Straight outta that Oakland spirit ^^A sunny day in downtown San Francisco turned into a foggy night in Oakland, where, at the "unfurnished" corner of 24th and Broadway - in the residentially zoned ground floor loft belonging to some very cool old school Oakland folk lovers and anarchists- Kimya Dawson, on tour with eclectic folk and punk acts, took a seat with her fellow animals and made children out of us industrial sinners, schooling and soothing us with messages of unity and courage.
After a long and slightly confusing trip on the BART Sam and I rode over to the squat of some good folk he had met a long the way.In the spirit of alarming coincidences, the main contact to this house of miscreants was a girl named Monica, whom Sam and I both recognized as a consistent cast member in Kensington park, with no doubt a few mutual friends in Toronto.
"Oakland is cool, it's sort of like the wire, but it's cool"
"Of course there's a liquor store on San Pablo, it's the fucking ghetto"
two overheard quotes that serve as descriptions for the brief Oakland experience I had.
So, $5.00 allowed us into the show which was only down the street at the otherwise desolate corner which seemed to be leaking punks for a solid block around the venue, giving the impression that the show had not begun yet. On the contrary there were twice as many people inside and the a vibrant feeling of excitement tookhold. These kids were either all on to something or just stupid and desiring the collection basket style of mooching one can achieve in large groups of smokers and drinkers. Perhaps a little of both is more accurate.
As one tours the facilities the mood may strike to utilize the vending machine for the purchase of a beer: Pabst, MIller or Bud for $4.00
You may also notice the posters of past concerts from "The Coup" or "Minor Threat" reminding everyone the history of music, violence, and anarchy sprung from Oakland in the past, and judging by the composite crowd here tonight, the spirit is still alive.
I would be a bad blogger if I didn't give a proper lineup, and so it appears that title fits me well, as I have a bad memory and most of the groups who played were never listed on the bill. An amazing all girl punk band captured most of my praise for the evening as their spiraling melodies and raw energy fueled a mosh-pit so big you didn't have a choice but join. The beat goes on...
The bulk of excitement seemed to be generated for Kimya (obviously) and Defience Ohio who played last in drew arguably the biggest crowd. (listen to that shit)
Over by the Merch booth LP's sold for eight dollars and stickers were free.
Being the economically challenged traveller I am, I opted for the stickers, adding to what I believe to be an envelope containing a sticker or two from every city I've been in.
The sticker which caught my eye most was for 900 bats, the boredom inspred blog of poet extraordinaire Aesop Rock, for creative output in between albums.
This was hardly the environment one would expect to find advertisement for obscure hip-hop inspired blogs, so I asked the guy-dude behind the table if he could tell me anything about the stickers.
"Take as many as you want, I think Kimya knows the guy who runs it... they're working on an album together so..."
Kimya Dawson, Aesop Rock album coming soon? I don't know if I would have believed it past rumor had it not een for what happned next.
A moment of akward awareness took place and realising how much time I had spent at the table not buying anything I held up the stickers proudly and said, "I love this site, it's just what we need" Or something like that, to which a surprisingly tall and familiar looking dude previously engaged with his Itouch, looked up at me and said "Thanks"
The guy had looked familiar but given the amount of cities, scenes and music cultures I have passed through in the last few months it didn't dawn on me that it was in fact Aesop Rock, until that moment, and then it came very easy, like, "Oh that's right, you're fucking Aesop Rock."
Gathering composure from a brief outside chat with Sam I approached the man for a brain picking, talking first and foremost about Bat's.
The following is an accurate although paraphrased conversation between me and Aesop Rock.
"Did you read about this virus wiping out entire colonies of bat's in North America?"
AR "yea, I did. It's awful."
"How does that make you feel?"
AR "how do you feel about that? I dunno, bad. I mean it sucks, it's like bat aids. What can you do? I read the article in National geographic and then another one my friend sent me so..."
"it's sad, have you seen the bats in Austin"
AR "Yea, Congress street. "
"I've been travelling and it gets disorienting. I gotta say, I'm really surprised and excited to see you here. Are you preforming at all tonight?"
"nah, nah, just along for the ride. I love Oakland, you know, any excuse to get out. Love Kimya and just came for support."
"I actually really enjoy your blog, was the concept always to have an open source for creativity?"
AR, yea thanks it's good to hear. You know, I'm working on an album, and I go into the studio and it's like, puttin down work and you know, in a month or two I can listen to that. But I'm all about, like, what am I doing right now. So the main thing with the blog was like, when I started was like, do something every day, you know? just, no matter what it is, try and put something up every day."
"and your friends, acquaintances whoever..."
"anyone."
I restrained from explaining he idea behind Cuzz Im Tuff an instead asked him for contact.
"Do you take submissions."
AR"yea yea, all the time, here. I'm Ian by the way."
We shook hands and he told me where to mail him at before I did the fanboy thing and told him what I thought of his music, saying someshit like:
"Honestly, I don't always tell musicians what I think of thier music but your one of those cats where it's like: Some shit you say feels like it comes from the deepest darkest part of my brain that I can't access. Your music had been with me in some of the wierdest and best times in my life as well as the worst and shittiest and its always made me feel better about what I'm doing. "
I really did say all that, though it was muddled by nervous interjections and pauses.
Ian was most gracious and even a bit shy talking to me after that so instead of asking him to kick beets and free's with me I told him to enjoy the show.
I doubt it if one other person at that show even knew who he was. He played with his iphone for the rest of the night and then stood quietly in the back for the second half of Kimya's set.
It took me two hours of cycling to get home, accross the East Bay Bridge into Downtown SF, south on Mission street to Camino real and all the way past Daly City, and Colma to So San Francisco city.
The fog was thick and silver and when I got home I was drenched, but the stickers were intact.
Folk rock hip-hop and punk rock remind me of why I am alive as I write this all down.
