The Vintage & Handmade Market 
These are bands we especially dig,
not full listings. For those, please see
Concerts and Clubs.
Wednesday, Jan. 30
PLAN A: The Bravery, Switches, Your Vegas @ House of Blues. Love ’em or hate ’em, check out our feature on The Bravery here. PLAN B: Castanets, Fantastic Magic, Vision of a Dying World @ The Casbah. This might be the best local show of the week, if only Ray Raposa (San Diego native and Castanets progenitor) hadn’t taken his roving band of freakish folkies to New York City. Ah, hell. It’s still probably the best local show this week. PLAN C: The Black Dahlia Murder @ SOMA. If the boys in BDM spent nearly as much time investigating the infamous “Black Dahlia” murder case as they do liquefying eardrums, they’d solve that sucker. But then they’d have to come up with a new name and The Nicole Brown-Simpson Murder doesn’t quite cut it—so to speak. BACKUP PLAN: Mary Gauthier, Mark Olson @ Acoustic Music San Diego.
Thursday, Jan. 31
PLAN A: Matt Costa, Delta Spirit @ The Casbah. Check out “Mr. Pitiful” here. Besides, the Rogue Wave show at the Belly Up is sold out. PLAN B: Chris Robley @ Lestat’s. It’s probably inevitable that anyone described as the “Stephen King of indie pop” would draw comparisons to Elliott Smith. Robley does indeed delve into the darker side of singer/songwriter folk, only without the whole stabbing-yourself-in-the-heart-with-a-steak-knife thing. PLAN C: Porter-Batiste-Stolz @ Winston’s. Porter, Batiste and Stolz are basically the Crosby, Stills and Nash of New Orleans funk, except that good ol’ David, Stephen and Graham couldn’t hold a candle to the fu-fu-funk created by George, Russell and Brian. BACKUP PLANS: Robben Ford @ Anthology.
Friday, Feb. 1
PLAN A: Langhorne Slim, Silverbird @ Beauty Bar. Langhorne isn’t just a clever name. Slim (born Sean Scolnick) grew up in Langhorne, Penn., before becoming an anti-folk throwback to the early days of Dylan and the earlier days of Hasil Adkins. Just be thankful he didn’t grow up in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. PLAN B: Blue Cheer, Earthless, The Blackout Party @ The Casbah. I’m tempted to say that Blue Cheer is too old to rock. Sure, the San Francisco hard rockers helped pioneer metal back in the ’60s. And, yeah, the band nearly burnt The Casbah down the last time around. But, sweet Jesus, lead singer Dickie Peterson is older than my parents. Then again, I wouldn’t dare say that to his face. PLAN C: B-Side Players @ Belly Up. Ozomatli recruited one of the Marleys, some of the Wailers and opened up a Buena Vista Social Club in San Diego. BACKUP PLAN: Qu’est-ce Que C’est @ Zombie Lounge.
Saturday, Feb. 2
PLAN A: We Are Wolves @ Beauty Bar. “We Are Wolves” probably sounds a lot better in French, as does the name of the band’s debut album Non-stop Je Te Plie en Deux (“Non-stop I Fold You in Two”). But what these Quebec natives lose in translation, they make up for in rabid dance rock. PLAN B: Los Lobos @ Belly Up. I’m not sure what’s going on with all these bands of wolves (full moon?) but Los Lobos is also capable of making language-centric folks mumble nonsensically (but enthusiastically) to their songs. And, no, I’m not just talking about “La Bamba.” PLAN C: E.O.T.O. @ Winston’s. Regrettably, there are no wolves in End Of Time Observatory. But they are feral in the sense that the cornucopia of live electronica created by Jason Hann and Michael Travis is completely improvised. Not so surprising when you learn the pair have day jobs (percussionist and drummer, respectively) in The String Cheese Incident. BACKUP PLANS: Dead to Fall @ SOMA and Spell Toronto, Republic of Letters @ The Casbah.
Sunday, Feb. 3
PLAN A: Raul Malo @ Anthology. It’s a crying shame that the group that gave us “What a Crying Shame” is no longer around. But the main maverick behind the innovations of The Mavericks is still kicking out Latin-inflected country that’s important enough to be alternative country without being so self-important that it’s alt-country. PLAN B: The Phantom Family Halo, La Otracina @ The Casbah. Any band from Louisville whose members create dark psychedelic rock and grew up hanging out in haunted graveyards (Eastern Cemetery) and asylums (Waverly Hills Sanatorium) is going to be a little off. Then again, any band from Kentucky has a good chance of being a little off, anyway. PLAN C: KEV, Swati @ Lestat’s. Someone with the courage to compete in the International Fingerstyle Guitar Championships, publish a story (“A Gift for a Homeless Heart”) in Chicken Soup for the Soul for a Better World and has a tribute page and song (“Kool Kat”) dedicated to a deceased feline named Bilbo isn’t to be underestimated. Kevin Rones, take a bow. BACKUP PLAN: Deadonseven, Reason to Rebel @ Zombie Lounge.
Monday, Feb. 4
PLAN A: Wyclef Jean, Lyfe Jennings @ House of Blues. Wyclef is the best thing to happen to Haiti since, uh, well, he’s probably the best thing to ever happen to Haiti. In addition to The Fugees and The Carnival, he’s also the best thing to happen to Kenny Rogers (and “The Gambler”) since Mr. Rogers had his Roasters. PLAN B: The Meteors, Killer Kats @ The Casbah. Few bands have more fun with acronyms than The Meteors. There’s their fan base (World Wide Wrecking Crew, or “WWWC”), their slogan (“Only The Meteors are Pure Psychobilly,” or “OTMAPP”) and their primary interests (“Horror, Perversion and Death,” or “HPD”). They actually don’t use that last one as an acronym, but the U.K. psychobilly pioneers probably should.
Tuesday, Feb. 5
PLAN A: DJ Vadim, Yarah Bravo @ The Casbah. DJ Vadim takes that whole From Russia With Love thing seriously. Not only does U.S.S.R.-born, London-bred New York resident Vadim Peare lace his electronic hip-hop with Iron Curtain references, he also brings his smokin’-hot wife (spoken word/rapper Yarah Bravo) along for the ride. PLAN B: Pinback, MC Chris @ House of Blues. Local indie-rock titans join forces with one of the voices behind Aqua Teen Hunger Force, who also happens to be a rapper of sorts. PLAN C: Gaslamp Mardi Gras @ The Gaslamp Quarter. If the words “Fat Tuesday,” “Southern Comfort” and “Gaslamp” don’t make your stomach turn, you might actually enjoy this Cajun boozefest featuring a slew of DJs and bands with names like “Billy Lee & The Swamp Critters.” BACKUP PLAN: Robin Trower @ 4th & B.
