It was a cold, gloomy, rainy Friday. I just got out of capoeira class and I wasn’t looking forward to my trip down on Highway 880 en route to downtown San Jose. My friends were throwing an event in downtown Oakland called Roll Deep, at Era night club which is literally within walking distance from my house. What motivated me to leave Oakland and begin my trek to the southbay, a region of the Bay Area I hardly ever visit? Welp in short I told my friend/Dj The C.M.E that I was going to come out and see him spin at this event I had been meaning to go to for the longest but just had never been able to make it out to San Jose on a Friday night for the event.
The event called Live at the Pagoda, started by two very cool cats Thomas Aguilar and Michael Grammar who make up Ungrammar have featured artists as vibrant as Bilal(if you have never caught one of his live shows put that on your to do list IMMEDIATELY), as eclectic as Little Dragon and Electric Wire Hustle and a whole slew of artist in between. On Friday it featured two beautiful artists that I wasn’t up on. Hailing from Oakland was Mara Hruby, whose rendition of Al Green’s “Simply Beautiful”, was pretty NASTY( in a good way) she also had one of my FAVORITE musicians in the Bay backing her Nate Mercereau of the PARK!! Pairing up with Mara was Andy Allo from LA by way of Bamenda,Cameroon. Her ease with the crowd made her set pretty enjoyable not to mention her whole set was FEEL GOOD MUSIC the whole way through. Keeping the energy moving forward was my main man Cory aka DJ the C.M.E. Not only is he one of my closest friends but he has been honing his skills under the tutelage of the Bay Area’s own Sake1derful. If you missed it you missed it but do yourself a favor and add these folks on Facebook so you can keep yourself in the loop. Live at the Pagoda
