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
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