10-19-2017, 10:02 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-19-2017, 10:03 AM by Drunk Monk.)
Sometimes I think I'm getting too old for weekday shows. It's been a constant issue - our area is a 'tweener town' for the music industry, meaning bands can play midweek and still fill a house, so it's a good way to make a little more while on the road. A Tuesday night show? Ouch.
I walked down to the Cat - one of my delights of living in that tiny bungalow is that it's only a 15 min walk and very pleasant. Met some random reggae friends outside while waiting for my padawan Edgar, who so kindly bought a ticket for me. He was with another JNK noob, Jenn, and the three of us are rather nefarious for enabling each other. The house was packed. Rasta Cruz was out in full force. SRO and very tight, even in the very back. It was a mostly 20s-30s crowd, not as well groomed as the SF show the week prior, and far more stony (note that the name of Jr Gong's new album is Stony Hill). You thought last week's fire smoke was bad? The Cat was thick, so thick that 2nd hand contact highs were unavoidable (the Cat has crappy ventilation anyways). And everyone was being neighborly, puffin & passin.
I actually disdain the Cat. It's such a dive. I saw a lot of great acts there 30 years ago, and they still haven't cleaned the place. The bouncers and barkeeps are rude. The place stinks and in shows like this, they oversell so tight that it's a hazard. But they get the better acts that come through, so what can ya do?
Kabaka Pyramid was really good. He's a local fav and brought it. Good to see him shine. Quick rapping hip hop along with more traditional dancehall chants and call backs. The audience was dialed for the call backs with Jr next.
Jr was solid. It was delightful to just watch a whole show, despite the packed crowd. His call backs, well, when he's doing his father's music, it's a given. I'm still not sold on his new stuff, and he only glanced over Mek It Bun Dem (my ringtone, which I'm thinking of changing soon) as a jam in the middle of his finale song, Jamrock, of course. Good show overall, very satisfying, quite irie.
It's actually a deadline crunch now, and I'm taking the next few days off for UCSD family weekend, so I'm rather under the gun at work, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be after a Tuesday show. I've developed lots of survival strategies over the years (had to) and it was strangely refreshing to shave at work before anyone else got there.
I walked down to the Cat - one of my delights of living in that tiny bungalow is that it's only a 15 min walk and very pleasant. Met some random reggae friends outside while waiting for my padawan Edgar, who so kindly bought a ticket for me. He was with another JNK noob, Jenn, and the three of us are rather nefarious for enabling each other. The house was packed. Rasta Cruz was out in full force. SRO and very tight, even in the very back. It was a mostly 20s-30s crowd, not as well groomed as the SF show the week prior, and far more stony (note that the name of Jr Gong's new album is Stony Hill). You thought last week's fire smoke was bad? The Cat was thick, so thick that 2nd hand contact highs were unavoidable (the Cat has crappy ventilation anyways). And everyone was being neighborly, puffin & passin.
I actually disdain the Cat. It's such a dive. I saw a lot of great acts there 30 years ago, and they still haven't cleaned the place. The bouncers and barkeeps are rude. The place stinks and in shows like this, they oversell so tight that it's a hazard. But they get the better acts that come through, so what can ya do?
Kabaka Pyramid was really good. He's a local fav and brought it. Good to see him shine. Quick rapping hip hop along with more traditional dancehall chants and call backs. The audience was dialed for the call backs with Jr next.
Jr was solid. It was delightful to just watch a whole show, despite the packed crowd. His call backs, well, when he's doing his father's music, it's a given. I'm still not sold on his new stuff, and he only glanced over Mek It Bun Dem (my ringtone, which I'm thinking of changing soon) as a jam in the middle of his finale song, Jamrock, of course. Good show overall, very satisfying, quite irie.
It's actually a deadline crunch now, and I'm taking the next few days off for UCSD family weekend, so I'm rather under the gun at work, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be after a Tuesday show. I've developed lots of survival strategies over the years (had to) and it was strangely refreshing to shave at work before anyone else got there.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse