I got some more information regarding the SoCo Ghostland Observatory show coming up in August:
Southern Comfort announces Ghostland Observatory will headline the Lyric Opera San Diego sponsored Southern Comfort Presents: underCOVER show on Aug. 20 at Birch North Park Theatre, 2891 University Avenue 92104. Ghostland Observatory will give an up close and personal look into their musical influences, paying tribute to the artists and covering the very songs that helped forge the sounds you hear today. DJ Lord of Public Enemy will open the show mashing up old school beats with new school hits.
Fans must text “SAN DIEGO” to 68405 to receive the show’s ticket code, visit www.southerncomfort.com/undercover or www.facebook.com/southerncomfort. The code actually clues people in on who Ghostland Observatory will be covering that night. Doors open at 7 p.m. with DJ Lord’s opening set beginning at 8 p.m. Attendees must be 21 and over. A $5 donation will be taken at the door to benefit North Park Main Street.
Hm...so music released in 1968? I have no idea. You web sleuths can figure it out. I've got some listings to finish up...
My web spy sent me a link that I thought I'd share.
As you know, San Diego was host to the Southern Comfort Music Experience (SCMX) for the past couple years, and each year brought amazing talent to San Diego, and it was all free. Naturally events are scaling back, promotional and marketing dollars have to be used a bit more sparingly, so this year, instead of a huge street event, Southern Comfort brings you underCOVER, a free* show at Birch North Park Theatre on August 20 featuring Ghostland Observatory.
For information, click here. After you enter your birthdate, go to the Music & Events menu and select underCOVER.
*There is a $5 donation to North Park Main Street at the door the night of the show
I went to some shows last week that I still need to recap, but I had such a blast at the Southern Comfort Music Experience so I wanted to get those pics up first. I thought there was no way this year could compete with last year's festival. I mean, it was headlined by The Flaming Lips, after all, but I truly enjoyed myself, perhaps a little too much. Full post if you 'keep on reading'.
We headed downtown early, arriving just before 4. We decided to park in a garage since Jake had gear in his car and decided that $8 for the whole day wasn't too bad. Right off the bat we ran into Matt and Andrew before going in and making our way to the other entrance so I could retrieve my media passes. By the time we had those secured, we had missed Burning of Rome's set, but their music filled the venue. I noticed right away that there were a lot more people at the show early than there were last year at the same time, so I guess that's a testament to better promotion.
American Cornhole
We wandered around for a bit, got some SoCo and Lemonade, then went to check out Grand Ole Party. Kristin and the kids sounded great as ever and clearly all the performing and touring has made an experience band for large stages and festivals like this one.
After a couple songs, I met up with Jake who was hanging with Halloran in the broadcast area and watched the set from there. I guess it was time to test the waters with the pass and access, so I wandered over to the dressing rooms and made myself a drink. It wasn't until after that I realized they were band specific, so sorry to GOP for scabbing your shit. Of course once I had a drink I was not shy about pilfering and sorry to Chuck and Brandon who kindly put up with me. On the way back to the broadcast platform, a security guard told Jake and I that our passes didn't allow us to be in the broadcast area, but he talked to his boss and would let only Jake and I back there. He was nice about and once we got the warning, I would switch up to a staff pass to get around. At this point we were able to get a pass for Dagart, too, thanks to Sarah for that.
We stayed up in the broadcast area for a while, until Saul Williams took the stage. I had no idea what I was in for, thinking Saul was more about spoken word, but his band started off the set with their crazy outfits and he joined them with an aural blitz. They killed it, big time.
By that time, the VIP area had opened, so I met up with my friends and we hung out there for a while. I don't really understand the drinks policy for the party. You could bring drinks into the VIP but not take them out. This makes sense when there's unlimited booze- you don't want people on the inside taking shit out to their friends, but the VIP wristband only provided 3 free drinks. Making people down their alcohol is not exactly encouraging people to drink responsibly. Oh well, it really ended up not being a big deal.
After a while there, and once Saul was finished, I headed over to the local stage for The Silent Comedy. I really dig the two stage events like this or Independence Jam, because there's really little to do except to watch the bands, and it's great exposure for local music. I had talked with Josh earlier and he was pretty bummed out because the bands rented trailer was stolen. It was empty, but apparently it was not insured. Still, even with such downer news, the band gave no indication that they were anything but happy to be there.
My only other complaint of the day was this stupid obstacle course. These barriers had no purpose whatsoever and made taking pictures at the local stage challenging.
After The Silent Comedy finished, I wandered back to the mainstage and noticed The Ice Cream guy was backstage. Kristin had told me there was a bathroom trailer behind the stage, and man, did it sure beat having to use port-a-potties. Anyway, I shoulda grabbed a popsicle when I had the chance.
Kinky was next up on the mainstage and I should've planned better, because while I was waiting for them to start, I took way too many crowd photos which resulted in me running out of memory for Common.
I loved Kinky's performance, and loved loved loved the bassist. The crowd was going nuts for the band, too. I was about to bail the photo pit but then they busted out an accordion so I stayed up there a little longer. It was nice that the security wasn't enforcing a 3 song photo rule because you could float in and out of the pit at your own leisure.
I ran into my ex and we went to the VIP area to watch the show from the roof of the SoCo bus. I eventually met back up with Dagart and Jake, too, so we kicked it in the VIP area until The Black Keys started. I was kinda glad Shark Attack was doing their thing because it meant there was time to wander around and chill for a bit before photographing the Keys.
The Black Keys sounded amazing and as the sun had set, allowed for some great lighting. It's amazing that a two piece like the Keys or a three piece like Grand Ole Party can still sound so full and not drown in the space of such a huge stage.
I guess the alcohol had well lubricated my senses because I decided to watch the band from onstage for a couple songs. Nobody said anything to me, either, but I didn't wanna push my luck, so I left the area on my own accord.
I watched the remainder of their set from the So Co bus where there was quite the party going on.
Then it was back up front for Common where as I mentioned, I only took a couple pics because I'd run out of memory card space. I guess I'll need to get a backup card before Street Scene rolls around.
Common was awesome and the crowd was huge, but it wasn't quite as momentous as The Flaming Lips, because how can you really compare the acts? The Lips are just made for this kind of thing. Still, Common held his own and was a good way to end the long day.
After the show, we went to SDSC for the first night under new ownership, got some tacos, and then Jake dropped my wasted ass off at home where I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow. I really wish I had some time off from work soon, because the end of summer has been kicking my ass, but alas, looks like I'll have to wait until our major project wraps before I can take a few days off. Sigh. But I guess if you're gonna be tired all the time, it might as well because you're having way too much fun.
I've been insanely busy these past couple weeks, so thanks to Xavie for the head's up on the announcement. Below is the lineup for SCMX, taking place at Tailgate Lot adjacent Petco Park, on August 23, 2008. It feels like SCMX is covering more genres that are perhaps absent on this year's Street Scene lineup, which is taking place in the same area a little less than a month later. I think both events will be quite spectacular.
10 Bands, 2 Stages: Common The Black Keys Saul Williams Kinky Grand Ole Party
MC Flow Buddy Akai Shark Attack The Silent Comedy The Burning of Rome
Gates @ 3 PM $5 suggested donation (to SD Music Foundation
MGMT, Gnarls Barkley and Justice have all been announced to play the 2008 SoCo Music Experience tour, which will travel across the US this summer.
The shows which are free and limited to over 21 year-olds, will call at five cities from June to October and each day will feature 10 bands over two stages.
The first show will be in Denver on June 28 and will feature slots from Gnarls Barkley, Blonde Redhead, Bassnectar, Dead Confederate and Eagle Seagull, while the August 23 show will take place in San Diego and features The Black Keys, Kinky, Saul Williams and other acts to be announced. Entry to this show will require a $5 for the San Diego Music Foundation.
San Diego can expect another amazing show when the SoCo Music Festival comes back to town this summer. It promises to be another great one. And, once again, the music fest is completely free to you, so there's really no excuse not to check it out and have one of those slushy hurricanes.
I just spent the last 4 hours uploading all my photos from the Southern Comfort Music Festival. Normally I take a ton of pics and only put a few on my photobucket site, but I had such amazing access that I wanted to take as many pics as I could and thought I would make them all available for viewing.
I was a little bummed out that I hadn't heard back about my media request, but at 10:30 on Friday night, I got an e-mail letting me know I would have a media pass for the SCMX. Golden ticket. I've mentioned before that my friend was drumming for Z-Trip, too, so it was cool to hang out with him for the first time since December when he was in town with Mike Doughty. He called me around noon from Long Beach but he hit a ton of traffic, so I scrapped my plan to drive downtown, and instead took the bus to meet Pete at his favorite spot here, El Zarape. We drove to the venue and he had band parking right in front of Petco. He took off with the tour manager and I headed to the media table and grabbed my pass, bumping into Andrea as I walked through the gates.
Delta Spirit had already started and I missed the first three song photo op, so I just hung back bumping into plenty of friends. Delta Spirit translated well on the large stage and the sound was perfect. There weren't a lot of people there that early in the day, but it was good to see a lot of the people who are fans of DS there to show their love.
We were told by various people that there might be some VIP passes floating around, so after Delta Spirit and while Stranger played on the other stage, we tried to track some down. I thought I would point out that the program guide for the show listed the band as The Stranger's Six, though the pic and bio was for Stranger, the band that played. The Stranger's Six is a very different band than Stranger. just a note. We hung out at the CityBeat booth for a while, and M-Theory, too, then Galactic came on the big stage so I was off to take some pics.
Boots Riley of the Coup performed a few songs with Galactic and got the crowd riled up.
Mr. Lif also sang a couple tracks with the band and it was pretty great to see the New Orleans sounds of Galactic in the SoCo vibe of the event. (yes, beads everywhere.)
That was probably the hottest point of the day, so it was nice to get reprieve from the heat in shaded areas.
Natalie and I tracked down Marco Collins who was acting as MC for the event to thank him for getting us the media passes.
The Knee Highs played on the local stage and we were behind the stage as the theme from Growing Pains came on and the guys danced around to it in their backstage warmup.
The are hip hop act and they had great flow and onstage.
But we were on a mission, so we wandered around a bit more. I noticed that both gates seemed to have a lot more people pouring in and I heard the process was long and time consuming, but that was really the only complaint I heard about the event.
At that point in the day, the VIP area opened up. I was told that my media pass gave me access, but not the wristband that got three free drinks, so I finally got my hands on a VIP pass and got a wristband. It was a day full of text messaging and hunting people down, taking pictures and actually trying to enjoy the event.
I was running all over the place, but managed to get set up in time to take some pics of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
Pete messaged me that he was going to his car, so I met him out there and we listened to BRMC with the A/C on and just took some time to slow things down a bit. It was nice to sit still for a moment and be able to absorb the day for a minute.
We went back in through the VIP gate and I met up with Nat and Andrea and he took off to the backstage area. The VIP had catered food- some grilled veggies and chicken skewers, but those went quick, but I was happy with the mashed potato bar. Smart thinking there. Nothing better to soak up the liquor than some potatoes.
Z-Trip came on as the sun was finally setting. We were a little bummed because of the 3 song photo rule because Pete told me he wouldn't be on until the second half of the set. We tried to get special permission for photos when he came on but it "wouldn't be fair", so instead we had to find our way into the crowd, but people were surprisingly cool about letting us merge in with them. Z-Trip's set was amazing, mixing up classic tracks with modern stuff and getting the crowd nuts, particularly when he gave a big middle finger while slamming George Bush and a mosh pit broke out behind us while Z played Rage Against the Machine. Yes, a pit. During a DJ set. Who knew?
We were kinda anxious, wanting a drink in such a bad way but the set was long.
The crowd went nuts when various guests came out with Z-Trip and then finally Pete made his way onto the stage.
He has always been an amazing drummer and in this outlet could really shine with long solos while Z was offstage.
After catching him for a bit, we went back to the VIP, actually exiting through the main gate and reentering through the VIP area to avoid the crowds. Some friends were near the front of the booze line, so I got a couple drinks and chilled out for a bit. We ran into Marco who got us the VVIP wristbands that allowed people on the side platform during the band, but we were just happy to have more drink tickets since the bartenders were demanding them. We ladies love our free bevvies.
That's me and Marco. It was my first time meeting him in person, but definitely not the last. He was so cool and appreciative of our blogging thing and just a happy guy despite how much work he had to do to coordinate his portion of the event.
After having our drinks, Natalie and I made our way back to the photo pit where the Flaming Lips were already onstage getting all their equipment set up, so we missed Scarlet Symphony on the local stage. There was just no way to be everywhere.
I got all giddy getting to be so close to the action for the Lips.
Halloran and Boomer from FM 94/9 finally made their way out to introduce the Flaming Lips. I noticed the deflated plastic bubble on the side of the stage, so I called Natalie over to post up for the grand bubble entrance.
The bubble passed right over my head as Wayne made his way back onstage.
The show was amazing, though typical Flaming lips fare... dancing santas and aliens, the go-go academy girls onstage, confetti and fog machines...
Wayne is such a sexy man, I couldn't stop taking pics. Eventually, though, our three songs were up, so we went out the front gate where another couple hundred people were still trying to get into the event.
We finished up the night in the VIP area, where I felt bad for the bartender who was still busting his ass. They ran out of everything except Jack and SoCo, so I ordered to double Jack n cokes, though actually had to get two singles and two shots and then dump the shots in.
There were a lot of people behind the scenes who made the event possible, so credit to CityBeat, SoCo, the promoters, FM 94/9 and all the other people who made the day happen without a glitch.
I had the pass for the platform, but it was at capacity, so I just hung out as the night wrapped up. Pete had left, but called to find out if I knew of any vegetarian places where he could grab food, so I left before the show ended to meet him and we headed to La Posta for some quesadillas then he drove me home. He got a really cool poster from the show and gave me a smaller version of it that I will proudly hang in my home when I can get it properly framed.
Pete had a flight today out of LA, so after we ate, he took off and I couldn't believe it was still not even 11 o'clock. I met some friends over the Ken Club and closed out the night at the bar, then my neighbors came over again and again stayed up till the sun was coming up. Needless to say I was beat today and have been on this computer for the last 8 hours getting all my pics posted up. Now I'm beat once again and have to spend tomorrow getting serious about my job hunt, so if anyone has any leads, send them my way. My Things to Do list will be posted tomorrow afternoon. Hope everyone had as great a weekend as I did.
