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I probably should feel just how I look this morning which is ironically interesting after getting home at 3am after an all day trip from San Diego to Santa Cruz but my initial greeting to the world was a boisterous smile and pat on the back for my good taste in agendas. In short, we rocked the phuck outta Southern California this weekend and I should also mention that our favorite band was in town as well.

Of course when Tea Leaf Green schedules a L.A. run, I will be there. It is my old hometown that taught me how to rock so I like to give back to the town by showing it all that i learned.

Because everyone is gearing up for the Vegas>GAMH run in two weeks, this trip was a little off the radar so that made it hard to find other leafers to roll with so I put an ad on Craigslist. This led me to a kid that goes to UCSC and just finished for the year and he needed to get back home to Hollywood. He traveled with a guitar, a briefcase and a microwave. He was a very cool indie kid that now loves TLg. A day before I was to set out south, I got a call from my famed friend Joe Femino and he was to join us in the trip and join me in stirring up the nether regions of our state on our lil’ Tea Leaf tour. This was good. This was a great story itself.

We had an 8 hour drive to L.A. and a lot of music to share along the way. The indie kid in the back seat was diggin many of our picks and we all shared rounds on the sounds. I got us lost in Oxnard (rep’n the OX) trying to find my brother at a wake so I could get a key from him so I just hopped on PCH, Highway 1 and we caught the rest of the drive along the ocean for a fantastic sunset and a perfect way to enter L.A. What was really perfect is that even though I lost us some time there, we were still going to make it for TLG’s set and the kid who we had to drop off lived a block from the venue and gave me great directions to weave our way through that part of the city. Plus, as difficult as it is to park in the city, we found an overnight lot for $5. What? Super cool.

Arriving to the venue which looked like the classic old Hollywood movie theatre turned music venue complete with ticket box in front, the bright lights were upon us. We rolled in giddy and made an immediate left to the bar for shots of Patron and were front row bound. Ran into several crew members along the way and we all coagulated accordingly. Unfortunately, this is where I skip my whole review of the show and go directly to the next night. Not because I don’t remember because I do, but because I was not that into it for the sake of the way the set flowed especially for a one setter and that’s all I have to say. But I mention this because we saw two nights of shows back to back and the contrast plays a big part in the recognition of the awesomeness at hand, gives us gratitude for what we got.

SAN DIEGO!!! The next nights show in San Diego brought the heat in a major way and more than compensated for the mellow nature of the previous night . And I just have to say that as much as this band rocks my world, I would always only want them to play whatever they want even if it was a sleeper show on a friday night in Hollywood. Case and point: San Diego.

The venue called The Wave house was located at the magnificent San Diego Beach Boardwalk and the stage was large and tall and they had a great sound system. The dancefloor was literally in the sand and luckily I had gotten a call from our Treasurer earlier so I knew to wear flip flops. Beyond the crowd, there were hammocks in between palm trees and fire bits around the bar as well as a wave machine that you could actually surf in, like a ride, we were at a boardwalk afterall, with rollercoasters and everything but the best ride of the night by far…was the show.

Earlier in the day, Labiacci and I stopped by his old hometown of Huntington Beach (which ironically sued Santa Cruz for the title of Surf City U.S.A. long ago, but no bitterness here, this is a really great town and actually has good surf) and we recruited a grip of great new-to-me friends, great musicians too to caravan the 2 hours to see the show. We spent some time kickin it there so when we arrived in SD, we made it just in time to walk through the enterance at the first notes of “Let Us Go”. We found our crew and our dancing area up front and the show was on and the band was on fire! By the third song, Biatchi and I look at eachother with eyes of agreement that this already makes up for last nights show…and it kept on going and going. Every song was persued with passion the band was happy you could tell. The crowd was jumping and fists were pumping, as this was the best place to be in the whole world to be if you wanted to dance your ass off and rage it like you meant it.

Since this show was on the beach, the night capped off with some beach bull-fighting and the unvieling of the great bottle of red wine that I smuggled from Spain. The waters were warm and the wine was delicious, what more can I say, I like how it all goes down in San Diego!

Filed under: General by phoreal