Newsy Bits: Waterguns, Bars, Fests & Other San Diego Stuff

It felt like a lof stuff has been going on so if you haven't been paying attention, here's what's up these days:

Watergun Aftermath at Balboa Park

There have been many reactions to the watergun fight and subsequent damage at Balboa Park's iconic lily-pond. CityBeat's Justin Hudnall wrote a first-person account of the night and one of the organizers, Matthew Hardick, has come forward with an exclusive interview with News 8. It has been reported that donations from the public have exceeded $9,000 and you can donate to Friends of Balboa Park here. Summary: a handful of idiots ruin an event that, while poorly thought out, was created with good intentions. 

Kadan Loses Lease

As reported by The Reader and CityBeat and The Reader again, Kadan is closing down (effective August 22). The neighborhood bar which sits at the corner of 30th and Adams, has been around for about a decade and while both articles focus on the nightlife of the bar, it was also one of the cheapest drinking spots around (with happy hour offering wells as low at $1.50 the last time I was there during daylight). So they're reporting that the adjacent taco shop, the laundromat, the liquor store and the bar will become one large establishment from the owners of Neighborhood. While technically located in North Park, the neighborhood straddles Normal Heights and University Heights and has sometimes been referenced as "Between Heights". The little corner that could has changed numerous times over the years, in fact, my dad loves to tell me how he and his buddies enjoyed 25 cent pitchers on what was known as "The Four Corners" back in the early 70's (though he probably had to walk uphill both ways through the snow to get there). Currently the corner is home to Air Conditioned Bar, Casa Mayahuel, Jayne's Gastropub, and Antique Row Cafe. 

Festivals Galore

There are so. many. festivals! It feels like Street Scene is far enough behind us that everyone is ponying up to attempt to create the next big festival. Imagine a world where they'd all get together and share sponsorship! Until that comes, two new festivals are on the horizon: The SoCal Music Fest on September 1 and Night & Day Street Fest on October 13, both in the East Village. 

The SoCal Music Festival is the cooperative effort of MacFarlane Promotions, RMD Group, and Event Vibe. It will be held between 9th and Park along G St. with four stages and various "SoCal experiences". The lineup includes Cold War Kids, Designer Drugs, Felguk, Krewella, Too Short and more, including locals like Vokab Kompany, Hyena, Family Wagon, and The New Kinetics. Ticket prices increase the closer the show gets, but are currently available for $40. Get info here. 

Night & Day Street Fest is being brought to you by UT San Diego on 14th between K and Imperial on October 13th from 4pm-midnight. The lineup features Donovan Frankenreiter, G. Love, Pato Banton, and Everest with local support from The Nervous Wreckords, The Styletones, Low Volts, and Mattson 2. Tickets for the event are $25 or $95 for their VIP package. Get more info here.  

Keep in mind, these are in addition to the other great things we already have in San Diego, like the San Diego Music Thing (September 14-15, $30-$55), Adams Avenue Street Fair (September 29-30, Free), and I presume Rocktoberfest will return to North Park in late October. 

FM 94/9 Independence Jam Lineup Change

Speaking of festivals, some bummer news about FM 94/9's Indie Jam...the Casbah stage has been canceled. The lineup for the show has been updated on FM 94/9's page to feature Fiona Apple, Best Coast, Oberhofer, and Gardens & Villa. Ticket prices have not changed, which probably just means you'll get longer sets from the four bands on the main stage. If your were set on seeing Father John Misty and Pinback, they can still be seen at the San Diego Music Thing. (Read about new music from Pinback courtesy of CityBeat's Check 1, Check 2 blog.) FM 94/9 is offering "safe rides" to and from the Oceanside Pier For just $15 from North Park (True North Tavern), Downtown(Barleymash) or Pacific Beach (Open Bar).
Get tickets for the concert and the bus here.

Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Perhaps you were already aware that Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips has been working with legendary director Des MacAnuff to create Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. The musical will make its World Debut at the La Jolla Playhouse in November, and this week, NME featured a preview about the show. Tickets haven't gone on sale just yet, but keep your eyes and ears open for what promises to be an interesting musical adventure.

Missed The Boat: Newsy Bits

I'll be brief because I need to get some sleep but wanted to note a couple things :

• For those lucky people "in the know" or who happened to spend Friday at Bar Pink Elephant, The Night Marchers played a special show. I was at the Johnny Rad Fest at the Ken Club, but I heard it was a great night.
• The Radio Room opened tonight. I really look forward to checking out the former Zombie Lounge. I just hope Chris is better about posting shows at the new spot than he is for Kadan because I'd like to keep the venue in my weekly listings.
• Comic-Con is just a few days away and San DIego is buzzing. All 4 days are now sold-out. I heard a rumor that Saturday is going to be a real treat, but alas, I'll just have to follow the tweets since I won't be there. One year of madness was good enough for me.

Benefit For Riki Featuring Thee Corsairs, 1/9/08

As I mentioned, I went to the benefit for Riki Watkins at Kadan on Monday night. Many of her friends were there, so the mood was both somber and festive, including the entire bar singing happy birthday, since it would've been her 26th birthday. I didn't know Riki, but I do know many of her friends, so I felt it appropriate that I should show my support, buy some raffle tickets, and also finally see Thee Corsairs. I don't know if I got there after The Embalmers played or if they didn't play at all, and really I didn't think to ask.

Thee Corsairs play a kind of surf punk that goes well with The Creepy Creeps and the like. Greaser is just awesome; if you don't know him, you should go say hi when he's working at Lou's one of these days. I didn't take too many pics; mostly because it was really loud up close and like and idiot, I forgot my earplugs at home. Ringing ears just don't have the same charm they had when I was a kid. The band played a relatively long set, including "Rocket 88" which was pretty damn cool.






This is Heather, who was cool enough to let me interview her for my story about Riki.



I finally got my Vinyl from Greaser for finding the bottle in their scavenger hunt at Livewire. There are still bottles out there, check the blog for clues. As you can see, the vinyl is absolutely beautiful, even if you don't have a record player.

Tales of Rum And Whiskey, Thee Corsairs



Anyway, it's hard to say it was a fun night because of the reason we were there, but it was a good night, even if I didn't win a tattoo in the raffle. Being ink-free, that might've been a good reason to stain my skin. Maybe next time.

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.

Kadan- Give it a chance

I did not make it out last night, unfortunately. Everyone I talked to about going to the Mr. Tube show had comments about the venue, Kadan. I just wanted to defend it a little.

When I first moved to Kensington, Kadan did not exist. Neither did Air Conditioned lounge. Kadan has been a ton of different places, but most recently Tuba Man's and Gorilla something-rather. When Kadan opened, it was the year my cousin was coming down from LA every weekend and staying with me. We took a liking to Kadan because of a bartender named Christie who was super cool, they had a clean bathroom (an important factor for chicks) and that they had PBR in cans. As far as I knew, it was the only bar in town doing that until there was a sorta PBR resurgence and it became kitschy city wide, but maybe I'm wrong about that. (PBR tall-boys now at the Belly Up! $6, a lot, but not bad when you consider a bottle of water is $3)

The bar is owned by a guy named Chris, who was one of the owners of Brick By Brick back when it was booking great shows, to me the most memorable of those shows being Fountains of Wayne. He is a hockey player and met his wife in the Czech Republic and she is from a place called Kadan, thus the name. Yes, the decor is a little medieval but it ain't no Renaissance Faire. Once the A/C lounge opened, I have to admit that I stopped going to Kadan because of the overflow crowd coming from A/C. Christie, the bartender, is gone now, her husband?/boyfriend? bought Brick By Brick and she is there now, but for me, if Kadan steers away from the DJ nights and has things more appealing to me, then I would definitely consider putting it back on my list of spots to check out.

In that vein, they've started "Bring Your Own" Mondays... you can bring music (limit one song per person, so make it good), bring your own board game, and bring your own food (potluck style), and bring your own friends to make it whatever you want. And all night $3 wells. Pretty awesome, if you ask me. And last year Kadan was the perfect final stop during "Taste Of Adams". They have happy hour seven days a week and good drink specials. Don't write it off is all I'm suggesting.

All that said, did anybody go last night? What were your impressions of Kadan as a venue for bands? (Remember not all bands have 10 people in them, too) Was there a cover? I wanna hear about it.