Doors @ 7

The Band's Perspective: San Diego Shows

We crowd in backyards and alleys, churches and closed cafes, to indulge in sweat-filled nights of musical inebriation. We are the ones who gather crumpled dollar bills to exchange for entrance into that one person’s garage for music to be played right before our giddy, bliss-filled eyes. You and I, we are the crowds of these shows, the die-hard listeners of these bands. We experience the concerts from in front of the stages, yet very rarely can we see what it actually takes to play a show.

At a mid-December show I was given the opportunity to talk with three San Diego bands about their history and experiences in our local music scene. Read on to hear from the musicians themselves about the logistical “red-tape bullshit” of venues, show preparations of getting drunk in an ambulance, and what it’s like to preform and “just fucking punch people in the face with ‘this is what we’re feeling.’’’

How did you start out playing shows around San Diego? Give us a little backstory.

THE INDUSTRY (Steven: drums, Anthony: bass/vocals, Chris: guitar/vocals): Technically I [Anthony] was first brought into music six years ago, with an old band, that went on for about two years and then that dissipated. Steven and I, then, created a new band called The Casualists, and then Shotgun Lesile, which we had a little more success with. I think we played about ten shows under that alias and then probably two years later, we started this, about a year ago.

For all the musicians we’ve gone through, the three of us have kind of been the common ground. This is the trio I can always assume I can make the best art with, I can express myself the easiest with because they understand me. They share the same wavelength. Every little detail about my life, everything we write and sing about, all three of us just click on it. It’s the same message. Like, we get on stage and just fucking punch people in the face with “this is what we’re feeling.” I don’t know how else to explain it. It’s just like “Hey, listen to my problems for thirty minutes.” Hey, we try not to actually punch people in the face [haha] but stuff happens, stuff happens.

QUESTHAVEN (Josh: Guitar/Vocals, Mikey: Drums, Nathan: Bass): We started in high school, we’re from San Marcos. Pretty much since freshman year, so way back, we all listened to the same type of music. Fall Out Boy is where it started. We went to an Oakland concert and saw Linkin Park, Fall Out Boy, Rise Against...and we were like, “All right we have to start a band.”

CARDBOARD BOXER (Tommy: Guitar, Shea: Guitar/Vocals, Evan: Drums, Trevor: Bass): We started way back, in like 2014. We started with deathcore, like metal. Tommy and I[Shea] started in 2012 in a cover rock band, in seventh grade. Truth be told we don’t really know, ourselves, how it started or when it did. This current band started in 2017, our first show was a 2017 New Years party. That’s where we got the DUI music video from. We were still called Tide In and we changed our name to Cardboard Boxer several months later.

We’ve just been refining what we’re doing, we still don’t totally know. We’re changing it up every song. We don’t want to identify with any specific genre, that’s kind of our thing, we like progressing and fucking with different stuff. At first we kind of fell in with the surf punk, yea we were totally surf punk. We don’t like to talk about that though. We’re not surf punk. We almost named our album “Not Surf Punk.” It’s our own thing, don’t put us in a box. Maybe “cardboard-box-punk-don’t-put-us-in-a-box-punk.”

Can you give the show-goers some insight on what it takes, on the side of the band, to throw/play different shows? For example: a house show versus a venue, solidifying the lineup, and spreading the word.

THE INDUSTRY: For this show it’s been all about communicating with the other bands because obviously no one band has everything needed to throw a show. Like the gear is all hodge-podged from all the bands. This is the first show that’s like this, where we were like “Hey, we want to rent out your space, leave it empty, we’ll take care of the rest. It was us and Cardboard Boxer, we split everything with them, we figured out everything with them. We made all the tickets, made all the merch table setups, the light setups, all the people who need to be here, are here.

Everything that you would normally would have a promoter just do, we did that. We basically cut out the middleman. We played one house show before, that was our first show, but other than that this is the first time we’ve done something like this. As far as bringing people to shows, we try to reach out to people the best we can, but we’re not the best at it. Anthony does a lot of the promotion, he’s the mouth of the band.

We’re trying to make this thing that we created and love and it’s such a big part of us, we’re trying to make this thing known to people. It’s not a recognition thing, we’re not coming up here like, “look what I can do, this is fucking cool, tell me I’m awesome.” It’s like, “Hey, I need to express myself, I need to get my thoughts out. Listen to me, please.” When I get on stage and I see people connecting with my music it’s just like...you can’t explain it but the greatest feeling ever. It helps that we all write, we all contribute, we’re all in the garage doing our thing.

QUESTHAVEN: If you want to do a DIY show, at one of these places, you have to rent it out, buy insurance. You have to do all this “red-tape bullshit.” Get tickets, get bands, and then get people to come. Being friends with other bands helps and opens the market to play at other venues too.

This is only our second actual show, as Questhaven, we were “Dirty Mike and the Boys” in high school. We played house shows, at parties here and there, and at the school a couple times. I’d say you try to do something that not a lot of people would expect to see. Like we’ve got a fucking dinosaur on stage, just little shit like that. Anyone can put on a show but the hard part is making it memorable.

CARDBOARD BOXER: To throw this concert we had to come to the venue ourselves. We came her six times and nobody was here, but we just kept being fucking persistent and waiting until someone was here. We were like, “Hey we want to throw a show here[The Irenic],” and they gave us two options: main stage and side stage. We’d been to a bunch of main stage shows but the side stage just looked like a better place to throw a show. A smaller venue, we could pack it out easier. Our deal was that we’d rather sell the shit out of a two-hundred person venue than have a five-hundred one be skimpy.

This has been months in the making. We had to get all the bands solidified, we needed a date solidified. Practice our shit, get it tight.

On the day of the show, what is it like to preform and anything else unexpected we, as the audience, would never know? Any pre-show rituals?

THE INDUSTRY: The actual performing, that probably goes by the fastest. That’s like when you blank. You’re getting super anxious before the set, you walk out on stage and the you walk off. Everything else just requires so much concentration and work, getting everything right, that then once we start it’s like “We’ve rehearsed this shit a hundred times.”

QUESTHAVEN: It’s just like a normal daily ritual, just kinda get up, get dressed, eat and shit. Got some beers for the boys, eating and shit.

CARDBOARD BOXER: We practice, we get drunk. Tommy and Trevor get drunk and then me [Shae] and Evan have to say, “Okay, do we match them with drinking? Or do we stay sober?” and most of the time we match them. A band has to be on the same wavelengths when they’re playing. If one member is fucked up, they’re gonna sound shitty. If everyone is mad at him then you don’t have the camaraderie.

Have you had anything unexpected happen recently, or ever, that’s been memorable or just plain wild?

THE INDUSTRY: I think the wildest time was when we had to break our friend’s car window. We played this warehouse show, in the middle of nowhere. Our band is wearing like flannels, Hawaiian shirts, we’re like the so-cal bands and we roll up and all these people are just studded out, spikes. They’re just looking like super intense. Anyways our roadie’s keys ended up getting locked in his car when it was time to leave and we were like, “We can either call the insurance company to come and unlock it but then they’re gonna see all these shenanigans going on in this shady-ass warehouse…” So we had to just break this dude’s car window, we smashed it with a brick.

QUESTHAVEN: We hotboxed an ambulance, right here. Cardboard Boxer, it’s theirs. They're all EMTs, so they fucking bought and ambulance and we hotboxed that shit earlier. I did not expect this at all, pretty wild.

CARDBOARD BOXER: One time we played a show in Arizona, downtown Phoenix. We drove six hours and we sounded like shit, like garbage. It was our first out of town show. Evan fucking kicked over his PA and just started fucking breaking shit. They cut us off, we were gonna play another song they told us “No more, nah you guys are done.” We apologized the shit out of the owner though.

From that, we got one fan. He came up and he was like, “Dude, I’m gonna fucking see you guys every time you play. I will drive to San Diego.” So we got one fan out of it, and that’s worth it.

Any lingering, final words of wisdom?

THE INDUSTRY: We’re about to go back into the studio to record our second EP. Be good to yourself, be good to other people, love cats, eat lots of burritos, and love dogs. Love all of the creatures in the world. And uh, don’t die.

QUESTHAVEN: Improvise, adapt, overcome. We’re definitely at the improvise stage, just starting to adapt, definitely haven’t overcome yet.

CARDBOARD BOXER: If you’re a new band or you want to start a band the best way to do it is to just fucking do it. And don’t stop playing, if you don’t break up you’ll go somewhere; that’s a fact. It’s all about just putting in the time, if you have homies and you want to start trying to play, the best way to do it is go to local shows, support local music, and they’ll support you in return. Big thank you to all of these dudes for taking the time to talk with me. And, friends, head on over to their shows and listen to some solid music below.

THE INDUSTRY:

Instagram | Spotify | Apple Music

QUESTHAVEN:

Instagram | Spotify | Apple Music | Soundcloud

CARDBOARD BOXER:

Instagram | Spotify | Apple Music | Soundcloud

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