Show Review: Fifty on Their Heels & Teenage Talking Cars w/ DJs Morgan Young & Saul @ Beauty Bar San Diego

check out the photos for extra details about what happened and photo identifications.
Photoset: Fifty on Their Heels & Teenage Talking Cars w/ DJs Morgan Young & Saul @ The Beauty Bar San Diego 11/17/06

now last night? that is what i'm fucking talking about. last night was rad. everything was clicking- good bands, big, enthusiastic crowd, good djs, friday night the whole thing just rocked. it felt like coming home. and how much do i love the beauty bar? if only live music could go past midnight. sigh.

of course, i was a little worried about the size of the audience- especially after our debacle at pussy galore, and with us not even meriting plan "e" in the city beat "if i were u" column. but those worries were for naught. here's the bottom line for drawing at the beauty bar: look at your watch at 9:45 PM. If there are more then 25 people (excluding staff and band members) there, you are probably looking at a good night. the bulk of the crowd arrives between 10 PM and 11 PM. now obviously, that presents an ongoing, intractable problem for live music, since bands needs to be totally done, at the absolute latest by midnight.

thus, the best solution is to have two bands, and to make sure that the bands can do a set in 20-30 minutes. there just isn't a lot of room for error.

regardless- turnout was great last night! gabe vega! malicious! edgartrionic! big ern! jamie! dialed in rosie! chickrawker lyn! fifi boy! sorry ari! tons of the beauty bar girls with mullets! people we didn't know!

i thought the success of the night lay in the combination of a 100+ group of people who came out for a rock concert with the combination of a 100+ group of people who came out because it was friday night at the beauty bar. and the real key was the cross over between the two- that's magic! see, if you combine the dance crowd with the rock crowd you've got a real formula for success. hello, casbah? see also, skull control, transport- are you paying attention stingaree? belo? red c lounge? croces? think about it- bands + djs + friday/saturday night = buzz. you need BOTH. i think probably the concept could be expanded- see tonight's rapture, pre-sets show- sort of. obviously you need a venue that works BOTH as a dance club AND as a venue for live music- Beauty Bar, even with it's time constraints, beats the Casabah in that situation. i think you need to have a seperation in space between the two areas. like for the casbah- take out the pool table and put in a separate sound system in the atari lounge. that idea is a freebee!

fifty on their heels was electric last night- their best live performance outside of the two golden hill block parties and the sessions fest. nicky shingles is developing a more vibrant stage presence, and junior really reacts well to an enthusiastic crowd. i don't think you can have a good performance without a good audience- last night? that was a fucking GOOD AUDIENCE. People were enthusiastic, and they stayed to dance. of course, we're all excited about the prospect of the video game with us on the soundtrack being downloaded by millions world wide...(pause)... but last night it was all about SAN DIEGO!

Much props to Gabe Vega & Malicious, who have had this vision from the very beginning. And props to Morgan Young- I thought his post-show set really set off the crowd. The energy was really positive right night, and that is not something to take for granted. I think the Beauty Bar itself deserves much of the credit for creating that atmosphere.

Teenage Talking Cars are one of our favorite bands in los angeles. See also the new collapse, the new motherfuckers, ima fucking gymnaist, bubonic plague, mika miko & anavan. We just had to have them come down again (they played Junior Metro's b-day bash a few months back) and show San Diego what they were all about. Last time Fifty on Their Heels played Los Angeles(Zamakibo & the smell) we saw them with Anavan @ the Echo(art walk opening party)- anyways they were great at that show, and they were good last night. Obviously, the crowd wasn't as into them as the los angeles crowd, but that is likely a familarity issue- the crowd was attentive.

a frank assessment of cat dirt's all ages shows efforts

tonight:


sessions fest- total success. need more corporate sponsors.
golden hill block party- total success. need a bigger generator next year, fewer bands. increased chance of trouble with the neighbors.
golden hill moose lodge shows- miserable failure. need to reduce fee for rental of hall to account for the dismal attendance. attendance was terrible for all three shows.
spring valley moose lodge show- miserable failure. cancelled show three weeks before.

and with that, i hearby end the all ages shows season for cat dirt. i look forward to next summer, when i may or may not try to do another all ages show. my thought is that there is a general lack of enthusiasm for the effort. i look forward to totally abandoning the all ages scene and focusing in on the casbah. go casbah! casbah is the best. all hail... the casbah. it's simply useless to resist it. i don't really see any hope for the (non soma or epicentre) all ages scene in san diego outside of the che cafe and that chick i read about in the reader a couple weeks ago who puts on all ages metal shows in a church(?) but i think she stopped.

12/2/6 Moose Lodge Show is Cancelled

The December 2nd show at the Moose Lodge (east) is cancelled.

the show was to feature:
Fifty on Their Heels
Atoms
New Motherfuckers
Jakked Rabbits
21+/$5
Moose Lodge (east)

anyway- cancelled. that is all.

three flyers for two upcoming shows

friday night
fifty on their heels
teenage talking cars
@ beauty bar san diego
$5/21+


12/2/6
Fifty on Their Heels
Atoms
New "Mothers"
Jakked Rabbits
@ Moose Lodge east
$5/all ages

the burbank sessions

thanks to josh feingold- who put us in touch with shawn jimmerson- the producer- both are well evidenced in the photos. josh is our sesac rep- he just got back from cmj/london/country music awards(?)- ask him about co-panelist "ultragrrl" if you see him around.

the studio was in burbank. we recorded onto tape- no pro tools for us. shawn told us funny stories about mark mothersbaugh's house (messy) and recording with steve albini. he was in a band called "wig"? and is also an ambient techno legend- more on him this week.

the band is still up there- i only stayed for one of two days. they recorded seven songs. we're thinking about releasing two seven inches on cat dirt records and then doing... other... stuff.. besides just releasing it, with all seven songs. like, i don't know, signing up for the orchard or ioda (hint, hint).

everything ran smooth, mas or menos- the guys are incredibly "tight"- seems to be the key to a successful recording session- take notes- all you bands out there. fifty did a couple of their songs in one take.


who would be interested in these pictures? people who are interested in looking at recording studio equipment and fans of fifty on their heels.

cheers to aaron- who let me crash at his pad in santa monica while he was up at lake arrowhead with his new fiance!
and to cat dirt wife- who held it down on the night life front.

The Burbank Sessions, photoset

San Diego Ghost Town - Skull Kontrol, Kill Me Tomorrow, Edgartronic

             where was everyone last night? did people really stay home because of the rain? i'm not buying it. catdirt was away with fifty on their heels in la and I wanted to shame the family name. we started at the beauty bar, getting there early because my favorite time at the beauty bar is before anyone is there, like at 10pm - also bars shut down at 2am in san diego so you have to start early in order to give each bar you hit up the appropriate attention and love it deserves. it was bizarrely empty for a Saturday night - skull kontrol dj's, Mario and Andrew, were beyond reproach as usual and had us dancing, on the oddly spacious dance floor, within an hour of gettting there. catdirt has already reviewed Kill Me Tomorrow so I won't embarass him by attempting to review them again, just click the label below. I will say that the drummer/front man for kill me tomorrow has an envy-inducing moustache - he must have a special comb for it - its big - I think its the best moustache in san diego. I'm trying to think of a better moustache but i can't, maybe the booker for the che? Even though I really like Kill Me Tomorrow, we left half way through the second song because some nights you just want to dance with your girlfriend in a room with a disco ball. so we went to Fashion Whore at the san diego sports club for DJ Edgartronic - it had begun raining and Fashion Whore was also eerily empty - really, the rain? the rain? maybe everyone was at stingaree, paying $250 for a place to sit? after more dancing, we went to live wire for the last huzzah, also empty! we got a booth at like 1am!? wha!? where was everyone? i guess the interesting choice last night would have been to go to scolari's for the vaginals but after several tequila/orange juices, we were not thinking so clearly....anyone go see the vaginals?