CoViD-19: Support National Independent Venue Association Fight To #SaveOurStages

The empty Casbah stage with a sold out room. This is from the Nada Surf show in January

You may or may not know that I'm responsible for the content of the Casbah's weekly newsletters. This week, I was tasked with taking a little bit of the Belly Up's newsletter and a little bit of Joe Rinaldi's Music Box newsletter to create the Casbah's newsletter. Please take action to contact your representatives. It's preformatted and easy to do. Click here to take action:

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT VENUES.

If you love live music and have wanted to help your favorite small venues, NOW is the time YOU can help in a major way!

Casbah joined the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) when it formed in response to the COVID-19 crisis.  NIVA has linked 1,200 independent venues and promoters across the country, and has joined their voices at the level necessary to get the attention of our congressional leaders.

This organization has a step that asks you, our fans, to use the link below to send an email to your congressional leaders to remind them that it is not only the venues and artists, but the fans they serve that require congress to support the venues put at risk by this crisis.

This email process is very quick to complete, and allows you to tell your representatives that Casbah, Soda Bar, Bar Pink, Music Box, Belly Up,  and every other small venue in town need to have every possible chance to reopen on steady footing at the end of the COVID-19 crisis.

It’s going to require that we show a substantial amount of support and initiative to explain to members of congress (who may not actively participate in live music) that our industry will require special attention, as one of the most challenged sectors of the San Diego economy, in order to survive and continue to be an asset to the community after the crisis.  We sincerely think you are our best advocates.

Thank you for everything, and just know that we can’t wait to reopen and host your favorite bands in our rooms.

We've been told that we only have until Wednesday to gather support, so please click and join our fight.

#SaveOurStages

Some articles for reading:

• My post on NBC: National Organization Asks for Support for Local Music Venues
• Our Industry isn’t coming back like yours is. - Medium
• Without Federal Aid, More than 1,000 U.S. Music Venues Are in Danger of Closing - Rolling Stone 
• Dave Grohl: The Day the Live Concert Returns - The Atlantic

SoundDiego: Local Nightclubs Get Creative to Help Struggling Staffers

I miss my friends. 

I wrote a little article for something that is especially close to my heart... Casbah's current effort to sell merch, with proceeds going to a staff relief fund. Other venues have stepped up, too. If you wanna buy merch, the links are below and in the article.

Casbah
Soda Bar
Bar Pink - will be open Fri/Sat from 7-9pm selling merch, to-go alcohol
Brick By Brick
Music Box
Belly Up
Blonde Bar
Whistle Stop (Virtual Tip Jar)

This Saturday: Meet Some Intense Individuals at Brick By Brick

[The event, photos, video and writeup below were provided by my friend Greg Gibson. Anything to help you achieve your maximum intensity.- rosey]

When was the last time you saw Colonel Sanders waltz on stage with a bucket of KFC's best and dance the sweet dance of victory with Boy George and Simone from Pee-Wee's Playhouse, while two unassuming Mormon Sister-Wives watched in disgust? I'm guessing never. This is the kind of thing that happens at The Intense Individual Party, an annual costume party for charity thrown by San Diego writer and producer, Lisa Comrie. Every year, more than two hundred people show up - in costume, in character, and INTENSE.
Since it's inception in 2002, the party has seen everything from Bob Ross painting enormous happy trees on canvas to an entire cloister of nuns arriving in a limo to The Abbey in Banker's Hill and chanting from the balcony. Every year, people seem to take their costumes, their in-character performances, and most importantly, their creativity, to the next level for this unbelievable night.

At face value, The Intense Individual Party could be described as an outrageously fun party where you can dress and act like the intensely awesome celebrity, politician, character, or friend who you've been admiring and/or imitating for years. Honestly, though, it's so much more than that. At its core, this night is really about giving people a chance to express their individuality and creativity in a way they might not be able to otherwise. Lisa Comrie started blogging about intense individuals in 2005 as a way to document the intensity she saw happening everywhere around her. Intense Individuals is about looking at the world through a different lens, finding the intensity in both extraordinary and everyday events and people. Last, but certainly not least, proceeds from The Intense Individual Party go to the L.A. chapter of Dave Eggers' wonderful nonprofit tutoring, writing, and publishing organization, 826, whose goal is to assist students ages six to eighteen with their writing skills, and to help teachers get their classes excited about writing. Rad!!



The Intense Individual Party takes place at Brick by Brick this Saturday (01/29) at 8PM. Tickets are $20 at the door. So get your costumes ready, click the flyer for the event below to RSVP on Pingg, and make sure to watch the INTENSE video invite for this year's party featuring a very special guest! Visit http://www.intenseindividuals.com/ or http://www.facebook.com/intenseindividuals for more info.

Contest: Backup Johnny Swag

This Sunday night, Marcy Playground will be taking the stage at Brick by Brick, joined by Bakersfield band Backup Johnny. The band is offering some special goodies for SD:Dialed In readers and I wanted to pass the info along.




Grand Prize: T-Shirt, signed Dive album, and a bunch of stickers.
(Winner gets to choose from these 3 designs)




If you buy a ticket from the banner ad on this site, you will receive an email from the band. When you get that email, mention that you read about the contest here and you'll be entered. The band will announce a winner via email, MySpace, and on SD:Dialed In. The winner will be a random draw out of a hat.

The winners can pick up all of their free stuff at the show.

Additionally, the band is looking for people to give us honest reviews of the Dive album, positive or negative. If you're interested in reviewing the album, send me an email with your mailing address and I'll pass along the information.

I know there's a ton going on this weekend with Street Scene and all, but by Sunday you should go get your Sex and Candy on at the Brick and check out some catchy pop tunes with Marcy Playground & Backup Johnny.

Foals, Maps + Atlases, Crocodiles - Brick By Brick- 5.25.08

It ended up being a really chill weekend for me. I spent most of Saturday in Chula Vista with my family. We grilled and tried to keep up with the kids...Johanna is 9 months and trying to walk, Claudia is 9 and constantly entertains, and Jasmyne is 5 and responds to "what are you doing?" with a little sass. "Nunya!" "What's nunya?" "None ya business!", then she cracks up. I was there all day and when I got home I was wiped out. It was 9:30 and I thought I'd rest a little, but an hour later, I realized there was nowhere I'd rather be than in my bed. And it was nice. My first Saturday home in ages.



Sunday was more of the same, only we went to my sister's house in PB. I really get bothered when people talk incessantly about the weather and we cracked up because here we were in PB where it was blue skies and sunny, with a cool breeze, and the news crawl said that "dismal" weather had "ruined" Memorial Day weekend. What a bunch of pussies San Diegans can be. Wear a hoodie and stfu. Seriously. May Gray. Get over it. We went up to Kate Sessions Park for a while, too, to let the kids run around, and it was beautiful. The park was packed and we realized that since the beach booze ban, people have taken it to the parks, where it is legal to drink until 8pm (most city parks). A bunch of 20 somethings were playing kickball while a huge gathering celebrated a kid's birthday party. The view from Kate Sessions was beautiful, we could see the mountains out east, the ocean out west, the downtown skyline to the south and even further south, Mexico.



I left PB well in time to arrive at the Casbah for the FM 94/9 end of the month show. I saw some friends, had a michelada, and had some of the free Mexican grub. I caught Jamuel Saxon who opened the show, but had to split because I was told Crocodiles were starting at 9pm at Brick By Brick. I was a little bummed when I got there that they weren't actually going on until 9:30 but no big deal.

I don't know what everyone's deal is with Brick By Brick...maybe I still just have a soft spot from when a friend and I used to hang out there in college, but I've always liked it, although there were some years under different ownership where all the shows were hard rock...so there's that reputation, but really, I like the venue.

Crocodiles started the show and it was their first real San Diego show, though they played a house party on Friday. It's just Chuck and Brandon, iPod beats, some guitar, and a keyboard that was set up atop a trash can. They played in near darkness, with just a red and teal light on the floor behind them so I decided to not bust out my camera. Next time, boys... I think these guys are immensely talented and they've got such great stage presence, can't wait to see them with some actual lights on them.

I was pleased when I arrived to discover that Maps + Atlases was playing. I fell in love with the band when they played the Casbah a while back with Nurses, before Nurses bailed San Diego to move to Chicago to be with Maps + Atlases. The band is incredible, as much to listen to as to watch because of their unconventional ways of playing their instruments and the funky time signatures. I was bummed that Brick By Brick has 7 great stage lights and only used 3 of them...one green and two red, but here are a couple of pics regardless.




I was happy to see the venue filling up because I've heard of some disappointing shows there of late. Foals came out rockin and never stopped. They play fast dancey music, a la The Rapture, and I have to agree with Seth that they're guitar style is also a bit mathy. Regardless of how they're labeled, I was enthralled.








I was also impressed because one of the guitarist was shoeless on one foot and kept hopping around...whether sprained or broken, his energy never wavered and he danced all over the stage. My guess is that his foot probably felt like shit the next day.

I hung up front as long as I could but I was overwhelmed by the saucy girls, particularly the one who kept trying to have a conversation with the band between each song. "Um, excuse me. Wait, I just wanna tell you something. You guys are AWESOME!" Oh, then she tried to bust a move on Seth. Ha! So we ended up listening to the last few songs of the set on the patio.

When the band finished, I made my way back to the Casbah for Jivewire and people were shitfaced. Some nights I can't take it, but this night was just fine and everyone was cracking me up.

Tim was on the turntables...


I also found out it was Mikey's last night at the Casbah. So sad, but he's off to bigger and better things, heading off to Paris to follow his heart. So sweet and best of luck to him.


After Jivewire a bunch of friends came back to my house and we had a good time getting ridiculous until the wee hours of the morning. Wait, 7 am isn't really wee hours anymore, is it? Eventually most everyone went home until it was just a handful of us and we all ended up crashing in my bed, which suddenly wasn't as roomy.

Later Monday I thought I'd head to a couple BBQs but the sad realization that the weekend was over bummed me out and I thought I should get a clear head and avoid social drinking situations. I did head to the Casbah last night, however, so I'll get to posting those pics soon enough. Now, time to do this week's listings.

Sunday Night Recap: The Small Hours @ Brick By Brick

Every once in a while, and probably not as frequently as I should, I’ll see a band playing in town soon and I’ll check out their MySpace and just fall in love. Such was the case with The Small Hours. Especially endearing is when you contact a band and they’re cool about messaging back and you just know from the get go that they are good people. It had also been a long time since I’d been to Brick By Brick, the last time being when the Honey Brothers played. Christy, the owner/bartender has opened a restaurant next door and I realized just how long it had been since I’ve been there.

Unfortunately and fortunately, the other bands on the bill had cancelled. Bad because a local band might’ve brought more people to the show, good because I was home by midnight so I can write for you now. I had contemplated skipping the show; Sundays are always hard and Swim Party and Calla were playing at the Casbah, but I mustered up the energy and headed to the Morena district.

I am so glad I did.

The Small Hours are a four piece based in LA with two members from the UK and two from here which lets them fit in with the UK sound you’d hear from Starsailor, Keane, and Aqualung, if he were more rockin. Next time they play here, I’d like to see them play with bands like A Weeks Worth, Evervess and Swandive, and maybe Republic of Letters.

It was such a good time because I got to talk to Christy, who I’d not seen since the Music Awards, and met a woman visiting from Austin named Sherry, who then introduced me to her husband, her step daughter Maura, who is the girlfriend of Robin, the lead singer of The Small Hours, and at the end of the night, we all hung around shooting the shit with the band until I had to head home. Talented band and such good people made this a really fun evening. The crowd was very thin and the bar was working at a loss, but for those of us there, there was no losing, because this is definitely a band to see.

I took some pics and stuff to upload on YouTube. I forgot that the stage at Brick By Brick is so huge, so sorry that the video isn’t better and more inclusive of the whole band, but it’s the best I can expect from a camera that is smaller than my wallet. Also, I had to use vmix because my video was too big for youtube, so sorry if the video is riddled with tech issues.
This song is called Sunday.

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I would also like to emphasize that Brick by Brick can and should be a venue better utilized by San Diego bands. It’s not all metal like it was with the previous owners. I’ve seen Fountains Of Wayne and Keane on this stage and more bands should be pestering the owners to get the opportunity to play here.

It’s way beyond bedtime now, so I’m out. I haven’t quite decided if Monday will take me to the Casbah or Scolari’s but between the two, you should not be staying home on Monday night.

My work here is done.

Here's another Vmix video for the song "Kind". Hopefully it works, I've not had good experiences with vmix up to this point.

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Oh, and here's the setlist.

The Rapture: The sky is falling down

Apparently at the Rapture show at Brick by Brick last night, toward the end of the set, a large piece of metal roof grating fell onto the guitar tech. The band continued to play until they realized the seriousness of the incident. A paramedic was called and the show was stopped for about 20 minutes. After being taken to the ER, the show continued for a few more songs. All this according to the guys from the Rapture as reported on tonight's Coup d'tat on 94/9. The tech is still woozy but should be fine. If you were at the show, I'd love to hear audience reaction to the show...