Left Coast Live Event Recap

A couple of Saturday’s ago, downtown San Jose closed down Post Street as it played host to Left Coast Live, a multi-faceted music festival showcasing up-and-coming musical acts from across the San Francisco Bay Area. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a real music connoisseur. I like what I do and I don’t really venture out too much of my comfort zone. That said, Left Coast Live did a fantastic job of bringing new music to my hometown, and to my attention.

We came for the beer and stayed for the music

The Good Karma sponsored Beer Garden at Left Coast Live.

Having a pretty good selection of craft beer at a music festival is not something I would’ve expected. Most music festivals and concerts I’ve been to usually feature one of the macros providing the beer. Call it an indictment to the festivals and concerts I’ve been to.

That said, it was a refreshing change to see craft beer from Lagunitas, North Coast, Lost Coast, and Allagash (to name a few) be available at a music festival. You know you’re not at your typical music festival when Tripel Karmeliet and Duchesse de Bourgogne at available as well.

We can thank Good Karma Vegan Restaurant for this. Many of the craft beers available at Left Coast Live are also available at Good Karma and represent their unique, and growing, interest in craft beer. Right now, they’re arguably the best spot in downtown San Jose for craft beer on draft and are a real hidden gem.

Lagunitas IPA (L) and Tripel Karmeliet (R).

Mobile Eats

The food trucks available at Left Coast Live.

There were 4 food trucks at Left Coast Live, although you really wouldn’t have known from walking in initially. Much of the space afforded at the festival were dedicated to music. I wondered where the food trucks would be located on Post Street and it turned out they weren’t on Post Street at all but on S. Market Street. This was probably the best solution. Post Street has a limited amount of space to begin with, and even if you did have the trucks within the festival, what happens if they sell out? Are you really going to move a stage or key feature of the festival to let them go home? Are you going to mandate they stick around and wait for a clearing to open? Of course not.

Because we’re on a budget, the only truck we ended up purchasing from was The Grill Stars, a truck based out of Newark. They have a constantly changing menu but we picked up The Pit Blend, a sandwich featuring pulled pork and beer brisket. The singular bite I had was very good, I’d like to tell you more but we dropped the sandwich on the ground after a poorly executed hand off. There goes $9!

Post Street also has several restaurants located that offered festival friendly menus and capitalized on hungry music fans not willing to walk the 1-block distance to the food trucks, like us. We ended up snacking on tacos, delicious, delicious tacos.

Record Swap

The record swap hosted by Streetlight Records.

The record swap was a low-key affair on Lightson Street, a short street that runs perpendicular to post and intersects at the heart of the festival. Music, movie and comic book fans were free to check out the wares available. We didn’t spend too much time there as there was a lot of music to listen to. Speaking of which…

It’s all about the music

I enjoyed just about every band we listened to that night. Granted, Mrs. BetterBeerBlog and I only stayed until 7pm (with the festival lasting until midnight), and even then we missed out on many of the bands that played on satellite stages at Good Karma, Temple, and A Perfect Finish.

I thought the festival itself was well set-up. There were 3 stages in the main festival areas. Two of the stages faced each other and alternated between bands playing. This was great in that bands didn’t have to compete against one another for fans or noise. There was a third stage on Lightson Street that was far enough from the other 2 main stages that bands could play a set there and overlap with a band playing on a main stage and not have any issues.

If there’s one thing I know, it’s craft beer. I can talk about that until your ears fall off but I don’t know squat about music so I won’t even begin to critique any of the bands below. I did manage to capture some horrible video of their performances that does absolutely zero justice to how great they all sounded live. Look them all up on YouTube, or better yet, go out and see them live.

Anya from her bassist.

The remainder of the "Get Down".

Hurrican Roses playing at Left Coast Live.

Hurricane Roses playing at Left Coast Live.

Beta State performing at Left Coast Live.

Matt McDonald, lead singer of Beta State.

Beta State's Matt McDonald (L) and bassist Justin Kastner (R).

Jason Suwito from Polaris at Noon.

Polaris at Noon playing at Left Coast Live.

SoleJive playing in the shadow of the city.

San Jose's own SoleJive playing at Left Coast Live.

Silent Disco

The Silent Disco was one of the features I was really interested in. But as it is in the clubs, the disco remained fairly empty for the majority of our time there. Much of this has to do with people wanting to dance more at night and to a lesser extent the DJs performing. I will say at the sun’s light gave way to the night, more and more people started hanging out on the bean bag chairs readily available in the disco. Unfortunately we left before the scene started to really get going. Maybe next year.

A view of the Silent Disco.

The Silent Disco... silent.

One of the other main stages at the far end of Post Street.

The food trucks available at Left Coast Live.

Brighter Days Ahead

San Jose needs events like Left Coast Live. We’re a city that lives in the shadow of San Francisco and we’re often overlooked with regards to culture. I’m here to say that it’s here, we’re just not as visible as other cities. Unfortunately for us, no one will bring these types of events to us, we need to organize events like Left Coast Live ourselves, or at the very least, support them when they’re around. I suppose having to do these types of events is better anyway, as we can build things from the ground up the way we want in a manner that works best for our city, as opposed to what someone thinks we’ll go for.

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to next year. I’m hoping Good Karma will continue to sponsor the Beer Garden as I’d like to be able to enjoy some good craft beer while discovering new bands. I’m also hoping that I remember to bring ear plugs. I went home that night with my ears ringing. While a sign of a good time, it’s not good in the long term.

Mabuhay!