BeatNonStop A Weblog by Chris Macias Bee pop music critic Music geek (n. myü-zik 'gEk) 1: A person who proudly wore KISS commemorative pajamas in third grade. 2: A person who owns multiple copies of the same album, still buys vinyl and has a room dedicated to 2,000 or so CDs and records. 3. A person who wrote a five-part series about traveling with a local band in their stinky van - and loved every minute of it. 4: Chris Macias, the Bee's pop music critic, serving Sacramento's music scene since 1999.

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March 31, 2008

Weekend recap: highs and lows

So it's back to the grind after a weekend of music that had its ups and downs. Allow me to explain ... Friday night was all about the Trouble Makers' 15th anniversary show at Old Ironsides. Got to the club and saw the last few songs from locals the Pizzas - that reference to Totinos was funnier than any commercial with the Round Table knight - and the Pizzas' drummer was rocking so good that she about reduced her sticks to "Crazy Bread." Up next was the Rippers, a garage-rock band from Sardinia that more than lived up to its name. Every song was about a zillion beats-per-minute and they slayed in a vintage-punk sort of way. The Trouble Makers capped the night with its own garage-rock onslaught and the band actually sounded (gasp!) sort of tight at times. This from a group where trainwrecks and bum notes are all part of the fun. And the set was capped with a furious version of "Jack the Ripper," with frontman Tim Foster stealing part of Brian Machado's drum kit mid-song and setting it on a bar stool. Good times!

Wasn't able to make it out on Saturday night - and please leave a comment if you went to the Jackie Greene CD release show or that New Jack Swing concert at the Memorial. But I did go to Tropicana on Sunday night to see Beto Cuevas, the former singer of rock/pop en Espanol favorites La Ley. Here's the part that wasn't so fun. The doors opened at 7 p.m. with the show purported to start at 9:30 p.m. So 9:30 rolls around ... and then 10 p.m. ... and then 10:30 and 10:45, but with no Cuevas in sight. Keep in mind that the concert didn't have an opening act, unless you count the DJ who played cumbia, reggaeton and rock en Espanol for a crowd growing increasingly impatient.

Cuevas and his band finally hit the stage at 11 p.m. (i.e. 90 minutes late), and by that time the show was ruined for some. A couple friends of mine got to Tropicana around 8 p.m. and were not happy at all to wait 3 hours for the show to start, especially on a "school night." They left 30 minutes into Cuevas' set, bummed that they'd spent $38 each on tickets and knowing they'd feel groggy for work come Monday morning. Now I've always cut artists some slack about starting a show on time. Running a half-hour late is no biggie, an hour late really starts pushing it, and anything after that just makes it seem like the artist doesn't care about his audience. Or that the promoters don't care about truth in advertising. Whatever the case, I also bolted early from the Cuevas show and really wished I'd made it out on Saturday instead.

Posted by cmacias at 1:39 PM | Comments |