I love me some rock & roll. Always have and always will. And I love me some San Diego rock & roll as well. But when I was asked to curate SoundDiego LIVE on March 31, I knew I had to go in a different direction.
First, it’s at the Firehouse in PB on a Thursday night. Now, I may be able to change a Diaper Genie refill as fast as Trevor Bayne’s pit crew can change a blown Goodyear these days, but that doesn’t mean I’ve never spent a Thursday night in PB. Come hell or high water, those maniacs just want to party. And even though I knew hitting them with equal parts Biggie and Wiz Khalifa would perfectly satiate the bass-loving beast in them all, I couldn’t let them off that easy. I’d lose my merit badge.
This is a SoundDiego LIVE, for goodness sake. You gotta bring the kung-fu to this fight. So enter Inspired Flight and Hyena -- two “bands with beats” that make asses shake while serving up healthy doses of sonic karate chops in the process.
I mean, forget that Inspired Flight’s already worked with Inspectah Deck, Eligh and Scarub. The duo of Chavez and OpenOptics bring a live show that’s equal parts mixology, live instrumentation and merry-go-round vocals. It’s a monster-DJ hybrid that mixes genres and moods into a tasty little set.
And Hyena, like the myth that surrounds their animal-namesake claims, will steal your children. Ex-Transfer drummer Michael Cooper and producer Bryan Stratman will Pied Piper your brood to a nearby nightclub, infect their eardrums with the band’s hard-hitting indie-electro-synth pop and leave them spent, wanting to do nothing more with their lives than dance.
And the two bands combined? The mere thought of it just made my body involuntarily do a high-kick and a shimmy. I can do nothing but be there on the 31st and do my best to warn people about the tsunami of sound that will soon swallow them whole.
Blogger Scott McDonald covers music in San Diego for a few different publications and is the editor of Eight24.com
