I really was not expecting to leave the house Friday night, ready to just curl up in bed to a good movie. But realizing something potentially fun was happening just 8 blocks from where we live, we headed out the door. First stop, Chicken Pie Shop for an incredibly good, inexpensive and quick meal. Then just a few more blocks to the Lafayette Hotel where City Beat was having a summer kickoff party.

We were not really in a party mood, but it was great to see people and hang out. Knowing that the party only lasted until 10 pm was a great incentive for going… not that I am old or anything.

The cover was a $10 suggested donation to cover costs of the event and then to the San Diego Music Foundation, City Beat’s charity of choice. I am assuming that much of the money will go to the upcoming North By North Park music seminars in August for those who need help navigating the music business.

I totally wish that I brought my camera because the decor was incredible with accent lighting and a cat walk in the middle of the pool. The layout of of the event seemed perfect. I was quite impressed.

We arrived a bit late, only catching the tale end of the fashion show that featured North Park’s and Hillcrest’s fashion boutiques and vintage shops including Wear It Again Sam and Mimi in Red.

We really came to watch Transfer play poolside since it had been a long while. The lead singer, Matt Molarius has a voice that reminds me of the late Jeff Buckley. Their melodic songs can put you in a trance and inspire a wild imagination.

There must be something about live music performances that rub the cops the wrong way. The same thing that happened at the North Park Festival of the Arts, happened at the Lafayette. Right before the last song, a cop told the drummer that they had to be done at 9 pm. They told the cop that they had one more… which was more like two songs. Half way through the song, this woman (maybe the hotel owner?) was looking crazed like she was going to pull the plug. Transfer ended at 9:09 pm. Funny thing is that a DJ was playing after this… equally as loud and with equal draw. I will never understand.

I barely got to see the fashion vendors or the artistic display of live art advertised as Field Trip since I spent the rest of the evening dancing and spinning around the pool area with my friend’s four year old daughter, Emma. This seemed like a good ending to a chill night.

Thursday night Roger and I went to music trivia at the Whistle Stop hosted by Adam Gimbel of Rookie Card and Cover Me Badd fame (or just plain famous). There were seven teams this month, a bit more than usual with it being the one year anniversary. Well, the anniversary wasn’t the reason, Adam just put more effort into advertising because it was the anniversary.

Our usual team was not available so Roger and I joined forces with a few others that we knew, an set out to think of our name. Personally I find this to be the most challenging part of the game. I feel compelled to be creative and come up with the most entertaining name in the crowd. But this just never happens. I wish someone would just come up with a name for us so that we don’t have to spend the few minutes before the game agonizing over a name that really doesn’t matter anyway. I would be happy being Team D or Team Blue.

The game is made for those that know music, all music… I don’t know anyone who could ever cover all parts. It is best to have people on your team that know different types of music. Yes, an expert in rap or current hits would be helpful. The first part of the game is straight up answering trivia questions with a set amount of time. Sometimes there is clues in the background music, but sometimes not. Thursday, the background music was name the artist/song on the side of the normal trivia.

After a break with a dry t-shirt contest, there is a name that tune section with a local band/artist playing the tunes. This month’s band was the Go Duo. Not so much a duo with 8 members on stage. Watching this band perform probably was the most difficult and painful experience ever. Purposely out of tune, both instrumentally and vocally making each song nearly impossible to determine. Both Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and Bette Midler’s “Wind Beneath My Wings” were hardly recognizable save for the lyrics.

But the difficulty of the game was not my gripe. The issue was that the combinations of sounds that came out of the instruments and their mouths was so gut wrenching, like nails on a chalkboard. I cannot understand what this band’s purpose is. The music is not really music… and I am not just judging on their name that tune performance. They played a couple of their own songs prior to the second half of the game. What ever they are trying to accomplish, I really don’t want to be there for it. They finished off with “We are the World” by USA for Africa (yeah, I had to ask Roger the name of the band again because who really keeps that in their head)… a 7 minute song. By the end, people were clapping just glad that they had stopped.

We got third place… We were satisfied with our score because we were glad that we didn’t know all of Mariah Carey’s hits or the name of the January song by the Goo Goo Dolls.