ICYMI: Tower Porchfest was pretty rad

Plus, who played Fresno more often, Kiss or Rush? And I stay Sucka Free.

Tower Porchfest has come and gone and those who missed it really missed something special.

I only got to stop at a few porches and only for a few minutes, but was able to glean a general sense of the thing just by passing through the Tower District Saturday morning and afternoon.

Also, the organizers, porch owners, musician and attendees did a real good job of chronicling it via social media. Youtube user Al Bondigas (Bob Lopez) put together a video recap that’s really well done and captures the energy and vibe of the event.

Why I’d like to see a Tower Porch Fest II:

This was a completely authentic representation of the neighborhood, designed by and for people in the neighborhood. Not that outsiders didn’t come through or weren’t welcomed, but the event was never meant to draw crowds, which is a rare and beautiful thing.

While the event seemed well run at the high levels (the porches all had signage, there was a constantly updated map, etc.), it was also loosely organized.

Which means inclusive.

So, you had indie hipster kids and rockabilly bands and the folk set, with straight up punks and metalheads and mariachi and reggae bands.

It was pockets of “the scene” participating in (if not directly interacting at) a singular event, and that was cool to see.

Bottom line: Kudos all involved in making it happen (and hopefully happen again).

Fresno concert matchup: Rush vs. Kiss

I stumbled across this bootleg of Rush playing at the Selland Arena on the “All The World’s A Stage tour,” in 1976 and got nostalgic remembering that I had seen the Canadian prog masters at the Selland Area twice in the 1990s.

That led me to wonder just often Rush had toured through Fresno over the years.

Pretty often it turns out, especially early in their career (into the 1980s). The Selland Arena show was the second time they played Fresno in 1976. They played the Warnors Theatre in March on the “2021” tour.

The year before they had played the theater on the “Fly By Night” tour.

The band mostly stopped coming to Fresno once they started playing stadiums and the like and last played here in 1994 on the “Counterparts” tour. The Melvins opened, because it was the ’90s and stuff like that happened.

Similarly, Kiss started coming to Fresno in the mid 1970s and had played here five times by the end of the decade. They played their last show with Peter Criss in Fresno. Their final (?) show at the Save Mart Center in 2019 was the 10th time Stanley, Simmons and Co. had performed in Fresno over the span of five decades.

They went out with a bang. Literally and figuratively.

But mostly literally.

Shameless self promotion: Sucka Free Sunday

UPDATE: I AM the guest on an UPCOMING (like maybe next week) episode of Sucka Free Sunday. Technical difficulties or some such.

Original post

I am the guest on this week’s Sucka Free Sunday podcast.

As reminder: the podcast is the brainchild of Devoya Mayo and Jason Delgado, who lead a kind of story teller’s conversation through curated play lists. So, one guest and five songs that are related to a single topic.

I chose five songs about love and they probably aren’t what you think.

Find Sucka Free Sunday where ever you shop for podcasts.

That’s it for this week. If you have anything you think I need to be looking at or listening to, feel free to let me know: jtehee@gmail.com