Days of Lore

Shelling out The City Plaza’s shiny bandshell is shellacked and shimmering in the sun, sheltering the shivering who are getting shnockered from the sherry from the shot glass sheathed in their shoulder bag.

“Say, why the slight shade of Seuss in the super-long sentence?” you might ask. Shit … not sure, but the plaza and the shell are also ready to showcase some musical shindigs (surely The Shankers? Maybe a shapely chanteuse …).

That shaid … ’scuse me … said, the Downtown Chico Business Association is now accepting applications for this year’s Friday Night Concert Series, which is set to kick off its 2007 season in May.

I’d like to take this opportunity to encourage the DCBA to try something new this year. With the plaza’s hip new look, I think it’s also time to give some different bands a chance to perform. Frankly, I’m tired of seeing the same list of the same bands playing the same danceable world beat year after year. Mix it up a little, eh?

So, if you’re in a band that doesn’t play “full-throttle boogie,” I encourage you to get your app in soon. Simply download from www.downtownchico.net, and mail or drop the completed application along with a demo CD to the DCBA at 330 Salem Street. The deadline is Feb. 5, and bands will be notified by Feb. 23.

What about Amanda? We have another Amanda Detmer sighting. The local girl done good appears on a primetime show on ABC called What About Brian, which follows a group of friends in their early 30s as they explore life and love and … ah hell, it’s Friends set in Los Angeles. In all honesty, I will probably never watch a single episode. Ever. But I do wish her and the show success.

For those who don’t remember, Detmer attended Chico State in the mid-’90s and got her first break in the made-for-television movie Stolen Innocence (filmed in Chico and starring Tracey Gold of Growing Pains fame) in 1995. From there she went on to appear in movies like Drop Dead Gorgeous, Saving Silverman (remember Diamonds in the Rough?) and last year’s Matt Dillon/Owen Wilson comedy, You, Me and Dupree.

The new show looks promising: A hip, young attractive cast plays a circle of married friends who are worried about the straggler, 34-year-old Brian, who’s had a bad run of luck with matters of the heart … wait a minute … they stole my life story! I’ll sue!

Anyway, before you know it, there will be What About Brian nights—you’ll have people over for potlucks, and they’ll bring the shrimp summer rolls they learned to make from Alton Brown, and you’ll watch it, and our 130-ranked TV market will skyrocket it to great heights of success and you’ll all live in domestic bliss.

Almost forgot … What About Brian airs Mondays at 10 p.m.

THIS IS THE SOUND Coming our way from a musical galaxy far, far from Chico is El Sonido. The psychedelic four-piece, whose equipment has either been built from scratch or re-worked by bassist/guitarist/vocalist Darwin Rodriguez, is part of an impressive music scene in Santa Cruz that includes like-minded bands like New Thrill Parade and Mammatus.

The latest EP, Orchard, is a noisy, spacey endeavor that captures what they refer to as “heavy liquid rock and roll.”

Whatever it is, I like it.

Check out “Eighties Sonic Death” and “The Story of Three Guitars” on the band’s MySpace page: www.myspace.com/elsonido. And check El Sonido out Sat., Jan. 20, at Monstros Pizza with the sludgy metal of Eugene’s, Ore.’s Middian, S.F. metallers 100 Suns, local metal all-star Armed For Apocalypse and The Cody Kennon Syndrome. It’s gonna be loud.