The Local San Diego Music Scene

We did two gigs in 4 days this month; we played at the San Diego Mission Bay Boat and Ski Club Saturday night and then our regular once a month O'Connell's gig on Wednesday night. We were all tired but we blasted through our set with little fanfare - it was teh day after Valentine' Day and no one was out anyway.

The variety and weirdness of the local music scene just makes me laugh, scratch my head, and/or roll my eyes sort of depending on what I'm watching at the time.

We've been on the same stage with some guys who are monster players and some people who barely can play. The previous O'Connell's gig we played we were on second after a guy who we have gotten to know a little bit because we've done O'Connells with him a few times now. He is a great acoustic guitar player who can't really sing and has no stage presence, but Mark and I just sit there, jaws agape at what he can pull off musically. After us was a three piece with a guy playing a silver sparkle Gretsch Duo Jet (I think) with a pompadour and cowboy boots and a bass player playing a Hofner copy. They were rock and roll/blues based. I told Mark those guys should have had a unified look with cowboy boots, jeans and those western shirts with the embroidery on the front and pearlescent snaps down the front playing ZZ Top guitar based blues riffing stuff.

At the Boat and Ski Club that same acoustic guitar guy was also billed but he was late so we went on first and then he followed. After him was a band that was fronted by a headset-wearing acoustic guitar player and a electric violin player. These guys were very progrockish but didn't have that sense of style that I always associate with that genre - the leader wore khakis and beat up white sneakers. Definitely 50 year old nerds in real life.

We have also played O'Connell's gigs with an 8 piece white guy reggae band (one guy was dedicated to playing ukelele) whose lead guitar player looked like he was straight out of Creedence Clearwater Revival in contrast with the Phillipino bass player (who shredded on his fretless 6 string bass) and the front man and drummer who both were full on natty dread, mon and a 7 piece band whose front woman fancied herself to be the new Grace Slick/Janis Joplin (apparently, since they played a bunch of cover tunes of those two plus a few of their own that sounded a lot like those). Wednesday at O'Connell's the opener was another of those cookie cutter "chick strumming an acoustic guitar" types. Very attractive, very vivacious and fun with great stage presence but couldn't play to save her life.

Play!? Crap, Mark and I would have been happy if she could just tune her guitar correctly.

Wow! Three Months!

Lots has happened. I've:

1. Started and finished the kitchen but need to paint the walls (which I am working on)

2. Sent off ugly and received back beautiful my Rickenbacker 4003 which is now my daily player with The Christopher Cash Band.

3. Have had several successful gigs with said band.

4. Bought another property

5. Had a good Xmas because my brother bought me a Vox AD50VT amp so I had something to play my Rickenbacker 330 through.

My art.com gallery is going great; I sell somewhere between 3 and 5 images a week nowadays.