archive seven

June 28th, Erase Eratta, The Black Heart Procession, The Ex at the Great American Music Hall...

We arrived at the venue in just enough time to catch the last two songs of Erase Eratta who were playing their first show of their US tour. Fuck those girls are so great I can't stand it!They play this synth version of songs that are somewhat reminiscent of The Need, except their songs are a bit weirder. Jenny (who used to be in the Subtonix) has an awesome voice too, and their overall sound reminds me of birds in the hills. See them if you have a chance on this tour.

The Black Heart Procession were suprisingly entertaining. They sound like a gothic version of Air Supply.

Goddddddddammn, the Ex are fucking annoying! I find it hard to believe that someone like myself would enjoy the gothic doom that is "The Black Heart Procession" in favor of The Ex, but, I really can't think of a more substandard band than the ex (unless one considers Fugazi, who obviously stole the entire concept of their music from the Ex). A worse band musically would be extremely hard to find if the listener had actually tried to listen to the Ex first... The dude singer was CRAP. the chick singer was even worse GRANOLA CRAP. The new CD is complete garbage, the stage show was so contrived that I can't even describe the utter torture that was went through by some of the fans... The best part of the Ex's set was the end, made obvious by the amount of grumbling, gripes, and people leaving in the middle of their incredibly slow boring set of euriopean garbage music.

I really have NEVER seen a band play live as bad as the Ex.

June 23rd-24th, The B-52's and Blue Period at the San Francisco Pride Parade 2001...

Well the first night was a brief appearance at Club Universe, San Francisco's most annoying gay super disco, and might I say that the event wasn't very special. Aside from the hordes of short gay Asian boys dressed like gangsters, gay scenesters, and rent boys who had flooded the San Francisco area for the yearly pride parade. There wasn't much happening. Yarra-Du-Jour and myself slipped past all the heavily greasy and sweaty man flesh towards the front of the stage with nary a second to spare to catch the masters of quirky pop, and boy did the B-52's look like they had just disembarked from the train or what? They sang six songs and were quickly spirited away without the benefit of doing even one encore. A disappointment, but the pics were great... More on that later.

The next day I packed up my day gear, stopped to get a beer and headed over to Civic Center at around one o'clock so I'd be able to scope out the scene and booths and possibly get a promised media pass which lay in wait for me. After 3 hours of searching for the damned media booth, I gave up on the pass and quickly snuck backstage with a bevy of freaky looking people who I later figured out were with San Francisco's most obvious glamrock sensation, Blue Period. Highlights of the day included running into a few pals for a second during the B-52's and getting to watch them perform Planet Claire in all their glory. Low Point of the day was loosing my camera, but luckily I had taken the much cherished memory card out just before the camera was misplaced, so sometime in the near future the pics will be posted for the likes of any watchers of this site. Oh, and Blue Period put on another good show for their fans, but they play nearly every event in the city, so if you live here you know that already.

Here's pictures from the dykemarch: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/isptemppicture/dykemarch01/

Pictures of the B-52's and Blue Period at the Parade bandstand: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/gaypride01/

June 22nd, Los Federales at the Covered Wagon's Early Show...

You should have been there. Drunken NorthCoast Punklist people, a visit from industrial luminary Kyron5, and loud snotty punk rock music from Arizona. How could such a show go wrong in any way? Check the pictures and see for yourself!

http://www.atakra.com/pictures/isptemppicture/losfederales/

June 15th-17th, Libertatia! (Punk Festival)...

To make a long annoying story short, we arrived at 8:00 Friday night to find a police roadblock. It seems that the police thought that kids with funny looking hair and ripped up clothes could get dangerous or something (ignoring the fact that there were valid permits and even an EMT on the staff of volunteers. So us, The Phantom Limbs, some other bands, and some kids from San Jose, Nevada City, and LA decided to camp out on a nearby hill and then head off to a huge public area to camp at, as did tons of other punk people. So essentially instead of having a bunch of punks rampaging in a confined area, there were punk rock kids camped out in tiny enclaves up and down a 50 mile area. Had fun too, lots of beer, food, and water fun, but no live bands...

Oh well, it could have been worse, here's the pictures...

http://www.atakra.com/pictures/libertatia01/

June 13th, FOETUS and Blectum From Blechdom at Slims...

I am in love with Blectum From Blechdom. Two Macs, a handheld keyboard/guitar synth, and one amazing girl (where was the other?) who makes poignant, yet very funny random points with the verbal abuse she heaps upon the male psyche. The music is somewhat random, yet mostly has a super-crazy industrial overtone, even though it seems to be pieces of Casio keyboard rhythms and odd samples sounds. And the girl dances too! Why has she not put out a record yet! She would be perfect in a roundtable battle of the bands with the Sixteen's, The Centimeters, and PuffyAmiYumi... With the looser (obviously PuffyAmiYumi) getting beheaded after being forced to yell "Akira," just like in the movie. See one of Blectum From Blechdom's future performances before they get Laurie Anderson Disease.

So before the show I ran into Kyron5 and Mikey-Wikey after they had finished their interview with Jim Thirwell for the upcoming Industrial Nation Magazine (yes, it's in the process of being resurrected), and Mikey was positively glowing! Unfortunately Kyron5 had to miss the show, in order to prep for a crucial job interview the next day, but I told her that I'd try to capture the moment in words for her... A big plus of going to this show was the unexpected run-in I had with Rhiannon and an ex-coworker from my days working for CBS TV, it's good to see that people can get the hell out of Humboldt County and do productive stuff.

Admittedly I stopped collecting and even listening to FOETUS after about '87 (when I think Jim was at his peak with that project), but this show proved me wrong. Jim is still on top as far as FOETUS is concerned. He played plenty of new material off of the new 'FLOW' release, and I must say that it is indeed some of the best music I've heard all year. Pounding drums, stellar samples, poignant lyrics, and a crowd that was practically begging for more (It's a shame that the promotion was somewhat lacking, but that's another story)... Jim spent the whole evening flailing about the stage in a style that is not unlike what "superstars" do in a stadium show, and he had the crowd eating out of his hand. His keyboardist was totally on top of the situation and really, I can't think of any big-name band that has entertained me as much since January. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take pictures (I probably could have, but the effort was a bit much). But if you have a chance to see FOETUS during this tour, do it at all costs!

June 8th, Phantom Limbs, Subtonix and Captured By Robots at the Covered Wagon...

After getting some grub with Birthday-Boy Trevor at some overpriced annoying diner in SOMA, we walked over just in time to see the entire Captured By Robots set. J-Bot has totally revamped the cast of characters so that they are fully automated in synch with each other, freeing up his legs and arms for more rockstar stances and guitar solos, all the while getting chastised by the robots for the filth that he is. New songs include a Frank Sinatra hit, and a bot that I don't remember seeing before, made of hoopty drum. All in all the set was enjoyable, but I miss the good old days of seeing J-Bot move the robots with his sheer willpower. Captured By Robots is a band that everyone should see twice in their lives.

Next up was the Phantom Limbs in their last performance in SF before the horror known as Libertatia, and judging from the crowd response (including Jello Biafra, some super-hairy hesher, and a couple of industrial kids I recognized from some of the industrial shows of recent mention) The Limb's September tour will be totally incredible! If you get a chance to see them on their first tour, don't pass it up cause before you know it they'll be headlining stadium shows with Night Ranger! Ryan has this propensity to smear odd looking liquids (tonight's was white) all over his scrawny body, making him look like a terror-plagued kabuki doll. Their set was awesome, featuring all the favorites that they've been recording for the August 13th Alternative Tentacles release.

Intermission was spent at some Irish bar up the street, where I had the rare pleasure of seeing Trevor play agro-pool with his dad and some bike messenger, who also had his birthday on that day... I spent most of the time talking with Yarra-Du-Jour and James from the North-cal punklist.

Finally at about 11:00 we headed back to the CW Saloon, where I found out that my friend Debbie (another Humboldt County transplant) was working the door and being the barback for the evening! It's great seeing people after years of no contact, I called some mutual friends to tell them that she was doing great in the SF metropolis, then I eyed the fashion sense of Jello Biafra for a while (where on earth does that man shop at???).

The Subtonix last show before their tour was indeed a great sight to behold! Cookie and Jessie Panic started the set with the song I call "that song that has no tempo". And while I prefer all their other songs, I must say that their set was overall incredible, including a rare occurrence of macho pit action (who ever would have thought we'd see that at a Subtonix show?). So their music must even speak to the masses on a macho level too, pretty good for four chicks with a sax and synth. As the night progressed, the crowd got more and more intoxicated, leading up to the final glorious Subtonix song, followed by what seemed like an incredibly quick switch to a gay disco. That's when I left, but not before witnessing an unnamed friend incorporate pouring beer into her hair as a sassy dance move.

May 27th, Ogre and Cevin Key - ohGr - at the Fillmore with a brief but fun intro by Jim Rose...

Jim Rose was brilliant as always as he shamelessly plugged his upcoming show at the Covered Wagon and introduced his wacky earlobbed mutant friend who swung stuff from his huge pronounced earlobes, but ohGr... What a disapointment. How can I put this lighty? Seeing the remains of Skinny Puppy play as this incarnation was like a Bauhaus fan seeing Love and Rockets and comparing the two. I know that Ogre has to work at a bookstore in Hollywood these days, but the show was still minimal in the realm of shows. Frankly, BABYLAND puts on a better show and their music has more meat. I actually liked the Welt release and think that the music is somewhat solid for the pop music that it is, but it's painfully obvious that Ogre is looking for pop stardom. The show started out promising enough, an interesting beginning set and a decent ending, but the 20 minutes in between could have been cut out completely in my opinion. Ogre was wearing Front 242's camo ensemble, and who are the other guys in the band? The best part of the show was Cevin Key's drumming.

May 20th, 400 Blows and the Subtonix and not The Pattern at Mission Records...

After getting an early morning wake-up call from Yara-Du-Jour, we headed out on the quest to find the perfect Sunday morning Mimosa, which ended up being at her friend's restaurant on Valencia Street. After drinking a few of those, hitting up Aquarious Records (where I scored a pristine Executive Slacks EP), we headed to Mission Records just in time to catch the heartthrobs, the Subtonix and the same band that we had been talking about all morning, LA's 400 Blows.

The Subtonix were unfortunately working with their new PA, so at first the keyboards were a bit overwhelming, then later on the main vocals were cutting in and out, but overall their set wes pretty fantastic. Noteable songs include both of Cookie's songs (with Jessy Tonic on Drums) and the popular song that Jessy Trash sings. Jessy Tonic was awsome in her vocals tho, so overall the set was pretty good (technical errors suck). See the Subtonix on their upcoming tour!

400 Blows brought the crowd to a heightened pitch of excitement! They are so fucking awsome in their execution of each song, that even my friend Trevor's dad was rocking out to their set! The bassist and drummer are so tight when they play that the ending result is nothing less than spectacular and very crowd pleasing. They were SO good that I missed the entire set of The Pattern because no band could top 400 Blow's performance as far as I was concerned.

Pics to the best bands at the show can be found at: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/400blows_missionrex/

May 19th, Strychnine and 400 Blows (I missed the Fleshies and Squat didn't play) at the El Rio...

I love 400 Blows, but since I seem to keep missing them everytime they play because of weird circumstances, I was dead set on making it to this show. Luckily even tho I got there late, we got to see their full set because Squat had cancelled for some reason (which sucks because I really like Squat too). So 400 Blows played a bunch of songs I hadn't heard and their drummer is completely out-of-control in a good way. They played a really tight set, alternating in their was between short taut rifs and pounding speedy craziness! I talked to the singer after the set and he told me that they will have 100 copies of their latest release available on their website soon! Get samples of their music at http://www.mp3.com/400blows/ or go to their website immediately and buy their CD from their site or Total Annihilation Records! Photos of the show follow this review...

Strychnine is completely brilliant too, I hadn't realized that the singer used to be in Capitol Punishment until I finally was able to track down their website at www.strychnine.net. But that and the rest of the bio that they have there got me to thinking about how all the previously related bands' music fit into the scheme of how Strychnine sounds these days. They aren't the fastest band, but they are still really fucking good. They're heading off on a European tour in two weeks, so if anyone off of the continental US chances upon one of their shows, don't hesitate to check them out!

Pics of both bands can be found here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/strychnine01/

May 13th, Victim's Family, Slim Cessna's Auto Club, Dead And Gone, The Pattern and The Phantom Limbs at the Alternative Tentacles Showcase in the Great American Music Hall...

Arrived at the venue with a few minutes to spare, so I did a little people watching before the phenomenal Phantom Limbs set. Ryan Hopeless got on stage looking labout the same color as cheap balogna casing and proceeded to sing an incredibly awsome set, including a Screamers cover, and lots of new material. But the most striking part of their set this time was the wide array of stage antics that he proceeded to dazzle the crowd with. He handed out various pills to the awaiting crowd, smeared himself with some sort of white substance, doused himself in Wesson Oil, jumped into the audience, and was a general nuisance throughout the entire set. It was one of the greatest band sets I've ever seen! Their new LP is available in September, check it out then! See the pictures at the end of this review for images of the spectacle!

I missed the Pattern because drinks were cheaper at the bar down the street, but heard that they sounded like a vintage Rolling Stones cover band. My friend's exact quate was, "The Pattern has a very simple pattern..."

Got back just in time to catch the entire Dead And Gone set and they totally blew me away too! They played a lot of songs off the TV Baby LP and a bunch of the newer stuff that I hadn't heard yet which was pretty awsome. They were incredibly nice after the show too, it's nice to see bands that have been around so long being productive after the Creeps on Candy hiatus. I bought all the stuff they had for sale after the show and made a mental note to see them again really soon.

I was initially sceptical about Slim Cessna's Auto Club, but they totally blew me away. They play positively brilliant, twisted, strange country and western--soundtrack sick-track music that is catchy as hell. And the only weird part is Slim's gold teeth! I'd like to hear the story about that. Anyway, they totally rocked in a country sort of way, and made me a convert, although you'd be hard-pressed to see me in a cowboy hat.

So I managed to catch a few songs by Victim's Family, and I think they were good, but I was getting drunk and restless so I decided to leave while the going was good, totally missing Jello's song with them in the process. Oh well, you can't win them all...

View the pics at: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/alteracles01/

May 5th, Shikabane, Artimus Pyle, and Harum Scarum at Mission Records...

Well after a hard night of serious carousing, I awoke to a phone call from Yarra-du-jour, inviting me to cook her breakfast and scan the SF record shops for a birthday present for Mike Klossoff of Phantom Limbs fame. What a deal! So I popped some eggs in the trusty backpack and headed off to Castle Du-Jour. But horrors!!! Once I got there, I'd pretty much decided that a trip to the corner diner to drink champagne was going to win out over any cooking on my part (whew!). Once there we pondered our options for the wonderful cinco de mayo day that lay ahead and decided that going to see Japanese heartthrobs Shikabane and Portland's femme-fatale supergroup Harum Scarum was the order of the day.

After getting the list of bands that were going to play from Marcus PiratePunk, we decided that we had just enough time to go feed my friends cats and drink all the liquor in their well-stocked bar, so we sacrificed seeing Shotwell for this (and Sacrilicious never showed!).

Three drinks later we re-descended upon Mission Records, only to realize that we'd completely missed Harum Scarum, a point which was loudly voiced by multiple other people who had just arrived to see them and had failed! So now we were incredibly disappointed, but got to see the entire set of Artimus Pyle, who always put on an incredible set, and today's show was no different. I was so entranced by the singer and his newly found baldness that I didn't even take pictures of them, FUCK! So in-between Artimus's set and Shikabane we spent a while sitting in the incredibly entertaining Mission Records storefront examining Ted Nugent CDs and watching the odd collection of queerpunks, punk lesbian chicks, annoying straight-edge boys, and defunct band alumni.

Shikabane was pretty awesome. I prefer their earlier more punk stuff and despite the fact that they played a ton of that material, I was super disappointed by their recent lean toward the black metal type sound that is apparent on their more recent releases. So I endured an awesome short set of their punk stuff, but when it seemed that they were heading into the newer crap, I grabbed Yarra-du-jour and we headed off into the sunset... Literally. I did manage to catch a few prime Shikabane moments throughout the evening... Check them out here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/shikabane01/

And I must say that the Shikabane Merch chick was one of the most friendly, personable, awesome people I talked to through the course of the entire afternoon. Someone needs to hire her for public relations because she was SO sweet and SO cute that I bought 2 7" records and a T-Shirt. Nice merch people are the best, something that should be laerned by some of the industrial promoters in SF!

April 28th, The Oozzies and The Crosstops at the Pound...

OK, I don't normally go to these cowpunk type of shows because I got burned out on them when I first moved to the city, but when Echo and Monterey Mark breezed into town and offered me a ticket to Iggy Pop the next night, I thought that I might be able to deal for a while. I'm totally glad I went too... We picked up Yarra-du-Jour and headed to the remote club called The Pound and checked out the festivities. In comparison to the Chaos UK show there the week before, it was pretty clear that nothing was going to be as crowded which was a plus, and I met a bunch of people there, including The Groper Neal from the Band Hookey, who gave me a promo CD of his new release (he used to be Hock-A-Loogie). So that was cool, but also as the evening progressed I also talked to this nutcase we called spider girl and the singer of The Oozzies, who was super nice and happy to let me take pictures (see end of review for that).

So I totally missed any of the other opening bands, opting tio drink on the hidden patio area that the Pound has set up (It's decievingly hidden, tons of tables and chairs and even outdoor porta-potties). So even when The Crosstops started, I barely caught the end of their set. They are more country than I remembered from the last time, but still put on a good show.

The Oozzies just plain rocked out! The singer (Chicken Man) had all sorts of crazy stage antics involving chicken (like having Monterey Mark tickle his nuts with a chicken bone) and was having a great time playing the band's personal brand of punk music, sort of like the Oppressed Logic folks. Then there were the backstreet boy twins in the band and the "angry mom." I'll let the pictures detail the bulk of the review, but lets just say that these guys are totally funny live.

See the pics of the evening here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/oozzie01/

Postnote: I never got to see Iggy Pop the next night, but that's cool. I heard the show was awsome, but the scalpers were making upwards of 100 bucks outside!!!

April 27th, Atom and his Package, The Phantom Limbs, Har Mar Superstar, and the Frisk at Gilman Street (ugh)...

OK, I don't go to shows at Gilman Street for the following reasons: 1. No beer, 2. The membership there sort of sucks, I pay it, but it still sucks, 3. The trek to get there by BART is out of hand, 4. You always have to leave early if you don't have a car or live in San Francisco because BART has completely ridiculous run-times on the weekends.

With that being said, I headed to the show with Yara-du-Jour, Trevor, and Zo at about 8:00pm. We arrived just in time to see the last song of Jessie Luscious' new band The Frisk. Totally pissed because we had missed nearly everything (strike one for Gilman Street, the one song I caught sounded great, punk, but not as boring as the Criminals last album), we all headed across the street to drink a beer and line our bellies with some overpriced bar food from the crystal cavern (Pyramid Breweries). Don't ever eat there, the food is simply CRAP. Got back to Gilman and realized that we had completely missed Har Mar Superstar (strike two for Gilman Street). Pissed off again, myself and Trevor headed out to try to score a twenty so I could get the new Atom and his Package Album on vinyl, but ALL the ATMs in the area close at 11:00pm (strike three for Gilman Street). FUCK, will this night ever end?

Got back to Gilman Street and caught another brilliant performance by The Phantom Limbs. They play Dark gothic rock with crazy keyboards, and they just released a new split 7" with the Fleshies. The song that stood out for me was the rather subdued tribute that Ryan Hopeless sang about his friend who "is trying to kill himself with heroin right now." Buy their stuff at their website, it has to be heard to be believed! Look for their new album sometime in the coming months on Alternative Tentacles, same for the Fleshies.

Atom and his Package finally came onstage, but this time around he has no package, instead he brought his portable karaoke machine. He was still funny tho even tho we had to leave to walk the mile to the BART station after only 5 songs off his set (strike 4 for Gilman Street). His best new song has to be heard with the story about how it was created, "Shopping Spree." It reminds me of living in a boring ass town in Humboldt County and having to find something fun to do. That song in itself is worth the price of the entire album. Atom, come back soon.

Here's the pics from the show, heavy on The Phantom Limbs, but light on Atom and his Package: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/atompackage01/

April 21st, Chaos UK, 46 Short, and Oppressed Logic at the Pound, Nikki Sudden at the Covered Wagon...

Went to SKOT's haus for a bit to wait for a crew of people to show up and figure out how to get to the Pound, it's a trek to get there! Finally found a ride with Matt of the Scurvy Dogs and headed to south San Francisco to check out the show. Got there and realized that there were no ins-n-outs, so we rested for a bit at the park and admired the glorious smoke stacks of some industrial building across the steaming cesspool that is somehow called part of the bay. I got in just in time to see 46 Short who were a really energetic band from down south. They reminded me of early DI and other southern California bands of that same skate/surf background. The singer was really nice too after the show. Somehow I missed Oppressed Logic, and Chaos UK were boring in my opinion, more of the same old same old with an emphasis on the punk fashion. So I hung out outside with this girl who turned out to be Adrienne from Oppressed Logic. She intro'd me to a few other people and we just sort of talked shit for a while. I must see them play sometime soon, they seem pretty fun and not all hung up on the politics that I see clouding people's minds here in the bay area. Them's fun people.

After the show, myself and Yara-Du-Jour hitched a ride with this nice Oakland punk named Trey to check out Nikki Sudden at the Covered Wagon. The DJ music was mostly seventies era Glam rock, so we thought it might be fun, but I was immediately bored/tired after 5 songs off of the Nikki Sudden set, all Glam, but no real energy in my opinion, so I headed home.

April 14th, El Dopa, Bottles and Skulls, Our Lady of Napalm, and Cuervo at the Covered Wagon (Scott Alcoholocaust)...

After trying to find people who were going to this show instead of the Oakland Gertrude show, I gave up and headed to the Covered Wagon at about 9:00, just in time to catch the full set by Cuervo, who didn't really impress me. They were a good opening band I guess, but they were somewhat unmemorable besides sounding a lot like Black Sabbath. Paul of Cuervo recently told me that their cancellation days earlier of the show at the SF Eagle was due to there never being a "100% confirmation" that they would play that show. He then went on to tell me that Cuervo actually is Black Sabbath in disguise and that "this is all just practice for our annual "Ozzfest" "final tour" event, where tickets are a modest $75 each for a spot on the lawn at shoreline." Good luck with Shoreline Paul, I'll totally buy a ticket when that happens and thanks for the bandlink!!! Actually I want to see them again and urge people to check them out or at least to listen to the songs they put up on the Cuervo MP3 Site!

Our Lady of Napalm was girl garage rock that gave me a good excuse to rack up points on the only working pinball game at the CW (I won 4 games throughout the evening, SCORE!). The girls are great musicians, but garage rock is annoying.

Bottles and Skulls are fast! They have this sound reminiscent of early LA punk stuff, somewhat like The Dickies, even though they seem to be from Florida. I actually enjoyed their set so much that I took pictures of them at the last minute after suffering some indecision on whether or not I was going to. I'd suggest that people go see one of their upcoming shows, you can find the info on that HERE. Pictures of them are at the end of the review. Special thanks to Scott Alcoholocaust for booking them instead of a tired old retro-crusty band!

El Dopa is the best! They broke up nearly three years ago after somewhat being forced to change their name to 1332, but I guess that's old news, although I did spend a bit of time making sure that they were the awesome Oakland band instead of the sad sack East Coast band before I showed up at the CW. They have the same amazing original lineup, although I had to ask someone about that because every time I've seen them in the past, I've always been too drunk to recognize anyone besides Greg (from Grimple), who I've talked to more on a "we're both from Santa Fe," sort of thing. But their music has always affected me on a personal level and its clear from the turnout of crustypunks that they're still really popular, even after the long hiatus. Well here's hoping that they play for a long time, and see their shows if you can, they are fucking brilliant! Here's the pics from the show:

http://www.atakra.com/pictures/eldopa01/

April 13th, Gertrude and Three Back at the Covered Wagon Saloon in San Francisco...

Three Back bored me. Maybe it's because of the excess of "cowpunk" bands that are making an appearance this year, but they seemed like a typical Midwestern bar band that was aching to play whatever venue they could. Luckily the crowd that likes them is more interesting... A mixture of punk-white-trash and lesbo-dykes. So it wasn't the band that interested me, more of a spectator crowd watch. They did have great clothes tho, and they are all nice people, but I'd like to see something new instead of a rehash of my bar life from the early nineties in New Mexico.

Gertrude straight up reminded me of the Poison Girls playing Cypher in the Snow songs with a bit of The Ex thrown in for good measure. I totally respect these London girls for touring the states because a lot of the people (at this show anyways) left before their set got good! I suspect that the majority of the people who stayed for the whole set were more familiar with late seventies punk and new wave music, while the people who left were more accustomed with modern-day hardcore punk that has that annoying metal of NOFXish edge. Gertrude is a fun band. Before I got to the show, naysayers were telling me things like "They're like a punk Chumbawumba meets the Spice Girls, but their choreographed dancing isn't as good." That is so funny in retrospect... these girls are a poppy/fun/political post-riot-grrl band with some style all their own, and they are hellava musicians, so go see them if they play near you... Here's the pics from tonight:

http://www.atakra.com/pictures/gertrude01/

April 7th, Adrienne Peterson and Benjamin Hirchkoff's art show "PROBLEMS" with a performance by Ecto Plastique at 21 Grand in Oakland...

Adrienne is a fantastic painter and Ben is a fantastic sculpture, so seeing the pair of them do a show was guaranteed to be good from the onset. I'd actually caught a brief peek at some of the works being displayed at a photo shoot that I was invited to attend a few weeks prior to this show, but nothing prepared me for how well their works compliment each others. Adrienne's work is sort of naively horrendous, sort of like what a child creates when the parents aren't watching. Ben's sculptures are disturbing in sort of a lovecraftian way, twisted forms merging with skeletal objects.

I was so overwhelmed by the works that I took many pictures which you can see at the link.

I arrived late enough to avoid the "art" crowd, but early enough to hear the lovely ambient audio constructions of Ecto Plastique. She plays the bandsaw, and while I thought she was good, when the guy appeared and did some feedback audio work, I thought it was a bit more solid as music.

Here's the art... http://www.atakra.com/pictures/benadrienne01/

April 5th, Icon of Coil and Stromkern at the Justice League...

STILL not liking the Justice League very much because it sucks (female bartender=bad, male bartender=good) I arrived at the show just in time to see the entire set by the Stromkern kids and network a bit with the Dekonstruct people that I know from their events. It always astounds me that the punks and the industrial people don't hang out more because the ideological differences are pretty paper-thin, but what I think is that these industrial kids were all raised with New Kids on the Block and suddenly revolted to "harsher" music via Marilyn Manson or whatever, for myself it was more geared toward the old TOPY stuff from San Diego, but really I've always leaned more toward the cheaper base punk-rock aspects of things because it's just angrier, and in a lot of ways less contrived...

Anywise on to the review band pics... I've been in an ongoing discussion about these shows for a while, so Shockmeister Shazza* said this about Stromkern, "Ned Kirby looked like the lead singer of the Lightening Seeds, danced like the New Kids on the Block, and sounded like a cross between the lead singers of the Psychedelic Furs and Digital Underground." I think this is an accurate assessment of their set, although Ned's vocals were just a tad bit too loud, and for some reason he took off his glasses after the first couple of songs, much to the disappointment of Yarra-Du-Jour, Shockmeister Shazza*, and quite a few other industrial lasses in the audience. I also got in a small discussion about how fun it would be to get these kids to turn over to the "dark side," but in reality, they are just too cute and innocent to be able to deal with it. As a postnote, I thought that they were probably one of the better performers I've seen lately, Ned is lively on stage, and their music is solid, if a bit rap-orientated. I must get their CD sometime.

What can I say about Norway's Icon of Coil? Well the singer looks strikingly like a young in-shape John Zewizz of Sleep Chamber, and has all the youthful energy of Suzanne Sommers doing Aerobics. He's personable, fun to listen to in off moments (their set was disrupted momentarily, and he tried to do a joke), and what was in those pleather pants??? On a studio production note, I really enjoyed their set, but think that their latest release depends WAY too much on echo effects on the vocals. I did buy two of their CDs (although the Shrine of Lillith people were *difficult*), and have been listening to the first CD release ever since.

On to the pics: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/icon-stromkern01/

* denotes name change to protect the guilty by request... (is the industrial scene really so incestuous as to chastise people for this sort of thing?)

March 31st, the Dayglo Abortions and the Load Levelers at the Covered Wagon Saloon...

Well deliberately getting at the venue at 11:00pm didn't work because some wacky line-up change made it so that I'd miss the Idiots (waaah) and have to see the Load Levelers from Seattle. But it turned out somewhat OK because the Load Levelers (although somewhat cowpunk) were still better than I expected, although I couldn't hear the banjo for the life of me. I know they have one, I just couldn't hear it. But I firmly believe that nobody can pull off a banjo in a punk band like Spazz, so it sort of kept with my expectations. After a long wait, the Dayglo Abortions finally came on and like always, they didn't disappoint.

My last time seeing this near-legendary Canadian band can be found here! and this time was a little less hectic, and I didn't have my support person Yarra-Du-Jour there because of a scheduling problem with that venue, but I still had fun (like I can't have fun anywhere ; )...

They started off with a newer song that is rapidly becoming one of my favorites, but every time I hear it, I'm too drunk to remember the name! So instead of a crappy review, you can see what you missed at my pictures link, but if you get the chance, SEE THIS BAND before they have to go into rehab again, and have straight-edge people handle their merch (again). Kudos to the merch guy this time, he's a really nice guy, we bonded.

Pictures of this event can be found by contacting me and requesting them on a CDR.

March 27th, Assemblage 23 and Imperative Reaction at The Justice League...

After waiting for a while to make sure I didn't have to stand around the Justice League for an extended period of time, I hopped on the 22 and caught a ride up to the club where Assemblage 23 and Imperative Reaction were playing, The Justice League, one of my least favorite clubs in San Francisco. But when I arrived I found out that the show still had an hour and a half before Imperative Reaction was going to play... Oh well, time for a few drinks I guess. I ran into Julio and Kyron5, the later of which informed me that I'd mistakenly missed her entire DJ set... Sigh.

So finally Imperative Reaction started. I really liked their CD, but came to the conclusion that really only three of their songs are my favorite, and that all the lyrics are pretty EMO. But I enjoyed their set and in particular their new songs, which far out last their earlier material in terms of repeated play. I took scads of pictures of the show in its entirety too, Pictures of this event can be found by contacting me and requesting them on a CDR.. But notice that as you're looking at the pics that the small ones were taken using one of those crappy I-Zone Polaroids because I've been experimenting with different cheap cameras lately in order to see what their limitations are. Just an FYI for any interested parties...

Assemblage 23 finally hit the stage, and they didn't disappoint, although from what I understand the singer's vocals were off because his monitor was out within five minutes of the set's beginnings. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't play any of their awesome covers tho, namely the "I Ran" cover of A Flock Of Seagulls fame. So check out the pics because they're pretty funny. And after the show I had to reconsider my hatred of The Justice League because even tho they're overpriced in the drink department, the fact that there were TONS of cops driving around the venue, AND that there is no easy transportation from the area by Muni that late at night, it is an OK club except the lighting is crappy. Maybe the Dekonstruct crew is responsible for this particular shows pleasantness...

Bonus of the evening... Meeting the girls who were visiting from San Jose, see you-all at the Covenant show, hope that the slashed tire didn't mess with you too hard!

March 23rd and 24th, The Hitch at the Covered Wagon and again with The Phantom Limbs at Kimo's...

Got off work early to go catch Humboldt County's favorite southern rock quartet The Hitch at the Covered Wagon with the band Throttlefinger, but when I arrived I found out that Throttlefinger had ducked out from the show, possibly because they knew that The Hitch would blow them out of the water? That was the speculation by a few of the showgoers... They hit the stage and it was like seeing Black Sabbath in a meeting with some sort of southern rock punk band, heavy riffs with hardcore punk vocals about being "PO White Trash" and doing "Cocaine." The sound was good, and a few Pictures of this event can be found by contacting me and requesting them on a CDR.

Afterwards I hit the town with Karin from Los Altos and meandered over to one of my local favorite bars, Treat Street so we could say hello to our friend Ari who was celebrating her birthday in style. But after a couple hours of drinking and socializing, it felt like it was time to leave, so I headed home for a bit to rest for the Kimo's show the next day...

Saturday I met up with Jen Jinx from Santa Rosa and headed over to Kimo's with enough time to eat a bit of food and make a pass at a bar to catch up with Monterey Mark and his girlfriend Echo, where I found out about the upcoming Dayglo Abortions show at Cell Space (Sunday April First) with Dr. Know, The Idiots, and Strychnine. It should be a happening event. So we got to Kimo's and waited for the first band (forgot their name) to finish their set of Heavy Metal thunder. I wasn't too into it, but they did have somewhat of a following there. The Hitch played again and it was pretty much a duplicate of the first night, except their sound was a bit better. I attribute it to the black walls that Kimo's set up so the neighbors wouldn't complain. That doesn't seem to work tho because the cops actually arrived complaining about the noise mid-way through The Hitch Set.

The Phantom Limbs came on stage and they were as awesome as ever, generating a high level of crowd interest and spastic dancing as well as a few drinks being thrown at the band by an unnamed fan. They've recently started recording for their new full-length album on Alternative Tentacles and I think they even have a show coming up at the Great American Music Hall, so keep your ears peeled for that cause it's guaranteed to be a good show. Oh, and they may also be playing the annual Pyrate Punx Summer Lake festival. See them before they sell out and start wearing headbands.

March 18th, Weezer, The Get Up Kids, and Ozma at the Civic Auditorium...

A pic of myself and Patrick hanging with Weezer: Pictures of this event can be found by contacting me and requesting them on a CDR.

The show was pretty fun, Weezer always puts on a decent show, I'm consistently amazed when I'm sitting among ten thousand people who all know every song lyric of the band, and are singing them all out loud! Ozma was completely terrible, and the Get Up Kids sounded like Samiam with a keyboard, and the keyboardist was SUPER annoying with his flailing around and basic spastic movements... Afterward I headed to the CW, but when I learned that 400 Blows had already played I left, but not after getting even more annoyed by all the skinheads there that I didn't know. I did spend some time looking for the blowhards for a while to see if they had any merch... But they seemed to be long gone. I need my skinhead friends to move back before I can enjoy the testosterone of OI shows again...

I'll probably go try to catch 400 Blows and Akimbo tomorrow night at Kimos!

February 23rd, Friday. The Lewd, The Barfeederz, and the Fleshies at the El Rio...

Well I picked up Yara-du-Jour and headed in the direction of the El Rio in the hopes of catching a Muni bus or something to the show (fat chance). As soon as we walked in both of us sort of thought that the evening might be shot because there weren't too many people there and the bands were pretty much hanging out at the bar talking about whatever bands talk about before a show, luckily we stayed because the show was fantastic.

The Fleshies hit the stage and I can honestly say that they've gotten so much better than the last time I saw them at the Covered Wagon, and a lot more than the first time I'd seen them play with the Phantom Limbs. They're straight up rock and roll with a heavy seventies edge these days, or at least that was my impression of the set. The only thing that was missing was the singer getting naked and writhing around, something that more than one girl commented on as the evening progressed. After their set I walked around talking to a lot of people I hadn't seen in a long time, some for as much as six years, but some of them were East Bay locals that just seem to float different circles...

Aaron Cometbus relayed that a new issue is slated to be out soon, as is a new Pinhead Gunpowder recording. Bret the Truck of the Yowling Zygotes is married, so I finally met his wife and talked shit about our mutual friends in Petaluma and Seattle for a bit. Cecil from The Barfeederz told em that they were always selling out of their shirts, which sort of sucked because I had a couple of friends from Humboldt who wanted them...

The Barfeederz hit the stage and this evening totally reminded me of a more rocking less frenetic Stikky, complete with manic vocals and super funny quips between the songs. They're always a good time.

The Lewd came on stage, and my first thought was that one of them looked like Howard Stern, were those wigs? These guys are back from the Seventies void, after relocating to SF over nearly two decades, and they totally have the original west coast punk sound down too... Probably because they were there the first time. From the older people I was talking to the evening through, they weren't quite as popular the first time around, but I can't see why... The Lewd are a good time, and it's sort of reminiscent of the first punk music you heard as a kid (for me back in '83). I'll definitely see their next show, with no reservations. Hell, I'll get there early on purpose!

Feb 1st, Thursday, Ludicra, The Gault, and Descending Sorrows at the Eagle Tavern...

I got there early intending to hang out with my recently jobless friend LRoss for a bit, but when she didn't show up until later I found myself hanging out with Tex from Arcata and the promoter of the Show, Christopher (who is a super nice guy). So after playing a huge amount of pinball games and talking to the ex-bass player from Bomb for a bit, Descending Sorrows started their show... Boy are they SLOW! They were so slow that a fifteen minute set of three minute songs lasted nearly 55 minutes! I'm not saying that is a bad thing, in fact I loved it, but it went about ten minutes longer than I'd have done in their position. Maybe they could take a cue from the Dwarves and make it a bit shorter so that people didn't feel compelled to go smoke after the first 45 minutes? I say that as a smoker of course.

LRoss showed up and we swiftly launched into a retrospective conversation about the days of yore, when life was bitter and the days were long... It was so rad, I need to hang out with her more. The Gault started, and I backed into the main room to watch their ultimate gothness shine! I'd been hearing from Jessy of the Subtonix about how I needed to see them, to believe it, and she is so right! The Gault is the best Goth band I've EVER seen in the subculture society that is San Francisco. They put Valor's version of Christian Death to shame, probably because their style is totally reminiscent of early Rozz Williams off of "Only Theater of Pain." I love these kids and won't hesitate to see them again in a heartbeat.

Ludicra played and the metal side of Christopher the show's promoter showed it's ugly head! They are a four-piece that is totally out of control, complete with massive amounts of head-banging hair! I snapped a bunch of pictures of all of these bands this time, and you can find Pictures of this event can be found by contacting me and requesting them on a CDR.

All these bands rule, don't miss them next time they play.

Jan 20, Saturday, The Subtonix (new website? http://www.Subtonix.8m.com/ ), The Holy Kiss, and Heart of Snow at Kimo's...

Walked in early and saw a slew of familiar faces and a bunch of people I'd somewhat recognized, but hadn't met at shows of recent past, but the big shocker was the annoying change that has happened to Kimo's... They've boarded up all the upstairs windows and painted the inside black, making it a hotbox for their rocknroll patrons. I was not happy, but at least the smoking rule has become a bit more lax (not good for me, as I just quit smoking, but good for the ambience).

Heart of Snow was totally awe-inspiring! Somewhat like a cross between Joy Division and Siouxsie Sioux, the singer's voice and the basic punk/Goth beat made my ears perk up the moment they hit the stage. I expect these kids will have a huge following in the very near future and I hope that they record a record soon. They are just that good! Hopefully they won't be pigeonholed into the annoying fashion EBM fashion circuit and play for the punk audience in the future because I really hope they last for a long time.

The Holy Kiss - I hated this band. They have everything going for them, a charismatic singer, a sound reminiscent of old Nick Cave, and diverse beats and well executed songs... I still hated them. For some reason their music just didn't ring "true" to my ears. That's my opinion for now, I hope it changes in the future because they obviously have a lot of fans and I'd like to see myself enjoying their future sets as much as a few of the people tonight were. POSTNOTE... After listening to their songs on MP3.com, My initial opinion has gotten better, but only enough to say go listen to their music on MP3.com instead of seeing them live... Sorry.

The Subtonix recently lost their guitar player Jenny, and even though I thought she was a great part of the band, I can honestly say that her loss may help the band in the long run. Seeing Cookie on-stage singing her "party song" was one of the best parts of their set this fine evening, and even tho I left early ($40 of rum and cokes will do that), I was more impressed with their technical acoustics this evening than I have been anytime in the recent past. It's obvious that adding Adrienne to their band has added some focus on their music, and I hope it continues for a long time to come.