August 23, 2008 by Bill Gould, Publisher.

At 1:09am this morning, Saturday August 23 we received the text from Barack Obama announcing that Joe Biden will be his running mate. It was announced that you can watch the very first Obama-Biden rally live at 3pm ET (noon pacific) at http://www.BarackObama.com. More info to follow.

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August 20, 2008 by Bill Gould, Publisher.

Claremont, California - So, as planned, I set out on a Last Summer Escape on August 16 and 17 2008 to a new Hotel, a new Restaurant, a new Band and Warped Tour with Jeney and Apryl. The Hotel, as reviewed earlier, was great. Clean and funky-cool, it was a hit with the whole crew.

Next up we headed to The Press, a vegetarian friendly restaurant in Claremont California for some tasty vittles. We had made reservations earlier in the day so that we could get a seat in the room The Woolly Bandits were playing in. The keyboardist, John Langdon, is a buddy of mine. We have played in a couple of different bands together in the past and he had invited me out.

The place is located in what looks like a 100 year old barn and has a unique style about it. We started the meal with ‘Press Fries’, a collection of yams and potatoes cut in various ways and deep fried. They were not quite crunchy, but tasty. We also ordered a ‘Musicians Salad’ and it was perfect by all accounts. For a beverage, Apryl ordered a ‘fresh squeezed’ lemonade that was $4, bland and boring. Sadly enough she ended up using it to flavor her ice water. I ordered a California Black Beer; it was great, so much so that I later ordered one with dinner. Jeney enjoyed a Sierra Nevada Porter with her meal and reported it was great as well.

Apryl’s dinner consisted of a bowl of soup, potato spinach soup to be exact. To my surprise she ate the entire bowl with only a little help from Jeney and I. The bite or two I had I enjoyed very much. Jeney ordered a slice of Vegetarian Lasagna; it was rather large and flavorful. My meal was a pesto noodle stir-fry with seasoned tofu. I loved my dish and wish I could have some right now. Upon my request I had them cook the tofu extra crispy and it was perfect.


Dessert was unique. As a kid, Apryl went very traditional and had vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup. I don’t eat ice cream, but based on her fast eating it must have been great! Jeney and I split a slice of vegan chocolate cake. I enjoyed it, although it could have had a bit more rich flavor and it would have been delightful.

About the time we finished the dessert the band had begun playing. I had really come to see the band after all. The Woolly Bandits began tearing through an explosive set of rock and roll with singer Christa dancing on the tables and getting crazy with her tambourine. It was way awesome to see my good friend ‘Johnny Keys’ playing with such a cool, fun and hip band. It was about this time that a server came over to me and mentioned to me that we were going to need to leave because my daughter was only 7. I was a little stunned seeing as how I just spent over $100 on dinner and that the band was only 4 songs into an hour long set. I basically told her ‘no’ and asked to speak with the manager. The manager came right over and we went outside to talk; a talk that would last like 15 minutes and waste precious minutes of an amazing rock and roll stampede that I could hear from even out back.

The manager in short order told me that I had to leave because that was the restaurants policy. I then explained about how I drove 60 miles from my home to come see the band, not come to the restaurant. I explained that HER employee Ashley had told me it was fine for us to be there for the band after I called and made a reservation for 2 adults and a child at a table in the room that the band was in. I told her that in LA County it was legal for ‘under 21’s’ to be in an establishment after 9pm; if that establishment also serves food. I then asked if the City of Claremont had an ordinance barring my daughter from being there and she replied ‘no’, because it is a restaurant and not a ‘bar’. We bickered back and forth for a few more minutes until we reached a compromise in allowing us to stay until midnight so I could at least see a few more songs. Either way I was not at all happy with missing a good portion of the bands set and would caution against people going to see bands at this venue unless everyone in your party is over 21.

This particular incident irritated a spot in my soul from a verbal altercation over the phone earlier in the week with a band who was scheduled for a show on August 16. This band (who does not deserve the name mention in this article) canceled a show with only 36 hours notice because ‘they didn’t know if it was worth their time to drive from Riverside’. Well, well, well, poor band that scheduled an entire show themselves (at their request) and then craps out and the last minute. I have no pity for you. You should have shown up and played and been big boys about it.

This made me begin to loose the faith I had in new music. This loss of belief began months ago as our local scene has imploded in many ways. Bands breaking up, getting married, going to college, having kids and just giving up and getting regular jobs have all caused our local Temecula Valley scene to fall apart in the recent past. This coupled with the douchebaggery of the Riverside band this week and the attitude of the management at The Press on Saturday night had pressed me to the limit and truly eroded my faith in good old rock and roll - you know, the kind your parents hate and you love. My last chance at salvation was a ‘little’ festival called Warped Tour. It was so fitting that the last day of this year’s tour was on a Sunday, as I was in need of rock and roll ‘church’ to cleanse my soul of the evil that had crossed my path this week and tainted my love for loud guitars, great songwriting and mosh pits.

To be continued…

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August 17, 2008 by Bill Gould, Publisher.

Wow. That’s about all I can say. It was one of my favorite Warped Tour experiances yet, with great performances from Ludo, Rise Against and Animo. I will have a far more detailed Inview of what Warped Tour is and what it means to me coming in the next day or two. Many thanks to Donovan and Joe for the hospitality.

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