Five days of trashy rock and roll madness! Which is still not actually over- you can go to the Total Trash fest art show at the A440 Gallery in SF, which runs through Sept 30th.
Just to prove what a non-journalist I am, on the first night I found myself not at the actual Total Trash Fest but up the street to catch one of my faves, Woven Bones. It was another great set by these Austin wild ones that ended with Andy tossing his all-too-beautiful Telecaster Slimline over his head and back onto the stage from his spot in the audience! I was so worried about her! But he claimed she’s a tough old broad and has seen much worse.
Anyway, if you haven’t seen their video for “Your Way With My Life," then you should check this shit out.
WOVEN BONES “YOUR WAY WITH MY LIFE" ((OFFICIAL)) from andy bones on Vimeo.
Next eve, I did indeed make it to Thee Parkside in time to catch The Okmoniks, who, even though weren’t feeling too hot, managed to tear up the stage nonetheless. Next up were The Goochi Boiz from Colorado, along with quite a large entourage of adoring fans. At least one of whom didn’t bring money for her own beer. Total party band and tons of energy and poppy goofy fun. I really dug these young bucks!
All the way from Italy was Miss Chain & the Broken Heels. Infectious, crazed garagey punk and again much fun, keeping the high energy of the night up in the red zone--so much so that I had to get my old man ass out of there. I had to work in the morning and just couldn’t stay out that late.
Friday night, I kinda got there a bit late, unfortunately missing Meercaz and one of my favorite new Bay Area bands, the Wrong Words. I Did catch the tail-end of Atlanta’s Barreracudas, who had a bit of Thunders-esque glam punk mixed with powerpop pub rock. It had dudes from Beat Beat Beat and Gentleman Jesse, who I just so happened to catch next, cuz somehow I managed to be outside shooting the shit with somebody drinking shots or something and only caught the tail-end of Personal and the Pizzas. Pizza-D’oh!
Even had a hard time getting up front for Gentleman Jesse cuz of Thee Parkside’s layout’s awful tendency to cause bottlenecks. The back area is great: nice big space to hang out in the cool SF air with plenty of room to get around and an awesome bartender who’s quick with beers, shots and even fancy drinks. But man oh man, if you try and get in after a band has already started, good luck. People walk in and stop. Not to mention the horrible bathroom situation! Always a long line to get into the confusing toilets. Which is right where people are trying to get in to watch the band. Are these people in line or watching the band or both? I’m not an architect or a feng shui expert but, man, this bar could be the best place to see bands in the Bay Area if it wasn’t for this. Anyway, sorry for the rant. Back to Gentleman Jesse and his Men. It’s been a while since I’d seen ‘em and they’re just as good if not actually better. One of the guitar players for Barreracudas was on the keyboards and just tore ‘em up, giving already great songs that extra punch!
The next night, I caught the end of the surfy Nirvana-esque Charlie and the Moonhearts. Didn’t get any good shots of ‘em but they were pretty damned good. I’ll be sure to catch ‘em next time. Anomalys came all the way from Amsterdam with their wild ass performance and sound that reminded me a bit of a Voodoo Rhythm-sounding band yet, their LP is out on Slovenly. Seriously great fun and apparently they were playing Burning Man this last weekend.
I’d seen the Mean Jeans a few months back, even did a write-up about it here but, shit, did I already forget how much fun they were? Just pure party drunk madness. I even had to buy a CD after the show. I never buy CDs. Who does? But they hadn’t brought LPs. Drummer of the band even told me I could probably just download it somewhere but I wanted to show my appreciation of their ridiculously catchy goodness. Glad I did cuz after the show I went home and listened to the whole thing while reading the absurdly dumb lyric sheet. Can’t wait to see them again and really lose my shit like everyone else does when they play. It’s hard not to.
Speaking of losing it, Nobunny topped it all off as only Nobunny can do. It’s great to see my long-eared pants-less friend go from broken tape deck singalong shows with 5 people to a great backing band a packed house shows. Nobody (Bunny?) is more deserving than this hard-working cartoon punkle in the business. Of course I got a ton of great shots but here’s just a few. There was a Sunday BBQ show but I was shot and wasn’t able to make it. Hopefully it was as much fun as the other shows and everyone had as much fun as I did. Great job, Marc and Amy.
