archive nine

June 29th, Angry Amputees, The Nubs, The Jack Saints (I thought it was supposed to be The Secret Society Of The Sonic Six?!?! - Sam - ), Fracas, and Aces High at the Kimo's... Review by KsKelly...

Eagerly anticipated is an understatement about this show, seeing as how The Nubs have gotten lots of publicity prior to their record release party and this was an excellent lineup to accompany them in celebration. They were interviewed on Terror-Bull Ted's show on KUSF, and Jim was interviewed in the June issue of MR&R and a blurb in the Guardian, to name a few, so the crowd was pretty stoked.

First up was Aces High, who I was really looking forward to because Pat from the CW is in it, and they were great! Well executed Roots of Rock & Roll and they're all very attractive. Then we had Fracus, who were as good as when I seen 'em at CW, energetic and sweaty and mixing it up in the crowd, which ain't too hard to do at Kimo's. Joe, vocalist, always puts on a good performance.

The Nubs were very happy to be playing and it showed. They did all their fast material and the people liked them so much that we demanded an encore, and they obliged us with "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" and X's "Los Angeles". By then I was almost gonna fall over from dancing and sweating so much. Some ceiling fans up there were out of commission so the atmosphere was downright tropical. By the way, when The Nubs say record release party, they mean "you buy our record, we release one to you, then we get to party." so buy one already, they deserve it. It wasn't over yet, next up was Jack Saints, and I enjoyed the music, straight-up punk, and the look of Mike Desert's outfit, which I understand was an homage to Gay Pride Day. I think heels look really good on a guitarist, it lifts the ass just so. Maybe he'll decide to keep that look, hahaha.

Last band was Angry Amputees, and seeing as how I needed air and Mike from Stereo Types likes them alot, I let him go up and snap pix while I bullshitted on the sidewalk. Here's what Mike thought of their performance: So while Kathleen smoked and chatted downstairs the Angry Amputees rocked the dwindling but enthusiastic crowd. Kimo's was a real sweatbox that night and I know the hotter-than-usual temperatures forced some of the audience outside. I was forced to take a mid-set break for a few gasps of fresh air myself. The Amputees, as usual, seemed to be having a lot of fun on stage. These guys play fast, poppy, tough-sounding punk rock that I would recomend to anyone who is a fan of the Lunachicks. Check out their website for pictures of bass player Dalty's "stump" in various exotic locals. All said, it was a marathon night of rock and roll. Once again I found myself being one of the last stragglers herded out the door as the bar closed.

View the Pictures HERE

June 29th, The Dyke Parade on 16th Street, ending up in the Castro with visiting friends from Humboldt... Review by Mister Atakra...

Catlin moved into town today from Arcata so I walked over to her new home to scope it out and found a bunch of mutual friends (including promoter Justin from The Vista) drinking foofoo lemonade drinks before scouting out the Dyke March on 16th street. have a couple beers and we're off... about 100 feet to the Kilowatt Bar (which is probably my least favorite bar in this entire city). Suddenly we realize that the Dyke March has started and that everyone in the Kilowatt is a fucking imbecile.

Off we go, traversing the seedy streets of upper-mission/lower Castro, with the ultimate goal of drinking up a storm (of which we certainly succeeded), managing to...

1. Stop for large bottles of hard liquor at least three times.

2. Have my ass grabbed 3 times that I remember. GILLIGAN!

3. Head home abruptly when I realize that this party could go on forever. I got so sick that night that I totally missed the festivities the next day...

View the Pictures Here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/dyke_paradeweb02/

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June 27th, The Ghosts and 78 RPMs at the Parkside... Review by KsKelly...

I know it looks like I'm totally taking over the atakra.com review page but I can't help it if so many good bands play one after another in our particularly lovely little hell-hole of a city (That's OK with me, I've been a little side-tracked and poor to go to shows lately - Sam - ). Tonight I finally convey in pictures the spooky drunken debacle that is a Ghosts show, and that's all I can convey. Mike & I arrived right as a band, I think called Sweet Little Nothings, were on out of nowhere; they weren't on the bill and I was not excited by them so went to the patio and saved the batteries. Then Geno needed something to eat so we did that and an errand, so by the time we got back, alas! we missed 78 RPM's. Mike said it was good, too. To make up for it all, I took a TON of Ghosts photos, and it was a general free-for-all. Grimm was so drunk, (and the bar provided shots between songs), that the down and dirty a la Cramps kindof rock & roll got dirtier as the set ground on. There was even an extra set or two afterward from friends who grabbed instruments just to keep the show going. I was shocked that no equipment was destroyed or otherwise sacrificed during The Ghosts, because Grimm was careening about the bar like a loose cannonball on the end of a mic cord. Good thing there was hardly anyone there by the end, except us hardy few who stick around to get the last beer and finest drunken bullshit.

View Kathleen's pictures HERE

June 27th, DJ Sarin at the DNA Lounge, followed by a side-trip to the Eagle to see whatever band played... Review by Mister Atakra...

10:45pm...

Kyron5 - "Why aren't you here?"

Atakra - "My work had a keg party at 5:30 and I'm drunk."

Kyron5 - "I was hoping you'd come down to catch DJ Sarin!"

Atakra - "I was planning on it, but stumbling the three blocks to the DNA Lounge might be as mistake."

Kyron5 - "Well (asks DJ Sarin for a free pass), just come down and we'll make sure you get in... DJ Sarin will be spinning in an hour."

Atakra - "OK"

So I packed up a couple of presents for both of them, a Spice Girls hat, a *rare* Phantom Limbs 7", and the new Nigel pepper Cock LP (that not
only has my pictures of the band on the inner sleeve, but is also out on http://www.lifeisabuse.com/ ) and politely skipped down to the DNA Lounge.

I must be a glutton for punishment because now it looks like I may have hit up the Eagle to see who was playing after I left.

PICTURES LOST SOMEHOW, LAME!

June 26th, Fluff Girl, Extreme Elvis, Mutilated Mannequines, and The Lincolns at the Covered Wagon Saloon... Review by KsKelly

Try as I might to get down there in time, I missed the Lincolns. Damn. I feel doubly bad because I met one of them later named Mo and he was really nice, so I have to try twice as hard when they play again. I got there just before Mutilated Mannequins came on, and although they cleared the bar right out, I personally thought it was one of their best shows I've seen yet. They pared down the band to just keyboards, guitar, and Reginald, and he gave an amazing performance, while the music really tightened up. He still does the opera voice, but it was actually in time with the music, which was itself dark and jungle like in its intensity. He also did some very sexy moves with us in the audience, as it was such an intimate crowd.

After a looooong set-up, Fluff Girl came on and it was like watching our very own show in a living room somewhere. Bob was doing some crazy moves, and predictably lit his hair on fire, which I understand, after discussing it with him, that this is how he cuts it. It sure stunk up the room, but the show was very real punk from the side that just gives not a shit. A very real scene, man. During their set, I went back to experience the Extreme Elvis cleansing ritual that he was holding in the band's dressing room, which cost a dollar. Well worth it, lemme tell ya. He channeled some higher Elvis-plane energy in that tiny room and it was like stepping into another planet. I will just say it involved spiked Kool-aid, a hookah, chanting and lots of nude people, including me. I didn't take any pictures in there so as not to disturb the sacred atmosphere, but it was an Incredible Experience.

View the Pictures HERE

June 24th, Burmese, 7000 Dying Rats, The Quixotic, Magic Markers, Joshua Plague, and Control R Workshop at Kimo's... Review by KsKelly

This was supposed to be a mega-big show, seeing as how some of the bands were booked at the Galia tonight, where they just *hoisted* the Reverand Boom King and his nascent Monday night punk shows over the side. His ousted bands were to be playing on the bill at Kimo's instead where there were already 5 bands booked. I got there way early just to see what would happen, but what happened was that original show just went on and we sat in the car drinking beer until it started. (And thanks to Korty and KUSF for the tix! [HEY! Where are my free tix already?!?! - Sam - ]) When we sauntered in, first person I run into was Mel Zapata, who laid a copy of her new magazine on me, "Mistake", and it is very cool; it's got pieces on the Scurvy Dogs, Menstral Tramps, Punk Rock in the Parking Lot, lots of grainy pics and other good shit.

The first band on was Control R Workshop, a duo that was not playing with each other. Avant, I guess. I went downstairs. The second was Joshua Plague's (of BtPnLsL fame) Sanctuary Studio, a guy doing some singing comedy act that I heard was so bad and weird that I dashed up to take one picture only and ran away. Third up was The Quixotic (Chicago) Magic Markers, a cute trio of kids that had a certain garage band charm but failed to hold my interest (I think KsK is confused because The Quixotic and the Magic Markers are two completely different bands - Sam - ).

The whole show was worth seeing if only for 7000 Dying Rats, from Chicago. These guys were nuts, and had a strong predeliction for baring their asses. Six of 'em dressed in these Ninja black hoods and shit, they started off with a lame, painful rendition of "Feels Like the First Time", apologized for it, and then launched into a wild set with the two vocalists doing deep screaming and there was lots of heavy crazy guitar and much stage movement. It was great to see them slamming the audience; they were easily the most exciting band of the night. The final act was Burmese, who I know have great reputation, as evidenced by the interesting mix of crowd come to see them. They are also a trio, drums and two bass with vocals, producing a heavy-as-lead slow indie-metal. All in all, for free tickets, I'd say I got a deal.

View the Pictures HERE

June 23rd, T-N-A-Men Squared, The Dime Life Crooks, and Leavenworth at Kimo's... Review by KsKelly...

I had no idea I was even going out tonight. I thought I was going to a nice quiet evening for a reading at the Tenderloin Cultural Center that my friend Denise Dee puts on for anyone who wants to come and read anything, and I was reminded by Mike of the StereoTypes that T-N-A-Men Squared was playing at Kimo's! Oh, yeah, I almost spaced it! And well, anyone who knows Jake will want to see him go nuts yet again, so I am there. I actually went to the StereoTypes practice to make sure I snagged the Wastrel, and we zipped over to Kimo's just in time to race up the stairs and .......hooray! it's the Dime Life Crooks playing. Nice surprise. I am so sorry to say I missed Leavenworth, but one of the guys in it gave me a CD to hear, which I am doing now, and it's outré-spacey. So, the Dime Life Crooks were damn good, a very intimate and home-y type show. The audience was about eight people, but we were all highly appreciative of, except Evan from Scurvy Dogs, who kept yelling that they suck. For him, I think that means he liked them anyway. Jake said they were punk/hip hop and totally great.

Then T-N-A-Men Squared came on, and were fun to the max. I was very struck by how much they sounded like the Scurvy Dogs, but more fucked up if you can imagine. There was much jumping about and wearing of hats and some songs having to do with politics, exactly what the point was I dunno, but Jake was entertaining at every moment and a good time was had by all.

View the Kathleen's Pictures HERE

June 21st, Hollywood Hate, Smogtown, Strychnine, and Thunderfist at the Covered Wagon Saloon... Review by Mister Atakra...

Damn, there were so many good shows last night, but I decided to play it safe and head out to go see Strychnine since it was the first show after their month and a half long tour of Europe (don't these people have jobs? hahaha). Anyways, I had to eat first and I totally missed Thunderfist because the moment I got to the Covered Wagon Saloon I ran into long-time friend Shaunti who was visiting from Santa Fe. So I got a beer and waited for Strychnine to start playing. Two beers later they played, starting with "Dead Rats" and playing pretty tight for a bunch of old men. As always, Strychnine played a great set, buy their records.

Smogtown was pretty impressive too, but all their rabid fans were super clean cut, prompting many of the east bayers to react a little confused. They were really tight and fast, but I think I liked the machine-gun vocals the best. I bought both their records which I listened to later on and still like them, so that's all good. A definite Southern California sound too. HOORAY!

The first thing I noticed about Hollywood Hate was that they had great T-Shirts for sale for super cheap, but when they started playing I could hear a definite Strychnine-like sound to them. But about halfway through the show I decided that I liked what I was hearing and bounced around a little. I'd see them again. Weird moment of the evening was when I walked by the Folsom Gultch place down the street and got propositioned by some sort of (I think) black transvestite who looked like she'd been through the wringer. It was pretty fucking scary!

Check out the pictures here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/smogtownweb02/

June 20th, Portrait Of Poverty, Quick To Blame, Bottles And Skulls, Millhous, and The Dirty Thieves at the Kimo's... Review by KsKelly...

Yea know, I could have gone to Stinky's Peep show for the Numbers and Coachwhips again but I heard that Erase Errata cancelled and the crowd was dry and small, so it was a good thing that Miles from KUSF gave me tickets to Kimo's instead. I grabbed The Wastrel up and we arrived in time for Dirty Thieves, who we liked well enough to stand in front of and admire. They are from Tacoma, as told to me by the bassist, Kelly, and he gave us each a 7" afterwards when we complimented him on the good straight up punk, well executed. The next band was Quick To Blame; they sounded like Beastie Boys combined with metal to me. We went across the street for Jaeger and fish & chips.

When Bottles And Skulls came on, Oh Mah Fuckin' Gawd, they played one of the best sets I ever saw, mostly stuff off the new recording they just did in Seattle. It was seee-vere, it was a choice between taking pictures or slammin', and I mostly chose slammin'. It was a major chaos, as you can gather from the pics. They had this friend, Jeff, in the plaid shirt, who wouldn't get off the stage when he wasn't dominating the pit, and afterwards he smeared some smelly roll-on deodorant on me that that stunk to high heaven and I had to wash off twice in the bathroom. During the set, I decided "this is the coolest show to be at tonight in all of SF, maybe the whole west coast" (Uh except that Submission Hold played in the city last night, and I TOTALLY MISSED IT! lame - Sam - ). Lots of other people thought so too; I got to shoot the shit with The Reverend Boom King, and Ralph from Victim's Family among others.

The other two bands, Portrait Of Poverty (PoP RULES! - Sam - ) and Millhous, suffered a bit from following that, but we liked them well enough. It was pure stoner punk, and they had a fun kind of pit going for each band. I must have been pretty looped by then because I took tons of pictures of Millhous, but they were photogenic. I think they are all from Tacoma, or at least they are all touring together. Now that Covered Wagon Saloon is changing (.......a lesbian dance bar!?!?! Aw, cripes!) maybe Kimo's will take some of that business and we will all benefit from it. (UH, since Kimo's is up for sale, how about someone opening up a new venue instead? - Sam - ).

View Kathleen's Pictures HERE

June 19th, Glass Candy and the Shattered Theatre, Theteeethe, and Swann Danger, at Kimo's... Review by Mister Atakra...

Mustered up the energy to head up to Kimo's, running into Cookie of the now-defunct Subtonix and conversed about my recent vacation and the upcoming Skutterfest down in LA, then headed to the band to get some much-needed cash for the show. After accomplishing that mission I zipped over to Kimo's just in time to catch the last couple of songs by Swann Danger (who it turns out are members of Heart of Snow, cool!). I really liked the drum machine action and Cynthia's vocals were as awesome as ever. They had the entire room of hip scenesters rockin' out, which was great to see. Next up was Theteeethe, and what can I say? How about this; They sound like the members of the Black Heart Procession after going through tone-deaf therapy while listening to too many nineties folk records. Easily one of the worst bands I've ever had the displeasure of seeing play live. Perhaps it's an in-joke, but if it is, it's an in-joke with no talent. There were many people who ran downstairs to sing along with Madonna on the jukebox while Theteeethe played.

After that disaster, Glass Candy and the Shattered Theatre broke the mold and played a stellar set, complete with the usual broken guitar string and an obnoxious super-drunk lesbian fan who tried to heckle the band. Glass Candy was meandering about Kimo's through the entire *packed* crowd of fans and singing her heart out. The Shattered Theatre (consisting of two people) played a great set with almost no problems. I did notice that Glass Candy was wearing the same outfit as Saturday's show at the Double Trouble in Seattle! I hope she washed it between shows! Hahaha.

View the pictures here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/glass_c_kimosweb02/

June 16th, Glass Candy and the Shattered Theatre at the Double Trouble in Seattle...

I'm including all the photos from the night before in this set for ease of use.

Glass Candy and the Shattered Theatre already dress the part of new wave rockstars, but tonight's show wasn't one of their best in that it didn't live up to the hype that I've been hearing for over a year. BUT is was a small affair, with lots of youngsters in great clothes. I think I'm going to wait to review them for when they hit San Francisco.

The double Trouble is Carlos Lorenco's new used clothing store that seems to be doing really well on Capitol Hill in Seattle, and now that they're doing all-ages shows, I think more people should support his new endeavor.

View the pictures of my Seattle vacation here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/seattleweb02/

June 15th, Squeegee's of Fury Party / Co-Op Forge with Me Infecto Tiny Kings & Soon it Will Destroy Her in Seattle...

I'd been hearing all day about this huge party in south Seattle hosted by some sort of Iron Worker's Guild that was supposed to have bands and free beer. Obviously I wasn't going to miss this event even tho I'd be missing a rare appearance by Monstrawtikuss Frankenstienikuss at the EMP that Gregory P had managed to get me free tickets to (note to self, thank Gregory P for his efforts). Well it turned out to be a good decision even though my sober driver was pulled over for drunk driving (and he was stone sober!). Well after many trials trying to get to the hidden warehouse, we finally arrived at this MASSIVE warehouse complex that had been separated by constructed walls for each artist's work space. I totally missed Soon it Will Destroy Her, but was told that they were really fun by Laura Stiles whose roommate was one of the iron workers throwing the party. Second up was Me Infecto, a newish two-piece that was really fun. pretty hardcore, and they had lots of local fans from bands like Bloodhag and Teen Cthuhlu... Actually the drummer from Bloodhag even gave me a T-Shirt for his new screen printing business called Squeegees of Fury who apparently also did the silk-screening job for the Screamers 2CD retrospective a while back, great stuff!

The Third band was a crazy band whose name escapes me at the moment (possibly the Tiny Kings?), but I totally thought that they'd be great in a double bill with the Phantom Limbs who are on tour right now. Very odd with lots of energy, but I think some of the more scenester people didn't like them too much. Too bad, because I thought they were awesome.

Meanwhile I spent the better part of the fourth band's (possibly the Tiny Kings?) hippie set exploring the warehouse with Laura, Dan Brown, a guy named Matt (whose birthday was that same day), and numerous other band people who I've seen down here in SF when they tour. The roof was great fun, there was a rad photo gallery that featured all the artists involved in the collective, and the screen-printing area was pretty amazing.

I'm including all the photos from this night in the Glass Candy show that happened the next day. So look up already!

June 14th, The Coackwhips tour of San Francisco... Review by KsKelly...

Flag Day is not normally a major holiday where they close the stores and government offices, but it should be, just so everyone can have another frickin' day off, which we all need desperately. The Coachwhips celebrated in style by doing a city wide tour all day, starting out at the bike messengers' wall at One Sansome, then the parking lot at Ocean Beach by the windmill, then at Twin Peaks, (where we went but it was too windy and they were late so I drank a beer, looked at tourists and left) and finally, at 16th & Mission BART, where I finally caught them. They were running more than an hour behind schedule by then but it was still worth running around the city. They alternated playing with Mr.&Mrs.& Mr. Evil, an equally nutty garage-crazo band with an entourage of cheerleaders dressed in black with black pom-poms. The Evils did some covers like a weird version of "Temple of Love" and a kick-ass version of the Judge Wapner theme, "Guilty as Charged". A nice touch was the mini-habachi set up on a newspaper box, grilling tofu hotdogs. If you brought a flag with you, you got a free one. The police showed up of course to say it's over and John Dwyre said "one more" to him and and he said OK and then they each did like 3 more apiece. Snot nose wiseguys.

The culmination of this Flag Day extravaganza was the show at The Hemlock, which attracted a big crowd of social scene hipster kids, and boy, was it ever packed into that tiny room at the back of the bar. You know how hot it gets in Mission Records? It was hotter in there with all the energetic commotion and dancing. No body surfing this time, but a real active dance floor for the Coachwhips. Afterwards, I had the personal pleasure of meeting Extreme Elvis, and he really is a super nice guy; we discussed sexual malfunction and he was intelligent and sensitive about it.

Aren't there any other obscure holidays that deserve recognition with nights like this?

View KsKelly's pictures HERE

June 13th, The Feederz, Songs for Emma, and The Tramps at the Justice League... Review by KsKelly...

This was a Stinky's that seemed uncertain as to what to expect, but it turned out real fine. The Tramps were first; I really think they got lost in the sauce as far as the venue goes. They sounded much better in the CW but in Justice League the sound was muddy and diffuse. They were OK regular punk. Songs for Emma turns out to be one of the 3 or 4 political bands that exist. The vocalist is Tony (Holy Shit! I ran into that guitarist from Songs for Emma at Rainbow just now, and he humbly made the aside that the vocalist's name is Tommy,not Tony! Hard to hear in the Justice League. I am so embarrassed - KsKelly - ). He lives in the Mission. He's an anarchist. He gave out free political magazines. I always liked them when I heard them on the radio, so I looked forward to catching them live but they were not as hard-edged as I expected. Still, they were good hard alt-rock and very animated while playing. I also wanted to see them because one of the guitars is this guy Mike who I have seen at Rainbow Grocery for years and I met recently. The crowd was apathetic, which it always is, and especially when politics is brought up. Tony gave me one of his magazines called "The Rattlesnake" afterwards and we had a great conversation about us both living in the Mission and all the changes it's been through over the years.

So, when The Feederz came on people were excited. They have the rep of the vocalist, Frank Discussion, wearing dead animals and throwing them at the audience but they didn't do that this time. He was was dressed in a priest's shirt and basically just played with a little between-song banter and throwing stuff like menstrual products out to people. They played a long totally punk set that got the pit going good. You could tell there were lots of long time fans there who were wigging out. When they stopped, there was a long pause and they brought up a guy in a wheelchair who had been in the audience who turned out to be Frank Moore, a famous performance, himself. The poor guy has ALS or a degenerative disease of some such, but when they did the special encore and a stunning woman came out to sing while he partied on center stage watching the swirl of an active pit right in front of him, well, that was indeed a special punk moment. (I'm seriously bummed that I missed seeing The Feederz - Sam - )

View Kathleen's Pictures HERE

June 12th, Neither/Neither World, The Holy Kiss, and Black Ice at Cafe du Nord... Review by KsKelly...

When Cafe du Nord puts on a good show, it can be very cool. It was downright chilly this particular evening, but the crowd was hot and the bands were pretty damn good. My socks were blown off by Black Ice, the new side-project involving Stevenson and Skot B. from The Phantom Limbs, Kevin B. and Miss Kel from Sister Mary Shoelace and keyboardist Melanie X. They were like Joy Division, Siouxsie and The Vanishing all wrapped up together and extended. Skot B. did an excellent job on drums despite being ill. Miss Kel had scary stage presence, it was all spine-tingling good.

The Holy Kiss was next, decidedly (Decidedly?) Goth but with a definite rock-ish slant to it. I've seen them before so I spent a good part of the set getting stoned outside, but I do like them. The last one was a band I'd never heard of before, Neither/Neither World. It was a CD release party for them and I must say, for a CD release party, their fans are the most sedate, quietest bunch of celebrators I ever seen. No one was moving and the music was OK at first, much more mainstream sounding than the first two bands, so I went to yak at the bar. Then I heard them doing a decent Cure cover, so I went back in to find Hopeless and Jesse Trashed just dominating in front of the stage, having a great time dancing. When the band warmed up, they sounded pretty good if you like slightly retro Goth-y rock. Then I realized that I was standing next to a couple of former friends that I hadn't seen in five years, intentionally, so I was weirded out the rest of the night. All in all it was a very interesting show, and I will be very excited to see Black Ice again. (Me also, I've missed every show they've played so far... fark - Sam - )

View KsKelly's pictures HERE

June 8th, Fleshies, Gravy Train, Bananas, Bitchin' at the Bottom of the Hill... Review by KsKelly...

Whoever booked this show was brilliant, not only to arrange it for an afternoon Sunday show, but they imported some fantastic weather for patio hanging out. I was at a memorial for a deceased friend beforehand, so I missed Bitchin', unfortunately. I walked in just as Bananas came on. They were fuckin' funny, real fast loose frenetic simple chord stuff and the vocalist had alot of Bobcat Goldthwaite in him. High energy. Next was a goofy electronic dance thing called Gravy Train (a side project of the Gossip, I hear), and although I liked the ditzy routines and bawdy lyrics, I only took a couple pics.

The crowd was goodly warmed up now, so Fleshies, who just came back from tour and releasing their new EP/10-inch, 'The Game of Futbol' (with an umlaut on the 'u' ), well, they were psyched to play. It was one of the most amazing sets, and longest. They started out with having a friend, who I didn't catch the name, playing sweet cello on a slow romantic number. Then Johnny No Moniker was flinging himself into the audience frequently, rolling about on the floor, wrestling with patrons and Mattowar, (the Sexiest Man Alive) starts taking off his sweaty T-shirts, Brian Hamiltron wailing on drums, Vonny Bon Bons searing on bass. Johnny gets down to his little tighties, dripping and at one point he pulled off his sopping sock and squeezed the sweat to drink it! Outta control. I felt like I had witnessed a Great Performance. Now that CW is metamorphisizing, Bottom of the Hill could corner the market if they keep having shows like this!

View KsKelly's pictures HERE

June 7th, The Hitch, Totimoshi, Hillbilly Devilspeak, The Scurvy Dogs (get a webpage already you hippies! - Sam -) at Kimo's... Review by KsKelly...

Yeehaw, Scurvy Dogs at Kimo's! I snatched up The Wastral, Peregrine, and we hot footed it over to see if I could actually catch their set this time. When they play first, they go on early, so they are not drunk enough and they go really too fast. We got there around the second song or so, so we weren't drunk either, but thoroughly enjoyed the set and I totally freaked out one of the guys in The Hitch by acting like I knew him and taking his picture. Matt destroyed about three microphones and, I think, a mike stand this time. Then we ducked out to snag some Jaegermeister. When we got back, Hillbilly Devilspeak were on, grabbing my attention about halfway through their set. From then on I decided they were great, right-on, severe, the absolute real shit, straight-up rock. Will see them again.

Next up, Totimoshi, and anyone who has seen them will know that they were excellent. That drummer (Don?) has really grown into the position; also, Meg & Tony were having a good time up there on stage. I bought a halter top in homage later. Finally, The Hitch, and seeing as how I had seen them the night before at the Eagle, I didn't take any pictures of them again and just enjoyed the hip Kimo's crowd. There were alot of people who found it hard to walk, talk or just stand when we left, including me.

View KsKelly's pictures HERE

June 6th, Lost Goat, Dirty Power, and The Hitch at The Eagle... Review by KsKelly...

Although they were not listed on the List, I read the Bay Times and Don Baird, the rock critic therein said they Lost Goat were definitely playing there this particular Thursday. I scooped up the boys, Mike & Peregrine, from their rehearsal and we zoomed down to The Eagle in plenty of time to catch The Hitch. They are heavy-as-concrete hard rock from the ZZ Top school of long beards backcountry type shitkickers, but the crowd generally seemed to like them. I know they are friends with lots of the people here from Humboldt County, so when they play here they always have a good following. Yeah, they were good. Next was Dirty Power, and they also were hard rock in the same vein. The music didn't stick in my mind or anything but I remember being drunk by this time and having a real good time. I did like the energy of the lead guitar on the end, he moved around alot.

Lost Goat was nothing short of HOT this night; they had a packed house and they were on it. Eric, the guitar player, never shows his face, it's always hidden in his hair but I got a good shot of him rocking out actually face up. They played a really long and totally great set and the crowd was screaming for more when they stopped in exhaustion. We had the best time hanging out with Cookie Tuff, and I zero'd in on Don Baird, who I met many years ago when he was DJ'ing at a basement club, so it's hard to remember what someone looks like after all that time, but I had great pleasure in chatting him up for a few minutes. Good frickin' Eagle show, dude.

View KsKelly's pictures HERE

June 6th, Red and White Fleet Tour of the Bay...

I took a bunch of pictures when I went with my visiting sister Emily and her husband Zander on one of those Red and White Fleet tours where they take you under the Golden Gate Bridge and around the back end of Alcatraz. It was very calming and they give you this relatively well-produced tape with the history of the bay to listen to (and free popcorn!).

Check them out here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/ship_tourweb02/

June 4th, Depressor, Scorned, Consume, and Blown to Bits at The Covered Wagon Saloon... Review and Pictures by KsKelly...

I missed Blown To Bits, which sucked because I'd been telling the vocalist, Jimmy, for days that I was coming to see him. Got there in time for Consume, from WA, (ex-members of Shitlist) and they were pretty good hard metallic rock. Then the next one, Scorned, I kinda thought sounded the same for each song. Lotsa screaming by a woman with the deepest male voice ever (Not deeper than the girl from Damad I'll bet, hahaha -Sam-). By then I ran into Steve from Forcing Bloom, Jeff from STFU, Mogar the security guy, Chris from Floating Goat, Eric from Brainoil, and John who used to be from Retox so there was much drunken conversation.

Finally, Depressor got on and they totally rocked, heavy-duty metal with a punkish edge, the crowd was enthusiastic. I like them more each time I see them. Then, boom, it was over. Oh yeah, I met this guy from a couple of bands, one of which is called Heather, who's about to tour Europe, maybe called Ian? Check the cat vertebrae on his beard, it's way cool. Finally, there was a flurry of excitement at the end of the bar because they said one of the members of Metallica was hanging out there after their secret set under another name at Kimo's. I didn't get a picture of him because, frankly, I don't give a shit. (Oh yea, I heard they were going to do that last night, looks like the has-beens needed a small show to drum up local favors now that they've pissed off everyone else with their anti-MP3 crap... how pathetic, but interesting that they did Ramones covers the day before Dee Dee overdosed! COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT! - Sam-).

View Kathleen's pictures here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/ksk01/

June 3rd, KMFDM with PIG, 16 Volt, and the Kidney Thieves at the DNA Lounge...

Arrived at the DNA Lounge just early enough to get my wallet chain confiscated from the door security which sucked, but I *guess* it was in the band's writer or something since that has never happened before. Catch about three songs by the Kidney Thieves who pretty much sucked. Oh well, I expected that. They DID give me a new CD release by Cleopatra Records later, so Kudos to them!

16 Volt got on stage and were OK, but have become even more metal (if that's possible) than I remember them being. Their sound was awful, sounding muddy until the last few songs. I think KMFDM's sound guy was doing it deliberately to make KMFDM sound better later... But that didn't work. However, I did buy the newest limited edition 16 Volt CD.

About this time was when I realized that Phil Lesch of the Greatful Dead had been playing up the street at Slims earlier in the day, which explains me getting spanged by white kids with dreadlocks before the show. Ick! Cut your hair and get a job already HIPPIES! The dead is DEAD!

KMFDM... For a band that has so much equipment (taking over nearly the entire stage and a HUGE area for the soundboard by the stairs), they were less than stellar. They opened their set with DIY. I initially thought that they'd gotten the chick in the band to offset the testosterone that is so readily apparent in their fans, but since there was a huge gay contingent here, everyone just looks a little confused, hahaha...

Where did all these fans come from? I only saw a few friendly faces, the rest must have been the bridge-and-tunnel crowd I suppose.

View the pictures here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/kmfdmweb02/

June 2nd, The Phantom Limbs, Erase Errata, and The Vanishing at the Bottom of the Hill...

Yarra du Jour comes over and we head to fellow synthpunk discussion board member adeemer's cocktail party that he's throwing for my sister who is in town, Yay! Meet some interesting folks, have three beers and get totally full eating indian food, I brought the nachos because my favorite Pakastain restaurant "Ganesh" is closed for remodeling. Talk about all things synth and the KMFDM show at the DNA Lounge. Catch a couple of busses to the Bottom of the Hill to attend The Vanishing's record release party with the headlining The Phantom Limbs and Erase Errata.

The Vanishing continue to amaze me. Every time they play they get better and better. Met up with Kyron5 who had never seen The Vanishing and she said that they were very Siouxsie-esque, something that I totally agree with. In any case her first take (being from LA) was that The Vanishing would fit right at home playing Release The Bats in southern California.

Erase Errata was the same as last week. It was too much seeing them twice in seven days, so I sat outside, drank three more beers and socialized with a few people. I even met up with Ex-Eureka resident Becca who used to come over to my house and drink too much and create problems. Not much seems to have changed with her.

Hung out with The Phantom Limbs "backstage" for a while, no huge platers of coke or anything hahaha. The Phantom Limbs had an OK performance, I had by this time switched to drinking three double rum and cokes for the show. They did all the favorites, but the crowd (which is usually energetic) wasn't as out of control as usual. Shorter than usual set. It'll be interesting to see how people like them for their tour of the USA which is coming up shortly. After their set myself and Yarra du Jour headed over to another ex-Humboldt party where everyone was doing loads of cocaine in the bathrooms and bedrooms. I drank another half pint of rum and decided to call it a night, even getting a ride home from KFJC's Ophelia Necro.

View the pictures here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/pl_bothweb02/

May 28th, Erase Errata at Mission Records...

Missed all the bands but Erase Errata, they were great as usual. I'm too busy to write a review, just look at the pictures already!

See the pictures here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/e_erattaweb02/

May 24th, RF7 and The Scurvy Dogs at the Covered Wagon Saloon... Review by Mister Atakra...

I was HUNG OVER today, making me miss half of the Scurvy Dog's set, but the last half was pretty great. Super fast punk rock that we've all come to expect from this local band. At one point Matt, the singer, sprayed beer all over those of us up in front.

RF7? Well I didn't like them. Sort of a M.O.D. rehash band, certainly not incredible. They do have tons of CDs out, but I wasn't even interested. Actually I left halfway through their set to go hang out with Adrienne of the Subtonix anyways. Maybe they got more original/better after I left?

View a few pictures of both bands here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/scurvycwweb02/

May 23rd, Apoptygma Berzerk, Beborn Beton, and the Bass Kittens at Slim's... Review by Mister Atakra...

Note to self - Kick myself if I ever go see Apoptygma Berzerk again, boy did they suck. I got to Slim's (I had thought that the show was at the DNA Lounge until about an hour before the show) and was told "no cameras" by the main tour guy (who was a total asshole throughout the show). So I put the camera in the coat checking area thinking "I PAID money for this?" Then I scoped out the Bass Kittens who were more new wavey in the vein of the bad new wave bands on the early eighties. Yawn. I looked at Dutch, the sound guy, and he seemed overly bored with their performance. Yawn again.

Beborn Beton had a great light show. Germans are so funny. The pudgy singer was energeticaly running all around the stage. I bought the CD.

Apoptygma Berzerk are rock stars. Their guitarist looks like a fool and they had the keyboardist singing backup vocals. This was not a good thing. At one point the singer sang a duet with a girl whose image was projected on the backing movie screen. Unfortunately it looked super silly and the girl was the same person maning the merch table (who was really nice, but didn't seem especially bright). So after a couple songs I say fuck it and get the camera, whip out a couple of shots and deliberately get kicked out. From there I headed to the Eagle, just in time to see possibly the worst rock and roll band ever. They were so bad that I forgot their name.

Basicly the entire night sucked, view the few pictures here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/apopweb02/

May 20th, The Ghosts and the Omens at the Parkside... Review by KsKelly...

The Ghosts have a standing booking at the Parkside on Monday nights ad infinitum if they want to because they bring a bunch of friends and the bar gives the band free drinks. This works really well for Tim, I mean Grim, the vocalist; the drunker he gets up there, the better for his flailing about with his sheet, groping for his beer and screaming ghostly wails of woe.

The first band was The Omens, friends of theirs from Denver. They made a counterpoint to the white sheets with their being all in black skinny pants and vests, but it was still down & dirty garage rock & roll they played. One of their songs was the exact riff and rhythm of "Nightmare" by Bottles & Skulls, but not the same words of course. S-s-s-spooky. Perfect warm-up for The Ghosts, who proceded to totally take over the bar with raw filthy rock done with such careless fun that you can't help but stand up in front and give Grim a good kick when he rolls around on the floor and crashes into people. By the end there was direct audience participation, all six of us, being invited to join the vocals and pick up any instrument off the floor to play with them. I love bands who just don't give a flyin' fuck. (I Look forward to seeing The Ghosts, but so far that whole Parkside on the weekday thing hasn't helped for those of us who have jobs -Sam-)

May 18, Three Years Down, The Phenomenauts, Teenage Harlets, The Down And Dirties, and The Things at the Covered Wagon Saloon... Review by Mister Atakra...

Joe from Three Years Down invited me to go and check out his band and since they were playing with The Phenomenauts, I couldn't refuse! I walked in after totally missing the Things (who were apparently quite good), and managed to catch the last song of The Down And Dirties, but I wasn't very impressed with them. They did look funny tho...

The Teenage Harlets were pretty awsome in a garage seventies-style punk sort of way. The singer had lots of energy that was infectious with the crowd. Their set ended with an impromptu dogpile that was quite funny. The crowd loved them.

The Phenomenauts were also great as usual. Their set started with some sort of freon-type spray into the audience that totally caught me off gard, and they did the whole retro-future rockabilly thing and were stellar. They've added a bubble machine since I last saw them for one of their more ballad-esque songs. I bought all their pins and they were even selling new wave visors for two bucks! Brilliant!

I had my doubts about Three Years Down, especially since Mike from the Scurvy Dogs had said that I probably wouldn't like them, but by the end of the night they proved that they could definately entertain their audience. They did a Turbonegro cover, so Naes from the Northcoast Punklist was stoked. Even jaded scenester KsKelly remarked at the end of their set that they could definately rock. I just had fun watching the on-stage antics.

See the pictures already!: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/tydweb02/

May 17th, Breathe In, Enemies Front, Cutthroats 9, Dopesick, Un I.D. at the Covered Wagon Saloon... Review by Mister Atakra...

What a weird lineup. I missed Un I.D. which is a shame because I heard from KsKelly that they were really awsome. Dopesick was not my thing, I played pinball. They did do a Cure cover or something, but their fans were incredibly annoying.

Cutthroats 9 ruled! Take The Hitch, mix in the vocals from Slayer and Neurosis, and some incredible drum-pounding and you have Cutthroats 9! Their set was way too short, but maybe it was so short because He Who Cannot be Named and Vag were in the audience? In one moment I swear that the drummer's sticks were litterly crumbling with each powerful pounding beat. Unfortunately I completely failed to get any pictures of them because I was in total awe of their set. I think everyone was, especially after the rap-metal thing that Dopesick was doing and that Enemies Front was about to do, but more on that later. Meanwhile KsKelly and myself sort of got in a conversation with Christine from the Clowns (KsKelly was loaded), so mental note to self to go check out the Clowns when they play.

Enemies Front was another rap-metal band that I found to be really not that great, although they were tight. I think it's that whole jock-core mentality that irritates me. However they had some rabid fans who were practicly frothing at the mouth to see them play. Who snuck them on the bill anyways? I always find it interesting to see who spends the most on equipment and Enemies Front won the award for this show. Mark McKenna said, "Man, it was seeing a fat guy with his pants down, you just don't want to see that sort of action."

Breath In was the suprise band, totally punk rock, although they have bad hair. Super fast, short, and fun to see. I'll definately see them play again soon. I overheard one person say that they made the entire show for him, and I think I'll have to agree with that assessment.

Check out the pictures here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/breath_inweb02/

May 16th, Manic Hispanic, Fabulous Disaster, and Pinhead Circus (Last ever show in San Francisco) at Stinky's Peepshow in the Justice League...

Packed up the camera and headed down to the Justice League which really has never been my favorite venue, but it was Stinky's Peepshow, so how can anyone resist? Plus the Justice League is a bit larger than the CW and I've noticed that I've only been hitting up that place and Kimo's all too often and not broadening my horizions. So i get to the Justice League and realize that I'm probably going to be waiting for at least an hour for my ticket to show up with JPrice and Monterey Mark, so I headed up the street to eat some Popey's chicken (mistake #1).

So I'm sitting on the curb in front of the Justice League and looking at the people who are showing up and thinking "wow, this is exactly the reason why I don't go to Stinky's Peepshow much" when Neil from the Mutilated Mannequines appears, telling me "Dude, I've been permanently banned from this place at least three of times, but I had to see Manic Hispanic". OK, this is a good sign. Finally Echo and Monterey mark show up, but not before I miss the entire Pinhead Circus set which sounded OK from outside, not great, but I wasn't inside was I?

Fabulous Disaster did their usually great set of pop punk, unfortunately I spent almost the entire time waiting for a drink and talking to Ex-Riot Grrrl Melanie from Humboldt County (who was one of the girls who tried to beat up Mister Davis at a Spit Boy show in the mid-ninties it turns out, hahaha). It sounded like she was doing good these days. I (of course) pounded a few shots of whiskey and waited for Manic Hispanic to start while people watching.

FINALLY Manic Hispanic got on stage and my first impression was that they did a decent rendition of all the punk rock classics, but with half the energy. Luckily it picked up! I spent about half of the show at the center-front part of the stage, laughing at all the hispanic references that reminded me all-too-much of living in New Mexico and of all my friends from those days who are now busy smoking crack and/or homeless in Santa Fe. Brilliant stuff to be sure. Lots of Damned covers, some Rancid, some Sex Pistols, and a few classic bands like the Adolescents and all that. But what could I expect from ex-members of the Adolescents, Agent orange, and the Cadillac Tramps? All in all, this was a pretty good show even tho I missed Pinhead Circus. Neil from Mutilated Mannequines kept pulling me aside and yelling "DUDE, IT'S BEANER ROCK!"Almost the entire night I was astounded by this portly woman who was go-go dancing on the right hand side of the venue. Was that makeup, or was that really a transvestite from hell? I tipped the other go-go dancer just because she wasn't the one with the bad makeup.

After the show I was ready and willing to call a taxi and head the fuck out of that area of town, but luckily a kind muni bus driver saw us and gave us a ride to the homestead even though he was not in service. We gave him a beer and he picked up all the punky looking people we told him to on the way home. His name was Jimmy and he gave me faith in the muni system, and who ever thought that would happen?!?!

Pictures can be found here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/manichispanicweb02/

may 5th, Born Dead Icons, Kontraklasse, Blown To Bits, Born/Dead, and Necktie Party at Mission Records... Review by Mister Atakra

Frankly, so long has passed that I only remember Kontraklasse and Necktie Party as being really good, but hopefully when I edit the pictures in the next few days it'll jog my memory.

Well that didn't happen, so view the pictures here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/blowntobitsweb02/

May 2nd, The Phantom Limbs, Iowaska, The Flaming Stars, and MC Jello Biafra at The Great American Music Hall... Review by KsKelly...

This big Alternative Tentacles Showcase had lots of press beforehand. Jello Biafra has such reputation that when he appears now, it is on the level of high spectacle, so when we gathered in GAMH it was with palpable anticipation, which only goes to prove again that when you expect alot you may not get it as you plan. The crowd did not fill the hall, and the people who were there for one band were not into the other bands on the bill and no one was into hearing long political rants which they may or may not have agreed with.

Iowaska was first, with psychedelic English caravan hippie punkish rock that mostly left this crowd puzzled more than anything else. Then Jello Biafra talked for a long time about the Middle East. Iowaska has a stupid name and two good songs - Sam - . Next was The Flaming Stars, another British find that was kind of a cross between The Fall and Velvet Underground. They were OK for what they were doing, but again, this was a mismatch of a lineup, so other parts of the crowd were now puzzled. Meanwhile, the bar was providing free beers to the bands and you know what that means.

After more polemic from Jello, The Phantom Limbs arrived on stage really smashed so they kind of didn't sound too good to a die hard purist like myself. This I can forgive, however, but what really detracted from this show was the audience. It had alot of nasty assholes in it who were there for their own pit violence and the band's expected nudity. This resulted in a guy, some Asian guy, who suddenly appeared on stage naked himself proclaiming about how small his dick is when he grabbed the mic away from Hopeless. What else is there for Hopeless to do but get naked too and wrestle around with him? It provided the element of strangeness that pretty much saved the show but the fucker wouldn't get off the stage after that! Granted, he knew all the lyrics word for word and had emotional baggage he needed to work out in public, but we really didn't care about the size of his dick and just wanted the band to play something good. Then it was over and the special surprise was Jello doing a number with Iowaska. And what was it with the singer of Iowaska? She was practically gushing over Jello for what seemed like forever. Hello, we live here and see him all the time, we're over it already. However their small set with Jello was (from what I remember pretty good. Of course I was so drunk I might as well have waited for the impending video to come out. Plus it's pretty hard to take political musicians seriously when they're wearing $300.00 raver boots - Sam -.

I'm sorry, by then I was so demoralized I had to just stand outside and smoke.

View the sordid pictures here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/iowaskaweb02/

May 1st, The Coachwhips, The Numbers, The Quails and A Tension at the Peacock Lounge... Review by KsKelly...

Yay! Middle of the week shows are the best. The crowd knows a good lineup when they see it. The venue is a little place called the Peacock Lounge on lower Haight St. that rarely has shows. (I heard that the last time the Scurvy Dogs played there the management decide to have "No More Shows" - until tonight.) The show was put together by John Dwire from the Coachwhips, who told me this would be the last time he produced one as it's a pain in his ass. The first band was A Tension, an adequate electro-indie no wave garage-y type music that warmed up a lounge full of young indie hipsters. There were way too many tables in the bar that impeded the flow of crowd around the stage and as the night wore on they were pushed back further and further to make way for the surge of people who just kept coming.

By the time the Quails came on they were not letting anyone else in and the doorman was actively telling newcomers to go get a sharpie and draw the stamp on their hand. The Quails were a good garage pop band, lotsa energy. Next up were the Numbers, who played with convulsive precision and we really started to have a nice pit going. Sweat was flying. Last was The Coachwhips themselves and this was possibly the best show ever. There was the usual body surfing and one of the management was having fits about passing dancers over the crowd and kept running over to tell them not to do it and as soon as he left they'd do it again. Coachwhips never fail to have high energy fuzzy vocals/guitar and whipping percussion; they put everyone into a frenzied state. They are about to go on tour and have a new CD coming in a week. They deserve all the accolades they are about to get.

April 27th, Radio Vago and Sextional at Mission Records; Plus Crack: We Are Rock and the Drum Machine Museum at The Lab... Review by Mister Atakra...

I'd been hearing about Radio Vago for a while and I finally got the chance to check them out at the usually hardcore Mission Records this afternoon. It was a super dyke rock event so it was somewhat low-key as most of the regulars were off doing other things. But Radio Vago was quite enjoyable for the most part. Their first song was pretty good and the last song was the best in their set. I don't really see the comparisons to new wave and no wave bands of yore, but they do have keyboards which is always a plus. They sounded more rock and roll to me. I guess they are up here to record their first record, so that's pretty cool. Oh, and the band members were pretty nice to us even though we had testosterone instead of estrogen. Hahaha...

Sextional are from Portland and are another lesbian band, and they sounded like just that. I half expected to see Jodi Coyote on stage with each song. The last band, Running Ragged came on and I decided that not only did they pretty much suck, but they sucked so hard that I'd rather go home and take a nap before the ever-brilliant Crack: We Are Rock show at the lab later on in the evening. So I did just that.

Woke up again and walked down to the Lab which was as annoying as it usually is. The Drum Machine Museum would have been interesting if I hadn't seen the exact same thing done better so many times before by bands that have more talent. Of course a lot of the people in attendance were impressed tho. Maybe they should get out more often.

However, Crack: We Are Rock did an amazing show, and much longer than usual. I guess they are heading off on a US tour, so if you see them on the bill you should go check them out. Take my word for it, they are so awsome. They did a few new songs about sailors and prostitutes and always leave me wondering what drugs are in those big gulp cups that they always have. Due to their usual low light requirements my pictures came out looking more arty than usual.

View Pictures Here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/radiovagoweb02/

April 26th, Yarra du Jour's art opening at Cowboys and Angels... Review by Mister Atakra...

Yarra's paintings were brilliant as usual. Cookie, Jessie, and Adrienne from The Subtonix let us know that the new CD is out and that the vinyl should be in stores near you in a couple of weeks (keep an eye out for it because it's really good). I drank too much wine and started feeling queasy.

AND I got to see the sixty-foot Spider-Man balloon that's attached to the Metreon.

If you like Yarra's art, send her an email! or go see the exhibit yourself at Cowboys and Angels Hair Salon at 704 Powell St. on the 4th floor.

View the pictures here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/yarra_art_openweb02/

April 25th, Siouxsie and the Banshees, X-Girl, and Tribe 8 at The Warfield... Review by KsKelly...

When I saw that Siouxsie and the Banshees were playing the Warfield on my birthday I was giddy with delight. Mike S. bought tix weeks ahead of time and good thing because it sold out quickly, and it seems the people who sold out that first advertised show were mostly the kids in the Bay Area who still dress Gothic from the appearance of the crowd. There were more than a few grizzled old timers like me too. We got there relatively late considering that those corporate Warfield shows happen like clockwork, so unfortunately we missed Tribe 8, which kinda sucked 'cause I always seem to miss them. Them and X-Girl seemed like an odd pairing for opening acts, as the people waiting for Siouxsie were totally not into either of the other two bands. X-Girl was OK, but the sound was very muddy, the Warfield being so big made them turn up the volume so loud that all you could hear was booming drums and not too clear vocals. Those girls are very cute what with the worm costumes they came out in; they emerged like butterflies out of a chrysilis (Oh how cute!) but the schtick did not fit with the Gothiness the crowd was there for.

Finally Siouxsie came on and we screamed in anticipation. Wearing a slim tailored beige suit, she started pretty off-key or off-beat or something. We wondered if she could actually hear the monitors. Budgie was like some potentate high up on the drum set in a trance the whole set. They did some older material, one big hit, 'Spellbound' and they did do stuff like 'Ikons,' 'Nightshift' and 'Voodoo Doll'. Mike said they pulled out alot of B-sides from years back, because he got the set list off of a woman who grabbed it off the stage. I have to say, once again, that for all the dress-up and makeup going on in that crowd, there was precious little dancing going on in front of the stage. I guess if you spent hours putting together an elaborate costume and hair look, God forbid you should mess it up by actually exerting yourself and bumping into others on the dance floor! The sound improved as the show went on and she was liking the crowd enough to strip down to a black rhinestone bra at the end (and she looked damn good), but I never got the feeling that they went all out for this show. It was not rote, but it was just one more night on a drag 'em out and play 'em tour. Two encores, just like the night before. The crowd was lavishing vocal adoration on her nonetheless, and with good reason. She is still a goddess.

April 24th, CutThroat 9, Watch Them Die, Pitch Black, and Lana Dagales at the Covered Wagon Saloon... Review by KsKelly...

OK writing this when swozzeled is hard but here goes. I arrived pretty early to catch Lana Dagales, and they took forever to set up. It was pretty interesting as they had a subsonic bass sound going between songs which were each about thirty seconds to a minute and a half long. The subsonic sound made the whole Covered Wagon feel like it was taking off into space or something and the songs sounded like the cresendo of a metal song pared down to the essential scream part. Entertaining. Next, after more interminable set up, was Pitch Black and they were better than the last time I saw them, more pyrotechnics like shooting fireworks in front of the drums, and they were tighter. Good old punk sound. They also dealt gracefully with a broken string by playing around it.

Watch Them Die was a metallic kind of punk with much death metal screaming but I tellya when they got warmed up the crowd was way into it. They have the best tattoos too as displayed by vocals and guitar. They are friends of your friend Sean (who wondered why the fuck you were not there as he surely would have bought you drinks)... I liked 'em fine. The last band was CutThroats 9 and they totally ripped. Again with the broken equipment, a snare drum mid-set but they kept a great level of energy. The crowd was really mellow and just there to hear some good gol-dang music, which we pretty much got.

April 20th, The Pro Palistinian March at Civic Center, The Extra Action Marching Band at the Weird Day Celebration at 9th and Folsom; Ding Dang and the Black Furies at the Covered Wagon Saloon... Review by Mister Atakra...

I got up to the ringing phone at 10:00am and was told that I had to miss the last of cartoon day in order to acompany photographer Mark McKenna for a day of photo fun and trying to get into places for free. First off was the pro-Palistinian march that was going on at Civic Center, and man, when we got there all the black box people were raving out to a portable rave DJ (which was incredibly funny) and trying to block traffic on the street. And they were somewhat succeeding until the cops showed up. Then we sort of meandered around and watched how the hippies who had set up for Earth Day were dealing with all the yelling protesters. It was mary jane central and got really old really fast. Stupid hippies.

After that got old, we headed down to go check out the Extra Action Marching Band for a while, but we got there pretty early and just watched people, drinking an entire fifth of rum throughout the afternoon. The Extra Action Marching Band started, and they RULE! I guess it must have some of the old Crash Worship people involved and was pretty hedonistic and wild, a total scene, and lots of fun including audience participation. This went on for a while so we asked one of the residents if we could go on his roof and take more pictures and he said it was cool, so off we were, stumbling about the rooftops of SOMA taking pictures like crazy fools. I LOVE this festival, but they needed some weirder music on the stages. Rave music isn't weird in this day and age, it's retro already you numbskulls! Noteable mention to the guy on stilts wearing the GRIMPLE T-Shirt and twirling ribbons. Gee he looked familiar, but I couldn't place him. Possible New Mexico connection?

After climbing down and taking a breather it was decided that we'd go and take naps before the Strychnine show, possibly eating food before the show. It never happened. I spent the rest of the evening drinking and by the time the show came up, I was a little tipsy. This compounded by the fact that there wasn't one place to eat food on the entire walk to the Covered Wagon pretty much killed me. So about halfway through Ding Dang I realized that I'd better head home or I was going to pass out in the back room or something. So I got the hell out of there. I must be getting old or something, hahaha.

"Dude, I couldn't tell you who the fuck any of those bands were" - Mark McKenna one week after the show.

View Mister Atakra's pictures of these events at: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/wierdweb02/

Mark Mckenna's pictures of the weird day celebration can be found here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/wierd202/

April 14th, The Centimeters, The Sixteens, The Vanishing, and The Weegs at Kim's Pants (formerly the Ptomaine Temple)... Review by Mister Atakra...

KsKelly picked us up and we headed out tho Kim's Pants which used to be the Ptomaine Temple. The entire place is totally spruced up these days and had an intimate feel for the first hour because nobody except ourselves and The Weegs' band mambers were there. So we headed out to find a cheap burrito and possibly an ATM machine, to no avail. We got back and The Weegs hit the performance area, along with all their mod friends with BAD hair. It was pretty funny. The Weegs are getting better than what I remember from their show at Kimo's.

The Vanishing was up next and right in the middle of the performance, Jessy Trashed started stripping to the glee of many of the men in attendance (and a few of the women apparently). This started a trend that followed through the entire evening. I think The Vanishing were fantastic on this fine evening, and their gothis music gets better with every time that they play... and the audience eats it up every time!

The Sixteens got onstage and played their second show since their trip to Peru, and it was really awsome. Plus they have their new LP out now, so if you see any of the band members, ask them about getting one. They played seven or eight songs of super no wave madness and everyone loved it judging from the frantic dancing that was going. Not your regular ballroom dancing either, well perhaps if the ballroom was located in the midst of a heavy machinery complex. Actually I'm listening to their new album as I write this, don't you wish you were too?

The Centimeters finally got up to play and instead of Nora doing the bra ritual that Jessy from the Vanishing had started, this time it was the keyboardist. Maybe that explains the exodus by all of the Weegs fans? Hahaha. So this was the absolute best performance by the Centimeters that I think I've ever seen. They all were happy, talkative, and there was an unusually happy air about Kim's Pants, this new ownership thing is definately a good thing! The Centimeters played all the old stuff, some of their newer music from Lifetime Achievement Awards, and a couple songs that I assume are yet-to-be recorded. It was even more fun that their show the night before at the Odeon.

Afterwards we got lost in Oakland, which sort of sucked. But we made it home OK, thanks to the great driving of KsKelly.

View the pictures here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/centi_pantsweb02/

April 13th, The Centimeters and Mike Boner at the Odeon Bar...

I totally missed the Sixteens show at the El Rio, but after heading up to the Odeon with KsKelly we actually ran into them outside the El Rio where they informed us that their new record is out (and it is really good) and then we ran into Neil from Veronica Lipgloss and the Evil Eyes who accompanied us to Taquerita Cancun for a beer and a bit of social talk about the current state of San Francisco's venue scene (it looks like Mutilated Manequinnes are looking for a bass player, BTW).

We walked over to the Odeon and immedately the "comedian" who was on the earlier schedule left... (Note to self - Comedy died in the late eighties, do not become a comedian until Bush has left office). Immediatly Mike Boner hit the stage and he rules! Mike was wearing some sort of fishnet leotard and what seemed to be some sort of chastity belt, which was weird because the only person who was touching him on stage was his girlfriend. Actually they sort of looked like perverse Victoria's Secret superheroes ala the "Brat Pack" comics from the mid Eighties. Weird stuff, but Mike was really nice to me when I talked to him. It's somewhat weird because his head is somewhat disproportionate to his body, so when he's on stage it's sort of like looking like a caricature of a demented Sonny Bono. Mis Tickle, his girlfriend was HOT! And when the whipping started... Well perhaps I've said too much. I think Mike needs a website, PRONTO! My only complaint with Mike Boner is that he was selling his CDs (CDRs) for $10 bucks, which is the exact same complaint that I had with Penis Flytrap when they played at the Covered Wagon. If you are attempting to sell CDRs in San Francisco, it's only worth five bucks. Jezus, even the fetish artist dorks have become extreme capitalists these days.

The Centimeters hit the stage and were their usual brilliant selves. Nora was biting and pretty much insulting to one of the keyboardists which sort of detracted from the overall event (can't we all just get along already?), but the new songs were super awsome. Nora and Max both did solo performances of sorts, including a heart-wrenching performnce of "African paper" off of the somewhat newish 7". All the people in the front of the bar were really into it, but incredibly well-behaved. I think I even saw Chicken John (owner of the Odeon and perpetual San Francisco weirdness-scenester and Burning Man advocate) rocking out for a second when he didn't think anyone was looking. The people in the back were all talking on their cell phones during the entire night.

Kudos go to Chicken John for having such a great bar at all in such an uptight neighborhood, as witnessed by the huge amounts of cops, annoying middle-aged complainers outside the bar, and trendy fashion assholes sitting in the back of the bar talking about their (ahem) "lives". Now if he could just get over the stigma of being involved with Burning Man... Hahaha.

Pictures of this show and a few from the night prior can be found at http://www.atakra.com/pictures/centi_odeonweb_02/

April 12th, Flush and The Scurvy Dogs at Kimo's and then the Radio Reelers at the Hemlock...

What a disapointing night. First we hear that the Zodiac Killers disbanded (apparently) and wouldn't be playing the show at the Hemlock. And as if that wasn't enough we get to Kimo's and find out that Doll House and Total Eclipse had cancelled and/or disbanded. THEN we completely miss the short set by the Scurvy Dogs because we had walked up the street for a slice of pizza. WTF???

Flush was pretty entertaining, Mister Davis was totally entranced, but they played a pretty short set, and frankly people didn't seem to be drinking too much and everyone was disappointed by the cancellations. So after talking to one of the girls involved with Los Pistoleros for a bit with KsKelly, a bunch of us headed over to the Hemlock to try to catch the last few songs by the Radio Reelers and luckily they had decided to do another set, apparently wearing wigs in an attempt to impersonate the Zodiac Killers. Totally funny, but none of us wanted to spend all our hard-earned cash at the bar (FILLED with people who had "meat market" on their mind), so we migrated back to the homestead and drank until 7:00 in the morning, complete with getting champagne to make mimosas at 6:15am. woo woo.

A couple pictures of the Radio Reelers can be found at http://www.atakra.com/pictures/centi_odeonweb_02/

April 7th, Assemblage 23, Stromkern, See Colin Slash, and Noxious Emotion at the DNA Lounge... Review by Mister Atakra

So after spending all afternoon trying to get someone to go see Assemblage 23 with me, I gave up and headed to the show for what I knew was going to be a great show. As soon as I got there, Kyron5 gave me a drink ticket, so much for sobriety on this night! Almost immediately Noxious Emotion took the stage with some new songs and a lot off of the Count Zero LP which I don't really like. I haven't heard the new LP, but from what I was hearing from the show it is more like a lot of the German electro bands that hit town in the past two years, not a bad thing at all. They did lots of iron barrel drumming and even had some fire going at the same time which really reminded me a lot of the old BABYLAND performances, although not quite as edgy. I did think that the fireworks were a bit over-the-top...

See Colin Slash was pretty wacky. They did a couple acoustic covers including that one popular Stromkern song that I've heard too much at shows and then went into their funny industrial stuff that was really entertaining. Emo, but entertaining. During all this Kyron5 was grooving out, and DJ Sarin played some synthpop in between the sets that was also pretty funny. I gravitated over to the linux terminals for a bit to post on the livejournal thing for a bit during Stromkern's performance. I like Stromkern, but the rap thing they have going gets old after a while, so the linux terminals were a fun distraction. Stromkern did play a great set tho, I'd definately see them again. Plus they were SUPER NICE to talk to last time they were in town, so kudos to them for not being rock stars.

Kyron5 played a few songs that were really awsome, sort of new wavey in my opinion. Maybe I have corrupted her toward the dark side with my rants on the Synthpunk Mailing List? And that HAIR! Hahaha. Meanwhile I ran into Dutch from Word Salad there (for the second time in two nights), I actually think he may be the sound guy at the DNA Lounge these days, COOL!

Finally Assemblage 23 got on stage and did a really good performance for what seemed like over an hour. During this time I was trying to take pictures of the other photographer who was probably really annoyed with me for soing so, hahaha. Assemblage 23 played all the great songs off of the Failure release, a couple newer ones, and quite a few off of the contempt release and I must say that the lighting setup at the DNA Lounge is quite possibly one of the better ones in the entire city. It really made a lot of the Assemblage 23 pictures stand out, much better than the Faint pictures I took at Bimbo's. Towards the middle of Assemblage 23's set, Kyron5 gave me her last two drink tickets and I got a rum and coke, downed it, took a picture of some flipped out girl sitting outside, and headed off into the San Francisco city night. This was definately one of the best shows this year. And you (most likely) missed it.

View the pictures here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/assemblage23web_02/

April 6th, The Phantom Limbs, The Epoxies, The Vanishing, and 78 RPMs at Cafe du Nord... Review by Mister Atakra

How could a lineup get any better? I got to the Cafe du Nord in just enough time to manage to slip in to hear 78 RPMs' sound check and it wasn't too shabby. I had nearly completely missed them when they had played at the Eagle a few weeks back, but the private performance/sound check more than made up for that fiasco. Then I slipped out to the booths to get the new "I Like Tuesdays" zine, which is a must-read in my opinion. The current issue deals with "subcultures", and has a couple guest reviews that really rule. I must read this zine more often!

Finally 78 RPMs started and they had a pretty good turnout. I originally thought that they had sort of a "400 Blows" type thing going, but it wasn't quite in that vein with a closer listen. I'd compare them to some of the later TSOL material. Anyways they were a good time. The Vanishing simply ruled! (They absolutely slayed for the first band of the evening. People actually danced wildly, a rarity in fucking SF - KsKelly) And it's good to see Jessie having fun, even after the demise of her other band. I swear that they get more like Siouxsie and the Bansees every time I hear them, and that's a compliment.

The Epoxies hit the stage and it seemed like the majority of the sold out show was really impressed with them. They are so new wave that it hurts, really. It's true! I really liked them and bought their new record and the 7" after the show, which I managed to leave on the cab coming home (LAME). So if The Epoxies read this, send me a copy! Hahaha.

Finally The Phantom Limbs got on stage and that was probably a good thing because Ryan was obviously super drunk. He even remarked how he liked everyone's clothes and hair... A blatent lie if I've ever heard one. (During the set some guy grabbed the mike and went off about Israel and Jason had to boot him offstage - twice! Then Stevenson got into a fight with some more jerks in the audience and had to be pulled off by a brave woman - KsKelly) So the crowd was pushy and I had drinken a few, so I decided to head off right after the show, but unfortunately Reginald from Mutilated Mannequines showed up and spirited myself and Yarra du Jour off to some lame person's house with a fully stocked liquor bar. But by this time I knew when to get away, so that's when we called the ill-fated taxi that spirited away with my Epoxies record. DAMN YOU YELLOW CAB!!!

View the pictures here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/p_limb_dunordweb02/

March 31st, Hell's Belles and The Hitch at the Eureka Vet's Hall... Review by Mister Atakra

Well I intended to see The Hitch and Hell's Belles on this great evening in Humboldt, but Dana and Dust from Fortuna sort of kidnapped me and made me hang out with them at the Shanty, so by the time I actually got to the show (throughly drunk I might add), Hell's Belles was already on the floor and doing their thing. Plus it turns out that they aren't an all-girl band anymore, but that didn't subtract from the great AC/DC tunes that they played. Fortunately I also ran into Matt Millwood and a variety of new kids I'd never met before, so by the time I was told to go, I'd taken a bevy of pictures of random people who I vaguely remember.

Kudos to Echo for putting up with my after show antics that evening after the show. I know I was a handful. Oh well, sometimes situations call for large amounts of self-medication...

Here's the pictures: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/helles_belles02/

March 30th, Bottom, The Hitch, Men of Porn, and Uzmecho at the Eureka Vet's Hall... Review by Mister Atakra

Landed in lovely Eureka and realized that we were just in time to go check out the rock show at a new venue that I'd never been to called the Eureka Vets Hall, and it was pretty cool. It has a fully stocked bar, an upstairs and a downstairs (where the show was), and incredibly bad acoustics, but it was still pretty fun. Unfortunately we entirely missed Uzmecho, but myself andf Yarra du Jour talked to them for a while and they seemed cool.

We headed inside and talked to the people putting on the show and it turns out that they are the Free Radio Movement people who run a pirate radio station from a traveling van. Actually I believe they might even be using the same old transmitter that I had in my closet when we were running Free Arcata Radio, Humboldt County's first pirate radio station. Weird, I always wondered where that went! so it was cool meeting the new people running that, I hope they avoid some of the personal conflicts that eventually dismantled the original organization!

So we ended up at the bar and that's when we realized that all their drinks were only two dollars... TWO DOLLARS! Well the rest of the night was pretty much a blur, but I remember really liking Bottom and thinking that it is really weird that The Hitch now has followers that dress the same way that they do at these shows. Men of Porn was also super fun to watch which led me to thinking that this was possibly a perfect lineup for Humboldt County, but I still regret not being able to catch Uzmecho, drat!

Somehow myself and Yarra du Jour managed to find our way back to Monterey Mark's house and passed out, which was a good thing.

Pictures can be found here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/bottomweb02/

March 29th, The High and the Mighty at the Covered Wagon Saloon... Review by Mister Atakra

Managed to hang out with the guys from the High and the Mighty before the show, even though I was supposed to head up to Humboldt County that evening for my grandmother's funeral. The High and the Mighty started out slow, but managed to redeem themselves halfway through the set, although the bar wasn't packed or anything. The best part of the evening was hanging out with Mister Avery Breuski, as he was roadieing the show.

Here's the pictures of the evening: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/high_mightyweb02/

March 24th, Clan of the Bleeding Eye, Akimbo, and the Dime Life Crooks at Burnt Ramen... Review by KsKelly.

There is so much packed into this weekend that one's head could bust apart. Sunday night is when ya expect it to wind down but this Sunday night at Burnt Ramen was exceptional. I grabbed up The Wastrel: Peregrine and we zipped over to find almost no audience there of course for the first hour or so. Finally, first off was Clan of the Bleeding Eye. I met Dylan from Clan of the Bleeding Eye at The Phantom Limbs and Fleshies show in Sacramento the other Friday night and he gave me a big sampler of stuff called Your Guide to the Rock Apocalypse which is quite entertaining, especially the recorded calls into 510-BAD-SMUT which he segues some songs with. The band was a tribal cacophony, they wear cavemen with spikes costumes and wack each other and audience with padded weapons. Very Blade Runner with strobe lights and heavy not very tight punk rock stuff. Did you know strobe lights almost give you an epileptic fit if you look at them too long?

Next was a nice surprise from Seattle called Akimbo (One of my personal favorites! -Sam-). They were dense like Alice Donut or like Depressor and the crowd, which had thickened up by then was liking them enough to mix it up. The kids from Clan of the Bleeding Eye were bouncing all over the place. I went back to the table to get a button and gave my high praise which is that I said I'd see them again. Who I came for was 400 Blows. They were beyond superb tonight, they rocked the fucking floor under us. They had a spontaneous pit going, they had a sound like hot lava spilling all over us, they left us screaming for more. They must be seen by anyone who loves a fucked up in the head twist your brain around band. It did not seem like anyone could top that set and I felt sorry for Jeremiah and Chandler, the Dime Life Crooks, when they showed up late and said they got in an accident on the way over. I thought "oh shit you gotta follow 400 Blows!" but ya know what? Dime Life Crooks absolutely tore us up. They had everyone in Burnt Ramen gettin' dirty down and funky with the hip hop super shit. I mean our socks were blown off. We was groovin' to the message. They channeled that accident angst energy into a higher plane and produced a superior art form. We danced our asses off. Jeezus I gots to go the Burnt Ramen more often.

March 23rd, Crack: We are Rock!, a puppet show, and some noise DJ type thing at the Galaxy Club...

We decided to take the new roomate (another Humboldt County Transplant) to go check out Crack: We are Rock! and also to see how the Galaxy Club could handle live bands on this fine evening, but it seemed like the sound there sort of sucks. A pity that the beers there were totally out of hand in regards to their prices because the club itself really isn't that bad, if you like DJ type stuff.

Actually tonight's DJ was so irritating that one member of our party managed to politely excuse himself before Crack: We are Rock! even hit the stage! Oh well, his loss entirely. The puppet show was quite twisted, starting with puppets doing lines off of a toilet lid and yelling stuff, but again, the sound was so incredibly bad with this performance that one couldn't really tell what was going on at times. BUT the puppet show sort of culminated in a funeral procession that walked out the door which was pretty funny. It sort of reminded me of some of the OTO stuff that I've seen int he past, but with less of a purpose.

Finally Crack: We are Rock! same onto the floor and although they were a bit messy, their set was entirely fun and very danceable if you like to do dances like the electric fence. I can't stop seeing these guys, and if you do anything this year, you should see them too.

View pictures of Crack: We are Rock! here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/crack-warweb02/

March 21st, Erase Errata, The Panthers, and The Subtonix at the Eagle...

I didn't really have any idea that this show was happening until late in the evening, but heard about it in just enough time to run down and catch the entire Subtonix set which ruled as usual. The Eagle has now set it up so when the viewing area is overcrowded, which happens a lot, people can see what's going on in a bunch of video screens, so that captured my attention a lot. Hmm, when is that album coming out girls? Never?

The Panthers from NYC were sort of entertaining in that they had TONS of energy, but the music sounded like a Fugazi knock off to me, so I skipped out to converse with random people for a while, even running back to the homestead for a bit to grab some equipment for kicks and profit. I guess the Panthers are on the Troubleman record lable, which was sort of how this event seemed to be all about.

Erase Errata was brilliant as always, and I managed to weasel myself to the front to take a barrage of pictures of them before they hjeaded off to more dates out of the city. Well enough of my babbling, view the pictures at: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/eagle_subtonixweb02/

March 14th - March 18th, Mister Atakra's Trip with Yarra du Jour to New Mexico...

My sister got married in New Mexico, so myself and Yarra du Jour packed up and hit up the state for a couple of days. Needless to say the wedding was super awsome and a big congratulations goes out to my sister and the new brother-in-law for the occaision!

Pictures of the wedding can be found here: www.atakra.com - /pictures/weddingweb/

Pictures of Mister Atakra and Yarra du Jour enjoying the rest of the trip can be found here: www.atakra.com - /pictures/nmtripweb02/

March 12th, Nigel Peppercock, Bloodhag, and Folcaino at the Covered Wagon Saloon... (Review by KsKelly, with some notes by Mister Atakra)

Tuesday night is usually a skimpy night to see anyone except the consistently good Lucifer's Hammer shows at the Covered Wagon Saloon, so I hooked up with Mr. Atakra to see Folcaino, Bloodhag and Nigel Peppercock. Mr. Atakra was in a recovery from houseguests and work both sucking out his brain cells so he just wanted to be delivered to the bar and play pinball for a while, which he did for 45 (glorious) minutes while Folcaino was on. This band was much more elaborate than I expected. But there were some fine musicians up there doing Celtic folk music kind of like the Pogues but better. They had a couple of beautiful women playing flutes from what I could see from the back. I appreciated the Joy Division cover. It was nice to see a band for once that did not require earplugs.

I was looking forward to Bloodhag because everyone said how great they were when I told them I was going and they did not disappoint. Really one of the most erudite (look it up) bands ever to play Covered Wagon Saloon; all the songs a based on various science fiction authors which they would detail before each selection, while taunting the audience about being illiterate and whipping paperbacks out into the crowd. Don't throw them back at the band! They think you're a real idiot for not keeping them. The authors were cool too: Aldous Huxley, Anthony Burgess, Mary Shelley, J.G. Ballard, H.P. Lovecraft and William Burroughs to name just a few (Yet no mention of Phillip K. Dick?!?!). Oh yeah, the music about each was a short metallic scream that weighed several tons it was so heavy. Good set, I liked 'em.

Lastly, Nigel Peppercock was overwhelmingly good fun with a crazy-ass set of cacophony and stuff flying through the air and fog machine and costumes that somehow got peeled off and certain parts ended up on different members of the band and the audience while everyone swirled around in front of the stage. One of those shows where you never know what the fuck is gonna happen next which is what this band is known for. They also took the piss out of Bloodhag's set by throwing Danielle Steele (and Sweet Valley High) books around, but all's in good fun, eh? so we left feeling satisfied that we had seen another superb show on an anonymous Tuesday night.

Discover what you missed in the form of pictures here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/pepper_cock_cwweb02/

Join the Atakra.com announcement-only mailing list here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/atakra/

March 2nd, The Numbers, Crack: We are Rock!, and the Lo-Fi Neisans at some "destroy our warehouse space because we're getting evicted" party (can we have more events like this happen please?)... (Review by Mister Atakra)

Hooked up with some folks after lounging in the darkness of the homestead all day and it was already predetermined that this was definately the place to be on this fine evening, a party dedicated to defacing the entire warehouse due to an eviction, WOOHOO! Well actually it was way more low-key than that, although I did see a couple hammers and axes among the items of destruction, it was not readily aopparent that destruction was the purpose. Actually it was more like a free-for-all of wackiness. I did a couple impromptu atakra scrawls in neon blue chalk and then surveyed my surroundings. Upstairs was an art gallery type deal with some pretty awsome paintings and other weird scrawlings and nicely displayed hanging printwork. And that's where I ran into Erin from Crack: We are Rock!. We spoke a bit about mutual friends in Georgia, Adult, and how great the the Lo-Fi Neisans are, then she sort of led me around for a bit until the Lo-Fi Neisans started their cacophonious noise assualt.

Wow, they were awe-inspiring. Picture five Japanese kids pounding on some huge asian looking drum with tweaked out makeup, add sounds made from godzilla and tonka toys plus the crazy bass action and you have the Lo-Fi Neisans. It was so incredibly loud that the people in the next-door drug rehab were getting pissed off and complaining from what I understand, hahaha, sucks to be them... The performance space was totally packed, so when the Lo-Fi Neisans ended their all-too-short set suddenly the vaguely house music ("It's not house, it's trance, that makes it OK") started and people began to flee to the safety of the outside sidewalk which is usually inhabited by burly crack dealers (no joke).

I ran up to the corner store to get some more liquor and got back just in time to get a good vantage point to see Crack: We are Rock! who had also given me a defective CDR of their new material, wah waaahhh, oh well. They still rule the avant electro noise scene in my opinion, a consensus that seemed to be understood by the massive amount of people who had converged into the room to see the band. Then suddenly, SUPRISE, all the lights were turned off and the set began. OK, these indie music fans have a love affair with digital video cameras because I counted at least five of them filming throughout the evening. Expect to see these videos going for $25 bucks in the future, or at least as side footage on VH1's "Behind the Music" in 2020. Crack: We are Rock! played a few new songs, but most of it was off their new 12" which they seem to now possess now that they are back from their "tour" of Japan. Everone must see this band, if only they'd play more. On this fine evening Crack: We are Rock! even gave the die-hard fans pie, which mysteriously ended up being flung about in the darkness, getting all over people, BONUS!

I needed a breather after that, so myself, Justin from Humboldt County, and Yarra du Jour headed to a local bar for a second, only to get kicked out for smuggling in our own beer, hahaha, no great loss there. But by the time we got back to the warehouse (now with an added massive amount of people on the sidewalk outside), the cops had come and I only caught about twenty seconds of the Numbers' (not the Numbers out of Sunset Beach) last song. It was a great twenty seconds tho. By this time all the people at the show were getting on my nerves so I made the quick trek back to the homestead, noting along the way that things are a little quieter/safer in the Mission these days, what's going on with that?

View the pictures at: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/c_w_a_r_warehouseweb02/

March 2nd, Totimoshi, Scurvy Dogs, and 400 Blows at Mission Records and The Bar Feeders, Fleshies, and The Roger More's at the El Rio... (Review by KsKelly)

Saturday was the total anti-Noisepop festival because there was so much else going on at the same time you could go crazy trying to pick. I chose to sample the Mission Records show with Totimoshi, Scurvy Dogs, and 400 Blows, yet again! Yes they are that good that one is not only going to listen to two sets in two days but count yerself damned lucky to do it. I got there way early and stuffed myself for breakfast at CanCun and picked up a Double Black Stout at that crappy little store across the street.

Totimoshi started as soon as the other bands moved the equipment in and started drinkin'. Gads they was real good with the purty songs and heavy bass and drums to push your ears in. Quick duck out the back to smoke up. Scurvy Dogs were much much better than last time at Kimo's because apparently they have settled their differences and all was in harmony. They emphasized that they were not drunk enough yet; this did not stop them from having an energetic set where the crowd of about 9 people besides the other band members was glad they saw this intimate show. Matt and Evan both made remarks to me about being soooo tired but they were just warming up before they went onto the Burnt Ramen Pyrate Punx show so good luck fellas. (Happy Birthday to Marcus too.)

400 Blows was the topper, they were better than last night if you can fathom it. Driving earsplitting spastic punk out rock and Scott was screaming right in our faces as we soaked it up in front. They put on a fabulous show that left us exhausted and looking at each other with glassy stares. When you get out of Mission Records shows it's so cool because you got the whole evening ahead of you still!

Again there was so much to choose from so I hooked together with Anthony Fremont from KFJC and we decided to grab a snack and head to El Rio to catch Fleshies. Opening act was The Roger More's from Bristol, England and a goofier and more good spirited trio of guys you couldn't want. The vocalist was dressed in this retro plaid pants and spiked out 'do outfit that was adorable; he even had the black eye painted on. The music sucked at first but the stuff he said between songs was so classic and fuck you all in an English accent that you had to like 'em and then the songs turned into punk at its finest. (Damn, I had wanted to check those guys out too, but I went to see Crack: We are Rock! instead - Mister Atakra)

Of course Fleshies played to please and despite numerous technical problems like amps getting unplugged, mysteriously in the midst of numbers, Johnny No Moniker gave a balls out performance as always. They had been up all night recording while we were all having that decadent time seeing The Limbs so they was all tired as hell and still gave that loving crowd a fucking good show. Scott from 400 Blows arrived in time to catch their set too. The last up was the Bar Feeders and after having seen them several times before at like the CW I think this time they really clicked for me. Never again will I hesitate to pay good money if they're on a bill. Can you stand it? Six frickin' excellent bands in one fucking day!

March 1st, The Phantom Limbs, 400 Blows, and Theory Of Ruin at Kimo's... (Review by KsKelly)

OK, this was the hotly anticipated show (for me anyway) for about a month now, and the crowd was in the same vein of hardcore Phantom Limbs afficiandoes. (Thanks to Miles again for the tix) I showed up just in the well-timed moment for Theory Of Ruin, who I'd seen before as a headline act at CW but for this lineup they were the perfect warm-up act. Their set was a bit of a schmear from one song into another but the crowd liked 'em and I liked 'em when they said they couldn't get onto the Noisepop schedule for some reason. The evening was young. (I must say that I wasn't too impressed with Theory Of Ruin myself, but I did really enjoy their last song. Most of the rest reminded me somehow of Damnation AD - Mister Atakra)

Next - Huzzah - 400 Blows was hot. Scott the vocalist was on fire and there was much crowd movement. One guy was falling into people like he was in the ocean or something but overall the convulsive brand of driving punk tunes flowing out from the trio was wall of sound rock. I just dig that military outfit Scott sports. Good stuff.

The piece de resistance of this excellent lineup was my faves Phantom Limbs. Hopeless was stunning in a hazmat outfit, quickly shed, and the band was ready to put out. Which they did. I got my best slip ripped offa me but it was worth it. There were a few extended instrumentals when the mics continually get fucked up but by then the whole crowd was schnokered and no one gave a flying fuck. As just like the last shows they've done at Kimo's it was a kickass pit, flying bodies and everything. Aw shucks, they ended abruptly and then I stayed as long as I possibly could just to stand around and have drunken conversations. I'm real good at that. What a fucking great show.

View the pictures already! http://www.atakra.com/pictures/400_kimos_blowsweb02/

February 27th, The Faint, Iam Spoonbender, and Adult. at Bimbo's... (Guest Review by Kyron_5)

So I went to the noise pop show last night. four bands: black orchid, Adult. , Iam Spoonbender, and The Faint. the show started at 8pm and I had to pick up Mister Atakra, drive all the way the fuck up to Bimbo's, then park in a parking lot in a hotel. and Mister Atakra managed to get us lost in the hotel, wandering around aimlessly trying to find the exit [DAMN YOU!]. so by the time we got to the venue we missed the first band. Mister Atakra's friend Yarra du Jour showed up and brought a serious fucking concoction of hell in a cranberry juice bottle. it was, like, gin, something else, and just enough cranberry to make it pink. literally. it was painful! Adult. went on and they were seriously fucking brilliant. hands-down, the best performnce of the night. I tried to explain the sound later by saying it was like kraftwerk/new order (early new order) 80s pop electronics mixed with idm mixed with hanin elias-esque vocals (hanin = atari teenage riot). Mister Atakra said they sounded like the band in liquid sky. That might be a better description.

So, anyway, they were great but, by that point, the venue was getting fucking packed with thrift-clad-and-shaggy-haired hipsters and I decided I couldn't deal so we went across the street to the irish bar and got some drinks and hung out over there. Somehow we managed to miss Iam Spoonbender doing this (I am a fucking tard). when we got back to the venue they were just leaving the stage. by this point things were getting seriously fucking packed. I told Mister Atakra that if I ran the world I would run around that venue armed only with a pair of hair clippers screaming 'get a haircut, hippie!!!!' buzz buzz.

Then The Faint went on, and they were great, but I was a bit annoyed that they seemed to play virtually the same set as the last time I saw them. also, the fucking keyboardist has GOT TO GO. he's got an afro and two keyboards and I swear that guy doesn't actually do anything except hit effects keys every once in a while and dance around the stage like a tard. at one point he hoisted himself on one of the monitors and looked over the crowd like a ROCKSTAH. and I was thinking 'you fucking tard, you are the fucking keyboardist. get a fucking clue.' other than that, the show was great. everyone was cracking jokes, though, because The Faint are touring with no doubt now. I even heard them played at hot topic. I can't wait to see the look on Mister Atakra's face when a throng of 15 year olds wearing faint t-shirts accost him for being the synthpunk list moderator.

HAHAHAHA.

BTW you can always tell when Mister Atakra is drunk when you tell him to scream out really obnoxious things and he does it. We walked out of the venue and he started yelling out 'god, I hate all these fucking people! everyone here is so lame!' and I said to him: 'why don't you say that a little bit louder.' and he screamed 'everyong here is LAAAAAME!' oh man.

Additional review by __Okie

As we approached Bimbo's the scene looked like a post apocalyptic nightmare where everyone in the world has been killed except the hipsters. They spilled on to street and the sidewalk chatting and posing as only a horde of scenesters can. Upon entering the venue I was as usual aghast at the drink prices and lines. But we got there just in time to see Adult. kick off their set. I was duly impressed with the bleeps and wailing in the vein of Liquid Sky. I soon spotted Mister Atakra sporting his shiny photo pass and camera. After Adult.'s set we headed across the street for cheaper drinks and to gawk at the Jerry Garcia shine at Kennedy's. Atakra lagged on finishing his beer so we got back at the tail end of Iam Spoonbender's set which looked impressive in a media assault sorta way.

When The Faint hit the stage I found myself surrounded by marina trash and a tall big gay disco dancing fool in front of me. The Faint are official rockstars now, complete with posing and the ability to perfectly replicate all their songs. In fact I was turned off by the fact that the songs were done too perfectly one of the reasons I go see a band live is the slight differences in the music. Half way through the set I felt the full weight of the hipness and had to flee, on the way to the door I was hugged my some creep on E when he noticed I had that I'm gonna fuckin break your nose look he said "It's just a hug Bro". As I was leaving I hit the bathroom only to find a man in a fur coat standing at the urinal next to mine. I think I'm not going to a Faint show again but Adult. made the night for me. __Okie

http://www.atakra.com/pictures/adultweb02/

February 22nd, Penis Flytrap, The Deep Endye, The Phenomenauts, and Leper Sex Killer on the Loose at the Covered Wagon Saloon...

Well I won an award at my work for overworking (who knew?), plus recieved the new Mighty Sphincter rerelease of The New Manson Family and Ghost Walking on this day and decided to end the perfect afternoon by checking out the much-hyped Penis Flytrap show instead of the Sixteens last show for a while at the werepad. I got to the CW just in time to run into Abe Ringstaff and a few other weirdos from the Eureka days, and just in time to see Leper Sex Killer on the Loose. What is it with these guys? They seem to go through band members like water, or at least sound like they have a new member every week. I wasn't impressed at all. But their friends were happy to see them play, so there was lots of energy in the crowd. I think I even caught a few heads nodding to the music. Maybe I was hallucinating.

The Phenomenauts were pretty impressive. I didn't really have high hopes for them, until I saw the Phenomevan parked outside, which is some sort of super-shuttle covered with futuristic sci-fi stuff, making it look like it just arrived from Battlestar Gallactica! The Phenomenauts played some pretty impressive rockabilly type music, which was pretty funny since I had just remarked to someone that I was glad that there wern't as many rockabilly shows happening anymore. I guess I spoke too soon! hahaha. I guess they have their own Phenomenauts Yahoo group now, so see photos of them there. In any case, they were really fun, had their own light show (which is always a plus), and dressed in cool looking uniforms that were reminescent of Disney's The Black Hole uniforms I think. One guy had some silly homeade space headgear too, probably to keep his brains from falling out in deep space.

The Deep Endye was awsome as usual; Fate Fatal was pretty animated and sported a slick black hairdo for the evening. The Fly was in rare form, and Tim and Hal Satan were rocking with the rest of the band in total sync. I love these guys. Everyone should definately get their new EP, "Suicide Drive," ASAP because the title song is pretty fucking awsome.

During the break I ran into Rick Wilder of the legendary Mau Maus and had him confused with a 65 year old drag queen, ahahaha. Seriously, how old is that guy these days? Luckily he joined Dinah Cancer onstage for the entire Penis Flytrap set! Wow! Dinah Cancer looks to be about 23 years old these days, I guess that drinking blood and being in the legendary 45 Grave kept the years off very well! I gave her the new Mighty Sphincter rerelease because I know that she had some sort of history with those guys "back in the day." Their entire set was so brilliant too. They easily won over any doubters of their musical prowess and (SUPRISE!) played 45 Grave's Riboflavin Flavored, Non-Carbonated, Polyunsaturated Blood for the older people who remember that being played on the "alternative" airwaves. Hmm, I'll have to dig up that record now. The only problem I had was with them selling a CDR of their music for 10 bucks, that seemed a little excessive. If I wanted a CDR, I'd have copied someone else's copy. Come on gang, give us some vinyl already. However it looks like Lucifer Fulci's book finally came out (where's that movie?) and they did have what looked like Penis Flytrap trading cards in the dark alcove where the merch guy was lurking. I especially liked the Penis Flytrap lunchboxes! The last song they played was "Partytime," which was a 45 Grave staple, and one of the most popular (if not as good as "Evil" or "45 Grave") songs that the band ever recorded. It was definately one great show, and you missed it.

After the show KsKelly offered to drive me to go try to catch the Sixteens, but I was just too damn tired/drunk to do it, Wah Waaahhhh.

Here's the pictures: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/penis_flytrapweb02/

February 15th, Hoarfrost, The Hideous, Ciribus, and The Scurvy Dogs at Kimo's plus Folcaino and Ding Dang at the Hemlock Tavern...

Initially I wasn't going to go to this show, but with some prompting by Yarra du Jour, I decided to go and check it out. I mean it IS the Hideous afterall! So we hung out beforehand at the Mexican food place up the street because of their incredibly cheap beers and outdoor eating area, watching the yuppies walk around one of the recently renovated areas of Polk street. It's sort of a shame that the street hustlers or drag queen prostitutes aren't there anymore, that was one of Polk Street's only charms in my opinion.

Went in to cheer on the Scurvy Dogs, who seemed to not be in a great mood this evening. Lots of insults were thrown about between the band members, which was kind of funny. One shattered light fixture. eight songs, and a period of time where the singer was pulling up crap from under the stage floor area later their set was over. Whew! enjoy these great pictures of the Scurvy Dogs by Mark McKenna at: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/hideousmcweb02/ . Hopefully he'll take more pictures at shows in the near future!

Caught the entire set from Ciribus and was somewhat impressed, and how old are those kids anyways? They had sooo much energy. Pretty furious, albeit somewhat sloppy grind metal three piece band. I'll bet that they'll be pretty popular in metal circles soon. Their enthusiasm was certainly pretty outstanding, although I kept thinking "Oh yes, this reminds me of High School in New Mexico" throughout their entire set. I was definately chuckling during their song, "fat bitches." Let's hear it for non-political correctness! RAH! They had their own entourage of kids from Laytonville too... I wonder how they get along with their parents? Hahaha.

During the break I ran over to go see Folcaino for a second at the Hemlock, but my heart wasn't into it, so I got a drink and talked with Naes from the Northcoast Punk List for a bit before heading back to catch the Hideous who by that time were ready to rock. And boy are they great! The Hideous has Mike from Sake and Nick from Grimace, two bands that never quite reached too much popularity, although you can still find copies of Sake's stuff around here and there if you look hard enough. Super metal stuff, that's for sure. And they were (incredibly enough) much better this time around than the last time I saw them at The Tempest. Hopefully next time they'll have a recording out, although you can get the mediocre Panache Magazine compilation that has them on it if you dare.

So I gathered a couple people and ran down to the Hemlock to catch the last song from Ding Dang and sort of ended up trapped there for a bit, and by the time I got back I'd totally missed Hoarfrost, but I bought one of their demos to make up for it. Ding Dang seemed to me to be having an off night, but I did finally see the new record cover, which is incredibly funny... Not bad for a night's fun, but we hadn't quite finished yet, so I grabbed KsKelly and Yarra du Jour and went back to the homestead to listen to really loud music for a couple more hours. Woohoo! Check out the pictures here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/hideousweb02/

February 14th, n:CODE + d:CODE at the DNA Lounge plus 78 RPMs and Blue Period at The Eagle...

Sudden guests hit town, so I decided to take them out to see some of the finer culture that SF's famous nightlife has to offer. First up was dinner at my favorite sushi place, I Heart Terriaki, which has some of the best sushi in town. Then we went to go check out n:CODE + d:CODE but more specificly DJ Kyron_5's industrial set at the DNA Lounge for a while which was lots of fun and got my friend's toes a tapping, then we ventured into the main room and watched the various DJs there for a while. But the boys got bored, so I took them to the Eagle to see 78 RPMs and Blue Period for a break. 78 RPMs were totally amazing, and I wish I gad gotten some pictures, but I totally missed it because by the time I made it to the front of the room, the had just ended. Sucks too because what I was hearing was very 400 Blows-ish. Blue Period hopped on the stage and did a great set of their patented glam rock, and lots of drag queens looked like they were enjoying the band's set very much. We then set out to get back into the DNA Lounge, but Joe and D were a bit too tipsy, so they almost didn't make it inside. So I took a few added pictures of DJ Kyron_5 and hit the short road back to the homestead.

Pictures can be had at: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/kyron5DNAloungeweb02/

I must say that the sound at the DNA Lounge is really impressive in the main room, but the smaller room could use a bit of work. n:CODE + d:CODE is a great concept, I hope it sticks around for a while...

February 14th, The Ghosts, The Davies, and The Coppertones at Kimo's (Guest review by KsKelly)...

It had been a day or two since going out so I woke up to catch Miles' show on KUSF and the darling forked over tickets to the show I was going to anyway at Kimo's. So I called up my fellow unemployed wastrel Peregrine and we hooked up just in time to see The Coppertones who laid down a blistering cool set of surf covers in surf costume of course. Everyone was woo-ing and hollaring.They still do the best version of Peter Gunn I know of, live.

The next band was The Davies and the guitarist was way good. He's from The Stooges cover band called Funhouse. The tunes were straight out R&R but when they warmed up they were very cool, especially the bassist and vox/guitar, both female. We pogo'd some of the set. The last band was the absolute shit, The Ghosts. They all wore sheets with eyeholes cut out but when playing the sheets slipped all over so they couldn't see the instruments and the vocalist just flailed around and sang the spookiest lyrics with this down and dirty music that was a flat out raw rock and roll performance. He collapsed several times while the crowd drunkenly called out for more so he got up and did more. After the set I saw him spit beer at the girls from The Davies. It was such a great show we were jazzed enough to stumble over to the Hemlock and get wasted with the last of the last in the smoke room.

Hey, Polk Street is lookin' good these days!

February 10th, The Sixteens, The Floating Corpses, and The Teletypes at the Covered Wagon Saloon after a great afternoon at SFMOMA...

After one of the warmest days that we've had in SF in a long time, myself and Yarra-du-Jour headed to the SFMOMA to check out the Eva Hesse exhibition and to go see the new Adrienne Peterson gallery showing at the "Pick Me Up Cafe". Adrienne's paintings were excellent as usual, I encourage anyone to go check it out on the corner of ninth and Folsom. Then it was on to the SFMOMA...

For the first part of the exhibit I was less than impressed as Eva Hesse's drawings looked exactly like some of the doodling I used to do in the late eighties/early nineties for the Atakra Zine out of Humboldt County. I'll try to scan them and put them up if I find the time or the magazines in my archives. So eventually we got to her later sculpture works in fiberglass, paper mache, and plastic and it was like a whole other world. Check out the SFMOMA website because her surrealist/abstract 3D works were indeed worth the $10 ticket. OK, enough of the highbrow art, on to the lowbrow art rock, hahaha.

We finally arrived at the Covered Wagon Saloon, just in time to drink many glasses of agua and for me to chat a bit with Wendy-O-Matic, who proceeded to remind me that we've seen each other since the last time I remembered down in Santa Fe. That was cool, I hope there's no hard feelings on my slipping away to play pinball, but I'm a pinball addict! So The Teletypes start and after a little warming up, they sounded great, and were totally appreciated by the smallish crowd that had gathered. Between the Casio and MOOG experience that they threw together for the crowd, I don't think anyone left the floor at all, except to get another beer. Again, I'd like to see the stuffy "industrial" people in the Bay Area start embracing what they've yet to even experience if it isn't synthpop.

The Floating Corpses came on the stage and immediately my first thought was that they needed more practice, and that they harken back to a sort of dirtier version of Buddy Holly. Lots of energy and some decent music, but not what I was expecting. In any case, they had a decent sized audience, and were pretty fun to listen to. Oh, and did I mention the fashion? Perhaps that's for the best that I didn't, hahaha.

The Sixteens hit the stage and that's when I realized that they were missing the essential Nick, who I gather has been really sick lately! But they managed to throw up some great new songs that were a lot different from their usual set, and very awesome at that. Sort of a deconstructionist new wave approach to the songs in my mind, but that's up for debate. So check out the pictures at: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/sixteens_cwweb02/

February 9th, Tragedy, Sangre Amado, Brainoil, Lesser Of Two, and Non-Compliance at Casa Sangre (Guest review by KsKelly)

Looking for an interesting evening, I was up for the deep depths of West Oakland and made my way to Casa Sangre for what promised to be a good lineup. Easy enough to find but missed Non-Compliance. I saw that act at the Stork Club before, so I didn't feel too bad. Got there in time to see Lesser Of Two and quite the gnicely gnarly crowd in this bare bones warehouse space, real hardcore. Lesser Of Two warmed those kids up good.

Brainoil was up next and cooking fine, so fine in fact that there was a bunch of guys enjoying an active pit in the back behind the general bunch in front of the stage, and I'm standing there in front minding my own business when some guy spazzes out in the front and whacks me hard in the nose with the back of his head, right in the spot I got whacked at the Phantom Limbs show a few weeks ago, but this time, honey, it got broke. Blood was pouring out my nose so I stumbled upstairs to the kitchen and applied ice for hours while the show carried on.

I think Sangre Amado played and they were good because I remember tapping my foot and laying there on the floor of the kitchen while people swirled around and got me ice and such. Then there was talk of the police showing up and telling Marcus they had to stop the show as there was too much hilarity going on so Tragedy only got to do a couple songs which sucked because they were who I came for. To make up for it, when the bleeding stopped, I hung out for hours afterward just helping the straggling crowd use up the beer, which went on for hours and hours!

Casa Sangre is run by a bunch of hardcore Mexican kids who are really goods sports considering that they very nicely kicked us out by 5. I hope they have many successful shows there and they keep lots of ice in the freezer. No pictures.

February 2dn, The Phantom Limbs, The Lewd, The Subtonix, and 400 Blows at the Covered Wagon Saloon (Penis Flytrap cancelled due to a death in the family)...

After meeting up with Yarra-Du-Jour, eating a burrito, cleaning the homestead, and grabbing some vacation tickets we took the plunge and walked down to the Covered Wagon past what used to be dot-com hell. Now it's a slightly ravaged boulevard of empty warehouse spaces and closed yuppie eateries. Well that's just fine with me. We got in to the CW and Debbie from Humboldt gave me a warm welcome and told me to get a beer, to which I gladly obliged, only to find out that Penis Flytrap had cancelled due to unfortunate family circumstances. BUT 400 Blows took the opening slot instead, which was great because I totally missed their show earlier in the week with Gravitar. I heard that they were the only good band at that show anyways, so that was cool that I at least got a chance to see them on this leg of their tour.

400 Blows played a really short, but incredible set, add to that the fact that I now know most of their lyrics thanks to ex-roomate Trevor and you've got a great set indeed. Their music is super powerful and I'm always blown away by the fact that they are a three piece because they sound better than most 4-piece bands I see these days.

The Subtonix hit the stage and played a great set themselves, and all the goth kids who originally came to see Penis Flytrap were totally impressed. This was a good thing because lots of people were speculating that they had sucked the life out of the venue with their gloomy demeanour, hahaha. Plus it was Jessy Panic's birthday, so if you see her out on the town, be sure to give her belated happy birthday wishes!

The Lewd finally played and I don't know what it was, but I didn't see much energy among the majority of the people there (like I said, the goths were to blame), but they put on a solid set and proved to me at least that although they might not have fit on the bill with Penis Flytrap headlining, they definately still have some punk left in them. It wasn't as great as when I saw them at the El Rio, but that's OK with me. Besides they're all older than me. Kudos to the old people! Hahaha.

The Phantom Limbs got on stage and I think Ryan was still suffrering from the ill-fated (but memorable) Bottom of the Hill show because he spent most of the evening before the set leaning on a cane like he was in pain or something. Nonetheless, the set was great and again I saw people throughout the "pit" looking like they'd get black eyes the next day. But as the set wore on, I decided to drink a few too many double rum and cokes, so yet again, I'll let the masses of pictures speak for themselves.

Pictures can be found here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/phan_limb_cw_web02/

January 26th, "Charm' by Sarah Reed and Sadie Shaw, with The Vanishing at the Werepad... (Guest review by KsKelly)

Yow! And we thought there was nothing going on this weekend! The Werepad had a special World Premiere of a movie called "Charm" by Sarah Reed and Sadie Shaw. Sadie is the keyboardist of The Vanishing. The movie played Friday night too, but on Saturday The Vanishing played after the movie. The movie was shot in 8 mm, a real grainy story of a woman who slowly freaks out after stressful family interactions and murders people. The soundtrack is a slow eerie bunch of stuff from a label called 5 Rue Christine; bands like Thrones, The Lie and Aislers Set. There's oodles of blood and the woman screams alot. An accurate depiction of societal alienation, I guess. The Werepad was absolutely packed, it was difficult to move around. Particularly hip crowd. The Vanishing took a little while to locate a final plug. Finally they start playing a ripping set that captivated the crowd while strange images were projected behind like nude women walking around the side of a pool but projected in negative, giving them a ghostly quality, and the face of the Wolfman with those swirly hypnotizing lines from cheesy 60's movies over it. My personal favorite was the old cellular biology class film. As far as the music, these three get better with every performance. Muffin pounds those drums like a madman, Sadie's keyboard winds in and out and Jessie Trashed lets loose with a killer bassline and fast Siouxsie vocals. They only did about 5 or 6 songs but it made everyone purty happy.

No pictures, but some will be up soon of a long-forgoten show with Mutilated Mannequines, The Sixteens, and The Phantom Limbs at Mission Records... I may also include some arty nature pictures I took on my recent vacation to Humboldt County's Emrald Triangle.

January 22nd, Pleaseeasaur and Comedian Chris Murray at the Werepad...

How can you go wrong with Pleaseeasaur? We arrived to find that Captured! By Robots had cancelled due to some mysterious ailment which sucks, but what can you do? So instead the opener was an esoteric comic named Chris Murray (I think) who did an odd brand of observational comedy with hooks rooted in modern culture. He was entertaining, but I noticed a bit of pirated references. It was somewhat more of a poetry type of thing, which I usually don't go for. My favorite piece was a bit he did on riding the greyhound bus.

Pleaseeasaur got onstage and although their set was a bit more bare-boned than the infamous time I saw them with Neil Hamburger in Seattle, it was still funny and outrageous. Plus they had the ever elusive new CD with them too, BONUS! They performed their not-so-one-man-routine with much finesse, complete with some of the greatest costumes ever; the nice guy superhero type, the elderly grandma carrying a child, the eighties spandex jazzercise guy, and the abominable snowman all appeared. Seriously, if you get a chance to see them, don't miss it! You won't be disappointed. Plus they have new T-Shirts for people of every size! Their music was (of course) flawless on this round also.

It was great seeing some of the same faces that were around the last time Pleaseeasaur played, and I found out today that a lot of people were bummed that they missed the show. Well they are playing in Arcata on the 27th, so there's still a chance to catch this great band for those people willing to make the trek.

http://www.atakra.com/pictures/pleaseeasaurweb02/

January 19th, The Resineators and The Temple of Bon Matin at the Hemlock Tavern and Mutilated Mannequines and Heart of Snow at an unannounced show...

I heard through the rumor mill that Heart of Snow was playing at an undisclosed warehouse sometime after midnight, but the problem was what to do until that happened. After much calling around it was decided that myself and LittleBrazil would go and scope out the Hemlock Tavern for a bit and see what The Resineators were all about before heading to the warehouse. The Hemlock Tavern was sort of a meat market with lots of yuppies in the front and lots of music geeks standing around in the back, checking out the Temple of Bon Matin. The Temple of Bon Matin was pretty funny. I sort of decided that it could best be described as "wretched noise," while LittleBrazil thought that some homeless hippie had commandeered the band's set with his odd drum setup. By far the most entertaining part was the end of their set when the bassist pretty much demolished a bass into a feedback frenzy. Luckily that ceiling held up under the numerous hits it took from the bass.

The Resineators were up next, although in between the bands we sat in the bar area checking out the barmaids and the LA rockstars who suddenly showed up. Funny stuff, especially when it was coupled with the incredibly heinous polk street drag queen who wandered in off of the street, probably from Kimo's. The Resineators were sort of rocking. I wasn't incredibly impressed, but everyone there acted like they were personal friends of theirs, so no rude remarks on my behalf. Really they weren't too bad, I could see them again.

From there we zipped over to the secret warehouse party and got to see the final couple of songs by the Mutilated Mannequines, which was a complete surprise to me because I didn't expect them to play at all. Actually as we got nearer, I heard the music and zipped in as quick as possible. The warehouse was playing all sort of weird lightshow stuff, which complimented their set pretty well I thought. I went around the corner to grab a drink and got back in time to take a few pictures of Heart of Snow, and as usual they didn't disappoint. But by that time (about 3:00am) I decided I was getting a bit too loaded, so I set off on the trek back to the homestead. Not a bad evening of entertainment, too be sure!

Pictures of both shows and some of the crowds can be found here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/twoshowsweb02/

January 18th, Drunk Horse, Cherry Valence, Federation X, and The Phantom Limbs at Cafe Pergolesi in Santa Cruz...

KsKelly had called me earlier in the week, asking if I was interested in a small trek to go see the Phantom Limbs in the land of healthy falafel-eating yuppies, aka Santa Cruz, and I agreed that it might be a welcome change from the city. And hey, when the Phantom Limbs play, if I can make it, I'm all over that action. We arrived a bit early and found out that Cafe Pergolesi is located near the heart of the famed "walk of shame," where there's a Starbucks on every corner and even the homeless people smile with every passing rejection for change. Well we had to walk it because we hadn't yet realized that Santa Cruz's business district is "smoke free". We were finally told this when I walked into the local Long's Drugs and the counterperson told me, "This area of town doesn't sell cigarettes because we're concerned for your health!" Immediately I'm thinking, "What sort of shit is this?" So after making another trek to the only liquor store in the business district, we scampered back to Cafe Pergolesi just in time to catch the Phantom Limbs' set in full. It was an OK show, although at one point Ryan Limb knocked over the sound board, partially dislodging the cord to the wall outlet, so the vocals faded in and out for most of the set. Wah Waaaaah. It was totally packed for the set too, with some of the onlookers looking a bit confused at the regular antics that can make up a Phantom Limbs set. What fun!

Federation X came on and I wasn't too impressed, but then again it was more rock and roll than I usually go see, rock and roll in the vein of Drunk Horse or The Hitch, so that is all good. Just not in my current phase of musical listening choice I guess. Their vocals were also nearly nonexistent also, so I spent the majority of the set outside talking to random people. Cherry Valence was more of the same, not too great, but they had a pretty packed crowd of onlookers. It sort of sounded like they stole Black Sabbath's set list to me, and again, bad vocals. More time spent outside for me I guess.

Finally Drunk Horse came on and I watched most of their set too. I haven't been one of their most ardent fans in the past, but they really put on a rockin' show on this evening. The word of the evening was rock. Actually Drunk Horse, Cherry Valence, and Federation X are all on tour together I guess so if you get a chance see their show. If you like rock and roll you'll have a great time. I have to add that KsKelly had a great time and was especially impressed with all of the more rock and roll orientated bands.

Sometime during the middle of the show, rumors began to circulate that the Phantom Limbs were going to play a (hahaha) "Heavy Metal Party" afterwards, so decisions were made to spend just a little more time in the shithole that is Santa Cruz. This turned out to be a great decision tho because their second set was more intimate and entertaining. There was some passed-out drunk guy on the floor that people stepped around during the entire set and nearly everyone seemed like they were having a great time. I say "nearly everyone" because one little girl spent the entire evening getting bent out of shape about one thing or another, leading up to her making a few mistakes with the cop who showed up at around 1:30 to break up the party. This led to him hanging around for much longer than he probably would of, and to me going to go take a nap before the trek back to the city. Oh well, she'll learn some basic human communication skills someday. It was really nice of the household to allow the after-hours party to happen and everyone was incredibly respectful of that fact. What nice people, I'd almost go back to Santa Cruz now if it wasn't filled with yuppie health nazis.

Pictures of the show and the party afterwards are here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/limbs_santacruzweb02/

January 17th, The Radio Reelers and Songs for Emma at The SF Eagle...

I wasn't initially planning to go to this show, but I was told that I could pick up a pre-copy of the Radio Reeler's new 7" if I went, plus possibly the new Dekapitator album. Sadly neither of which exactly panned out. Plus I had taken a vacadin right before the show, so I was sort of floating around SF Eagle a bit, and not really paying attention to the The Vaticans. I hear they were pretty good tho, sorry that I missed them. Weird show nonetheless.

Songs for Emma have a pretty big following, but the real question is "Why?" They sound like any number of faceless bar bands in anytown USA. So I played pinball for most of their set, and wasn't even inspired to take one photo. At one point I even tried to walk up the street to check out what was going on at Slim's, but it was some pretentious dinosaur private party, complete with an awful sounding cover band and a huge pack of elderly partygoers who had an incredible amount of ego surrounding them and their limos. I got back to the Eagle and mercifully Songs for Emma had ended.

I think that the Radio Reeler's favorite bar must be the Eagle because they seem to play there an awful lot. On this night they had pretty good stage presence and were energetic and happy, even tho all the people who had come specifically for Songs for Emma had left, leaving the Radio Reeler fanbase free to get comfortable and enjoy their brand of punkish rock and roll. Here's a few pictures of the Radio Reelers and their fans: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/eagleradioreelersweb02/

January 12th, Exodus, Cutthroats 9, and Dekapitator at the Covered Wagon Saloon...

I was totally primed to see all three bands that were going to play, especially Dekapitator because they have already created something of a following here in the bay area. And I was also interested in seeing Cutthroats 9, but unfortunately I had to go to a birthday party first, the 23rd one for my friend Sarah, so I didn't even make it into the CW until after 11:45. By that time, Exodus was already onstage and doing one of their songs from an album that I know I have somewhere in my vinyl "archives". I did hear that Dekapitator was really good, and so was Cutthroats 9, but I guess I'll be seeing them soon and will report on that when it happens.

But let me back up a bit. I remember when Exodus was HUGE in New Mexico (actually they are probably STILL huge in New mexico), circa the mid-to-late eighties. I even think I had an Exodus shirt for a while there, but it sort of seemed like they disapeared around '92 when Another Lesson in Violence came out. I sort of thought that like most good metal bands they had packed it up or something, but then they resurfaced for Lucky's wake (review is in the early archives) when they played with 1332/El Dopa and Grimple. Since then it seems like they play a show about once a year, and it's always a great time. So I spent the afternoon listening to their records and remembering how great Exodus was and is.

Anyway, Exodus ruled yet again, playing for nearly two hours. Two hours of puit moshing, grimmacing fans, and a full-scale drunken sing-along from the paople who remembered all the words, which was nearly the entire crowd. Memorable songs; Lesson in Violence, Bonded by Blood, Fabulous Disaster, and a Good Day to Die. It's a shame that Exodus didn't make as much of a mark as that other (anti-MP3) metal band with the "M" name from this same area, because upon retrospect, they still put on a great show and deserve kudos from any seasoned metal fan. But you should go and find this out for yourself by buying their records this minute. I guarantee you won't be disapointed, here's a few places to start: CDNow and Amazon.com. I did spend a lot of the show trying to see how many heshers now had a touch of grey in their carefully cropped hair, I'd say that about half of the people there were noticeably greyer. Hahaha, old age sucks.

Pictures of Exodus and their greying but extremely devoted fans can be found here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/exodusweb02/

January 12th, Blown To Bits, The Scurvy Dogs, and Deface at Molotov's... (Guest review by KsKelly)

Waking up just early enough to get ass in gear and park car on Market, I was worried about the meter but thought Fuck It I gotta get there so I scooped up Mike and we hoofed over to Molotov's, the scruffy little bar on Lower Haight which offered a free show at 4pm. We waited some while equipment was assembled and the place was filled with cool people who expected good music and they got it. First up was Deface, and they were loud and fast and fun metal. Bands were supposedly limited to 3 songs, they did 5, I think, and the last two cuts were cookin'.

Next was our faves, Scurvy Dogs, and the fuckin' guys played well, but the vocals were not loud enough due to the power of the amps and the way Matt grips the mike or somethin', but the crowd liked it despite this. Minimal slamming. They play maybe 5 or 6 fast ones and Mike Klosoff jumps up from the drums, as always to end the set, and went outside to literally steam in the sidewalk chill.

Last was Blown To Bits, and what I saw of them was good and loud and Jimmy warned that people who were holding drinks should say goodbye to them. He wasn't kidding. He mixed it up with a welcoming audience and it was the capper to a fine afternoon. I hope Molotov's puts on more shows like this. The older guy behind the bar, (possibly the owner?) was very into the music so maybe they will. After, I walked back to Market with Mike, and so cool! No ticket.

January 11th, B Movie Rats, Fabulous Disaster, Scurvy Dogs, and T-N-A-Men Squared at the Covered Wagon Saloon... (Guest review by KsKelly)

I had won tickets from KUSF for the show and ended up going myself, 'cause my Party Partner was under the weather. I was confused by The List because it said Bottles & Skulls were on the bill but I had a flyer dammit! that said Scurvy Dogs, and either band was OK by me. Got there rather late and came in on a set from T-N-A-Men Squared, and they are always fun to watch because Jake is a crazo with a lobster hat and red longjohns, floppin' around and screaming. I thought Oh good, that means the Scurvy Dogs are definitely here.

Next up they were, Aaarrgh! It was the start of a Scurvy Dogs marathon weekend, where they did 3 shows in 2 days.They played an energetic set, short and to the punch. Matt reeled about the floor and crashed into people for a few songs and wore himself out so he stayed up on the stage and avoided the broken glass strewn in front of the stage from the Happy Hour show. It was a relatively quiet but social crowd, with just a little slammin' for show. We all enjoyed the set.

Next was the pop-ish and high energy Fabulous Disaster, and although they are cute, the singer is very active and the harmonies are nice, overall something does not gel in this band for this crowd. They are on Don Baird's (Bay Times) top 10 list, and it is because they are Dykes Who Rock Out, which they are, and they do.

Last was the big disappointment, B Movie Rats, from LA. They cleared the bar out. They sucked; straight out boring unvaried rock, in a El-Lay Sunset Strip band type of way, according to Brian L., who suggested all they needed was cowbells to complete the sound. We had a good time drinking at the bar and making fun of them.

January 11th, Yume Bitsu (unfortunately I missed Tarantula Hawk) at the Bottom of the Hill...

This show got written up in the SF Weekly, so I sort of already knew that it would suck hard because most of their writers are total hacks. So, I arrived just in time to miss the middle band, whose name escapes me, and wait around for Yume Bitsu with all the trendy SF people who think that what they read in the weeklies will make up for their personal Whitney Houston CD collection. On to the review...

I think that Yume Bitsu is probably one of the lamest bands I've ever had the displeasure of seeing play live. I kept thinking, "When will it get good?" Then that sort of merged into, "I don't think that progressive synth music is really interesting, but they do sound a bit like an untallented Philip Glass." That sort of merged into, "Sheesh, I thought Styx intros died back in the early Eighties with Rush and Toto."

However, the latest record by Tarantula Hawk on Life is Abuse is a whole other matter. Very enjoyable, dark, melodic, and fucking great. Buy their record.

But I just have to reiterate, Yume Bitsu just couldn't be more disapointing live. I hated them so much that the very thought of taking a picture of them didn't cross my mind until ten minutes after I had walked out the door of the BotH, and spit the foul taste that their live show had left in my mouth to the piss-stained curb. Sad but true.

January 8th, The Lies, The Holy Kiss, and The Vanishing at Cafe Du Nord...

Decided to hit up the bar early even though I had also decided to kill off any resolution to walk to shows after being beaten to a battered and bloody pulp at the Phantom Limbs show. I hopped off the bus and ran into Kristen from The Sacrifice, and EvE from up the street and various random musical projects and we sort of meandered up to the Cafe Du Nord, which I hadn't been to in a while, well since The Causey Way played... The bar itself was much more relaxing when we got there from past shows of memory becuase the audience was totally there to support their friends in the band and to drink a bit (even for the weekday show). The Vanishing was up first and it was pretty obvious that even tho this was their second show to date, already their following is huge. Short girls were dancing in the front and everyone was totally into their gothic musical madness that they do so well. I think they only screwed up one song, but they did it with grace, hahaha.

The Holy Kiss appeared on stage and even though the crowd had thinned a bit, migrating to the comfortable bar background I think, they were really well recieved. I think they get better every time I see them, but I felt a little awkward shooting pictures of them because the singer seemed a little self conscious about that, so I stopped early on and sat in the background, enjoying the music for a while. Their set was pretty long, and even my friends who came to see The Holy Kiss because they heard that they sounded like the Birthday Party wern't disapointed. Afterward one of them said that he didn't think that they did, but really enjoyed them nonetheless. Which is a good thing.

The Lies finally got on stage and although I wasn't too impressed with their music (thinking that it didn't work for me) most fo the rest of the audience obviously disagreed with me because they had lots of fanfare and an obvious following. It will be interesting to see what they do next. Unfortunately I began feeling a bit under the weather so I left, but not before snapping a few commerative pictures of all the bands and some of the audience. Check them out here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/vanishingCDNweb02/

January 5th, The Phantom Limbs, The Gault, and Mutilated Mannequins at the Bottom of the Hill...

I've been on a bit of a health kick lately, and do what's better than taking a brisk walk to the Bottom of the Hill to catch the first good show of a whole new year? Actually I sort of got there early and ended up talking with Kristen from the Sixteens about haunted houses, the karma than hits you when you steal from people you know, and friends in prison. A pretty light-hearted discussion, tempered with being able to hang out on the courtyard balcony and watch the people trickle into the venue... I also got to converse with Sunny (the Mutilated Mannequins manager) and grabbed the first copy of their demo off of her, which isn't too shabby for the low recording value that's on it. Pretty good for a demo in any case.

The Mutilated Mannequins hit the stage and although LaMar was in rare form, I've seen them play better shows in the past. They did have a couple new songs that were eye openers, as was the leather tresses that LaMar was wearing. See the pictures, they give new meaning to the term, "Cheeky." I think my favorite song of theirs this time was Horror Hospital which is sort of a melodic opera metal tune with LaMar's high haunting wails. Good stuff. After their set I headed back out to the courtyard to talk about art with Mr. Hirskoff for a while until The Gault started their all too short set. I was totally kicking myself afterward because their set was so short, and right in what I thought was going to be a little breather I headed out to the courtyard again to grab a smoke with another fellow deviant. By the time I got back inside and ready to snap a couple more pictures, their set ended! Lame. But their music was so good in an early Christian Death with Rozz Williams sort of way that I've vowed again and again to never miss part of their shows ever again. I lose, again. When are they going to put out some records?!?!

In between their set and the Phantom Limbs yet again I headed outside and found myself talking to Larry Bob of Holy Titclamps and Queer things to do in San Francisco fame and talked a bit about the whole Guerilla Queer Bar set up where they take a bunch of San Francisco gay party crowd people and take over a "straight" bar, and that was pretty cool. He's definitely an interesting fellow. I think I may have annoyed him with my talks about internet traffic, and I sometimes do tend to ramble after that eighth rum and coke, but hopefully there's no hard feelings on his part. Hahaha.

Note to self, I must take pictures of one of their guerilla attacks sometime. After that diversion I headed up to the Phantom Limbs dressing area and snapped a few pictures of where all the rock stars hang out, it was cleaner than my house. Then it was time for them to go on, so I headed into the fray.

What a show, it sort of seemed special, and a lot of people must have thought the same because the floor was packed with all sorts of people who don't usually go to these shows, maybe it was that write up in the SF Weekly? Anyways I sort of stumbled around snapping pictures and dodging people's feet which didn't work too well because I was kicked in the head at least two times. BUT I did fare a little better than Ryan Limb who was a bloody mess after the show. Look at the pictures, all that blood is real. Luckily a little flesh wounds never hurt anybody, and aside from a few black eyes the next morning, I'll bet that all who were in attendance had a super great time. All the music sounded great as usual, compounded by the better-than-average sound system that comprises the Bottom of the Hill. Really, you should just look at the pictures and then wonder why you weren't there.

Pictures can be found here: http://www.atakra.com/pictures/limbscwweb02/