Tonight was a reverse order concert for me as I came to see the first group up, the debut of Creepseed. My plan was to stay and watch a couple songs by the second group, San Diego’s The Heartaches, and then take off unless they were really good. All I can say is that by the time they got to the chorus of their first song, I knew I wasn’t going anywhere during this set!
Somehow I had never heard of this band of garagey punk rockers who have been around since 2002. Apparently I need to pay better attention to what’s going on, since The Heartaches put on a blistering set full of massive riffs, shouted choruses, endless energy and just enough melody to attract more than just a punk audience. The Heartaches seem like a real throwback group as I could hear influences from throughout punk’s early history – from the early days of The Damned and The Clash overseas to The Ramones and Dead Kennedys on this side of the pond. All of it delivered with a ferocious attack on dual guitars, bass and drums and fronted by a singer with enough energy to power The Casbah’s sound system on his own.
Don’t make the mistake I did – check out The Heartaches – and for god’s sake, don’t look at your cell phone while they’re playing!!
I won’t pretend to understand how all the members of local super-group, Birdy Bardot, are interrelated. It seems that every San Diego musician of note is in at least 3 bands and this group has collected many of them together. I do know that the creative duo in the group are Birdy Bardot, who also sings for of my favorite San Diego bands, The New Kinetics; and the indefatigable Al Howard, who must be in at least 27 bands including: The Heavy Guilt, Midnight Pine, Dani Bell & the Tarantist, Rebecca Jade & the Cold Fact, Cardinal Moon and Black Sands.
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