For someone with even a passive love for music, Larry Rodriguez (aka DJ Larry or The Flower Vato) can be a pretty intimidating figure. Not only has he been making Sacramentans sweat for 20 years with his wildly popular Dance Party at the Press Club on Sundays (affectionately called “Church” by people in the know), but he’s provided the soundtrack to what most of us have been doing for the past two decades with his insane record library and encyclopedic music vocabulary. Every time he’s in control of the decks, I go home with a list of music to look up.

Maybe the most impressive part is that he’s been at it for most of his life, like the cool kid in John Hughes movies. “I was that dude in high school who was always concealing a boombox in his book bag in case there were any breakdance battles at lunch,” Rodriguez says.

As a 16-year-old, he landed a show he called Soul Sauce on a community radio station, where he played records people twice his age didn’t know anything about—jazz, funk, latin grooves, reggae and international jams from Africa and Brazil.

He gained notoriety and rose through the ranks, DJing at Jerry Perry’s legendary clubs Vortex and Cattle Club, but it wasn’t until he saved the night at a real dance party that Dance Party started to take form.

“On New Year’s Eve of 1996, I was chilling in my attic, having a puff and listening to some sides when [my brother] Mike calls from a party that some kids from The Loft were having,” Rodriguez recalls. “He told me to bring my funk and soul records because they were dancing to Billy Idol and Duran Duran singles. So I show up, throw on In the Jungle Groove by James Brown, and the joint was jumping. The rest of the night was great even with just one turntable and a rickety stereo unit. Afterward, Marla Kanelos who booked Old Ironsides asked if I wanted to do a weekly dance starting the following Sunday. That’s when Dance Party was born.”

He’s been stoking Sacramento’s flame ever since. DJing at KDVS, hosting dance nights and even doing wedding gigs.

“I’ve done cowboy weddings where all they want to hear is country music and hip-hop,” he says. “I get a perverse kick knowing what we’ve always known as rednecks are actually opening up to black culture more than we know. I was playing ‘Boot Scootin’ Boogie’ back to back with ‘Whip the Nae Nae.’”

Every time I run into Rodriguez, I walked away marveling at how deep his love for music runs. I caught up with him after a long day of making people move. His enthusiasm is so contagious that it’s hard not to catch on.

First things first: if everyone reading this was with us in your living room, what record would you put on?
I have a stack cued up by the record player right now. Looks like the first few records we’d be listening to are Bent City by Phil Yost, Plastic Ono Band by Yoko Ono, America Eats Its Young by Funkadelic and Modern Journal of Popular Savagery by Porest.

With that out of the way, tell me a bit about who you are, how you started out and ended up here?
Though I was involved in hip-hop culture as a teen, I would also listen to KDVS where I’ve irregularly been hosting shows for the last 13 years. KDVS opened my mind to many types of music. Not only were they the first local station to play Grandmaster Flash, The Jonzun Crew and Afrika Bambaataa but the DJs would mix it up with punk, new wave, reggae, etc. I was hooked.

Around that time a great venue for teens interested in post-punk and new wave dancing was Jerry Perry’s Vortograph Center [The Vortex], near 15th and C streets. The whole room smelled like cloves, which I found rather exotic and it’s where I first met DJs Dave Mier and Danny O’Grady who were cool enough to let me in the DJ booth to look through their records and to see how it was done. I was definitely interested in DJing but discouraged by how expensive it would be.

Jerry Perry let me spin in between bands several times at the Cattle Club around 1989 or ‘90 but it wasn’t until the beginning of 1997 that I first started DJing regularly at a club. I can thank my brother Mike and Marla Kanelos for springing that into action.

What’s a typical day in the life of Larry Rodriguez like?
A typical day for me is constantly pulling and filing from the sprawl of my own music collection. It’s a full-time librarian job that’s never finished. I also spend at least 30 hours a week researching and discovering new and old music, whether at record shops, flea markets, thrift shops or even on the web.

YouTube is a great place to educate yourself and discover all sorts of music—it’s a deep well. So is the KDVS library … I can go in there with a list of 10 things I want to look up and end up spending six to seven hours finding other music in the process.

There’s a lot of talk about the ebb and flow of the Sacramento music scene—you’ve been around for a lot of it, you wanna weigh in?
I’ve enjoyed the Sacramento music scene over the years. It seems like every 10 years a whole new renaissance of bands emerge that make the music scene fun again.

Speaking of, I have a killer lineup for the Dance Party’s 20th Anniversary show at the Press Club. We have Sacto Storytellers and The Scratch Outs, both hard-hitting rocksteady reggae bands featuring members of Filibuster and The Steady Ups. Then the Cuf is reuniting for the night. All the hip-hop heads in town are hella excited about that, and there’s The City of Trees Brass Band, who are not only badass and funky but several members are regular attendees at “Church.” Opening the show is Swank [Ike Burnett] who is the brother of MC Ride of Death Grips and closing the show is Roman Austin, a neo-soul R&B crooner who wrote a sexy jam [“Church (Rollin’)”] about the Dance Party.

What about for you? Dance Party has been going for 20 years now. Has it changed much since you started?
Though Dance Party started at Old Ironsides on the first Sunday of 1997, the first run at Press Club was from ‘98 to 2003. Dan Montoya was the manager then, and he persuaded me to bring my night over there after hearing that Ironsides let me go because of graffiti constantly marring their bathrooms. At the Press, it’s well known that the heavy volume of graffiti in their restrooms began to resemble a Jackson Pollock painting, so it was a better fit from the get-go. We had a great run, won some awards, had some good writeups and Sunday eventually branched out to an additional Friday and both nights were well attended. I eventually fell out of there while clashing with the new management so I kept the Party going weekly at The Distillery and Blue Lamp with occasional nights at Old Ironsides. In 2005 Dance Party picked up Wednesdays at the G Street Wunderbar in Davis, where it’s still going.

The second run at the Press Club started in 2010 when Kirk Johnston asked me if I wanted to come back. I said “hell yes!” I’ve always loved the Press Club even after getting thrown out, to this day I’m happy as a clam to show up there and play music. Kirk died a few years ago but his brother Roger still owns the place and he’s always been a great guy and I love the manager Susan Durst, who’s been with the club after they ran out the asshole who ran me out.

I have a friend who got pregnant after starting her night at Church. How do you feel knowing you’ve been an accessory to so many people getting down—in both senses.
I love it, and I will gladly keep facilitating those activities as long as it keeps everyone happy.

I’ve had couples pay for my dinner when they saw me at the same restaurant because they met on my night, some wedding gigs have come out of it too.

Do you change your set around if you see couples need a certain mood?
While DJing any dance, it’s always a good idea to read the room as a whole and not just cater to that one bratty bro or ‘ho that’ll constantly pester you with inappropriate requests.

They usually claim to speak for “everyone” in the room while in the meantime the whole room is busy getting down on the floor. It’s a good idea to expediently cut these pests off because they tend to interfere with your work while you’re trying to focus on the set. If they keep bothering you just squirt cold water at them from between your teeth, they’ll leave you alone.

You’ve been doing this a while. Where do you see yourself in 20 more years?
If I’m still alive 20 years from now, I can see myself being the house DJ at an old people’s home. Maybe do something with experimental sound therapy or shamanism to help people prepare for crossing over to the other side or at least be at peace with it.

The 20th anniversary bash for Dance Party will take place at The Press Club (2030 P St., Sacramento) on Jan. 8, 2017. (You should be over your New Year’s hangover by then.) Cover charge is just $10, and the event will feature The Cuf, The Scratch Outs, City of Trees Brass Band, Sacto Storytellers, Roman Austin and Swank. Keep your dance card open, and get ready to throw down at 7 p.m.

This month, Allyson Seconds will release her second solo album, a collaboration with homegrown songwriter and producer Anton Barbeau, whom she met as a teenager working at the Java City on 18th and Capitol.

Barbeau is one of many local musicians with whom Seconds forged a musical bond during her time at the popular coffee shop/venue in the mid-‘90s. In addition to Barbeau, she met her husband, Kevin Seconds of the band 7 Seconds, and local booking legend Jerry Perry, who was recently tapped to book the live music for several massive Bernie Sanders rallies in Northern California this summer, including one at UC Davis where Allyson and her husband played in front of nearly 10,000 people.

She’s an environmentalist and an animal lover who draws zero distinction between her personal life, her music and her politics. She made that clear during a recent phone call with Submerge, when the conversation dipped briefly into the election on the heels of the first debate. She is who she is, whether she’s singing, hiking trails, taking photos or running her fitness company.

Her upcoming album, titled Little World, will come out on Oct. 21, 2016. She’ll play a release show at Shine the following day, with Barbeau and Kevin Seconds joining her on the bill.

Seconds recorded the album while fighting off an illness she caught after flying home from a tour and descending into the smoke of last summer’s wildfire-ravaged hellscape.

“It looked apocalyptic outside and it felt apocalyptic in my throat,” she said of the recording sessions in Barbeau’s father’s living room.

“We embraced the edge of rawness in [Allyson’s] voice,” said Barbeau, noting that a casual listener likely wouldn’t notice a difference, but that an extra layer of authenticity could be found.

We talked about everything from the importance of those early musical years in Sacramento to the recording of Little World which is layered with rich harmonies and anchored by catchy melodies. This is a playfully experimental collection of pop songs that will simultaneously stick in your head and keep you guessing from one verse to the next.

How did you and Anton begin collaborating?
I met Anton around town in the early ‘90s. I worked at Java City on 18th and Capitol when that was the only thing going on around town. There was nothing else going on except for, like, Cattle Club. There were staple folks, and Anton was definitely one of them. That’s actually where I met my husband and we started singing together. Anton’s songs always spoke to me. They just have a melodic aesthetic.

What was the recording process like?
Anton and I have a first CD that we did together in 2009 called Bag of Kittens. That came about because I was going to ask all of my favorite singer-songwriters in Sacramento to just write me a song because I had sung harmony with basically everybody. Everyone was like, “When are you going to do your own solo thing?” and I was like, “I don’t know. I suppose I should do that before I’m like 80 years old.”

It’s scary to sing alone if you’re a harmony singer, but I like to push myself. I asked Anton to write me one song and he basically wrote me like 13. So that’s how the first album came about. He comes home [to Sacramento from Europe] every year to be with his dad. We’ve recorded both albums in his dad’s living room. The second album came about from us hanging out and going, “Hey, wanna do that again?” It was so nonchalant and kind of wonderful that way.

What’s the living room studio space like?
It’s a dusty Sacramento living room and it’s got Anton’s scrappy drum kit and laptop and Wurlitzer and microphones. We just make it work. We’ve recorded so much stuff there. On this album and the last album, the trumpet was recorded by Vince DiFiore from Cake in that living room. It’s not any sort of spiffy set-up at all. It’s so Sacramento.

What’s it like harmonizing with yourself, as you often do on Little World?
I have a weird voice dysmorphia and I have no idea what I sound like, or if it sounds good at all. I’m one of those people. Anton loves when I harmonize with myself in recordings and I’m like, “Really? Are you sure that sounds good?” He’s like, “I love it! We’re doing it!” I’m like, “I’m going to trust you!”

What’s your approach to writing a harmony?
I liken it to playing piano by ear. You kind of just play along until you find the right thing and you know it’s good or you know it isn’t. You go for the things that feel good. That’s how I do harmony with almost everybody I play with. Sometimes I sing with my husband and he’ll have kind of an idea in mind. I’ll try to do that and I‘ll morph it into something else and he’ll be like, “Aww yeah, that’s better!” It just depends. It’s mostly just finding what works.

I read that you felt sick during a chunk of these recording sessions. How challenging was that?
I was on an airplane coming back from being on tour with Kevin. I came back to the wildfires last year that were just horrendous. The air was visible. Those two things took a toll. We had a timeline for recording because Anton was leaving to go back to Europe, so we wanted to get it done. The album cover is a picture I took at that time, and it’s just hazy and looks so apocalyptic.

When it came time to sing, were you able to settle in and find comfort?
No, it was hard. There were a couple of songs where we were pushing my voice a little higher and some lower. Anton has an affinity for my lower voice.

You are vocal about treatment of animals and the environment. How does that manifest itself in you as a person and as an artist?
Nothing is separate at all. It makes sense that when Anton was writing these songs [the environment and nature] would be a part of it. He does a great job of thinking of me and who I am and what’s going on in my life. He did it for the first album as well. It’s all encompassing—an extension of me completely.

How many dogs do you have?
Two dogs. Lulu made both album covers and was the cover model for the last 7 Seconds album, so we’re kind of obsessed with our animals!

How does the other dog feel about that?
What’s great about Hank (pictured above) is he cares less about the limelight. He doesn’t care. Lulu just sounds like someone who would care more about the camera and will always pose for the camera. She’s a photographer’s daughter for sure.

What’s the story behind the album cover?
Anton picked that photo out. I had no idea what the cover would be, but he did a mock-up and surprised me and I went, ‘Whoa, that’s perfect!’ It really encompasses it. As apocalyptic as it looks, there’s still a bit of blue sky poking through.

Where was the photo taken?
It’s my favorite spot on the American River, behind REI and Costco. I don’t go there anymore because it got too dangerous with different run-ins. I’ve just sadly had to start going somewhere else, but I’m not giving up. I’m going to head back there because I love it so much.

There has been less and less support for the homeless and a lot of programs got cut. I went there all the time because my dogs are barkers. I went there for years, daily. We’re talking 300 out of 365 days a year I’m at the river. I love it. I’m friends with several of the folks who live out there because I see them so often, but a whole other host of people have come out there and it’s quite dangerous. So that’s the state of things now.

You and Kevin played the Bernie Sanders rally at UC Davis. How did that come about?
That was so exciting. We know Jerry Perry really well and he was booking all of those rallies. I’ve known Jerry since I was 15 probably. He asked Kevin and I to do the UC Davis rally, and that’s where I went to school, so that was really exciting. That was definitely a highlight of the year. Bernie really supports a lot of environmental issues that I also support. He’s for fair and humane treatment of everyone. We kind of knew it was a rough chance [for Bernie to win], but just to be able to support him by singing at a rally felt great.

How did you feel when his candidacy ended?
The way I feel about things now is that basically, in any way possible, we cannot and should not allow Donald Trump to be our president. That says it all. Whatever we can do to eliminate that chance of happening is what we must do. That’s how I feel.

You said you met Jerry Perry back at Java City in Midtown as a teenager. What was it like being there back in the ‘90s?
I feel grateful to have grown up in Sacramento. Lots of folks from different towns do not understand that statement at all. But if you were privy to that era of Sacramento music—the early ‘90s to early 2000s was a magical time. I don’t think I’m exaggerating that, because so many folks agree. It was a real boom time for music here. I was in my early 20s getting into bands and sharing stages and seeing shows. Knowing someone like Jerry since I was 15—it’s so familial. Everyone knows everyone and we’re all working for the same thing. We love music and community. I’m absolutely grateful to have grown up in a town that has such a rich music and art life.

There were never a ton of venues in town, so you had to be active. Had to get shit happening. It’s almost like being music activists. I grew up in a time when we had to make our own flyers and staple them on posts. Sacramento is a small and tight-knit community. Everyone is just like two to three degrees from each other.

Allyson Seconds will be marking the release of Little World with a CD release show featuring special guests Anton Barbeau and Kevin Seconds, Oct. 22, 2016 at Shine, located at 1400 E St. in Sacramento. The all-ages show starts at 8 p.m with a $7 cover charge and one-drink minimum.

One weekend a year, hoards of artists converge upon downtown Sacramento to create hundreds of temporary masterpieces. Their canvas: The sidewalk. Their tools: Chalk. Lots and lots of chalk. You guessed it folks, it’s time for Chalk It Up, Sacramento’s sidewalk chalk art and music festival. This Labor Day weekend (Sept. 5 to 7), marks the 25th anniversary of this gathering of local artists, musicians and community members at Fremont Park to create beautiful chalk art and a festival experience unlike any other.

“At 25 years, Chalk It Up is kind of its own force of nature. It’s just too beloved to ever go away,” executive director Jerry Perry recently told Submerge. “We often joke that even if we weren’t organizing it, the artists and public would still converge every year to create and watch the creation of the chalk art in Fremont Park!”

He’s probably right. Chalk It Up is wildly popular amongst Sacramentans, and the numbers prove it. Last year, the event drew a whopping 35,000 people over the course of the weekend. “It’s hard to believe there was a time that it didn’t exist,” Perry says of the fest. “And major props to the handful of artists back in the ‘90s that willed this event into being. What a wonderful gift and legacy they’ve passed on to us!”

To those uninitiated in the ways of Chalk It Up, it’s a free, three-day event where local artists are invited to use chalk to create colorful works of art on the sidewalks that encompass Fremont Park, located at 1515 Q Street. Many of the “squares” are sponsored by local businesses and organizations to raise money that benefits children’s art education and activities. Community squares are for anyone and everyone to chalk up. There is always a plethora of live music, food, a beer garden for those of drinking age, activities for the kiddos and so much more. Chalk It Up is truly a spectacle to behold, especially by the end of the weekend, when the artists are done with their squares. The artwork is often jaw-droppingly good, and every year it seems to get better and better. Just a few of last year’s highlights included an incredibly detailed Jimi Hendrix portrait by artist Julia Flippo for sponsor 101.5 K-HITS, a Maleficent-inspired piece by artist Missy for sponsor Isabella Corsetry, and (we’re obviously biased on this one) a Submerge-sponsored double square drawing of Beavis and Butthead sitting on their iconic pink couch by artist Raymond Roberts with help from his sons Michael and Alex.

Not to be outdone by their chalk wielding visual artist counterparts, local musicians are also well represented at Chalk It Up. At least 30 regional bands are set to perform at this year’s festival including The Brodys, Honyock, Kevin Seconds, Drop Dead Red, Wasco, Century Got Bars, The Ancient Sons, Mondo Deco, Anton Barbeau, The Phantom Jets and many others. Music runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. all three days!

For its 25th year, the organization’s goal is to give out 25 Chalk It Up youth art grants/scholarships. Whether it’s for art materials, musical equipment, speaker or guest artist fees, transportation for arts related field trips, attendance fees to performances, museums, classes, etc., Chalk It Up gives out mini-grants in amounts up to $500 for qualified educational activities that meet their criteria. “Art and music are such a crucial part of learning how to learn,” Perry says. “The introduction of art and music education into children’s lives actually programs the brain to more abstract thinking and comprehension. And then there’s the whole spiritual/soulful/emotional human aspect of art and music as an outlet and a language. To nurture such profound and moving forms of expression should be considered an essential building block if not the foundation in youth education. We do what we can through our youth art grants.”

For information on the three-day festival and to learn how to apply for Chalk It Up’s mini arts grants, visit Chalkitup.org.

If you work or live in Midtown Sacramento and can get away for an hour or two on Thursday afternoons, you really owe it to yourself to head down to Fremont Park (16th and Q Streets) for the Hot Lunch Concert Series, presented by Hot Italian and local promoter Jerry Perry. Every Thursday starting at 11:30 a.m., from now through Aug. 28, awesome local bands will be performing for free. The first two Hot Lunch shows are already in the books (Kepi Ghoulie played June 5 and Dog Party on June 12) but there are still plenty to look forward to: James Cavern on June 19, Matt Sertich (of the Generals) on July 10, Hans! and the Hot Mess on August 7, just to name a few! To see the whole lineup, head to Facebook.com/hotlunchconcertseries. Pro tip: Don’t forget to call Hot Italian ahead of time at (916) 444-3000 to place an order for a panini or insalata plus a drink to go for only $10!

Luigi’s Slice, a hip pizza joint in the MARRS Building that for years has also acted as one of Sacramento’s few all-ages music venues, has been sold to the owners of Azul Mexican Food and Tequila Bar, located just steps from Luigi’s in the same building. The space will close for about three weeks starting on May 17, 2014 and will undergo renovations. It will remain a pizza place under a new undisclosed name, but it is uncertain if the new owners will continue to host live, all-ages shows.

“It’s heartbreaking about the uncertainty of the new owners doing music,” Luigi’s co-owner Linda Brida (she runs the business with her husband, Greg) recently told Submerge. “I’m going to talk to them more about it.”

Brida mentioned that while it’s a bummer they have to sell, it is something they’ve been mulling over for some time. “We’re a mom and pop shop, and we treat our employees like family,” she said, noting how important it was to them that most of their employees be re-hired by the new owners. The Bridas still own the original Luigi’s Pizza Parlor located at 3800 Stockton Boulevard. It’s been in their family for 60 years.

Local promoter and music scene OG Jerry Perry, who frequently throws all-ages shows at Luigi’s Slice featuring both national and local acts, wrote an honest straight-forward post on his Facebook page on April 12, 2014, about the closing of Luigi’s and the uncertainty of live music happening there after the switchover.

“I consider little ol’ Luigi’s to be one of the most important rooms in the Sacramento scene,” he wrote going on to say “Sacramento may not know it yet, and actually rarely ever understands the impact of changes such as this, but losing this venue will create a huge disconnect between young people and live music in the scene, and forces so many young local artists back to playing stageless coffeehouses, or bullshit pay-to-plays, maybe occasional house-parties, or nowhere at all.”

Submerge attempted to reach out to one of the owners of Azul but did not hear back as of press time. We reached out to Perry to see what he and others have lined up at Luigi’s before May 17, and it turns out it’s a stacked next few weeks of awesome shows, so get out and support while you can! Check it: Circle Takes the Square on April 25; The Kelps on May 3; Sun Monks on May 9 with The Horde and The Harem; Kurt Travis (of A Lot Like Birds) on May 14; and The Dollyrots and Slime Girls on May 17, which may be the final night of shows. Perry also told Submerge that he’s adding more shows to that list and that he plans on reaching out to the new owners to speak with them to discern the future of all-ages shows. We’ll keep our readers up to date as we learn more about the fate of the venue.

Need a good example of why Midtown is the best place to live or work in the region? Look no further than the Hot Lunch Concert Series, which kicks off May 31, 2012 at Fremont Park and continues Thursday afternoons until the end of August. Killer live music curated by Jerry Perry, food trucks like Wicked Wich and Mama Kim’s on hand, Hot Italian’s delicious pizzas and paninis within a stone’s throw, sunshine and soft grass…what’s not to love?

“This is our fourth year and I suspect it will be our biggest year yet,” Perry recently told Submerge. “We’ve added food trucks, and as always about half the event is first-time artists. Like this year I have Jonah Matranga out there for the first time, and Survival Guide, and Not An Airplane.”

He also pointed out series faves from past years like Exquisite Corps, Walking Spanish, Freebadge Serenaders and Musical Charis, all who will return this year.

“I love the unique celebration of Midtown/downtown that this event is,” he said. “It really is a great way to enjoy the best of Sac.”

May 31, 2012 see Island of Black & White and Leonardo Da Vinci Blues Band, and on June 7 see The Bell Boys. Hot Lunch is every Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Keep an eye out on the music calendar section in future issues of Submerge for Hot Lunch Concert Series listings throughout the summer.

Submerge has got your first look at the lineup for this year’s Friday Night Concerts in the Park series. The 13-week shindig kicks off on May 4, 2012 at 5 p.m. at Cesar Chavez Park in downtown Sacramento. You can see the entire lineup right here. Major brownie points to anyone who can name all of the artists that have been on the cover of and/or featured in the pages of Submerge (hint: there’s a lot of them).

May 4
Arden Park Roots (reggae/rock)
Island of Black and White (acoustic/blues/reggae/rock)
The Storytellers (roots/reggae/ska)
Shaun Slaughter (indie/electro/pop)

May 11
Middle Class Rut (rock)
Lite Brite (rock)
Horseneck (rock)
DJ Whores (electro/indie/dub step/alt)

May 18
Nickel Slots (alt-country/Americana)
Infamous Swanks (rockabilly)
Blackeyed Dempseys (Irish rock)
DJ Adam J (indie/dance/alt)

May 25
ZuhG (funk/reggae/jam)
Element of Soul (acoustic/jam rock)
Playboy School (electronic indie/pop)
DJ X’GVNR (pop/top 40/electro/dance/dub step/house)

June 1
Oleander (rock)
Allinaday (rock)
Trackfighter (rock)
Verdugo Brothers (house/top 40)

June 8
Mumbo Gumbo (zydeco/roots/dance)
Todd Morgan and the Emblems (blues/rock/jazz)
DJ Mikey Likes It (top 40/‘80s/‘90s/party groove)

June 15
Relic 45 (blues/rock)
Out of Place (acoustic/alternative/rock)
Sexrat (alternative/rock)
Reggie Ginn (pop)
Shaun Slaughter (indie/electro/pop)

June 22
7 Seconds (punk)
Bastards of Young (punk)
City of Vain (punk)
DJ Whores (electro/indie/dub step/alt)

June 29
The Nibblers (funk)
The Coalition (world beat)
Diva Kings (folk/pop rock)
DJ Fedi

July 6
Full Blown Stone (reggae rock)
Dogfood (alternative rock)
Street Urchinz (reggae/rock)
DJ Nate D

July 13
Another Damn Disappointment (ADD) (punk)
Walking Dead (punk)
A Single Second (punk)
The Left Hand (punk)
DJ Blackheart (house/electro/punk/indie)

July 20
Walking Spanish (blues/indie rock)
Jack and White (alternative/pop rock)
Autumn Sky (folk/pop)
CrookOne (soul/pop/hip-hop/Motown/indie)

July 27
The Brodys (pop/rock)
Early States (pop/rock)
Hero’s Last Mission (pop)
Chaotic Fusion (DJ Oasis & !nkDup) (rock/top 40/dance/mash-ups)

As you probably know by now, this year’s lineup was not booked by longtime promoter Jerry Perry, but instead by a committee of local promoters, musicians and music enthusiasts that go by the name Play Big Sacramento. One committee member, Andy Hawk, who works at Entercom radio stations and promotes Wednesday night shows at Powerhouse Pub in Folsom, recently told Submerge of this year’s lineup, “As a committee we worked with venues, clubs, bookers and musicians in an effort to create a lineup of the best Sacramento has to offer. We have 13 weeks of shows filled with the biggest headliners in town, and have added the most talented DJs in Sacramento to play in the beer garden. Friday Night Concerts in the Park this year will truly be the centerpiece of entertainment in Sacramento this summer.”

Concerts in the Park
Friday, May 7, 2010 – Cesar Chavez Park – Sacramento
Words & Photos by Vincent Girimonte

Two things to take away from last Friday’s edition of Concerts in the Park: one, Sacramento has some exceedingly hip youth; so hip, in fact, that I felt like a tool toting just one lens with my Nikon. Seriously though, I saw way too many kids with thousands of dollars-worth of camera gear dangling from their thin little necks. And second, make sure to buy a beer ticket before you get into the beer line–just a friendly reminder I wish someone would have given me.

Full disclosure: this was my first CIP, and for all my faux curmudgoenliness (I still get carded, for everything) it was a genuinely unique and jovial Sacramento on display in Cesar Chavez Park. Young professionals rejoiced in public consumption as kids pranced around and people were wearing balloons as hats, which would be ridiculous if it weren’t a Friday signaling the beginning of our glorious summer.

Dotting the park were food carts of all shapes and specialties, reminding Sacramentans of a culture largely prohibited to them and satiating drunks and kids alike with fatty eats such as lumpia, rice bowls, Cajun crawfish and the night’s hot seller, tamales for $1.75. About the crawfish: “They’re back” announced promoter Jerry Perry from the stage, gleefully, but at $10 a basket, I was left to lick shells off the lawn. There was plenty of affordable grub to be had, though, and $4 domestics shouldn’t elicit too much whining from anyone, though it inevitably will.

2010’s first Concerts in the Park, now in its 18th year, was mostly about Perry and his talented lineup of youngsters, including Simpl3Jack and Dog Party of Sacramento News & Review Jammies fame and The Kelps. The show was headlined by the sugar-spiked Kepi Ghoulie, the biggest kids of them all, who played a lengthy set of punk nostalgia piped over zany PG lyrics.

If you don’t know Dog Party, you’re likely so thoroughly out of it, you probably didn’t even know they’re just a couple of adolescent girls with a penchant for neon. Gwen “Don’t call me Meg” Giles beat drums behind her sister Lucy, who strummed her Fender, playing original tracks off their debut album and then rocking a cover of Tegan and Sara’s “Walking With a Ghost.” Two men wrestled for a T-shirt after Dog Party threw out one of their sweet XL tees–such is the zeal of their following, or perhaps the state of things these days.

Part Pauly Shore, part Flea in the vein of Yo Gabba Gabba, Kepi shut things down with tunes about supermodels (gross!), chupacabras (ew, yuck!) and rabid monkeys (whaaa?!). He called on the beer garden for a sing-a-long, and they reciprocated like good sports without a worry on Friday night. “Man,” he said, clearly appreciative. “We got a pretty good town.”

Mike Farrell, Lite Brite
Old Ironsides “¢ Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009
Words by Adam Aaake “¢ Photos by April Fredrikson

In our last issue, no. 47, local musician and show promoter Ira Skinner said that “Sacramento’s music scene is probably in the worst condition that I’ve seen it in my life.” Sadly, I’ll have to agree with that. But in the season of giving thanks and on the eve of our nation’s holiday, I was thankful for the bands that are continuing to kick ass year after year, night after night.

A crowd of over a hundred gathered inside the warm walls of a familiar Sacramento venue that happens to be celebrating its 75th year of operation—Old Ironsides. Jerry Perry, another icon of our local scene and the man responsible for the majority of the booking at Old Ironsides for the past who knows how many years, has put together an all-star series of shows featuring the best acts our city has to offer. Last Wednesday’s bill began with a block party set from the always entertaining Lite Brite. Imagine Buzz Osborne with a voice like Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, a drummer from the school of Tom Bonham and a bass player with a warm and fuzzy Rickenbacker; throw in a solid lead guitar player and you’re close to their sound. Their opening song, “Space Shuttle” lifted the crowd from their seats and had them orbiting around the stage like well lubricated satellites. Singer Eddie Underwood was belting lyrics through his thick, dirty-blond hair that sprawled across the front of his face, flailing his arm to the ceiling and arching his body forward as a he played an arpeggiated guitar riff with his free hand. An exhibitionist? Maybe. Pretty bad ass? Definitely.

Their fourth song in was ghostly reminiscent of Far circa Tin Cans With Strings to You. What added to this poltergeist was Far bass player Johnny Guttenberg looking on from the side of the stage. Later he would play with Jackpot, who was also on the bill that night, so I guess it wasn’t too strange. It’s great to hear and see the influence that a great Sacramento band like Far continues to have on the current scene.

A skinny-framed man with a tight fitting white T-shirt and a thick head of greasy brown hair that was slicked back over his head approached the stage. He slowly picked up his guitar and slid it over his shoulder in a routine manner, adjusting the leather strap that was decorated with the suits of a deck of cards. A dense crowd was surrounding the stage at this point and it was clear that they were here to see the next act. His name was Mike Farrell and he needed no introduction. The second his guitar was strummed and the set began, the experience and tenacity of Sacramento’s guitar legend proved true once again. This time with his own band, Farrell played a set of grimy rock ‘n’ roll tunes that were layered with keys and violin from the talented multi-instrumentalist Liani Moore. Veteran drummer Mike Curry did his thing on the skins while keeping the back end pocket with bass player Shawn Hali.

This performance was all about Farrell, though. When he solos you listen; touching every part of the guitar and producing sounds from his instrument that seem otherworldly. He raised his hand over the guitar as it hummed, controlling it like a shaman—he owns its soul. His mouth pursed, and he stepped to the microphone and muttered his lyrics, more concerned with the noise of his chord that continued to linger.

His music is a rare fixture of the scene that we as the local fans have the pleasure of seeing, and that, my friends, is what I am thankful for. I am thankful for the huge crowd that gathered on a brisk Wednesday to support a bill of favorites and a venue that has housed the sounds of thousands of bands over the course of its live music lineage.

Tonight, Ira would be proud.