I’m constantly inspired by music, but unfortunately I’m not musically gifted, unless you count singing in the shower. Luckily the bands that I like and who have come to San Diego sound a lot better than me and with the revolving door spewing out talent so often we seem to catch shows a lot.
To find concerts I typically use SongKick which I login with Facebook to see what’s going on around town, but because Tyler works with the San Diego Reader, he’s in the know before me.
We saw Portugal the Man, at the House of Blues. They are really good, often compared to the Beatles (my favorite band). It was an all ages’ show thus there was a designated drinking zone and we had to drink our PBR tall boys on balcony upstairs. Of course we wanted to be in the crowd and I couldn’t chug my beer fast enough so I ended up abandoning it to watch from the floor. There were dozens of tweens surrounding us and a girl suddenly passed out next to us. After shared stories this apparently happens often in this venue, due to the lack of oxygen.
Tyler’s favorite band Minus the Bear also came to SD and played at SOMA which is basically a huge garage. They don’t serve alcohol and you can’t re-enter, but the venue is big and the acoustics are good. They played their Highly Refined Pirates album and some selections from various albums. They had really cool stage lights, too bad it was a school night. This band has a very mellow vibe and their lyrics are so realistic. Every now and then there’s a dance beat that will get you moving, but I find the music perfect for lying in the grass under a tree.
We also saw Tennis, a band we found in VOID Magazine in Jacksonville Beach. They were touring through San Diego and lucky for us we got to go. They were playing at the Casbah which is right next to the airport and you never think it was indoor/outdoor, but it’s actually a really cool venue. It has the grunge, not taken care of feel, but it feels so right; stickers adorn the walls and poles, there are ripped leather seats patched up with duct tape, pool tables and arcade games. It’s a dive but when you look up the sky is above you as the roof opens up to the stars and what's better than music under the sky?
Tennis is beach, folk, indie dance music and it’s great. You can sit around and bob your head to her sweet sinewy voice. I really liked her, Alaina (the lead singer). She is so cute and sweet faced with gigantic curly hair blocking her eyes. Her and her husband, sing about sailing across the world, the ocean, different cities they’ve visited and love. And the band that opened for them, Miniature Tigers, is pretty awesome too.
We also went to BellyUp in Solana beach to see members of the Thievery Corporation, who we were supposed to see, but due to the black-out was cancelled. Ironically once they were rescheduled a pipe flooded their staging room and they had to reschedule again it was inevitable that we would see them so we just gave up. But when we heard that members of the band were playing at BellyUp Tyler was able to get us on the list to see the show. It was a reggae band that collaborated with Thievery Corporation on a few songs. It was interesting, too much revolution music for my taste, which actually ended in a revolt in the car between Mikey (Tyler’s buddy who came to visit us) and Tyler about political hypocrisy in reggae music.
Our most recent show was Surfer Blood, who hail from West Palm Beach, Florida. I tweeted the band that we were going and they tweeted back J. They were playing a small show at Porter’s Pub which is on UCSD (University of California San Diego)’s campus. It’s a really small venue, but it’s cool because it’s on campus. We felt like college kids only 6 years older and sleepy after 11:00pm. Surfer Blood has an upbeat, beachy sound.
Last, but not least, we tried to see Ra Ra Riot, but the show was sold out. Oh well! Check out these bands and give them a listen you may be pleasantly surprised!
