Back Issue
MyWeek in Music January 31st to February 7thby Scott Zensen
Photographs by:
Scott Zensen
Steve Covault
Here it is already the second month of the New Year. Time flies sometimes, even if your not enjoying it, but if you have been going out to the shows I have been talking about then you have probably enjoyed most of it like I have. But we are in for a real treats this next month because there are a lot of shows coming this month. The first show is the Noches Rockeras at the House of Blues also called NOCHE DE ROCK/TRIBUTE with a Gish – Smashing Pumpkins tribute also Mono Mono - Blizzard - Monte Cristo - Lee Coulter. There is also supposed to be a dance tribute with Mono Mono (Jeff Beringer) and Sweet Joyce Ann. Kiss Me Tuesday with an all-star list of singer songwriter's. Johnny Dangerously has a show at Canes with Misery Loves Me, The Crowleys, Def In One Eye. Later this month Podunk Nowhere's CD release party at Winston's…Third Annual Cash Only Show at Winston's…Staring Into the Sun at Twigg's, more SweetTooth and Sven-Eric Seaholm coming this month and many many more! So don't forget to take a look at the Shows on the horizon Section Highlighting the coming week of music from Wednesday to Wednesday! Now on with MyWeek in Music!
Wednesday: Well here is a shocker! I missed going to Farmer's Market. I think I was still sick from the previous week coming down with flu on Sunday at Tower Two. But it skewed my whole week!
Thursday: I really wanted to go see my friend Doktor Dave Sawyer play with Tommy Edwards another good friend but I still had a cough and I didn't want to subject any friends to a possibility of getting sick.So I stayed home again.
Friday: I was feeling great again! And to get my week back on track I went to see my friend Brooklyn play at Kirin Sushi. And it was a great choice to get me going. I sat and listened to Brooklyn sing her songs while she was accompanied by Alicia Ruggerio on the Violin. But not before a small problem turned up? It seems somehow that the microphone that belongs to the P.A. system at Kirin Sushi turned up missing! We looked all around for it pretty thoroughly. We also called around to a few close friends to see if we could borrow one for a couple of hours. But everyone we called was already using their equipment or we couldn't contact them! So Brooklyn went on with the show. She could still plug in her guitar and Alicia plays loud enough but Brooklyn was afraid she wouldn't be able to sing loud enough without hurting her voice for the night. But like a trooper she went on and it turns out she has the pipes to belt it out all 
the way through the restaurant without really harming her voice. It was a lot of fun and a few of the people in the restaurant asked her to sing some covers and she gave it a try but she writes her own songs and doesn't really sing cover very often. Later a few friends dropped by and Sweet Joyce Ann took stage and sang a couple of tunes and played with Alicia. Josh Damigo stopped by as well and he went up and sang several of his best songs. As you can see by the picture he even let his patented red ball cap off his head as one of the girls were wearing it. We had lots of fun eating Sushi with Steve Covault and I had fun drinking Sake with Alicia and Brooklyn.
After Kirin Sushi we thought of going to O'Connell's to see the Johnny Different CD Release party or go to see Citizen Band at the Tiki. We decided on the latter! When we got there it was really tough to find parking. Parking in P.B. is tough any time of the day but even on a Thursday night the whole street was jumping with activity. There are a lot of bars on Garnet Street, not all play live music but many do! But that doesn't slow down the PB crowd who will stand outside for hours to get in a bar or club. So Brooklyn dropped me off thinking she wouldn't be able to find parking after circling for a while I went in and met up with Craig Yerkes who plays with The Grams. He was here supporting his sister Marcia Claire who plays in Citizen Band and many other bands! Now Craig is a really nice person. He always buys me a beer and says hello and I always appreciate it but it isn't necessary. I think he's a great guy and a fantastic guitarist. He is one of the best in town. Citizen Band was in rare form tonight. We got there (Brooklyn found a parking place) just towards the end of their first set and they kicked ass as usual. The did three sets in all (that I know of) and usually the lead singer of the group Is Jeff Berkley a multi-talented person if there ever was one. Occasionally Marcia will sing a song, but we were treated to several tonight she did two or three. On the second set they asked Craig to sit in on one of the songs and he showed everybody that he could play electric just as well as acoustic. They all played like they have been doing it all their lives and of course he and Marcia have been doing just that! Plenty of other people from other bands were there to support and appreciate Citizen Band's music and Jeff's off the cuff humor. You can't go to a show and not hear some great jokes and one liners. If you get a chance to see this band live then go for it! They are one of the best in town.
Saturday: You could find me at the Twigg's Green room to see The Grams, Jason Turtle, Will Edwards, Zen Boy & Karma Girl and Joe Cardillo. When I got there I was planning on just listening to the music from outside cause I was broke but a friend paid my way in without me knowing right away. If I had known I would have said no which is why they probably did it they are too nice to me! Course even then I didn't know right away, as I was socializing outside and I missed seeing Zen Boy & Karma girl. 
I was mainly curious about them because of my last name [grin] but what I did hear sounded mostly like folk singing in an old possibly fifties style. But I will reserve judgement of any kind because I wasn't inside to listen closely to the music. The people inside seemed to enjoy them very much. I was still outside when Will Edwards took stage but before his first song was over I found out I could go in so I went in right away. I like Will's musical style and really appreciated being able to hear it. One thing you can say about Twigg's is the sound system in there is really crisp and clear and John always does a good job with sound.
Will did a couple of his older songs but he admitted outside that he definitely feels more inclined to do his more recent work because it is more challenging for him. He is definitely working on new material for his next CD. After Will came Jason Turtle without his new Electric Turtle band. Jason seemed impatient to go on I don't know if he really had some stuff he wanted to do or if it was the cold he was fighting off. Maybe he just wanted to get the show over with, but once he was on stage he seemed to have a lot of fun with his songs. His voice didn't show any signs of his cold but he said he was feeling pretty good after taking some Robitussin. He has a melodic voice and some fun songs with fun lyrics. I especially liked the one that he wrote for an old girlfriend. The only one he doesn't still get along with so you can imagine the gist of the song.
After Jason came The Grams who had a full complement tonight. Their core group has always been Chuck Schiele (guitar), Craig Yerkes (guitar) and Elise Ohki (violin). But they were joined by Bill Coomes on Djembe and percussion instruments and Tony from Call Down Fire playing Bass. The Grams proceeded to play most of their tunes from their San Diego Music Award winning CD. They made the green room sound better than it does and it sounds great. Elise the violinist just got back from a trip to New York getting on a plane at 4am New York time and still came and played for everybody marking her as a superwoman of music and stamina. Craig showed us he plays that guitar better than most and Chuck sang and played awesomely even though he has a wound on his finger. All this coupled with the fact that Bill and Tony hadn't practiced many of these songs yet but they sounded like it was all second nature showing what good instrumentalists and musicians they are! Basically the Grams were the closers and they did an awesome job but there was one more musician by the name of Joe Cardillo. Joe is one of the many musician's who have asked to be a friend that I had not seen play before so I was curious what he sounded like?
What I found out is he is a very interesting musician. He plays two different kinds of Saxophones and guitar and he has a toy! A loop station! In fact he had quite a few pedals and gadgets that lay at his feet and he is even his own back up singer. He has a good voice and he is able to change it a little to do loops as a back up singer and then he adds loops of whatever instrument he wants and then sings and plays an instrument he hasn't looped. Is it a gimmick? Maybe but he does it well and he plays well enough and sings well enough that he doesn't need to. He had to go on after The Grams, which is a hard thing to do. But he did an admirable job doing so to the few people left who stuck around after The Grams finished their set. It was a great night for me!
I had the chance earlier this night to go see the incomparable Gregory Page at a house concert. I saw Gregory do this house concert last year in the same month same place but I decided to go see the show at Twigg's. My friend Gina sent me some pictures of the event. And she was going to send me some notes on how the show went but she got hung up and hasn't sent it. So I think I will save those pics for another day. Maybe a day when I couldn't make it to any shows and I need more copy to put in the article.
Sunday: there wasn't anything I could get to easily, so I stayed home. Although, I wouldn't have minded going to see Kyle Phelan at the Hot Java Café and hear him sing. I am sure he would have sung a few of his songs. I also passe don going out to see Chelsea Flor singing with the Slugger Trask Band. If you haven't been to her MySpace site lately you will find she finally has a song up for you to listen to! It is a bluesy version of her song Starry Gazer. It's pretty good! Be sure and stop by her site Chelsea Flor MySpace site She has plenty of other great songs. So I am just gonna sit back and wait till others are released once they are recorded.
Monday: I was going out to see Astra Kelly's show at Dublin's but it kind of got rained out for me. I was headed there on my bicycle but before I got the chance to leave, the downpour started. Oh well! There will be more shows there? Astra has a show at Dublin's every Monday!
Tuesday: well I hardly ever go out on Tuesday mostly because not many people have a gig on Tuesday. There must be some? I just haven't heard about them?…Yet! But there is one next Tuesday. Kiss Me Tuesday! It would be a weird name if it came out on Wednesday huh! LOL. If you weren't lucky enough to get one of the free tickets that were floating around, it's $12 at the door. But it will be worth it! You can read more about it in the sidebar section. So be sure to come back and read this blog next time as there are lots of gigs going on this month and it promises to be a great month of music in the San Diego Music Scene.
'Til then I'm Out!
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