One reason I started this blog was to motivate myself to get out and see more local bands. In San Diego people have to hunt for bands more than people have do in PDX. Once you start looking, you find them easy enough, especially with Myspace, but there's still no substitution for seeing a local band live. Unless they have a lot of money or exceptional studio skills to turn out a polished album right away, the live shows are where bands show what they're really made of, what they've got for guts.
Vinyl Radio put on a clinic on that point Saturday night. I had been reading about them, seen them in the Myspace friends of a lot of other S.D. bands, but I wasn't blown away by the songs on their Myspace page. Not bad, but nothing that made me say "hot damn."
But from the first notes of their set, they grabbed my and my friends' attention. They were loose without being sloppy, loud without creating one undefinable ball of noise, and generally rocked the stage (well, the floor; no stage). They got the whole crowd into it early and kept them there, bobbing and dancing to the entire set.
While they're pretty different musically, and there were 20 blocks or so separating them, the Modlins and Vinyl Radio show made for one of the most fun double-bills in a while.
Vinyl Radio on Myspace
I still don't get why more S.D. bands don't get more notice. We've got a good alt-weekly and good blogs, and Saturday night the Modlins and Vinyl Radio reaffirmed that we've got good bands. I just don't get it, although I'm sure there's more than one reason.
Apologies to the Airlines, who opened for Vinyl Radio. We got there from the Modlins show just after they finished. They're now at the top of my must-see S.D. band list.
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