As my weekly Sabbath day excursion to Fingerprints drew to a close last weekend—it was a used copy of the Flaming Lips' Yoshimi and Destroyer's Streethawk this time around, nosey—I came to the stark realization that I had absolutely nothing to write about. Oh, sure, I'd done plenty during the week. I'd caught the Fielding show at Detroit, sat through yet another slap-in-the-face episode of The O.C. and rudely interrupted Matt Sharp's intimate gig up at the Salvation Theater in Silver Lake. But cute indie rockers, guiltily pleasuring television shows and embarrassingly late arrivals do not a Clubbed! column make. So it was provident that upon leaving the record store I happened to snag a flier for Colours in Spin, an event going down at Que Sera that very same evening.
The flier promised heaping earfuls of shoegazer melodies, space rock, and choice selections from that capital of fuck-it-all cool, Manchester. Without even so much as a pause to think about the inherent connections between this flier and the droves of super-cute boys manning the counters at Fingerprints, my friends and I sped up the street to the bar.
The parking situation at Que Sera proved once again to be ridiculous, so it wasn't a bad thing that we arrived there at a quarter till 10. It wasn't bad, either, that we were the only ones in the bar—there aren't many people who go out to bars at 9:45 on a Sunday. We grabbed our drinks and placed bets on when the bar would start to fill up. Mine was for 10:30.
Ten o'clock hit, the disco ball began spinning and an intensely gorgeous mix of My Bloody Valentine-meets-Yo La Tengo guitars invaded the room. I was in a green-and-red lit paradise of Jesus candles, mellow music and quite formidable drinks.
Glancing up at the boy in the DJ booth, I recognized him as one of the Fingerprints crew. Of course a night featuring Manchesterian music would be unofficially linked to the very same group of gentlemen who never hired me—not once, ever—in the four times that I applied to them for a job! Carefully choosing the words with which I would submit my request for the Fall, I glanced around the bar to eye any possible competition.
Oh, wait. There wasn't any. It was now 11:15, and only three people—another record-store cutie and two apparent acquaintances of the DJ—had shown up. So here my friends and I were, discovering what will quite possibly become the only way for us to spend the first Sunday night of every month, and half a dozen people were present.
And it was a downright travesty! Because Dave, the DJing clerk, and Aaron, his fellow clerking friend that also sometimes DJs, aren't just super-swell guys—the store is hiring, nowthey tell me—with delectable tastes in music, but they also really want to spin their music, just for you! There was a fair turnout for Colours in Spin's first gig—it was on a Thursday—but since it moved to Sundays, there's been a poor following. So mark your calendars for Oct. 5, follow me to Fingerprints for some used-bin scavenging, and then head up to Que Sera for the most perfect way to round out your week of debauchery.
Until then, however, be sure to make your way over to the Red Fox Lounge in San Clemente on Thursday for their three-buck martinis before catching Midnight Movies at Detroit bar.
Then on Friday, as Dave and Aaron so wisely clued me in, the best soul club in all of Southern California, the Good Foot, goes down at Que Sera, and this time, parking won't be the only problem—lines are rumored to extend around the block.
Saturday marks the return of the Program to the Bamboo Terrace in Costa Mesa. If you missed its debut a few weeks ago, you'll want to be sure to go this time, when DJs From Elsewhere will again be on hand to spin old-school favorites and fuel your thirst for the Terrace's signature drink, the Volcano.
Celebrating a different sort of old-school, Huey Lewis N the News—straight off their tour of county fairs—hit up the Grove of Anaheim on Sunday, a definite must-see for anyone in need of a good drunken sing-along, or for a little pre-party action before Monday night's Lisa Marie Presley show at the House of Blues.
Lastly, after first rocking out with No People and Brazil UFO at Tuesday night's Japan Punk Takeover Night at the Liquid Den in Huntington Beach, hit up Wednesday night's way-too-fantastic-to-miss Constantines show at Chain Reaction. Hopefully, there'll be at least a dozen folks in attendance.
