Sat Recap II: The Silent Comedy @ Hard Rock Hotel & Blitzen Trapper @ Casbah, 3.1.08

Saturday I felt really lucky to not only have a good game plan for the day leading into night, but I was able to find out set times so I could time things out perfectly. I arrived at the Hard Rock Hotel and after a little run around figuring out which entrance went up to the show, we got in quite breezily. Basically for the show, the entire 2nd floor was closed off for attendees, so people were hanging out all over. I got in touch with my host and he met us in the hall and hooked me up with a stack of drink tickets. Big thanks! While we were talking to him, he got word from downstairs that the show had officially sold out. 400 paid tickets at $15 a pop. Not too shabby for an all local show, I'd say.



I thought it was really cute that all the staff and bartenders were wearing Dirty Sweet shirts. After saying hi to a few friends, we made our way to the front for The Silent Comedy who gave another great performance, and it was nice to finally have real stage lighting so I could limit my camera flashes. They sounded great and I think the room really worked well for this kind of show.










When the band finished, we hung around for a little bit before my cell phone alarm told me it was time to head to the Casbah so as not to miss Blitzen Trapper. Dag stayed to watch Dirty Sweet, and I went off to hail a cab.

I was at the Casbah just a few minutes later and the band was just getting started, sounding just as awesome as they did the last two times I saw them at Cane's and Casbah, respectively, though my pictures are a whole bunch of suck.





It was a good time and I was grateful that Abraham was there and saved me a $30 cab ride home. And that's how my whirlwind Saturday drew to a close, hanging out at my house, rambling to my dear friend until my eyes couldn't stay open any longer. With all the activity, I have to say it was one of the best Saturdays I've had in a while and it makes me all that much more excited for yet another beautiful weekend in San Diego.

I mentioned that I worked the Filter show on Sunday at the Casbah, but to be completely honest, the show felt very, I don't know, disengaging? The band didn't hang around and were quickly ushered onstage and then immediately off when it ended. I was told it was their first sober show ever, and the night really felt absent of energy, though that could be because I was on the patio the whole night. I didn't even bother going into the venue to take pics. I've been mellow the rest of this week, though I'll post the pics from the Vinyl Radio reunion later this week. Till then, I'm shutting down and calling it a night.

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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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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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Catching Up: ASR, Iglu & Hartly @ Bondi, A Scribe Amidst The Lions @ Casbah

Thursday was a good day, though that's the day I discovered my computer's adapter was busted which left me with cyber-paralysis. I left work a little bit early so I could get home and try to make it downtown before ASR shut down, but that didn't quite work out. By the time Andrea and I arrived it was just before 6, so I secured a yellow zone parking spot and we went to the convention center in time to get our ASR badges before the registration desk shut down.

The main floor was closed, but there was a "Green" party upstairs- all the eco-friendly, earth-conscious vendors of hemp clothing, herbal remedies, and surf and skateboards made from renewable resources were in one room. We perused the booths, then made our way to the back corner where there was a kind of relaxation zone with massage tables. The vendors had these mats that are made of broken up bits of amethyst. There's a slight DC charge and the rocks heat up, making a heating pad, but it also supposedly creates an effect of putting UV rays of light through your body. I'm not all new agey, but after just 20 minutes lying on the mat with a washcloth of aromatherapy over my eyes, and I felt renewed. To make it even cooler, the rep told us he specializes in sound therapy, and proceeded to play a didgeridoo over our bodies. The vibrations from "the didge" felt amazing, like I'd just gotten a massage. I was gonna link to the site to purchase a mat, they're like $1600 and I lost the brochure. Sorry.

After our moment of chilling out, we hit up some small servings of the free organic food in the buffet and watched the Mattson 2, this duo of twins who look straight outta the OC and reminded me of music from Happy Days. Apparently they've opened for Jack Johnson, so you kinda know what crowd they're going for, and I suppose were quite appropriate for ASR.

Here's some pics from all that action:




After that we headed to the Hard Rock Hotel, where there was a party for some surf company. We thought our badges got us in, but apparently there was a list, so Andrea did the talking and got us in, but the hostesses, as downtown hostesses are, you know, in the position of being God and all, didn't give us the two drink tickets per person that the listed people were getting. No matter. We bought a round of drinks and stood around. The place is not for me. Stark black inside with too many crystal beads to refract what little light is in the club, 15 hostesses standing around gossipping, and all the bartenders are chicks- there to look hot but to pour the shittiest drinks on the planet for $10 a pop. A big, giant fuck that from this broad. Since we'd only snacked at ASR, we made friends with one of the catering girls who made sure we at least got plenty of the tray passed appetizers before we sucked down our drinks and got the hell out of there.

We realized we probably had a lot of time before Iglu & Hartly would play at Bondi, so we stopped in at Dussini and made our way upstairs to the bar. Kim, one of the bartenders there, won bartender of the year in Citybeat's "Best Of" issue, but more important, my mom has taken care of her daughter since she was a teeny tiny baby, so we chatted with her and she made us some lovely cocktails, definitely compensating for the shitty drinks we had at Hard Rock.

We didn't really know when stuff would get under way at Bondi, so we headed over to check it out. We got a couple drinks. Not quite as expensive as we expected, but again with the weak pours. WTF is it with downtown bars and how does anyone even get buzzed? Andrea asked for a jack with a "splash" of coke and the guy put too much in, so he was gonna toss it, but she made him give it to her AND give her what she was actually paying for, so I guess that was our score for the night. We found a table and chilled there for a while, then decided to make our way into the space where the band was going to perform.

We finally got word that they'd start at 10, but then at 10 they came onstage and said they'd be on in a half hour. That wasn't gonna work for us, so we found a couple guys in the band and the manager and told them we had other places to be. We were being brats, I realize, but c'mon. Those drinks sucked balls and on top of it, they ran out of Jack. HOW DO YOU RUN OUT OF JACK? Anyway, the band hit the stage around 10:15 and they were so fun to watch, we got over our rip-off woes for at least the time while they were onstage.













They're this kinda dancey rock band from LA, mixed with some white boy raps about pajamas and partying and partying in your pajamas and with a ton of hooky, catchy sing-a-long verses. The band has the LA hipster thing going against them("You can't wear the gold shoelace in your hair- I was gonna wear my gold shoelace in my hair!") but if you can get past the look, they really are a fun party band and would go over really well at Beauty Bar or U-31. I've been "myspace friends" with them for some time, I think Indie 103 has had them play some LA events. I also ended up with about 10 horrible pictures of asscrack. Apparently underwear are out. I didn't get the memo. The crowd was getting pushy and the stage was tiny, so the guitarist and bassist were on the floor directly in front of me. I tried to back off the crowd as much as I could since the bassist had a brace on his leg from ACL surgery, but at one point, the crowd fell toward the stage, the band fell toward the crowd, and one of the dudes ended up bloody. He didn't even notice and they played on. All in all, I'm glad we saw the band and they gave us some CDs on the way out, but I doubt I'll find myself at Bondi anytime soon.

Finally the show ended and we made our way to the Casbah. Where, as I mentioned, REAL bartenders pour REAL drinks. Huge love to Emily. You never realize what you've got till you ain't got it, ya know?

We were there in time to catch A Scribe Amidst The Lions. In the past I've seemed to miss them, or caught fragments of their sets and just wasn't into it, but this time, seeing them start to finish, I was really impressed and look forward to seeing them again. They seem to have tightened up their sound and are less space jammy than I recalled from the past.






Most important, it was great to close the night at a bar that is home. Like I said before, I didn't experience any "bro" attitudes downtown (though a cab of chicks did pass by screaming "hey, baby" at some guys walking down the street), but the attitude of waitstaff, doorguys, and bartenders is enough to steer me clear from any of those places again. Give me the Ken Club or Casbah any day. Oh, and to finish my night, after making it back to Kensington, I stopped in at the Ken Club just to show my love. A great night, indeed.

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