Marco Benevento did his best to keep a San Francisco audience perfectly satisfied last night as he brought his trio into town (this time with Reed Mathis on bass and Andy Borger on drums), but it was clear from the energy in the room that everyone had spent themselves out on a crazy Saturday night. Typical San Francisco behavior, actually… partying comes in cycles. And Marco stayed animated and definitely got people rocking after a relatively tame-ish opener in Fred Torphy (from Big Light). READ MORE
Lotus played to a sold-out Independent on Saturday night and arguably played the best two sets I’ve ever seen them deliver. The energy in the room was solid. Check out my photos from the show:
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Sorry for the absence of this here column last week; I got hit with an acute case of tonsillitis which definitely killed my Monday pretty badly. Felt like I was swallowing razorblades….but the good news is that it got me to the doctor to get some killer horse-pills to clear my junk up, so I ended up catching a few good live shows last week when all was said and done. More on that to come, but for now let’s dive into the cool music coming through San Francisco this week that you all should be paying attention to. READ MORE
Happy Monday, folks. Everyone out here in the Bay Area is recovering emotionally after the transcendent experience that was this year’s Bridge School Benefit concert down in Mountain View, CA. While I couldn’t make it myself this year, most of my crew made it out for a day and reported back nothing but smiles and heartfelt appreciation for live music and what Neil Young brings to the table each and every year for this special event.
As always Neil Young made a set of special appearances each day, and footage is up from the feed so you can see the sit-in he did with Arcade Fire as well as this shot of him and Beck doing “Pocahontas.” Look at the Beck band reaction when Young joins them on stage… READ MORE
This weekend brought the Daptone records funk collective known as The Budos Band to The Independent for two sold-out nights in the heart of San Francisco. The first time I caught this band was at last year’s Outside Lands Music Festival, and ever since they’ve been a staple in the rotation on my home stereo whether it’s me or one of my roommates blasting some tunes before we head out for the night.
Saturday night’s show was solid front to back. If you like deep afro-funk and some sinister dark grooves by a bunch of hipster-looking white dudes, this is the band for you. I highly recommend catching these guys when they roll through your own town…
Read on for my photos…
I saw Holy Fuck last week here at the Independent with the Portland duo Nice Nice, and left feeling like I had seen a pretty killer show all things considered. Nice Nice was a bit sonically boring even though their approach to music — a duo featuring a drummer, guitarist and a shitload of loops — was hardly that. I was impressed and inspired musically, but much more content as a music fan when Holy Fuck finally took the stage to a surprisingly packed room. The whole set was pretty rad, even with their odd placement midset for the album openers on Latin, a slow building ambient buildup that leads into the track “Red Lights.” Their keyboard for “Stilettos” broke right as they were launching into the song, and we’ve confirmed that they’ll hope to play it again someday. READ MORE
It’s not often that we get approached to be a ‘breaking news’ sort of music news vehicle, so whenever I get the chance to promote something that is pretty unique for the audience I like to try and put the word out. And thanks to my T-Mobile® myTouch™ 3G Fender™ Limited Edition sponsors, I have it on authority that the band Deer Tick is going to be playing a “secret” (though not anymore) show in San Francisco on Wed, 3/3 at the Independent, which is ahead of their already scheduled return to San Francisco with Dr. Dog in April. For fans of the band that want to see this here Deer Tick show, you better get in line…the show will be free on a first-come, first-serve basis and it’s going to be a good one.
If you’re down with going to the show, you should email this address first to let them know you’re coming. They may add you to some mailing list or something, or they may just give you all tickets if you in the group that’s smaller than the allotted amount of tickets going out the door. I’m not sure either way, so buyer beware on that front. I’ll be at the show with friends and I’ll be making this my first opportunity to see this band in their native setting before opening up for Dr. Dog at Great American Music Hall in April; I’ve already got my tickets to that one.
Who’s going to try and make it out for this? Let me know so we can chill at the show…
