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Friday, August 23rd
The Airborne Toxic Event
Pacific Amphitheater
After releasing their debut self-titled album, The Airborne Toxic Event sealed themselves a spot amongst the top of indie rock ranks. With three albums under their belt at this point the band has expanded far beyond indie rock blogs and getting terrible reviews from pitchfork to now being praised by The LA Times and MTV. The LA-based band still gets regular radio play for their first single “Sometime Around Midnight” and the praise has yet to fizzle out.
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Tijuana Panthers
Constellation Room
One of the most familiar bands out of the southern California noisy surf rock scene, Long Beach's Tijuana Panthers routinely play Observatory events like The Growlers Beach Goth Party and Burgerama. Opening up the show is weirdo punks The Garden who are coming off of their latest Burger Records release The Life And Times of a Paperclip have been stirring up a lot of buzz. With an endorsement deal from the extremely high-end Paris clothing company Saint Laurent and features on MTV, the cross-dressing twin brothers are the band to see Friday night.
The Adolescents
Alex's Bar
Legendary Orange County punk, Steve Soto is hosting a birthday show and every punk is invited. This two day event hosts some of the best bands Steve has been a part of in his music career. Although his most popular act Agent Orange won't be playing, the bands that are playing are no small side project. As some of the biggest bands in the OC and LA punk scenes of the '80s, it seems everything Steve Soto touches turns to gold. Also being one of the best local tattoo artists, at the age of 50 Soto is still probably the most punk rock person in Orange County.
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SRH Fest
House of Blues
Headlining the event this year is Poway California rock band Unwritten Law, and opening up the show is Strung Out, Sprung Monkey, and The Implants. SRH is hosting the biggest bro-down in Orange County this summer excluding the action sports festival, Us Open of Surfing. The one thing SRH reppin' 909ers love more than their lifted trucks is alternative rock that reached mainstream success in the mid 2000s. Backed by their original drummer, Unwritten Law is in the studio working on an acoustic album to be released next year.
Saturday, August 24th
Manic Hispanic
Alex's Bar
As part of day 2 in celebrating Steve Soto's 50th Birthday, Alex's bar is hosting more punk acts that are still celebrated today. As veterans to the OC punk scene, as well as leaders in Latino integration into the punk community, Manic Hispanic are still at it, changing punks greatest anthems into Mexican American punk sing-alongs. Spoofing in Spanglish the band continues to reinvent songs by some of their favorite artists including other Orange County acts like The Adolescents, Agent Orange, and X. The band hasn't released any material since 2005 but it has been said they are working on a new album.
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