The Chameleons U.K. @ The New Parish Oakland,CA 11/17/11

[El Dingo]

Downtown Oakland is really becoming a great place for food and music. We had dinner at the new Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe (I'm assuming everyone has had breakfast at the Emeryville location?). It was a little slow, probably because it was a weeknight and the protests were just a few blocks away.

The New Parish is a tiny club next to the Hibiscus restaurant. It's very narrow but has a nice balcony seating area. There was about 40 - 50 people there and everyone was super friendly. We chatted up the folks at the next table; 'where did you first hear The Chameleons, what other shows have you seen' etc. . It was pretty cool.

The opening band was Black Swan Lane. Kind of 'Joy Division'-esque and quite good. I bought two of their CDs at the show and have been enjoying them quite a bit.

The Chameleons U.K. (Mark Burgess and a couple other original members) played their debut album 'The Script of the Bridge' from start to finish, then encored with a 30 minute set of mixed songs.

All in all we had a great time at a club just 10 minutes from our house. It's great to have places like Rudy's and The Fox theater bringing life to downtown Oakland. I'm old now and hate driving far away, late at night with no place to park.