I got to the Radio Room a bit later than I wanted to on Friday night, missing the first band completely and getting there midway through Bella Novela's set.



I didn't take a lot of photos and I don't have a decent group shot since both sides of the stage are much dimmer, (by about 2-3 stops).  The bass player stayed out of the lights, so unfortunately, he's missing in this set. I hate being incomplete.



The singer is very animated, both physically and vocally. She wrings every drop of emotion out of every lyric. She sings with her hands too, which was lovely,but I totally didn't capture them very well.





This set took on an almost theatrical quality for me, and I'd like to see them do their thing next time they come to town. The bubbly way the drummer counts off the songs is worth the cover charge alone. So cute.

---------------------------

My main reason for coming to the show was to see local psych-prog rockers A Scribe Amidst the Lions. Finally.



I've missed all their shows for the past year for a variety of reasons. I somehow always had other shows or plans. I've been meaning to see them for about a year, and it wasn't until now that I finally did. They play one more show this week before taking a break from San Diego shows with some short tours.



For some reason, I thought they'd be a bit more jammy, which wasn't the cae at all. They bring a pop sensibility to prog music, reminding me a bit of '80s era King Crimson in the songwriting department, if not guitar gymnastics. The psychedelic influence is obvious, but with all the stops and changes, it doesn't dominate the sound, which surprised me a bit.



The spectrum of musical influences is reflected in the members too. They just don't look like they'd all be in the same band, but the guitarists and bassist are childhood friends who moved to San Diego a few years ago. The whole front row was jammed with girls dancing, something I would not expect for this kind of music. I guess they have wide-ranging appeal for the ladies.





Bob plays with the same black nylon-wound acoustic bass strings I do.  I've never seen someone else use them on an electric. He coaxes quite a variety of tones out of his rig while still serving the music. Most bass players who use effects go overboard with them, but Bob knows how to make them enhance the music instead of simply choking the low end out of it.

There's more unorthodoxy on display than just black strings.





They take risks with the music and also the ceiling fans, possibly coming across as too obtuse or convoluted, but I really like the CD now that I've heard it several times.



They made a fan out of me, and I won't be waiting so long to see them again.

-------------------

Shooting a trio like Vinyl Film was a lot easier since they didn't cover the entire stage and the lights went to bright white for their set. I wonder if Ziggy did that for me.



I met their friend T-Rex who was also shooting them, but I didn't get his contact info. If anyone has his email address, could you let me know?



They're a more straightahead rock band than ASATL, which was a tough act to follow to my ears at least. They weren't super heavy, just kinda like good-time punk.





Right before they started their set, the singer said he just had to pay a $100 bribe to release his car from the back of a tow truck. If it has to happen, at least there's no better time like this- when you can work out your frustrations in front of an audience doing what you love to do.
 




They're playing this weekend at Art Around Adams, go check 'em out.