Wednesday, February 6: Rio Grande I'm probably gonna end up talking more about this bar than the band that played, because you've already enough about them from me, right? Or have you heard anything? Whatever, Rio Grande is a cool bar on an uncool (and by uncool, I mean cool for me) part of Market Street, which will be the only venue besides Cafe du Nord on that whole damn shit trail! And fuck Cafe du Nord still, for kicking me out that one time. Anyway, Rio Grande is a cool spot that looks like a transplanted Austin Tex Mex saloon. Cool tiles, nice dark corners for doing coke and making out, only one type of beer on the menu, which makes deciding easy at least. The bar is flanked by two stripper poles, which are slimed by gyrating go-go dancers at various times during the night, and by the bar customers themselves in the wee after hours of which we do not speak much in polite company. But this was to be one of the first of many strange nights I would spend in this dark hole!
Wild Eyes - Retro heavy rock funk outfit, soulful raspy whiskey 'n' coke female vocals, a pantagruelian drummer, and oh, what's this? One of my bandmates from Hazzard's Cure on guitar! So that's why he doesn't have time to practice with his REAL band anymore.
Saturday, February 9: Slim's My ex-roomate was about to move to Texas, and having a going away party, so I was kinda late for this one, and when I got there
Pallbearer was already playing. I caught most of the set, and it was awesome to see them live! I was not familiar with
Enslaved newer material, and it was pretty weird. I stuck around till the end though, just to get my money's worth. They did a cover of
Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song, towards the end; how Viking of them! Unbeknown to me, I was fucking up big time. What I should have done long before this point was bail for the Great American Music Hall, where
Negative Approach was playing for five bucks. The show went down in history of course, as like, the craziest shit ever, and that night went down in history for me as the night I officially quit punk and became a flaccid metal head waste of space. Cool! I ended up back at Rio Grand later, and I must have got pretty fucked up because the next day,
Sunday, February 10, at
Eli's Mile High Club I was a limp noodle hangover casualty who could barely speak, much less hold a drink in my hand, both of which I was attempting to do, one more than the other. In retrospect, I could have taken a nap and sat out most of the show, because the band I really wanted to see was Mortuous, the enigmatic San Jose old school death metal crew. I pretty much stood upfront and stared at the drummer for their whole set.
Wednesday, February 13: Pink String Spoilage, Burning Axe, War Party, Filthchain- I managed to see every band on this house show, which is kind of rare for me these days. Usually I like to get a little drunk at home before I head out, then I decide to get A LOT drunk before I head out, and the next thing you know, you're passed out sitting on your toilet seat, missing EVERY BAND. But not tonight. The Pink String was a blur of perfect filthy house show crust punk wastedness, one thing that Oakland is VERY good at. Every city needs a house like the Pink String, and every kid needs shows like these to go to. Bands:
Spoilage (Baltimore), Burning Axe (Baltimore), War Party, Filthchain
Thursday, February 14: Terminal Caught a BART train out to the remote Terminal, thinking about how long it's been since I've been to THAT spot, or even to Fruitvale BART for that matter. Damn! I caught Vassafor somewhere in the middle of their set as I walked in, it's foreign weird death metal band, but I guess some of my friends from Seattle are filling in on instruments and driving them around. Cool! Then Knelt Rote was up. I remembered seeing them years back, maybe once in Portland when I was in Stormcrow, maybe once in Oakland too, and thinking this band is NOT following the standard grind band career trajectory: Demo, Seven Inch, acrimonious breakup, much talked about but never sees the light of day unreleased LP. No! Knelt Rote for some reason has decided to stay together for years and release a few albums, each one weirder than the next! I was impressed! I had no idea! This band was not just great, but so much BETTER too.
Wednesday, February 6: Rio Grande I'm probably gonna end up talking more about this bar than the band that played, because you've already enough about them from me, right? Or have you heard anything? Whatever, Rio Grande is a cool bar on an uncool (and by uncool, I mean cool for me) part of Market Street, which will be the only venue besides Cafe du Nord on that whole damn shit trail! And fuck Cafe du Nord still, for kicking me out that one time. Anyway, Rio Grande is a cool spot that looks like a transplanted Austin Tex Mex saloon. Cool tiles, nice dark corners for doing coke and making out, only one type of beer on the menu, which makes deciding easy at least. The bar is flanked by two stripper poles, which are slimed by gyrating go-go dancers at various times during the night, and by the bar customers themselves in the wee after hours of which we do not speak much in polite company. But this was to be one of the first of many strange nights I would spend in this dark hole! Wild Eyes - Retro heavy rock funk outfit, soulful raspy whiskey 'n' coke female vocals, a pantagruelian drummer, and oh, what's this? One of my bandmates from Hazzard's Cure on guitar! So that's why he doesn't have time to practice with his REAL band anymore. 
Saturday, February 9: Slim's My ex-roomate was about to move to Texas, and having a going away party, so I was kinda late for this one, and when I got there Pallbearer was already playing. I caught most of the set, and it was awesome to see them live! I was not familiar with Enslaved newer material, and it was pretty weird. I stuck around till the end though, just to get my money's worth. They did a cover of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song, towards the end; how Viking of them! Unbeknown to me, I was fucking up big time. What I should have done long before this point was bail for the Great American Music Hall, where Negative Approach was playing for five bucks. The show went down in history of course, as like, the craziest shit ever, and that night went down in history for me as the night I officially quit punk and became a flaccid metal head waste of space. Cool! I ended up back at Rio Grand later, and I must have got pretty fucked up because the next day, 
Sunday, February 10, at Eli's Mile High Club I was a limp noodle hangover casualty who could barely speak, much less hold a drink in my hand, both of which I was attempting to do, one more than the other. In retrospect, I could have taken a nap and sat out most of the show, because the band I really wanted to see was Mortuous, the enigmatic San Jose old school death metal crew. I pretty much stood upfront and stared at the drummer for their whole set. 
Thursday, February 14: Terminal Caught a BART train out to the remote Terminal, thinking about how long it's been since I've been to THAT spot, or even to Fruitvale BART for that matter. Damn! I caught Vassafor somewhere in the middle of their set as I walked in, it's foreign weird death metal band, but I guess some of my friends from Seattle are filling in on instruments and driving them around. Cool! Then Knelt Rote was up. I remembered seeing them years back, maybe once in Portland when I was in Stormcrow, maybe once in Oakland too, and thinking this band is NOT following the standard grind band career trajectory: Demo, Seven Inch, acrimonious breakup, much talked about but never sees the light of day unreleased LP. No! Knelt Rote for some reason has decided to stay together for years and release a few albums, each one weirder than the next! I was impressed! I had no idea! This band was not just great, but so much BETTER too. 
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