It’s fitting that my first concert in San Diego was of a band I was seeing for the first time who I had originally heard about through my friend Aria, the first friend I made in Portland. This concert was roughly two months after I moved and I still felt like I was on vacation in what truly is “America’s Finest City.” We lived two blocks from the ocean and two blocks from the action of Newport Avenue in eclectic OB. Coming to the southern most point of California sight unseen would change my life forever but then again that was kind of the idea.

Soma is cool little venue that hides in a strip mall and feels like a high school gymnasium inside. The Killers opened up and were blowing up thanks to their song “Somebody Told Me” but I had no shits to give because they just don’t do it for me. Most people there were into it but I remember sitting down in the back with Marvin because we just weren’t into it and it was rather warm that evening inside of the Soma.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs were touring for their debut album Fever To Tell that had been released about a year earlier, but their popularity soared when they released the song “Maps” as a single about two months before this show. I bought the album after Aria turned me onto it and they played pretty much the entire album. I love watching three-piece bands. This one is unique because you have an intricate guitarist and a drummer pounding the shit out of the drums with a lovely female voice. I play guitar so I was enamored by the way the guitarist would play something and then loop it so he could play something over the loop. Amazing.