THE HORRORS W/ The Stepkids FRIDAY 9.16.11 CASBAH

As the droves of San Diegans were descending upon Spreckels Theatre downtown Friday night for the first of two sold out shows from Bon Iver, I was headed to the Casbah to see the sold out Horrors show. It's kind of funny how both Casbah presents shows were polar opposites, the sweet sultry vocals of Justin Vernon compared to the dark menacing vocals of Faris Badwin. A contrast of heaven and hell, if you will.

I showed up to the Casbah about 5 minutes into The Stepkids set and went straight in, as I greeted Faris Badwan from the Horrors with a hello and handshake I cringed a little bit. The jazz influenced space jammy psychedelic tunes coming from the stage were just a little too much for me, especially with a white sheet behind them and projections being strewn across their bodies by ex San Diegan David Khan. The first song I heard was probably close to 8 minutes long with a 4-5 minute guitar solo in the middle. Someone tipped me that he was Alicia Keys touring guitarist, which would make a lot of sense. Don't get me wrong, they were entertaining but not my cup of tea and definitely not the reason I was there. They'll be back Sunday October 30th at Soda Bar with Trap Gold so go see for yourself.

One thing I noticed about this night was the lack of prominent faces in the SD music scene, no one was to be found ... the Art Fag set, CityBeat heads, nobody. Instead it was a handful of familiar faces and the spattering of 40-50 somethings with the usual "bros and hoes" mixed in, really random crowd for a show of this caliber. After an hour long interlude, the main room quickly filled up with everyone clamoring for a spot. Forget the spidery androgynous demeanor and spazzy mannerisms - these guys bring it when it comes to live performance, pure and simple. Their new album is a brilliant piece of work, a considerable triumph over their previous and an exciting sampling of their creative evolution. The band opened with the first song off the new album Skying called "Changing The Rain", fearlessly putting their newest foot forward in a challenge to those hung up on the band's earlier sounds. We took the evolution in stride; however, we were delightfully treated with the Primary Colours standout "Who Can Say"played second in the set, bodies writhing in motion, sweat already beginning to pour from peoples pores so early in the set. The night was young and as I was already thrilled at what I had witnessed, they moved back to Skying with "I Can See Through You". The song seemed to be a crowd pleaser and most of the attendees knew every single word to the new album. For the remainder of the night the Horrors flipped back and forth between Skying and Primary Colours leaving out any songs from 2007's Strange House. My favorite of the night would have to be a tripped out version of "Scarlet Fields" in which they had replaced the synths for guitars. If you weren't in attendance this time, the next time they return I'd definitely recommend you going. Loud, dark, brooding, perfectionists, are all words I would use to describe what I had bestowed upon me. This is a band with some serious staying power-- I remember picking up the debut EP in the fall of 2006 and to see their progression at such a young age is quite remarkable. I raise my glass to Horrors and I am proud to be a fan. Special thanks to the Casbah, the guys from Hotel St. George, Rosemary Bystrak, and Donna Chang.


Here's the entire set list:

Changing the Rain
Who Can Say?
I Can See Through You
Scarlet Fields
Dive In
Three Decades
Endless Blue
Sea Within a Sea
Still Life
Mirror's Image
Moving Further Away

Hotel St. George CD Release & Free Album Download

Hotel St. George has a new record and they're giving it away for free this week only on bandcamp. You can download it here, then be sure to check them out tomorrow night at the Whistle Stop for the official release party. They'll be joined by Grand Tarantula. Plus it's Robin Roth's Pussy Galore so you know it's gonna be a blowout. It's a free show so you have no excuses!

White Denim w/ White Arrows & Hotel St. George @ Casbah- 05.24.11

Catching up on some recent shows as I filter through a healthy amount of shots from the past 2.5 weeks...

White Denim made their triumphant return to San Diego playing in benefit of their newly released, exceptionally awesome album D. Los Angeles-based 'tropical crunk' act White Arrows and local boys Hotel St. George set the tone for an evening of good ol' fashioned jam band jamming. More after the jump.


Hotel St. George kicked off the night with a combination of garage rock-y tunes and simple layered vocals to impressive effect. Playing as a third (or fourth) combination of various other local band members, their sound is coming together in a way that should garner them more attention than simply as the opening band for other, more established acts. Now if they can just stick with the lineup as it is currently constituted...

Hotel St. George:

Playing in the midst of a tour that started in early March and made stops all over the country White Arrows took the stage to a rapidly filling Casbah crowd. Frontman Mickey Schiff led the five piece through its psych rock- tinged paces as the other band members helped demonstrate why the buzz around this band is steadily getting louder. The band's energy increased as the show progressed, culminating in a balls-to-the-wall super jam to finish the set that left the crowd in a perfect state of frenzy leading into the headlining act.

White Arrows:

Having last seen White Denim opening for Portugal, The Man at HOB about seven months ago I knew I was in for a treat, but wasn't prepared for how their sound would affect a much more intimate setting. The Austin-based quartet didn't waste any time getting down to business as they tore directly into material off the new album. Combining the best parts of jam-based rock with the outstanding musical talents of all four members, the set consisted mostly of new material while touching here and there on older stuff. What resulted was a incredible show that left a majority of the crowd scrambling for the merch table at the end of the night. If you haven't given these guys a chance in the past, go pick up D as soon as possible and enjoy what might just be the album of the summer.

White Denim:

For more pix from the evening click here and the rest of my concert photography here.
_______________________
All images copyright © Nate Vandermeulen, All Rights Reserved.
Please ask for permission before downloading or linking to them.

SoundDiego Live Presents River City & Hotel St. George

This Thursday night, SoundDiego is back with another free show featuring some great local bands and hosted appetizers and Ketel One vodka from 7-8pm. It is recommended that you RSVP if you wanna take part in the hosted part of the evening as it is limited to 200 people, but the show is free with River City and Hotel St. George providing most of the entertainment for the evening, though I almost feel obligated to ride that mechanical bull and make a complete burro of myself, which should be quite entertaining in and of itself. There will also be a DJ set by T Loper of Owl and Bear and the evening will be hosted by Chris Cantore.

Double Deuce (528 F Street)

Thursday, January 20

7-10:30 pm

FREE!!!

NPMT, Day 2, 8/14/10

I seem to have accidentally deleted my blog post for Day 1, if anyone knows how I can find a cached copy of it, I'd be eternally grateful. the URL is:
http://blog.seemichaelsphotos.com/2010/08/20/north-park-music-thing-day-1-81310.aspx

Anyway, here's a few photos from Day 2 at North Park Music Thing. You can find more on my blog at www.seemichaelsphotos.com. This evening, I made it a point to check out some bands I wasn't very familiar with. But first, a meeting of the best songwriters in San Diego:

New Video: Hotel St George "Little Childrens Bones"

Hotel St. George has been pretty busy with all their music videos lately. Just got this one emailed to me.



And if you missed it, they recently shot one at M-Theory for "That's Why I Drink Every Night".

Rosey's Diary: Another Week in Music (9/5-9/130

I've accumulated a couple more week's worth of photos, so I guess it's time to catch up again. I've posted about the Music Awards, The Rumble, and a couple other things in between, but I'm gonna rewind a little bit, back to the night of the SDRL open house. Because what I forgot to mention was that after that show, I went to Bar Pink to see The Drowning Men. It has been a while since those boys have been written up on sd:di, and I'm not sure why...seems like I've just always got something going on whenever they play, but they're really talented and I'm always struck by their stage presence when I see them. How is it that I don't know these guys? So weird.

The Drowning Men


For the rest of my diary, click 'keep on reading'.


The next day brought about a matinee show at the Casbah, featuring The Thermals & Tape Deck Mountain. This was an especially fun show because it had been a while since I was at a show lined up with a group of friends all up front. I don't know why that is, but seems like for a lot of the touring shows lately, I'm like, "who are all these people?" That's cool and all, I love the diversity of the crowds, but on this night, I was among friends and we all had fun, despite the guy who thought he was in the band that I had to restrain. Tape Deck was rad, and I think it was their first set on the main stage at Casbah, so that was cool. Travis broke his pic and it was funny that I let him borrow my 'pic of destiny' that Evan had given me a few months back that I keep in my hearos case. Pic of Destiny saves the day!

So The Thermals were awesome and I don't think the show sold out completely, but it was packed and everyone seemed to love it; the show was full of sing along moments, including high fives from the bro, that I later found out was a friend of a friend. He was in town from Florida with his band for Awesome Fast. "I thought you were gonna kill him," James said to me after the show. In truth, I was just trying to help him not get tossed by the third song.

The Thermals




After the show, Kevin and I went to Evan's house for his co-birthday party. Despite feeling old as shit watching these 20 somethings throw down some intense games of beer pong and flip cup, it was a fun party in an amazing house among good friends. It was also fun to play some ping pong at the end of the night. I won every game I played but I had a clear sober advantage, so I look forward to playing again when (1) everyone is sober or (2) I'm as shitfaced as they were.

The next day was Labor Day, which also happened to fall on my Dad's birthday. My cousin came down from LA as a last hoorah before she moves to Philadelphia to become the DMM at Free People, a subsidiary of Urban Outfitters. Helloooo, family discount!
We spent most of the day and night with family and I couldn't resist taking a picture of Johanna with her Bratz laptop.

Johanna, Blogger In Training


Later that night, it was time for Anti-Monday League with Republic of Letters, the debut of The Nervous Wreckords, and Hotel St. George. Republic of Letters sounded great after being in the studio for some time. Brian Karscig recorded their forthcoming record and he clearly talked Chris into diversifying a bit, and so there are these really great keyboard parts that never existed before in their music. I loved it and really look forward to the new record. The Casbah was packed for The Nervous Wreckords. The guys from Louis XIV were there to show support which I thought was cool, and the bar was packed for their set. Brian Karscig is at the helm, joined by Maren Parusel on guitar/keys and Shaun Cornell from Transfer among others. The show was a kick off before they joined The Killers for part of their tour. Playing a slew of catchy aongs, they got mixed reviews from the few people I talked to but I dug it and from what I hear, the tour is going well. Hotel St. George closed out the night, but the Casbah seemed to clear out. I know it's tough on a Monday night, especially after a holiday, but it was still a bummer.

The Nervous Wreckords


Tuesday was pretty uneventful. I had to be downtown in the afternoon, so I ended up going downtown with Jake and waiting for him during his weekly gig, grabbing some cheap tacos and beer at La Puerta to catch up with Billy who I know back from his Jewel Box days. God, that was like 10 years ago.

My cousin was still in town, so Wednesday was more family time and birthday dinner for my dad at Point Loma Seafoods, then time chasing down Johanna in the park. Since I haven't been talking about my family as much as I used to on this site, I'll just say that my sister is very close to having her second daughter, expected on October 4. Johanna is going to have a little sister! This time of year is always full of family time because it's my grandma's birthday (9/2) and this year she turned 101! My dad's is 9/7, my mom's is 9/20, I'm 9/28, my cousin is 10/13, and soon we can add Nadia to the group. Johanna is running and talking and bossing people around and has an adorable sense of humor, so she's pretty much a spitting image of me at her age (or so I'm told). Gone are the days when I could take dozens of pictures of her in one sitting. I can barely keep up with her, let alone take pictures while I'm doing it.

Johanna




The next day was the San Diego Music Awards, which I've written about here. But if you'd like to read Seth Combs' ranty rant, click here.

Friday night, it was me and @mcbrandt13 again (Kevin, but I like calling people by their twitter names). He was sick, but was a total trooper and we went to Bar Pink. It was a no photo night for me; just wasn't in the mood. Syndicate opened the show with their synthy 80s sound, followed by Yourself and The Air, a really great band (from Chicago?), but it was late and I couldn't trick Kevin into staying more than 3 songs into their set. (He only planned on going out for 'one drink' in the first place, so he dropped me at Josh's house where we played poker till the wee hours with Josh's brother and his friend and Kitty. I won. I love that I get to publicly rub that in.

Saturday night rolled around and I did merch for Soulsavers. I was so excited to see Mark Lanegan in the flesh for the first time ever, and though I didn't really get to see the show, being there for the soundcheck of Revival gave me chills. I snuck a couple pics, as well as a couple of Jonneine Zapata and her band. I guess my only complaint was that the show might've been better suited for a weeknight, because all three performances were pretty mellow and it seemed like people really wanted to get into the show, but there was something a bit too mellow about the vibe. Jonneine was really cool as was her band, and it was nice to see people spending money on new music.

Soulsavers/Joennine Zapata




I closed up the week hanging out with my family at the Brazilian parade in PB. My sister and her husband spent a lot of time in Brazil and Central and South America, so she always digs the vibe. Me, well, sometimes I realize I'm more conservative than I let on. My eyes were bugged out at the amount of flesh revealed in one parade. I love the drum lines and the capoeira action, and there's tons of dancing going on, but these women shake their near nude bodies in ways I didn't know possible. Craziness.

Brazilian Parade


From there, it was on to The Rumble. I touched briefly on this monthly event, but should say that if you missed it because of the NFL, the VMAs, or the True Blood finale, know that the next one will be a Saturday matinee, on October 10. The Jakes, U.S.E., and Rafter all gave great performances and it couldn't be beat with the free food from Phil's and even some complimentary Trumer Pils for a lucky few. There will be more of the good stuff next month, with three great bands and killer sponsors, so save the date now. You'll be hearing a lot about The Rumble on this site and I'll post the lineup soon.

That wrapped up the last couple weeks. It is only midday Wednesday and I've already got more good stuff for the week, but it's time I get to those weekend listings.

Tonight: Hotel St. George Album Release @ Casbah

Tonight, catch some of San Diego's finest as Hotel St. George releases their new album alongside Writer, Swim Party, and Intricate Machines. The show is only $5!
Catch the feature on Hotel St. George in this week's CityBeat.

New Video: Hotel St. George

Rosey's Diary: 3.3.09-3.11.09

You know, I had a conversation with a friend about blogging and I've been doing this since 2003. Crazy. It all started as these long diary-like posts where I rambled about everything I did and saw and everyone I talked to or hung out with. So while this might be unfamiliar to readers of this site, it's really the most natural way for me to write and the best way to get it done because it feels less like work and more like I'm just chatting with an old friend. That being said, I am picking up where I left off on that last "diary" post...at least I got past February and am finally writing about March, right? I'll probably keep labeling my posts as such, now that there are so many people contributing to this site these days and since someone jumped down my throat for all my "overdue recaps". So to read my 'diary', click 'keep on reading'.


3.3.09: Neko Case @ Casbah, Joel P West & Matt Curreri @ Soda Bar

I already wrote about spending the day at the Casbah for the free Neko Case show and hopefully you were following me on Twitter and were able to make it to the show because it was a good one. Neko Case played a long set and kept the crowd (well, maybe with the exception of photographers) happy, but as it was an early show with no opener, after the show I made my way to catch Joel P. West and Matt Curreri at Soda Bar. I was pretty exhausted from the day, however, so I didn't take photos, rather just hung out with my friends and enjoyed the show.



3.4.09: This was an all internet day for me, save for lunch with some friends at Souplantation and catching up on much needed sleep. This was the day the CityBeat demo review came out, so I have to admit I spent a day digesting the reviews.

3.5.09: It's no secret that I love Twitter and when Burger Lounge offered free fries to their Twitter followers, it seemed as good excuse as any to walk across the street from my apartment and meet some Twitter friends for a nice lunch. From there, Jake and I went to Gelato Vero to catch up with Daye. I also bumped into Josh from Silent Comedy and chatted a bit before heading home for a bit before making my way to TNT to see Writer and Joel P West as the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. The crowd was a little thin at the start, partly because now the City permit requires that the patio be fully enclosed with a temporary fence and open only to those 21 and up, but by the time the music was full swing, there was a healthy crowd there to enjoy both performances.



After the show, I met up with Petro, Kris, and their visiting friends for some beers at their apartment before they called it a night. From there, I joined Jake, Pall, Jimmy, Hoth, Gabriel and a few others who were at Lou Jones before we all walked to Ould Sod and watched some karaoke before it was finally time to call it a night. I know writing about this portion of the night sounds really boring, but in reality it was one of those rare nights that happens when you least expect it. I guess I should just thank those guys for letting me be a part of it.

3.6.09: Friday I woke up with a sore throat and a cold but I wasn't going to let it stop me from my evening plans. In retrospect that might've been a mistake because I got my ass kicked with illness, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

The night started picking up Dagart, meeting at Alex's, then grabbing Natalie on our way to National City for Hotel St. George @ X1FM Open Door Session.
Here are a couple pics I took:





Local Bands should all be trying to get on the Open Door. The crowd is all ages and exposes bands to prospective fans who might not otherwise know the band, there's people watching from across the world via the live stream, the sound is impeccable as a recording studio, and all bands should know how to stretch their performances to an hour when they're accustomed to sticking to 30-40 minute sets. Plus the bands are given a recording of their performance and it is added to the X1FM.com archives (then embedded here).

After the show, I grabbed dinner at In and Out before Alex took me to my car. The rest of them headed to Casbah, but I went to the Marquee to see The Howls, Matt Haeck & The Guiding Light, John Meeks. The venue is a converted church across the street from the Shell station on 25th, just north of the 94. The space is really cool and I'd been warned that there were shows there before that were peppered with religious sermons, which honestly would've made me walk out, but this was not the case at all and the people running it seem to be trying really hard to offer a cool spot for the under 21 crowd to be a part of the music scene, offering bands on weekends, open mic nights for poetry, spoken word, and music, and coming soon, "The Kids Are Alright" karaoke hosted by Adam Gimbel.

The arched ceilings and comfortable low vinyl couches were perfect for the alt-country sounds of The Howls, Matt Haeck, and John Meeks, and actually just what I needed as I felt illness creeping up on me. Since it was an old church, I kinda hoped there'd be hot chocolate and baked goods from grandma's, but maybe they'll work on refreshments in the future. My only complaint about the night is that between bands they played top 40 music that was louder than the bands had been. I know I wasn't the only one cringing as I listened to Fall Out Boy between bands.

As for the music, I'm already a fan of The Howls and John Meeks (who was backed by Jimmy Lavalle, Brian Holwerda, Hoth, and Matt Resovich), but I was glad to finally see Matt Haeck and The Guiding Light, who reminded me of Rocky Votolato both in style and appearance. My camera did not like the lighting, however, so you'll have to see him for yourself. At least you can kinda see the room in these couple snaps.



When the show ended somewhere between 10:30 and 11, I took off and made my way to the Casbah for Team Abraham's CD release show. I rejoined my friends from earlier in the night as well as seeing lots of other friendly faces that made it feel like a crazy house party more than a night at a bar, only I was sick and therefore perhaps the only sober person in the crowd. I wasn't there in time for Gray Ghosts, but noticed music in the Atari Lounge and remembered that Evan of the Parson Redheads was playing, so I went back to listen as best I could over the volume of the smoking patio and the DJ mix inside the venue. Evan was a trooper, though, and when a group of loud "Oh My God!" girls came in those of us listening just pulled up our stools to pay attention.



I'm not exagerrating about the non-sobriety of the crowd. As Team Abraham played and as Andrew mentioned, LJ threw her bra onstage and Dagart stripped to throw his boxers onstage. Nuts. The vibe between the crowd and the band made for a fun performance and I was a little sad I wasn't taking part in the rowdiness.



3.7.09: Saturday I woke up feeling better, so I took care of my household in the morning and then met up with friends and family at Blind Lady. My best friend was in town from Chicago after living in England for a while, so we hung out and caught up over the great organic pizzas and tasty beers that Blind Lady offers.


Eventually everyone had to go, but I was able to drag Todd with me to Jose's because I had to take pictures for an opportunity that seems to have now passed, but at least we had a couple good margaritas. After we ended up at Soda Bar for The Morning Benders and Cuckoo Chaos and I was in an alcohol mixed with cold medicine induced cloud so no pictures of that little adventure. Even Twitter failed that night. I guess it was going around.

I was feeling much better from my cold come Sunday and then I was hit like a truck by a flu that kept me at home and out of commission until Thursday night. Thank goodness for my wifi and Hulu.com as I pretty much laid in bed digesting medicine, liquids, and watching two entire seasons of Friday Night Lights over the course of four days along with my usual regiment of reading news and blogs and twitter and facebook and all these other glorious creations that can allow for someone to be out of commission for four days without feeling disconnected from their world. With that, I'll move on to the last of my diary posts that will make me all caught up.

Hotel St. George @ X1FM's Open Door Sessions - 3/13/09

This is what me and my station put together every Friday night down in National City in our brand new performance studio. It is a free, all ages, one hour, fully plugged in show featuring one band per week. This past week we had Hotel St. George come down and play their little hearts out. Here is the video:



This week we have new San Diego band, Gray Ghosts coming in at 7 PM PST to do the same thing. If you can make it down to the show awesome, if not you can watch it live at www.x1fm.com starting to 7 PM. After that we have Children of Nova on the 20th and Vision of a Dying World on the 27th. You can also check out all the previous videos at www.myspace.com/opendoorsessions

Overdue Recap: Tape Deck Mountain & Hotel St. George @ Whistle Stop, 11.14.08

Eager to be a bit more loose and comfortable with friends after an evening at the Marriott, I picked up Dagart and we went to the Whistle Stop to check out Tape Deck Mountain (finally!) and to see Hotel St. George for their CD release party.



full post if you 'keep on reading'



The bar was crowded as it always is on a Friday night. Lots of people were out to hang out and check out the bands. Tape Deck Mountain started out the night, and Travis sounded great. They're a two-piece, with distortion pedals a plenty and the drummer also playing keys and synth. I dug it, and the crowd clearly did, too.



I had the pleasure of meeting Matt Binder's parents, who were in town from Colorado for the weekend, and they seemed to be happy with the show. I don't really know how Hotel St. George keeps pumping out CDs, but they do, and they were not only playing new material from their CD Hundreds and Thousands, but even newer stuff that they have written since recording the album. They had a wall to wall crowd (as they should) and it was a loose and fun set.



We stayed for a little bit after the set ended, but eventually I dropped Dag at his place then closed out the night at the Ken to hang with my peeps. It was definitely a full night and though I was exhausted by the time I got home, I ended up staying up late and making a blogger blunder by posting news that was "NFB" (not for blogging). That resulted in waking up to some panicked phone calls, a friend showing up at my house, and me spending Saturday posting a bunch of videos and random blog things to fix my error and to fuck with the blog aggregators that repost my blog. (My posts automatically show up on a few sites that I have no control over.) I guarantee that will not happen again. Sorry to my friends for causing that freak out. Regardless, Saturday was a good day. I will get to that in another post.