Matt Costa - Slim's - 2/25/2009

by Nicole Parisi-Smith

Andrea, Emma and I represented Surfrider at the Matt Costa show, which was held at Slim's, but was part of San Francisco's annual Noise Pop Festival. We really appreciated all of the support that we received from the festival organizers, the promoter, the venue, the musicians, and management. It went really smoothly.

Since several bands performed that night, before Matt's set, there was a lot of merch. We shared a table with the merch teams from Noise Pop and Matt Costa. It was a great spot, because we were able to talk with fans who we might not have otherwise met, who were looking to purchase show-related merch.



We also circulated throughout the crowd, before the show started, and between every performance, to proactively talk with fans. I think we talked with just about every single person in the venue, that night:) We handed out more of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sushi wallet-sized guides, as well as information about our chapter's beach cleanups.



Carolynn, who designed and handled the order for our 2009 Beach Clean Up Postcards, brought a box of postcards with her, to the show, for us. Carolynn was the one who first pointed out that Matt was coming into town, at the December Chapter meeting. Thanks, Carolynn!!

Here she is, holding up the postcard that she created.



We met a lot of really great people at the show, including Sean Stringfellow, of Slim's staff, who had coordinated our participation for us. Sean, with his new Save Trestles t-shirt. Sean surfs at Trestles, when he is visiting his parents, who live near San Clemente. Thanks, Sean!



We also met 2 members of the Surfrider Huntington Beach Chapter, who had flown up just for Matt's show. While in the audience, I was approached by a fan who saw my t-shirt, and really wanted information about Surfrider. We also met a very interested fan, at the very beginning of the night, who was amazed when we told her about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, one of Andrea's favorite issues. It is so rewarding, when we get to talk with interested fans about Surfrider campaigns.

Thanks to Matt, for taking the time to snap a photo with us, with his new San Francisco Chapter t-shirt. Thanks to Andrea and Emma for all of their help!!



Matt ended the show with this a capella song, "Will I Lie In Your Arms", which I absolutely LOVE. (This was not filmed at the Slim's show.)

Upcoming San Francisco Chapter Shows

photo: Damian Sinnot, Emma Shlaes, Sara Dack, Nicole Parisi-Smith.

The San Francisco Chapter's Music Outreach Program Committee met on Wednesday, February 4th at Coffee to the People to talk about these upcoming shows, at which we will have a presence:

** Thursday, Feb 19 - Absynth Quintet - Starry Plough, Berkeley, CA.

Show is at 9pm, tickets are $8. Multiple bands on the bill - The John Howland Trio, The Cyndi Harvell Band and The Absynth Quintet. The Absynth Quintet is composed of Surfrider members from the Humboldt Chapter. They contacted us, and invited us to come table at the show. The Santa Cruz Chapter will be tabling at the band's Santa Cruz show.


** Saturday, Feb 21 - Donavon Frankenretier, with Gary Jules opening - The Independent, San Francisco, CA.

Doors are at 8:30pm, show is at 9pm, tickets are $20. The venue expects this show to sell out, but tix are still available on the Independent website.


** Wednesday, Feb 25 - Matt Costa - Slim's, San Francisco, CA. (Part of Noise Pop Festival.)

Doors are at 7pm, show is at 8pm, tickets are $20-22.
Multiple artists are performing at this show: Matt Costa, An Horse, Robert Francis, Two Sheds.

If you attend one of these shows, then please come by the Surfrider table to say hello!

Thanks to the staff at the Starry Plough, The Independent, Slim's, Noise Pop Festival, as well as management and agents for Absynth Quintet, Donavon Frankenreiter, and Matt Costa!

Matt Costa - 9:30 Club - 3/5/2008

Review by Nicole Parisi-Smith. Originally posted to the Washington, DC Chapter message board on March 10, 2008 ---

We had a great Surfrider turnout! Julie Lawson, Chris Woods, Felipe Bermudez, Eric Dean and myself! Thanks, everyone!!!

The 9:30 Club was very welcoming from the moment that Julie and I arrived at 6:30pm, and set up a table (with their own 9:30 Club tablecloth) for us, in a great spot inside the venue.

We talked with a lot of Matt Costa fans, many of whom had arrived early in order to get a good spot in front of the stage, and had some time on their hands, and were attracted to our very prominently located table, and attractive table layout.

The people we spoke with - average age, early to mid 20's - fell into 2 catergories - had never heard of Surfrider before, or were members from other chapters rececently relocated to DC.

We spoke with a lot of people about the BEACH Act and collected signatures on a petition, educated people about sustainable fishing practices and seafood choices, and handed out the Monterey Bay Aquarium wallet-size seafood guides, and talked about marine debris and plastics in regards to human health. We also helped a VA resident register to vote, and distributed "I Surf, I Vote" stickers, as well as Chapter stickers and Trestles stickers and pins.

The most popular item was a small pocket-sized Chapter upcoming events calendar that Julie had prepared especially for the concert, that listed some of our events including movie night, chapter meetings and cleanups. If everyone who took one of these flyers comes to one of our events (or checks out our website, printed on the calendar) then we should have a large turnout of new folk at our next few events:)

We met members of other chapters who were just in town for Matt's show, who wanted to know what kinds of campaigns and activities our chapter is up to, most notably a member of Surfers Against Sewage/Surfrider Europe from the UK!

While we were setting up the table I ran into Mitch, a member of Matt's band. He was very familiar with Surfrider and was happy that we were at the show.

The show itself was really good. It wasn't sold out (unless it sold out the night of), but was near to capacity. Matt played one long set and an encore. The first set ended with my favorite song off of the new album - "Emergency Call". For the encore, Matt played the first song solo - "Astair", off of the first album. Then the band joined him for "Sweet Thursday" also off the first album. And they ended the show with what Matt said was a new song.

The band lost a lot of their equipment and instruments while on tour in Canada - it was stolen one night, from a venue, where the stuff was stored for the night. Matt is asking anyone with info about this to contact the Canadian police. It was good to see, at the 9:30 show, that this hasn't affected their senses of humor, or the music:) They put on a great show:)

Thanks to Matt and his band, and the 9:30 Club, and Matt's manager, Chris, for hosting us at the show!!!!

Thanks to everyone who came out to help out at the table, and to enjoy the show. It was a lot of fun!

Matt is on Jack Johnson's record label, Brushfire Records. Here is a BBC performance that tells some of the story regarding how they met: