long beach is only about 25 miles away from us here in los angeles, and still, i just don’t go there enough.

a recent visit to the LBC turned into a marathon session of fun that included vegan food, good beer, and awesome music. i need to get out of LA more often.

Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE 04/07/10: the winners have been chosen! the tickets go to crustypop with “The Boy with a Thorn in his Side,” Martha with “Rusholme Ruffians,” and Schramm with “Ganglord!” now for those of you who didn’t win, SERIOUSLY go buy tickets. it’s gonna be an awesome show!

ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for another giveaway!

if you love the smiths, and you love morrissey, you are also gonna love sweet and tender hooligans. the tribute band headed by front man jose maldonado is so damn convincing, that if you’d squint your eyes, you’d think they were the real thing.

image from sweetandtenderhooligans.com

to celebrate morrissey’s upcoming 51st birthday on may 22nd, sweet and tender hooligans are playing a special “unhappy birthday” concert at the house of blues in anaheim on may 23rd…and i have 3 pairs of tickets to give away.

what does this have to do with vegan food, you ask? not much. but we do celebrate moz’s birthday every year on the blog, and in 2009 we even posted a pic from the sweet and tender hooligans unhappy birthday show. this year, we want the readers (at least 6 of you) to celebrate the birth of morrissey as well. so please go rock out and represent the vegans for us on may 23rd in the OC.

here is how to win:

Read the rest of this entry »

friday morning we packed up our bags and headed to the desert for 3 days of festival madness. i must admit, i was looking forward to the music, but not much else. i figured the entire event would be a huge pain in the ass that i’d ultimately regret.

luckily, the food at coachella turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. it was definitely a highlight and one of the main things making me look forward to coachella 2009 (bear in mind, i have no idea who is on the line up yet, so that isn’t saying much!).

vegan tofu naanwich: curry sauce, vegetables and tofu served on a piece of naan. $7

friday night at around 9pm we were completely spent. we’d spent hours in the car, an eternity in the parking lot, and had walked miles around the polo field in hundred-degree-heat from band to band. when it came time to look for dinner options, i would have been satisfied with just a basket of fries or potato chips.
Read the rest of this entry »

i love going to see opening bands when i don’t care about the main act. it’s awesome. i get to stand right up front in a semi-empty venue and watch the band as the rest of the crowd (who will have to wait hours until the show starts) pours in. and going home before the main act begins means i don’t have 3 hours of downtime, with nothing to do except drink ridiculously expensive and shitty bottled beer, as i wait for them to take the stage.

so, imagine how happy i was when i went to see the fuck buttons open for caribou at the el rey, and i found out the bar was selling large cups of tap beer. they were plastic cups, i admit, and they cost $8…but they were 20 oz! budweiser, bud light, and even stella were all readily available. now i know even if i need to go see a headliner at the el rey and stand around waiting for several hours, at least i can pass the time by drinking cold draught stella.

on a side note, the fuck buttons were awesome…totally unique. it’s not like at every show you get to see someone screaming unintelligible ramblings into a fisher price microphone.

here is one of their tracks that i quite enjoy.
sweet love for planet earth

i recommend checking them out while they are still an opening act, then you can leave when they are done and still get home early just like i did! 🙂 i know that makes me sound fucking old, but going to gigs is a stressful hassle. thank god i always have the beer to rely on.

overall, the el rey bar gets a B! I love the fact that they have stella on tap, but have to take some points off for the high prices and the plastic cups.