Do you ever have those days, when you wake up and realize all the fun stuff you’re going to do all day and night?
Not too long ago I woke up, realized how much great stuff I was going to be doing all day and deemed the day Awesome Day. It was a Saturday that started with a Louisiana Grammy Party in Los Angeles featuring Harry Connick, Jr. and a lot of awesome food. Upon my return to Long Beach I headed over to Fingerprints to catch Avi Buffalo and The Soft Pack.
The Soft Pack wanted to get the word out about their debut album so they lined up TEN shows in one day. Quite the undertaking but… surprisingly possible. Jeremiah was at their show in Venice and texted me updates when the band finished so I’d know how much time we had till they landed in Long Beach. When Greg, Jared, and I arrived on the scene there was a line around the block for people waiting to get into the free in-store.
Avi Buffalo played a few quick songs before The Soft Pack took the stage. Avi was without his normal band but he had a friend playing along for the first time. The short set lacked the punch I’ve seen in their recent shows but for a first-run, it was pretty impressive.
The Soft Pack hopped on stage soon after and ran through five or six songs before jumping back on their Greased Lightning bus for a brief acoustic beach party. The songs were catchy and simple and they came across well live. Having listened to their debut EP as The Muslims, I have a feeling the recorded versions might be similar; worth a spin or few. Guess I’ll just have to track down the album and see.
After a stop at Murphy’s for a couple pitchers I slowly made it over to The Prospector for Greater California and Farmer Dave Scher. My buddy Aaron kept telling me that Greater California was going to be playing a Beachwood Sparks set with Farmer Dave but they ended up only covering one song while they backed him. The Farmer Dave set consisted of a lot of tracks off his recent LP, Flash Forward To The Good Times, a Gene Clark cover, an All Night Radio song, and the Beachwood Sparks song. It was one of my favorite sets I’ve seen at the Prospector but some people didn’t seem to dig it. Strange. Maybe I was just riding out Awesome Day to the end, which meant a trip to La Revancha for some tacos before my bike ride home was in order.
I wish I could have been there.