and a Sudwerks’ Pilsner.

Yes, but did I mention the halibut crudo?

Before the Europeans arrived in California, the Coast Miwok people inhabited what we now call Marin and southern Sonoma Counties.

Over thousands of years, the Miwok and other coastal and California tribes developed a rich economy based on gathering, fishing and hunting, with villages of up to several hundred people.

Today, Point Reyes National Seashore offers a glimpse into this bountiful past at Kule Loklo (“Valley of the Bear”), a recreated interpretive village composed of structures including a roundhouse, a sweathouse and several traditional dwellings built and maintained by tribal and non-tribal volunteers.

Kule Loko is also the home of the annual Big Time Festival, which returns for its 39th annual gathering on Saturday, July 20.

“This festival celebrates the first people in the area, the Coast Miwok,” says festival organizer Donna Shoemaker, one of a handful of volunteers putting on the event. “What I value is that it’s honoring the people who were here long before the European-Americans came, and it’s giving current native people an opportunity to celebrate that heritage.”

Co-sponsored by the Miwok Archeological Preserve of Marin (MAPOM), the National Park Service and tribal partner the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, the Big Time Festival boasts activities for both adults and children that evoke the earliest days of life in California.

The highlights of the festival include original music performed by Sky Road Webb, a descendent of the Tamal’ko–Tomales Bay Miwok of present day West Marin, and the president of the Marin American Indian Alliance. Webb composes and performs original Miwok songs with many organizations and teaches workshops on traditional instrument making and singing in the Coast Miwok dialect.

The festival features keynote speakers Henry Frank, a Native American who was incarcerated at San Quentin between 2003 and 2009, talking about his journey into and out of prison; and indigenous, interpretive instructor and naturalist Alicia Retes, offering a presentation on how music was brought to California Indians.

Some of the festival’s biggest draws are the Pomo dancers, who gather in the fireside dance circle. “When you come out to the meadow, there’s a large circular area that is scraped to the dirt, and in the center of that is a circle of stones where the sacred fire is lit and stays lit during the festival,” Shoemaker explains.

Native skills demonstrations include traditional acorn cooking, in which the hand-mashed nuts are cooked in baskets by the heated rocks from the fireside circle. “It’s fascinating because you would think the hot rocks would burn the baskets, but they don’t and the baskets are made to accommodate this,” Shoemaker says. “This is a very ancient and traditional way of preparing food that was so important to the Miwok.”

Throughout the festival, attendees get to experience a culture that exists in harmony with the environment, Shoemaker adds. “People come away feeling like, wow, there’s another way to live.”

The Big Time Festival takes place on Saturday, Jul 20, at Kule Loklo, 1 Bear Valley Rd., Pt Reyes National Seashore. 10am to 4pm. Free admission. 415.464.5146.

Since the earliest days of the Elvis Presley impersonator, tribute bands have found a place in the music scene as a way for audiences to hear their favorite songs from their favorite artists in more accessible settings. Tribute bands also allow casual music fans to attend a concert and know exactly what they’re getting for their ticket.

“Sometimes we have conversations about tribute bands being sort of the dirty little secret of the music industry,” says Aaron Kayce, manager and talent booker for Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley. “I don’t think it’s really that dirty, and I don’t think it’s that much of a secret.”

While tribute bands have long been seen as secondary in the industry, they’ve exploded in popularity in the last 20 years, as classic rock icons retire or pass on. Now, for many fans, venues and musicians, tribute bands are becoming the bread and butter of the live music business.

“Everybody likes to sing along, everybody likes to know the songs, and that’s what you get,” says Kayce. “The bands that do it well are really good, take it really seriously and sell a lot of tickets.”

In the Bay Area, tribute bands run the gamut from recreating songs to recreating entire concert sets from decades past, and classic rock tribute acts such as Petty Theft, Zeparella and the Sun Kings are some of the busiest bands working today.

Petty Theft

Since 2003, Marin- and San Francisco-based tribute band Petty Theft has toured the Western United States, performing the songs of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers in the spirit of the band’s live shows. For the past two years, Petty Theft was voted ‘Best Cover Band’ in the Pacific Sun’s annual readers poll.

For Marin native and Petty Theft guitarist and vocalist Monroe Grisman, Petty Theft is more than a band; it’s a community.

“For the longest time I was only in original music bands and even at a certain point kind of frowned on cover bands, because I was so into my own thing,” Grisman says.

“But there came a point in my life where I didn’t have as much time (for original music), and I got invited to join this band, and I thought out of all the bands I could think of playing their songbook, Tom Petty struck a chord with me. It’s great rock and roll music, great songs, something I could have fun with.”

With live sets that regularly include more than two dozen songs each show, Petty Theft pulls from over a hundred Petty songs and performs the late artist’s biggest hits as well as the deeper album cuts that true fans will recognize.

Within the tribute band genre, there are different varieties of tributes. There are bands whose members dress up in costumes and try to look like the band, and there are bands whose members take performance to a high level, like that of a Broadway show.

“I just saw a Genesis tribute band with set designs and period-specific gear,” Grisman says. “And there’s a certain value for that, like for me that was the closest thing I’ll ever get to seeing Peter Gabriel-era Genesis in 1973.”

Forgoing the costumes themselves, Petty Theft focuses on performing the music and honoring the sound, while also adding their own touches and taking liberties that keep the concerts fresh for fans.

“I think it’s why we’ve built up a pretty amazing following now; people like that we’re not trying to be Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, rather we always pay tribute and we always give it up to the real deal,” Grisman says.

And the real deal has given it up back to them, with Heartbreakers drummer Steve Ferrone meeting the band through a mutual friend and sitting in with Petty Theft three times over the years. “It’s been an amazing honor,” says Grisman.

While Grisman says the band never imagined the project would gather such a following, they’re happy to share Petty’s music as long as people want to hear it.

“It’s the funny thing with the tribute band, I’ve always considered what we do more of a celebration rather than a tribute,” Grisman says. “Although with Tom’s passing in the last two years, the tribute thing takes on a new meaning. It was definitely a heavy period after Tom’s passing—it was really emotional for fans and for us, and it still is. But, what we’ve found is that the heaviness has lightened and people are embracing that the music lives on, and to celebrate it is a great thing.”

Zepparella

Veteran hard-rock drummer Clementine first fell in love with Led Zeppelin as a youngster listening to KMET radio in Southern California, and when she began to hit the skins herself, she realized just how much influence Zeppelin drummer John Bonham had on her musical aspirations.

In 2004, looking to better-learn those Zeppelin songs and the drum parts she loved, Clementine hooked up with guitarist Gretchen Menn—who admired Jimmy Page as much as she admired Bonham—and the two formed the Bay Area’s all-female tribute band Zepparella.

“When we started it, we looked at it being a practice project,” Clementine says. “Shortly after, we started talking about, ‘Why not do it onstage?’”

For Clementine it was, and still is, all about the music.

“I wanted to get better as a drummer, and why not go to the source of how I got into playing drums,” Clementine says. “I feel like I came into this through the back way. It wasn’t that I set out to start a tribute band, it was that I wanted to learn this stuff and see what happens.”

Even 15 years into the band, Clementine notes she’s still learning from Bonham. “We just keep going forward because it’s so musically exciting,” she says. “Led Zeppelin is maybe the only band that I could continue to play for 15 years, and a lot of that is because we take parts of the songs and develop them through improvisation onstage, and Led Zeppelin gives us that freedom because they were so improvisational in the way they presented the music. It enables us to create new parts of songs, new ways to approach songs. It’s always changing.”

In addition to the musical explorations afforded to her in Zepparella, Clementine appreciates how the band acts as a steady source of income and helps her develop an audience for her other singer-songwriter projects.

“The creative process as far as being able to write something from scratch with other musicians is a beautiful thing, and I have that in the other projects I do,” she says. “I value it all. I feel like one feeds the other; what I learn from Zeppelin is what I take to my original writing, and parts of my original writing I put into the drumming with Zepparella.”

With the recent return of lead singer Anna Kristina, a vocal powerhouse who first showed her talents as a member of the Santa Rosa High School Chamber Singers back in the day, Zeparella is rocking stage on both the West and East coasts this summer. In addition to their live shows, Zepparella is offering fans a way to learn the songs themselves, with the newly launched Zepparella Learning Channel on YouTube, a series of videos in which the members teach audiences their parts to a Led Zeppelin tune. So far, the series has featured “When the Levee Breaks” and “Immigrant Song.”

“It’s been a remarkable learning experience for us to teach these songs,” Clementine says. “For 15 years we’ve been learning all these little things that you learn playing this music onstage, and to be able to share that freely with people, it feels lik

e we’re able to give a little back from what we’ve gained playing the music.”

Obviously, Led Zeppelin will never play together in concert again. And classic rock acts like the Rolling Stones or AC/DC that do still tour play in stadiums that don’t offer the intimacy clubs provide. Clementine sees Zepparella as a way for audiences to experience the classic rock of yesterday in an intimate setting. “To be able to get swallowed up by these songs in a smaller venue is where the power is,” she says.

Zepparella continues to thrive because of the power of those Led Zeppelin songs, and Clementine says the tribute band has lasted so long because of the musicians she’s been able to share that power with. “I value the people I’ve played with in the past and now,” she says. “It’s a great experience. I wouldn’t trade it.”

The Sun Kings

The Sun Kings have performed the music of The Beatles for over 18 years now. Forgoing mop top wigs and Sgt. Pepper’s clothes, the group instead pays tribute by delivering note-for-note recreations of the Fab Four’s entire catalogue.

“I might have to write to Guinness about this,” says guitarist and John Lennon-tribute-vocalist Drew Harrison. “By the end of this year, I will have played every Beatles song ever released, live. The Beatles never did that.”

The 58-year-old Harrison says he should’ve been a brain surgeon, but got bit by rock and roll, “much to me parents’ chagrin.” As a musician, he’s spent more than three decades performing original music and covers, and like most other baby boomers, is a lifelong Beatles fan. He’s even more of a John Lennon fan, though he stumbled into The Sun Kings accidentally.

“I didn’t set out to do Beatles’ tribute with the Sun Kings, but you know how life goes, you just end up in these places,” Harrison says.

In the 1990s, after the Berlin Wall came down, Harrison found himself living in Eastern Europe and he joined up with a band in the Czech Republic.

“I was the token English singer, and they said, ‘Play Beatles,’ because they couldn’t have the Beatles or the Stones or anybody out there during the communist era,” he says. “I played this show for about 6,000 people in this town, Karlovy Vary, and the people went nuts for ‘Ticket to Ride,’ literally nuts, they screamed bloody murder. It was crazy.”

When he got back to the States six months later, Harrison recruited a band and joined the ranks of Beatles tribute bands with the Sun Kings.

“We’re not costumes and we’re not caricatures,” Harrison says. “Not to take anything away from bands that do that, but we’ve found our niche in that we play the concert the Beatles never gave.”

The Sun Kings play both hits and deep album cuts from across the Beatles’ entire career, using Rickenbacker guitars, Ringo Starr-appropriate drum kits and classic amps.

“There’s a pleasant obsession about trying to get it right,” Harrison says. “We’re all fans of the music, so when we get kind of close, we all get this feeling and people love it. That’s the nostalgia that everybody in the tribute world is pining for; a piece of our past.”

That nostalgia is driving the tribute market to new heights in the 21st century, as a generation looks to recapture the classic rock of their youth.

“It’s gotten much bigger in the 20 years since we started,” Harrison says. “And there’s tributes for everything. There’s a certain amount of competition for a Beatles band, for example. It becomes like any business—our product is this music and we are fulfilling the need.”

Part of that business means staying aware of rights issues, though most tribute bands avoid major publishing problems by not selling albums and ensuring that the songwriters are given credit where it’s due.

“I know the new media licensing is such that ASCAP found us and other tribute bands and said, ‘You’re going to have to pay licensing just for having snippets of the songs on your website,’” says Harrison. “And that’s fair, that’s fair.”

While the Sun Kings take the business of tribute bands seriously, they don’t forget to enjoy the music.

“I’m the fan I have to impress,” Harrison says. “I love the music, and getting it right is like building a kit-car—it’s made me a better musician, certainly a better singer.”

In addition to their own instrumentation, the five-man outfit also brings in horns and strings for full-album shows. The band also invites schools to bring in music students to play with them from time to time.

“It’s a lot of fun, it introduces kids to the music,” Harrison says. “This music has a long shelf life, and as long as we’re around we’re going to have a gig.”