All that is night

Shot on Scene by James Norton

Last week, San Diego was overtaken by clothing-conscious crowds spilling out from the Action Sports Retailers (ASR) expo at the Convention Center. After-parties, complete with long lines and lots of testosterone, were aplenty, and James Norton caught this group on Thursday night outside Downtown’s Red Circle.   
—Kinsee Morlan

Locals Only

Folk musician and Ocean Beach resident Don Truesdail died Tuesday, Jan. 13, after being hit by a truck on a shoulder off of Interstate 5. A music teacher at Mar Vista High School and regular performer at Portugalia, Truesdail also played with such eclectic acts as Dornob and Café Moliendo. Friend and fellow musician Alan Silva says Truesdail “retained a genuine passion for the language of folk music.”

On Saturday, Jan. 31, the Kensington Club will host a benefit for the family of DJ and bartender J.J. Orsborn, who died Jan. 5. The show will feature garage-rockers The Soft Pack, along with The Stitches, ADHD and Slab City. All proceeds will help cover funeral costs.

Cover Me Badd will attempt to recreate The Beatles’ rooftop performance of Let it Be in honor of its 40th anniversary on Friday, Jan. 30. The band will play all-Beatles covers at an undisclosed Downtown location at noon and 8 p.m. All proceeds raised will be donated The Tightenups, a band whose rehearsal space was recently burglarized of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. www.covermebadd.com.

While the full list of artists and venues is set to be announced later this week, the headliners for the fifth annual San Diego Indiefest are known. Organizers say Juliette Lewis’ new band, Juliette and the New Romantiques, will make its debut performance at the festival (the band includes Omar Rodríguez-López from The Mars Volta), along with trip-hoppers Si*Se, reunited R&B group Az Yet and soul / dance singer Adam Joseph. Indiefest is scheduled for March 28.

Tijuana will celebrate the opening of La Mezcalera, a new bar featuring six different kinds of mezcal and nine types of mezcal ice cream, at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28. One of the creators, who asked to remain unidentified, describes the place as “a drunk fantasy where Chavela Vargas and Miss Piggy could perfectly share a table and sip mezcal together.” La Mezcalera is located on Sixth Avenue in downtown Tijuana between Revolucion and Madero, just south of the famed Dandy Del Sur.
—Seth Combs, Todd Kroviak and Will K. Shilling

Counter-culture roll call

The powers of eminent domain couldn’t keep the artists behind Voz Alta down for long. When City College shut down the nonprofit Chicano arts space last January to make room for expansion (which has yet to break ground), Stephanie De La Torre, then the director of Voz Alta, promised they’d find a new home.

De la Torre stepped down when Voz Alta closed its doors and headed over to Centro Cultural de La Raza in Balboa Park, where she remains the executive director, and she handed over Voz Alta’s reigns to Jose “Hoser” Jimenez, Carlos Beltran, Dante Loaiza and Victor Tapia.

The group (minus Tapia and plus Anna Brown and Bob Green), worked hard to find an affordable space and, after a few failed attempts, ended up in a 900-square-foot building at 1754 National Ave. in Barrio Logan.

“The good thing about the new space is the location,” Loaiza says. “We are now in Barrio Logan, a neighborhood which we feel can benefit from a place like Voz Alta…. It’s a neighborhood that is evolving. Back in the day, if you weren’t from here, you probably wouldn’t come through here. That’s changed. It’s a great neighborhood, and we feel very welcomed.”

Voz Alta lost exactly 100-square-feet in the move and they say they miss being located next to a neighborhood bar and meeting spot like the now-defunct Landlord Jim’s, but the crew did gain an outdoor garden and a much nicer-looking space with pristine white walls and a vaulted wooden-rafter ceiling.

Voz Alta has been offering sporadic programming in the new spot since last October, but it seems like it’s taken until this year for things to really get going. At 9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31, The Akademix, a new band started by two former B-Side Players members, will perform, and from 7 to 11 p.m. Feb. 7, a photography show, Some Girls, will feature new works by Sean Dejecacion (whose work’s been published in CityBeat’s annual photo contest). www.vozalta.org.
—Kinsee Morlan

View from a Stool

Seeing a show at The Habitat could certainly be viewed as a step up from a busker-saturated, coffeehouse show. The Golden Hill house and studio has a living room perfect for intimate showcases, complete with a crackling fire, great acoustics and couches set up around the band.

And a Sunday-night performance by Huntington Beach’s The Traditionist certainly complemented the soothing vibe of Habitat. An overly affectionate beagle kept anyone from getting too serious but was hardly a distraction from the music. One song in and it was easy for me to see how The Traditionist won over the an otherwise distracted crowd a week earlier at the reopening of Subtext gallery and bookstore in Little Italy.

The band, which just signed to Better Looking Records (an album, Season to Season, will be released in March), played a gorgeous blend of indie-rock for the scenester set.

As they ran through a set of songs with perfectly timed keyboard arrangements, and mastermind Joey Barro playing the part of stoic frontman, I often kept thinking how accessible the music sounded—as if the band was one phone call away from an iPod commercial. The chorus of “Make Believe,” with its pleas to “look around” seems destined for a digital camera ad, and the Loaded-era Velvet Underground rave-up “Answer Phone” has a cell company’s number written all over it. Lucky for The Traditionist, the guy who heads up Better Looking also owns a publishing company that’s helped The Album Leaf and Death Cab land some prime press. Judging by this great show, The Traditionist’s music just might sell itself, but as their track “Driftwood Doll” points out, “It’s all who you know.”
—Seth Combs

The Enrique Experience

Of all the gay subcultures, no other brings a smile to my face quite like the bears; they’re loud, they’re proud and they’re bearded (not to mention the fact that if I were in a group of bears, I’d be the skinny one).

There are three things bears hold dear: cargo shorts, body hair and bingo. All three were in abundance last week at The Center (3909 Centre St.) for the latest edition of Big! Fun! Bingo! (the bear edition). The series, which benefits The Center’s services, happens every month with a revolving door of themes—from cowboys for the gay rodeo to superheroes for Comic-Con. This occasion drew a crowd of 116 and, wanting to soak it all in, I made sure to sit at the grizzliest table of them all, surrounded by a dozen teddies.

The night included the holy presence of five members of The Sisters of the Perpetual Indulgence, the troupe of queer nuns formed in San Francisco in the 1970s whose mission it is to “spread joy and absolve guilt” through community outreach.

“The regular caller could not make it, so I stepped in last minute,” a glowing Sister Ghana Maria of the Dripping Desire told CityBeat. “As you can see, I’m a bear, too,” she said pulling down her kaftan and revealing her furry chest.

“Somebody dauber his wiener—that just ain’t right!” the Sister exclaimed after an attendee called fake bingo. Later, she hammed it up by calling ball “B-14” and saying, “In order to date Michael Jackson, you must be 14.”

From the tricky Crazy Kite to the ultimate throw-down, Texas Blackout (both varying versions of Bingo), the tension was thick as I attempted to fill those 25 little squares. All told, 13 games were played, several door prizes awarded and, although I left empty-handed, one of my neighbors offered to take me in as his “cub.”

Sweet as honey, don’t you think?
—Enrique Limón