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.
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