just in case anyone is reading, a review of the sac music scene this saturday
ken and i had a really strange night around sacramento saturday.
we were supposed to go see tuvok perform at rhythm n' ribs, because that was something that really intrigued me at the time, but when the time actually came to go i was ambivalent. ken mentioned there was also this folk-rock show going on at a place called "luigi's fun garden."
well, you know i couldn't pass that up, although i had never heard of any of the bands. and if you know anything about the sac music scene, this makes some degree of sense. every show we've been to the band members have looked strangely familiar, and ended up being from other bands that have since... disbanded. also, every show we've been to the artists have asked us "um, so how did you .... find this show?" we recently saw a chelsea wolfe show that was purposely under the radar because the venue wasn't technically kosher with the city (no permits or something). there's definitely a problem with information and marketing. it almost makes me want to stick around sac to see if i can help any.
yeah. almost.
but anyway that night renewed my faith in the sac music scene and made me realize there's more going on here than i thought-- it's just all "underground."
we went to tres hermanas, because i've been dying to go back after trying it for the first time with ken and mario back in the spring. it's a pretty good mexican restaurant, going beyond the taqueria fare you usually find in the central valley, and which i personally can't stand. we'd been looking for a good mex restaurant for years before stumbling upon this little place. it saddened me last night to think that really, in boston this calibre of place was a dime a dozen, but what can you do, really. the food here will never live up to boston standards, save perhaps sushi. sushi is much better here.
after filling up on food, we made our way to luigi's, a few blocks down. on the way we were stopped by two black guys who were apparently with a homeless organization loaves and fishes, an organization my sorry ass had never heard of (because obviously i don't care about the homeless). they had a very charming spiel, with lots of immediate bashing of homeless/black stereotypes, and making fun of ken being tall a lot, and calling me beautiful, and i gave them about half of what was in my wallet (about 4 bucks sadly).
at luigi's we discovered that the bands was actually playing at 9, not 8 as they'd said on their freakin' myspaces (see what i mean about information problems?). we had an hour to kill so we decided to walk around a bit. it wasn't long before we heard a voice that was ... sort of a cross between the guy from creed and the guy from staind (not exactly that much of a difference, but we honestly couldn't decide on which one he reminded us of). the music sounded much nicer than creed or staind though, and we decided to try and find where this guy was playing. the next song a chick sang, and she sounded a lot like melissa etheridge. it turns out it was next door neighbor, a local duo that does a lot of cover stuff but also original material. they don't appear to have an album yet. the link (facebook fan page if it doesn't work) has videos though, which give you some idea of their really awesome voices. i don't think i've heard a cover band that good in a long while. as ken said, they seemed to be playing through my mp3 list-- this may have been somewhat significant in my approval :)
we headed back to luigi's after an hour or so, passing by this nightclub that was continually just pumping out the most banal techno i have ever heard, and ran into some enormous drunk black guy with apparently no money, who insisted he didn't want money but just wanted food. unfortunately this was like... the worst part of town to ask for just food, because it was home of the 11-dollar appetizer and stuff. so we couldn't give him anything. i was kicking myself later when i realized luigi's serves pizza by the slice, but by the time i realized this he was gone.
we made it into the show just as ricky berger, a cute blonde girl with a ukelele, was wrapping up. she insisted that everyone just pay her what they could for her album, and that if they had to get it for free, so be it. she was really sweet. and she ended up leaving long before the night ended, the few CDs she hadn't sold abandoned on the table. we took one.
the next band was pretty damn awesome. they're called foxtails brigade and they reminded us a little of rasputina. very dark/fairytale stuff, with strings and classical guitar. as a bonus, there was a mysterious woman paying cello who looked familiar... it turned out to be JEN FUCKING GRADY FROM THE FUCKING WAXFIRE. we just about died. we got to talk to laura weinbach, the frontwoman for foxtails, after the show and it turns out jen plays with a lot of bands. perhaps she will play with ours once we get rolling?
after foxtails was two sheds, a band we'd heard about but never seen. the first impression ken had? "that guy looks like house." it was true. he was even dressed like house, with a blue cap, suit jacket, t-shirt, and sneakers. it was very bizarre. when i get pictures up someday you'll see what i'm talking about. two sheds reminded me of over the rhine, one of my favorite easy-going bands, and they had some really nice chemistry, which was sweet. i did spend a lot of time wondering if they got the name from the monty python sketch though.
the final act of the night was the stilts, a band put together by christopher fairman. first christopher came out to do his solo stuff, which reminded me a lot of damien rice. actually i suppose his band stuff was similar to rice as well. he also had a guitar that said "batman" on it (and the logo on his case). i really liked his music (and thought he was pretty hot). i wanted to buy one of his albums after the show but nobody was around to sell them so we just left (and again, marketing issues much sac music scene???).
on our way home from the show, we found out there is a dessert diner on k and 23rd. next time i get a craving for dessert in the night that is where i'm dragging ken.
so yeah. quite an unusual night in sac since there was no disappointment, but i won't complain :)
we were supposed to go see tuvok perform at rhythm n' ribs, because that was something that really intrigued me at the time, but when the time actually came to go i was ambivalent. ken mentioned there was also this folk-rock show going on at a place called "luigi's fun garden."
well, you know i couldn't pass that up, although i had never heard of any of the bands. and if you know anything about the sac music scene, this makes some degree of sense. every show we've been to the band members have looked strangely familiar, and ended up being from other bands that have since... disbanded. also, every show we've been to the artists have asked us "um, so how did you .... find this show?" we recently saw a chelsea wolfe show that was purposely under the radar because the venue wasn't technically kosher with the city (no permits or something). there's definitely a problem with information and marketing. it almost makes me want to stick around sac to see if i can help any.
yeah. almost.
but anyway that night renewed my faith in the sac music scene and made me realize there's more going on here than i thought-- it's just all "underground."
we went to tres hermanas, because i've been dying to go back after trying it for the first time with ken and mario back in the spring. it's a pretty good mexican restaurant, going beyond the taqueria fare you usually find in the central valley, and which i personally can't stand. we'd been looking for a good mex restaurant for years before stumbling upon this little place. it saddened me last night to think that really, in boston this calibre of place was a dime a dozen, but what can you do, really. the food here will never live up to boston standards, save perhaps sushi. sushi is much better here.
after filling up on food, we made our way to luigi's, a few blocks down. on the way we were stopped by two black guys who were apparently with a homeless organization loaves and fishes, an organization my sorry ass had never heard of (because obviously i don't care about the homeless). they had a very charming spiel, with lots of immediate bashing of homeless/black stereotypes, and making fun of ken being tall a lot, and calling me beautiful, and i gave them about half of what was in my wallet (about 4 bucks sadly).
at luigi's we discovered that the bands was actually playing at 9, not 8 as they'd said on their freakin' myspaces (see what i mean about information problems?). we had an hour to kill so we decided to walk around a bit. it wasn't long before we heard a voice that was ... sort of a cross between the guy from creed and the guy from staind (not exactly that much of a difference, but we honestly couldn't decide on which one he reminded us of). the music sounded much nicer than creed or staind though, and we decided to try and find where this guy was playing. the next song a chick sang, and she sounded a lot like melissa etheridge. it turns out it was next door neighbor, a local duo that does a lot of cover stuff but also original material. they don't appear to have an album yet. the link (facebook fan page if it doesn't work) has videos though, which give you some idea of their really awesome voices. i don't think i've heard a cover band that good in a long while. as ken said, they seemed to be playing through my mp3 list-- this may have been somewhat significant in my approval :)
we headed back to luigi's after an hour or so, passing by this nightclub that was continually just pumping out the most banal techno i have ever heard, and ran into some enormous drunk black guy with apparently no money, who insisted he didn't want money but just wanted food. unfortunately this was like... the worst part of town to ask for just food, because it was home of the 11-dollar appetizer and stuff. so we couldn't give him anything. i was kicking myself later when i realized luigi's serves pizza by the slice, but by the time i realized this he was gone.
we made it into the show just as ricky berger, a cute blonde girl with a ukelele, was wrapping up. she insisted that everyone just pay her what they could for her album, and that if they had to get it for free, so be it. she was really sweet. and she ended up leaving long before the night ended, the few CDs she hadn't sold abandoned on the table. we took one.
the next band was pretty damn awesome. they're called foxtails brigade and they reminded us a little of rasputina. very dark/fairytale stuff, with strings and classical guitar. as a bonus, there was a mysterious woman paying cello who looked familiar... it turned out to be JEN FUCKING GRADY FROM THE FUCKING WAXFIRE. we just about died. we got to talk to laura weinbach, the frontwoman for foxtails, after the show and it turns out jen plays with a lot of bands. perhaps she will play with ours once we get rolling?
after foxtails was two sheds, a band we'd heard about but never seen. the first impression ken had? "that guy looks like house." it was true. he was even dressed like house, with a blue cap, suit jacket, t-shirt, and sneakers. it was very bizarre. when i get pictures up someday you'll see what i'm talking about. two sheds reminded me of over the rhine, one of my favorite easy-going bands, and they had some really nice chemistry, which was sweet. i did spend a lot of time wondering if they got the name from the monty python sketch though.
the final act of the night was the stilts, a band put together by christopher fairman. first christopher came out to do his solo stuff, which reminded me a lot of damien rice. actually i suppose his band stuff was similar to rice as well. he also had a guitar that said "batman" on it (and the logo on his case). i really liked his music (and thought he was pretty hot). i wanted to buy one of his albums after the show but nobody was around to sell them so we just left (and again, marketing issues much sac music scene???).
on our way home from the show, we found out there is a dessert diner on k and 23rd. next time i get a craving for dessert in the night that is where i'm dragging ken.
so yeah. quite an unusual night in sac since there was no disappointment, but i won't complain :)