Weatherbox on tour with Satan

Weatherbox founder Brian Warren explains why his fans would appreciate Entertainment Law, one of the three bands opening for him Sunday at the Ché Café.

“They have three ex-Boxists.”

There are three ex-members of Weatherbox, the local band that has been commandeered by the guitarist/singer/songwriter Warren for ten years.

Warren, 29, estimates there are 24 ex-Weatherboxers. “I have been very lucky to have had ten great drummers. Some of these songs were pretty strenuous.” He chalks up the lineup churn to basic laws of economics. “This is not the most lucrative industry to be in.”

Warren returns to UCSD’s Ché Café this weekend. “That’s where I started with my first band, Mr. Valentine. I was 15. The Ché is pretty central to everything I’ve been a part of. It’s pretty much the ultimate local place to see bands.”

Next came My American Heart (“a mix of emo and butt-rock”) before Warren launched Weatherbox in 2005.

Sometimes poppy, sometimes math-rock, Weatherbox was often tagged as indie-rock early on. “Although that phrase is pretty much meaningless now,” Warren says.

There have been three albums, three EPs, and numerous compilations on some six different labels.

Warren estimates there have been about 20 Weatherbox tours over the years, the most noteworthy being the summer of 2014, when the band was touring in support of their latest record, Flies in All Directions with headliner Finch. Satan stopped the tour in Kansas.

“There was a situation that came up where I had to pull out. It was very painful. I had to go to a mental hospital for a while.”

Warren says he ingested what he thought was LSD. “It did not agree with my psyche. I went completely schizo. I thought I had a nuclear bomb inside me and that band members were switching bodies and they weren’t the same people.”

Some bandmates grew hooves. “I saw Satan,” Warren says. Did Satan have Donald Trump hair? “No. It was very long. And he had horns. There was a lot of whooping. I don’t even think it was LSD. I think it was made by a mad chemist. The stuff you could get in the ’70s isn’t even around anymore.”

Warren and Weatherbox are working on a new full-length album to coincide with a March tour built around a SXSW showcase. Weatherbox is handled by New York agent Jason Parent of APA. Warren says years of Weatherbox tours have built up loyal followings in many U.S. cities.

“Actually we’re not loved as much in San Diego. When we go out and play in Philly, it’s always sold out. It seems like people go crazy in Jersey, New York, and Baltimore. Kids are more fickle in California.”

Weatherbox (including Scott Szikla, AJ Peacox, and Nick Brumme), Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects, Big Bad Buffalo, and Entertainment Law appear December 27 at UCSD’s Che Café.