Photos: X- Fest 2015- Modest Mouse, Public Enemy, The Cult, Cold War Kids, Atlas Genius

A week ago today, Darren and I were running errands trying to get our butts in gear to get to X-Fest at a reasonable time. Unfortunately some things just can't be avoided and we got there as Atlas Genius was finishing. I didn't have a photo pass- which was actually a good thing because they have a weird policy of sequestering photographers after the first three songs of each set so they don't take photos- meaning they're sitting alone in a box for the majority of the day. I did manage a few photos throughout the day and figured it was about time my posts were more than just listings and Observatory and Casbah shows. I have to say this was maybe my favorite X-Fest of all time and Public Enemy was the best I'd ever seen them. All the pics are after the jump.

Wednesday Night: Public Enemy @ House of Blues - TICKET GIVEAWAY

We just rolled out of our weekly Casbah meeting and my phone rings. My buddy Chuck D is calling to tell me that Public Enemy is in town tonight and and he's busting my balls to try and drum up some awareness of the show since it was moved from 4th & B and asks if I want to give some tickets away. Of course, I say, I'd be happy to!!

Okay, so hopefully it is obvious that Chuck D is not my buddy and did not call me and did not bust my balls, but I did get an email from a friend and I DO in fact have tickets to giveaway to the show tonight. So here's the skinny:

Public Enemy at the House of Blues with X-Clan, Monie Love, Schoolly D, Leaders of the New School, Wise, Son of Bazerk & No Self Control, Awesome Dre, Davy DMX, DJ Johnny Juice

TONIGHT! 12/12/12 
7pm
21+ 
TICKETS: $27.50 + service charge BUY NOW
(or buy at the box office)

Street Scene 2009, Day 2

What a week/weekend. I never got around to posting about day two of Street Scene for a couple reasons. One, the week just kinda got away from me with shows, some small projects, and family in town, sometimes that just happens. The greater reason was that perhaps I was a little bitter. I went back to Street Scene on Saturday ready for another action packed day, and instead found out that because of complaints, point and shoot cameras were not allowed in the photo pits. I honestly don't know how the situation could've been handled better because it is true that WAY too many people had photo passes, but I was irritated nonetheless. Then I realized I was kinda off the hook. Where Friday I was running around from stage to stage to stage and not really spending any real time watching any one band or hanging out with friends, on Saturday I was free to do whatever I wanted. That meant seeing fewer bands but for longer portions of their sets, bumping into and hanging out with a bunch of friends, and enjoying the way the beer garden was split right down the middle of the parking lot for the two main stages, Felana and Felano. So all in all, that worked out to be a pretty fun day.




Sidenote- since I was only allowed to take photos from the crowd for the most part (despite a media wristband and photo pass), Natalie sent over some of her leftover photos. I realize by juxtaposing her photos with mine, the harshness of my pictures is even more apparent, but you get the idea. If you want to see more of Natalie's photos, check them out on Spin.com or on her blog when she posts them. As for the other 100 photographers? No idea where you can find their photos so they can all bite me.

As I said, I had a fun day regardless. Read about it if you 'keep on reading'.

The day kicked off on the main stage with Black Joe Louis. Call me politically correct, but this name bothers me. In spite of that, I checked them out and they got the party started. Unfortunately this was also when an Elite security came and let me know my point and shoot wasn't good enough and I'd have to get out of the pit. Boo. It was particularly annoying because unlike the majority of the media, there were only about 10 of us there who actually got to Street Scene on time for ALL the bands, not just headliners. Whatever. It was an excuse to go find a beer.

Black Joe Louis



It wasn't long before Crocodiles were gonna start of the Casbah stage. Despite a couple WTF moments on this blog, I really like Chuck and Brandon and I think they're talented musicians, and on top of that, to me they have to be just about the savviest guys around, always just that much ahead of the curve as far as being on the cusp of what's next. They had a good amount of people at there show, dancing and singing along to the familiar songs, and I'm sure there were people just there to see them fail, too, but fail they did not. In fact, of all the shows I've seen these guys play, the sound was probably the cleanest.
Crocodiles






After Crocodiles, I mostly stayed in the beer garden between the two main stages. For one, the sun had begun to drop behind Petco Park, so this was the shadiest area, and honestly, I was stoked about the bands coming up between the stages. Ra Ra Riot is one of those bands that I always forget how much I love. I've seen them a couple times in small venues as well as opening for Death Cab at Rimac and there's such a distinct vocal softness that I love about this band...at the violin and cello and the intrumental flourishes yank on my soul. This band just makes me happy, and I was surprised how many people were there watching and singing along to the music. Where are these people at small venue shows??

Ra Ra Riot



After Ra Ra Riot, I was waiting for Josh to text and let me know he was there so I could give him his ticket, but I was hoping I wouldn't miss Public Enemy when I had to go deliver. He called about 2 minutes before PE was supposed to start, so I raced to the gates, found him, and kinda rushed him back over with me to the stage. And then we waited. And waited. I saw PE at House of Blues a while back...maybe last year sometimes...and the same shit happened. I go to enough shows to know that most bands stick to set times, whether by choice or the venue is just on top of it, and I think it's really disrespectful to other bands because now you've gone and changed the entire lineup for the night. There was some behind the scenes drama going on too, and rumors about bands not playing, but I don't need to go into what I heard other than I was just hoping everyone would play as scheduled.

20 minutes after they were supposed to start, PE's hype man came out on the decks for 10-15 minutes before they finally performed. OPP? Really? I guess the better thing for me was I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a really long time so we had plenty of time to catch up. As for Public Enemy? Flava Flav? Fun set playing everything you'd want them to play to feel like 1996 all over again.

Public Enemy




Back to the drama, Of Montreal was tweeting about nearly getting kicked out of their trailer, about consuming mass amounts of alcohol while waiting for their 30 minute late set to begin, but they finally performed. It was my first time seeing them since I'd missed their Soma Sidestage show when they played, and it was every bit as ridiculous and over the top and theatrical as I expected and I couldn't be more pleased. As we wandered back to the beer line, they played Heimdelsgate Like A Promethean Curse and I was a happy camper.

Of Montreal


After Of Montreal's set, I was convinced things would get back on track time-wise and perhaps they did, perhaps they didn't. I didn't really care. I stopped looking at the clock and just let the night play out and enjoyed myself with good friends. It's no secret I love Silversun Pickups and they delivered a set that made a superfan like me happy, even if my photos were reduced to just taking pictures of the LED screens.

SSPU

We had amassed a group of friends somewhere between Of Montreal and SSPU. Incidentally, this is when I bumped into Seth Combs and he told me that while backstage, he mentioned me to Brian Aubert of SSPU and Brian asked if Seth worked for sd:dialedin. That made me laugh a little. Seth wasn't going to stay much longer and gave me his working badge, but it was a bit late in the night to really test access to anyone. Plus, I was with friends and didn't wanna leave them.



More beers were purchased as we watched Dead Weather but I wasn't really that into their set so much. It got much more crowded in the beer garden and Josh left, so I decided it was time to wander to other stages for a bit.
Dead Weather


And with that, I ended up over at Zarabunda waiting for Sharon Jones to play. I did go backstage over there, but it was mostly just crew and stagehands setting stuff up, so I found a chair and rested my achy tootsies while they set up. I have the Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings record and I've read blogs and articles about the band being amazing, and it's true, they certainly are, but I kinda feel like San Diego has our own Sharon Jones in Lady Dottie and The Diamonds, so where Sharon is perhaps an anomaly in the greater world of contemporary music, San Diegans know what to expect. I'm not saying this woman and her band don't totally bring it, it's just not all that unique a sound for us here.

Sharon Jones


To close out the night I wandered back over to catch MIA for a bit. Every time I see her I'm a bit visually overstimulated, mostly just by her outfits alone. There were mixed reviews on the performance, but I was pretty content with this being the end of my Street Scene 2009 experience. I'm just gonna throw this out there to Rob Hagey, but I've got plenty of input if they need help next year. I don't want to see Street Scene end, ever, and while overall they've had their successes and failures, I think it can once again be the climax of San Diego's summers.

MIA

Chuck D @ M-Theory

Here's a short clip from the M-Theory instore appearance of Chuck D. Did anyone reading this attend? Was there really "a line around the building"? And more important, did the sexy fireman come out to check it out like they did for What Made Milwaukee Famous?

(youtube isn't letting me embed the damn video, sorry)

Public Enemy, X-Clan, The Banned @ HoB 12/5/06

As I said the other night, I won tickets to the Public Enemy show at the House of Blues. I was willing to give up the tickets, or at least one of them, but had no takers (except Ben who didn't call me to remind me!). I was pretty exhausted yesterday, not only from all the past week's activities, but thinking about all the shows I'll be going to the remainder of the week...I feel a sick day coming on. I knew I wouldn't make the M-Theory instore (which I heard was just a Chuck D appearance, after all) after work, so I was curious about the show, but felt it would be more of a novelty thing, seeing the side-stage that is Flava Flav in all his post "Flava of Love" glory(?).

I'll get to the review in a second, but let me take you through the activities that lead up to the show.

At 7, I went to a MoveOn.org meeting. The meeting was to discuss the progressive agenda of MoveOn and to discuss the grass roots actions planned in the coming months. The four main focus issues that were decided on by the members of MoveOn nationally are 1. Restoring Democracy, 2. Clean Energy, 3. Universal Healthcare, and 4. Getting out of Iraq. There was a huge turnout which was amazing...usually political participation drops off sharply after an election, especially if you consider your side "winners". This group was convened to let our representatives know that we're not just content with a Democratic majority in the house and senate, but that we are looking for progressive leadership and a sharp pull from the right. A representative from Susan Davis' office was present and made everyone feel pretty good to be there. We are starting on a project called a photo-petition that I will be bugging all of my friends about in the near future, so consider yourself warned. I'm talking all this political mumbo jumbo because it really did something to my state of mind for the rest of the night.

By 9 pm, I'd arrived at the show, bumped into a couple friends and headed into the show. The Banned opened the show. Nothing really stood out to me lyrically, but they were a good opening band. The bassist/singer made some political and religious comments in between songs that kinda got the small crowd fired up, but the room was still too empty for any real energy from the crowd. The funk guitar riffs mixed with the bass, drums, and turntablist's samples did make for an overall good sound. I'd probably be much more into hip-hop if more artists were backed by a full band and played real instruments. Well, and if today's hip-hop didn't just generally suck.

Between bands I ran into Mr. Pyles who was flying solo, too, so we hung out during the next group, X-Clan. This, in typical hip-hop fashion was one main rapper and a dj, and two backup dudes, one who mostly just danced around the stage with the Pan African Red, Black and Green flag. (from wiki: This flag was adopted by the members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League(UNIA) at their convention held in Madison Square Garden on August 13,1920) Their lyrics were predominantly about brotherhood, educating the incarcerated, black leaders like Marcus Garvey, taking hip-hop back to 'true hip-hop', and general social justice. The new X-Clan album called "Return From Mecca" drops in January. Sounded pretty good to me, but I was fired up from my MoveOn meeting so any political banter and lyrics got me more inspired.

The break between bands was unusually long, it seemed, for House of Blues, but I guess to be expected. I had heard that Flava Flav was too late to the in-store and then really late for sound check, so why would they actually be ready to perform on time? It probably worked to everyone's benefit because suddenly the concert hall was packed. I was actually surprised because I've been to rap and hip-hop shows in San Diego before and the 9% of the African American population usually seem underrepresented, but not this show, which made me happy because the diversity offset the white boys with their sideways ball caps and saggin pants.

When Public Enemy finally hit the stage, the crowd was amply lubed from drinks and pumped from the energy. At times the lights reminded me of TJ, but other than that, the energy in the room couldn't be contained. At several points throughout the night I could feel the wind against my face from the bass. I was actually thinking about how I was going to write this posting today while at the show, and I have to be me so you won't read any "off the hook"s from me, but I was into it. I'm generally against the group hand clap that happens at rock shows and so I have an equal aversion to waving my hands in the air like I just don't care or throwing up a peace sign if I'm a true souljah, but when Chuck D hit the second or third song called "Son of a Bad Man" and got the crowd to raise their middle fingers while chanting "Fuck George Bush" and "Fuck Dick Cheney", how am I to resist?

I had separated from Pyles and Owen and somehow I found myself at the very front of the stage with only one person back from the railing. I actually felt bad when Flava Flav came to our corner to high five and grab hands and knock knuckles and I didn't throw up my hands. PE played all the hits they were expected to (Fight the Power, Shut Em Down, Power to the People, etc.) and mixed in current issue focused songs. In between, Chuck D preached about the unlawful war in Iraq (instigating a chant "Make Love, Fuck War"), clarifying that he doesn't blame the soldiers but their ignorant leader. He also read a "missing person" ad handed to him from the crowd, saying that we need to watch out for our brothers and sisters.

And then I got mad. It suddenly occurred to me that while most artists shy away from political limelight, Public Enemy has thrived off of it, and as I looked around I wondered how many of all these people screaming "fuck Bush" and "fuck war" actually voted. The "revolution" ain't happening just because you buy a fucking CD or get all fist pumping one night of the year at a hip-hop show. This overwhelming feeling came to me and then Flava Flav started deviating from the set asking if the crowd remembers his show "Flava of Love" and if we love "Flava of Love" and if we watch "the number one show in America: Flava of Love" and then he pulled up from the crowd some chick who was on the show and interrupted as Chuck D tried to introduce his band and crew onstage. Chuck D appeared visibly annoyed by the grandstanding and as the introduction got longer and longer, I decided it was time to call it a night. I don't know how much longer they played, but I was home by 11:45.

I owed it to my dog to let her out for a few and then headed to the Ken Club for the first ever Tuesday Night Karaoke. I had no idea what to expect but it was actually kinda cool...the machine was set in the corner where the front pool table used to be before it was destroyed by the A/C, and they were backed by one of those red foil shredded curtains like a bad 70s prom and people were singing...a lot of them. It has been a long time since I've seen the bar like that on a Tuesday, so seeing as my support wasn't needed, I walked home and crashed out.

Here's the rest of my plans for the week:

• Tonight: The Faint & Ratatat
• Thursday: TNT & The Little Ones & Small Sins @ HoB
• Friday: (half day of work!) La Pastorela @ The Old Globe LD Festical Theatre. Depending on when that ends, I could pretty much go anywhere...the Whistle Stop for Old Man Hands, the Casbah for Fifty on Their Heels/¡Society!/Que'st Que C'est, the Zombie fo the Infants, or the Ken Club for ADHD and the Widows because it's close to home...
• Saturday: 94/9 Holiday Hootenanny! Preparty added! 5-6 (or 5:30- 6:30?) on Rimac field featuring Beer! For Sale! and a performance by Delta Spirit.