And you will know us brothers and sisters by celebration blood

Sometimes the stars align and you have that splendid evening. Such was the case last night.

At 5 a friend of mine posted a myspace bulletin that he had a pair of tickets to the HoB show, I responded first and scored the pair. I flew outta work, went home, let my dog out and she did her doggy thing right away unlike her usual lag, changed outta my work clothes and was back out the door, made a quick stop at the ATM and picked up the tickets from Kevin. (Thanks, Kevin!)

I made it from Uni Heights to Downtown in about 5 minutes and scored princess parking just a crosswalk away from HoB. There was a line for the show, but I passed it and went into the bar. I had 15 minutes of happy hour left. I don't really "know" the bar staff there, but we're familiar, stemming back to my birthday of HoB binge drinking, so they see me and know my drink off the bat. I quickly sucked down 2 double vodka tonics and was going to go into the venue when the barback brought out this thingamajig. It's basically a snowglobe with a tee in it and a golf ball rolling around in the water. The object is to get the ball on the tee. Companies give them out as corporate gifts, and I happen to have one on my desk, so I consider myself a bit of a master. They offered a free drink if anyone could do it. I let on like I would "try" it, and in a couple minutes the ball was on the tee and I was drinking my third drink.

I left Andrea's ticket at will call just as a new window opened and didn't have to wait in line. Brothers and Sisters were only a song or two into their set. I had seen them play at San Diego Sports Club back in August and liked them enough to buy their CD, and seeing them made me remember why. They had such a full sound, having added an additional female backup vocalist and I was happy to have seen them again.

I went up to the street level and met some 18 year old boys who were out of control excited to be at the show (and made me feel REALLY old). I was curious about their experience at the HoB and they were super chatty. They said they mostly go to Soma but they like the House of Blues and hadn't noticed any noise issues (like I always complain about) but they've seen bands who ended up really sucking and some that were really amazing. Then they were like "Have you ever heard of...? " and went to list of about 10 bands that I'd never heard of and they assured me I should check them all out, but I can't even tell you one name.

Around that time, Andrea came in and we met downstairs in the venue. Celebration was playing but I wasn't much into them. I've said before that I have a hard time with chick vocalists and this was no exception. I felt like they were New Collapse-lite. We went upstairs and talked to Will from Brothers and Sisters. He explained that they were asked on the tour by Trail of Dead and Celebration was asked by Blood Brothers. He said they're enjoying the tour, but they're finding that a lot of people aren't showing up for their set at the all ages shows. Like I said yesterday, they started at 7. He said they played at 5:45 in Vegas. lame. Anyway, after they finish up this tour they're hoping to tour again on their own. They have a booking agent and I suspect they'll be calling Tim Mays soon (who, by the way, was at the show for the opening bands).

We watched Blood Brothers from back by the bar area with Lyn as we sipped our smuggled hooch. For a real revue, check Chickrawker Lyn's site. I was pretty much unfamiliar with the band. I've listened to their latest disc a few times through but we all know I'm an easy listening kinda girl and Andrea was sure I would hate them. Not so. I liked their energy and the double screaming was cool. Plus, you know a band has cred if the lead vocalist is in a red and white horizontal striped shirt...the indie punk staple. Just kidding. But I did like them, and Rocky Votolato's brother plays guitar, so how could I not like them at least a smidge?

We wandered around during the break and bumped into Mitch Wilson (formerly of No Knife and now in The Focus Group), Tim Pyles and Owen from 94/9, and a few other randoms. We met up with Andrew and Dusty and watched Trail of Dead.

I loved them and regret missing their last couple Casbah shows once I saw how good they are live. We were pretty close to the front for the duration of their set. I tried to pull a Lyn and score a set list, but there were none to speak of. I heard people saying this show wasn't that good for Trail of Dead but I have no comparison to go by, but if that's true, I'll stick to blaming the venue.

Somehow Dustin had a backstage pass, so after the set he slapped it on me and told me ,"Go get an interview!" I am not that cool. I followed some dude backstage and ended up in some hallway with Brothers and Sisters and they said how the venue sucks and they have too many rules and how they weren't treated very well. They asked me about the after parties and if The Whistle Stop and Beauty Bar were any good and if they were nearby. Then Courtney (the new background singer), swigging on a bottle of wine, decided finding late night food and crashing at a hotel was a better option since they planned on staying in Oceanside. So we all left the backstage area and went our separate ways.

As the venue cleared out, Dusty, Andrew, Andrea and I went back up to the main HoB bar to decide what to do next. Somehow the time flew by and by the time we said goodbye, I'd dropped off Andrea, stopped for gas and cigs, it was approaching 1. I decided to check out the Beauty Bar since it's near my house, but I walked in and walked back out. (You can read CatDirt's review of the whole night here.) I already don't think any dj set merits a cover charge (sorry, but it's just my opinion), and the bands were long done, but especially when it's already 1 and the bar is gonna call last call in a half hour. So I kept my $5 and called it a night.

It's a good thing I did, too, because I realized if I'm going to the KPRI show tonight, I'm gonna have to go straight to the BUT from work so I had to get some QT in with my dog.

A splendid evening, indeed. And I just got news that I'm going to be an aunt in about 8 months, so I gotta call it a good week all around.