If there's one thing that The Sail Inn is famous for -- besides its granola-friendly jam-band sessions and ultra-irie reggae fest on Sundays -- its enormous musical repasts featuring local bands and DJs. The venerated Tempe venue is built for the task, given its amphitheatre in the back and a more intimate stage inside for more intimate viewing experiences.
And then there's the monthly Tempe Art A Gogh-Gogh sessions, which also adds a wealth of local crafty and creative types into the mix, as well as their wealth of oft-colorful works. Such a scene developed this past Friday during the least TAAGG shindig, which the Club Candids shutterbugs were in attendance at to catch and earful of music and eyeful of art.
See Also: - Club Candids: Tempe Art A Gogh-Gogh at Sail Inn (Slideshow) - Club Candids: "Harlem Shake" Dance Off at School of Rock - Club Candids: Mint Fridays
As soon as our feet carried us into the Sail's outdoor patio, we most immediately got an abundance of both in the form of local ensemble Crusher Sound System, which was doing their thing while occupying the amphitheare. Consisting of DJ extraordinaire Pickster One on a pair of Technics 1200s and Scottie White on the drums providing the beat and backbeat (respectively) while Adam "Dumperfoo" Dumper is on the live painting tip, Crusher mixes and mashes up visual and music elements in an extremely fly way.
Meanwhile, besides a slew of punky and funky patrons swaying to the sounds, a crew of three or four dudes - which we're pretty sure were acrobats or some similar sort of performers - rolled out a protective mat and began doing a series of running flips and other stunning tricks directly in front of the stage in flamboyant fashion.
The pigments and bodies being slung around weren't the only thing to be seen outside at the Sail. Other painters, sculptors, jewelry-makers, and photographers helped put the "art" in Tempe Art A Gogh-Gogh displayed and sold their wares at various tables while making deals and discussing their creative process. Our favorite piece of the evening undoubtedly had to be the intricate ink-and-paint portrait of Breaking Bad badass Walter White, who stared menacingly at us with his beady eyes. It creeped us out a little (but in a good way) and made us start jonesing for the upcoming season, which is sadly the final one for the epic AMC serial.
The capper of the evening, however, when Zero Zero took the stage to end the night with one of their typically stellar performances inside with vocalist Nicole Laurenne, Michael Johnny Walker, and Nick Ramirez rocking out with synth verve and serious musical swagger.
See more photos of Zero Zero performing, as well as all of the other action of Tempe Art A Gogh-Gogh by sifting through this week's Club Candids slideshow.