Okay, so I didn't get to post last night, but you get one this morning. Yesterday was fun. Although I didn't make it out to the Meg and Dia show at Balazo, I did catch the The Presets at the Folsom Street Fair. They were absolutely amazing. Great dancey music from Austrailia. This was my first Folsom Street Fair experience as I am newly transplanted to the city, and it did not let me down. I love how there are things like this and Lovefest in this city, because I don't think they could take place anywhere else. But back to the Presets. If you haven't listened to them, do it now. They are in the vein of Teddybears, MSTRKRFT, Justice, and that genre. They played for about 50 mins and it was energetic and had almost everyone in the crowd dancing along, which I think they enjoyed as the drummer kept taking pictures of the crowd and let's face it, daytime shows are not usually known for the crowd really moving around. But they put on a hell of a show, and I really wish I had more time tonite to see them again. They are playing again tonite at the Independent with My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult.

Other Shows this week:

Monday
The Presets and My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult @ The Independent
Mastodon, Converge, and The Bronxxx @ Slim's
The Drams @ Bottom Of The Hill

Tuesday
Mastodon, Converge, and The Bronxxx @ Slim's
Junior Boys @ Bottom Of The Hill
Medeski Martin & Wood @ The Fillmorel
Leon Russell @ The Independent
The Photo Atlas & Death Of A Party @ Cafe Du Nord

Wednesday
Damnwells and Army of Me @ Bottom Of The Hill
Young Love & The Pink Spiders @ The Fillmore
Pelican & Daughters @ Great American Music Hall
Kaki King @ The Independent

Thursday
Silversun Pickups @ The Rickshaw Stop
Darker My Love @ Popscene
Starsailor @ Great American Music Hall
Cherry Poppin Daddies @ Red Devil Lounge
Mojave 3 & Brightblack Morning Light @ Slim's
Flogging Molly & Zox @ The Warfield

Friday
Grizzly Bear @ The Independent
M.Ward @ The Fillmore
Birdmonster & Division Day @ Slim's
TV On The Radio @ The Library (Sacramento)
Cibelle @ Cafe Du Nord
Scissor Sisters @ The Warfield

Saturday
Rogue Wave w/Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie), John Vanderslice, Matthew Caws (Nada Surf), plus more @ The Independent
Jason Collett (Broken Social Scene) @ Cafe Du Nord
Gossip @ Bottom Of The Hill
Download Festival (ft. Beck, Yeah Yeah Yeahs plus more) @ Shoreline
Scissor Sisters @ The Warfield

Sunday
Gossip @ Bottom Of The Hill
Sonic Youth & Erase Errata @ The Fillmore
Sherwood, Amber Pacific @ Slim's

If I lay here...

So I know this is a long way coming, I definitely have not kept a good track record at updating this last week. However, with everything that I had on my plate this last week, I don't feel too horrible about not updating. So let's see, I got back into town from Detroit late Monday night, and was swamped trying to catch up with school on Tuesday. Wed was actually chill. My afternoon class was cancelled and I got to hang out and get stuff done. Went to the Chrome store and picked up a new bag so to make it easier on myself getting to school.

That's the one I got, except it's black on black and has a black belt buckle. It's pretty damn hot. Then Gav and I picked up our tickets for Mastodon, Converge, and the Bronxxx at Slims. And since neither of us had anything to do during the day, we decided to take an adventure over to In-N-Out. It was very tourist to say the least, In-N-Out is over in Fisherman's Wharf, so I think we were the only people on both the cable car and streetcar that weren't snapping pictures and/or speaking english as a second language. It was fun to get out and explore a bit though.

Finally, that night was the Lawrence Arms, Draft show. We got there right as Blackout Pact was taking the stage. They were alright, but they didn't seem to hold my attention for too long. They seemed sloppy, and their riffs and sound seemed to be heavily screamo influenced. The Draft was next. If you don't know, The Draft is Hot Water Music minus Chuck Ragan, whom they apparently replaced with another dude. Although it is all the members of HWM, their sound is a bit different. It is on the more user friendly side of HWM. However, they are a very tight band, and were great to see live. It was a consensus between the group that HWM was missed after their set. The whole time they were playing I was waiting for Chuck to start singing a song like it was a HWM show. They played stuff off their new album, A Million Pieces, and put on a hell of a show. Finally it was time for The Larry Arms. They played a solid set, however, I was let down by the fact that they seemed to focus heavily on their new stuff, but I guess that should've been expected since it is their first headlining tour since putting out their newest album, Oh Calcutta! They played 100 Resolutions, which is definitely one of, if not my favorite song of theirs. It was a great show, and I love Bottom Of The Hill, I guess I just got spoiled after seeing them in SD at the Zombie Lounge on Thanksgiving last year. Now that was a fucking show. But it was a great show.

Thursday I didn't do much, just homework and more catching up. Friday I came home and slept for 3 hours, then went and saw Jackass 2 with my brother. It was a funny movie and a good follow up to the first one. More stupid, slap-stick humor that everyone has grown to love from the Jackass crew.

Yesterday I ran a few errands then headed to UN Plaza for SF Lovefest. I had never really heard of Lovefest before, but it was definitely one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. UN Plaza was taken over with electronic music and it was pretty much a huge dance party. I met up with my friends Sean, Zack, and Alyssa and Sean's European friends and had a blast. We drank, danced and just took in the sights to be seen. There were like 20 "stages" that are really floats from the parade, that just play music. The Beatport stage is where we spent most of our time, the DJs there were top notch and had the crowd fucking loving them. They were spinning everything and anything, including a Coldplay remix. So after dancing for 3 hours, we headed to Alyssa's and had some drinks. Then I headed down to Slim's for the Phoenix show. I got there towards the end of La Rocca's set, but was fairly impressed by them. They seemed to be a solid band. Phoenix was great. They played a lot off their new album, which is good, but I was hoping for some of the more atmospherical stuff they've done on their old albums. But they nontheless, put on a great show and came back for an encore that had the whole crowd dancing. It was a great way to cap off a dancefilled day.

Sorry for the lack of updates, I will update again tonite with a list of shows this week.

I'm gonna try to make it out to see the Presets at Folsom Street Fair today, and hopefull to the Balazo Gallery tonite to see Meg & Dia and Action Reaction.

And the Sadness Will Prevail...

So it looks like my plans for this weekend have been drastically changed. Unfortunately my Grandma passed away last night, so that means I'll be heading to Detroit for the weekend to say final goodbyes. I don't want to be at school right now, but I don't have a choice. Gram, you are loved and will be dearly missed. I love you gram.




I might try to make it out to the Laura Veirs show tonite, Two Gallants instore at Amoeba and possibly the White Whale show tomorrow, but other than that I probably won't update until next week when I get back into town, unless I get the motivation to do those show reviews.

Apple never seems to let me down...

So as usual I'm about a day late. I blame being sick. I didn't make it out to the rickshaw last night to see Decibully and Headlights like I really wanted to, but I had reading to do and wasn't feeling great. So I elected to stay in and get some reading done, not much though, and watch the Charger game on MNF. And I think I made the right choice after all. The game was amazing, it's always nice to see the Chargers play well and beat up on the Raiders. It was good to see Rivers have a good first start and to see the Defense dominate. Brooks got pulled in the second half after being sacked seven times and only completing six passes. I loved it. But anyways, kind of a slow week for shows here it seems. Let's get to it on this beautiful Tuesday.

Tuesday
Golden Smog(without Jeff Tweedy) is @ The Fillmore
Scars of Tomorrow @ The Pound
Young Dro @ Space 550

Wednesday
Laura Veirs @ Cafe Du Nord
Adam Green @ The Independent
Tha Legendary Shack Shakers and Scotch Greens @ Slim's
Sugarcult (Instore) @ Rasputin's @ 5pm
Sugarcult and The Spill Canvas @ The Fillmore

Thursday
Two Gallants (Instore) @ Amoeba
White Whale (ex-Get Up Kids) @ Bottom Of The Hill
Under The Influence of Giants @ Cafe Du Nord
Tortoise @ Great American Music Hall
Nitzer Ebb @ Slim's
Suicide Girls @ The Independent
Misery Signals @ The Pound
The Music Lovers @ Amnesia

Friday
The Music Lovers (Instore) @ Amoeba
Suicide Girls @ The Independent
The Matches @ Slim's
Unearth, Terror & Bleeding Throgh @ The Fillmore
Radio Soulwax w/ 2 Many DJs @ The Mezzanine

Saturday
Portugal, The Man @ The Balazo Gallery
Ima Robot & Persephones Bees @ The Mezzanine
The Phenomenauts & River City Rebels @ Bottom Of The Hill
Love Like Fire & The Favourite Sons @ Cafe Du Nord
Zion I, Turf Talk & Crown City Rockers @ The Fillmore
John Legend @ The Independent

Sunday
The Nice Boys (Instore) @ Amoeba
Now And Zen Fest (Ft. Gnarls Barkley, The B-52s, Augustana) @ Golden Gate Park Radio Alice For More Details
Jonathan Richman @ Great American Music Hall
Breakestra @ The Independent
The Advantage @ Bottom Of The Hill


That looks like it'll do it. I'm gonna try to make it out to the Laura Veirs show at Cafe Du Nord on Wed. night, Thurs. night I'll try to make it to the Two Gallants instore and if time prevails try to make it to the White Whale show at BOTH. Friday get over to amoeba for the Music Lovers instore. Saturday night I'll probably head off to see Portugal, The Man @ Balazo Gallery and sunday I haven't decided. Possibly the Festival but might end up going to Jonathan Richman or The Advantage. So hopefully I'll have some reviews up in the near future.

They foam at the mouth and chirp at the bit...

So I'm gonna make this short, I gotta get some sleep. I've been sick all weekend, so I didn't get out to check out any of the shows I wanted to. I wanted to make it to either Cold War Kids or Dragonforce on Sat. but missed them, and I really really wanted to get to Silver Jews tonite at the Mezz, but couldn't get myself up to it. At least I got some of my reading done for my classes. I'll put up a full show listing for the week tomorrow, only cause the only real show that I could find was the Decibully and Headlights show at the Rickshaw tomorrow. I will definitely be at that. So I'll do a full week post tomorrow.

Let's Burn These Bridge Together...

So this weekend was a great one, even though I didn't get as much school work done as I had hoped, I did get to spend time with Andrew and Leanne, which was nice to have SD faces present in SF. I'm really glad they came and hung out for my bday.

But, I'm gonna start listing shows each weekend for the upcoming week, even though this weekend is a little late...come on it's a holiday. So here we go:

Tuesday:
Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Tyde @ The Independent
Deefhoof @ Great American Music Hall
Richard Buckner / Eric Bachmann @ Cafe Du Nord/Swedish American Music Hall

Wednesday:
Glass Candy and Chromatics @ Hemlock Tavern
Cocorosie and Busdriver @ Great American Music Hall
Centro-Matic and David Dondero @ Bottom Of The Hill

Thursday:
Nouvelle Vague @The Fillmore
Phantom Planet and The Mooney Suzuki @ 12 Galaxies
Vashnti Bunyan and Brightblack Morning Light @ Great American Music Hall
Benevento Russo Duo and Apollo Sunshine @ The Independent

Friday:
Feist and The Long Winters @ The Fillmore
Matches, Streets To Nowhere and The Transit War @ Great American Music Hall
Benevento Russo Duo and Apollo Sunshine @ The Independent
Snowden @ 222 Club

Saturday:
Blackalicious, Flipsyde and more @ Golden Gate Park Power To the Peaceful
Cold War Kids and Dr. Dog @ Cafe Du Nord
The Black Keys @ The Fillmore
Butch Walker and The Let's Go Out Tonights and Damone @ Slim's
Dragonforce and Horse The Band @ The Warfield
The Like Young @ Bottom Of The Hill

Sunday:
Mae and The New Amsterdams @ The Fillmore
Push To Talk and The New Trust @ Bottom Of The Hill
Silver Jews @ The Mezzanine
Rakim @ Slim's

For every city, every break of dawn...

Oy Vey, it's been a long long long week. So let's see, last Wed. I myself, my brother, and Gav went out to see Jeremy Engik and Stars of Track and Field at Great American Music Hall. It was a great show, but we got there late and missed Canon. I had a paper due on Thursday for my Legal Research and Writing Class and was working on that, therefore we were runnin a bit behind schedule. But we got there right after they were playin. It then took about 3 years forStars of Track and Field to come out after their stage was setup. Once they did come out, they played a good solid set. Their music is a blend pop played to programmed beats. Although its nothing totally new or out of the ordinary, they were good and catchy. How come every band has to have a schtik these days? I really wish that bands could just let their music speak for them, instead of wearing suits or something on stage. Although it wasn't horrible, the suites that Stars of Track and Field wore were just another thing that I see bands doing and it just seems to be growing. Will the madness stop?

Next up was Jeremy Enigk. If you don't know, Jeremy was the lead singer of Sunny Day Real Estate and The Fire Theft. Since both of those bands have broken up, Jeremy has been working on his solo career and it is a great career at that. His new album World Waits will drop on October 17th on Lewis Hollow Records, Jeremy's own record label. He played a number of songs off this album as well as a bunch off of Return of The Frog Queen. It was a great show all around and Jeremy was just superb, playing as though he was greatful to be playing for all of us. He even made the comment that he'd been sad for 20 years, and now he's happy, but he still enjoys playing the sad songs he wrote from his 20 years of being depressed. Overall a great show, I don't know if my company enjoyed it as much as I did, but I thought it was wonderful.

Friday and Saturday nights I went and saw Hanalei at both the Make Out Room and the Golden Bull. The Make Out Room show was an early show, and definitely had a weird vibe to it...haha. Hanalei was solid, they played their set and that was that. I bought a shirt and headed off to finish celebrating my birthday with my friends over in North Beach area. Got wasted and ended up taking bart home at 4 in the morning...god bless the Bay Bridge bein shut down and Bart runnin 24 hours. Then I got home and low and behold, my friend Andrew was hiding in my bathroom, which was nice of him to travel all the way up here from SD for my bday.

So Sat. after napping till 8, we got ready and hopped on Bart bound for Oaktown. Got out and found the Golden Bull. This show was definitely a lot better than the show the night before at the Make Out Room. It was a good show until the last song came about. There were two drunk ass dudes dancing around throughout the set, everyone else was laughing at them and they were the joke of the show. Then during the last song, one of the guys was spinning on the floor and sent Brian's mic into him and knocked down the other one in the process. At this point you could see the wheels turning, and finally Brian set down his guitar and told him to get out. Afterwards, the song was restarted and sung to perfection. Although it was just like Dad hit Mom at the dinner table at the end, it was still a solid set put forth by Hanalei.