Michael Vangerov, a founding guitarist of the internationally touring band Liquid Blue and a fixture of the live music scene along Costa Rica’s South Pacific coast for the better part of a decade, died last Friday in a highway accident near Uvita. First responders estimated him to be about 70.
The accident happened around 6:45 a.m. on July 10 along the Costanera Sur, Route 34, in the Bahía Ballena district of Osa, according to the Costa Rican Red Cross and the local outlet PZ Actual. Responders were initially told that a public bus traveling north had struck a man standing beside the road. Paramedics on scene later described a more unusual sequence, in which the bus’s wheelchair accessibility ramp opened while the vehicle was in motion and struck Vangerov as it passed. He was found without vital signs on the shoulder of the highway. Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency, the OIJ, has taken over the case and is working to establish the exact circumstances.
Liquid Blue confirmed Vangerov’s death in an emotional tribute posted to social media, referring to him by his longtime nickname, “The Groveler.” The band said he had served as its lead guitarist and had overseen sound and production since its founding, and recalled a distinctive figure — boots, top hat and a long beard — who could talk for hours about his two great loves, cars and guitars. Bandmates said he had performed in more than 100 countries and 800 cities over his career, and that they are considering organizing a musical tribute in his honor in Costa Rica, where he had made his home for the past eight years.
Vangerov helped form Liquid Blue in San Diego in 1996 alongside lead vocalist Scott Stephens, and remained with the group until around 2015. What began as a four-piece bar band grew into a twelve-member international act that performed on six continents, released sixteen albums, and holds a Guinness World Record as one of the most traveled bands in history. The group scored a Billboard Hot Dance Chart hit with “Earth Passport,” which reached No. 3 in 2010, became the first American act signed by a major Chinese record label, and was chosen to represent the United States at the kickoff concert for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
After two decades of near-constant touring, Vangerov and Stephens went looking for what they called an “endless summer” lifestyle, scouting surf breaks across Nicaragua, Panama and Costa Rica before settling in Uvita. There the two continued to perform as an acoustic duo called Out of the Blue, playing sunset sets built around audience requests at live music venues around Uvita and Dominical and wrapping up early so both could rise before dawn to surf.
Away from the stage, Vangerov ran Vantastic Sound, a live sound and production company that has supported more than 2,000 events. For residents and returning visitors who came to know the area’s music scene, his death is the loss of a genuine local fixture rather than a touring musician passing through. The band said many fans had already sent condolences, adding that Vangerov would have appreciated the outpouring of affection.
