Taking the Bay (and More!)

OK, I figured I would write a little bit about Cunt Sparrer's mini-tour up to the Bay Area a couple of weeks ago. We had an amazing time -- overall we couldn't have met more nice people, played more fun shows, or been treated better by almost everyone involved, from the fans to the people running the venues to the other bands.

The Sunday before we left, June 13th, we did a semi-acoustic show at the Nomadic Image art gallery in downtown Santa Ana.  My longtime friend Andy works there and managed to finagle us onto the bill.  He also happens to be an extremely talented photographer and he took these shots of us at that show, which was really low-key and a lot of fun:

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On Wednesday we left L.A. and drove up to the Bay.  Spent the first night in San Jose with Jennie's brother and his husband.  On Thursday we drove into San Francisco for our first show on the U.S. Bombs tour.  We had to load in at Slim's around 5:30 so we spent a couple of hours tooling around the city, then headed over to the venue, where we sound checked:

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Our friend Nikki, who we stayed with while we were in SF, showed up shortly after we arrived so we kicked it outside for a bit after sound check.

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Then we were told we could go down to our dressing room, which was a shock enough in itself to us! The bill included two other bands besides us and the U.S. Bombs: the Forgotten and Druglords of the Avenues. The Bombs and the Forgotten had their own green rooms; we shared ours with the guys from Druglords, who could not have been cooler, nicer, or funnier. Seriously, a great group of dudes.

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The Slim's folks kept refilling our cooler with beers so there was hardly a need to leave the dressing room until we played at 8:15.  I really thought we'd be playing to an empty house but there was already a decent amount of people there, including some of the guys from Rancid (who I didn't see but were apparently digging us!) and even a few of our own fans who had come out just to see us.  It was a pretty great show; the audience was rad and lively and the sound was amazing.

After we played we got pretty drunk and watched the other bands, chit chatted with Lou (our booker) a lot, and met some of our fans.  We were wasted and back at Nikki's by like 1:00 in the morning.

On Friday we were scheduled at the Shire Road Club in Sacramento for our second night with the U.S. Bombs.  The Druglords guys were on the bill as well, plus the Hanover Saints and a local Sacto band.  Got to the venue around 6:00 and it was a lot lower-key than Slim's; just one small green room for all the bands and because it was an all-ages club we were only allowed to drink in the green room and onstage, so that's pretty much where we hung out!  Couple shots from that show:

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Hardly anyone was there early enough to see us play but the few people that did show were cool, and we had fun.  And that night we actually got to meet and hang out with the guys from the U.S. Bombs!  They were super cool, really nice guys.  Here we are with Duane Peters and Kerry Martinez:

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And here we are with Lou Medrano, who booked us on the shows with the Bombs and without whom none of this would have happened...we love him:

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On Saturday we were on our own as the Bombs tour headed back down South and we had a headlining show at the Stork Club in Oakland with our girlfriends in a great little three-piece called the City and an amazing all-girl Kinks cover band called the Minks!  We were so busy that night we didn't get any photos but one of our fans was kind enough to send this shot over to me:

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On Sunday we had to drive home (boo). Here's a little video wrap-up our friend Nikki made of our time in SF and Oakland:

C*NT SPARRER from nikki roddy on Vimeo.

So now we're back down south, but we'll be heading back up to the Bay Area the weekend of August 14-15! Until then we're keeping ourselves occupied recording -- here are a couple shots from our first session last weekend:

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And we have some shows coming up as well. If you're local to the Long Beach area, come see us July 6th at Di Piazza's with Cat Party, Knives, and some other bands. and if you can make it out to the Inland Empire later in the month, get over to Angelo's in Pomona for this all-tribute night with some other awesome cover bands!

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Til next time dudes.

XOX
Sara M.

How heavy this axe.

On Friday night I drove up to L.A. to attend the opening of the INTRO show at the Harvey's Seatbeltbags boutique on Melrose (my friend Nancy is a finalist). Nancy's artwork looked really great and the woman who owns Harvey's was clearly a huge fan of hers -- hopefully she wins the competition! (You can vote for her here if you're so inclined.) We drank free cocktails and ate free hot dogs and my best friend Jennie had a five dollar psychic reading on the street that was about twenty-five percent accurate (which seems to be about the norm).

Me and Nancy.


Nancy, Jenny, and my BFF Jennie. Click photos for full size.

Saturday I kept it pretty mellow. It was my man-bestie Josh's 30th birthday so we rolled over to Bart's Pub in Garden Grove for his throwdown. Ghestapo Khazi played with Josh's band, Big Takeover, and Josh DJ'd. Pretty chill.

On Sunday Jennie and I went over to kick it with Josh on the low-key tip. Both Josh and Jennie are huge Pee-Wee's Playhouse fans, and Josh made us jealous with his latest Cypress Swapmeet score, a Billy Baloney puppet:

Josh and Billy Baloney. Click for full size.

All in all pretty solid. Spent the rest of the day kicking around with my dude at his place, reading magazines and watching TV. How was your weekend?

This year Halloween fell on a weekend...

I love Halloween -- I love seeing everyone in costume and all the parties and how wasted everyone gets. I was stoked that it came on a Saturday this year so we got in a full weekend of partying!

On Friday night my friends Hillary and Reid hosted a party at their apartment. My roommate and I were Wayne and Garth from "Wayne's World," and I must say for putting it together out of pretty much nothing (the only thing I bought for my outfit was the blonde wig), my costume turned out pretty excellent.

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Hillary and Reid were Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell from "Overboard." Our friend Colin was a giant baby, and Kristin and Jeremy were cat burglars. There were a lot more people there, but these were the only photos I got.

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Unfortunately after I took these photos I drunkenly dropped my camera on the hardwood floor and broke it! So I don't have any pictures of the rest of the night, or of Saturday night, which is too bad because we rolled to the Prospector for their Halloween show. Every year they have local bands dress up and play covers and it's always really good -- this year Ghestapo Khazi played as the Dead Kennedys, the Commotions played as the B-52's, and the Valley Arena played as the Misfits. I snagged a few pictures from my friend Brittany's Facebook page:

Ghestapo Khazi as the Dead Kennedys.


My adorable friends Jeff and Tammy!


The Commotions as the B-52's and the Valley Arena as the Misfits. Click for full size.

I had an awesome time and at the end of the night Farron and I were surprised to hear "And the runner's up for best costume goes to...Wayne and Garth!" Pretty excellent! We were shocked, but at the same time I have to say that people were super stoked on our costumes. Everywhere we went people were shouting "Party on!" and while we were dancing to the Commotions this wasted girl was trying to surreptitiously take photos of us. Wish I could get my paws on those pictures.

How was your Halloween? I'm bummed I broke my camera, but I had a sweet time!