Reviving San Diego's Rock Renaissance
Remember the pre-pandemic days when a few hundred close friends could pack together into a crowded club and make music?
Che Underground remembers: Viz. the collective manifestation of musical solidarity that transpired on Feb. 29 at La Mesa’s the Riviera Supper Club & Turquoise Lounge under the name “A Che Underground Leap Night Showcase.”
The gig featured a trio of Che Underground supergroups that brought special guests back onto a San Diego stage for the first time in more than 30 years.
Here’s a song that’s traveled with me since age 16 (when I first translated the words from the 1923 poem by Tristan Tzara) and got its definitive treatment when we formed Noise 292 in 1982.
I’ve played “Chanson Dada” in a lot of bands since (and even recently found my translation had been covered by some wacky Scandinavians!), but it’s probably the composition of mine I identify most closely with Noise 292. That made it a special pleasure to perform at our reunion May 31, 2009, when we presented Che Games for May at San Diego’s Casbah.
I’ve written before on the blog about my oldest musical connection within our scene: with David (a k a Kavika) Rives, the fantastically talented lead guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for Noise 292. My musical association with Kavika began in eighth grade, ca. 1977, and was rekindled after a long separation when Noise 292 reunited to play Che Games for May 2009.
Here are two examples of Mr. Rives’ talent: his songs “Mr. Pumpkin” and “Talking in Circles.”
Read moreNoise 292 plays ‘Mr. Pumpkin’
b/w ‘Talking in Circles’
(Tell-Tale Heart/Town Crier Ray Brandes lays the table for May’s audio feast.)
The Che Underground Weekend Showcase:
Celebrating more than 25 years of San Diego’s underground music history
An incredible opportunity to reconnect, reminisce and rediscover will unfold as 25 years and thousands of miles of distance disappear in a single weekend — May 29 and 30 at the Casbah in San Diego.
The lineups have been set, the bands are rehearsing, and the drinks are on ice. Here’s what to expect:
(Dave Fleminger recalls this performance from Noise 292’s April 25, 1984, appearance at UCSD’s Center for Music Experiment.)
I strongly remember this show, and especially this song. It was one of the last shows I saw before I left San Diego. Noise 292’s set was solid and focused, and unrelenting. This song, the last one in the set, struck me especially in its cold and alienating embrace.
The vocals and the high melody lock together into a single statement that shatters by the end into a mass of confusion and disjointed thought. Like so many great songs, it was easy to relate to it as a manifestation of my own mixed feelings — in this case about leaving home, my friends, this amazing music scene, everything familiar.
Preparations for the May 30 Che Underground reunion at San Diego’s Casbah are picking up steam and uniting musical collaborators separated by miles and decades.
Last weekend marked the first studio reunion of the Northern California contingent of Noise 292, comprising four of the five musicians who played together at the Che Cafe in July 1983: vocalist/ bassist/ guitarist Kristin Martin; vocalist/ guitarist David “Kavika” Rives; percussionist Hobie Hodge; and the Answers’ Dave Fleminger, who reprised his historical role as substitute drummer. (The San Diego faction — drummer Joanne Norris and percussionist Wendell Kling — are on deck to join the festivities in time for the May performance.)
Noise 292 fan turned rock ‘n’ roll anthropologist Stefan Helmreich joins our ranks with a collection of tracks, including this late live performance of the band performing my early composition “Eyesight.”
“I recently stumbled across your Ché Underground site and was delighted to read such loving accounts of those long-ago days and nights,” Stefan writes. “I was still in high school — a year behind [Noise 292 percussionist] Wendell [Kling], then a senior at at San Dieguito — when I went to to the Nov. 17, 1983, Noise show, which stunned my then 17-year-old sensibilities and tracked me toward discovering Joy Division; the Velvets; and, soon enough, prompted me to start my own band.
Here’s a late but significant contribution to the Noise 292 set list. “Mr. Pumpkin” by guitarist David Rives appeared on a four-song demo we recorded at Mira Costa College, I believe in April 1984.
The driving metalwork percussion is classic Wendell Kling, and I’m under the distinct impression that the drums on this session were generously contributed by the multitalented Sergio of Hair Theatre. Dave sings lead, and I’m on bass.
Performing at the Che Cafe Nov. 17, 1983 (with Hair Theatre and 11 Sons), Noise 292 pays homage to two of its bedrock influences, covering the Velvet Underground’s epic “Sister Ray” and throwing in a few stylings from Joy Division’s version for good measure. (Check out Kristin Martin and me tearing into the “Good night” vocals at the end, à la mode d’Ian Curtis!)
“My first memory of witnessing a Noise 292 show has you screaming your ass off during a performance of ‘Sister Ray,’ incredibly cathartic and tribal,” writes Dave Fleminger. “I’d never seen anything like it … way scarier and more musically violent than Fairmont Hall fare. Ear-punishing.
Here’s a picture Harold Gee took of Wendell and me at Presidio Park. According to some notes I posted to my personal blog, Harold took this while Sergio and I were serenading a group of skinheads. (I remember the kid in the picture telling me how much his mom liked Donovan.)
This was the summer of ’84, when we spent almost every night at Balboa or Presidio Park. What are your fondest memories of our evenings al fresco?
(BTW, I’d like to get in touch with Mr. Gee ASAP to find out if he’s got more photos of our crowd. Is anyone in contact with him? Lovely guy.)
