John Doe At The Press
When I moved to Claremont I heard rumors that John Doe performs at this bar downtown called The Press, so when I saw flyers in Rhino Records stating Doe would return to the Inland Empire on June 10th for one of those shows I was not surprised.
I did feel lucky though. Seeing John Doe in a bar walking distance from my new house seemed pretty great. Earlier in the week I found out the cover was 20 bucks and he'd only be playing for an hour, but I tried to ignore that and focus on the fact that I was going to get to see X.
But, that was not what my night turned out to be at all.
Brandon, Gretchen and I stopped and got Burritos on our way back from IKEA late Saturday night. Doors were supposedly at 9:30pm and it was well after that as we drove down Foothill Boulevard, discussing our top 5 favorite Nirvana songs.
After finishing half my burrito, I headed for The Press, getting there around 10:15pm. I walked in on a scene similiar to a minature version of the World Cafe venue in Philadephia. A tableclothed seating area and mid-priced meals in front of a dimly lit stage as John Doe went all Adult Album Alternative in front of guys in relaxed fit jeans and women with really high hair.
John Doe sang maybe three X songs. I really don't know why I expected more. The set was okay, he just seemed so far away from Johnny Hit And Run Pauline.
At one point in the night introduced a song by saying it was about where he lived in some Valley...south or north of L.A. And for no one to move there because there were too many people there already. Another song was about kissing. None were about being Desperate or Sex And Dying in High Society, The Unheard Music, White Girls, Nausea, or Adult Books.
He did do an encore of The New World which seguewayed into The Beatles song Revolution #9 that was pretty great.
Overall, it was not so much a let down as it was not what I expected.
But maybe I should've.
I did feel lucky though. Seeing John Doe in a bar walking distance from my new house seemed pretty great. Earlier in the week I found out the cover was 20 bucks and he'd only be playing for an hour, but I tried to ignore that and focus on the fact that I was going to get to see X.
But, that was not what my night turned out to be at all.
Brandon, Gretchen and I stopped and got Burritos on our way back from IKEA late Saturday night. Doors were supposedly at 9:30pm and it was well after that as we drove down Foothill Boulevard, discussing our top 5 favorite Nirvana songs.
After finishing half my burrito, I headed for The Press, getting there around 10:15pm. I walked in on a scene similiar to a minature version of the World Cafe venue in Philadephia. A tableclothed seating area and mid-priced meals in front of a dimly lit stage as John Doe went all Adult Album Alternative in front of guys in relaxed fit jeans and women with really high hair.
John Doe sang maybe three X songs. I really don't know why I expected more. The set was okay, he just seemed so far away from Johnny Hit And Run Pauline.
At one point in the night introduced a song by saying it was about where he lived in some Valley...south or north of L.A. And for no one to move there because there were too many people there already. Another song was about kissing. None were about being Desperate or Sex And Dying in High Society, The Unheard Music, White Girls, Nausea, or Adult Books.
He did do an encore of The New World which seguewayed into The Beatles song Revolution #9 that was pretty great.
Overall, it was not so much a let down as it was not what I expected.
But maybe I should've.
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