Newsletter: Lost Nights & Found Inspiration. + A busy Saturday in North Bay!
My life in Sonoma County feels ever so much more enriched every single time I walk out of The Lost Church.
I've had a long gestating article in the works about the re-opening of the Lost Church in Santa Rosa. Bryce was the first person I talked to when I started SmartMouth back in March, but I want to make sure I get it right. I want to make sure I capture the magic of this group. It's coming soon and don't be surprised if some of these words make that future piece.
This past Thursday I stopped by the Lost Church to attend a conversation with Lost Church's Joshua James Jackson (aka JJJ) & Bryce Dow-Williamson. JJJ is the senior booking manager for the Lost Church in SF, while BDW is the GM and booker for Santa Rosa. They took the stage and spoke for about an hour with advice on how to book more concerts and to put more butts in seats.
I spent years booking DIY concert events and I've mostly worked alone and on my own. I learned a lot of stuff on my own just through trial and error. It was wonderful to hear all these lessons, ideas and ideals I learned on my own, coming out of these two fine gentlemen's mouths.
The crowd was small, but I ran into my dear old friend and guitarist Lindsay Gang. I reconnected with Orion Rush and got to talk JJJ's ear off about how thankful I was to hear him speak. I left with my batteries recharged and full of energy.
I returned to the Lost Church on Saturday night to run the Ok Good Comedy showcase. It was another night of creative energy and excitement flowing through the small space.
I always enjoy talking to Ok Good Comedy's producer Chantavy Tornado. We talk about the creative arts and our passions for building an audience. She has this professional drive that you can't help but latch onto. Tornado is working to build something really special, and I think she's on the right track.
I left Lost Church once again after the show, and once again my heart felt full. I came home, sat down and got to work. Both times I left the space so inspired.
I know Lost Church isn't a real church, in the traditional sense, but it is a special place for gathering and community building. It's a space for wayward characters and it gives those characters a place to learn and build careers and hopefully turn themselves into "MAIN" characters.
It's a really special place and I hope you make the pilgrimage to check out both their locations.
They have a lot of great events all year round including these two this weekend:
*Thursday: Death Medicine - Death Medicine is a special open mic event for those struggling after experiencing death of a loved one. It's a safe space for folks to come together and grieve in public together. It sounds depressing, but it's actually really uplifting night of hearing people bare their souls to strangers through song, story, poetry and more.
*Sunday: Secret Song Club presents: Lola Guthrie, Kathleen Ruth, and Bryce DW -
Bryce DW, Our esteemed leader and GM of Lost Church Santa Rosa will be performing at this special Secret Song Club meeting. This is your chance to support the man who supports so many of us. Lola Guthrie & Kathleen Ruth will also be performing.
Secret Song Club is an organization that is all about "supporting emerging artists and creating listening spaces where people can hear music with less background chatter." My kind of organization!
Make sure you sign up for The Lost Church weekly email list, to know about all their upcoming events and how you can support this wonderful non-profit.
That's all for this week! Next week we'll be back with the promised interview with Tim Kasher of Cursive about his upcoming Horror film screening in Santa Rosa!
-Dammit Damian
EXHIBITS:
I just discovered that Gender Queer Graphic novelist Maia Kobabe is from the North Bay / Sonoma County area! What What?!? They make really great comics, and thanks to them I now know about this great Trans Magic exhibit happening in Petaluma at the Petaluma Historical Library from now until the end of the month!
The exhibit is FREE and open to the public Thursday - Sundays
More information on their official website at:
Liz Cohee
THIS WEEKEND'S RECOMMENDED EVENTS:
Earlier this week, I spent a couple of days going through most of the local area music venue websites and I added a ton of events to the smartmouthcalendar.com! I still have a few more to go through including Hopmonk & Lost Church, but there's so much cool stuff going on in the next few months!
Please submit any upcoming events for consideration at: https://smartmouthcalendar.com/submissions/
Wednesday Aug 12: The Beth's & Beach Bunny - GunBun, Sonoma. $92 (Plus $16 Parking)
This show is TONIGHT! I mentioned it last week and I wanted to once again plug this show again this week. The Beths are one of my favorite bands at the moment. Really great Kiwi/New Zealand power-pop punk with a sense of humor that reminds me of the IT Crowd for some reason?
BEACH BUNNY play fucking fantastic 90s-core style, pop-punk indie rock from Chicago. For fans of Snail Mail, Cardigans, the movie 8th Grade and Superbad.
I saw them playing with PUP & Ratboys at the original Meow Wolf in Santa Fe. After the show, I got in line to buy merch from the band and got annoyed at the guy in the hat who talked their ears off and asked for a picture with the band. I would realize the next day that I had been standing in line behind Bob Odenkirk for the past few minutes and didn't realize it.
The only reason I'm missing this show is because I bartend tonight and can't afford to take the night off! Oh the glamorous life of a broke music journalist. But fortunately for me, I got a chance to see both bands up close and personal at BottleRock in Napa Valley and at a local area LGBTQ+ pool party BottleRock pre-parties. Okay, sometimes it is a bit glamorous.
Chances are if you're just discovering either of these bands right now, you'll probably not be shelling out the $92 + $16 for parking to see these acts at the absolutely gorgeous GunBun winery in Sonoma. But if these bands are not on your radar, I simply can't recommend them enough and I really want to put them on your radar.
Friday Aug 14: Right To Remain, Rip Off, Hillbomb, Kill Mary Kill - Phoenix Theater, Petaluma - $12
When I first moved to Sonoma County, Eddie from Right To Remain was one of the first people to reach out and welcome me to the area. What I really like about these guys isn't their Minor Threat meets West Coast Punk/Hardcore sound. It's that they're gate openers instead of gate keepers. They're actively working to build an inclusive environment for the old fucks like myself, while taking the younger folks under their wings. Plus, their band is damned, damned good. I get hints of the previously mentioned Minor Threat, 7 Seconds, Good Riddance and so much more.
This is a great line up of other up and coming North Bay acts including Sebastopol's Rip Off, Bay Area Skate-Core from HillBomb, And Kill Mary Kill!
Saturday 8/15: The Head and the Heart + Linus Hablot - Blue Note Summer Sessions, Napa. $78 - $136
Head and the Heart play really great indie and 70s influenced folk rock. I caught them a few summers ago at the Oxbow in Napa and really had a fantastic night listening to the band and vibing out. For fans of Iron & Wine, Bon Iver and the Lumineers.
Friday 8/15: One Armed Joey, The Great Other & Gas Money -
One Armed Joey popped onto my radar a few years back when I was first living in Napa after moving from Denver. A publicist I had worked with in the past was pitching me One Armed Joey from Petaluma. At the time I had no idea how robust the music community of Sonoma County was, and was shocked there were punk bands in the area.
One Armed Joey of those hot summer nights where you're blasting music on your stereo at max volume, holding your friends and singing at the top of your lungs on a hot summer night. They give me a 90s/00s feel for stuff coming out at that time like New Found Glory, Taking Back Sunday meets Face To Face and early Blink 182.
One Armed Joey guitarist, Avery Okamura also plays in the LA based band Sweet Gloom, who remind me of Ramones meets Joyce Manor. I caught Sweet Gloom opening for American Steel at the Bottom of the Hill in SF a few months back and was blown away. Sweet Gloom is a band that is really taking off, so who knows how long Okamura will stick around Sonoma County, so check out One Armed Joey while have a chance!
Saturday 8/15: Slippery People + xo_Chips_xo - The Garden, Napa. Free
What if the most talented people in your small town got together and started one of the best Bay Area bands. Imagine if you will, a band that combines the New York Sleeze indie rock band of the early 00s with Paul Simon's Graceland with a healthy dose of Talking Heads? You'd have Slippery People.
Slippery People are the unsung heroes of the Napa Valley Music community. They are hands down one of the best bands in the North Bay, but their not shiny or flashy like a number of the other groups getting the credit. They simply just throw the F down and create these fantastic indie rock dance parties the likes of which Napa has rarely seen.
If this grouping of individuals had happened to find themselves assembled closer to The City, I think you'd be dealing with one of the more popular Bay Area Dance Indie bands. Luckily for Napa, the band has chosen to call the place home and have been actively working to build up the indie rock/original music community in Napa.
For this show their bringing xo_chips_xo, another rising star of the North Bay indie/dance movement to get the party started! This is a Free show with music running from 8-10pm.
Saturday 8/15: Nekron 99 + Modern Monsters & God's Weapon - Phoenix, Petaluma - $12
One of the real joys of doing this newsletter/magazine/punkzine is that each and every week, I really do sit down and try my hardest to comb the internet for the very best shows in the area. There are a lot of venues, promoters and events out there, and there is no central network for discovery. So it's a lot of work, but every so often you're rewarded with one hell of a gem and this week, that gem is Nekron 99!
Nekron 99 are a local area epic fantasy metal bands. This isn't a genre I'm super traversed in. Think DIO, Motorhead and Sabbath meets Lord Of The Rings, Evil Dead, Dungeons and Dragons & Magic The Gathering. It would fit somewhere neatly in that world. This isn't what I would normally seek out, but tonight I have this blasting in my headphones and I'm having a blast. Damned cool stuff.
Modern Monsters (Bay Area Hard Rock) and God's Weapon (Melodic Metal featuring Traf Truth from George Clinton + Parliament Funkadelic!!!) will also be performing.
LOOKING FOR MORE UPCOMING EVENTS?
WHO EVER SAYS NOTHING HAPPENS IN SONOMA IS FULL OF SHIT. There's all of this and MORE happening this very weekend and every single weekend!
Make sure you visit SmartMouthCalendar.com! It's an ongoing project to help promote up and coming events. I've been slacking on adding new stuff, so please let me know what I'm missing! What shows and events are you looking forward to in the North Bay? Send them my way and let me know!
SmartMouth707@gmail.com!