The COMPASS: San Diego, CA

San Diego

San Diego

By Little Hurricane

We are Little Hurricane, we’re a rock and roll band and we love San Diego, California. We are a duo, currently finishing our third full-length album. We met a few years ago on Craigslist and have traveled all over the world since. Over the years we’ve gotten to see some amazing places but we haven’t found a more scenic and peaceful place than San Diego. SD is more than just tacos and surfing. There are a lot of transplants here, so it’s sort of become a melting pot for musicians and musical tastes. With dozens of small venues and clubs, there are plenty of stages to start on and eventually grow into. We love this city so much we’ve decided to share a few of our favorite spots.

The Casbah is probably the most iconic small venue in San Diego. So many legendary and local acts have played this room that it just oozes history. The club itself resembles a basement, with a smoking patio and backroom for pool. The owner, Tim Mays, has been a staple in the San Diego music scene for decades. Whenever we’re playing at home, we prefer to play multiple nights at the Casbah rather than playing larger rooms for one night.


Balboa Park is a beautiful spot that includes 1,200 acres of land. Right next to downtown, it’s a great place to bring friends or find solitude on your own. We love it for frisbee, bike riding, picnics, and also for mediation, or songwriting.

+ Learn more: Whether you’re recording your first demo or a new album, make it sound professional with our free course Demo Recording 101!

Denver indie-pop duo Tennis at Soda Bar. Image via the San Diego Reader.

The Soda Bar is the first place we ever performed as a band. It’s a great spot to catch up-and-coming touring acts, but also one that hosts many local nights of music. There’s always plenty of local musicians hanging out here, so it’s a great place to network as well.

Le Mobile (Carlsbad) is a mobile recording studio in northern San Diego. In our very early days, we would practice in the warehouse here. The studio itself is located inside a truck trailer built in the ’70s. You can arrange for a tour of the truck, or find it parked outside arenas or awards shows recording live sound. We have hired the truck to record local shows for us in the past, and also use it for mastering our records.

91X is a San Diego radio station that truly supports local music. Since the antenna is located in Mexico, it’s a more powerful signal that reaches both north and south of the city. The station is a great one to tune into to hear new music and ’90s favorites, and they are always hosting fun and free events throughout the city. They are one of the first stations that supported our music, and have continued to do so throughout the years.

+ Read more on Flypaper: “How to Get Your Music Played on SiriusXM (and Local Radio, Too!)

Kobey’s Swap Meet is a great place to spend a Saturday afternoon. You can find anything here, from misprints from Urban Outfitters, to knock off handbags, to antiques. We actually bought an old dresser here before our first show and turned it into a speaker cabinet that has traveled all over the world with us and is featured on our album covers. You can literally get lost in the rows and rows of stuff. A highlight for us is the occasional blues band that plays here. Look for the stacks of pots and pans assembled into a drum kit!

Bar Pink

We could never make this list without including Bar Pink!! Located on 30th street in North Park, Bar Pink is known for its pink elephant theme, great beers, and most importantly FREE MUSIC. We have played a few surprise shows and they have been some of our greatest memories as a band.

That’s it for us, hope to see you all in San Diego when you come touring through!

Interested in hearing more about the sounds of cities from the artists who love them? Catch up on the full COMPASS series here.

Little Hurricane is a dirty blues/rock band from San Diego, CA. Their album Gold Fever is out now via Death Valley Records. Catch them on tour in your area soon! 

 

 

 

 

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