First, there was a party at Bondi to benefit S.A.F.E., which is the Special Emergency Fund for Advertising. Basically it's a charity that distributes money to help people within the local ad industry should they experience some sort of catastrophe that makes them unable to work, like a major illness or a bad car accident. I had forgotten about the party, but at about 3 pm, my boss asked if I wanted to go and I was all over it. I always loved media gatherings and its yet another reason why I'm happy to be back in the media biz. I ran into many old friends and had a blast. It was at Bondi and my opinion about that place hasn't really changed. The party had some amazing tray passed appetizers- fish n chips in individual servings, sliders, calamari in little Chines take-out boxes, and rack of lamb (though the sushi was terrible)- but honestly Bondi, do you think you could buy some more glasses? At least twice I heard people complain that they had run out of wine glasses, and I had two drinks in freshly washed glasses. I should mention last time I was here, you not only ran out of glasses, but you ran out of Jack Daniel's. WTF? It's nice that you have dishwashers that steam clean the glasses, but nobody wants their cold beverage poured into a hot glass. I don't mean "warm", I mean like a coffee mug full of hot tea. I guess it doesn't matter, since it's a place I'll only go for an event and would never go there on my own accord and definitely not to spend my own money but one would think for the prices they charge that they'd get it together.
On the left are my coworkers, on the right, my Rocky's drinkin' buddy, Brian.
From the party I made my way to TNT, but all the bands were finished and the sponsor was Hornitos tequila, so I didn't stay. I was a little sad to see they moved the bands back to the new wing along the train tracks, I really prefer the shows on the patio at One America Plaza, hopefully that was a one time move.
Abraham and Malinda were there and convinced me to swing by the Casbah before I headed off to Chaser's, so I let the peer pressure get the best of me and followed them.
It didn't take too long to be so glad that I'd made that choice. The Submarines were onstage and I liked their sweet dreamy indie pop. I thought of Kite Flying Society and how unfortunate it is that they called it quits. Anyway, I liked the Submarines and hope to catch them again.
I wasn't going to stay because I wanted to get to Chaser's, but I decided to stay for a couple Birdmonster songs and they ended up pulling me in and I stayed for the whole set. It wasn't just their sound that I liked, but they had such amazing charisma onstage, all the while appearing that they were having a great time. I was having fun taking pictures of them, and since Jake was on sound, I joined him in the back for a while and doing the lights, then I kinda turned them up high, took some pics, then gave him the cue he could turn them back down.
After their set, I was in the bathroom and met the mother and grandmother of the guitarist. I guess he grew up here and his family still lives in Rancho Bernardo. I personally love to see the families of bands coming out to shows and they were all very sweet. They also had great merch so I had to buy a shirt.
I finally took of and made my way to Chaser's where I'd missed Writer, but was just in time to catch Low Red Land. I saw them a few months back when they'd played at Scolari's and I liked them so much then that I bought all of their CD's. This time they rocked just as hard, but I think the sound at Chaser's is much better than Scolari's so I was glad I made it in time to catch them.
While standing outside Chaser's, I noticed there's a weird shop next door that sells religious statuettes. Being raised Catholic, I've always thought that religious relics, art, and icons were creepy, but nearing two a.m. with little light, they're downright frightening.
So my Thursday finally concluded and kicked off a great weekend, which I'll have to post about later because I'm tired and have to be bright and shiny in the morning.
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