Concert Trip, Southern California, 2022 – Art’s Travel Adventures

Concert Trip, May, 2022, Day 3

I knew this was gonna be a long day. Today I was attending the Cruel World Music Festival in Pasadena, CA. This is a two day event (same bands both days so you only had to go one day to see it all.) Sunday was my day fortunately, since Saturday the temps were in the mid 90’s. Sunday we lucked out with mid 80’s temps. 80’s being the appropriate temperature for a bunch of bands that were famous in the 1980’s.

I went to see Missing Persons, Violent Femmes, Bauhaus, and The Psychedelic Furs. I saw all of these along with Black Marble, English Beat (which were brilliant!), The Damned, Blaqk Audio, and Morrisey.

If none of these bands ring a bell for you, you may want to stop reading now…or maybe check out a few of the videos and see if you recognize the music?

The biggest surprise for me was English Beat. They only played 4 songs but I got completely overwhelmed by the music, their talent and the energy of the crowd when they played Tenderness.

I’m on a Facebook group for the Cruel World Music Festival for several weeks and it’s been full of thousands of people around my age deciding what goth outfit to wear, or what band t-shirt from the 80’s they were going to wear and whether or not to wear sensible shoes of Doc’s. It’s been a really fun way to anticipate the concert with 1000’s of other like musically-minded people.

Missing Persons was terrific. I managed to wiggle my way to the front of the stage to see them. The bass player is the bass player from The Knack (My Sharona.) They rocked it!

Most of the bands I came to see, with a few exceptions, had 2 or 3 songs that I knew and loved. They were the sound track of my jr. high and high school experience.

I was chatting with a couple of women and I ask one, “what’s that fenced off area over there?” She said, “ I don’t know, I’ll go ask.” She did and found out that it was the Clubhouse section (I was VIP which is one step below Clubhouse) and then she said the guard would let us in if we wanted. So I headed into the Clubhouse section right to the front of the stage and enjoyed a great show by the Violent Femmes.

Bonus points to you if you noticed in the video or picture above that the drummer is playing a Webber BBQ as part of his kit. Brilliant.

I had tickets for the Violent Femmes show several months ago in Sacramento but gave them away since my sister and my mom took me to see the Eagles on the same night VF were playing. Worth giving up the tickets because seeing the Eagles with my mom was the best experience ever.

I was glowing from finally getting to see the Femmes AND I was in the Clubhouse section in the very front of the stage. I wanted to run over and see Devo on the main stage but The Psychedelic Furs we’re playing in 1/2 an hour and I had a front row spot! I decided to stay put.

And I’m so glad I did.

They sounded great.

The t-shirt line was crazy long all day long. There was finally a bit of a shorter line after the Furs played so I grabbed a couple of shirts, one Bauhaus and one Cruel World Festival shirt.

Everyone raved online about Bauhaus’s performance. While they did give a powerful show I still really only know one of there songs. It was well done!

This was on regular rotation at the new wave clubs back when I was in High School. It was neat to get to experience it live.

Morrisey came on at 9:50pm and I reluctantly stayed to watch a few songs. I am a huge Smiths fan but never really enjoyed his solo works. And his politics are…questionable… Still he was in fine voice and quite a showman. I departed after a couple of songs. From his Saturday setlist he didn’t play any songs from the Smiths until 10-12 songs in so I left after 2 songs. Unfortunately he played How Soon is Now when I made it to the parking lot! I got to hear some of it from there. Wish I’d stayed for one more song!

I am so grateful I got to experience some really stellar performances of bands I’ve never seen before. I’m also grateful for the kindness and friendliness of the people around me and online. We had a real sense of fellowship with the music being our common bond.

The flight home was uneventful and the dog went nuts when I walked in the door. She’s sitting crushed up against me as I write this. And all is right with the world.

Concert Trip, May, 2022, day 1&2

Back in March I began returning regularly to see concerts. Pre-pandemic, I was going to shows regularly, sometimes flying to a city where a band I wanted to see was playing.

In March I flew to Las Vegas to see Incubus play. I saw them two nights in a row and loved both shows.

A couple of weeks ago I went to see Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains at Ace of Spades in Sacramento.

This weekend I flew into LAX then drove to Santa Barbara to see Smashing Pumpkins at the Santa Barbara Bowl. I’ve seen SP twice before, first back in the early 90’s and then 5-6 years ago. Both shows were great and I am a fan of a bunch of their music. That combined with my love for seeing shows at the Santa Barbara Bowl (arguably one of the best places to see a concert) and the fact that I am going to an 80’s music festival in Pasadena on Sunday made grabbing tickets to see the Pumpkins an easy choice.

A 6am (too early) flight had me from Sacramento to LAX in a little over an hour. I stopped by the Centurion Lounge on the way out since is was 8:30am and time for breakfast and more coffee.

Yummy breakfast. Thank you Lounge Access.

I grabbed my rental car and zipped to Santa Barbara, a two hour drive. I was too early to check into my hotel so I took a drive down to a beach (Arroyo Burro Beach) my family used to go to when I was between 6-8 yeas old.

I started getting hungry so I went to the returns right on the beach and had this.

Then I went and sat on the beach and meditated. It was lovely.

Still too early to head back to the hotel I headed over to the house we lived in back in 1876-1978. Our school was behind the house, just down a little path through a park. There’s a mosaic my sister and a bunch of 4th graders made back then that’s still on the front of the school.

I was exhausted and it was finally time to check into my room so I made it back the the hotel and took a lobster roll/every morning flight induced 2 1/2 hour nap. Then I headed over to the Santa Barbara Bowl.

View from the top of the Santa Barbara Bowl.

The Smashing pumpkins did not disappoint.

Here’s a few photos.

I’ve experienced such a since of fellowship with the people who’ve sat around me at the last few concerts. This one was no different. Even got a random hug after one of the songs from the gal in the row behind me. It was kinda sweet.

A band called Bones UK opened for the Smashing Pumpkins. I’ve seen them once before when I saw Bush, The Cult and Stone Temple Pilots a few years ago. They were impressive live but I’ve tried to listen to their recorded music and it’s somehow less impressive.

The concert ended at 10pm, strangely, no encore. Still great show and wonderful venue.

After a decent night’s sleep I headed off to Los Angeles. In a Tesla. Did I mention the Tesla…?

I rented a Tesla. I’d yet to drive an all electric vehicle despise wanting to try it out so this was as good a time as any, gas prices being in the $6.30+ range.

I got a Tesla 3 and it’s pretty fun to drive. It reminds me of the slot cars I used to play with as a kid. You can hit the gas (hit the electric…?) and it goes like a bullet, take your foot off the accelerator and it doesn’t coast, it begins to slow.

I don’t think I’d get a 3 if I were to get an all electric car. First, the all glass roof is like a radiator in 90 degree heat, quite hot to the touch. I couldn’t find a way to shade the roof (the Ionic 5 has a shade you can pull across it’s giant glass roof) so I think it would be an impractical car in Sacramento. Also, the cargo space is a little tight for touring puppet shows. Still, fun to drive.

I check into my hotel in LA and headed over to the Fabric District in the downtown area. As a puppeteer this place is magical.

Block after block of small fabric vendors. So much sparkle.

I’ve come here before and gone crazy with fabric purchases but since I only have one suitcase I stuck to a very specific shopping list. I escaped with around 24 yards of fabric.

Stick a fork in me I’m done. Time to rest up for tomorrow’s music festival…The Cruel World Festival in Pasadena with The Church, Blondie, Missing Persons, Violet Femmes, Psychedelic Furs, Berlin, Morrisey and more.