Roybot & Gamma Gamma @ Habitat, The Sess & Red Feathers @ Casbah, 5.10.08

After a full day at Gator By The Bay, I was pretty grubby, but I didn't want to miss the show at the Habitat House, so I had my mom drop me off there instead of back at home, stopping first at the liquor store up the street. I chatted briefly with Drew Andrews (who will be doing his own Habitat show soon)then made my way into the house.

Roybot's performance was hilarious, with 3 videos interacting with one another and with Roy. I don't know where one person finds the time. CatDirt took care of reviewing the show (and the Casbah, for that matter), so I have little to add to his commentary. Read his full review here.

After Roybot, Gamma Gamma played and it was the loudest show I've been to at the house, so I hung out on the porch chatting with some people there. Gamma Gamma were pretty cool and I'm with CatDirt that I'd like to see them again, but I think that a SD House Party show would be sweet.

Here are just a couple random pics I took.





After the show at Habitat House, I caught a ride with CD and CDW to the Casbah, and clearly ignored my previous night's misadventures and proceeded to ignore the #1 rule of drinking: Liquor before beer, in the clear; Beer before liquor, get drunk quicker. (Or get more sicker...but I wasn't that bad).

I watched the bands and took a couple pics, but spent most of the night in the back bar and on the patio. Here's a few of my favorite Casbah pics from the night:








After the Casbah, Dan and Abe took me home and I was grateful for a fun day and a safe ride home.

Dirty Sweet Winner Announced

Thanks to everyone who entered to win tickets to Dirty Sweet, The Silent Comedy and The Sess at the Hard Rock Hotel. Congratulations to Tony S for being my winner.

Hard Rock Hotel Presents: MSTRKRFT 2/28, Dirty Sweet 3/1

Surprise, surprise- I didn't quite get to all the writing I thought I would on Sunday, so I'm now even more behind than usual. I'll post about the shows I went to over the weekend later this evening, along with the full listings for the week, but for now, I wanted to remind everyone that I've got a pair of MSTRKRFT tickets for Thursday night and a pair of Dirty Sweet tickets for Saturday. I will choose my MSTRKRFT winner at random by 5 pm on Wednesday, so it's not too late to enter. (email sddialedin AT gmail DOT com)

I had the opportunity to do a tour of the Hard Rock Hotel this past weekend and I think people will be impressed. I had been to Sweetwater, one of the bars owned by Cindy Crawford's beau, but we know that I'm just not down with NY and LA style clubs in SD, so I probably should've just skipped that whole experience. This time around, we got to check out some of the conference rooms that will be used as concert rooms. There is supposed to be a full fledged music venue, but it wasn't really clear if it's just being held back or if plans somehow changed last minute. Of course, as Hard Rock's go everywhere, there is a good amount of rock memorabilia throughout all of the hallways, including a whole hall of Beatles and Stones stuff.

The first room we saw is called "The Edge". It's the corner of the building, as a music venue will hold about 400, and has beautiful floor to ceiling windows, spaced about 5 feet apart along the two external walls, giving pretty views of the convention center and 5th Avenue below. The room wasn't set up with a stage- but I'm pretty sure Hard Rock knows how to convert a room- so this will be the room used on Saturday for Dirty Sweet, The Silent Comedy, and The Sess.

The second room we looked at was a much larger room that can be divided in up to 6 separate meeting rooms. It's called "Legends" and is the room that MSTRKRFT will be using on Thusday night. There are large white panels on all the walls that look like TV projection screens, but in fact are part of the acoustic setup. We were told that this room can hold about 700 with the full stage. I imagine with all the staging and lighting and the type of music going down on Thursday, if you're even just intrigued by dance music, this is probably an event for you.

After showing us the main rooms, we went up to the Terrace, checked out the bar and pool up there, and the "rock wall" inside the hotel that has some of the most recognizable band logos in rock history, including some surprises like NOFX and OKGo,among RHCP, The Sex Pistols,etc. The wall is very visually stimulating.

I was encouraged by the tour of the Hard Rock Hotel. I was mostly impressed when our host told me that for shows, the bars would be handled differently then the regular bars. He couldn't tell me prices, but assured me drink prices would be reasonable (he read my complaints about $10 vodka tonics at Sweetwater). "We can't expect people to drop $20 for a concert ticket and then another $10 per drink."

The other thing that impressed me is that the venue is circumventing Ticketmaster prices by making their tickets only available at the hotel concierge desk. $20 even gets you into MSTRKRFT, who will be joined by LA Riots, San Diego's own "Shark Attack" DJs, and Walter Meego. There's also a live art show. The whole thing goes down from 8pm-2am on Thursday, with MSTRKRFT hitting the stage at midnight.

For Saturday night, $15 even gets you in the door to see some of San Diego's finest...Dirty Sweet, The Silent Comedy, and The Sess. Or you can e-mail me and hope to win my pair of tickets...

Either way, I hope people take the time to check out the Hard Rock for some of the shows they're booking. I'm a little torn, personally, because I had other plans for Saturday night, but I might try and work it into my plans because I think Silent Comedy will blow up that room.

Vacation Recap

I'm on vacation from work this week and I'm still a little sick, so I have been equally indulgent in going out and consuming ridiculous amounts of vodka and sleeping a lot. I don't know, I don't seem to be tired at 2, so it's been a lot of going to sleep at 4 or 5 am. I'll have to get back in the swing of things next week. Since I haven't posted as much as usual, I will go over things that have been keeping me entertained.

Movies:
Blood Diamond- This movie gave me the biggest headache because of the constant barrage of bullets and being on the verge of crying throughout the entire film. Still, I very highly recommend seeing it. Most people still don't understand the severity of slavery and crime that is the result of mostly America's desire for bling...ice...diamonds. Every rapper with a grill should be forced to watch this movie. DeBeers is thinly veiled as "Van Kaap" in the film and their witholding of diamonds to raise the cost is absolutely true. "The Vault" is a well known fact. I'll stick with my diamonoids, thank you very much.

Little Miss Sunshine- Out on DVD. If you haven't seen it, go out and buy the DVD. It's the kind of movie that can be watched over and over and you'll notice something new about it every time. Basically, a little girl gets the opportunity to compete in a beauty pageant. Her oddball family takes a roadtrip from Albuquerque to Long Beach and has a whole bunch of personally life changing events occur to all of them.

Everything Is Illuminated- On HBO On Demand- Elijah Wood is a collector of things and is given a picture of his grandfather circa WWII. He decides to find the woman in the picture, travelling to the Ukraine and hiring a driver and a translator. The translator guy is in Gogol Bordello. That alone makes the film worthwhile.

Restaurants:
La Scala- Italian cuisine in the Gaslamp. I would stick to Little Italy. My food was good but everyone else got something different than what they thought they were ordering.
Nami Sushi- Good times with friends but again, I've had better sushi. Use a coupon and go during happy hour to make this worth your while. Is it a rule that every restaurant in Hillcrest has to have club music on?

Bars:
Convenience trumps all else for me, so I've spent a ridiculous amount of time this week at the Ken Club. But I also checked out Livewire for the first time in ages, Whistle Stop for happy hour, and Triple Crown for playing games.

Last night was The Sess, The Vision of A Dying World, and Life on Mars @ The Ken Club. I missed Life on Mars. I really enjoyed The Vision of A Dying World, though they played as a three piece because one of the members was in Vegas or something. I liked the combination of an acoustic guitar with an electric one, though the electric one was a tad too loud and drowned out the vocals at times. Both guitarists alternated with the vocals and I liked their country tinged indie rock style. They are playing on January 26th at the Ché Café with Old Man Hands and Kite Flying Society. That is going to a great show and definitely worth the drive.

The Sess came on later and I don't know how many times I have to tell them to turn their shit down. People blame the Ken Club for sound, but their sound guys know what they're doing. If they turn your shit down and you go and turn up your amps onstage to counter, you're doing yourself a huge disservice. I couldn't be in the room for more than half a song, the vocals were completely undistinguishable, and the room was just full of loud noise.

Instead of sticking around, Meeks, Venti, and I went to a free screening of 2 student films at the Ken Cinema that also included and art show and 3 band performances. Everyone who played or displayed (except one band) is an employee at the theatre, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary next week. It was kinda cool just hanging out in the theatre (which at it's peak was about half full) after hours. Sorry I didn't know about this or it would've been listed in my "free shit" category.

So there it is...my week in review. Tonight I plan on seeing Mr Tube and Rafter at the Tower Bar, but plans can change, so we'll see what the evening brings.

Ken Club Friday

There seems to be some confusion about the show at the Ken Club on Friday. The original lineup had ¡Society!, The Sess, and Life on Mars. Last night, I heard Pyles announce the show on his show on 94/9, called him, and as a result got a shout out for the blog on-air, so if that netted any new readers, welcome!

Anyway, ¡Society! has cancelled the show (via a MySpace bulletin). They have reposted the show with this lineup:

Vision of a Dying World
The Sess
Life on Mars
Gayle Skidmore and the Eskimo Friends

The Sess have also posted a bulletin with this revised lineup:

The Sess
Zerox
Life On Mars

I'll try to get hold of Bodie, but both shows would be good. I'll post if I can get some clarification. Check out CatDirt for his previous review of Zerox, or see their myspace page here.

Weekend update: Saturday, December 17, 2006

The day started with lunch at Ponce’s with my sister and Sara. I’ll review that later on the food site (link to the right), so keep your eyes peeled. After walked down to a new day spa in Kensington called I.C.E. that was having a “Holiday Glitz Blitz.” Most of the vendors were packing up due to low attendance, but we scored some giftbags with some girt certificates, makeup samples, hangover juice and a couple other small trinkets. The spa’s rates seem reasonable and the house that the spa uses is a historical building on Vista, about 4 blocks east of Kensington Coffee. If you’re looking for massages, wraps, etc., it seemed like a great place to get those kinds of services.

Much later, after an afternoon slummin’ and couchin’, it was time to motivate and head out. I decided to go to the Alibi because I finally wanted to see Orion Frequency.

Unfortunately, I missed Firethorn. Two Word Name started as I arrived. Their MySpace page describes them as a cross between Incubus and Metallica. While I’ll agree with the Incubus part, I was thinking more MCR or maybe Blue October, with their brooding lyrics that the singer belted out, kinda making me feel like I was watching someone sing in the shower. That’s not an insult at all- I thought he was a good frontman. The drummer was really on it, and I guess the guitar and bass were good, too, though I paid more attention to the bassist’s leather g-string thong with the silver lame pouch for his package. The guitarist was in a red evening gown, which looked strapping with his broken foot bootie. The singer was sporting black from head to toe with red makeup around his eyes and a red teardrop on each cheek. If you’re emo, shouldn’t you just say so and not list your music as rock/thrash/metal? Just wondering.

Next up was a band called bill. I’ve heard this band’s name around town and know that they are really good at promotion. Still, when they started, their version of alternative rock/funk didn’t really do it for me. I don’t know if they are a Christian band, but some of the lyrics struck me as so. Granted, I was at the show alone and it was raining out and I was nursing the same cocktail I’d ordered during Two Word Name, so I wasn’t really feeling the vibe anyway, but bill didn’t do it for me. Even more frustrating is their MySpace page’s white text on seafoam background that you can’t freaking read.

As much as I wanted to see Orion Frequency, I lasted through about 3 songs of bill and decided it was time to go. I headed east down University to the other side of the world to the Tower Bar just in time to catch the Sess. I love these guys and have seen them before, I only wish I’d bought the earplugs I’ve been eyeing on Insound. The Sess are straightforward rock that reminds me in some off way of Uncle Joe’s Big Ol Driver back in the day, but I’m sure better comparisons could be made. I was just happy to be in a familiar place with a familiar band and familiar faces as my Saturday night came to a close.