söndag 16 Mar 2008, 12:15
On my sojourn back in Orange County this month, and having a brilliant time with friends and family, I was nevertheless a bit bummed that I'd be missing so many good shows in Kansai (Bjork, Animal Collective, Miss Kittin, 2manydjs - the list went on and on). So when my old pal Dan mentioned that there was an Oingo Boingo tribute band playing down at Kanes in San Diego, I jumped at the chance for a little nostalgia.
The car trip down to SD from Costa Mesa was much shorter than I remember (maybe due to the fact that Dan drives really fucking fast), and in less than an hour an hour and a half Dan's new car navi had led us to a seaside entertainment district off of Mission. After some confusion, we walked along the beach and found the place, a decent beach-side restaurant on one side, a club on the other and a bar upstairs. So after drinking some drinks, swapping relationship horror stories and skipping most of the mediocre cover band opener, we settled down for dead man's party.
They were pretty good, to be honest. Sure the lead singer could've been a tad, I don't know, wilder? But he did a pretty good Danny Elfman impression for the most part. On the plus side, they played a shitload of older fan faves that Boingo rarely (if ever) played live, including stuff off of So Lo and Forbidden Zone, and lots of stuff from the first four albums (including my all time fave, Little Guns). The fact that the crowd was all middle-aged and pudgy, though, was rather shocking, though no more shocking than the realization that I was also getting middle-aged and pudgy…
So two days ago, after lunch at Tustin's District, I get another phone call from Dan, and he says there's another show at Kanes on Saturday - Boredoms. If I'd been drinking milk, it would've been messy. Of course I'd seen them during their Pop Tatari days in L.A., as well as once in Osaka almost 10 years back, but every time I'd had a chance to see them in their current incarnation, they'd sold out or been way to expensive to even consider. And here they were playing at a beach bar for 25 bucks. Sweet…
So last night, Dan drove I and old friends Keith (Dark Horizon) and Jonathan down to SD again. It was rather windy, and we wisely decided to eat and drink at the restaurant before the show, which ended up a pretty penny because of the Hurricane rum cocktails we were pounding (luckily Keith paid for me, heh, heh).
Anyway, the crowd looked a bit more abnormal, always a plus. The opener, Human Bell, was Mono-lite, and just not very engaging for most of their set. When they were through, we ended up at the front center, and to tell the truth it was probably one of the more interesting concerts I've ever attended.
They had the same three-drum kit circle I'd seen before on their (over-priced) new DVD, but EYE also had this sort of guitar-tree that he'd bang on, Yoshimi played keyboards on more than one occasion, there was actual singing once or twice and the percussion was incredibly tight and endlessly inventive and propulsive. Though Keith and Jonathan were getting enraged at some pushy drunks behind us, I thought the crowd overall was remarkably well-behaved (I mean we were in the front at a Boredoms show for chrissakes). They played two long, exhausting sets, and by the end, I think everyone had gotten their money's worth. I got Gold and Green on the way out, and we were back in OC in an hour and a half. A fantastic end to a great trip home.