What's a girl to do when two of her favorite people are playing on the same night? Well, she's gotta prioritize, and then hope that the second priority is playing somewhere within driving distance on another night. Such was the dilemma I faced last Friday:

Todd Snider at the Troubadour.

Or Pete Yorn at the Wiltern.

Insert dramatic stager here.

Technically, I'd seen Pete Yorn most recently - but that was only for one song when he opened for the Dixie Chicks (we were delayed a bit at the will call window). I'd seen Todd Snider before, I believe over the summer, for his full set.

Pete won the Friday night show.

Oh, but I wasn't done yet.

A glance at Todd's touring schedule showed that he'd be playing at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach the day before Pete would be at the Wiltern.

I currently have Thursdays off, and have the luxury of being able to spend the day driving almost to San Diego for a show.

Sold.

I left around 2pm, thinking that maybe I'd find a hotel room and stay in Solana Beach for the night, before driving back up to LA on Friday. As I drove, it occurred to me that this was President's Day Weekend, and that maybe, maybe I'd want to consider driving back late Thursday night.

Once I'd made that decision, I could be a little more leisurely about my drive. I was past San Clemente by 5p, but since the doors didn't even open until 7p, I figured I had plenty of time to kill. Along the 5, I stopped at a viewpoint and watched the waves roll in and a military huey land and take off (I have a total thing for Marines).

Continuing down the 5, I stopped in Leucadia for dinner. I had margaritas and enchiladas at Davina's Cabo Grill & Cantina overlooking the ocean (I've never had cashews on chicken enchiladas before - but they were enjoyable), before continuing my drive to Solana Beach.

I found the Belly Up Tavern in Cedros' Design District. With still plenty of time to kill before the show, I found myself wandering around by the shops there, without actually going in them, because, as I discovered, everything in San Diego closes around 6p. Once I made my way into the venue, I decided that the Belly Up Tavern is the best place to see a show ever. As you can probably guess, it has a nautical theme, but it also has plenty of places to sit and watch a show (oh, and by the way, parking is free, too, quite the rarity in LA).

A performer I'd never heard of, Sara Petite, was opening for Todd. She was a bit self-conscious as she took the stage, but she shouldn't have been. The acoustics at the Belly Up carried her voice well, and her songs, while mostly based on people she knew personally, bore the stamp of a songwriter who knows how to relate to other people. Sonically, she reminded me of Nanci Griffith and Iris DeMent, and I bought her CD at the end of the night, but was disappointed that the CD's production had muffled many of her lovely vocals.

Todd Snider was his usual hysterical self. Like many Americana acts - a simple CD doesn't do justice to the live show. Accompanied only by his guitar, Todd doesn't deny that he's a political artist, but also doesn't shove it down your throat. He says, "I'm going to sing you some songs, and I'm not going to try to change your mind about anything," but Todd's logic is so compelling, you almost gotta. "Seems to me the people who are worried about gay marriage are people who've got nothing else to be scared of," Todd comments. Todd's pretty opinionated, but he doesn't preach about it - he sings about it, and lets his artistry do the talking for him. I think this crowd appreciated that, but it didn't seem like they gave Mojo Nixon the same reception when he joined Todd for his encore, and started screaming "The war is bullshit! The surge is bullshit!" Regardless, I do think they appreciated Todd, as was evidenced by the crowd at the merch table following the show, which sold Todd Snider CDs, poster, floppy hats (yes, I bought one), and paintings by Todd’s wife.

Driving back, I called my partner-in-crime for the Pete Yorn show the following night, and told her that if we couldn’t get tickets for Pete, we had to see Todd again Friday night. She said she already had tickets for Pete, but she appreciated my back-up plan.

Pete was great, too, by the way. After his show, I went on amazon and bought the Pete CDs that I didn’t have.

But Todd. Yes, Todd.