Official: SDSC is now The Ruby Room

R.I.P.
San Diego Sports Club
1996 - 2008

The Ruby Room official Grand Opening Party will be Friday Oct. 17th with Grand Ole Party, Rafter and 1 or 2 more special guests.

San Diego Sports Club- SOLD!

I can't even begin about how much catching up I have to do with this website. Seriously, it's the best full time job ever, and yet I don't get paid. Something is wrong with this equation, but nonetheless, I love it and I can't imagine a time when I'm not thinking about fifty other things I need to post about.

So anyway, I got a call from Tony V. at the San Diego Sports Club last night so I decided to pay him a visit tonight where he spilled all the details to me. The San Diego Sports Club has officially been sold. I say 'officially' because it was put on the market a couple months ago but a couple buyers fell through, but now it is official that two guys have partnered and bought the place.

The last official night as it is will be August 22nd and the club will certainly go out with a bang, with DJs, burlesque, perhaps some bands and whatnot. The new owners plan on keeping the bar open and slowly transitioning to their new vision, which might be a nightly burlesque spot. Tony says that other than some bathroom revamping, the club will stay mostly as it is. The new owners, not only buy the bar, but buy the cabaret license that allows for live shows, up to and including burlesque, so there is a chance if you show up in September there will be live dancers nightly. Neal is expected to stay on board as the sound engineer as well as booking talent, and much of the staff will transition and stay with the new club, which as yet, is still to be named the San Diego Sports Club.

That all is to be seen. What is fact is that Tony is taking off to LA to pursue his comedy and acting gigs and the Sports Club is changing hands. I've got plenty more info to write about all of this but it will come slowly in the coming weeks as more news is revealed. And yes, I will have it all covered.

Thursday Recap: Dead On Seven, Run Run Run, Royal Campaign

After spending the day with my family in Chula Vista (and a delicious dinner at Royal Mandarin on Bonita Road) I had to take a quick recharger nap and was on my way to San Diego Sports Club. I had been asked by a friend to "present" the show, but I wanted to clarify that I had nothing to do with the booking of the bands, in fact, I paid to get in. It was a favor for a friend and since I'd seen Run Run Run before I agreed. I'm only saying this because I've gotten e-mails about promoting shows and while it's something I might do in the future, I am not yet in the business of booking bands, shows, or anything like that.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised at the show. I met the guys from Run Run Run and grabbed a drink at the bar while watching the end of the Padres v Dodgers game. It had been a while since I'd been to the Sports Club. I talked to Tony and he's assured me that he's got a girl who is gonna take care of their MySpace page so I will have easier access to what's going on there for my show listings.

Eventually the first band started and holy shit- welcome to your new favorite local band.



The obvious comparison vocally would be the Smiths, but the music wasn't doom and gloom. The back up vocals added to the sound and I am glad to have seen them (finally).

The Sports Club has added several stage lights, but with that black curtain in the back and the lights shining a little too far down, my pictures of the entire night were abyssmal at best, so sorry for that. .



Nonetheless, I liked Royal Campaign a lot and the singer reminded me of Chris from the band Illinois (shown below). They said that their Sony CD burner was on the fritz, and joked that because of it, their CD won't be available in 2009. I'll be waiting.



Run Run Run played second and were playing here testing out new tracks for their upcoming tour. They didn't hold back on anything, bringing tons of stage lights and a fog machine. There is nothing that makes it worse for someone using a 6 megapixel digital camera than a fog machine.



Despite my crap photos, the show was energetic and the guys did their rock thing and the crowd was engaged. Plus, they're such a nice group of guys it's hard not to hope for their success when they hit the road.





Here's the setlist for Run Run Run, and special thanks to Xander for the t-shirt.



Calling this an "SD: Dialed In Presents" show seemed to have little influence on the amount of people there for the show. In fact, I don't think anyone came because I said to...instead, the majority of the crowd was there because everyone loves Ray, the singer of Dead on Seven, who made their San Diego debut at the Sports Club.



I thought they were great and I look forward to seeing them around town again, but with Tony pouring those ass kickin drinks behind the bar, I decided to call it a night before they finished their set. It was a great night of music and I was happy that I went. I especially look forward to more shows at the Sports Club now that their music suspension has ended.

Run Run Run @ San Diego Sports Club This Thursday

run run run will be at the San Diego Sports Club this Thursday. I'll be there, you should be, too.

Check out their MySpace page here.

Listen to "Good Company" here.

Complaint Department

Just wanted to say, for the record, if you're a bar owner (Ken Club Brett and Sports Club Tony, I'm talking to YOU!) it would be nice if you updated your calendars every once in a while. I shouldn't have to dig around for a tiny ad in the Reader to know who is playing at your club when MySpace is FREE. If you don't have the time, I'd be happy to update your site for $40 weekly and be your "MySpace Manager". Seriously, ever wonder why certain shows draw 7 people while others pack the house?? Yes, bands should do their share of promoting, but you should at least make the info available for people like me who seek it out.

End complaint.

Tuesday Newsy Bits: Sports Club is back, etc

At the CityBeat Party on Friday, I had the chance to talk to Tony V from The San Diego Sports Club. The 30 day suspension ends this week and the venue will return to being a live music venue. This Friday is Sin Factory/Club de Sade with DJs, but it is expected that four bands will be playing on Saturday, including Four Minutes til Midnight and 300 Pounds. Tony explained that the bar is fighting not only for themselves, but for all venues in town. While the Sports Club is owned outright, most bars and clubs are rented, so the loss of revenue could've shut some of our favorite venues if the ABC, cops, and everyone else involved were able to just bulldoze through SDSC. More important to me on a personal level, was that Tony also acknowledged that he has a reputation for being an asshole and addressed it with me by saying that he took note and has made strides in being a more enjoyable person. As someone who was anti-Sports Club and anti-Tony for a while, I have to vouch for him and say that I think everyone should kiss and make up. Just give the venue another chance. And for bands looking to play, seems like the calendar is wide open, so start calling.
*****
Viejas concerts has added Chris Cornell on August 4. Tickets go onsale on June 1.
*****
Vinyl Radio recently did a podcast for pirtatepods.com. Go here for the download and listen to their drunken ramblings.
*****
As I mentioned last week, Manu Chao has cancelled the show at the Embarcadero on June 5. The show is now being held at the Plaza de Toros Monumental (The TJ Bullring) the same day. Tickets are only $22 and the service charge is $4.50. You can buy them on Ticketmaster here.
*****

The fate of San Diego Sports Club

The word on the street is that the earliest show possible at the San Diego Sports Club will happen on June 1. The club was issued a cease and desist (somehow the city skipped the temporary restraining order part) and met with city attorneys on Monday. The issue is the decibel level, however this seems to be a precedent setting case, in that the allowed level for noise is reached by most bars and venues by ambient noise alone, without any music or bands playing. In this case, one angry neighbor has complained and the city is acting. Is the Sports Club being unfairly targeted? Is the city just intent on closing the doors for good? I happen to think so. The mediterranean restaurant attached to the Sports Club has been sold so as a conspiracy theorist, this is more about a land grab and not appeasing one shitty neighbor. SDSC is probably going to countersue the City. They are being made an example and love the Sports Club or hate it, the enforcement of such a low noise standard could reverberate across the city for other venues that you know and love. Rumors are that the Beauty Bar is facing similar penalties and has one more chance before action is taken as well.

I will post as more info becomes available.

SDSC: Temporary (?) Ban on Music

Last night's Pussy Galore was cancelled at the San Diego Sports Club and now it appears we have some idea why. Apparently, a neighbor to the venue has brought legal action against the venue. If you've been there, you know that the cops get called there a lot, probably because of the same neighbor. Looks like music events will be postponed until the situation is handled, meaning no Thriller party this Saturday.

(thanks for the info, Roger)

Update: SDSC was issued a C&D on Tuesday and have a court date for Monday. I'll get more info when I can...

Wednesday Night Recap: The Roman Spring, Health, AM Vibe, Autolux

After 3 straight nights without seeing bands, it was time to get out of the house or be stuck at home watching a two hour American Idol barf-fest.

First stop of the night was to see my good friends in The Roman Spring at everyone's favorite bar, the San Diego Sports Club. Rodney is back from his tour as one half of Trentalange so it was good to see him again. If you ever go to SDSC, take a heavy sweater. I'm one of those people who prefers cold to hot, but that is just a nipple fest in there. Better than being hot at a show, but still...

Anyway, The Roman Spring played about a half hour set. Andrea and I were getting some Franz Ferdinand vibes from the older stuff. They treated us to two new tracks at the end of their set that showed lyrical maturity and the development of their own cohesive style.









From SDSC, we headed to the Casbah, just missing Japanese Sunday on the mainstage and AM Vibe's first set in the Atari lounge. We were in time, however, to catch the onstage insanity that is Health. Or more like unstable mental Health. Crashing and thrashing and kneeling with mics to their amps to play with feedback, the music was driven by heavy rhythmic drums. Andy called it Math Metal. I'll go with that. They're outta LA and I wanna see them at the Ken Club after I've consumed exactly 4 vodka tonics and two red-headed sluts. And I want a tambourine or something to bang on.







During the set change, AM Vibe played in the Atari Lounge. Apparently they had a rough first set but I wouldn't know it. They played great and it's great to see Lisa is doing well after her back surgery and her voice is unaffected. She brings to my mind early 90s bands like Belly or the Sundays, so it feels comfortable and familiar. Mostly I'm glad they're playing again.





After their short set, it was time for the Autolux. The sold out venue was crowded and eager and somehow I found Andrea at the side of the stage, so I worked my way up to meet her. Autolux delivered in every way. Another band that I seemed to have completely missed the boat on in the past, but will go out of my way to see in the future. And for the record, I have always been partial to male vocalists, and was kinda psyching myself out from going to the show, but Carla sang from behind the kit and with the vocals alternating, I actually really liked the whole band as a package.

Recap: Wednesday Night- Pandora, Cash Kings, Blasphemous Guitars

I'm really sorry that I'm lagging on my Wednesday recap, but part of it was that I learned so much at the discussion with Tim Westergren of Pandora and The Music Genome Project that I didn't want to trivialize his presentation.



Ultimately, what it really boils down to is Pandora.com is a really cool site and the recent ruling to TRIPLE music licensing costs for online streaming music services retroactively to 2006 is basically gonna wipe out all currently legal online music as we know it. It supposedly protects record labels who are scrambling to stay afloat but as listeners and online users, it is up to us to tell our congressional representatives that this is not ok.


Here's my start to a synopsis:

"Tim talked about the history of the company and the evolution of their idea and how it coincided with the “bubble burst” of 2000. The Music Genome Project is a grand plan to break down songs to their base forms, extracting all the parts and rating those parts for prominence. There are 400 such traits that are rated. Various combinations of handfuls of those traits make up what they call Musical Attributes. Pandora is the internet radio that then uses the Music Genome information to find music for you that you like. You tell it to play a song or an artist and it will extract other music that it thinks you would like, guided by your thumbs up or down rating.


What I didn’t know about the Music Genome Project was that Pandora actually employs 50 musicians who go through intense training to listen to songs and break every song down with this comprehensive analysis of 400 traits. It is truly fascinating. The database currently has over 600k songs and more than half of those are independent, unsigned bands. Any band can submit their music. I happened to have a Vinyl Radio CD on hand so I slipped it to Tim at the end of the presentation."


I am leaving out so much, but it's all leaking outta my brain so that's all you get.

After the talk (and after some ghetto Church's Fried Chicken), Andrea and I headed to the Sports Club to see the Cash Kings and Blasphemous Guitars.


There isn't much to say about the Cash Kings except that if you love Johnny Cash and want to see a band play covers as Johnny would play and sing them, go see the Cash Kings. They don't take any creative liberties, they play it straight. The singer looked familiar and later I learned that he's the bassist for Hot Rod Lincoln, a band that has been on the local scene forever.


In high school my friends and I used to go see them play by the Mission Beach rollercoaster and swing dance to their music. As far as the Cash Kings go, I liked them but man, was I zonked. Apparently everyone in San Diego was as well because there were very few people there. And by very few I mean for a while the only other people there were the band members from Blasphemous Guitars. During the set more people showed up and some were even dancing, but still, the crowd was so thin, as Adam said, it was "sad but funny." It was pretty late so Andrea and I decided to call it a night.

The following may or may not (not) be an account of the rest of our night. It may or may not actually be written by Adam Gimbel. As Paul Harvey would say, "and now, the rest of the story."

Andrea & I were going to leave early but we had second thoughts and started walking back to SDSC. Out of nowhere, a proverbial ton of people showed up and we had to wait in line for 10 minutes just to get back in (thanks again for the last minute guestlistin’, Adam). I know I’m always saying that there’s a black cloud over that club but, for one glorious moment, a light shone down like a ray from heaven as the Blasphemous Guitars took the stage. I don’t know how they drew that many people in such a short time on a Wednesday night but I’ve never seen any club that packed EVER. I’ve seen the Blasphemers a few times but they really outdid themselves last night. They were so taken aback by the size and enthusiasm of the crowd that they started to take requests and played songs they’d never rehearsed like they’d been doing them for years. “I Melt For You” was FEROCIOUS and “Crazy Train” threatened to resurrect the ghost of Randy Rhodes himself (plus the bit of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” was a nice touch). The only way I could get a decent shot of the band was to crowdsurf up and take one from onstage (it looks like Adam took it of himself but I swear it was me).



The place was so crazy that the cops showed up to shut down the show before they could even get to their pre-planned Hurt/Personal Jesus/Rusty Cage “Johnny Cash” medley. Truly awesome. And we were gonna LEAVE! There is NO way I’m going to miss the debut of their mashup club M*A*S*H*UP UNIT 619 next Saturday night at SDSC. I just hope I can get in.

Yeah, dude. I'm such a crowdsurfer.

And that, my friends, pretty much covers Wednesday night.

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…

Weekend Recap: Friday- Music Trivia Night

What an incredible weekend. I hope it was for you all as well.

My Friday afternoon started with an awesome lunch at the bar at Ponce's. If you have never had Ponce's, you are missing out. Seriously. I spent lunch talking music with Ponce, Jr. and showed him this here blog, but forgot to mention that I kinda started a food one, too, that is currently on hiatus. But I did review Ponce's back in December, so you can check it out.

But this blog isn't about food, so on with business. Andrea called and told me that she found a buyer for our Cat Empire tickets, so I had to drop it off at her work, then settled in to a short nap. Sara and I met up with Andrea, Troy, Matt, Sara's friend Summer, Seth and a few others at Wine Steals. It was packed and people kept swiping tables, but we finally settled into an area and ordered some food and continues with our wine consumption. The group dissipated as everyone slowly trickled over to the Sports Club for Blasphemous Guitars and Music Trivia Night. It was packed. I believe the final count was 15, and most of the teams had 5 people (though Michael was brave with just a pair). A majority of the players were either in bands or writers or both...from CityBeat, the Union Trib, bloggers, etc.


Troy is cuckoo for questions


The team I wasn't invited to be on


Kyle, Brooke, Andrew

I teamed up with the guys from Orion Frequency and their girlfriends. This is how my team looks if you're on Acid. I don't know what setting my camera was on but it screwed up a ton of my pics.


We finished in 4th place (I think). Bart Mendoza's team won the pot of $235 bucks. It was funny though, how as soon as the game was over, most everyone split. SDSC has a dark cloud over it, for sure.


The Winners

I met up with Kelly and friends at Happy Hour, but it was pretty dead and I needed to get closer to home, so I headed to the Ken for last call. The bands had just wrapped up but I was in time for a couple drinks and finally called it a night.

Pussy Galore: Trentalange, The Hot Toddies, The Fascination

I will edit this post with details of the show later, but for now, here are the pics.

Trentalange:


I missed Trentalange on Wednesday because I was at home deciding if really wanted to go out, but upon analyzing my 300+ channels of digital cable tv and realizing it was all crap, I decided I had no excuse not to go. And man, did I want a cocktail...

You can read my review of Trentalange from Sunday's performance here. It seemed that there were a lot of people there specifically to see Rodney and people were gushing about the performance outside the bar between bands.

The Hot Toddies:









As evidenced by the photos, The Hot Toddies are a 4 piece all girl band outta Oakland. They have sweet melodies and lots of two part harmonies while they sing snarky jokey songs about vaginas and motor scooters and pirates. I thought they were cute albeit more of a novelty act. Francine said, "I don't like them. And you can quote me on that." It was hard to tell if the crowd was into it because people were having full on loud conversations. This is why I could never be in a band. I would just be like "fuck you then" and walk offstage. Or like a teacher calling out a student talking in class, "Is there something you'd like to share with all of us??" It's terribly rude but maybe I'm just hypersensitive to it. Anyhow, the girls finished off their set and had a ton of merch to sell but I felt it was too many choices, to be honest. I like choices, but SEVEN different shirts is a lot.

I met Jessica outside and she told me that this is their second tour. Last time in San Diego they played "that country sounding" named place...oh yeah, the Whistle Stop. I asked the ages of the girls because they looked so young. 2 of them are 23, and two of them are 25. I'm turning into one of those 30 year olds that tells everyone they're "babies" even if I'm only like 2 years older. She was very proud of their "marshmallow" van which was a huge eggshell colored van with a camper top. They are on Asian Man records, a DIY label out of San Jose. I don't know what it is about this band, but I could see them getting big time indie nation love. Scenesters love their indie chicks.

The Fascination:





Last up were The Fascination. I don't know anything about this band except that they are Erica Jessup's (Beauty Bar) favorite band according to her interview for SignOn as a tastemaker. To be honest, I wasn't really into their sound. The British singer does a little too much pushing with his voice. I did really like the fact that they played danceable electronic sounding music without computers or synthesizers. The drummer created the effect with his cymbals and it was pretty cool to me. They had a pretty decent sized group digging their stuff and the local scene was representing...I saw guys from Jezebel, Swim Party, and Down With Leo. Adam from Rookie Card was there recruiting people for Friday's Trivia night at the Sports Club.

The Fascination is playing at the Ken Club this month, so maybe on a weekend when I'm a little more loaded and less uptight, I'll probably be more into their whole sound. They are also playing in support of the Modlins CD Release at The Whistle Stop on Feb 16 along with Swim Party.



I went to the bathroom and heard people chanting, "Take it off! Take it off!"

Here is the result of that chanting: