Sunday night we were back in San Francisco for what turned out to be one of the funniest nights we’ve had in ages.
It also marked the long awaited return to the Warfield Theater, which I’ve been anxious for as it’s been decades since my last show there. Considering the last time I was in the place, the year started with “19..”, it hasn’t changed much. Updated bars, a better lighting and sound system…that’s pretty much it.
The grandeur remains!
Julian McCullough opened the show, and he did a fantastic set, really funny. We’d never heard of him before the show, but we’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for him in the future. His bits on Philly alone were worth making the trip for!
Julian, one funny guy!
Next up was Graham Kay, another comedian unknown to us. Another very funny man! He was real low key, but he kept us laughing all through his set.
Canadians can be funny? Who knew?
And finally the headliner Nate Bargatze, our man from Tennessee, took the stage. Man, what a set! If you’ve never seen his show, you are missing out. This comedian is a national treasure! One of the things I love about his comedy is that he keeps it ‘clean’, he doesn’t swear and he doesn’t rely on crass, vulgar stuff for laughs, like roughly 89% of comedians out there these days. And he doesn’t need to! He was just spectacular, I walked out of the place with my face hurting from laughing and smiling so much! I really can’t say enough good things about this guy, it was top notch comedy and a great experience.
Nate Bargatze, too funny to properly describe!
Thanks for a great night gentlemen! Last week was ROUGH, and a night of laughter was just what the doctor ordered!
This week I was called upon to report to the Superior Court in San Jose to “perform my civic duty”. What a clown show!
I got lucky in that my week happened to be the Labor Day holiday – and you KNOW city/county/state employees DON’T work on holidays, so the week on-call was shortened to 4 days. Usually, in my county at least, they make you call in twice a day for the entire week to see IF you have to report, and this time I did.
Wednesday, I reported in and it was hours of standing in line, waiting, moving to different locations, waiting some more, then an “overview” by the judge, then he addressed the ‘hardship’ cases trying to get excused. End of day one.
Day two, actual jury selection. Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. Lunch break. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Another break. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Finally about 4:15pm they had the jury installed and sworn in, and the rest of us were let go.
The entire thing left a bad taste in my mouth. But, it also encouraged me to keep staying “out of the system”… no way I want that place as part of my life!
I could go on and on about the dummies, the blowhards, the idiotic public defender, the scum and villains over running the place…
Not my pic, but a pretty good representation of the “people” coming to appear in court…
…the lack of manners, the lack of maturity, the lack of concern for how the citizen’s time and resources are being utilized. But, I’m trying to reduce negativity in my heart and soul, so I’ll just say again, what a clown show. A gross, monotonous clown show. Hope it’s a good long time before I have to do that again!
Have a great weekend everyone. Thanks for stopping by!
I realized yesterday that time has flown by since my last post and once again I’d dropped the ball.
Nothing all that noteworthy has happened in the last couple weeks, just life rushing at us at 100 mph.
We got back from our trip to Pismo, and I was feeling on top of the world. Rested, recharged and ready to get back to the real world, with many “to-do’s” to do, plans to make and goals to achieve.
It was all well and good ’til that Thursday night when a call came in from the fire alarm monitoring company- a water flow alarm went off just before 9pm…which means *something caused water to move in the fire sprinkler system. Never, and I mean NEVER a good call to get.
So basically, from Thursday August 25th, through last Thursday, September 1st things were a bit over the top tense. And I’ll leave it at that.
Cast iron + direct contact with the earth = trouble.
While this was going on, the Mrs. and our girl were both getting started for “back to school”, with their classrooms being occupied by the varmints as of last Monday, August 29th.
So, I’ve been a little preoccupied lately, and the blog took a back seat…
Despite the drag of life, I did manage to do a few fun things.
I finished another book – “A Great Reckoning” by Louise Penny. This was a random recommendation from Amazon actually. I’d never heard of the writer, who turns out is quite prolific, but the book was good. It was your typical ‘whodunnit’ detective novel, with a lot of unexpected twists and turns, and some very memorable characters. Not earth shattering or life changing in any way, though certainly a fun read nonetheless that didn’t take any real commitment to finish. She kept it compelling enough that I found myself WANTING to read it, to discover how it all went down. Perfect lite fare for a vacation/beach/lazy Sunday escape.
I also went on a treasure hunt and dug out a bunch of old cassettes containing a bunch of my earliest music we recorded back in the day. My old music partner moved back to the area some time ago, and we thought it would be fun to “digitize” these so we could listen to our oldies but goodies from days of yore. Hopefully more to come on this in the not too distant future.
Lost gems from the 1980’s and 90’s!
And last but not least, my daughter and I hit the Caravan Lounge in downtown San Jose last Saturday night.
The Caravan has been a dive bar since at least the mid 80’s, and I hadn’t step foot in the place since maybe ’92 at the latest but they didn’t have bands playing there back then. Some time later it became a somewhat legendary spot in the South Bay for punk bands and the more underground scene, which I’d kind of outgrown by then, so I never had gone there strictly for music until the last weekend.
Things didn’t pan out as planned unfortunately… the band we went (and I really WANTED) to see – the Wet Bandits, we didn’t see. The flyer for the show listed the Wet Bandits and nobody else, with a start time of 9pm. We got there at 9pm and found there was in fact an opening band, whose name I forget. Anyhow, the opening act didn’t START their set until 10:15, which was a drag. Then on top of that they were just boring, frankly. We figured they’d do a 30 minute set since they started so late, but at the 32 minute mark,the guitarist sat out and we were “treated” to a drum and bass duo jamming God knows what… At that point I called it a night. Don’t get me wrong, I love trios, and I can absolutely get down with some drum and bass jams, but these guys needed more time in the garage before they put themselves in front of a crowd. Bush League stuff, at best.
The bright side was getting to hang with my kid, just the two of us. It doesn’t happen all that often, so I really appreciate it when it does!
Yesterday was just a boring day of laundry and chores and super fun stuff like that. The Mrs. is a bit under the weather (back to school = cooties galore) so she’s lying low trying to recuperate before going back to classes this week. Me? No rest for the wicked…Working on the “holiday” per usual, massive deadline looming in a week. And I’m on-call for Jury Duty this week. Yay.
Oh, and did I mention we’re in the midst of a heat wave? It’s been in the high 90’s for the last 3 days. Supposed to be 103 today. Hotter tomorrow. Good times.
Today was a monumental day- my first time back on a surfboard since December of last year! (That’s right, us crazies out here on the west coast still surf at Christmas!)
2022 has been a rough year for me health-wise. Not only did my 5-day a week gym routine go out the window, but my surfing came to a screeching halt. Over the past couple months I’ve been making strides at the gym, but still haven’t felt I had the strength for surfing.
The conditions weren’t great, but then again I’m not a great surfer, despite my passion for it. But it felt incredible just to be back in the Pacific, paddling out under squadrons of pelicans. And in the end, I did catch a nice wave and managed to get upright for a short but sweet little ride.
Here we had another show where I knew almost nothing about the artist we were going to see, ASHE. She came through town some time ago and the Mrs. wanted to go see her, but when we learned of the show, it was sold out.
Turns out she was doing doing a gig after her “Outside Lands Festival” performance the day before, and as luck would have it, she was playing at Bimbo’s, a club I’ve been dying to go back to for ages!
Bimbo’s 365 on Columbus Street in San Francisco is an iconic spot. To give you some context, the last time I was at the club, the Mrs. was pregnant with our now 28-year-old daughter! And the club was old back then! It’s a great old school, vintage night club. They used to even have “cigarette girls” walking the club selling smokes and gum and whatnot, like out if a film from the 1940’s. Even today they still have bathroom attendants to trun on the faucets, hand you towels and such. It’s a throwback, for sure, but kinda nice at the same time. Reminds you of a simpler era, and the vibe elicits a little more manners and social grace than you find at most night clubs.
The opening act was Adam Melchor, also unknown to me. He came out, just him a guitar and I was proud of myself for keeping an open mind, since I’ve been very pleasantly surprised at the last couple solo singer/songwriter performances I’ve seen. Well, Adam broke the spell of pleasant surprises. While he’s a fine guitarist and his voice is not bad at all, his music left me completely flat. No surprises, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing exciting. And what made matters worse was the talking between songs. Good grief! He played roughly 40 minutes and I’d say 15 of that was him blathering on.
Clearly he had some fans in the place, and they were singing along with him and all, but for me and the Mrs., it was boring and entirely forgettable. Again, not to say he was “bad”, it just wasn’t our cup of tea.
Ashe came out strong and her band was really holding their own. It was a unique lineup – drummer, a violin/keyboard player and a guitarist/bassist that switched back and forth, depending on the needs of the song.
Ashe!
As I mentioned earlier, I wasn’t really familiar with her material, but what I do know of it, is very “modern” production – think synthesizers and computers – so to hear the songs with real musicians and actual (not virtual) instruments gave it a whole new sound and feel for me. And yes, as a musician I will say (with utter bias) it was better live than recorded.
Ashe herself was a great performer. Her voice was strong, her energy level was high and she was clearly there to put on a show. My only gripe was there was a little too much “downtempo” music. Her fans were thrilled with the set list though, and singing along to nearly every song, so that is just a personal preference of mine. I like my live shows to keep me energized, not stifling a yawn and the night wears on!
All in all, I give her performance a thumbs up. Not the best thing I’ve ever seen, but far from the worst. And she’s mighty young, so if she sticks with it, I’m sure she’ll just keep getting better and better. I’d certainly go see her show again, I’d just hope for a more well suited opening act!
Sunday I got to hang out with my brother-in-law and his work/fishing buddy Bill, and do some fishing out of Half Moon Bay.
B-I-L has a great boat – the Miss Jessica – and he’s an awesome waterman, so getting out on the ocean with him is a real treat, despite the 3:30am “boarding call”.
We launched at the HMB marina at 5am and headed south toward Pescadero. We didn’t have much luck for the first couple hours, then I was finally able to land a salmon, only to have it 3″ too short, so back into the sea it went…
About half an hour later, I pulled in this beauty:
Literally THE “catch of the day”.
I am not by any means a “fisherman”. As a kid I used to fish lakes and rivers with a couple of cousins, but by my teen years I had too many other interests and fishing fell off my to do list for decades. But I gotta say, this open water ocean fishing is a whole different level!
We first ran down to south towards Pescadero, but when things were not happening we headed north up through Pacifica, nearly to the Golden Gate Bridge. But evidently the fish had other plans for their Sunday…
Yep…
Anyhow, as luck would have it, my keeper was the ONLY fish brought in that day. The irony that 3 fisherman (two with decades of experience!) could stay out on the water for 11 hours and the only fish brought in was by the noob with literally. 001% the experience of the other guys, was hilarious to me. Nonetheless, despite their arguments that I should take the whole Salmon, as it was my first ever caught, I insisted the we split it 3 ways – keeping with a long standing tradition of my BIL – so we all walked away with a nice couple Salmon steaks after a great day on the water.
These trips are a great learning experience for me, it’s almost information overload to be honest, but its awesome to have guys that know a LOT about a subject try to pass on as much information as they can, to make your experience all the better. And being on the water is always a joy for me, no matter the time of year or the conditions. To be honest, the fish is just a nice parting gift, the least important part of the day.
I think the old adage is true: the worst day of fishing beats the best day of working!
Thanks for a great day Captains Karel and Bill – it’s one I won’t soon forget!
FINALLY!! I have been a fan of RHCP since the first time I heard “True Men Don’t…” on KSJS (San Jose State College radio) back in the early-1980’s.
Fast forward 40 years, and I’m still a fan but for whatever reason I’ve never had the opportunity to catch their live show. (I did get to see their drummer Chad Smith at a drum clinic a number of years ago and he was amazing!)
When I got a notice for a pre-sale on tickets back in October of LAST YEAR, I jumped at it. You never know when their last go-round might be… So yeah, been sitting on these tickets for nearly 10 months and could barely contain my excitement!
In all honesty, I’m not a fan of stadium shows. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been to several dozen of them, but my expectations are pretty low nowadays for them. Nevertheless, I’ll take what I can get when it comes to the Chili Peppers!
The venue, Levi’s Stadium, is realitively new and this was my first event there. It’s generally home to the 49ers, and I loathe football so they were never a draw for me to check out the stadium even though it’s practically in our “backyard”. And truthfully, I have yet to hear anything good about the place so I was a little disappointed when I learned that is where the show was being held.
The opening act was Thundercat, whom I first learned of several years ago but wasn’t terribly familiar with. I did know he’s a phenomenal bassist, so I was excited to see him live. Sadly, the traffic situation surrounding the venue was so bad we missed his set completely. Strike One for the venue.
Next up was Beck. We’ve seen Beck twice before and he was actually better than expected. We never went to see him specifically, and I wouldn’t say we’re big fans of his, but he was on a couple other bills in the past and we were pleasantly surprised by how good his show was. This time however, he really knocked it out of the park! Really great energy, the band was tight and you could tell they were having a really great time with it. Another pleasant surprise!
Finally after months of anticipation the Chili Peppers hit the stage, opening with a kinda wild improv of guitar, bass and drums before launching into their set with “Can’t Stop”. The guys were on fire!
Anthony – who will be 60 this year! – looked fit as ever, full of energy and his singing voice has improved quite a lot over the years. Clearly the hard work has paid off.
Guitarist John Frusciante (who I was thrilled to learn was back with the band) was great, though live it’s impossible to play his parts like the recordings – they’d need another 2 or 3 guitarists backing him up to recreate his studio wizardry.
Chad Smith was solid as a rock and just straight up bombastic. A joy to watch.
Flea as you might expect, was the life of the party and put it all out there, every minute of the set. He’s in a class by himself as a bassist and his performance was top notch. Unfortunately the sound in the venue was less than stellar and a few times when he really went off the sound turned to mush, but overall he put on a great show.
Overall, I’d say the night was a mixed bag. On the venue itself, a solid thumbs down. I won’t go into my gripes, but it would take a MASSIVE draw (like Stevie Ray Vaughn or Prince coming back from the dead!) to get me back to that place. The band played great, and they played a couple of my favorites, but their set list was a bit of a disappointment if I’m being honest. And they only played for an hour… which for a band with a 40 year history and a deep catalog of material, seemed a bit of let down.
Nevertheless, it was fun to see them finally and I’m not sorry I went. I wish I’d had a chance to see them in a smaller venue back before megastardom put them in arenas, but I am grateful I got to see them at all, especially with this lineup, which in my opinion is the magic RHCP combination.
The MAGIC combination!
And when all is said and done, I got to spend a lovely summer night outside with my family, listening to some great music. Those are the kind of things that make life worth living!
Saturday night the Mrs. and I, along with our daughter and her BF hit the road up to San Francisco to catch some laughs at the Punch Line.
Chris Porter is a comic we just recently learned of, literally a couple weeks ago. It just so happened he was going to be “in town” right after we found out about him so we jumped at the chance to see him in person.
Boy, am I glad we did! His set was hilarious and every bit as good as his recorded specials.
His opener, Pat House, we’d never heard of either, but he was pretty good as well. He did a bit in Wendy’s (the fast food joint) thst had me in stitches!
All in all it was a great night out, and a LOT of laughs!
Another trip to one of our favorite venues, the Independent in San Francisco.
Tickets for this show were a birthday gift from my daughter, so that made this show just that much more special!
This was our 4th time seeing Des Rocs live and it certainly won’t be the last!
The first time we saw Des (Daniel Rocco, by birth), he was the opening act, and we were floored. He’s an incredibly talented vocalist AND guitarist, but what really seals the deal is his charisma. He’s one of the most engaging front men I’ve ever witnessed, and he’s been better every subsequent time we’ve seen him.
Needless to say, both our excitement and anticipation levels were very high for this show.
The opening act was First in Flight, whom we’d never heard. Talk about an unexpected surprise! The band was fired up from the start, and the whole set was a high energy affair. Their music is a little tough to describe…the best I can do is “modern/alternative rock, with a very slight nod to hair metal”. And I mean that in a good way…strip away all the hairspray, eye liner and spandex from “hair metal”, and you will often find talented musicians and catchy tunes. Overall, they put on a great show and are now on my watch list for future gigs. Well done gentlemen!!
First in Flight from SF
Next up was The Blue Stones, also new to us. This is yet another 2-piece guitar/vocals and drummer/vocals group, and they weren’t messing around! Their set was powerful, and both these guys obviously knew their way around their instruments.
Not to be confused with the Black Keys!
My only “gripe” with their set (if you can call it that) was that the guitar got a little lost in the mix. He had a really tasty, overdriven, fuzzed out tone, which I love, but it got a bit swamped in a live setting. I suspect – though have no proof yet – that their recorded material is stellar. Some really fine musicianship was on display and I look forward to digging deeper into their catalog.
A LOT of sound from just two guys!
When Des hit the stage it was electric, right outta the gate.
The band (drummer and bassist) are the same two guys that have been backing him since the first time we saw Des, and they were both on their game and obviously still having a lot of fun with it, which is infectious!
Des himself…what can I even say? If you’ve never seen him, you are missing out. A musician like this comes along so very rarely, it’s difficult to describe what he does to a crowd. Aside from his singing and guitar work (which are exceptional, without question) he just comes across as so genuine and personable, he just draws you in immediately and you get totally enveloped in what’s happening on stage.
Des Rocs,a legend in the making!
I’ve been going to rock shows for 40 years now, and have seen literally hundreds of bands. From the biggest bands the world has ever heard to the flash-in-the-pan, never heard of ’em groups and I can tell you with 100% conviction that Des Rocs is SPECIAL.
If you ever get the opportunity, go check him out, you will not be disappointed!
Thanks to all the musicians (and crew that makes all the magic on stage possible!) for a hell of a night. This was a fantastic night of music, with unexpected treats, and I couldn’t be happier about it!
The Boring Old Man 