Rough Gem

Originally uploaded by ryanfoley.

Have you ever had a band yell at you before? Have you ever had the entire crowd pissed at you? I have.

I went to see the Islands (some Unicorns remains plus Jim Guthrie) with a pretty big crowd (Prasad, Ben, Julia, Bethany, JoJo, Alissa, Jeni, SEP, Josh). We started the night off by lying to the ticket booth to get some tickets to the sold out show (I bought my ticket the night before, only about half of the group didn't have tickets).

We got there right before Islands came on, so we were pretty far back. Ben and I wanted to get closer, so we moved along the bar until we hit a dead end. But there's one sure-fire way to get up to the front: be a small, cute girl.

Since neither Ben or I are small, cute girls, we did the next best thing; we followed two small, cute girls. After a few songs, we were 5 feet from the stage jumping up and down with all of the high school kids.

Here's where things go pear. Some of the bad members drink some water. People in the crowd start yelling for water (the A/C was off). I yelled back telling the band not to throw water into the crowd. I've been to enough shows to know that a bottle of water might as well be a brick when tossed, and the last thing I wanted was blood on the floor.

Despite my pleas, the band handed out a bunch of water. A few people around us (a guy I called Prefontaine, and CJ, a kid we talked to a little) started pouring the water on other people and getting it all over. During this time, I tell CJ to take his shirt off. He does and throws it onto the stage.

After the song ends, Ben and I are yucking it up about how great the show has been, how young the girls we snuck up with were, and how silly CJ was. And we couldn't hear it, but the lead singer was yelling at us because some water got on his guitar pedals and they weren't working.

When eventually realized that something had gone down, we thought that it was CJ's shirt that hit an amp switch or something. But because we were loud and a foot taller than all the 15 year olds, we were singled out immediately. I think Nick (the lead singer) called me a "party guy" sarcastically. And I'm pretty sure he called me out.

Anywho, the pedals weren't broken, and the show went on. Of course everone still thought we were jackasses. And of course we were jackasses, but just because we were near the trouble (I think Prefontaine did the damage, since he was only a foot from the pedals), we were blamed.

The show was actually really good. They're a good band with a lot of talent. I also think the Chow brothers (playing strings and some keyboards) really added a lot.

But here's the thing I don't get. Nick was seriously pissed about the pedals. I understand that they cost a good deal of money. I understand that without them the show wouldn't have sounded the way he wanted it to, but they could have kept playing (not like a broken amp). So if the problem was the cost of replacing the equipment, why did he trash three guitars at the end of the set? He's probably just an asshole. An asshole who makes damn good music.

Check out their video for Rough Gem:

Game Over

Originally uploaded by ryanfoley.

There are a lot of things a band can do to make me happy. These include (but are not limited to)

• Chatting before/after the show
  
• Playing the old stuff
  
• Making that squealing noise when you run a pick up/down guitar strings
  
• Jumping in unison
  
• Playing for free
  
• Having a hot keyboard player
  
• Getting back together after calling it quits too early
  

Ozma did all of these things on Friday. I saw two of their shows that day. The first was a free one in Sproul Plaza on Berkeley's campus. The second was at Slim's.

Originally uploaded by ryanfoley.

Ozma broke up a couple of years ago (not shortly after I saw them play the Bear's Lair in Berkeley), and I guess they realized that all of their new projects weren't as good (two notes: 1) "Yes, Dear" is probably the worst band name ever 2) the Elected rock and are the exception to the above).

Their brand of rock is exactly what makes me want to get back in a band. The music is just a lot of fun, and you can tell that they're loving every minute playing those songs.

• Commenting on the above list, before the Slim's show, I ran into Ryen on the street. We got to chat for a little before I jumped in. Unfortunately, even though the rest of the band is really accessible, I've never talked to Star.
  
• Between the two shows, they played two new songs (one at both shows). The rest was old songs that everyone loves. Taking a hint from the Pixies, they're just playing what the crowd wants to hear.
  
• It felt like some member of the band did that squealing thing every 30 seconds. And I can't complain. It's a gimmick that I fall for.
  
• I also fall for synchronized jumping. (That sounds weird... oh well.)
  
• The Berkeley show was free, put on by SUPERB.
  
• Star is way hot (check out the photo). She now has white hair. I don't know about the white hair.
  
• Hopefully they'll stick around. And even though I think each of their records has gotten progressively worse, maybe they can buck that trend.

Check out a bunch of videos of Ozma at Berkeley.