Concert Review: RDGLDGRN

By: Juan Barragan
RDGLDGRN & Perro Bravo
House of Blues San Diego
18 October, 2013

It was another sold out show at the House of Blues in San Diego this past weekend. With a line that almost went around the corner of the venue’s location, the crowd excitedly waited for the doors to open so that they could rush to the basement in order to be as close to the stage as possible. RDGLDGRN and Perro Bravo would be playing first, serving as the opening acts for Hawaiian Reggae band, Pepper.

Perro Bravo wasted no time in getting the crowd pumped as they opened with an infectious and fast paced surf rock instrumental. The band followed with “Electrified,” which immediately got the crowd moving on their feet. It was during this song that the band’s front man, Michael “Miguel” Happoldt, expressed a bit of creativity as he customized the song to feature some dub effects that he controlled on stage with his Roland RE-20 Space Echo pedal. One of the band’s most striking songs of that night’s set dealt with our nation’s current state of declining prosperity that managed to resonate with the people in attendance. Although the song can be found on the band’s unreleased CD, Smoking Scorpion Tales, the name of the song is a complete mystery. Happoldt, with very little time to spare at the end of the band’s set, gave the crowd a choice of hearing a ska-ish song or a song about Bobo the Bigfoot Hunter. The choice was clear and instant, the crowd wanted to hear the song about Bobo the Bigfoot Hunter. The song was quite different in musical style from the band’s usual genre. The song resembled something you would hear at a line dancing Country saloon. Even with this change in genre, the band did an amazing job at getting the crowed pumped for the next act.

RDGLDGRN took to the stage and much like their name would suggest, the band members were sporting red, gold, and green soccer jerseys. For those people unfamiliar with the band who probably associated the band’s colors with Reggae music, they were in for quite a shock when the set began. The band started with “Hey O,” which is a song off of their Red Gold Green LP which was released earlier this year. RDGLDGRN has a special ability that not many bands have these days: the ability to engage an audience that is unfamiliar to their music so effortlessly. It turns out that this band is enamored with the beautiful sport of football. This is not to be confused with American football, but rather, soccer. The band asked the crowd to chant the most famous soccer chant of all time, “Ole, ole, ole!” The crowd did not hesitate to scream the chant at the top of their lungs. This led perfectly to the band’s next song, “Bang Bang.” This was enough to keep the crowd engaged for the rest of the band’s set. The singer decided to hold an impromptu audience poll near the end of their set to see who in the crowd were fans prior to attending the show. A few hands went up, and the singer then posed another question. He asked who were fans of the band now. All hands in the audience shot up and cheers erupted all around. RDGLDGRN would give those new fans a final song from their set, titled, “Million Fans.”

Currently RDGLDGRN just finished a tour this past weekend. The band, although relatively new to many in the audience, proved to be quite a thrill for almost all. Their LP should be given a listen as soon as possible. For those Perro Bravo fans in attendance, they can pick up their tickets for the next show the band will have in San Diego this December when they open up for Ocean Beach legends, Slightly Stoopid, at SOMA on Friday, December 13. Although that day is considered unlucky to many people, you, the reader, are lucky to know that there are still tickets for sale for this special event. All proceeds from this show will be donated for Toys for Tots.