Ventura Rocks in the Ventura Breeze 9/16 – 9/29

Ventura MusVentura Breeze logoic Scene
Ventura Keeps Rockin’
by Pam Baumgardner
VenturaRocks.com
Pam@VenturaRocks.com

Michael John and the Bottomline

Michael John and the Bottom Line return this year to the California Blues and Brews Festival.

It’s that time of year again when the California Beer Festival rolls into town with several events during the week including a food pairing competition, a Craft Beer Heaven day and of course the highlight of the event the California Blues and Brews Festival on Sunday, September 20 at Mission Park, downtown Ventura. The day promises to be filled with the some of the hottest blues around on two stages featuring Walter Trout, Booker T, Mingo Fishtrap, Mr. Sipp, The Bomb and Michael John and the Bottom Line. You can get all the ticket information at www.CaliforniaBluesFestival.com. While you’re there, be sure to swing by the VenturaRocks.com tent to say hello!

Punk Rock Sunday features seven hours of punk-filled music on Sunday, September 27th with the Hymen Blasters, Cupcake, the NaVaNaX, All-a-Blur, My Modern Valentinue, Kang Gang and more. This one’s being held at the Ventura Beach Club at the very end of Main Street right before the 33 Freeway.

The Rock on the Dock series continues at the Ventura Harbor on Saturday, September 19, with the Hard-Times Band, then the following week they’ll have two days of music, first Friday the 25th with two sets at 2:00 and 4:30 with Unkle Monkey, then Saturday the 26th with Smokey & Friends. Saturday set times run 3-6 pm.

The Pullmen will be releasing their new album, “Going Dark” on October 9, then they’ll hit the road to support it with their first stop in Paris, France; but before they go all European on us, you’ll be able to catch them live at their Europe Tour Pre-party at Bombay’s on Friday, September 25th. The new release includes ten new songs featuring their high energy alt/rock thrashing country vibe which will also be available on vinyl.

Congratulations to Zachary James and Alexandra for tying the knot earlier this month up in Oakland, California. The two have been supporting each other the past few years musically speaking with their bands, Zachary James and the All Seeing Eyes, and Alexandra and the Starlight Band.

And finally, just a head’s up that the good folks at CAPS TV have approached me recently to talk about hosting a music program highlighting local bands and I’m happy to report the project has been given the “Green Light!” More to come as we close in on our debut episode, but we will feature Ventura music news updates, we will have local photographers sharing their favorite photos of live music, and we will have bands and solo artists in the studio performing along with a Q&A session. If you don’t have cable, the programs will be available online, and soon, we plan to offer live streaming. Yeah, this is going to ROCK!

Do you have any music related news or upcoming shows you want help publicizing? Send all information short or long to Pam@VenturaRocks.com, and for updated music listings daily, go to www.VenturaRocks.com.

Ventura Rocks in the Ventura Breeze – 3/18 – 3/31

Ventura MusVentura Breeze logoic Scene
Ventura Just Continues to Rock!
by Pam Baumgardner
VenturaRocks.com
Pam@VenturaRocks.com

Jim Monahan

Fundraiser for Jim Monahan Sunday, March 22, at Bombay’s.

With spring upon us the Ventura Harbor Village brings back music to the Carousel stage; look for Unkle Monkey on March 22 and Smokey & Friends on March 29.

Speaking of the Harbor, we got wind that Andre (805 Wine and Grill Cheese fame) has snatch up more space and will be opening an Ameri-Cubano restaurant featuring live musical entertainment most days of the week.  We’ll keep you posted, but we hear the ETA is early summer.

Tickets are on sale now for Aaron Carter at Discovery Ventura for Friday, April 24th.  There are a limited number of VIP Meet & Greet tickets as well.

The Bluegrass jam which originally started at Zoey’s over twelve years ago, then migrated to Milano’s for the past year has landed at Golden China on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month.  Gene Rubin told me, “Phil Salazar and I are usually there and the rest is any combination of the 400 who might show up to jam. Typically we get 20 to 30 musicians at any jam, which means they usually break up into 2 or three jam circles. Summers are always even busier.”

Winchesters Grill will host a fundraiser, donating 20% of food sales to Ventura Music Week on Tuesday, March 31.   Get out and support!

Brothers Fortune is the new project from Kyle Hunt.  I reached out to Kyle to find out more and he told me, “I began working on this project over a year ago and it’s been a slow process. Life gets in the way sometimes and it’s taken a long time to say that a new full length album is just round the corner! March 28th (at Bombay’s) will be our first show with a permanent full line up including Jayce Flauding, Marco Perez, John Sagar, Sean Tauber and myself. We’ve only been playing as a whole for a short while, but I’m really looking forward to gigging with these guys!”

Oh! Just a quick follow up after hanging with the crew on their Squashed Grapes float for the St. Patrick’s Day parade on March 14th; we took two trophies, Best in Category and Best in Show!!  The band rocked it with Trey O’Toole, Franklin Murphy, Rj Root, Jacob Scesney and Guil Juliao (who saved the day), but I can’t help to think us dancers helped as well (wink wink).

And finally, The Have a Heart Fundraiser for local musician Jim Monahan will be held at Bombay’s on Sunday, March 22, to help pay for the overwhelming medical bills as he recuperates from cancer and cardiovascular surgery.  Just a few of the musicians on hand to help out will be: the Jimmy Calire Trio, the Vonettes, National Cat, Restless Hillfillies, Alan Thornhill and Martin Young, Solimar, J Peter Boles & Friends and Fishfry.

If you have any music related news or upcoming shows you want help publicizing?  Send all information short or long to  Pam@VenturaRocks.com.