Crowdsurfing + Beer Bongs = Wild Night at Over-Capacity Red Devil Lounge

“Mistakes” by David Baron, Live @ Red Devil Lounge (Friday YouTube Series #16)

It was a wild and crazy night last Saturday in San Francisco, as Bay Area concertgoers packed into the Red Devil Lounge to join Jesse Brewster, Cally Scullin, Jes Hudak and myself at a concert to benefit the PKD foundation.

The over-capacity crowd partied, sang, and danced their way to raise over $1700 for research in polycystic kidney disease, on a night that featured crowdsurfing, beer bongs and mosh-pitting, among a host of other crazy antics.

The night started out with the debut of vocalist Cally Scullin, who really delivered in her first-ever live performance with her 8-piece band.  Jesse Brewster came on the stage next, and armed with his moving Americana/pop/country tunes, sang his heart out and really pumped the crowd up.  The anticipation in the audience for my set became palpable towards the end of Jesse’s set, when the crowd started chanting “DA-VID BA-RON!…DA-VID BA-RON!”–check out the end of the video of “Mistakes” above to hear what I mean–so much so that when a volunteer from PKD came on stage after Jesse’s set to talk about the foundation, I actually had to stop the crowd from chanting my name so she could be heard!

I finally took the stage a little after 11PM, and the band and I started off with “Nothing To Fear” to get the crowd amped up right outta the gate.  Jes Hudak sang background vocals on the song just like she did on my EP (you can hear her on the chorus of “Nothing To Fear”), and it was a treat to have her sing with us live on that one.  After that we went straight into the old Spins staple “Tell Her Something”, and that one-two punch was the perfect way to get the already pumped-up audience going nuts.  By the time “Kids” rolled around, the volume of the audience singing along eclipsed even my own amplified voice.

In the middle of the show we had a mini-set featuring yours truly on electric guitar (my first time live!  And God, how I loved it…).  As a pianist, it’s so liberating to be able to stand up and jump around during a rock show while playing guitar.  Plus, my red Fender Strat looked so good with my red Converse Chucks.

It was during this part of the set that a particularly festive audience member brought out a beer bong, and the rest was history.  My drummer Kyle chugged one in between songs on stage, and this new level of craziness prompted me to dive into the audience and roll around on the floor of the stage during our cover of Tom Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”.  “Say You” was the emotional apex of the night, followed by a rousing version of “Standing Still”, one of my favorites to play live.  “Don’t Stop Believin’” was of course an epic singalong, and by the first chorus of “Love Is Just A Lie”, the crowdsurfing (see pic below) sufficiently established this concert as our wildest one yet.

We raised lots of money and awareness for PKD, which was just awesome.  Huge props to Jesse Brewser for organizing the event.  We toured together a bit when I was in The Spins, and it’s always a pleasure to share the stage with him.  Really enjoyed Cally Scullin’s set too, here’s hoping we share a bill again sometime soon.  Special thanks to Jes Hudak for flying in the day of from New York for her set.   We recently played together at Cafe Muse in LA too, and I’m sure we’ll be doing more concerts together in the future.

Great to see so many new faces out at the show.  The buzz has been building steadily since we sold out the the Viper Room in LA in Fall 2008, and with so many fans wearing the “Love Is Just A Lie” Tshirts and knowing all the lyrics to the songs off my EP, it’s clear that the buzz is catching on.

So cool that this marks my third over-capacity Bay Area show in a row, as the last two shows SOLD OUT Cafe du Nord, once in December 2008, and once in April 2009 in pre-sale tickets alone.

If anyone forgot to the sign the email list, click here and we’ll keep you posted on the next show: http://davidbaronmusic.com/mailinglist/?p=subscribe.  Thank you to everyone who came and rocked out for such a good cause.  We’ll see you at the next one!

Peace,
David

Setlist:

1. Nothing To Fear (w/ Jes Hudak)
2. Tell Her Something
3. Shadows On The Inside
4. Kids
5. Mistakes
6. Starting Now
7. Thick Skin
8. Mary Jane’s Last Dance
9. Say You
10. Standing Still
11. Don’t Stop Believin’
12. Love Is Just A Lie