ShellE Productions

Today started out with me watching a cool YouTube copy of an Adidas commercial that ran during the World Cup. It starred Daft Punk, Noel Gallagher, Snoop Dogg and some other people that I didn’t recognize in the Mos Eisley Cantina. Pretty cool stuff.

This afternoon, we went to San Carlos and saw The Sweet Revenge play acoustic at Clooney’s Pub. We got there and there were zero band members there. Eventually James showed up. We tried to coax him into a solo gig but decided to go get food across the street instead. We got some mango chicken, some pork dumplings, some fried bananas and some steamed rice from New Canton Restaurant. While we waited for our food to cook, the rest of the band showed up. We got our food and headed back to Clooney’s but discovered that they gave us no utensils to eat with. My wife went back and got some chopsticks for us and got us a couple of cokes at the bar.

The Sweet Revenge played after a DJ who spun R&B and Reggae all afternoon and pretty much took up all of the space that they should have had to set up. Instead, they set up in front of him with four stools. Gabe sat next to Clint next to Chris next to James with Erick playing a drum and a cowbell behind them. It was the first time we had ever seen them play acoustic before. They said that they had rehearsed and run through all of the songs before and had promptly forgotten the arrangements.

No matter, they still put on a really fun show. The venue was a boisterous bar with a barbecue going on out on the patio. They asked the band to mention the tri tip and the band did. Clint got distracted by some MMA vs NFL show that was playing on the television and Erick went a bit crazy with the cowbell at one point. After finishing up their regular set, Gabe mentioned to Clint that they should play Every Rose Has It’s Thorn, the Poison song. Clint looked up the lyrics and Chris and James walked away. They played a pretty competent cover for no rehearsal and the first time playing it ever. Chris even came back and did some cowbell accompaniment near the midpoint of the song.

It was an intimate show, that felt like a house concert in someone’s living room, but was a pub concert instead.

We came home for a brief intermission. Then we headed back out and saw The Famous, Dead Country and The Toadies at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco.

The Famous are a Hank Williams III inspired local band, whose set didn’t really interest me. They played a very strange cover of Purple Rain near the end of their set which was unique to say the least.

Dead Country are a band from Los Angeles who play very radio friendly rock songs with a bit of pop sensibility and a lot of repetition. If I were to describe another band that they resemble, I would say early Everclear. Their set was a bit better than The Famous and they at least held my interest throughout their hour on stage.

The Toadies were the band we paid to see. I had really only heard one of their songs over and over on the radio. The band was a lot more grunge than I expected, reminding me at points of Nirvana, Bad Religion, The Pixies, AC/DC and The Beatles. Oddly enough, in their encore they covered The Beatles and apparently a bit of Bell Biv Devoe.

The Toadies put on a pretty great rock show, on par with Local H, another loud and somewhat angry band. The fans were rowdy and one mosher fell at one point and got up with a bloodied face. I’m not big on that kind of roughness, but we got out unscathed and had a pretty good time.

Overall, the show of the weekend for me was The Sweet Revenge at Clooney’s. A small gig with a really cool band playing slightly different takes of their songs and not afraid to make a mess of some of them.

It was a fun weekend, but now it is time to put it to rest and head back to work for the week.

Last year I wrote that Wondercon seemed especially underwhelming. Boy was I ever wrong! This year seems even worse. Good stuff is going to overcome it, watch!

Fri: Only gonna pick up the badge, then leave and go to the Metreon to see Clash of the Titans!

Sat:
11:15-12:15 New ABC TV Series: Happy Town – Esplanade (with Amy Acker)
1:00 Photo op with John De Lancie/Marina Sirtis

Yeah. Looking forward to one panel. Sheesh.
Erik’s also got this scheduled:
6:30-7:40 BBC America Presents the U.S. Premiere Screening of the new Doctor Who – Room 103
(or 7:45-8:55 since we’ll probably get shut out)

Sun:
12:30-1:30 Costuming for Conventions – Costume designer Shawna Trpcic (Firefly, Angel, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Dollhouse) – Room 236/238
2:30-3:30 Chuck Special Presentation and Q&A – Esplanade (with Josh Schwartz, Chris Fedak, Zachari Levi, Adam Baldwin and Joshua Gomez)

Yeah. Three panels total. Sheesh. But that just allows for much more time to stand around in lines on the Exhibitor floor!

Autographs:
John DeLancie and James Marsters – 236
Tim Russ – M17
Marina Sirtis – M10
Denise Crosby’s there too, but I’m not a hardcore fan of Tasha Yar or anything, so…

I don’t get why these awesome Star Trek guests don’t have a panel. I would really LOVE to see John DeLancie talk. Oh well. At least we’ll get to meet him! His photo op times better not conflict with any of the few panels I want to see!

WonderCon programming always pales in comparison to Comic-Con’s, but this year seems especially underwhelming. Honestly, YouTube has ruined going to these things for me. Still up for a weekend of geeking out. It’s a good year to be a Star Trek or Star Wars fan!

Friday
I never make it to Friday. I’ll go to pick up my badge, and see if I can get into Wonder Woman late. Esplanade

Saturday
11:30-12:30 Street Fighter IV – Room 103 (may not go, to get into Esplanade)
2:00-2:45 Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment: Star Trek – Esplanade
3:30-4:30 Disney•Pixar: UP – Esplanade
4:30-5:30 Warner Bros: Terminator Salvation — Esplanade

Esplanade is going to smell *horrendous* – we might give up everything on Saturday to try to get autographs. Who knows.

Carrie Fisher (1406- Sat/Sun only) and Mark Hamill (1408)
Adam Baldwin – Chuck, Firefly, Serenity, VR.5 (M17-M19)
Felicia Day from Buffy, The Guild, Dr. Horrible (F7 – Saturday only)
Mo Mellady, voice of Erin Esurance, former overnight LIVE 105 DJ (random??!) (M24)
Adam West from the original Batman TV series (1412 – Sat/Sun only)
Tony Todd, Sarah’s former boss from Chuck (M17-M19 – Saturday Only)
Matthew Wood, Bib Fortuna, Ody Mandrell in Star Wars Episode 1; voice of General Grievous; sound editor for Wall•E (M33)
Anthony Forrest “These are not the droids we’re looking for, move along” (M30)

Sunday
12:00-1:00 Super Capers — Room 104
1:15-2:00 Chuck Special Presentation and Q&A — Esplanade (if we can get in) – with Zachary Levi (Chuck), Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah), Adam Baldwin (Casey), and Josh Gomez (Morgan)
2:00-2:45 Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Q&A — Esplanade – NOW WITH SHIRLEY MANSON and Summer Glau (look out for the EXTREME CLOSE-UPS they do on the poor girl when she talks)
3:00-4:00 Cartoon Network: League of Super Evil – Room 104
4:00-5:00 Buffy the Musical — Esplanade

The last two are probably going to lose out to shopping.