San Diego Sports Club resumes noisemaking

As mentioned in last week's "Locals Only," San Diego Sports Club has slowly started to add live music to its schedule. In May, owner Tony Vee received a cease-and-desist letter from the City Attorney's Office, followed by an order from the state Alcoholic Beverage Control, both for noise violations. Vee said he was ordered to pay fines (he declined to say how much) and make soundproofing upgrades to the club. Meanwhile, some popular theme nights that called the Sports Club home moved to other clubs and likely won't be returning.

"In addition to losing bands, we lost [club nights] Pussy Galore, Cover Me Badd Trivia Nights and Fashion Whore," Vee said.

Pussy Galore and the trivia night are now at the Whistle Stop Bar, and Fashion Whore moved to the Brass Rail.

"If my family didn't own this property, this bar would already be out of business because of all the restrictions and how hard we were hit," Vee said.

Vee said he thinks noise enforcement is only going to get harsher as San Diego's growth blurs the lines between residential and commercial areas (though CityBeat was unable to find other club owners who shared Vee's opinion).

"I feel sorry for all other venues in this town," he says, adding, "They're coming," referring to the noise cops.

Beauty Bar manager Erica Jessup, whose venue fronts a City Heights neighborhood, said that any live-music venue located near homes needs to be aware of the impact it could have on its neighbors.

"Having respect for your neighbors and communicating with them and the police is for the best," she said.

Vee said the Sports Club has added new club nights to make up for those that left. Rey Hoover (Dead On Seven, Glu) will host an open-mic/open-jam night on Wednesdays. Fridays will be split between Gothic San Diego's Club de Sade, F*#k It Fridays with The Album Leaf's Jimmy Lavalle and Gary Shuffler's Club Cydonia. Jason Peterson's club night, Dead Birds on Wax will happen one Saturday a month.

On Oct. 6, the bar will throw a birthday bash for Vee with Pete Stewart & The Plastic Saviors, ithaca and Dan Electro alongside go-go dancers, DJ Kipper and a bounce house in the parking lot.

"We just want everyone to know we're back and we're not going anywhere," says Vee.

Notes from the smoking patio

The 26th Annual Adams Avenue Street Fair--with 40-plus bands performing along the streets of Normal Heights--might be San Diego's new "street scene." One local artist who played the actual Street Scene (and who asked that we not use his name) said his band wasn't paid to play the event, held this year at Coors Amphitheatre, although the exposure was well worth it, he said. On the other hand, all the bands who played Adams Avenue were paid something, said to be $100 to $200 for most.

Scolari's Office, the North Park dive that hosts live music four to six days a week, recently spent roughly $6,000 to upgrade its much-maligned sound system. MS/scolaris_office.

On Oct. 8, Kill Me Tomorrow will be the guest band at "Found Film Jam," which is held at the Whistle Stop every second Monday of the month. The night features musicians playing live to 8-mm films that organizers Pea Hix and Jeff Coad find at thrift stores, swap meets, garage sales, attics, etc. (most are people's home videos from the '50s and '60s). Past performers include Pall Jenkins (Black Heart Procession) and Rob Crow (Pinback). Kill Me Tomorrow will perform on their own starting at 9 p.m., after which anyone is invited to join. MS/foundfilmjam, MS/killmetomorrow.

Local skateboarding icon and accordionist Matt Hensley has decided to rejoin Flogging Molly. After leaving the band in January for "personal reasons" (perhaps to open his Carlsbad bar, Hensley's Flying Elephant), he and the band are currently recording in Ireland. The album is expected to drop early next year on Side One Dummy Records. MS/floggingmolly.

Transfer has gone back into the studio to record a follow-up to their 2006 album, Faded Signal. Fans can check out an in-studio (or, apparently, in-bedroom) video of the band working on a few songs, plus witness some classic "how the intro to this song came about" banter that's ripe for a local version of This is Spinal Tap. MS/transferband.

--Rosey Bystrak