Return of the hater

The other local music awards:
I promised I wasn’t going to talk trash about SacShows.

Or at least that’s what I told my brother as we arrived at the Tropicana, a strip-mall nightclub on Arden Way, for the second ever SacShows Local Music Awards this past Sunday night. It was a tick after 7 p.m. and a long, slow-moving queue of mostly 18- to 21-year-olds zigzagged along the sidewalk toward Chuck E. Cheese’s. At the entrance, shutterbugs huddled around a red-carpet area absent of VIPs. Justin Nordan, the guy who founded SacShows and goes by the moniker “JRossi,” said I was on the guest list. I wasn’t—but the kind folks at the door obliged anyway.

All right, let’s clear the air: My employer, SN&R, has put on the Sammies, or Sacramento Area Music Awards, for 19 years. It’s a local institution, I suppose. Sure, there have been years when SN&R didn’t get the awards right and overlooked deserving bands. But 2010 was a goody (see page 28 for more Sammies).

So last year, when JRossi announced his own Sacto music awards, I thought 1) that’s lame, and 2) good luck, buddy. Lame because award shows are boring. And good luck because recognizing local musicians is a thankless task. But worthy—if you do it right.

Problem is, SacShows does it wrong. It has a small, secret group of local music “experts” select its nominees, which doesn’t work: You have to be transparent and let the public choose—just as SN&R did this year—because it’s the only way to be inclusive and ensure that all deserving local musicians get heard.

Otherwise, you get groaners. Such as SacShows rap award: Local emcee Young Dizzy, who sings that Auto-Tuned drenched bumper “G-5,” picked up the hardware for best hip-hop on Sunday. So many others (Random Abiladeze, C-Plus, Tribe of Levi, TAIS, on and on) weren’t even nominated. This didn’t bother me at first—that is, until Dizzy went up to accept his award and the crowd urged him to spit some verse. As it turns out, the guy can’t even rap.

All right, I promised I wouldn’t talk trash.

So I won’t comment on the still alive and kicking Midtown-suburbs rift or JRossi, who encouraged the Tropicana crowd to scream so loud “they can hear it on the grid.” Nor will I respond to 94.7 FM deejay Casey Lewis, who, while presenting an award, dissed SN&R while praising SacShows for putting on a show for “actual people who like local music.”

I’ll just say this to those in the crowd who booed Lewis’ remarks: Thanks, fam. (Nick Miller)

Something kinda music related, but not really:
If a comedian’s cultural relevance is directly related to the number of fanboys at his shows, Donald Glover is clearly on the rise. The stand-up comic, best known for his role as the dumb jock Troy on NBC’s Community, barely set foot on the Punch Line stage Friday night before a fan in the back began bellowing praise for his obscure indie movie Mystery Team. Later, another enthusiastic admirer threw a Spider-Man T-shirt at Glover’s feet, lending support for an Internet campaign to make the comedian the next cinematic Spider-Man. (Glover described this heated casting debate in his act: “Half the world is like, ‘Donald for Spider-Man! I’m only gonna watch the next Spider-Man if Donald’s in it!’ and the other half is like, ‘He’s black! Kill him!’”)

After quieting the fanboys, Glover checked in with the rest of crowd, asking, “How many of you watch my show Community?” He waited for the applause to die down before saying, “OK, this is going to be nothing like that. I’m not gonna be up here like, ‘Dónde está la biblioteca?’”

Instead, Glover spun humorous autobiographical stories about his childhood with his foster brothers, his college days in New York working as a baby sitter and the trappings of his burgeoning fame. (Hint: Watch your glasses around Reggie Bush.) He paced the stage, bristling with energy that frequently erupted into wild characters and frenetic scene painting. The show flew by, and before Glover had time to grab his new Spider-Man T-shirt and run backstage, a new line of fanboys was already forming outside the Punch Line door. (Becca Costello)

Satan doesn’t live?:
Local metal den On the Y will be pulling the plug on its monthly metal extravaganza, Sabado Satanico, at least according to promoter Kenny Hoffman, who’s been putting on the regular night for four years.

On the Y will be replacing Sabado Satanico with a karaoke night. “As awful and hideous as it sounds, karaoke is more successful than actual live music,” said Hoffman of the state of the local scene.

Still, there will be a few more Sabado Satanicos, including this Saturday, October 16, with performances by Silvara, Buried at Birth and Divination of the Damned at On the Y, 670 Fulton Avenue; 8:30 p.m.; $6. (N.M.)