VIVA
POMONA 7/14/12- REVIEW- Words by Adler Bloom, Video Links courtesy of
American Pancake Live, Pics Courtesy of Tiff at Shows, Instagram Pics
courtesy of YOU
Tijuana
Panthers, La Sera, GrassWidow, The Urinals, The Babies, So Many
Wizards, Cosmonauts, The Lovely Bad Things, Pangea, Black Elephant,
Business Cats, Old Man Jenkins, Adapt, They As in Them, The Ugly Kids,
Suede Parade (Surprise Guest)
WTF?
A week has gone by and I am finally writing about the rad music
festival known as VIVA Pomona put on with a lot of love by Rene
Contreras (Switch)
and his cohorts Ricardo Sanchez, Salvador Moreno, Pedro Garcia and Tony
Hoang. Situated in the downtown art district of Pomona, California at
Second Street, VIVA boasted 16 bands at 3 venues, the legendary
Glasshouse, Aladdin Jr and Joey BBQ (all for only $12.00). Apart from
all the outrageously awesome music, in the courtyard directly across
from the Glasshouse there were a ton of vendors selling arty stuff and
some good eats. I got there at 5:30 eager to jump into the fray even
though exiting the confines of my air-conditioned car made me instantly
sweat. It was hot and humid that day and almost every band I got to see
commented on the sweltering heat. I hit So Many Wizards
at the Glasshouse (GH) first and Nima Kazerouni was dressed accordingly
wearing a beachy shirt and board shorts. Even their most mellow song is
attacked with intensity. Really loved what I heard. Old Man Jenkins at Aladdin Jr (AJr) was throwing down some cool punk / art rock and I want to see more of them. Brooklyn bred, The Babies
(GH) got the crowd dancing. I thoroughly love their music and the guy /
girl lead vocals and lead guitar work (provided by Kevin Morby and
Cassie Ramone) help to fuel the great songwriting. Business Cats
(AJr) cranked out 3 piece garage rock. If you have not seen them- GO
SEE THEM. Veronica's voice has a perfect "I don't give a fuck" punk
attitude with husky undertone that can suddenly explode. Something about
her vocals reminds me of early Chrissy Hynde, in fact "12 Years Wasted" with the run away bass line and vocal yelps could be an early, early Pretenders song.
There was quite a buzz about The Urinals
playing VIVA and the fairly good sized crowd packed in tight at the
Glasshouse. I got a sense that many in the crowd may of heard Urinals
covers by bands like The Gun Club, No Age and the Butthole Surfers more
than the Urinals themselves. In any event, the crowd while a little
tepid at first warmed up quickly. Back at Aladdin Jr- Black Elephant was stirring things up playing some of their new stuff that they have been releasing in demo fashion. This was the first time I had seen them after Karin's departure. Thomas Lucero (from Dash Jacket)
sat in on the drums. Not sure, if he will be a permanent fixture (?)
all I know is they sounded awesome and got the room dancing. Grasswidow's breezy set (GH) full of lush harmonies and sparkly guitar rhythms made the heat a bit more manageable.
Speaking
of heat. The Aladdin Jr room is a brick building with probably only 500
square feet of space to pack bodies into. You take an already hot
humind day and stuff a bunch of people in there like sardines (moshing,
dancing, crowd surfing sardines mind you) and the temperature can get a
wee bit toasty. This is exactly what occurred when Pangea
took to the stage. The room turned into a giant sweat box, my sweat was
sweating. They started off with a grungy psychedelic tinged song that
kicked ass. More people filtered in from outside and by the time they
played "Living Dummy"
it was a moshy madhouse soaring the temp further and making the windows
fog up. Rene Contreras and a helper provided much need relief by
pelting the audience with water and passing water bottles to the kids,
many of whom had already removed their shirts to cool down. Later in the
evening, Phil from Tijuana Panthers talked up Pangea and remarked about
the conditions in the room saying "that was too hot for my old body."
Obviously, Phil is not old but there was a clear difference between the
controlled (almost mellow) feel of the Glasshouse shows and the musical
bedlam that was taking place at Aladdin Jr. Once you stepped into that
smaller brick house oven you had to be a die hard music fan to stay
there. Those kind of shows attract me like a moth to a flame but I had
to tear myself away and check out La Sera (GH).
Katy Goodwin seemed especially glowing as La Sera
took the stage. I met her for the first time about 2 years ago and she
has a serene presence. She is tall, has a cool vibe and seems to be a
sweetheart of a person. Amidst hoots and screams of "Katy!" and "La
Sera!" her band didn't disappoint. La Sera's trippy cool songs felt
refreshing. The heavy bass and churning surfy / spaghetti western guitar
on Behind Your Eyes
was one of the highlights. Back at Aladdin Jr Pangea's part punk rock /
part water park show left guitars and the stage drenched with water.
Stuff was being reorganized on stage for The Lovely Bad Things. Monitors
were pulled from the front to the sides to make it safer for those who
were being either pushed into the stage or were inclined to dive off of
it. The die hards packed in tight once again as The Lovely Bad Things
opened up with Icee Creeps
and the crowd took advantage of the cleared space for stage diving.
During their set, more people packed in and bodies seem to fly off of
and over the stage from all angles. It was a kick to hear Big Sur (off of their 2010 Cassette Sharkweek) which has been absent from their set for awhile. After the guitar intro to I Just Want You to Go Away,
the crowd sang the first verse in unison and chimed in on the chorus as
well. It was a crazy kind of love festy show were the audience giving
back as much as The Lovely Bad Things put out. After their set, I
stepped out into the still warm Pomona air and it felt like a splash of
ice water.
When I made it to the Glasshouse the Tijuana Panthers party
was already in full swing and they packed the house. Tijuana Panthers
fans LOVE them and they all seemed to be in attendance. It looked to me
like Dan had a flower sticking out of his ass cheeks.
I am not lying. I hope there were no thorns on the stem. Tijuana
Panthers have such a stable of good songs and they seemed to play most
of them. Dan eluded to a "Special Guest" coming up after them and while
my thoughts races as to who that might be, it was only a matter of time
and one of the organizers asked me to hang and shoot them and shoot I
did. As Tijuana Panther's set ended, they handed off the stage to The
Vivian Girls, Cassie Ramone (The Babies), Katy Goodwin (La Sera) and
drummer Ali Koehler. The audience went nuts. Katy took the mic, " HEY
Pomona! We're the Vivian Girls! Thanks for sticking around!" and after a
bit of guitar feedback tore into a great performance of Tell The World.
It was fun to see Cassie and Katy huddle close to the drum kit between
songs so they could figure out what song they would do next. During one
song, a kid got on stage. As the security tried to box him in he jumped
into the crowd. NOT stage diving but jumping feet first. To make matters
worse, this kid caught some major air. It was a scarey moment hoping he
wouldn't land on anyone. Ali Koehler, much to her credit, called the
guy out saying, "Is that girl OK that you jumped on?
That's not how you crowd surf you dip shit!" (Katy chimes in, "Is
everyone ok?) then Fiona continues, "I hope you said sorry cuz that was
Fucked UP." I could literally hear that kids dick shrivel up. It
was a totally bonehead maneuver and I applaud Ali for speaking up. The
audience screamed song titles and they flew into The End.
I can't remember all the songs they played but it was such an awesome
show! Kudos to Rene Contreras for making it happen. I think everyone was
kinda floatin on air after that performance. I know I was so I floated
my ass down to Aladdin Jr for one last time as the Cosmonauts (whose set
time) was about to hit the stage at 11PM. They cranked out their wall of sound
that seemed to stick to the still humid AJr atmosphere. I think at this
point, that room had it's own sweat induced Eco-system! I was able to
only record one song as the disc in my cam was pegged out.
Some final thoughts and acknowledgments.
My
sincerest apologies to the bands that played at Joe's BBQ. I kind of
got in this groove of running back and forth between the controlled
chaos of the Glasshouse and the uncontrolled chaos of Aladdin Jr and
somehow lost sight of They As In Them, The Ugly Kids and Suede Parade. I
hope to catch them in the future.
The
shows that Rene puts on pairing the Glasshouse with Aladdin Jr are
special. One thing I really love is being able to exit the venue and
come back in, also love the ton of free parking and the atmosphere
downtown. These shows are generally low cost and it is fun to re-group
with friends you have met at previous shows. I love that. Also, great
decision on the Glasshouse's part on getting rid of that prison cell
look on the upstairs balcony. It is open and styling now.
Also- Kudos to the band New Folks that set up a van and jammed right out in the street. They were awesome!
Also,
want to give a shout out to Tiffuny Luong, a great photographer and
fellow blogger who was gracious enough to let me use some of her pics.
Check them all out here VIVA POMONA Tiffatshows
AND it was nice to see Kylie from Sincerely California (very cool music blog)
AND- Jessie another great photographer and cool dude.
And- the girl who goes by the name of Lisa. This is all I can say as she may be in witness protection.
AND- it was so great to meet Natalie who was shooting video (I believer for KLLYRTV). That girl is hardcore and has a creative spirit.
AND - finally I leave you with this quote (in between songs) by Cam from the Lovely Bad Things:
"It
is fucking HOT in Pomona! It's a good thing. Sweat is good. Everyone
has to give Rene a big hug and a kiss for this tonight. It's been
awesome."
-
So Many Wizards
Cassie Ramone (Vivian Girls)
The Babies
New Folk
Katy Goodman (La Sera / Vivian Girls)
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