3. I rode my bike down Adams, locked it up, and ran into Adam Gimbel, Trishia, and 3 year old Emma, who promptly grabbed my hand and escorted me around the fair. We made our way to the park stage for Los Fabulocos from LA, a chicano group much like Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, playing tejano/tex mex/banda and the like. Emma and I danced. We also got our groove on to the next band, The Fishtank Ensemble. They had such an interesting sound, sometimes playing famous symphonies, sometimes original compositions, and my favorite of their stuff, the Eastern European gypsy music all with a heavy gypsy/flamenco vibe. I mean, the singer played a saw. Does it get more unique than that? They also had stand up bass, violin, accordion, a shamisen (a 3 stringed instrument from northern Japan plucked with what looks like a paint spackle), and guitar. After their set in the park, they joined Gregory Paige and Erika Davies, and Los Californios for a song swap.
Gregory & Erika
After the set, Garrett and Owen gave away 3 more 3 day Coachella passes with camping passes, and I think 2 3 day Coachella passes with VIP writstbands and hotel. My name was still not in that box, dammit! Anyway, it was a really cool event...the whole day out was successful and had it not been on a weekend with so many other things going on, I probably would've gone up to the Belly Up, too. Garrett hooked me up with the setlist but as I'm sick and lazy, you'll have to wait for all of that.
After the show I decided that I needed a night of pajamas and HBO on demand, so I stayed in.
5. That didn't stop me from sleeping in and only waking when my mom called to tell me she was on her way to take me to the Earth Day Earth Fair.
We met up with my sister, my brother in law, and our friend Nickie and hung out between the World Beat Center and the Centro Cultural de la Raza, where there was an LA band called Mili Mili World Music playing predominantly Brazilian music in a trailer doubling as a stage. They were fun and lots of people were dancing, lots of families were chillin on blankets, and lots of herb was being smoked all around. The announcers had to keep reminding people that it was a family event, so there should be no smoking, cigarettes or otherwise, in the area.
After the band, we went to eat but the vendors at Earth Day SUCK. Local festivals should have local vendors, not those same damn corporate vendors that do the Del Mar Fair and shit to serve you $7 plates of Chinese food you could get at a 99 cent Chinese spot. Disappointed with our choices, we called it a day and decided to eat at El Zarape then roll to the Roots Fest again. By the time we arrived back at Roots, the day was winding down, the last bands were finishing up, and the vendors were about to break down, so we did a quick walk through all the vendors and the day was done.
After all of that, I met Sandra and some friends at the Tower for Miggs' b-day, but he'd already left. Big P tried to call Josh Mosh and Derek to come meet me there, but only got voice mails, I suppose.
Anyway, it was a good weekend but today I just didn't feel right. I have issues with insomnia, and sometimes when I do sleep, my dreams are as real as having actually lived them, so I can be more tired after waking than I was before falling asleep and it's really exhausting. I will get it together on Tuesday and post more pics from the weekend, a youtube video of the Fishtank Ensemble, and the set lists from the Bloody Hollies and Silversun Pickups. Till then, I'm gonna go crawl under a rock and hide for the night, if that's ok to do every once in a while.
Good job to anyone involved in planning any of the weekend events... 94/9's event was rad, Roots Fest was impressive, and Earth Day, aside from those whack food vendors, was a good time.
