Ventura Rocks in the Ventura Breeze 2/12 – 2/25

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

Ventura Rocks in Breeze artworkLet’s acknowledge the elephant in the room, and then move on. Yes, another venue has closed its doors. What’s worse, it’s a Main Street venue, this time Oak and Main. Was it due to mismanagement? Bad service? Poor advertising? It’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback, but instead, let’s all just vow to support your favorite venues making up Ventura’s music scene. Rent is incredibly high, and the bands deserve to be paid well, so understand that us music lovers are the ones who truly give it the blood to keep it going.

Here now, your Valentine’s musical choices for February 14: there will be a Punk Rock Prom party (all ages) at Bike Ventura on the Avenue with Rafa Rose, Martini Drive and Without Words; Colette Lovejoy plays Café Fiore; serious dancing will be going on at Copa Cubana with House Arrest; there’s a 20’s theme party at Four Brix Winery with Ginger & the Hoosier Daddies; Benjamin Buttner plays jazz & blues at La Cosecha Modern Concina in the Crown Plaza Hotel; Limon y Sal offers up Mariachi Aguilas de Oxnard dinner shows; there’s a “Rock into my Heart” party at the Sewer with Spacedragon and the Mystos; in Ojai, a special evening of live music with Jade Hendrix at Topa Mountain Winery; in Oxnard, jazz with Toni Jannotta at 1901 Speakeasy in Oxnard; and finally, not only can you celebrate Valentine’s Day with Shawn Jones at Grapes and Hops, but it’s a Marti Gras birthday celebration for owner Tammy White as well.

Get your cowboy boots out because Saturday, February 15 will be the 4th annual Country Music Crawl in downtown Ventura featuring six bands and six venues where at the start you pick the color cup to represent whether your single (blue) or in a committed relationship (red). I’m thinking we should always have that option in all bars don’t you think? In any case, here’s the line up starting at Blue Agave at 4 pm with Lacie Mae; Ted Z & the Wranglers at Star Lounge at 5; then over to Grapes and Hops for Blind Innocense at 6; up to Limon y Sal for Paige Peel at 7; Mike Scully plays Winchesters at 8 pm; then wrapping up the crawl at the Sewer for Rob Leines at 9 pm by which time I’m sure it will be an actual crawl. Get your tickets at CountryBarCrawl.com.

Pulse Drumming will hold a special drum clinic at the Winery Ventura Sunday afternoon, February 23, with Fausto Cuevas (toured with Stevie Wonder, Queen Latifah, Santana, and now with Jennifer Lopez). Following the clinic will be a live performance starting at 2:30.

Quick Notes: now that football season is over, the Boatyard Pub is back to live music every night of the week; there’s a free Chamber Music Concert at the Ventura College Performing Arts Center on Saturday, February 15; Namba has Licity’s Love Fest at Namba Saturday, February 15 and then Dan Rosenboom’s Jazz Fusion on Sunday, February 16; Dark Star Orchestra plays the Ventura Theater Thursday, February 20; and the 6th annual Johnny Cash birthday bash at Bombay’s will be Saturday, February 22 with the Mighty Cash Cats and Silver Threads.

And finally, there will be a fundraiser on Saturday, February 22, for an all-inclusive playground in Arroyo Verde Park at the Garage with over ten bands supporting this effort including the Robot Uprising, Fuse, Day Drunk, One Minute Run, Malice Thoughts and Plot.

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

Ventura Rocks in the Ventura Breeze 10/10 – 10/23

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

Every now and then an event is planned where a special milestone is celebrated; and so it goes with Army of Freshmen’s 20th anniversary hometown show at Discovery on Saturday, October 13. Earlier this year, they played dates in Europe to commemorate the occasion by touring with Bowling for Soup and Lit, but when they returned, they kept getting hit up with “What about your hometown?!!” This is a big deal, so get out and support. And if by chance you’ve never ventured out to see them live, do yourself a favor and don’t miss this one. Advance tickets are only $10, night of the show, $15 at the door.

You may have noticed on social media a new venue called Oak and Main, and while the location is a few doors down from Oak, it’s definitely on Main Street having taken over where Rookees used to be. The great news is that they plan on offering live music, case in point, they’ll have D.on Darox and the Melody Joy Bakers on Friday, October 12. I’m so looking forward to having more live music downtown, especially since losing Zoey’s, The Watermark, Amigos and The Good Bar the past few years.

Vintura at the Wine Rack will host a Breast Cancer Fund-raiser with breast cancer survivor, Karyn 805 on Friday, October 12 from 8-11 pm. They’ll donate 25% of net proceeds to the Ventura Cancer Resource Center as well as all of Karyn’s tips for local women who need assistance with treatment.

All ye men and women: get out the kilts and head over for fun, games and Celtic music at the Seaside Highland Games over the weekend of October 13 and 14 at Seaside Park. The music will abound throughout both days on multiple stages with such acts as The Angry Brians, Ploughboys, Hidden Fifth, The Brown Sisters, LA Fife and Drum, Three for Joy as well as many more acts. The event runs 9 to 5, but Saturday night, you’ll want to continue the fun and stop in at Grapes and Hops for a special performance from The Angry Brians.

Quick notes: Ben Katzman’s DeGreaser out of Florida has a date at the Hong Kong Inn on Wednesday, October 10; Plan B Winery celebrates their 6th anniversary with Native Vibe on Sunday, October 14; new punk bands on the scene will play The Garage including Soul Wring, Section 5, and Ran Aground on Wednesday, October 17; Necrodancer from France will be at Red Cove on Friday, October 19; The Spazmatics will be at Discovery, Friday, October 19; Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians at Ventura Theater on Friday, October 19; and 50 Sticks of Dynamite will play a benefit concert for Step Up Ventura at Ventura Center for Spiritual Living on Saturday, October 20.

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