Jonah Bayer is a music journalist, plays in the band United Nations, co-hosts the Going Off Track podcast, and co-created the web series Sound Advice With Janessa Slater.
What was the food highlight of your year?
I took a family vacation this year to Santibel Island, Florida. There is not a lot to do there other than lie around and you could get a dozen gulf oysters at most places for a quarter of what they would cost in New York City. I ate a lot of oysters down there, like, a lot. Oh also my sister caught a fish (I think it was a trout) and we took it to a restaurant that night and had them prepare it. That was a highlight, too. This story probably would have sounded a lot cooler if I had caught the fish but everything I caught was either too small or got away. Story of my life.
What was the music highlight of your year?
This year my band United Nations played Fest again and I was lucky enough to get to see the Marked Men when they performed at Bo Diddley Plaza in between our soundcheck and set. The Marked Men are one of my favorite bands and almost never tour anymore so it was a real dream getting to witness how tight and solid they were live. They also closed with "Fix My Brain" which is probably one of the most perfect rock songs I'd ever heard. I'm sure if we had got in early enough the previous day when the Descendents played that would have been on this list as well but even though we were only down there for one day I still got to see The Melvins, Frameworks, Whores, Hot Water Music and a ton of other great acts.
Was there a moment when food and music came together in a memorable way?
We did a west coast tour with a band from Los Angeles called Silver Snakes in November and they managed to know about every cool coffee shop or brewery in every single city. It was real amazing to get to hit some of the best spots in both of these categories and get to sample everything that they had to offer, even if it meant showing up to the shows extremely late in most cases. I'd also say getting fish tacos in Berkeley the day we played 924 Gilman was a huge highlight as anytime I have a chance to eat Mexican food on the west coast, it's a real treat.