Last night, I skipped happy hour at Bacchus because nobody else could make it. Instead, I headed home after work for a short while, then headed over to home of Catdirt and Catdirt wife, where we slammed some Tecate and headed over to Habitat House. We arrived during Sharon Van Etten's set. She was a solo acoustic performer that to me, sounded like a cross between Joan Baez and Aimee Mann. CDW said she sounded like Cat Power, but better. She had this awesome voice, despite claiming to be sick. The room was dead silent with people cramming in the door jam just for a glimpse. Some levity of the serious music came in the form of a 16 year old who "just (wanted) to dance and have a good time." After a bit of her dancing in the middle of the room, in front of the audience spread among chairs and couches and sitting cross-legged on the floor, Sharon stopped and asked, "are you serious? I mean, I'm really flattered if my music makes people wanna dance but it's never happened and I just can't do it." At one point while she danced, her cell phone rang and she took the call. The audience chimed in and the girl scattered for a while but kept coming in starting the dance thing again.
CDW and I took a smoke break on the porch and were promptly joined by the 16 year old who was clearly high who "just (wanted) to dance". CDW was being nice to her, telling her that the dancing was cool until she announced she was 16, at which point we were scared off realizing we technically could be her mother...and she was born in the 90's! Anyway, at some other point she complimented some chick's purse and said her mom has one
"exactly" like that but it has a mushroom on it and her mom feels bad using it at her AA meetings.
Sharon was awesome and when joined with backing vocals by her friend (Corbi?) she sounded even more powerful. Her set ended and then Corbi was on the mic and on her own, there were a few too many yaay-yays for me to handle. She played for a while and my interest was waning.
Finally Red Pony Clock started their set. I felt like they were Rafter-lite, but seeing Rafter in the audience made me believe that what they have, even with no mic, is better than my first impression was. The moments of dissonance and chaos made me feel initially like I was watching the band from my high school practicing, but it grew on me and when the vocals could be heard, I liked it. The singer invited people to dance and of course dancing girl made her way back into the room, this time with her friend. Her friend had this tight red dress on that made me feel like there was something illegal about her dancing for the rest of us. The band continued and the more they played, the more I liked them. (All 9 or 10 of them) I would like to see them again, with a mic for the singer, just to feel the full effect. Still, the show in a huge living room with hardwood floors and a cozy fireplace, a few couches, and random floor space, made the show both inviting and warm. Habitat, let me know anytime there's a show and I am there.
After the show I tried to catch the Go Getters at The Tower, but they had just finished. I'm not a fan of rockabilly but I love the music coming out of Sweden so I thought I should at least try. No luck, so I headed to the Ken Club for a final night cap before I headed home to catch the repeat of the Colbert Report with Bill O'Reilly. Then it was lights out. I am so ready for the weekend, whatever it may bring...
On to today's news...
*In reference to the question from CatDirt about the Viewmasters being back together, Amanda responds, "Yes, we are back together. Look for more shows coming soon... :) "...so there ya go. I'll be at the MCASD show on Saturday night to check them out and testing out the pear vodka.
* The Inside Track, hosted by Scott Riggs on 105.3 from 8-10pm on Sundays has been cancelled. You can read the e-mail from Scott on Chickrawker's site here. This bums me out immensely having only recently discovered the Inside Track, which I guess makes me part of the problem...since I don't listen to any ClearChannel stations (91X is technically not Clearchannel) I would've never heard cross promotion and whatnot. I hope that Garrett Michaels or anyone who makes such decisions jumps at the opportunity to acquire the show on 94/9. Or a daily feature like the Dog Dare? Maybe an hour before Big Sonic Chill?
*Dear Coachella,
I hate you.
sincerely,
Rosemary
(p.s. I would not, however, turn down a free pass though 2007 as a whole is supposed to be the hottest year on record)
Because of Coachella (presumably), bands that are touring that I would really love to see are not booking shows in San Diego but leave questionable gaps in their touring schedule, i.e. The Decemberists, who will be playing SF on April 25 and 26, then have a gap in schedule, and then head to Eugene, Oregon on May 3. Me no likey crazy 800 band festival shows...Street Scene is as big as I can handle and that is counting on 64% of the bands sucking dick so I don't have to trade off one band for another. I am so conflicted.
* Yet another great song that Indie 103 is playing: "The Book I Write" by Spoon from the Stranger Than Fiction motion picture soundtrack.
*Please don't be someone I know posting this on Craig's List:
Cold War Kids at The Casbah!!!! 2/20/07 - $75:
2007-01-18, 1:55PM PST
Hello. I have 4 tickets for the sold-out Cold War
Kids concert at The Casbah on 2/20/07. I'm selling them for $75 each, OBO. Look
around, this is the cheapest price you'll be able to get them. Both concerts at
The Belly Up and The Casbah are sold-out. I'm able to sell them individually or
all four. Thanks. Location: OB
I ordered one ticket, it was supposedly sent last week, and it still has not arrived. I am pissed.
*Beating Stereogum to the punch!- Yesterday I reported that Anya Marina, Tristan Prettyman and Greg Laswell recorded a song about Lindsey Lohan. Well, they made #1 indie blog, Stereogum. Though that doesn't even compare to the street cred that Catdirt gets for his mention in bringing up Cold War Kids (despite his refusal to see them live)...
* And finally, as promised, here's Stephen Colbert on The O'Reilly Factor
6 comments:
i'm going to start uppping my game and only hanging out with kids born in 2000, yeah, i like to kick it kindergarten style - blonde redhead is playing the belly up on friday, April 27th which pretty much guarantees that they'll be playing coachella
well, i forwarded my post and the city beat article itself to stereogum, which accounts for the link. it looked like anya et al. emailed the track directly to the 'gum- i did notice that you had it first. what's up with viewmasters writing you about questions i pose on my blog? am i not accesible enough?
You posed the question on my blog, so I emailed the band and they responded. That is all.
Here's the link to your comment.
oh yeah... ha! i remember now.
i posted a comment on the wrong one before... sorry. I just wanted to thank you for the kind words. heart, sharon.
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