StayClassy.org Tailgate with Flobots

StayClassy is a social group that puts on events around San Diego and donates proceeds to local charities. They're having their 3rd annual tailgate party on July 12. Through next Thursday, tickets are only $10. That includes the tailgate party (at the lot adjacent PetCo Park ) featuring FloBots, Doomtree w/P.O.S., Dirty Sweet, Lady Dottie & The Diamonds, and Stepping Feet. The ticket also includes a ticket to the Padres game that evening, as well as an afterparty at the Fleetwood with Shark Attack.

Click here for tickets and more information.

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Dirty Sweet Winner Announced

Thanks to everyone who entered to win tickets to Dirty Sweet, The Silent Comedy and The Sess at the Hard Rock Hotel. Congratulations to Tony S for being my winner.

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MSTRKRFT Tickets Are Gone; Still Tickets To Dirty Sweet

Just wanted to congratulate Martin W for being the winner to tonight's MSTRKRFT show.

For the rest of you, fret not, tickets are only $20 and if booty shakin is your thing, I think you should check out the show, just know that you're in for a late night. Best start coughing at work now so its more believable when you call in sick tomorrow.

I will draw my winner for the Dirty Sweet/Silent Comedy/The Sess show at the Hard Rock tomorrow afternoon, so it's not too late to enter. Let me just say, it helps to follow directions.

Send an e-mail with "Dirty Sweet" as the subject. Include your full name and a phone number where you can be reached. I can't tell you how many people I didn't include in the drawing because they didn't even put contact info. Send the email to sddialedin AT gmail DOT com. 21+ only.

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Hard Rock Hotel Presents: MSTRKRFT 2/28, Dirty Sweet 3/1

Surprise, surprise- I didn't quite get to all the writing I thought I would on Sunday, so I'm now even more behind than usual. I'll post about the shows I went to over the weekend later this evening, along with the full listings for the week, but for now, I wanted to remind everyone that I've got a pair of MSTRKRFT tickets for Thursday night and a pair of Dirty Sweet tickets for Saturday. I will choose my MSTRKRFT winner at random by 5 pm on Wednesday, so it's not too late to enter. (email sddialedin AT gmail DOT com)

I had the opportunity to do a tour of the Hard Rock Hotel this past weekend and I think people will be impressed. I had been to Sweetwater, one of the bars owned by Cindy Crawford's beau, but we know that I'm just not down with NY and LA style clubs in SD, so I probably should've just skipped that whole experience. This time around, we got to check out some of the conference rooms that will be used as concert rooms. There is supposed to be a full fledged music venue, but it wasn't really clear if it's just being held back or if plans somehow changed last minute. Of course, as Hard Rock's go everywhere, there is a good amount of rock memorabilia throughout all of the hallways, including a whole hall of Beatles and Stones stuff.

The first room we saw is called "The Edge". It's the corner of the building, as a music venue will hold about 400, and has beautiful floor to ceiling windows, spaced about 5 feet apart along the two external walls, giving pretty views of the convention center and 5th Avenue below. The room wasn't set up with a stage- but I'm pretty sure Hard Rock knows how to convert a room- so this will be the room used on Saturday for Dirty Sweet, The Silent Comedy, and The Sess.

The second room we looked at was a much larger room that can be divided in up to 6 separate meeting rooms. It's called "Legends" and is the room that MSTRKRFT will be using on Thusday night. There are large white panels on all the walls that look like TV projection screens, but in fact are part of the acoustic setup. We were told that this room can hold about 700 with the full stage. I imagine with all the staging and lighting and the type of music going down on Thursday, if you're even just intrigued by dance music, this is probably an event for you.

After showing us the main rooms, we went up to the Terrace, checked out the bar and pool up there, and the "rock wall" inside the hotel that has some of the most recognizable band logos in rock history, including some surprises like NOFX and OKGo,among RHCP, The Sex Pistols,etc. The wall is very visually stimulating.

I was encouraged by the tour of the Hard Rock Hotel. I was mostly impressed when our host told me that for shows, the bars would be handled differently then the regular bars. He couldn't tell me prices, but assured me drink prices would be reasonable (he read my complaints about $10 vodka tonics at Sweetwater). "We can't expect people to drop $20 for a concert ticket and then another $10 per drink."

The other thing that impressed me is that the venue is circumventing Ticketmaster prices by making their tickets only available at the hotel concierge desk. $20 even gets you into MSTRKRFT, who will be joined by LA Riots, San Diego's own "Shark Attack" DJs, and Walter Meego. There's also a live art show. The whole thing goes down from 8pm-2am on Thursday, with MSTRKRFT hitting the stage at midnight.

For Saturday night, $15 even gets you in the door to see some of San Diego's finest...Dirty Sweet, The Silent Comedy, and The Sess. Or you can e-mail me and hope to win my pair of tickets...

Either way, I hope people take the time to check out the Hard Rock for some of the shows they're booking. I'm a little torn, personally, because I had other plans for Saturday night, but I might try and work it into my plans because I think Silent Comedy will blow up that room.

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SXSW Lineup Announced: More San Diego Bands

Here's the full list from Rolling Stone

I posted this post a couple weeks ago with the list from Austinist.

Here's the San Diegans who made the list on Rolling Stone:

Augustana
Tom Brosseau (out of LA now)
Correatown (Angela Correa was a San Diegan)
AJ Croce
Delta Spirit (listed as Orange County)
Dirty Sweet
Earthless
Grand Ole Party
Greg Laswell
Kush & Jah Bloodfiyah Angels
The Muslims
The Prayers
John Reis (The Night Marchers)
The Shining Path
Steve Poltz

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Street Scene Saturday: Recap & Photos

When I woke up on Saturday morning, it was to the sound of a heavy downpour of rain and I was scared that Street Scene was going to be cursed. I waited for friend of mine to pick up tickets from my house, so I got to Street Scene later than expected. I was disppointed to see that the venue forced everyone through the south entrance Coors Amphitheater and around, two cars at a time into one parking lot, but I got over it because the weather had cleared up and I was in a good mood.

Entering the venue, I was pleased that I arrived in time to catch most of Dynamite Walls set.







The band was able to get me an artist guest pass for the day, so after their set, we went backstage to the artist area where I explored the areas. There were movie trailer lined up so that every artist had a private lounge, but they're relatively small so we went to the artist tent. We thought it was funny how Street Scene spelled the band's name.



After some time in the artist lounge, I wandered off on my own and watched Dirty Sweet for a while.









It was funny to see that people were lining up for the Pacific Stage which was the actual amphitheatre stage. Lining up was really unnecessary because there were very few times that the staff stopped allowing the flow of traffic into the pit, but the diehards wanted to guarantee their spots.



I caught a bit of Schwayze's set too.



But the appeal of Street Scene for me ended up mostly being the artist lounge.


Dynamite Walls


Fair to Midland


Punk Rock Kid

Then we hung out with Augustana for a bit.









I caught Jaguares for a minute, too.



Then backstage again where I ran into Notorious R.U.G. and Kid Lightning



And everyone in the backstage seemed to like it that MIMS was hanging out.



Here's the Setlist for Jaguares that was being unloaded backstage.



Then I snapped some pics of Dirty Sweet.





Then I just kinda went crazy snapping pics-





I was having such a good time (maybe too much) that I didn't even really explore the other stages at the festival, with the exception of some of Ozomatli.











After wandering, we were hanging backstage and saw this, but it turns out it was not a real injury but was "staged" for one of the bands. I'm not even sure which.



My friend and I ended up on a stage platform during Jack's Mannequin, which is where I recorded that sketchy video that I posted earlier.





That is pretty much the end of my photos from Saturday. It was a great night, though I'm sad to say I didn't last for Muse. I was pooped and knew Sunday was gonna be a big day. I have to say that I was pleased overall with Street Scene. I will say that the guest pass made it amazing, but I thought the food vendor prices were reasonable to the general public and it was nice to use Coors Amphitheatres plentiful and spacious bathrooms instead of port a potties like the old days. I guess if I hadn't had a pass, I would've enjoyed the event a bit less because I would've grumbled over the $10 price of beer, but really if that is the only complaint, I'd have to say it was a success.

What I've been told is that this was Street Scene's final year. The reason LiveNation stepped in was so they could buy the Street Scene name, then bury the name, and replace it with a large festival of some sort next year and similar in scope. Maybe so, or maybe the word will spread that the people there had a great time and they'lll keep Street Scene in this format in the future.

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