Culture, Willy Wonka and Music, Music a Go Go!
Tonight is the first night since last Thursday that I have been home and able to spend time on my computer. I have been out seeing some culture, Johnny Depp, and music, music, and more music! Sure there was a little bit of time this past weekend when I might have been able to write about all I’ve seen and experienced in the last five days… but I had to catch up on some laundry, sleep and try to cool off in these Bakersfield days and nights of triple digit unrelenting sweltering heat. So here is an overview of culture, Willy Wonka, music, music a go go and Bakersfield goings on over the past five days…

Thursday night I went to see the production of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan at the Bakersfield Community Theater. What an absolute divine and refreshing treat this play is! There are still shows playing, (show times here) everyone should go see this play. The children were so adorable I found myself smiling through the entire thing in spite of the sweltering heat. The costumes were great! The improvisational props like bubbles and material banners for water were ingenious for a play put on with a small budget. Captain Hook and Mr. Smee were outstanding and Peter Pan actually flew! (See pictures here). I was transported to Neverland right there in that moment as I sat in my theater seat. I went on a journey to imagination, creativity, to the wish part of my brain and experienced adventure. I left the theater with an incredible sense of innocence, of wanting to experience life while I’m still living it, of wanting to believe that anything is possible, of wanting to find my Neverland… of wanting to never grow up.

After Peter Pan, it was the Filthies at the Montgomery World Plaza. I have been so enamored of late with Karmahitlist and Norfolk that I had forgotten about my first love… the Filthies! The Filthies were the first local band I fell in love with in Bakersfield and Thursday night they reminded me why I love the Filthies so much. (See pictures here). It had been too long since I had heard them play. Too long since I had heard such great songs like: You Look Dead to Me, Anything Anything, On the Radio, The Donut Shop and Embalm You. Kenny, Gus, Kelley and Guppy put on a great show! And as a special treat Next Generation Punk Guppy’s son Ian played guitar along with the guys on The Donut Shop and really tore it up. Thanks to the Filthies for making me fall in love with them all over again.

Friday night I entered another world that I didn’t know existed here in Bakersfield. Mexican rock and roll! Spanish music done screamo, punk, pop, and rock and roll style all with a little bit of a Latin flair thrown in for good measure. Chencho’s Bar and Grill next to the Dome was putting on a big Mexican Rock and Roll show called El Tremendo Huarachon that included bands: Six Gun Samurai, This Plastic Smile, Delux and LIKHY2; NL and I went to check it all out. All of the bands were really good! I was very surprised that Spanish music that wasn’t typically salsa or a Spanish love ballad would be so appealing to me. But here I was enjoying some really good music, enjoying the fact that they sang in Spanish, even though I didn’t understand the words. Delux had traveled the farthest all the way from Tijuana Mexico, and their music was very much like Blink 182 or Green Day only in Spanish. Everyone in the crowd loved them and after their set women lined up for a turn to take a picture with these very attractive and musically talented young men. I’ve been enjoying their music ever since. Besides being in a another venue with little or no air conditioning on a sweltering Bakersfield night; the only unpleasant thing about the whole evening was having a snot-nosed young macho Hispanic male tell me that: “I would be ever so much hotter if I straightened my dark curly long hair and looked like every other Hispanic girl in the building!!” I wanted so much to thank him for his unwanted advice and tell him that not only am I not Hispanic but I’m not like every other woman, nor do I want to be!

Saturday afternoon I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the other Mel where we indulged our Johnny Depp obsessions! The movie was magical, silly, colorful, full of life lessons, and charming. Johnny Depp was excellent as always, eccentric, zany, sarcastic, snide, and sugary sweet at times. I left the theater with visions of Johnny Depp dancing in my head to the tune of Willy Wonka Willy Wonka…wondering where I could get a pair of those glasses and needing more Johnny Depp. So… I went home and watched my favorite Johnny Depp movie Finding Neverland and revisited all the feelings invoked by the production of Peter Pan I had seen last Thursday. (Notice I’ll use any excuse to get as many Johnny Depp pictures in here as I possibly can :P).

Saturday night was screamo music night over at the Montgomery World Plaza. Montgomery World Plaza is a great all ages venue, (with a working air conditioner I might add), and the youth of Bakersfield had flocked out to hear their favorite screamo, hard rocking bands like: From Ritual to Romance, My Dysfunctional Me, and Give Impulse as well as many many others. From Ritual to Romance was performing when NL and I arrived and these guys really put on a passionate hard rocking show. Chris of Ridikule has taken on a second band project and is playing with My Dysfunctional Me. Their new fuller sound and screaming angry lyrics made for a great set. Ridikule band members were there to support Chris in his new musical endeavor. Those Ridikule guys are some of the nicest band guys around. The screamo music night was loud, intense, hard core and exactly what Bakersfield angst-ridden youth were craving on a hot Bakersfield night.

The rock and roll show to beat all rock and roll shows was Riley’s two-year anniversary music show Sunday night. Jessie Deluxe and the Rolling Blackouts, both out of Los Angeles, are two of the best bands I’ve heard. This was my second time to hear Jessie Deluxe and I tell you this is an amazing band and Jessie is an amazing woman! She can sing, play a mean guitar and has edgy soulful lyrics that reach out and grab your heart. Jessie is a rock star and has the kind of stage presence that screams, “I will conquer the world!” and she makes you believe her when she holds a screaming note that seems to go on for an eternity. I wanted to be Jessie Deluxe! I looked around at the many local band members from Norfolk, Karmahitlist, Liars and Thieves and other bands that were in the crowd; they all seemed to be in awe of Jessie Deluxe, in love with Jessie Deluxe and perhaps they too wanted to be Jessie Deluxe. One thing for sure… Jessie Deluxe was beloved by a Bakersfield crowd. Before the Rolling Blackouts began to play a buzz went through the crowd and people pushed in closer to the band vying for a better position. The general buzz that went around the room was: “The Rolling Blackouts are so good, so amazing!” From the first note to the very last of their incredible rocking set the Rolling Blackouts music was everything I had been hearing about and more. No wonder they were recently rated the #1 band in Los Angeles. The entire crowd was dancing, cheering, and praising throughout every song. Even Tyler of Liars and Thieves and Jessie Deluxe cut a rug together. The drummer for the Rolling Blackouts was one of the most amazing drummers I’ve ever seen. He possessed an intense extraordinary showmanship that was admired by local drummers: Tyler of Liars and Thieves, Cesareo of Karmahitlist and Pablo of Norfolk who all crowded close to watch his performance. I wanted to buy their cd, but unfortunately they were out of cd’s. I floated home that night on a cloud of great rock and roll music and the spirit of a powerful woman rock star.

And the perfect ending to this whirlwind music, music a go go days-- was an acoustic style Monday night. Gigantic Vintage put on a great acoustic style show at the Montgomery World Plaza with: Bart Davenport, James William Hindle, Sioux City Sarsaparilla, and Lost Ocean. For a change, Lost Ocean was the hardest rocking band of the night. Jimmy Holliday’s band Sioux City Sarsaparilla played one of the best sets I’ve heard them play to date-- very anti-folk and alt country feel good music that engaged the subdued Gigantic Vintage crowd and got them involved. Look for their cd coming out soon. If you love good acoustic music you’ll love Bart Davenport from Berkeley and James William Hindle from somewhere in England who was touring with Bart Davenport. James William Hindle performed some of the sweetest melodic folk music I’ve ever heard. He has an amazing voice. Bart Davenport is a little hipper, more Paul McCartneyish, and a lot of fun. I had spent all my cash on food and a delicious chocolate ice cream cone (perks of the Montgomery World Plaza) so was unable to buy their cd’s but I’ll be looking them up online and buying them soon. I haven’t heard such great acoustic music since the acoustic Lloyd Cole concert I went to in June of 2004. Where in an all time best concert moment ever I lived a rock star/fan dream-come-true moment when Lloyd Cole stopped singing a song to talk to me, ME! I was in heaven the rest of that night and still remember that moment euphorically. Lost Ocean finally took the stage and rocked out the late night with their intricate sounds. Gerhard Enns and Nico Rhodes of the Dalloways were in the house. Nico Rhodes and I had a great conversation all about our fanatic obsession with the HBO show Six Feet Under and how we were so involved with all the characters and had to know what would happen next. We talked about the fact that Kenny of the Filthies lives the funeral director life and we wondered if his rivaled the stories of Fisher and Diaz and the Six Feet Under cast, and if he tuned into the show every week too.

This merry-go-round of culture, Willy Wonka and music, music a go go just goes to show you that there is tons of theater and music happening in Bakersfield for all of you who think there is nothing to do…  posted by Matildakay at 10:28 PM