At first glance if you didn’t have the address pulled up on your GPS you would drive right past the parking lot where the nationally famous Coach House is nestled in the coastal valley of San Juan Capistrano.  It’s a place where rock legends are notorious for showing up to have intimate live performances.  The list of names that have taken the stage over the last 40 years would stretch from San Diego to Miami if printed in twelve font single spacing. The evenings performer Marc Bonilla what quite a welcome treat to the venue. For those of you that may not know who Mark Bonilla is so allow me to give you a quick rundown of the gentleman’s list of credits. Marc Bonilla is a guitarist and composer originally from the San Francisco Bay area. He has worked with the likes of Keith Emerson from the Keith Emerson band Ronnie Montrose Glenn Hughes, Emerson Lake and Palmer as well as many other aficionados and rock ‘n’ roll legends. Releasing multiple records on multiple record labels under the warner records umbrella all throughout the 90s is currently listed as a member of the California transit authority led by former Chicago Drummer Danny Seraphin. During our post performance sit down interview with him, we talked about his entrance into writing and composing soundtracks for hit movies such as Iron Man 2, Spiderman 2, the Bourne Legacy as well as producing most of the musical scores on the hit TV show “Justified” with keyboardist Steve Porcaro from the band Toto. Quite a long list of accomplishments if you ask this fellow Rock ‘n’ Roller.

Let’s move on shall we. As a young blood trying to navigate the entertainment industry in Los Angeles during the early 2000’s. I found myself going from gig to gig on different studio lots learning the ins and outs of TV and movie production. My first steady gig though was one that will go down in my historical timeline is one of the coolest jobs I’ve ever had. I was given the opportunity to audition to be one of the comic book characters at Universal Studios Hollywood theme park. One week after my horrendous attempt at an audition. I was pleasantly surprised to get the call to come in and do a final interview. They needed a new Spiderman. Among the strict set of guidelines was having to stay within five pounds of my hiring weight. When asked about this most people think it’s because Spiderman has to be a certain size(which is correct). But also the suit that I wore was specifically tailored to my exact body dimensions and I would be the only one that was wearing that exact suit. Although there were eight other Spiderman’s on the roster my suit was my suit, so don’t grow out of it. On the back it said “costume officially approved by Marvel Comics”. Along with that I had a steady regiment of homework. I needed to know the ins and outs of the Spiderman character. Comic book fans as well as Spiderman fans specifically would ask me questions on a daily basis. I was required to be in character at all times, my answer to their questions would have to be authentic as if I was the character. After a few fans stumped me with a barrage of questions at work one day I decided to not let that happen again and dove deep into reading of every single Spiderman comic book I could get my hands on.

Circling back there was a certain custom guitar on stage that night at the Coach House. I have it on good authority that the Yamaha factory custom built and decorated this guitar for Mr. Bonilla himself. Marc boasts that he is a bona fide “comic book nerd” which happened to be one of the big selling points when he got hired as the musical composer for the movie Iron Man 2. He gets a little bit more in depth in the Backstage 360 YouTube interview which can be found on the link below. Although live shows are not truly live just yet, venues are doing their best to bring a live music experience to the hearts and homes of fans around the world. This has been one of the main goals of AlerttheGlobe.com ,keeping the feel of live music “alive”. If you get a chance go to the website and check out some of the other live music performances that have happened over the last couple months since they began doing these live performance videos at the Coach House.
Musicians on stage that night Included two Drummer’s, one being my old friend Joe Travers and a host of “A” listers including Ed Roth, Mike Wallace, Jonathan Singleman, and Thomas Lang.

In the hour and a half that would follow Dragon Choir owned every minute of the set.

DRAGONCHOIR SET LIST COACH HOUSE:

Alpha Male

Mephisto

Fleshwound

Mannequin Highway

Afterburner

Arclight

Whiter Shade of Pale

White Noise

Slaughter on Memory Lane

Commotion / A-Z

At his core the “comic nerd” with his Yamaha guitar covered in a cornucopia of his favorite comic book superheroes noted this as his inspiration that has helped propel many moments and give an inspiration to his success. He has recently produced his first LP in over 25 years stating the he writes his music with the main goal of being that of “storytelling”. To that end he feels that the question marks and exclamation marks must be built into the right parts of a song in order to engage his listeners and keep them wanting to hear the rest of the story. “When you put quality musicians on stage, the output becomes quality sound” says Marc.  He has always done his best to keep an element of fun in the music.  Music should be an escape, an outlet of expression. Given the current events and climate he said that the show that night was a “breath of musical fresh air”. After hearing him play, I concur.

By: Timmy D / Pullman Media /  Pullman Standard

Watch Our Interview With Marc: