Jersey Beat Music Fanzine
 
Story & photos by Paul Silver

Without a doubt, this year’s Awesomefest was the best yet. Let me make that very clear, upfront. If you decided to skip this year, you made a terrible mistake. If you’ve not yet come to San Diego for this annual gathering of pop punk, pizza, beer, burritos, and whiskey, you’ve been missing out – but you can redeem yourself next year. Awesomefest happens every Labor Day weekend, and features around 60 or so bands over three days. Passes are a measly $45 and sets are scheduled such that you can walk back and forth between the hosting clubs and catch at least some part of every band’s set, if you want. And the number of passes sold is limited to maintain an intimate atmosphere, unlike some of the larger fests. It ends up being more of an annual family reunion than a music festival, because mostly everyone knows each other. And those who don’t aren’t strangers for long. Hugs and high fives are the norm.

One thing I learned this year is that the best houseguests are those who cook. I hosted friends Dan and Kendra from Minneapolis, as well as their friend Ian from Los Angeles. Dan is a chef, and made the best breakfast burritos each morning. Eggs, green bell pepper, onion, jalapenos, jack cheese, and a mixture of vegan sour cream and sriracha, rolled up in lightly toasted tortillas were the perfect way to start the day. Trading a place to crash for delicious burritos? I call that a good deal. Other good deals for the weekend included cheap drinks at Live Wire, who also hosted the annual Friday happy hour before the shows started, and cheap pizza and beer at Luigi’s and Sicilian Thing.


Rad Payoff

One ongoing tradition is the pre-fest. This year there were no less than three of these! There’s the show at VLHS in Pomona, the San Diego pre-fest, and this year, thanks to the addition of some great bands from Tijuana to Awesomefest’s roster, there was a pre-fest in TJ. As I have the past couple of years, I spent the night in my adopted hometown of San Diego, enjoying ten bands at Soda Bar. The absolute highlight of the night, to me, and this year’s “Awesomefest revelation,” was Chicago’s RAD PAYOFF. They play music that has a humorous edge and machinegun precision. The rhythms are sometimes off-kilter, and almost math-like. This, more than many other recent Chicago bands in today’s scene, seems to be continuing the great tradition Chicago punk music.

Other significant highlights included Seattle’s BURN BURN BURN, the always awesome SHELLSHAG, Denver’s BLACK DOTS, Portland’s 48 THRILLS and San Diego’s own AIDS COP. I learned the story behind AIDS Cop, too. Something like 10 years ago, some friends were joking about having a show that would never happen, and began making up names of bands that would perform, choosing some incredibly offensive punk band names. Flash-forward to the planning for the pre-fest, and some of those friends decided it was time for AIDS Cop to actually perform. Hastily writing some stupid and simple punk songs and purchasing some law enforcement style uniforms, AIDS Cop became a reality.


Divers

Friday night began the year of difficult choices at Awesomefest. More than years past, there were too many great bands playing sort of opposite each other. I had to decide whether I was going to run back and forth and try to catch every band, or make sacrifices and run a bit less. This first night, I chose the former, running back and forth to catch sets from as many of the bands as I could. Standouts include the aforementioned RAD PAYOFF, as well as Portland’s DIVERS, who played a hell of a set. CALAFIA PUTA from Tijuana ruled with their short, grinding hardcore numbers, and DETACHED OBJECTS from Arizona pounded the crowd with their intense guitar-fueled desert-punk. I finally got to see SECONDARIES, a band formed out of the break-up of favorites American Lies, and this new band is every bit as good, playing an emotionally tinged form of melodic punk. And I finally got to see a TILTWHEEL set at Awesomefest, and it may have been the best set of theirs I’ve ever seen.



Underground Railroad To Candyland

The Saturday afternoon champ had to be UNDERGROUND RAILROAD TO CANDYLAND. Always a local Southern California favorite, this San Pedro band played what was perhaps the best set I’ve ever seen from them. Saturday was also the day that I decided to choose the latter fest strategy, and not run back and forth so much. I made the difficult decision to forego seeing Nato Coles and the Blue Diamond Band, who I had just seen at D4th of July, as well as Sass Dragons, who I had seen at the Thursday pre-fest. After checking out the woefully misnamed NOT HALF BAD (who sell themselves short) and another set from Black Dots, I wandered from U31 over to the Office, where I remained the rest of the afternoon. ROBOT (RE)PAIR from Arizona are always a good time. Texas’s STYMIE played a sadly shortened set after Dallas Shaheen broke his A string, and had to wait too long for someone to provide a replacement guitar. Closing things out were THE BANANAS, and they packed the small club like I had never seen before.


Kepi Ghoulie

A similar strategy for the Saturday night shows was employed, starting at Soda Bar for a reunion of Chula Vista’s THE KIDS, Sacramento’s DEAD DADS (whose album I very favorable reviewed not long ago), and HANDS LIKE BRICKS. I then bypassed several bands to head over to The Hideout for the rest of the night, catching the incredible pop punk sounds of RATIONAL ANTHEM, the high energy drunk-punk of TURKISH TECHNO, the child-like gleeful punk of KEPI GHOULIE, and my highlight of the night, DR. FRANK (of the Mr. T Experience). Dr. Frank began his set playing acoustic versions of many of his songs, and finished off with six songs backed by Turkish Techno. Apparently he’s done this sort of thing before, with varied results. But I think he was surprised by Turkish Techno. Despite not having had the chance to practice together before the fest, the band was well prepared and killed those songs.


DFMK
Sunday came. It’s always bittersweet. Some of the best bands play that day. But it’s also the last day of the event. So many good bands played! I decided to zigzag back and forth on the schedule, checking shows at both U31 and The Office, and was particularly impressed with sets from PAGERIPPER, THE STUPID DAIKINI, FOOLS RUSH, DFMK, and TOYGUITAR. Pageripper’s regular bass player was unavailable, so two substitutes played, including their original bass player. The Stupid Daikini, normally a two-piece consisting or Melissa Zavislak on vocals and ukulele and Brittany Hartin on drums, added bassist Casey Guldberg, who also recorded their new album that I recently reviewed. DFMK is another of the TJ bands that crossed into the US to play, and one I’ve seen countless times on both sides of the border. Their slightly retro punk rock’n’roll sound is enhanced by the frenzied antics of front man Jorge A. Zepeda Martin. And toyGuitar play some of the best garage punk around today.

The Maxies

Sunday night I also went back and forth a bit. But I spent the bulk of my time at Soda Bar, so I could catch the most solid portion of the most solid line-up of the most solid Awesomefest yet. The last three bands playing at Soda Bar were CIVIL WAR RUST, WESTERN SETTINGS, and DEAD TO ME. I have to stop here a moment and state how lucky we are in San Diego to have Western Settings here. I’ve seen nearly all of their local shows since they became a band, and I’ve also known they were special. But I hadn’t realized how big a following they’ve developed in the scant couple of years they’ve existed. As soon as they started playing, the place exploded with punks jumping around, pumping fists in the air, pushing their way forward, and screaming the lyrics to every song. I had never seen Dead to Me before, and they were incredible. Jack Dalrymple rejoined the band recently, a development that had its roots in last year’s Awesomefest. toyGuitar played their first Awesomefest at that time, and Chicken came by to check the band out. Chicken and Jack spent time together afterwards, chatting, and thus was the genesis of Jack rejoining Dead to Me. I ended the night back over at The Hideout, where The Maxies were the very last band of Awesomefest 9. The headliners! Their set had already started when I got there, and after every song, Maximum Maxie declared, “this is our last song.” But the set lasted about another 20 minutes after I arrived. Those crazy Greenlanders!

There were some new faces amongst the Awesomefest curators, and I think that may have made the difference in the freshness of this year’s gathering. Will Castro and Ziggy Pelayo of La Escalera Records joined Awesomefest stalwarts Marty Ploy, Christina Zamora, Andy Godfrey, Davey Quinn, and Adam Ali to organize the best weekend of the year. Many thanks and kudos to them, to all the bands, and to everyone who came out this year! When do passes go on sale for Awesomefest 10?

MORE PHOTOS:

THURSDAY PRE-FEST


48 Thrills



AIDS Cop




Black Dots



Burn Burn Burn




Shellshag



FRIDAY


Calafia Puta


 


Detached Objects


Secondaries

 

SATURDAY


Black Dots




Not Half Bad




Robot (Re)pair




Stymie




The Bananas




Dead Dads




Dr. Frank with Turkish Techno




Hands Like Bricks




Rational Anthem




The Kids



SUNDAY


Fools Rush




Pageripper




The Stupid Daikini




Toy Guitar




Civil War Rust




Dead to Me




Western Settings

 

 


JerseyBeat.com is an independently published music fanzine covering punk, alternative, ska, techno and garage music, focusing on New Jersey and the Tri-State area. For the past 25 years, the Jersey Beat music fanzine has been the authority on the latest upcoming bands and a resource for all those interested in rock and roll.


 
 
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