A night of live music and air guitar in San Francisco
This title should be “Dave tries to get a life.” As any regular reader knows, I’m not one of those bloggers who tells you what I did every day and then shares my shopping list with everyone in some misapprehension that the universe is fascinated by the mundane details of my life. However, last night a friend of mine invited me to see her band play in SF and I was impressed enough by the two bands I saw to write about it, but I am taking it from the concept of reviewing the music I saw.
Before I do that let me stroke my ego a bit by telling you some of the fascinating mundane details of my life as they relate to live music. When I lived in LA I used to go see bands all the time. When I moved to Oakland I was so busy that I really didn’t have time to find the places to go and some new friends who like live music to go out with, so last night was a refreshing blast from the past. It was 1996 all over again, complete with me forgetting my ear plugs, a super hot girl driving me crazy with her loser boyfriend, someone spilling beer all over the place, a tiny cramped club, a bathroom I wouldn’t wish upon my filthiest enemy, and a decor developed by the “flea market meets free crap from beer vendors” school of decorating.
One thing has changed since 1996, however. I don’t know if audiences are lamer, or I have somehow gotten cooler (or more delusional), but as I looked around the room I come to the realization that I was one of the coolest guys in the club. The only exceptions seemed to be actually performers and a good friend of mine, but most of them were pretty lame. Good for my ego, I guess.
Enough of that. Let’s talk about the performers I saw. My friend is in a band called Deeper. She is the lead singer. I had not heard her sing before, and was really impressed. She has a great voice. The band is indie/punk. Kind of Riot Grrrl-ish with a couple of Y chromosomes. Really good, and worth listening too. Unfortunately I was late and missed seeing my friend trip and take a header into the drum kit, but I got the story later on.
The second band was called Thumper, and I liked them a lot too. I am not a fan of hip hop in almost all it’s forms, but Thumper is a really cool fusion of indie rock and hip hop. It’s not some lame mash up or rap with a guitar. It is honest to god rock with rap-ish lyrics. Really cool, and they sell t-shirts so they are near and dear to my heart. I talked to the drummer (electric drums, which you don’t see a lot anymore, but sounded really good) after the show and he seemed like a cool dude, so I decided I would talk about them as well. I think I will look around and see where else they are playing. I think they are out of Fairfield, which is more or less BFE as far as the Bay Area goes, but maybe when they come back to SF.
I wasn’t going to stay for the last band, and so thought my evening was more or less done. How wrong I was. At that point they had an extra special showing of the San Fransisco Air Guitar Regional Champion Matthew “Cold Steel Renegade” Feldstein. I have to say I have never been more impressed by a man in silver spandex and no shirt before. He was amazing and hilarious. Apparently Air Guitar is a highly competitive sport (?) that requires some kind of nickname to become a participant. Check out the US Air Guitar Rankings.
I kind of wish I were joking and had made all that up, but I’m also kind of happy that I didn’t and it’s all true.
(Huge in Japan image courtesy of the novelty t shirt category).
Not sure what I am going to do tomorrow. I’m torn between completing my review of the Expendables or doing some more cheap date ideas. If you have a preference let me know.
P.S. I did stop at the grocery store on the way home from the show, and my shopping list was yogurt, grapes, cheese, tortillas, salami, cucumber, and apples. Who says I am not a hypocrite?
