After coming to San Diego for Comic-con and tentatively planning to come down again in a couple weeks for Street Scene, “America’s Finest City” is starting to feel like a second home. For this adventure, Phil and I headed down in Bessita and met up with Mathew and Jackie at the Southern Comfort Music Experience.
First things first, we had to find the place. Somehow this turned out to be a little more difficult than I had imagined. The ‘experience’ was to be set up in one of the parking lots for Petco Park, home of the Padres. When last we were down, we happened to be parked in one of those lots, so I figured no problem getting there. However, instead of just going back to where I remembered them being, I tried to follow signs that supposedly directed us to Petco Park. Maybe we missed a sign or two but we ended up a good mile or two away before I decided to turn around and hunt for it myself. Let me tell you, if you haven’t grown up in San Diego, it is the most confusing city to drive around in. They try to trick you into thinking it’s set up like a normal downtown ‘grid’, but the streets turn in weird directions and you seem to always end up back at train tracks. That said, it didn’t take to long to find the enormous ballfield and then see the array of tents set up for the festival.
I called our contact, Aaron and after waiting at the front gate for a while, he showed up and directed us to the backstage area to park. After a quick mobbing by the crew and staff getting things ready, we grabbed a couple complimentary sandwiches (first meal in our goal to not pay for food the whole weekend) and waited for the day.
Soon before the concert was to start, the artists began showing up and hanging out. Most festival backstage areas have some kind of entertainment for the artists and crew hanging out there, this was no different as they had there for the playing, the classic game of cornhole! It consisted of two small raps with holes in them and bags full of corn that you threw at the holes. Phil and I took turns cornholing with the crew and members of Delta Spirit and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Let me tell you, BRMC are some master cornholers.
Drowning Men was the first band to play the SoCo Limelight (get it? It’s a pun!) stage on the other side of the lot. During this time we started to try and hunt down the free SoCo (even though we established on the way down that we both hated SoCo and actually didn’t know anybody who drank it). Boots Riley of the Coup, who was there as a guest rapper with Galactic, soon joined the hunt. Unfortunately, there was none to be found. Also, although there was a VIP section, there was no access to it from backstage! Oh, the horror!
The first band to play the main stage was local San Diego band Delta Spirit, who just got finished touring with Long Beach’s Cold War Kids, I’d never heard Delta Spirit and was pretty pleasantly surprised. It was kind of a New Orleans soul (hence the ‘Delta’) meets roots rock with a little bluesy funk thrown in, think a modern day CCR. The other bands on the main stage had trailers set up for them, but Delta Spirit had only a small tent near Bessita, so we ended up hanging out with them most of the day. They were good dudes and even shared their beer with us, which was quite delightful.
Since the stages weren’t that far apart, the festival organizers had a novel idea of when music ends on one stage, it starts on another, so as soon as Delta Spirit ended on the main stage, Stranger began on the local stage. Then as they ended, Galactic started up on the main stage. Galactic is a band I’ve avoided for a while. I never had any particular reason, they just didn’t strike me as a band I’d be into. And I regret to say that it was with good reason. They were all fine musicians, and the guys that came by the car seemed like good people, but I just couldn’t get into the funky grooves. Sorry guys, not my bag. Boots guest rapped on a few songs and that was a little more entertaining, but not enough to draw me in.
After Galactic, Knee Highs hit the local stage, followed by BRMC on the main stage. BRMC is a pretty straightforward garage rock band, somewhere between MC5 and AC/DC. They actually look and sound exactly as you would think a band called Black Rebel Motorcycle Club would. They had some die hard fans that waited near the main stage the whole day to hear them. By the reaction, I’m guessing it was worth it.
While Truckee Brothers were playing the local stage, Mat headed over to the Go Go Academy tent to get some pics and seemed to be there the rest of the night. The goal of the Go Go Academy is a simple, yet noble one, to teach young women how to be go go dancers. Judging by Mat’s huge smile, they were doing a good job of it. A few of the dancers came over to the car during a break and got themselves some ice cream. Bravo, Mat.
Dj Z-Trip hit the stage for a long set. I’m always surprised when djs play large stages at these festivals, mostly because there isn’t much to see, but also because people aren’t dancing. Isn’t the point of a dj to get people dancing? I must admit, I don’t understand the popularity of Z-Trip. He was a decent dj I suppose, but didn’t seem to be doing anything different than a lot of djs, play one song, mix it into another, play that song, repeat. He did have a live drummer on stage, which was cool I guess. The best part was as he was playing some Rage Against the Machine there were a group of people on the sidewalk outside looking over curiously. Phil pointed them out and said, “they’re all confused because they think Rage is playing right now.”
Scarlet Symphony was the last band to play the local stage before The Flaming Lips took over the festival. We had already decided beforehand that we would be shutting down Bessita to see the Lips. The whole afternoon Phil had been talking up the Flaming Lips stagehands trying to get us a costume so we could dance on stage. Just before they went on, one of the guys came over and said he thinks we’re in. Excitedly, we follow him over to the costume trailer where we’re asked by another guy if we had dancing badges. Nope. “Sorry, we’re all filled up.” Ah well. The good news is we were able to hop right up on stage and watch the whole show from the side of the stage. Score! And since Mat had the same ‘Staff’ passes we did, when he was scooted out of the photo pit after the standard three songs, he was able to jump up on stage with us and keep shooting. That’s how you do it in Ice Cream Land!
After a long day, we wound down at the Tower Bar where our excellent good friend John Johnson worked. There were a few bands playing that night and after a couple beers we decided to try to unload all the ice cream we had left. The drunks of the Tower Bar were amazed at the prospect of free ice cream and I think we made more than a few new friends that night.
The next day, rested and full with some creamed chipped beef on toast, better known as sh_t on a shingle, courtesy of John, we took to National Ice Cream, to pick up a few more treats and some dry ice for our next event.
Off to Balboa park and the Museum of Natural History. That day the Women’s History Museum branch was celebrating the anniversary of women’s right to vote, and held a march through the park. It was pretty fun seeing a bunch of women dressed in period garb marching with flags and banners. We wanted to play “Suffragette City” by David Bowie and “Sister Suffragette” from Mary Poppins, but Phil’s iPod had run out of juice. Did you know that women still aren’t considered equal citizens per the Constitution? Nor did I.
All in all, a fun weekend, though it seemed longer than it was. Stay classy, San Diego!
Thanks to Levi’s for all the help, and thanks to SoCo for putting on a free festival!
