Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Recap: Vinyl Radio CD Release/Rockit Ent. @ Year Anniversary

I am running on fumes right now, but last night was so fun, I can't say it wasn't worth it. Vinyl Radio had their CD release show in conjunction with Rockit Entertainment's 2 year anniversary. The Blackout Party and The Ringers played in support, there were free burgers, and despite random moments of rain, there were a lot of people there and most stayed until the very end of the night.

I arrived during The Ringers set. As I made my way up to snap some shots while digging through my purse, the singer jumped off stage and started looking through my purse with me. Full of stage antics and high kicks, the band totally rocked and got the crowd properly revved up. Vinyl Radio will be touring with the Ringers which I think will be a very successful tour. The Ringers get regular airplay on Indie 103 in LA, so their exposure can do nothing but benefit Vinyl Radio. Crowd favorite "Beaver Fever" was catchy but also hilarious as Joe hooked his forefinger in middle finger, gesturing a finger bang. They closed with their (LA) radio single, "Keepin Your Head Up" and the frantically dancing rockit girls up front were lovin every second. The chaos results in good photo moments.

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and my favorite:

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The Blackout Party was next onstage. For as long as I've wanted to see them, I was instead running around the bar and somehow ended up watching their set on tv in the back bar. They sounded good for the first couple songs that I watched, but there was just too much activity happening for me to be still. Also, the Rockit girls were up front dancing and I'm not the only one who thought it was very artificial...more "look at me" than "this music makes me shake my ass."

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There was a raffle between bands to win the chance to spank one of the Rockit girls which really killed the momentum of things. As it was, Vinyl Radio was supposed to start at 11 and didn't get on until close to 12. The whole band was onstage as they called number after number and no winners responded, prompting the girls to just pick people to spank them. That, coupled with the cheesy Core Magazine banner in the Atari lounge along scantily clad model pictures gave the night a very FHM/Maxim feel, which I certainly could've done without, but maybe other people didn't mind, I can't say. Anyway, after having my time wasted by the spankings, Vinyl Radio was introduced by Troy Johnson.

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They were great as always, though the energy was a little low. They had to try to regain the momentum lost. The show was good but I will say that the last show at the Casbah was so good and they set the bar so high, that for me this performance was fun, but I also felt free to continue running around the bar, making it feel like being at a friend's party than being at a show. Here are some pics, and the setlist which they ended up mixing up, anyway.

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The guys in Vinyl Radio have a friend Fernando who helps them out and goes to all their shows. Sometimes he'll even tell you he's their manager. I will reserve comment, but I had prearranged with Matt to record a song in their set. He told me to video the second song, so I asked Fernando, who was manning the stage lights, to turn up the lights a little during the second song. Frustratingly, that did not happen. Still, here's the video. Maybe you just hit play and listen more than watch, since you really can't see shit. Thanks for lookin out, Fernando.


5 comments:

Rockitsocal said...

Thank you so much for the review it was awesome! We had great response from everyone involved from club owners to the fans who continue to support local music. Since we had a slight emergency in the back room when BOP was playing (yes where the pictures of the models that were taken by someone who is adored by many, many local bands & yes where the new Core magazine that is going out of their way to support local artist and musicians were) I'm not sure we were being "look at me'd" but hey COOL!
XOX-ROCKIT ENTERTAINMENT

Stuart Zombrowski said...

Ummm.....
The music ruled, the burgers were free, the pictures were from a local legend, people were having a ripping time (including the girls up front dancing) the local music community supported each other...and the rockitgirls put it together.
Keep up with your talent.....Your "cooler than everyone" insight is so fresh and new.
Nice job!
Blogging really makes you BE SOMEONE.

Rosemary Bystrak said...

I just wanted to respond, since apparently this posting got everyone's thongs in a bunch. First of all, this is my blog, and the whole thing is about supporting local music. I don't just support my friend's bands or my friends events as you can tell by the sheer volume of bands that I see. If I am disappointed in an event for any reason, I am going to voice that. My irritation with the really fucking stupid spanking raffle was shared by other people I talked to; a lot of people were wandering around waiting for the music to start, and the band themselves expressed disappointment that the flow of the evening had been interrupted and they weren't thrilled with their own performance.

Last, people can dance, people can model, people can take pictures, and sleazy mags can sponsor events. That is fine. But I am also allowed to not like it. I think music should speak for itself and not need corsets and spankings to get attention. But that's just me. This doesn't preclude me from attending Rockit events in the future, next time I'll just know what to expect.

And I didn't have a hamburger.

Stuart, I shouldn't have even posted your comment but you do such a great job at making yourself sound like an ass that I don't really need to respond at all.

Unknown said...

hey, great blog! way to go out to all these shows, post reviews, pictures and video.
the vinyl radio show at the casbah was one i happened to also be at.

all of the bands rocked and the crowd seemed to love every minute of it. the casbah was pretty packed for a tuesday night, and like you, most people hung in till the end. of course having vinyl radio headline and free food didn't hurt!

i think the rockit girls do a great job of putting on these shows and supporting local music.
they seem willing to do almost anything to make the night memorable. kind of interesting to hear your take on the dancing, spanking, and pictures of scantilly clad models. i just think it shows that rockit is trying to mix it up a little. i have a few friends in bands that have played shows for them, and they will now hardly play for any other promoters because rockit actually pays the bands, and most of the time gives them all the money keeping none for thier expenses. that just makes me want to really support them myself. and you are right, they are trying to bring more sexy into the scene. you should have been at the shows that had mud wrestling for half time! but hey, it drew a crowd. see you at the next one!

Linz said...

I would like to start by thanking Stuart, Stacie and J for responding in our defense. I would also like to thank you for going to all the shows, writing about the bands, and supporting the many talented musicians we have in San Diego. That is what we are all here to do, however different our methods may be. As far as I’m concerned, you gave our anniversary party a good review. You enjoyed the music and had a good time, as did everyone else, including myself and the other Rockit girls. So you didn’t care for us, that’s okay with me because I know we can’t please everyone all the time. What does matter is that we are all supporting the same cause. I openly admit our disappointment and initial response to your negative review. We put so much time and effort into the planning of our shows that it definitely felt like an attack on us personally. We do everything we can to support musicians and like “J” wrote, we are just trying to mix it up a bit. We are trying to get new people to the shows, people who might not go to the Casbah on a Tuesday night but did because of the free food, the models signing pictures to auction or even spanking a Rockit girl. That person just might become the next fan of Vinyl Radio, The Blackout Party or the Ringers. Honestly, none of us wanted to do the spanking either. It was just an idea we thought would be funny since it was our “birthday” and we are always getting asked when we were going to be apart of the shows we put on. Usually, it’s the bands, models and dancers that do the stage work while we sell merch, work the door, meet with the bands, sound techs and bartenders to ensure a smooth running show, talk to the owners to plan the next show, and put out fires that always come up. There is always some sort of problem that we try our best to handle discretely so that the show goes on without incident. And like you, this isn’t the only job we have. We all have different “day lives”, between the three of us we have 3 other jobs, 4 kids, 2 husbands and 1 boyfriend, and a ton of other stuff that wants full time attention. We started Rockit because we see the possibility of greatness. We see what San Diego has to offer and we want to see it succeed. And from what I gather, you’ve been to a number of our shows, some you might not even know were “Rockit” shows, so you’ve seen that Rockit isn’t all about tits and ass and getting attention for ourselves, it’s about a good show with good music and good company. We are about the music taking center stage, we just try to add a little something fun and different to keep it fresh. What this long-winded comment essentially boils down to is that we are ALL doing what we can to support local artists, we have our niche and you have yours. We openly invite you to any of our shows, you keep doing what you do and we’ll keep doing what we do, and hopefully we’ll make a positive impact on the San Diego music scene.

Lindsey
Rockit Entertainment
XOXO