Erasure - 4th and B, San Diego, California - June 11, 1997

I have liked Erasure for years. I remember hearing a taped version of Oh L’Amour, which must have been either the summer of my senior year in high school or maybe in the summer after my freshman year in college. For some reason it makes me think of my friend D’s old friend MM and his girlfriend A.

I guess then it must be from the summer after my freshman year in college, when I spent the summer at home in Carson City with my parents. This was a very weird time for me – being 18 and back home for a few months. In a matter of a couple of days you go from being completely on your own, even if in a dorm with lots of other people, to again living in your old room with its tacky peach décor and parents who want to know where you are going and, even, gasp, want to spend time with you since they haven’t seen you much in the past year. I have to say by this time in my life I was starting to get a little boring anyway, happy to just go to dinner or a movie or hang out and watch videos. That summer though D had a few memorable parties at his house, a few of which I attended. But that should really be his story and not mine, so I will leave it to him in case he ever wants to start his own blog.

Anyway, I remember ‘discovering’ erasure and thinking they were so cool. I bought their first two albums and listened to them incessantly that summer, often on the half hour drive every morning to Gold Hill, where I worked at the Gold Hill Hotel as a front desk clerk. I always really enjoyed that drive in the morning, before it got too warm in the summer, rolling the windows down and cranking the music as I drove down Winnie Lane, connected with Highway 50 and then took the Virginia City exit and up the switchbacks up to Gold Hill, to the oldest hotel in Nevada. I am amazed I never got a speeding ticket or worse, drove off the edge or into an oncoming car the way I took those curves in my little blue Mustang.

I remember one birthday I had promised to take C to see Erasure somewhere, likely in San Francisco. But that concert got cancelled, we broke up and I never did take him. I imagine he probably still wants me to cash in someday. Erasure is still touring, I just missed them last week at the Royal Albert Hall, so it might happen yet.

We went to this show with a couple of other San Diego friends and had a great time. Every Erasure song is so danceable and the buzz of the crowd (probably about 90 percent homosexual men) was really fun as well. I don’t follow them as closely as I used to, but whenever I hear something new from them I am always pleasantly surprised. I am not really that into electronic music anymore but they still have clever love songs and catchy melodies.

No Doubt - San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, California - June 3, 1997

Gwen Stefani has come a long way since I saw this concert more than ten years ago in San Diego. I would not really expect a So-Cal punk rocker to be very popular in Britain but she is – I see adverts for her all the time on the telly. And not just for her music, but of late I see more for her perfume. I guess she also has her own clothing line. Pretty cool, Gwen.

If I think of punk rocker girls from my childhood, it is not an odor I would really want to duplicate or wear. But I suspect hers does not sell of patchouli, clove cigarettes and sweat. At least I hope not.

I have to say though, I don’t remember seeing this concert at all. I was thinking for some reason we saw them at Del Mar Fairgrounds, but then I realized that was the Offspring a couple of years earlier. I imagine the crowd was probably the same, pre-teens with their parents in tow. I guess it was not especially memorable. Sorry, Gwen.

Shonen Knife - The Casbah, San Diego, California, May 16, 1997

We should probably have seen more shows at the Casbah but I am pretty sure this is the only one I ever saw there. It was about a 5-10 minute drive from where we lived in San Diego, quite close to the airport. It was probably even walkable, except for the big steep hill that is Washington Avenue. But just like LA, no one really walks in San Diego. Not for transportation anyway.

Shonen Knife is a group of tiny Japanese girls who sing very fun punkish/popish type songs. To be honest, they are not really my cup of tea, but PCH liked them quite a lot so we had to go. The problem was that we were also planning to fly out on vacation early the next morning. And neither of us are early birds, so we wanted to get a bit of sleep before we flew.

So we went to the Casbah for the show, which was probably supposed to start around 9ish. And we waited. And waited. Watched some crappy opening bands. My brain is a bit fuzzy about this but I seem to remember maybe we also went home in between? Perhaps not, I can’t imagine that the bouncers would have let us back in. But basically I remember that Shonen Knife didn’t go on until very late. Close to midnight if I remember correctly. By that time I was pretty tired and frustrated so I don’t remember much about the show itself. But in any case, we saw them and still flew out the next day. I am sure I slept on the plane.