I went to Noise Pop festival in San Francisco this year.  Perhaps it was an excuse to just go to San Francisco.  Perhaps it was just an excuse to connect with the creative energy of such so that I could find what I’m looking for which isn’t certain yet.  I’m not a musician.  I did not go to find creative inspiration on this.  Nor do I do music reviews, nor do I do art, though all of these things I can appreciate.  My industry isn’t even in the arts.  I work in construction.  Maybe that’s why I go to these things.  To replenish my soul.  To connect with the stuff that makes us alive rather than connecting to the stuff that allows us to survive.

The weather in SF is cold.  You are on a bay.  This means that even if the sky is blue and the temperature gauge reads something that could be pleasant it is cold.  That’s because the breeze is chilly.  I hate cold weather, though I can appreciate the sights.  I love the trolley cars that clank and churn.  Though they aren’t called trolley cars.  They are called cable cars.  And even though they may not be as useful as they once were, and even though more than anything they are quaint, they are now a National Treasure and woven into the fabric of the city.  You can’t remove it.  It would be like eating Italian food at an Italian Restaurant without Dean Martin somewhere in the background, whether in song or picture form. 

Noise Pop festival takes place all over downtown San Francisco.  What this means is that it is really just a series of concerts scattered across various venues.  Unlike a lot of major festivals you aren’t located in one place, like Grant Park or Auditorium Shores.  It can be impersonal.  But informative nonetheless as the purpose is to discover new bands and artists.  In addition to the concerts they have special showings of art like poster art or street art.  Shephard Fairey came this year for the Noise Pop Culture Club (this is a one day event that takes place in one location where you hear speakers speak on various topics like film or music) to promote a new film that he was involved with that my friend called Communist in origin. 

Is it possible to “do” Noise Pop without “doing” San Francisco?  No.  The fact that you are everywhere in the city means that you end up letting San Francisco into your life.  Meaning that instead of eating at some food trailer or tent set up in the middle of a field or park you are eating the regular restaurants that everybody else not even doing the festival eats at.  This means that you can’t do Noise Pop without San Fran.  You want to see free bands?  Then join up at Bender’s Bar.  With the rest of the locals.  Which isn’t a bad thing. 

Do you want to Feel Something More, like you are really at a festival?  This will be difficult.  The accessory is the sponsorship of the festival, and you are just there watching bands, though looking back with hindsight being 20/20 this will be more magical, just like how the rest of life does once it becomes a story. 

When I think back on Noise Pop 2013 I think of Chk Chk Ckh at Great American Music Hall, and how Nic Offer climbed up on the front right speaker, stepping on my coat (and my friend’s coat—she was concerned about it but I wasn’t) while he sang, and how I never wanted to wash my coat after that.  I will remember walking into Swan’s Oyster Depot with no wait, and talking with some Escape From Alcatraz athletes who came from the East coast to run one of the most famous triathlons in the world.  We broke sourdough bread together at the retro, authentic bar while we talked about how he took the train from Pennsylvania to California.  I will remember the homeless man who helped me find the right street car, and the other one who carried a parrot on his shoulder everywhere.  I will remember sweating at Slim’s during Yacht’s show, and meeting the Iranian street artists, and the manager from the band Yellow Dogs who invited my friend and I to an after party show but we declined because we were tired.  I will remember the band Kitten at Bender Bar and her (Chloe) breaking her bass rig, and how I love the young female spirit come alive in music.  Chloe is a young goddess not afraid which we need more and more.  I will never forget the mac and cheese sandwich at Bender’s, and the guy (Sean) who says the owns the kitchen attached at Bender’s Bar and how cool he was. 

The 1940’s is alive and well at Kayo Books, one of the best used bookstores I have been to simply because the building is unique as the titles that fill the store.  Kayo holds the era of pulp fiction in its clutches, and saves as many as it can for you to purchase.  You have to like mystery, pulp and probably smut to appreciate this place.  But I can’t think about dancing to Noise Pop bands without acknowledging the memory of Kayo Books that kept me occupied during the day, before Noise Pop bands went on, it’s retro smell stick sticking in some small way into the noise hairs in my nose for days afterwards.

If I had more clout I could give some sort of insider information, a top secret tip that every person wants so that they can Be In the Know and Know, you Know, Stuff, but I don’t have it.  I don’t work at that level.  I just see the bands.  And I walk the streets and I meet the people and we are just people.  And the music is moving like music moves, and I do truly discover things, though I can’t talk about them now because they won’t be realized until I put the puzzle pieces together later on, during an epiphany either at my death bed, or maybe during orgasm or maybe while driving down a sunny road and listening to the radio one day in a day dream.  I will report back then.