I Saw Some Cool Stuff: Listen Now! at eVOCAL

If you missed Listen Now! last night at eVOCAL, SHAME ON YOU. The benefit show for the homeless—the first of hopefully many that will be thrown by VAVAK and the folks at Listen Skateboards—was a full-on 10 on the friendship-and-love-and-happiness scale. Everyone was so, so, so nice: eVOCAL co-owner Damet; cute-as-a-button jewelry designer Sheva; silkscreen artist Ryan Bryant; even the lovely Costa Mesa-by-way-of-Texas-and-before-that-South-Africa man behind the bar who, I'm guessing, is related to the eVOCAL's other co-owner Brett and served every drink with a smile and a "Cheers!"

The spot itself is all open space and DIY graffiti/skate zen—a gallery-meets-boutique that's the prototype for what more than a few of us (myself included) would probably like to open someday. VAVAK played. At the end of the evening Ray Barbee took stage, and holding it all together was the best, most awesomest, raise-your-hand-if-you-like-indie-rock DJ I've ever heard, and whose name I did not catch. : (

Why the Weekly hasn't yet featured eVOCAL, I'm not sure. But look for a story on the store's Thursday night open jams soon. And in the meantime, give the store a visit. Last night I scored an awesome set of four mugs (pictured above) and also these three nifty knit pictures (pictured below). Perfect knick-knacks for those of the laid-back, everything's-coming-up-moss-and-riverrock-and-orange-and-yellow-sunsets state of mind.