What a year of music in San Francisco! Spring is really when things start to heat up, tours begin, new albums release, it is a joy to be alive.
So, it is at this time I feel that I must post a wrap-up of the concerts from 2006, before too many shows have piled up that I become blocked by my own procrastination. It is such a privilege to live here and have access to so many musical artists, here are the big shows I've had time to write up:
February generally starts the fire with Noise Pop festival in SF, but this year (2007) was a lineup that left me flat completely. I traveled abroad during this time, but for-the-record, only Erase Errata would have got my money had I been in town. Last year was not so, we saw 10 shows in 7 days, it was a blur, so I'll just begin with March:
March 14 2006, _Frank Black_, Cafe Du Nord. This night was exceptional because Du Nord is so small and intimate and he is so brilliant. Frank played three sets, one with electric, much acoustic, and one with accompaniment. He played everything that matters.
March 24 2006, _The Strokes_, Concourse. Probably the best show of the year, just following the release of their latest album, and everyone at the Concourse knew every lyric. After the first song, they were stunned by our adoration and said simply 'San Francisco, who knew?' We jumped and danced and sang the whole night with them and their indescribable guitars, I love them. I saw them once before and this was nothing like it, this was magical, drunken, loudness at it finest. And we were all soaking wet from the rain and did not care, I lost my polk-a-dot umbrella from childhood and it was worth it.
March 29 2006, _Heavenly States_, Rickshaw Stop. The Heavenly States are one of a few favorite local bands, their lead signer is divine and the band combines fiddle with rock with keyboards in a manner most cannot comprehend nor pull off without theatrics. I think it is because of the Telecaster ripping between all the sounds and brining them gracefully together and apart, but I'm probably biased. You might find a stop-action video of them on Havoc if you dig around.
March 31 2006, _The Cloud Room_, Slim's. I was not floored by this band really, we went to Von Iva show after this show and that is what I remember.
April 28 2006, _Yeah Yeah Yeahs_, Warfield. This is a close second to The Strokes show because she is just so amazing to watch and listen to. Vocally she really is the tops now and she is pulling through a giant mass of female vocalists that will change our music for a long time to come. She is gigantic. She bopped around a ton and said only on thing to the crowd, once she fell right on her ass, at start of like the second song in their set, and she just said 'Holy Shit!' and kept right on going. We had dueling tickets on this night for the Mates of State, but went for YYY, of course. I've seen Mates and love them, but they're no YYY, no? 
May 2 2006, _Sleater Kinney_, Great American Music Hall. My one main brush with greatness, only major claim-to-fame, is that I opened for Sleater Kinney back in 1996 at the Fox Theatre in Boulder, CO. God those were the days, we even got to hang with them backstage. Anyhow, Sleater Kinney rocked like never before this 2006, I mean Carrie traded her trusty Rickenbacker for this huge guitar, a Thunderbird, I think, and played like she was channeling Jimi or something. Trees is the most enormous album of 2006, I really think, just like a Redwood. Just get it and One Beat too. I did not know it at that show, though we all felt it, that this would be their last, they have disbanded, and it is the end of an era for me, a decade of riot grrrl has finished and their mark on punk and rock and pop will always be felt strong by me.
May 26 2006, _The Ministry_, Fillmore Auditorium. This show was incredible, truly demonstrating that music defies age completely, these guys still bring it from every pore. San Francisco did give them a good reception, somewhat subdued as usual, and certainly not the moshing, spinning, scary-wonderful affair I experienced back in '94 when I saw their tour with Helmut, but still an awesome spectacle to enjoy.
June 5 2006, _Charletan's UK_, Fillmore Auditorium. My sweetie introduced me to this band, in great wisdom, this show was mind-blowing. This guy can sing like no other man can. He wales and croons and just slathers you with his voice and its beauty until you almost cannot take it. In so many differing styles, he sings effortlessly. This is to say nothing of the band, he can sing all day and only plays the occasional mouth-keyboard, but the band of Charletan's is truly exceptional rock band. Strong and tight in all of its parts, unfortunately a rare thing these days to hear a band this well-versed, trained together making such fantastic pop music with hard driving drums bass and guitars. Of all the bands this year, this one surprised me most because I did not know their superiority, or even a shred of it, but once I heard it I will always remember.
June 1 2006, _Les Claypool_, This Les show was my first on the main floor of the Warfield, and I'll never again sit in a seat upstairs. Why did I ever sit upstairs? My favorite of all women, Melora Craiger, divine beauty and queen of the Cello, creator of Rasputina, opened for Les. It was a crashing, attention-demanding opening act if there ever was one. Frustration Plantation was the setting with a bit of frontiering for good measure. Fewer vignettes than usual, but for the anticipation for the Les crowd, it was fitting. No corsets were worn and freedom from them was heard in each string plucked. Les had Gabby LaLa with him and to see her in this sold-out venue, after being schooled by Les for over a year, was to see her at her best, I am sure. She has grown before our eyes as a musician and on this night she played Sitar on-par with Les, trading licks and rifs with his genius, then jumping to accordion, then theramin, the yukelele, and back again. I will leave my ramblings about Les for the summary of a show at a different venue, he is in Bay Area, so we see him often...
July 8 2006, _Nine Inch Nails_, Shoreline Ampitheater. My first time having an actual seat at Shoreline, to be this close to Trent again was incredible. I stood on the grass for Radiohead two years back and the loudness beat on me until I was cured of all ills...that is another blog I suppose...if you ever might see or hear Radiohead, stand upon any surface to do so, and you will not be disappointed. Peaches and Bau Haus opened this show. Not much to write of these two acts really, Peaches is just too nasty for me to be interested and Bau Haus is just Bau Haus, but it was my first time to see them, so I'm glad for that, just to have seen a legendary band such as they are. Trent and NIN, well, if you read my blog, you know that we saw the first two nights of this tour at Warfield fall 2005. This Shoreline show was the final date to wrap it up. So, it was insanely tight, improved from repetition and rehearsal on-the-road all year long and summed up in this one night With Teeth. Lighting design was really stellar and highlighted nicely Trent's muscular frame, oy, I'll stop there. He was sad for this tour to be over, he said as much to us, he said he had to go back into the studio and sounded just so emotional about it, said that he would miss us while he was gone. He even tossed a guitar into the crowd at the end of crushing and banging the daylights from one another in a ritual that is uniquely NIN. They surely were on the brink of Survivalism and Year Zero at that time, and knew it. Recording and mixing is a test and grueling trial and Trent is no exception. He has now provided his Garageband files of Survivalism to the world for our use and edification, and I feel kindred to him in our delivery of sources to OpenSolaris. All of Year Zero will be made available from what I understand and the files for Survivalism are a joy to watch and listen to, we've been enjoying them all week. You can hear (pre-release) of the new album here.
September 17 2006, _Israel Vibration_, Independent. Another brilliant show from Israel, roots reggae at its finest that gives you joy and light in every verse.
November 5 2006, _Lee Scratch Perry_, Independent. My first introduction to Lee Scratch, also awesome reggae, this guy basically discovered Bob Marley FWIU. It was strange, the band that opened we felt was not very good at all, then as it turned out, they were backing Lee Scratch, but *with him* they sounded incredible, without him mediocre. It speaks volumes about his presence and voice and energy. He appears to be about 70 years of age, but this man sang and preached and danced until we were all tired, then danced with the women some more. He was inspirational in his energy, not to mention his mirrored cap.
Date? _Peeping Tom_, Great American Music Hall. Peeping Tom, uhg, now this is tied with The Strokes for best show of the year, actually. This was more fun than any other show at GAMH ever, Mike Patton is a living legend in the Bay Area and the crowd makes it known. It was a romp and rough evening of beats and just downright hard to match music.
Date? _Kool Keith /return of Dr. Octagon_, Mezzanine. Small very fun show, so fun I was hit right in the bridge of my nose with a flying LP record during the first act. But, I sucked it up folks, that's right, I needed to see the doctor! Dr. Octagon.
November 26 2006, _Alice in Chains_, Warfield. This is a legendary band, so we went even though, of course, there is a new singer who is so-so, and this tour is a reunion of sorts and well, we just never did see Alice in Chains back in the day and now we have, sort of.
The lead guitar player really led the show and made sure the new signer stayed in place. He had the vocals yes, but not the gruff of Alice and Chains that comes from that angst of the early 90s. They paid nice homage to the man who was the face of Alice in Chains, took time after the first set to remember him and reflect, then played an acoustic set, followed by another set. Overall a good solid show I would recommend if you never saw them ever.
December 2 2006, _Primus_, Berkeley Community Theater. For this show, we had seats in the second row! What a way to wrap the calendar year. The seats were so close we were stunned throughout the opening act, I could smell their body odor, that's how close we were, I could see the pores in their skin and the sound trembled across my arm-hairs it was so loud and rich. Also my first time at Berkeley Community Theater, which I highly recommend if you have insanely great seats. We went for sushi beforehand over on Telegraph, I think, and it was so fun and yummy. Little boats of fish and rolls swimming past you while the anticipation of sitting directly before, no two rows from, a virtuoso bass player of our times. We will go again to enjoy his unique mad-hatting, frogish friendly fun at end of June, hooray.
Now, we've had a rush of nice, small shows this month of March 2007, that I'll cover real quickly, as follows:
-_Octopus Project_: great Austin-based band at BOTH that was a thrilling wall of sound
-_Miho Hatori_: New York based Miho, formerly of Cibbo Matto, brilliantly with her new album Ecdysis
-_TV on the Radio_: good solid band, not my favorite style, if I want this I want Bloc Party.
-_Teddy Bears_: amazing tiny show, we touched them, great great Sweden pop right now!!
-_Whitey_: New York band, very great guitar rock all Dan Electro through Marshall half-stack, check it.
And this brings us up-to-date completely. I will not fall behind this year, I will not! Now, if I do, just read this stuff or order one of these or find me over here where I spend almost all of my writing juice.
