What I’m Trying To Say is - Bring Back The Rock!

Rockin the ass out of Valentines day in Fremont.
It’s all a bit hazy, but it’s slowly coming back to me in bits and pieces. Valentines Night in Fremont, I attended what I’ve dubbed as the Unintentional Valentines Music Festival. The High Dive and Nectar both had 8-band lineups peppered with local favorites-both were considerably cheap to get into ($7 and &10 respectively)-and both are practically across the street from each other.
The High Dive was home to the Great Valentines Day Massacre. MC-ing the going-ons, along with Coz from presenters, Nada Mucho, was the (in)famous KEG. KEG IS “The Lone Ranger of Rock.” Everything you could possibly imagine from a person with such a title is doubly true for KEG. We even more appropriately titled him the Mayor of Rockville as he introduced himself to almost every individual in the crowd, shaking hands with his right while tossing his hair out of his eyes with the left. He paraded around the place decked to the teeth in butt-rock gear complete with ankle bandannas, skull headband, wristbands, bangles, spangles and obligatory rocker mascara. Even fingering his flying V as he went. KEG thanked each and everyone for coming. He even introduced us to Lake of Falcons, (who knocked the back wall out of the High Dive, but more on that later.) And all that’s not even the impressive part. Aside from being the one-man glam-rock show that he is, playing drum tracks and looping them along with rhythm guitar, then thrashing the ever living crap out of the stage, this guy has the best “rock-kick” I’ve ever seen. Seriously, we’re talking entire boot above the head, like 10 times a song. Fuckin’ A! And in the tiny 1/2 hour set that he played KEG pulled out every quintessential rocker move imaginable. From leaping off of chairs and monitors, to playing the guitar behind his head and with his teeth (not at the same time of course, he’s just a butt-rocker, not a god). The set ended with Keg’s sing-along tune, “What I’m Trying to Say is - Bring Back the Rock!” and left us all completely dumbfounded.
And all of this happened after Lake of Falcons broke in the night with an incredible-albeit short-set. I haven’t even gotten to that yet. Frig, I haven’t even left the High Dive yet. There’s still another venue to visit here. But first, lets talk about this Lake of Falcons.
Now a while back, your friend and mine, LB, covered LOF’s show at the Croc (moment of silence please) and I gotta say, he was spot on. Lake of Falcons is indeed “an unyielding wall of bass, guitar, and impassioned singing”. They struck the first chord and blazed through the next half hour like a cutting-torch through a Pepsi can. They played as if they were in front of a full arena rather than the 25 people milling around-1/2 of which were in the other bands due up. If you’re not familiar, LOF is a 3 piece local Seattle band, pumping out an intense punk sound and well complimented by the Death From Above 1979 album that the sound guy had on before they took the stage. Guitarist Nate Ellis lays into songs with frenzied licks and tendon-stretching vocals while bassist Josh Engelhardt brings in an echoing and scratchy howl to back him up. With drummer Josh Williams orchestrating this crazy tempo, it is indeed “sweet sweet noise”. You’ve got 2 more chances to catch these guys play before they head out on tour. Feb 23 @ Vera Project, and March 3 @ Funhouse.
After these 2 acts, I was definitely feelin’ the love, though it might - JUST MIGHT - have been the gallon+ of beer I took in. Now was the time to head over to Nectar and see how that stacked up.
After our little 20-second stroll across Fremont Ave, we found ourselves at the steps of a 1985 themed dance party. This was Nectar’s Dancing on the Valentine-3. Apparently there have been 2 others and I certainly was not informed, otherwise I would have been there. Nectar was done up to the nines as was the crowd. The place was filled with red pink and white in the form of cut-out hearts, balloons and various crepe papers. Skinny ties and friendship bracelets dangled off of everyone. There was even a high school-style photographer.
Hotels was on stage when descended onto the prom. Done up in Red and Black uniforms, their music sounded as tight as their wardrobe, in a concise, put-together manner, not an anal retentive manner of course. They kept the general theme of things live and alive with some covers from the Purple Rain Soundtrack, which the crowd went completely nuts over.
After this set and a few songs of the Femurs, we returned to the High Dive to the spectacle that was Branden Daniels and Everyone Gets Laid and stuck around until Partman Parthorse. Things really begin to get hazy from about here on out, so I’ll just wrap this up and spare you the speculation.
Of the 16 bands the 2 most notable of the evening were Lake of Falcons and Keg - for VERY different reasons. I did miss out on seeing Bre Laughlin and the Cops (I think…) but both being local, hopefully I can catch them some time down the road.
Kudos to the High Dive and Nectar for hosting such huge line-ups. I can only hope they realize their potential music fest status and join forces on some upcoming events.

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