Victoria Essien

January 22, 2014

SOhO Transformed by Beat-Making Prodigies

By Victoria Essien

The Bay Area’s very own Charlie Yin, famously known as Giraffage, brought the heat to SOhO’s normally folksy atmosphere last Thursday night. The sold out show was packed with grown folk, college kids and molly-crazed...

October 11, 2012

Cool Openers Rock Velvet Jones with The Wombats

By Victoria Essien

Teeny bop fan-boys and fan-girls from as far as Los Angeles County invaded Santa Barbara Saturday night to see Liverpool’s finest, The Wombats, perform at Velvet Jones. The Britpop band was accompanied by fellow United...

September 27, 2012

Apple’s Quirks Entertain and Move at SB Bowl

By Victoria Essien

I’m not one for clichés, but Fiona Apple is proof that some people really never change. The eccentric ‘90s singer-songwriter took the stage to a nostalgic crowd Sept. 12 at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Though gaunt and s...

May 31, 2012

Beck and Devendra Banhart Charm SB Bowl

By Victoria Essien

Last Thursday night, it seemed that every middle-aged Caucasian person in Santa Barbara came out to see ‘90s alt-rock god Beck at the Santa Barbara Bowl. The Los Angeles-born, Grammy Award-winning multi-instrumentalist...

May 10, 2012

STRFKR Pleases Fans, Leaves Security in the Dark

By Victoria Essien

This past Friday, Portland natives Starfucker (or “STRFKR”) played a sold-out show in the Hub. Starfucker, which consists of band members Joshua Hodges, Shawn Glassford and Keil Corcoran, originally got together in 2...

November 17, 2011

Common: From the Hood to Doing Good

By Victoria Essien

One of hip hop’s most illustrious and conscious artists, Common, graced Campbell Hall’s stage Tuesday night as part of his book tour to promote his new memoir, One Day It’ll All Make Sense (titled after his third s...

October 27, 2011

World Champion A-Trak Entrances UCSB

By Victoria Essien

Five-time World Champion DJ A-Trak (aka Alain Macklovitch) graced the stage at the Hub last Friday night. The skilled turntablist began with a raunchy buildup giving the already hyped crowd (thanks to the opener, UCSB’...

June 2, 2011

“The Museum of Woman”: Where Art Comes to Life in an Inspiring Form

By Victoria Essien

When I heard “At the Museum of Woman, paintings aren’t just two dimensional beauties — here, they talk back!,” I imagined a less chaotic, feminist version of “Night at the Museum.” As part of her senio...

May 19, 2011

‘Hana Surf Girls’:I Felt The Ohana Love

By Victoria Essien

Many have seen “Johnny Tsunami,” “Blue Crush” or even more recently, “Soul Surfer,” and may be tired of the similar plot of “Oh no, something tragic happened. I must overcome it by winning this surf competi...

May 5, 2011

Goldenwest Review

By Victoria Essien

As I walked towards the end of the line at West Hollywood’s Troubadour, I was confused about what I was actually seeing. Was this a John Mayer show? It seemed that all of Los Angeles’ sex-crazed teenyboppers h...