Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
P.O.D.’s podcast inspiration yields surprise San Diego show
Harley parking lot charity gig may become an annual event
POD’s Sandoval: “Just make it look cool and watch out for the little ones.”
Video:
GONZO: P.O.D. performing "Alive" at Harley-Davidson parking lot charity gig
It happened, and then it didn’t: the social media platform TikTok was banned in the U.S., then it was restored. When I opened the app the morning of the ban, the message put forth was clear: the video-creating factory was closed. For now. But the app stated the new administration coming in could reverse the ban. Then the lights were quickly turned back on. Questions remained. Was it a good thing to block? Is it a Chinese vehicle for espionage? Does it melt our brains into a stew of meager attention spans? I’d answer “probably” to a couple of those. But censorship is rarely a cool thing.
The impending ban didn’t stop my friend Bloodgood from posting footage of the P.O.D., Dogwood, and No Innocent Victim benefit concert a week before the big bad day. He noted that the shittiest part of losing the platform would be losing connections with the people who shared stories about whatever band he had just posted. I wondered if it would be one of the last shows he posted on his channel. It seemed...significant.
The idea for an impromptu show held in a Harley-Davidson parking lot came about from a recent episode of the Emo Brown Podcast. The episode featured P.O.D. band members Traa Daniels, Marcos Curiel, and Sonny Sandoval, and during the conversation, Sandoval said he wanted to do something for the hometown San Diego community. This was before they set out on a world tour with Godsmack and Drowning Pool.
To get into the event, fans were asked to donate to Sandoval’s charity, Youth of the Nation Foundation. Twenty bucks was what was asked, but you could throw more, less, or nothing and still get access. I secured a spot in line around noon, the time the gates were supposed to open. But it wasn’t until about 1:30 pm that the line began to slowly creep. Eventually, some guy in a white vacation-y shirt came out and grabbed the line’s attention. “Look,” he said, “the bands want to get started, so we’re going to open the gates and let everyone in. If you want to donate later, just go back to the booth.” The show turned into a free-for-all on account of daylight availability.
Before the bands started their sets, a camera crew moseyed around asking fans what their favorite P.O.D. memory was. The footage, it was said, would be used on an upcoming documentary. “I brought my wife to a P.O.D. show in 2004 for our first date,” said one dude with an arm draped around his teenage son. It seemed TikTok wasn’t the only place people could share their band stories, after all. Just maybe the easiest to access by the general public.
At the family-friendly event, I watched toddlers no older than three running around in little mosh pits. I’d never seen anything like it before. The youth of the local community had all gone insane. Nobody’s ankles were safe from the bites of children in this barricaded parking lot lined with food trucks, classic cars, beer tents, and grunting Harleys. The scene had the feel of a mini music festival fused with the twisted, conjoined heads of Sturgis and Disneyland.
As P.O.D. took stage, a motorcycle began whipping shitties, aka doing donuts. Then it sped away, obscuring part of the crowd with plumes of white smoke. I turned to a friend. “I’m not going to lie,” I said, “that was pretty rad.” While we were still choking on the smoke and fumes, the opening bass lines for “Southtown” thumped forth. Gripping a neon orange mic, Sonny Sandoval shouted out the hits, wedging in a few newer songs from the 2024 album Veritas. To protect the kid pits, Sandoval told the crowd not to get too crazy. “Just make it look cool and watch out for the little ones.”
Earlier in the day, rumors had swirled that P.O.D. would be putting on a similar charity concert in the Harley Davidson’s parking lot annually. Following the hour-long set, the hometown rockers confirmed it. They’d see us again next year. On my way out, I made a quick stop at the foundation booth to drop off the twenty dollars I’d planned to donate earlier. The sun still had some glow left in it. Just down the road from the Harley parking lot, Latchkey Brewery beckoned to us. The moment I walked in, I started chatting with a Canadian dude. “Oh fuckin’ great show, eh?” he stated, or asked.
“It’ll probably be even better next year,” I answered back, “when they’ve had more than a few weeks to plan it.”
Here's something you might be interested in.
P.O.D.’s podcast inspiration yields surprise San Diego show
Harley parking lot charity gig may become an annual event
P.O.D.’s podcast inspiration yields surprise San Diego show
Harley parking lot charity gig may become an annual event
POD’s Sandoval: “Just make it look cool and watch out for the little ones.”
Video:
GONZO: P.O.D. performing "Alive" at Harley-Davidson parking lot charity gig
It happened, and then it didn’t: the social media platform TikTok was banned in the U.S., then it was restored. When I opened the app the morning of the ban, the message put forth was clear: the video-creating factory was closed. For now. But the app stated the new administration coming in could reverse the ban. Then the lights were quickly turned back on. Questions remained. Was it a good thing to block? Is it a Chinese vehicle for espionage? Does it melt our brains into a stew of meager attention spans? I’d answer “probably” to a couple of those. But censorship is rarely a cool thing.
The impending ban didn’t stop my friend Bloodgood from posting footage of the P.O.D., Dogwood, and No Innocent Victim benefit concert a week before the big bad day. He noted that the shittiest part of losing the platform would be losing connections with the people who shared stories about whatever band he had just posted. I wondered if it would be one of the last shows he posted on his channel. It seemed...significant.
The idea for an impromptu show held in a Harley-Davidson parking lot came about from a recent episode of the Emo Brown Podcast. The episode featured P.O.D. band members Traa Daniels, Marcos Curiel, and Sonny Sandoval, and during the conversation, Sandoval said he wanted to do something for the hometown San Diego community. This was before they set out on a world tour with Godsmack and Drowning Pool.
To get into the event, fans were asked to donate to Sandoval’s charity, Youth of the Nation Foundation. Twenty bucks was what was asked, but you could throw more, less, or nothing and still get access. I secured a spot in line around noon, the time the gates were supposed to open. But it wasn’t until about 1:30 pm that the line began to slowly creep. Eventually, some guy in a white vacation-y shirt came out and grabbed the line’s attention. “Look,” he said, “the bands want to get started, so we’re going to open the gates and let everyone in. If you want to donate later, just go back to the booth.” The show turned into a free-for-all on account of daylight availability.
Before the bands started their sets, a camera crew moseyed around asking fans what their favorite P.O.D. memory was. The footage, it was said, would be used on an upcoming documentary. “I brought my wife to a P.O.D. show in 2004 for our first date,” said one dude with an arm draped around his teenage son. It seemed TikTok wasn’t the only place people could share their band stories, after all. Just maybe the easiest to access by the general public.
At the family-friendly event, I watched toddlers no older than three running around in little mosh pits. I’d never seen anything like it before. The youth of the local community had all gone insane. Nobody’s ankles were safe from the bites of children in this barricaded parking lot lined with food trucks, classic cars, beer tents, and grunting Harleys. The scene had the feel of a mini music festival fused with the twisted, conjoined heads of Sturgis and Disneyland.
As P.O.D. took stage, a motorcycle began whipping shitties, aka doing donuts. Then it sped away, obscuring part of the crowd with plumes of white smoke. I turned to a friend. “I’m not going to lie,” I said, “that was pretty rad.” While we were still choking on the smoke and fumes, the opening bass lines for “Southtown” thumped forth. Gripping a neon orange mic, Sonny Sandoval shouted out the hits, wedging in a few newer songs from the 2024 album Veritas. To protect the kid pits, Sandoval told the crowd not to get too crazy. “Just make it look cool and watch out for the little ones.”
Earlier in the day, rumors had swirled that P.O.D. would be putting on a similar charity concert in the Harley Davidson’s parking lot annually. Following the hour-long set, the hometown rockers confirmed it. They’d see us again next year. On my way out, I made a quick stop at the foundation booth to drop off the twenty dollars I’d planned to donate earlier. The sun still had some glow left in it. Just down the road from the Harley parking lot, Latchkey Brewery beckoned to us. The moment I walked in, I started chatting with a Canadian dude. “Oh fuckin’ great show, eh?” he stated, or asked.
“It’ll probably be even better next year,” I answered back, “when they’ve had more than a few weeks to plan it.”
Comments