The Ringers & Hotel St. George, Beauty Bar, 5.1.08

After Cut Copy, I bolted out of downtown and headed to the Beauty Bar because I was hoping to catch The Howls, and it seems I keep missing them, but no such luck, I missed them again. I arrived just as Hotel St. George started their set, said hi to some peeps, then made my way to the patio. They sounded great and Matt seemed in a better place than when they played at the Ken Club a few weeks ago and it shone through in the performance. I've always appreciated Matt's stage attitude. "Go ahead and clap, that was a good one," or "we literally wrote this song about three hours ago, so I hope we don't fuck it up." They didn't. Or if they did, we couldn't tell.



Then came LA's The Ringers. They have to be one of the best live bands around and they bring it every time. Singer Joe goes from the stage to the crowd back to the stage, moving around, dancing, jumping, and high-kicking, that I realized I need better action shot skills. The man doesn't stand still.



At one point, I was taking pictures of the band and Joe had left the stage, and all the sudden he's writhing on the floor pulling on my leg at my ankle. The thing is, there can be 5 people in the room or 200, and he brings it every single time.
For more pics and video, click "keep on reading".








I forgot to post last week before the show, but Joe is also in several television commercials, and currently he's the center of the "White Gold" campaign to promote milk.

White Gold "One Gallon Axe"


And here's the band performing a San Diego favorite, "Beaver Fever".
The Ringers, "Beaver Fever"


After the set, a few of us hung out, and my Ken Club homies showed up, so we chilled for a bit, and then we all made our way back to Kensington. The Ringers came by, too, so we chatted outside the bar before they took off, and then closed the bar down. My friend ended up hanging out at my place for a couple drinks and crashing at my place, so Friday I was pretty spent. When I got home from work, I went straight to sleep, and by the time I woke up, didn't motivate for anything more than walking to the Ken, but that ended up being a good call because my friends came and met me there, too. Since I'd gotten such a late start on the night, inevitably I ended up staying up until 6 in the morning. Abraham and I even went and laid in the park during sunrise to listen to all the birds of Kensington go crazy in the trees there. This, of course, resulted in me getting a late start on Saturday, but it all worked out, and I'll post about Saturday later.

Camera Fund

I wanted to give a huge thanks to my sweet and lovely friends who donated to my camera fund. I bit the bullet and bought a new camera on an impulse, and I might've even gone for the better version of the Sony Cybershot, but it wasn't in stock and I had to get to 4th&B that night. If anyone else wants to open their hearts to contribute, you can still always donate via PayPal with the button on the right.

Last night I went to see Cut Copy at the Red Bull Air Race Terminal and then followed up with The Ringers and Hotel St. George at the Beauty Bar. I'll write about both later, but I wanted to post a couple pictures since between the two shows I took over 400 pictures. I was having fun exploring my settings and playing with the lights, and here are a couple of my favorite results, and I'm impressed with my little point and shoot, considering I was about 10 feet away from the singer. I cannot wait to take pictures at the FM 94/9 Independence Jam.



Cut Copy, San Diego Red Bull Air Race Terminal, 5.2.08


Cut Copy, San Diego Red Bull Air Race Terminal, 5.2.08


The Ringers, Beauty Bar, 5.2.08

Writer, The Ringers & This Holiday Life, Beauty Bar, 2-16-08

So I had quite the weekend and have over a hundred pictures to sort through from Saturday, as well as my weekly "things to do" listings to get to, but I'm not really in the mood. I just feel like writing about the rest of the weekend...pics will come later, as well as video of Swim Party from last Monday, The Prayers from Thursday and Cory Branan from Friday.

Saturday night was a Beauty Bar night for me. The bands are starting a little bit later these days, so I had some time to hang out, grab a bite nearby, and post up for This Holiday Life. It was my first time seeing them and I really enjoyed them. They fell in the vein of Agualung for me...beautiful soaring vocals and very piano heavy. I realized that I'd left my camera battery at home, so Abraham and I snuck off mid-set to pick it up. I clocked it and my apartment is 3 minutes from the Beauty Bar.

By the time we got back, we heard there was some mix-up and the Ringers went onstage second instead of Writer. Perhaps it was a weird booking to put the two together, but I know there was a little anxiety that The Ringers super high energy show would somehow overshadow Writer's more melodic and quiet set, but I'm happy to say that not only did both bands play well, but the crowd stuck around for both bands and I think appreciated them both.

The Ringers of course were all over the stage and did their LA brand of rock n roll and they do not disappoint. Again, another dude-heavy fanbase, but it was ok, I strapped my camera around my wrist and did my best to take some pics.












After they were done, I met them outside. Joe, the singer, has a sister named Rosie, so he was really nice to me and we kinda talked about the lineup change, and it just seemed like a fluke- nobody to blame but they had to get back to LA.

Back inside, Writer took the stage and sounded great. I kept joking that after The Ringers, they'd have to keep up the momentum with a few leg kicks, but they did what they do and nobody seemed to mind that they were much more mellow. I freaking love them and really can't say enough about how much I love their CD as well as what great people they all are "in real life."






After the show, Abe and I hit the Ken Club for last call, then hung out until 6 am sitting on my kitchen counter just shooting the shit, before I eventually went to sleep.

Recap: Vinyl Radio & The Ringers @ Beauty Bar

This is how my day went. I worked from 7:30 to 6:30, got home, played with the dog, took a nap, woke up at 9:15 when Andrea called, cleaned myself up, headed out the door, filled up the gastank (so sad when $3.25 is a bargain), and arrived at the Beauty Bar by 9:45, got a drink an found my way back to where the band had not yet started. There were maybe 15 people in the bar when I got there, but by the time Vinyl Radio hit the stage around 10, the place was crowded. Not quite Friday night packed, but enough so that to navigate the patio, you had to say "excuse me" at least a few times. We know I love Vinyl Radio and despite Matt's complaints about being so early and being so sober, the show was another good one. The band played a couple new songs, too...a bit of a preview of the next CD. My night was almost hampered when some dumb bitch (you know who you are) knocked half my drink onto my chest, but I didn't feel like going Chula Vista on her ass, so I moved and got over it. Because they started a little later than they were supposed to, their set was cut a little short, but no matter, they did a great job of warming up the crowd.


Vinyl Radio, Beauty Bar 5/31/07


Vinyl Radio, Beauty Bar 5/31/07


Vinyl Radio, Beauty Bar 5/31/07

The Ringers played their brand of drinky time rock n roll and had the crowd moving and shaking for the next hour. I never realized how much the bass stands out in the music, but I liked it a lot. The Ringers get regular radio airplay in LA and hopefully will catch on down here.

The Ringers, Beauty Bar 5/31/07



The Ringers, Beauty Bar 5/31/07



The Ringers Setlist, Beauty Bar 5/31/07

After the bands finished, it was time for me to cut out and get closer to home in my native habitat, so I dropped off my car and walked to the Ken Club where it was apparently locals night because a bunch of people who live in the neighborhood were there hanging out. We had a good ol fun time and one drink meant four. There was even after party action, but somehow the voice of reason hollered at me and at the last minute, I decided to just walk home. I have a big weekend ahead so I couldn't let some stupid hangover or lack of sleep slow me down. Now I am rearing to go...

Wednesday Newsy Bits

Vinyl Radio are featured in a story in this week's CityBeat. Check it out here and don't miss their show Thursday night at the Beauty Bar with the Ringers (from LA).

Matt Binder, Vinyl Radio, photo by Rosey SD:Dialed In


The Ringers, photo by Rosey SD:Dialed In
*****
The Nurses are technically no longer a San Diego band, having relocated to Chicago, but doesn't mean I like them any less. Here's a pretty good review and some of their tracks if you're interested.
*****
Lot's of local bands are recording and posting their new stuff on MySpace and pressing CD's...The Vision of A Dying World, Nautical Disaster, and Roxy Jones, and Two Word Name, just to name a few off the top of my head...check out their stuff and if your band is recording, send me your info to post here, too. Get your stuff out before the Music Awards cutoff date. (Music must be recorded between July 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007)
*****
I promised some old school stuff from my archive boxes so here are a couple good ones:


Smashing Pumpkins Ticket for Soma, January 31, 1996


Flyer for Radiohead show at World Beat Center (Hancock location)
July 16, 1993(?) Tickets were $12.50.
*****
According to Halloran, Scott & Aimee have broken up, both as a musical duo and as a couple. Their show last night at the House of Blues was supposedly replaced by an acoustic set by Scott and other members of Unwritten Law.

More to come...

Recap: Vinyl Radio CD Release/Rockit Ent. @ Year Anniversary

I am running on fumes right now, but last night was so fun, I can't say it wasn't worth it. Vinyl Radio had their CD release show in conjunction with Rockit Entertainment's 2 year anniversary. The Blackout Party and The Ringers played in support, there were free burgers, and despite random moments of rain, there were a lot of people there and most stayed until the very end of the night.

I arrived during The Ringers set. As I made my way up to snap some shots while digging through my purse, the singer jumped off stage and started looking through my purse with me. Full of stage antics and high kicks, the band totally rocked and got the crowd properly revved up. Vinyl Radio will be touring with the Ringers which I think will be a very successful tour. The Ringers get regular airplay on Indie 103 in LA, so their exposure can do nothing but benefit Vinyl Radio. Crowd favorite "Beaver Fever" was catchy but also hilarious as Joe hooked his forefinger in middle finger, gesturing a finger bang. They closed with their (LA) radio single, "Keepin Your Head Up" and the frantically dancing rockit girls up front were lovin every second. The chaos results in good photo moments.













and my favorite:



The Blackout Party was next onstage. For as long as I've wanted to see them, I was instead running around the bar and somehow ended up watching their set on tv in the back bar. They sounded good for the first couple songs that I watched, but there was just too much activity happening for me to be still. Also, the Rockit girls were up front dancing and I'm not the only one who thought it was very artificial...more "look at me" than "this music makes me shake my ass."





There was a raffle between bands to win the chance to spank one of the Rockit girls which really killed the momentum of things. As it was, Vinyl Radio was supposed to start at 11 and didn't get on until close to 12. The whole band was onstage as they called number after number and no winners responded, prompting the girls to just pick people to spank them. That, coupled with the cheesy Core Magazine banner in the Atari lounge along scantily clad model pictures gave the night a very FHM/Maxim feel, which I certainly could've done without, but maybe other people didn't mind, I can't say. Anyway, after having my time wasted by the spankings, Vinyl Radio was introduced by Troy Johnson.



They were great as always, though the energy was a little low. They had to try to regain the momentum lost. The show was good but I will say that the last show at the Casbah was so good and they set the bar so high, that for me this performance was fun, but I also felt free to continue running around the bar, making it feel like being at a friend's party than being at a show. Here are some pics, and the setlist which they ended up mixing up, anyway.







The guys in Vinyl Radio have a friend Fernando who helps them out and goes to all their shows. Sometimes he'll even tell you he's their manager. I will reserve comment, but I had prearranged with Matt to record a song in their set. He told me to video the second song, so I asked Fernando, who was manning the stage lights, to turn up the lights a little during the second song. Frustratingly, that did not happen. Still, here's the video. Maybe you just hit play and listen more than watch, since you really can't see shit. Thanks for lookin out, Fernando.