Since I covered a whole month in my last diary post, I feel like I brushed over a whole bunch of stuff, so this one is going to probably be a whole lot longer. Take the warning as you will and I will proceed. That one ended on January 12, so I'll pick up from there. That night I went to The Beautiful View's CD release show. It was good times for sure as they were joined by my Fresnan (?- as in, 'from Fresno') friends, Strange Vine (Toby and Ian pictured below), and San Diego bands Sundrop Electric, The Beautiful View, and Lady Dottie closing out the night. The show was packed and other than a couple pics of Strange Vine, I left my camera in my purse. I've told you already that between full crowds and LED lights, my photo-taking has dipped. Maybe I'll snap out of it (no pun intended), but I've grown standards, even with my own sub-standard photography, and sometimes I just can't muster up the energy to fight a busy crowd for yet another folder of purplish photos.
On Friday night, I'd booked The Whiskey Saints to open for Everest and The Midnight Rivals. A couple things to note about the night: I love Everest, but was pretty surprised the show wasn't sold out. I was also surprised to discover that Davey is no longer in the band. I was sad not to see him but their new material was great so keep an ear out for a new record this spring-ish. It was also really cool that The Whiskey Saints were so thrilled to open for Everest...it felt really good to make that happen. We had a fun night, I slow danced with the Saints, and I killed the night at the Ken Club after the show.
The next day, Jake Najor came over after work and we went to Hillcrest Cinemas to see The Descendants. Fantastic film, and though I haven't seen all of the Oscar contenders, it was definitely a solid flick and I was glad to have seen it before the People's Choice awards the next night. That night, however, I had a bunch of shows I wanted to see, specifically Dead Feather Moon at the Griffin. I never found a ride that night, so I stayed home and hated the world. Because that's what I do sometimes. Nobody called for two days. Sometimes I feel like I've exhausted anyone willing to give my car-free ass a ride, so I laid low, also missing the Sunday Casbah show with the Silent Comedy and Transfer.
I stayed in that mode for a couple days. EFF YOU WORLD! I'M STAYING HOME IN MY PAJAMAS AND WATCHING MY SHOWS ON DEMAND, INCLUDING THE BACHELOR, WHICH I WILL WATCH WITHOUT SHAME!! If I wrote about this kind of stuff all of the time, you would start realizing that you really know nothing about me. The bad TV. That I have more pajamas than band t-shirts and hoodies. That I pay way too much for cable so I can see Grey's Anatomy, aged movies on HBO, and I actually do keep up with the Kardashians. My life, most of the time, is quite uninteresting and is closer to resembling the basis for a WellTabs commercial than anything else. Let's move forward, shall we?
On Monday night I did end up going to the Transfer/The Silent Comedy show with Dead Feather Moon, so it didn't matter so much that I'd missed them over the weekend. The show was phenomenal and while I know a sell out is the goal for every show, it felt nice to have space to roam and catch up with everyone, while still enjoying a great show without the weekend warriors around.
I'll hold Tuesday to myself for a minute and get on to Wednesday for the Olin and the Moon and Maxim Ludwig and the Santa Fe Seven residency. It was Michael McGraw's birthday so it was the most attended of the residency shows, which is to say that you all missed out. I have grown to love the music of Olin & Maxim and the shows were fun throughout the month. I caught 3 of 4 of the residencies. That night, however, I was regretting going because I didn't have a ride home, well, let's just say not having a ride and not having money has been a recurring theme of the month. Yay. Fortunately, I got a magical text and a chariot rescued me so I got home safely. I realize I'm testing my friends' patience.
That was the weekend of NAMM. I got up early on Thursday to head to Anaheim for NAMM. I went up with Jake Najor and Ben Moore of The Styletones on Thursday, then with Ben Rivera and Jesse Nova on Friday. I'll tell you more about that experience later, though I have to say that last year's experience literally changed my life. I think the difference was that it was my first time and I stayed there last year. This year was fun but I was just grazing, I guess. I ended up staying home that rainy Saturday and it was nice. My body felt worked after two days on the floor of NAMM.
Sunday was the Wilco show and as I already mentioned, quite amazing. If you didn't read it already, be sure to see Scott McDonald's review of the Wilco show, too. My only argument is that Jeff Tweedy's hat was NOT a fedora. My friendship with Andrea at Village Hat Shop taught me basic hat 101, and I think it was actually a cowboy hat, something like this one. He got everything else right.
I'll pause and say this is kind of a funny exercise...I post these diaries to get some things out- exorcise the demons, if you will- while also reflecting on things that I want to remember someday. At the same time I go back to reference my own tweets, facebook messages, email, and calendars to make sure I'm getting it all in. I also have to keep the thread personal without being private, so I leave things out even though sometimes they're all I want to talk about. Let me proceed.
On Tuesday night, Chase and I went to see Alabama Shakes at the Belly Up. He had some friends there and knows that this is what I do, so I don't think he minded that I was up front filming the show, but I still kinda felt bad. I'll post all those videos soon enough, or you can search through my recent as-yet-unlabeled YouTube uploads.
On Wednesday we had our Casbah meeting, Pyles and I lunched at Mama Testa, and that night I went with Mike Beebe to the final of the Olin and the Moon and Maxim Ludwig and the Santa Fe Seven residencies (photo at the top of this post). Vanaprasta opened that one and sounded legions better than when I'd seen them at one of the Rumbles at Bar Pink over a year prior.
Thursday was spent with my nieces at the park, lunch with some old friends at Ponce's followed by popsicles at Viva Pops, meeting with Jesse LaMonaca, a North Park Festival of Arts planning meeting, the SoundDiego Live event at McFadden's, and Nico Vega at the Casbah. Long day and I was wiped. What I can say about all of that is that it had been way too long since I've seen my nieces and my high school girlfriends, that I suck at web design, that some bands need a reality check when thinking they're capable of performing to a free community festival, that the Jersey Shore exists in San Diego bars, and that sometimes, even a great band at my favorite venue can't win over me wanting to crawl into bed.
It was nice to have a lazy Friday before heading to the Casbah on Friday night. The Howls, Jesse LaMonaca and the Dime Novels, Family Wagon, and Old Tiger. The show sold out in advance which made me so happy for all bands involved. Needless to say, the show was amazing, yet again, I didn't bother with another night of purplish photos and just hung out the whole night. I was trying to take it easy because I had plans to meet my landlord on Saturday. I shouldn't have taken it easy. In fact, I should've just not existed when she came down because it did not go well. All I can really say is that if you live in Kensington, Normal Heights, Uni Heights, City Heights, North Park, South Park, Bankers Hill, Golden Hill, or Hillcrest and spot any available rentals that allow dogs, please let me know.
The whole exchange could've ruined my day, but instead I buried it and had an amazing day. Chase and I went to see The Recommendation at The Old Globe and somehow snagged princess parking at the last second and were only a few minutes late to the play. (The show was good, by the way, and I was completely absorbed in the story from start to finish. There were a few anomalies, like why would a character reference his Crip homies in jail while wearing red sneakers, why would a dude confess a crime to a stranger while knowing him less than a few hours, and why didn't anyone teach these guys to dribble, but you'll have to see the play to see what I'm talking about. Still a good story.)
After the show we walked around Balboa Park, then had an early dinner at West Coast Tavern before going to the Casbah for the early comedy show with Hannibal Buress. He was incredibly funny and I would certainly be stoked if Casbah had more comedy shows in the future. From there, we went to 4th&B. I had no idea the show would be so early and we arrived during The Soft Pack's last song. At least we caught all of Nada Surf. I've got some videos for you from that, too.
Whereas Saturday was relatively active and involved a play, a park, a dinner, a comedy show, and a concert, Sunday involved pajamas, home cooking, the SAG Awards, the Pro Bowl, and Bridesmaids.
All of this wraps up with Monday evening with Jeff at the KPRI private listener concert at Jimmy Love's with the Jayhawks (I'll post the videos soon), dinner at Bar Basic, and a show at the Tin Can with the awesome band Rogue Valley from Minnesota. (Turns out I'm liking a lot of things from Minnesota lately.)
If you've made it this far, thank you and I'm sorry. There's stuff I still have to leave out but I'll catch you up soon enough.
Like, is it possible for life to be completely in shambles and full of immense uncertainty yet at the same time, feel so okay? Like, when people ask, "How are things?" and you want to answer, "Oh, I'm a fucking broke ass mess and I might be homeless in 60 days but other than that, I'm great!" so instead you just say, "oh, same ol', same ol'," or "things are good!" and just smile and sip your beer (that someone else bought you because you can't buy your own without busting out plastic with a credit line that was given to you when you had an actual career and health insurance and 'disposable income') while hanging on to the delusion that somehow, you'll still find a way to SXSW.
I guess so.
1 comment:
Tweedy's hat is a "Homburg."
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