Night time is the right time

Shot on Scene by James Norton

We have no idea who these people are, but we know where they were and why they were there. Every Thursday night, DJhere Productions, one of San Diego’s longest-running purveyors of higher-end nightlife events, takes over Bar West (959 Hornblend St., Pacific Beach) and features Mikey Beats, an old-school DJ who spins everything from low-key grooves and background beats to mainstream mash-ups and hip-hop. Mikey brings out all types of folk, not just really good-looking ones, as pictured here. —Kinsee Morlan 

Locals Only

Che Café has cancelled all of its upcoming shows due to the venue’s inability to find an insurance provider. According to the UCSD space’s website, Che’s previous insurance company “denied our coverage without even giving us any explanation.” Under its lease with UCSD, the venue must have insurance, and the school administration gave Che until Dec. 1, 2008, and then an extension until Jan. 1, to find a provider. The website post insists the shutdown temporary and that Che is in talks with an insurance provider with hopes to have coverage “within days or weeks and not any longer.”

J.J. Orsborn, 31, a guest DJ at Kadan Club who spun punk and garage rock on occasional Sunday nights for Disconnected with DJ Barnesey, died on Jan. 5. Friends say Orsborn had just ended his first-ever bartending shift at Tower Bar the night before and was found dead inside Monday morning by owner Mick Rossler. An autopsy has been performed, but the cause of death won’t be determined until a toxicology report, which takes at least two weeks, is completed. “Here for a good time, not a long time,” was Orsborn’s favorite quote about life, friends say. “He was a really popular guy, and he was definitely remembered for his infectious laugh,” said Heather Wilcox (aka DJ Heather Hardcore), a bartender, DJ and booker at Kadan. Friends say a memorial service, held Jan. 12 at Blessed Sacrament Church in City Heights, was packed.

The whirlwind of hype swirling around 22-year-old Nathan William’s bedroom-punk project Wavves is unmatched in recent years. Although Williams has only a scant number of live shows on his résumé, he’s already booked several national dates, closely followed by a month-long European tour in February. Since releasing Wavves’ self-titled debut LP late last year, Williams went from little-known to minor phenomenon in less than six months. Originally planned for release on the small Minneapolis label De Stijl, his forthcoming follow-up LP Wavvves has been picked up for wider distribution by Fat Possum Records, former home to The Black Keys and current label for Dinosaur Jr.

Keeping with a recent reunion trend, math-rockers Physics will be back together for a show opening for Three Mile Pilot on Jan. 20 at The Casbah. Founding member Jason Soares says the band will also re-release its albums on San Francisco-based label Neurot Recordings sometime in 2009.

Lady Dottie and the Diamonds have posted a new music video for their single, “I Ain’t Mad at Ya” on Hi-Speed Soul Records’ MySpace page. The video was shot primarily at the Tower Bar and was directed by David Arabia.

In other Hi-Speed Soul news, the local label has signed Brooklyn-based band The Still Out and will re-release their debut album, Crystallized, in the spring. Hi-Speed Soul is also scheduled to release a new Adam Franklin album in February, as well as two re-mastered reissues by Franklin’s previous band, Swervedriver, on Jan. 20.
—Seth Combs, Todd Kroviak and Kinsee Morlan

The Enrique Experience

Lyric Opera San Diego’s “Musical Movie Series” closed last weekend with a showing of the 1965 classic, The Sound of Music, the timeless story of a chirpy home-wrecker with a heart of gold. “Please turn off your cell phones,” general director Leon Natker told the crowd gathered inside the North Park Birch Theatre. “If you want to put them on vibrate and have a little bit more fun during the movie, feel free.” Natker later told CityBeat that the series had proven to be “very successful” and it’s set to return in July with some “fun, light summer movies.”

As they did for screenings of Grease and The Wizard of Oz, attendees like April Foyle went all out and dressed the part. “I’m the hills,” she said about her DIY sunflower apron ensemble and elaborate headdress, which she had leftover from last year’s summer solstice celebration. “I just added some musical notes, and I was ready to go,” she boasted.

The lights dimmed inside the gilded venue and as Fräulein Maria appeared, spinning atop the sprawling Austrian countryside on the 30-by-20-foot screen, the packed house enthusiastically started to sing along. It felt awkward at first, sort of like when my mom starts intoning hymns in church in that high-pitched tone that only dolphins and Mariah Carey can hear, but a couple of ditties later, I was harmonizing along with the chutzpah of a German oom-pah band.

“Go with God,” said Terry, a volunteer usher dressed in a nun’s habit as I exited, scratching my head. How exactly do you solve a problem like Maria? Did George Lucas rip off the Princess Leia ’do from little Gretl? And with seven kids, are we sure that Capitan von Trapp wasn’t Mexican?
—Enrique Limón

Cause for celebration

If ever there’s been a reason to party, this is it: President George W. Bush is almost gone, President-elect Barack Obama is stepping up and people across the city will be partying—and partying hard. Check out all the celebrations happening on inauguration night, Tuesday, Jan. 20:

Biggest party: From 7:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. at the W Hotel (421 W. B St., Downtown), the San Diego County Young Democrats will host a party with food, drinks and the company of more than 350 other folks who are happy to say Farewell to W at the W. RSVP at www.sd
youngdemocrats.com.

Benefit party: From 6 to 9 p.m., Bare Back Grill (923 Sixth Ave.) will unveil its new private event center with an Inauguration Night Soirée featuring food, drink specials and raffles prizes. Part of the night’s proceeds will be donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Need we say more than the place has shuffleboard and foosball tables? www.barebackgrill.com.

Poetic party: At 7 p.m. at Rebecca’s Coffeehouse (3015 Juniper St., South Park), Poetic Brew and San Diego Writers, Ink will join a national movement and invite local poets to write an original inaugural poem for Obama. Signups for the Inauguration Day Poetry Event start at 6:30 p.m.

The so-called official party: From 7 to 11 p.m., the World Children’s Foundation will hold a big soirée, The Official Presidential Inauguration Reception & Celebration, at the Westin Gaslamp Quarter Hotel (910 Broadway Circle, Downtown). Your $50 ticket buys you food and drink, entertainment by Lenny Williams and others, an Obama T-shirt and a gift bag.

The others: We’re running out of space here, but these parties deserve a quick mention: Inauguration Bash at The Pearl Hotel at 7 p.m., The Inaugural Ball: West Coast Style from 7 p.m. to midnight at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, the Community Presidential Inaugural Ball at the City Heights Library Performing Annex at 7 p.m., the Obama Inaugural Live event at Malcolm X Library from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. and The Change Up: Inauguration Celebration with DJs Beatnick, Thumbprint and Myxzlplix at The Office in North Park at 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23.
—Kinsee Morlan