Photo by Jessical Moncrief
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Before the show last Saturday, I wondered if the Sandrini’s crowd would be receptive to the local brit pop hustlers, The Dalloways. I’m not a big fan of Sandrini’s Bar, not because it’s underground and I feel like I’m in a Hobbit hole, or because it’s the kind of bar that gets stuffy during the summer. I think it’s because I always feel like the location is temporary. Downtown Bakersfield bars sometimes change names the way Cher does costumes. And the downtown Bakersfield weekend clientele, sometimes rough around the edges, might not dig a sensational band like the Dalloways.
The Dalloways: take the best of brit pop, put them in a teleportation machine ala the movie “The Fly.” Slip an American flag in the other end. Then watch the fusion. Only it’s not monstrous at all or fake like Jeff Goldblum on insect steroids. It’s just what it is: brit pop with an American shoegazy feel. Or should I just say dreamy with a hard American edge?
Anyway, I was proven wrong. The show last Saturday was really better than anticipated.
I already knew the music was going to be good. I’d been spinning the Dalloways new e.p., “Dirty Money, Filthy Love,” and was loving it.
Early in the day I picked up Matt Munoz of Mento Buru/Bakotopia. His kid Mark and my youngest, Lando, tagged along. We invaded Gerhard Enns home and I filmed a portion of a mini-documentary of them practicing. Most of the footage was of their cover of David Bowie’s “Young Americans.” I did include a little of the Dalloway’s song, “Trona.”
View ABC23 Mini-Documentary, The Dalloways Young Americans:
I should add here that “Dirty Money, Filthy Love” is an energetic step from their first album, “Penalty Crusade.” If their first album was Industrial Revolution brit pop, then their follow-up e.p. is London music genre gone green, because their song “Me and Thomas Hardy” is an uplifting bass-driven slide into a new-and-improved Dalloways.
Even Matt Munoz, who had been decimated by recent allergies, and who can be a devilish music critic, was feeling pretty upbeat.
Enough said. I dig the music. You get the point.
That night Rickey Bird and Jason Sanders from Hectic Films set up a projector for the music video presentation of the Dalloway’s song, “Dirty Money, Filthy Love.” These guys are so guerrilla they taped a sheet onto the brick wall, which I should say, turned out nicely for a screen.
The video is a creepy bar-scene love story. OK, not really a love story, but there’s some funny moments. I make a cameo as a drunk guy at the bar who encourages a young stud to go for a hot chick. And the Dalloways are all mafia-looking in their fashionable attire.
View Dalloways Video, "Dirty Money, Filthy Love":
The show ended as upbeat as it began with the cover of “Young Americans” feeling entirely fun and fresh. The backup singers added a lush touch to an already incredible lineup that would make Bowie proud were he to step into the Btown underground.
After the show is another story. While I played some music in a car for Jason Sanders to listen to as part of a soundtrack for Hectic Films’ upcoming zombie movie, there was a downtown shooting. Hectic Films’ Rickey Bird had filmed the aftermath and was on the run after being chased. He met up with us, sweating, paranoid, and in a slight panic.
He had heard gunfire, grabbed his camera, and headed to the Syndicate bar where he filmed a man covered in blood and another man on the crowd. The scene was chaotic. He played the video, and to be honest, it looked like a scene out of “Cloverfield”: jumpy, jerky, camera pointed at odd angles, shots of a crowd, some yelling, some yelling at him. Luckily no monster in sight.
Read ABC23 article, "Cameraman Chased After Filming Shooting Aftermath."
View Nick 2.0 Segment Discussing Shooting Aftermath:
After making sure he wasn’t followed, I then headed down to the scene with my mini-HD camera rolling. I could tell within the few minutes since he’d been down by the Syndicate, the crowd was more subdued and beginning to be guided away from the scene by police.
Yet the crowd was still around, hanging in the energized air, curious, angry, wondering, some drunk, some looking for trouble, some trying to find friends and get to cars. There were a lot of thuggish looking brutes giving me the eye for filming. I could tell they weren’t about to start anything because police had the area covered in personnel.
One guy walked up to me and drunkenly told me I was nosey. Of course he had just walked into the scene to find out what had happened from his friends who hovered on a nearby wall, smoking cigarettes and wondering how word could have spread so fast in the downtown scene. I guess we were both nosey.
By then I had seen enough. I stuffed my camera into my pocket and headed to Zingos for some biscuits and gravy. It had been a long night and a long day, mostly spent revolved around music. Though I couldn’t help but think about the last song I’d heard and all the youthful faces in the downtown scene.
Ahh the young Americans…
Dalloways, being a Bakersfield and Fresno band, will have another release party for their e.p. at Fresno’s Starline in the Tower District. Let’s hope the Fresno scene is just as polite as Sandrini’s.
Don't forget to read about the Dalloways and see them interviewed in the ABC23 article, "Bands Get Creative To Battle MySpace Glut"
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