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 – 8/31-9/13

Ventura MusVentura Breeze logoic Scene
Help for Budding Artists
by Pam Baumgardner
VenturaRocks.com
Pam@VenturaRocks.com

©highwaystarz

©highwaystarz

Big help from Big Bad Voodoo Daddy for our local schools! That’s $42,500 in funding to Ventura Unified School District earmarked to enhance existing visual and performing arts programs. The funds were made possible through the BBVD concert last April celebrating the City of Ventura’s 150th anniversary.  I’m looking forward to seeing new upcoming artist having the chance to flourish as a result of the band’s generosity.

Local singer, Eric Harrington, recently played at Squashed Grapes to a packed house. Few knew there was a chance that drummer Vinnie Colaiuta might show up, and show up he did for the final songs of the night. Harrington told me, “What an amazing night it was, and to end it with Vinnie sitting in was just incredible, he’s just a delightful man!”  Trey O’Toole from Pulse Drumming told me that Colaiuta had been working in a session all day and was afraid he might not make it, but luckily for the house, he did.

Speaking of Pulse Drumming and Squashed Grapes, watch for the Alvino Bennett (currently working with Dave Mason) drum clinic on September 10; he’ll be joined afterwards at the Grape for an awesome jam including musicians George Hawkins, Jr. on bass and vocals (Kenny Loggins & Jim Messina), Jonathan McEuen on guitar and vocals (Dwight Yoakum, NGDB, Dave Mason), Geo Evans on guitar (Cheryl Lynn, Euge Groove) and TJ, Teddy Jack Russell on guitar and vocals (Leon Russell).

Bombay’s 32nd End of Summer Party hits Ventura over the first weekend of September with three stages (including one outdoors with sand and a mechanical bull).  Look for musical acts all weekend long including performances from Mandex, Highway Starr, Dirty Rice, Uproots, Shakey Feelin’ and A.D.D to name but a few.

The first ever Oxnard Jazz Festival lands at Oxnard Beach on Saturday, September 10, offering a diverse mix of Jazz, Latin, Soul, Blues and R&B with Tom Brown, Nick Colionne, Howard Hewett, O’Bryan, Quatrosound and Poncho Sanchez. You can get ticket information and more on this special event at OxnardJazzFestival.com.

Alternative/Country rockers, Porter & the Bluebonnet will be swinging through town from Austin, TX, with a showcase at Sans Souci on Friday, September 9. They’ll be on the same bill as The Jelly.

The Ventura Theater has been packing in the shows for the rest of the year. You’ll want to review their line up so you don’t miss any acts such as Jackson Browne, Pennywise, Echo & the Bunnymen, Steve Vai, Good Charlotte, Yellowcard, Ben Folds, Garbage, The Common Kings, Dwight Yoakum and more! Plus, you have the Nardcore show on September 10, and Frost and Fire with the return of Cirith Ungol on October 8.  Details at VenturaTheater.net.

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 – 3/19/14 – 4/1/14

Ventura Breeze logoVentura Music Scene
by Pam Baumgardner
VenturaRocks.com
Pam@VenturaRocks.com

The music series being proposed up behind City Hall is still a possibility for this year.  If it happens, the promoter will be allowed one season to see how it goes.  Consultants are working on the Draft EIR (Environmental Impact Report) and citizens will be able to weigh in on it soon.  There are strong viewpoints for and against it happening in that location so it will be interesting to see how it unfolds in the near future.

It was pretty cool hearing The Calamity’s new CD, A Ghost of These Moments played live from beginning to end during their CD release party at Bombay’s.  They guys so nailed it. Afterwards I ventured in the backroom for Crazy Rust, a Neil Young tribute band, where lo and behold, Neal Casal had joined in for their second set.

We joined Kat Merrick on her Totally Local VC float for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade downtown Ventura and Dan Grimm was on the float playing live for the crowds.   Dan recently released his latest called Average Savage, and I have to say that Dan continues to grow as a songwriter.  His songs tell stories of love, drama and struggle, some of which are quite personal.  And I’ll be up front and honest, there is nothing sexier than a man who isn’t afraid to show his love for his woman and profess he’ll eat monsters for her.  That’s just feakin’ awesome!  Dan describes his sound as “flip-floppytonk” or “rock ‘n’ roll with a little bit of country” and I can’t disagree.  You should check it out at www.DanisGrimm.com .

I ran into Trey from Pulse Drumming the other evening and he told me about some drum clinics they have coming up.  The one that caught my attention will be the one with Vinny Appice, and I’m a little upset I never got around to learning the drums because what an opportunity to sit in with one of the masters!  Appice, who has played with Dio, Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Derringer and Axis (I still have the vinyl for that one), will be here in town on Saturday, May 17.  The clinic is offered to all ages and abilities. Call Pulse Drumming for more info (805) 648-3786.

I already have my tickets for two upcoming shows at Squashed Grapes.  First it’s Karl Hunter of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy returning for a show on March 22, and then it’s The Jazz Punks on the 28th.  The Grape has really been pulling in some terrific acts helping to establish them even more as the Jazz place to be Wednesday through Sundays.  Call for ticket availability at (805) 643-7300.

And finally, shows to watch out for at the Majestic Ventura Theater include Cage the Elephant, Pet Shop Boys and Ellie Goulding, more information can be found at www.VenturaRocks.com.

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