Ready to Rock, Man

Ranchita Rocks took place September 28 through the 30th on Golightly Farms Ranch in Ranchita. The event was intended to raise money for lawyers to fight SDG&E's Sunrise Powerlink plan.

"The turnout wasn't what we expected, but there was still a nice turnout," says Rain Samuelson, one of the co-organizers who also served as stage manager. "I don't have any solid numbers, but I would probably say there were around 300 on Saturday. For me it's hard to judge exactly how many people were there [for the entire weekend]....

"This metal band showed up [on Friday night], and they're, like, 'Hey, all right, we're here, we're Flashburn.' And my first question was, 'Okay, who's the bass player, who's the drummer?'... 'Well, he got too drunk and couldn't make the gig, man.' 'What? So, you guys got no bass player?' 'No, but we're just gonna do it with the guitar player, dude -- he's ready to rock, man.'... They played [an entire set]....

"40 Cycle Hum came in a full-fledged fancy-ass tour bus. It was Friday night, during the treacherous weather. At first, the singer was, like, 'I'm gonna kick my label's ass for this gig,' but then they got onstage and started partying. The guitar player had just gotten out of the hospital the day before for a collapsed lung....

"The lead singer was, like, 'Who wants a shot? Get some liquor out of our bus!' And he was literally, like, 'Who wants a beer?' And pointed to every person in the crowd because it was cold and there wasn't that many people out there at that time, but there was still, like, 20 or more, and [he] gave everybody a beer that wanted one, did a shot with all kinds of people, kept doing shots, kept doing toasts and shots and giving out beers and invited everybody in the audience to come party on the tour bus afterwards."