I recently had the chance to check out El Ten Eleven at The Beauty Bar in San Diego, CA and I highly enjoyed myself. Being a totally rad bar, it probably helped with the experience.
Designed like a 50’s woman’s “beauty bar,” there were hair drying chairs, places to get your nails done while watching the show (ridiculous) and most importantly of all, happy hour until 10PM! What bars do that?
The show was $5 however I got there early enough to not have to pay. This wasn’t strategically planned however. The doors opened at eight, so some friends and I got some food and were there around that time. It was completely dead. We were talking to the bartender and she was telling us the first band didn’t go on until ten or ten-thirty. With hearing that, we got our happy hour on.
El Ten Eleven is an instrumental act with atmospheric, textural sounds. The band consists of two members, Kristian Dunn on a 1977 guitar/bass double neck and Tim Fogarty on drums. Being a two man act Dunn relies heavily on looping pedals to perform most of the material live. It’s great watching and hearing the songs slowly building and coming together because Dunn is switching between the guitar and bass while also selecting different effects to add. It’s multitasking at its best and he completes it well.
With the shows being so cheap (and even if they weren’t), I highly recommend checking out these guys. Who doesn’t enjoy sipping on a drink, socializing with friends and watching a good “shoegazing” instrumental band?
Pies: 8.5/10
Tags: Beauty Bar San Diego, CA, El Ten Eleven, Instrumental Shoegazing, Kristian Dunn, Music, Tim Fogarty
