Teach Me Equals, Electric Healing Sound, Of Ennui, Polux @ Tower Bar, San Diego

San Diego’s Tower Bar is usually host to punk, pop punk, and metal acts. But on this night, the eclectic and experimental were on offer. Olympia, Washington’s Teach Me Equals was just off a Southwestern USA tour and on their way home and was added to this bill only

Awesome Fest 11 announces first batch of bands

The six-member team that curates the annual Awesome Fest in San Diego, California has made its first announcement of bands that will perform at the eleventh iteration of the three-day festival, 16-18 February, 2018. This marks a change from the traditional Labour Day weekend, the first weekend in September,

Hard Girls, Ash Williams, All Beat Up @ Tower Bar, San Diego

Halloween. All Hallows Eve. It brings out the crazies, doesn’t it? It certainly did at San Diego’s Tower Bar. This costume party brought out a packed house on a weeknight, a rare thing in the jaded Southern California city. Hard Girls toured down the West Coast from their home

Paul Collins, My Revenge, Birdbath @ Til-Two Club, San Diego

Paul Collins was there at the birth of what we now know as “power pop.” As a founding member of The Nerves and later The Beat (aka The Paul Collins Beat, not the English band), Collins crafted guitar-fueled pop songs that had a rock and roll edge. Without power

Success, Reunions, The Dodges, & Allweather @ The Ken Club, San Diego

Many bands along the West Coast of the United States are like family. La Escalera became the close knit network for these bands, then became a record label based in San Diego that put out records by many of these bands. On a recent Friday night, La Escalera Records

Choke Up Remember the Promise and Pain of Youthful Idealism

It can be painful, looking back at one’s youth and seeing one’s ideals lost in the struggle with reality. But it can also be fodder for excellent music, and Boston’s Choke Up have succeeded in dramatic fashion. Their latest full-length release, ‘Stormy Blue,’ is a concept album, retrospectively telling

Dum Cumpsters, Glen Meadmore And The Kuntry Band, New Swears @ The Tower Bar, San Diego

A recent Friday night was queercore night at San Diego’s Tower Bar. Well, at least partially. Local band Dum Cumpsters bends plenty of genders with their hard-edged punk music, while Los Angeles’ Glen Meadmore And The Kuntry Band describe themselves as “gay Christian punk.” It’s an accurate description, blending

Lenguas Largas, Vacation, The Murderburgers, City Mouse @ Bar Pink, San Diego

The first Monday in September in America is Labour Day. For the past ten years that’s meant Awesome Fest weekend. However, the curators of that glorious pop-punk family reunion decided this year to move Awesome Fest to February, when most of the country in covered with a blanket of

Odd Robot, Gentlemen Prefer Blood, Throw, The Plurals, Jason Paul & The Know It Alls @ Parks and Rock, Anaheim, California

If you read our POV pieces regularly, you’ll have come upon Odd Robot, who put out a tremendously good debut LP earlier this year. The teamed up with Los Angeles stalwarts Gentlemen Prefer Blood for a short West Coast tour, and the kickoff show was in nearby Anaheim. Also

Silverstein: Writing great songs and timeless albums as best they can