Performing at the Surf Club must be a musician's dream gig.

There's no pressure of performing in a huge stadium or auditorium, nor is there any need for spectacular stage effects and elaborate lighting.

Just leave the beach, put on regular clothes and hop on stage and play the gig.

Having a relaxed rock star David Bowie and his equally famous wife Iman in attendance only adds to the atmosphere.

If you are Rod Stewart's guitarist, hitting the stage at a small nightclub on Front Street with your own hand-picked band means the fetters are off.

Jeff Golub and Friends did just that. Playing music in the Contemporary Jazz mode, his was a true fusion music on Wednesday night.

With onetime Miles Davis sideman Bill Evans on saxophone and Don Harris on trumpet sharing solo duties, the relaxed band were able to lay down a groove and keep those that were listening involved.

After the band slid into "West Side Serenade'', Golub ripped through ten choruses in his solo on a white Fender stratocaster -- I love white stratocasters -- and not an idea was repeated.

Golub can play lead and rhythm lines at the same time which gives the music momentum and a groove.

He also gets a gloriously warm tone from his guitar as anyone who has listened to Rod Stewart in recent years will tell you.

Evans' "Push'' is a song which I am certain would have fitted right into the Davis song book -- if Miles ever had a song book.

Using the soprano sax which was rescued from obscurity by another Miles Davis reed man, John Coltrane, Evans swung like the dickens and ought to scare all Kenny G fans.

Harris is a former Tower of Power trumpeter and does a fine Harmon mute solo on the old James Brown/Average White Band jam "Pick up the Pieces''.

Percussionist Roger Squitero got his chance to shine in Golub's Latin rock "Lucy I'm Home!''.

The band knows the multitude of possibilities that can be found in the Afro-Cuban rhythm and are sharp in their tempo changes.

Everyone got a chance to shine and bassist Carmine Rojas and keyboardist Steve Gaboury each had a chance, but it was their comping with drummer Andy Newmark that gets them mention.

Music is an immediate way of getting a message. It must be delivered with conviction and competence.

A small rock and roll band on stage are not authors, producers, or music critics. Their work is not moderated by editors or tape machines.

Anyone who has been watching the VH1 special on Milli Vanilli will agree it will all come out in the wash -- which in the music world means a live performance on stage.

Give working musicians a small stage and a small audience they will give you their best.

PATRICK BURGESS