Pub After Dark: Daphne Loves Derby

I don't remember exactly how, but some time over the summer, I found out that Daphne Loves Derby, one of my favorite bands of all time, was going to be playing at UCSD, for free on November 14th.

FREE? Daphne Loves Derby?? Seriously?!?

It definitely sounded way too good to be true.

The anticipation for the night was a long time coming, and there could not have been a better way to de-stress after a spectacularly crap-tastic day.

My roommates didn't know much about Daphne Loves Derby before the concert (one of them had never even heard of the band!), but after hearing me rant and rave about how great they were for weeks on end, they agreed to come with me to the concert. The "FREE" admission didn't hurt their decision to come either.

Since we anticipated a huge crowd to show up at Porter's Pub (which is a good-sized venue, but not too spacious by any measures), we headed out of our dorm at about 6:15 pm to line up at the door. We were about the tenth people to show up in line, and less than a hour later, the end of the line was no longer visible; it had already stretched all the way around the front entrance of the Pub and up to who knows where.

The doors opened at a little before eight, and we all ran right up to the edge of the stage to claim our spots for the night.

As we stood by the stage and stared, completely awestruck, at the instruments and lights on the raised platform that was a little less than four feet in front of us (if I had reached my arm out, I probably could have touched the closest microphone stand with my fingers, but then again, I do have freakishly long arms...) and danced to the mix of oldies playing over the speakers, the empty stage area behind us quickly filled to the brim with anxious students eager to see Daphne Loves Derby perform live.

Before we knew it, the house lights dimmed and the stage lights went on - the first opening act was up!

I had no idea who the opening acts for Daphne Loves Derby were going to be before the night of the concert, but I was pleasantly surprised by both acts - they were both GREAT.

By the end of the night, I had two new artists ready to be added to my list of favorites.

The first act was Josh Damigo, an extremely nice guy who has an amazing voice and stage presence.




We met him after the show and he gladly signed our EPs and posters; he even cheerfully posed for a picture with us! I loved how he really seemed to appreciate every new fan who approached him and personalized his autographs on each of our posters with a different message.




Even though I was a little put off by the Christian undertones in one of the songs he performed, I still thought he was great overall.




The last song he performed, Sugar, was my favorite out of the set. He performed it with his "best friend," and their banter on stage was too cute!

While Josh Damigo was a pretty mellow opener (perfect for the Daphne Loves Derby sound), the second act, 5star Fallout, was literally an energy bomb ready to go off and their performance drove the crowd crazy.

The lead singer was bouncing all over the stage (and even into the audience at one point!) and was so passionate about his music that his boundless energy infected the entire audience.




(The video quality does NOT do the band justice - I guess bopping along with the music with the camera in my hand does not make for the best audio quality when I am standing less than six feet away from the speakers!)

I would definitely not hesitate to go to another one of their concerts again because they really know how to show an audience a good time.




Unfortunately, catching another one of their concerts might be kind of difficult because they are natives of NEW ZEALAND!!

Whenever any band member spoke to the audience in between songs, I could sense all the hearts of the girls in the audience melting because of their charming and unbelievably cute accents. When the lead singer joked that in order for them to stay in America, they would have to get married because their Visas expired, a sea of hands from screaming girls shot up in the air, volunteering to be their brides.




They even did a cover of Eleanor Rigby - how could anybody not love them after that?

We met both the lead singer and the blond guitarist (whom my roommate and I both had a huge crush on while he was performing on stage) after the show and they were the nicest people ever.

After a short delay following the end of 5star Fallout's performance, it was finally time for what we were all waiting so anxiously for... kind of.




"... the rest of the guys are stuck in Texas right now because their van broke down."

Honestly, I did not mind at all - Daphne Loves Derby sounds better acoustic anyway.







While the rest of Daphne Loves Derby was on the crapper in a Texas hotel room from overdosing on meals at the $5 buffet across the street, the show went on as scheduled here in San Diego. Kenny and David did an amazing job putting on the entire show by themselves!

I've been listening to Daphne Loves Derby for years now, but in all that time, I have never been able to put a face to the music; I knew that they were a band from Washington and that the lead singer was Asian, but that was about it. Their meaningful lyrics and mellow sound was enough to make me love the band without really knowing who they were.







Let's just say that I was very pleasantly surprised by how cute Kenny and David were when they came out on stage that night! All the more reason to love the band even more.

Since only two members of the band managed to escape car trouble (and the temptation of dirt-cheap all-you-can-eat meals) and make it to San Diego for the concert, their set for the night drew heavily on their older songs that could be performed acoustically without sounding empty. I haven't been listening to Daphne Loves Derby's new material as much as their older albums, so hearing many of my familiar favorites made me a very happy girl.







Watching (part of) Daphne Loves Derby perform some of my favorite songs live, with me standing less than five feet away from them on stage, was a pretty surreal experience; their music played such an important role in helping to keep me sane during overwhelming times in high school that seeing the people responsible for the music I held so dear to my heart and hearing the songs come alive in a whole new way on stage that night meant so much more to me than words could convey.




Whenever I needed a quiet moment to think, a few minutes in between classes to crash in a corner of the library for a quick nap, or a little alone time to curl up underneath the awning in the art wing to shed a few tears, Daphne Loves Derby's music was right there at my fingertips. There were a few artists and albums in particular that I would not have been able to get through all the tough times in high school without, and Daphne Loves Derby's Acoustic EP was one of them.







The line to meet Kenny and David and to buy Daphne Loves Derby merchandise after the show was insanely long; by the time my roommates and I got kicked out of the staging area after some confusion, we were at the very end of an extremely long line that twisted around the entire open patio area of the Pub.

After chatting with the people next to us in line about how amazing the concert was for a few minutes, the concert coordinator came out and told us that Daphne Loves Derby could only stay until 11 pm and that he was sorry if we could not make it inside to meet them. The entire end of the line stared at him in a kind of shocked silence; it was already past 10:40 pm and the line of people in front of us seemed to grow three times longer the moment the coordinator made his announcement.




Instead of leaving (which was probably what the coordinator intended his message to inspire us to do), we held on to the glimmer of hope that we would make it in time to meet Daphne Loves Derby.

By the time the twenty minutes passed by, we were almost at the door to reenter the staging area. The security guards monitoring the flow of people in and out of the area let us in, and we were extremely thankful that Kenny and David did not leave at eleven, on the dot, as the coordinator had implied.

It may have been because we were at the end of a very long line of people who all swarmed around them after they had a stressful night performing a set without half of their band members, but compared to the other guys we met after the show that night, Daphne Loves Derby seemed very distant and cold.

I was pretty disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm on their part for interaction with their fans, but I did walk away with a signed copy of their Acoustic EP.







I was dying to buy a Daphne Loves Derby t-shirt, but I didn't have any cash on me; I was relying soley on my roommate's fat wallet to pay for band merchandise that night, and she did not have an extra $15 for me to borrow (on top of god knows how much I owe her now) for the shirt I was eying so longingly.

Altogether, I had an unbelievably amazing night at the Pub After Dark concert and I still can't believe that it was all FREE.

UCSD may not have a football team, but amazing FREE concerts, musicals, and other artsy events throughout the year? Way better than investing in any old football team (which would only bring happiness and excitement to the campus if it were Division I and actually good enough to win games anyway), in my opinion.