Friday Recap: Matt Curreri & The Ex-friends, The Modlins, Punk Rock Karaoke

As I mentioned, my plans are always subject to change, so I skipped out on Kensington Vine on Friday night so I could chill and recharge after a long work week and start the weekend off right. That led me to the Whistle Stop. I got there a little after 10 and the bands hadn’t started, so I said my hellos to some friends until it was time for Matt Curreri and the Ex-Friends to play. I think Matt is one of the better songwriters in San Diego and reminds me a lot of Steve Poltz circa 1996, minus the drunk rolling on the floor stage antics. It had been a while since I’d seen the full band…the last time they played, it was stripped down to open for Rhett Miller, so it was cool to see them all together again. A couple drunk assholes came in at the beginning of their set and harassed them (later I found out it was Derek and Josh Mosh who went into the Whistle with the intent to get kicked out) but after Matt pushed them and the sound guy corralled them outta the show, the door guy wouldn't let them back in and the band carried on and had a fun set. Here are some pics, and the setlist:

The Modlins were up after and they started their set in Jason hockey masks because it was Friday the 13th…pretty funny. I was glad the show wasn’t as crowded at their CD Release because I probably wouldn’t have stuck around. Their 50s/60s inspired pop is always sweet to the ears and they seemed looser on this night, which is always great. A band should feel comfortable in front of a crowd, especially when half the bar (at least) is filled with friends. Here are some pics and their setlist:

After the Modlins finished up, Jason and I took off to the Tower Bar for Punk Rock Karaoke. A lot of my friends were there that I haven’t seen in a while so it was a good time. Rip Griswald was there (from Orion Frequency) and at one point he was pushed outta the bar by some of my other friends. Not cool. I didn’t really see what happened but when I asked a couple of my friends later, they said “he was being a douchebag”. Apparently they didn’t like him trying to sing into the mic and pushing up front, but as I pointed out to my friends…it’s a goddamn punk rock show and other people enjoy punk that are outside their circle of friends and they need to get over it. Eventually Rip was let back into the bar and we did a celebratory shot and nobody bothered him again. A really cool part of the night was seeing Rob Crow do a song. I tried to record it but it’s too damn dark in the bar, so if I can get an MP3 created from the vid, I’ll post it later.

Everyone was there in Sandra's honor.

Of course, her brother Miggs was on fire.

Rip got tossed for a while but was let in later.

Rob Crow does punk rock.

After the Tower, a few friends came over and before we knew it, the sun started to rise, and we finally called it a night. Quite a way to start a weekend…

Newsy Bits for Wednesday: Orion Frequency- Over? and more

Woah. Just got this release today from Orion Frequency:

After playing together for over 3 years, Orion Frequency has officially disbanded. Rip Griswold (singer, bass), "We have taken the project as far as we can go with it and wanted to part ways on a good note. Much love to everyone". Ryan Orion (singer, guitarist), "It's been a blast, we've made a lot of friends along the way. Thank you for having us out to rock the house". Cale Uecker (drums), "Thank you all!”

Although there's nothing official in the works, long time writing collaborators Rip and Ryan look to explore new music frontiers and are currently looking for other musicians that might want to sit in on some sessions and see where the writing may go. Cale says he's taking a break from being in a band for a while but might be back at it down the road.

The band is scheduled to play their final farewell show this Sunday March 11th at Chaser's (3615 El Cajon Blvd, San Diego) opening for (members of Death Angel), The All Time Highs and local favorites The Homeless Sexuals. To catch Orion Frequency's final performance, they go on at 9:30PM.

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This from Anya Marina:

The hit CBS show Numbers will feature a brand new Anya Marina track called "Not a Through Street" on Friday night at 10 p.m. We hear it's going to be a great scene!

To make the deal even sweeter, Anya will be releasing a two-song digital EP on iTunes this Friday to coincide with the Numbers broadcast. So fans that hear the song on Numbers (or just really loved hearing it on MySpace or at her live shows) can buy the EP, which includes "Move You (Slow & Steady Seduction Phase II)" and "Not a Through Street" with new, original artwork.
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Genesis is back together and touring late summer/early fall. The tour will not come through San Diego, but will make a stop in LA. I'm only posting this because I just had a conversation with my friend Tony about them this weekend. He was wearing a "Stop Genocide In Darfur" shirt and he said he thought the shirt was "Stop Genesis On Tour". That guy is wiser than people give him credit for.
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Ernest Gallo died yesterday at 97 years old. You know back in the day you guzzled that horrible wine he made, so show some respect, buy some E&J Gallo Sangría, and pour one out for our homie.
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Before heading to the Casbah last night, I made myself a little dinner and watched the first 10 minutes or so of "The Search For The Next Pussycat Doll". I don't need to say how god awful it was, but there was one girl, in the introductions about why they want to be a Pussycat Doll said something like "Pussycat Dolls are the voice of our generation." I just had to cry a little.
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More bands are announcing tours through San Diego...Elf Power will be at the Casbah on May 2, and Goldenboy plans on coming through town on May 21, with a venue tbd.
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Jocelyn Celaya is a quasi local hailing from just south of the border in Rosarito. A well known "radical classical guitarist", she tours Mexico extensively and has just announced a new tour, with a couple stops in San Diego. Catch her March, 21 2007 at Acual Al 2 performing with Tony Moore of Cutting Crew ( I just died in Your Arms Tonight). She will also be playing on March 28 at the Westgate Hotel. Check her out.
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Lastly, Tool has just rescheduled their tour dates. Originally scheduled to play on March 20th, the show has now been moved to May 2. The show will still be at Cox Arena.
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Super ridiculously long weekend recap: Snow Patrol, OK GO, Silversun Pickups, Orion Frequency, Republic of Letters, The Dissimilars, The Postals

The weekend is not quite over. Tonight I’ll be at the Ken Club with five bucks in hand to attend the benefit for Free Radio San Diego and you should be there, too. Support local enterprise and be there.

It has been an interesting music weekend for me in that the bands I witnessed couldn’t be more polar opposites. Friday night was spent at the Ken Club for The Postals, The Dissimilars, and Rich White Males.

This was my first time seeing The Postals, despite knowing Fred from his years of employment at the Ken Club and I always thought of him as such a quiet guy. He spent a year in the peace core teaching English in Moldova and according to him, drinking more vodka than most people should ever consume in a lifetime. His band is an aggressive punk band with that accelerated pace that bands have that allow them to play 20 songs in approximately 36 minutes. They were really fun to catch live.

They did not adequately prepare me, however, for my sweet quiet friend Jimmy when he took the stage with the Dissimilars. I mean, I guess I knew Jimmy had a thing with getting down to his tighty whities before, but he took advantage of the space in the room for sure. It was a lively performance, to say the least, and Jimmy knocked half my drink out of the glass in his mad offstage antics. Not quite as full contact as the Homeless Sexuals but not too far from it. And let me just say for the record, I don’t need to see any more of my friends onstage with their chones purposely partitioned so that one’s balls may be seen. I just don’t need to know my friends that intimately. Witness the madness.

By the time Rich White Males came on I was bouncing around the bar and laughing with Jimmy the Worm that I didn’t need to see his balls. It was only a few short months ago that I allowed him to crash at my pad when he was inebriated and had to sternly lecture, “I DON’T SPOON!” So anyway, Rich White Males played and fit the bill just fine with fast aggressive punk but it was drink o’clock and there were red headed sluts to be had. Oh, and to that stalker guy who told me you dumped your girlfriend and you were “just putting it out there,” I don’t know what made you think I care, but you freak me out so please maintain your distance in the future.

Saturday rolled around and I got up early to see if Shins tickets were onsale at Soma. They were not, but Andrea secured tickets on the Casbah site, so we’re golden. It will be my first show at the mainstage at Soma since it’s been in its current location. I couldn’t bring myself to do it for the White Stripes, DCFC, Muse and a ton of others, but I will suck it up and do it.

Still kinda sick, I rested most of the afternoon until it was time to head to the Open Air Theatre for Silversun Pickups, OK, GO, and Snow Patrol. I went with my old friend David, this kinda crazy New Zealander who I met just from seeing each other at shows like Keane, Starsailor and Stereophonics. Not quite thinking, we had a beer at my house before taking off and unfortunately arrived in time to catch SSPU in their last song, “Lazy Eye”. Bummer. This is the venue I’ve been waiting to see them in, too, because Brian is powerful onstage, too much so for HoB sidestage, the Belly Up, and Rimac is indoor so that brings standard arena issues, but the OAT is the perfect venue for his quiet mellow singing to build up into that scream that he does. Poo.

Ok, Go was next and I thoroughly enjoyed their set. I don’t own any of their CDs but I’ve seen them live a couple times and I like their sound, gimmicks and all. There was no choreography on this night, but some cool moments, nonetheless, like when Damian got the entire crowd to do the wave (“This is like an arena for sports, only there’s no sports.”) and when he got everyone in the crowd, during the second verse of “Tonight”, in lieu of lighers, to hold up cell phones, cameras, self-pleasuring devices, etc. for illumination. It was pretty cool. I don’t know all their song titles, but since they tend to follow the formula of repetitive choruses, here’s my completely inaccurate set list with titles I made up. (If you feel like doing the work, you can grade my accuracy of titles):

You Don’t Have to Be Alone (To Be Lonely)
Television, Television
Seemed Like A Good Idea
It’s Not Over Yet
Don’t Ask Me How I Am
Get Over It
Tonight
Invincible
Here It Goes Again
Do What You Want

I don’t know who put this show together, but despite being annoyed that I missed SSPU, this show was amazing in that the tickets said 7:30, the band started promptly, the set changes were fast but still long enough to grab a beer and return to your seat. My only complaint is the port a potty situation, but that is so standard at pretty much every event it’s just something you have to live with. A guy in front of me took a REALLY long time so I was dreading entering behind him, but fortunately he’d not been taking a dump but smoking a joint, so it could’ve been much worse.

While waiting in line for beer, I saw Brian, the singer of the Silversun Pickups, and we took this pic together. His shushing was because he was being incognito in the crowd and didn’t want any attention. If I hadn’t seen him with his girlfriend at the last show, I might’ve turned my head a little in his direction and napped a besito. Maybe next time.

Snow Patrol finally started and I was suddenly happy that all the cool indie crowd have disowned them a la Coldplay and they are comfortably in the mainstream because there’s something to be said for dancing in your seat, singing along, screaming, and being a total dork through the whole set. Not that I would do such things, just like I wasn’t totally crying during Run, but some people were and they were free to do so. Gary was really chatty which is really different from before, and not just chatty, but witty and funny. This was an amazing show in that it’s a huge venue (4,600 capacity) but still felt intimate. I took pictures, but my zoom disappoints, so this is the best of it.

I did compile the set-list by writing lyrics then going back and finding the nonsensical song titles, so here you go.

Spitting Games
Wow
Chocolate
Beginning To Get To Me
Headlights on Dark Roads
How to Be Dead
Grazed Knees
Chasing Cars
Shut Your Eyes
Set The Fire To The Third Bar
Somewhere a Clock Is Ticking
Make This Go On Forever
Ways & Means
Run
You’re All I Have

Encore:
The Finish Line
Open Your Eyes
Hands Open

The show was done by 10:45 or so, but my night was far from over. I headed out to The Alibi, had a drink, then went to the Sports Club to catch the last of the Nevermind The Cancer benefit. Republic of Letters was playing. They did their Nirvana covers and one of their originals and I found my friends and chilled out for a bit.

When they finished, we ventured to the Alibi to catch Orion Frequency. I, of course, had my earplugs, but Andrea and Kara did not, so we hung out on the patio until we heard the bass line of Waiting Room and came in to hear it. Everyone was going crazy for it and demanded that they play it again, and they did. A request for a third time was denied temporarily until they played their own song, then went back into Waiting Room. Sometimes you gotta give the people what they want. They were good sports about it all. After the show, I dropped the girls off and I was sound asleep with a quickness. Thank goodness today was a total day of rest for me…

Saturday Night Pictures: Vinyl Radio, The Powerchords, Orion Frequency,

Of course, on the day I saw a bunch of incredible bands my borrowed camera ran out of memory, so it was back to the QVC crap one my dad bought. Still, here are some pics and set lists from the evening.

Vinyl Radio:



Vinyl Radio's Set List:



The Powerchords:

Great haircut!





Orion Frequency:



Orion Frequency Set List:




Orion Frequency after party:

Weekend Recap: Friday/Saturday

What a weekend, and it’s not even over. I haven’t blogged all weekend because I’ve been out doing and that really is the meat of this blog, isn’t it?

After my half day of work on Friday, I headed to Chula Vista to hang out with the kids at my mom’s daycare. I know it sounds weird, but hanging out with 3 and 4 year olds is kinda therapeutic for me, so it was cool. Did you know that gas in Chula Vista is significantly cheaper than everywhere else? I paid $2.25 a gallon while the Arco is Kensington is still sitting at $2.59. Ridiculous.

Anyhow, Friday night started out as a bust. Andrea and I headed up to the Che Café to see Old Man Hands and Kite Flying Society. We arrived a little before 9 and Gabriel told up he was playing at 9:30 (despite his e-mail that they would start promptly at 9). We opted to stick around instead of going to Porter’s for a drink. 9:30 rolls around and OMH didn’t start. Instead it was a guy on guitar and the drummer for OMH calling themselves Swambujo or something. He played crappy protest songs (Fallujah, it’s a bloodbath, we’re only there for oil, etc.) and Andrea and I grew irritated really fast. After 6 or 7 of his shit songs we just decided to bail because we didn’t wanna miss Republic of Letters at the Ken Club. We had also found out that The Vision of a Dying World would be playing before KFS, and a whole night at the Ché was not in the cards for us.

Back in Kensington, we had a beer at my house then walked to the bar. We saw a couple songs from Silver Sunshine. The singer looks like Alex, the singer of Roman Spring. They played a style of classic rock with soaring guitar solos and long jams between vocals. I didn’t really see enough to make a judgment either way but I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to see them again as I like my rock with a little less cock.

Republic of Letters played a really short set because apparently Chris’ voice was thrashed. If it was, I didn’t notice. They’ve been recording a lot so and they're expected to drop the EP in March. I’ll stick with my assessment that Republic of Letters sounds a lot like early U2 with a dash of Blacksmith Union, who were one of my favorite local bands back in the day. Some people love them, some don’t. I side with the band and think they are really talented and every time I hear Saving Grace I can't get it out of my head. You can hear it, too, on the their Myspace page.

I didn’t really get a chance to see A Scribe Amidst the Lions, but I did capture some pics, so I’ll post those tomorrow with all the rest of the shots I’ve taken this weekend.

A friend of mine crashed at my house and we were up till 4 or so, so when Saturday rolled around I slept way in. I missed the war protest but did arrive to see Rob Crow at M-Theory for the instore performance. He had a bassist, guitarist and keyboardist/computer operator with him. I haven’t heard but one track from his solo CD, but the songs aren’t a major deviation from Pinback songs. A lot of the songs were short and rolled right into another leaving the crowd confused about when to clap. Rob said they’d only practiced the material 4 times, so they had to keep reminding each other how the songs started which was kinda cute. There were a lot of people with kids there, which was cool to see. Later, we dubbed them “Indie Breeders” in jest.

Troy Johnson was there, and I finally met Ryan Orion, so after the set of about 12 songs (some guy snagged the set list as I was heading for it), we decided to get lunch at El Zarape. Adam Gimbel had been at the in-store and invited us to the Rookie Card acoustic set at the Hole later that night. After lunch we decided to grab a drink (or three) over at Lancer’s and talked music, blogs, etc. Sitting between Troy and Ryan, I started feeling like a music numbnut and feeling like I really have no business blogging about music. The two of them know a whole lot of shit about a whole lot of shit. Still, it was fun and after a few rounds we decided it was time to catch Rookie Card.

Apparently The Hole was/is a gay bar, but it is a really cool spot that would be a fun spot for shows. There’s an outdoor patio and a stage, and their beer is really cheap. Rookie Card was playing to warm the crowd for a play. Adam is not only a great songwriter, but he has the best stories and between song banter. Theatre people are so enthusiastic, too, and had no qualms about going right into a clap along during the first song. Make sure you check out the Music Trivia Night that Adam is hosting at the San Diego Sports Club next Friday.

When Adam & Dylan finished, we decided to skip the play. Ryan had to get his gear for his gig at the Zombie, and Troy and I were headed to the Casbah. I raced home, let my dog out, took a shower and got ready and was back out in about a half hour. No three hours to get ready for this lady…

I picked up Troy and we arrived at the Casbah with time to spare before Vinyl radio started. The bar was pretty empty but by the time VR took the stage, a good amount of people showed up. Because their new drummer hasn’t had the chance to rehearse much, Morgan Young played drums for them. We all know I love Vinyl Radio and as far as I’m concerned, they’re better every time I see them.

Ari Shine played in the Atari Lounge but I missed him as I ran around the bar chatting with friends and whatnot. I will point out that he was selling American Apparel shirts with his 6 song ep for the bargain price of $10 for both. Bands, take note. Cheap merch sells! Andrea and Kara both bought from him. Unforch those babydoll tees won’t cover my ginormous chest or I might’ve made the purchase, too.

When the Powerchords started I looked at the stage and was confused, because I didn’t recognize the band onstage. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was the ‘Chords, but the singer has chopped off his long locks and man, what a difference a haircut can make. Mike of Jezebel and I were joking that you shouldn’t wear a t-shirt of the band you are emulating, but then I thought that the drummer wearing the Buzzcocks t-shirt is a smart move because it’s kinda giving credit where credit is due.

I said my goodbyes to everyone at the Casbah and headed out to the Zombie Lounge and arrived while Orion Frequency was setting up. I have missed the opportunity to see them in the past. I finally met Riyadh, the manager of bill, and Dave who is in bill. Riyadh and Ryan are roommates so it all came together why Orion Frequency and bill have played together in the past when their music is so vastly different. I tried buying earplugs at the Casbah because Ryan warned me that they are loud, but the machine was empty, so I was hoping my ears wouldn’t be destroyed. Ryan hooked me up with some rad earplugs, so I was stoked that I wouldn’t have to listen from the bar as is sometimes the case at the Zombie.

I can’t even begin to say how impressed I was with their set. They’re a three piece and Rip and Ryan alternate on vocals. They play rock with a dash of punk and they were fun to watch because they were having so much fun onstage. The guys from Two Word Name were there as was Catdirt. The mic seemed to jump away from Ryan at times, but other than that there were no technical glitches, and while it’s true they are loud, it wasn’t overwhelming and the vocals were clear and audible. I’m only against loud when vocals are drowned out, like when the Sess play and it’s a full on aural assault.

After the set a bunch of people headed over to the drummers house where we had a beer and laughed as he passed out in front of his tv and was chided for playing Coldplay from his iPod. Rhiannon, his girlfriend, got him into bed and Rip and I left to my house for some 4 am beers and talking. Sorry, I know you wanna hear about makeout sessions but there was none. He grew up in Chicago and is full of great stories, but as 6 am rolled around it was finally time to call it a night. Finally.

For those counting, that was 1 record store, 4 shows, 4 bars, and 5 bands in one day. Fucking rock n roll. Pictures will come soon.