What’s up with the East Bay?
August 4th, 2008 by Legs GinigerHoly shit, I have been so remiss. Originally “hired” by World Famous to be your East Bay reporter, I got caught up in some theater projects and my nights have been pretty well occupied. But I’m free now, and I did a pretty authentic tour of the scene last week. I mean, what’s left of the scene. With 21 Grand even further underground, and with Jon Benson’s bus missing-in-action and “resting” in a field somewhere in Michigan, it’s been a quiet summer, and I haven’t seen some people forever.
Except on Tuesday, everyone came out for the Club Sandwich’s 2-year anniversary Lobot show with No Age, Mika Miko, and Abe Vigoda. And by everyone I mean me, the five other people I knew there over 30 (six including George Chen, although I didn’t see him in the crowd), and the 400 teenagers who’re too young to get into the 18+ show at Great American Music Hall the previous night. I have never seen so many 15-year-olds in one place. Correction — I’ve never seen so many 15-year-olds popping pills in one place, but I’m pretty sure those weren’t black beauties. In every other respect the show reminded me of LA 20 years ago, and I guess LA hard-core is back. Mika Miko sounds so much like X, and X is my favorite band, so overall I thought this show was pretty great. Scott and I tried to figure out why shows aren’t surly affairs like SF in the 90s or straight up intimidating aggressive scenes like LA in the 80s and we figured the drugs are different now. And I’m pretty sure all the kids’ parents from Lobot are therapists and college professors.
On Friday there was First Fridays art-walk centered around Stork and Mama Buzz and it is just as retarded and hipster overrun as I suspected. John Benson threw a party at his house and Fly Fly Fly from Oregon played. They’re a noisey three-piece from Oregon and I liked them alot; it was a nicely aggressive counterpoint to the hipster takeover at 19th and Telegraph. What I didn’t like is punk-show hygiene. Is it a punk law that you must not use deodorant, and that you must proceed to sweat profusely in small crowded homes, and that you must proceed to invade my clean, well-groomed personal space with your subpar hygiene? Can you please get your dreadlocks out of my face? Thanks, and talk to you all later.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:16 am
great, usefull 0_0