Rosey's Diary: December 2011

I've been waiting for a good time to catch up on my diary posts, and the longer I waited, the more I dreaded sitting and writing. That being said, I ended up not going to Anthology and the Casbah tonight, so I'm catching up on my shows and figured it was time to purge all of this shit from my brain. I can't promise anything interesting or funny, but if you need some bathroom reading, you can read more after the jump.

photo courtesy The Visual Underground

My last diary post ended on my way out of the house to Wrex The Halls and I guess recounting a month is pretty tedious, but there were some definite highlights and lowlights and I'll skip the really boring stuff. Maybe I'm lying. Maybe it is all boring.

I guess I never wrote about Wrex The Halls. I didn't have a photo pass, but Robin had an extra VIP pass for me. I had been really excited about the lineup but I'm so spoiled with the great sound and closeup action at small shows so...let's be honest. I spent a majority of the show in the VIP lounge in the arena club. To my defense, I had just agreed to step up my role with a couple local bands, so I was definitely in publicity mode to get things cooking. A bunch of my friends were there, too, and it was good to catch up with everyone, though it meant skipping pretty much all of Cage The Elephant and Noel Gallagher. Some guy gave me an extra VIP pass, so I was able to get Chase behind the barrier and we watched DCFC and part of Florence and the Machine from the sidestage. Jeff and I left midway through the set to get to Soda Bar for Ha Ha Tonka and closed it out over there.

Sunday night was the West Coast Tavern holiday/customer appreciation party and was a blast. Everyone there is so awesome and though I'm not booking live music anymore, I genuinely appreciate everything they do over there and how they all embrace me. I will however blame all of them for my recent affinity for bourbon. This plays into the rest of the month. A lot. After the show, I caught Chains of Love and Races at Soda Bar. In looking back, I remember really liking Races, though last night someone asked me if I'd ever heard of them and I said I hadn't. Bourbon. Thank goodness Facebook and Twitter help shake up the memory.

Let's see a quick rundown... meetings, dinner at Starlite, The Boxer Rebellion and The Beautiful View at the Casbah, drinks at Tower Bar and Black Cat on Monday. Saw Hugo on Tuesday. Had a show with Echo Revolution, The Whiskey Saints, and The Get Down Automatic on Wednesday. Got sick but fought it enough to head to LA on Friday for the KCRW/Invisible Children benefit at The Troubadour. NO stole the show for me and I was happy to connect with them (and happy to book them at the Casbah last night). After the show, Jeff and I went to the Echo but missed the show so were there long enough to say hi to the boys in Writer before heading back to SD. The next night I worked at the Casbah for the Pink Panther reunion. Sunday we had our Casbah employee brunch at Hash House then I went to see Josh Damigo and Shawn Colvin at the Belly Up. I took Monday off from life.

The week leading up to Christmas stayed busy. There was a date night in there, my Fast Crowd show at the Casbah on Wednesday, Joanie Mendenhall & John Meeks played at Riviera then I caught Writer at Soda Bar on Thursday, then holed up with family on Christmas Eve before Exile On Kettner. Since I'd been at my sister's in PB, Jesse picked me up and we went to exile. That was such a fun night and I'm sure Christmas morning was pretty brutal for many Exile patrons.

Photo courtesy Sean McMullen

Christmas with the family was awesome and we spent a lot of time together during the week, especially while my cousin Connie came out from NYC for a few days. We ate too much, indulged in playtime with my nieces, and even hit up the zoo a couple times.

On New Year's Eve, Chase and I worked the front door at The Lafayette, and though I didn't get to see any of the bands (except for 10 minutes of Silent Comedy for the countdown), it was still a really fun night.

Photo courtesy The Visual Underground

Unfortunately, it was freezing with the doors open most of the night at the Lafayette, so the traces of my cold from before Christmas came back and knocked me on my ass for a few days, but by Wednesday I was revived and got back into the swing of things with our Casbah meeting, running around town with Pyles, hanging out with Jesse LaMonaca & The Dime Novels for a preshow rehearsal, and then a night at the Casbah when they opened for Olin and the Moon and Maxim Ludwig and the Santa Fe Seven. That was a super fun night and I highly suggest you catch the two bands during their Wednesday night Casbah residency.

Friday night was a big show at the Casbah with The Nervous Wreckords, Blackout Party, Grand Tarantula and The Heavy Guilt duo. I was pacing my drinks until I was caught in the crossfire of friends buying shots and well, I probably said things I shouldn't have said to people I shouldn't have been saying them to. Blame the Bulleit.

I decided that it was best to lay low for the weekend. I'm still dealing with issues related to my housing and just wanted to be home and sulk. I'm really bummed that I missed the Black Box show on Sunday, but I've been missing Justin so much lately and it was a bit too much for me to take.  Fortunately, there are always reminders that people are in my corner and by Monday I'd shaken my slump after a couple of reassuring meetings convinced me that one way or another, things are gonna work out. That night I went to Starfucker and I guess I was there more for the social part than the music part and spent most of the night on the patio hanging with friends.

On Tuesday night I had my first booking of the year with Finding Francis, NO, and Tyson Motsenbocker at the Casbah. It was a great turnout and I was so impressed by all three who were all playing there for their first time. I cannot wait to get the three back onstage soon. I'll post some photos and video of that soon. I made the wise choice to skip the bourbon and stick to water.

Now here I am fleshing this all out and once again realizing how quickly time flies by. Since I had to hash things out with my landlord, I stayed home tonight, missing two awesome shows, but it had to be done and though shit isn't resolved, I feel comforted for now about my situation. It looks like it's going to be a big weekend, so I'll be at the Casbah a lot and, ahem, I think I'll back off the bourbon.  Now, to tackle the inbox.