Culture

Sacramento Kings documentary wins more film awards at Sacramento festival

2012-08-20T22:58:32Z

“Small Market, Big Heart,” a full-length documentary on Sacramento’s 26-year struggle to to get – and keep – the Sacramento Kings, earned two awards at the Sacramento Film & Music Festival Sunday.

“We were honored to be part of the festival, and we’re really excited about the awards,” said James Ham, one of the producers of the film.

The festival is submission-based, according to the festival website, and features films of all lengths from all genres. “Small Market, Big Heart” won both an Audience Award and a Jury Award at the multi-day international film festival held at the Crest Theatre in downtown Sacramento.

Ham and co-producer Blake Ellington shared the awards with the film’s director, Tobin Halsey.

The film recently won an Award of Excellence and Best Editing in the Documentary Feature category at the Los Angeles Movie Awards.

Ham said he is happy that the film has gotten some local recognition and some festival recognition, and he hopes that continues.

“We want as many people to see the film as possible,” Ham said Monday. “We want people to understand Sacramento and the fight to keep the team.”

The film can be seen in its entirely on YouTube, Ham said, and he and Ellington have submitted the documentary to a handful of other upcoming film festivals.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

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Best beers in America: What made the list, what it missed

2012-08-17T15:11:29Z

The Homebrewers Association recently released the 2012 Best Beers in America list and a Sonoma county beer, Russian River’s Pliny the Elder, took the top spot.

According to the association website, the list is based on votes cast by the readers of the association journal, Zymurgy, of their 20 favorite beers that are commercially available in the United States.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, a brewery out of nearby Chico, was the big winner as a far as number of showings on the Best List with five of its beers making the top 20.

Here’s the Top 10, as listed by the Homebrewers Association:
1. Russian River Pliny the Elder
2. Bell's Two Hearted Ale
3. Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA
4. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
5. Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale
6. Bell's Hopslam
7. Sierra Nevada Celebration
8. Stone Ruination IPA
9. Sierra Nevada Torpedo
10. North Coast Old Rasputin

Judging by the number of pubs, tap houses and beer-related events in the area, it’s safe to say that Sacramento is a beer town: We have beer and ballet, beer and film, beer and barbeque – the list goes on.

So, how does the Homebrewers Association list stack up with local beer aficionados?

Capitol Beer and Tap Room owner Ken Hotchkiss said his personal favorite beer on draft is the Franklin double IPA from Sutter Buttes Brewing, located in Yuba City – but the Franklin doesn’t appear anywhere on the Best List.

Sacramento seems to have a passion for smaller-batch, locally-brewed specialty beers, the kind that don’t make national lists, like the coffee-infused beer that recently came as a collaboration between Old Soul and Rubicon Brewing.

What would you put on the Best Beers in America list? Take our poll – and add new ones under the “other” option.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Supporting cast brings all the lightning to 'Grease'

2012-06-29T00:53:57Z

When the popular Broadway musical “Grease” rolled into Sacramento’s Music Circus for opening night Tuesday, the costumes were spot-on and the music was right, but it was the supporting cast that revved up the audience and stole the show.

The ensemble cast of 15 veteran stage actors, whose collective credits include everything from “Thoroughly Modern Millie” in regional theater to “Book of Mormon" on Broadway, took full advantage of every inch of the stage and walkways leading to and from the wings. Scenes were played in a variety of places in the theater – sometimes all at once.

For those unfamiliar with the Music Circus, it is a stage “in the round,” which means the audience encircles the players. The stage has a variety of moving parts allowing portions of the stage to raise and lower and spin so actors can be seen from all angles.

The abilities of the stage were especially helpful when one star of the show – an old ‘50s convertible with a jumpseat called Greased Lightnin’ – drove (yes, drove) out of the wings and onto the stage for a few key scenes and song and dance numbers.

But it wasn’t the car that stole the spotlight (although it definitely earned gasps of appreciation as it entered and exited the stage under its own power), and it wasn’t the familiar, sing-along-with-me musical numbers, either.

The highlight of this production of “Grease” came from the attention-grabbing performances of supporting cast members John Pinto, Jr (Doody), Keven Quillon (Roger) and Melissa Wolfklain (Jan).

Just hearing Pinto belt out “Those Magic Changes” is worth the price of admission. Pinto’s appearance in “Grease” was his debut at Music Circus and, if first impressions mean anything at all, this is one singer worth returning to the show to see again and again.

Quillon and Wolfklain were equally compelling as Burger Palace Boy Roger and Pink Lady Jan.

I know what you’re thinking: “Who?”

In the John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John movie version of “Grease,” Roger and Jan were the chubby couple, and Jan is probably best known for her chipmunk teeth-brushing bit at Frenchie’s pajama party.

In the stage version, Roger and Jan have only a few more lines than in the movie, and sing in a couple more songs but, on this stage, Quillon and Wolfklain made every word and hand-jive and two-step count.

They were enthusiastic in voice, energetic in movement and believable in their shared chemistry from beginning to end.

Regrettably, the same cannot be said for lead actors Brandon Albright (Danny Zuko) and Kirsten Scott (Sandy Dumbrowski) – at least not at the opening-night performance.

Both Scott and Albright have long lists of acting, singing and dancing credits including stints on Broadway, so their performances Tuesday may have been the exception to the rule of otherwise exceptional performances for the pair.

Still, the tall, lanky Albright seemed fairly noncommittal in both his role as lead rebel of the Burger Palace Boys and as nervous boyfriend to the virtuous Sandy. Albright can sing all right – he made that clear with “Alone at the Drive-in” – but he was lyrically lackadaisical through most of the songs and danced like he had somewhere else to be.

Scott’s Sandy was equally lackluster, although her half of “Summer Nights” was heartfelt. When she resisted Danny’s moves at the drive-in, Sandy’s distaste for being groped was certainly convincing, but for the most part, Scott seemed distant in her role as Sandy and the chemistry between the two leads left something to be desired.

In addition to Pinto’s voice and Quillon and Wolfklain’s energy, another standout performance of the night came when Teen Angel (played by Robert J. Townsend) tried to convince Frenchie to go back to high school with “Beauty School Dropout.”

Townsend’s voice was on pitch and smooth, encouraging the audience to sing along with the familiar lyrics. (“You think you're such a looker/ but no customer would go to you... unless she was a hooker!”)

The lingering applause at the end was well-deserved.

After the show, reaction from theatergoers (whose musical preferences went anywhere from Justin Bieber to Ginger Rogers) was generally positive.

“I really liked it,” said 12-year-old Isabella Wing. “It was funny.”

The best part for Wing? “Greased Lightning,” she said. “It was better than the movie because it was live.”

Rosemary Tremblay, 63, said the music and dancing were great, but the best part of the evening for her was the final number of the show, “You’re the One That I Want.”

“It was very energetic,” Tremblay said. “There was a lot of music, and that’s what we come (to Music Circus) to see and hear.”

“Grease” continues at Music Circus through Sunday. Tickets and show information can be found on the California Musical Theatre website.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

PHOTOS: Old Sacramento comes alive with Pacific Rim Street Festival

2012-05-21T13:03:11Z

The plink of a ukulele and the beat of drums filled the air when the Pacific Rim Street Festival took over Old Sacramento Sunday.

Despite temperatures reaching into the 80s, thousands crowded the streets and plank wood boardwalks from end to end of Front Street to enjoy the celebration of Asian and Pacific Rim culture at the annual street festival.

The day included a long lineup of events including live music, taiko drum demonstrations, arts and crafts booths and activities just for children.

A bevvy of pageant beauties paraded through the streets during the festival, each one a winner in the 2011 Miss Vietnam Sacramento pageant.

The festival is an opportunity for people to experience some of the tastes of Asian and pacific Rim culture, including grilled Thai specialties and handmade lumpia.

Everyone young and old joined in the celebration – some even dressed up for the occasion.

Celebrate Asian heritage at Pacific Rim Street Festival Sunday

2012-05-16T18:19:49Z

Colorful paper lanterns, mesmerizing taiko drums, and scrumptious, egg roll esque lumpia will all be on hand at the Pacific Rim Street Festival in Old Sacramento this Sunday

The festival, now in its 20th year, displays the richness and diversity of many Asian and Pacific Rim cultures. There will be music from India, Korea and China, dancers from Bali and Thailand and a wide variety of Asian and Pacific Islander arts and crafts to enjoy.

Food vendors will be on hand to tempt you with Hawaiian BBQ, Indian naan and delicious chinese favorites from festival founder Frank Fat’s restaurant.

The festival is held throughout Old Sacramento, and every street will offer another way to explore the Asian Pacific heritage.

The event will be held from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sunday in Old Sacramento and in the Westfield Downtown Plaza, and it is free to all ages.

For more information go to the WEBSITE.

More events this week:

May 18
Walking Spanish concert
@ The Torch Club

May 19
West Coast Brew Fest
@ Miller Park

May 19
Boulevard Park Green Thumb Brigade
@Boulevard Park

May 19
Armed Forces Day at the Aerospace Museum of California
@ McClellan Air Park

May 19
Community bike ride and underwear drive
@ 2197 Chase Drive Rancho Cordova

May 22
Sacramento Celebrates Harvey Milk Day
@ 1215 19th St.

Get Sacramento Press event picks every Thursday in our Go.See.Do newsletter. Sign up here:

Stiltwalkers, dancers make March Fourth Marching Band a sight to see

2012-05-02T01:43:41Z

Somewhere between the stilt-walkers, the horn section and the drum line, the members of the March Fourth Marching Band find a way to mix funk, jazz and burlesque into one spectacle of a show – and they’re bringing it all to Harlow’s Wednesday night.

March Fourth Marching Band – M4 as it’s come to be known by fans – is a self-styled, cross-genre musical extravaganza from Portland that boasts a roster of more than 30 members who rotate in the lineup for shows.

“It’s a spectacle, for sure,” stilt-walker and part-time band manager Nayana Jennings said Monday. “There’s something to watch, something to hear, and an interaction between the audience and the band that you don’t often see.”

The core touring group includes eight or nine horn players, five drummers and five or six stilt-walkers and dancers, all of whom make the stage and the dance floor their playground for every show.

Founders John Averill (bass player and bandleader), Nayana and her twin sister, Faith Jennings, Nathan Wallway (stilt-walker) and Dan Stauffer (cymbals) started the March Fourth project nine years ago for a small Mardi Gras party in Portland.

It morphed into something larger than life Jennings said, and now the band tours across the country 175 days out of the year, on average.

Describing the music – let alone the band itself – is a challenge: It’s an eclectic group of people playing an eclectic mix of sounds, with plenty of visual excitement thrown in.

“It’s such an assortment of things,” Jennings said. “We’re everything from rock to jazz to Bollywood to drumline.”

Jennings said the “marching band” portion of the name is more a tribute to the fact that they move on and off the stage, into the audience, than for being a uniform, precision group of instrumentalists.

“For us, it’s taking that regimented, militarist basis of marching bands and turning it on its head,” Jennings said. “We move in amoeba formation.”

The band’s costumes include old band uniforms that have been restructured to reflect a sexier, burlesque-ier style with plenty of lace and garters, fishnet and bustiers.

Some have called the band “the Mad Max of drumlines,” Jennings said – with a New Orleans brass band and neo-circus, vaudevillian atmosphere.

Bandleader John Averill said being part of March Fourth Marching Band is like “moving with a traveling party.”

All of the members of M4 collaborate to do pretty much everything for the band: writing and arranging their own material, designing and making all of their costumes, and choreographing their routines.

M4’s first album was a nine-track, self-titled studio production from 2005. Since then, the band has released three more albums – most recently “Magnificent Beast,” late last year – and a full-length live concert DVD from its 2009 anniversary show.

Musical influences for the band are all over the grid: the Beatles, Duke Ellington, Pink Martini – and even Cirque du Soleil, Jennings said.

Band members range in age from 23 to “50-plus,” according to Averill, and each person plays at least one instrument. Some play two or three.

Wednesday’s performance at Harlow’s will be the band’s second visit to Sacramento in its history, Jennings said.

Touring doesn’t pay a lot, Jennings said, so some of the band members started individual micro-businesses to supplement their income.

Band members recycle old sweaters and leather jackets into hats to sell and make jewelry from recycled instrument parts.

“It’s really great to see the creativity all of these artist have and are able to bring to the show,” Jennings said. “People can take a little bit of March Fourth with them and support the band. And nothing is made in China – these are items literally made on the tour bus.”

What does Averill see as the future for March Fourth?

“It involves us getting on television somehow,” Averill said. “A soundtrack or a cover – things you get when you have a real manager, which we don’t have.

‘The vision in my head is we become successful and make twice the money we are making,” he added. “That’s what everyone wants, right?”

March Fourth Marching Band hits Harlow’s, 2708 J St., at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets are $15 in advance HERE.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

First city park eligible for historical register

2012-02-24T01:38:58Z

William Land Park is eligible for listing as a historic district – making it the first Sacramento park eligible to be listed on its own merits, independent of its location within a neighborhood historic district.

The eligibility finding is the result of a recent landscape cultural survey conducted by independent researchers between April and December 2011.

City Councilman Rob Fong said the survey conclusions will be helpful in future planning for the city.

“The city and Land Park are well-served by having a document that will live on to the future and inform decisions that we want to make around the park,” Fong said Tuesday.

Researchers conducting the survey found that numerous features – including the design, land use and small-scale structures within the park qualify it for historical registry designation in the Sacramento register, the California register and the National register.

According to J.P. Tindell, park planning and development manager, historical research and review must be done before any improvement projects can be started in the park. Having a completed historical survey of the entire park at once will save time for groups that are anxious to get under way with projects because the need for doing one review at a time is eliminated.

William Land Park includes Fairytale Town, Funderland, the William Land Golf Course, and the Sacramento Zoo within its 238 acres of land.

The survey found that Fairytale Town and the entryway concession buildings at the Sacramento Zoo – which were built in 1927 – are also eligible for listing individually in all three historical registers.

The zoo as a whole does not qualify, however, because of the extensive renovations it has undergone over the years.

Although William Land Park is recommended as eligible for listing in three historical registries, in the report, staff did not recommend going forward with the listings because funding is not currently available for the additional research and documentation that would be necessary.

Sacramento has numerous historic districts that include some of the oldest parks, including McKinley Park in East Sacramento and Southside Park. Until now, a survey has never been done to find out if any of Sacramento’s parks would qualify for listing as historic resources.

The survey was commissioned on the 100th anniversary of Sacramento businessman William Land’s bequest to the city to acquire and develop a park bearing his name.

The $65,000 cost of the cultural evaluation and survey was paid for by The Land Park Fund, which is part of the initial bequest from William Land that is still under city management.

According to the evaluation report, William Land Park was designed as a combination of a “naturalist” park design – where park features are focused on preserving the natural character of the land – and “reform movement” park design, which focuses on using space for social and sports activities.

As city funds for park maintenance and improvement projects have dried up, volunteer efforts to keep city parks in good condition have increased, according to the staff report.

Parks Department staff member Daisy Mah works on gardening maintenance in the park along with volunteers who come to the park on a regular basis to weed, plant and help with the upkeep of the natural setting.

“I am happy that this park is being recognized for its historical and cultural significance,” Mah said Thursday.

“If you talk to any long-term residents of Sacramento, even if they don’t live nearby, they have a strong connection at one time or another with this park,” she said.

Tindell said the information gathered by the cultural survey will serve as a valuable resource for planning and improvement projects within the park.

“(It) is intended to establish a baseline understanding of the park’s cultural resources,” Tindell said Tuesday.

The survey findings will help volunteers and city staff complete projects with a better understanding of how to treat historic properties, Tindell said.

“This park gets so much use, and things need constant maintenance. (The survey) will help guide us to know how to go about repairing things and protecting the historical value,” Mah said.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Photo essay: Payphones – A thing of the past ...almost

2012-01-13T07:14:09Z

Once upon a time, you could find a payphone on nearly every street corner. Since the advent of the cellphone, however, payphones have gone the way of the dinosaur – but the evidence of a once-abundant service remains in the graffiti-laden shells of former phone booths scattered throughout the city.

Sacramento is no stranger to abandoned, vandalized or otherwise dysfunctional payphones, which raised the question – who maintains the city’s payphones and is the number dwindling? The Sacramento Press sought to answer that question with a bit of history and photos from around the city.

Historically, payphones were owned and maintained largely by telephone service provider companies, such as AT&T or Western Telecom.

As cellphone use increased over the years, phone companies started taking payphones out of service because they were not as profitable.

Now, the majority of payphones are owned by independent vendors who contract with service providers for the phone service and then pass the cost – along with a profit margin – along to business owners who want to provide payphones as a service to customers.

According to Maurice Chaney, Economic Development Department spokesman, the city of Sacramento does not own or maintain any public payphones.

Terrie Prosper, spokeswoman for the California Public Utilities Commission, said Thursday there is no legal requirement in the state for a city to own or maintain payphones for its residents.

Since there is no ownership reporting requirement either, Prosper said, short of physically counting each one – it is nearly impossible to estimate the number of payphones in Sacramento today.

The total cost of installing a phone and booth is approximately $1,000 each, according to Interstate Telecommunication owner Sandy Clay.

Clay said Thursday that her company spends roughly 5 percent of monthly revenue on repair and maintenance costs of the 60 or so phones her company owns in Sacramento.

“The vandalism is the worst,” Clay said. “Well, that and stealing the whole phone. And it happens all the time.”

Payphones are typically placed at mini-marts or gas stations and at “mom-and-pop businesses” in areas where low-income residents don’t have home phone service or can’t afford cellphones, she added.

“A good (earning) payphone in a good location will bring about $200 a month from the coin box,” Clay said, “and maybe $50 a month from our portion of long distance charges.”

Revenue from payphones comes from the coin box on the phone itself and from surcharges on long-distance and 1-800 phone calls, Clay said.

Vendors seek out business sites that will get a lot of foot traffic and pay the business owner a percentage of their revenue as commission for installing a payphone on their property.

The vendor is responsible for installing the phone booth or stand, Clay explained, and for maintaining or repairing the phones and equipment.

If a payphone isn’t making enough money, or if the business owner no longer wants the phone on the property, the vendor is responsible for removing the phone and equipment.

Clay said that the payphone industry was booming a few years ago – then, along came cellphones, and everything changed.

“It was not a surprise,” Clay said. “We could see the writing on the wall when cellphones started becoming more popular.”

Clay said that, initially, cellphones were not much competition for payphones because cellphones were expensive, and not many people could afford them.

Over the last few decades, however, as cellphones gained in popularity and became less expensive to own, the need for payphones declined dramatically.

“We expected business to slow down,” Clay said, “but the technology really took off. We didn’t expect business to slow so fast.”

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The SacramentoPress. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Crocker Art Museum $100 million expansion: one year later

2011-10-22T00:08:00Z

The Crocker Art Museum opened the doors to a new 125,000-square foot expansion of the original museum on Oct. 10, 2010. One year later, the museum has seen record numbers in attendance and successfully brought the past and the present together in one work of architectural art.

The original Victorian building that Margaret E. Crocker presented to the city of Sacramento in May 1885 has undergone numerous changes over the years, but none so dramatic as the $100 million, three-year project that visitors see now.

“The original building was the high style contemporary architecture of the day when it was built,” said Lial A. Jones, executive director for the Crocker Art Museum. “So is the new addition.”

Jones said the project architects, Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, did a “fabulous job” with the design that connects a 19th-century structure with a new-millennium stricture without losing continuity.

“They found ways of honoring the old with the new,” Jones said. “They used the rooflines and porches on the new building to echo the old building – but it doesn’t stand out (from the old section), it complements it.”

According to a recent press release, in the year since the museum expansion was open to the public, more than a quarter million visitors have come through the door.

In the year since the museum launched its Studio Art Program, 701 students have enrolled, including 213 children and 488 adults, the release also states.

Sacramento resident and Crocker member Mary Anderson and a friend visiting from St. Paul, Minn., Jean Wolf, went to the museum Friday to have lunch in the new cafe before exploring the vast expansion.

“We are members of the Crocker, but this is the first visit to the new part,” Anderson said. “We didn’t know what to expect.”

Anderson said she was dubious about an addition to the original museum structure.

“It’s more museum-like now,” Anderson said. “The lighting and the openness of the space – there’s more room for art. They were so confined for space before.”

Jones said such a reaction has been common among visitors to the Crocker over the past year.

“Times have changed, and so have people’s expectations,” Jones said. “The Crocker was built in the 19th century, and it was very much in the English gallery style of the time.”

Today’s Crocker, Jones said, is much more a “museum of today.”

The size and layout of exhibits allows for the traffic flow of larger groups of people, Jones said, and a variety of pathways have been created through the exhibits allowing people to choose their experience: Start with modern works and work toward the older pieces, or explore continent to continent.

The expansion more than tripled the museum's size, which is a good thing considering the total collection of artwork numbers a little over 15,000 pieces – and not all of that is on view at the same time.

“Perhaps 10 to 12 percent is on view at any given time,” Jones said.

In July, the Crocker Art Museum was awarded a federal Museums of America grant of $148,441 by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The grant money can be used for a variety of projects at the museum, including research, planning and new programs that support efforts to integrate new technologies, according to a press release from Congresswoman Doris Matsui.

“We’ve tried to make the best use of the new space and integrate it with the previous space in a way that makes sense,” Jones said. “Programs and activities are also an important part of what we do here at the Crocker.”

Admission to the Crocker Art Museum is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and college students, $5 for youths 7-17, children 6 and under and Crocker members get in free.

Memberships to the museum start at $65 for individuals and $85 for a family. Other membership levels are available – contact the museum for more information.

The Crocker Art Museum is located at 216 O St. in downtown Sacramento.

Melissa Corker is a Staff Reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Local musicians stage homecoming show

2011-06-13T23:05:23Z

Eleven weeks, 24 states and 53 shows after they pulled out of their Sacramento driveway, Adrian Bourgeois and Ricky Berger are home once again.

Bourgeois and Berger, close friends and self-described “musical co-conspirators,” spent the last two and a half months on tour, criss-crossing the nation from Oregon to Maryland and back again, taking their music to all points on the compass.

This weekend, they celebrate the end of their tour with a homecoming show at The Refuge, an all-ages club on L Street in Midtown.

“It was a wonderful experience,” Bourgeois, 23, said in a recent interview. “We are glad to be home, though.”

The two traveled in Berger’s Chrysler Town & Country minivan (affectionately called “Vanna White”), filling it with a variety of musical instruments “and lots of shoes,” according to Berger.

“Eighty percent of being a musician is hair and shoes,” Berger said with a laugh.

Planning for the tour began in late December and included arranging for accommodations across the country with a variety of family and friends – and the occasional benevolence of a acquaintance found on a website designed to put couch-surfers together with available couches.

“We really saw how generous people can be,” Bourgeois said. “We met a lot of people for the first time when we dropped in to sleep on their sofa.”

Both Bourgeois and Berger are talented and accomplished musicians in their own right (Bourgeois has two albums to his credit, and Berger is working on her second album this summer), and their musical styles are similar and strikingly different at the same time.

While they both have an acoustic, folk music undertone to their work, Bourgeois has a pop-music sound with a subtle Beatles influence. Berger, however (who plays no less than eight different musical instruments), has a style that evokes a smoky ’20s jazz club with a distinctly contemporary edge.

When they come together for a show, they each bring something different to the stage, making for an energetic and engaging performance.

“We haven’t written a single song together,” Bourgeois said. “(On the tour,) we played our own sets, and we also combined sets by switching off with each other every couple of songs.”

The mix worked, Berger said.

“The more time we spend together, the better we work together,” Berger said. “There’s a chemistry between us that helps when we get on stage.”

At some of the venues they were slated to play on the tour, they were met with a crowded house of appreciative fans; at other stops, they were lucky if the customers at the bar turned around to watch between sips of Miller Light.

No matter where they played, though, for Bourgeois and Berger it was always about the music, and it was easy to see when they struck the right chord with the audience.

“Once in a while, we’d play the same venue more than once and we’d get a good crowd both times,” Bourgeios said. “If people come out and see you play again, that’s how you measure progress toward success.”

Now that the tour is over and they’ve had a chance to reflect on the experience, Bourgeois and Berger said they are looking forward to putting on a great show for a hometown crowd in Sacramento.

“We want to (perform) at The Refuge because it’s an all-ages venue,” Bourgeois said. “Sacramento is really lacking in places that welcome everyone, so this is a logical choice for us.”

“We remember what it was to be under 21,” added Berger. “You can’t get in anywhere, but you still want to see a good show.”

Adrian Bourgeois and Ricky Berger will be on stage at The Refuge, 1723 L St., on Friday. The show starts at 7 p.m. and features the talents of Musical Charis and Autumn Sky. Tickets are $5 in advance, $7 at the door.

For more information, call 764-5598.