Saturday Recap: Sessions Fest

I have no recap for Friday night. I was sure I had bought a ticket to Wolf Parade when I apparently hadn't. I would've loved to see the band again, but really, truth be told, I'm not in any rush to catch another show at Cane's, so instead, I stayed home and rested up for what ended up being a big Saturday.

I got to Sessions Fest a little later than I planned after realizing I'd left the house without my phone. Co-dependency at its finest. The crowd slowly gathered at the park and I didn't hesitate to hit the Karl Strauss Stargazer IPA in the beer garden. I came stocked with my two-seater beach chair and a blanket and was happy to set up my post in the beer garden, where I pretty much stayed throughout the entire day.

We couldn't have asked for a nicer day, the cops and security were really cool and supportive of the event, and the music at the festival was also great, but the real highlight for me were the people who showed up. So many people came throughout the day, and though I had nothing to do with the event's preparation, to have so many people say such nice things throughout the day both about the event and about this blog was really nice. I ended up helping on the kegs for some of the afternoon, so thanks to anyone who bought beer and was patient with us as we tried to get the kegs right and allowed my cup to cup pours, it was my pleasure to serve you. The whole day made me really feel part of an amazing and supportive community.

When I take pictures, I usually only upload a few, but just this once, I've uploaded all of them, viewable here.

Most important, I can't stress enough that this event was put on by Sophie. Throughout the day, people asked me questions about the event and people seemed to be under the impression that "the city" had something to do with it. Not so. Sophie got the sponsors (Karl Strauss & SESAC), booked the bands, went through all the city's hoops for permitting (which, incidentally, make it easier to just not do an event because there are A LOT of hoops), hired the security, rented the port-a-potties, paid the insurance, paid the keg deposit, and paid for those cops to be there all day. On top of that, there's the stage, the soundboard, the sound engineers, the lighting, the amps, etc. While I'm sad Sophie has made the decision not to have Sessions Fest again, she really deserves some massive credit for the amazing event, and hopefully the community steps up and takes the reins on similar events in the future. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And to Scott, Josh, and everyone else involved, it was a pleasure.


God, the Emmy Awards are making this post sound like a goddamn acceptance speech. Enough of all that, here are the pictures.


The Corvinas

Free SESAC nuts

Wild Weekend

Nick, Fifty On Their Heels

The Punkboard was represented, too

Red Pony Clock

Al Guerra, 91X Loudspeaker Host

May*Star

Andrew, Swedish Models

Some punk rock poseur (Just kidding. Happy Birthday, Adam!)

MC Flow

Flow's "Incredible" Fans

The Atoms

Fifty on Their Heels

Sadly, when Habitat Sound System and Pizza! (formerly the New Motherfuckers) played, we were busiest in the garden, so I didn't get the chance to take pics of them but they sounded great from behind the taps.

The night ended right around 10 pm and the cops and security were kind to allow us to give out the remainder of the beers and go a little past 10. I stayed a bit but headed off to my next destination- to see The Vision of A Dying World at the Beauty Bar.

Incidentally, I lost my ring. It's silver with tiny little sapphires in it. It was a birthday present from my dad and means more to me sentimentally than it could to anyone else monetarily, so if anyone happened to find it, please let me know.

Thursday Recap: Swim Party & Austin James Band, The Corvinas

As anyone who regularly reads this site knows, Thursday was a really strange day for me on account of this blog. In a day I went from about 250 hits to almost 10 times that because of my experience with Band of Horses, my posts about it all, and then an interview of Ben Bridwell by Pitchfork. I opted to not respond to commenters and I still won't, because most likely, they've come and gone and are now hating on the next indie nation whatever. I feel like that's all subsided now and while I appreciate many of the comments, I will keep my thin skin and my Mexican temper, thank you very much. It's who I am.

Anyway, it was nice that night to be surrounded by friends at my various stops of the night. Swim Party were already playing when I arrived, but I walked in on my favorite song so I was happy. I was also told that I could video whatever I wanted, though I guess I have to edit it down since the two songs I captured went over the 100 meg limit on YouTube.



The band sounded so great and they've added some light trees to their light boxes making for a better looking stage than the 4 Beauty Bar lights can provide on their own. As I mentioned in the other recap, a couple of the guys from Adam Franklin's band stuck around a couple days. Actually one of em missed his flight and I hear it was a great story, but that's neither here not there. So it was nice to chat with them a litle bit at the Beauty Bar.

The Austin James Band played after Swim Party and had these killer harmonies. And not just a couple of them, but the entire band including the drummer would join in. Their second song was a cover of Jumpin Jack Flash and in between their mostly originals, they'd throw in another cover that were singalong worthy. They have the look of a hippie jam band, but I loved their soaring harmonies and am glad I stuck around. I also liked how, much like Swedish Models, the band moved around a lot, switching up instruments between one another. I didn't ever find out if one of them is actually Austin James, but it didn't really matter.






Matt Binder's doppelganger?

Once the bands ended, I headed to Kadan for CatDirt's show, but I missed FOTH. I was in time for The Corvinas who rocked the enthusiastic crowd.





It was kinda claustrophobic for me, so I ended up talking with David the door guy about the shooting that occurred a week before around the corner from the bar. He was really nice and had a lot of strong opinions about the situation. Until the investigation is complete, however, he wasn't really passing judgment. A friend of mine wrote on his blog that there wasn't crime in the area until the A/C lounge opened and brought douchebags to the neighborhood. I didn't buy his argument, and neither did the door guy, who recounted instances of crime associated with the former tenants, Your Place. Bad shit happens everywhere.

After that, I returned inside to hang out for a little longer and then was on my way to close my evening at the Ken feeling better about all the drama that had occurred just a few hours before.

Recap...the rest of the weekend

Look, I'm only human. Cullen says I'm unguarded and it's true, but I can only be me. But sometimes that means being sensitive, grumpy, angry, and generally unbearable. It's these times you should hope I'm hiding at home under my covers with Ryan Adams' new CD on repeat (which for at least part of my weekend, I did). The Band of Horses show irked me big time. It's nice to hope being called out is something you can just brush off, but the truth is I probably slept about an hour last night because that and other weekend stuff was on my brain and I tossed and turned all night long. I appreciate all the people who messaged me about my rant and understood my need to vent about it. Fortunately I can predict that my funk was just a weekend thing and by the time I'm watching Jim James tonight at the Belly Up, everything will be all good again.

I did mention that the Band of Horses pre-show was a good time, so I want to still post a couple funny pictures we took out on the patio while the two opening bands did their thing.









Other than that video on the other post, BoH gets no pictures posted. Sorry. Once the incident occurred, we booked it outta there. We headed to the Ken Club and were able to catch most of Fifty on Their Heels and all of Vinyl Radio.







It was good to see friendly faces; for me that means friends and the bartenders, I'm sorry that other people continue to have issues there.



It's not that I measure the bar with a different stick, it's just I've never personally experienced any problems there. Yes, the sound could be better. The band room could use a couple good lights, some a/c, and better sound equipment. Don't even mention the constant suggestion that the bathroom needs more stalls. I know all this. But then it wouldn't exactly be a dive bar, would it? And vodka tonics would cease to be $3 bucks. And when all of you aren't there for a show, us locals are the ones in there essentially keeping the lights on. Just the way it goes. Also, the sound isn't nearly so terrible if you buy some good earplugs. Just a suggestion you might consider.

Saturday was Sophie's birthday at the Beauty Bar and I thought I was in a better mood butI guess I really wasn't, so I did my best to fake it. It was nice to get there early (thanks for the drinks, CatDirt) so one could actually have a conversation before the DJs raised the volume to 11 and all parts of a conversation are prefaced with "what? I can't hear you!"





When the bands started, I watched passively. During the Vultures I was tucked in the back where there was a gap in space and I could breathe. I did take a couple pictures of Fifty, but since I'd just seen them the night before, I was pretty passively watching them, too. I stuck around as long as I could, but while attempting to pass the dancefloor, I got popped in the face...a definite sign I was not supposed to be there one second longer. Learn from my lesson...do NOT attempt to pass by the dancefloor while sipping your drink. A flailing conversive arm came up under my drink and slammed my plastic cup into my bottom lip while drawing a tiny speck of blood from biting my lip. The boy whose enthusiactic gesture knocked my drink was very apologetic and he raced to get me napkins (in case there was more blood) and then promptly replaced my drink, so it definitely wasn't any bad on his part, just wrong place at the wrong time, but when the cosmos speak, I listen and I bid adieu to the birthday party.

When I got to the Ken Club (I didn't say I was totally done for the night), Roxy Jones was playing in the band room. "Don't you dare bring out that camera," Peter joked, but it wasn't coming out anyway. The BoH thing definitely knocked me down a few pegs and I'm gonna be a little shier with the camera, I suspect.

Anyway, nothing particularly exciting on Sunday, unless you wanna hear how easy it is to drop serious cash at Target on kitty litter and toiletries. I watched the very hilarious and ridiculous "Sweet 16: The Movie" after catching pieces of the "Blingest Sweet 16" countdown. The winner: the son of Pebbles whose dad is a record exec...they spent over a half million dollars on his party. It's really disgusting actually, and I hate myself for watching any of it. Feeling shame, I realized that I should make something of my night and finally saw Firethorn play at the Zombie Lounge.

I was happy that when I walked up, the guys were all outside and hadn't played. I missed the opener, but did get to catch the full set of Tigers of Wrath. The singer's voice was a little high on the register for me considering his speaking voice was deeper, and he would pull his head away from the mic as a sound effect, which didn't really work for me. When he did belt it out and directly into the mic, they sounded 10 times better. They're doing a west coast tour, so I hope the experience helps them and I can catch them





Firethorn played next and I liked that they were more melodic than 97% of the bands who play the Zombie. That doesn't make them soft, it just means they actually sing instead of just yell. There were as many girls there to see them as guys, which I think definitely says something positive about the band. Plus, they're three of the nicest guys and completely supportive of other local bands with a near perfect attendance record for Tim Pyle's events, supporting all genres of local music.







I didn't stay for Someday Assassin thinking I was completely tired and then as I mentioned, I slept maybe an hour total waking up at least 30 times. It was pretty awful. Maybe I should've stayed and done a shot to knock me out... next time...

Weekend Recap: FoTH, New MFs, Mad BB, URTCL, etc.

As I mentioned on Friday, I went into the weekend not feeling particularly well, so I was quite comfortable sticking around the 'hood all weekend. Fortunately, that means I can still have a good time and get plenty of rest, too. Friday I was going to just walk to the Ken, but when CatDirt invited me to the show, I couldn't say no. So I headed to the Beauty Bar and watched the New Motherfuckers and Fifty of Their Heels. I felt the New Motherfuckers were a little more reserved than they were at the Ken Club, but I really like them. This time I'd say they were less Talking Heads/Devo and more taking a step in their own unique sound which is a good sign for any band.





Fifty on Their Heels got the crowd going as usual and Junior managed despite his mic stand repeatedly sagging so he had get underneath it to sing into it.







During "I am The Riot", Junior jumped into the crowd with his mic and let the New Motherfuckers take over on vocals.



After the set, it was nice to talk to the guys from The North Atlantic, but after a while I just had to get outta there. I can only handle so much BB in a night, you know? I've gone back and forth with my feelings about that place, but really, until that one bartender is cut, I'll never feel completely comfortable there. You know the one...the one that looks right at you with your money in your hand and still won't serve you a drink.

I made my way back to the Ken Club but I'd missed the bands, so just hung with some friends until closing time.

Saturday was the peak of my cold but I wasn't gonna let it stop me. In the evening I went to Ponce's for Cinco de Mayo. They had a special menu of small servings of food, like mini taquitos, TJ style tacos, mulitas, nachos, and quesadillas priced $3-$5 to go with their drink specials. Some tables were taken out to make room for higher tables for mingling. I had a couple margaritas and some food and was feeling the Cinco de Mayo energy. A friend cancelled plans to go watch the fight, so I asked around and found out Rodrigo, who works at Ponce's was getting it. I went to the gathering at his house with about 15 other people as Mayweather defeated De La Hoya in a split decision fight. I found the fight kinda boring considering all the shit talking that lead up to it.

After the fight, I made my way to the Ken Club which had $2 margs all night. The bar was pretty crowded but it was definitely a good time. I hopped between the bar and the band room, but only caught 2 of the 4 bands.

Madison Bloodbath are from the Inland Empire and play guitar driven rock/punk. I liked them, but I couldn't sit still, so I watched just a few songs then made my way back to the $2 happy juice.




The next band I actually saw was Underground Railroad to Candyland. Early on they played a sped up version of New Order's "Age of Consent" and got the crowd's early attention. There were a couple piñatas making their way around the room and the room was really energetic.

Overall it was a great night at the bar...cheap drinks, bumped into old friends, and evev met some new ones (thanks for the drinks, Christopher). Gotta say it was a good night.

Sunday I took my dog to the Healing Arts festival. We got there as Steve Poltz finished up and I was surprised that after all these years, Steve still gets such a huge response from people lining up to meet him and say hi after.

I bumped into some friends there, but my dog wasn't happy with the crowd and all the free massages had been booked, so after walking around to all the booths, I left. Later I was supposed to have gone to the Belly Up, but I decided staying home with HBO was a better alternative. This is another packed week of good stuff so let's get on with the week, shall we???