The First Annual Kick Ass Christmas hosted by Avoid took place at SOMA, San Diego on December 21st! SOMA has been around since the mid 1990s. I remember seeing Unwritten Law and Psychic Zoo back in the day. It’s changed locations a few times, but settled into a renovated movie theater next to the San Diego Sports Arena back in 2002. I love the staff at SOMA, everyone from the box office to security is always super cool and helpful.
Unfortunately, I missed Alternative Citizens and Resider. I’m sorry guys, I hate to miss anyone, but workload gets in the way of fun sometimes. New Aesthetic was setting up when I walked in. There was a decent size crowd for just a few days before the holidays. There was a Christmas Snoopy on the stage and New Aesthetic did their walk song to the Peanuts Christmas. I didn’t know much about this band, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. They and their fans are crazy energy! Dylan Guzman and Gabriel Muñoz are co-vocalists. Guzman has a big smile on his face the whole time and he radiates bright fun energy. Muñoz does a lot of high jumps off the platform. They crack jokes kind of dissing on themselves, but they are both great frontmen! They played two new songs. Guzman said just pretend you know it, It’s our first time playing these songs in San Diego. No one knows it, so if you know us or not, you can pretend to know it. After the song, he said you all acted like you knew it. YAY! They asked for stage divers and for all the big guys to come closer to the front to catch. To my surprise, people went up to catch bodies jumping off the stage. The crowd was jumping, diving or moshing the whole set. Avoid even came out from backstage and dove (more like slide onto hands) into the crowd. Guzman said his parents were in the crowd and thanked everyone for their support. Just one year ago they opened on this stage and now they are coheading with one of their favorite bands. They started the band two years ago and just signed with their “dream label” and will start recording their first album soon!
Avoid is one of my favorite bands to see live! Truth be told, I don’t know all of their songs, but I try to catch their shows, because they are so fun! Frontman Benny Scholl is kind of chaotic and I mean that in a good way. There’s a lot going with his high energy and screams (espieciallty his pig squeals). I love that he has his mic angled sideways. He asked guitarist Chris Echols what he thought of the crowd. Chris said "I don’t know, maybe a 6?” Wow, I mean they're out there jumping, moshing, stage diving, but Benny said he would give them a 7.5. Benny snagged a Santa hat off a head in the front row for a song and then gave it back. He also thanked all the bands and SOMA many times. Little fun fact, Benny and other members of Avoid actually work at SOMA as well! We had a blast at the first ever Kick Ass Christmas and we can’t wait to make this an annual tradition!
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