French Kicks, Weather Underground, The Parson Red Heads- Casbah 5.23.08

Last week was a rare week for me, as I actually didn't go to shows for three nights in a row. I thought I was going to see Destroyer on Tuesday, but after listening to some of the tracks in my iPod, I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack. Something about Bejar's voice didn't resonate with me, so I skipped it and caught up on the site a bit instead. On Wednesday I worked on my listings while hanging out with a couple friends at The Ken Club. The DJ there on Wednesdays is awesome so I was really enjoying myself. Then Thursday came around and the I had a shit day and I ended up working late and by the time I got home, didn't find the motivation to head to House of Blues for Dresden Dolls, especially since I'd already missed May*Star and they were the ones I was supposed to photograph anyway.

But come Friday, I was rearing to go. We had a half day at work and since I'd gotten plenty of rest on Thursday, was rearin to go. After work, I spent some time writing that incredibly long "newsy bits" post, caught up with e-mail and phone calls, and had time to striaghten out my house. By early afternoon, I was ready to start my Friday night, so Sara came and met me and we had some cocktails and played pool at the Ken Club. After a couple drinks we picked up dinner at Burger Lounge and took it back to my place. Once she left I decided I would get to the Casbah early and make sure to see all three bands.

I got there with plenty of time before The Parson Red Heads started and grabbed a cocktail. When the band started, everyone in the crowd was standing around the perimeter of the room. The "too cool" gap as had to huge for openers, apparently, but I didn't give a shit and went right up toward the front and snapped a few pics. The band sounded great. They kind of reminded me of a church band (the only thing I ever liked about church), perhaps because one of the guitarists looked like the TV Jesus from South Park, with his long hair, hippie shirt, white highwater pants and teva sandals and the girl on keys looked like an elvish Anya Marina. They had beautiful layered harmonies and the instrumentation fell into a nice folksy groove that gave them more of the feel of a "collective" and less of a standard band, and the main vocalist's voice reminded me of Cat Stevens, before he changed his name. I really dug them a lot.





Second up were The Weather Underground. I thought it a bit funny that there were a few days about a month ago when my site traffic increased for no particular reason- then I realized people were Googling "The Weather Underground" because conservative assholes were trying to link Obama to some dude who was a member of the 60s radical group of the same name. I've now seen this band several times and I'm glad they continue to play for us in SD because they have great energy and a great sound. I always like how right about the 3rd song, Harley's left leg gets kickin out sideways, then you know they've hit their stride.





Last up and the headliners for the night were The French Kicks. I have to admit that I when I made plans for the week, I was planning on going to the Ken on Friday to see the Donkeys, but it wasn't until I was checking e-mails and blogs that day that I came across a post about The French Kicks that I switched my plans. You can here the tracks that changed my mind here. I was a row back from the front of the stage; I was surprised by how many screaming girls were up front, though all the guys in the band are exceptionally good looking so it wasn't that surprising. I was stoked because they were videotaping their performance and therefore had the lights up for most of the set.





I really enjoyed the entire show and was really glad I went, but it got a little late and I split as soon as the show ended. I made my way back to the Ken Club in hopes that The Donkeys played uber late, but no such luck- they were moving their equipment outside. I hung until I couldn't hang no more and wandered home, thrilled that I had nowhere I had to be on Saturday.