After watching disturbing events in our country unfold during the Trump Administration, Ryan Bingham really wanted to write a political album. The thing is, the more he dug deep into social issues, the more his own personal stories came out.
For instance, “Wolves”—a from-the-gut, stripped-down folk song—is on one level inspired by the Parkland students and the backlash they’ve gotten for speaking up. But it also is about his own experience as a kid who moved around a lot and was bullied. He mixed all these elements into a really complex, multi-layered song.
“It brought up a lot of old feelings,” Bingham says. “I was always this new kid in town wherever I went, and dealing with people who start fights with you. It’s crazy how we fall back into things. A lot of my own personal stories started to be woven into this, and my experiences of growing up in this country.”
The record, American Love Song, is a diverse country-blues double album produced by Charlie Sexton, known for his work with Bob Dylan. It jumps back and forth between the personal and political—sometimes, as with “Wolves” landing on both. Perhaps part of the reason they intersect so much is that he grew up in the small rural towns of the Southwest, some of them right on the border.
“Those towns have depended on each other for a long time,” Bingham says. “I met a group of guys that lived in Mexico, and they started taking me to these rodeos down in Mexico in Chihuahua, in Monterey and all these border towns. I wasn’t down there as a tourist, just kind of going across the border for the night. All those guys were so warm and welcoming me into their families.”
This process of digging into his own history caused Bingham to feel both a very sincere love for this country, and to also feel deeply disturbed by the direction Trump has taken it. He captures that feeling on the album by juxtaposing the sometimes-dark lyrics with some upbeat Stones-sounding rock ’n’ roll.
“It was a love letter, but I was a bit frustrated, kind of confused at what was going on and what has been going on in our country,” Bingham says. “It’s been a tough record to talk about in a way, because it has a lot of layers to it.”
It’s also quite a rootsy and raw album. For a short while, Bingham had a flirtation with the mainstream world, with his work on the film Crazy Heart—particularly the film’s worn-torn theme song “Weary Kind,” which earned Bingham an Academy Award. He didn’t stay in that place for very long.
“Before that happened, I was in a van with a bunch of buddies touring around playing dirty rock clubs all over the country. I didn’t have much of a career other than that,” Bingham says. “When that thing hit, it put me into the mainstream, but at the same time I was still this punk-rock-with-an-attitude [guy] playing country music.”
It seemed like there was a big career on the horizon for him, but he wasn’t happy with how his management wanted to market him, so his wife took over as his manager. Together they run his own record label. It’s a decision he’s happy with, as a bigger label likely wouldn’t have been too happy about an album so rootsy and thematically complex.
“I didn’t write the songs to have big hooks or to be very pop driven. It’s not really who I am,” Bingham says. “We started doing things our own way, and doing things in a way that I feel comfortable with. It’s been like that ever since.”
There are moments on the record where the political edge becomes more overt, like when he calls out Trump by name. But overall, it’s a much more fluid experience.
Bingham is often asked if the songs on the new album are “protest songs.” “I don’t know if they’re necessarily protest songs, but they’re songs about trying to have a conscience and being aware of what’s happening,” Bingham says. “It’s having a rational conversation. All these things that everyone else is experiencing, I’m right there with everybody else.”
INFO: 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 26, Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $30. 423-8209.
Dev Patel is having a moment. The Anglo-Indian actor, who stars in two new movies out this month, is quietly polishing his craft and his reputation with each new role. From the teenage hero of Slumdog Millionaire to the eager-to-please young proprietor of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel to the adopted orphan searching for his roots in last year’s Oscar-nominated Lion, he’s proving himself equal to each new challenge.
Case in point: Patel’s solid, commanding turn in The Wedding Guest. Beneath this misleadingly benign title, filmmaker Michael Winterbottom fashions a thriller of skullduggery and deceit that stretches across the churning urban streets and vast, sun-baked rural landscapes of Pakistan and India. Through it all strides Patel’s mysterious protagonist, a soldier of fortune who finds himself on the wrong end of an increasingly bad deal.
Patel’s character Jay could only be considered a “hero” in the Sergio Leone sense—a solitary man with no name (“Jay,” of course, is an alias), who nevertheless sticks to an inner moral code if circumstances push him far enough. We know they will from the very first scene, when English-speaking Jay lands in Pakistan, rents a car, buys two guns, and hits the road.
Soon, he has slipped past an armed guard into a posh residence in the middle of the night and abducted a terrified young woman, Samira (Radhika Apte), on the eve of her wedding. Every action he takes is completely professional—when the first of many setbacks occurs, he even gives her the choice of going home to her family or staying with him one more day to follow an alternate plan. “I don’t want to be married,” she tells him.
All sorts of questions arise. Clearly, Jay and Samira don’t know each other, so who hired him, and why? Could Samira herself have had anything to do with helping arrange her own “escape?” Do they dare to trust each other?
The movie is like a travelogue of Pakistan and India. City streets throng with people hustling along on foot, bicycles or motorbikes, street vendors crying their wares, dilapidated cars and buses, pop-up market stalls, and animals of every description. The vastness of it all becomes a character in itself—the perfect place, as Samira observes, for a person to get lost forever.
Unfortunately, Winterbottom is not as adept at exploring the inner terrain of his characters. We never learn any more about Jay than we see in those first few scenes. He’s an archetype of the dangerous man with no past. Patel is skilled enough to convey checked emotions roiling beneath his stony surface; profound events affect him, but Winterbottom never gives him a chance to express them. He’s just as much a mystery at the film’s end as he was at the beginning.
Similarly, Samira is glad enough to be liberated from an arranged marriage in a country from which she emigrated at age 12. But that’s all we find out about her—not her relationship to her parents, her family or her betrothed, nor what it means to her personally to risk everything to be free of them. It’s as if Winterbottom sketched in his characters and premise, and then started filming before he’d properly developed them.
Still, Patel’s uncompromising presence gives the movie its backbone. It’s too bad he wasn’t given more of a part to play.
THE WEDDING GUEST
**1/2 (out of four)
With Dev Patel and Radhika Apte. Written and directed by Michael Winterbottom. An IFC Films release. Rated R. 97 minutes.
We moved our clocks forward over the weekend, so we can now officially start to celebrate spring. How about cracking open a nice bottle of Pinot Noir Rosé? I found one made by Hahn Family Wines for about $15 on sale in a local supermarket, and it’s delightful.
Although light and refreshing, there’s nothing wimpy about this Rosé. It’s bursting with flavors of strawberry, citrus and raspberry, and its crisp finish almost transports one to a sunny Greek isle. Also, this 2016 Rosé comes with a screw cap, so it’s perfect to take on a picnic—just in case you forget the corkscrew!
The Hahn estate is a big operation. They own and farm two vineyards in the esteemed Arroyo Seco viticultural area (AVA) of Monterey County, and four estate vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands. Since 1980, the Hahn family has produced fine wines with a goal of showcasing the unique varietal characteristics of the region.
Hahn has a tasting room in the newly revamped Carmel Plaza on Ocean Avenue, now a happening place to go for restaurants, gourmet shops, coffee, and wine tasting.
You can also visit the Hahn estate at 37700 Foothill Rd., Soledad. 678-4555, hahnwines.com.
VinoCruz: Now Serving Brunch
Fancy a fresh-squeezed mimosa or a glass of local Equinox sparkling wine with your crab cakes benedict or salmon waffle? Or maybe you want a handcrafted cocktail, such as a Kir VinoCruz, with your egg scramble or crepe and bacon plate with fromage blanc, mascarpone cheese and Grand Marnier.
The upbeat VinoCruz Wine Bar and Kitchen is now serving brunch from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Look for delicious poached eggs, Corralitos sausage, applewood smoked bacon, house-made buttermilk biscuits, and much more. The brunch choices are fresh and plentiful at VinoCruz—and packed with flavor, too.
Brave souls out there will try a Cassis Liqueur and aromatic bitters, or a Snake Bite, made with cider and dark stout. It that’s your poison, then go for it!
Winter is often considered the season of “less.” Our days have less sunshine and warmth; our bodies desire to do less, preferring to hunker down in a warm place for the colder months; and, if we’re eating seasonally, there’s less to choose from compared to summer’s colorful smorgasbord of fruits and veggies.
But one thing Mother Nature offers in bounty during the winter is citrus. In Santa Cruz County, we are able to choose from dozens of varieties at local farmers’ markets and grocery stores, where boxes overflow with these golden globes. Even the most neglected lemon trees in our backyards decorate themselves with shining, rain-washed fruit, gleaming and defiant against the grey winter skies, edible emblems of the sunshine we all crave.
Although we have the opportunity to enjoy citrus year round, winter is the perfect time to indulge in tangerines, pomelos, Navel oranges, blood oranges, and kumquats. An excellent source of vitamin C, they help guard us against illness. Plus, their acidity cuts through heavy comfort foods: a squeeze of sour orange over braised pork, lemon on cannellini beans, or lime in a coconut curry complement these dishes’ richness and make the flavor come alive.
As always, head to the farmers’ markets to expand your citrus palate. Twin Girls Farms at the downtown market has a wide variety, but many other farms are offering delicious-looking fruit in both popular and boutique varieties. I enjoy indulging in the opportunity to take home as much as I can carry. Plus, a wide bowl of warm-colored fruit makes a beautiful, snackable centerpiece.
Those curious about new, interesting ways to use and preserve citrus might also enjoy the “Citrus Creations” class at Mountain Feed & Farm Supply in Ben Lomond on Sunday, March 24 ($30). Attendees will explore the many sweet, salty, tart, and savory preparations of citrus, “from citrus salts to preserved lemons, orange bitters to lemon cream.”
I, for one, think there’s no better way to rediscover the joys of winter than to find new ways to eat your way through it.
When we do profiles, we get to meet a lot of new people and introduce them to readers—and that’s one of the best things about this job. But it was fun this week to write a cover story about two people I’ve known for a long time. One of them is Joe Sib, who I’ve been writing about for about a decade now. I don’t mean to keep writing about the guy; it’s just that every time he takes on a new project, it’s something really interesting, and with his roots in Santa Cruz and San Jose, it always seems relevant to us. I’ve ended up kind of charting the history of his career over time, which has been a blast, because dropping yourself into Joe Sib’s world is never boring.
The second one is DNA, who I’ve known for years both as a local comedian and as a contributor to GT. As with Sib, it’s been kind of amazing to see DNA grow as an artist over the years—especially, for me, his evolution as a writer. I remember reading his GT cover story that ran at the beginning of 2018 about his memories of following the Grateful Dead, and marveling at how he’s learned to let his personality come through in his funny, bemused writing style—which is a totally different art to master than doing so on stage. I’m thrilled he’s opening DNA’s Comedy Lab and Experimental Theatre, and I hope you enjoy reading about how Sib’s and DNA’s paths have come together for the opening of the new venue.
I know from past experiences that you will not act like a real newspaper and publish letters about, or corrections to, your news stories, so just take this as feedback regarding your reporter’s lousy (intentionally biased?) work.
The recent piece (GT, 2/6) with the two-page picture of the SC City Council and regarding the left/right schism on the council missed the key factor of the entire issue!
Yes, as described, Councilmember Glover was disturbed that his agenda items were refused by Mayor Watkins because they missed the deadline.
But the true story would certainly be that the deadline was moved by the Mayor—without notice! Should Glover not be disturbed by this action? Is the Good Times OK with this misreporting? I am certainly not OK with this latest of several breeches of responsible journalism and will not knowingly patronize any advertiser of such a publication as well as encouraging others to do the same!
You have a responsibility to your readers and advertisers, and are failing in it badly!
Fred J. Geiger
Santa Cruz
CLOAKING DEVICE
Thank you for last week’s GT article “Does Santa Cruz Have a Bullying Problem?,” which discussed the growing claims of harassment online, at City Hall, and during council meetings by Council members Drew Glover and Christopher Krohn.
Krohn, to his credit, offered an apology for his behavior and seemed to indicate a willingness to learn and change. Glover, on the other hand, doubled down. To defend himself, Glover, a self-described “avowed feminist,” pointed to his service on the Commission for Prevention of Violence Against Women as evidence of his feminism. But women know feminism isn’t a moniker someone can claim simply by sitting on a Commission. Feminism is evidenced by one’s actions, policies and especially how a person treats women publicly.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a pattern emerging of verbal abuse and harassment from Glover. So far from this article, we have learned that the mayor, a current council member and three women who protested Glover’s appointment to the CPVAW have all claimed some form of harassment. This doesn’t sound like the actions of a feminist to me. It is not good enough for Glover, and Krohn as well, to cloak themselves in the principles of feminism and claim solidarity. They must treat women with respect and dignity at all times in order to live up to the ideals they claim as core values.
Corrina Dilloughery
Santa Cruz
RE: BULLYING
As a democratic socialist, anti-racist feminist I’m disgusted to see Watkins play the poor, weak white woman act when her pro-landlord, pro-rich politics get challenged by a black man. I’ve heard way worse from the likes of Rich Boy Ryan Coonerty and Mike Rotkin, but they get a pass because they’re white. We need more real democratic socialists like Glover and Krohn. Sometimes people with great policy positions are women of color like AOC, sometimes they are white boys like Bernie Sanders. Regardless of their demographics, we need more of them and fewer pearl-clutching defenders of sky-high, racist rent costs like Mayor Watkins.
– Cecily Taylor
Mayor Martine Watkins is the daughter of former county schools Superintendent Michael Watkins, who is black. Mayor Watkins identifies as mixed-race. — Editor
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
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GOOD IDEA
Santa Cruz’s Loch Lomond Recreation Area reopened for public use after the end of its regularly scheduled seasonal closure, which lasts from October through February. The city’s water department operates Loch Lomond, a reservoir for drinking water serving 96,000 households. The recreation area is home to a range of activities, including boat rentals, picnicking, fishing, and hiking. Hours for the recreation area in the month of March are 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
GOOD WORK
Santa Cruz youth concerned with global warming have an opportunity to make their voices heard. On the afternoon of Friday, March 15, they’ll meet at the clock tower, joining the worldwide Youth Climate Strikes. Students from the elementary school level all the way up through UCSC take inspiration from Swedish 15-year-old Greta Thunberg, who protested alone for weeks before students around the world began emulating her actions.
This year’s “People’s Choice” winner of Banff Mountain Film Festival is coming to Santa Cruz. Five Australian friends attempt to cycle 1,600 miles from Oklahoma to California in honor of the westward migration undertaken by The Grapes of Wrath’s Joad family. Through chance encounters with everyday Americans, the cyclists explore the novel’s core themes—migration, inequality and the perceived land of opportunity—and how the nation has progressed some 78 years after Steinbeck’s Dust Bowl depiction was first published.
INFO: 7 p.m. March 15. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. 423-8209, riotheatre.com. $14.
Art Seen
‘Four Old Broads’
Four Old Broads is a new comedic play featuring four sassy, smart and savvy older women who are living at the Magnolia Place Assisted Living home. Written by Leslie Kimbell and directed by Kathie Kratochvil, the first show of MCT’s 2019 season promises plenty of laughs when a retired burlesque queen wants to go on vacation. She dreams of a trip through the Caribbean on a Sassy Seniors Cruise, but encounters obstacles along the way, including the evil Nurse Pat Jones. Mature themes, not recommended for children 12 and under.
INFO: 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. shows. Friday, March 15-Sunday, April 7. Park Hall, 9400 Mill St., Ben Lomond. 800-838-3006, brownpapertickets.com. $17 senior or student/$20 general admission. Photo: Alie Mac.
Cabrillo ‘Out of the Dark’ Exhibit
The latest exhibit at the Cabrillo gallery pushes photographic boundaries. The show, Out of the Dark: Alternative Process Photography, delves into experimental innovation of analog photography and features an eclectic display of unusual photographic works that are visually intriguing and surprisingly abstract. Artists include Cabrillo photography lab technician Janet Fine and many others.
INFO: Show runs through Friday, April 12. Cabrillo Gallery, 6500 Soquel Drive, Room 1002, Aptos. 479-6308. Free.
Thursday 3/14
Behind The Cup
The average coffee drinker has three or four cups per day, and the majority of them don’t know about any of the processes, labor or techniques behind those cups. Join 11th Hour Coffee co-founder Brayden Estby in discussing the health impacts and brewing methods behind a morning cup of joe. Estby will going over what makes a really good cup of coffee, the health benefits and the roasting process of coffee.
INFO: noon-1 p.m. New Leaf Community Market, 1101 Fair Ave., Santa Cruz. Free.
‘Pulsions’ Pop Up Exhibit
Coming from San Francisco’s 836 M gallery, Pulsion is a carefully curated exhibit of work from top contemporary French artists. It invites the audience to feel the impulse of the French art scene through a selection of established and up-and-coming artists, each engaged with science, social issues and politics. The first time an exhibit like this has visited the West Coast, Pulsions is coming to Santa Cruz for one week only.
INFO: Runs Monday, March 11-Monday, March 18. Museum Of Art and History, 705 Front St., Santa Cruz. 429-1964, santacruzmah.org. $10.
Live music highlights for the week of March 13, 2019.
WEDNESDAY 3/13
AFRICAN
LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO
Paul Simon’s world beat-influenced Graceland was a huge and unexpected hit for the folk singer. But it also shined a light on some global musicians that most Americans were totally unfamiliar with up to that point. The all-male choir that opens “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” is one of the most iconic moments on the record. That group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, had been a group in South Africa since the ’60s, and now enjoy a much larger audience. The ever-changing members continue to record and tour and wow audiences with the joy, passion and subtly complex song-writing they are able to pull off just by utilizing their voices. AARON CARNES
INFO: 7:30 p.m. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $36.75. 423-8209.
THURSDAY 3/14
FLAMENCO
GERMAN LOPEZ
German Lopez is a virtuoso on the “timple,” a traditional guitar from the Canary Islands. Playing on stage with Antonio Toledo (Spanish guitar), they pluck and flit their way through conventional island music, adding flourishes of West African rhythms and playful nods to Spanish Flamenco. Together, they have the frenetic energy of dueling strings without the feigned animosity, instead creating stirring soundscapes built on melodies coalescing into unity. They play like guitar brothers, weaving their tales in and out of each other, riffing up and down the chords, until one can no longer tell where one man’s story begins and the other ends. AMY BEE
Whoever thinks horns are dull hasn’t heard Moon Hooch. Like a grimy, bedraggled marching band at the big game that missed the bus home and now sleeps under the risers, Moon Hooch stomps into your world and leaves muddy footprints wherever it goes. Part rave, part jazz jam, and as indecipherable as an all-out orgy in your grandparents’ basement, be prepared to put earplugs in, rubber gloves on, and just go with the whatever happens next. AB
There you are, enjoying your favorite icy-cold cocktail, waiting for the next band to go on at the Blue Lagoon. It’s been a great evening full of head-bobbing, nostalgic surf tunes, guitar rolls and hang-ten highs. Suddenly, the person next to you lets out a spine-twisting scream as a trio of fins—literally, three musicians in shark costumes—circle the stage. The audience gasps in horror as the band lets out a toothy, distorted guitar riff swimming through a sludgy rhythm section. Just when you thought it was safe was to go back in the club … Shark in the Water. MAT WEIR
INFO: 9 p.m. Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $5. 423-7117.
SATURDAY 3/16
FOLK
DEREK BODKIN
A veteran of KPIG’s “Please Stand By” radio show, Derek Bodkin bakes a fair amount of humor into his folk tales. Apologies if you were thinking a performance by a man who calls his backing band the Hovering Breadcat Folk Ensemble would be a deathly serious affair. In his raspy baritone, Bodkin sings the stories of pirate tailors and animals, intermixed with moments of deep sincerity and personal reflection. He’s also a world-class whistler and won the 2017 Musical Whistling Competition. Part jazz ensemble, part folk raconteurs, the Bodkins and his Hovering Breadcats got a little something for everyone—everyone weird, that is. MIKE HUGUENOR
I predict that in 100 years, we’ll still be hearing about the latest “rock ’n’ roll revival” sweeping the nation. That’s just the nature of things, as rock will always sound good, and it’ll always take people back to a time of fun and simplicity. Webb Wilder has never been part of any official revival, though considering he started spitting out straight-ahead rockers in the mid-’80s, he probably should have been. Trends change fast, but he’s stayed the same. He’s almost like a relic from another era. In fact, he created this persona back in 1984 for a short film—a 1950s detective that’s also a musician. AC
Though it emerged accidentally, there is a sort of kismetic charm to the name “Brand X.” Forever misunderstood by their pop-centric major label, the name stuck when a studio executive wrote the vague words “Brand X” on the studio calendar to keep track of the British fusion band’s recording sessions. Mercurial and virtuosic, it’s a high-flying, fretboard-shredding take on fusion, complete with psychedelic freakouts and musical bars blacked out with 32nd notes. Popularly known as “Phil Collins’ other band” (he was an original member), Brand X have all the pyrotechnics of their early days and come to Santa Cruz for two nights at Michael’s on Main. MH
INFO: 7:30 p.m. Michael’s On Main, 2591 Main St., Soquel. $35 adv/$40 door. 479-9777.
MONDAY 3/18
JAZZ
DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER
An uncontainable force of nature, Dee Dee Bridgewater has unleashed her inner soul queen with her latest album Memphis…Yes, I’m Ready. The Grammy Award-winning NEA Jazz Master spent her adolescence surreptitiously soaking up Memphis R&B on her transistor radio when she was supposed to be sleeping. She spent several years in preparation for the 2017 album, connecting with musicians and honing a repertoire of vintage songs. Accompanied by soul-steeped horn players, expert backup vocalists and a skintight rhythm section with surging organ, Bridgewater dominates the stage, pouring so much energy into the tunes that they positively radiate pleasure. ANDREW GILBERT
INFO: 7 and 9 p.m. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $42 adv/$57.75 door. 427-2227.
Local Americana singer-songwriter Jay Lingo moved to the Santa Cruz area in 2005. When he first got here, he hit the ground running, playing as many gigs as possible. He’d already been playing music in Pennsylvania, originally hailing from a modest, working-class neighborhood in Philly, and later moving to a rural part of the state. He channeled various influences of rock ’n’ roll, country and punk rock into his music.
“I like many different kinds of music. Once you put a label on your music, all anybody wants to do is tell you that you’re not ‘outlaw’ enough, or you’re too ‘country,’” Lingo says. “If I want to write a rocker, I will. If I want to write a whiskey-and-steel-guitar-drenched country waltz, I’ll do that, too.”
Lingo, who’s a rancher in Aromas, is now a lot more selective about the gigs he takes. With two kids and a business to take care of, a show has to be worth his while. When he does play, it’s usually at the urging of other artists, like Jesse Daniel.
“It’s nice to be in a place in my life where I don’t have to go out and play bar gigs for next to nothing,” Lingo says. “I get to pick the ones I want to play, and luckily there are some great people in town who still think my music is worth it.”
Throughout his life, he’s used music as a means of therapy. He’s worked out some of his demons in his music. As a father, he views his creative output a little differently. No matter how often he plays, he’s still writing all the time.
“I had some really bad habits that I was writing about, and I was singing those songs in bars full of people who had similar habits,” Lingo says. “I’m really trying to write music that my boys will be proud to hear. I’m trying to keep it positive.”
INFO: 9 p.m. Friday, March 15. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $10 adv/$15 door. 479-1854.
For most of his life, Joe Sib has made his own way. The Santa Cruz native—who grew up in the Olive Springs Road outlands of Soquel before moving to San Jose in his teens—had a major-label contract with his pop-punk band Wax by his early 20s. In the mid-90s, he co-founded SideOneDummy Records, the indie label that launched the careers of bands as diverse as Flogging Molly, the Gaslight Anthem and Gogol Bordello. In 2009, he toured a one-man show called California Calling, based on his memories of the 1980s South Bay punk-skate scene that produced Steve Caballero, Corey O’Brien and many others. Not long after, he started touring as a stand-up comedian.
But for maybe his biggest break ever, he needed some help. From his dad.
“The whole reason I’m on tour with Metallica is because of my dad,” Sib admits on a phone call from the road, where he’s finishing up the last of 35 shows he will have done with the Bay Area metal legends by the end of the tour.
The story—and with Sib, there is always a story—goes like this: his extremely OCD nature inspired a habit of calling around to the camps of various big-name comedians when the L.A.-based Sib saw they were coming to Southern California, to ask if they needed an opener. Usually, they did not, but he developed some good relationships over time. One of those paid off in a big way when the publicist for Jim Breuer asked if he wanted to open a San Diego show for Breuer in 2017. He jumped at the chance, and gave his dad a call.
“My dad is retired, he lives in San Diego, and I said, ‘Hey dad, I got a show tonight in San Diego. I’ll swing by, let’s go. It’s with this guy Jim Breuer who used to be on Saturday Night Live, you’re gonna dig him,’” Sib remembers. “So I bring my dad to the show, we’re cruising around, it’s this big theater. And my dad being my dad, when he meets Jim in Jim’s dressing room, they’re immediately talking baseball, and I’m pretty sure my dad made a sandwich out of Jim Breuer’s food. They’re just hanging, dude.”
The show went well, and about a week later, Sib got a call from Breuer, asking if he wanted to open for him in Seattle. And then after that, Canada. That led to what Sib calls “a really great friendship,” and early last year, Breuer asked him to tour with him as his featured opening act. For Sib, it seemed like an important next step—a chance to hone his craft with regular touring, opening for a big-name comic—but the weird thing was, he didn’t even think Breuer had watched his set that first night in San Diego. So what had inspired Breuer to give him the second shot that set him on this path? Yup, his dad.
“That’s what started everything,” says Breuer. “He showed up with his dad. His dad walks in the room, and Joe’s like, ‘Dad, dad, don’t come in,’ and I said, ‘No, it’s all right, come on in. What do you want?’ ‘Well! I’ll have a banana!’ ‘OK, have a banana. You want some coffee?’ ‘Oh, I’d love coffee!’ And Joe’s like, ‘Dad, we’ve got our own room.’ I said, ‘No, he’s all right, it’s okay.’ I didn’t even watch Joe’s act. I could care less at that point. I just thought, ‘Wow, the guy brings his father. Of all the choices, he brings his father.’ He’s already ahead of the game for me. So I just listened to make sure they weren’t booing him or saying he was terrible. And he’s in. The dad got him in.”
“I always tell my dad, ‘Jim was more stoked on you than me,’” says Sib.
WHAT IF THIS WORKS? Sib and Jim Breuer on stage opening for Metallica. PHOTO: BRETT MURRAY
Things got a lot crazier later in 2018, when Metallica vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield told Breuer the band wanted to try something radically different for the opening act of their upcoming tour. Specifically, they wanted Breuer—a famously big fan and friend of the band featured in the VH1 documentary When Metallica Ruled the World and the MTV Icon special dedicated to Metallica—to put together a sort of opening show to entertain crowds before they hit the stage every night.
“I had a radio show where we did a game show with the band,” says Breuer. “That started, ‘Hey, you know that thing you did with us on the radio? Will you do that for our fans?’ Then they saw me a year or two ago at Rock on the Range, and I just remember James going, ‘God, man, you should be touring with us. Our fans would eat you up.’ And then out of nowhere about a year ago he texts, ‘Hey we’re thinking about doing something for the fans. We’re not sure what.’”
Not long after, Metallica officially asked Breuer to open their tour. And when drummer Lars Ulrich asked him if he wanted to take anyone along, he mentioned Sib.
“So Lars immediately pops open the computer and says, ‘All right, let me check this out. Joe Sib… OK, SideOneDummy Records, fucking cool,’” says Sib, doing an eerily dead-on Ulrich impression. Luckily, whatever stand-up clip Ulrich saw, he liked. “Lars watches it, he laughs, and goes, ‘All right, I’m down. This guy’s cool with me, talk to James.’ And Jim was like, ‘James will be down.’”
Indeed, by July, everything was set for the September start of the tour. “Jim said, ‘Check it out, I spoke to the band, I spoke to everyone. You’re going,’” says Sib. “And I was like, ‘How does this even happen?’”
CHARGED UP
One person who is not surprised at all that this happened is Santa Cruz comedian DNA, who first met Sib six years ago at a comedy show where they both performed.
“He told me he was opening for Metallica with Jim Breuer, and I was like, ‘Of course you are,’” says DNA (who is also a GT contributor).
He’s been impressed not only with Sib’s material, but also his presence on stage. “He’s got this infectious energy,” says DNA. “You just feel yourself getting charged up when you’re around Joe Sib.”
That, combined with Sib’s roots in the area, is why DNA chose him to be the inaugural headliner at the opening of DNA’s Comedy Lab and Experimental Theatre on March 22. The first comedy theater to ever open in Santa Cruz, DNA’s Comedy Lab is opening in the space where the Riverfront Twin theater closed last June. For DNA and his three partners—his wife, Jessica Abramson, who’s also the events manager for UCSC’s Arts Division, plus Mike and Susan Pappas, who own True Olive Connection in downtown Santa Cruz—it’s been a 16-month process of screening possible venues around the city: the old Sentinel building, the former Radio Shack location on Soquel, and so on. But this was the only true theater that was available, which was really what they wanted.
“It was meant to be, I think,” says DNA. “If we’d gotten the Radio Shack, it would have to have been a club. That’s not me. I’m this. I’m a theater person.”
In the venue’s two spaces, a 340-seat “Comedy Lab” and a 164-seat “Experimental Theatre,” he wants to do a lot of things besides comedy shows—everything from theatrical productions to movie-riffing nights, improv sketch comedy to classes, live podcasts to puppet shows.
Of course, he has to get the space ready first, and when DNA opens the front door to let me take a look at the progress a week-and-a-half before opening, he’s a little bleary-eyed. He hasn’t been sleeping, and can’t exactly remember what kind of hours he’s been keeping.
“I live here, basically, at this point,” he says. “I’m like Jack Torrance in The Shining, I just kind of wander the halls. But it’s 15,000 square feet, so I’m getting in my steps. My Fitbit is blowing up.”
Mike Pappas, who’s been overseeing the construction aspect of the project, drops in with some supplies and updates. He was the one who originally approached DNA after one of DNA’s annual comedy festivals, asking him what he wanted to do next. When DNA told the Pappases about his dream of opening a comedy venue here, they said they wanted to be involved. They’ve seen DNA throw himself into building the comedy scene in Santa Cruz, from his years of hosting underground shows at the Blue Lagoon to the comedy festivals, and now this.
“This is a whole other level he’s bringing it to,” says Mike. “I’m excited that we stumbled across this space. This is a no-brainer. Very little upgrade—more clean-up than anything.”
That said, they had to build stages, and they’ve given the place quite a bit more polish than it had when it was the Regal theater chain’s dumping ground for B-to-Z grade movies. And there is still the green room to do …
“I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning because I was really freaked out about the green room,” says DNA. “How’s it going to get done in time?”
But he cycles back around to his trademark calm, which fits in much better with the Grateful Dead song floating through the background. “It’s coming together, man. Piece by piece.”
Before things all got quite so crazy, DNA and Abramson did have time to go see Breuer and Sib at the Sacramento stop of Metallica’s tour. He came back impressed.
“They do this whole show for 20,000 people,” says DNA. “It’s incredible.”
LIGHT ME ON FIRE
However incredible the show may be now, Sib is brutally honest about the fact that it started out as a work in progress. There was really no way for him and Breuer to practice what they had planned for the shows, and the first gig didn’t go too well.
“After the first night in Madison, Wisconsin, there were people straight-up telling me on Instagram, ‘If you ever come back to Madison, I will light you on fire,’” he says. “People were not stoked.”
But the next morning, he was at Breuer’s room at 7 a.m. with a bunch of new ideas.
“Honestly, he could have been like, ‘No offense, but they hired me,’” says Sib. “Instead, he just starts laughing and was like, ‘Let’s do this. Let’s build this thing together.’ He was so open to ideas, and he came with so many ideas. We sat down and took our pieces of paper out, and wrote down the things that worked and wrote down the things we didn’t want to do, and there was just no ego involved. It was such a collaboration. That’s when I knew we were going to be friends for life.”
The duo managed to turn things completely around by the next show, and that’s when they figured out what has become their template. It’s certainly not like any opening act Metallica—or anybody else—has ever seen. And they’re playing to much larger crowds than they expected.
“Lars told us, ‘Do whatever you guys want to do, but don’t be bummed, because there will probably only be five people in the arena when you’re there.’ So I was like, ‘OK, that’s not a lot of pressure.’ But I go on at 7, and Jim comes on at 7:30, and every night when I come on it’s already half-full, and by the time Jim hits the stage, it’s at capacity,” says Sib. “The show that we do is literally a two-hour show. It reminds me of being a kid when I was living in San Jose, and my dad would go away for the weekend, and I would throw a rager at my house. You get a keg, you’re playing music, and after you get done playing music, a band would play. Except in this case, it’s Metallica.”
CROWD WORK Joe Sib throws himself into his duties on tour with Metallica. PHOTO: BRETT MURRAY
Sib opens by going out with a laptop and pumping up the crowd, telling them he’s going to be their DJ, and inviting them to make requests as his Instagram pops up on the screen behind him. Generally it’s a barrage of Slayer, Anthrax, Motorhead, etc., and Sib plays the metal hits until it’s time to introduce Breuer.
“I say, ‘Here’s your host, your emcee and die-hard Metallica fan, Jim Breuer.’ Jim drops into a combination of storytelling-slash-crowdwork-slash-emcee-slash-Metallica-fan for like 40 minutes. He’s telling stories about when he met Ozzy Osbourne. He’s telling stories about when he went to James’ house for the first time for dinner with his wife, and his wife tells James that her favorite band she ever saw was Bon Jovi. Like that. Good stories, and he’s also interacting with the crowd.”
After that, it’s a mix of music and crowd work, but Sib does have a special bit he does toward the end of their show.
“I tell a story about seeing the … And Justice For All tour at the Cow Palace, and how I had to sit up in the nosebleeds, and I was bummed because I saw everyone on the floor. I told that story to Lars, and he said, ‘Well, why don’t you go up there and bring some people down, then? You can do whatever you want.’ So every night I go to some section and bring down like 10 people onto the floor,” he says. “And dude, people get emotional.”
As the tour nears an end, Sib can’t believe the response they’ve gotten. “You can genuinely feel the energy from the audience,” he says. “Metallica’s smart, they’re friends with Jim, they knew Jim would bring the right show. He didn’t have to bring me, but he did, and I’m so proud of the show we put on. It’s been such a game-changer for me.”
“Joe is a huge motivator,” says Breuer of why he chose Sib. “He’s funny. If I bring up a premise or joke, he knows how to help me elaborate on it, and I do the same with him. He just had a great energy, and it was a perfect storm when Lars asked me, ‘Is there someone you want to bring along?’ I went, ‘Well, Joe’s a big music guy, we need a DJ. I think I got a guy.’”
Breuer says he was never nervous about how the tour would go, but he’s enjoyed learning what works and what doesn’t, gradually perfecting it. “No one’s done this,” he says. “I think we definitely pulled it off. I think the fans really liked it for the most part. The band loves it. It’s been nothing but an extremely positive experience. If we do it again, I’ll be ready to make it even bigger and better.”
Hell, even that first night of the tour isn’t looking so bad, in retrospect. “Jim Breuer and I hold the record for the longest opening act on stage ever for Metallica,” says Sib. “That night in Madison, we were on stage for two hours and 40 minutes. And we survived, dude. Two guys, two microphones, one laptop, and we survived.”
MINDS EXPANDING
Back at the Comedy Lab, Abramson and Susan Pappas have come to check in before they go get a couch for the green room, hopefully easing DNA’s future early mornings.
“Everybody has 100 things to do. And if everybody is doing their 100 things, we’ll be great,” says Susan cheerily.
“We’ve got so many checklists,” says Abramson. In charge of HR and the process-related side of the project, she’s trying to get up to speed quickly on things like employment law. But she’s always been at home in theaters. In fact, she and DNA met on stage, playing a married couple in a production at the Blue Room Theater in Chico 17 years ago.
“The joke was that we were such bad actors that we actually fell in love,” she says.
DNA says their skill sets have always complemented each other well. Right now he’s on a learning curve too, as he navigates the business of comedy on a larger level.
“I’ve grown up with the guerilla, anti-corporate model, and I need to expand,” he says. Like dealing with more agencies for comedy’s big names, for instance. “I’ve spent the last 12 years making personal relationships with the comedians, so I go straight to the comedians.”
He wants to do it all without losing the essential Santa Cruz-ness of the project. “Our motto is ‘building community through laughter,’” he says. “I think it’s the antidote to the malaise and social isolation that people are facing right now.”
Beyond just the comedy aspect, debuting with someone like Sib is part of that. “Joe walks the walk,” says DNA. “He treats people like human beings. He’s a good soul.”
The feeling is mutual. “I couldn’t be happier for DNA,” says Sib. “DNA does the work of 30 people. Santa Cruz has such a jewel in DNA. This guy loves the comedy scene, he is a comic, he knows talent, he works with young comedians. What I love about him is that he’s not only an entrepreneur—he also cares so much about the comedians. He cares about everybody from the kid that just got up on the mic for the first time ever to the international comic that’s done every festival.”
For Sib, being invited to perform on the opening night of the first comedy club in his hometown takes him back to where his love of comedy came from in the first place. “When I think of stand-up comedy, I think of living with my parents out on Olive Springs Road, out in the middle of nowhere. I think about growing up on that ranch, listening to Richard Pryor and George Carlin, and having my dad keep me up late to watch Saturday Night Live,” he says. “To be the guy from Santa Cruz who gets to kind of light the torch—like, ‘OK, this is happening, there’s a comedy club in Santa Cruz’—I know it might sound cheesy to say I feel honored, but I do. I just feel super, super honored that he would ask me.”
UPCOMING EVENTS AT DNA’S COMEDY LAB AND EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE
March 22 – Joe Sib, 8 p.m.
March 23 – Matt Lieb (UCSC alum), 7:30 and 10 p.m.
March 29 – CSI: Santa Cruz (Comedy, Sketch and Improv), 7:30
‘Movie Riffing Night: Night of the Living Dead’ with comics from Comedy Central, 10 p.m.
March 30 — Caitlin Gill, 7:30 and 10 p.m.
April 6th — Laurie Kilmartin, 7:30 and 10pm
April 11 — Amy Miller (Last Comic Standing) and Kellen Erskine (Netflix), 8 p.m.
April 20 — Myq Kaplan (recording his album), 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Until 2016, Carson Kelly was a lot like most people he knew in Santa Cruz. He had a family, a full-time job, a life that didn’t allow much time for boredom or idleness. He thought of himself as politically engaged, if you count bookmarking FiveThirtyEight.com being “engaged.” But he was less a political activist than he was a political “passivist,” to coin a term.
That changed dramatically with the election of Donald Trump to the presidency. In short order, Kelly and his wife Shannon founded Santa Cruz Indivisible, the local chapter of an activist group inspired by the Indivisible Guide, a 26-page Google doc created by a handful of congressional staffers shortly after the election that outlined practical advice for a progressive resistance movement against Trump and the Republican Party.
Back in the days following the Trump inauguration, Kelly was upfront about his inexperience and his uncertainty in the political arena. “You go blindly into the fog swinging your sword hoping you’ll hit something,” he said at the time.
Fast-forward two years later, to the winter of 2019 and the arrival of the 116th U.S. Congress. Kelly watched in wonder as the newly elected congressional representatives were sworn in, but he felt particular satisfaction when he saw Democrat T.J. Cox walk down the aisle.
Cox was the challenger against Republican incumbent David Valadao for the seat representing California’s 21st district, which covers a vast area of the San Joaquin Valley, just to the east of the 20th district that includes the communities of the Monterey Bay. Santa Cruz Indivisible was among several progressive activist groups that sent volunteers to the neighboring 21st district to canvas door-to-door in hopes of flipping the seat from red to blue.
On election night, media outlets called the race in favor of the incumbent Valadao. But in the following weeks, the vote tally tightened, and when the last ballot was counted, Cox came out ahead by a little more than 800 votes—less than 1 percent of the total vote count.
“It was pretty amazing,” says Kelly, “We made a real difference. If Santa Cruz Indivisible had not done our work, and other groups had not done their work, it probably would not have happened the way it did.”
The outcome of the other targeted district, the 22nd, wasn’t as satisfying for Santa Cruz Indivisible. In that race, Republican incumbent Devin Nunes, who rose to national fame as the Trump-friendly chair of House Intelligence Committee, won decisively over his Democratic challenger. “We didn’t get that one,” says Kelly of the Nunes seat. “But we’ll get him in 2020.”
Seven seats flipped in California from Republican to Democrat. Nunes is now one of only seven Republicans left in California’s 53 congressional districts.
Of the wins that allowed the Democratic Party to take control of the House, Kelly says, “My opinion of it, it was not the Democratic Party that did that. It was progressive grassroots organizations who did that. In some cases, it happened despite the Democratic Party.”
Post-2018, Kelly is a passivist no longer. As a sudden local political leader, he is now reflecting on the lessons the past two years have taught him about how political change happens. When Santa Cruz Indivisible first formed, he says, the group “was just fighting, resisting the craziness that was coming from Donald Trump.” But the former UCSC philosophy student began to see broader themes that went beyond the day’s headlines. He began to understand that the group’s first order of business was to make people aware of their own power as citizens. Only then could they exercise that power in the midterm elections. Now that that power has been established in Congress, Indivisible’s next step is to effectively advocate for change.
Progressive movements, however, have always been vulnerable to factionalism and division, and Kelly has given a lot of thought to how to stay united in the face of unified opposition. “I’m trying my best as part of the core leadership to avoid an environment where schisms are going to arise.”
How is he doing that? By making distinctions between “values” and “issues,” he says. “We have to be in the business of being unified on the values front, though not necessarily on the issues front,” he says. “We’ve lost the discussion about values.”
Santa Cruz Indivisible has a mailing list of about 2,500. It engages another 1,500 people through social media. The group operates in a non-centralized manner to maximize effective action and to minimize conflict about priorities. “We don’t have a meeting every week where we expect everyone to come,” says Kelly. “We don’t require everyone to agree or believe in everything. That’s impossible anyway. So we have activities that are not dependent on each other.”
Kelly says that Indivisible will partner with other community groups, including TEDx Santa Cruz and Bookshop Santa Cruz, on an initiative called “Citizenship 2.0,” a series of events to explore the meaning of citizenship in a complex modern and technological world. At the same time, he says, SCI will seek to model effective political activism.
“People come to us motivated to do something,” he says. “We want to capture that energy. We want to allow them to do what they’re passionate about, and then get the hell out of the way—as long as they are not doing something that is harmful to someone or is going to get us in trouble. We don’t need to second-guess them. They should be able to tell us what we can do to help them. We share the same values.”
