Overdue Recap: Hialeah, Bedford Grove, The Roman Spring at Casbah, 11.3.08

As a loyal Anti-Monday Leaguer, I headed to the Casbah on November 3rd to check out The Roman Spring, Bedford Grove and Hialeah. One day at work, I arrived to have a CD, sticker, and a flyer for their Bedford Grove’s CD release show at Soma. Turns out a coworker’s niece is dating someone in the band and through the wire, they heard about this little ol’ blog and next thing I have a CD. Even with that, I hadn’t had the chance to see the band until this night at the Casbah. And since they were playing with my friends in The Roman Spring, I had to make it. Roman Spring started the show off, but I hadn't intended on taking any pictures, and how many times have I posted pics of them already? Funny though that later I did end up taking pics only because I hadn't covered the other two bands here before. I'm really hoping The Roman Spring makes an album soon because they're performances only continue to get better and better, and when you're starting from good, that is saying a lot.

Bedford Grove hit the stage second. The band was stripped down since their horn section couldn’t make the show but they were really, really good. For the rest of this post and pics, click 'keep on reading'.


The band reminded me a lot of Maroon Five crossed with Stevie Wonder crossed with Jamiraquoi because of the singer’s vocal delivery and their funky sounds, and the stand up bass was amazing. I was told that I have to check out the full band because it is a totally different sound, but I was quite impressed with the version I saw.



In a crazy mix of a lineup, Hialeah closed out the night and were a totally different sound but brought it hard. I’m not sure how it is that I hadn’t seen them play before, but sometimes that happens. It was great seeing Mario and Mike rocking out, having a great time on stage and letting the crowd enjoy their old school emo/hardcore sound (before 'emo' was hijacked)



From the Casbah, I ventured up to The Ruby Room to hang out,but nothing really to report from there except that they painted the women's bathroom near the stage and it looks awesome.



For some reason, I was wired and ended up staying up all night, watching TV, writing, listening to the rain, and before I knew it, election day had arrived. I showered and walked in the drizzle to my polling place and voted with a sense of pride I hadn’t experienced in a very long time. It was fun spending the morning watching all the tweets coming in as people across the country voted.
I considered going to sleep but I was after the free cup of coffee from Starbucks and some posting, I got a call from Jason. “I don’t know if I’m registered to vote.”

Long story short, he was still registered at his last address so I drove to Clairemont to pick him up and we made our way to North Park so he could vote. We hit up another Starbucks (Yes, I had two. Sue me.), then went to lunch at this amazing taco & mariscos truck at 33rd and University that has 99 cent fish tacos that kick Rubio’s ass.



After lunch, we ventured back to my house and he decided to bus to the Ruby Room and I finally got some sleep. I couldn’t handle watching election coverage, so I was happy to skip it all, only to wake up in time to hear Obama’s victory speech and field a bunch of calls from elated family and friends. It was a pretty amazing thing and the pride I felt spilled over to a night at the Casbah, but that will be a whole separate post.