Author: neekrive

Nickelback, Jerry Cantrell, Default, Course Of Nature – Warfield, SF, Tues., May 28

SETLISTS : 

(COURSE OF NATURE) : Better Part Of Me, Gain, Difference Of Opinion, Creep, Caught In The Sun, Wall Of Shame

(DEFAULT) : Slow Me Down, Sick & Tired, Seize The Day, Somewhere, Let You Down, Live A Lie, Wasting My Time, Deny

(JERRY CANTRELL) : Hellbound, What The Hell Have I, My Song, Cut You In, Bargain Basement Howard Hughes, Anger Rising, Down In A Hole, Them Bones

(NICKELBACK) : Woke Up This Morning, One Last Run, Hollywood, Breathe, Leader Of Men, Do This Anymore, Hangnail, Old Enough, Never Again, Where Do I Hide, Figured You Out, Too Bad, (encore), How You Remind Me

OK, OK, OK… Before y’all start cracking jokes, I want to point out a few things first. Back then, I didn’t know Nickelback from Adam. They were still relatively new and I was ushering practically every show at The Warfield and The Fillmore that I was available to do. Secondly, I hadn’t seen Jerry Cantrell since I saw him with Alice In Chains at Lollapalooza in 1993, nearly a decade before this show. It was doubly important to me since Layne Staley, the singer of Alice In Chains had just died of a speedball overdose just 53 days prior at the all too young age of 34. That being said, it is no secret that for the many years since their heyday when I saw them, Nickelback had become the brunt of derision to the point of laughingstock. Indeed, Rolling Stone magazine actually ranked them the second worst band of the 90’s, just behind Creed. Of course, that is a matter of opinion, but one would be hard put to find somebody who would admit to liking Nickelback today, at least one that would admit it publicly. What I did surmise early was they were another one, like Creed, Three Doors Down, Staind, just to name a few, of that genre around that time I like to call Republican Rock, like a more tepid version of the Nu Metal genre whose popularity was beginning to wane. 

But to all who choose to hurl stones at these hosers from Hunna, Alberta, I should point out that around this time, these guys were laughing all the way to the bank. Their third album, though having the ill timing of being released on 9/11, was a blockbuster, certifying platinum three times in the U.K., six times in America, and a whopping eight times in their home country of Canada. They were ambitious too, clocking in 256 concert performances in the year 2000 alone and this time, their tour manager/front of house sound engineer boasting that “Supposedly, this is the most equipment that any band has ever tried to put on stage here”. Naturally, I would dispute that claim citing Motley Crue and the Blue Man Group having gear on the Warfield stage that would normally be employed for arenas, but that’s an argument for another time. This would be known at the Jim Beam “Road To The Rackhouse” tour and I’m sure many an ounce of that fiery liquid was consumed by patron and artist alike that evening.  There even was a promotion where you could log on to the Jim Beam website and upload your photo ID for a chance to win a trip to see Nickelback at the Jim Beam Distillery in Louisville. I declined to enter for a number of reasons, one being that I have little stomach for hard liquor.

I had just seen Garbage play on that stage the night before and this one was going to be an even longer show having four acts total. First up was Course Of Nature, a band from L.A. by way of Alabama. They, being the first of the four acts, was only on stage for a handful of songs and I think since my tape space was limited that night, I only recorded three of their tunes as well as only two of Default who followed them. I most likely was trying to ensure I had enough ammo to get all of Mr. Cantrell and the headliner. One of their songs was actually a surprisingly respectful cover of “Creep” by Radiohead. I’d go so far as to even say, apart from Cantrell’s set, that it was a highlight of an otherwise disappointing show. 

Like I said, Default came next, who like Nickelback were fellow Canadians, though they came from Vancouver on that nation’s mountainous west coast. Years before, they had given their demo to Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger, who was so impressed that he produced their first two albums. They were relatively big back home, having won a Juno Award for Best New Group that year. Ironically, they were picked up to join this tour after the last tour they were on was cancelled and the headliner for that tour was… Creed. Yes, Scott Stapp, the leader of the so-called “worst band of the 90’s” had injured himself earlier that year, suffering a concussion and vertebrae damage from being involved in an automobile collision. 

My patience was eventually rewarded when Jerry finally took the stage. He had been busy around then releasing a solo album called “Degradation Trip” just three weeks after this show and a double “Volumes 1 & 2” version of it later that November. He had just got back to performing live after receiving reconstructive surgery on one of his hands. The injury occurred while playing football with Brian Kehoe from M.I.R.V. and other bands and the poor guy got his pinky finger caught in Brian’s shirt sleeve! Not a very glamorous way to injure one’s self, but I’m sure he embellished the story at least once. Anyway, he opened his set with “Hellbound”, one of his new songs, but quickly followed it with an Alice In Chains number called “What The Hell Have I”. The latter song was originally going to be on their “Dirt” album, but got shelved and was later used in the soundtrack for the Arnold Schwarzenegger box office bomb “Last Action Hero”.

Jerry greeted the crowd afterward shouting “God damn! How y’all doing out there? I used to call this place my home, so it’s kind of my home away from home in a little bit of a way” and then he played “My Song” and “Cut You In”, tunes he recorded from his first solo record “Boggy Depot”. He followed that with a couple more new ones before announcing, “I wanna do a couple of songs in the honor of a dear friend of mine, Mr. Layne Staley” and then he finished his set with “Down In A Hole” and “Them Bones”. He and his band left the stage with the audience literally shouting for more, chanting “Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!” One couldn’t help but be reminded of that chant regularly repeated on the “Jerry Springer Show”. But that was it and Nickelback was next.

Before I continue, I should present one caveat on my re-listening to the recording from that night. Last evening, I was tripping balls on mushrooms and was coming down from the experience, calming my overworked brain with copious amounts of Christmas beer. Such a combination would make anybody amenable to whatever music they were listening to and forgive any boorishness from Nickelback and their fans. I will say this with total objectivity that they could indeed play. They were tight even during some songs that were at a breakneck pace. Part of me was even thinking, “What has Nickelback ever done to me? We even have the same initials!” Also, I was initially feeling guilty from an incident that happened that day and thought earlier (before I got all mashed) that listening to Nickelback would be my punishment.

I’ll try to keep it brief, but I was in the city earlier that day delivering some forgotten supplies to my beloved wife for her job at her hair salon and went to have a late breakfast at a place called Katie’s Kitchen on Haight Street, just a block away. There, my enjoyment of said breakfast was hampered by a noisy conversation by a group of young women sitting at the table next to me. One of my few pet peeves in this world is when people say “like” too frequently while talking and these women were saying it up to three or four times per sentence. When I encounter such people, I start saying “like” to myself out loud every time they do it, in the hope they overhear and get the message which they tragically didn’t. Fed up and on my way out, I stopped my waitress who was standing right next to them and loudly said, “I just LIKE want to LIKE thank you for LIKE the best breakfast that I LIKE had in LIKE a really LIKE long time… I really LIKED it”. Then I turned to the stunned women at the table, smiled, blurted one last “LIKE” at them and walked out. I could hear one of them behind me as I was leaving muttering, “He seems really angry”. To my defense, that was just me being a smart ass. 

But after watching a glorious sunset on said mushrooms and taking the time one does high on such things for deep introspection, like I said, I felt guilty about it, even if they deserved it. But back to the show at hand. Thank you for your patience. I’m happy to report that just before I started writing, I discovered a quality bootleg copy of Nickelback’s set from that night on YouTube and will listen to it while burning it to disc later. Perhaps then, I will have a more accurate appraisal of how Nickelback did that show. Incidentally, as further evidence of my inebriation, the notes I traditionally take while listening to recordings, well this one’s legibility becomes increasingly and hilariously sloppier as the notes went on to the point where the last few notes are practically unreadable. Sorry, I continue to digress.

About halfway through their set, Chad spoke to the crowd, “We’re going to do a little diddy, use you guys a guinea pigs to find out whether you like it” and then they played “Do This Anymore”, a new song that wouldn’t be released until their next album, “The Long Road”, the following year. Afterwards, he asked, “So, what do you think? Does that one make the cut? You guys need some water?” Later, he thanked the opening acts and demanded “On the count of three, I want to hear San Francisco fucking rocks!!!” Naturally, they obeyed him. I stopped listening to the recording last night after they finished “Figured You Out”, so when I finished listening to the rest of the set earlier today, Abracadabra!, my notes became legible again. 

As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t know the band at all before that night, but I did recognize their hit song “How You Remind Me” which they predictably saved for their encore. I mean, I knew the song. I just didn’t know they were the band that did it. Chad addressed the crowd one more time, “You guys feel like singing along? Good, cus’ I’m fuckin’ tired. Alright, you got your singing voices on? And obviously we need to be sitting on a fuckin’ cloud to play the song. Mass bong hits underneath the fuckin’ stage”. He started it slowly, playing alone on his acoustic guitar before revving it into high gear with the rest of the band and of course, their fans dutifully sang along. Regardless, I was impatient and grateful when the show ended and haven’t seen Nickelback since. This was one of the rare times that I actually wasn’t disappointed that there wasn’t a poster. I would consider having one in my possession as downright incriminating. 

https://archive.org/details/nickelback-warfield-52802

https://archive.org/details/jerry-cantrell-warfield-52802

https://archive.org/details/default-warfield-52802

https://archive.org/details/course-of-nature-warfield-52802

Garbage, Abandoned Pools – Warfield, SF, Mon., May 27

SETLISTS : 

(ABANDONED POOLS) : March Of The Empire Intro, L.V.B.D, 9 Billion, Fluorescein, Start Over, Army Of Me, Sunny Day, Monster, The Remedy, Mercy Kiss, Seed

(GARBAGE) : Push It, Temptation Waits, I Think I’m Paranoid, Special, Cup Of Coffee, Till The Day I Die, Not My Idea, When I Grow Up, Hammering In My Head, I Just Want Something To Do, Shut Your Mouth, Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!), #1 Crush, Queer, Supervixen, Vow, (encore), Milk, Only Happy When It Rains

It had been six long years since I’d first seen Garbage and that being but one of the bands at the B.F.D. at Shoreline and it had been a short set at that. But now I was to see one of their own gigs, headlining The Warfield. In the intervening years, they had been keeping busy though, even composing the theme song to the James Bond movie, “The World Is Not Enough” in 1999. Garbage were continuing what must have seemed like an endless tour to them that had begun all the way back in the previous October promoting their latest album, “Beautiful Garbage”. When they weren’t touring as the headliner, they were opening for such illustrious acts as U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and No Doubt, not to mention a number of festivals. This marathon would go on for another seven months and it came to no surprise that the rigors of this undertaking took their toll on the band’s exhausted members. 

By this time, singer Shirley Manson was having throat problems, which she mentioned repeatedly during their set that night. Her voice would go out entirely a month after this show at the unfortunate time as they were performing at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Eventually, it had been discovered that she developed a vocal fold cyst that was safely removed by corrective surgery. Gwen Stefani, the singer of the aforementioned No Doubt and fellow rock hard midriff goddess, recommended a voice specialist and Shirley soon was back in the pink again. But to make matters worse, Butch Vig, their drummer and producer extraordinaire got sick twice on this tour, first with a bout of Hepatitis A and Bell’s Palsy, a second time with food poisoning. He even was replaced briefly by Matt Chamberlain while he recovered.

The new album, though warmly received by critics, didn’t make as much money as their previous efforts, though understandably that was a high bar to match. They blamed lack of promotion from their record label as many acts do when their albums don’t sell, though one can always debate the fairness of that argument. Regardless, the show at The Warfield quickly sold out. Shirley had also become an ambassador for MAC cosmetics and their AIDS fund that March where she endorsed a lipstick called VIVAMAC IV and all the proceeds from their sales went to that charity. But sadly, her marriage to Eddie Farrell had begun to deteriorate around that time and they would divorce the following year. 

Opening that night was a band called Abandoned Pools, a solo project of Tommy Walter, the bass player for The Eels. They had just released their debut album, “Humanistic” the year before this and the single “Start Over” was featured in the soundtrack of the film comedy “Van Wilder” that March. They had also toured with A Perfect Circle and Lenny Kravitz as well as writing the theme song to “Clone High”, a short lived animated show on MTV. They came on stage to the sounds of the “March Of The Empire” from “The Empire Strikes Back” which coincidentally Cornershop used to introduce themselves at their show at The Fillmore only two days before this. It was loud, but very clear sounding, which makes sense, Butch Vig being such a golden eared sound guy. He could afford such a pristine audio package and it made it all the easier to decipher their lyrics and song titles. I thought Abandoned Pools was OK, but ultimately forgettable, though I did enjoy their little DJ-drum breakdown they did during “Sunny Day”. I actually thought they sounded a bit like a grungier version of Sunny Day Real Estate and it wouldn’t surprise me if that song was a tribute to them of sorts. Tommy made sure to point out to the crowd that it’s easy to find their records in stores since they are conveniently located right next to ABBA. 

But the crowd went nuts when Garbage took the stage, Shirley sporting a dyed blond crew cut and white tank top with no bra. Oh yes, as usual, her headlights were on high beams all night and no one was complaining, especially not me. After  the first two songs, she paused and thanked the crowd, “Good to see so many friends here tonight! I’m losing my voice, but what the heck. I still sound the same”. Later she had a longer exchange with the folks up front starting with somebody showing her a homemade portrait they did of her which she responded, “Is that a drawing of me? That’s a rather flattering picture of me. It looks nothing like me, but it’s very cute”. That encouraged others to pipe up and she joked, “You might as well say it now cus’ there’s not going to be another stop in the show”. She noticed someone threw a sign on stage, “Garbage rocks my socks?… Please don’t throw shit at the stage. It makes me really mad”.

It went on and Shirley denied the advances of one of her more lusty fans in the pit, “No kisses, but you have my admiration and that should be better than a kiss. Cus’ you can kiss everybody, you don’t necessarily admire them”. Then somebody handed her a bouquet of flowers and she smiled, “Thank you so much! These are beautiful”. Butch had taken a break or something and she wondered, “Do we have a drummer?”, while the band waited for him to return. Daniel, their bass player, filled the silence with some riffs, but she playfully rebuked him, “I will smash you bass over your head if you don’t stop playing so loud… I was trying to say before I was rudely interrupted by Daniel playing the silly bass line on his bass was that we thank all our fans for coming out for us”. Butch eventually returned, maybe suffering from one of the previously mentioned maladies and they got things rolling again. Before they played “When I Grow Up”, Shirley gave a shout out, “Alright, Michelle & Nicole, two lovely ladies I met yesterday, this song’s for you. This is for when you start your own rock band. I’ll be coming to your concert!”

For a woman who was losing her voice, she had quite a lot to say between songs actually. A couple tunes later she thanked Abandoned Pools, Christopher Buck, their lighting director who flew across the country for them, and the hospitality. She went on, “Who else do I want to thank? I’d like to thank my mom, just because” then she pointed to her fellow band members, “I’d like to thank Duke and I’d like to thank Daniel and I’d like to thank Butch and I’d like to thank Steve… Duke! Duke! Duke!” They veered off from their original material and Shirley introduced the next song, “I don’t feel like playing a sad song. I’m rebelling. I feel like playing something happy. Fuck it up! There’s children in the audience. I’m not supposed to be swearing. Let’s do The Ramones! I think we need a bit of Ramones in our life, don’t you? I know this is turning out a bit shambles, but I can tell you’re from San Francisco. You’re used to that kind of that. I don’t think that came out right”. Then they did a respectful cover of “I Just Want Something To Do”. As I had mentioned in other shows I’ve written about around this time, lots of artists were covering Ramones songs in honor of their recently departed singer, Joey Ramone, who had succumbed to lymph cancer the year before this show. 

Before they did “Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)”, Shirley mentioned, “Tonight’s a special night because this is the hometown of my friend J.T. Malloy who is a writer…. I know there’s a rumor that he doesn’t exist, but he does exist because I’ve touched him and kissed him and he writes amazing books and he’s an amazing person and inspiration. His flatmate’s here tonight, Astor… Lovely to meet you tonight”. Then she was distracted by somebody throwing a pair of boy’s underpants on stage. The batteries on my recorder ran out during that song, but I managed to replace them only losing “#1 Crush” and “Queer” leaving two more songs for the end of their set. They returned for an encore, starting with “Milk” and then Shirley called attention to failing voice one more time, “You’ll have to sing along. My voice is gone” before wrapping things up with their hit single, “Only Happy When It Rains”. Naturally, she had no problem getting everybody to sing, especially during the “Pour you misery down” part of the chorus. 

Garbage would return to the bay area that fall alongside The Distillers opening for No Doubt performing at the ARCO arena in Sacramento and the Shark Tank in San Jose, then known as the Compaq Center, though I didn’t have the pleasure of going to either of those shows. But they would return again to that very stage three years later in 2005 where I would see them not once but twice, first that April and then later that September. Sadly, none of these Warfield shows would get a poster and they would disband later that year, though they would eventually reunite in 2011 and continue to make music together to this day. In fact, though I didn’t attend, they just performed at The Warfield only two months ago. It’s a safe bet that they like that venue. 

https://archive.org/details/garbage-warfield-52702

https://archive.org/details/abandoned-pools-warfield-52702

Cornershop, Julie Plug – Fillmore, SF, Sat., May 25

SETLIST : Staging For Plaguing Of The Raised Platform, Good Shit, We’re In Yr Corner, (unknown), Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), Sleep On The Left Side, 6 AM Julladar Shere, Brimful Of Asha, Lessons Learned From Rocky I To Rocky III, (encore), Spectral Mornings

I had seen Cornershop four times by then, twice as an opening act and twice  as a headliner, but this would be the final time I’d see them perform live. I always loved their music though I’ve repeatedly complained that their frontman, Tjinder Singh, always seemed like he was in a sour mood while he was on stage. I’m happy to report that this time it was not the case and he was all smiles that night. His jovial mood was reflected by the crowd and I would go so far to say that this show was the best one I’d ever see them play.  They had just released their “Handcream For A Generation” album two months before this gig and though the music was brilliant as always and received great reviews, they would part ways with their record label, Wiija, shortly afterwards mostly due to low record sales. Incidentally, both Noel Gallagher and bassist Paul McGugan from Oasis, whom I saw Cornershop open for at the Bill Graham Civic in ‘98, contributed to songs on that album. They would open for Oasis again in Las Vegas a month before this Fillmore show as well. 

I had just seen Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter do a free in-store performance at Amoeba Records earlier that afternoon and they were playing at Cafe Du Nord later opening for Virgil Shaw. Beginning the festivities that night at The Fillmore was Julie Plug, an indie rock band from San Francisco fronted by Des (Julie) De Leon and guitarist Terry Nicolas. They had been around almost a decade and had just put out their second album, “Whatever You Wonder” earlier that year. I thought they sounded a little like The Sundays, but after a few songs, the rest of the audience and I kind of lost patience with them. Their sound was rather monotonous and to make matters worse, I couldn’t make heads nor tails of their lyrics, so after a while listening to their set again, I sort of gave up trying to figure out the song titles. They never made another album after that one and this would thankfully be the only time I’d see them play. 

Cornershop came on stage to the sound of a funky soul instrumental piece playing before they got things going with a new song, the awkwardly titled “Staging For Plaguing Of The Raised Platform”. A couple songs later, they busted out the sitar for “We’re In Yr Corner” and then they did another instrumental from an earlier album which title escapes me. They followed that with a cover of “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” by The Beatles. Coincidentally, the legendary reggae group Israel Vibration played an instrumental cover of it as well the night before at the “One Love Festival” at The Warfield. A couple songs later, they did a version of “6 AM Julladar Shere” which went on for over 15 minutes! Extensive as it was, I’ll always love that song and it never grows tiresome to me. 

They then did their big hit, “Brimful Of Asha”, and then finished their set with another new one with a weird title, “Lessons Learned From Rocky I To Rocky III”. It was a rather long encore break, but the audience clapping in unison eventually brought them back all on stage where they finished the night with another new one, though with a less cryptic title, “Spectral Mornings”. Like “6 AM Jullandar Shere” this was another long one, spanning over 12 minutes, and was also sung in Hindi. They ended that one with excellent sitar and percussion solos. Sadly, there was no poster to mark the occasion, continuing a drought that would continue for seven shows until the curse was finally broken when The White Stripes would play on that same stage a week and a half later. 

https://archive.org/details/cornershop-fillmore-52502

https://archive.org/details/julie-plug-fillmore-52502

Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter – Amoeba Records, SF, Sat., May 25

SETLIST : Lullaby, Your Side Now, Winter Hunter, Don’t Let Me Go, Doralee

By this time, partially because of the overwhelming arsenal of bootlegs I’d amassed, I had severely reduced the amount of CDs I was purchasing, but I still loved Amoeba. From time to time, I’d pick up a little something, but I especially appreciated that hallowed hall of music because of the free in-store performances they’d have. And because they’d start early, at 2 PM on this occasion, and always last less than hour, I would have plenty of time to cruise over to The Fillmore to usher a show there later. Many of the acts that do in-store shows will perform at venues later that night and this was the case for Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter who played at Cafe Du Nord, opening for Virgil Shaw.

Jesse Sykes is a honey-voiced singer/songwriter from Seattle by way of New York. She had met Phil Wandscher from Whiskeytown in 1999 and formed this band with him as well as sharing a romantic relationship for over a decade. The Sweet Hereafter had just released their debut album, “Reckless Burning” before this show and they were playing without their drummer Kevin Warner that afternoon, though he would be joining them later at Du Nord. They were a welcome addition to the whole “heroin country” scene around that time, joining such acts as Mazzy Star, Cat Power, and the Mojave 3, keeping their fans blissfully sullen. 

Like I alluded before, Jesse had a sweet voice and it was warmly complimented by her violinist, Anne Marie Rujiancich. Jesse also played acoustic guitar while Phil accompanied her on his electric one. After a couple songs, she smiled and said, “I like the fact that you can bring a dog in here… We’re from Seattle”. They then played a new song called “Winter Hunter” which they would release on their second album , “Oh, My Girl” in 2004. Later, she mentioned, “Obviously, our record’s available… Thanks to Amoeba for letting us play. They’re very kind” and then added that they’d be playing at the Starry Plough in Berkeley the following week where they’d also have the full band. They finished their set with “Doralee” and I had ample of time to get some dinner before seeing Cornershop at The Fillmore later that night. 

https://archive.org/details/jesse-sykes-the-sweet-hereafter-amoeba-records-52502

One Love Festival 2002: Toots & The Maytals, Israel Vibration, Luciano, Tanto Metro & Devonte, Dean Fraser – Warfield, SF, Fri., May 24

SETLISTS : 

(DEAN FRASER) : (unknown), (unknown), Small Axe, Jamming, Redemption Song

(ISRAEL VIBRATION) : Hypocrites – Norwegian Wood Intro, Jammin’, Get Up & Go, (unknown), (unknown), Ball Of Fire, Vultures, Why Worry, Cool & Calm, (unknown), The Same Song, Red Eyes

(TOOTS & THE MAYTALS) : In The Dark, Get Up Stand Up, Pressure Drop, Time Tough, Country Roads, Monkey Man, 54-46 That’s My Number

Since the sinking of the Maritime Hall, I had been making a deliberate effort to see as many reggae shows that passed by The Warfield or The Fillmore knowing they were few and far between. So, you can imagine my relief when a whole five band mini-festival of bone fide reggae stars was to come to town. Lord knows, though I was overjoyed to be there, I have seen and recorded all these acts at one time or another, so I’ll keep their back stories on most to a minimal. You’ll have no trouble finding out more information about them in several previous entries. The Maritime folks had put on a couple of these so-called “One Love” festivals down at Pier 30/32, but this time a truncated version of it was passing through town on a 22 city tour. This cavalcade of talent would continue on to Europe the following year as well. We were catching (obviously) the west coast leg of the tour, but on the east coast, they had Tony Rebel on the bill instead of Israel Vibration.

First up was sax player extraordinaire and producer Dean Fraser who was touring alongside his longtime collaborator Luciano. I had recorded them together at the Maritime back in 1999 and Dean had helped produce many of Luciano’s albums, including his most recent one, “A New Day” which got him a Grammy nomination for Best Reggae Album. He and his band performed a couple instrumentals of his own which I didn’t know the names of, but he soon did a few unmistakable Bob Marley instrumental covers starting with “Small Axe” and going on to do “Jamming” and “Redemption Song”. I have to hand it to Dean, he is one of the best sax players I’ve ever heard, a tone crystal clear and unwavering. The man has a perfect ear and it’s easy to see why he’s been so successful as a producer. Talented as he was, he was only given 15 minutes to play allowing him only those five songs.

Still, Dean was tough act to follow to say the least, but Tanto Metro & Devonte did their best. To most lay people, they consider reggae as a rather homogenous genre, but those versed in it well enough know that like all other genres, that is not the case. So, that being said, Tanto Metro & Devonte were definitely representing the dancehall wing of that style, a much rougher drum and bass take opposed to the silky, easy listening smoothness of Mr. Fraser, though he also helped produce one of their albums, “Ratings” in 1995. I had recorded Tanto Metro & Devonte before also in 1999, opening for Beenie Man, one of the dancehall greats. To be perfectly honest, they struggled at the beginning to get the sparse crowd in the mood. Granted, it was a tough time slot since reggae audiences are notoriously tardy to arrive. That, and their set was only ten minutes longer than Dean’s, but by the time they finished, some folks up front were getting irae and dancing. 

They had an emcee introducing the acts and before Luciano got on, he announced that there was to be a prize to whoever could tell what time of the year Reggae Sunsplash took place in Jamaica. After a few unsuccessful guesses from people in the audience, one person got it right and was awarded a free One Love T-Shirt. He introduced Luciano saying that “it was 7 years ago when this brother went into the hills of Jamaica to receive the 10 Commandments Of Reggae!” He didn’t go on to list those commandments, but we took him at his word and enjoyed Luciano’s set all the same. I liked the female back up singers he brought along with him too. Like the previous act, Luciano’s thick Jamaican patois made it practically impossible to decipher any of his lyrics, so consequently I wasn’t once again able to figure out his songs titles. But whatever, the guy is a solid entertainer and I was glad to see him again so soon. He had in fact just played The Warfield only three months earlier for the big “Bob Marley Day” show with Bob’s youngest son Damian and others. 

Next up was Israel Vibration and I was happy to see them since it had actually been some years since Pete Slauson and I recorded them at the Maritime. Unfortunately, like so many others, Israel Vibration stole a bunch of the songs we recorded, put them on a live album without giving us one thin dime, much less even credit for it. So, despite being allowed to come back and perform at the Hall, we made a point not to record Israel Vibration since then and having no obligation to stick around for their performances, I would call it an early night and go home. I regret having done that now, especially since singers Apple Gabriel and Cecil recently passed away. They, having suffered polio together as kids, were frail to begin with. Israel Vibration made beautiful music and I’m glad I got to see them this one final time and their band did a nice instrumental intro for them, coving “Hypocrites” by Bob Marley and “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” by The Beatles. Coincidentally, I’d see Cornershop at The Fillmore the following night and they too would do a cover of that Beatles song. 

The emcee came up for the headliner, describing Toots as the “cornerstone of the rich cultural heritage of reggae” and the man himself soon danced onto the stage opening his set with “In The Dark”. As usual, Toots was swinging his microphone all over creation, anywhere but near his mouth, so once again, the poor monitor engineer on duty did their best to contend with the feedback. But squealing speakers aside, Toots as always got the crowd jumping and had no problem during “Pressure Drop” getting us all to sing “Oh, yeaaaaah!” during the chorus. Between songs, he got us to chant “Roots… Rock… Reggae!” too. Toots’ voice soared as he did a long soulful intro to “Country Roads”, his famous cover of the John Denver song. 

He did a couple slow breakdowns before speeding up again during “Monkey Man”, so forgetting he had done so while transcribing the tape to CD years later, I put in a few track breaks on that one, mistakenly thinking that the song had ended. He wrapped up the night with a long version of “54-46, That’s My Number” and by the time it was all over, it was already well past midnight. I had just completed a five show in a row streak before getting one night off to rest before this one, so I’m glad I got as much sleep as I did, since this clearly was a doozy. I wouldn’t get much rest before having to do double duty the very  next day seeing Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter do a free in-store at Amoeba Records before dashing over to The Fillmore to see Cornershop. Sadly, neither this show or Cornershop would get a poster. In fact, I wouldn’t get another one until four shows later when The White Stripes played The Fillmore eleven days after this night. 

https://archive.org/details/toots-the-maytals-warfield-52402

https://archive.org/details/israel-vibration-warfield-52402

https://archive.org/details/luciano-warfield-52402

https://archive.org/details/tanto-metro-devonte-warfield-52402

https://archive.org/details/dean-fraser-warfield-52502

Musiq, Cee-Lo – Fillmore, SF, Wed., May 22

SETLISTS : 

(CEE-LO) : This Is A Man’s World, Bad Mutha, Hot, One For The Road, Git Up Git Out, Live (Right Now), Cell Therapy, Frankie Beverly, Gettin’ Grown, Lovely Day, Closet Freak, Super Freak, 5 To 1

As you might have read from recent previous entries, I was on a roll that week seeing shows and this would be the finale of a five day run. So, I was grateful that it was an enjoyable one at that being Musiq with Cee-Lo opening. It was certainly a stylistic left turn from the grim goth sounds of Peter Murphy on that very stage the night before to say the least, though I enjoyed that one as well for entirely different reasons. Unlike Peter, who I had seen on many occasions, this would be the first time I’d see Musiq, who I knew jack shit about around then. Just mentioning his name at this show is evidence of my catching him when he was an up and coming R & B star since he would soon change his stage name to Musiq Soulchild which he has been known as ever since. 

He had just released his second studio album, “Juslisen”, a mere two weeks before this show and his fans were chomping at the bit to see him that night. Hailing from Philadelphia, Musiq had quickly made a name for himself, signing to Def Soul in ’98 and he had only gotten bigger ever since. The new album had just debuted #1 on Billboard and would rack up three Grammy nominations including Best R & B Album, and 2 for Best Male R & B Vocal Performance. Later that year, he would go on to win the ASCAP Award for Best Male R & B Artist and would collaborate with fellow notable musicians like Santana at The Roots as well as briefly tour with Alicia Keys, who had just hit it mega-big with her debut solo album. So, it was clear that I was seeing someone perform that evening who was of significant importance to the genre. 

However, the evening’s joy was tempered by the welcome though solemn news of the conviction of Bobby Frank Cherry, the Klansman responsible for the infamous bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 that claimed the lives of four innocent girls. Though it was justice long overdue, nearly forty years after that unforgivable deed, that heartless, unrepentant scumbag would live out the remainder of his worthless short life behind bars until he was called home to hell two years later. Good fucking riddance. Anyway… sorry. I just wanted to get that one off my chest. Back to the show at hand.

Unlike Musiq, the opening act, Cee-Lo, I was indeed familiar with. I had the honor of recording him with his band, The Goodie Mob, at Maritime Hall on three separate occasions, including back when they were a humble opening act for De La Soul in 1996, only the fifth show I had recorded there up till then. His raw, brilliant sound from the Dungeon Family of the “Dirty South” would be a welcome compliment to to stylings of Musiq. Cee-Lo had recently started to branch out on his own, putting out his first solo album, “Cee-Lo Green & His Perfect Imperfections”, which dropped just three weeks before this show. This would be his first solo tour and he had just performed on “The Late Show With David Letterman” for the first time that April. I was also delighted that he did a guest voice on the Adult Swim (based in his hometown of Atlanta) animated series, “The Brak Show”, one of my favorites. There, he played a literal hip hop monster with the hilarious name of “Prime Cut Miggity-Mo Macdaddy Gizzabang Doggy Dog Dog”. 

The crowd was already rowdy by the time Cee-Lo took the stage and he got things going with a cover of “It’s A Man’s World” by James Brown. For some reason I can’t remember, I missed the first few songs on my recording, but got everything after “Git Up Git Out”. After he finished that song he said, “Y’all are a diversified listening type of community, right?… We don’t want to give you something ultra-cool all the time. Want to give you something different, do some rock & roll” and then they did “Live (Right Now)” which was indeed rockin’. He followed that with an old Goodie Mob standard, “Cell Therapy”, his keyboard player starting it with a soft intro and then Cee-Lo egging him on later into the song, “Share your gift!” Cee-Lo also gave a shout out to his guitar player before he did his smoking solo during that song, “Get loose! Show us what you can do!”

He fooled around with some more bits of covers, singing a fewlines of the chorus of “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?” by Culture Club during “Gettin’ Grown” and finishing it with “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers. Truth be told, I always hated both of those songs, but when Cee-Lo did them, they were enjoyable, especially when they ended it with another intense guitar solo and getting the crowd to chant “Oooo! Oooo!”. After they finished, he said, “Before I go any further, give it up for my band, Electric Sex! I’m talkin’ about havin’ an instrument for intercourse!… I feel the energy off your ass! I’ve had about as much foreplay as I can stand. I got to freak somebody!” and then they appropriately went on to play “Closet Freak”. They complimented the freakiness of that song by transitioning into a cover of “Super Freak” by Rick James. He kept the crowd pumped asking, “Y’all tired yet? Y’all ready to quit? Y’all tired yet? Y’all wanna hear some more Cee-Lo?” and then they did a couple licks of “Word Up!” by Cameo before beginning a rather surprising cover of “5 To 1” by The Doors. I was impressed that Cee-Lo was gracious enough to pay respect to The Fillmore’s hippie pioneers. 

But perhaps, for better of worse, the most memorable thing to happen during Cee-Lo’s set was what he did at the very end of it. By the time he began “5 To 1”, he had already took his shirt off. Now, for those who don’t know, Cee-Lo is a big guy, I mean a BIG guy. I’m talking in the ballpark of around 300 pounds. So, whatever “crazy” (Gnarles Barkley pun intended) mental health issues Cee-Lo may or may not suffer from, body dysphoria clearly isn’t one of them. But then he literally lowered the boom as the song ended as he turned around and dropped trousers to the horror of everyone. To this day, I still can’t unsee the visage of his gargantuan anal crescent. Still, game recognizes game and one must admire him for having the courage to so publicly allow his freak flag to fly high.

The main act was preceded by a DJ from KMEL who riled up the audience declaring that the “loudest part of the arena here is going to get the free T-shirt!” She gave shout outs to “San Jose… The City?… My favorite part of the bay, is Oakland in the house?!?” I think the crowd was actually still in a little bit of shock from Cee-Lo’s undressing by the time Musiq got on with his band, I know I was, but they were jubilant nonetheless. He had quite a large and capable band with him including some very talented back up singers. And though I didn’t know any of his songs, it was abundantly clear that his fans did, singing along LOUDLY to most of them, especially for “Just Friends”. Exhausted as I was, this was a good one to finish my five show stretch on, though like Peter Murphy, there wasn’t a poster at the end of the night. I overheard myself on the recording again plopping down the Fillmore stairs at the end of the night saying how glad I was to make it and how I didn’t think I was going to pull through. I went home and finally got a good night’s sleep which I would sorely need to have the energy to get through the lengthy One Love Festival, a cavalcade of reggae stars that I would see at The Warfield that Friday. 

https://archive.org/details/musiq-fillmore-52202_202512

https://archive.org/details/cee-lo-fillmore-52202

Peter Murphy, Michael J. Sheehy – Fillmore, SF, Tues., May 21

SETLISTS : 

(MICHAEL J. SHEEHY) : (unknown), No One Recognized Him, (unknown), Teardrop Time, Just A Word, I Shame You With My Kisses, Sweet Blue Gene, Everything Is Beautiful, (unknown), I Tremble For You

(PETER MURPHY) : Things To Remember, Fake Sparkle Or Golden Dust?, No Home Without Its Sire, All Night Long, Creme De La Creme, Jungle Haze, Your Face, Gliding Like A Whale, Crystal Wrists, My Last Two Weeks, Roll Call, (encore), Girlchild Aglow, I’ll Fall With Your Knife, Cuts You Up, (encore), Subway, Just For Love, (encore), Space Oddity

By this point, I was no stranger of the work of Mr. Murphy, having seen him three times on his solo outings and back to back shows with Bauhaus in 1998 as well, but this would be the last time (to date) that I would see one of his solo shows. Thankfully, I would see him in 2005, for another pair of back to back shows with Bauhaus again at The Warfield. Peter had recently relocated to Turkey with his new wife and embraced the indigenous style of music, enlisting Turkish-Canadian composer Mercan Dede to help make his new album, “Dust”. Released just a month before this show, his new sound alienated some of his hardcore vampirish fans, but they packed The Fillmore all the same to pay tribute to this crowned king of all things goth. It had already been a long weekend having done both Billy Bob Thornton at The Fillmore and two days of shows with Kids In The Hall at The Warfield all while working during the day. To top that off, I had one more to go, seeing Musiq with Cee-Lo on that very same stage the following night, so I was already a bit limp for this show, but that fatigue would be the impetus of one of my favorite rock & roll anecdotes which I will get to in a moment. 

Opening that night was Michael J. Sheehy, the frontman for Dream City Film Club, though he was performing solo on this occasion. For the record, he’s not, nor is he related to the congressman or the Irish-Gaelic football star of the same name. Armed with a heavily reverb laden electric guitar, he kept the crowd sullen but entertained during his somber set. He mumbled between songs, “I was looking in the mirror one day and I was thinking ‘You boring, stumpy bastard… You need to get a sense of humor. So, I wrote this song that isn’t too funny”. Afterward, he introduced “Teardrop Time” as a “song about a relationship that begins with premature ejaculation and goes downhill from there”. I actually thought that one was pretty funny. Keeping up his string of zingers, he later said, “Let’s try a song that’s a little more lighthearted now. This song is about death” and then he did “Sweet Blue Gene”. He wrapped things up with a cover of “I Tremble For You” by Johnny Cash.

Peter eventually took the stage with his band, one member who he described as “an expert on the violin amongst other things” and a percussionist. He wasted no time debuting his new material, playing the first three songs off the new album in order, before dusting off a golden oldie with “All Night Long”. At first he didn’t talk much, but he had a funny little exchange half way through the set, joking, “You know, I was going to say you can ask questions too”. He lent his microphone to some girl up front and she asked, “When are you going to play ‘Just For Love’?” and he responded, “Oh my God, don’t you understand that they’re all just for love? I don’t make any money out of this. This is for you and my voice. Another question?” A different girl blurted out, “Bad boys! I love your music! I love you!” and he grinned, “I thought you were a very nice looking boy, but now that you’re a lady… I’m very picky. If I were a girl, I’d be onto you” and then he continued with “Crystal Wrists”.

Which brings me back to my fatigue related story. Yes, I was fading, though I was still up front, gently swaying to the music, but apparently Peter noticed my condition. At the end of the song, without warning, he threw one of the small, folded white towels the Fillmore crew had set aside for him at me and I had just enough time to feign my head sideways as it flew passed my right ear! I quickly snatched up the towel and he looked right at me and playfully scolded me, “You were sleeping”. It got a big laugh from the crowd and I laughed along with them, declaring to a young lady next to me, “Hey, I was awake enough to dodge it!” A little later, another girl actually offered me her backstage pass in exchange for the towel, but knowing that I had to get up to work at 7 AM the next morning, I knew I didn’t have the energy to stick around any longer. Besides, I didn’t know anybody back there and I wanted to keep that towel as a memento. I still have it to this day and who knows, maybe I can clone him in the future if I can scrape up some of his DNA.

He did three songs for his first encore, but clearly it wasn’t enough, since his fans loudly chanted, “Peter! Peter! Peter!”, prompting him and his band to return for a couple more. They busted out a didgeridoo for the aforementioned “Just For Love”, ending with an impressive percussion solo. But even that wasn’t enough to satisfy these brooding goth kids who cheered him back on stage for a third encore and their affection was rewarded with a beautiful cover of “Space Oddity” by David Bowie. They brought the show to a close with a rapturous violin solo and Mr. Murphy thanked us all, “Sweet dreams! Bye bye!” Sadly, there was no poster, but I did overhear myself on the recording walking out, lamenting about how tired I was and having to come back the next night and then for a long reggae festival at The Warfield two days later. I mentioned that I was lucky if I would get more than four hours of sleep, but that tomorrow was probably to be my last day of work on the gig I was on, second to the last day for sure if it wasn’t. Thankfully, I played through the pain and made it to both shows.

https://archive.org/details/peter-murphy-fillmore-52102

https://archive.org/details/michael-j.-sheehy-fillmore-52102

Kids In The Hall – (early & late show) – Warfield, SF, Sun., May 19

Kids In The Hall – Warfield, SF, Mon., May 20

I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating that comedy shows were a rare a welcome change of pace for ushers, so I saw as many as I could. This was particularly important for these nights, since I was woefully uneducated in the works of Kids In The Hall. This comedic sketch comedy supergroup took up the mantle of their Canadian counterparts at SCTV in the late-80’s and likewise presented a brilliant counterpunch to the live sketch format of Saturday Night Live. SNL’s headmaster Lorne Michaels quickly saw the potential in these young hosers of the north and helped produce their first pilot for the CBC and then for HBO. There, they developed into a series, moved to CBS, before they disbanded in 1996 after their only major motion picture, “Kids In The Hall : Brain Candy” came out. 

Each member went their separate ways for a time, Dave Foley having a very successful career on TV with his gig on “NewsRadio”. He had just married his second wife only three months after these shows. Bruce McCulloch had put out a couple musical comedy CDs, the first “Shame-Based Man” in ’95, then “Drunk Baby Project” just five months after these shows as well. Kevin McDonald had done extensive work on TV, including appearing also on “NewsRadio” with Dave and numerous voice overs for animated shows like “Lilo & Stitch” and “Inspector Zim”. Mark McKinney had been working for “Saturday Night Live” as both a writer and cast member, appearing in several SNL movie spin-offs as well as putting on his “Fully Committed” one-man show in Montreal that summer. Finally, before Kids In The Hall first dissolved, Scott Thompson had already began a reoccurring part in “The Larry Sanders Show” until 1998 and he even had a role on an episode of “Star Trek : Voyager” the following year.

But after one already successful reunion tour in 2000, the demand from their loyal fans only grew as to recruit these Kids back together once more two years later for what would be their new outing, which they dubbed their “Tour Of Duty”. The sight of them in the show’s ads with camouflaged army helmets perhaps was some sort of commentary about the so-called “War On Terror” that the Bush regime was just beginning to inflict upon the world, maybe a comedic reflex to attempt to raise our spirits and/or revolt against America’s knee jerk, fascist tendencies with the power of satire. Whatever reason, having them at The Warfield for these nights was a welcome relief for one and all, so welcome in fact that they added a late show by popular demand to the first night, so I was actually lucky enough to see them perform their show three times in little over a 24 hour period. 

They started the show with a humorous recorded announcement about (in a deep disembodied voice) “WHERE THE MONEY GOES”. The banal PSA sounding voice went on to say that “13% goes to raw materials, 29% goes to promotion, 3% goes to rehearsals, 2% goes to fine hotels and traveling in luxury, 9% goes to the mayor of (and then in an obviously edited voice jump) SAN FRANCISCO, 11% goes to legal fees” which left a meager “1% for our hard working troupe”. They then took a moment to allow their musical director, someone I think was named Ray something to come out and sing a song on his acoustic guitar backed up by a recorded drum track. He seemed like a nice guy, but his “if you can feel it, yea, yea, yea” song went over like a lead balloon and I had to hear that god awful song at the beginning of all three shows. I advise you skip it if you listen to the recordings. Trust me, you don’t want that tune crawling around in your head. It didn’t help that they brought him back up in the middle of the set to do another, albeit less annoying number. 

But for each shows, the built up anticipation was worth it as they began with a funny video on a large projection screen hoisted above the stage showing how each member was called to duty as it were. One by one, Bruce first appearing on “Blind Date” before hearing a flute rendition of the first few licks of their show’s theme song summoning him over his phone. Scott had been practicing his duck “Aflac” voice at home in the hope that he would be recruited to do their commercials. He heard the flute music, and shouted “Yeah, yeah! I hear you!”, but when he was rejected over the phone, angrily rebuffed “Oh yeah?!?! Aflac you!!!” Finally, Dave was on a beach in a turn of the century style swimsuit about to swim to Catalina Island “for the children of the world” when his call came through. And soon enough, the show was underway to thunderous applause as the sketches began.

Like I had said, I was shamefully ignorant to most of the Kids’ material, but in a way, it was a good thing, since it was mostly new to me. They quickly got into a hilarious infomercial bit, briefly commenting on the jingoistic tenor of the time, which included a machine that would automatically wave your American flag for you when your arm got tired from doing it. Their logic was that if you stopped waiving the flag then “the terrorists win”. One sketch I did remember was the Quebecois canoe hunters singing “Alouette” as they rowed on stage in search of gunning down businessmen for their fine suits. Bruce came up afterwards to do one of his funny songs, advising us about things that you should never do such as, “Never have an affair… (long pause)… and when you do, never make your excuse ‘Did you see her? She’s fucking beautiful!’”, “Never trust a person who says ‘trust me’”,  and “Never wear a wedding dress to another woman’s wedding and say ‘What? This old thing?’”

One sketch they did which was clearly unforgettable was the “Chicken Lady Blind Date”. For all those unfamiliar, the titular character played by Mark would greet Dave much to his chagrin, adorned in white feathers, a beak like prosthetic nose, and with a piercing shrill, chirping voice, uncannily also imitating the manners of a hen to a tee. Each show, Mark would offer Dave dinner in the form of an omelette which she would later reveal after Dave sampled it that “The eggs are fresh! Straight out of my body and onto your plate!” One smart ass in the crowd for the second show yelled out after Dave took a bite, “Tastes like chicken!” Anybody who knows anything about comedians performing live that the one thing they hate more than hecklers is people who try to upstage them. Dave got the last laugh by picking up some of the eggs from his plate and hurling them in the direction of whoever blurted that out. Got a big laugh.

Another upstager came during the second nights rendition of their “Citizen Kane” sketch, but they were ready for them as I’m sure it’s happened before. When Dave first wondered what the movie he watched was, yes, somebody up front yelled “Citizen Kane!”, from which they simply stopped the sketch mere seconds after it began and took a bow, proceeding to walk off stage as if it was already over. Of coarse, everybody cracked up and they came back and finished it. Kevin got caught up as well with wisecracks from the audience during his “Sir Simon Milligan & Hecubus in :The Pit Of Ultimate Darkness” sketch going on about “Evil!!!” as stuff, but joking that “because we don’t have the next four jokes, let’s just move on to the next sketch”. Everybody loved it. It’s this kind of brilliant and expertly honed improvisation which is why they were as successful and beloved as they were.

One crowd pleaser from the night was when Mark came out to do his famous “Headcrusher” bit. Again for those who don’t know, this was a lonesome, sweaty, Peter Lorre voiced guy who would hold up his hand in front of his face and pinch the heads of people in the distance with his thumb and forefinger. He employed a handheld video camera with a feed to the projection screen so one could see his forced perspective as one by one, he would accost audience members up in front, hold out his free hand and “crush your head!” One astute audience member obviously familiar with the sketch held his hand flat, one above his head, one below his chin in an effort to stop him. Mark paused and got a big laugh when he admitted “Your defensive maneuver is noted… Therefore I will spare you”. Then when the man lowered his hands, he quickly took the opportunity and struck back shouting “Squish! Squish! Squish!” Comic gold.

By the time they came to the end of the show on the second night, the gang came on stage to thank the audience and Dave mentioned, “We had the most fun with the city with all the beautiful freaks… Up in the balcony, I smelt marijuana. You know our stance on Mary Jane. You know we’re a crack show!” Thankfully, they had an awesome and well deserved poster for the folks at the end of the night, so I was able to score a couple of them. They would release a live DVD from this tour the following March from their show at the Queen Elizabeth Theater in Vancouver, though it left out a couple of the bits I heard these nights including “Chicken Lady”. 

One last mention, a few years later, I ran into Dave Foley in Los Angeles while I was visiting my brother who lived downtown there at the time. Yes, Dave lived around the block and just happened to pass by us on the street while he was walking his dog and I greeted him warmly but discreetly. With great pride, I told him that I had seen all three of those shows and how enjoyable they were. He politely (as Canadians famously are) thanked me and said how much he enjoyed those nights as well and had hoped to play at The Warfield sometime again in the future. I always like “NewsRadio”, one of the rare American network sitcoms that was actually worth watching, and have continued to admire Dave’s work since, particularly his role in the most recent season of “Fargo”. 

https://archive.org/details/kids-in-the-hall-warfield-51920

https://archive.org/details/kids-in-the-hall-warfield-52020

Billy Bob Thornton, Randy Scruggs – Fillmore, SF, Sat., May 18

SETLISTS : 

(RANDY SCRUGGS) : (unknown), Little Maggie, I Wanna Be Loved Back, (unknown), Passin’ Thru, You Ain’t Going Nowhere, (unknown)

(BILLY BOB THORNTON) : It’s Gonna Be Alright, The Game Of Love, Walk Of Shame, Smoking In Bed, Dark & Mad, Your Blue Shadow, That Mountain, Angelina, If You Had A Soul, California Dreaming, Island Avenue, Private Radio, (encore), Lost Highway, Hang On Sloopy

By this time, I’d seen a handful of “celebrity vanity bands”, some better than others, but I was genuinely interested in the one Mr. William Robert Thornton. Ever since his breakthrough role in “Sling Blade” which won him an Oscar for Best Screenplay as well, I had enjoyed his work and Billy had been racking up notable leading and supporting roles in such films as “Primary Colors”, “Armageddon”, and “Monster’s Ball”, the last one which had just come out the year before this. He had also been nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the underrated Sam Raimi film, “A Simple Plan”. Little did I or most of his admirers know, was that Billy was also a bone fide musician, having played drums for a ZZ Top cover band called Tres Hombres, which had had the honor of opening for Humble Pie and the MC5. To this day, he has a tattoo of his band’s name on him and has been close friends with ZZ Top singer-guitarist Billy Gibbons for years. Mr. Thornton had also just wrapped up principal photography for what would be “Bad Santa”, a role that would become one of his most memorable and beloved, so suffice to say, Billy Bob was on a top of the mountain back then. 

He had also stunned the world’s tabloid media by becoming the husband of the boner inducing superstar Angelina Jolie in 2000, whom he met on the set of the comedy “Pushing Tin”. They were an odd couple, he 20 years older than her and they were relentless in their public displays of affection. The duo further raised eyebrows by actually wearing tiny vials of each other’s blood as pendants in necklaces. He even wrote a song about her, appropriately titled “Angelina” and sang it for us this night. Sadly, their marriage would ultimately dissolve soon after this show, but Angelina would go on to marry Brad Pitt and that worked out great.. Right? Anyway, Billy Bob’s debut solo album, “Private Radio”, had just came out the previous September and he had just completed a European tour with his capable band of ringers and was now in the middle of a  modest tour of the west coast. They originally intended that tour to take place the previous fall, but like so many others, 9/11 forced them to reschedule.

His stature as a celebrity afforded him the ability to recruit his aforementioned band of ringers, but he had also was able to bring along the remarkable Randy Scruggs on the tour to open for him. Randy was the son of venerable bluegrass veteran Earl Scruggs, who will always be fondly remembered as the author of the immortal TV theme song to “The Beverly Hillbillies”, “The Ballad Of Jeb Clampett”. Randy had recently been awarded a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance for his version of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” and would ultimately win four as well as garner the title of Musician Of The Year from the Country Music Association Awards three times. He thanked Billy Bob and praised his “fantastic band” between songs and his chops on the guitar were indeed very impressive. Mr. Scruggs performed a couple songs that he had recorded previously as duets as well, one being “I Wanna Be Loved Back” with Emmylou Harris, the other “Passin’ Thru” with Joan Osborne, a Johnny Cash cover that had been used in the soundtrack for the film comedy “Happy, Texas”, two years prior. He also did a cover of “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, a band which coincidentally Billy Bob had once served as a roadie. Sadly, this would be the only time I’d see Randy since he passed away in 2018 at the age of only 64.

Billy Bob let his drummer do a little intro before he sauntered casually on stage with his eight piece band, donning a red, long sleeved, snakeskin print shirt and a black wool cap. The show was only about half sold, but the crowd was enthusiastic, giving him a warm welcome as they opened with a cover of “It’s Gonna Be Alright” by Gerry & The Pacemakers. His voice wasn’t Pavaratti, but it wasn’t half bad either and they continued with a more recognizable cover, “The Game Of Love” by The Mindbenders. Mr. Thornton was quite talkative as actors tend to be about explaining their songs during the breaks and first mentioned that despite the rivalry between here and L.A., he would be living up here if his kids weren’t all down there. Going on to say that he once as a boy got to meet Willie McCovey from the Giants and was so impressed, he named his first band when he was 10 years old, The McCoveys. Then he talked about how he had a bunch of “shitty jobs growing up” like working in a saw mill, having some work buddies that “did nothing all day, smoke dope, and watch cartoons like ‘Deputy Dawg’”, and he dedicated the song “Smoking In Bed” to them.  

Afterwards he said, “I spent several years of my like in a state of paranoia, not that I’m not now… Less, but I spent a long time where I was afraid to go out of the house. I didn’t want to face my fears… Anyhow, it was a pretty dark time” and then they played “Dark & Mad”. Billy Bob gave a shout out to actor Jim Varney who had just passed away from lung cancer the previous June at the young age of 50. Jim was best known as the comedian behind the Ernest movies, but also notably played the voice role of the Slinky Dog in the “Toy Story” franchise. He mentioned that Jim was a “talented guy” and a “descendent of the Hatfields, from the Hatfields and McCoys” and went on to tell a story about Jim’s grandmother who “never left the valley she lived in and she loved the sound of the trains. She used to hear it over the mountain all the time and she just couldn’t bring herself to get out of the valley… But the trains go by and she said it always sounded like music to her and always loved it. ‘One of these days, I’m going to see the train’ , but she never did and I always thought that was an interesting story… Her world was that small”. Then, they played “That Mountain Shadow”. 

Later, he talked about his late younger brother, Jimmy Don, saying, “He was a character this guy. So, I got a soft spot in my heart for San Francisco. My brother died here in 1988. He lived on Hyde Street and he was a great guy, my best friend… His ghost is around here”. Billy Bob then proudly announced that he and his wife had “recently adopted a baby, 9 months old” from Cambodia in March, though ultimately Angelina would adopt the baby as a single parent and then went on to sing the aforementioned “Angelina”. Before they did “If You Had A Soul”, he explained, “I know at least four people who don’t have a soul, people literally don’t have a soul at all. I wrote a song about one of those people. This guy had no soul at all… it was like an inverted one”. For the last few songs, they brought up a couple of back up singers, starting with the hippie standard “California Dreaming” by The Mamas & The Papas, a clear nod to Fillmore’s rich musical history. 

After they finished, he came back to the subject of his brother and how he “used to live in Houston and he never fallen in love before…. apeshit over this girl, a waitress from one of those all night places he used to go to and he started acting different and everything. I always wondered what the hell was wrong with him. One night in the middle of the night, she told him she didn’t love him anymore and left… They didn’t have a dog. They didn’t have a rat. But anyway, she took off and he went to this place where she used to work, stayed there all night. He didn’t know what to do and he went a little bit crazy. So, what he decided to do was get in his car and drive to Philadelphia… You know a bit of geography, Philadelphia is over here, Houston is over there. It was a long drive. So, he got this beautiful Buick and took off and she lived on a street called Island Avenue. When he got there, he sat outside her place for a while just looking at it, trying to think of what he’s going to say to her and suddenly he thought, ‘Hey, she doesn’t want to be with me. What am I doing here?’ He started the car and drove back to Houston.We wrote a song about her. It’s called ‘Island Avenue’ and it goes like this.”

Billy Bob finished the set with the title track of his new album, introducing it, “I’ve been clean from hard drugs for 21 years. That doesn’t count herbs and things like that, wheatgrass juice”. The audience cheered loudly until they returned to the stage and then began their encore with “Lost Highway”. Billy addressed us one final time, “ You’re not going to get out of it, but we’re going to do the obligatory audience participation before we go… You’ll know it immediately, so just sing… You know how when people play and they get the audience to sing along and the first time, they don’t quite sing it loud enough, so they say, ‘Let’s do it again, louder now, this half of the room and that half of the room and it goes on, you know… Well, we’re not going to do that. We’re going to do something different. As soon as it’s your turn, just sing your asses off, just as loud as you like… I have to say the people of Los Angeles last night were insane. They sang so loud, but you gotta beat these people. You gotta beat them. You’ll do way better, right?”

The crowd cheered and we all sang along to the chorus to “Hang On Sloopy”, an old 60’s pop classic first made famous by The Vibrations. They broke it down to just to Sam the drummer at one point and Billy Bob cut him to silence at the count of four and the sounds of all of us singing, “Heeeeey, Hey Sloopy, Sloopy Hang On” filled the room. It was quite gratifying actually and Mr. Thornton seemed pleased by it. His keyboard player gave the band a little outro as the song ended and that was it. Since the show didn’t sell that well, I wasn’t shocked to discover that there was no poster at the end of the show, but I was nonetheless disappointed. I haven’t seen Billy Bob since, but rest assured his career is alive and well, especially since he’s the lead on Tyler Sheridan’s popular TV show “Landman” on Paramount now. 

https://archive.org/details/billy-bob-thornton-fillmore-51802

https://archive.org/details/randy-scruggs-fillmore-51802

Sound Tribe Sector Nine, The Jethro Jeremiah Band, Karsh Kale – Fillmore, SF, Thur., May 16

SETLIST : Havona Ascent, Kamuy, Mischief Of A Sleepwalker, Circus, Ramone & Emiglio, Movement, Life’s Sweet Breath, Jebez, Tap In, Grow, For My Peeps, We’ll Meet In Our Dreams, Moon Socket, Satori, (encore), Surreality, EB

I has heard murmurs about this new band for a bit before this show and was glad to finally catch them for the first time. I would soon become entranced by their genius level musicianship and unique blend of funk, electronica, jazz, drum & bass, a mixture once dubbed as “livetronica”. They definitely had their hippie/jam band element too which was good because they allowed the tapers into their shows and I was able to find a crystal clear recording of this evening on Internetarcive.org. The instrumental sound that these guys put together is air tight and they join a short list of likeminded, eclectic instrumental bands like the Greyboy All-Stars and Medeski, Martin, & Wood. One could also see how they took a page from the trip-hop guys in England around that time like Roni Size and Tricky. 

Originally from Snellville, Georgia, Sound Tribe Sector Nine emigrated to Santa Cruz in 1997 and quickly made a name for themselves down there. This was to be their first Fillmore show, but it sure as hell wasn’t going to be their last. To date, they’ve been over ten times there since and would return only five months later to do back to back shows on that very stage, one of which I was fortunate enough to attend. Likewise they’d play the Warfield and the Regency Ballroom on a number of occasions, at least five times each, so like the Dead, Primus, and Metallica, we’re spoiled by these guys. I have to admit, I wasn’t entirely sure how to write out this band’s name. They have since abbreviated their name to STS9, but originally they were billed with all the words and numbers written out, so I felt it was right to address them as such, but they’re also known by the hybrid title of Sound Tribe Sector 9, with the numeral on the end. Anyway, I suppose it doesn’t hurt that the group has more than one handle. Personally, I prefer it written out, but that’s just me. 

Opening that night was a brief set by Karsh Kale, an Indian trip-hop multi-instrumentalist. This guy shredded on the tabla drums and helped loosen up the crowd before the main event. I would see him again only two months later opening for Tabla Beat Science at The Fillmore as well. Karsh also joined Sound Tribe on stage for the first few songs, his lightning fast tabla beats ably matched by Zach Velmer on drums. Seriously, I have no idea how Zach keeps up that pace night after night for hours on end, most of their songs clocking in well over ten minutes. They had a radiant young woman going by the name of Audio Angel as well who sang her siren song during “Movement” and came back later for “Satori” and a fellow named Scott Miller also joined the band during “Tap In” playing on a didgeridoo. Their music was downright hypnotic, songs flowing into each other, the kind of music that you’d have to be a music student to really follow. 

There also was a local young man named Jethro Jeremiah playing acoustic guitars and singing upstairs in the poster room that night. He was a bit of a hippie himself, mixing in a bit of reggae and soul. I only caught a few songs of his but I know one was called “Hail To The High One”. He mentioned that he also had gigs coming up at the Mountain Aire Festival in Angel Camp and downtown at Pier 23 with a full band. But the night belonged to Sound Tribe. These brilliant young men kept this up for well over two hours, so long that I underestimated the length they would play and my tapes ran out a half hour before it ended. But I was so impressed, I stayed until it was all over all the same and knew I would have to hear them perform again. The crowd clapped loudly in unison of their encore and they finished the night with “EB”. Late as it went, I still had enough time to hike over the hill and catch the midnight premiere of “Star Wars II : Attack Of The Clones” at the AMC theater near my place in the Tenderloin. Like “Phantom Menace”, I was underwhelmed, but they are both remain good movies to watch with the sound off. 

https://archive.org/details/sound-tribe-sector-9-fillmore-51602

https://archive.org/details/jethro-jeremiah-band-fillmore-51602

https://archive.org/details/karsh-kale-fillmore-51602

https://archive.org/details/sts9-2002-05-16.shnf

De La Soul, Swollen Members – Fillmore, SF, Mon., May 13

SETLISTS :

(SWOLLEN MEMBERS) : Killing Spree, New Details, Fuel Injected, Bring It All Home, Pillow Fulla Scrilla, Deep End, Lady Venom

(DE LA SOUL) : Gettin’ Down At The Amphitheater, Buddy, Plug Tunin’ (Last Chance To Comprehend), A Roller Skating Jam Named “Saturdays”, Simply, Fever Of The Month, The Choice Is Yours, Oooh., All Good?,  Ego Trippin’, Declaration, U Don’t Wanna B.D.S., Itsoweezee (Hot), Breakadawn, Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey) / Piles & Piles, Stakes Is High, The Bizness, (unknown), (unknown), Dinninit, Watch Out, Bionix, Wonce Again Long Island, Let Let Me In, Sh.Fe.MC’s, (DJ ending)

It was safe to say by this time, I was more than familiar with De La Soul, this being my 7th occasion to see them perform in only 6 years, four of which I professionally recorded at Maritime Hall. Naturally, you’ll find musings and history about all these shows if you care to review them. De La were a crew that I thought would just be around forever and considering the frequency which they visited the bay area, my assumption didn’t feel unfounded. But I fell out of touch with some bands like these, especially after I stopped ushering, artists which I was spoiled to see every year, and before I knew it, I discovered that this Fillmore show in 2002 would be the last time I’d see them on stage… well, to see them with David “Trugoy The Dove” Jolicoeur anyway. Yes, Trugoy passed away in 2023 at the all too young age of 54 and though his cause of death remains undisclosed, he did have a history of congestive heart failure. Regardless, that pretty much means curtains for the one and only De La Soul, but for all those who had the pleasure, a night of hip hop with those guys was a night to remember. De La had just played at The Fillmore the previous November with the (also) recently late great Biz Markie and that show got a poster, one of my favorites, but this one didn’t. 

Opening that night was Swollen Members from Vancouver, relatively unknown in America, but would become the second best selling hip hop artist in Canada second only to Drake. Manchild, one of their rappers, had spent some time trying to get his solo career off the ground in San Francisco, but eventually returned home and they were between albums at this time, having released “Bad Dreams” six months before and about to release “Monsters In The Closet” six months later. Three of their seven songs they did that night would be new ones. The single “Fuel Injected” would be used later in the soundtrack to the Playstation 2 video game, “Matt Hoffman’s Pro BMX 2”. I remember my friend Hefe gave me that game as a present once, but for the life of me, I was terrible at it, despite my best efforts. They were talented and I could see why they were big back home and had no trouble getting the crowd to chant “Set It Off!” as they began. I thought “Pillow Fulla Scrilla” was a clever number, a solo song by Moka Only, one of their rappers. He also did a little freestyle a cappella  before they did “Deep End”.

DJ Maceo came on stage between sets and spun records until the other De La crew was ready. He did however have to take a break saying, “Give me a second. I gotta go to the bathroom right now”, but then returned admitting, “Well, this time I didn’t have to take a shit.” When the set began in earnest, he made sure to “thank everybody in this motherfucker who’s been with De La Soul since 1989! Say Hoooo! Say De La De La De La!” They opened with “Gettin’ Down At The Amphitheater”, a song they collaborated with Common and quickly followed that with “Buddy”. Trugoy was a little disappointed in his “trying to get the ladies to sing along… You sounded like shit, ladies” and then he gave shout outs to fellow old school hip hop contemporaries, A Tribe Called Quest, The Jungle Brothers, and Queen Latifah. We were all in for an unexpected treat when they brought up fellow Queens resident Andres “Dres” Vargas Titus from the Black Sheep on stage with them to do his songs “Fever Of The Month” and “The Choice Is Yours”.

Afterwards, Dres made sure to dedicated that last one “to all the ladies in the house. Ladies, where are ya’, ladies? Now listen, when you see the hip hop videos, it’s usually the slick young ladies in the bikinis on and all that shit, standing by the poolside, have the thong on and all that shit. We know there’s a lot of other styles of ladies in the house, whether you’re short, tall, you’re wide, you’re slim, or what have you. We know y’all represent hip hop. You represent hip hop ladies or what?!?” Then the crowd cheered and he went on, “When I get in a club, me personally, what I like to do is look for a lady that just wants to have a good time. You know, she has a little something I can hold on to, you know what I mean? That’s the kind of lady I like. We like to dedicate this to all the ladies. Don’t be afraid of what you got, ladies.” 

De La Soul covered a lot of material that night and brought Dres back up with them near the end along with one of the members of the Hieroglyphics too, though I can’t remember which. They wrapped up their set with “Sh.Fe.MC’s”, but Maceo stuck around on stage and kept spinning records for a while. He shouted, “Show some motherfuckin’ love for yourselves! We’ve been on 2 hours and 5 minutes! You want us to stop now? We’ve outlasted any hip hop show that you’ve ever been to in your entire life! 2 hours and 6 minutes! Get home safe tonight, lot of weed smokin’, drinkin’ at the bar. I know a couple of you popped Ecstasy”. Eventually, the house turned on the lights and everybody shuffled out downstairs and I took my time, knowing that there was no poster waiting for me. That was it. Really, it wasn’t until I was revisiting this show that I was beginning to appreciate De La’s contribution to that critical “mid-school” of hip hop from the late 80’s and early 90’s that lifted the genre from a derided, obscure musical movement from the underground of New York City to the stratospheric heights it has achieved commercially and critically today. 

https://archive.org/details/de-la-soul-fillmore-51302

https://archive.org/details/swollen-members-fillmore-51302

Steven Wright, Johnny Steele – Warfield, SF, Fri., May 10

It’s a rare occasion when The Warfield would get a comedy show, so I made sure I would catch every one I could during my stint as an usher, even the ones I had never heard of before. I was however familiar with Steven Wright and was really looking forward to seeing him live for the first time. For those who don’t know, Mr. Wright had been cracking people up since the 80’s with his bone dry, witty one-liners. He had also become synonymous with Quentin Tarantino’s seminal debut film “Reservoir Dogs”, speaking the part of the movie’s radio DJ, K-Billy. Though he is primarily known for his stand up, few people recall that Steven also won an Oscar in 1989 for Best Short Live-Action Film for producing, co-writing, and starring alongside Rowan Atkinson for “The Appointments Of Dennis Jennings”. The film being only a half hour long, he joked during his acceptance speech, “We’re really glad we cut out the other 60 minutes”.

Opening that night was Johnny Steele, a well known bay area comedian who had taken over for Alex Bennett after he was fired from his morning show on Live 105. Johnny’s real last name is Lopez, but he changed it to honor his steel industry hometown of Pittsburg, and had won the San Francisco International Comedy Competition in 1992. His set was short, only about 10 minutes long, but he got a few good zingers in there, introducing himself, “You might remember me from some of the jobs I’ve been fired from”. He went on to crack jokes about Reno, Circus Circus, and Las Vegas in general. I always remembered his one about how Vegas was all about booze, strippers, and gambling and some marketing genius said, “You know what’s missing?… Children!” I liked that he thought the current San Francisco mayor at the time, Willie Brown, looked like the guy from the Monopoly box. He also posed the question, “Are we still supposed to pretend that George W. Bush is not retarded?”, citing the sensitivity people were feeling after 9/11, a touchy subject at the time obviously.

After a short break, Steven was introduced, calmly walked out on stage and he wasted no time giving us one non-related, noodle scratcher after the other. There are too many to mention without just reciting the whole routine altogether but I’ll drop a few here like “I need a baby monitor for my conscious and subconscious so I know what the hell I’m thinking”, “What if I was born a day early? How my life would have been different?… Probably nothing, but I’d ask that question yesterday”, “I have two rare photographs, one of Houdini locking his keys in his car, the other is of Norman Rockwell beating up a child”, “I saw a sign, next rest stop, 25 miles… Man, that’s pretty big. People must get really tired around here”, and “I remember when I was a fetus, I would sneak out at night while my mother was sleeping. I thought now would be a good time to steal stuff while I don’t have fingerprints”.

At one point, he said, “I just remembered, I’m not supposed to talk to strangers” and started walking off stage, but returned. Near the end of his set, he busted out an acoustic guitar and gently sang some of his comedic ponderings, declaring, “This doesn’t go something like this. It goes exactly like this” and he would sing lyrics like “My dad says if worse comes to worse, we’re screwed” and “My friend does voodoo acupuncture. You don’t have to go. I’ll be walking down the street then all of a sudden… Ooooo. That’s better”. And though each joke seemed random and rambling, it’s easy to fall in love with his highly cerebral mental process and his droning Bostonian voice becomes almost hypnotic. There wasn’t a poster at the end of the night, but I’d be lucky to see Mr. Wright perform at The Warfield again five years later.

https://archive.org/details/steven-wright-warfield-51002

https://archive.org/details/johnny-steele-warfield-51002

The Dickies, Down In Flames, Oppressed Logic, Scurvy Dogs – Covered Wagon Saloon, SF, Wed., May 8

SETLISTS : 

(SCURVY DOGS) : Talibuns, Over The Hill, Circle, Show Me Your Nuts, Working No Class, Pharmland, Who Shat In The Crisper?, Suburban Crimes, Violent World

(OPPERSSED LOGIC) : U.S. Attacked, What Choice, P.C. Full Of Shit, Not My Fault, What You Say, Mean Hippies, Say We Suck, Living Abortion, Ones That Control, Deranged, My Life’s A Fucking Mess, Get The Fuck Off, This Is Reality

(DOWN IN FLAMES) : Switchblade, Faster, Won’t Die No More, Wide Awake, What It’s Not, Fuck The World, Bricks In The Basement, Wasted Energy, Vices, Burn Bridges, Break Strings, Down In Flames

(THE DICKIES) : Solitary Confinement, I’m OK You’re OK, Nights In White Satin, Where’d You Get It, Give It Back, Fan Mail, Paranoid, Howdy Doody In The Woodshed, Waterslide, Manny Moe & Jack, My Pop The Cop, (I’m Stuck In A Pagoda With) Patricia Toyota, You Drive Me Ape, Dog From The Hare That Bit Us, Wagon Train, I Love Crack, If Stuart Could Talk, Gigantor, Nelly The Elephant. Banana Splits

After consistently attending almost every show at either The Fillmore or The Warfield for months, it is refreshing to pop in on a gig at small club, especially a bone fide punk rock venue like the Covered Wagon. Indeed, I had just wrapped up seeing five shows in only six days exclusively at The Fillmore, so I was in the mood for a quick change of scenery. And it didn’t get more punk than this line up. I know I had seen The Dickies before, I think at Berkeley Square, but it was before I had started my adventure in bootlegging, so this was the first time I would tape them. The venerable punk veterans had been making their unique brand of infectious, goofy musical earworms since 1977 and are one of those bands that despite their undeniable talent and admirable work ethic, still remain in relative obscurity. But their lack of mainstream success is to the benefit of their die hard fans who can still see them play such small venues at rock bottom prices. The show that night was only $10, a steal even in 2002 dollars.

Along with their endless touring, The Dickies had also finally put out some new material, releasing “All This And Puppet Stew” the previous year, their last album to date of new material. They had signed to Fat Wreck Chords and after five years of gentle prodding from Fat Mike, the head of the label and frontman for NOFX, they were able to get it done. Dickies’ singer Leonard Graves Philips joked during the show, “Fat Mike is my fuckin’ boss. Time flies when you’re on heroin. One day you’re cock of the walk, the next… a feather duster. It’s OK because I still have the biggest penis in the world. You gentlemen can dilute yourselves with the idea that size doesn’t count, but me and the mateys know.” Despite the procrastination regarding the new songs, they also released “The Dickies : The Punk Singles Collection” and “Live In London” albums just recently before this show. By then, The Dickies had already been together almost 25 years and had gone through numerous line up changes leaving only Leonard and guitarist Stan Lee, (no relation to the comic book veteran), as their only remaining founding members.

This was one of only a handful of shows I would see at The Covered Wagon, or CW Saloon as it was also known, before it closed only three months after this show. As I said, it was a bone fide punk venue, small, low ceilings, black painted walls covered in a myriad of random stickers, and reeking of stale beer. Quite frankly, I miss the place. It sadly would be one of many venue casualties the South Of Market area of San Francisco would suffer in the following years including such hallowed spots at Slim’s and the Paradise Lounge. So, re-listening to this night was tinged with a subtle feeling of loss and nostalgia. One great thing about the Covered Wagon, it was so small that one had absolutely no trouble hearing any of the bands and would be in fact in deep trouble if one went in without any ear protection. The show was being promoted by Lommori Productions, a local punk promotion group that still operates today, and they were advertising their website on the show’s ads.

The first two of the four acts up that night were from Oakland, starting with the Scurvy Dogs. Their singer introduced themselves, “We’re the Scurvy Dogs if you can’t read” and lamented, “It’s unfortunate that we have to play this early. We’re not used to that… Apparently, I’m pathetic… No duh”. After a couple songs, he pointed out somebody in the crowd taking pictures, “You guys need to have permission to take our pictures!… You’ll steal our soul!” They did a cover song which I didn’t recognize and he joked later with his guitarist, “We’re giving away a CD to whoever can guess who did the original” and the guitarist countered, “The first person who comes on stage and gives me oral sex wins!… Male or female. I don’t care! Equal opportunity employer.” Like most punk bands, their songs were break neck paced and short, so they were only on for about a half an hour.

Following them were Oppressed Logic who I was immediately impressed with when I recorded them opening for Suicidal Tendencies at the Maritime Hall back in 1999. Once again, their singer, Mike Avilez, had quite the mohawk and his punkish apparel was a radical contrast to his guitarist who looked downright clean cut in comparison. They opened with “U.S. Attacked”, a timely number less than a year after 9/11 and a couple songs later Mike introduced “Not My Fault” a a song “about goin’ to court”. Later, he warned the audience, “I gotta say you gotta watch out about using someone else’s toothbrush or razor or fuckin’ sharing needles cus’ Hepatitis C is on the rampage… You can’t get rid of me! Just make sure, razor blades and toothbrushes.” Then he pointed to his drummer, “And hanging out with him… This is dedicated to everybody fighting Hepatitis.” He seemed a bit serious about it, so I gathered his warning about the disease came from personal experience. Despite the small crowd, they managed to whip them up, Mike shouting, “Let’s just get one pit in this fuckin’ dump!” before they ended their set with “This Is Reality”.

The last opening act was Down In Flames from Fair Haven, New Jersey. They had just released their debut, self titled album that year and their singer, Ian Thompsen, wasted no time cracking jokes, starting their set yelling, “Hello Cleveland and you fuckin’ suck!” Like the others, their music was rowdy as hell and by this time, a young, skinny woman with a shaved head had entered the mosh pit and was making trouble, even by punk rock standards. Clearly, she was wasted, but I was deeply offended that she kept entering the pit with a full pint glass of beer, spilling all over everybody. I did my best to avoid her, but like I said, it was a small club and it was hard not to. There’s nothing that will frustrate me more than people wasting beer other than wasting it by spilling it on me. Seriously, she must of lost at least three pints that night. The band couldn’t help but notice her boorish behavior and repeated referred to her as their mom. Anyway, before they did “Bricks In The Basement”, Ian asked, “How many of you fat fucks are here to see The Dickies?… Give it up for The Dickies, god damn it!” Later, he hinted that he might try to crowd float, though there were only about a dozen people in the pit, joking, “Will you catch me? Will you hold me tightly?…. Mom?”

Finally, The Dickies took the stage and Leonard introduced themselves, doing his trademark wiseguy schtick, “I would just like this opportunity to thank you and it’s great to be back in the swinging singles city of… Chicago! I love it here in the Windy City! Oh, by the way, did I mention that I am Jesus Christ? But enough about me. Here we go!” and they opened with “Solitary Confinement”. A few songs later, Leonard continued his wise cracks, “Thank you for being so kind. We never thought this was going to happen but, we’ve now after being in the same band for 50 years, decided to change the name of the band… the band is now called Olga & The Dickies… Hey, speaking of old guys… speaking of really old guys… speaking of super, super old farts. We’re still young at heart. This next song is so old…” Then everybody replied with the traditional response, “How old was it?” and Leonard continued, “When we wrote this song, RuPaul still went by the name Pat Smear!” and then they did “Give It Back”. 

Afterwards, Leonard confessed, “Green Day?… I fucked em’. Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers?… Dropped a load in him too.”  and then later, he asked, “Before we proceed any further, do you have any questions?” The crowd shouted all manner of random stuff, but Leonard dryly replied to each, “I don’t know.” Near the end of the set, he gave a shout out, “Yeah, what the heck, he’s been dead a year now, so I’m going to dedicate this song to him again. This one goes out to a god amongst retards, Mr. Joseph Ramone. It’s a country western song. It’s called ‘Wagon Train’.” Incidentally, I saw that The Dickies opened up for The Ramones at The Fillmore in 1988, a poster that stands out in the Fillmore poster room and a show, as you might imagine, I was jealous that I didn’t attend. As I’ve written before, Joey had died the year before and many bands I had seen since he passed had done dedications and Ramones covers in his honor. 

When they finished the song, Leonard thanked us, “You know, you’re such a great lookin’ bunch of kids. We’d love to go down on each and every one of ya’, but we just don’t have the time. So instead, I’m gonna tell you a joke that I don’t think you’ve heard before. Goes something like this… A robot walks into a bar. He sits down and orders a drink and the bartender says to him, ‘Get out of here! We don’t serve your kind here!’… And the robot says, ‘Yes, but someday you will!” The crowd groaned and Leonard countered, “What, that’s not fuckin’ edgy enough for ya’? You just a bunch of hip punk rockers? OK… How about this… A nigger robot walks into a bar… says, ‘Hey you dyke bitch! Pour some drink down my fuckin’ spout! And the Palestinian nigger kyke kraut bastard says, ‘Get out of here! I’m going to blow myself up and take you and the World Trade Center with me!’ and the robot says, ‘OK, I’m leaving’… Oh, I see you liked that, huh? A little gratuitous violence, a little racism and all of a sudden you’re a bunch of happier shitheads, aren’t you?… You bunch of Rice-A-Roni eating, cable car riding… you bunch of lesbians, you… Yeah, yeah, I thought you’d cheer that, huh? That’s the way you want to play it? That’s the way we’ll play it.”

At the end of the set, Leonard busted out a squeeky toy and turned to his other guitar player and said, “OK, Igor. Let’s do that adorable New York Dolls song that you do. I said I want to do the fuckin’ New York Dolls song that you do!” and then they did “Nelly The Elephant”. Now, most punks know that “Nelly The Elephant” is actually a Toy Dolls song and I thought perhaps that was also why Leonard made that joke earlier about the name change to Olga & The Dickies since the Toy Dolls frontman is Michael “Olga” Algar. But what I didn’t realize was that Olga from the Toy Dolls WAS the other guitar player and I didn’t recognize it was him! Yes, Olga did a rare string of shows with The Dickies around this time and I was lucky enough to catch one of them, especially at a venue this small. Olga sang the song, giving Leonard a break and me and the crowd went nuts for it. They finished the night with a super fast version of “Banana Splits” and that was that. Soaked in sweat and that obnoxious woman’s spilt beer, I exited the Covered Wagon for the last time into the cool night air and made the long walk home back to the Tenderloin. 

https://archive.org/details/the-dickies-cw-saloon-5802

https://archive.org/details/down-in-flames-cw-saloon-5802

https://archive.org/details/oppressed-logic-cw-saloon-5802

https://archive.org/details/scurvy-dogs-cw-saloon-5802

Midnight Oil, John Eddie, Will Hoge – Warfield, SF, Tues., May 7

SETLISTS : 

(WILL HOGE) : Doesn’t Have To Be That Way, Let Me Be Lonely, Rock & Roll Star, Your Fool, Secondhand Heart, Better Off Now (That You’re Gone), All Night Long

(JOHN EDDIE) : Fell For It Every Time, Forty, Dead Ends, Gettin’ Kinda Old (Being Young At Heart), Lost Along The Way, Play Some Skynard 

(MIDNIGHT OIL) : Been Away Too Long, Too Much Sunshine, Forgotten Years, Under The Overpass, Trugannini, Haul Away, Luritja Way, Tin Legs & Tin Mines, Now Or Never, Blue Sky Mine, Say Your Prayers, Golden Age, King Of The Mountain, River Runs Red, Redneck Wonderland, The Dead Heart, Dream World, (encore), Tone Poem, Beds Are Burning, Sometimes

It had been only 7 months since Midnight Oil was in town with Will Hoge, but this time they had been finally upgraded from The Fillmore, where I’d seen them three times already, to The Warfield. They were still promoting their “Capricornia” album, so I was familiar with the material well by then, as well as the work of Mr. Hoge. But on this occasion, they brought along singer-songwriter John Eddie from Richmond, Virginia as the second opening act. John had been buddies with Bruce Springsteen and his name even appears on the letter board of a nightclub in the end scenes of the video for “Born In The U.S.A.” Bruce’s E-Street Band also backed John on his self titled debut album in 1986. Kid Rock covers his songs too, but I won’t hold that against him. Speaking of Donald’s deplorables,  Elon Musk started Space X the day before this show.

But I digress. Will Hoge got the crowd warmed up and once again, they politely listened to him. A DJ from KFOG made some opening remarks, reminding us that the big KFOG Kaboom show was coming soon. Will made sure to introduce his band members, including his brother from Nashville, gave props to Kim on monitors that night, and praised San Francisco for being cooler than New York and L.A. He got the crowd to sing along to the chorus of “All Night Long”, egging them on, declaring that “Midnight Oil is downstairs… They’d be disappointed if they can’t hear you”. He played “Secondhand Heart” and “Better Off Now (That You’re Gone)” for the first time in the bay area, new songs that wouldn’t be released until his next album, “Blackbird On A Lonely Wire”, dropped the following year. 

He finished his short set and John quickly followed him, apologizing to the crowd, “Enjoy your worst nightmare… the second opening band”. He too graciously introduced his group and gave a shout out to his sister in the audience who “still gets carded at 41”. John made sure to point out that his drummer was the son of Elvis Presley’s foot doctor. Speaking of the King, in 2023, John would collaborate with his widow Prescilla to create and produce the hilarious animated show “Agent Elvis” on Netflix. He made sure to thank Will Hoge and apologized about “the double booking shit”, apparently revealing that he wasn’t originally on the bill, but by some mix up they “were kind enough to let us play”. 

John then finished his set with “Play Some Skynyrd”, prefacing it by saying it was “about audiences that have not as nice as you’ve been tonight”. Naturally, people started yelling “Freebird!” and he indulged them, “Alright, alright… Get it out of your system… 1-2-3!… That’s the problem. People who yell ‘Freebird’ can’t count to 3… I wrote this song, started out as a joke song. I was in my bedroom and then the more I wrote, the more pathetic and suicidal it got”. In the middle of the song he counted to 9 and joked, “That’s all that we expect being the second opening band. As you can tell this is our rock ballad. Last time we played in San Francisco, we opened for The Mother Hips and I made a ‘Sister Christian’ joke and it turns out that their sister was married to the guy from Night Ranger. But for one brief moment, just for the fuck of it, pretend we’re your favorite band in the whole wide world!” The crowd cheered and he smiled, “That was good. But that kind of sounded like we were Creed or something. We’re your favorite fuckin’ band in the world! Our drummer lost his arm in a car accident! We’re taping a VH1 special and we’re taping a live comeback album tonight opening for Midnight Oil!” That got the crowd cheering again and he thanked us, “Y’all been more than patient.”

For some reason, Midnight Oil came on stage to the sounds of cows mooing over the speakers, probably a nod to Capricornia, the beef capitol of Australia, which their album was named after. Peter Garrett, the lead singer thanked us all for coming, promising a “sensational voyage of musical exploration”. The set was mostly the same stuff they played from the last Fillmore show and Peter busted out a harmonica again for “Blue Sky Mine”. He also did his usual round of left wing preaching, making sure to demand that the folks from Enron resign, that “suffering inspires dissent”, and encouraging us to “phone Washington”. Near the end of the set, he once more got the crowd to sing along to the chorus of “The Dead Heart”. Sadly, there was no poster at the end of the night and this would be the last time I’d see them perform, since the band dissolved later that December. Midnight Oil have since done a handful of reunion shows, but I don’t recall them ever visiting the bay area again, but I’m proud to say I got to see them four times.

https://archive.org/details/midnight-oil-warfield-5702

https://archive.org/details/john-eddie-warfield-5702

https://archive.org/details/will-hoge-warfield-5702

Sammy Hagar & The Waboritas – Fillmore, SF, Sun., May 5

SETLIST : Shaka Doobie (The Limit), (unknown), Sympathy For The Human, Runaround, Three Lock Box, There’s Only One Way To Rock, Give To Live, Top Of The World, The Love, Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy, Why Can’t This Be Love, Finish What Ya Started, Eagles Fly, Little White Lie, High & Dry Again, I Can’t Drive 55, Heavy Metal, Mas Tequila, (encore), Right Now

It’s hard not to like Sammy Hagar. Yes, he might be the everlasting poster child for drunken, boorish frat rock, but even his most ardent detractors will admit he has one of the most distinct and powerful set of pipes in all the land. I had seen the so-called “Red Rocker”, (though his hair is mostly blonde with just a hint of strawberry), with Eddie Van Halen at the Bridge School Benefit in 1993, but this would be the first time I’d see him headline his own show. For those who don’t know, Sammy had replaced singer David Lee Roth in Van Halen in 1985 and served as their singer until his acrimonious departure in 1996. Sammy was replaced by Gary Cherone from Extreme, but that fizzled out by 2000 and the band went on hiatus. 

Sammy and Diamond Dave had just made amends and were about to embark on a co-headlining adventure with each other called the “Song For Song : The Heavyweight Champs Of Rock & Roll” tour, playfully also known as “Sans-Halen” and/or the “Sam & Dave” tour. Sammy had also just collaborated with the supergroup Planet Us alongside Neal Schon and Deen Castranovo from Journey as well as bassist Michael Anothony from Van Halen. That band was short lived and actually only recorded two songs together. Sammy would rejoin Van Halen the year after this show, and despite the overwhelming financial success of the tours they did together, Eddie wouldn’t stop drinking and things would soon fall apart again. Sammy would leave them for good in 2005.

But in those intervening years while Sammy was divorced from the Van Halen scene, he had been cultivating his new musical project, The Waboritas. Named after the Cabo Wabo, his venue/cantina/distillery that he founded in Baja back in 1990, he had since bought out the rest of Van Halen’s interest in the business and was actively promoting his Cabo Wabo brand tequila. Even my brother Alex’s old band, the Dance Hall Crashers, had played down there once. Suffice to say, Sammy’s was the only brand of tequila offered in The Fillmore for his three show stint and God only knows how much was consumed that night by the patrons and the band before it was all over. I didn’t envy the house maintenance guys who had to clean the bathrooms for these shows. I have never had any stomach for tequila, but my beloved wife has slowly been indoctrinating me into enjoying mezcal. Tequila consumption that night was certainly boosted by the fact that it was Cinco De Mayo. 

This had been my fifth show in only six days at The Fillmore and by this time, so my little spot ushering in front of the front of house soundboard was starting to feel like my home away from home. Sammy was still working on the Wabortias’ second studio album, “Not 4 Sale”, that would be released later that October, but he had more than enough of his own material, stuff from Montrose, his first band, and Van Halen standards to fill the setlist. In fact, he thoroughly mixed up the setlists for each night, a tell tale sign of a seasoned touring veteran and a well versed backing band. It was “An Evening With” show, so I was soon cut from ushering to join the masses growing steadily inebriated. Indeed, Sammy kept the hits coming one after the other until they finally took a little break before they did “The Love”.

Sammy joked around with his band, pointing out his guitarist, “Listen, Victor Johnson… You could almost pass as a Mexican with that fuckin’ hat! One that ain’t got no fuckin’ job, right? One that lays on the beach all day.” Then he turned his wisecracks to his bassist Mona Gnader, “You gotta understand, this is the first gig we’ve done since January? The only reason I got a girl in the band is because they are supposed to remember shit and I can’t remember shit. The question is what you got stuffed down there? You probably got some big ol’ dildo stuffed in there just ready for some motherfucker…. Excuse me, I assumed we were among adults… Speaking of adults… Waitress!… Adultress!” The boys in the crowd went wild as a scantily clad young woman came on stage with some drinks. Sammy ogled her for a moment, handed some drinks to the fans up front, and went on, “Oh Lord, you look really good too. Honey, this is business. I’m entertaining the crowd. Cheers! Listen you cheap fuckers. Don’t be tryin’ to mooch off me all night. I’ll help you a little bit. Now I got to see the waitress again… I’m afraid of any girl who’s taller than me. We’re the same size without the heels.” 

Sammy mentioned that he never played The Fillmore, though he had frequented it many times in the 60’s and 70’s He said it was “like the Cabo Wabo, but a little bigger… Thanks everybody. The show sold out in 20 minutes!” 

A few songs later, he addressed us again, “I look like Elvis down here. Remember the way they found Elvis? You didn’t read that book.” Then he pointed up to the balcony, “That girl up there, she stole my shit! I went up there and one of them girls stealin’ my beads, the other had her hand in my pocket tryin’ to find some money, the other had her hand down my pants holdin’ on to my shit. Fuckin’ dangerous up there!… The first time I went to Chevy’s, it was down in Carmel and they didn’t have any Cabo Wabo and I raised hell. I said ‘WHAT’?!?! I said let me talk to the manager. He came out, white nerd. You need a Mexican running a Mexican restaurant, right? Other than me, you know what I mean. I said ‘What’s up, no Cabo Wabo?’ and the guy says, ‘What is Cabo Wabo?’ Look, it’s fuckin’ tequila, you know… I didn’t eat there. I sent the guy a bottle of Cabo Wabo. Maybe they’ll catch on next year. But it’s Cinco De Mayo, so I can’t bad rep anything that’s got an X on it! Waitress!…”

Jesse Harms on keys played a little of “Taps” while the spunky young lady came on stage again with a fresh round of drinks. Sammy looked her up and down once more, “Did you change your clothes?… Tampax, you can probably use it. It’ll probably smell better when you bring it back to me”. He then led the band into an acoustic version of “Finish What Ya Started”. The batteries on my tape deck ran out during “Eagles Fly”, but I quickly replaced them in time to get most of “Little White Lie”, which Sammy busted out a harmonica for. Sammy urged the audience to continue drinking, “I’m gonna mix my own drink. I hope everybody is getting as high as I am because I don’t want to get up there without you. I don’t want to be here and have you down there. We got to be together!” They then did the back to back hits “I Can’t Drive 55” and “Heavy Metal” and once again Sammy summoned the waitress, teasing her, “Different shirt? I liked the first one better”. 

They finished the set appropriately with “Mas Tequila”, but the crowd immediately began chanting “Sammy! Sammy! Sammy!” and he came back with Jesse who began playing alone on his keys. All smiles, he cheered, “First of all, thank you for one of the best fuckin’ times in my life!” He went on to talk about how when playing a song, he can remember how it felt when he first wrote it and how songs can transport you back to memories like a great night, a great summer, the first time you got high, or when you fell in love. He spoke of “Back in ’91. I remember it like it was yesterday, when everything was good. It was 2 AM, I was rolling one up, I was getting high and writing lyrics, poetry really, no music, and I heard the piano in the other room”. He began singing the lyrics to what Eddie Van Halen had been playing on piano and it was “magic… gave me goosebumps” and they wrapped up the evening with “Right Now”.

The applause after they finished was impressive and I was actually a little surprised that they didn’t play more after such a positive response, but the lights came on and it was indeed all over. Sammy grinned and yelled, “I’m proud to say I played The Fillmore! See you tomorrow night!” They played some circus organ music over the speakers as we all filed out down the Fillmore stairs to get the poster waiting for us at the bottom. It was a good one too and thank heavens for that since it was the only one I’d get from that run of five Fillmore shows. God knows the other shows deserved one, especially Cubanismo. I’m afraid I believe this was the only time I’d see Sammy & The Waboritas, though he is alive and well. In fact, at the ripe old age of 78, Sammy has just began a 33 show residency at the MGM Grand in Vegas this year. And though the Cabo Wabo franchise in Hollywood went belly up, the one in Vegas is still open and getting people shit-faced drunk on The Strip to this very day.

https://archive.org/details/sammy-hagar-the-waboritas-fillmore-5502

Cubanismo, Quetzal – Fillmore, SF, Sat., May 4

The hits kept coming that long week at The Fillmore, this the fourth show there out of five in only six days. It was always a treat to hear music from other parts of the world there, especially from the Latino diaspora. Bill Graham himself was a vocal fan of salsa music back in the day and I’m sure his grumpy ghost was a little more chipper that night. As their name suggests, Cubanismo is an orchestra of 11 Cubans and folks of Cuban decent ably fronted by trumpet player and band leader Jesus Alemany. Jesus had left Cuba for London in 1982 after studying music at Havana’s Conservatorio Amadeo and joining the renowned Sierra Maestra at the tender young age of 15. In England, he met his wife Susie who eventually became the band’s manager. Together, Cubanismo had been touring all over the world sharing their unique blend of Afrikas Soukaus, New York City salsa, old school mambo, and other genres. Jesus liked to call it “Son Music”. Their most recent album, “Mardi Gras Mambo” was released in 2000, but they had also put out an album of greatest hits the following year.

Around this time, they were fortunate to be riding a recent wave of newfound warming relations between America and Cuba. In fact, a week after this show, former president Jimmy Carter became the first president to visit the island after Castro took over, meeting with old Fidel face to face, much to the chagrin of right wing dickheads everywhere. Cubanismo was also joining a wave of Cuban bands now free to tour America like Los Van Van and the guys from the smash hit documentary “Buena Vista Social Club”. And like all shows at The Fillmore featuring folks from abroad, it was a safe bet that there were many Cuban ex-patriots, friends, and family getting their dance on in the audience that evening. Though Cuba was by no means Mexico, Spanish speaking people of all sorts were celebrating Cinco De Mayo that weekend, though Sammy Hagar, a gringo who had nonetheless become a transplant in Baja, was playing on that very stage for that holiday the following night. 

Opening that show was Quetzal, a bilingual Chicano rock band from L.A., led by singer, songwriter, and percussion player Martha Gonzalez. Over the years, she had corralled an impressive number of rotating members of this band while also achieving a PhD in Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies. Quetzal had just put out their second album, “Sing The Real” that year and they played a handful of new songs from it that night including “20 Pesos” and “The Social Relevance Of Public Art”. She gave a shout out to the headliner, thanking them for taking them on tour and was saddened that this would be the last night they would be playing with “Los Hermanos Cubanismo”. The crowd was eager to dance and their songs made that more than easy for them. I like bands that have violins in them too. Martha thanked the audience at the end of their set and welcomed us to “take us back home” with their CDs for sale at the merch table in the back. She also announced that they would be returning to The Fillmore soon, playing with fellow Angelinos, Los Lobos, in six weeks, a show I was fortunate enough to also attend.

Soon enough, Cubanismo swarmed the stage and got the ball rolling once again and I was promptly cut from ushering to have some beer and join the dancing. Like other Cuban bands I’d seen, their songs were more like jam sessions, expanding at least ten minutes a piece. This allowed plenty of time for instrumental solos from the various members of the group, the horns, the flute player, the percussionists, and pianist to strut their stuff. Naturally, Cubanismo had little trouble getting the audience to participate, clapping along to the conga player and such. These shows, enjoyable as they are always made me regret that I took German in high school instead of Spanish, though as a Californian, I knew a handful of words and phrases through osmosis. One song everybody knew for sure was their cover of “Get Up, Stand Up” by Bob Marley. It was a pity that there wasn’t a poster at the end of the night since they certainly deserved one and came a long way to play there, though Sammy Hagar would get one the following night. I suppose it was only fair since Sammy was doing three nights in a row at The Fillmore and was a local celebrity after all. 

https://archive.org/details/cubanismo-fillmore-5402

https://archive.org/details/quetzal-fillmore-5402

The X-ecutioners, The Coup, Kenny Muhammad – Fillmore, SF, Fri., May 3

SETLIST (THE COUP) : Everythang, 5 Million Ways To Kill A CEO, Ride The Fence, Wear Clean Draws, Get Up, Shabooya Roll Call, Rock Steady, U.C.P.A.S., DJ solo, Fat Cats Bigga Fish

This would be the third of five shows in only six days that I’d be seeing at The Fillmore having had only one day off, the day before this weekend. Seeing The X-ecutioners or X-Men as they are also known was a welcome departure from the lily white audiences of The Beta Band and Bjorn Again. They were a collective of expert turntable artists that I had actually recorded once before at the Maritime Hall in January 1998, opening for Kool Keith and Common. I was equally enthusiastic to see The Coup as well, who I’d just seen at The Fillmore with fellow DJ extraordinaire Mix Master Mike that February and had also recorded at the Maritime back in 1999. It was being billed as the “Adrenaline Rush” tour, sponsored by Sobe energy drink which kept tickets at the low price of only $15. Between sets, they showed clips from contemporary sports heroes like surfer Kelly Slater and skateboarder Tony Hark projected on a big screen on stage.

Just a quick recap, The X-ecutioners were comprised of beat juggling inventor Steve Dee, Johnny Cash (obviously no relation to the country singer), Sean Cee, Rob Swift, DJs Boogie Blind and Precision,Roc Raida, and Total Eclipse. They had just completed their second album “Built From Scratch”, leading to the departure of fellow member Mista Sinista. Together, they had been dropping beats all over the nation since 1989, collaborating with such notable artists as Linkin Park, Pharoahe Monch, and Xzibit. The Coup, as I had written before, were still touring in support of their hit album “Party Music” and the bill had also brought along with them human beatbox master, “The Human Orchestra” himself, Kenny Muhammad, who got the show rolling first that night.

They had an emcee introduce him first, a guy named Grady I think, who did a spoken word intro and even had a fellow up in the front of the stage named Bryce to do some human beatbox samples of his own. Kenny came on stage to the sound of bagpipes playing over the speakers and he got the crowd pumped up, teasing that their shows in New Orleans and Chicago had been the “hottest”, but the Fillmore was “going to get nasty”. He also mentioned that he was losing his voice from the long tour, this being the third to last show before it wrapped up three days later at the House Of Blues in L.A. Kenny said that “they wanted me to take a couple nights off”, but he “gotta give back”, to “give up some life” for the good folks who came out to see the show. His beatbox skills were quite impressive and the crowd loved him. I liked that he made a point to insist the audience “protect women” adding that they were not bitches, that we were all “sons of bitches… ain’t that a bitch”. Kenny did a bit of “Simon Says Get The Fuck Up” by the aforementioned Pharoahe Monch and brought a keyboard player up with him near the end of his set to do some ambient sounding bit, preaching “Love is life, life is love”. 

When he finished, Grady came back on stage and reminded us that they were having a raffle that would be awarding prizes at the end of the tour including a Suzuki motorbike and a snowboard, as well as some swag for folks later during the show, so I took a minute to throw my name in the hat. The Coup was really half the reason I was there that night and once more as expected, they didn’t disappoint, playing mostly tracks off the new album again. Singer Boots Riley, with his trademark afro and pointed sideburns dedicated “Wear Clean Draws” to his young daughter and he gave a shout out to Dead Prez before they did “Get Up”, a song they had collaborated on. They had a young lady sing a slammin’ version of “Rock Steady” by Aretha Franklin too. For their last number, “Fat Cats, Bigga Fish”, The Coup gave each band members a chance to do solos, including the guitarist doing a few riffs of “America The Beautiful”. 

Like he had in February, Boots gave a speech about his friend Jeremy whose father had been killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11, repeating a statement from him and other victim’s families that the media wouldn’t publish saying that they didn’t want “war for oil in our name”. He continued to condemn the government for themselves being in the business of supporting terrorism citing the 30,000 people who had been killed in Nicaragua by the Contras in the 80’s, a right wing insurgency that had been funded and trained by the infamous School Of America in Florida. Boots pointed out that our involvement in that dark page in history had earned us condemnation and orders of reparations from the International Criminal Court of which we still haven’t paid and continued to list America’s dirty laundry overthrowing democratically elected governments like Aristide’s in Haiti. “We fight for profit”, he said, “And 20 years from now, people are going to ask you what you did about it”, and he listed a few human rights organizations we could help in the struggle.

After their set ended, Grady mentioned that The X-ecutioners would be at Live 105’s B.F.D. at Shoreline later that summer and though I attended it, I think I missed their set on the second stage. They did the raffle drawing for the night and my heart skipped a beat when I heard my name! Seriously, I was honored to hear the words “Nick Baker” uttered through the Fillmore’s sound system. I was one of three people in the audience who won, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what I got, most likely a T-shirt or a CD. Grady did another spoken word bit and rejoiced that the world was celebrating “25 years of hip hop”, preaching, “3 L’s a day are necessary acronyms for hip hop’s existence… Life, Love, Liberty”. Before The X-ecutioners took the stage, they played a bit over the speakers starting with the theme music from “The Terminator” with Reece shouting “He can’t be bargained with! He can’t be reasoned with!” and then some samples from “Blade Runner”, finishing with Cyrus from “The Warriors” shouting “Can you dig it?!?!”

The crowd had already been pumped up from The Coup, so they had no trouble getting everybody jumping and freaky, one of them yelling, “If you paid good money to get here, make some noise!” They took a moment to give a shout out to fellow DJ Dan “The Automator”, who I had just seen with Medeski, Martin, & Wood at The Warfield less than two weeks before this show. My batteries on my tape deck ran out in the middle of their set, but thankfully they ran out quickly, so I was able to replace them and not miss much. The recording was hilarious because it sounded like they were scratching faster and faster, until they came to a breakneck speedy crescendo. I was able to get back on track in time for them to scratch up a cover of “Walk This Way” by Aerosmith, getting the crowd to chant along “Talk this way!” during the breaks. 

They also got the audience to chant “It’s going down!” during one song and when they took off at the end of the set, they got them chanting “We want more!” and “X-Men!” They came back for an encore and were urged to scratch ever more feverishly, getting the crowd to chant, “Faster! Faster! Faster!” When it was all over, they got us all to shout, “1,2,3… Peace!” a few times and that was that. There was no poster that night, but this was one of the first times I recorded myself walking out of the show, hearing one of the security guys out front reminding people to watch their step crossing the street. Incidentally, “Spider-Man” had just premiered that weekend, beginning a decades long string of hit Marvel comic book films that continues to this very day. 

https://archive.org/details/the-x-ecutioners-fillmore-5302

https://archive.org/details/the-coup-fillmore-5302

https://archive.org/details/kenny-muhammad-fillmore-5302

Bjorn Again – Fillmore, SF, Wed., May 1

SETLIST : Waterloo, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight), Super Trouper, Honey Honey, S.O.S., Knowing Me Knowing You, One Of Us, Ring Ring, Fernando, Voulez Vous, Lay All Your Love On Me, Chiquitita, Living On A Prayer, Money Money Money, Take A Chance On Me, Mamma Mia, Does Your Mother Know, (encore), Dancing Queen, The Winner Takes It All – Thank You For The Music

It’s hard not to like ABBA. Seriously, the songs of this Swedish musical juggernaut are so syrupy sweet and hopelessly catchy that even the most cynical of music tastes cannot help but feel a tinge of irresistible joy whenever one of their tunes comes within earshot. At the very least, ABBA joins the short list of bands where practically everyone knows at least a handful of their hits and their sound is unmistakably theirs. Being so popular, it follows that ABBA would have their share of cover bands and one was the hilariously titled Bjorn Again from Melbourne, Australia. Formed in 1988, Bjorn alter-ego Rod Stephen had previously used that band name as a pseudonym while skiing in the Victorian Alps. Over time, Bjorn Again developed a steadily growing fan base of ABBA fans who hadn’t heard the original band perform together in decades, exactly twenty years in fact by the time of this show. And as most people know, ABBA would also become utterly beloved amongst the gay community, so it was a given that this show would be sold out in such a gay friendly city as San Francisco.

The original Benny and Bjorn from the band publicly praised their good work and they have since played all over the world, including for such brutal dictators as Vladimir Putin, Pfizer, and Bill Gates. The success of Bjorn Again was only strengthened in the recent years before this evening with their performance and recording of a show they did in 1998 at Royal Albert Hall in London. Furthermore, the stage musical “Mamma Mia” debuted the following year and was such a ridiculously big hit, productions of it quickly started sprouting up all over the world and would ultimately lead to the film version of it with Meryl Streep in 2008. As much as I like ABBA’s music, I still find that film utterly unwatchable and believe me, I’ve tried. I’m lucky if I can make it through a five minute stretch before recoiling in horror despite its A-list casting and my opinion still hasn’t altered all these years later. 

Speaking of years gone by, I must address a certain elephant in the room about this show. With the multitude of shows recorded under my belt, there are one or two that occasionally get mixed up in the maelstrom and this I’m afraid is one of them. It had originally been listed in my archives as taking place in 1995, but when the time came to write about it, the CDs mysteriously were missing. Fast forward a few years to now and the time came to write about this year of 2002 and behold, abracadabra, it resurfaces. I know it sounds strange, but for the life of me, I can’t recall which year was which for this one. Furthermore, I was unable to find any record of Bjorn Again’s tour dates from either year, so it remains a toss up. To all those gentle readers who were there or somehow knows the truth in this matter, feel free to comment and relieve me of this uncertainty. But one thing is for certain, I indeed saw them play this one time and the tapes came out pretty good.

Like The Beta Band, who played The Fillmore the night before, there was no opening act, so it was a pretty quick evening to usher. Incidentally, The Beta Band played a bit of the recording of “Rock Me” by ABBA during their entrance on stage the night before, though Bjorn Again didn’t actually play that particular ABBA tune during their show. Still, Bjorn Again came out swinging, opening with “Waterloo”, the hit single that won ABBA the Eurovision song contest all those years ago and instantly catapulted the band into international super stardom. They followed it with “Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)” which would receive worldwide attention again three years after this after Madonna sampled it for her song “Hung Up”. Afterwards, Agnetha (for the sake of brevity, I will just refer to the band’s doppelgangers) asked sweetly, “Will you please put your arms in the air and swing them from side to side” for “Super Trouper”. Though the band were Aussies, they had their Swedish accents down pretty well, playfully referring their pidgin Swedish as “Swenglish”.

They knew how to work the crowd too, dividing up the audience to sing dueling choruses of “Honey Honey”. Agnetha praised her side of the stage saying, “Thank you! You are very kind people and you all sang so well tonight. But I have to say, Frida, and I have made a decision tonight and it was very easy because it was my side that was the loudest!” Frida countered, “You know what? I would like to make my decision and my decision is that it was most definitely my side!” The band continued, parodying ABBA’s notorious infighting, and Bjorn joined in, “I think you should be more kind to my side or I’ll quit (which sounded like “qweet” in his Swenglish accent). When I give the signal, I want my side to go bananas!” Benny pointed to Bjorn’s side and followed with, “Excuse me, I want to say something now. Firstly, this side should stop whispering. They may not be able to hear you on this side of the room. Secondly, I’d like to welcome you all here to our little show tonight and we hope you have a good time… And thirdly, it’s obvious to everybody that my side is the loudest side tonight!”

They stopped their faux-bickering and continued with “S.O.S.” where they did a little breakdown at the end of it, playing the “sending out an S.O.S.” part of “Message In A Bottle” by The Police. A couple songs later, they did another homage doing a bit of “One Of Us” by Joan Osbourne during the ABBA song with the same title. They kept up the banter in the middle of “Ring Ring” where Bjorn picked up an oversized novelty phone and started talking to Benny, “Hey! How you doing my friend?” “Very well, Bjorn, but I have a bone to pick with you” “Yeah, what’s that bone?” “Last night, I found one of your shoes under my Agnetha’s bed!” Benny then politely threatened to “qweet” again. The women in the band got into a phony tiff after “Chiquitita”, Frida declaring “It’s getting very rude in here. You started it!”, and they stormed off stage leaving the men alone. 

Feigning bewilderment, Bjorn asked, “Benny, where do you think they’re off to?.. Now we’re in trouble. Oh, I know. What shall we do?… Wait. Benny, I’ve been thinking.” “Oh no, Bjorn has been thinking, ladies and gentlemen.” “I’ve been thinking sometimes I’ve had enough of this wussy music. Sometimes it really irritates me.” Benny encouraged him, “Talk about things that irritate you. I think you have a rock god coming out of you tonight. You think so, Bjorn?” “I think the time has come for me to show the world what a true rock god legend I am.” “Are you going to play some rock & roll tonight on this stage here?” Then Bjorn led the rest of the band in a respectably rocking cover of “Living On A Prayer” by Bon Jovi and they had no trouble getting the audience to sing along during the chorus. 

The women rejoined them on stage and once again and continued pitting the crowd against each other, girls versus boys, during a singalong to “Money Money Money”. Afterwards, Agnetha asked us, “Are you feeling hot? You want to get hotter?” and she got the crowd to jump up and down to a polka intro to “Take A Chance On Me”, a version that included a bit from the theme of “The Addams Family” and Benny doing a little rap breakdown in the middle of it. They wrapped up with “Mamma Mia” and “Does Your Mother Know”, but soon came back, Bjorn joking, “We were coming back anyway, you know… It’s fantastic to be back in this place. We’ve travelled around the world and this is one of the best gigs we can do.” He continued introducing the rest of the band and praised us, “So good to see you dressing up in our fashions. We’d like to see you dressed up in the streets all year in what you are wearing. It’s a good idea… sort of.”

They began their encore with the smash hit “Dancing Queen”, perhaps the most famous gay anthem in history, in the top three at least along with “YMCA” and “I Will Survive”. Frida then yelled, “If you would like one more song, scream really loud!… I can’t hear you!” and then she got us to chant “Benny! Benny! Benny!”, until he took a seat at his piano. They then cooled us down finishing the night with a mash up of the ballads “The Winner Takes It All” and “Thank You For The Music”. And that was it, leaving us elated, but then disappointed when we found out there was no poster at the end of the night. Though this was the last and only time I’d see Bjorn Again, the memories of this show resonated in my brain long afterwards, even before I listened to the recordings again. And whether it was 1995 or 2002, it is fair to say that ABBA’s music was and will remain timeless. 

https://archive.org/details/bjorn-again-fillmore-5102

The Beta Band – Fillmore, SF, Tues., April 30

SETLIST : It’s Not Too Beautiful, Human Being, Dr. Baker, Alleged, Unknown, Like, Inner Meet Me, Quiet, Dry The Rain, Needles In My Eyes, Squares, Broke, (encore), Al Sharp, She’s The One, (instrumental), The House Song

It had only been a short five months since the Scottish “folktronica” group The Beta Band played at The Fillmore, but I liked what I heard then and decided they were worthy of a second viewing. For all those interested in more of their back story, feel free to read my entry from their previous gig in November of 2001, but unlike the last time they were there, this show received no poster at the end of the night. The Beta Band had been busy during those in between months opening for Radiohead and working on their next album, “Heroes To Zeros”, that wouldn’t be released until a full two years later. There were no new songs revealed during this show and when a band returns to town so soon as they did, it comes to no surprise that they would play the same material. But not only did The Beta Band play the same stuff, they played the exact same set in the same order from the time before, even down to the songs they did for their encore. They even did the same two songs during their soundcheck, “It’s Not Too Beautiful” and “Squares”.

Likewise, there was no opening act but the one thing that was new this time was the recording they played when they came on stage. They started with a bit of “Rock Me” by ABBA, which must have been a respectful nod to the ABBA cover band Bjorn Again who played at The Fillmore the following night. After a bit of radio static and changing channels, we then heard some dialogue from the 1992 sci-fi action film “Split Second” with Rutger Hauer and Kim Cattrall where there’s a back and forth between him and another character saying, “They’ve got grenade launchers. How are we supposed to fight?” “We get bigger grenade launchers.” “This is a war! There’ll be only one winner!”, then there was the sound of a gunfight followed by, “If this is the future, I don’t want to be part of that future.” Incidentally, that movie was supposed to take place in 2008 and though I never saw it, the movie retains an obscure cult following. 

Anyway, after that intro, a fellow got on stage and announced, “San Francisco!!! Are you ready for The Beta Band?!? From Kingston, Jamaica… Give it up for The Beta Band!” So, like I said it was the same as last time, but I still enjoyed it, getting a refresher course of their songs and it was a good thing that I caught them for a second time anyway since it would be the last time I’d see them perform live. The Beta Band broke up two years after this show, though have recently reunited this year, playing their first gigs in over two decades, so I might get another chance to see them someday. 

https://archive.org/details/the-beta-band-fillmore-43002

Siouxsie & The Banshees, Ex-Girl, Tribe 8 – Fillmore, SF, Wed., April 24

SETLIST : Pure, Jigsaw Feeling, Cascade, Metal Postcard, Arabian Nights, Christine, Lullaby, Lands End, I Could Be Again, Icon, Switch, Night Shift, Voodoo Dolly, Cities In Dust, Nicotine Stain, Spellbound, Blue Jay Way

All those who don the inky black rejoiced that week as the crowned Queen Of Goth herself, Siouxsie Sioux was in town. Though I had the honor to record Siouxsie and her drummer husband Budgie’s other band, The Creatures, at Maritime Hall twice in ’98 and once more ’99, it had been a full seven years since I’d seen them perform with The Banshees. Hence, it was named “The Seven Year Itch” tour, an homage to the famous Billy Wilder film comedy with Marilyn Monroe. This was one of those rare instances when an act came to town and played both The Fillmore and The Warfield and since I and every other usher in town demanded to attend, we had to choose only one. So, I chose The Fillmore show being a more intimate, smaller venue and I think I chose wisely. We got two more songs than The Warfield show got and though they were lucky to hear “Tenant”, “Pulled To Bits”, “Israel”, and “Monitor”, we got to hear “Switch”, “Cities In Dust”, “Arabian Nights”, “Christine”, “Spellbound”, and “Nicotine Stain”. The Banshees weren’t touring with any new material, but they would put out a live album from the shows they recorded in London at Shepherd’s Bush Empire two and a half months later, playing mostly the same material.

It was an interesting and unusually eclectic line up that night starting with Queercore, lesbian punk band, Tribe 8, who I had previously worked for interning at the record label they were on, Alternative Tentacles. As before, they made quite an impression, especially their brilliant, mercurial front-person, Lynn Breedlove. Her reputation for casually brandishing her breasts was maintained all through their short set, Lynn pausing from time to time between songs to shout, “Stop looking at my tits!” to people up front. I will never forget when she moaned to us, “I don’t know why you straight girls don’t like us lesbians… We looooooove you!” and then made crude, wet slobbering noises. I was able to catch a bit of their soundcheck and Lynn was making all sorts of weird chirps and squeaky noises to check her mic too.

Right off the bat, when they got on stage, Lynn blurted, “We’re Tribe 8. We don’t really belong on this bill, but I gave Budgie a blowjob. The rest is history”. Indeed, though The Banshees definitely have punk rock cred, Tribe 8 is about as hardcore punk as a band can get. Near the end of their set, Lynn said, “OK. This is a song for all the femmes who think butches do not have feelings. It’s called ‘Stab The Tiny Gerbil A Million Times’”. They followed that with a cover of Black Flag’s “Rise Against” and then Lynn gave a final farewell, “One more of the punk rock torture and then the goth begins. This is for all the bike messengers”. Though I couldn’t make out their last song, I know apart the others I mentioned, they did “Wrong Bathroom” and “Old Skool, New Skool”. Though I believe this was the last time I saw Tribe 8 perform, I learned for the first time writing this that their lead guitarist was Shaunna Hall, who I’ve worked alongside doing sound for I.A.T.S.E., Local 16. I was aware that she was in and I’d seen before playing with 4 Non Blondes, Eric McFadden, and with George Clinton and P-Funk, but I never made the connection with her and Tribe 8. It was a long time ago, but is further evidence of Shaunna’s dynamic talent on the guitar.

Continuing the eclectic bill was Ex-Girl, an all female, noise rock trio from Japan. Mike Patton from Faith No More was a big fan and one could see that they took a page from his musical genius. They had just put out their 4th studio album, “Back To The Mono Kero” the previous May, joining an increasing wave of female Japanese bands like Shonen Knife, the 5,6,7,8’s, and Puffy Amiyumi getting new fans across America. Ex-Girl would also be signed to Alternative Tentacles two years later, but like Tribe 8, this would be the last time I’d see them perform live. And little did I or anyone else in the audience know that this would be the final time we’d see The Banshees together. Siouxsie would divorce Budgie four years later and they haven’t played since, though The Creatures put out their “Hail!” album in 2003 and Siouxsie still tours solo from time to time. 

But we all carried on blissfully unaware as she and her bandmates took the stage and got things going with “Pure” and “Jigsaw Feeling”. Siouxsie was her usual cheeky self saying she was “making sure you weren’t fuckin’ napping… Could you hear me in the beginning?” She spoke some German before they did “Metal Postcard” saying something about eyes and family and then “Enough in German! Now in fuckin’ English!” Keeping with the motif, Siouxsie followed the song declaring, “Now for a bit of Arabic”, and they played, you guessed it, “Arabian Nights”. She thanked us a few songs later saying, “Here you are. Here we are… Without promotion radio edit crap” and then they did “I Could Be Again”. She was only just shy of 45 years old before this show, but she pulled a little cranky ol’ lady out, complaining, “Where’s the cold air coming from? I’m getting chilly up here… Let’s ‘Switch” it!… They call me a bitch, but they got it wrong, you know”. Their version of “Switch” that followed it was epic, spanning at least 10 minutes long.

She joked that the band had done “Nicotine Stain” with their “pants down the other night… Let’s see if they can do it with pants on”. They followed that with “Spellbound” where Siouxsie did a lot of tongue trilling and they wrapped up the night with a cover of “Blue Jay Way” by The Beatles. The song’s author, guitarist George Harrison, had just passed away the previous November and many musical acts touring were covering his work in his honor. Yes, unknown to me at the time, this would be the final curtain call for The Banshees. They would release a “Best Of Siouxsie & The Banshees” album later that November, but the dream was over. At least they had the good sense to make a poster for this occasion and it was a good one, unlike their tour in 1995 that tragically didn’t get one at all. My only regret is that if I knew this would be the last time, I would have definitely bought a ticket for The Warfield show. The Banshees, we hardly knew ye. Return shrieking to the afterlife…

https://archive.org/details/siouxsie-the-banshees-bootleg-fillmore-42402

https://archive.org/details/siouxsie-the-banshees-fillmore-42402_202508

https://archive.org/details/ex-girl-fillmore-42402

https://archive.org/details/tribe-8-fillmore-42402

Robyn Hitchcock, Mike Viola – Great American Music Hall, SF, Tues., April 23

SETLISTS :

(MIKE VIOLA) : Love’s Long Sleep, Make No Mistake, Tough Hang, (unknown), Worry My Dome, (unknown), It’s A Line, Motel Mood, Canned Hunt, I’m Not Over You, My Monkey Made A Man Out Of Me, You Belong To Me Now, Call Off The Dogs

(ROBYN HITCHCOCK) : This Could Be The Day, I Got The Hots, (A Man’s Gotta Know His Limitations) Briggs, Not Dark Yet, Dark Princess, Victorian Squid, Terrapin, Insect Mother, Linctus House, Arms Of Love, She Doesn’t Exist, Queen Of Eyes, Airscape, (encore), Raymond Chandler Evening, Your Feelings Are The Last Thing To Die, My Mind Is Connected To Your Dreams, Listening To The Higsons

We’re spoiled in San Francisco to have Mr. Hitchcock visit us so often. I had seen him at least four times before this show including once already at the Great American. He had just been in town the year before reunited with his old psychedelic rock band, The Soft Boys, at The Fillmore and they would get together in San Francisco yet again only seven months after this. He dusted off a Soft Boys oldie “I Got The Hots” just two songs into his set. Robyn had also just released his first album of covers called “Robyn Sings”, a live recreation of Bob Dylan’s 1966 performance at Royal Albert Hall, and he performed “Not Dark Yet” a couple songs later. As much an influence on his music as Dylan, we also had the pleasure of hearing Robyn do a Syd Barrett cover of “Terrapin” a few songs later, the first time in fact that he performed that song live. It was just Robyn solo on stage that night and opening for him playing solo as well was Mike Viola.

Mike was the frontman of a band called The Candy Butchers and most of the songs he did were from their latest album “Play With Your Head” which had just come out six weeks before this night. He had talent and I could see why Robyn wanted him as an opener, being in demand as a songwriter also for other such notable musicians as Andrew Bird, Ryan Adams, Mandy Moore, and Jenny Lewis. In addition to that, Mike would also go on to pen a lot of songs for movies including “That Thing You Do!”, “Walk Hard : The Dewey Cox Story”, and “Get Him To The Greek”. Like Robyn, he had excellent diction while singing, so deciphering his song titles was fairly easy. Mike made a point to praise Robyn early in his set adding he was lucky to play in front of his “reverential following”. 

Though not as chatty and weird as Robyn between songs, he did debate the merits and possible bawdy meanings of his “snow white pearl” lyric for his song “Worry My Dome”. Later he spoke of his “metal roots” and mentioned that he was staying at the Phoenix Hotel just a few blocks away, a popular place to stay for many visiting musical acts. Mike said that his wife was there as well and boasted of the wild sex that they would have while they were away from their home in New York City before he performed “Motel Mood”. A couple songs later, he did a little homage to Ozzy, playing a bit of “War Pigs” before he did “I’m Not Over You”.

Being only a solo act, the changeover between the two was swift and Robyn soon started his set with “This Could Be The Day” on an acoustic guitar with a harmonica around his neck like the aforementioned Dylan. After his Soft Boys’ song, he told the origin story as he had done before of “(A Man’s Gotta Know His Limitations) Briggs”, a reference to the San Francisco crime thriller “Magnum Force”, the sequel to “Dirty Harry”. It’s a good action movie and check it out if you want a greater understanding of Robyn’s song, but for those who don’t have the time and would forgive the spoiler alert, Briggs was the svengali villain of the story and gets blown up in the end by his own bomb, punctuated by Harry quipping the title of the song. 

Anyway, Robyn did his usual amount of copious, abstractly funny, meandering banter that is frankly too long and confusing to keep up with. I did manage to make out one quip where he said, “It’s no understatement that the British were confused about sex for a long time” and claimed that his “grandmother’s generation never had an orgasm”. He then went on about H.G. Wells for a bit before performing “Victorian Squid”. Later he spoke of “courtly love & mating” and said his next one was “very English or British… It would never be composed in Iceland” before doing “Insect Mother”and then switched to solo electric guitar near the end of his set for “Queen Of Eyes” and “Airscape”. After he began his encore with “Raymond Chandler Evening”, he continued with “Your Feelings Are The Last Thing To Die”, though he introduced it as “The Last Things To Die Are Your Feelings”. He brought up a squeaky toy and mentioned something about George W. Bush at the end of the encore before switching back to an acoustic guitar to finish with “Listening To The Higsons”. 

Robyn would perform four days later doing a free set at Amoeba Records, but I missed it, either having not heard it was happening or being stuck at work, but I would see him again soon enough in November with the Soft Boys at Slim’s. I would also have the honor of seeing another act from jolly old England the following night with Siouxsie & The Banshees at The Fillmore. I wonder if Siouxsie and Robyn ever played together… What the conversations backstage would have been like, one can hardly fathom, but it’s a safe bet that they would be verbose and original. 

https://archive.org/details/robyn-hitchcock-great-american-music-hall-42302

https://archive.org/details/mike-viola-great-american-music-hall-42302

Medeski, Martin, & Wood, Dan “The Automator” Nakamura – Warfield, SF, Sat., April 20

SETLIST : (SET 1) : Improv Intro – Ten Dollar High – Take Me Nowhere – Lifeblood – Bass Solo, Creole Love Call – Felic – Drum Solo – Fire – Smoke

(SET 2) : Pappy Check, The Saint – Open Improv – Uninvisible, Nocturnal Transmission – Open Improv – Where’s Sly? – Blue Pepper, Moti Mo, (encore), I Wanna Ride You

I had just finished two back to back brilliant nights at The Warfield with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and I had returned once more for round three with jazz fusion, instrumental virtuosos Medeski, Martin, & Wood. As I had mentioned in the Cave shows, it was a relief to hear some thoughtful, quality songwriting after enduring a few bombastic and downright annoying nu metal gigs around that time. MMW had just released their “Uninvisible” album on Blue Note a month before this show and though I had seen them a few times before this night, on this occasion, it wasn’t just the trio. They had brought in tow none other than master turntablist and producer Dan “The Automator” Nakamura. This was actually the second time I’d seen them at The Warfield with a guy on the ones and twos, they having brought along DJ Logic with them in 1999. I had just seen Dan, well sort of seen him, on that very stage with the Gorillaz just a month before this, sort of seen being that they were partially obscured by a semi-translucent projection screen during their performance. Like DJ Logic, having him in the fold gave them an extra layer of complexity to their already well honed musical chops. 

This night was also different because they were accompanied by a horn section which in honor of the new album were called the “Uninvisible Horns”. They consisted of band leader and trumpet player Steve Bernstein, Paul Hanson on bassoon, local acid jazz saxophonist Kenny Brooks from Alphabet Soup, and genius multi-instrumentalist Ralph Carney. Yes, having Ralph on stage elevates every artist that had the honor to have him, God rest his soul. The horns only joined the band on stage for about half the songs and the encore, but when they were on it was stellar, especially when they took their turns doing solos during songs like “The Saint” and “Nocturnal Transmission”. Medeski made sure to introduce them by name between songs and thanked them for joining the tour. It was billed as “An Evening With” show, but Dan came out after the first set ended to spin records, covering a lot of material including “Clint Eastwood” by the aforementioned Gorillaz and “Jungle Boogie” by Kool & The Gang. There was a young speaker who addressed the crowd as well talking about some ballot initiative and trying to get folks to sign his petition, though I couldn’t quite make out or remember what the subject matter was, probably about marijuana or protecting forests.

Speaking of herb, this auspicious evening fell on April the 20th, yes 4/20, and the atmosphere was quite cloudy and fragrant as expected. I was a paid usher that night, so I had to work all the way through it, but the crowd was polite and it wasn’t difficult. Honoring the weed smoking occasion and their hippie roots, they did an impressive cover of “Fire” by Jimi Hendrix during the first set. My tapes came out pretty good, but I was lucky to find an excellent recording of the show on some website called “The Shack”. As they came back for their encore, Medeski thanked everyone again and encouraged us to get their new album at the merch table in the lobby adding “get us up on the charts… whatever those are”. They ended the night with a new song called “I Wanna Ride You” and did a little New Orleans 2nd line style breakdown in the middle of it, getting the audience to clap along to the beat. It was an enjoyable night of sophisticated music, the kind of music that makes you feel smarter for even hearing it, but unfortunately there was no poster at the end and I believe this is the last time I’ve seen Medeski, Martin, & Wood perform live. 

https://archive.org/details/medeski-martin-wood-warfield-42002

https://archive.org/details/medeski-martin-wood-bootleg-warfield-42002

https://archive.org/details/dan-the-automator-nakamura-warfield-42002

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Khan with Kid Congo Powers – Warfield, SF, Thur., April 18

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Pinetop Seven – Warfield, SF, Fri., April 19

SETLISTS : 

(THURSDAY)

(KHAN WITH KID CONGO POWERS) : (unknown), Why Hurt Flesh, (unknown), (unknown), Goo Goo Muck, Why D’Ya Do It?

(NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS) : Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow, Oh My Lord, Lime Tree Arbour, Red Right Hand, Do You Love Me?, As I Sat Sadly By Her Side, Love Letter, We Came Along This Road, The Weeping Song, Papa Won’t Leave You Henry, Hallelujah, The Mercy Seat, God Is In The House, (encore), Henry Lee, Saint Huck, (encore), Into My Arms, (encore), Stagger Lee

(FRIDAY)

(NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS) : Do You Love Me?, Oh My Lord, Lime Tree Arbour, Red Right Hand, Fifteen Feet Of Pure Driven Snow, As I Sat Sadly By Her Side, The Weeping Song, God Is In The House, We Came Along This Road, Papa Won’t Leave You Henry, Hallelujah, The Mercy Seat, And No More Shall We Part, (encore), Long Time Man, The Curse Of Millhaven, (encore), Stagger Lee

There are those rare occasions when an incident at a concert totally eclipses the concert itself in memory. Indeed, there are times when something so extreme happens that it practically transcends into the realm of urban legend. The first night of these two Nick Cave shows was one such time. Before I write about the shows themselves, I will get this unfortunate incident out of the way. Near the end of Nick’s set on the first night, in the middle of his song “The Mercy Seat” to be precise, a commotion erupted on the dance floor, not a fight, but definitely something gone awry. At first, I thought somebody had passed out which wasn’t uncommon at shows, but it wasn’t until the following night that I learned the shocking truth. Basically, a young woman lost control of her bowels during that song and took a dump on the dance floor. There, I said it.

There is an article from the SF Weekly attached to this post about this, but I will quickly summarize. A fellow named Michael Fantino was standing next to the poor woman at the time and helped her out of the crowd and presumably got her to Rock Med. Apparently, one of the legs of his pin stripe pants was stained by her excrement along with one of his shoes which he lost in the process. Pandora Hastings, a huge fan of the band, was there also and after the show ended, went backstage and told Nick Cave of this incident for which he and the Bad Seeds found understandably hilarious, especially considering his famously dark sense of humor. The band joked that their “poor performance” was to blame for this woman literally losing her shit. Now, perhaps the greatest unsung heroes of those who work concerts are the maintenance people, but I think everyone would agree that those who had to clean up that doo doo on that night earned their wages and then some. Frankly, I think they deserve a medal and a stiff drink.

So, that being said, we shall move on. To all those loyal readers of mine, it is no secret that I was and remain a devoted fan of Mr. Cave and was delighted that he was doing back to back shows at The Warfield. It had only been a year since I saw him do back to back solo shows at The Palace Of Fine Arts, but he had returned with The Bad Seeds promoting “No More Shall We Part”, his first album of new material in four years. Nick had finally gotten clean, kicking off years of heroin and alcohol addiction and these shows were particularly welcome to see since I’d endured a handful of nu metal stinkers like Puddle Of Mudd and Coal Chamber recently. It was relieving to hear beautiful songs where the lyrics weren’t crudely screamed at me behind a barrage of ear splitting electric guitars.

There were different opening acts for each night and on the first night, it was Khan with Kid Congo Powers. The latter had been a member of The Gun Club, The Cramps, and even had been a Bad Seed himself for a few years in the late 80’s. I’d seen him in yet another band called Congo Norvell opening for Mr. Cave the first time I would see him in 1994 at The Fillmore, doing a show there while he and the band were in town also playing on the Lollapalooza tour. Powers had hooked up with Khan both professionally and romantically, writing music together during their affair in Mexico. Khan was an electronic music artist who had worked with David Lynch muse Julee Cruise and together, he and Powers were one of the pioneers of the emerging “electro-clash” movement. It was just the two of them that night, Khan on programming and Powers on guitar and occasionally on sax. It was a short set and I thought their stuff was interesting, like I said, it was a new genre, so new that they wouldn’t even release their first album, “Broken English”, until two years later. I did appreciate that they dusted off an old Cramps standard, “Goo Goo Muck”.

Mr. Cave wasted no time introducing his new material, opening their set with “Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow” followed by “Oh My Lord”. Naturally, he did a few golden oldies like “Red Right Hand” and “Do You Love Me?” before delving back into the new stuff, taking a seat behind a grand piano to do melancholy ballads like “As I Sat Sadly By Her Side”, “Love Letter”, and “We Came Along This Road”. I was working as an usher all nights at both shows, but Cave’s fans mostly stayed put, though they were a little moody when asked to clear out from an aisle. My usher sticker on the first night said “Nick” and the sticker for the second said “Cave”. Like all those who attended both these sold out shows, we were overjoyed by the music and the crowd clapped in unison for a solid minute during the encore break before the band returned to the stage. On that first night after they began the first encore with “Henry Lee”, followed by a real golden oldie, “Saint Huck”, which he introduced it as “the first song we ever recorded”.

Stories of that woman’s moment of incontinence defiling the dance floor aside, I was looking forward for the second night and this time, an act called the Pinetop Seven were opening. They were an alt-country band from Chicago who had just released their first album, “Lest We Forget” the year before this show. I liked them too, sort of sounding like Calexico who also had a trumpet player, but the singer Darren Richard’s lyrics were too muddled and quiet to make out any of their song titles. The band was short lived, broke up four years later, and Darren went on to become a music industry lawyer. Like Khan and Kid the night before, the set was a short one, only seven songs long and before we knew it, Nick was back on stage with the gang.

The main set on the second night included all the same songs from the night before though in a different order, except for one. They did a new song called “And No More Shall We Part” this night. After they did “Do You Love Me?”, somebody in the crowd yelled “I love you!” for which Nick responded, “Well, I love you too”. For the encore, they changed things up a bit and did “Long Time Man” and “The Curse Of Milhaven”, the former being a cover written by a singer-songwriter named Tim Rose. Tim had some moderate success in the late 60’s, but had fallen on hard times in the 80’s, forcing him to do his thing in Europe until Nick ran into him and recorded that song on one of his albums, practically in the same style that Tim had. 

Nick also encouraged Tim to make new music which he helped produce and got him performing live again, opening for The Bad Seeds on a couple occasions, including a big show at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Sadly, Tim would die of a heart attack at the age of only 62 just five months after these Warfield shows. On both nights, Nick came back for a second encore to do “Stagger Lee”, which brought the house down. If they hadn’t made a poster for these glorious shows, I would have burned the place down, but thankfully they did. And I was grateful that he and the Bad Seeds would return to The Warfield the following year for another set of back to back shows which once again I saw both. Thankfully, those shows went off without incident and I’ve yet to attend or even hear of a show that fell victim to the soiling of the dance floor. 

https://archive.org/details/nick-cave-the-bad-seeds-warfield-41802

https://archive.org/details/khan-with-kid-congo-powers-warfield-41802

https://archive.org/details/nick-cave-the-bad-seeds-warfield-41902

https://archive.org/details/pinetop-seven-warfield-41902

Puddle Of Mudd, The Revolution Smile, 30 Seconds To Mars – Warfield, SF, Mon., April 15

SETLISTS : 

(30 SECONDS TO MARS) : Edge Of The Earth, End Of The Beginning, Fallen, Oblivion, Capricorn (A Brand New Name), Buddha For Mary

(PUDDLE OF MUDD) : Out Of My Head, Nobody Told Me, (unknown), Basement, Said, Bring Me Down, Abrasive, Blurry, She Hates Me, Piss It All Away, (encore), Control

This would be the only occasion I’d see Puddle Of Mudd perform live and I must say about this time I was beginning to grow weary of the whole post-grunge, nu metal scene. But there were still a few of these bands around and I was willing to at least give this one the benefit of the doubt for one show. Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Puddle Of Mudd had struggled since 1992 to make it until one of their demo tapes got into the hands of Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst. The band had even broken up by the time Durst contacted them, so he helped singer Wes Scantlin put together a new line up and with the release of their “Come Clean” album in 2001, with it’s smash hit single “Blurry”, the album soon went triple platinum, selling over 5 million copies. I have to admit, I remember that single from it being on the Playstation 2 video came “Ace Combat 5”, a game I spent entirely too much of my younger life wasting away on. 

This would be the first tour Puddle Of Mudd would do as a headliner, but they were already selling out venues as large as The Warfield. That new found success however didn’t stop Wes from getting in all kinds of trouble with his boorish, drunken behavior. He had recently been arrested for domestic abuse towards his fiancee Michelle Rubin while they were pulled over on the side of the road on Highway 126 near Ventura, fighting on the way to one of his video shoots. He would be accused of more of that kind of abuse in the future too. To make matters worse, he was also accused of lip syncing and while at an airport, he was even arrested for riding a baggage carousel while drunk and possessing a BB gun. Now, I had no idea that any of this had happened before seeing them, but I must confess that I and imagine every person at one time or another had fantasized about riding a baggage carousel, at least when they were children.

Thankfully, there was one act on the bill that made coming to The Warfield that night worth my while, that being 30 Seconds To Mars. That band was fronted by actor and future Oscar winner Jared Leto alongside his brother Shannon on drums. They were brand new back then and wouldn’t even be releasing their debut, self titled album until later that August, an album that would turn out to be a big hit and sell over 2 million copies. And though I actually had seen Jared in a few movies by then such as “Fight Club”, “The Thin Red Line”, and “Requiem For A Dream”, brilliant movies one and all, I didn’t make the connection on who he was at the time. I think partially it was because I was at a distance and didn’t really get a good look at him and their set, being the first act of the night, was a short one, just six songs total. I thought their music was pretty catchy and the girls seemed to like him, especially the fans of his TV show, “My So-Called Life” which I still have never seen and was blissfully unaware of at that time. But credit where credit’s due, Jared is a handsome guy and it wasn’t surprising that he had hooked up with Cameron Diaz, though their recent engagement ultimately fizzled out and they broke up a year after this show.

For most of the tour, 30 Seconds To Mars was the only opening band, but for this Warfield show, they had been bumped to be the first of three and were followed by The Revolution Smile. They were a nu metal band from Sacramento, also signed to Fred Durst’s record label, Flawless, and they came on stage to the sounds of some weird bluegrass music with a female yodeling over the loudspeakers. Sure, 30 Seconds To Mars was loud, but listening to these guys was excruciating. I could barely make out anything the singer was saying, so while listening to the recording, I simply gave up even trying to figure out their set list. I resented that their singer demanded that the audience “wake up” too or when any band says that. Fuck you. Make us wake up. I suppose it didn’t help that I was hungover the other day when I was listening to the recording of their set, but there comes a point when even I throw in the towel on a band. Despite employing guitarist Shaun Lopez from Far, a Sacramento band I actually did enjoy and recorded once at Maritime Hall, I found them to be grating and was relieved when they got off stage.

A little later, a DJ from KSJO came out to introduce Puddle Of Mudd and reminded us what day it was when he thanked us all for coming “instead of staying home and doing your taxes”. He joked that with all their records sold, Puddle Of Mudd had in fact moved into a higher tax bracket. Like The Revolution Smile, Puddle Of Mudd also had a recorded intro, a mash up of going between radio stations, playing bits of rock classics like “Back In Black” by AC/DC and “Welcome To The Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses. They weren’t a bad band necessarily, though anybody would sound good following The Revolution Smile. Wes’ voice sounded suspiciously like Kurt Cobain, but at least he sounded like somebody good. Naturally, Puddle Of Mudd did their hit, “Blurry”, and Wes introduced the rest of the band afterwards before they did “She Hates Me”. They did just one more song before coming back for the encore and finishing the night with “Control”.

It was a mercifully short set, clocking in at just around an hour and there was no poster for the show. I didn’t appreciate that they left the stage to the sounds of a couple minutes of ear splitting guitar feedback, an annoying practice that I have long despised rock bands of doing. Like I said, this was the last time I’d see Puddle Of Mudd and had no desire to see The Revolution Smile again obviously, but I’d see 30 Seconds To Mars a couple times more the following year, opening for the Trust Company at The Fillmore and on the second stage at Lollapalooza 2003. Shannon Leto would also go on to form The Wondergirls, a supergroup with Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots, Mark McGrath from Sugar Ray, and Ian Astbury from The Cult, though I never saw them live. 30 Seconds To Mars still tours occasionally, but the Leto brothers are the only remaining original members. 

https://archive.org/details/puddle-of-mudd-warfield-41502

https://archive.org/details/the-revolution-smile-warfield-41502

https://archive.org/details/30-seconds-to-mars-warfield-41502

Petrol, Persephone’s Bees, Single, Brad Brooks – Slim’s, SF, Thur., April 11

Our Lady Of The Highway, DeSoto Reds – The Eagle, SF, Thur., April 11

It’s a pleasant change to write about local acts from time to time, to get away from the usual Fillmore/Warfield scene. This was a rare free gig at Slim’s with Petrol, who I had just seen playing up in The Fillmore poster room three months before this at the Charlatans UK show. But as luck would have it, there was another show for only $5 just down the block at The Eagle, so my friends and I briskly walked between places and caught music from both. I had been long accustomed to bouncing between stages at festivals, but I believe this was one of the only, if not only, occasions I ever bounced between two separate venues at the same time. As fun as the night was, unfortunately my batteries died out very gradually, much more gradually than usual, so the entire recording of music went incrementally faster until I finally replaced the batteries just as Petrol started. Believe me, having to listen to that recording become more Alvin & The Chipmunks-esque for nearly an hour gets on your nerves. 

When we got to Slim’s, Brad Brooks, a local singer-songwriter was already on, but I did catch his last three songs. He did a cover of “Oh! Darling” by The Beatles, perhaps a nod to George Harrison who had just died the previous November. A lot of bands were doing that around then. I never saw Brooks again, though he still performs, making a brave comeback a few years ago from surviving throat cancer. As soon as his set ended, we high tailed it over to The Eagle to catch DeSoto Reds just as they were starting. To all those unfamiliar, The Eagle is a San Francisco institution, the premier gay biker bar in the Folsom Street/South Of Market area. Now I being neither gay nor a biker hadn’t ever been there before, but a free show is a free show. I’m happy to report that The Eagle was a very relaxed, pleasant place with an expansive, luxurious outdoor patio and an impressive beer selection, so all gay panic visions of “The Blue Oyster” bar from “Police Academy” were unwarranted. I remember years later when Arnocorps played Slim’s, their singer Holzfeuer mentioned that The Eagle was “a very balsy place”, though pondered in his thick Austrian (faux Schwarzenegger) accent why everybody in the bar was “dressed as Bennett?!?”

The DeSoto Reds were a small band, a drummer and a singer who took turns between playing guitar and a keyboard. We only had a little time since we had to return to Slim’s for the next act, but we caught four songs including “Howells & Jowls”, “The Gardener”, and “Kicking The Heart Out”. The singer greeted the small audience between songs saying, “Thanks for coming out, especially the Hayward High contingent. Hope you all graduate soon”, and then they addressed some problem with their gear, “We have a questionable input here… Wants to slip out”. We ran back to Slim’s, but only a caught the last couple songs from the band Single, “After School Special” and “Coda”, but I did snag their setlist from the stage.  Bouncing back immediately to The Eagle, we managed to catch the last four songs of the DeSoto Reds including a cheeky one titled “My Affair With Julia Roberts”. The singer described it as “an absolutely true story… You probably don’t know who she is” and dedicated their last song his mom adding, “I think my mom and I found a happy medium with Rufus Wainwright”. 

I made sure to get back to Slim’s in time to catch the beginning of Persephone’s Bees, a band I had just seen the month before at Cafe Du Nord opening for Call & Response and was deeply smitten with. Sadly, by this time, my batteries were almost out and their entire set was super sped up on the recording, but I could still make out the titles of about half their songs. One of them mentioned between songs that “There’s a magazine out there for uncircumcised males. It’s called ‘Uncut’. They put out a compilation CD and this one’s on it”. I believe this was the last time I’d see Persephone’s Bees live, but I thought they were a great band, one of so many out there that certainly deserved to be famous, but didn’t quite punch through to mainstream success. We made it back to The Eagle to catch the last four songs of Our Lady Of The Highway, who like DeSoto Reds, were a small act with just a drum kit and a singer on guitar. They were local too, even doing a song called “Stevenson Street”, named after a narrow alley nearby that runs parallel to Market Street, though the pair were actually from Oakland. Comprised of the duo of Dominic East and Andrew Garhan, the two made ends meet as bike messengers during the day.

Finally, we finally settled down back at Slim’s for Petrol, the final act of this adventure. Like I said, I had finally replaced the batteries for most of their set, so the night’s recordings weren’t a total loss. Between songs, their singer mentioned that their T-shirts were only $5 and then made some wise cracks about them being the new Cheap Trick and would soon be playing Konocti Harbor. For those who don’t know, that was a spa resort/venue up north in Kelseyville by Clear Lake, which hosted mostly older acts. I actually took my parents to see Tim Conway & Harvey Corman perform there before it went under in 2007. Anyway, speaking of older acts, Petrol did a little riff of “Slow Ride” by Foghat, a band that most likely played Konocti once or twice, before one of their songs. Later, they did a cover of the rock standard, “That’s Alright Mama”, made famous by Elvis. Petrol also had a short set, but the singer joked that they’d play until “you guys start to riot… throwing chairs”. Sadly, I believe this was the last time I saw that band too, but it was a fun night and I’m glad I went. At the very end, I grabbed the schedule from Tigi who was working sound at the front of house, a talented, hard working, and charming sound person who I would work beside in the stagehands union years later. 

https://archive.org/details/petrol-slims-41102

https://archive.org/details/our-lady-of-the-highway-the-eagle-41102

https://archive.org/details/persephones-bees-slims-41102

https://archive.org/details/single-slims-41102

https://archive.org/details/desoto-reds-the-eagle-41102

https://archive.org/details/brad-brooks-slims-41102

Jagermeister Tour 2002: Drowning Pool, Coal Chamber, Ill Nino, 40 Below Summer, Sloth – Fillmore, SF, Mon., April 8

SETLISTS : 

(SLOTH) : (unknown), Broken Crutch, Dead Generation, Media, (unknown)

(40 BELOW SUMMER) : Minus One, Rope, Falling Down, Step Into The Sideshow, We The People

(ILL NINO) : If You Still Hate Me, God Save Us, What Comes Around, I Am Loco, Eye For An Eye, Liar

(COAL CHAMBER) : Loco, Big Truck, Oddity, No Home, Rowboat, Not Living

To those who know me well, they will attest that leaving a show early is not in my character. It is even rare when I arrive at a show late. My free time is very important to me especially when I’m paying for the privilege, though I was ushering on this night. But four nu metal bands was enough for me that evening and my tapes ran out during Coal Chamber anyway. Little did I know that Dave Williams, the singer of Drowning Pool, would be stone dead four months later from heart failure caused by an undiagnosed case of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. So, I would not being seeing them ever again, though I found their music, like most of the bands on the bill that night, grating and obnoxious. Why was I there then, you might ask? A good question for which I have no real satisfactory answer. Clearly, I had been maintaining my steady diet of shows for years by then, seeing many of them out of harmless curiosity or just downright boredom. But my exiting the show early that night was at least evidence that even I had my limits or at least was starting to exercise more discerning taste.

Like grunge and Britpop, the nu metal scene was also beginning to peter out, especially after the revolting toxic machismo of Woodstock ’99. Such testosterone fueled obnoxiousness is only compounded with copious amounts of alcohol, or in this case Jagermeister. Yes, that particular liquor was sponsoring this gig and there were a couple frat boy types on stage getting the crowd to repeatedly chant for their “Free Shit!” Flanked by a couple spunky “Jagermeister Girls”, they gave away a treasure trove of T-shirts, hats, lighters, shot glasses, and whatnot to their eager audience. First up was Sloth, who praised the liquor saying, “It tastes like Nyquil! I love it!”, before taking a shot and playing “Dead Generation”. He admitted afterwards, “I’m fuckin’ buzzed off that shot!” The singer also praised the Jagermeister girls saying, “Yeah, I know. If I had their bodies, I’d show my body all the time… to myself.” Being the first of five acts, their set was short, though their last song was seven and a half minutes long. Being a nu metal show, it goes without saying that it was painfully loud and everybody’s vocals were practically indecipherable. It’s a miracle I made out as many song titles as I did.

Next up was 40 Below Summer from New Jersey who came on stage to a strange recording of a deep voice chanting yelling stuff like “He is inside us! We will never get away!” They singer, Max Illidge, barked out their first song, “Minus One”, ordering the crowd to jump to the beat. Later, Max asked us, “Do you motherfuckers like to drink Jagermeister?!? Do you motherfuckers like to smoke weed?!? Then let’s get high after the show!” and he made us “make some noise” for the other bands. Like Sloth, their set was a short one too, just five songs. During the set break, one of those emcees brought out an acoustic guitar and did a little song which the main lyric was, “She smoked all of my herb, so I kicked her to the fuckin’ curb on the side of the road”. Pretty much sums up the whole attitude in the house that show. The other emcee while hocking the tour CD they were giving out, asked a girl up front to show him her “camel toe” in exchange. Her name was Lisa and he also asked her if she was going “to get laid” later that night. She answered spritely, “You bet I am!”, but when he tried to get her on stage to show the aforementioned camel toe, she declined. He called her “Chickenshit”, but she flashed him her breasts instead which he complimented and then asked her if she was “bald” and then told the crowd to “Give it up for the baldies!” 

I actually wasn’t disappointed to see Ill Nino, a band I had already seen perform on that stage five months before this opening for Kittie, one of the only nu metal bands I actually like and probably the only all female one in all of human history. Ill Nino weren’t half bad and were celebrating having just been picked to tour with Ozzfest that summer. They made sure to give a shout out to their “friends and family” with Machinehead from across the bay in Oakland and who I had just seen headlining at The Fillmore just six weeks before this. Those obnoxious emcees once again came on stage after they were done and the one with the acoustic guitar played a little “Name That Tune”, doing obvious Black Sabbath and Ozzy covers like “Crazy Train”, “War Pigs”, and “Paranoid”. The heshers in the audience had little trouble picking them out of which they were rewarded with “a free fuckin’ hat”. Then he did some mildly amusing ditty about doing “The 69”, followed by the old time classic “Coming Around The Mountain”. He changed the lyrics on the latter a couple lines to, “She’ll be bringing Coal Chamber when she comes! She’ll be showing her big ol’ titties when she comes!” And then, (sigh), he once again got everybody to chant, “Free shit!”

Thankfully, I and the other ushers were shown mercy and released from our duties a couple songs into Coal Chamber’s set. This would be the only time I would see them outside of Maritime Hall, where I had recorded them twice already. Little did I know that years later that Coal Chamber would rip off the video from the show they did there in 1999 with Slipknot opening to make a live DVD, giving me no credit and certainly not one thin dime. That DVD is one of only a few official recordings I’ve been involved with that I’m actually ashamed to be involved with since I still think Coal Chamber’s music sucks donkey dick. In hindsight, that professional slight they committed only made my leaving after my tapes ran out that night that much more justified. Still, I wish I had stuck around for at least one song of Drowning Pool so I could say I caught Dave Williams before his untimely end.

And speaking of untimely ends, my then and future bitterness towards Coal Chamber would soon be avenged after this show. Just nine days later, Meegs Rascon accidentally hit singer Dez Fafara in the head with his guitar during a show in Lubbock, Texas. Dez walked off stage furiously declaring it was his last show and Meegs had to finish the set singing vocals in his place, but only did two more songs. Their drummer, Mickey Cox, destroyed his drum kit and Dez and Meegs continued their brawling on their tour bus outside. They were dropped from the Jagermeister tour two days later. Dez went on to form the band Devildriver and Coal Chamber broke up for good the following year, though they did a couple reunion gigs in 2011 and again in 2022. But good riddance I say and likewise I’m thankful for once that The Fillmore actually DIDN’T give out a poster at the end of the show. This is one band I’m glad that I never have to write about again and would rather forget. 

https://archive.org/details/coal-chamber-fillmore-4802

https://archive.org/details/ill-nino-fillmore-4802

https://archive.org/details/40-below-summer-fillmore-4802

https://archive.org/details/sloth-fillmore-4802

Yonder Mountain String Band – Warfield, SF, Sat., April 6

SETLIST :  (Set 1) : Peace Of Mind – You’re No Good, Another Day, The Darling One, Town, Easy As Pie, Lord Only Knows (Part One) – Bolton Stretch – On The Run – High Cross Junction – Mother’s Only Son – On The Run (reprise)

(Set 2) : Pride Of Alabama, Hit Parade Of Love, And Your Bird Can Sing, Half Moon Rising, Keep On Going – Mississippi Half Step Uptown Toodaloo – High On A Hilltop, Long Gone,To See You Coming ‘Round The Bend, Ramblin’ In The Rambler – 20 Eyes – Ramblin’ In The Rambler (reprise), Snow On The Pines – Follow Me Down The Riverside, (encore), Dim Lights Thick Smoke, Only A Northern Song, Pan-American, Goodbye Blue Sky

In a strange bit of irony, Spiritualized, one of the loudest bands I’ve ever seen played The Warfield the night before Yonder Mountain String Band, one of the quietest. Indeed, their musical styles couldn’t be more divergent either. But I still like them both and though I’ve made it no secret that the bluegrass crowd annoys the shit out of me, there’s no denying the musical prowess of Yonder Mountain. They seem like nice guys and I was glad that they were filling venues like The Warfield by then and felt the same, commenting repeatedly between songs how happy they were to play there. One of them joked that “you could fit about 1400 Yankees in here” before they began their set with an extra long version of “Peace Of Mind”. They were still a year away from releasing any new material, but we did get to hear “Pride Of Alabama” for the first time at the beginning of their second set. Later that August, Yonder Mountain would also released their second official live album, “Mountain Tracks : Volume 2”. 

And like most hippie jam bands around then, they had a cadre of tapers in the house which made my crude recordings irrelevant, but I did them all the same. Still, I’m thankful the tapers were there, since like I said, Yonder Mountain was quiet as church mice and their fans were gabbing away all through their show like they did the last time I saw them at The Fillmore the year before this. I found a good one on archive.org. Though I wasn’t familiar with their original tunes, they did a decent handful of covers that night, starting with “You’re No Good”, a Leon Russell tune that actually was the opening track on Bob Dylan’s first album. Later, they dusted off a couple bluegrass versions of “And Your Bird Can Sing” and “Only A Northern Song” by The Beatles, George Harrison numbers in honor of his passing the previous November. They also did a cover of “Mississippi Halfstep Uptown Toodeloo” by the Grateful Dead which I will speak of again later. Finally, they ended the show on a melancholy note, even breaking out a cello for a cover of “Goodbye Blue Sky” by Pink Floyd, a downright eerie lament to be done in the style of bluegrass.

But most of the night, the band kept things light, cracking jokes between songs like one of them saying, “Well, at least it’s warm in here. Pay no attention. It’s not sweat. It’s love juice. I don’t know which is better”. Yonder Mountain also had a lot of friends in the house, one of them named Dr. Paula and they dedicated “The Darling One” to her newborn son, “Peace Nick”. Nice to hear a shout out to a fellow Nicky. Even when they were angry about something, they still were cheerful, one of them saying, “We’d like to tell you a little story because we love you and you’re like family. It’s dedicated to two of San Francisco’s finest. They drive around in these very little cars with flashing lights on them. They have three wheels and they zip around the airport and bother the innocent bluegrass bands as they load their gear into the minivans.”

Another added, “$70 worth of bother actually”. He went on, “I’d like to send this out to, I think one of them’s named Dirk and the other was Chip, I think or something. They were very nice”. Then the other guy interjected, “Snappy & happy!” He finished the story saying, “This should teach you a valuable lesson that if you’re going to taunt someone and yell at them for them trying to do their job, you’d better be sure that they don’t get up on stage in front of a couple thousand people every night cus’ you’ll pay… You’ll pay dearly, somehow.” 

It was “An Evening With” show, so I had to usher through the first set, the set break, and then the beginning of the second set as usual, but it was a particularly long set break. Apparently, “something popped” in the lighting system, leaving their array only capable of displaying one color. One of the band joked as they began their second set, “We hope you like the color blue. That’s all you’re going to get. It feels appropriate”. Obviously, it was a bluegrass show after all. Later, they were able to restore a few more colors like green and purple. They mentioned another funny story later between songs saying that on the road, they had stopped to eat at a Cracker Barrel and overheard the sound of banjo music coming through their speakers. While eating, the band collectively agreed that they should perform the song that was playing, “Long Gone” by the Lonesome River Band. One of them joked that “usually the song’s in our heads” and not actually playing around them when they’re eating. After they finished playing it, one of them said, “I’ll take a side of macaroni & cheese, grits, greens, corn… If we did that right, everybody should be hungry for pancakes”. He went on to muse about since The Fillmore gives out apples, that The Warfield should give out pancakes. It did remind me of stories of the olden days of Winterland when BGP would feed the patrons breakfast when their shows finally ended at the crack of dawn.

For the encore, they decided to perform in the old ways of bluegrass bands and huddle around a single microphone on a stand. Nostalgic as it is, this method only further annoyed me because it made hearing them that much more difficult. One of them even tried to subdue the chatty crowd by getting everybody to go “Shhh!” It helped a little, but not much. They did a funny bit, slowing their voices down like they were in slow motion singing the lyrics of “Dim Lights Thick Smoke”. After the song, one of them said in the same slow motion voice, “Thaaaaank yooooou soooo muuuuch…. Thaaaank yooou fooor beeeeeing heeeeeere”. He got the audience to do one more “Shh!” in unison before finishing their set and that was it. There was no poster for them that night, but Yonder Mountain would return to town and play back to back shows at The Fillmore later that November which did get one, though I didn’t attend those gigs. In fact, this would be the last time I’d see them play live.

Lastly, I want to address a big fat elephant in the room and this you can chalk up as a little therapy time for me. All uninterested parties can disregard everything from here on out. As I mentioned, Yonder Mountain did that Grateful Dead cover during their set and I’m writing this just after Dead & Co’s recent shows in Golden Gate Park celebrating the Dead’s 60th anniversary. They had built the stage for that show which is also currently being used as the main “Land’s End” stage for Outside Lands this weekend and for the country artist Zach Bryan the following weekend. Normally, I would proudly serve as part of that stage’s audio crew and had been for the last five years, but this year, with the addition of the Dead & Co. a week before Outside Lands, those Dead & Co. shows landed smack dab on the weekend of my cousin Ollie’s wedding which I swore I wouldn’t miss. Even my beloved wife had committed to doing the bride’s hair for the occasion. So, I write this stewing about at home with a near terminal case of FOMO while Outside Lands carries on in the park without me. To make matters worse, having not been able to do the show this year seriously endangers my chances of ever landing that gig again. 

That being said and whining aside, this brings me to the moral of this story. Like my fanatical commitment to bootlegging back in these yesteryears, I found myself once again at odds with this habit of mine and my personal life. Choosing my family over my career and love of live music I still feel was the correct one, a decision I stand by and will be proud I made in the future. But for now, I feel the stinging loss and fight unjust feelings of bitter resentment. To make matters worse, I would have made a serious amount of money from those shows. But I keep reminding myself of the negative aspects of the other choice, including the brutal physical torment of setting up, running, and help operating all those bands for three long grueling weeks. Last year was only two weeks and it damn near killed me. If the job didn’t kill me, my family and my wife certainly would have for making such a selfish choice and they would have been right to do so. 

That and the fact that there was practically nobody on the bill at Outside Lands that held any interest for me with the exception of Beck with the Berkeley Symphony. And once again, I reassure myself that Beck being on the Sutro stage this year, I probably would have missed him anyway having had to clean up on the Land’s End stage during Doja Cat. Even if I did break away in time to see Beck, I probably would have caught the tail end of it and at an uncomfortable  distance. Besides, I’ve seen Beck literally over a dozen times and I was able to watch his entire set live streaming on my computer in the comfort of my own home and in my jammies. Likewise, I wasn’t too keen on seeing Dead & Co. either, having seen them enough already before as well as plenty of the bone fide Grateful Dead back in the day along with their countless post-Jerry Garcia incarnations. Hell, this time around they had only two original members, Bobby and Mickey. Bill Kreutzman had dropped out of the band well before then and wouldn’t come back even for this anniversary. Finally, I don’t know Zach Bryan from Adam and though the Kings Of Leon are opening, I’ve seen them a few times already too.

OK, thanks for humoring me. I had to get that off my chest. Still, I comforted knowing that I’ve been overlooked other years for Outside Lands and still returned to the front lines for future ones there since that auspicious festival started in the park all those years ago. I may still get my chance to return again and if I don’t, I’ve done that monstrous thing eight times already. This is another life lesson on letting go and finally bringing it back to this little writing effort of mine, each show I write about is another step on that path. If wallowing in this despair gets me to the other side, so be it. Ollie’s wedding was the correct choice and it indeed was a glorious and unforgettable occasion. And to cite a classical reference, I must always remember that I know it’s only rock & roll, but I like it. 

https://archive.org/details/yonder-mountain-string-band-warfield-4602

https://archive.org/details/ymsb2002-04-06.shnf

Spiritualized, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Warfield, SF, Fri., April 5

SETLISTS :

(BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB) : Spread Your Love, White Palms, Rifles, Love Burns, Whatever Happened To My Rock & Roll (Punk Song), Awake, Red Eyes & Tears, Stop

(SPIRITUALIZED) : Electricity, Shine A Light, Electric Mainline, Out Of Sight, On Fire, Walking With Jesus, Medication, Take Your Time, Broken Heart, I Think I’m In Love, Don’t Just Do Something, Come Together, Take Me To The Other Side, (encore), Lord Can You Hear Me

It had been about a half a year shy of a decade since I first saw Spiritualized at The Warfield, officially the first band I ever ushered for being the first band opening for The Jesus & Mary Chain headlining that night in 1992. I would see Spiritualized again at that same venue three years later for back to back shows opening for Siouxsie & The Banshees, then headlining The Fillmore in ’97, but this time, their fourth outing at The Warfield, they graduated to the final act. Jason Pierce, AKA J. Spaceman, and company had just released “Let It Come Down” the previous September, the impressive follow up to their breakthrough album, “Ladies & Gentlemen, We Are Floating Through Space”. Recruiting an orchestra and a choir, the new album had a staggering 115 artists performing on it and we got to hear four of the new ones that night.

Yes, I was quite familiar with Spiritualized, but I would be smitten first by the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Named after the biker gang in the 1953 thriller “The Wild One” with Marlon Brando, the B.R.M.C. as they are known for short, had a very enjoyable set and made quite an impression on me. They were brand new back then, having just put out their debut self titled album on Virgin just a year and two days before this show. And like Spiritualized, they were very, VERY loud, so I had no trouble getting a clear recording of them. These guys were beyond cool, joining a new, young cadre of scruffy, black leather clad, bohemian rock bands like The Strokes, Jet, and Wolfmother. B.R.M.C. are the kind of band that makes you feel like a hopeless nerd in comparison, the kind that would follow them around hoping that some of their cool would rub off on you. I made a point that night to see them again and have several times since including at Live 105’s Not-So-Silent Night at the Civic the following year. 

Spiritualized came on stage with a long, dreamy intro which melded into “Electricity”. And like the other times I saw them, they pretty much did the same thing with all their tunes, making each one conspicuously long. In a solid two hours, they only did fourteen songs. Maybe it’s also because Jason sings rather slowly too. Certainly, they put a lot of effort into their performance, especially during their ear splitting crescendos, but sometimes I feel like giving Jason a cup of coffee or something. Anyway, they dusted off a few numbers from the Spaceman 3, Jason’s old band, including “Walkin’ With Jesus” and “Take Me To The Other Side”. Technically, “Lord Can You Hear Me”, which they ended the night with for the encore, is the last song on the new album, but it’s also a Spaceman 3 song. Though I would go on to see the B.R.M.C. again, this would be the last time I would see Spiritualized live and like with Bush, who also played the Warfield the previous Monday, my final viewing of both bands would sadly not be commemorated with a poster. But the good news is I did manage to find a decent audio copy of Spiritualized’s set on YouTube. 

https://archive.org/details/spiritualized-bootleg-warfield-4502

https://archive.org/details/spiritualized-warfield-4502

https://archive.org/details/black-rebel-motorcycle-club-warfield-4502

Bush, Default – Warfield, SF, Mon., April 1

SETLISTS : 

(DEFAULT) : Slow Me Down, Sick & Tired, Seize The Day, Somewhere, By Your Side, Let You Down, Break Down Doors, Live A Lie, Wasting My Time, Deny

(BUSH) : Solutions, The Chemicals Between Us, The People That We Love, Everything Zen, Insect Kin, Greedy Fly, Inflatable, Superman, Machinehead, Comedown, (encore), Out Of This World, Glycerine, Swallowed, Just What I Needed, Little Things

I know I’ve written before though it bears repeating that Bush will always be one of those bands who indisputably typified the 90’s and I’m certain that they’re well aware of it. It had been seven years since I’d seen them, but I did catch them three times in 1995, once at the Live 105’s B.F.D. and twice headlining that same Warfield stage. Whether one liked Bush or not, it was obvious that they made it big back then and quickly. But ever since their appearance headlining one day of the disastrous Woodstock ’99 festival, the grunge horse they rode in on was gradually being put down and coincidentally on this day, The Netherlands would be the first country to introduce legalized euthanasia. Bush were on tour supporting their new album, “Golden State” and little did we in the crowd know that soon they would disband after declining record sales and no support from Atlantic, their record label. This tour would in fact be the band’s last for another eight years.

There had also been some line up changes around that time, losing their guitarist, Nigel Pulsford, who retired from show biz to spend more time with his family and Chris Traynor from Orange 9mm took his place for the tour. This would also be the last tour for drummer Dave Parsons. Still, things were doing relatively fine for dreamboat frontman Gavin Rossdale who was all over the news then having just proposed to Gwen Stefani from No Doubt. Gwen’s brother Eric actually played keys on Bush’s new album. Of coarse, Gavin had a very well publicized divorce thirteen years later leaving practically every man on Earth wondering what kind of idiot would cheat on Gwen Stefani. Beats me, a blind one probably. But back to the show.

Opening that night was Default from Vancouver, Canada who, unknown to me and imagine most people at that show, were huge back in the Great White North. Their debut release, “The Fallout”, garnered them the distinction of being the first Canadian artist to chart 4 consecutive #1 singles from a single album. It was pretty radio friendly stuff and their singer, Dallas Smith, made sure to shamelessly plug their singles between songs on a number of occasions during their set. Still, he had a good voice, reminiscent of Maynard James Keenan from Tool, but without the screaming. It makes sense that he went on to have a successful solo career becoming a country singer, especially with a first name like Dallas. Default’s next album wouldn’t be out until the following year, but they did play a new one that night called “Break Down Doors”. It wouldn’t be long until I would see them again on that very stage opening for Nickelback… I know, (groan), another band typifying the 90’s. 

OK, OK, OK… I know it seems like I have been dancing on Bush’s grave here for a while, so I just want to add that I don’t think they’re a bad band at all. That first album produced some unforgettable songs like “Comedown” and “Little Things” that even their fiercest detractors can’t forget. They did a tasteful cover of “Just What I Needed” by The Cars during their encore too. And to his credit, Gavin continued to be productive, starting a respectable acting career including a memorable role as the villain Balthazar in “Constantine” with Keanu Reeves. He also formed a band two years later called Institute bringing along once more Chris Traynor on guitar and Gavin put out a solo record in 2008 as well. Chris would also go on years later to play with both Blur and Helmet. This would be the final time I would see Bush perform live though and sadly, there was no poster this time to mark the occasion. 

https://archive.org/details/bush-warfield-4102

https://archive.org/details/default-warfield-4102

Bad Religion, Less Than Jake, Hot Water Music – Warfield, SF, Wed., March 27

SETLISTS :

(HOT WATER MUSIC) : A Flight & A Crash, (unknown), (unknown), Wayfarer, (unknown), Rooftops, Alright For Now, Turnstile, (unknown)

(LESS THAN JAKE) : (unknown), (unknown), Jen Doesn’t Like Me Anymore, (unknown), History Of A Boring Town, How’s My Driving Doug Hastings?, (unknown), Mr. Chevy Celebrity, (unknown), Plastic Cup Politics, Look What Happened, Last One Out Of Liberty City, Help Save The Youth Of America From Exploding, All My Best Friends Are Metalheads

(BAD RELIGION) : Suffer, Stranger Than Fiction, Supersonic, You, Them & Us, The Defense, No Control, Epiphany, Modern Man, Atomic Garden, Kyoto Now!, Sorrow, Recipe For Hate, Generator, Broken, Do What You Want, Watch It Die, Anesthesia, Along The Way, Skyscraper, Infected, Fuck Armaggedon… This Is Hell, American Jesus, 21st Century (Digital Boy)

As Bad Religion sings, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and America was introduced to a horrifying new nether region of the two just a couple days before this with the premiere of “The Bachelor” on ABC. We haven’t been the same since. The good news is “A Beautiful Mind” won the Oscar for Best Picture the day before that and it was a pretty good movie. But anyway, I was pleasantly distracted from all that and the general lousy state of the world by this welcome encounter with Bad Religion back on The Warfield stage. They were on tour promoting their twelfth studio album, “The Process Of Belief”, in their already long illustrious career as west coast punk pioneers. Brett Gurewitz, who had helmed their record label, Epitaph, had recently rejoined the band on guitar after a seven year absence and helped produce the new album with singer Greg Graffin. They had also acquired a new drummer, Brooks Wackerman, replacing Bobby Schayer.

There were a couple notable openers that night starting with Hot Water Music, a punk band from Gainesville, Florida. They also had a new album on Epitaph called “Caution” and would continue to tour with Bad Religion later that summer on the Van’s Warped Tour, making a stop at Pier 30/32 that July, though I did not attend. They came on stage to the sound of mariachi music coming over the loud speakers, but quickly elevated the room’s volume about a thousand fold. Dear god, their singers Chuck and Chris could scream up a storm. Consequently, I could only make out about half of the song titles in their set that show.  Still, I liked that they did a little riff of “Hell’s Bells” by AC/DC before they began with “A Fight & A Crash”. Halfway through their set, Chuck asked for his “buddy help us sing a song” and at first they couldn’t locate him, but eventually Matt Skiba from the Alkaline Trio came on stage and joined in for the song “Rooftops”. The Trio had just collaborated with Hot Water Music recently on a split EP. Afterwards, Chuck shouted, “Clap your hands for the warm up band! Less Than Jake’s gonna think you suck! They’re going to think you don’t care unless you start dancing! Shake your butt! We came a long way to play with these guys!” Yeah, the pit woke up a little. I appreciated their effort and I’d see them again a year later opening for the Bouncing Souls at The Fillmore and then back again at The Warfield in 2004 opening for Flogging Molly.

The aforementioned Less Than Jake were up next. Also from Gainesville, Florida, but unlike Hot Water Music, I’d already seen them a couple times by then, recording them headlining the Ska Against Racism show at Maritime Hall in 1998 and later that year on that very same Warfield stage at one of those Live 105 Not-So-Silent Nights. They had just released a compilation album of their hits called “Goodbye Blue & White”, a title honoring their old tour van, having memories written about it in the liner notes. They came out to the sound of a “This is only a test” recording and after a couple songs, their singer Chris DeMakes feverishly addressed us, yelling, “Holy shit! There’s a lot of fuckin’ people here! Hi everybody!”. Like their fellow colleagues from Gainesville, they too were extremely loud and also played their songs at breakneck speed, making deciphering their song titles equally as challenging. 

But they delivered a lot of energy as always, getting the audience to sing the “Whoa-oh-oh”’s during “History Of A Boring Town”. Chris later joked, “remember when ska was popular five years ago?” and dedicated the next song to “bay area ska bands from ’96, ’97 who turned into a bunch of shitty emo bands that we can’t stand anyway!” He was sadly right though. Most ska acts around that time started doing that as an excuse to shed their horn players and make more money. Later, he asked us, “By a show of hands, who’s an avid alcoholic or a tweeker in the house? Who’s straight edge? I saw a fuckin’ shrink folks, the last ten years when I got out of college. ‘Aww, you’re fucked up! You need Prozac!’… Let me tell you something. I started drinking a month ago before this tour and San Francisco, I’m doin’ mother fuckin’ fine! Thank you!… This song is about fast women. It’s called ‘Mr. Chevy Celebrity’!” 

Afterwards, he told “a little known secret about Less Than Jake” and pointed to his bass player, Roger Lima, and continued, “Roger’s from Miami. Florida. His mom was a salsa dancer back in the 60’s… Roger, if you would…” and then Roger did a silly dance during their next song “Last One Out Of Liberty City” They rounded out their set Chris talking to us one last time, “Thank you very much. We’re going to play three more songs then Bad Religion is going to knock your ass into the aisle… This song is called ‘If you keep these aisles clear for this song, I’ll be highly fuckin’ shocked’!” So, as you can imagine, us ushers had a little wrangling to do for those last few songs, but I liked Less Than Jake and humored them. 

Soon enough, Bad Religion took the stage and after a couple quick golden oldies, Greg said, “Been a long time, two years I believe maybe since I’ve seen all these wonderful… It was right here in this very building… since that fateful moment in time. We put out a new record & we’d like to thank each and every one of you.” I had in fact attended that Warfield show in 2000, the one where the opening act, The Promise Ring, got mercilessly booed off stage. They then did “Supersonic”, the first song off the new album, followed by “You” which Greg dedicated to all those who “spend all their time in front of the television”. A couple songs later, they played another new one called “The Defense” which Greg introduced, “We’d like to try a new song we’ve only played eight times. This is the ninth and I feel our best chance to master it”. 

Bad Religion kept the punk hits coming, cramming in 24 songs in a little over an hour. Greg taunted the crowd a bit asking, “What song you want us to play?… No! We’re not doing that song… No! We’re not doing that song either…. No! We’re never doing that song ever again.” Then they did “Atomic Garden” and Greg blew his nose, joking, “Snot’s coming out of my nose. So what?…I’ve got to make a confession. I’ve got to take it easy tonight. We got a real important show tomorrow in San Diego”. The crowd predictably booed back at him and Brett countered, “Everybody gets $5 to kick his ass after the show”. Greg bounced back, “I’m just kidding… We think San Diego sucks” and then they performed “Generator”. A couple songs later before they did “Anesthesia”, Greg brought our attention to the front of the stage, pointing out their “tip jar”.

Greg kept his wry, sarcastic humor coming, introducing “Skyscraper”, “This is a song by Paul Simon. It’s called ’50 Ways To Leave Your Lover’… We didn’t write that one and he’d probably wouldn’t appreciate it”. They wrapped up their set with another seven oldies, closing the night with “21st Century (Digital Boy)”. It would be another two years until Bad Religion would return to The Warfield and I’d be there for that one too. Sadly, none of the shows they did there got a poster and I wouldn’t in fact get another one until 7 shows later with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds almost a month later. Coincidentally, Bad Religion is playing tonight as I write, co-headlining at The Fox Theater in Oakland with the Dropkick Murphys. Tempting, but I’ve seen them too many times to fork over $100 for a ticket now. Sorry guys. 

https://archive.org/details/bad-religion-warfield-32702

https://archive.org/details/less-than-jake-warfield-32702

https://archive.org/details/hot-water-music-warfield-32702

Angelique Kidjo, Kasumai Bare – Fillmore, SF, Sat., March 23

SETLIST : Refavela, Batonga, Bahia, Afirika, Iemanja, Black Ivory Soul, Iwoya, Drums & Percussion, Olofoofoo, Ces Petits Riens, Loloye, We We, Okambale, Agolo, Tumba, (encore), Wombo Lombo, Ominira

It had been over a year since I had been introduced to the music of Angelique Kidjo that fateful day, the first concert at the newly christened ball park. There she would be the very first of many musical acts to perform at what was known then as Pac Bell Park, the new home for the Giants, and she was a worthy one. I never forgot her powerful voice and joy in her songs and along with Macy Gray, would open for Dave Matthews Band that night. And the rest is history. But The Fillmore is clearly a much more intimate venue to see Kidjo and it was nice to be amongst her fans exclusively. Like most shows with African artists, the house was packed with many ex-patriates, their relations, and such from that mighty continent, all dressed to the nines in the most colorful outfits and head ornaments imaginable. It had been over two weeks since I’d seen a concert, quite stretch to go without for me back then, and this was a pleasant one to get back into the swing again. 

I had in fact just seen her perform at The Fillmore just six months before this, but I was nonetheless just as eager to hear that unmistakable voice once more. She was doing another tour promoting her latest album, “Black Ivory Soul”, and would do 7 of the new songs for us that night. Though I wrote about her before from the last Fillmore show, I had just learned that the album featured Questlove from The Roots on drums and Bernie Worrell from P-Funk on keys. Bernie had played for Afro-pop legend Fela Kuti as well. Carlos Santana had likewise become a fan of Kidjo and they would collaborate frequently around that time, though sadly none of the previously mentioned were in the house that night. We were lucky to catch this gig since it would be one of only 11 shows she’d do on in the States. Kidjo actually had performed at The Fillmore in Denver only the night before, opening for the String Cheese Incident, a curious combination of acts, I admit. I’m just glad the jam band people like Dave Matthews and them appreciate her work. 

Opening that show was a group called Kasumai Bare, another Afro-pop group who I believe were from Senegal. They had a decent sized band, plenty of drums, a violinist and the singer was quick to thank Kidjo for taking them on tour, calling her an “absolute beautiful jewel”. They even got the crowd to “gently and sweetly” sing her last name over and over during one song, the singer encouraging us, “No, you got to do much better, louder… Before she impresses us, impress her”. Later between songs, he mentioned that she was from Benin and asked if there was anybody in the audience from there too and there was a couple folks who confirmed it. There was plenty of excellent percussion work, especially near the end of their set and they had no trouble getting the crowd to clap along with it. 

Likewise, Kidjo once again brought along her excellent drummers as well, led by master percussionist Aiyb Dieng, and they opened her set with a long intro from them.  She warmly greeted the crowd saying, “Good evening, San Francisco! How are you? You make me want to move back here… Some of my best friends in the world come from here!” To be perfectly honest, and I probably mentioned it before, it was tough to make out what she was saying, since she had an incredibly thick accent and spoke quickly, quietly, almost mumbling. So that’s about all I can definitively say I could make out from her that night, apart from introducing her band before she sang the new song “Tumba” and she did address the audience frequently. But it mattered little to me, since I was more interested in her music and once again, she delivered, her voice soaring and flawless. But I have to say I was disappointed that The Fillmore yet again didn’t print a poster for her. 

https://archive.org/details/angelique-kidjo-fillmore-32302

https://archive.org/details/kasumai-bare-fillmore-32302

Gorillaz, Dan “The Automator” Nakamura – Warfield, SF, Thurs., March 7

SETLIST : M1 A1, Tomorrow Comes Today, Slow Country, 5/4, Starshine, Man Research (Clapper). Sound Check (Gravity), Re-Hash, Clint Eastwood, Rock The House, Dracula, 19-2000, Punk, (encore), 5/4 (reprise), Clint Eastwood (reprise)

In the agonizing first few months after 9/11, I and everybody else were in desperate need of some good news, anything to distract us from anger and anxiety infecting the world. And in some microscopic way, our prayers were answered with the debut of the Gorillaz. So many new styles of music had emerged over the 90’s that I had almost become jaded in believing that anything this original could surface, but it did. Truthfully, I had forgotten about Damon Albarn and his Britpop band Blur since that genre of music had begun its steadily decline in popularity in the last few years before this and though I knew of Dan “The Automator” Nakamura, I was then blissfully unaware of his work with Del Tha Funkee Homosapien and their ingenious project, Deltron 3030. I shamefully didn’t pick up that seminal album until years later. So, first a little back story.

Let’s set the clocks back to halcyon Britpop year of 1990, shortly after Damon had just put together Blur along with his guitarist Graham Coxon. Graham had been a fan of comic book artist Jamie Hewlett’s work with “Tank Girl” and having befriended him, invited Jamie to interview his new band. Initially, Jamie thought Damon was a “wanker” and he probably was a bit back then, young and arrogant, and things quickly went south between Jamie and Graham when Jamie started dating Graham’s ex-girlfriend. Now let’s fast forward to 1997 and Jamie had just broken up with that girl coincidentally around the time that Damon had his well publicized split with Justine Frischmann of Elastica. So, having freshly become bachelors, Jamie and Damon decided to become flatmates together in London. Strange bedfellows in this case seemed to beget strange art indeed. 

Tensions in Blur caused the members to pursue other projects and Damon kept busy writing new material that despite being interesting, didn’t exactly fit with Blur’s repertoire. It was there that he conspired with Jamie to hatch this “virtual” band as this new project was still developing in embryo, Jamie sketching out characters that would ultimately become the Gorillaz. Starting with singer and spiky-haired Damon alter ego “2-D”, there was “Murdoc Faust Niccals”, the Keith Richards-esque bass player, adorable female Japanese guitarist “Noodles”, and hulking, bald, black, & Little Orphan Annie pupil-less “Russel Hobbs” on drums. Damon had collaborated with Nakamura, lending his voice to the opening track of the Deltron 3030 album, so he called Dan up to join in this new project. Del would also be brought on to do all the rap lyrics on the album, most notably for their smash hit single “Clint Eastwood”, so named as the song resembled the theme from “The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly” somewhat. 

And in a very short time, the self titled debut album came out a year before this show, accompanied by Hewlett’s brilliantly animated videos. Sure there had been fictional animated bands before like Alvin & The Chipmunks, The California Raisons, Josie & The Pussycats, and so forth, but this was different. The result was nothing short of an overnight sensation and before they knew it, this fictional band were in high demand to be seen on very real stages. In an effort to bring this project to life, they devised a scheme to erect a huge, semi-translucent screen in front of the band while they performed and project the animations for each song onto it. One could only see Damon and the others in silhouette, but I did noticed at the front of house soundboard position in the balcony of The Warfield, that they had set up a camera on stage feeding a small monitor for the sound man so he could see what was going on with the band. Personally, I thought this screen-silhouette idea was inspired, further enhancing the originality of this project, but I learned later that Damon hated being behind that screen, fantasizing of slashing it open with a knife during a show and sticking his head through the gash to sing. It’s understandable I suppose after spending all those years up front and center stage with Blur, being cheered on by his legions of adoring Britpop fans. The Gorillaz would instead project the animations behind them on stage for tours in years to follow.

I had no idea how spoiled rotten I was that night, seeing one of only 10 shows the Gorillaz would perform that year in North America, 8 in the States, and 1 each in Toronto and Mexico City. This Warfield show was only the 18th live performance they had ever done. It was predictably sold out and the crowd waited with bated breath as The Automator warmed things up, spinning records for about an hour. He opened with a mash up of “Jungle Boogie” by Kool & The Gang with “Fly Like An Eagle” by Steve Miller Band before dusting off some classics involving Del, including his early hit “Mistadobilina” and later “Positive Contact” from the Deltron 3030 album. Dan also did some familiar jams like The Pharcyde’s “Passin’ Me By” and “The Humpty Dance” by Digital Underground. During his set, I overheard myself talking to my buddy Pier who I used to work with years before at the Oakland Marriott. He was a concert junkie like me, in the middle of a five show in row stint and would be attending shows at The Warfield for the next two following nights without me, seeing comedian Wayne Brady and then Dream Theater. Like me, Pier also clearly had eclectic tastes, but I would be taking a well deserved break from shows, not doing another one until Angelique Kidjo at The Fillmore three weeks later. 

Soon enough, the lights went down and the crowd went nuts to the sound of “Natty Take Over” by Justin Hinds & The Dominoes playing over the loudspeakers. That was followed by a recording of Cilian Murphy’s voice during his unforgettable opening scene in the horror film “28 Days Later” shouting “Hello!!! Anyone there?!?” repeatedly in the deserted streets of London. I didn’t know it, nor anyone else, at the time since the movie wouldn’t be released in the States for another year, making me wonder how he got the sample in the first place. I know the movie came out in England first, so maybe he swiped it from a trailer or something. They actually began with “M1 A1”, the final track of the album, followed by “Tomorrow Comes Today”. Damon did some impressive work playing a melodica during that last song and he’d wield it again for other songs as well. I thought the animations were hilarious as they were brilliant, especially an interlude where the characters were playing video games at home, Noodles complaining that her controller was broken.

But then time finally came for “Clint Eastwood” and everybody sang along until our voices were as loud as thunder. Del wasn’t touring with the Gorillaz which was personally disappointing to me, but they had a more than worthy substitute with Jamal Gray, AKA The Last Emperor. I had recorded him as one of many acts on the Lyricist Lounge show at Maritime Hall, alongside De La Soul, Black Eyed Peas, and an upstart, little known rapper called Eminem. I’ll never forget The Last Emperor doing an a cappella bit about comic book characters battling famous rappers at that show. Anyway, the (short version) story in the animated video for that song was that the undead spirit of Del possessed Russel’s brain while he played drums, followed by an invasion of zombie gorillas. They did four more songs before ending their set and during the encore break, they played a curious mash up of electronic ping noises over the speakers. 

Having only a single album’s worth of songs under their belts at the time, the band elected to reprise both “5/4” and an extra long version of “Clint Eastwood” for their encore. The Last Emperor proudly introduced the latter shouting, “Yo Frisco! From Alcatraz to the hood, make some noise for Clint Eastwood!” Damon sneered, “This time you sing it… Sing it, motherfuckers!!!” An we once again did, this extended version even more glorious than the first one. Damon commented once that the real actor-director Clint Eastwood never said anything about the song, but I have to believe at least ONE person, perhaps one of his more fashionable grandchildren, told him and/or played it for him. Mr. Eastwood was only just shy of 62 years old at the time and is well known as an accomplished jazz pianist and I think he’d be flattered or at least a touch curious about it. 

Though this is the only time I’ve seen the Gorillaz perform, I have seen Del Tha Funkee Homosapien on a number of occasions since then and he always does that song, often as his closer. I’m grateful that there’s a good recording of this show available on internetarchive.org and I’ve attached it along with my own along with this review. Likewise, I’m also eternally grateful this musically historic night will forever be commemorated by one the most brilliant posters in my whole collection. Done by Chris Shaw, one of my favorite poster artists, it is of a single cartoon banana with a green backdrop, elegantly simple and clearly an homage to Warhol’s banana cover of The Velvet Underground’s first album. It certainly helped to make up for the absence of posters that I had endured for the last five Fillmore and Warfield shows that I had attended before this and actually was a runner up to be framed and hung on one of my walls in the current flat I’m living in now and after hearing this show again. Part of me wishes I had done it. A novel concept that Gorillaz was, there’s never been another virtual band other than Dethklok from “Metalocalypse” that has even been worthy of their stature. They should go on tour together someday. 

https://archive.org/details/Gorillaz_2002-03-07

https://archive.org/details/gorillaz-warfield-3702

https://archive.org/details/dan-the-automator-nakamura-warfield-3702

Wu Tang Clan – Fillmore, SF, Wed., March 6

SETLIST : (unknown), Dat’s Gangsta, Rumble, Da Mystery Of Chessboxin’, Triumph, Run 4 Cover, Do You Really (Thang, Thang), Liquid Swords, Cold World, Crash Your Crew, Breaker Breaker, One Blood Under W, The Duel Of The Iron Mic, (unknown), (unknown), Glocko Pop, Domestic Violence, La Rhumba, (unknown), (unknown), Iron’s Theme, Ghost Deini, C.R.E.A.M., (unknown), (unknown), Method Man, Bring The Pain, (unknown), Judgement Day, Bring The Ruckus, Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin’ Ta F’ Wit, Tearz, Can It Be All So Simple, Reunited, It’s Yourz, Chrome Wheels, Ice Cream, Freek’n You, Da Rockwilder, The W, Cherchez LaGhost, (mystery girl freestyle), In The Hood, Y’all Been Warned, Rules, Pinky (Uzi Ring)

I had the honor of recording many of the members of this seminal, east coast rap collective over the years at Maritime Hall, but this would be the first occasion that I would see them all together on one stage. Yes, GZA, RZA, Method Man (along with his partner Redman), and Old Dirty Bastard had all passed through the Hall at one point or another, though ODB wouldn’t be in the roster during this show which I will get into later. I had just been to The Fillmore the night before to see the Scratch Tour with Dilated Peoples, Mix Master Mike, and others, continuing a long stretch of hip hop acts that I’d witness there in a short period of time, including Ludacris and Busta Rhymes. 

The Wu-Tang Clan were on tour supporting their new “Iron Flag” album and despite being their second worst selling album, it still managed to certify gold. This would be the first album without ODB and they had airbrushed Cappadonna out of the cover art, angered that his manager, Michael Caruso, had been discovered to be a police informant. The other members of Wu-Tang had been keeping busy with their solo efforts, RZA releasing “Digital Bullet”, Ghostface Killah releasing “Bulletproof Wallets”, and Method Man marrying his wife Tamika in 2001. Method Man would team up once again with Redman, only this time to make the film comedy “How High” that year too. GZA would put out his “Legends Of The Liquid Sword” album later that December. 

To say that ODB was going through a rough patch would be the understatement of the century. He had been arrested in 1999 for driving without a license and then arrested again only weeks later for having a bulletproof vest, which was illegal for him being a convicted felon, well, that and he happened to have 20 vials of crack and some marijuana on him at the time. As part of his plea agreement, he went into a drug rehab facility, but had recently escaped, being literally on the run from the law for a whole month. The po-po finally caught up with him and arrested ODB while he was conspicuously signing autographs in front of a McDonald’s in Philadelphia. So, suffice to say that he was preoccupied in jail around this time and we wouldn’t have the pleasure of his company that night and tragically, I would never see ODB again as he would succumb to a drug overdose only two years later.

It was “An Evening With” show with no opener and the crowd was chomping at the bit for them to get on stage, chanting “Wu-Tang! Wu-Tang! Wu-Tang”. When they finally got on, everybody cheered and put their “W’s” in the air, sort of their inverse “Live long & prosper” Vulcan hand gesture, forming the letter. The first thing I quickly noticed is the seemingly controlled chaos these guys work with, a maelstrom of rap talent, flowing in and out of each others jams at will. For the life of me, I couldn’t comprehend how their DJ could possibly keep up with their endless barrage of ever changing bits of songs dropping without warning again and again and again. I mean, it became exhausting just to simply listen to and if you don’t believe me, check out the setlist above to see the variety of hits they managed to cram into their set. Clearly, this group had been doing this together for years to somehow make this work.

Like I said, I knew a handful of the Wu-Tang guys, but they would deftly switch between each other, and it was hard to make out who was saying what between songs. They made sure to give shout outs to local rap contemporaries like the Hieroglyphics and Too Short, even giving “respect” to the Gorillaz who were playing at The Warfield the next night “because they’re taking it to another level”. One of them also noted ODB’s absence, dedicating “Triumph” to his honor. There was an awkward moment when Chef Raekwon gave a speech talking about the “big trend goin’ on about girls eatin’ each other’s pussy” and that “the more they do, they start losing their soul”. He encouraged the audience to “pick up your good book, your Bible”, denouncing the so-called “carpet munchers”. Well, being San Francisco, even at a gangster rap gig like that, his comments went over like fart in church as you might imagine, though he tried to dial it back praising “strong black women” and encouraging a Latina girl to get on stage and dance with them during “Domestic Violence”.

Anyway, between songs, another member touted the group’s line of Wu-Tang clothing, mentioning their new “Wu-watch”, “Wu-comic book”, and “Wu-video game” before they did “Chrome Wheels”. They followed that with “Ice Cream”, getting at least 10 more women on stage to dance, one of the members asking the crowd, “How many niggas in here like pussy?!? Wanna see some titties?!?”. And yes, the members and then the rest of the audience started chanting “Show your tits!” and “We want titties!” and many of the young women obliged them. And though I didn’t join in the chanting, the sight was welcome to me regardless, being hopelessly single and depressed about it amongst other things around that time. Method Man, still promoting his pot smoking “How High” movie, also encouraged everyone to “roll that shit” and “light that shit”, and it being The Fillmore, we all needed little encouragement. 

After what seemed an eternity, they finally pulled the plug on the night, one of them claiming that if “we ain’t out of the building in 10 minutes, they going to sue us”. They got everybody to chant “1-2-3-Peace!” a couple times and claimed that they were going to have an “after party for all the ladies 21 and over” at the Hotel Triton. Whether or not that was true, I had a feeling anybody who took them up on that offer would have been unsuccessful and disappointed anyway. That hotel on Geary near Union Square always has a couple tough security guys holding vibe out front, yet I can’t help but wonder what rowdy shenanigans the Wu-Tang members got into later after the show. As they left, a random young woman got on stage and started singing a song called “Impossible” a cappella before doing some freestyle rapping of her own and she wasn’t actually half bad. Sadly, there was no poster at the end of the night, as there hadn’t been for the Scratch Tour the night before, but there would be great one for the Gorillaz the following night. 

https://archive.org/details/wu-tang-clan-fillmore-3602

Scratch Tour 2002: Dilated Peoples, Mix Master Mike, Z-Trip, Grand Wizard Theodore, The Original Jazzy Jay – Fillmore, SF, Tues., March 5

SETLIST : (DILATED PEOPLES) : Clockwork, Live On Stage, The Main Event, No Retreat, Ear Drums Pop, Guaranteed 

Though the popularity of scratching had been gradually developing over the last few decades before this, this new American art form had finally reached a milestone being the subject of a new renowned documentary appropriately titled “Scratch” and was due to be released in the theaters that very Friday. Directed by Doug Pray, who had found notoriety with his film about the Seattle grunge scene “Hype” in 1996, this documentary would be the backdrop to this “Scratch Tour” sponsored by Shure Microphones and this Fillmore show would be the first date of these artists’ journey across the nation exhibiting their skills on the ones and twos. In fact, every artist on the bill would be a DJ with the exception of the headliner, Dilated Peoples, though they have DJ Babu in their band, a veteran of the Beat Junkies crew.

The night began with The Original Jazzy Jay, one of the pioneers of the art form, who had been a protege of Afrika Bambaataa and a member of his Universal Zulu Nation, beginning his illustrious career at the tender age of only 13. Jay introduced himself, going on about his hilariously massive record collection, numbering somewhere between 300,000 to 400,000, and ranging from 30’s swing hits like “Blue Moon”, to Check Berry, to the recent hits of the day. A self described “walking encyclopedia” of musical information, Jay displayed his chops mashing up such disparate songs as “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega, “Another One Bites The Dust” by Queen, “Rockit” by Herbie Hancock, and Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power”. But he wasn’t the only master of the turntables from New York on the bill the night. 

Following him would be the one and only Theodore Livingston, AKA Grand Wizzard Theodore, who many consider the inventor of the art of scratching altogether. The story goes, for those who don’t know, that as a boy in 1975, he had been mentored in the ways of DJing by his brother Mean Gene, and one night, he had been tape recording some of his efforts in his bedroom when his mother came in to scold him about the noise. Startled, he held down the record while he was getting an earful and when he re-listened to the tape the next day, he heard the record getting rubbed back and forth, creating that scratching sound which he found intriguing. He later tinkered with his turntables allowing him to develop his scratching skills without damaging the table’s motors. Soon, Theodore shared his new musical technique to the New York hip hop scene alongside his crew, The Fantastic Five, racking up a hit with his single “Can I Get A Soul Clap”, and the rest is history.

Theodore didn’t come out on stage at first, being introduced by a clip from the documentary about his origin story and then heralded by the sounds of “Also Sprach Zarathustra” blasting over the loudspeakers, a NASA-like countdown, the trademark THX sound sample, and ultimately the ubiquitous announcement, “Let’s get ready to rumble!” One of the emcees of the evening announced that it was Theodore’s 25th birthday that night, which was half true being that the day was correct, but he had in fact just turned 39. Theodore joked, “To y’all seen the Heineken commercial and think that’s how scratch was invented, shame on you!” During the middle of his set, he had a young woman come on stage from the audience to “shake what your mamma gave ya’!”. At the end, he thanked us all for giving him the “best birthday I ever had” and reminding us that “there’s no me without you!”

Next up was Z-Trip, the pioneer of mash ups. Yes, though Mr. Zach Sciacca may have not invented the technique, he certainly was the master of it, garnering a reputation for his originality and recruited to do remixes by such A-list artists ranging from the Beastie Boys, to Missy Elliott, and the Butthole Surfers. He was still fairly new then and wouldn’t actually release an album on a major label for another three years, but he wowed us all, combining such eclectic songs as Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” with “Testify” by Rage Against The Machine. He would drop jam after jam ranging from stuff from Led Zeppelin, “Love Is A Battlefield” by Pat Benatar, “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath, “Tom Sawyer” by Rush”, and ending strangely enough with Mussorgsky’s “Night On Bald Mountain”. Speaking of Black Sabbath, Ozzy’s reality show “The Osbournes” just premiered on MTV that very night and Ozzy just retired with a huge Sabbath reunion show in Birmingham, England last week.  

But back to the show and next up was Mix Master Mike. I was more than familiar with his work, having seen him already with the Beastie Boys, recording him twice at Maritime Hall, and hearing his masterful mixing on that very stage only a few weeks before this at the 215 Blowout show, a benefit for the Cannabis Action Network. Like Theodore, he was introduced with a clip from the documentary where he told a story about when he was boy, that he couldn’t at first afford to buy bone fide turntables of his own. Consequently, Mike purchased a couple of cheap tape decks instead, mixing hip hop and random things like sound effects, science fiction story records, and drums. Eventually, he was able to get some real tables and continued his craft becoming ultimately what he called a “scratch traffic controller”. Mike kept his set to stuff that he spun the last time I saw him there, once again playing the “Sardines & Pork & Beans!” bit from “The Maestro” by the Beasties, a couple of Rage Against The Machine mash ups, and a bit of “Ease Back” by the Ultramagnetic MCs. 

Finally, Dilated Peoples finished the night, coming on declaring that “everything up on this stage is real”, “you can’t fake” what they do, and asking “Where my dogs at? Where are my dogettes at?” and so forth. They were promoting their second album, “Expansion Team”, and though they got the crowd quite pumped, their set was only a disappointing six songs long. I was impressed by Babu’s scratching and the rappers’ clear diction, a sure sign of talent for any hip hop crew and I would enjoy their stylings once again at The Fillmore later that October when they opened for Public Enemy. The poster from that show is currently framed and proudly displayed on a wall in my living room right now in fact.

There were little flyers going around that night promoting the soundtrack to the film “All About The Benjamins” starring Ice Cube and Mike Epps, though none of the artists on that album were performing that night. The soundtrack had just been released that day and the movie itself was coming out that Friday alongside “Scratch”. The flyers easily caught people’s attention, including my own because the backside of the flyer looked deceptively like a folded $100 bill.  It certainly caught my eye and I was one of many who fell for it. Anyway, “Scratch” was playing up the street from me at the Lumiere on California, but I didn’t catch it when it was there, nor have I seen “All About The Benjamins” now that I think about it. Still, I had a lovely time and it was a pity that the show didn’t get a poster that night. I would return the following evening to The Fillmore to see some more east coast hip hop with the Wu-Tang Clan, but sadly, they didn’t get a poster either. 

https://archive.org/details/dilated-peoples-fillmore-3502

https://archive.org/details/mix-master-mike-fillmore-3502

https://archive.org/details/z-trip-fillmore-3502

https://archive.org/details/grand-wizard-theodore-fillmore-3502

https://archive.org/details/the-original-jazzy-jay-fillmore-3502

Ludacris, DJ JC – Fillmore, SF, Fri., March 1

SETLIST : Cry Babies (Oh No), Coming 2 America, Block Lockdown, Phat Rabbit, Growing Pains, Catch Up, Area Codes, Ho, (unknown), Go 2 Sleep, She Said, Move Bitch, Welcome To Atlanta, One Minute Man, Saturday (Oooh! Oooh!), Southern Hospitality, Word Of Mouf, What Means The World To You, What’s Your Fantasy, Rollout (My Business)

As it was with the genre of reggae, the sinking of Maritime Hall also meant a severe cutback

with my intake of hip hop music, so when shows such as this came through at The Fillmore, I was grateful. Mr. Christopher Brian Bridges AKA Ludacris was still fairly new to the national music scene. Already a hip hop child prodigy, writing his first rap song at the age of 9, he worked his way diligently to stardom, from his days as “DJ Chris Lova Love” on Atlanta’s Hot 97.5 radio station, producing his debut album “Incognegro” on his own record label, Disturbing Tha Peace, to his latest release, “Word Of Mouf” which had just come out the previous November. That one would be certified triple platinum, become his best selling album, and the single “Rollout (My Business)” would earn him a Grammy nomination for Best Male Rap Solo Performance.  

His efforts helped further catapult the so-called “Dirty South” sound into mainstream success alongside other such Georgian hip hop royalty as Outkast, Lil Jon, and the Goodie Mob. And he had more good news recently with the birth of his daughter Karma the previous August. Ludacris would actually go on to produce an animated show called “Karma’s World” in 2021 for Netflix. a semi-autobiographical, musical comedy series about his daughter and he would star as the lead voice in the show playing, naturally, her father. And speaking of show biz running in his family, Ludacris also happens to be the second cousin twice removed of comedy legend Richard Pryor who would pass away just three years after this evening. I hope Richard got to see him perform at least once before he died. I’m sure Richard would have recognized and appreciated his cousin’s penchant for raunchiness. 

It was just another “An Evening With” show, the first of two sold out nights, with no opening act other than Ludacris’ turntablist DJ JC to warm up the crowd. I assume the second show was added after mine because of all the obvious demand. My ears were still ringing from witnessing Machinehead on that stage the night before, a very different musical act indeed. Though as luck would have it, Darwin’s Waiting Room, the second opening act that night, did a nu metal cover of “Back That Azz Up” by Juvenile, a fellow Georgian like Ludacris, and DJ JC spun the original version of that jam before the show began. He also dropped a couple songs by Busta Rhymes who had performed at The Fillmore as well just two weeks before this show. This was the last night of what they were calling “The Rollout Tour” and Ludacris’ people were definitely in the mood to party that night.

A DJ from KMEL introduced Ludacris and the crowd went nuts when he got on stage. Ludacris, a fellow radio veteran himself, made sure to give a shout out to KMEL before he started, said another shout out to folks from Vallejo, and noticed that there was a “girl up here trying to show her titties”. He encouraged her to even going so far as saying, “I ain’t startin’ the music until she shows her titties”. She either did or he just gave up because he soon began the night doing an acappella rendition of his new song “Cry Babies (Oh No)”. A few jams later, he asked, “Where all my smokers at? I know this is the west coast… Smoke and drink every day, your body’s gonna get fucked up… But some niggas just don’t give a fuck!” and then he did “Catch Up”. 

A few more songs later, he set up his big hit joking, “Ever been trying to get somewhere in a hurry in a car driving real fast and someone in front of you is driving slow as a motherfucker?.. Trying to get around them, you just want them to move and get out the way?” and he lead the crowd to loudly sing along to “Move Bitch”. Ludacris then reminded of us of his lusty ways claiming that there was “too many fine ass women in here… Ladies, let me ask you a question. How many of you can’t stand a ‘One Minute Man’?” and then he did that song, one that he recorded as a duet with Missy Elliott. Teeing up the next title, he pointed out that “in one hour, it’s going to be Saturday” and he got everybody to do holler the “Oooh Ooohs” in, of course, “Saturday (Oooh! Oooh!)”

Before the next one, he and his hype man divided up the crowd to see who could yell “When you get on the floor, throw them ‘bows”. When Ludacris had his side put up their middle fingers to the other side, his hype man had his side put up both their middle fingers to his and then they had the whole crowd chant the chorus before they brought the house down with “Southern Hospitality”. Ludacris egged on the audience demanding, “If you’re going home and fuckin’ tonight, make some noise!”, before going on to do the title track off his new album, also done acappella. He led the audience to the loudest singalong yet with “What’s Your Fantasy” before finishing the night with “Rollout (My Business)”. He and DJ JC hung around on stage for a while as the crowd slowly dispersed. 

Strangely enough, they were playing some kind of swing music and I overheard me talking to somebody about how exhausted I was having just been there the night before for Machinehead and for Violet Indiana at the Great American the night before that. We both encouraged each other to get some rest. This show might have been the first of what I call “walkout” recordings where I literally taped myself walking out of the venue after the show ended. I think I did it originally here just because I wasn’t sure if the show was quite over yet, but when I realized it was, I just kept it going, knowing that I had plenty of tape remaining. Soon, I would be doing this for every show, hearing comments from people walking out, the handing of posters at the door (though there conspicuously wasn’t one for this show), and the sound of traffic outside the venue. 

On a strange note, five months after this show, Ludacris would get into a well publicized tussle with Fox News anchor and all-around fascist dickhead Bill O’Reilly who had called for Pepsi, who Ludacris had been doing ads for, to boycott him over his profane lyrics. Pepsi, like the spineless corporate villains that they are, fired Ludacris replacing him with Ozzy Osbourne. Instantly, everybody knew that it was the height of irony, racism, and hypocrisy because by then Ozzy had clearly said and done things far, far more profane by any standards, too numerous to even go into now. Ludacris sued Pepsi who eventually settled for $3 million which he promptly donated to his charity, The Ludacris Foundation, which teaches leadership and helps provide for urban youth. He retaliated against Bill by going on Tom Green’s show, hilariously launching copies of Bill’s books into a dumpster with a catapult. They eventually kissed and made up at a charity event in 2010, but the whole incident only gave Ludacris more fans and steet cred. 

Yes, despite Bill’s pathetic grudge, Ludacris’ career would continue its meteoric rise and I would enjoy seeing him a year later on that same stage again. By then, his acting career would also start taking off with appearances in “2 Fast 2 Furious”, a role he would reprise in four more installments of that film series, and the Oscar winning drama “Crash”, which would earn him a Screen Actors Guild Award. Incidentally, Ludacris is going to be on the bill of the summer’s Outside Lands in Golden Gate Park and though I haven’t seen him play in over 20 years, I hope that if I get on that show god willing once again, that he’ll be performing on my stage. He’s the only act apart from Beck and Thundercat that I had seen before or frankly knew anything about and being a hip hop performer, will rest assured be easy to set up. 

https://archive.org/details/ludacris-fillmore-3102

https://archive.org/details/dj-jc-fillmore-3102

Call & Response, Persephone’s Bees, Matt Pond PA – Café Du Nord, SF, Fri., March 1

(SETLIST) : (PERSEPHONE’S BEES) : (Instrumental), On The Earth, (unknown), Way To Your Heart, (unknown), Queen’s Night Out, (unknown), Paper Plane

Before I continue with this, I feel a need to make a point of clarification. As you probably have noticed, there are quite a number of shows listed in this little writing experiment of mine and despite my best efforts to keep the dates in order, from time to time I run into a couple that are dated incorrectly or share a date with another show. Often the case is that I just fucked up and put the wrong date for one of the two, and I thought that was what happened here with the Call & Response show. But in this case, it wasn’t until I had already posted my piece about Ludacris at The Fillmore when I discovered that the show in question indeed shared the same date as Ludacris, but was actually an early show that afternoon. The memory returned to me and I recall hanging out at Cafe Du Nord as long as I could before having to haul ass to The Fillmore to make it in time to usher. So, clearly the Call & Response show was first in line for this blog and I will correct it, but to those who had the pleasure of reading the Ludacris bit before this one, consider this a prequel. 

I always enjoyed doing these “double feature” shows, but they were few and far between. The last one I can remember before this was the previous October, seeing Spearhead at their 9/11 Power To The Peaceful show at Dolores Park before continuing on to see Suzanne Vega that night at The Warfield. And like those other “double feature” shows, I was tickled by the contrast of musical styles between the acts that day, bouncing from the bohemian Noise Pop sounds of these guys to the raunchy hip hop of the “Dirty South” hours later with Ludacris. Yes, I saw a handful of enjoyable shows at Cafe Du Nord in my taping days and it being a former Prohibition Speakeasy, basically was a basement with low ceilings. This ensured that the shows were always extraordinarily loud, leaving my recordings coming through quite clearly, especially the guitar parts. Like I said, this was an afternoon event, a “happy hour” show as they were billing it, beginning bright and early at 4:30 pm. 

This was the first of three days of the very first Noise Pop festival, organized by Jordan Kurland, who I used to intern for in college at the office of Dave Lefkowitz, the manager of Primus. Jordan would continue to organize these festivals in San Francisco to this day, with the exception of 2020 during the pandemic while managing such acts as Death Cab For Cutie and Matt Nathanson. I’m fairly sure that my friend Matt roped me into this show, probably scoring free tickets as he had the exceptional talent of doing, though if we did buy tickets, Jordan always made sure that tickets to Noise Pop shows were affordable. Jordan was always a generous guy and I miss working with him and wish him well, especially if he’s reading this now… Hi Jordan.  

Call & Response were fellow Californians, I think from Oakland or at least around the bay area, known for their infectious harmonies and catchy pop songs. Comprised of three women and two men, they were quite pleasant, what little I heard of them, catching only three songs before we had to vacate. Thankfully, I got to see them a couple more times in 2004, first doing a free in-store set at Amoeba Records and then a couple months later at the Great American opening for The Court & Spark, coincidentally another pop band with an ampersand in their name. But Call & Response would ultimately be short lived as a band, breaking up a year later for good. I was mainly there to see Persephone’s Bees which had been recommended by Matt, another bay area pop band with a female singer from Oakland. Her name was Angelina Moysov, I believe a Russian who emigrated to the Monterey area in 1993 hooking up with their guitarist, Tom Ayres, at a local club there called Viva’s. 

Before I go on, if the band’s moniker strikes a bell with y’all, especially you nerds like me who are into mythology when you were kids, the name comes from an ancient Greek story, later recounted in a poem by fellow Russian, Osip Mandelstam. To make a long story short, Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, who was abducted by her uncle Hades, the king of the Underworld, while she was minding her own bee’s wax (excuse the pun) and picking flowers one fine day. Hades cleft open the Earth, dragging her down to his subterranean crib, and forcing the poor girl to marry him (ewww). She reluctantly became his queen, inheriting the very metal title of Goddess Of The Dead, after being tricked into eating pomegranate seeds that for some reason insured that she had to stay in the Underworld every winter. But Persephone was free to resurface on Earth every spring to hang out with her mom. Her presence thus heralded the return to life for the plants and stuff, hence the bees who as you know are responsible for pollenating. Likewise, when she returned every winter to the Underworld, the plants would wither once again. OK, I guess that was sort of a long story after all.  

Anyway, the Bees were fairly new back then as were Call & Response, both bands forming around 1999. It helped that they had recruited former Loved Ones bassist extraordinaire Bart Davenport on the team, a respected alt rock musician in many circles. This new band had just released their first LP called “City Of Love” that year and it would go on to win Best Debut Album at the California Music Awards, or Bammies as they were commonly known. Their new album had been produced by veteran Eric Valentine who had done work with Queens Of The Stone Age (Yay!) and Third Eye Blind (Boo!). The Bees actually had a run of moderate success around then, touring alongside such notable artists as Cake and Jonathan Richman, and their songs would grace the soundtracks of the “Bewitched” reboot movie and TV shows like “The Sopranos” and “Weeds”. I liked them right away, the first song of their set being a groovy instrumental and afterwards Angelina said, “Thanks for showing up early. I really didn’t expect anyone to be here”. I would see them only five weeks later opening for Petrol at Slim’s, though I believe that was the last time I’d see them perform.

I only managed to record one song from the first act, Matt Pond PA, probably because we showed up late.  They were a band from Philadelphia with a long roster of ex-members who had just released their third album “The Green Fury” two months before this show. Though like Call & Response, I only got to see a bit of them, I would get another chance to check them out four years later when I’d catch them opening for Gomez at The Warfield alongside a brand new, unknown act at the time called Rodrigo Y Gabriela. Those guys would soon get super big after that, though they didn’t have an ampersand in their name like the other two name bands formerly mentioned.

https://archive.org/details/call-response-cafe-du-nord-3102

https://archive.org/details/persephones-bees-cafe-du-nord-3102

https://archive.org/details/matt-pond-pa-cafe-du-nord-3102

Machinehead, Darwin’s Waiting Room, 3rd Strike – Fillmore, SF, Thur., February 28

SETLISTS :

(3RD STRIKE) : Walked Away, Flow Heat, Blind My Eyes, Paranoid, All Lies

(DARWIN’S WAITING ROOM) : Godfather Intro, Live In The Moment, Feels So Stupid (Table 9), Spent, All I Have Is Me, Transparent, In To The Dark, Back That Azz Up

(MACHINEHEAD) :  Bulldozer, The Blood The Sweat The Tears, (unknown), (unknown), Crashing Around You, Take My Scars, I’m Your God Now, White Knuckle Blackout!, From This Day, American High, Nothing Left, Deafening Silence, Davidian, Territory, Live Wire, Supercharger

It had been almost four years since I recorded Machinehead for the third time at Maritime Hall, so I was well versed in their brand of east bay thrash metal by then, but I was eager to hear them once more and finally at a different venue. Sadly, they never released any of the shows I taped at the Hall and I was disappointed that they instead did a live album from a gig they had just done then in London at the Brixton Academy, which would be titled “Hellalive”, a shout out to their Oaklandish vernacular, and would be released a year later. They had just put out their “Supercharger” album three weeks after 9/11 and we got to hear six of their new songs that night. It would be the last album featuring Ahrue Luster on guitar, who left the band over creative differences and would be replaced by Phil Demmel, who had served guitar duties in Vio-Lence, the pioneering east bay thrash metal band alongside Machinehead frontman Rob Flynn. 

The video for the new single “Crashing Around You” was badly timed since it had several images of San Francisco’s downtown buildings on fire, so the video was ultimately pulled. To make matters worse, the new album proved to be a commercial failure getting no promotion from their label, Roadrunner, leading them to negotiate their way off their contract with them. They were on the verge of breaking up when they got resigned by Roadrunner and thankfully their next album, “Through The Ashes Of Empires”, would do better. Though I’m certain Machinehead is mortified that they share their name with a song by Bush, as luck would have it, I would see Bush at The Warfield a month after this and yes, they played it. And also yes, to all those nit pickers out there, I do know that Machinehead is commonly known as “Machine Head”, the two word version, but I had gotten to know them at the Maritime listed as one word and I stubbornly prefer to address them as such. Any-who, this had been a strangely divergent few days musically then, having just heard the shoegazing sounds of Violet Indiana with Robin Guthrie from the Cocteau Twins the night before and would catch the hip hop stylings of Ludacris also at The Fillmore the night after, though neither Fillmore shows would get a poster. 

The first band on stage that night was 3rd Strike from Los Angeles who though sounding suspiciously like Limp Bizkit, nonetheless did a respectable cover of “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath. They made sure to give a shout out to Machinehead noting that they were back in their hometown, or at least across the bay from it anyway. They were followed by another Limp Bizkit channeling nu metal band called Darwin’s Waiting Room from Miami. They came on stage to the sound of the theme from “The Godfather” playing over the loudspeakers and they did their best to encourage the crowd to “make some fuckin’ noise!!!!” Halfway through their set, their singer Jean “Jabe” Baptiste-Blot made a point to say how glad he was that the month of February was ending because he “can’t fuckin’ stand Valentine’s Day… all the flowers, the chocolates, all the fake bullshit cards that don’t mean shit” and then they did “All I Have Is Me”. 

When he announced that the next song was called “Transparent”, I overheard a cynical guy next to me cracking, “Yeah, I can see right through you”. Afterwards, Jabe gave a little speech about how we have to “change the terminology” about “boy bands” like N’Sync and the Backstreet Boys, saying that they should be called “groups” instead, his rationale being that real bands play instruments and he listed off some “real fuckin’ musicians” like Korn, Slipknot, and System Of A Down. But Darwin’s Waiting Room weren’t so macho as to not show their play side and they did a funny little nu metal medley of the kids song, “The Wheels On The Bus” before doing “Back That Azz Up” by Juvenile. In a strange coincidence, DJ JC, the turntablist for Ludacris spun the original of that song on his ones and twos the next day on that very same stage. 

Machinehead’s homegrown crowd was more than ready to mosh when they got on stage and opened their set with the new song, “Bulldozer”. Oh dear lord, as you might have guessed, it was a loud one, so I had no trouble hearing it from the back of the room. After a few songs, I was cut from ushering and came back downstairs missing a couple of songs, hearing Rob introduce “Crashing Around You”, saying that he was “so pissed off at the world” and that he “didn’t want to be mad, but a voice inside wanted me to stay mad… I thought I was the only weirdo… Are there any weirdos in here?” A couple songs later, he dedicated “I’m Your God Now” to the memory of Paul Baloff, the lead singer of Exodus who had just passed away from a stroke at the beginning of the month at the all too young age of 41 years old. Speaking of birthdays and on a happier note, that night was (legally) my friend Hefe’s 30th birthday. Being a leap year baby, he wouldn’t officially be 8 years old until 2004, but I digress.

Before Machinehead did “American High”, Rob asked, “What’s goin’ on, San Francisco? Let me tell you guys somethin’, that last fuckin’ jump on stage you just did was fuckin’ awesome, right? Thank you very, very, very much. You guys doin’ alright? I know it’s like Thursday night and shit. You gotta go to work. You gotta go to school. Feel like stickin’ around and have a few beers with Machinehead?!?… Cheers, motherfuckers… Cheers”. He went on to say that the song was “about the fine line between being a delinquent, drinkin’ beer, drinkin’ vodka, smokin’ a little bit of weed, porno, & Fremont, California. Do you guys feel like losing your goddamn minds tonight?!?” Afterwards, he mentioned, “In case you don’t know, a little Black Sabbath is good for the soul” and continued with “Nothing Left”. The band had been doing a cover of “Iron Man” on the tour, but they didn’t so it that night. I guess one Sabbath cover by 3rd Strike was enough.

Rob took time to introduce the other band members and brought it down to a somber note saying, “Thank you, San Francisco. This next song that Machinehead’s going to do for you here is going to be dedicated to the single event in every single person in this room’s, in this entire generation’s lives… That 4000 or so people who lost their lives on September 11th” and then they did “Deafening Silence”. He most certainly brought the audience back up again when he followed that with “Davidian” getting everybody to yell, “Let freedom ring with a shotgun blast!!!” They continued doing a couple cover songs, Rob goading the crowd, “I’m going to tell you what songs we’re doing. Whoever gets the loudest cheer, that’s what we’ll do… Iron Maiden?… System Of A Down?… Motley Crue?…. Sepultura?” Clearly the last two got the loudest response, so they did “Territory” followed by “Live Wire”. Rob taunted one kid in the crowd who despite wearing a Sepultura shirt, didn’t even “know the goddamn lyrics”, eliciting boos from the others. 

They finished the set, Rob dedicating the new title track off the new album “for every person who’s ever got a Machinehead record” and “every single drunken lunatic that’s been in here for the last hour and a half”. I found red napkins promoting the new Ann Rice vampire movie “Queen Of The Damned”, which had just come out in theaters the weekend before this show, around the tables of The Fillmore that night and snagged one. Though none of the bands on the bill had any songs on that movie’s soundtrack, it was definitely populated by some other notable nu metal acts like Korn who were fellow label mates of Machinehead on Roadrunner, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers who had made the movie. Jonathan Davis of Korn would actually sing the parts for Lestat in that movie. You know, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen it, though it was famous being the final film role of Aaliyah before she perished in a plane crash, but just as well. I heard it was pretty dumb and it flopped at the box office. Anyway, this was the last time I’d see Machinehead perform, but they still tour, having just headlined a show at the Fox Theater back in their home sweet home of Oakland last April. 

https://archive.org/details/machinehead-fillmore-22802

https://archive.org/details/darwins-waiting-room-fillmore-22802

https://archive.org/details/3rd-strike-fillmore-22802

Violet Indiana, Laughingstock – Great American Music Hall, SF, Wed., February 27

SETLIST : Power River, Air Kissing, Sundance, Liar, Poison Gorgeous, Rage Days, Little Echo, Silent, Poppy, Jailbird, Busted, Feline Or Famine, Killer Eyes, (encore), Purr La Perla, Chapter 3, Vodka Song

I hadn’t seen Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins since they had played at The Warfield back in 1996 where little did I know that he would soon be parting ways acrimoniously and romantically with his partner Elizabeth Fraser just a year later. Since then, Robin had immersed himself in producing and would soon be putting out solo records. But a few years before this show, he formed Violet Indiana, recruiting Siobhan de Mare of the band Mono to sing for him. Siobhan in fact had never heard the Twins’ music before she was approached, though she said her sister and friends were fans. Likewise, Robin had never heard Mono, only hearing some new demo of some solo stuff she had been working on handed to him by friend. And speaking of friends, my buddy Matt joined me to watch this show, bringing along his trusty camera. He actually got an excellent black & white shot of Siobhan performing that night but I have since misplaced my print of it. Matt assured me if it ever turned up on his end in North Carolina, he’d email me a copy and I promise to post it later.

One friend who sadly didn’t make it to the show was my dear friend Liz. She was just about to move to London where she’s remained ever since and couldn’t make it. I miss Liz and though she still has some lingering home sickness, I’m glad she escaped America, especially during that painful time right after 9/11. Part of me still wishes that I’d gone with her, but she has dual citizenship and I don’t. Tough break for me. If you’ve read my previous entries about the Twins before, you might recall that Liz was friends with Robin, Elizabeth, and their guitar tech for some time and wouldn’t have missed that show if she didn’t have to. Violet Indiana was a short lived side project, calling it quits, putting out their last album two years later. This time they were touring in support of a compilation album called “Casino”, patched together from their first 3 EPs. It was just enough material to fill out a respectable hour long set and the tickets were only $15, a deal even back with 2002 prices. 

But first up was a band called Laughingstock, a replacement for the original opener, Starflyer 59, who had to drop out for some unknown reason. The crowd was pretty sparse when they got on, it being a seated show with tables and chairs spread out over the usually empty dance floor. The Great American and other venues like Slim’s and The Fillmore would do that sometimes when there were low ticket sales like it happened presumably for that show. Bad news for the band and the venue, but good news for me, making it easier to get a good spot and the crowd being quieter. I couldn’t find any information on them, so I imagined they were a short lived musical project as well, though I do know they share a name with a Norwegian band. It was a trio with a drummer, violinist, and cellist and I thought their proto-punk music was pretty good, coincidentally sounding like Deadweight who’d just seen at The Fillmore the week before this, another cello-violin-drum combo. But they were only on for a half hour, squeezing in just seven songs.

I hadn’t heard any of Violet Indiana’s music before this night, but I knew Robin’s signature 12-string, sonic brick wall of layered guitar sound well. His style permeated the whole shoegazer movement in the late 80’s-early 90’s, producing some of Lush’s early albums for example. And though that movement was on the decline along with their other Britpop brethren, it should be noted that Violet Indiana was one of the good ones, though coming late to the party. Siobhan had a beautiful, breathy voice, reminiscent of singers like Bjork, Beth Gibbons of Portishead, and Siouxsie Sioux. She took a moment before they did “Feline Or Famine” to mock the seating arrangement on the floor and taunted us a little to stand up. One thing I remember, perhaps my most vivid memory of this show, was Siobhan being pregnant. I mean, she was pretty far along, I’d guess at least 6 months. She’s one of only three singers I’ve seen pregnant or at least visibly pregnant on stage, she being one, the others being Salt of Salt-N-Pepa and Sabina Sciubba of Brazilian Girls. Weird to think that kid’s old enough to drink now. 

https://archive.org/details/violet-indiana-great-american-music-hall-22702

https://archive.org/details/laughingstock-great-american-music-hall-22702

Bob Marley Day 2002: Luciano, Damian Marley & The Ghetto Youth Crew, Mikey General, Wadi Gad & Jahbandis, Prince Rastan – Warfield, SF, Sat., February 23

SETLISTS : 

(WADI GAD & JAHBANDIS) : Wanted Man, Give Love A Try, To Behold Jah, Why Should I Cry, Joy, Rocky Road

(DAMIAN MARLEY & THE GHETTO YOUTH CREW) : Mr. Marley, Old War Chant, (unknown), Me Name Jr. Gong, Crazy Baldhead, So Much Trouble In The World, Trenchtown Rock, We & Dem, Work, Searching (So Much Bubble), Still Searchin’, It Was Written 

After the Maritime Hall finally sunk, my intake of reggae shows was drastically reduced. Indeed, the roster of that genre’s finest had been coming through month after month for years but by this time, I was fortunate to catch one of these shows a season. So, you can imagine my relief when a long one such as this Bob Marley Day gig came through town. Because of my tenure at the Maritime, the house that Hughston built, I was familiar with all these acts and had in fact recorded Luciano and Prince Rastan twice there and Mikey General once. One thing was certain, it was going to be a looooong night and The Warfield was about to get thoroughly hot boxed. If that wasn’t enough, in a span of only a week and a day, I had just attended the Cannabis Action Network gig with Mix Master Mike, followed closely by Busta Rhymes and Willie Nelson, all three shows at The Fillmore. I definitely was getting my time in with the devil’s cabbage. This show had been advertised originally to be at The Fillmore, but eventually it got bumped up to The Warfield due to the demand I imagine.

The first act on that evening was Oakland native Prince Rastan and thankfully they opened the doors an hour early to help get us all out of there in a semi-reasonable hour. Rastan was still very much a kid when I first recorded him and his wheelchair bound father three years before this, but I could clearly see that he was growing up fast, at least a foot taller and skinnier than when I’d seen him last and his voice was slightly lower too. They were only on stage for five songs and were soon followed by Wadi Gad & Jahbandis. Like many of the acts on that night, Wadi had a pretty thick accent and spoke quickly between songs, but I did make out him saying that “music is a gift”, that as musicians, they have a responsibility to the world, and that “unity is the key”. It felt good to hear some Rastafarian wisdom and calls for peace, especially since we all were still coping with the trauma of 9/11. 

I had seen Damian Marley, the youngest of Bob’s kids, performing on the main stage with his brother Julian and The Uprising Band twice at Lollapalooza in 1997. Damian was brand new then, only 19 years old, but by this show he was a seasoned touring act, having just released his second album, “Halfway Tree”, which won him a Grammy for Best Reggae Album, beating out Luciano as luck would have it. His other brother Stephen co-produced it and both he and Mikey General were touring with the Ghetto Youth Crew for their band, a collection of artists put together for their record label of the same name. All the Marley brothers founded the label as a non-profit that helps underprivileged youth in Jamaica. I couldn’t figure out Mikey General’s setlist, but most acts that night did at least one Bob Marley cover and he did “Catch A Fire”. 

By the time Mikey got on, it was getting crowded down on the dance floor and I was sweating a bit trying to redirect patrons down the left bar aisle to get to the dance floor’s side entrance. I overheard a conversation I had with another usher about the difficulties trying to schedule in concerts in our lives when most are announced at least three months before the show. Ironically, I also talked to an usher in my aisle shortly afterwards, though I don’t remember which, about his birthday party coming up three months later in July which was going to have a ganja cake. I commiserated with him that I too that I would soon be turning 30 years old that month and would try to make it to his party if I wasn’t working.

Damian honored his father that night reciting three of his classics, “Crazy Baldhead”, “So Much Trouble”, and “Trenchtown Rock”. Like the times before, I was impressed with him, so much that I still consider him to be my favorite of the Marley brothers. His success would continue in 2005 when he’d put out “Welcome To Jamrock” which would go gold and win him another Grammy for Best Reggae Album. I’d see Damian once more on that Warfield stage the year after this show as well, that time headlining the Bob Marley Day gig paired again with his brother Julian. Prince Rastan was the opening act for that one too. I finally was cut from ushering when Luciano came on but when I went back downstairs to get a pint of Sierra Nevada from the bar, I found that I misplaced my drink ticket and had to pay for it with cash. I don’t recall ever losing a drink ticket before that night and I don’t think I have since. Whatever, easy come, easy go. Strangely, Luciano also did a cover of “Crazy Baldhead” that night. I mean, it’s one of Bob’s best songs, but he had a million other great ones to choose from. Maybe he was still sore at Damian about the Grammy. Anyway, Luciano also did a cover of “War” and had a tight set, ending the night graciously introducing his band, having them each do a solo, and proclaiming that “reggae music is the heart of the people”. 

https://archive.org/details/luciano-warfield-22302

https://archive.org/details/damian-marley-the-ghetto-youth-crew-warfield-22302

https://archive.org/details/mikey-general-warfield-22302

https://archive.org/details/wadi-gad-jahbandis-warfield-22302

https://archive.org/details/prince-rastan-warfield-22302

Willie Nelson, Norah Jones – Fillmore, SF, Wed., February 20

SETLIST : Whiskey River, Stay All Night, Good Hearted Woman, Ain’t It Funny (How Time Slips Away), The Night Life, Working Man Blues, Help Me Make It Through The Night, Me & Bobby McGee, Me & Paul, If You’ve Got The Money Honey, Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain, (Instrumental), Blue Skies, Georgia (On My Mind), All Of Me, Stardust, Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys, Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground, On The Road Again, Always On My Mind, I Never Cared For You, To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before, Luckenbach Texas, Whiskey River (reprise), Still Is Still Moving To Me, Milk Cow Blues, Poncho & Lefty, Maria (Shut Up & Kiss Me), Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In), The Great Divide, Truck Drivin’ Man, My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It, Jambalaya, Hey Good Lookin’, The Rainbow Connection, Will The Circle Be Unbroken, The Thirty-Third Of August, Pick Up The Tempo, Mountain Dew, Till I Gain Control Again, I Saw The Light

It goes without saying that the great, the one and only, Mr. Willie Nelson needs no introduction, but to all those who’ve been living under a rock for the last century, feel free to revisit my previous entries about him for more back story. That being said, this would be country legend’s second run of shows at The Fillmore, his first being only two back to back shows there the year before this. This time, he was back for, count em’, four in a row and they were commemorating this run with one of the finest posters The Fillmore ever produced. This was one of Jason Mercier’s famous collages and it was so brilliant that the original now hangs over the main bar of The Fillmore to this day. It was a monumental honor to have the Red Headed Stranger for those nights and my only regret was that I was to see just the second night, though it was understandable that these gigs were in high demand amongst the ushers and every night was sold out and then some. Like the year before, Willie had originally only been booked for two shows, but they added two more for obvious reasons.

Yes, by the grace of God, Willie is still alive and performing to this day, but back then all those years ago, he was already on the cusp of his 69th birthday. He was as busy as ever, having just released his… brace yourself… his 50th studio album, “The Great Divide”, a compilation of duets with such A-listers as Bonnie Raitt (Yay!), Kid Rock (Boo!), Rob Thomas, Lee Ann Womack, Brian McKnight, and others, not to mention Alison Krauss played fiddle on it. Mr. Nelson criss crossed the country with the Family band doing a whopping 105 shows in 2002 as well as 26 in Europe. In the meantime that year, Willie also become spokesman for Texas Roadhouse and had appeared on the Food Network promoting that chain. The restaurants even installed “Willie’s Corner” in several locations, a spot filled with Willie memorabilia. And if that wasn’t enough, he also had a memoir published that year on Random House called “The Facts Of Life And Other Dirty Jokes”.  Willie had actually did a quick in-store and book signing at Tower Records in North Beach earlier the day before, but I didn’t know about it until it was over. 

These shows were precious enough, but they had the added distinction of having an obscure young singer named Norah Jones as the open act. Little did anyone there know that her debut blockbuster album, “Come Away With Me”, which came out on Blue Note a mere six days after this show, would be so mind boggling in its success. Norah, AKA Geethali Norah Jones Shankar, is the daughter of sitar virtuoso Ravi Shanker and had moved to Texas after her parents separated when she was 7 years old. After some time in Alaska, she moved again to New York City where she began her singing career, doing some work with 8-string guitar master Charlie Hunter, a fellow Blue Note artist. Norah had actually been a guest vocalist when Charlie played at The Fillmore with his Quartet the previous October, so technically this was the second time I’d see her perform. When her new album was unleashed, it was an instant smash hit, selling over 27 million copies, earning her 8 Grammy nominations, winning her 5 including Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Best New Artist, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. She was the first person of south Asian descent to win that many Grammys and remains tied with Lauryn Hill for the most of those awards won by a female performer in a single night. 

The bad news is that the disc that I recorded her set on was a dud, so I don’t have it, but I distinctly remember that she had no trouble winning Willie’s crowd over and that is no small feat. Mr. Nelson’s fans are a picky lot and tend to drink and talk even through his sets, but they shut up for her. Norah had the good taste and wisdom to play a cover of “Tennessee Waltz” for this country crowd and she nailed it, her rendition nothing short of sublime. I heard her do that brilliant cover with Charlie Hunter as well four months before this. Needless to say, her days as an opening act soon vanished and she would be touring on her own as a headliner in no time, taking moments that year to be the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” with Robert DeNiro hosting and doing a cameo as herself in the film comedy “Two Weeks Notice” with Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant. It would be 14 long years until I would see Norah perform again at the final Bridge School Benefit where she would share that bill with, you’ll never guess… Willie Nelson.

Anyway, this would be the third time I’d see Willie play, who I’d seen once before on that stage during one of those aforementioned shows in 2001 and also at Maritime Hall in 1997, but seeing him in the flesh never grows old. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating, the moment one lays eyes on that man, you feel that absolutely no harm can come to you. Willie and the gang wasted no time doing their customary stretch of songs at the outset, starting with “Whiskey River” all the way to “Working Man Blues”. From there, he hit one familiar classic after the next, taking moments to introduce members of the Family band like sideman Jody Payne, who sang that last one and drummer Paul English whose name graces the title of his song “Me & Paul”. Willie’s sister Bobby took a moment to do a piano solo and Mickey Raphael put down his harmonica for a spell to play saxophone for “Georgia (On My Mind)” too. Naturally, he played all the hits, but I got to hear a couple I’d never heard him do before like the title track of the new album and a moving cover of “The Rainbow Connection” famously sung by Kermit The Frog in “The Muppet Movie”. 

It was a long show, well over two hours and when it was all over, we had been treated to a whopping 44 songs! I overheard myself on the tape while in line for an Anchor Steam pointing out to a patron the water dispenser at the end of the bar, saving them from having to buy a bottle. Everyone was really friendly as always at his show and there was no shortage of weed getting smoked all night. My buddy Dan was ushering with me and was astounded when some stick in the mud idiot actually complained about some nearby partakers to him. He simply shook his finger giving them a tsk tsk and elected to tell the offending smokers to move a little farther away from the buzz killer and that was that. Dear God, it’s like telling folks at a Jimmy Buffett show to stop drinking margaritas. Anyway, we were beyond spoiled once more to see Mr. Nelson play in a venue that small and I’d be spoiled once again the following year again also in February when he’d return to The Fillmore to do another four show run. Though I only got to see one of those shows once again, I’d be lucky enough to catch Willie once more for free at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass later that October. 

https://archive.org/details/willie-nelson-fillmore-22002

Sevendust, Gravity Kills, Flaw – Fillmore, SF, Mon., February 18

SETLISTS : 

(FLAW) : Reliance, Whole, Amendment, Only The Strong, Scheme, Get Up Again, Payback

(GRAVITY KILLS) : Love Sex & Money, Down, Guilty, Take It All Away, Never, Falling, One Thing, Fifteen Minutes, Alive, Enough

(SEVENDUST) : Black, Denial, Redefine, Too Close To Hate, Walk, Trust, Shine, Angel’s Son, Live Again, Rumble Fish, T.O.A.B., Dead Set, Crucified, (encore), Thunder Kiss ’65, Praise, Waffle, Bitch

Before I continue with the review of this show, I feel I should let you, gentle reader, know that Sevendust will always be remembered by me, not because I’m particularly a fan, but because I’m reminded of them every time I post on this blog. Yes, for some inexplicable reason I still can’t figure out, I have to begin my editing of this blog, adding on a new review by going to the beginning of year 1998 and low and behold, the first concert I saw that year was, yep, Sevendust. They did a show at Maritime Hall with Snot, (who will be mentioned again later) and Hed PE, which I recorded, the first of count em’ FOUR times I recorded them at the Hall that year.  So every time I post something new, the last thing I see before I begin is lead singer Lajon Witherspoon’s grimacing face glaring down at me from the picture I posted at the end of that review. 

That being said, I don’t think Sevendust is a bad band, far from it. As I mentioned, I had a good run with them and though I wasn’t a fan, I was at least familiar with their music. The same goes for the opener, Gravity Kills, who I had seen before at Shoreline opening for the Sex Pistols in 1996. But this time, it had been over three years since I’d seen Sevendust and they were on tour promoting a new record called “Animosity”, which had just come out the previous November. It did fairly well certifying gold and they played 8 out of that record’s 13 songs, half their complete setlist that evening. They had also recently written a song that was used as the theme music for WWE wrestler Chris Jericho called “Break The Walls Down”, but they didn’t play it that night. It was the day after Busta Rhymes rocked The Fillmore, so I was still a little hazy and I was grateful to have earplugs for this show because the volume was excruciating. Coincidentally, after I recorded Sevendust for the first time in 1998 at the Maritime Hall, Busta played there two weeks later. 

The first opening act, Flaw, was a nu metal group from Louisville whom I hadn’t seen and don’t think I’ve seen since, though they also were pretty good and very loud. Their first album, “Through The Eyes”, had just been released five months before this, on Devil’s Night in fact, the day before Halloween. The first song and single from that album, “Only The Strong” made it on the soundtrack to the movie “The Scorpion King” along with Sevendust’s song, “Corrected”. Naturally, Flaw played that single, though Sevendust didn’t play their contribution to that soundtrack at this show. Their singer, Chris Volz, gave a shout out to Sevendust for taking them on tour and dedicated that song “to the entire nation”, which as you know was still reeling from the trauma of 9/11. Afterwards, Chris managed to get the crowd to form a single mosh pit for their song “Scheme” combining the two smaller mosh pits that had been churning earlier. 

It’s a pity that this would be the final time I’d see Gravity Kills perform because I thought they were pretty talented. I especially liked their first hit single “Blame” which strangely they didn’t play that gig. I guess they were tired of it by then. Gravity Kills were just about to release their third and final album, “Superstarved”, a month after this show, but had the ill fortune of having their keyboardist, Doug Firly, severely hurt his hand in front of a sold out show later that May. Poor guy had his hand crushed when a 300 pound, custom made, steel keyboard fell on it during their song “One Thing” in front of a sold out crowd. The band broke up the following year and Doug went on to become the keyboard tech for Alicia Keys. Gravity Kills would do a handful of one-off shows since this night, including a reunion gig recently in 2023, but like I said I haven’t seen them since though coincidentally, I did manage to see Alicia Keyes perform at the RSA internet security conference I was working at earlier this year.  Maybe Doug was there. 

Perhaps in a nod to country music legend Willie Nelson, who was about to begin a four show run immediately after this night with Sevendust, they came on stage to the sounds of the seminal bluegrass classic “Orange Blossom Special” playing over the loudspeakers. The upbeat tempo of that song was almost worthy of moshing to in my opinion, but Sevendust got things underway quickly, blasting everybody’s eardrums to bits with “Black”. Like I said, they did mostly new stuff that night, but they got all the sweaty meatheads in the crowd in a frenzy when they did a cover of “Walk” by Pantera. Nu metal might have been well on the decline in popularity around that time, but from the amount of action in the pit at that show, you’d have never have guessed it. 

They brought things down a couple songs later, Lajon saying, “Check it out. We didn’t know what to expect coming to the west coast… motherfuckers just standing there looking at us. You guys kicked ass on everybody else on this tour! Shout out to Lynn Strait from Snot. I know you loved him the same as we do. Can you help us sing ‘Angel’s Son’ tonight?” I know I mentioned that song long ago in previous Sevendust reviews, but to those who don’t know Lynn Strait died in December of 1998 and had toured with Sevendust with Snot opening for them in fact on that aforementioned first Maritime Hall show. They were an excellent band, and the nu metal community took Lynn’s death hard.  Sevendust wrote “Angel’s Son”, adding it to a tribute album to Lynn called “Strait Up”, and actually performed an acoustic version of it recently on “The Late Show With David Letterman” with David’s band leader Paul Shaffer accompanying the band on keyboards. On another sad note, Lajon’s younger brother was shot and killed shortly after this show, which caused the band to go on hiatus for the remainder of the year. 

The band kept the cooler, thoughtful vibe going a little longer, Lajon declaring, “You always don’t have to be the heaviest shit in the land. It’s OK to slow down to think about shits that’s goin’ on in the world today, to think about the beautiful fuckin’ people we lost on September 11th because of this fucked up ass war… I know we’re fortunate to be alive, to be safe here this evening” and then they did “Live Again”. He got the pit lively once more, finishing their set announcing, “San Francisco, San Francisco… I’m sorry, y’all kick ass in this motherfuckin’ town now. I think we’re going to do a song called ‘Crucified’… All you in the pit, you feelin’ this?!? All you in the house, you feelin’ this?!?” The band came out for their encore, beginning it with a cover of “Thunder Kiss 65” by White Zombie and finishing it with their hit single “Bitch”. Sadly, there was no poster that night as there wasn’t for Busta Rhymes the night before, but we got one of the best posters The Fillmore ever produced for Willie Nelson the next time I was there. It was a collage by Jason Mercier and the original still hangs next to the main bar at The Fillmore to this day. 

https://archive.org/details/sevendust-fillmore-21802

https://archive.org/details/gravity-kills-fillmore-21802

https://archive.org/details/flaw-fillmore-21802_202506

Busta Rhymes – Fillmore, SF, Sun., February 17

SETLIST : As I Come Back, Everybody Rise Again, We Got What You Want, Truck Volume, Genesis, Pass The Courvoisier Pt. 2, Tear Da Roof Off – Rhymes Galore, Woo-Ha! Got You All In Check, It’s A Party, Wife In Law, Party Is Goin’ On Over Here, Get High Tonight, Holla, Bounce (Let Me See Ya Throw It), Gimme Some More, Scenario, Dangerous, Put Your Hands Up Where My Eyes Can See – What It Is, (encore), Break Ya Neck, Pass The Courvoisier Pt.2 – Make It Hurt Outro

It had been four years since I recorded Mr. Rhymes at the Maritime Hall, but he made quite a lasting impression. He was busy that year promoting the “Genesis” album, his first after leaving Elektra to form his own label, Flipmode Records. It certified platinum and had another hit single with “Pass The Courvoisier”. Busta had also been in a couple major motion pictures recently, “Halloween : Resurrection” with Jamie Lee Curtis and a crime thriller called “Narc” with Ray Liotta & Jason Patric which would be out that December. In his spare time, he even did cameos on “WWE SmackDown” and the “Chappelle’s Show”. I was lucky to catch a few songs in his soundcheck and he did ones that he didn’t do during his set like “Bad Dreams”, “Street Shit”, “You Ain’t Fuckin’ Wit Me”, and “Make It Hurt”, though they did play the last one recorded in the Outro as they left the stage. I know I’ve said it before, but I was amazed again at Busta’s excellent diction. The man raps at breakneck speed and you can still make out every word, it’s miraculous really, one of the many reasons why he’s among of the best. 

There had been a rumor that the show had been moved from The Warfield due to low ticket sales, but I assure you that the house was sold out big time for this one. I caught a bit of Anthony, the head of security there, giving his nightly speech to the others on his team, telling them to not trip if they see somebody with a joint, it being more important to be on the lookout for weapons. He also reminded them to be there bright and early at 8 A.M. the next morning to load in the nu metal band Sevendust, a show I’d also be attending. As luck would have it, when I taped Busta at the Maritime in ’98, Sevendust had just played there two weeks prior. Anyway, Sevendust’s show would then be followed by a four show run with Willie Nelson and I’d be lucky to catch the second night. Technically, this night with Busta was one of those “An Evening With” shows with no opener, but they let his man on the ones and twos. DJ Scratchator, up on stage to spin and he did a solid half hour or so. Decked out in a blue jumpsuit, he apologized for running out of his tour CD, but promised that if we emailed him that he’d send us one… That, and he wanted our addresses. 

Scratchator played a wide variety of stuff including some from Rah Digga, a member of the Flipmode Squad, and pumped up the crowd yelling stuff like, “Don’t be afraid to be a freak! Being a freak just means you’re giving it to that girl so fuckin’ good!” He played a little something from Aaliyah saying that he missed her and “You see her in that commercial as a vampire? Don’t she look good?” Then he had us all do a 10 second moment of silence, mourning her death from a plane crash the previous August. He picked things up again playing “Movin’ On Up”, the theme song from the TV comedy show “The Jeffersons”, and believe me everybody knew the words and sang along. Scratchator did good, getting the crowd riled up and had them chanting, “Who am I? Scratchator, Motherfucker!” He also pitted the audience against each other spinning bits from both Jay-Z and Nas and getting us to cheer for the one we like the most. Clearly, the crowd went for Nas and Scratchator added that they’d been to 12 different cities already on this tour and everybody always went for Nas. 

But the crowd went nuts when Busta finally took the stage and did his thing. Seriously, it was joyful to hear this show again, still making me put my hands in the air from time to time. He had the crowd in the palm of his hand that night. Busta went through a bunch of his new material, giving a moment after “Genesis” to give shout outs to Oakland, San Jose, and other towns. He went on that he liked to “get drunk in the west coast” and asked if there was any cognac drinkers in the house, an obvious prompt for his next song. Busta listed a few like Hennessey, Crown Royal, and such before ultimately getting to, you guessed it, Courvoisier and began the unmistakable serpentine drum and bass riff of that single. I managed to get up front by this time and was lucky enough to catch a swig of the said spirit from a bottle Busta was passing around with the crowd. Strong stuff. Later, he said to us “Right now, Busta Rhymes is nasty as a motherfucker. I heard San Francisco is one of the nastiest cities in the whole United States. Can I make you my ‘Wife In Law’ this evening? Can I verbally fuck you right now?” and then they did that one. 

Afterwards, Spliff Star, his world famous hype man, claimed that the crowd wasn’t loud enough and demanded that they “turn on the lights! I want to see these motherfuckers!” Then he offered Busta some drink, but he turned Sliff down asking what was in there, adding “I’m not going to fuck around with no drug shit. I’m going to fuck around with some weed, some cognac, but I’m not doing no mystery drug shit”. Spliff reassured him that it was “medicinal” and for him to “trust me, I’m your best friend, homie”. The crew definitely got the people jumping with “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See” and after, Busta declared, “I ain’t no motherfucking model! I’m a creative genius”. He encouraged us to get the “Genesis” album, also Flipmode’s new album that was coming out that June,  and to check out the “VH1 : Behind The Music” special on him that aired just that day. 

Just before they finished with “What It Is”, Busta said to us, “Before I bounce, I’m gonna leave y’all with these words. You can do whatever the fuck you want… Live and let live and remember you are always able to establish your own Genesis.” But soon, they came back for an encore though Spliff admitted that he was tired. Busta encouraged him to “drink, we got a show to finish”. Scratchator spun a few bars of “One Blood” by Junior Reid before they dove into the lightning fast “Break Ya Neck”. Few can match Busta’s verbal dexterity on that one. When he was done, he said, “I genuinely thank every one of you motherfuckers for showing your genuine love. I definitely want to thank you motherfuckers for riding with me since I had a fucked up S-Curl instead of dreads, back in the Leaders Of The New School days!” They shook folks hands as they casually made it off stage, Scratchator spinning a reprise of “Pass The Courvoisier Pt. 2” and the aforementioned “Make It Hurt”. Considering, the enthusiasm from this sold out show, one would think they’d give it a poster, but alas, they didn’t. The good news was I wouldn’t have to wait another four years to see Busta again since he would join Moby that summer at Shoreline for his “Area 2” tour alongside such greats as David Bowie and the Blue Man Group. 

https://archive.org/details/busta-rhymes-fillmore-21702

https://archive.org/details/dj-scratchator-fillmore-21702

215 Blowout: Mix Master Mike, Rocker T, The Scientist, Deadweight – Fillmore, SF, Fri., February 15

SETLIST : (DEADWEIGHT) : Got To Hell, Anasthesia, (unknown), Good Times Bad Times, (unknown), The Devil Went Down To Georgia

These days, it’s easy to forget just how far Americans have come in the struggle to legalize marijuana. Currently, medical use is legal in 40 out of the 50 states and recreational use is legal in 24, but back in 2002, we had a long way to go. Back then, only 8 states had even allowed it to be used as medicine and California was thankfully not only one of them, it was the first. There were only a handful of underground dispensaries and with the new tyrannical George W. Bush regime, the progress that had been gained in the 90’s hit a brick wall. Which leads me to the show at hand. The Cannabis Action Network had organized this eclectic collection of artists at The Fillmore with Mix Master Mike, the virtuoso turntabilist who had just finished a long stint spinning for the Beastie Boys. The emcee for the evening was Ngiao Bealum, a long time activist, comedian, and rapper in the band, Most Chill Slackmob. Though I had never seen it with my own eyes, I learned recently that Ngiao is also an expert juggler. I had recorded him as well as Mix Master Mike at the Maritime Hall, one gig being another marijuana themed night, the 420 Hemp Festival with Vince Welnick, the keyboardist from the Grateful Dead headlining. 

Ngiao got things started early, pumping up the crowd shouting, “Make some noise if you think marijuana should be legal!” He introduced Deadweight, the first band of the night, a local alt-rock group who had swapped out the traditional power trio combination of guitar, bass, drum with violin, cello, drum. Right away, I figured these guys for real students of music, hearing their complicated song structures, sort of a love child between David Byrne and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Turned out that they were in fact all graduates of the San Francisco Conservatory Of Music. Between songs, their violinist/singer, Ben Barnes, encouraged us to buy their CDs and T-shirts at the merch table, adding, “Who needs a fuckin’ guitar anyway? Who needs a fuckin’ T-shirt, that’s what I want to know. We got all these fuckin’ T-shirts. We got to sell them!”. Yes, their original material was pretty esoteric, but they won over the audience doing smoking covers of “Good Times Bad Times” by Led Zeppelin and “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” by Charlie Daniels. Ben really showed off his chops, especially in the former, doing a smoking solo almost note for note from Jimmy Page’s one. I don’t believe I ever saw them again, but I have seen their drummer, Paulo Baldi, playing since with Cake and The Lennon-Claypool Delirium.

After their set, Ngiao brought up a couple people to speak starting with veteran marijuana activist Ed Rosenthal. He had been crusading for the good cause before anybody insisting that legalization was a states rights issue as well as a source for medicine, industrial uses, and the jobs that would accompany them. He pleaded with us that the money wasted on cops, lawyers, judges, prison guards, and the legal system would be better spent on things like education and infrastructure. Ed had also recently been penning a column in High Times magazine called “As Ed”. As you can imagine, the Bush regime wasn’t too keen on his message and Ed had just been arrested that year, though the city of Oakland had actually deputized him do distribute medical marijuana for them. After a lengthy court battle, the judge on the case convicted Ed, but sentenced him to only a single day in prison, time served. Ed’s conviction was ultimately overturned in 2006, though the US Attorney tried and failed to prosecute him again the following year.

After Ed, we got to hear from Debby Goldsberry, another pioneering advocate for ganja and a co-founder and director of both the Cannabis Action Network and the Berkeley Patients Group. She had been part of implementing new legalization laws like Prop 215, passed in 1996, the first statewide law permitting medical marijuana, as well as exposing unlawful arrests in their dispensaries by the police who had been routinely lying on their search warrants. Incidentally, as you might have guessed the “215 Blowout” moniker of this show is a reference to that Proposition as well as the well chosen date to have this event. Ngiao kept cracking jokes too, reminding us, “It’s supposed to rain this weekend. You know what that means… mushrooms! Rain and cow shit. Fungal happiness! God doesn’t play dice”. He batted back and forth with somebody up front, “You from Louisiana? OK, I’ll talk slower… Just kidding”. Stalling for time a bit, he started doing a few lines of the disturbing “Semi-Wondrous Boat Ride” bit from “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory” before announcing, “Ladies & Gentlemen, all the way from outer space… The Scientist!” 

Then Ngiao left he stage as The Scientist started spinning records and toasting to the songs. The Scientist had been a recording engineer and producer of dub music for decades, a protege of King Tubby himself. The list of album credits he accrued up till then was already a mile long and he had just released “All Hail The Dub Head” the year before this. He made sure to give a few shout outs of “One Love” and “We Love Bob Marley” throughout his set. And speaking of Bob, between acts there was some local band doing a cover of “I Shot The Sheriff” up in the poster room and soon the reggae vibes would continue on the main stage with Rocker T, a dancehall artist from Brooklyn. He was accompanied by a band with horns called Soul Majestic and though I didn’t get his setlist, I know two of the songs he did that night were “Conquer” and “Provider” and, like The Scientist, had a ton of reverb on his vocal. Needless to say, by this time, the air in The Fillmore was thick with the sticky icky. People also forget in these days where high quality herb is readily available practically everywhere that in 2002, Northern Cali was the primary source of the real Chronic. 

The time finally came for Mix Master Mike to take the stage and he greeted us all asking, “Everybody high enough in this motherfucker?” We were reminded quickly of his tenure with the Beastie Boys, sampling a bit from “The Maestro”, the one where they were chanting, “Sar-dines! And pork & beans!” Now anyone who has ever seen Mike do his thing knows that his roster of samples are far too numerous to list, but I know he threw down bits of “People Of The Sun” and “Know Your Enemy” by Rage Against The Machine, “Positive Contact” by Deltron 3030, “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin (the second Zeppelin cover of the night), “Been Caught Stealin’” by Jane’s Addiction, “Ease Back” by the Ultramagnetic MCs, “Welcome To The Terrordome” by Public Enemy, and “The Breaks” by Kurtis Blow just to name a few. Suffice to say, all the in house were high as kites by the time it was all over. They had made a colorful poster for the show, though it wasn’t an official Fillmore one, slightly smaller in size too. I would soon be back only two days later to see another marijuana enthusiast on that stage, Busta Rhymes, who likewise got the air nice and cloudy for his show. 

https://archive.org/details/mix-master-mike-fillmore-21502

https://archive.org/details/rocker-t-fillmore-21502

https://archive.org/details/the-scientist-fillmore-21502

https://archive.org/details/deadweight-fillmore-21502

Nelly Furtado, Citizen Cope – Warfield, SF, Thur., February 14

SETLISTS :

(CITIZEN COPE) : Appetite (For Lightnin’ Dynamite), Hands Of The Saints, If There’s Love, Mistaken I.D., Salvation, Sideways, Contact

(NELLY FURTADO) : Baby Girl, I Will Make You Cry, Party, (unknown), Get Ur Freak On, Well Well, Hey Man!, I’m Like A Bird, Legend, I Feel You, Trynna Finda Way, Turn Off The Light, (encore), Shit On The Radio (Remember The Days)

I was no stranger to the music of Nelly Furtado by then, having seen her perform on three separate occasions in only 15 months, once at an Alice radio show and twice on that very same Warfield stage opening for David Gray. During her set, she even commented that it was her 5th time playing The Warfield and her 8th performing in San Francisco, an impressive tally considering her up til then notably short career span. She had been touring nonstop since the previous March on her “Burn In The Spotlight” tour, taking a stint to open for U2, and her hard work was clearly paying off. This would be the first of two back to back sold out shows at The Warfield and if that wasn’t enough, it was Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, I was in a pit of despair around this time, wallowing in the mire that my country was sinking into under the George W. Bush regime and was about as far away as one could be from having a meaningful romantic relationship, much less feeling amorous in the slightest.

My dour mood was compounded severely that night when I heard the news of the overdose death of one of the bartenders at The Warfield, a sweet, young woman who had also bartended at the Maritime Hall for years. Though I can never forget her face, I’m absolutely ashamed that I never learned her name, especially since she always was all smiles and nothing but friendly to me for the brief time I was around her. For those who know me personally, it’s no secret that I don’t handle death well and am the last person on Earth you would want at a funeral. I fall to pieces at them, wailing like an old Sicilian grandmother, even for people I hardly knew like this poor, young, lost soul. My grief caught the attention of another bartender that night on the aisle where I was working, one who had likewise worked alongside her at the Maritime, and she sincerely offered her condolences to me, letting me know that it was OK if I wanted to talk about it with her.

My sorrow certainly wasn’t eased by the songs of the opening act, Citizen Cope, that night. His music is perhaps some of the saddest music anyone could hear. I don’t know, it’s something about the timbre of his voice that sounds so melancholy. Even his bandmates were joking with him before they played “Mistaken I.D.” that he should play a happy song, which he countered, “Every song is a happy song”. I had seen Citizen Cope the previous October before also on that stage opening for Hoobastank, but he was still brand new, his debut self-titled album having just been released two weeks before this show, his only album on Dreamworks. Despite his somber sound, he did his best to liven up the crowd, goading them, “We got to have some dancers out here tonight. We got to have some movin’ and shakin’ goin’ on.” Later, before he played “Salvation”, he asked, “Like my dance moves?… I need some help”. 

Afterwards, he said, “Thank you very much for your kindness… My name is Citizen Cope, C-O-P-E. It’s a pleasure to be here tonight in San Francisco… We have a special song”. The one of his band members chimed in again, “I want a happy song!” He replied once again with his deadpan English accent, “Everybody’s happy. I’m happy. Let’s have fun”. At the end of his set, he asked, “You all feel like singing tonight? At the end of the song, we’ll have a little call and response… It’s a happy song” and then he did “Contact”. He indeed got the crowd to sing along after he sang “I want some”, they responded “Contact!” But even his attempts to elevate the mood of the crowd couldn’t assuage me from my grief and I can still close my eyes and recall the memory of the warm tears streaming down my cheeks during his set. Obviously, that was the most memorable recollection of that night, one that will never leave me as long as I live, or as long as I still have my marbles.

Nelly Furtado’s music on the other hand actually did lift my spirits at least to a point where I was no longer lamenting visibly. If there’s any musician on Earth that can dependably do that, she is one of them, up there with the likes of Jimmy Cliff, Shonen Knife, and Dio. Indeed, the sheer joy in her voice and her songs helped me get through that night and if I ever had an opportunity to meet her, I would thank her for that. I overheard somebody pointing out at the beginning of her set, “There’s a guy down there with a kid on his shoulders. That’s alright”. And after a couple songs, I genuinely felt that it was alright, better than it was anyway and Nelly made sure to wish us a Happy Valentine’s Day. I toasted the The Warfield’s fallen comrade with my beer after I was cut from ushering and joined the crowd up front, helping to drown my sorrows. 

Nelly, having only the one album under her belt, pretty much covered all the songs on it, though took a moment to honor her hip hop influences, doing a cover of “Get Ur Freak On” by Missy Elliott. Near the end of her set, she also let her DJ spin a medley of jams which included “Real Love” by Mary J. Blige, “Push It” by Sant N’ Pepa, and “Jump” by Kris Kross. Like Citizen Cope, she was able to get the crowd to join in during “Trynna Finda Way”, chanting “OK!” and “Uh-Huh!” with her. There was a nice poster at the end of the night for us, but I’m afraid to say that this was the last time I’d see either Nelly or Citizen Cope perform, though they still tour to this day. Nelly actually was at the Portola Festival, a cavalcade of primarily EDM acts on Pier 30/32 last year, and though I thankfully was spared from having to work at it, she would have been one of the only people on that bill that I’d actually would have appreciated seeing. Still, I found a website called lovinfurtado.com and they had a whole bunch of photos of that Warfield show which I included in this entry and upon hearing her set once again made it that much more a vivid memory. 

https://archive.org/details/nelly-furtado-warfield-21402

https://archive.org/details/citizen-cope-warfield-21402

Jack Johnson, Mason Jennings – Fillmore, SF, Tues., February 12

SETLISTS :

(MASON JENNINGS) : Nothing, Better Than That, Darkness Between The Fireflies, United States Global Empire, Adrian, Confidant, Sorry Signs On Cash Machines, Bullet, Ease Your Mind

(JACK JOHNSON) : Posters, Middle Man, Sexi Plexi, Taylor, Rodeo Clowns, Tomorrow Morning, Bubble Toes, Wasting Time, Trenchtown Rock – Garden Grove – Inaudible Melodies, Mudfootball (For Moe Lerner), Who Do You Love?, Holes To Heaven, Flake, (encore), Gone, A Pirate Looks At Forty, Times Like These, Living In The Moment, Plastic Jesus, Fall Line, Who Knows, Cissy Strut, Express Yourself, (encore), It’s All Understood

I had heard murmurs about Mr. Johnson around this time. He seemed to be another in a growing line of jam band heartthrobs like Dave Matthews and John Mayer, you know, the rugged, yet approachable sort one finds in all the Hallmark Christmas movies. Like Dave and John, he also had a kindly singing voice and would be prone to do those long, pitter patter stream of lyrics that were hard to follow. Jack was fairly new but was quickly making a name for himself, selling out two back to back shows at The Fillmore and this was the first of the two. He had been on tour over a year promoting his breakthrough debut album, “Brushfire Fairytales”, having just finished a stretch warming up for Ben Harper that summer, and it would be over another year until he released his second album, “On And On”, though we were treated to seven new songs that night. 

By then, I knew Jack was a singer/songwriter and an avid surfer, but I didn’t know that he was also a film maker and had put out a documentary in 2000 called “Thicker Than Water” which they actually screened that night at the show between acts. It basically chronicled his surfing adventures around the world such as Australia, Indonesia, Hawaii, India, and ending in Ireland, accompanied by pro surfers Kelly Slater and Shane Dorian. Speaking of things abroad and I admit out of left field, that very day Serbian dictator Slobadan Milosevic went on trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Anyway… Opening that night would be another young singer/songwriter named Mason Jennings, though Glen Philips would open the following night. Mason was from Minneapolis and had just put out his first major label release “Century Spring” that year. He wasn’t half bad and Jack brought him back on stage later during his first encore to sing Mason’s song “Living In The Moment”, then a cover of “Plastic Jesus”, and one of Jack’s new ones, “Fall Line”. 

Mr. Johnson’s set was introduced by a DJ named Johnny X from 104.9 who said we were awesome and that he felt a lot of love in the room. As you might imagine, the ladies went nuts when Jack took the stage, fulfilling many a fantasy among them and probably some of the boys out there as well. Like Mason, Jack was a pretty skilled songwriter, nothing too complex musically, no crazy guitar solos, but pleasant. He continued to throw in a bunch more covers throughout the night including a (thankfully) tasteful rendition of “Trenchtown Rock” by Bob Marley, “Garden Grove” by Sublime, and “Who Do You Love?” by Bo Diddley. For his encore he also played “A Pirate Looks At Forty” by Jimmy Buffett, “Who Knows” by Jimi Hendrix & The Band Of Gypsies, “Cissy Strut” by “The Meters”, and the old soul standard “Express Yourself”. And though I’m still not a devoted fan of his work, I do appreciate his good taste in influences. Likewise, what man wouldn’t be envious of his athletic good looks, talent, and charisma? Valentine’s Day was two days after this show and I was hopelessly single, wallowing in despair like so many others over the George W. Bush regime and its duplicitous efforts to drag our country into war. Anyway, Jack would return to The Fillmore later that October, but I missed it and this was the last time I saw either him or Mason Jennings. Still, they did give out a lovely poster at the end of the night to mark the occasion. 

https://archive.org/details/jack-johnson-fillmore-21202

https://archive.org/details/mason-jennings-fillmore-21202

David Byrne, Extra Action Marching Band – Fillmore, SF, Mon., February 11

SETLIST : A Soft Seduction, Nothing But Flowers, God’s Child (Baila Conmigo), Broken Things, And She Was, Once In A Lifetime, The Great Intoxication, Marching Through The Wilderness, The Revolution, Sax & Violins, Duro Europas, This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody), What A Day That Was, Desconosido Soy, Like Humans Do, U.B. Jesus, Life During Wartime, (encore), I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me), (encore), The Other Side Of This Life, Ausencia, The Accident, (encore), The Moment Of Conception 

By this time, I had been well versed in the works of Mr. Byrne having seen him twice at The Warfield already in 1994 and 1997, not to mention seeing back to back gigs at The Fillmore the previous May and once again at The Warfield the following July. He was continuing the “Look Into The Eyeball” tour and being already familiar with the new material, I will differ you to the previous entries to learn more about that album. I know I probably mentioned it before when David played The Fillmore in 2001, but this one actually might have been the show when we walked past me in the lobby before the doors opened, carrying his bicycle and still wearing his helmet. It was one of these two shows for sure, confirming the stories that Byrne habitually would ride between the hotels where he was staying on tour to the venues he’d perform at. Incidentally, the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City just kicked off that weekend after a shaky start getting them organized and I actually knew a handful of audio visual guys who were part of that. 

It was an unusual show in the sense that the appointed opening act was actually performing after David’s set. David had recruited the Extra Action Marching Band, a ragtag collection of at least 40 to 50 local musicians led by Simon Cheffins from Crash Worship. He and about half of the members lived in a couple warehouses in East Oakland affectionately known as Vulcan and the Monkey Ranch. Armed with the traditional assortment of marching band instruments, I myself played trumpet in my high school’s marching band, they were accompanied by a glockenspiel player, a shakere, Simon shouting stuff through a bullhorn, and a pep squad with pom poms, flags, and the like. The group actually showed up at one of David’s book signings and he was so impressed that he invited them along on tour. Mimi Vitetta, one of the members, planted a kiss on David’s lips after he finished his set and he joined along with the ensemble with his own set of pom poms. They would tour with him and play at The Fillmore again in 2005, but I missed that one. 

David’s set started early, introduced by Renee Richardson from KFOG who mentioned, “Welcome to the legendary Fillmore! I don’t know if you guys have had the fun of roaming the halls… I was just talking to one of the guys that works here at The Fillmore and we have collectively decided that this artist that’s about to come out on this stage is the SHIT! So, drink a cocktail and have some fun. We are moments away from David Byrne”. Of course, everybody flipped out when David got on stage and he humbly said, “Thanks for waiting. I know when everybody says the show is at 8 O’Clock, but the opening act is coming on after us. We’ll start the show off kind of slow, ramp it up a little bit, we kind of level off, then ramp it up a bit more, then slow down for a little bit, So, if you don’t like that part, you can go to the bar. If it’s coming up, I’ll let you know”. Indeed, he did start off slow with the lullabye “A Soft Seduction”, but he soon picked up the pace with the Talking Heads classic, “Nothing But Flowers”.

He followed that with “God’s Child (Baila Conmigo)”, explaining that it was a duet he had recorded with Selena, one of the last songs she recorded before her untimely demise, but he lightened the mood adding, “She can’t be here, but J-Lo is here backstage!” He did a couple more Talking Heads hits, “And She Was” and “Once In A Lifetime”, prefacing the former as he had done the previous two times with the story of his friend who used to drop acid and hang out around the YooHoo factory in Baltimore. Afterwards, David introduced his string section and other band members saying that they making jokes about how the outfit he wore that night made him look “like a UPS guy”. During that middle period with the string section, I overheard a friend of mine, I believe it was my buddy Drew, approach me and say, “Try a crunch of this crab quesadilla! It’s slammin’!” Indeed, The Fillmore is one of the few venues in the bay area which actually makes decent food in its kitchen.

The bad news is that during this show, the batteries in my recorder were running out which is not unusual. It happens all the time. What made this unusual is that they ran out so slowly, making the recording gradually speed up for practically the entire show instead of running out comparatively quickly, like within a handful of songs. So, unfortunately I didn’t replace the batteries until David had wrapped things up and the Extra Action Marching Band had started. But like I said, I had seen David plenty up until then and have more than enough of his stuff for the ages, though this was a particularly good show. But unlike the previous time Byrne played there, we went home empty handed for there wasn’t a poster that time. I was able to get a drumstick from the Extra Action Marching Band and I overheard myself chuckling, “I love a parade” to whoever I was with on my way out the door that night. Though David continues to tour fairly regularly, I believe this was the last time I’d see him perform live, but I have seen fellow Talking Heads member Jerry Harrison a couple times perform in things since. Rumors still persist that the Heads will have a reunion tour someday, but it has yet to materialize. 

https://archive.org/details/david-byrne-fillmore-21102

https://archive.org/details/extra-action-marching-band-fillmore-21102

Buddy Guy with Carlos Santana, David Gleeson & Wasted Days, Joe Bonamassa – Fillmore, SF, Wed., February 6

SETLISTS : 

(JOE BONAMASSA) : Walk In My Shadow, A New Day Yesterday, Miss You Hate You, Trouble Waiting, If Heartaches Were Nickels, 

(BUDDY GUY) : Look On Yonder’s Wall, Sweet Home Chicago, Five Long Years, Look What All You Got, Feels Like Rain, Use Me, Boom Boom, Hoochie Coochie Man, Fever, Tramp, Strange Brew, Voodoo Chile (Slight Return), It’s A Jungle Out There, Done Got Old, Did Somebody Make A Fool Out Of You, What’d I Say, Drownin’ On Dry Land, (encore), Mustang Sally, Anyway You Look At it, Next Time You See Me

Buddy Guy was just about to celebrate his 65th birthday when this show came around, but his reputation as a master blues guitarist proceeded him long before that. I had only seen him once before at the Maritime Hall in 1999, but for reasons I can’t remember, we weren’t allowed to record him that night. Still, as is the case whenever that happened there, I was at least allowed to go up topside to enjoy the show which I most certainly did. An elder blues statesman he might of been already then, but I recently had the pleasure of seeing Buddy perform once more at some giant free show at the Bill Graham Civic Center for Jim Irsay, a wealthy memorabilia collector and owner of the Indianapolis Colts. At that show, Buddy was the ripe old age of 87 but he still could play circles around everyone on stage that night and when that roster of talent includes people like Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Ann Wilson, and John Fogerty, well… that says something. In a related story, a young quarterback by the name of Tom Brady had just won his first Super Bowl ring that Sunday, beginning a long winning streak over the years, perhaps making him the Buddy Guy of football in the end, depends who you ask. 

The previous May, Buddy had just released his “Sweet Tea” album, the 11th of his studio outings, and it would go on to earn him a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album. With his skills and history with The Fillmore, one would think that they’d have sprung for a poster to mark the occasion, but alas, there wasn’t one. The show might have been drummed up at the last minute which would explain its lack of fanfare. In a strange coincidence, my friend and mentor Frank Gallagher who I work alongside in the stagehands union, had toured for years doing sound for Buddy, but had also toured with the Talking Heads in the 80’s and I would see David Byrne, the eccentric frontman of that band, on that very stage only five days later. 

Opening that night was Joe Bonamassa from New York, a fellow blues guitarist whose shredding guitar licks and vocal prowess were impressive for a man just a few months shy of 25 years old. With Eric Czar on bass and Kenny Kramme on drums, their humble trio made quite a sound and were a worthy opener for Mr. Guy. Joe joked between songs, “We’re going to play some more blues for you. You guys don’t mind, right? This one’s a song I wrote for a really bad movie, but I like the song, so we keep playing it… called ‘Trouble Waiting’”. He never did mention what movie it was and I couldn’t find out online, but since he said it was bad, I’ll take his word for it. Joe certainly punctuated the end of that song with a smoking finish. Upstairs in the poster room was a local musician named David Gleason and his band Wasted Days. Though David wasn’t really a bone fide blues musician per se, he had a well rounded and eclectic taste in music styles and played often around town for decades. Like most poster room acts, it was just him on guitar accompanied by a drummer with a simple kit, playing with brushes. He also employed a female back up singer for his songs, though the only one I recognized was a cover of “Swinging Doors” by Merle Haggard. 

Joe got the crowd warmed up, but for the uninitiated, nothing could prepare them for the mind blowing chops of Buddy. He wasted no time teaching us a master class in the blues, covering one immortal standard after the next. He broke it down a little in the middle of “Hoochie Coochie Man” lamenting that he’d “just spilled booze on myself”, cracking to the crowd, “Shut the fuck up for a minute… I’m just messing with you… Here’s another verse. If you don’t like it, tell me… One leg was in the east, one leg was in the west, I was right down the middle, trying to do my best!” The audience approved and cheered loudly, followed by an excellent solo by his keyboard player. Later, Buddy gave a shout out to the venue saying, “A place like this must never disappear. I’ve had some of the greatest moments of my life here, on this stage” and he mentioned “Albert King and Janis Joplin walked out at the same time” there and that “this place should be a landmark”. 

Buddy let his sax player do a wild solo during “Fever” and then did one of his own during the following song, “Tramp”, one of his new ones. He wrapped up his set with a cover of “Drownin’ On Dry Land” by the aforementioned Albert King hailing it as “the kind of blues I’ll play all night if you want to listen” even doing the last verse of the song twice because he liked it so much. But we were soon spoiled rotten when he was joined on stage for the encore by none other than Carlos Santana himself. Carlos graciously thanked him saying, “Ladies and Gentlemen, before Jimi Hendrix, there was Buddy Guy… a real master, ambassador of a sound and rhythmic vibrations”. As you might imagine, the crowd went nuts as the two went at it and yes, Carlos shreds, but even he was humbled before the might of Mr. Guy. Like I said, we were spoiled that night and would be again two years later when Buddy and Carlos would once more join forces at The Warfield for the Experience Hendrix cavalcade of guitar heroes.

On a final note, it had been some time since I have written, being up to my eyeballs at work, but I took an afternoon to spend time at the movies yesterday to see “Sinners”, Ryan Coogler’s new horror film. Sure, it was good one, but you can imagine the pleasant surprise I felt when none other than… you guessed it, Buddy Guy, appeared in the film’s epilogue. Call it a miracle of coincidence that this show would be the next one I was to write about. Yes, one of the characters in this movie that takes place in Jim Crow era, 1930’s Mississippi was a young blues musician and having survived a night of vicious vampire attacks, lives until 1992 and is played by Buddy himself. Spoiler alert, a couple vampires that weren’t killed back in the day show up to the venue where he was playing after his gig and offer to turn Buddy’s character so he could live forever, but he politely declined and played them a song before they left. 

https://archive.org/details/buddy-guy-fillmore-2602

https://archive.org/details/david-gleason-wasted-days-fillmore-2602

https://archive.org/details/joe-bonamassa-fillmore-2602

Jay Farrar, Brian Henneman, Katie Cline – Fillmore, SF, Fri., February 1

SETLIST : Feed Kill Chain, Vitamins, (unknown), (unknown), Medicine Hat, Still Be Around, Tear Stained Eye, Gather, Damn Shame, Barstow, Make It Alright, Damaged Son, Outside The Door, No More Parades, Feel Free, Direction, Drain, Dead Man’s Clothes, Different Eyes, Voodoo Candle, Route, Straightface, Windfall, Love You To

After the ear splitting, bombastic metal of Static X and Soulfly at The Warfield the night before, the music of Mr. Farrar at The Fillmore was downright soothing. That goes double for the crowd as well, replacing the black clad, hesher hordes in the mosh pit with a calm herd of subdued, alt-country librarians. I’d seen Jay with his other band Son Volt on that stage in 1996, but never saw him when he was in Uncle Tupelo with Jeff Tweedy. Coincidentally, Jeff and his band Wilco had just finished a three day stint at The Fillmore only two months before this show. With Son Volt on hiatus since ’99, Jay was promoting his first album as a solo artist called “Sebastopol”, named after the Ukrainian port town and the birthplace of the open-G Vestapol guitar tuning technique… whatever that is. He had been in the bay area the year before playing at Slim’s, but I missed that one. Almost half his set were new songs, but rest assured, he dusted off some golden oldies from his aforementioned previous bands. 

Before the doors opened, I caught a bit of Jay’s soundcheck and was pleasantly surprised to hear him play “Love You To” by The Beatles. Jay’s trademark droning style of singing actually was a touch reminiscent of George Harrison and clearly he did his song in tribute to him, George having just recently succumbed to cancer a little over two months before this show. Jay busted out a little harmonica solo and his steel guitar player, Mark Spencer formerly of the Blood Oranges and recent member of Son Volt, did a few licks of “In My Time Of Dying” by Led Zeppelin during the soundcheck as well. After the crowd started coming in, I took a moment to check out a young woman name Katie Cline playing up in the poster room accompanied by a drummer playing a single snare with brushes, though I only caught one of her songs. I could have sworn she said her name was Katie Clair, but regardless, I don’t think I ever saw her again. 

Opening that night was Brian Henneman the frontman of The Bottle Rockets and former guitar tech for Uncle Tupelo, playing solo acoustic. His voice actually reminded me a little of Jack Black’s though obviously not as silly. Brian mentioned during his set that this was the second time he had been on that stage, once before opening for Kenny Wayne Shepherd there back in 1996, though I missed that one too. Unfortunately, in order to get all of Jay’s set, I had to tape over a few songs of Brian’s, though I got more than half of it intact. Like Jay, Brian also did an homage to a recently fallen hippie, Doug Sahm of the Sir Douglas Quintet, playing his song “Stoned Faces Don’t Lie”. He joked, “I hope I have the lyrics in the right order. If you feel like singing along, that’ll be really good… He was like my favorite musician in the whole world and The Fillmore was one of the reasons he wrote this song right here”. Coming originally from Texas, Doug and his band had joined the late 60’s, psychedelic rock scene in San Francisco joining fellow Texan transplants as Janis Joplin and Roky Erickson of the 13th Floor Elevators and there was at least one Sir Douglas Quintet poster in the poster room to prove it. 

Like I said, Jay’s voice, though soothing tends to drone on to the point of practically being monotone. That mid-rangy steady stream is downright hypnotizing and actually made it a little challenging to make out his lyrics. Still, after I was cut from ushering, it was easy to have a beer and relax, especially since the alt-country crowd shut the fuck up and listened motionless as they usually do. Despite Mr. Farrar’s limited singing range, clearly he is a talented songwriter including ending his set with the Son Volt hit “Windfall”, one of the most beautiful country songs I’ve ever heard and one everybody sang along to, before Jay finished the night for good with “Love You To”. And unlike the Static X/Soulfly metal fest the night before, this one got a poster at the end of the show. 

https://archive.org/details/jay-farrar-fillmore-2102

https://archive.org/details/brian-henneman-fillmore-2102

https://archive.org/details/katie-cline-fillmore-2101

Static-X, Soulfly, Soil, Diesel Machine – Warfield, SF, Thur., January 31

SETLISTS :

(DIESEL MACHINE) : (unknown), Shut It, Dissection, Cynical, (unknown), Driven By Pain

(SOIL) : Breaking Me Down, Wide Open, My Own, Unreal, Understanding Me, Two Skins, Black 7, Halo

(SOULFLY) : Back To The Primitive, No Hope = No Fear, (unknown), Bring It, Bleed, Seek N’ Strike, Tribe, Arise, Refuse/Resist, The Song Remains Insane, Roots Bloody Roots,  Eye For An Eye, Pain

(STATIC X) : This Is Not, Bled For Days, I’m With Stupid, Black & White, Machine, (unknown), (unknown), Cold, (unknown), (unknown), Love Dump, Wisconsin Death Trip, (unknown), (encore), (unknown)

I had recorded both Soulfly and Static X separately at Maritime Hall, but this time, they were co-headlining and with their collective metal powers, insured all who attended would be in for very loud evening. It was the first show of the tour along with Soil from Chicago, though Onesidezero would open on other dates. Since that time Static X had lost guitarist Koichi Fukuda who was replaced by Tripp Eisen until Fukuda rejoined the band three years later. Frontman Wayne Static took the helm writing all the new material on their second album, “Machine”, released the previous May, but doled out the royalties from that one rather unevenly, which pissed off the rest of the band. Soulfly had also lost its drummer, Joe Nunez, replaced by Soulfly’s original drummer, Roy Mayorga, and they were just six months shy of releasing their third studio album, the appropriately titled, “3”. After the tour Soulfly frontman Max Cavalera would fire bassist Marcelo Dias leading Roy to quit the band again along with lead guitarist Mickey Doling. Speaking of uncertain futures, George W. Bush gave his infamous “Axis Of Evil” speech just two days before this show, as if the vibe from these bands wasn’t fucking anxious enough.

The first opener that night was Diesel Machine from L.A. who were fairly new having put out their first album, “Torture Test”, the year before this show. Coincidentally, their guitarist Pat Lachman had played alongside Rob Halford, whose original band Judas Priest had just played on that very same Warfield stage only 12 days before this show, but with Ripper singing instead of Rob. Diesel Machine originally wasn’t listed on the bill and being the opener of a four band show, their set was a quick one. Unfortunately, my recording of them was all messed up, probably a short in the mic or something, but when I stopped it and started it again for Soil, the interference inexplicably mixed itself. Still, the clearest recording in the world couldn’t make their music any less grating. Their singer was quite the screamer and made it next to impossible to figure out their lyrics and song titles, though I managed to make out four out of the six in their songs. At the end of their set, he tried to pump up the disinterested crowd trying to get them to say the name of the song “Driven By Pain” shouting “You know it!”, hearing crickets and then adding, “I heard two people at least”.

Soil, or SOiL as they like to spell it, had a little more success engaging the machismo mob and whose singer, Ryan McCombs, was slightly easier to understand than the last guy. They were pretty tight actually. After they did “Wide Open”, he said, “Hey San Francisco! This is a good place to start this tour out I believe. You guys ready for Soulfly?!?… for Static X?!? Let’s get those motors running high man because they going to want it from all you guys!!!”. A couple songs later, he thanked the bands saying, “There’s not a single band who takes the stage tonight to do what we do without you people showing up and give us the time of day. So, thank you very much” and then they did “Understanding Me”. This would be the only time I’d see either Diesel Machine or Soil, but I would see Soulfly perform one more time at The Fillmore two years later.

Frankly, Soulfly were the main reason I was at this show and I imagine there were many in the audience that night who felt the same way. Indeed, everybody was chanting their name as they took the stage over a recording of somebody on a Berimbau, a traditional, Brazilian, one string guitar-like instrument, playing over the speakers. Oh yes, the pit went bonkers when the opened their set with “Back To The Primitive”. A couple songs later, Max got the crowd to make some noise and chant, “Oi! Oi! Oi!”, before they did “Bring It”. Afterwards, he said, “Thank you very much. What’s up?!? This song is from the first record, first San Francisco record. We did a video for it and it’s dedicated to Dana. This is Richey. Everybody say, ‘What’s up, Richey?’… You motherfuckers ready to ‘Bleed’?!?!” During that song, Max brought up a fan to sing along and he did surprisingly well. Incidentally, Dana was Max’s stepson who passed away in a car accident six years before this. On a happier note, Max announced, “We’ve been working on Soulfly 3, our next record… Would you like to hear some new shit?!?” and then they did “Seek N’ Strike”, the only new one they’d do in their set that night. 

Soulfly was clearly a tough act to follow, but soon enough Wayne, sporting his trademark gravity defying, Don King-like hairdo and donning a red and white striped “Where’s Waldo?” short sleeved collared shirt, and the rest of the band took the stage. It had been a long night already and I had to work to the end, being a paid usher for that one, but I managed to keep the hordes of heshers at bay. Wayne didn’t talk much between songs, but he did introduce “Cold” saying, “I gave you guys the fist of metal! This next song is a very personal song… wrote it around Ozzfest 2000 for the ‘Queen Of The Damned’ soundtrack”. Later he dedicated “Love Dump” to all the “goth girls” in the crowd. Like the guy from Diesel Machine, Wayne was definitely a screamer making it tough for me to decipher his songs. Seriously, I could only figure out about half of them. There was no poster at the end of the gig and I would see Jay Farrar from Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt at The Fillmore the following night, quite a stylistic change of gears. Sadly, this would be the last time I’d see Static X since Wayne would die twelve years later from a deadly mixture of alcohol and pills and though he might be buried in the cold, cold ground, the ringing in our ears from that show remains. 

https://archive.org/details/static-x-warfield-13102

https://archive.org/details/soulfly-warfield-13102

https://archive.org/details/soil-warfield-13102

https://archive.org/details/diesel-machine-warfield-13102

Sum 41, Gob, Unwritten Law – Warfield, SF, Sat., January 26

SETLISTS : 

(GOB) : Ming Tran, No Regrets, (unknown), B- Flat,  I Cut Myself Too, Soda, Custer’s Last 1 Nite Stand, I Hear You Calling, What To Do, Paint It Black

(UNWRITTEN LAW) : Up All Night, Teenage Suicide, Sorry, Cailin, (unknown), Babylon, Seein’ Red, Lonesome, Rescue Me, Underground, Harmonic

(SUM 41) : Motivation, Summer, Makes No Difference, In Too Deep, All She’s Got, Handle This, Crazy Amanda Bunkface, What We’re All About, Fat Lip, (encore), (unknown), Pain For Pleasure

After the meteoric rise of bands like Green Day, Blink 182, and The Offspring in the 90’s, it was expected that there would be those who would take a page from them or downright steal the sound. It’s no secret that this happens to practically any successful band and while most imitators quickly fall by the wayside, there are often a handful that are genuinely talented and earn their success. Such was the case with Sum 41, a punk pop band from Ontario, Canada. They were just teenagers when they formed in 1996 and had already found themselves headlining at The Warfield after the release of their debut album, “All Killer No Filler”. Needless to say, that album went multi-platinum in no time, becoming one of the top 20 best selling albums of all time in their home country. 

Though frontman Deryck Whibley was just a couple months shy of his 22nd birthday, he and his bandmates literally looked like children. I was remarking to one of the veteran bartenders named David whose left bar aisle position I was assigned to as usual that night that the name Sum 41 was actually the collective sum of the band member’s ages. Truth be told, they chose that name because the band formed on the 41st day of their summer vacation. I didn’t know anything about these Canadian kids before that night, though I had heard that they were no fans of George W. Bush and would go on to be vocal in their criticism of the invasion of Iraq. In a related story, in Afghanistan, John Walker Lindh, that dipshit from Marin county who joined the Taliban, had just been captured by U.S. forces and would soon be brought back to America to be put on trial and imprisoned. 

The first act of the night was Gob, a fellow punk band from Canada, but from the British Columbia side of the country. They too were brand new, having just put out their debut album, “World According To Gob”, in October of 2000. Gob had just been picked up by Arista Records and had recorded a promotional E.P. called “F.U.”, featuring the single “Ming Tran” which they opened with that night. I caught a bit of that song during their soundcheck as well where I overheard one of them yelling, “Reg is in the house eating some fries or a sandwich or something!… Plate O’ fish!”  Their guitarist Tom Thacker would joined Sum 41 in 2006, the year Deryck married fellow Canadian musician Avril Lavigne. Incidentally, Gob’s bass player, Craig Wood, would join Avril’s band in 2004 as well. 

Gob were quite talkative during their set, lead vocalist and guitarist Theo Goutzinakis in the middle of their set saying, “You guys fuckin’ rock!… We’re going to have to invite you to a Gob dance party. This is Craig and they’re going to put something together for you to dance to… And this is Tom over to my left. Tom is a lean, mean dancing machine and Tom’s going to give you free dance lessons tonight! What do you think of that? Tom, can you show everyone one of your prize possessions? Your booty!” Then the band did a few riffs of “Staying Alive” by The Bee Gee’s as Tom danced and the crowd cheered. Tom continued pointing to the balcony, “You up there! Dance lesson number two! Yeah, we’re going to splash some cold water all the way up there. All we need is a hose.” Theo replied, “There’s a lot of ho’s back there, Tom. But I want you to put the water hose right in your anus. Is that cool?… OK, now the water hose is right inside his anus. I’m going to turn the valve on. Tom, unleash your sprinkler and wet these motherfuckers down!” 

After Tom’s sprinkler dance, Theo announced, “OK, dance lesson number three, the grand finale!… Last but not least, the daddy longarms dance!” Tom added, “I invented this one myself.” Theo continued, “That is true. He did and another true fact to go on top of it, Warner Brothers cartoon company tried to buy this dance off Tom, but Tom would not sell it to them.” Tom chimed in, “That’s right, you know why San Francisco?” “Why, Tom?”, Theo asked. “Cus’ I won’t sell out! I will never fuckin’ sell out!… Alright, anticipation for the daddy longarms dance. You ready, San Francisco?!?” As you can imagine, that dance had a good deal of arm flailing involved with it. Theo brought the band back together, signaling to their drummer Gabe Mantle, “Alright, San Francisco! We have danced for you tonight! It’s your turn to dance for us. Don’t let me down! Gabe will give me a 1-2-3-4 and start dancing. Gabe, show em’ how it’s done. Alright,, San Francisco, you ready to dance?!?” and then the pit went nuts to “I Cut Myself Too”. 

Afterwards, Tom teased their bass player, “There’s one thing I have to ask Craig. Sorry for a sec. We’ve got to have a band meeting. Sorry… Craig, what the hell were you playing these past five songs?” Then Craig did a little simple riff on his bass and he went on, “Well, that’s weird. I guess you’re fired, Craig. What the fuck was that anyway? Pack up your stuff and get out. We need a new bass player. Who can play bass? Can anyone here fuckin’ play bass or what? Come up” He pointed to someone and asked, “Can you play bass? Have a go. I think we found somebody!” The guy quite likely was a friend of theirs, but we went along with it anyway. Theo yelled, “When I say G, you say O! When I say B, you say O!” and they took turns shouting, “G! O! B! O! G! O! B! O!” and then they did “Soda”. Tom pointed to some people in the pit between songs later asking one of them their name, “Pick the next song… Andy? Oh sorry, Kathy. Thought you were a guy. Sorry. Who’s the fellow next to you? Mark, hey Mark from San Francisco!” and then he chose them to do “Custer’s Last 1 Nite Stand”. They thanked Sum 41 and Theo shouted, “When I say Sum 41, you say rock!” and the crowd did so. He also invited everybody to meet up with the band later at the merch table and they finished their set with a punk rock cover of “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones, finishing it with an extended crescendo. Seriously, it was a pretty good cover, almost making it sound that it had been a punk rock song all along. 

The next band on the bill was Unwritten Law, a band I’d seen open for a couple others by then, including once for Bad Religion on that stage in 1996. They didn’t talk nearly as much as Gob, but they played a solid set as usual, even doing a little bit of “Waiting Room” by Fugazi in the middle of their song, “Lonesome”. I’ve always liked Unwritten Law, but I’m pretty sure this was the last time I saw them perform live, though they continue to make music to this day. The same goes for Gob. But the night belonged to Sum 41 and their ear piercing shrieks of all the young women in the audience when the got on stage confirmed it. Everyone up front was putting up their Sum 41 salute, raising four fingers on one hand and one on the other. Their entrance was accompanied by a rather disturbing introduction over the speakers, some satanic thing ordering the “children of the beast” to “scorn and hate the human race” before they opened their set with “Motivation”. 

They kept the devil worshipping theme going during the next song “Summer” doing a few licks of “Raining Blood” by Slayer, who had coincidentally recorded their “War At The Warfield” DVD there just a month before this. Dave Baksh, the lead guitarist later joked, “I fucked this up… Make something up before someone notices. Going to make a shitty dance with my guitar solo. Like it up top? I don’t think people down here didn’t. I’ll show you a thing or two on guitar!” Deryck said, “Show them a thing or three!”, Dave did a little solo and he congratulated him, “Nice work, pal”. Continuing their metal fetish, one of them did a little riff of “Enter Sandman” by Metallica before asking, “Any you guys have a crazy psycho bitch of a girlfriend? Then you’ll understand this song” and they did their hit, “In Too Deep”. Afterwards, Deryck declared, “It’s been a fuckin’ day. Everybody say ‘Fuck Yeah!’ Everybody say ‘Fuck You!’” A guy up front propositioned him, but he replied, “Why you say that, dude? I already got a boyfriend. His name is Dave”.

They followed that with “All She’s Got”, giving their drummer Steve Jocz a moment to do a solo. Dave declared him “the master of disaster… Can I touch your stick?” The batteries in my tape deck ran out as they brought a couple young women on stage with them who they called their “Barbie twins” for “Handle This”, but I quickly replaced them for the next song. Deryck then challenged Dave to guitar solo contest asking, “Do I have to unleash the dragon?”, then doing a few Eddie Van Halen riffs before admitting, “Alright, I suck I know”. Dave consoled him, “We suck as a whole, Deryck. We’re a team of suck”. A couple tunes later, they had Steve put on a long, black wig and Deryck introduced him, “Put your hands together for the one, the only Tommy Lee on drums!”, and then they did “What We’re All About”. That song would end up on the soundtrack for the first “Spider-Man” movie that would come out later that May.

Before they finished with their hit single “Fat Lip”, Deryck addressed us one more time, “Hold on a second, hold on. I want to ask you guys something really serious right now, the only time when we’re going to get serious on you. I wanna know how many people here tonight are all about rock?… That’s good, cus’ normally they’re not. That’s good, cus’ me and Steve here are all about rock too. So, we should be all about rock together, right? Every time I point the mic, yell ‘Rock!’ as loud as you can! Practice run…” He pointed his mic to the crowd and they did what he asked, though Deryck was unimpressed at first, pointing around, “That was pretty good, but I didn’t hear you over there. I didn’t hear you over there. On the count of 4! 1-2-3-4!” The next “Rock!” was of course much louder. 

Everybody sang along to the breakdown in the middle of “Fat Lip”, the line “Don’t count on me” echoing loudly in the house. They came back for an encore, the first song I didn’t recognize, but I know they finished with “Pain For Pleasure”. The story goes that Steve wrote it in only ten minutes while sitting on the toilet, an homage to another famous metal band, Iron Maiden. Sum 41 left the stage to the sound of their fans chanting, “We want more!”, but that was it. There was a great poster given out as we left done by Chris Shaw, one of my favorite poster artists. Sum 41 would continue their success after this show, performing on “Saturday Night Live” that April and I would see them return to the Warfield stage in 2003, followed by an appearance at the Warped Tour that summer at Pier/30/32. 

https://archive.org/details/sum-41-warfield-12602

https://archive.org/details/unwritten-law-warfield-12602

https://archive.org/details/gob-warfield-12602

Stereophonics, The Fingers, JJ72 – Fillmore, SF, Tues., January 22

SETLISTS : 

(JJ72) : Snow, Formulae, October Swimmer, I Saw A Prayer, (unknown), Brother Sleep, Undercover Angel, Oxygen

(STEREOPHONICS) : Mr. Winter, Vegas Two Times, A Thousand Trees, The Bartender & The Thief, Have A Nice Day, Nice To Be Out, Just Looking, T-Shirt Suntan, Watch Them Fly Sundays, Step On My Old Size Nines, Handbags & Gladrags, Roll Up & Shine, Not Up To You, Local Boy In The Photograph, (encore), Don’t Let Me Down, Everyday I Think Of Money, Rooftop

Every now and then a song comes along that sticks. It sticks and it stays there for all eternity, the kind that moves you no matter the subject matter of the lyrics, the elegance of its composition, or the circumstances of where or when you heard it. Such was the case with “Have A Nice Day”. Stereophonics was just another “sight unseen” show for me, ushering a band out of nonchalant curiosity, but when I heard that song, I was genuinely moved. I can’t rightly say what it was, the simple melody, the everyday narrative in its words, the underlying yearning for connection to people far and wide, I can’t say for sure. Call me sentimental, even call me corny, but when I hear that song, I get misty. It might not do it for you, but I can bet there’s at least one song out there in the world that does or hopefully will some day. 

But back to the show at hand. Stereophonics came from Wales, diligently making music since ’92 and their hard work was finally paying off. Their latest album, “Just Enough Education To Perform” was a hit back home, staying number one on the the charts there for two weeks and going five times platinum. Indeed, they would be the first band to be signed Virgin Records, owned by renowned, billionaire harlequin Richard Branson. Despite all Stereophonic’s undeniable success, leave it to one critic in the Observer Music Monthly named Tony Heyman to cruelly, though eloquently describe their new album as “musical excrement, scooped unhygienically from a poorly maintained squat toilet in an area without adequate sanitation… If the CD wasn’t laminated, the insert booklet could be distributed to third world communities as toilet paper”… Ouch. Well… as Mark “Chopper” Read once said, “Beethoven had his critics too.. See if you can name three of them”.

Opening that night was a band called JJ72 from Dublin, Ireland who after meeting as students at Belvedere College, named their band after a window in one of the campus buildings there that was made out of 72 jelly jars. I was immediately taken aback by the blood curdling, Banshee-like voice of their lead singer, Mark Greaney, and it was no wonder why the band had to take a break earlier the year before when he lost said voice for a while. To make matters worse, around that time, their drummer Fergal Matthews also was injured in a motorcycle accident. Screaming or not, I managed to make out all but one of the songs of their set for the setlist and I admit, they were pretty good. Later in the year, they toured with Suede, but this would be the only time I’d see them live since they broke up in 2006. 

Between sets, their was a band up in the poster room called The Fingers and I managed to catch a few of their songs including one called “I’m The Man”. They were a local act, comprised of a basic acoustic guitar and drum kit combo as many poster room acts are and though I thought they had a good name, I don’t think I ever saw them again. Still, in my research of this show, I learned there was another group called The Fingers who had the distinction of labeling themselves as the first “psychedelic” band in the mid 60’s. If any further proof was needed of their hippie weirdo credentials, they they used to be accompanied by a monkey on stage during their shows called “Freak Out” who they claimed emitted “psychotic smells”… Case closed. I kind of wished I was alive to see that band now. 

Like I mentioned earlier, I had never heard Stereophonics before, but it didn’t take long for me to be seduced by their music, especially from the gravelly, though surprisingly clear diction of their singer Kelly Jones. At least he was a damn sight easier to understand than Mark from JJ72. Still, between songs, it was tough to make out what he was saying since he was a bit of mumbler. But I did make out that “Step On My Old Size Nines” was a love song about an “old man who walks up to an old woman and asks, ‘You wanna dance?’ … ‘No, my feet hurt’”. It was a cute song and they busted out a harmonica for that one. During “Handbags & Gladrags”, I overheard the telltale clicking of a lighter on my recording from my friends and I sparking one up, followed by a rather disturbing amount of coughing. I could hear myself patting my friend on the back, joking, “Get ahold of yourself, man!” For the first song of their encore, they played a cover of “Don’t Let Me Down” by The Beatles and afterwards, Kelly said, “This next song’s about a guy wishin’ he had more money… Sees in his head what he’d do with the money if he had it and it goes like this” and then they played the appropriately titled, “Everyday I Think Of Money”. Clearly, this is a song everyone can identify with, especially in America these days. 

Anyway, they finished with “Rooftop” and that was it. I’m happy to report that the show got a great poster for the night, one of the rare horizontal ones, an old timey painting of some ancient dragon, perhaps a nod to their Welsh roots. It was such a work of art, so much so that it made it as a runner up for one of the posters to be framed and hung up in my apartment, though it didn’t make the final cut. If any members of the band or fans of them feel resentful, my apologies. The poster from The Charlatans UK from the week before this show almost made the cut as well but also fell short. Regardless, I was a newly branded admirer of the band and would see them a year later on that stage and once again in 2004 at The Warfield. And though it was a full two years after this show, you can only imagine the gratification I felt when I heard “Have A Nice Day” during the first act of the 2004 remake of “Dawn Of The Dead”, in my opinion, not only one of the greatest horror movies ever made, but one of the greatest movies ever made.  

https://archive.org/details/stereophonics-fillmore-12202

https://archive.org/details/fingers-fillmore-12202

https://archive.org/details/jj72-fillmore-12202

Judas Priest, Anthrax – Warfield, SF, Sat., January 19

SETLISTS :

(ANTHRAX) : Among The Living, Got The Time, Fueled, Inside Out, Room For One More, Superhero, Antisocial, Caught In A Mosh, Bring The Noise, Only

(JUDAS PREIST) : Metal Gods, Heading Out To The Highway, A Touch Of Evil, Blood Stained, Victim Of Changes, One On One, Diamonds & Rust, The Green Manalishi (With The Two Prong Crown), Beyond The Realms Of Death, Burn In Hell, Hell Is Home, Breaking The Law, Desert Plains, Turbo Lover, Painkiller, (encore), The Hellion, Electric Eye, United, Living After Midnight, (encore), Hell Bent For Leather

Though I wasn’t much of a metal fan growing up, as a boy, even I knew of the dreaded boogyman known as Judas Priest. Named after the song “The Ballad Of Frankie Lee & Judas Priest” by Bob Dylan, an artist firmly not associated with heavy metal, Judas Priest had been causing fretful conservatives far and wide to clutch their pearls in terror since 1969. And though I had never seen these leather clad metal pioneers, I had seen their once and future frontman Rob Halford when he played with his side project, Fight, at The Fillmore in 1995. Priest had famously enlisted a new singer by the name of Tim “Ripper” Owens, who had replaced Rob in ’96, much to the dismay of the band’s elder fan base. Though Ripper was no slouch, having sung in a Judas Priest cover band of his own as well as later for both Iced Earth and Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force, clearly he had some big spiked metal studded leather boots to fill. Incidentally, Iced Earth was also originally listed on the bill for this show, but for some reason they weren’t there. This was Priest’s “Demolition” tour, promoting the new album that had just come out that July, the second and final one with Ripper before Rob rejoined the band in 2003.

Ripper’s hiring inspired a film called “Rock Star” with Mark Wahlberg that came out the previous September. Mark’s character had been a singer in a Steel Dragon cover band, clearly a knock off of Judas Priest, that had been hired to replace their original lead singer. It had lukewarm reviews and bombed commercially, but at least I believed it reassured us all that after Wahlberg’s hilariously cringe worthy singing in “Boogie Nights”, that Mark can actually sing. Honestly, I think that was half the reason he took the part in the first place, but it turns out his singing voice was actually done by Miljenko Matijevic from Steelheart and Brian Vander Ark from the Verve Pipe. Also, in another borderline parody of Priest, Pat Boone, (yes, THAT Pat Boone), had released an album of metal covers done Branson, Missouri style in 1997 whose opening track was a brilliantly cheesy version of Priest’s “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming”. I love Pat’s album with all my heart and sad to report that they didn’t play that hit song of theirs at this show. Incidentally, Boone not only did a cover of “Holy Diver” on that album, but Ronnie James Dio himself, who I’d see at The Fillmore later that November, graciously sang back up vocals for it. Anyway, I never saw “Rock Star”, so I remain as unfamiliar with the movie as I was with Judas Priest back then. 

But who was there to open was a band I was familiar with and really half the reason I wanted to go to this show, being Anthrax. I had seen them at The Fillmore in 1995 as well as headline a show of their own at The Warfield two years before this. And then there was the Anthrax side project Stormtroopers Of Death who I recorded at Maritime Hall in ’99 who ripped off the video we did and put it out on a DVD without giving me a single line of credit, not to mention one thin dime. My feelings are still hurt from that one, but I digress. A previous tour had been recently planned employing both of Anthrax’s singers, their current singer John Bush and the former one, Joey Belladonna, but that fell apart after their label Beyond Records went out of business. To make matters worse, there were the notorious anthrax attacks shortly after 9/11, prompting them to immediately change their website to display only information about the disease. They joked that they would temporarily change their name to Basket Full Of Puppies until the heat blew over. Addressing the elephant in the room early in their set, John declared, “We are the real Anthrax! Not some fuckin’ letter in the mail!”

Anthrax fans were fortunate that night since VH1, not a TV music channel one associates with metal, was in the house filming their set for an upcoming episode of their “Behind The Music” series. The band came on stage with the song “I Can’t Turn You Loose”, the famous overture of The Blues Brothers playing over the loudspeakers and Dan Ankroyd giving a speech about how modern music was killing real music like R & B. They got the mosh pit whipped up in no time beginning their set with “Among The Living” and following it with their cover of “Got The Time” by Joe Jackson, another artist one doesn’t immediately associate with heavy metal. A few songs in, John announced, “This next song is about having massive heart and massive fuckin’ soul, alright? It’s about being self reliant. Only person who matters most and that’s you fuckin’ self. It’s about being resilient, you know what I’m sayin’, San Francisco?!? It’s about not being intimidated by any motherfucker on this Earth, alright? Do you feel strong, San Francisco?!?… Do you feel strong, San Francisco?!? I wanna feel everything you got here. I wanna feel all your emotions pouring. I want to feel everything coming through… ‘Inside Out’!!!”

A few songs later, they did one for the “old school Anthrax fans”, challenging us to “see if you know your Anthrax history” and they did “Antisocial”. John got the crowd to chant the song’s name at the top of their lungs a few times after they finished too. Guitarist Scott Ian thanked the crowd at the end of their set for helping selling out the show and said “see you next summer with the new record!” The new record, “We Come For You All” wouldn’t actually be released until May of 2003, but better late than never I guess. I would see Anthrax again when they would headline a long bill of other metal acts on a stage built outside of the now defunct venue called The Pound, in January of 2006. I don’t know who’s brilliant idea it was to have an outdoor show that time of year, but The Pound was located next to the piers near Hunter’s Point and it was fucking freezing. But that’s another story. 

Anyway, it had been exactly 20 years since Priest sold out The Warfield for their “British Steel” tour and it was a safe bet that there were some in the audience who had attended that one as well. The show had been originally scheduled to be on September 15th, but had to be postponed obviously because of 9/11. Any doubts I had about Ripper’s pipes were quickly assuaged when I heard him begin the set with “Metal Gods” standing on top of one of the bands comically tall stacks of guitar amps. They followed that with an obscure oldie called “Heading Out To The Highway”. I was especially blown away when Ripper ended “Victim Of Changes” with an awe inspiring, big finish, long note crescendo. Apparently, he auditioned for the band and after singing only a line or two of that song, was hired on the spot. Ripper did a few more big finishes for “Living After Midnight” and “Hell Bent For Leather”. He joked after “Burn In Hell”, “I know I’m going to hell. That’s why I like to sing about it” and then they continued with a new one, though also hell themed called, “Hell Is Home”. They followed that with a golden oldie, Ripper asking, “Do we have any law breakers out there ?!?!? Help me out!” and everybody shouted along with him “Breaking The Law!!!”

After “Turbo Lover”, Ripper joked that “only San Francisco will be slamming” to that song and then they finished their set with “Painkiller”. My batteries quickly ran out during that one, which made me miss “Electric Eye” at the beginning of their first encore, but I replaced them in time to get everything after “United”, an old song they hadn’t played in a long time. They came back out to do the aforementioned “Hell Bent For Leather” for their second encore and left their fans chanting “Priest! Priest! Priest!” It goes without saying that it was an excruciatingly loud concert which left all those unwise enough to not wear earplugs with a painful case of tinnitus, though consequently the tapes came out great. It was a pity that there wasn’t a poster that night, but I’d only have to wait seven short months before they’d return to town to play The Fillmore. 

https://archive.org/details/judas-priest-warfield-11902

https://archive.org/details/anthrax-warfield-11902

The Charlatans UK, Petrol, Starsailor – Fillmore, SF, Tues., January 15

SETLISTS :

(PETROL) : (1st set) (unknown), Red Balloon, Cruel To Be Kind, (2nd set) (unknown), Lineman Of The County, I Was Only Joking, Angie

(STARSAILOR) : Poor Misguided Fool, Alcoholic, Fever, Way To Fall, Lullaby, Love Is Here, Tie Up My Hands, Good Souls

(THE CHARLATANS UK) : Love Is The Key, Judas, Tellin’ Stories, (unknown), You’re So Pretty We’re So Pretty, Weirdo, How High, (encore), Forever, And If I Fall, Sproston Green

Every now and then a band comes up with a name for itself that is so good that it should come to no surprise that it had been already taken. Such was the case with The Charlatans, who once confronted with the fact that they chosen the name previously claimed by the renowned San Francisco “western swing” hippie act, simply tagged on “UK” on the end of it. Problem solved. The band Suede, a fellow late 80’s/early 90’s Britpop band, had to change their name to “The London Suede” for the same reason. In a strange coincidence, Dan Hicks, former founding member of the elder Charlatans had just celebrated his 60th birthday with a cavalcade of hippie all-stars, including a couple of founding Charlatans, at The Warfield six weeks before this show. And if the younger Charlatans required yet one more reminder that Dan and his buddies got the name first, an old picture of the elder Charlatans, dressed in their turn of the century vintage finery, was there hanging in the lobby of The Fillmore for them to see before their performance and remains there to this very day. And as I said before in my review of the Dan Hicks show, despite it being obvious that no one would ever confuse the two acts be it from their musical styles, choices in clothing, or the decades which they were in their heyday, all would certainly agree that The Charlatans is a good name for a band.

That being said, though I was familiar with the younger Charlatans, this would be the first and only time I’d be seeing them perform live. Hailing from the Midlands/Northwich area near Manchester where many Britpop bands had been hatched, The Charlatans UK had been making music for years, going through a few line up changes, and had just released their “Wonderland” album the previous September. They had recorded it just down the road in L.A., ingesting so much cocaine in the process that their dealer had shacked up with them, taking residence on their sofa. The Charlatans UK would also release “Songs From The Other Side” later that year, a collection of live tracks and B-sides. Though I had seen many of their contemporaries during that time, like I said, this would be the only occasion that I would see The Charlatans UK perform live, as well as their opening act that night, Starsailor, though they both still continue to make music and tour. 

Starsailor was relatively new, having only been formed in 2000 and put out their debut album “Love Is Here” the previous October. They named themselves after an album Tim Buckley put out in 1970. Fun fact, their follow up album, “Silence Is Easy”, would be the final album that veteran music producer Phil Spector would work on before he was arrested for murder. It should come to no surprise that Starsailor found him difficult to work with to say the least and only two tracks that Phil had leant his hand to would actually make it to the album. The band’s frontman, James Walsh, would also have a tussle with another psychopath in the music business, Noel Gallagher from Oasis. After calling Noel a “cock” in an interview with NME, Noel confronted him at the “T In The Park” festival, had their row which Noel later commented that it “was the most fun Walsh has had in his life”. Thankfully, they kissed and made up at the Glastonbury Festival in 2004.

One band that I had seen before and would see again at Slim’s with Persephone’s Bees only three months after this show was Petrol, a local indy rock group that was playing in the poster room that night. Like most poster room acts, they had stripped down to play acoustic, being just the guitarist, the bass player, and for a couple numbers, a female back up singer. They dusted off a few recognizable covers for their sets, doing “Cruel To Be Kind” by Nick Lowe before the show started. Then between main stage acts, they played “Lineman Of The County” which their singer described as “a song made famous by Glen Campbell… We’re going to make it infamous now”. Petrol rounded out their last set with “Angie” by the Rolling Stones. They were a good band and like the other bands on the bill that night, certainly looked the part with their Britpop fashion sense and hairstyles. Incidentally, like The Charlatans, Petrol was also another name that others lay claim to including a Britpop cover band in South Shore, Massachusetts as well as a psychedelic rock trio from Belgrade, Serbia. 

Before Starsailor began, I overheard myself on the tape telling someone about my encounter with HR, the singer from Bad Brains, when I recorded him at Maritime Hall. It’s one of my go-to rock & roll stories and if you’ve heard it from me before, either reading it here or hearing it from me personally, bear with me. Basically, the notoriously mercurial singer was on his good pills that night and after their show at the Maritime, he gave me a long hug, resting his head on my shoulder, embracing me for what felt like an eternity. Afterwards, he even offered the guys on stage to help sweep up. Anyway, James and the band got the night underway beginning their set with “Poor Misguided Fool” and I have to say that he had a powerful singing voice, a tremolo not too dissimilar from Thom Yorke’s from Radiohead. A couple songs later, he asked us, “How is everybody?… Very well, thank you. You bought the record? If you don’t like it, give it a few months. It’s a bit of a grower” and then they did “Fever”. Afterwards, he asked us if we liked the shirt drummer Ben Byrne was wearing. Someone in the crowd requested a Strokes song, but James countered, “I’m not going to do another Strokes cover until they do one of our songs”.

The Charlatans UK began their set with a new song called “Love Is The Key”, their frontman Tim Burgess singing it in a rather eerie falsetto. He did that for a few of the other new ones, perhaps channeling his inner Bee Gee’s, a stylistic choice that drew criticism from some of their long time fans. Still, we got to hear at least four new tunes that night, though I can’t say for sure since I missed recording a few in the middle, making my recounting of their setlist a bit incomplete. Sorry about that, but I got most of it. The good news is that they gave us a pretty impressive poster for the show at the end of the night. I liked it so much, it actually was on the short list to be framed and put up on my wall at home when I recently moved to Alameda. It didn’t make the cut, but just as well. The clown on it might have creeped out my wife and future houseguests. Personally, I’m not afraid of clowns, what shrinks call coulrophobia, the total opposite in fact. When I see a clown, I impulsively have the urge to brutally attack it, but that’s another story.

https://archive.org/details/the-charlatans-uk-fillmore-11502

https://archive.org/details/starsailor-fillmore-11502

https://archive.org/details/petrol-fillmore-11502

Bryan Adams, Fillmore, SF, Sun., January 13

SETLIST : Back To You, House Arrest, 18 Till I Die, Can’t Stop This Thing We Started, Summer Of ’69, It’s Only Love, Thought I Died & Gone To Heaven, (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, Cuts Like A Knife, This Time, Please Forgive Me, When You’re Gone, Into The Fire, I’m Ready, Heaven, One Night Love Affair, Take Me Back, The Only Thing That Looks Good One Me Is You, (encore), Cloud #9, Somebody, Run To You, The Best Of Me, The Way You Make Me Feel

Though I wasn’t a fan of Bryan Adams before that show, I and everybody else alive with ears in the 1980’s was intimately familiar with all his greatest hits. His catchy songs and boyish good looks led many a teenage girl to adorn their bedroom walls with his Canadian tuxedo clad visage, including Jenny Roth, the elder sister of one my best friends and a girl I had a crush on since I was a boy. Actually, I’m pretty sure my own sister Erica had his picture up in her room sometime back then as well. Anyway, that was then and by this time, Bryan was in his early 40’s and it had been some time since his youthful heyday. Smart aleck that I am, I admit that before the show began, I couldn’t help thinking of and blurting out the line, “The Canadian government has repeatedly apologized for Bryan Adams!” from the 1999 animated film comedy “South Park : Bigger, Longer, & Uncut”. All kidding aside, as an American, I still was obliged to admire him for being rich, having sold at least 75 million records while also winning a Grammy, five Golden Globe and three Oscar nominations, as well as numerous stars on various walks of fame. 

It was just an evening with Mr. Adams, so I was cut from ushering early, making it a very easy night. All the girls wanted to cram up front to be as close as possible to that dreamboat hoser anyway, so keeping the area around the soundboard clear was a breeze. The show was introduced by a young woman, a DJ from Star 101.3, who thanked us for being there and mentioned an offer for to win a trip to Hawaii the following morning. Right off the bat I was impressed that it was just him on bass, accompanied by a guitarist and drummer, a bone fide power trio, and a few bars into their first song, I knew these guys were tight. Bryan later introduced himself and them as “the incredible Mickey Curry” on drums and “on lead guitar & vocals… (pauses for a couple yeahs! from the audience)… ladies & gentlemen, the sensational Keith Scott!” Both have them had played with Bryan for decades, Keith since the very beginning, and both have backed up a laundry list of other who’s who in the music business over the years. I was impressed and he certainly had no trouble getting the crowd to sing along to “Summer of ’69”, not to mention sing along to pretty much all of the old hits he played that night. 

Afterwards, he said, “Thank you very much. I can’t believe in all the years that I’ve been singing and playing, I’ve never played here before. I guess I should apologize cus’ it’s about freakin’ time, eh? I guess we got some catching up to do. In fact, I have to really… Yeah, I know. I can’t even remember the last time I played San Francisco, ’92 or something like that…. Memory loss… I think it’s because of some herbal vibe going on up in the front row here. If I drift off into a jam, you’ll understand why. Here’s a song that’s 10 years old and we’re going to play it for you just how we wrote it because we don’t have a keyboard player” and then they did “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”. That song as you might remember was made famous and earned him one of his Oscar nominations from the Kevin Costner action film, “Robin Hood : Prince Of Thieves”. My wife loves that movie. One of his female admirers up front made some sort of proposal to him after that song to which he simply replied, “I’m married” and went on to describe working on the next song with Joe Cocker, he “being one of my heroes. It was going to be a rare privilege for me. As a kid, I used to listen to his records. Next thing you know, he’s doing my song which is pretty nice… I’m not going to do my Joe Cocker impression… You gotta get me loaded first”. 

Afterwards, he had the lights turned on, ordering, “Illuminate the people!… I want someone to come sing with me on this song. Hang on, don’t get excited until you know what the song is. It’s called ‘When You’re Gone’… If you know it, stick your hand up!” One of those young ladies up in the front was brought up on stage and her name was Christina from Sacramento, a student there at Sierra College, and when he asked what she was studying, she replied “Probation”. Bryan laughed and said, “All I ever did in school was probation… You know the words? You’re confident you know the words?… Tell you what, if you don’t know the words, I’ve got one word for you… Probation”. It got a laugh, but she insisted she knew them and they started the song. Indeed, she knew the lyrics well, so well that Bryan let her take a few lines of it all by her lonesome. She sung flat as hell, but the tonal quality almost made her sound like Exene Cervenka from X doing a minor key harmony of some kind. Bryan thanked her when the song was over and told her to “go see the boys and they’ll give you and your friends some shirts”. 

They went on to do a couple acoustic numbers from his “MTV Unplugged” album which featured the “Spanish guitar stylings of Keith Scott”.Like I said, I knew all the hits and though some were a touch on the cheesy side, I couldn’t help but reluctantly appreciate when he did “Run To You” during the encore. It’s a pretty solid rock song. By the time he wrapped up, he and the band had clocked in a respectable 2 hours and 10 minute set, longer than I expected. They had a pretty good poster for this one too and being January, it was a cartoon of a couple in a red car with skis, a dog, and the license plate “WINTR69”, driving though snow capped mountains. It helped to make up for the absence of one at the Blind Boys Of Alabama show two nights there before this one. 

And though this would be the only time I’ve seen him play, I distinctly remember a dust up that happened later that October at former Whiskeytown frontman Ryan Adams’ show in Nashville. Some stupid drunk yelled out “Summer Of ’69” during a acapella song he was doing with Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings. Ryan flipped his lid, swore a bunch, ordered the house lights on, found the guy, and had him thrown out, his $30 for the price of his ticket refunded. I had seen this Mr. Adams perform with Whiskeytown also at The Fillmore three years before this and he had a bit of a tizzy fit at that one as well, though not as dramatic, but this further solidified Ryan’s reputation for being a hothead. Anyway, turns out the two Adams’ are friends now and Ryan actually played “Summer Of ’69” at one of his shows in 2015 at that very same venue in Nashville. 

https://archive.org/details/bryan-adams-fillmore-11302

The Blind Boys Of Alabama, The Spirit Of The Century Band, Fillmore, SF, Fri., January 11

SETLIST : Good Religion, (unknown), Run Along For A Long Time, Nobody’s Fault But Mine, (unknown), (unknown), Give A Man A Home, Motherless Child, Amazing Grace, Way Down In The Hole, If I Had A Hammer, Across The Bridge, Do Lord, (unknown), What A Friend We Have In Jesus, Someone Watching Over Me, (unknown), The Last Time

It was a genuine relief to put that dreadful year of 2001 behind me and I found it spiritually nourishing to begin the new one with The Blind Boys Of Alabama. I had first witnessed this veteran gospel act alongside John Fogerty from Credence Clearwater Revival at The Fillmore in ’97 and could immediately see why the honor was all John’s to have them on the bill. Even the most cynical atheist would have found it difficult not to bust out a soul clap during one of their sets and rest assured, there were many doing just that for this one, myself included.  Founded in 1939, this venerable cast of soulful singers had been singing the good Lord’s word, but had recently found new notoriety with their albums “Spirit Of The Century” the year before this and their new one,“Higher Ground”. They changed the lyrics of that title track originally penned by Stevie Wonder from “Lovers, keep on loving” to “Prayers, keep on praying”, though they didn’t perform it that night. Both albums were critical and commercial successes and would win them back to back Grammies for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album. 

Later that year, their cover of Tom Waits’ “Down In The Hole” would be used for the theme song for the first season of a little TV show called “The Wire”… perhaps you’ve heard of it. Unlike “Higher Ground”, they would perform that cover at that show about halfway through their set. Also, in 2002, they would play on the steps in front of The Library Of Congress in Washington D.C. and at The White House and though they had the indignity of doing it for George W. Bush, one could argue that it was OK since they couldn’t see him and maybe didn’t know. Incidentally, two days after this show, W nearly choked to death on a pretzel, but unfortunately only fainted.Regardless, they performed for Clinton and Obama too, while their extensive work supporting the civil right movement gave them more than enough liberal street cred. By this time, the only founding members, who were indeed blind, were Clarence Fountain and George Scott and they along with the other singers were ably backed up by The Spirit Of The Century band.
That ensemble included such respected hippie and blues artists as guitarists John Hammond and David Lindley, as well as Charlie Musselwhite, the harmonica virtuoso. 

I like any band that employs a steel pedal guitar, one of sweetest sounding instruments ever invented, and the guy they had on theirs that night played it masterfully. The crowd was boisterous and clapped along through most songs in their set, especially cheering when one of them would hit a long note to finish songs like “Amazing Grace”, “If I Had A Hammer”, and the aforementioned “Down In The Hole”. Like they did with Fogerty four years before, they paired the lyrics of “Amazing Grace” to the melody of “House Of The Rising Sun”, possibly the most brilliant mash up ever conceived. The Blind Boys were generous allowing the band some solos at the end of the night, including the lead guitarist doing a little riff from the theme song of “The Andy Griffith Show”. Clarence made sure to introduce everybody and joked about George, “He can’t see your smile, ‘cus he’s like me, but he can hear your noise!” They finished the night with a gospel version of “The Last Time” by the Rolling Stones, a poignant one to do for men of their advanced age. There wasn’t a poster that night, but they got one when they performed again at The Fillmore the following year, though I missed that one. Thankfully, I got to see them one more time only eight months later when they did a free in-store performance at Virgin Megastore. 

https://archive.org/details/blind-boys-of-alabama-fillmore-11102

2001

Sandra Bernhard, War., SF, Mon., December 10

And so it ends, this horribilis annus that was 2001. Having my final concert of the year be comedian Sandra Bernhard’s one woman show, promoting her new album “The Love Machine”, gave me mixed emotions. God knows I needed a laugh then, but after 9/11, most of us weren’t sure that we were ready to yet. I suppose Sandra’s brassy, confrontational style of storytelling was the tough love I and the others there that night needed in a way, especially since she was no fan of right wingers. Ever since she blew every one away with her unforgettable role in Martin Scorsese’s “The King Of Comedy”, a performance as disturbing as it was hysterical, Sandra had been weaving in and out of popular culture with her gossipy stand up routines, mingling in high fashion circles, her role in “Rosanne”, the first openly bisexual character on TV, and her on again off again relationship with Madonna. Regardless on whether or not I was ready to laugh again, it was at least a relief to usher her show which was a breeze compared to ushering the Dan Hick’s birthday bash at The Warfield the night before which had been extraordinarily difficult. 

She had a band with her that night and opened the show with a rather in-your-face version of “I Need A Hero” by Bonnie Tyler. I must say that I was surprised and impressed by her pipes. Sandra has a strong voice, almost operatic really. It was hard to make out in my tapes what she was going on about in the beginning of her show since it was just her and a microphone and I was so far from the stage at first. But after I was cut from ushering, I was able to make my way closer after getting a beer at the bar. I overheard that they were out of Anchor Steam that night, so I got a Sierra Nevada instead. Sandra did go on a bit about the difficulty getting on planes for this tour and sang a couple lines of Bon Jovi’s “Living On A Prayer” during one of her jokes. A little later, she made fun of Florida, mentioning that she drove past an anti-abortion billboard that was next to one from Holiday Inn where “kids stay for free”. She quipped that “next time you’re thinking of having an abortion, have two, three, four more kids instead” and that Holiday Inn would be happy to pay for their housing an education as well. “Holiday Inn will be picking up the whole tab!… Tampa makes L.A. look sane.”

Later, she lamented about the lameness of a recent Victoria’s Secret TV special and wished we had more ones with Carol Burnett and Cher like the old days. Then, she spoke about a time she was invited to some Valentino party in L.A. by a woman whose ex-boyfriend was Alan Cumming, though it’s common knowledge that he’s gay. Sandra just imagined spending loads of money getting her hair done and all dolled up with make up for it only to arrive in a Nissan Pathfinder and have her dress torn half off in the car door when getting out in front of Minnie Driver. She said that she “felt exhausted before I even walked out the door” and “cancelled the whole thing”. Afterwards, she ripped on Elizabeth Hurley a little citing her whore hair and a dress she wore recently that had a “cut up to her cooch”. Laura Bush got some smack talk from her too, mocking her advise to “tell your children their safe” saying, “Honey! Watch out for Anthrax!… Of course she had to tell her children they were safe for 18 years with a drunken imbecile for a father”. Sandra also pointed out that 9/11 might not have happened if the CIA wasn’t so busy investigating Bill Clinton’s penis.

Anyway, she took a break from the sass-mouth for a while praising San Francisco as “one of the most beautiful cities in the country”. Sandra regaled us of the time her family moved, driving to California when she was 10 years old in 1968 and they stopped in Denver where she tried sushi for the first time. When she arrived in San Francisco, her family saw a stage production of “The Fantasticks” and she sang for us a little bit of the chorus from “Try To Remember”.  Sandra also visited Fisherman’s Wharf, had some crab louie, and checked out the wax museum and she followed that with an original song that she wrote about the trip, mentioning how beautiful the drive was going up scenic Highway 1 on the coast. 

Ms. Bernhard soon returned to her gossip, making fun of how her former flame Madonna thinks she can play guitar now and teased her about being holed up in the Maldives with her new husband, director Guy Richie, joking that “if I can’t talk about this in San Francisco, I’m out of business”. Later, she sang a few bars of “Edge Of Seventeen” by Stevie Nicks praising her, saying that “She’s a Wiccan… She’s a mystery”. She went on to give props to David Lynch and his new film, “Mulholland Drive”, which just came out that October. That movie was originally conceived to be a television show and Sandra thought it was a missed opportunity not to make it a series with real actresses rather than “some WB thing” that wanted her “to be some light skinned, black girl… Get your black, ambiguous ass out here!” Then, she shared how much she enjoyed the New York Times on Sundays, the crossword, and making “sure all the jews are marrying the other jews”. 

Sandra took me a little by surprise when she brought her band back up to do a cover of “Kentucky Rain” by Elvis Presley. I didn’t see that one coming, but was less surprised when she finished her set with “Little Red Corvette”, a song that she sang on her new album, ending it with a big finish. She soon came back for an encore, doing “Get It While You Can” by Janis Joplin, a heartfelt tribute to the city that launched Joplin’s career. She ended that song with an even bigger finish, doing a wailing, gibberish, scat vocal crescendo followed by thunderous applause from the audience. And that was it, the last show of the year and it was a pity that there was no poster. Regardless, there were three whole weeks left until New Year’s, so I got out of town and visited my Dad and relatives on his side in Iowa that holiday season. The war in Afghanistan drew to a close with the battle of Tora Bora on the 17th and Hamid Karzai assuming control of the government five days later. Yes, the war was over and the occupation was only beginning. Little did we know the treacherous deceit our government would employ the following year to trick us into attacking Iraq. But that’s another story for another year…

https://archive.org/details/sandra-bernhard-warfield-121001

Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks, War., SF, Sun., December 9

SETLIST : You’ve Got To Believe, Milk Shakin’ Mama, Waitin’, Shootin’ Straight, Strike While It’s Hot, News From Up The Street, Walkin’ One & Only, I’m An Old Cowhand (From The Rio Grande), (unknown), (unknown), (unknown), Canned Music, We’re Not On The Same Trip, San Francisco Bay Blues, How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away, Savin’ My Lovin’, Payday Blues, (unknown), I Scare Myself, The Buzzard Was Their Friend

In a funny way, I came to be aware of Dan Hicks and his old band The Charlatans from my brother Alex discussing The Charlatans UK, a more recent British band who had to change their name because the former got it first. Alex was in the lobby at a Kula Shaker show at The Fillmore before the doors were open talking to Jay Darlington, Kula Shaker’s keyboardist, and pointed out an old picture of Dan and the original Charlatans hanging above them on the wall, comparing and contrasting. Yes, one would not easily confuse the two band’s music, the elder being real hippie, San Francisco “Western Swing” and the younger, 90’s Popscene stuff. Quite a different look between the two as well, the elder looking like they walked out of a turn of the century saloon, the younger, well, like college kids I guess. Anyway you slice it, The Charlatans is a good name for a band. But The (elder) Charlatans were short lived, really only together for about five years, and then Dan continued with his own band, The Hot Licks. Which leads me to the show at hand. Mr. Hicks was being honored at The Warfield that night, celebrating his 60th birthday. It was a safe bet that most in attendance were related to him in some way, family, friends, fellow musicians, and I’m sure the guest list had to be a mile long. Hell, at one point, there was around 40 people on stage alone. 

And I know I’ve lamented a million times before, these hippie crowds are always the hardest to usher and there’s no hippie crowd harder to usher than the rich hippies. They had set tables and chairs all the way down onto the dance floor, so space was already limited and of course the show was sold out. To make matters worse, I had to usher all night as well, instead of volunteering and being cut early, something that was happening in higher frequency. I needed the money, but god damn, did I have to work for it that night. I even remember bitterly declaring to Dirty Dave, one of the brave security guys there that this would be the last hippie show I do. But I also said that at the Rex Benefit with the Grateful Dead people earlier that month at that very same venue and viola, there I was again and rest assured, doomed to usher more in the future. Still, I made it through the night somehow, the deliciously brutal memory of Slayer tearing it up on that stage where they had painted “God Hates Us All” in huge, white capital letters on it two nights before this, sustaining me through all the whiney, entitled, hippie bullshit.

That being said, I did enjoy the music and in hindsight, consider myself fortunate to be a witness, especially since they filmed a live DVD from that show. A couple of the original Charlatans were there on stage with him as well, Mike Wilhelm on 12-string guitar and George Hunter on autoharp and from his old Hot Licks band, there was Maryann Price and Naomi Ruth Eisenberg. The list is extensive of those who also joined in, so bear with me, Sid Page on violin, John Girton on guitar, Maria Muldaur, Sherry Crow, Brian Godchaux and David LaFlamme from It’s A Beautiful Day on violin, Susan Rabin, Dave Bell on guitar, with Paul Robison serving as musical director… (Whew…) And those are just the names of the ones I know were up there. Suffice to say, that the combined hippie experience in that house for that show was staggering. 

Cynical and angrily distracted as I was all night, I do admit that I appreciated the sentimental gesture to Dan on his birthday. Everybody was happy to see him and I resisted the urge to be a party pooper. Dan had recently recovered from a decades long addiction to alcohol and drugs, leading to rather belligerent behavior and a DUI conviction, another cause for celebration. He and his people came out the night before as well, having a little party at the Hotel Utah, singing karaoke with each other. After this show, they would also have a wrap party at Enrico’s out on Broadway, performing at the open mic there. Now that I think about it, I wish I had gone to those shows instead. 

Anyway, back to the show. They had Mitch Woods from the Rocket 88’s play piano on stage before the show began, sort of intermission music. Yeah, I had a devil of a time seating people, so when the lights came down, I felt a swell of relief. Dan strolled on the tremendous applause wearing a floral shirt and began the night with “You Gotta Believe”. He thanked us, talking a deep breath and smiled, “I’m just getting used to the room here… the lights, the audience” and they continued with “Milk Shakin’ Mama”. Later on, Maryann came up and sang a cover of Johnny Mercer’s, “I’m An Old Cowhand (From The Rio Grande)”, made famous by Bing Crosby in the 1936 musical film “Rhythm On The Range”. That one I knew at least. Funny, I knew that from Robert Picardo playing the comical henchman “The Cowboy” singing a bit of it in the 1987 science fiction comedy “Innerspace”… Good movie. 

About halfway through the show, they took a moment to have Ben Fong Torres, rock journalist from Rolling Stone and the San Francisco Chronicle, come out and honor Dan. Before he began, Ben just wanted to say, “I want to send out a spiritual kiss to Ken Kesey”, the counterculture leader of the Merry Pranksters who had just passed away a month to the very day before this show. He went on to describe the early psychedelic days with the Psyche Out parties at San Francisco State and that Dan and The Charlatans were the first thing he wrote about. Ben continued to write about him in Rolling Stone and hearing him played on KSAN, reminding everyone that “The Hot Licks wrote some of our best jingles!” He then sang a few bars of one of the old jingles and sighed, “Ah, the good ol’ days”.

Ben then presented Dan with a framed certificate and pronounced. “For Dan, whereas on December 9th, 2001, for his 60th birthday and for 35 years in the music industry, an event will be held at The Warfield Theater” and went on to list his accomplishments, being an original founding member of The Charlatans, member of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, a frequent guest of Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett, his work with the Bay Area Earthquake Relief Fund, and so forth. Finally, Ben declared, “Therefore, we are resolved, I Willie Brown, Jr., mayor of San Francisco, in recognition of Dan Hicks’ tremendously inspiring career, so hereby proclaim, December 9th, 2001, as Dan Hicks Day in San Francisco!” And then the crowd went wild. They brought up some guy from ASCAP who praised a long list of his songs and saluted his “grand musical style”. Dan graciously accepted the honor and the show continued with the song “Canned Music”.

To be honest, it was kind of hard to hear what Dan was saying between songs, partially because he was a bit of a mumbler and that I also had to skulk in the back for the show, unable to stand in front of the people in the seats. It was a quiet enough show to begin with, obviously quieter than Slayer. But I did overhear him talking about Santa Rosa where he was from originally and the local spots he used to hang out there back in the day. A couple songs later, I recognized one more that they played being, “San Francisco Bay Blues”, the old folk-ragtime number that had been recently made famous by Eric Clapton on his “Unplugged” album. That actually was one of the only songs I’ve ever learned to play on guitar. The pleasure I felt from hearing that one was cut short soon after when I had a back and forth with some elderly guy that wouldn’t get out of the aisle, claiming that “my wife is up there on stage”. I’m sure she was, lots of guys’ wives were, but orders are orders and he put up a stink for a bit, before finally relenting.

Near the end of their set, in the middle of “Payday Blues”, they played a few bars of that accursed hillbilly anthem “Achey Breaky Heart” by Billy Ray Cyrus. That one really got me. My tapes ran out one song later, but I know they went on to play “I Scare Myself” and “The Buzzard Was Their Friend” too. Thankfully, they gave out a poster at the end of the night, the least they could do for the trouble I went through. Fortunately, it was a unique poster, being a little smaller than the standard size ones. Four years later, I would record Mr. Hicks with my old partner Pete Slauson from Maritime Hall at the Tribal Stomp Reunion in Golden Gate Park. “I Scare Myself” and The Charlatans’ “When I Go Sailing By” made it on the CD/DVD set. Strange, up until a moment ago of writing this, I checked song list and was reminded that I have song credits with the birthday boy. Seriously, I’m proud of it and feel remorse that I couldn’t enjoy that Warfield show as much as the patrons. Dan lived another 15 years before passing away in 2016 from throat and lung cancer, shortly after his 74th birthday. But the CDs, the DVDs, the poster, my humble tapes, and the memories of all who bore witness to that party, will carry on for Mr. Hicks and his many musical friends. 

https://archive.org/details/dan-hicks-the-hot-licks-warfield-12901

Slayer, American Head Charge, Chimaira, War., SF, Fri., December 7

SETLISTS : 

(CHIMAIRA) : Let Go, Lumps, Severed, Sp Lit, Silence, Forced Life, Dead Inside, This Present Darkness

(AMERICAN HEAD CHARGE) : All Wrapped Up, Reach & Touch, (unknown), Seamless, Never Get Caught, Pushing The Envelope, A Violent Reaction

(SLAYER) : Disciple, War Ensemble, Stain Of Mind, New Faith, Postmortem, Raining Blood, Hell Awaits, Here Comes The Pain, Die By The Sword, Dittohead, Bloodline, God Sends Death, Dead Skin Mask, Seans In The Abyss, Captor Of Sin, Mandatory Suicide, Chemical Warfare, South Of Heaven, Angel Of Death

“SLAYER!!!!”… The unmistakable war cry/mating call to all those who love metal. Though this would be the third of five times I would ultimately see them at The Warfield, this show would have the unique and privileged distinction of being the one where they recorded their live DVD, “War At The Warfield”, an appropriate title considering the brutal nature of their sound and it being recorded coincidentally on the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. In hindsight, I feel almost unworthy of having witnessed it when I think about the legions of Slayer fans out there who would have crawled through broken glass to be at that show. That feeling has been compounded recently when I came to the realization that I really didn’t even begin to listen to metal until I was out of college. To be fair, I had little exposure to it and was distracted by such genres as punk and ska in my youth, as well as being versed in the obligatory classics like The Beatles, Bob Marley, Hendrix, Zeppelin, and so forth. But thanks to my compulsion to usher and a genuine crash course in metal during my four year stint at Maritime Hall, I grew to appreciate these barbarians, especially a group as venerable and revered as Slayer.

And although Slayer had been giving eardrums around the world the what-fer since 1983, it would only be this year that they would be nominated for thier first Grammy. Their 10th studio album, “God Hates Us All”, like so many other albums that year, had the unfortunate timing to be released on 9/11, but its first track, “Disciple”, was up for Best Metal Performance. They would ultimately lose to Tool’s song “Schism”, but rest assured Slayer would be nominated five more times since, winning one in 2007 and another the following year. The new album also gained particular attention for its provocative cover, an image depicting a Bible with nails driven through it, branded with a pentagram star, covered in blood, with the word “Slayer” boldly burnt across it. Well, the folks at the major retail outlets for some strange reason found it somewhat disturbing, so Slayer graciously released it with the option of a slip insert placed in front of the cover as to not make sensitive Christians wet themselves. In a related story, I recently learned that Slayer singer-bassist Tom Araya is in fact a Republican, but I’m beginning to suspect he’s just saying that for the shock value.

Any-who, the first of the two openers that evening was Chimaira from Cleveland, Ohio. Named after the mythical, fire breathing beast, with the body of a lion, the head of a goat, and the tail of a snake, they were fairly new, having just released their debut album, “Pass Out Of Existence” two months before this. Granted, any opening act facing the Slayer crowd had best be a heavy one, but god damn were they loud and their singer, Mark Hunter, had the voice of a man in the midst of being viscously tortured. Seriously, after a couple songs, I felt like giving him a cough drop or something. They got the crowd warmed up, Mark demanding, “San Francisco, I need to see you guys fuckin’ destroy this place! Are you guys fuckin’ ready?!?”, before they played “Severed”. Following them were American Head Charge, a band similar in sound to Chimaira with another singer screaming his guts out. As their name stated, they obviously were Yanks, not to be confused with the Englishman Adrian Sherwood and his dub reggae label, African Head Charge. There were certainly no “cool runnings” or feelings of “irae” to be had in the house that night. 

Hailing from the frosty city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, American Head Charge had recently been signed to Rick Rubin’s American Recordings alongside Slayer and just dropped “The War Of Art” album that August. They were in fact on the second stage of Ozzfest earlier that June, but I had missed them, watching whoever was on the main stage while they were playing. They got on stage to the sounds of John Philip Souza’s “Stars & Stripes Forever” blasting over the loudspeakers, perhaps a jingoistic nod to the current bloodlust flowing through everybody’s veins after 9/11. Funny, the last three songs of American Head Charge’s set would actually end up paired on a CD with my recording of comedian Sandra Bernhard’s show at The Warfield which took place three days later, quite an unlikely duo indeed. I would see both openers again at The Warfield in the years to come, Chimaira opening for Mudvayne in 2005 and American Head Charge opening for Killswitch Engage two years later.

But the night belonged to Slayer and we were reminded of the auspicious circumstances of this show before they came on with the announcement, “This is being filmed, so if you are here with someone you don’t necessarily want to be seen with, now is your chance to lose them. This performance will be released on DVD and available in the new year. Thank you and stand by”. The crowd was chomping at the bit by the time they took the stage which had the words “GOD HATES US ALL” plained on it in large, white, capital letters. They opened with the aforementioned new single “Disciple”, the first of five new songs they’d treat us to, and before they delved into the golden oldie “War Ensemble”, Tom addressed us the first of many times saying, “I want to thank you very much for coming tonight, for coming out and having a good time and enjoying your life… And now it’s time for the State Of The Union Address!” Long haired guitarist, Jeff Hanneman gave a nod to his east bay peeps, sporting a large “Raiders” sticker on his black guitar. A couple songs later, the pit would explode to “Raining Blood”, launching quite a number of crowd floaters above the heads of those rampaging heshers. 

Slayer followed that with “Postmortem” and then Tom asked, “You guys know about pain, huh? At least you think you know about pain… So, ‘Here Comes The Pain’” and then they did that new one. Afterwards, he said, “Back in ’83, we did a weekend out here. Who was at Berkeley? Who was at the Berkeley Stone? Who was at the San Francisco Stone? How many of you crazy motherfuckers were at Ruthie’s Inn? Well, then you’ll know this one, right? If you must live by the sword, then you will…” and the crowd screamed “Die By The Sword!!!!” A couple songs later, they ventured back into new territory, Tom announcing, “This song is about what we all share, what we all have in common. We all bleed! This is about our ‘Bloodline’” followed by another new one “God Sends Death”. Afterwards, Tom growled, “Dance… With the dead!… In my dreams… Listen to their hallowed dreams! The dead have taken my soul!… Temptation… I’ve lost all control!… Dead! Skin! Mask!”

He graciously thanked us once again, “Thank you very much… There goes that love again. Speaking of love, this song is going to be dedicated to all females in the audience tonight… Cus’ they are all harlots of hell. This is ‘Captor Of Sin’”. Tom continued his gratitude, “Listen, I want to thank you very much for coming tonight. I trust you guys had a good time? Did you have a good time? We’re taking votes to see if we have to come back. Should we come back? Alright… Well, we’ll think about it. I want to thank you very much for everything, everything that you’ve done for this band, so thank you, greatly appreciate everything. All the fuckin’ years, thank you very much for that first fuckin’ show we ever did here. That was an amazing show. That’s why we keep coming back! Thank you very much for everything. I’m going to ask one favor of you. Please get to know your friends. Get to know your real friends and your real neighbors. Alrighty! Something we need to do from now on. Cus’ if you find a stranger in town, you can fuckin’ kill em’!!! We don’t need that kind of shit, right? So please watch out for each other. Thank you very much. This is ‘Mandatory Suicide’!!!!”

They followed that with “Chemical Warfare”, but my tapes ran out after that. Slayer ended the night with “South Of Heaven” which went right into “Angel Of Death” and Tom thanked us one final time, “Thank you very much, alright. Appreciate it. Thank you very much for coming. Thank you for everything. We’ll see you next year! Good night! See you next time!” The chants of “Slayer! Slayer! Slayer!” continued even after they turned the lights on in the house and we all reeled from the tinnitus in our ringing ears as the crowd shuffled out into the cool night air. Strangely enough, there wasn’t poster given out to mark this historic occasion though the promise of the impending DVD was reward enough. 

Despite the earlier announcement saying that the DVD would come out the following year, it wouldn’t actually be released until July of 2003. This also would be the third to the last performance of Paul Bostaph as Slayer’s drummer, who had suffered a chronic elbow injury and would be replaced Slayer’s original drummer, Dave Lombardo. Paul would soon recover and play drums briefly for Systematic, Exodus, Testament, as well as the all star metal tribute band HAIL! until he rejoined Slayer in 2013. “War At The Warfield” would be certified gold and win the Metal Edge magazine Readers’ Choice award for DVD of the year. Poor Paul couldn’t bring himself to watch it though, feeling despondent for his departure, needing to “get some distance away from the situation and move on with my life. It’s like breaking up with a girlfriend”. But to the rest of us, that was a shining metal moment to be cherished for all eternity.

https://archive.org/details/slayer-warfield-12701

https://archive.org/details/american-head-charge-warfield-12701

https://archive.org/details/chimaira-warfield-12701

Born Naked, Floater, Tres Pistolas, Turn Me On Dead Man, Soulvine, Paradise Lounge, SF, Thur., December 6

It was a rare occasion when I would see a show at the south of Market venue, Paradise Lounge, and even a rarer one that I would record. In fact, I think this show might me the only one I taped there before its eventual eviction and closing nine years later. It had been raining heavily all day and the news of the fall of Kandahar had just come in, the defeat of the last of the Taliban’s strongholds in Afghanistan. Yes, the invasion was all but over, but our disastrous occupation of that poor, long suffering country was only beginning. I and the others at the gig that night would at least be temporarily distracted from that scene with the musical stylings of Born Naked. To those who have read my stuff before, you might have run across me mentioning this local grunge trio, ably managed by my former roommate Patrick. The trio had recently become a quartet with the addition of Tim “Herb” Alexander, the former drummer of Primus. Herb had left that band in 1996, continuing on with his own band, Laundry, and collaborating in other projects involving Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan like Puscifer and A Perfect Circle. Herb had always been close to Born Naked, friends with their frontman Sal, and had recently produced their new self titled album as well as joining the band itself, taking a break from the drums to try his hand at guitar. 

There were a handful of other acts opening that night starting with Turn Me On Dead Man, a local glam/psychedelic pop band who had signed to Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles Records, a label I once interned for in college. Their name came from the alleged phrase that one would hear if they played “Revolution #9” by The Beatles backwards, leading to the conspiracy that Paul McCartney had actually died in a car crash in 1966 and had been replaced by a clone/android/alien… Take your pick. I quite enjoyed them and wished I taped more of their set, but I’d get a chance to see them again four years later when they opened for Jello on Halloween at the Great American Music Hall. They were followed by Tres Pistolas and finally by Floater. I’d actually recorded Floater back in 1997 when they were inexplicably paired with Steel Pulse at Maritime Hall. They were sort of a jam band from Oregon, not a reggae act at all, but then again, they were quite different from Born Naked too. There was another act called Soulvine playing on the smaller stage in the lounge upstairs and I think I caught one of their songs between sets. 

Sal greeted us as Born Naked came on stage, “What’s up y’all?… Bear with us for just a moment… Thanks for hanging out on a soggy Thursday”. He dedicated “Innocent”, the second song in their set to somebody in the crowd named Shelby and wished us all a “Merry Fuckin’ Christmas”. Later, he wished a woman named Pam a happy birthday saying, “She’s 23!… She’s 25!” Though I’d seen Born Naked quite a number of times, I didn’t know any of the new material, but I do know they also did “What The Hell”, “Man Kills”, and “Minus One”. Before they finished their set with “Weeds”, Sal mused, “It’s an elementary deduction. None of us belong here. Like myself, you have been driven through a dimensional doorway. In my case however, only time was affected, not location. Those monsters are my antecedents. This is the past of its own. I am the future”. Makes you think…

Anyway, Herb held his own as a rhythm guitarist, though he didn’t play on the new album. This was the only time I’d see him perform with Born Naked and I’m pretty sure this was the final time I’d see that band play altogether. I know I had mentioned it before, but it bears repeating, that Born Naked deserved to be bigger. Their music was intense and they wrote catchy songs too. Likewise, Patrick deserved more as their manager as well, being a savvy businessman and working diligently for years to promote them. Before I walked out of that show, I joked with Sal and the others “the Grateful Dead’s got nothing on these guys”. Born Naked was off to play in Sacramento the following night and I strolled away into the wet weather sadly never to see them again. There are however not one, but two bands today performing under that name, one from South Africa, the other from Ontario, Canada. On a side note, I did spot Patrick years later at one of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festivals in Golden Gate Park, but I’m sorry to say that I didn’t talk with him. I’m ashamed of that and if I ever see him again, I’ll make sure not to make that mistake again.

https://archive.org/details/born-naked-paradise-lounge-12601

https://archive.org/details/floater-paradise-lounge-12601

https://archive.org/details/tres-pistolas-paradise-lounge-12601

https://archive.org/details/turn-me-on-dead-man-paradise-lounge-12601

Wilco, Mercury Rev, Fill., SF, Sun., December 2

Wilco, For Stars, The Bellyachers, Fill., SF, Mon., December 3

SETLISTS : 

(SUNDAY) : 

(MERCURY REV) : The Funny Bird, Tides Of The Moon, Chains, Hercules, Holes, Goddess On A Hiway, Opus 40 – Once In A Lifetime, The Dark Is Rising

(WILCO) : 

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, I’m Always In Love, War On War, She’s A Jar, Why Would You Wanna Live, A Shot In The Arm, Ashes Of American Flags, Radio Cure, Kamera, Pot Kettle Black, Misunderstood, Hesitating Beauty, How To Fight Loneliness, Jesus Etc., Heavy Metal Drummer, I’m The Man Who Loves You, (encore), Say You Miss Me, Sunken Treasure, Reservations, (encore), Passenger Side, California Stars, Can’t Stand It, Monday, Outta Mind (Outta Sight)

(MONDAY) :

(THE BELLYACHERS) : (Set 1) : What I’ve Got, (unknown), You Me & The Highway, Follow You, Very Married, Death Valley, Nashville, Whiskey Talking, Wherever You Are, Bottoms Up (Set 2) : Heavy In My Hands, You Can Blame Me, Jamie’s Crying, Light Was So Bright, One Night Stand, You Me & The Highway, Follow You

(WILCO) : I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, War On War, She’s A Jar, Why Would You Wanna Live, A Shot In The Arm, Ashes Of American Flags, Radio Cure, Kamera, Pot Kettle Black, Misunderstood, Should’ve Been In Love, Pieholden Suite, Jesus Etc., Heavy Metal Drummer, I’m The Man Who Loves You, I’m Always In Love, (encore), Far Far Away, California Stars, Red-Eyed & Blue, I Got You (At The End Of The Century), (encore), Pick Up The Charge, Reservations, Sunken Treasure, Monday, Outta Mind (Outta Sight)

The stress of 2001 was taking its toll on everyone and we all couldn’t wait for that cursed year to end, especially since Enron filed for bankruptcy that weekend. Their collapse took a big chunk out of my union’s pension fund to the point where it almost became insolvent. Likewise, Wilco had been struggling through some shit around then losing both their drummer, Ken Coomer, in January and Jay Bennett in July. Jay’s friction with frontman Jeff Tweedy would be well documented in their film, “I’m Trying To Break Your Heart”, which they were filming concert footage for during this three run stint at The Fillmore. Jeff and the band had been dropped from Reprise Records while they were working on their 4th album, “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”, taking a buyout from Warner, their parent company, who graciously gave the rights for it back to the band for free. Wilco were eventually picked up again by another branch of Warner, Nonesuch Records. The new album was unfortunately slated to come out the very day of 9/11, so it was understandably delayed, though they wisely put it out on the web a week later until they got it released officially the following April. 

The word had spread quickly that the new album was superb, some considering it their best work even to this day which leads us back to The Fillmore. You’d think all the aforementioned turmoil would have been enough, but Wilco was fucking lucky to have made it to these shows alive in the first place. While on the road there from their previous gig in Seattle, their tour bus’ transmission broke, they lost their brakes and went out of control, nearly getting into a wreck in the middle of a windy rainstorm. One can only imagine the band’s relief to see the smiling faces of their fans again, knowing that their previous Seattle show could have very well have been their last, not to mention embracing the possibility that they would have never been able to enjoy the fruits of their labor, raking in another gold record on top of an avalanche of critical praise for their new masterpiece.

Wilco fans are intensely loyal and the anticipation for these three sold out shows was palpable. Two such fans, arguably two of their most fervent, were fellow Fillmore ushers Sarah and her husband Jim who are actually featured briefly in that documentary meeting Jeff and the band backstage. I overheard myself talking to Sarah on the Sunday show, the second of the three, and she briefly mentioning that Jim might not be able to come to the Monday one. Having nothing to do that day, I proposed that if Jim couldn’t make it that I could take his place. I can’t rightly say if Jim made it or not, but somehow I finagled my way in, catching at least the last two shows out of the three. Still, in hindsight, I wish I could have done all three, especially since this was one of those rare stretches of Fillmore shows where each show got its own poster, that, and they had celebrated singer-songwriter Jonathan Richman opening on the first day. Still, I was glad that I got to see Richman opening for Belle & Sebastian at back to back shows at The Warfield earlier that September, a couple of the last shows I’d see before 9/11. 

I was however glad to see that the opening act on the second day was Mercury Rev, one of the few musical acts from my birthplace of Buffalo, New York (that doesn’t suck like the Goo Goo Dolls) and one I’d been interested in catching ever since they were among the up and coming acts on the second stage of the Lollapalooza tour in 1993. I had picked up their albums, “Yerself Is Steam” and “Boces”, but with the departure of their singer Doug Baker (no relation), their sound changed a bit with his replacement Jonathan Donahue. Jonathan had been a former member of The Flaming Lips who had parted ways with them over creative differences, but one thing the two bands definitely had in common was that they were LOUD! Yes, both bands, at least around that time, had the reputation of deafening all those without ear protection who came anywhere near them. They had just put out their fifth album, “All Is Dream”, their highest charting work, though like Wilco, they had the ill fortune to release it on 9/11 as well. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see that their touring engineer working the soundboard was none other than Jack Shaw, who I had worked with for years at Maritime Hall. I had admired Jack from the moment we met though he was an incorrigible smart aleck and had nothing but contempt for my meager abilities as a sound engineer. I accepted that and frankly, compared to his genius, he was absolutely right to think so. We spoke for a bit, catching up with each other, and Jack was beyond relieved to be back home, especially since The Fillmore was only a couple blocks from where he was living. And though Mercury Rev were indeed VERY loud, Jack at least made the mix sound good as always. Jonathan didn’t speak much between songs, only really thanking the crowd at the end of their set and wishing us “a wonderful week”. During their song “Opus 40”, he sang a few bits from “Once In A Lifetime” by the Talking Heads, changing one line to “You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large record deal”.

Wilco came on stage to the sounds of Gene Wilder singing “Pure Imagination” from the film “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory” playing over the loudspeakers. They began their set with “I’m Trying To Break Your Heart”, the first track off the new album and they would go on to play every other new song both days in their sets, except for “Poor Places”. Why they left that one out, I can’t say, and though I hadn’t heard any of the new material before then, I agreed completely with the early reports of its brilliance. Wilco had totally shed their comparisons to other alt-country and jam bands with this unique collection of original work and frankly I was proud of them. America was in dire need of some good news and Wilco’s new album was helpful. I’m afraid I drastically underestimated the amount of tape I needed for that first show, so I ended up only getting about half of Wilco’s set, though I taped over a bit of the beginning of Mercury Rev in order to get them playing “California Stars” during their first encore. I fucking love that song.

So, rest assured I brought plenty of tape for the next day, but truth be told, I still ran out a couple songs shy of their second encore. I do lay the blame for that on how much I loved The Bellyachers, the band that was playing up in the poster room that night. Now I had taken it upon myself to record acts up there from time to time, getting maybe a handful of songs, but the moment I heard their irresistible, harmonic siren song, I was hooked. I stayed up there for most of their set after the doors were open until For Stars got on stage downstairs, apologizing to my fellow ushers guarding the front of house soundboard for my conspicuous absence. Likewise, I went back for their shorter set during the break before Wilco got on to get some more of them. The Bellyachers were a local country act with charming female singers and seriously, I couldn’t get enough of them. They thanked the handful of people watching them for coming out “so early on a Monday night”. I liked that they did a little of the old Brecht & Weill ditty “Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)” in the middle of their tune, “Bottoms Up”. I made sure to catch The Bellyachers around town afterwards, including the only time I’d ever see a show at The Starry Plough in Berkeley. 

Like I mentioned before, the opening act downstairs on the main stage was For Stars, an indy act of former high school buddies from southern California who had recently relocated to San Francisco. They had just put out their third album, “We Are All Beautiful People”, that year and like Mercury Rev who opened the night before, they were excruciatingly loud. Consequently, I had a hard time making out any of their songs apart from “Bleu”, “The Astronaut Song”, and “There Was A River”. Before that first song, singer Carlos Forster introduced it saying, “We’re going to do a song called ‘Bleu’ which I’ll sing for my fiancee who I just asked to marry. That’s real personal. It’s for her… She’s out there somewhere. It’s really embarrassing. Nobody knows what she looks like anyway. She’s kinda small, cute… Gorgeous, not cute”. He also made sure to introduced the other members of the band, “Mike, Dan, Christian, & Will”, and also thanked Paul Dalen for doing their sound. 

Wilco didn’t do the “Willy Wonka” intro that they had done the night before, but also opened their set with “I’m Trying To Break Your Heart”. Jeff joked later that “we’re doing some of the same set… I don’t know if you noticed that. We’ll play some different songs later, but we’re making a movie… Sorry. There’s continuity issues. I have to move the same way I did last night… which is very easy for me… I’m a robot” and then they did “Pot Kettle Black”. A couple songs later, we were granted the honored distinction of hearing them perform “Pieholden Suite” for the first time in front of an audience. Afterwards, he mentioned, “Every night we get a show of hands. Who’s got the record already?” Jeff looked around and said, “That’s not too bad” then noted, “There’s something very formal about tonight. Sorry, I don’t know what it is. I’m really having a good time. I feel like we’re playing as well as we can play… You’re having a good time? From up here, it’s hard to tell. You guys could be having the time of your lives”. Reassured by the cheers of the audience, they went on and did “Heavy Metal Drummer” and then finished their set with “I’m The Man Who Loves You”.

They came back for their first encore, beginning it with “Far, Far Away”, and afterwards, Jeff joked, “You know what happens a lot at Wilco shows? There’s a lot of the same people standing up front, night after night. And they stand here and I go, ‘Did I already play this song? Did I already sing that line?’ It’s all deja vu every time. You guys are going to have to go to the back. Give somebody else a chance. Either that or we’re going to put up some bleachers on the stage… On the sides? Both sides? No, actually we love it… We love you” and then the followed it with “California Stars”. Next, they did “Red-Eyed & Blue”, one they didn’t do the night before, did a couple more, and then returned for another encore, a generous one five songs long. Suffice to say, Wilco fans at The Fillmore got their fill that weekend. They would return to town the following September and as expected, their success would graduate them to playing The Warfield that time, a venue over twice the size of The Fillmore.

I’d like to mention one final epilogue concerning these Wilco shows, so bear with me for moment. A couple weeks later during the Christmas holidays that year, I flew to Iowa to visit my father and his side of the family in Ames as I often had done. This was one of the only occasions that we actually stayed in a nearby, modestly priced hotel instead of shacking up in one of my Uncle Judd & Aunt Sandy’s guest rooms. Anyway, while at the hotel, I took advantage of the indoor hot tub they had there and while soaking it, warming my bones from the usual bitter, frosty weather outside, I was joined by a trio of teenage girls. Nervous that I would be perceived as some (almost) 30-something loner/pervert, I did my best to make some inoffensive small talk. When I had mentioned some of my rock & roll past, one of the girls mentioned that her father worked for Wilco and I was relieved that I could regale them a bit from my memories of these Fillmore shows. It’s indeed a small world after all. 

https://archive.org/details/wilco-fillmore-12301

https://archive.org/details/the-bellyachers-fillmore-12301

https://archive.org/details/for-stars-fillmore-12301

https://archive.org/details/wilco-fillmore-12201

https://archive.org/details/mercury-rev-fillmore-12201

Rex Foundation Benefit: The Trichromes with Bob Weir & Bill Kreutzman, Merl Saunders & His Funky Friends, Mickey Hart & Bembe Orisha, War., SF, Sat., December 1

SETLISTS:

(MICKEY HART & BEMBE ORISHA) : (unknown), (unknown), (unknown), Iko Iko, (unknown), (unknown), Ye Ye, Fire On The Mountain, Not Fade Away, Oh My Lord

(MERL SAUNDERS & HIS FUNKY FRIENDS) : (unknown), (unknown), Dear Prudence, (unknown), Sugaree, Midnight Moonlight, Fetch Wood Carry Water, Pulling The Devil By The Tail

(THE TRICHROMES) : Tore Up Over You, Congo Square, Casey Jones, West LA Fadeaway, Next Time You See Me, Maggie’s Farm, New Speedway Boogie, No Woman No Cry

Since the untimely death of Jerry Garcia six years before this, there had been several musical projects of the surviving Grateful Dead members and this was another of them. The Rex Foundation had been doing charity work for a number of grass roots organizations on the band’s behalf and this show was one of their many benefits, though their largest one to date. I had to work all night as an usher and as you might have read before, hippie bands are easily the most difficult crowds to wrangle, especially the rich ones as was the case this time. Really, every time I did one of these gigs having to work all night, I would swear it would be the last one, but then I’d get a good night sleep, forget about it, and reluctantly keep coming back to them.

A woman came on stage, presumably a member of the Foundation, to introduce the first act of the night, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and his band Bembe Orisha. She said that the Foundation’s “work is truly making the world a better place. We honor the memory of Jerry Garcia, Bill Graham. We also honor all of you, the extensive and incredible community of performers… When we began planning, we said we wanted to create a jewel of an event for the community. I believe however that we really have an event that has enthusiasm for the world, willingness to help… overall generosity that’s truly inspiring. Many of you have travelled to be here, sent many wonderful messages of support… So tonight this room’s sparkling with a lot of energy and joy of everyone who’s made this event… Thank you!… Don’t forget to check out our auction”. 

Mickey came up with his collection of world music ringers including singer Bobi Cespedes, Barney Doyle, talking drum master Sikiru Adepoju, Nenge Hernandez, and Greg Ellis. Also joining him on stage were hippie music veterans guitarist Roy Rogers and Bobby Vega, the bass player from Zero. They began their set with a handful of instrumentals before delving into more familiar territory with the Dead’s standard cover of “Iko Iko”. The only song I could make out of their set from the band’s original material was “Ye Ye”, but they soon followed that with another Dead classic, “Fire On The Mountain”. I was horrified to hear Mickey “sing” the lyrics of that song, or more accurately rap them in a style that I would charitably describe as cringeworthy. There’s a fucking good reason Mickey never sang in The Dead and that was made painfully clear that night. He’s lucky that he’s even a halfway decent drummer. 

Anyway, they followed that with “Not Fade Away” and at the end, the crowd did their obligatory a cappella chant of “You know our love will not fade away” with the clap to the beat until they returned to do one more song. On a somber note, they did a rather respectful cover of George Harrison’s “Oh My Lord” to end the set. Alas, poor George succumbed to lung cancer just two days before this show leaving Paul and Ringo as the only surviving members of The Beatles. Though I never got to see George or John Lennon perform, I’m glad to say that I got to see Paul a few times, even helping to set up his gear at Outside Lands in 2014, and I finally got to see Ringo with his band in New York City at The Beacon Theater a couple of years ago. Their rendition of “Oh My Lord”, including Roy’s mimicking George’s syrupy guitar sound perfectly, almost redeemed Mickey for his unforgivable rapping earlier.

Next up was Merl Saunders & His Funky Friends, a musician I had become well acquainted with by this time having recorded him a whopping SEVEN times in only two years at Maritime Hall. The longtime collaborator with Jerry Garcia was always a dependable opening act and frankly a welcome addition of racial diversity to the Dead’s notoriously lily white crowd. I didn’t recognize the first couple songs in his set, but there was no mistaking his cover of “Dear Prudence”, most likely another nod to the late Beatle, and one that Jerry Garcia would play with his band regularly. To be honest, I always hated that song, but the sentiment was admirable, appreciated, and Merl at least mixed it up a bit, giving it a bit of a reggae beat backed by a tight horn section. Merl was joined on stage by the venerable hippie singer-songwriter Peter Rowan and his brother Chris, doing his song “Midnight Moonlight”, another one that Jerry would often do. They followed that by two more Rowan tunes, “Fetch Wood Carry Water” and finishing their set with “Pulling The Devil By The Tail”.

The final act of the night was The Trichromes, led by the Grateful Dead’s other drummer, Bill Kreutzman. For those who don’t know, a trichrome is an outgrowth or appendage on plants, algae, lichens, etc that are commonly used on cannabinoids to provide pest and disease protection. Obviously, I had to look that one up. Bill was accompanied by fellow Dead member, Bob Weir, veteran blues singer Ira Walker, Ralph Woolson, and Sy Klopps. Like the Dead, they took their dear sweet time tuning up before beginning their set with “Tore Up Over You”, another Jerry Garcia Band standard.  They followed that with “Congo Square” by Sonny Landreth, a song often played by The Neville Brothers. Afterwards, they dipped right back into familiar Dead territory doing “Casey Jones”. Bobby quipped when they finished, “Thank you so much for letting us do that. You know, cocaine is a test. If you’re still doing it, you flunked the test”. He mentioned later that the band was using one of Jerry’s old guitar amps during their set.

I overheard myself talking to a rather drunken usher who had been cut for the evening just before they did “Maggie’s Farm” by Bob Dylan, who asked me how I was doing before half jokingly ordering me to get him another beer. My tapes ran out after their cover of Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry”, but I believe they continued with “Truckin’” and “Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad”. I’m sure there’s some hippie taper out there that has their full set, but I haven’t found it yet. Near the end, I overheard another usher, a sweet angel of a woman named Carol, saying she was heading home, it already being past midnight and added that she was looking forward to the Echo & The Bunnymen – Psychedelic Furs show that was coming to The Fillmore in February, a show quite different stylistically from this one that I shamefully missed. I never saw Bembe Orisha or The Trichromes again and I’m sad to say that this would be the final time I’d see Merl perform. He suffered a stroke shortly after this show that paralyzed half of his body and would pass away six years later at the age of 74, battling the infections that came with it. Merl was a happy guy, everybody loved him, and he would join Jerry up in heaven where I’m sure they’re making beautiful hippie music together. Still, the good news about this show is that they had quite an attractive poster at the end of the night, forever a reminder of Mr. Saunders and his good work.  

https://archive.org/details/the-trichromes-warfield-12101

https://archive.org/details/merl-saunders-his-funky-friends-warfield-12101

https://archive.org/details/mickey-hart-bembe-orisha-warfield-120101

Cali Comm 2001: The Pharcyde, Souls Of Mischief, The Coup, Pep Love, Rasco, Cali Agents, Planet Asia, Casual, Fill., SF, Wed., November 21

SETLISTS : 

(THE COUP) : Everythang, 5 Million Ways To Kill A C.E.O., Ride The Fence, Get Up, Shabooya Roll Call – Rock Steady, Pork & Beef, (unknown)

(RASCO) : (unknown), How The West Was One, Unassisted, The Jamm

(PEP LOVE) : After Dark, (unknown), The Grind, Crooked Angles, The Fight Club,  You Never Know

(THE PHARCYDE) : Bullshit, Drop, Ya Mama, (unknown), Soul Flower (Wrong Tree), Mary Jane, Pack The Pipe

It was another all star line up of west coast hip hop at The Fillmore that night, led by The Pharcyde. It was nice to see two rap shows at that venue back to back less than two weeks later from seeing De La Soul with Biz Markie. I had come to know The Pharcyde well by then, this being the fourth time I’d see them play, the third time at The Fillmore in fact. They had been going through some changes in their line up, having just lost Fatlip and Slimkid3, leaving only 3 original members intact. Their last album, “Plain Rap”, didn’t sell well and had mixed reviews, but they always could be relied upon for a stellar live show and they brought it as expected. This would be the last show of a two month long tour and everyone was relieved to be back home in California, especially the many artists there that night from the bay area. Most of the Hieroglyphics crew were performing, divided into their respective side and solo projects, beginning the night with Casual. There were many folks to come on that stage, so Casual’s set, being first, was predictably short. I managed to get only a couple songs from him, one of which I know was “Me-O-Mi-O”. On the turntables between acts was Kutmasta Kurt and Motion Man, two respected DJs who I would see again years later collaborating with Kool Keith. 

I was particularly excited to see The Coup, who I had recorded at Maritime Hall back in 1999, and was very impressed by. This was an important period to see them too since they had just made quite a stir with their new album, “Party Music”. The original cover of that album made the previous June featured frontman Boots Riley and DJ Pam The Funkstress blowing up the World Trade Center buildings using a guitar tuner as a remote detonator. Well, with the events of 9/11, I have faith that y’all can put two and two together that people took a little umbrage to that cover and artistic integrity aside, The Coup had the good taste to change it. One could hardly blame them. It was a tense time to say the least. The new cover featured a hand holding a flaming martini glass at a bar with a gasoline can in the background. To all those right wing dickheads who clutched their pearls over the matter, all I can say is it’s a pity that they didn’t ever listen to the music as expected. They missed an opportunity to be offended by such jams as “5 Million Ways To Kill A C.E.O.” and “Pork & Beef”. 

For the rest of us, we were elated to hear their brilliant sounds, getting to enjoy both those songs and six more from an actual band with drums, keys, and everything too. Pam did a sick DJ solo after the former, having Boots ask the crowd proudly, “Is she raw?!?” A couple songs later, they did a new song called “Get Up”, a single they recorded with Dead Prez. I was tickled that they did Aretha Franklin’s “Rock Steady”, a cover that my brother’s old band, the Dance Hall Crashers, also used to do. Addressing the elephant in the room between songs, Boots told the audience, “Check this out. Before we do this next shit, I just want to say something right quick. I got a partner named Jeremy Glick. His father died in the World Trade Center on September 11th. You know everything that happened there… He wanted on the whole tour, a message he wanted me to give the people is this. He said, ‘Don’t use my father’s memory for a war for profit’”.

He went on, “They try to tell us how bad the Taliban is, which is true, but the U.S. president might be even worse. Even though they say they’re doing it for the kids and the women of Afghanistan, they’re doin it by killing the kids and women of Afghanistan! We know they lied about the Vietnam War! We know they lied about the shit blowing up in the Gulf Of Tonkin and admitted it 10 years later! What makes you think they won’t make up evidence right now?”

Politics aside, we all can at least give Boots credit for being right. A little over a year later, such made up evidence would lead us to invade Iraq and the rest is  history and a tragic one at that. It was a message that was hard to hear then but absolutely necessary and its a pity that Boots’ warning wasn’t heeded. It came as some consolation that at least his music made us feel better that night from the god awful mess that was unfolding. 

Next up was Planet Asia and Rasco doing songs from both their repertoire as well as their collaboration as the Cali Agents. Already worked up from The Coup, they had no trouble getting the crowd to chant “Planet Asia!”, “Bounce to that shit!”, “Roll that shit, light that shit, smoke it!”, and “Skoolyard!” Their lyrics were harder to make out, though I know they did “Definition Of Ill” and I was able to make out most of Rasco’s stuff. Following them were Pep Love and the Souls Of Mischief, all esteemed members of the Hieroglyphics, and Pep Love opened his set with the Hiero jam “After Dark”. He made sure to mention how glad he was to be home and pointed out a bunch of friends and family members in the audience. He too spoke about 9/11 saying, “Before I leave, I’d like to say the music industry lost Aaliyah. She died in a tragic plane accident. On September 11th, we lost like 5,000 people in some plane attacks, so on the count of three, I want everybody and I mean everybody to witness a moment of silence… We’re celebrating the lives that we got, cus’ we’re still here and we’re going to keep making a difference, Ai-ight?!?!”

They had that moment of silence and it was respectful, almost surprisingly so considering how rowdy the crowd had been up until then. Pep Love broke the silence urging us to “Give it up for The Fillmore for being a good venue” and said the same for the Fillmore in Denver which they had played at earlier in the tour. He did however mention a nasty run in that he had with a bartender then who took offense to a friend of his for “having a towel on his head”. I guess he meant he wore a turban, but Pep Love got into a big fight with him and he wanted to apologize for it that night, saying that it in no way represented the Souls Of Mischief crew and that he took sole responsibility. Like I said, it was a tense time. Anyway, Pep Love ended his set with “You Never Know”, another Hieroglyphics song and the Souls Of Mischief came up right afterwards. 

I had a hard time making out the songs in their set, but I know they did “Shooting Stars” and “Acupuncture” for sure. Tajai, one of their rappers also addressed the discouraging news of late saying, “I don’t give a fuck about what anybody says on CNN, MSNBC, fuckin’ TRL, all those punk ass shows… We havin’ a war right now over some barrels of oil and some opium, OK? That’s it. It’s not about your freedom, OK? Try skateboarding in Oakland, California. You get treated like a fuckin’ criminal. You know what I’m saying?… Fuck that shit!… We’re eating garbage, fuckin’ Starbucks, fuckin’ McDonalds, all that bullshit. Look, we as young people got to take this shit over and re-educated ourselves and our children so that nobody else has to die in no motherfuckin’ terrorist attack. Fuck that shit!” He gave shout outs to the other acts there that night and encouraged us to sing along, reassuring us that “some people sound like Aaliyah, some people sound like Macy Gray”.

It was past midnight when The Pharcyde finally got on stage, but the energy of the crowd was still high on that cool Wednesday night. And speaking of high, many a spliff were sparked all throughout their set making the whole venue downright cloudy. The band made sure to dedicate songs like “Soul Flower (Wrong Tree)”, “Mary Jane”, and “Pack The Pipe” to all the weed smokers in the building. One of them gave the venue a subtle shout out, changing the lyric in “Ya Mama”, rapping, “I remember seeing you at The Fillmore”, instead of “The Palladium”, the famous theater from their neck of southern California. I managed to get a little more than half their set before my tapes ran out, but I stuck it through to the end of the show anyway. The Pharcyde kept the energy up right to the very end. I would see them there on that stage for my fourth time three years later, but afterwards they would tour only occasionally, though they had a reunion tour a few months ago. They just did a gig at The Warfield last December alongside Arrested Development and Digable Planets and I’m ashamed to say that I missed it. But I’m proud that I was able to see all of those bands as well as the other acts on this bill back in the day when they were like myself, young and fresh.

https://archive.org/details/the-pharcyde-fillmore-112101

https://archive.org/details/souls-of-mischief-fillmore-112101

https://archive.org/details/pep-love-fillmore-112101

https://archive.org/details/kutmasta-kurt-motion-man-fillmore-112101

https://archive.org/details/planet-asia-fillmore-112101

https://archive.org/details/the-coup-fillmore-112101

https://archive.org/details/casual-fillmore-112101

Incubus, Onesidezero, War., SF, Mon., November 19

Incubus, Onesidezero, War., SF, Tues., November 20

SETLISTS :

(MONDAY) :

(ONESIDEZERO) : Shed The Skin, Tapwater, Soak, A Point In Time, Instead Laugh, Holding Cell, New World Order, Eight

(INCUBUS) : Privilege, Stellar, Pardon Me, Glass, Nice To Know You, Circles (XXIII), Nowhere Fast, The Warmth, Mexico, Drive, Warning, New Skin, Just A Phase, Deep Inside, Make Yourself, Nebula, Wish You Were Here, (encore), I Miss You, Clean, A Certain Shade Of Green

(TUESDAY) :

(INCUBUS) : Privilege, Stellar, Pardon Me, Glass, Circles (XXIII), Favorite Things, Nowhere Fast, The Warmth, Mexico, Drive, Warning, New Skin, When It Comes, Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song), Make Yourself, Nebula, Wish You Were Here, (encore), I Miss You, Clean, A Certain Shade Of Green

It had been over 10 days since my last epic stretch of shows and the news of the world had been eventful in the interim. China had just been admitted into the World Trade Organization and the American invasion of Afghanistan had just taken Kabul, leaving Kandahar as its last remaining stronghold, which would fall about two weeks later. On a sad note, local hippie guru Ken Kesey of the Merry Pranksters had just passed away from complications that ensued after undergoing a tumor removal from his liver. Afterwards, the good folks at The Fillmore honored Ken by putting up a large framed photo of him in the lobby, maniacally smiling and juggling a few trademark Fillmore apples. But despite it all, the business of show continued there and its larger sister house, The Warfield, with these back to back shows of Incubus.

I had already seen them three times by then, once recording them at Maritime Hall in 1998, again at The Warfield in 2000 as part of the Snocore tour with System Of A Down, and later that year at 105’s B.F.D. on the main stage at Shoreline. But there’s nothing quite like getting a double dose of a band to truly become familiar with their work. Incubus had been on tour in America since September the 14th, the Friday after 9/11, and had played the Hammersmith Ballroom the following day, making them one of the first bands to perform in New York City after the attacks. They had just released their new album “Morning View” the month before this show, treated their fans to six of the new songs between these two days, and were just about to put out their “When Incubus Attacks (Vol.2)” live DVD a few weeks later. 

It was their first album and headlining tour in the States in two years and they had just finished getting done with another one through New Zealand, Australia, and Japan that August. Like many big rock tours, they were being promoted by a heartless corporation, this one being AT&T Wireless and their “Maximum Mobile Music” project. But I am happy to say that because of this, Incubus was at least able to keep the ticket prices under $25, a relatively low amount even back then. Still, for the high rollers in the crowd, they were offering “VIP aXess” packages which included two tickets, VIP passes, and a meet and greet with the band. One of those lucky VIP’s would also win a trip to the final show of their tour at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles, Incubus’ home stomping grounds, with plane tickets, hotel, a limo ride, and backstage passes.

Opening for these two nights was Onesidezero, also from the L.A. area and their lead singer, Jason Radford, proudly announced on the first night that their debut album, “Is This Room Getting Smaller” was dropping in record stores tomorrow. He made sure to mention that it had just come out on the day for the show the following night as well. Like Incubus, they were a loud, guitar driven band, sounding a little like Tool, but not as complicated. I got their entire set on the first night, but had to tape over most of the second half of their set the second night in order to get the remainder of Incubus. Those were the only shows I would see with that group since they disbanded a few years later, but some of the members of Onesidezero would go on to form the side project Abloom with ex-members of Snot and Soulfly a few years later.

The crowd went nuts both nights when Incubus took the stage, especially the ladies. Their lead singer, Brandon Boyd, with his shirtless washboard abs and hunky Jesus looks definitely provided many a young woman and probably a few young men with steamy rock & roll fantasies for years back then, though Brandon had just cut his hair short recently. MTV had even declared him the “newest weapon of mass heartbreak” and was included that year on Teen People’s list of “The Hottest Guys In Music”. Lucky him. Anyway, the new album earned them critical praise and it soon went platinum. The hit single “Wish You Were Here”, (not the Pink Floyd song), like their previous hit “Drive”, was a welcome more sensitive departure from the nu metal stuff that had permeated popular music around that time and its softer acoustic sound prompted many a lighter in the air as well as practically all of their fans singing along loudly to both. 

I thought it was cool that Brandon busted out a didgeridoo for the beginning of “I Miss You” both nights, an instrument rarely seen at any show. They also had a cello for the subdued ballad “Mexico” and Brandon apologized on the second night saying, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get all melancholy”. Incubus mixed up the order of a few songs between the two nights, but mostly played the same material. We got “Nice To Know You” and “Deep Inside” on the first night while the second night got “Favorite Things”, “When It Comes”, and “Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)”. Though I’m not the biggest Incubus fan in the world, I admit the poster they got that night is one of my favorites, a mirror image of some Asian warrior and koi fish done by Greg Gordon, one of the most talented poster artists whose stuff I have amongst my collection. Though this was the last time I’d see Onesidezero, it certainly wouldn’t be my last for Incubus. They would play the main stage at Shoreline again two years later for the last Lollapalooza tour and then they would return to The Warfield in 2007 to do two more back to back shows again. 

https://archive.org/details/incubus-warfield-112001

https://archive.org/details/onesidezero-warfield-112001

https://archive.org/details/incubus-warfield-111901

https://archive.org/details/onesidezero-warfield-111901

De La Soul, Biz Markie, Fill., SF, Thur., November 8

SETLIST : Buddy, (unknown), Stakes Is High, The Bizness, Who, Baby Phat, (unknown), A Roller Skating Jam Named “Saturdays”, Eye Know, Me Myself & I, Ego Trippin’, P.O.S., Declaration, Itzsoweezee, All Good?, I.C.Y’all, Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)

It was a profound relief to get to the end of this streak of seven shows in eight days, particularly since the caboose of this train would be De La Soul. I had been inundated with a barrage of guitar driven and predominantly white bands up till then and De La’s old school New York hip hop stylings were a welcome change of pace. This would be in fact the last time I’d see them perform live, but after seeing De La Soul seven times in only five years, four of which were recordings at Maritime Hall, I can at least go to my grave knowing that I had given them a thorough look see. I had just caught them on that very same stage only that March performing in the KMEL Jams show with a bunch of other rap artists, but was eager as always to see them again knowing they would bring the house down as usual. De La Soul were calling this the “Spitkicker” tour, promoting their sixth album, “A01 : Bronx”, the sequel to “Art Official Intelligence : Mosaic Thump” and their final one on Tommy Boy Records. And as I mentioned in earlier entries, it was a strange coincidence that during that stretch of shows, I would see two pairs of back to back bands with rhyming names, Fuel and Tool, and the Bouncing Souls and De La Soul. Weird, huh?

One of the big draws to this night was that the one and only Biz Markie was opening up for them. I had only seen Biz once before doing a brief set during the Tibetan Freedom Concert in Golden Gate Park back in 1996. As luck would have it, De La Soul was on the last day of that festival, though Biz performed the day before them. Mr. Markie was indeed “biz-zay” back then, about to release his “Greatest Hits” album as well as working on new tracks for his fifth and final studio album, “Weekend Warrior”. He even had just finished filming a cameo in the film “Men In Black II” playing an alien who communicated with Will Smith by making beat box sounds. The guys from De La gave him a highly complimentary introduction when he came on stage saying that he was one of the “classics” that they admired back in the early days of hip hop back home in New York City and Biz wasted no time getting the crowd pumped up, opening his set with “Make The Music With Your Mouth, Biz”. 

He followed that with “The Vapors”, did a little freestyling, and then got us all to sing along to his smash hit “Just A Friend”, bringing up a bunch of girls from the crowd on stage with him. Biz dedicated it “to all sorts of women” and “women as a whole”. He did a few more songs I didn’t recognize, probably just more freestyling and declared, “We gotta get up outta here!… We gotta go to Vegas tonight. Are you ready to go home? On the real, I’m thinking about moving to California. The bay area’s just like Long Island… Just talkin’ some shit. Got a little time to kill”. Biz shook a lot of hands up front, gave a shout out to the Fillmore and its production manager, Morgan, praising him, “You doin’ it big, kid”, before he finally let the DJ take over between sets. 

I didn’t catch the DJ’s name, but he dusted off some crowd pleasers like the guitar riff from “Walk This Way” by Run DMC, the disco standard “Got To Be Real” by Cheryl Lynn, “Good Times” by Chic, and a few riffs from “White Lines” by Melle Mel. He kept the audience dancing with Boogie Down Productions’ “The Bridge Is Over”, “Rock The Bells” by L.L. Cool J, and then finished up with a bunch of TV theme songs including “Movin’ On Up” from “The Jeffersons”, as well as the ones from “Sesame Street”, “Fat Albert”, “Sanford & Son”, “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” from “Cheers”, before finishing his set with the ending of “The Mickey Mouse Club”. But soon enough, the guys from De La stormed the stage chanting, “Long Island! Say What Say What!” and opening their set with “Buddy”.

They continued dropping a few more songs before dividing up the crowd, getting them to cheer with bits like, “People in the middle, let’s do the wiggle! Say party!!!”, before they did “Who”. Afterwards, the guys took sides with the audience and Trugoy The Dove claimed his side was down with the “real hip hop” like Mos Def, Tribe Called Quest, Common Sense, and Slick Rick, while the other side was down with R.E.M., Blink 182, NSNYC, and Brittany Spears. Posdnous countered that we’re “either on that side or the wack side” and then dedicated their new song “Baby Phat” to the plus side women in the crowd adding that there was “no disrespect to the skinny ladies”. Trugoy also chimed in that he just wanted “something to squeeze onto” and got all the women in the audience to shout “AAAOOoowww!” a couple of times during the song. A couple tunes later, they did “Eye Know” with the unmistakable bars from the prog rock classic “Peg” by Steely Dan.

Later, Maseo encouraged us to “scream for me, scream like it’s some rock shit… like ‘The Exorcist’, like fuckin’ evil, like you just saw the weirdest shit in the world! When we say ‘I’, you say ‘I’!!!” and then we all started shouting “I” for the opening of “Ego Trippin’”. Seriously, the screaming was like thunder for that one. A few songs later, they finished their set with “Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)” and that was it. There was a brilliant poster that night by Lisa Eng, one that I’ve been debating putting into a frame and hanging up in my place for some time. I really should since like I said, this would be the last time I’d see either De La Soul or Biz Markie. Sadly, Biz passed away in 2021 from a stroke he suffered after a diabetic coma at the age of 57 and Trugoy would follow him just two years later after suffering for years from congestive heart failure at the even younger age of 54. But their losses were not in vain since De La remains revered now and forever as hip hop royalty and let’s face it… Nobody beats The Biz. 

https://archive.org/details/de-la-soul-fillmore-11801

https://archive.org/details/biz-markie-fillmore-11801

Bouncing Souls, Flogging Molly, One Man Army, Madcap, Fill., SF, Wed., November 7

SETLISTS :

(MADCAP) : Going On The Road, Downtown, Lazy Sunday, New Age, (unknown), Two Steps Behind, Change The World

(ONE MAN ARMY) : (unknown), (unknown), (unknown), The Old Songs, (unknown), Victoria, (unknown), She Wants Me Dead, All Night Long, It’s Empty, (unknown)

(FLOGGING MOLLY) : Likes Of You Again, Drunken Lullabies, Selfish Man, What’s Left Of The Flag, The Worst Day Since Yesterday, Black Friday Rule, Rebels Of The Sacred Heart, Three Sheets To The Wind, Devil’s Dance Floor, Salty Dog

(BOUNCING SOULS) : That Song, Say Anything, True Believer, Quick Chek Girl, East Coast! Fuck You!, (unknown), The Something Special, The Freaks Nerds & Romantics, (unknown), Pirate Radio, Blue Moon, Kate Is Great, Born To Lose, Night On Earth

The Fillmore has always been an interesting venue to pair with certain styles of music, but there’s nothing quite as gratifying as seeing a punk rock show there. Something about the irreverent nature of punk that makes the elegant temple of the Fillmore feel deliciously ironic and this was a good line up along with the Bouncing Souls. I had seen them the previous winter opening up for Rancid at The Warfield and they made a good impression on me. The Bouncing Souls had just released their “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” album in May and recruited a new drummer, Michael McDermott from Murphy’ Law. I had also seen Flogging Molly at The Fillmore the year before opening for the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and those guys blew me away, so much so that I’d say they were the main reason I was there that night.

Up first was Madcap from Los Angeles who after performing together for seven years by then had just dropped their debut album, “Stand Your Ground”. They were playing some of the new material, four songs out of their seven song set and they even did “New Age”, which wouldn’t come out until their next album the following year. Their lead singer Johnny introduced it, “This song’s about keeping it together, keeping it united cus’ in this scene, everyone thinks we’re fuckin’ crazy, but we’re just fuckin’ good people, right? If we don’t stick together and we don’t keep each other, then we don’t have anybody!” I thought they were pretty tight, but felt bad that there was only a handful of people there watching their set. They were followed by One Man Army, a local bunch recently discovered by Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day who had just signed them to his Adeline Records label. One Man Army were a lively band, so loud that their singer, Jack Dalrymple’s vocals were almost indecipherable. Jack also plays guitar for the Swingin’ Utters who I saw open for The Damned at the Great American Music Hall just two months before this gig. He taunted the crowd’s lack of energy before they did “Victoria” figuring they were “saving it all for Flogging Molly”.

Well, if they were saving their energy, it was a good thing they did, because Flogging Molly had quite a rowdy set up on stage and in the pit. Dave King, their brilliant and hilarious singer, stormed up to the mic and belted out, “How the fuck are your sweet asses in San Francisco?!? Now listen, you boys have been very fuckin’ quiet today, alright! I want to see some fuckin’ Irish asses movin’ here!” and then they began with “Likes Of You”. They followed that with “Drunken Lullabies”, the title track off their new upcoming album in March, and he dedicated “Selfish Man” to “a young man from San Francisco whose band is called One Man Army or something… Get a fuckin’ haircut, Jack!” A few songs later they did “Worst Day Since Yesterday”, which Dave said went out to “all the people hoping to wake up with a hangover tomorrow”. 

Later, he pointed to some guy up front praising him, “In all these fuckin’ years, that’s the sweetest fuckin’ mohawk I’ve ever seen! It’s nice to see some people have fuckin’ pride”. They followed that with a new tune, “What’s Left Of The Flag”, which Dave called “ a song about two things… Freedom & peace, alright? Two things that my father never fuckin’ knew about… Not much to say”. During “Rebels Of The Sacred Heart”, one of the three news songs they did that night, Flogging Molly whipped up the crowd, getting them to do the soccer chant, “Oh-lay! Oh-lay! Oh-lay! Oh-lay!” and saying it was “a song about leaving home… There are many reasons to leave home. You wanna see my impression of my ex-wife?… See ya!… And then she took the fuckin’ house!” We all howled along with each other near the end of “Salty Dog”, the last song of their set and that was it.

Granted, it’s a tall order to follow a band as awesome as Flogging Molly, but the Bouncing Souls did just fine. Greg Attonito, their singer, warmly greeted us all, “Welcome to the True Believer tour! There are many, many tours in this world, but only one can be the best!” They kept the energy up in the pit and really didn’t slow the pace until a few songs before the end of their set when they broke it down a little playing “Blue Moon”, the dreamy instrumental version made famous by The Marcels in the early 60’s. For their final number, Greg said, “Since it’s the Fillmore, this deserves an extra long ending” and they did an extended version of “Born To Lose”. He did a fake out at the end of it asking, “Have we had enough long ending yet?” and then played a few more bars of the finale. They came back for one more, “Night On Earth” and it was all over. There was no poster for this Fillmore show, but there would be one the following night there for De La Soul, a band who’s quite a stylistic left turn from the Bouncing Souls indeed. In a bizarre coincidence, I’d be seeing two pairs of bands with rhyming names during that stretch of shows, Fuel & Tool and The Bouncing Souls & De La Soul. What are the chances?

https://archive.org/details/bouncing-souls-fillmore-11701

https://archive.org/details/flogging-molly-fillmore-11701

https://archive.org/details/one-man-army-fillmore-11701

https://archive.org/details/madcap-fillmore-11701

The Beta Band, Waycross, Fill., SF, Mon., November 5

SETLIST : It’s Not Too Beautiful, Human Being, Dr. Baker, Alleged, Unknown, Life, Inner Meet Me, Quiet, Dry The Rain, Needles In My Eyes, Squares, Broke, (encore), Al Sharp, She’s The One, (instrumental), The House Song

Though the whole Britpop scene had more or less petered out by then, there were plenty of new acts emerging from the U.K. to pick up the baton and continue running. One such example was The Beta Band, a Scottish “folktronica” group. I myself hadn’t seen them before this night, but my brother Alex, being much more informed about such acts frequenting Popscene and the like, caught them two years before this playing on that very same Fillmore stage. The Beta Band had just put out their “Hot Shots II” album and just finished up opening for Radiohead all summer long for their “Amnesiac” tour. This Fillmore show would be the second to last show for The Beta Band’s headlining tour and the 5th show in a row for me, one of 7 shows in 8 days. At least I got a night off after this one before seeing two more at The Fillmore, the Bouncing Souls and De La Soul, and since it was just “an evening with” The Beta Band, ushering was a cinch, much to my relief.

I caught a bit of The Beta Band’s soundcheck and taped a couple songs. They did “Squares” and “It’s Not Too Beautiful” and I noticed during the latter that they used a sample of the theme song from the 1979 Disney space adventure film “The Black Hole”. I was likely one of the few people in the audience when they played it that night to recognize it or even had seen it, great cast, but beyond scientifically inaccurate. There was no opening act on the main stage but Waycross, a local heroin country band, was playing up in the poster room. I quite liked their sound, especially their unexpected, mellow cover of “Goin’ Out West” by Tom Waits, one of my favorite songs of his. Afterwards, the singer commented on the line, “I look good without a shirt”, saying, “It’s hard to talk about being shirtless”. 

Once The Beta Band took the stage, I was quickly released from ushering and I got myself a cold pint of Anchor Steam. They played some weird intro through the loudpeakers while they strapped on their instruments which included several samples from action movies as well as the seminal hip hop classic, “The Choice Is Yours” by The Black Sheep. The songs they played weren’t that complex, mostly just going between two to three notes tops, but it was a welcome decompression from the bombastic rock music I had witnessed during this streak of shows which included Queensryche, who had just played on that stage the night before this, as well as Fuel, Tool, and Kittie. The Beta Band’s fans loved them too, one of them screaming out “I love Scotland!!!” just before they performed “Inner Meet Me”.

Their singer Steve Mason was actually pretty funny, cracking dry jokes between songs, like claiming that their drummer, Robin Jones was responsible for their song “Needles In My Eyes” which had been “made famous by Robin’s dad, Billy Connolly”. For those who don’t know, Billy is a famous Scottish comedian and actor, renown for his profanity laced, though brilliant stand up routines. Before they played “Squares”, Steve also joked, “Did you know (DJ and keyboard player John Maclean) John’s dad was in ‘The Dukes Of Hazzard’? Uncle Jesse! Strange, but true”. Like most British rock bands, they kept their set pretty short and were quite loud, but I’m happy to say that they, unlike any of the other Fillmore shows I had seen earlier that week, had a poster at the end of the night.

https://archive.org/details/the-beta-band-fillmore-11501

https://archive.org/details/waycross-fillmore-11501

Queensryche, Fill., SF, Mon., November 4

SETLIST : NM 156, Walk In The Shadows, Roads To Madness, The Lady Wore Black, Screaming In Digital, I Am I, Damaged, Empire, Silent Lucidity, Jet City Woman, Liquid Sky, Falling Down, Hit The Black, I Remember Now, Revolution Calling, Spreading The Disease, Electric Requiem, The Mission, My Empty Room,  Eyes Of A Stranger, (encore), Queen Of The Reich, Take Hold Of The Flame

I had been curious to see Queensryche ever since I missed the Day On The Green show at Oakland Stadium they did with Metallica, Faith No More, and Soundgarden back in 1991, a show I still regret not attending. They were the only one on that bill I hadn’t heard before and up until this show, I still hadn’t heard so much as a note of theirs. So, this “sight unseen” show I was keen to witness. Queensryche had been together just shy of twenty years then and as bands of that age do, recently released a “Greatest Hits” album. They had toured with Iron Maiden the year before and had just switched record companies, joining Sanctuary, where they put out their second live album. Entitled “Live Evolution” it had been recorded that September at The Moore Theater in Seattle, Washington just up the street from their hometown of Bellevue. Susan Tate, the wife of singer Geoff Tate, had just become the band’s assistant manager, becoming their head manager four years later.

The show was being billed as the “Live Evolution World Tour”, “An evening with Queensryche performing music spanning their entire career in 4 suites”. You know you’re in a prog rock band when you describe your music in suites. Lofty musical language aside, it wasn’t enough to attract the crowd they had initially hoped for and the show was relocated from The Warfield to The Fillmore, a venue less than half in size. Still, they played like it was an arena and though I wasn’t blown away by them, I thought their music was impressive nonetheless. I had just seen Tool at Shoreline the day before this and I could hear that they took a teeny page from this band. It was “An Evening With” show, so I was cut from ushering early and I was glad to relax for a night, this being my fifth show in a row. I would have one more the following night, ending the streak with The Beta Band on that same stage. 

Geoff had just shaved off his trademark long, black hair recently in solidarity with a family member dying of cancer, but it had grown back a bit by then, still looking pretty clean cut. A few songs in, he introduced “Empire”, saying, “Ten years ago, I wrote this song about selling crack cocaine on the streets of America… Ten years later, not much has changed. It’s kind of ironic, really… The Republicans are back in office”. A couple songs later, they lightened the mood a bit having the audience sing along loudly to “Jet City Woman”. They did a solid two hours leaving the stage with their fans chanting “Queensryche! Queensryche! Queensryche!” and they rewarded them with and encore of “Queen Of The Ryche” and “Take Hold Of The Flame”. It would be four years later when I’d see them triumphantly return to The Warfield and then once more in 2006, but I’m sorry to say that none of these shows ever got a poster. 

https://archive.org/details/queensryche-fillmore-11401

Tool, Tricky, Shoreline, Mountain View, Sat., November 3

SETLIST : The Grudge, Stinkfist, Undertow, Parabol, Parabola, Pushit, Schism, , Disposition, Reflection, Soundscape (intermission), Triad, Eon Blue Apocalypse, The Patient, Opiate, (encore), Lateralis

It had been only three short months since I’d seen Tool with my dear ol’ mum at the Berkeley Community Theater trying out the new songs from their “Lateralis” album and they had graduated to Shoreline, a venue nearly three times larger. As I’d written before, many notable bands would do this to work out the bugs, almost a rehearsal of sorts, but even I had underestimated Tool’s popularity by then. Could they pack the Shoreline by their own sweet selves? Well, they certainly did and continue to fill venues of that size and larger to this day. Tool had officially made it Shoreline big and there was no going back for them. Their selection of playing Shoreline was further evidence as well that the days of the Tool mosh pit were basically over. There was no way anyone could mosh in the fully seated venue in Berkeley and there was little to no action on the lawn at Shoreline that night either. I was just glad that I could score comp tickets to this one since Tool tickets would become notoriously expensive from then on. 

I was relieved that Tool had brought along Tricky to open up for them, one of the few opening acts they picked over the years that was worthy of them in my opinion. Tricky had toured alongside Tool during Lollapalooza back in 1997 and I saw them both at Concord Pavilion and right there on that very same stage. In a strange coincidence, Tricky had also played at The Fillmore the night before Tool’s show in Berkeley back in August. Theirs was an interesting yet divergent combination of musical styles, but they fit well together. I actually showed up a little late for Tricky’s set, which as you might know by now is out of character for me and I can’t rightly remember why. I choose to blame my traveling companions to this show, though honestly I couldn’t remember who tagged along this time. I did overhear on the tape my wrangling with one of them about whose lighter was whose, one being a green one with a sticker on it. It’s hard enough making out Tricky’s setlist, but I do know that they played “A Song For Yukiko” in their set. Tool bassist Justin Chancellor joined them on stage for that one and Tricky thanked him at the end of the song bestowing upon him, “much respect”.

Tool opened with “The Grudge” and followed it with their new arrangement of “Stinkfist”, followed by “Undertow” as they had done back in Berkeley. Their singer Maynard James Keenan, huddled in shadow on a riser in the back of the stage once again, let out one of his trademark screams at the end of that last one. The bad news about this night was once more my batteries started running out in my recorder and the songs in the middle of the show sped up faster and faster until the deck finally ran out of juice and I replaced them. But I did catch it in time to get the last three songs of the set. They didn’t played their hit “Sober” this time and I always found that it is evidence of a band’s maturity when they choose to leave out their big early hit from their sets. So, that was one more sign that Tool had grown up a little more. 

Though there was little in the way of moshing, the crowd still screamed a lot between songs. It had been a couple months since 9/11, but some heshers up on the lawn with us began chanting “USA! USA! USA!” before they performed “The Patient”. At the end of the set, before they did “Opiate”, Maynard graciously thanked the crowd saying with his usual calm, dry wit, “Well, there you have it. Always a pleasure… Never a chore”. I admit it was a little strange seeing Tool at one of their own shows at such a distance up there on the lawn of Shoreline, but I’m glad I did since I wouldn’t see them again for another 5 years. Tool would return to do another smaller sit down show at the elegant Paramount Theater in Oakland, trying out once again new material, that time from their next album, “10,000 Days”. Likewise, they would return four months later to play the Oakland Arena, a venue over six times the size of the Paramount. I would however see Maynard once in those intervening years in 2003 as luck would have it at Shoreline once again with his other band, A Perfect Circle, performing alongside Jane’s Addiction and others for the last of the Lollapalooza tours. 

https://archive.org/details/tool-shoreline-11301

https://archive.org/details/tricky-shoreline-11301

Fuel, Saliva, Breaking Point, War., SF, Wed., November 2

SETLISTS : 

(BREAKING POINT) : Under, Get Up, Falling Down, Phoenix, 27, Coming Of Age, (unknown), Brother

(SALIVA) : Click Click Boom, Superstar, After Me, Doperide, Lackluster, Hollywood, Musta Been Wrong, Beg, Your Disease

(FUEL) : Last Time, Jesus Or A Gun, (unknown), Knives, Innocent, (unknown), Scar, (unknown), Sunburn, Shimmer, Down, Prove, Empty Spaces, (unknown), Bittersweet

Republicans like music too. Yeah, it had been almost a year since we so spinelessly and stupidly handed power over to the George W. Bush regime, but I had been coddled for a solid eight years with Clinton. I forgot that there were actually some musicians who are right wing apart from the obvious ones today like Kid Rock and Ted Nugent. It doesn’t make them evil and most of them have the good sense to keep their political opinions on the down low as to not alienate potential fans. It’s understandable. And after 9/11, even many so called left wingers were more than happy to bomb the living shit out of anybody who said “Boo!” back then. But I learned eventually that Republicans have a tenuous relationship with the music world, as well as with actors and other artists. It’s hard for me to hear that brilliant people I respect like Alice Cooper and Johnny Ramone vote red, but I can only imagine the mixed feelings conservatives have with the overwhelming tidal wave of liberal artists whose talent is as undeniable as enjoyable.

Which leads me to Fuel and their openers Saliva and Breaking Point. I honestly can’t say if any of these bands and their members are right wing, but since they all come from Tennessee, it is a safe bet that they have experience catering to red state crowds. It is in their interest to keep them happy. Likewise, many bands, even successful ones like Fuel, feel compelled to accept sponsorship from companies to finance their tours and though it might make good business sense, accepting that corporate money instantly marries bands to those company’s politics. So, when I discovered that Fuel’s tour was being sponsored by Nescafe, lamely labeling this part of their “Java Jam’ series, I let out an audible groan. Nestle has become progressively so evil over the years that today, they have crossed the line into cartoonish super-villainy. Though once again, I have to admit that I ate my share of Crunch bars as a kid.

I had actually seen both Fuel and Saliva together earlier that June during the annual Live 105 B.F.D. festival at Shoreline and though I wasn’t blown away by them, I thought they were good nonetheless. But I hadn’t seen Breaking Point yet and they came on stage to a strange recording of African drum beats with a collage of soundbites from things as various as Jack Nicholson shouting, “Here’s Johnny!” from “The Shining” to Wally Shawn shouting, “Inconceivable!” from “The Princess Bride”. They were brand new, having just released their major label debut album, “Coming Of Age” that year. The 8-track demo version of it put out the year before has since become a collectable and its title track went on to be in the soundtrack of the film “The Scorpion King”. The tour had brought along quite a formidable array of sound gear, so it came to no surprise that it would be an excruciatingly loud evening. I’m glad I wore earplugs. A few songs in, singer-guitarist Brett Erickson introduced the song “Phoenix” saying that he “wrote this a year ago when I had a house fire and lost everything I had”. The crowd gave out an “Awww” and he let one out too and continued, “But I tell you what… I’d like to dedicate this song to the events of September 11. I know the people, the country will rise above this”. 

Saliva was up next and like Breaking Point, they too had an interesting introduction over the loudspeakers, a montage of bits from the movie “American Beauty” which had just swept the Oscars the year before this. There was one line from the self help tape Annette Bening was listening to saying “You’re a victim if you choose to be” and Chris Cooper asking, “Your wife is with another man?”, as well as Annette repeating resolutely, “I refuse to be a victim!” I always felt bad that Annette didn’t get the Oscar, especially since that movie won every single other Oscar it was nominated for. She’s been nominated five times now and she’s got a special place in my heart being a fellow San Francisco State graduate and actually spoke at my graduation. But anyway, back to Saliva.

My tape bugged out for a while by the time they got to “Doperide” in their set, sounding terribly overdriven. It takes quite a lot to push my little headphone speaker to that level and maybe it was just loud enough to do it or maybe I had a short in the headphone or something, but by the time Fuel came on, it was alright. Saliva’s singer Josey Scott got the crowd to chant, “Hell ya! Hell ya! Hell ya! USA!” and later asked, “Havin’ a good time, San Francisco?!?… Keep acting like this, Saliva will be back again and again and again. This goes out to all the red blooded American females in the audience… mothers, sisters, wives, mothers (which he said twice)” before they played “Lackluster”. Afterwards, Josey said, “This is a special song for you guys. We haven’t even played this song at home. It’s on our website for our fans. They wanted to hear this song. It’s called ‘Hollywood’”. 

Coming back to the whole right wing thing, Josey went on to address the elephant in the room since America was right in the middle of the invasion of Afghanistan, “Not to bring up anything depressing, but this song goes out to Osama ‘Bitch’ Laden. Your ass is about to get fuckin’ dealt with!!!… By The Untied States Of America!!!”. Later, he added, “How many of you are glad to be alive tonight?!? How many of you are glad to be American tonight?!?! Because when you bring Americans together in love and unity, it goes like this… If you fuck with one of us, you fuck with all of us!!!” Yes, the crowd all roared in approval and it was hard not to feel the same after all that had happened since that terrible September morning. Little did anyone realize that Osama wouldn’t actually be “dealt with” for another ten years and our occupation of Afghanistan would continue for another agonizing twenty.

Jingoism aside, the time came for Fuel to take the stage, opening their set with “Last Time”. It was painfully loud by then, so I kept my distance up in the balcony as not to lose any of my dental fillings. Their singer, Carl Bell, looked up at us between songs and jovially tried to get us all to stand, “Good evening, San Francisco! Don’t let these people on the floor weigh your asses down. Don’t let these people kick your asses. You got to compete, America! All the girls and boys down here are ready to fuckin’ go, right?!?” Fuel kept the onslaught of deafening, breakneck paced, rock songs coming one after the other until finally about halfway through the set, they finally calmed things down slightly with “Sunburn”. Seriously, I enjoy hard rock as much as the next guy, but that first half of their set was just relentless and exhausting. 

Carl brought things back up soon enough after that song shouting, “You know what to do San Francisco! Turn the lights on these people!!!” and he got them to clap along to the beat chanting, “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!” before they did “Shimmer”. There was a moment of humor a little later when he admitted, “I’ve broken my pants, so if they fall down and my dick falls out, I expect you to reciprocate”. As you might imagine, this show was a true “sausage party” and thankfully Carl managed to keep them on for the rest of the set. At least the few women in the audience that night had no lines to wait in for the bathrooms. There was no poster for the show and this would be the last time I’d see either Fuel or Breaking Point. But I would encounter Saliva one more time when they headlined their own show at The Fillmore a year later. On a side note, I though it was a strange coincidence that it would be seeing Tool the following night, Fuel and Tool. Makes you think. 

https://archive.org/details/fuel-warfield-11201

https://archive.org/details/saliva-warfield-11201

https://archive.org/details/breaking-point-warfield-11201

Kittie, Dry Kill Logic, Ill Nino, Mind War Symphony, Fill., SF, Thur., November 1

SETLISTS : 

(MIND WAR SYMPHONY) : Something’s Gonna Give, Everyone Rise, Stand Back, I Go Away, You Don’t Know

(ILL NINO) : (unknown), God Save Us, What Comes Around, I Am Loco, Liar, Eye For An Eye

(DRY KILL LOGIC) : Pain, Feel The Break, Nightmare, Nothing, Assfault, The Strength I Call My Own, 

(KITTIE) : (unknown), (unknown), What I’ve Always Wanted, (unknown), (unknown), Suck, (unknown), Mouthful Of Poison, In Winter, Charlotte, Run Like Hell, Pain, Brackish, (unknown)

It was a cavalcade of screaming brutal metal at The Fillmore that night starring Kittie from London, Ontario. Fronted by Morgan Lander with her sister Mercedes on drums while they were in their early teens, Kittie were just about to drop their sophomore album, “Oracle”, eleven days after this show, its release date was temporarily pushed back because of 9/11. Though the new album didn’t sell as well as their first, they had just been nominated for a Juno Award, Canada’s version of the Grammies, for Best New Group and won Best New Band, Female Performer Of The Year, and “The Next Big Thing” in a readers poll with Metal Edge magazine. Still, this was a bit of a rocky transitional period for the band having just lost their guitarist Fallon Bowman over creative differences. Their guitar tech Jeff Phillips took over for her on this tour and this would also be the final tour for bassist Talena Atfeld who they would ultimately replace with Jennifer Arroyo. Kittie was selling autographed copies on that tour at The Wherehouse, the now defunct record store chain, and they were offering a free MP3 download of their new single “What I’ve Always Wanted” for those who joined their “Kittie Army” fan club.

The first of the three opening acts that night were fellow Canadians, Mind War Symphony. Their singer, Gord Prior, got the crowd pumped up early coming on stage and barking, “San Francisco! I want you to lose your fucking minds tonight!” A couple songs later, he said, “Thank you for coming down so early tonight with all the crazy shit I’ve been seeing on the television today. You are the fuckin’ true spirit of this city. I heard San Francisco is one of the best tock & roll cities in the United States Of AMERICA!!!! And you just proved that to me now tonight. This is a song about oblivion, insanity, and debauchery. It’s called ‘Stand Back’”.”They followed that with “I Go Away” which Gord introduced it as “a song about doing LSD. I hear you got some good LSD in this part of the world!” He gave the other bands shout outs as well as for the potheads in the crowd before their short set ended. All the openers only got a half an hour each with only 20 minute breaks between acts, so the night moved along pretty quickly. 

Next up was Ill Nino, a nu metal act from Union City, New Jersey and though it was the first time I’d see them, I had seen their drummer, Dave Chavarri formerly of Pro-Pain, play with Soulfly at the Maritime Hall before. Ill Nino in fact finished their set that night with a cover of Soulfly’s “Eye For An Eye”. They were still brand new back then having released their debut album, “Revolution Revolucion” six weeks before this show. Their singer Christian Machado did that scream, sing, scream thing that a lot of nu metal acts like Papa Roach did back then, but they kept the pit going doing tunes in both Spanish and English. They got everyone to bounce to their song “God Save Us” and Christian asked, “Are we feeling rowdy today, San Francisco?!?” before doing “Liar” adding, “You motherfuckers are the reason why we’re here!” and “San Francisco, we fucking love you. We wanna know where all the potheads are at! We wanna know where all the chronic is at!” Certainly, there was a great deal of chronic smoked at that show. I would see Ill Nino two more times on that Fillmore stage, once with Coal Chamber in 2002 and again with the aforementioned Soulfly in 2005.

Dry Kill Logic from Westchester County, New York were the last of the three openers. They were originally called Hinge, but had to change their name because some recording studio had the same name and they too had just dropped their debut album, “The Darker Side Of Nonsense”, earlier that year. The band came on stage with a recording of George C. Scott in the 1990 horror film “The Exorcist III” growling, “I believe in pain! I believe in cruelty! I believe in insanity! I believe in slime!… every crawling, putrid thing, every possible ugliness and corruption, you son of a bitch!!!” I was probably one of only a few people in the audience that night who actually saw that movie in the theater. They were as bombastic as the others and also gave shout outs to the bands and the potheads in the crowd. Seriously, after all that shouting, it was starting to get on my nerves and even more so listening to it again as the old fogey that I am today. A little nu metal goes a long way and best served in small doses.

But that wasn’t the case with me for Kittie. It was love at first sight. They had played at The Pound the night before on Halloween and though I thoroughly enjoyed Tenacious D at The Warfield, after hearing Kittie at this show, I would have seriously considered seeing them on both nights if I knew how good they were. Incidentally, the end of the Tenacious D recording ended up on the beginning of this one making it quite a stylistic left turn on that first disc. Anyway, I was instantly taken by their raw energy, brilliant songwriting, and skills on their instruments. I do admit though, it is indeed a challenge trying to make out the lyrics that Morgan sings. Her voice is truly demonic but she had a rather sweet speaking voice dedicating one their songs in true polite Canadian fashion, “for all the girls and for all the boys as well. Without you, there is no us”. Later, she would revive her inner Cookie Monster, introducing “In Winter”, “And where we’re from that may be so, but here in The Fillmore, it’s motherfuckin’ HOT!!!” Seriously, I would see Tool two days later at Shoreline and their singer Maynard James Keenan is quite a screamer too, but even he would probably advise Morgan to take it down a notch. 

Kittie probably played one of the greatest covers of a Pink Floyd song I’ll ever hear with their blistering version of “Run Like Hell”. Morgan made sure to mention, “I know Pink Floyd has played on this stage before. This is my special tribute”. Like all the others that night, they too gave shout outs to the openers and they left the stage with the crowd chanting “Kittie!!! Kittie!!! Kittie!!!”, begging for more. I regret to say that there wasn’t a poster at the end of the show and regret even more to admit that this was the only time I’d see them perform. The band went on hiatus in 2011, though the recently did a reunion gig a couple years ago and their first album in 13 years just came out last June. They did a handful of shows last year but the closest they came to the bay area was Las Vegas. And though they currently are touring in Australia and Europe, I might still get another chance to hear Morgan’s hellbent siren song again someday.

https://archive.org/details/kittie-fillmore-11101

https://archive.org/details/dry-kill-logic-fillmore-11101

https://archive.org/details/ill-nino-fillmore-11101

https://archive.org/details/mind-war-symphony-fillmore-11101

Tenacious D, Phantom Planet, War., SF, Wed., October 31

SETLISTS : 

(PHANTOM PLANET) : Shadows, Please Apply Yourself To Me Sweetly, Nobody’s Fault, The Guest, Wishing Well, California, All Over Again

(TENACIOUS D) : Flash, Wonderboy, Land Of The Lost, Fat Albert, Warning, Jesus Ranch, Kielbasa, History Of Tenacious D, Pat Reilly, Special Thing, Lee, (movie), Rock Your Socks, Holy Diver, Dio, They Fucked Our Asses, Saxaboom, Inward Breathing, Karate, One Man Jam, Kyle Quit The Band, Rocket Sauce, Explosivo, Kyle Took A Bullet For Me, Sasquatch, FHG, Cosmic Shame, Spiderman, Double Team, (encore), Tribute, Beatles Medley, Malibu Nights

It’s doubtful that anyone could have anticipated the meteoric rise of Tenacious D. Who could have guessed that in just a couple of years, they would have gone from doing random gigs in L.A. to selling out The Warfield on Halloween? I should have gotten an inkling when I recorded their first tour gig at the Maritime less than a year before this. Even then, I was amazed by their charisma, humor, and musical abilities, not to mention the almost fanatical devotion that they inspired in their fans. Their debut album produced by The Dust Brothers had just been released seven weeks before this show and it would rest assured eventually go platinum. Though like before, it was just Jack Black and Kyle Gass with their acoustic guitars on stage, the album had the likes of such rock & roll royalty as Dave Grohl on drums and Steven Shane McDonald from Red Kross on bass. It even was recorded at Neil Diamond’s sound studio, a tribute to the singer-songwriter which Jack had sang a cover of one of Neil’s songs earlier that year in the film comedy “Saving Silverman”. Kyle had a small role in that movie as well.

Like many rock band tours in America, this one would also end in San Francisco, the last show of their “Rise & Fall Of Tenacious D” tour which had begun in New York City, just three days before 9/11. The trauma induced by that terrible day led the duo to strike the song “City Hall” from their setlist for the rest of the tour, though they reinstated it the following year. Jack had also been on the celebrity edition of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” earlier that month alongside Dennis Leary and Jimmy Kimmel and I’m happy to report that Jack won $125,000 for charity on that show. Things were going great for Jack that year especially since “Shallow Hal” would be released just nine days after this gig, the first movie that he would finally be the leading man. I resented that I had to work all night as an usher, but it was such a fun show, that I soon forgot all about it. 

In a strange turn of events, I would be seeing Phantom Planet as an opening act twice in a row on that Warfield stage, appearing again just six days after playing alongside the Scottish rock band Travis. For more info on their origin story, feel free to go back and read about them in that review. Though their drummer Jason Schwartzman was also a notable actor, he and Jack wouldn’t appear in a film together until 16 years later in the comedy “The Polka King”. I watched Phantom Planet’s soundcheck a little before the doors opened and heard their guitarist, Darren Robinson, do a little lick of “Heartbreaker” by Led Zeppelin between songs. Jack came out to introduced them, announcing, “All Hallows Eve! Y’all ready to get your asses waxed with rock & roll? That’s good cus’ we’re gonna give it to ya two times! Two times! Let me introduce this first act. These guys are also like us from Los Angeles. They’ve been kicking ass west coast style. You can check out an EP they have with a couple… 2-3-4-5 songs. It is available. They have the full D stamp of approval. I’d like to introduce to you, Phantom Planet! Kick ass!” Their singer Alex Greenwald wished us all a “Happy motherfuckin’ Halloween” before they played “Please Apply Yourself To Me Sweetly”, the second song of their set. They also played their hit “California”, the theme song to the TV series “The O.C.”, which they didn’t play when they opened for Travis.

Admirably as Phantom Planet played, the excitement in the crowd could hardly be contained for Tenacious D and when they finally took the stage adorned in long hooded robes, the cheers were deafening. A couple of stagehands came out on stage with them, taking their robes off, revealing their costumes. Jack was dressed as “Wonderboy”, in a blue body stocking, red cape with a gold lightning bolt on it, a shining gold wrestling belt, long white gloves with gold triangles on the sides, and a red eye mask. Kyle was dressed as “Nasty Man”, in a black body stocking with a yellow cape and a black bat shaped eye mask. They opened with a cover of the theme song from the film “Flash Gordon” by Queen mashing it up with “Wonderboy” at the end. They followed those with a couple more hilarious covers, the theme songs from a couple of TV shows from the 70’s, “The Land Of The Lost” and “Fat Albert”. 

A couple numbers later Jack asked, “San Francisco, what’s up? Did anyone see us at Maritime Hall?… The Great American Music Hall?… This place kicks ass on both of them… I think I pulled a ligament” and then he proceeded to do some “super stretches” before they went on to play “Kielbasa”. Afterwards, they took their face masks off, Jack joking, “It was I all along!… There’s something gnarly going on upstairs”. Mentioning that it was the last show of the tour, Jack went on, “We have a lot of people behind us who does a lot of things for us” and introduced their tall roadie Lee “Peter Lee Parker”, dressed in a red sweatshirt. Kyle joked later about his height adding, “I wish I was 6’2”… There’s a girl coming on to me… She’s got that heroin chic look”. Jack tried to borrow $20 from Kyle, claiming he would give him $30 tomorrow, but Kyle said he didn’t have any money in his “Nasty Man” costume. So, Jack got upset shouting, “You just missed out on an opportunity!” and stormed off stage. Kyle followed him and a large screen was lowered from the rafters and they showed a video. 

The grainy movie showed Jack “6 weeks later” on the street desperately trying to pimp himself out to people driving by for sex. Kyle pulls up in a car, but neither of them recognize each other since they were both wearing sunglasses. Jack offered Kyle $5 for a handjob, $10 for a blowjob, $15 for a rimjob and Kyle opted for the blowjob. Jack had Kyle park in an underground parking garage and put up a newspaper while they were parked to disguise their fornicating. Kyle had an explosive orgasm and when they discovered who they both really were, Jack bitterly shouted, “You don’t have any money!” The screen retracted back into the ceiling and the duo came back on stage wearing their usual street clothes this time and Jack mumbled, “You just owe me $10, that’s all I’m sayin’” and challenged us “Are you ready to get up at the crack of noon & do the rock squats?!?” before launching into “Rock Your Socks”.

Later, Jack gave a shout out to his mom and dad in the audience saying, “They look just like me only 20 years older… My brothers Jim & Matt should be here.” They then did a cover of “Holy Diver” by Dio and Jack claimed, “I heard he heard our song and fuckin’ loved it and for that I love him ever more”, before performing their tribute to ol’ Ronnie, simply titled “Dio”. For “Saxaboom”, Jack busted out a digital sax contraption and Kyle drank a Corona and danced to it. Jack did a bit saying that he had “a new style of singing” and that the audience had fell victim to “hoodwinking” and they had been “bedazzled, bamboozled”. He said most singers are “only rocking you 50% of the time they’re breathing” and went on to carefully demonstrate his “inward breathing” technique asking us, “Shall I bust off a chunk of it?” He then did some singing while inhaling and then immediately exhaling and boasted, “I can go on singing there all night”. Kyle said “it doesn’t sound good” and then they got into a fight and Kyle stormed off stage.

Jack went on playing appropriately “One Man Jam” and “Kyle Quit The Band”, but Kyle came back for them to play “Explosivo” and “Rocket Sauce”. They made up afterwards after Kyle pantomimed jumping in front of a bullet fired by someone in the crowd and then Jack sang the likewise appropriate, “Kyle Took A Bullet For Me” and said he “flew like an angel”. Kyle got up and casually dismissed the incident saying, “It was only a flesh wound” and going on about Sasquatch being “not far from here up the 101”. They of coarse did that song and later Jack asked if Kyle’s brother Mitchell was in the crowd and then requested everybody to put up their lighters and glow sticks for “Cosmic Shame”. Jack went on a rant, urging us to “quit the day job, set the artist free… Fuck the kids! OK, I’m not saying fuckin’… Bullshit school, they graduate, 20 years later they guilt trip you… Quit your fuckin’ day job! If I stay stop, you must discontinue BART”.

They praised the new “Spider-Man” movie that was about to come out the following May and they had Spider-Man himself, who was obviously Lee in a very cheap disguise. Jack disparaged “the lining of his cap, cheap suit… Check out Spidey’s package… Shoes not spider regulation, hair poking out the back”. Lee then had a fight with Sasquatch, ripped off his arm, licked his ass, and then sprayed everyone on stage with Silly Spray. Lee carried off Sasquatch as the duo casually stripped their bodies of the Silly Spray. Jack complained, “Where the fuck was Lee?”, wondered why he was never around when Spider-Man shows up, though noted that they shared the “same gait” and “body language”. Jack then praised a girl up in front dressed as “Dangergirl” and asked her, “You know what to do with a fellow like me & KG? Tools in the fuckin’ closet? What’s your name… Gina? You ever have a Gina sandwich? You, me, & some sourdough?” He then complained that other than her that he only had “dudes on my side… KG’s got some stripper hotties.” Kyle reassured him, “I’ll take care of you. I got Catwoman” and some “supper hottie, backstage betties”. 

They finished up with a rousing version of “Double Team” and Jack announced, “On bass, keys, drums… No one! But on lead vocals… It’s me!… Thank you, San Francisco! You’re tremendous!” It didn’t take long for the whole house to start chanting, “D! D! D!” and Sasquatch came back on stage to do a guitar solo, but Jack snatched his black, acoustic guitar and promptly smashed it to pieces, then flapping his arms wildly to try to drive him away. Sass walked off ashamed and the crowd booed loudly for which Kyle responded, “I can’t believe they turned on us”. Jack joked during the encore that he “got to do some trick or treating… This is my favorite city in the whole wide world!” and he mentioned that Kyle was from nearby Walnut Creek. They went on to do a medley of Beatles songs including “Blackbird”, “You Never Give Me Your Money”, and “The End”. Jack looked up in the balcony asking, “How’s it goin’, worst seats in the house?” and they finished the show with “Malibu Nights” and “The 5 Needs”. 

In true bay area hippie fashion, Jack put on a flower necklace and did a little twirly dance before they both finally walked off stage. There would have been a riot if they didn’t give out a poster that night, but thankfully they did and it was a great one, done by Craig Howell, one of my favorite poster artists. I was relieved to find a video of the show posted on YouTube and thoroughly enjoyed reliving it again. Like I mentioned before, “Shallow Hal” would soon be out and later in December, Jack did a show to raise awareness for the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation. I sincerely regret not catching Tenacious D at the Bridge School Benefit the following year, especially since I would have to wait over five years to see them again. But as expected, their fame led them to larger venues and I’d be seeing another sold out Tenacious D show, this time at the Bill Graham Civic Center, a venue over three times the size of The Warfield.

https://archive.org/details/tenacious-d-warfield-103101

https://archive.org/details/phantom-planet-warfield-103101

Live, Hoobastank, Citizen Cope, War., SF, Mon., October 29

SETLISTS : 

(CITIZEN COPE) : Appetite (For Lightnin’ Dynamite), Mistaken ID, If There Is Love, Salvation, Let The Drummer Kick, Contact

(HOOBASTANK) : Pieces, Up & Gone, Crawling In The Dark, Running Away, Remember Me, (unknown), (unknown), Ready For You

(LIVE) : Simple Creed, Like A Soldier, The Distance, All Over You, Voodoo Lady, They Stood Up For Love, Call Me A Fool, Imagine, Lakini’s Juice, Deep Enough, Lightning Crashes, The Dolphin’s Cry, White Discussion, (encore), Run To The Water, I Alone, (encore), Overcome

I’d seen Live once before at The Warfield back in 1997, but this would be the last time I’d see them play. They had just released their fifth album, the appropriately titled “V”, just six weeks before this night, which had been originally been intended to be given to their fans for free over the internet. It was then called, “Ecstatic Fanatic”, but I guess their record company, Radioactive, had other plans. Also, that company being owned by Universal, Live’s song, “Forever Might Not Be Long Enough” appeared in the closing credits of Universal’s action film “The Mummy Returns”, which came out that May and their song “Deep Enough” was in the opening credits of “The Fast & The Furious” which came out a month later. The single “Overcome” would be a hit, becoming a sort of cathartic anthem for 9/11, though the album ultimately didn’t sell as well as their others. They played two of those three songs that show, saving “Overcome” for the encore. The tour was also being sponsored by Ford promoting their new Ford Focus, which had just debuted that model car only a couple years before this. 

Though this would be the final time I’d see Live perform, I would go on to see both of the opening acts in the years to come. First up was Mr. Clarence Greenwood, otherwise known as Citizen Cope. He was pretty new then, but was quickly making a name for himself, just being signed to Dreamworks the year before. His self titled album wouldn’t even be released for another three months. I was impressed by the quality of his voice and the sophistication of his songs, which would explain why such venerable artists like Carlos Santana, Sheryl Crow, and Corey Taylor from Slipknot would cover his tunes. After opening with “Appetite (For Lightnin’ Dynamite)” he said, “Thank you very much. This next song is called ‘Mistaken ID’. It’s about this lady that used to call me Randy all the time. I used to have to tell her my name’s not Randy… She never believed me, so I wrote a song about it…. It’s not Randy”. After he did “If There Is Love”, I overheard myself talking to another usher, “I remember… I remember what it felt like and someday I will feel that way again. Some days I feel that way. Some days I think I’m looking too hard”. I was partially joking, but seriously, I was like most people, in a pit of despair and anxiety after the election of George W. Bush and definitely after 9/11. It had already been almost three years after I broke up with my girlfriend Lisa and it would be a long time before I would get back on the horse and start dating again. 

Next up was the rock band Hoobastank who were also brand new. Like Citizen Cope, their debut, self titled album wasn’t out yet, being released just three weeks after this night and like Live, their record company, Island, was also owned by Universal.  Because of that, one of their songs, “Losing My Grip”, would also be used in a movie in the “Mummy” franchise, the prequel “The Scorpion King”, which would come out in theaters the following April. The new album would certify platinum, best known for the hit “Crawling In The Dark”  which they did in the middle of their set. When they started playing, I was immediately taken aback by how loud they were, especially compared to Citizen Cope. Consequently, I found it tough to make out the vocals of their singer, Doug Robb. Still, they were pretty good and got the audience awake though I would agree with one reviewer labeling them “sensitive hunk rock for teen girls”. It didn’t harm their career none for sure. I would go on to see them two times the following year, both at festivals at Shoreline, that year’s B.F.D. and the Sprite Liquid Mix with Jay-Z. 

Thankfully, the crowd wasn’t too rough to manage and soon I was cut from ushering and having a beer. Live was playing well, though they had a bit of a false start with “Call Me A Fool” and their singer, Ed Kowalczyk joked later before they played “Deep Enough” that he “had to start the night with a French setlist… I can’t read it!” They brought the tempo down a bit with a cover of “Imagine” by John Lennon, Ed beginning it like the original with just him on a piano with band joining in near the end. Like their song “Overcome”, that song had become another rallying cry after 9/11. A couple tunes later, they played their hit, “Lightning Crashes”, and they had no trouble getting their fans to sing along with its verses. They finished their set with “White, Discussion” which Ed said, “We haven’t played this next song in a long time… Whoa, that’s not true. We played it two days ago. Before that, we hadn’t played it in a really long time”. 

Live came back for an encore as expected and they began it with “Run To The Water”. Ed changed a line it singing, “Adam & Eve live down the San Francisco street from me”, which got a round of cheering from their fans. Afterwards he told a story about “the first time we saw our band on MTV, we were staying at the Phoenix Hotel”, which was just a few blocks from where I was living then in the Tenderloin. Ed went on, “We met Nirvana! We were staying there at the time and were like 12 years old… We’ve been a band since we’ve been 14 years old. We just turned 50, so we’ve been together 36 years… Just kidding… 16 years” and then they did their smash hit “I Alone”. Before they wrapped things up, Ed introduced each member of the band and pointed out their lead guitarist Chad Taylor, saying he had “known this guy since kindergarten”. Though I wasn’t that big of a fan of Live, I was disappointed that they didn’t get a poster that night. 

https://archive.org/details/live-warfield-102901

https://archive.org/details/hoobastank-warfield-102901

https://archive.org/details/citizen-cope-warfield-102901

BT, Maritime Hall, SF, Friday, October 26

I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t write about this show, though it was mostly uneventful, so I’ll try to keep it brief. This would be the final show I’d record at the Maritime Hall, the last official show open to the public. It was a tough call going to this one for at least two reasons, one being that night Jane’s Addiction was playing at Shoreline with the Stereo MCs and Oysterhead, the supergroup featuring Les Claypool of Primus, Trey Anastasio from Phish, and Stewart Copeland from The Police, was playing at the Greek. But something inside me knew that I had to be at the Hall to send it off for good, though I wasn’t a fan of BT, nor that I knew very much about him whatsoever. I felt I owed it to the Maritime and to all those who fought for it and fell by the wayside like I and so many others had. However, I was especially bummed to miss Oysterhead in the future, because that was the only show they ever performed in the bay area. I’d seen practically every other of the numerous side projects of Mr. Claypool’s, but that one will always serve as the one who got away. 

Still, among EDM artists you could do a lot worse than Mr. Brian Wayne Transeau, otherwise known at BT. Originally from Rockville, Maryland, he dropped out of the prestigious Berklee School Of Music to pursue his DJ career in Los Angeles and after years of hard work and records spun, he definitely made a name for himself. BT has collaborated as a writer, artist, and producer alongside such venerable acts as Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Sting, Depeche Mode, Brittany Spears, Tori Amos, and an obscure little singer named Madonna. Just that year, his song “Pop” which he made with NSYNC had snatched up 4 MTV Video Music Awards and a Teen Choice Award. He also pioneered the DJ technique known as “stutter editing”, taking small fragments of sound and repeating them rhythmically. To this day, he holds the Guinness Book Of World Record for the song with the largest number of vocal edits, tallying in at 6,178 for his hit song “Somnambulist (Simply Being Loved)”. So, it might not have been the show I’d choose to end my illustrious run with the Maritime Hall on, but I suppose it could have been worse. God help me, it could have been Zero again.

Anyone who’s worked at a venue on its last legs will understand the bitter, somber mood that was in the house that night, the proverbial last days in the bunker. I had actually not stepped foot inside the Hall since my last falling out with Boots Hughston, its tyrannical honcho, after the ill fated Lucky Dube show there over a year before this night. It was there, that after revealing the recording facilities to Lucky Dube’s manager, he had gone to Boots to try to arrange making an album from that night, but Boots being Boots, opened his big angry mouth and the negotiations soon turned into a cringeworthy shouting match. Not only did I not get to tape Lucky Dube, but wasn’t able to tape Zulu Spear who were opening that night, a band I really admired. To make matters worse, Lucky Dube would be killed in 2007 during a robbery attempt, making that one of the last times, if not the last time he performed in the bay area. For more gruesome deets about what it was like working under Boot’s regime, feel free to read previous Maritime entries. 

For now, I’ll move on. Wade, the other recording guy at the Hall who took over for me couldn’t do it that night and I was surprised when Boots called me to ask if I could for which I reluctantly agreed. It was just BT and as a DJ, he had but two inputs from his rig upstairs, so mixing it was beyond easy. So, I went upstairs once everything was set up and got me a pint of beer at the bar. The crowd was sparse to say the least and I discovered to my horror when I took the first sip of beer… It was flat. If ever there was a metaphor for the Maritime’s downfall, there it was. It was a good thing that BT only had two tracks to mix because the Hall was completely out of white board tape for the soundmen to label our consoles. I had heard from the others that it had been like that for months. So, I finished my beer all the same, but declined not to have another one. Like most EDM shows, it went on until the wee hours of the morn and by the end, I was emotionally and physically drained by the whole experience. I couldn’t find BT to give him the tapes for the night, so I just bailed.

They had one more private party for the Hall the following weekend, but I just dropped by with Tory, my old friend who used to run the video system there, not to work, but really just out of morbid curiosity. Yep, the beer was still flat. I remember they had some hippie jam band on stage whose name I didn’t catch that had a female singer with long, blonde hair. I don’t recall what they played other than a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “You Don’t Have To Go”, an all too appropriate requiem of the Maritime. At the end of it all, I went up on the rooftop with Tory, Bones the house manager, and others to wrap it up. On the streets below, we watched Boots and his beloved wife Kathy leave towards their car and overheard Boots, unsentimental as he was ungrateful as always, say back to the crew, “Be back here at noon” to help take apart the sound and lighting gear for good. I took a deep breath of the cool, Autumn night air and watched as he got in his car and drove away. It was if a great weight had been lifted off of me and I remember exhaling sharply, saying, “It’s over… It’s finally over”. 

The epilogue for Boots is still unfolding. Though Kathy ultimately succumbed to the cancer that sickened her for years, Boots is still with us and he’s probably in his 80’s by now. I did run into him a couple more times since that depressing night including when my recording partner Pete and I worked at the Tribal Stomp reunion at Golden Gate Park in 2005. They even made a CD set of the stuff we recorded that day. But I don’t believe I’ve seen him since. I’m considering uploading some of the stuff I got off our monitor mixes, though I have since wrote about those shows at the Hall, but I’ve decided to wait until Boots passes himself to do so. After all we’ve been through, even though he treated me and many others so cruelly, I wouldn’t want to entangle what remains of his life in any legal complications. That and I simply don’t want to have to speak to him again. Still, the Maritime would have never happened if it wasn’t for Boots, his money, and his stubbornness to keep it afloat even after all hope was lost. I wish him and his family well, especially for his sons Dusty and Little Boot. They were so young when they started and had to grow up much too fast wrangling a business that’s notoriously brutal. 

Thankfully and on a more uplifting note, there are a handful of Maritime alumni who I’ve seen since and continue to see who I admire and adore to this day. Brian Schumann and Steve Goldsmith, the Hall’s brilliant lighting guys, still regularly turn up on gigs that I work with the union. Josh Porter and I are friends on Facebook and routinely checks out my stuff, dropping the occasional comment. I suppose this entry is Maritime Hall’s eulogy, at least for me anyway. My spirits are always lifted whenever I run into someone new these days who mentions a show they saw there, especially if it’s one I recorded personally. Being so long after its demise, I am also tickled when I encounter a younger person who went there when they were just a kid, some even adding that the one they saw was the first show they ever seen. I’ve said time and again that one can always date oneself by the defunct venues they frequented and for five short years at the Hall, I saw more concerts than most would see in their lifetime. I take solemn pride in the work I did at the Maritime and am comforted that the many albums and videos that came from our recordings will live on into the future. 

Travis, Remy Zero, Phantom Planet, War., SF, Thur., October 25

SETLISTS :

(REMY ZERO) : Hermes Bird, Bitter, Impossibility, Save Me, Perfect Memory

(TRAVIS) : Sing, Writing To Reach You, Pipe Dreams, As You Are, Driftwood, Turn, Last Train, Indefinitely, The Cage, Follow The Light, Side, Flowers In The Window, Safe, The Humpty Dumpty Love Song, Why Does It Always Rain On Me?, Slide Show, Blue Flashing Light, (encore), Ring Out The Bell, Heroes, Happy

I was already pretty familiar with Travis by the time they graduated to play The Warfield. The Scottish indy rock band had been on the up and up since I saw them the year before headlining at The Warfield and as one of the supporting acts at one of those Alice gigs in Golden Gate Park. Travis was wrapping up a monthlong tour of the states, supporting their new album “The Invisible Band” which had just come out four months before this show. I wasn’t a particularly big fan of their work, but I did appreciate the sheer power of Fran Healy’s pipes. That man could sing and I thought it would be a good idea to catch them at least one more time before his bloody, long suffering vocal chords became dislodged from overuse and flew out of his mouth onto a quivering heap on stage during one of his high notes.

Although I was unaware of it at the time, I would be in the presence of a notable actor during the first of the opening acts that night. This would be the first time I’d see Phantom Planet and its drummer, Jason Schwarzman. Now, I’d seen the brilliant 1998 Wes Anderson comedy “Rushmore” in which he starred in alongside Bill Murray, but I didn’t make the connection. Jason was of coarse seated in the back of the stage behind his drum kit and wasn’t wearing eyeglasses, or dressed in a private school uniform for that matter. I actually learned recently that Jason is the son of Talia Shire from the Rocky and Godfather movies, making him one of the many kids in the Coppola family to branch out on their own artistically. Jason had also appeared in the movie “CQ” earlier that year, directed by his cousin Roman Coppola. He would continue to collaborate with Roman and Wes on projects in the future, including writing the screenplay for the movie “The Darjeeling Limited”. 

Incidentally, by this time my brother Alex had been living down in L.A. for over a year and had met Jason at a Halloween party Jason was throwing at his house in Silverlake, one of many he threw back in those days. My brother would also encounter Jason’s younger sibling Robert, who fronted a band of his own named Rooney and also collaborated in a lot of Coppola projects, when he periodically dropped by the ad agency Alex used to work at about ten years ago. And as luck would have it, like Phantom Planet, I once again saw a band with a Coppola in it when I caught Rooney playing as the first act of the Lollapalooza tour in 2003 on that festival’s main stage at Shoreline. They were pretty good, but that was the only time I’ve seen them. 

Phantom Planet had named their band after a B science-fiction movie that came out in 1961 and were fronted by a singer named Alex Greenwald who had done some acting work himself, appearing in “Donnie Darko” which actually came out just the day after this show. Also, their bassist, Sam Farrar, is the son of John Farrar, the longtime collaborator of Olivia Newton-John, the first woman I ever loved, and he penned such hits of hers as “Have You Ever Been Mellow?”, “You’re The One That I Want”, “Hopelessly Devoted To You”, and “Magic”. Sam would also go on to play bass for Maroon 5. One of Phantom Planet’s songs, probably their most recognized hit is “California” which would become the theme song to the Fox TV series, “The O.C.”, though I was oblivious to that fact since I never watched it. They had actually been together for seven years by then and were on the cusp of releasing their second album “The Guest” just four months later. I thought they were a good band, though I was saving my tape supply for the following bands and had to tape over the beginning of their set so I could get Travis doing a cover of “Heroes” by David Bowie during their encore. So, ultimately only got one of their songs in the end. But thankfully, I would get another chance to see them VERY soon after this show when they reappeared once again on the Warfield stage opening for Tenacious D that Halloween, a mere six days later.

I did get most of the second opening act, Remy Zero, an alternative rock band from Birmingham, Alabama whose third and final album , “The Golden Hum”, just came out the month before this show. They too had a couple songs that made it into soundtracks including “Save Me’ which they played that night that became the theme song to the Superman prequel TV series “Smallville” and “A Perfect Lie” which became the theme song to “Nip/Tuck”, the medical drama series on FX. Like Travis, they too had quite an impressive singer who was named August Cinjin Tate and he gave a shout out to his drummer before they played “Impossibility” saying, “So, everybody for this next song, I want you to pay special attention to our drummer. His name is Gregory Slay and you’ll see why we keep him in the band”. August later thanked Phantom Planet and said that he was “going to buy a lot of their CDs”.

I was working all night as an usher, but the crowd was pretty civilized, even when Travis took the stage. Fran got them to scream after the count, “1,2,3… Go!” before they began with “Sing”, the first single off the new album. After a handful of other tunes, he addressed as many artists did around then, 9/11 and its horrific aftermath, “So, not just during this song, but from now till the rest of the year, I want everyone in this room… What, there’s about 2,000 people out here? Everyone in this room right now to just peace out, to just send out cool, peace vibes. The thing that’s great about peace vibes that it’s like rabbits. They mate with each other and make even more peace vibes and before you know it, you have more peace than you know what you can actually deal with.  And I think just about now and the climate in the world, man, we need all the peace we can get. This next song is not about peace, but trying to get somewhere from A to B without expecting to be done. This is called ‘Turn’”. A few songs later, Fran dedicated “The Cage” to “all the women for breaking all of our hearts”. 

Fran always had the gift of gab with that thick Scottish accent of his at shows and addressed us again after that song, “How are you San Francisco?… (we cheered, of coarse)… I thought so. All you in the back, are you OK there? This is dedicated to y’all in the back, to the top row because it’s very difficult to see you up there with all the lights going down. But that’s cool. It’s kind of nice to say that’s the best thing. I always say to our light guy, that’s Matt there. See that guy doing the lights? That’s Matt. I always say to him, show us like, light more people so we can see everyone, but they don’t remember… It’s dark and this song is about getting lost in the darkness” and then they played “Follow The Light”. 

A couple songs later before they did “Flowers In The Window”, Fran said, “Holy cow! We’d like to dedicate this to Remy Zero. This is a song about finding someone you love, but it’s very rare when two bands go on three consecutive years in a row and not get on like a house on fire. So, this song is dedicated to them. They’re the best guys in the world. Go and get ‘The Golden Hum’, it’s their new record on Elektra… They’re going to be the biggest American band and you saw them here first!” Unfortunately, unlike Phantom Planet, this would be the only time I’d see Remy Zero since they broke up in 2003. Their talented drummer, Gregory would sadly pass away from cystic fibrosis on New Year’s Day in 2010 in nearby Bodega Bay, but Remy Zero would reunite briefly that year and do a handful of shows in his honor.

My tapes ran out in the middle of their hit, “Why Does It Always Rain On Me?” and I thought it was amusing that the folks down on the dance floor had got bunched up together and were doing a pogo dance to it. Not exactly a mosh pit kind of song, but it was charming all the same. Like I mentioned earlier, I did relent and recorded that “Heroes” cover, especially since they got August from Remy Zero to come back on stage to help sing it. Fran said, “This song is dedicated to all those brilliant, amazing, cool people that are over in New York, cleaning up that horrible fuckin’ mess.” I was moved to hear it again, mostly because Bowie had just sang it earlier that day at “The Concert For New York City” benefit, the all star gathering in that city raising money for the victims of 9/11. It was Bowie’s song in my opinion more than any others that day which became the rallying anthem for those brave first responders and I admit hearing it again brought a tear to my eye. This would be the last time I’d see Travis perform live, but they’re still together and by the inexplicable grace of God, Fran can still sing. 

The Breeders, Imperial Teen, Slim’s, SF, Tues., October 23

SETLISTS : 

(IMPERIAL TEEN) : Beginning, Ivanka, Piano, Yoo Hoo, Mr. & Mrs. Teacher’s Pet, Sugar, Lipstick, P.R., Disco

(THE BREEDERS) : T And T, Huffer, Tipp City, Doe, Head To Toe, Saints, Forced To Drive, Flipside, Little Fury, Divine Hammer, Iris, Cannonball, Safari, Swinger, I Wanna Get Along, Mom’s Drunk, Full On Idle, Pacer, (encore), Fort Gone, No Aloha

For those who didn’t read the previous entry, it takes a great band to pull me away from a Stereolab show.  They were doing back to back gigs at The Fillmore then and coincidentally, The Breeders were doing two nights as well at the exact same time. It had been over four years since I’d seen the twin sisters Kim & Kelly Deal at the Great American Music Hall and coupled with my love of their music, it was just enough to pry me away from my beloved Stereolab for a night and split the difference between the two of those excellent groups. There had been some line up changes in the band since I had last seen The Breeders, who had been stuck in development hell of what would eventually become the album “Title TK” and they had been sporadically trying to get it together to record new stuff ever since I saw them last.

As the “TK” in the name suggesting the journalistic shorthand for “to come”, it had been, after a considerable amount of wrangling, eventually handed over to legendary producer Steve Albini and was finished in Chicago that year to be released the following May. Gone from the band were touring guitarist Nate Farley, drummer Jim MacPherson, and bassist Josephine Wiggs, replaced by Richard Pressley, Jose Medeles and Mondo Lopez respectively. Both Richard and Mondo had been members of the seminal punk band Fear. But even old punks like them would witness the birth of a new musical gadget that would be released to the public that day that would change the way people would listen to music forever. Yes, the first iPod came out the day of that show and I’m proud to say that I’m one of those eccentrics who still uses one, not giving in to the temptation of getting a bone fide iPhone. 

One of the things that cemented my coming to The Breeders instead of the second Stereolab show was the fact that they had Imperial Teen as their opening act. It had also been over four years since I had seen them before, right there actually on that very same stage opening for Dinosaur Jr. Their third album, “On”, wouldn’t be dropped for another six months, but we were lucky to get a little sneak peak, hearing four of the new tracks that night. On monitors that evening was soundperson extraordinaire Lis Maguire Coyle, more commonly known as Tigi, a brilliant technician who I would have the honor to work alongside in the stagehand’s union years later. If you can handle monitors at Slim’s, you can handle just about anything and she handled both bands admirably as always.

Halfway through Imperial Teen’s set after they finished “Yoo Hoo”, bassist Jone Stebbins said to the crowd, “That was an old one, right… and this is a new one. We just finished a record!… Just yesterday!”. We all erupted in applause. Singer-guitarist Will Schwartz added, “A big day, yesterday. This is a new one. It’s kind of about San Francisco” and then they did “Mr. & Mrs.”  They followed that calling “Teacher’s Pet” their “drum machine part of the show” and they paused afterward, noticing that someone had thrown “a bean up here”, though Will asked “You sure it’s not a lentil?” To this day, I believe that was the only occasion that anyone threw any kind of legume on a stage during a show. Will asked, “So, San Francisco hasn’t seen The Breeders in a while, huh?… It’s such a great weekend, finishing the record and playing with The Breeders!” Just before the end of their set, Will said, “Thank you, San Francisco for being here a little bit early” and somebody in the crowd replied loudly, “San Francisco thanks you!”. Will smiled, “Well, you’re very welcome, my friends… Yeah, this next number, we like to call it a dance song and as San Francisco, we hope you interpret the dance theme as you will”. Jone blurted, “Shake your booty!” and they wrapped things up with a number simply titled “Disco”.

The wait finally came to an end and the twins took the stage with the audience roaring in approval. Kim joked, “Where the hell have you been?” and then they launched into a new one called “T And T”, quickly followed by “Huffer”. Afterwards, the did “Tipp City” one of the four tunes from the Deal’s period back around 1995 when they called themselves The Amps, putting out their one album “Pacer” that year, an album that Steve Albini also worked on. After a few Breeders classics, Kim mused about mood of the next song, “What is it called when it’s a skating rink for couples only?… Couples dance, right?… Moonlight skate!” and then they did “Forced To Drive”, another new one. Kim thanked the new members of the band and took a moment to try to fix her guitar amp saying, “This is a big hug problem… You don’t know what a problem is when you’re famous, we’re so fucked up” and then they did “Swinger”. She actually talked a lot between songs as she often does, but Kim talks pretty fast with a rather pronounced Midwest accent so it’s always been kind of hard to for me to decipher it all.

A couple songs later, the Deals joked with each other, “Everybody has seen their sister drunk… Pretty gross, right?… Everybody ever seen their mom drunk?… Grosser, right?” and then naturally, they played “Mom’s Drunk” followed by two more Amps songs, “Full On Idle” and “Pacer”, the title track from the album. After a well deserved encore break, Kim surprised me a little when she asked, “Got any friends who went to the Stereolab show tonight?” and I responded immediately, “I went last night!” It just occurred to me that both bands were at Lollapalooza in ’94 seven years before this, The Breeders on the main stage, Stereolab on the side stage. I hope they got to meet. Kim also thanked Imperial Teen and finished the encore with “Fort Gone” and “No Aloha”. I wouldn’t have to wait as long to see both bands again, for they would once more share a stage together, that time at The Fillmore less than nine months later, the first time The Breeders ever played there, and that gig would get an awesome poster. 

Stereolab, Fugu, Fill., SF, Mon., October 22

SETLIST : (unknown), Infinity Girl, Escape Pod (From The World Of Medical Observations), Fluorescences, (unknown), Gun The Mynah Bird, Nothing To Do With Me, Blips Drips & Strips, Captain Easychord, Baby Lulu, (unknown), Ping Pong, Double Rocker, John Cage Bubblegum, (encore), Naught More Terrific Than Man, Metronomic Underground           

As you might have read in my previous entry, this show has the tragic moniker of being the final show of a cherished musician. In a strange and terrible coincidence, both Mary Hansen, the guitarist and back up singer of Stereolab, and Joe Strummer would play at The Fillmore just two days apart and both would cross the Rainbow Bridge into rock & roll Valhalla in December of 2002, less than two weeks from each other. The only consolation is that they both died back home in jolly old England, Mary from a bicycle accident in London, Joe from a heart attack in Somerset. But on a happier note, no one attending either shows and certainly not Mary and Joe had any clue that they would soon meet their untimely doom and the shows they played those nights were absolutely stellar.

This was actually the second time I’d see Stereolab at The Fillmore, the first being in 1999, but to those who are not regular readers out there, The Lab in one of my all time favorite bands, I’m talking in the top five at least. By this show, I had already see them perform 11 times and had vowed to never miss them when they passed through town. It’s a foregone conclusion that they liked The Fillmore since it would be the only venue they would continue to visit and play in every time they come to San Francisco. Apart from one time in 2000 when they played at The Warfield, I’ve seen them there at least ten times since. I’d know the exact number, but I stopped updating my show list after I stopped bootlegging. I believe Les Claypool of Primus and among his many side projects is the only other musical act who even comes close to amount of times I’ve witnessed The Lab doing their good work. This was the first of a two day stint and I would have gone to both shows but I felt obliged to catch The Breeders at Slim’s the following day. Believe me, it was a tough call as you might have guessed that it would take a band as good as The Breeders to swing for another show.

Stereolab was on tour promoting their latest album, “Sound-Dust”, the final album Mary would play on, which had just come out two months and a day before this night. They had produced a limited batch of 1200 CDs and LPs of the album with a homemade book sleeve and I’m sorry to say that I was unable to get one. To be honest though, it took a while for “Sound-Dust” to win me over. I really liked the opening track, “Captain Easychord”, which they performed that show, but the rest of the album apart from maybe “Double Rocker” didn’t click with me right away. Rest assured, I’ve grown more fond of its songs since though and every album they made afterwards have been excellent in my humble opinion.

Opening that night was a band called Fugu from France, not to be confused with the obscure Dutch ska band of the same name. Fugu was fronted by a fellow named Mehdi Zanrad who had a profoundly strong French accent while speaking, but rather clear English one when singing. His first album, “Fugu 1” had just come out that year and Stereolab’s singer Latitia Sadier contributed her vocals for their song “Sol Y Sombra”. They opened with a piano heavy instrumental and I found their music relaxing and sophisticated, a good fit as an opener for Stereolab who I’ve thought have had mixed results with their openers in the past. I was only able to make out a couple of their tunes, one being “She’s Coming Over”, a new song that Fugu wouldn’t actually release until four years later on their next album “As Found”, and “The Best Of Us”. 

After the set break, Latitia greeted the crowd as the band got on stage saying, “Hello everybody! Nice to see you”. By that time, it was rare that I didn’t know what songs they were playing, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out the title of the one they opened with that gig. They followed that with “Infinity Girl” and apart from the songs they played after “Fluorescences” and “Baby Lulu”, I knew all the others. Latitia thanked us it three languages that night, English of coarse, and then saying “Danke Schon” after “Gus The Mynah Bird”, and “Merci Beaucoup” after “Nothing To Do With Me”. She kind of surprised me that evening when she busted out a trombone for a few songs like the aforementioned “Baby Lulu” and “Naught More Terrific Than Man”. It made me think of that gag in “Airplane!” when Ted Stryker was in a dive bar and a comely set of women’s legs appeared standing on the bar during a swing song and he looked up to see an attractive woman in a short skirt playing the trombone to the song. Funny, I just watched that movie with my wife in its entirety just a few days ago. 

Latitia thanked Fugu and they wrapped up their set with the epic “Metronomic Underground” which spanned over 16 minutes long, a good one to end the night. Unlike Joe Strummer’s show, they thankfully got a poster at the end of the gig. It would be three long years until Stereolab would return to play back to back shows once again at The Fillmore, but I made sure to catch both of them that time. Though they still remain a favorite, by the time I saw them once more, Stereolab was a changed band since they would never again play with a female backing up Latitia’s vocals which I personally miss. Not only had they lost Mary in 2002, but Latitia and guitarist Tim Gane ended their romantic relationship that year as well. But thankfully they remained cordial, raising their son Alex who was three years old at the time of this show, and they continue to play together to this day. Hard to believe that Alex is turning 27 this year. Time flies. 

Joe Strummer & Mescaleros, Fill., SF, Sat., October 20

SETLIST : Cool N’ Out, Global A Go-Go, Rudie Can’t Fail. Shindi Bhagee, Armagideon Time, Shaktar Donetsk, Police & Thieves, Mega Bottle Ride, Tony Adams, Mondo Bongo, Johnny Appleseed, Bummed Out City, Police On My Back, The Harder They Come, Pressure Drop, I Fought The Law, (encore), Bankrobber, Yallo Yallo, Rudi A Message To You, London’s Burning, Blitzkrieg Bop

At this stage of my life, I had become all too aware that death could come for anyone young or old at any time be it friends, family, or musical heroes, but I was totally unprepared to hear about the sudden and unexpected passing of Mr. Joe Strummer a year after this show. Indeed, when the news broke to me, it came at a most unexpected and rather perilous time. I had been driving along on the 680 freeway in the east bay with my dear old mum when she rather casually announced to me, “I think some rock star died today that you may know… someone named Strummer?” No fooling, I nearly slammed on the brakes when she dropped that and we were in the fast lane at the time. Yes, the news was sadly true. Joe had succumbed to a sudden heart attack at the all too young age of 50, two full years younger than I am now writing this. But at the time of this show, I, Joe, and everyone else were blissfully unaware of his impending doom.

It was good fortune and some hard work that allowed me to witness this, Joe’s last performance in the bay area. I had been tasked to work as an audio assist by my union at a gig at the Gift Center in the middle of town that morning and knowing that I had booked myself to usher at The Fillmore for Joe the same day, I was hard pressed for time to get out of work and skeedaddle own there to get inside before the doors opened. I had seen Joe there once before in 1999, but I was just as committed to see him again, especially since I had been too young to see him in his first band, an obscure little group called The Clash. Oh yes, I busted my ass all morning, sweating like Trump in church to get the job done and thankfully around six, my A1, Tom Adams, showed me mercy and sent me on my merry way. It was a photo finish, but I made it to The Fillmore on time where I caught my breath, pounded some dinner from the grill upstairs in the poster room, and thanked my lucky stars.

Joe’s tour had just began two weeks before this in Washington D.C., promoting “Global A Go-Go”, his second and final album with his band The Mescaleros, which had just been released that July. I learned that he had actually been in town just four days after its release and did a free gig at Amoeba, but I obviously missed it having not heard it was happening. I totally would have been there and God knows how many awesome free Amoeba gigs I’ve missed over the years just because I hadn’t heard they were going on or hadn’t heard about them in time to make it. Anyway, Joe’s tour would continue to L.A. for four shows in a row at The Troubadour and then onto Europe into November, ending with a show at the Brixton Academy back home in jolly ol’ London. He had just signed to Hellcat Records that year, an offshoot of Epitaph, and in 2012, they re-released the new album and other posthumous released material for what would have been Joe’s 60th birthday. They played eight out of the eleven songs from the new album that night. One of the songs they didn’t play, “Minstrel Boy”, was used in the soundtrack for the film “Black Hawk Down” which would come out two months after this show. 

They opening act that night was a local rockabilly singer/songwriter from Santa Cruz named Sean Kennedy with his band, the King Cats. Originally from Texas, Sean had relocated to that hippie enclave to ply his old school rock & roll stylings and had just released his debut album, “Big Time”, in 1998. Accompanied by his bass player Lloyd Tripp and a drummer, they gave a nod to their rockabilly roots, doing covers of “Not Fade Away” by Buddy Holly and “Marie, Marie” by The Blasters during their soundcheck and later during their set as well. I know they played a couple of Sean’s original songs, “Waste Of Time” and “Ball & Chain”, but the others were either instrumentals or I couldn’t figure out the title. Sean and the band were quite good though and were received warmly by Joe’s fans, a tough crowd to impress by any measure, though I think this was the only time I’d see him perform live.  

After the set break, the crowd went absolutely nuts as the band took the stage with the sound of an African singer playing over the loudspeakers who sounded a lot like Baaba Maal, though I can’t say for sure if it was him. Joe quickly thanked his fellow Mescaleros, introducing them one by one, including Martin Slattery, Scott Shields wearing an “Elvis shirt”, and Simon Stafford, the former bassist of the Longpigs. They also had with them Tymon Dogg on violin who had also played on The Clash albums “Sandinista!” and “Combat Rock”. They played mostly new stuff in the beginning, but Joe threw in an old Clash number, “Rudie Can’t Fail”, three songs into the set. Tymon would also bust out a trombone when they played their cover of the dancehall standard, “Armagideon Time” by Willie Williams a couple songs later. He dedicated the new tune “Shaktar Dontesk” “for all the immigrants in the world” and followed it with his famous cover of “Police & Thieves” by Junior Murvin. Afterwards, Joe joked, “We’re suffering from bus lag… just got on a bus on October the 4th in Washington D.C. and we hit the road and we went to D.C., Philly, Hartford Connecticut, New York New York, Worcester Massachusetts, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, Seattle, Scottsdale Arizona, Anaheim, Southern California, and esta noche El Fillmore! Let’s go to the 4th dimension. This is the perfect city for it. They invented that shit here” and then they did “Mega Bottle Ride”. 

The next song was another new one called “Tony Adams” which Joe insisted was about a “British soccer player” and not the leader of the Irish Republican Army. He lightened the mood later announcing, “Ladies & Gentlemen, with your kind permission, we’d like this latest invitation, a number for ladies only in the mosh pit please. The men can sing along if they’re mature enough and they can handle going, “sha-la-la-la-la” like us men up here are going to do, right? This tune is called ‘Mongo Bongo’”. They followed that with a tune “about two American heroes”, “Johnny Appleseed”, the first track off their new album. He thanked the audience and went on, “Every time you have a row with your partner, you’re in a car in the dark, going somewhere you don’t know, and you’ve got a map and you can’t read it and you don’t know north, south, up, down, left, or right… That’s a fine time to have an argument and we got a tune about that. It’s called ‘Bummed Out City’. I’d like to dedicate this tune to The Mutants”. 

Joe gave a shout out to Tyler between songs saying, “He asked me to tell ya’ to be called Tymon Dogg way, way, way before Snoop Doggy Dogg… with the two T’s in the end. He ain’t nothin’ but an old hit lover!” and then they did “Police On My Back” by Eddy Grant. Joe contended a bit with a heckler in the crowd when he announced that they were about to do “The Harder They Come” by Jimmy Cliff growling, “You tell that fucker who’s booing to come up here and I’ll boo him. What’s a matter? You don’t like Jimmy Cliff?… Get in kind of a weird state of mind when you’ve been in a bus too long. I’ve got to say, everywhere we’ve been, it’s been jam packed with people, people coming out all those towns, so thanks a lot! Let’s get this Jimmy Cliff thing kickin’!” He followed that with a couple of other famous covers he did with The Clash, “Pressure Drop” by The Maytals and “I Fought The Law” by The Crickets.

A funny and totally unforgettable thing happened when they played “Bankrobber”, a memory which still makes me smile to this day. Cell phones were just beginning to become commonplace with average people back then and I myself had reluctantly just given up my trusty pager for one that year. And sadly since then, it has likewise become all too commonplace that people would hold up their cellphones during shows to record shaky video recordings of such shows. But cell phones were still too primitive for video then and somebody up front was holding one up having simply called a friend on it so he could hear what was going on during the show on the other end. Well, Joe saw this and deftly snatched the phone from the fan’s grasp and held it up to his own face while singing into the microphone and sang the remainder of one of the verses into it at the top of his lungs before handing it back to the fan. I can only image the shock and pleasant surprise the person on the other end of that phone call experienced that night, but like I said, it was absolutely hilarious. In a way, it was sort of profound, working on a few levels. Part of me thought it was like a person telling the bankrobber’s story from prison in one of those visitor areas where you have to talk through phones separated by thick glass. 

Joe encouraged us to join in for their cover of “Rudi, A Message To You” by Dandy Livingstone, a rocksteady classic made famous by The Specials, saying, “You sing in all the discos in north & south San Francisco”, so we all did the “ahh-ahh-ahh” bit between the lines in the verses.  After pumping everybody up with the seminal Clash hit, “London’s Burning”, he wrapped things up, “Thanks very much for coming out tonight. This needs no explanation” and then he did a rousing cover of “Blitzkrieg Bop” by The Ramones. At the risk of explaining, for those who don’t know who are reading this 24 years later, Joey Ramone had just passed away from lymphoma just six months before this show. Joe thanked the crowd one final time, leaving us on a high note and the band walked off the stage to the sounds of the theme song to “Sesame Street” playing over the speakers, a weird though charming choice of exit music. My friend Matt Thayer was next to me and I heard him singing that “I’ve got that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart” song that Todd Flanders sang in an episode of “The Simpsons”. Matt encouraged me to try to snag a setlist from the stage, but I was unsuccessful. The audience kept chanting “Hey Ho! Let’s Go!” long after the house lights came up and as we deliriously descended down the stairs onto the street and into the cool, autumn evening air. 

Naturally, I was bitter that unlike Joe’s previous show at The Fillmore, this gig didn’t get a poster, but it especially stings because it was Joe’s last one on that stage. Still, this was a brilliant performance and listening to it again got me tapping my feet and loudly singing along to it. As you’ve might have noticed, there are a lot of shows I’ve already gone through in this little writing project of mine, but this was one so rare and awesome, that it got me so pumped up as much as it did while listening to it. Seriously, it really brought me back there, like I was at that show again. But the joy experienced then and reliving it again is tempered by the loss of Joe. He would soon join Joey Ramone in rock & roll Valhalla, following Dee Dee Ramone who succumbed to a heroin overdose just six months before Joe’s heart attack. And in a strange and tragic coincidence, the very next show I would see just two days later on that very same stage, would be Stereolab, which would be the final show their guitarist Mary Hansen would perform in the bay area before she too would die. Poor Mary was struck and killed on her bicycle just a day shy of two weeks before Joe passed away. At least both of them were back home in England when it happened, Joe in Somerset, Mary in London, and though their musical stylings were pretty divergent, I hope they got to meet in heaven and maybe play some music together with Joey and Dee Dee.                         

Like I had mentioned earlier, Hellcat records put out some stuff that Joe had been working on prior to his passing which would eventually be released in an album called “Streetcore” in 2003. On a more uplifting note, just one month before Joe died, he reunited briefly with fellow Clash member Mick Jones at a show in London, a benefit for local striking firefighters, their first time performing together in 19 years. There, Mick joined in playing guitar and singing along with Joe for the Clash classics, “White Riot”, the aforementioned “Bankrobber” and “London’s Burning”, the last one being a hilariously appropriate song to play to firefighters. The Mescaleros were supposed to tour in 2003 opening for Pearl Jam and with the announcement that The Clash were to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame that year, there had been hopeful rumors of a reunion of all the original members to play at that ceremony, especially since Joe and Mick had just mended fences. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. But the firefighter’s show would be released later as the “Live At Acton Town Hall” album and would be rereleased in 2023 for a limited 2200 copy double vinyl LP set. 

The Waterboys, Tom McRae, Fill., SF, Thur., October 18

SETLISTS :

(TOM McRAE) : Bloodless, End Of The World News (Dose Me Up), You Cut Her Hair, The Boy With The Bubblegum, Street Light, The Only Thing I Know, Draw Down The Stars, Sao Paulo Rain, Language Of Fools

(THE WATERBOYS) : Let It Happen, We Will Not Be Lovers, Glastonbury Song, Malediction, The Wind & The Wires, Medicine Bow, Dumbing Down The World, Is She Conscious?, I Know She’s In The Building, The Pan Within, Too Close To Heaven, The Whole Of The Moon, Open, Has Anybody Here Seen Hank?, Don’t Bang The Drum, Bring Em’ All In, Crown, Fisherman’s Blues, (encore), Lonesome Day Blues, This Is The Sea

Rounding out a three day stretch of shows was The Waterboys, one of those many bands out there that I felt I should have known more about, but didn’t. Hailing from Scotland, The Waterboys was fronted by Mike Scott, their only permanent member of a band that had more ex-members than Menudo and he was leading his band on their first tour in ten years. They had dissolved for a time in ’93 so Mike could focus his attention towards the Findhorn Foundation, a spiritual community and charitable trust in northern Scotland that dabbled in alternative medicine. Mike also made a go of having a solo career, but it turned out to be a dud and he was dropped from his record label. So, he was back with his old band again, promoting their 7th album “A Rock In A Weary Land”, a harder rock & roll outing than their earlier stuff. The Waterboys had actually played The Fillmore earlier in April, though I had missed it and it’s a pity because that show got a poster and a rare horizontal one at that.  They had the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club opening for them as well, a band I enjoyed even more than them. This was the first of a two day stint too and the last shows of the tour as many San Francisco shows are for those touring the states.

Opening that night was Tom McRae, a singer/songwriter from the UK who had just released his debut album that August to critical success, so much so that it earned him a nomination for a Mercury Prize and winning him a BRIT award for Best Newcomer. I was impressed by the sound of Tom’s singing voice, a much higher pitch with a distinct tremolo, totally dissimilar from his much lower speaking voice and he had excellent diction which made deciphering his lyrics and song titles a breeze. A couple songs in he joked, “Now is the part of the set where I play a happy song, if I had one if you could imagine” and then he did “The Boy With The Bubblegum”. He followed that with “Street Light” which he described it, “This is close as we get to a happy song.” It was just him on stage playing acoustic guitar with his multi-instrumentalist buddy Ollie, explaining “ I used to tour with a band in Europe, but that’s expensive” and he praised Ollie for his “running between instruments to give the impression that we’re a band… Go Ollie!” and then they did “Sao Paulo Rain”. He finished his set announcing, “This is our last song. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. You’ve been a really quiet, attentive and that’s fuckin’ unusual, so well done” and he encouraged to crowd to move up while they wrapped up their set with “Language Of Fools”. 

It had been a little over a month since 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan had just began eleven days before this show, so when Mike and his band took the stage, he mentioned, “Evening all, San Francisco. Before we start, I just want to say after those vile attacks in New York and Washington, we’re proud to be here for you tonight, playing for Americans” and they opened their set with “Let It Happen”. I was immediately stunned how loud they were, especially in comparison to the rather subdued Tom McRae, but I appreciated that they had Steve Wickham on electric violin in the band, an instrument rarely seen in rock bands.  Steve was Irish and played with a lot of his countrymen like The Hothouse Flowers, Sinead O’Connor, not to mention the unforgettable violin part in U2’s studio recording of “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. A couple songs later on, Mike mentioned that “a couple of us were in a diner today and they had a jukebox” and there was a song which he didn’t “understand what it means, maybe you as Americans will be able to tell us… ‘Duke Of Earl’, what’s that?… We’re not going to play it. We’re going to play ‘Glastonbury Song’”. 

A few songs further in, Mike took a not so subtle swipe at George W. Bush announcing, “I’d like to sing you a song about a guy on American TV. He maybe thinks he’s doing the best he can but from where I stand he’s ‘Dumbing Down The World’” and then they did that one. A couple tunes later he introduced “I Know She’s In The Building “, “I know from my own personal experience that San Francisco is a sexy place, so we’re going to play a sexy song for ya!” Mike went on afterwards to introduce his fellow Waterboys and did a long, 13 minute rendition of “The Pan Within” which included a quiet little breakdown in the middle of the song where he said in a sultry, seductive voice, “I don’t want you just for sex” and other stuff, “But not that I don’t want those things too…” and that “We got a hotel room” and so on. They followed that with “Too Close To Heaven” which also spanned over 13 minutes.

Mike lightened things up a few songs later, saying “Friends and neighbors, it’s hip time on the health and happiness show. We’re gonna sing you a song… Steve, you’ve got a much better redneck accent. Introduce this song. Steve, sing a song from Ireland”. Then Steve came up to the mic and did a fairly convincing Appalachian accent and introduced “Has Anybody Here Seen Hank?” Makes sense after all in a way. A lot of Irish people settled in that part of America when they came over on the boat back in the day though a lot of Scottish people did too, Hatfields and McCoys and so forth. From there, my tape ran out unfortunately, but I stuck around to the end of their set anyway. I think this was the only time I had seen The Waterboys play one of their own shows, but I did catch them doing a couple songs at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in Golden Gate Park in 2019 just before the pandemic. 

DJ Shadow + Cut Chemist = Product Placement, Z-Trip, DJ Shortkut, Marvski, Egon, Kool Chris, Jack & Ben, Fill., SF, Wed., October 17

It took me a long time to realize how spoiled I’ve been with the rich collection of DJ’s from the bay area. My home here has always been a beacon to all those who hone their skills on the 1’s and 2’s and you’d be hard put to find a more talented roster of turntablists at the time than those who showed up to The Fillmore that fateful evening. I had already been long familiar with DJ Shadow from having recorded him three times at the Maritime Hall, but this show was unique that he and fellow DJ, Cut Chemist, had joined forces to entertain their fans exclusively using only 45 records and to this day, I haven’t seen a DJ show that has repeated this. They were promoting their “Product Placement” album at the show, an exclusive tour release including 4 live tracks, printing only 6000 copies just for the fans. DJ Shadow had a busy year already, touring non-stop and having appeared alongside Mr. Zach Sciacca AKA Z-Trip, who also performed that night, in the “Scratch” documentary. Z-Trip had just released his “Uneasy Listening, Vol. 1” album, a collaboration with DJ P, though only 1000 copies were printed. In hindsight, I regret not picking up either of those albums. They’re probably collectors items now. 

This was the first show of what would be a long tour all around the country and other countries. The turntables changed hands quite a few times in the beginning, so much so that it was hard to keep track of who was who until Marvski took the stage. There was Kool Chris from Chicago for sure and a couple of DJs called Jack & Ben. Peanut Butter Wolf was reportedly in the house, though he didn’t perform that night. DJ Shadow came up from time to time to rally the crowd, teasing them early on, “Can’t the bay area dance? You can’t boogie down?” He also urged people to check out the merch booth where they were selling all manner of 45 records and stuff. He praised Marvski from Poland who he mentioned taught him how to play 45’s back in the day, but drew boos from the crowd when he mentioned that Marvski “said hell to y’all” and “moved to Los Angeles”, though Shadow added, “Just fuckin’ with ya”. Egon was next and he pointed out the video being projected on the screen behind him which was of a show he did with the other DJs a year before this, a gig that they called “Brain Freeze”. DJ Shortkut from the renown DJ group Invisibl Scratch Pickles followed and though he was using 45s, he had no trouble plying his incredible scratch techniques to them. He and fellow Pickle, DJ Qbert, are two of the very best and still are. Funny thing though, they misspelled his name as “Shorkut” on the ad for the show. 

Afterward, Shadow introduced the next DJ saying, “You know who this guy is? He just crashed the party. He goes by the name of Z-Trip!” He mentioned that Z-Trip had also recently moved to L.A. drawing another chorus of booing, but Z-Trip laughed it off, “What? Can’t a guy move?” Z-Trip was already well known in music circles and sought after by such A-listers as Public Enemy, Busta Rhymes, and Beck to do their remixes. He is probably the most famous pioneer in the art of “mash ups”, putting two disparate songs together for those who don’t know. He would spin all kinds of music blending with hip hop and he started the night playing some funny old 50’s sounding bit with a woman singing “I only get drunk in San Francisco”. But he soon followed that with a variety of crowd pleasers like “The Humpty Dance” by Digital Underground, “Tom Sawyer” by Rush, “Walk This Way” by Aerosmith with Run DMC, (arguably the first real mash up song), the theme from the movie “Rocky”, and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana. 

Turns out both Z-Trip and DJ Shadow would spin the songs “Just A Friend” by Biz Markie and “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin at that show. Z-Tip kept the show going along doing a hilarious mash up of “Cars” by Gary Numan with “The Cars That Go Boom” by L’Trimm, a perfect example of his wacky but brilliant pairings. Near the end of his set, he busted out an old “Star Wars” storybook album for kids that included the theme, the Cantina song, as well as spoken word blurbs of lines from the movie and descriptions of the action. He finished his set playing another sort of 50’s novelty song sung by a “Mr.Z” character asking “What’s the letter after Y?… Z!” and railing off a bunch of words beginning with Z throughout the song. By this time, we had a full house in The Fillmore and the cheering grew louder and louder as the night went on. 

DJ Shadow along with Cut Chemist first came out on their own and Shadow said, he’s “feeling lonely out here” and that this was “the hardest thing we had to do” since it was their first attempt pulling off this 45 show. He thanked the other DJs who played that night and pointed out that Zigaboo Modeliste, the drummer from The Meters, was hanging out in the balcony as well as “local funk legend” Marv Holmes, a brilliant guitarist and producer who had penned songs for guys like Buddy Miles and Ike Turner. Marv sadly passed away in 2022. Like nearly all the shows around then, Shadow addressed 9/11 saying, “Last couple of weeks had some real ill shit, but people bring people together and that’s what it’s all about.” He lightened things up right away with some funny novelty song about “cooking with gas”, followed a bit of stuff I remember that had been sampled by The Jungle Brothers.

We were pleasantly surprised to get some rapping along with the music for his set when one of the members of Jurassic 5 joined him on stage and did a couple songs. Afterwards, Shadow mentioned the “Brain Freeze” show again asking “Who ever had the Superman comic books?” and talked about the villain Bizarro, joking that the next song would be as “if ‘Brain Freeze’ was performed in Bizarro World, this is what it would sound like”. Then they did another novelty bit which was some kind of soft drink commercial with a guy cheerfully spouting, “Something wonderful happens to a thirsty throat!” and “This is a program where thirst is first!” followed by the sound of a pouring carbonated beverage. 

They followed that with another liquid based tune, talking about “pure, fresh milk… delicious!”. In the aforementioned ad for the show, both Shadow and Cut Chemist appeared on it, Cut Chemist drinking a small carton of milk, Shadow drinking a pint glass of milk and both of them sporting milk mustaches. Maybe they were secretly getting sponsored by the Milk Advisory Board or something. Speaking of milk and the things that go with it, somebody in the crowd was going around giving out fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and I heard myself mentioning to someone, “that’s no Chips Ahoy shit”. They were quite good actually and still warm. Funny, I still remember them. Anyway, it was a long, but enjoyable night, though there was no poster unfortunately. Keeping with the theme of mash ups, the show the following night on that very same stage would be The Waterboys from Scotland, a very, VERY different show indeed from this one. 

Ray Davies, War., SF, Tues., October 16

SETLIST : This Is Where I Belong, Come Dancing, Victoria, 20th Century Man, That Old Black Magic, Tired Of Waiting, Where Have All The Good Times Gone?, Set Me Free, See My Friends, Autumn Almanac, Days, I’m Not Like Everybody Else, Dedicated Follower Of Fashion, You Really Got Me, (encore), Waterloo Sunset, Lola

I had a difficult decision to make that night. I had to choose between seeing The Strokes at The Fillmore and Ray Davies at The Warfield. You have to understand, The Strokes were brand new and red hot with their debut album, “Is This It”, but even at my tender age of 29, I knew in my heart of hearts that seeing Ray was more important. So, as you probably figured out by now, I made the right decision and to all you young people out there, when faced with choosing between a shiny new up and comer and a veteran music legend, the the latter is almost always the correct choice. I’m glad I did too because though I have seen The Strokes many times since then, I only got to see “The Godfather Of Britpop” himself, Mr. Ray Davies, one more time on that very same Warfield stage five years later after this show. To my knowledge, he hasn’t played in the bay area since and if he has, well I missed it.

To all those who have been living under a rock, Ray Davies is the frontman to the seminal British rock band The Kinks. Back then when I was a young philistine in comparison to today, even I knew all of that band’s hits, including Weird Al Yankovic’s hilarious parody of “Lola”… you know it, “Yoda”. That and I knew of his song “Quiet Life” that he contributed to the film musical “Absolute Beginners”. Ray was doing his “Storyteller” tour, though his album of the same name came out three years before this, but he was also promoting his “unauthorized autobiography” book, “X-Ray”. He joked early on that “it’s appropriate that they booked me in a cathedral because tonight I’m going to read from the black book”. This night, between playing the hits, just him on acoustic guitar and sometimes accompanied by his “sidekick” Pete Matheson on electric guitar, Ray would regale us with tales of his youth, his father, younger brother and fellow Kinks guitarist Dave Davies, and six sisters. It was “An Evening With” show, so it was just him that night, so I was cut from ushering almost immediately after he started his set.

Ray came on stage to the sounds of an accordion playing zydeco music over the loudspeakers and he opened with “This Is Where I Belong”. Afterwards, he got us all to clap along to the utterly infectious “Come Dancing”, a story unto itself about his older sister. He then began one of many long introductions to his songs, speaking of a time 100 years ago when “Britain had an empire and we had a queen. Her name was Victoria” and then he played the song of that name. Later, he spoke of his early childhood in North London and how he was fascinated by the neighborhood of Soho, London’s “red light district”, but added that he was only 3 years old at the time and his parents “thought it was a bad idea”. Ray went on with a story about the swing standard, “That Old Black Magic” by Johnny Mercer and made famous by Sinatra, quipping that “I think my mother was right to ban that record”.

At first attempt, the crowd sort of flubbed their efforts to sing along to the next tune, “Tired Of Waiting”, and Ray teased them saying, “ You guys sound like a group of rugby players… in a shower… after a game…. that they lost”, but we managed to get it together for the second attempt. Afterwards, he talked about how his dad was a “wonderful character” who would get drunk and sing “Minnie The Moocher” by Cab Calloway. A couple songs later, he played a little guitar lick of the old country classic “Ghost Riders In The Sky” during “Set Me Free”. He spoke a lot of his early days that night, much too much to relay even if I could make out half of what he was saying on the recording, but I know he spoke of when The Kinks began and how they conspicuously lacked a drummer. Like our first attempt at “Tired Of Waiting”, the audience had limited success singing along to “Autumn Almanac”, earning the wry tease from Ray, “it’s obvious that not many of you are familiar with this song”. 

Mr. Davies spoke of his dad again and how he wanted him to become a professional athlete, a football player preferably, and paid a little tribute to him, singing the first couple lines of “Minnie The Moocher” before admitting that he was a failure at sports as well as school. In the middle of “Dedicated Follower Of Fashion”, he told a funny story about one his managers that compulsively said the word “cock”, playfully calling people it and using it in adjectives and so forth. From there, The Kinks first played on the TV “Long Tall Sally” by Little Richard on the BBC’s “Ready Steady Go” show. Though Ray admitted that his friends said they were terrible, he didn’t care because it was “the swingin’ 60s!” 

He finished the set, giving a long introduction to perhaps his most recognized hit, “You Really Got Me”. Basically, he said that his brother Dave’s “little green” guitar amp had been punctured with a fork while they were rehearsing in the front room of their family’s home, but he still played with it anyway. The damage caused the amp to have that signature fuzzy sound we all have come to know and love, but at the time, the “contentious local recording studio boss”  thought the amp sounded like crap and demanded that they use a new one instead. So, they recorded the track at first with the new amp and when the boss was satisfied and left, the brought back in the ol’ fuzzy one and recorded it again, the one that would of coarse ultimately be used. Hearing it live gave me chills down my spine. It was then I knew for sure that I came to the right show. 

Naturally, Ray came back on stage for an encore and began it with “Waterloo Sunset”. He ended the night, admitting at first that “I had my doubts about this one, but I’ve really grown to like it” before playing “Lola”. I’m sure when he wrote it, Ray probably wouldn’t have guessed that it would become the most famous song about cross dressers other than perhaps “Dude (Looks Like A Lady)” by Aerosmith. They played Fat’s Domino’s “Walking To New Orleans” over the loudspeakers at the very end as Ray got off stage. But in a strange twist of fate, Mr. Davies would be shot in the leg while in New Orleans seven years later in an attempt to chase down a guy who snatched a girl’s purse, always the valiant English gentleman. The perpetrator was arrested, though the charges were ultimately dropped. Anyway, it was a pity there wasn’t a poster that night or even for the 2006 Warfield show for Ray and it goes without saying that he certainly deserved one at least. 

And to finish on a side note, this entry is actually the first one where I’m posting it alongside the actual recording of the show. I find it strangely appropriate that it should be the one of my first Ray Davies concert, the man himself another “storyteller”. Yes, I finally figured out a way to upload my stuff onto internetarchives.org. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I’ve already started writing about all these shows ages ago and have been doing it in chronological order and currently on as you know the year 2001. So, I’m having to start over as well with a backlog of shows going all the way back to 1993 to catch up. But the other good news is, tedious and time consuming as it is, I’m able to upload the backlog pretty fast and am already starting to upload shows from 1994 as I write this. In closing, thank you for your patience. I wish I figured this out sooner, but better late than never. 

Midnight Oil, Will Hoge, Fill., SF, Thur., October 11

SETLISTS : 

(WILL HOGE) : (Welcome To) The Big Show, Let Me Be Lonely, Ms. Williams, Rock & Roll Star, Heartbreak Avenue, Your Fool, King Of Grey, She Don’t Care, Wish, Reelin’ & Rockin’

(MIDNIGHT OIL) : Redneck Wonderland, Bullroarer, Too Much Sunshine, Dreamworld, Say Your Prayers, Beds Are Burning, Short Memory, Luritja Way, Blue Sky Mine, Truganini, Golden Age, King Of The Mountain, The Dead Heart, Forgotten Years, Hercules, (encore), Tone Poem, Put Down That Weapon, Read About It, (encore), Power & The Passion

The pleasure of seeing Midnight Oil for my second time at The Fillmore that night was tempered by emotional weight we all were bearing from the beginning of the war in Afghanistan just four days before this. Yes, we were all out for Bin Laden’s blood at the time which we would eventually get, but little did we suspect that this little incursion of ours would become America’s longest war. Nevertheless, we all attempted to have a good time that night and Midnight Oil is one of those bands that could always deliver on that promise. It had been exactly one month since 9/11 and in a strange coincidence, the date of this show, 10/11/01, was a palindrome. Weird, huh? Anyway, back to Midnight Oil.

They had just performed the year before at the summer Olympics back home in Sydney, Australia, doing their hit “Beds Are Burning” for the closing ceremony. Their singer, Peter Garrett, had written the word “Sorry” on his clothes for the occasion as an apology to the indigenous natives of Australia, the Aborigines, and their forcible removal of of 1 in 3 children from their native lands between 1910 and 1970, the so-called “Stolen Generation”. And though the then prime minister John Howard had claimed that it was his favorite song, he still refused to embrace any reconciliation or even publicly apologize for that black mark in their nation’s history. Midnight Oil’s new album, “Capricornia”, named after a lovely area around the Queensland coast, wouldn’t be released until the following February, but we were still treated to four of their new songs that night and like the time before in 1994, they were graced with a good poster for the fans at the end of the show.

Opening that night was Will Hoge, who despite being from Nashville, sounded conspicuously like Canadian Bryan Adams, which is not altogether a bad thing. I like Mr. Adams. Anyway, this was fourth show for Will and his band on the road with Midnight Oil and he was quick to mention that “San Francisco is one we never done before” and that we made “quite a first impression”. Halfway through his set he introduced the song “You Fool”, which I also heard during his soundcheck, “If everything goes according to plan, you may be hearing this song on the radio. It’s our first single off of our new record”. Later, he joked that “Nashville, Tennessee is a country town. We vowed not to play a country song”, but he offered to “play a slow one” and they did “King Of Grey”, a new one that wouldn’t be released until two years later on his “Blackbird On A Lonely Wire” album. 

Afterwards, Will told the crowd, “I wanna say first that it’s a real honor to be here at The Fillmore. This is one of those venues that when you play in a rock band, even when you were a kid, you know you want to come to The Fillmore. I mean that… This is going to be dedicated to all those who came before” then he introduced his band and played “She Don’t Care”. In the middle of the song, he brought the band down real quiet and praised us for being a “hip musical community” and then had us snap our fingers to the beat. At the end of his set, he said he “always dreamed of playing here. I don’t mean that lightly. I have a Fillmore poster with my name on it and I’m gonna send it home to my father for his birthday and I’m no longer a loser musician. I played The Fillmore. So we need to leave you with one of our influences. There’s really nothing that sums up rock & roll especially at The Fillmore like a little Chuck Berry”. And then he wrapped things up with a cover of Berry’s “Reelin’ & Rockin’”.

When Midnight Oil finally took the stage, they went though five songs before Peter addressed the elephant in the room saying, “We don’t really want to spend a lot of time up here going on, because one of the reasons for coming here is not to forget what’s going on, but it’s to recognize that whatever else is going on, life still goes on as well… One thing we know for sure, one way to deal with the nonsense that went down, the horribleness that went down is to not let it stop us from doing the things that we want to do, what we’re here for… So, you’ll vote for solar energy, I hope. We’re going to sing our songs” and then they did “Beds Are Burning”. A few songs later, he spoke again, “Many, many moons ago when people started taking on one another on inflicting hardship, pain, and suffering, one of the unfortunate aspects of the human condition, upon one another, it was considered the two things should go together, proportionality and justice. And once proportionality and justice have been done, the causes and effects probably need to be considered as well. The first hopeful thing to come out of a very difficult six months ahead will be that the people who are being misled who hate” and then they did “The Dead Heart”. Sad to say that it went on for a damn sight longer than six months. Peter got the audience to sing along to the “do-do-do-do-do”’s on that one. 

They finished their set, but swiftly came back for an encore and Peter spoke again, “I want to explain our absence in some cultured way, but I can’t really. We’ve been doing our thing in other places. I know we’ve been coming to this room for quite a number of years and I just want to say and I know that Will said it as well. It’s very refreshing where bands arrive to a place where there’s a history and a heritage that’s civilized and keeps welcoming you too… Unless you’ve headed to the stage of your entertainment career where you’re more interested in appearing with people and doing face sculptures than you are with music. The rest of us still get changed in the toilet in most places and I want to do something new for you.” Then they played the new song “Tone Poem”. They came back for one more encore and that was it. I’m afraid that this would be the last time I’d see Midnight Oil. Peter quit the band the following year to focus on his political career and receiving a Doctorate Of Letters from the University Of New South Wales. They did however briefly reform in 2009 to do benefits for tsunami relief in Samoa. 

Suzanne Vega, Marshall Crenshaw, War., SF, Sat., October 6

SETLISTS : 

(MARSHALL CRENSHAW) : T.M.D., Tell Me About It, Cynical Girl, 2541, Kick Out The Jams, Little Wild One (No. 5), What Do You Dream Of?, Television Light, Someday Someway, (encore), Something’s Gonna Happen

(SUZANNE VEGA) : Marlene On The Wall, Small Blue Thing, Caramel, When Heroes Go Down, My Friend Millie, Gypsy, Harbor Song, Widow’s Walk, (I’ll Never Be) Your Maggie May, Penitent, It Makes Me Wonder, Solitaire, Left Of Center, Blood Makes Noise, Queen & The Soldier, In Liverpool, Last Year’s Troubles, Luka, Tom’s Diner, (encore), Room Off The Street, Soap & Water

It had only been seven months since I’d last seen Ms. Vega at The Fillmore, but this show was quite different for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it was just shy of four weeks after 9/11 adding another fresh pile of melancholy to the songs of her new album “Songs In Red & Gray” which came out after her bitter divorce. It also was a bigger show this time, the first being an often customary first outing to test out new material on the road. This time she was filling The Warfield and with a full band behind her this time as well, not just her up there on stage all in her lonesome with an acoustic guitar like at The Fillmore. Suzanne would be joined on stage this time with Gerard Leonard on guitar, Mike Visceglia on bass, and Doug Vowell on drums who ably filled out the music behind her brilliant voice. 

It’s a good thing she had a band to back her up this time since she was still recovering from a broken arm. Yes, if that year of 2001 wasn’t hard enough on her, she had been riding her bike four weeks before this on Labor Day when the boo boo occurred. She described it during the show, “I hit a patch of gravel and went over on my side, so this arm is going to take a while to heal. I did play the guitar one or two nights ago, but the next morning I woke up… it was like ‘Ow!’” Finally, one more thing that made this show different was that it was one of those rare occasions where I had attended a free music festival during the day and hauled ass to another one later that night. Yes, earlier that day, I was at Dolores Park in the Mission to see the “911 : Power To The Peaceful” show with Spearhead, Zion-I, and several political activists like Woody Harrelson and Julia Butterfly Hill. I loved doing these two show days partially because both gigs always turn out to be very different from each other. 

Opening that night was singer-songwriter Marshall Crenshaw who unlike Suzanne this time was just flying solo with his acoustic guitar. I had seen him once before at The Fillmore back in 1995 as a part of an assortment of musicians playing the songs of Merle Haggard before Merle himself went on stage with his band The Strangers. Marshall also had the distinction of being one of the many various members of Beatlemania, a Beatles tribute band dating all the way back to 1980, and Marshall played the part of John Lennon. But his solo material was pretty good and he even penned a few songs for other renowned artists like Kristy MacColl and the Gin Blossoms. Marshall hadn’t put out any new material in a couple years, though he had just released a live album that February called “I’ve Suffered For My Art… Now It’s Your Turn”, recorded at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey. 

I was impressed by his diction when he sang, which also made it easy to transcribe his setlist. Three songs in, he described his song “Cynical Girl” as “one that I wrote when I was still a post adolescent.” Afterwards, he thanked the crowd adding, “It’s great to be in San Francisco. It’s like a reward, you know, for some of the shit places I had to go to” and then he did “2541”, a cover from Grant Hart of Husker Du. He followed that saying, “Hey, how about another cover tune by people from the midwest? This one is a big rock anthem around the Detroit area when I was in my teens. And I hope nobody’s offended when I announce to you… Kick Out The Jams, motherfucker!!!!” and though he was only armed with an acoustic guitar, he played a most spirited rendition of that proto-punk classic by the MC5. He made such an impression in fact, that the audience cheered at the end of his set until he came up for an encore, a very, VERY rare honor to bestow upon an opening act and one I’d only seen occur a few times in my life. He graciously said, “Yeah, I’ll take it” and wrapped things up with “Something’s Gonna Happen”.

Suzanne and her guys came on after the break and she smiled and said, “It’s always really good to be in San Francisco. How was your day?” and they opened their set with “Marlene On The Wall”. Afterwards, she told us about her arm, adding, “This is kind of a new, liberating feeling not playing the guitar. I’ve broken myself of some of my own habits like it’s not very cool of your guitar players to take blistering guitar solos” and joked that she was “finding new things to do with our hands”. A few songs later, she took a moment to give the band a rest so she could do some spoken word, perhaps the one thing her show had in common with the “911 : Power To The Peaceful” show earlier that day which had tons of spoken word, though mostly political in nature. She introduced her piece asking, “Would you like me to read something to you perhaps?” and some wise guy in the crowd shouted out “Harry Potter!” and she laughed, “I don’t think so, but thank you. I’ll keep that in mind”. She mentioned that she put out a collection of her writings called “The Passionate Eye” and wanted to read a piece from it called “My Friend Millie”. She said, “I hadn’t read it in California”, calling it “a little story about where and how I grew up. So, don’t be offended, OK?”

Having heard a bunch of intense, political diatribes earlier in the park, I was pleasantly surprised that it was a rather whimsical tale of a local tough girl who approached her when she was young claiming that her friend Mille told her that Vega called her a whore. Now, Suzanne was so young at the time, having moved to Spanish Harlem in the Upper West Side of New York City when she was a toddler a few years before this, that she hadn’t actually had heard that word before and with the tough girl’s thick east coast accent, that the word sound more like “Hwah”. Vega pondered if the word she was using had an extra “ph’ or ‘gh’ in it like ‘cough’ and she literally asked the tough girl how to spell it for which she replied, “I don’t know”. The story got weirder as the tough girl demanded in retribution that she had dinner with Vega’s family that night or she would “go out in to the street” and “lift up her dress” which she eventually did. Vega said it wasn’t until years later when it finally dawned on her what the word was that she was trying to say to her. 

Suzanne got back to the music with the band and a few songs later, joking that she hoped she’d be “singing the lyrics correctly this evening”, having botched them two or three times before on the tour and then they did “Solitaire”. It was one of the new ones, so we forgave her and she nailed it that time anyway. They would play 8 of her new songs that show, but wrapped up the set with a couple of old favorites, “Luka” and an a cappella version of “Tom’s Diner”. As she had the other times I saw her, Suzanne had no trouble getting everybody to clap along to that last one, singing the “Duh-duh-duh-duh”’s all the way through it. She came back for the encore asking, “Want another song?… OK?” and got the audience to clap along to “Room Off The Street”, just her singing along with her bass player behind her. The rest of the band joined in for “Soap & Water”, another new song and the last one of the night. Though Suzanne got a poster for her Fillmore show the previous March, there was no one at the end of the night for her this time, but it had been such a hell of day that I didn’t mind so much. 

911 Power To The Peaceful: Spearhead, Zion-I, Various Speakers, Dolores Park, SF, Sat., October 6

SETLIST : Rock The Nation (a cappella), People In Tha Middle, Oh My God, Runfayalife, Rock The Nation, Good Times, Every Single Soul, Stay Human (All The Freaky People), 

Though this was the third time Michael Franti of Spearhead had organized this annual festival, its title as the “911 : Power To The Peaceful” Festival would reach epic heights of tragic coincidence. First taking place on September 11, 1999 as an “international day of arts & culture” to raise awareness of accused cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and the efforts to clear his name while he remained on death row, it had been a vessel to address other pressing related issues like the rise of the prison industrial complex, efforts to abolish the death penalty, and various other human rights struggles. But after the events just shy of four weeks before this gig, the mood took an understandably ominous tone as we all anxiously awaited what was to be the brutal response of America to this attack. The lunatic, right wing fringe of this country needed little encouragement to be on board with any manner of violent action against our country’s enemies either real or perceived, foreign or domestic, even before 9/11. But the left wing fringe of this nation would too have their unfocused, knee jerk response to this as well and many of their numbers were there that day in Dolores Park in the Mission.

I was no stranger to Michael Franti and his band, having seen them five times before and recently at The Fillmore the previous June where they had just began to promote their new album, “Stay Human”, which had been released only the month before that. Michael had also been awarded the Domestic Human Rights Award earlier that year by Global Exchange, and international NGO, for his work promoting peace. But even Franti’s wisdom and eloquence couldn’t stifle the raw anger and resentment of this crowd of 10,000 flaming liberals, myself included, hell bent on laying the blame for this new catastrophe at the doorstep of America and George W. Bush. Everybody was looking for someone to blame then and the subtle historical nuances in geo politics, the rise of radical islam, and America’s increasing dependance on foreign oil had clearly been overwhelmed by an avalanche of reductive group thinking.

To their credit, Michael and the others who graced the stage that day did their best to keep their focus on Mumia. The event was led by a young Rastafarian emcee whose name I didn’t catch, but he introduced each speaker and musical act, he himself occasionally spouting pleas for there to be one love in the world and so forth. One of the first poets I heard was a woman named Aya De Leon and her first bit went on about how she was “fucking terrified of America”, denouncing a long list of this country’s dirty laundry including colonization, the C.I.A., and the S & L Scandal, just to name a few. Her second piece called “My Name Is Vasquez” spoke in the first person voice of Puerto Rico as a young girl whose evil stepfather was the U.S. and wishing that Spain, her real dad, would take her back some day. Krist Novocelic, the former bass player of Nirvana who I’d recorded alongside Franti at the Maritime for the Spitfire spoken word show in ‘99 was also supposed to be there that day, but I don’t believe he made it.

I was relieved to see that Zion-I was there as the opening musical act before Spearhead. Having recorded them already a couple times at the Maritime Hall when they were just in their infancy, they had been making a name for themselves around the bay area hip hop scene. Their set was short but entertaining as expected and though I couldn’t make out all the tunes they played that day, I know they did “Boom Bip”, “Inner Light”, and “Venus” for sure. One their rappers, Baba Zumbi, addressed the elephant in the room between songs saying, “Times is very confusing right now. We got a lot goin’ on. I feel angry. I feel confused. I don’t know about everybody else, but the only thing I rely on is my relationship to the most high, Jah, you understand? That’s your center. No matter what changes around you outside yourself, remember that God is in your heart, know what I’m sayin’? Nothing will ever change that ever forever.”

Zion-I was followed by a speaker named Jeff Matler who announced that there was going to be an anti-racist teach-in against war at the nearby Mission High School. He would also be the first of many on that stage that day to encourage people to donate money to folks walking around with buckets to pay for the expenses of the rally or to volunteer to take a bucket and collect some on their behalf. Jeff was followed by one familiar face that everybody knew there that day, the actor Woody Harrelson. I had been a fan of his work and even met him briefly in the crowd at a Harry Connick, Jr. show at The Warfield just before “The People Vs. Larry Flynt” came out. Woody had taken a little break from movies around then, though he had a recurring role on “Will & Grace”. The Rasta emcee accidentally called him “Woody Harrison”, even asking aside, “What’s his name?”. I guess he was the only one there that day who didn’t know who he was. Woody was all smiles and greeted the crowd, “How you doin’, fellow Peaceniks?… It’s very rare when you get to meet a genuine American hero, but I’d like to introduce you to one right now. Everybody put your hands together for Julia Butterfly!”

The crowd erupted in applause as Julia Butterfly Hill took the stage. Kids these days probably don’t know about her, but back then, she was one of the poster children for the environmental movement in America. She had cemented her legacy with her famous herculean “tree sit-in” where she occupied a giant redwood tree she called Luna for a little over two fucking years! Even the most die hard, Republican greed head was impressed by her persistence. There was also an episode of The Simpsons called “Lisa The Tree Hugger” aired the year before this based on what she did. Anyway, it didn’t hurt that Julia was also as fine as May wine too and back in those swinging single days of mine, I’d have been all too happy to do the ol’ kids rhyme with her,”Julia and Nicky sitting in a tree…” You get the idea. Julia was a poet and an author too and she regaled us with a couple of her pieces that afternoon. At one point, she equated the violence that had just occurred on 9/11 to the dumping of untold tons of disposable products into landfills, a byproduct for mankind’s insatiable struggle for resources. After she mentioned one line about “Fire my spirit”, I overheard myself on the tape growling “Fire!” like Beavis. She finished her last piece asking us, “Are we ready to jump into the possibility of love?” and chanted “Creation over destruction!” four times. 

The Rasta emcee came out again and cracked me up when he flubbed his line, “Free!… What’s his name again?… Free Mumia!” They then brought out a woman named Kilu Nyasha, she along with Woody had played parts in fictional radio segments between songs on Spearhead’s new “Stay Human” album. I mentioned this before from their Fillmore show earlier this year, but the story in the album was of a governor played by Woody who upon hearing new evidence from her character, Sister Fatima, exonerating a man he had just put to death, became so horrified that he killed himself. Kilu was definitely fired up, dropping a few swear words in from time to time, as she pleaded for things like affordable housing and “free health care like Cuba”. She decried that 185 homeless people dies on the streets of S.F. just the last year alone saying, “That’s terrorism!” She encouraged us to “tighten up your diet” and go vegetarian as well as to check out and support local radio stations like KPOO. She said that N.P.R. had “sold out” and were now “government spokesmen” and demanded that the government clean up the toxic mess left by the Navy at the Hunter’s Point and Bayview neighborhoods. 

Kilu was followed by Pam Africa, another fiery activist who praised the youth who fought against the “terrorist government” during the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle the year before this. Pushing further the terrorism accusations against the Feds, she reminded us that 11 men, women, and children were killed in the M.O.V.E. bombing in Philadelphia back in 1985. I was only 13 at the time, but I definitely remembered when that went down. Pam set the stage for them to play a recording from a prisoner named Arnold Beverly claimed that it was he and not Mumia Abu-Jamal that had shot and killed officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981, part of a contract killing by the local mob because Faulkner had been interfering with their graft. Regardless, Mumia remains on death row to this day suffering from diabetes at the age of 70, a full 43 years after the crime itself. Incidentally, he was sentenced to death by Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge in 1995, the man who would soon become ironically enough America’s first Secretary Of Homeland Security.

But the time finally came for Spearhead to take the stage and Michael got the crowd cheering when he yelled, “Lift your hands up to the sunshine!” Pumped up as we were, he actually started the set off a little slow, doing an an a cappella version of “Rock The Nation”, acknowledging the current events, “We’re living in a mean time. We’re living in an aggressive time. We’re living in a painful time. A time where cynicism rots the vine.” He then went into a spoken word bit before getting the crowd to clap to the beat as they brought the band in to get things rolling with “People In Tha Middle”. Afterwards, he thanked his band and talked about Mumia’s case for a bit pointing out that since Officer Faulkner had been gunned down for fighting police corruption that he and Mumia were both victims. They brought the mood back up again with “Oh My God” and we were pleasantly surprised that during “Runfayalife”, they did a little breakdown where they played a bit of “Good Times”, the ol’ disco classic by Chic. God knows, we all needed some good times around then.

They brought somebody up to do a human beatbox intro to their reprise of “Rock The Nation” with the rest of the band and near the end of that one, we got an added bonus of Franti singing the chorus of “Television” by his old band, the Disposable Heroes Of Hiphopracy. In a strange coincidence, I had just seen Charlie Hunter, the former guitarist from that seminal band at The Fillmore with his Quartet just the night before and upon hearing that song of theirs had hoped that he was in town to join Franti on stage, but alas, it didn’t happen. Afterwards, he asked, “Do we have any poets out here today? I believe that every single soul is like a poem” and then he got us to clap along as they began “Every Single Soul”. He sang a few lines of “Trenchtown Rock” by Bob Marley at the start of it and once again got us to clap along as they finished. 

Michael rallied us once more asking, “Do we have any freaky people out here today?!? How you feeling?!?!” as they finished the set with a rousing version of “Stay Human (All The Freaky People)”. They kept the covers coming in the middle of that song with Kevin Choice on keyboards singing a chorus in his best Louis Armstrong impersonation of “When The Saints Go Marching In”, following that with a bit of “Freaks Come Out At Night” by Whodini. Franti had no trouble by the end of the song getting us all to chant, “All the freaky people make the beauty of the world!” We all caught our breath at the end of that one and Michael brought it down one last time accompanied by Kevin doing a soft keyboard intro to his final speech. Franti declared that “we need to fight a war against war”, to “come together and find peace in our hearts”. He went on to say that he was “thankful to be in San Francisco”, calling our fair city a “beacon for the nation”, and thanked the hundreds of volunteers. He even had us turn to the person next to us and give them a hug and you can hear me on the tape doing it and sighing, “Aww”. Finally, he encouraged us to put some “dead presidents” in the collection buckets on our way out.

Yes, this show had taken place four weeks after that dreadful morning of 9/11, but he would go on to repeat this festival annually on or around that date for years to come. It got too big for Dolores Park though and they ultimately moved it out to Speedway Meadows in Golden Gate Park where it continued to take place until 2010 and I know I at least attended two more of these, the following year and once more in 2005. But in the end, the cost to get permits for this free festival priced them out of the park, coupled with them getting overtaken by the twin behemoths of Outside Lands and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. But for this time, the Power To The Peaceful festivals gave us a welcome outlet to vent our frustration at “the man”, stay informed with current events, as well as hear some quality live music for free. 

I’m sad to say that although Woody Harrelson would go on to act in many more films and things to come, he has since gone off the deep end politically, becoming a supporter of Robert Kennedy Jr. and his batshit crazy anti-vaccine ideology. If you ask me, I blame Woody’s fresh insanity to his quitting smoking pot. Some people should never go off the stuff. But back to the show at hand and one final fun fact that made this day special. This was one of those rare days where I caught a free festival show during the day and then went to another gig that night, an experience I always savored because the two shows were always complete opposites. So, as soon as Franti wrapped up, I hauled ass to usher at The Warfield for Suzanne Vega, a very, very different but enjoyable show indeed. 

The Charlie Hunter Quartet with Norah Jones, Will Bernard & Motherbug, Fill., SF, Fri., October 5

SETLIST : (WILL BERNARD & MOTHERBUG) : Prankster, Ripple Soul, Rounders, Elements Of Style, Sultan, Mung Beans & Rice, Afro Sheen

After the grating snoozefest that was Sigur Ros at The Warfield the night before, it came as a great sigh of relief to hear the familiar sounds of Charlie Hunter. As you’ve might have read before, I was indeed no stranger to his 8-string, acid jazz guitar stylings, having seen him with his original trio countless times at the Elbo Room in the early 90’s as well as encounters with other projects he was a part of including T.J. Kirk, Pound 4 Pound, and collaborations with musicians like Adam Cruz and others. When I’d first seen Charlie, he was opening for Nirvana at the Bosnian Rape Victim Benefit at the Cow Palace in ’93, playing in the Disposable Heroes Of Hiphopracy, the only time I’d see the that band play live. In a strange coincidence, fellow Disposable Hero Michael Franti would be playing the afternoon after this show with his band Spearhead in Dolores Park for the first 9/11 “Power To The Peaceful” festival, though sadly Charlie had moved on to the next gig and wouldn’t be joining him on stage for that one. Charlie was back with his Quartet alongside Stephen Chopek on drums, Chris Lovejoy on percussion, and John Ellis on sax. Together, they were promoting Charlie’s new album on Blue Note, “Songs From The Analog Playground”, his 7th and final album on that label.

An added bonus to the Quartet that night was the singer Norah Jones, who joined them for three songs during their set including a bluesy and haunting version of the country standard “Tennessee Waltz” made famous in the 50’s by Patti Page. Fun fact, that song became the official song of the state in 1965. Norah, the daughter of legendary sitar legend Ravi Shankar, was brand new to the music scene back then, having turned only 22 years old that March. She recently relocated back to her birthplace, New York City, from Texas and there after wowing folks for a year or two in the New York jazz scene was signed to Blue Note, linking her up with Charlie. Sure, I and everyone else at the show was impressed by her voice and charisma, but none of us could have predicted that just four months later, she would be catapulted to superstardom with her debut juggernaut album, “Come Away With Me”. That record would certify diamond, selling a mind boggling 27 million copies, one of the highest selling albums in history, obviously for a debut artist on a jazz label. If that wasn’t enough, it would also win her five Grammys including Best New Artist, Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. 

In addition to these talented people headlining, we were lucky to have fellow acid jazz guitar maestro Will Bernard there with his band Motherbug, consisting of Keith McArthur on bass, Michael Bluestein on keys, and Jan Jackson on drums. Having been a mainstay in the acid jazz scene in the bay area for years, I had seen Will a few times including a show opening for The Funky Meters on that very same stage in 1998. Will had played alongside Charlie in T.J. Kirk as well and I had the honor of recording them at the Maritime Hall when they performed there that same year. He and Motherbug were also regulars at the Boom Boom Room, the late John Lee Hooker’s blues bar across the street from The Fillmore, and still plays there often to this day. I’d seen shows with corporate sponsors plenty of times before, but I believe this was the first and only one to be sponsored by Mother Jones, the non-profit progressive magazine that specialized in news, commentary, and investigative journalism. In those dark, jingoistic times just after 9/11, it was good to be amongst liberal friends.

An area next to the soundboard had been set aside once again for professional tapers and few showed up, putting up their tall microphone stands, so I did my best to keep the crowd at a safe distance. I was able to find a nice copy of Will’s set that night on archive.org, but strangely wasn’t able to find one of Charlie’s. Will joked before they played “Elements Of Style” when he was switching guitars, “You know we had one of those guys who comes up and hands me guitars and everything. The economic downturn sent us for a loop. I can do it myself… Poor me.” Keith and Michael had impressive solos each during that one. They followed that with “Sultan” and Will mentioned it was “our hit song by the way” and their CD was “on sale at the store back there” as well as other record shops around the bay area.

In listening to Will’s set again, I was pleasantly surprised when he mentioned Barry Bonds’ breaking the MLB home run record that very night playing against the Dodgers. Barry had hit home run numbers 71 and 72 at that game, breaking Mark McGwire’s previous record of 70 in 1998, and Barry would chalk up one more the following game making it 73 in the end. Of coarse, I and few others knew then of the steroid scandals that would plague both those players in the years to come, tainting those records for all eternity, but after 9/11, we were just grateful to have any good news to distract us from it all. Will wrapped up his set, gratefully addressing the audience, “It’s great to be among family and friends! Great to look out in the crowd and see all my friends and everything and on stage and in the house. This is out last tune. It’s called ‘Afro Sheen’”. Chris and Charlie joined them on stage for that last one, Chris on percussion, Charlie gleefully banging his pandero tambourine. When they finished, Will reminded us, “Hey, let’s not forget those who are not with us. You know what I’m talkin’ about, alright. So, let’s party for them tonight”. 

Just as the Quartet was taking the stage, I ran into my old friend Keri from college in the crowd and I overheard on my tape he saying, “Big reunion here! Crappy year, Who do you know who’s had a good year this year, besides your brother” and she mentioned that she still talks to my brother Alex’s ex-roommate Isaac all the time. Alex had just moved to L.A. the year before and he was in fact doing quite well for himself then getting various roles as an actor. Along with several commercials and music videos, he had also landed a regular gig playing the guitarist in the house band on “Primetime Glick” with Martin Short which had just aired its first episode that June. It was good to see Keri again and for a while, it felt like the old Elbo Room again. 

After a couple songs, Charlie said, “Thank you so much. It’s excellent to be back here” and he introduced the other band members. Some random guy in the audience shouted out “Welcome home, Charlie!” and he continued mentioning the new album and that the next song “Go Go Fantasy” wasn’t on it and added, “It’s for my sister, Jenny Hunter. It’s her birthday tonight! Can we sing her happy birthday to her?… I’m just kidding. It’s not really her birthday, but she is in the house, so give it up for my sis!” He got the crowd pumped up during that song, chanting “Dublin, Berkeley, San Lorenzo, Cupertino, San Jose… Woo!” That actually was a throwback to an infectious, local commercial jingle in the early 80’s for Denevi Camera. I thought it sounded familiar when I heard it again. 

Norah came up after that song and then they performed the previously mentioned “Tennessee Waltz”, following it with the last song on the new album “Day Is Done” which had a long percussion solo from Stephen in it as well as some flute playing. Charlie continued his Denevi Camera bay area shout outs during that one, cheering, “Oakland’s in the house! Berkeley’s in the house! Cupertino’s in the house! Dublin’s in the house! San Lorenzo’s in the house! Brisbane’s in the house!” There was another brilliant extended percussion and drum solo before Norah sang her last song with them, another new one called “Close Your Eyes”. Will came back on stage afterwards to join him on “AC/DC” and Mr. Hunter praised him, “You gotta give it up for Will Bernard & Motherbug because they’re a baaaaaad band. We go way back.”

Afterwards, he said, “We’d like to do one more tune for you guys. Give it up for Norah Jones! Give it up for Will Bernard! Alright, so you know we got these great percussionists in the band, so we got to feature them and this tune is called ‘Percussion Shuffle’. We hope you like it. I think you want to hear some ‘Percussion Shuffle’!” The crowd cheered and they finished their set with that new one followed by Charlie introducing the band and saying “Thank you so much! We don’t take any of you for granted”. I was able to get part of the first song of their encore before my tape ran out, but that was it. Charlie would return to the bay area, revisiting his old home regularly, including another time headlining that stage two years later. However, I wouldn’t have to wait so long to see Norah though, for she too would return to perform at The Fillmore opening for none other than Willie Nelson himself the following February. I’m just glad I was able to catch her for one more show before she blew it up big time. 

Sigur Ros, Album Leaf, War., SF, Thur., October 4

SETLIST : Vaka, Njosnavelin, Ny Batteri, E-Bow, Nyja Iagio, Olsen Olsen, Frysta, Samskeyti, Svefn-G-Englar, Dauoalagio, Popplagio

Try as I might to keep an open mind with new musical acts, there are some that I will never get. And I know I’ve harped on this many times before, but when these acts play to a packed house of their adoring fans, I can’t help but feel excluded. Such was the case, as you’ve probably figured out by now, with Sigur Ros from Iceland. My feelings of exclusion were only amplified knowing that Radiohead and David Bowie liked these guys and believe it or not, even members of Metallica showed up that night to watch them as well. With all those endorsements, and not having heard so much as a note of their music before then, I was actually looking forward to hearing them, but such high expectations only made their failure fill me with deeper bitterness that I came that night. Sigur Ros means “victory rose” in their native tongue, but after a song or two from these guys, I was choking on that rose’s metaphorical thorns of utter boredom. Original they might have been, but only in the sense that they’re uniquely mind numbing. The only other musician from Iceland that I’d seen or even had heard of then was Bjork and I’m happy to say that I like her and her music very much. So, all you folks from that frosty volcanic island can find consolation that of the two I know, that I at least like one of them. 

Ever persistent to be the optimist, I will say that my feelings for The Album Leaf, who opened that night, were more tender. It should come to no surprise that I liked them a damn sight more than their headliner, which is a situation that has been quite rare in all the concerts I’ve seen. They were the simple duo of DJ Jimmy LaValle and his drummer playing rather mellow EDM music, a soothing first act actually that made ushering that show a cinch. Having only played their first gig in the winter of ’99, The Album Leaf got picked up to go on this tour after their Sigur Ros’ singer, Jonsi Birgisson, bought their debut album, “One Day I’ll Be On Time” in a record store back home in Reykjavik. Jimmy thanked everyone at the end of their short set and mentioned that he’d be returning to town at the end of the month, though he didn’t mention the venue they’d be playing.

Before I tear Sigur Ros a new one, I should at least throw some stuff into their plus column. As an American, I have to admire them for making a ton of money with their new album, “Agaetis Byrjun”, which launched them from a band that had only even played five shows in North America ever up till then, to headlining a tour selling out venues as big as The Warfield. That album made all the top album lists that year and with all the aforementioned endorsements, I was seriously focused on them when they began their set. I wanted to like them, honestly, but now comes the minus column. For starters, it was a seated show all the way down to the front of the dance floor and so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Indeed, the noise from the bar’s cash registers and bottles clinking was painfully distracting. I had a moment of levity after I was cut from ushering and was ordering a pint of Sierra Nevada when I asked the bartender if she had change for a fiver so I could tip her. Even at the hushed whisper I asked her this, half the folks seated nearby shushed me loudly while the other half giggled. Frustrated, I restrained my impulse to scold them, growling, “Go back to art school, you fucking pansies!” 

Secondly, their music was so dreadfully slow that it clearly was never intended to be danced to or even allowed people listening to it to so much as bob their heads to the beat. There was no beat. All their fans could do was just sit there like drooling, catatonic idiots and stare at them. I thought it was at least a rare sight that Jonsi would play his electric guitar with a violin bow from time to time, but let’s face it, Jimmy Page did that decades ago and his playing was infinitely cooler. Finally, Jonsi’s cringe inducing falsetto voice, though angelic to others, was so disturbingly jarring that it haunts me to this day. I can close my eyes and hear that high pitched siren song of his leading me to absolute irritation and melancholy. And though 9/11 happened exactly a week before they began their tour in Detroit, I genuinely wished after this show that they never made it into the country. Seriously, I wanted to boo loudly and throw rotten produce at them like they used to back in the Vaudeville days.

Now, hopefully whoever is reading this, that Sigur Ros isn’t their favorite band in the whole wide world, but if that’s the case, my apologies. I’ve never met the band personally. I’m sure they’re nice people and I admit, I might have not been in the proper mental state to appreciate the music of Sigur Ros that night and the cruel joy one gets in anticipation of writing a bad review might have clouded my judgement. That, and this was understandably the only time I chose to see them perform live. So, when the time came to hear my tapes of that night, I honestly was hoping that upon hearing them again, that my feelings would change. 

But alas, they didn’t and my utter distaste for their music was instantly reactivated before the first song even ended. In fact, when I discovered that the second CD I burned from the tapes from that night was unreadable on my computer, I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest. The first four songs from their set that I did get on the first CD was more than enough to reconfirm that Sigur Ros indeed sucks donkey dick. So, likewise, I was also not upset when there was no poster at the end of the show either. The good news is that I had just seen Basement Jaxx at The Fillmore the night before and I was about to see The Charlie Hunter Quartet featuring Norah Jones there the night after this show and both of those gigs were not only easy to dance to but were a quantum leap more enjoyable. 

Basement Jaxx, Ugly Duckling, Fill., SF, Wed., October 3

SETLISTS :

(UGLY DUCKLING) : Fresh Mode, Now Who’s Laughin’, Einstein’s Taking Off, Rock On Top, A Little Samba, I Did It Like This

(BASEMENT JAXX) : Latin Beats, Romeo, Club Is Jumpin’, Red Alert – Miracles, My Name Is, Get Me Off, Where’s Your Head At?, Broken Dreams, Rendez-Vu. Bongaloid, Party People, Fly Life, Jus One Kiss, Do Your Thing, (encore), Samba Magic, Bingo Bango

Since 9/11, I and everybody else on planet Earth had been impatiently waiting nearly three weeks for the interminable month of September 2001 to finally be over. So, in a way hearing a brand new band like Basement Jaxx was a healthy way to start the month of October fresh. Indeed, EDM music was still relatively in its infancy, emerging from the shadows of the underground rave scene and into mainstream commercial and critical success. Basement Jaxx, along with acts like Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and The Crystal Method, were at the vanguard of this rising musical genre and little would I suspect that all these years later, EDM shows would be packing in the crowds at the Civic Center regularly. But back then, Basement Jaxx were the humble duo of Felix Burton and Simon Ratcliffe who had steadily honed their skills in the underground DJ scene in London for years. Their band name actually came from the name of a nightclub DJ night title they used to perform at. 

Earlier that June, they had put out their second album, “Rooty”, which also was named after a popular nightclub in Brixton. They adorned its cover with a picture of an ape called Snowflake, the only known albino gorilla to date. Snowflake lived at the zoo in Barcelona, Spain until he passed away two years after this night and you can see that very rare ape also on the ads for the tour. Basement Jaxx was so new then that this was actually their first tour of America ever. They had played their first show in the States in Denver just four days before this night at The Fillmore, but already their hit single “Where’s Your Head At?” had been ubiquitous here, showing up in several commercials and movie soundtracks. It was a foregone conclusion that it would be loud as fuck all night and what I heard during their soundcheck easily confirmed it. I caught them doing the songs “Dizzy” and “Do Your Thing” before the doors opened. 

The first act of the evening was not an EDM group, but actually a hip hop trio called Ugly Duckling who I thought were quite good. Hailing from Long Beach, they too were brand spanking new, having just released their debut album, “Journey To Anywhere” five months before this. They got on stage to the booming sound of “Also Sprach Zarathustra” by Strauss coming over the loud speakers and then got the crowd pumped up with beats from DJ Einstein on the turntables. MCs Dizzy Dustin and Andy Cooper got the audience to throw their hands in the air and chant, “Go Einstein, Go Einstein, Go!!!” Their stuff reminded me of the Beastie Boys, like so many other white rap groups did back then, but their lyrics were clever as well as funny and clearly they knew how to have a good time. 

They were talkative and self deprecating too and one of them addressed the crowd between songs, saying “As you can see, we’re kinda three jack asses up here. Some of you may have noticed that. Some of you might get the impression that we’re cool, but you’re gravely mistaken and the truth of the matter is, some people think that hip hop is all about being some sort of stud and walking around like a tough guy and pretending you got a jail record or out on parole and you’re a killer ad you gotta be selling crack and all that stuff. And that’s the misconception people have about hip hop. They watch too much MTV and they think if you wanna do hip hop, you gotta act like that. So you get all these young kids walkin’ around like they’re some sort of thug or gangster and they’re in junior high and from San Jose, but they’re acting like they’re from the Bronx or something. You know what I mean? Is there somebody here like that here tonight? You know somebody like that? This is how stupid we think you look.”

I can’t quite remember what they did right after that, but they accompanied it with DJ Einstein playing a sped up version of “Bad” by Michael Jackson. Coincidentally, I had just seen The Damned at the Great American where they too made fun of old Wacko Jacko with their song “Neverland”. Anyway, they continued, “Quit trying to act so hard. It’s not about being hardcore, it’s about having a good time, right? We’re gonna keep the party going” and then they played “A Little Samba”. Afterwards, they asked the crowd, “Are you ready to see Basement Jaxx tonight?!?” which they naturally cheered loudly for and then one of them joked, “That’s always our biggest song of the night right there, ‘Are you ready to see Basement Jaxx tonight?’ Anyway, they’re going to come out here and give you the dance spectacu-LAR I’m sure you’re all expecting and they’re going to take you light years into the future and gonna leave you all hot, sweaty, and enjoyable. So, before they take you way back to the future, we’re going to do this one last time and take you way back to the past. We’re Ugly Duckling from Long Beach, California!” and then they finished their set with “I Did It Like This”. 

After the set change, Basement Jaxx too came on stage to a classical music introduction, some kind of symphony piece with a chorus I didn’t recognize. But soon, every eardrum in what must have been a mile radius was filled with their bombastic sounds. It was quite the disco party and their music was easy to dance to for sure. Just before they played “Broken Dreams”, I overheard myself talking to whoever I was watching the show with that their music reminded me of another new EDM band bound for greatness, Daft Punk, who I had the pleasure of seeing play one of their first American shows also at The Fillmore four years before them. But unlike Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx got a poster at the end of the night and it remains one of my favorites. It was made by Lisa Eng, who had made many other Fillmore posters, including ones for Stereophonics and De La Soul, both a couple of my most adored ones in my collection as well. I’ve been meaning in fact to put one of those three in a frame and hang it up in my apartment in the near future, but I’m still debating which one I like the most. 

Earth, Wind, & Fire, Rufus with Chaka Khan, Concord Pavilion, Sun., September 30

SETLIST : (CHAKA KHAN) : Once You Get Started, You Got The Love, Stop On By, Sweet Thing, I’m A Woman (I’m A Backbone), Ohh I Like Your Loving – Everlasting Love – Hollywood, Tell Me Something Good, Do You Love What You Feel, Ain’t Nobody

Though not released until years later, all those who were around on 9/11 understand the sentiment to Green Day’s song “Wake Me Up When September Ends”. And this was it, the final show of that infamous month in history and to quote another song title from them… “Good Riddance”. The good news is that this was a show with a very, very different band that had its own “September” song and it was obviously a much, much more uplifting one. In fact, this show was truly the first concert since that monstrous day that actually made me feel genuinely good again, like a brighter future was actually possible. The music of Earth, Wind, & Fire can do that and if there’s anyone out there reading this that is hitting a rough patch, look no further than that group’s brilliant funky soul stylings to lift you out of the abyss.

I had requested comp tickets while ushering well before 9/11 having always wanted to see this legendary supergroup from Chicago. Their endless bounty of hit tunes had been in the soundtrack of my life since childhood. Who could forget Rodney Dangerfield’s clownish dance moves to “Boogie Wonderland” in the middle of “Caddyshack”? I couldn’t even count how many occasions at the Golden Skate roller rink in San Ramon,  where I, my friends and family, orbited that rink over and over again to their stuff playing in the background. Yes, Earth, Wind, & Fire had been putting smiles on peoples faces and loosened many a hip since they first made it big with their smash hit single “Shining Star” in 1975. They had just been inducted, better later than never, into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame the year before this show adding another notch in their belt on top of seven Grammy Awards, 90 million fucking records sold, and a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. 

The founder Maurice White hadn’t toured with them regularly for a while and I don’t believe he was at this show. The lead vocal work had been passed on to Philip Bailey and though he was not a founding member, he and percussionist Ralph Johnson had been with the band since ’72. Close enough. One founding member still in the band and touring with them to this day is bassist Verdine White, Maurice’s brother. He easily stands out from the others with his boundless energy, flamboyant outfits, and a stellar, gigantic grin when he performs. Seriously, Verdine is a diminutive fellow, but that smile of his must take up half his body weight. That guy’s like the Roadunner, absolutely unstoppable. For some reason, I didn’t record the show that night. I probably was sheepish about trying to sneak in my tape deck so soon after 9/11, knowing that the security there would be extra tight like it had been at the shows I’d seen recently at The Warfield and Fillmore. But in a way, I’m glad I didn’t. It was healthy for me to just be a patron again and being undistracted, was quite likely one of the reasons that show was able to lift me out of the dumps. 

One of the major draws that led me to this concert was that Chaka Khan was the opening act. Indeed, her presence there was I would say equally as tempting as her illustrious headliner. Born Yvette Marie Stevens, she had become legendary, often praised as the “Queen Of Funk”, and with her band Rufus, had been a sensation ever since she dropped her first hit “Tell Me Something Good” in 1974. Strangely enough, I had first noticed her doing a brief but memorable vocal solo in the seminal film comedy “The Blues Brothers”. There, she leant her honey dripped, powerhouse of a voice to the James Cleveland Choir backing up James Brown during the church scene where they played a literally acrobatic version of the old gospel standard, “The Old Landmark”. 

She had hit a rough patch in the 90’s, struggling with drug addiction, high blood pressure, and diabetes, but was beginning to get on the mend, getting clean from drugs, becoming vegan, and eventually stopped drinking four years after this. Chaka Khan had a couple new songs with Rufus released that year, “Do You Love What You Feel” and “Everlasting Love”, and she played both of them in her set that night. Naturally, she did some of her golden oldies including “Ain’t Nobody” and “Tell Me Something Good”. However, I was surprised that she didn’t play “I Feel For You”. I didn’t know until I started doing research for this show that it actually was a Prince number which nabbed him a Grammy for Best R & B Song in 1979. Her version, though also a smash hit, didn’t come out until five years later. Still, hearing her legendary pipes that night instantly commanded my attention. That woman is 100% Soul with oodles left over to spare. I always thought she was quite attractive too and though it might sound flippant or even insulting, I couldn’t escape the vision that she was actually Whitney Houston and had been compressed about four inches shorter. Yes, I was indeed smitten and was thankful when I could see her perform once again and for free no less at the Gay Pride festivities in front of the Civic Center in S.F. three years after this. 

Though Earth, Wind, & Fire had been playing a bit before 1971, this tour was being billed as the 30th anniversary of their debut, self titled album which came out that year. They had just finished doing shows at the Shoreline in Mountain View that Friday and at Sacramento Valley Amphitheater that Saturday. Like I mentioned, it was just after 9/11 and they had graciously donated $25,000 to the Red Cross on September 13th after they finished a show at Virginia Beach, just a few hours away from the freshly smoldering Pentagon Building. Though I was able to find Chaka Khan’s setlist from a bootleg CD of her performance that night being sold online, I haven’t been able to find one for Earth, Wind, & Fire yet. But I can assure you gentle readers that they covered a heavy chunk of their classic hits including the aforementioned ones as well as “Sing A Song”, “Serpentine Fire”, “Fantasy”, and “Keep Your Head To The Sky”. 

Reflecting on that joyous evening so many years ago up on the lawn of the Concord Pavilion, part of me is glad that I never had a copy of this show to relive again. Frankly, I think it would only serve to cheapen the memory of the cathartic emotional release I felt then. Likewise, I never kept any momento from this show, not a ticket stub, newspaper ad, or T-shirt from their merch booth… Zippo. Sadly, Maurice White passed away in 2016 after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease as well as brother Fred White who played drums for a time with the band who died just last year.  But the lone surviving White brother Verdine and the band still carries on, so I might get another chance someday and if I ever meet any band member from that venerable group in the future, I’ll be sure to thank them for helping to get me through that dark period in history.

Poi Dog Pondering, Jessica Will Band, Aspara’s Dreaming, Fill., SF, Sat., September 29

SETLISTS :

(JESSICA WILL BAND) : On Your Mind, Near You, Ask Me, That’s Alright, Spacey Girl

(POI DOG PONDERING) : Pulling Touch, Ta Bouche Est Tabou, Jealous, Shu Zulu Za, Diamonds & Buttermilk, Hangover, Natural Thing, Ecstasy, Big Constellation, You Move Me, True, Keep The Faith, Diva, Daytrippin’, God’s Gallipoli, Jack Ass Ginger, A Love Rains Down, (encore), Complicated, Catacombs, Bury Me Deep, Angelika Suspended, Falling, Aspara’s Dreaming

I’d seen Poi Dog Pondering’s name floating around over the years playing in town from time to time, but this was the first and only occasion I would see them perform live. This particular show was the second one of a two day stint they were doing at The Fillmore, though they actually had been on that very same stage only the previous April, but I missed it. Paradoxically, that April show got a poster at the end of night, yet these ones didn’t for some inexplicable reason. Go figure. Poi Dog was a band with a steady rotating cast of many musicians, founded and fronted by Frank Orrall and though it seems obvious to me now considering the “Poi” in their name, I didn’t make the connection that they originated from Hawaii. Since their founding, they had relocated to Austin, Texas and had then settled down in Chicago. Though they weren’t touring to promote any new material, Poi Dog had released a live album the year before called “Soul Sonic Orchestra”.

Opening that night was the Jessica Will Band, the titular Jessica singing and on keys. She had a full band backing her up and I was impressed by the quality of her voice, especially singing while doing some pretty sophisticated piano work. That’s hard to do and there’s only a few notable people who can do that to the level she was like Elton John, Ben Folds, and Tori Amos. She’s still around making music, but like Poi Dog, I believe this was the only time I would see her. She dedicated “Spacey Girl”, the last song in her short set “especially to the L.A. girls in the house.” They did something between acts that was sort of unusual having a DJ come up and play tunes accompanied by Poi Dog’s violin player, calling their collaboration Aspera’s Dreaming, named after one of their songs, the last song of the encore that the band played that night in fact. It was pretty trip hoppy stuff actually and was a very cool way to pass the time before the rest of the band was set up and joined them on stage.

Poi Dog was a fairly large band comprised of men and women of various ages and ethnicities and I was immediately interested in their sound, clearly all talented instrumentalists one and all. With their funky, eclectic, upbeat party vibe, it was easy to make comparisons of them to such acts as Sly & The Family Stone, Three Dog Night, and Prince. Frank thanked the crowd early adding that he recognized “faces from last night… Nice to see you again”. The music was easy to dance to and every member was all smiles. One of the women performing on stage pumped up the crowd between songs cheering, “Be thankful you’re alive!” I suppose it was a friendly reminder only eighteen short days after 9/11 that we all should be so. 

Among the many instruments produced on stage that night, there was an accordion for a time which was fairly rare for live bands. But it was even rarer because it was the second band in two consecutive shows to have one, the other being The Swingin’ Utters  who opened for The Damned at the Great American just three days prior to this. Come to think of it, They Might Be Giants had one at The Warfield ten days before this too, making it three out of four shows in a row. Hurray for accordions, I guess. Anyway, my batteries ran low in the middle of Poi Dog’s set, but I replaced them by the time they got to “Daytrippin’”. Still, I was only able to get as far as “Jack Ass Ginger” before I ran out of tape anyway which is a pity since they closed their set right afterwards with “A Love Rains Down” and followed it with a lengthy six song encore. 

The Damned, The Swinging Utters, GAMH, SF, Wed., September 26

SETLIST : Democracy? Song.com, New Rose, Would You Be So Hot (If You Weren’t Dead?), Amen, 13th Floor Vendetta, Wait For The Blackout, Neverland, Absinthe, Thrill Kill, Eloise, W., Neat Neat Neat, (encore), She, Love Song, Smash It Up (Pts. 1 &2)

The arrival of The Damned at the Great American that night couldn’t have come at a better time. I and practically everybody else on planet Earth had been reeling from the trauma of 9/11 for two weeks and a day by then and to say I could have used a pick me up was painfully obvious. Though their performance didn’t quite get me back to normal emotionally, it clearly got me a few steps closer. It was at least good fortune that they had just began their tour in Vancouver a mere ten days before 9/11 or they might not have been able to get in the country in the first place. This was the fourth time I’d see them play in only three years, taking every opportunity they were in town to do so and having them at that venue just a block from where I was living then was an added bonus. 

Furthermore, they were on tour promoting “Grave Disorder”, their first album of original material in eight years, this their ninth studio album which had just come out a month before this show. It was the first studio work that singer Dave Vanian and guitarist Captain Sensible had collaborated on together since the “Strawberries” album, put out nearly twenty years before this show. It was also the first and only one to feature Patricia Morrison on bass, who had married Dave in Vegas back in 1996. It’s hard to believe their daughter Emily is already 20 years old now. The new album was released on Nitro Records, headed by Dexter Holland, the frontman for The Offspring. Say what you want about The Offspring, as their name implies, they always respected their elder musical influences, even doing a cover of The Damned’s “Smash It Up” for the film soundtrack for “Batman Forever”.

Speaking of forever, I missed the first opening act that night, a band called Pleasure Forever. They were a local synth pop band who had just joined Sub Pop Records that year, but like I said I missed them and sadly didn’t see them at all when they were around since they broke up a couple years after this show. I can’t remember why I missed their set being determined to catch all openers normally, especially shows I had doled out money to see or even if they showed up to play to begin with. But the second opening act, The Swingin’ Utters, I did see that night and had seen previously opening for the aforementioned Offspring at The Fillmore back when The Offspring were brand new in 1994. The Swingin’ Utters were another veteran punk band that they revered, originally hailing from Santa Cruz and performing since the 80’s, and they were one of the bands to join the first Van’s Warped Tour and remain active to this day in the bay area.

Their singer, Johnny “Peebucks” Bonnel thought of his hilarious stage name after he drunkenly pissed himself at a party, stumbled into a local Taco Bell, and paid for his meal with urine soaked dollar bills… very punk. They had recently been signed to Fat Wreck Chords, releasing a self titled album with them the year before this show. Their songs came fast and loud making it next to impossible to decipher most of their setlist, but they definitely got the crowd and the mosh pit whipped into shape for the night. Peebucks introduced one song pointing out an accordion of all instruments a band member had procured, “There it is, Ladies & Gentlemen. Strap on the natural fleshy colored instrument we call ‘The Natural’”. Later, he attempted to rally the audience shouting, “Are you ready for The Damned!?! Are you ready for The Damned!?! Jesus Christ.. It’s like pulling teeth!” 

When The Damned finally came on stage, they were accompanied by a cool, jazzy instrumental playing over the loudspeakers featuring a trumpet solo, sounding a bit like music Austin Powers would go go dance to and appreciate. They opened with their new single “Democracy?” a very timely piece to begin the night, followed by the suspiciously Misfit-esque “Song.com”. We would be treated to seven of their new tunes that night and I thought the new material was actually quite good. It was gratifying to hear Dave and Sensible making music together again. But Damned fans being Damned fans, most of them were there for the golden oldies and I would rarely hear any tunes from “Grave Disorder” in the future except for “Democracy?” every now and then.

Still, the golden oldies they did play were welcome as always and Sensible, cracking crass jokes as usual after performing one of their oldest hits, “New Rose”, commented, “That’s the 5,123rd time I’ve played that song. It still sounds fresh!… Not as fresh as your ass.” They began the new song “Amen” with the recording of some fire and brimstone preacher spouting, “Is this the fate of the wicked? Are we tormented by the devil & his demons for eternity in a fiery hell? Is this the just judgment of a merciful god? Is this what the Bible teaches us? What is the truth?” A couple hits later, Dave Vanian introduced the new song, “Neverland”, declaring “I tell you there’s nothing closer than a man and his monkey”. Yes, Michael Jackson’s public image was just beginning to unravel back then from mounting allegations of pedophilia and other questionable behavior. Incidentally, ol’ Wacko Jacko had just narrowly missed getting killed on 9/11 having overslept and missing a meeting he was supposed to have at the World Trade Center that morning. Sensible sarcastically cheered after the song, “Be the greatest, Michael Jackson! What a weirdo! God bless you!”

The Captain kept the dry wisecracks coming claiming, “We are the Backstreet Boys, eh!” Dave then asked, “What about our dance routines?… That man must be a Backstreet Boys fan. You upset him now. He’s wearing the same shirt as you, Cap.” Sensible was wearing his trademark horizontal striped shirt and red beret as he often did. After finishing the set with “Neat Neat Neat” the crowd demanded their return chanting loudly, “We won’t go!” and they began their encore with another new song called “She”. The Captain praised a “guy with spiky hair” in the audience that “came all the way from Scotland!… Buy that man a drink!” and he did a blazing guitar solo before ending the night with “Smash It Up”. It was nice to see them play the Great American, easily the most beautiful venue in the city, though I believe that was the only time I had ever seen them perform there. 

Gov’t Mule, War., SF, Thur., September 20

SETLIST: 

(Set 1) : Bad Little Doggie, How Many More Years, Thorazine Shuffle, Greasy Granny’s Gopher Gravy (Pts. 1 & 2), Tommy The Cat, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Mule – Don’t Call Me Nigger Whitey – Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf) – Third Stone From The Sun – Mule

(Set 2) : Blind Man In The Dark, Lay Your Burden Down, Fallen Down – The Other One, What Is Hip?, Babylon Turnpike, Compared To What, Slow Happy Boys, Voodoo Child (Slight Return), Key To The Highway, Tomorrow Never Knows, Soulshine, Masters Of War, Rockin’ In The Free World, (encore), Revolution, Goin’ Out West

This was my third show in a row at The Warfield that week and my first time seeing Gov’t Mule, the jam band supergroup and brainchild of ex-Allman Brothers Band guitarist Warren Haynes. Despite the grim specter of 9/11 still hovering over our heads, I was determined to carry on with my busy concert schedule, especially since my work at the stagehands union had all but evaporated and would remain dead for several months to come. Though this was my first time seeing the Mule, I had seen Warren with the Allmans three times in 1994, twice on that very same stage and once more at Shoreline for the H.O.R.D.E. tour. Glad as I was to be there that night, I wish it had been under happier circumstances. Obviously 9/11 still clouded all of our mirth, but this was the first tour the Mule would be doing after the death of their bassist Alan Woody, who succumbed to a heroin overdose in New York City the year before this.

In a fitting tribute to his fallen bassist, Warren assembled an impressive crew of fellow bassists to contribute to his albums, “The Deep End, Volumes 1 & 2”, which hadn’t even been released yet. The roster of talented masters of the low end was a long one, so I’ll spare you the complete list, but there were a few members of that crew in tow with Warren on stage that night. First and foremost, though I’m biased, was Mr. Les Claypool, who sat in the entire first set. For the first three songs of the second set, Warren was joined by Dave Schools from Widespread Panic, followed by Alphonso Johnson who also did three songs. He was then followed by none other than Jack Casady from Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. Rounding out the rest of the band was Matt Abst on drums, Cecil Daniels on trumpet, and a rotating cast of venerable hippy keyboard veterans being Pete Sears, Chuck Leavell, and Rob Barraco.

I had been getting more and more into the habit of taping the soundchecks at shows and I was especially glad I got this one. Not only did I get a sneak peak into their set with them rehearsing covers of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”, but they also did “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, a Pink Floyd number that Les had been playing for some time with his band, The Fearless Flying Frog Brigade. I was beyond surprised and delighted when they did a scorching version of “Tommy The Cat”, by Les’ other little band called Primus. I never thought any guitarist could go toe to toe with Larry LeLonde on that song, but Warren was more than worthy. I’m particularly happy that I caught that soundcheck because they also did a bit of “YYZ” by Rush which they didn’t perform during the show.

It was “An Evening With” gig, so there was no opening act and I had to usher through the first set, wait until the beginning of the second set, and was released to enjoy myself after a song or two. Les came out with the band and addressed the ever present shadow of 9/11 briefly, singing a few lines of “God Bless America” before they started with “Bad Little Doggie”. He joked a little later in the set, “There’s some fancy fellas waiting in the wings” and when they did “Tommy The Cat” again, Les played a few licks of “Dueling Banjos” in the middle of it. Along with the aforementioned covers, Gov’t Mule did plenty of others that night. During that first set, they did “How Many More Years” by Howlin’ Wolf, “Since I’ve Been Loving You” by Led Zeppelin, and a big mash up during “Mule” which included “Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf)” by Sly & The Family Stone and “Third Stone From The Sun”, another Hendrix tune.

After I was cut from ushering, I joined the stoned masses in the pit and tried to catch up with them. Warren smiled down at us and said, “We wanna thank everybody for coming out tonight” and thanked the “25 of our favorite bass players” who contributed to the albums including Alphonso, Dave, and Les. He went on, “If you want more information about this, ‘The Deep End Volumes 1 & 2’, you can go back to the merch table and pick up a little postcard which tells you who’s on the CDs. Volume 1 is coming out in October. Volume 2 is coming out in April… There’s a documentary coming out in the wintertime. We have these pre-order forms back at the merch table. You can take it home, order it over the net. You can order it here tonight with your credit card. What this pre-order form is a guarantee you not only, guarantee that it’s shipped to your house on October 23rd when it comes out, but there’ll also be a bonus CD which has some live tracks and video footage from the documentary. So I would recommend that you get that.”

They actually performed only a few songs from the “Volume 1” CD, their cover of “Soulshine” by the Allmans the only one on the main CD. Live versions of “Blind Man In The Dark” and “Fallen Down” were only on the bonus CD. But they did quite a few more from the “Volume 2” CD with “Greasy Granny’s Gopher Gravy, Parts 1 & 2”, their cover of “What Is Hip?” by Tower Of Power, “Slow Happy Boys” and the instrumental “Babylon Turnpike”. A live version of the song “Lay Your Burdon Down” was only on the bonus CD for “Volume 2”. There were plenty of more covers during the second set as well including “Compared To What” by Gene McDaniels, the aforementioned “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” and “Soulshine”, “Key To The Highway” by Charles Segar, and “Tomorrow Never Knows” by The Beatles. Les came back out on stage for that last one, a cover he likewise had plenty of experience playing with the Frog Brigade. 

Sadly, my tape supply ran out during that song, having drastically underestimated just how long these guys were going to play that night. I know that Warren had long been a proponent of allowing his fans to tape his music and there were some pros on the floor for that show getting all of it, but I have yet to find a copy online myself. So, I missed “Soulshine” followed by their very timely and poignant covers of “Masters Of War” by Bob Dylan and “Rockin’ In The Free World” by Neil Young. I stuck around anyway, enraptured by the sheer talent I had the honor of witnessing at that show and they came back for an encore to do two more covers, “Revolution” by The Beatles and finishing with “Goin’ Out West” by Tom Waits. 

Though it was my first time seeing the Mule, it wouldn’t certainly be the last. I would see that band on that very stage 4 more times in the coming years, in 2004 alongside The Dead, then on their own with back to back shows in 2005, and once more a year after that. But I wouldn’t have to wait that long to see Warren though since he would rejoin the Allman Brothers for a tour just a year after this show and they would perform, you guessed it, at The Warfield. There wasn’t a poster given out for this show, but they were selling one at the merch booth, so I picked it up. This being such a momentous and frankly historic assembly of musical talent, I felt obliged to, but it was a cool poster and a large one to boot. Phil Lesh, who had contributed his talent on a song for the “Volume 2” album, was listed on the poster as one of the special guests, but he didn’t make it on stage that night. Obviously, it would have been awesome if he had.

They Might Be Giants, The Bicycle Thief, The Incredible Moses Leroy, Fill., SF, Wed., September 19

SETLISTS :

(THE INCREDIBLE MOSES LEROY) : Beep Beep Love, Fuzzy, Cover Your Mouth, Everybody’s Going Down, 1983, (unknown), The Bridge Is Over – Just A Friend, (unknown), Anthem

(THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS) : Cyclops Rock, Bangs, Boss Of Me, Older, Fingertips, I’ve Got A Fang, Lie Still Little Bottle, Yeh Yeh, Dr. Worm, Drink!, Particle Man, Mammal, Man It’s So Loud In Here, Another First Kiss, Don’t Let Start, She’s An Angel, She’s Actual Size, Hopeless Bleak Despair, Istanbul (Not Constantinople), Why Does The Sun Shine? (The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent Gas), Twisting, James K. Polk, New York City, (encore), Spider, The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight), Birdhouse In Your Soul, (encore), Robot Parade, Spy, Baba O-Riley

I sometimes forget how long it’s been since 9/11, but even back then I knew that I would envy those too young to remember or who were born after that terrible day. Apologies to those who will hear me harp on the subject for the next few or however many reviews it takes to get it out of my system, but for those who do remember, they will naturally understand that it took a hell of a lot longer than eight days to even begin to get one’s head straight. And there was no shortage of trauma and heartbreak to those who were from New York City like They Might Be Giants who played at The Warfield eight days after their beloved home was attacked. Honestly, the courage it took for that brave city’s native sons to carry on and try to cheer us all up with their whimsical yet brilliant music that night elevated them in my eyes to a level of reverence above most and it continues to this day. To those familiar to this blog, you well know that I was no stranger to this band, this being the 7th time I would see them perform live. They had just played The Fillmore only that January, but were there that night at The Warfield promoting their new album, “Mink Car”, which had been, in a case of tragic coincidence, on the very day of 9/11. The Giants had also played a free set at Virgin Megastore the day before this show, but I didn’t hear about it in time and missed it.

Once again, they were touring with a full band and this time they had two opening acts to warm us up. The first was The Incredible Moses Leroy, fronted by Ron Fortenberry who had named his musical project after his great grandfather of the same name who had been a noted civil rights activist. Early in their set, just before they played “Cover Your Mouth”, Ron gleefully announced, “We’re from here!… Technically, two of us grew up here. Give it up for Belmont!” I liked their goofy electronica sound, especially when they did their techno heavy, mash up covers of “The Bridge Is Over” by Boogie Down Productions and “Just A Friend” by Biz Markie. I could see why The Giants brought them along on this tour, definitely a similar sense of ironic humor. Before their last song, Ron said, “Thank you for coming out. I see my mom in the back there. You can tell her that her son doesn’t suck. If you can do that, that’ll be great. We’re selling CDs. There should be two beautiful German girls selling them back there!”

The second opening act was The Bicycle Thief led by Bob Forrest from Thelonious Monster, a funky trash supergroup that I had seen before and had been around for years. Members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers have come and go with that bands rotating line up including John Frusciante who leant his guitar chops to a song on The Bicycle Thief’s debut and only studio album, “You Come & Go Like A Pop Song” which had come out two years before this show. Future Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer had also been part of making that album, though neither of them were with Bob on stage that night. The band was stripped down to just Bob on acoustic guitar with a female back up singer. The bad news is that since I ran out of tape during The Giants’ set, I taped over most of their set to get the rest of it. Understand, I very, very rarely do that, but considering the irrefutable emotional gravitas of the evening, I felt compelled to do so. Still, I was able to get a couple of songs from The Bicycle Thief, they being “Hurt” and most of “It’s Rainin’ (4 AM)”. 

The Giants got the night off to a quick start with their new single “Cyclops Rock” and John Linnell immediately afterwards said, “Thanks for coming! We got a new record called “Mink Car” and we’re going to play lots of songs from that record for you tonight. This song is called ‘Bangs’” and after a long pause while the band was tuning up and getting ready, he quipped, “… A song we’re going to play about five minutes from now.” We were in fact treated to nine of the new songs from the new album at that show. They followed that with “Boss Of Me”, the theme song from the TV comedy “Malcolm In The Middle”. Though it had already been on the air for almost two years by then and it was a hit, the song had only been released on the European version of “Mink Car” that year, though technically the tenth new song in the set. Granted, it to this day is probably their most recognized song amongst the general population of the Earth and thanks to the residuals from that show, it probably made them a fortune. 

A couple songs later, John Flansburgh finally addressed the elephant in the room, “It’s super duper gratifying to be here and see all the people… Somebody told us we should, can’t stress this enough, we were understating this fact, which is that we drove here! From New York!” The crowd roared, cheering in approval and support. He lightened things up a couple songs later while fiddling with his microphone, claiming, “We have been working on getting a Shure endorsement”. Linnell clarified, “Shure is a microphone company.” Flansburgh continued, “In case you’re unfamiliar with the shape of a Shure microphone, it’s usually not attached to a stick… These are high quality microphones actually… This next song is kind of a beatnik number. It’s from our ‘Lincoln’ album.” The audience screamed enthusiastically. He went on, “This song features the finger snaps of just the shy people in the audience… Not any freestyle, San Francisco kind of thing’ and then they did the cool, jazzy “Lie Still, Little Bottle”.

Afterwards, Flansburgh made a wisecrack about somebody smoking the dank up front and suspected it was the same guy who does it at every show they do in that town. He then introduced the next tune, a cover of “Yeh! Yeh!” by Mongo Santamaria, adding that their version had been used in a “monolith Chrysler ad campaign” and “We drive the Ford product, but we’re all about unity”.  Linnell chimed in, “We advocate Chrysler for others”. Flansburgh continued, “We’re stuck with our miserable car. We look forward to having a new car… soon. This song is about three minutes long. It’s got lots of words” They were just about to begin the song when the spotlight on him turned off and he joked, “We had a spotlight, soon as the song starts cut? For the first 16 bars, give the drummer some light!”

Musing about their travel there, Linnell said afterward, “You know the funny thing about Route 80 is that it totally sucks. I never really noticed it before, but if you ever get a chance to check it out, it blows. They’ve taken all the good parts away. You know what was really good was the brand new rest stops in Ohio. Did you check those out? They’re new and they’re really good.” Flansburgh cheered, “They’ve got toilets with electric eyes!” and then they did “Dr. Worm”. Seriously, I love that song, easily in the top three that they do, and hearing it that night literally brought me to tears. There’s something so beautiful, sentimental, and endearing in its lyrics despite on the surface appearing silly. 

Later, Flansburgh did another breakdown during “She’s Actual Size” giving the drummer a solo, doing a parody of an answering service, “This drum solo will be answered in the order received… If you want to hear Gene Krupa, press 3!” Then the drummer did a little riff in the style of him followed by, “If you want to hear Buddy Rich, press 4!… If you want to compare it to Animal from “The Muppet Show”, press 5!” Then the drummer went back and forth between the styles of Animal and Buddy while Flansburgh prompted it barking, “Animal!… Buddy Rich!… Animal!… Buddy Rich!” and then went on asking them to request the opening drum riff from “Rock & Roll” by Led Zeppelin by pressing 6, followed by others including Animal again by pressing 9 and finishing by requesting “Turn This Mother Out” by pressing 10. Flansburgh made a call back to his earlier bit about cars during their cover of “Why Does The Sun Shine? (A Mass Of Incandescent Gas)” breaking down the middle declaring, “Everything on the sun is a gas!… Fords! Chryslers! Gin & Tonics! American Motors Products! Studebakers! Everything a gas!”

The set was nearly over when Flansburgh said, “This song is about our 11th President” and reminded us that there was a “street named after him here”, which I was well aware since I lived a block from it then, and they performed “James K. Polk”. Like “Dr. Worm”, on the surface their cover of Cub’s “New York City” seemed innocent and cute on the surface. Back then, Cub’s music had been designated under the innocuous umbrella genre of “cuddlecore”, but after 9/11, that song to me became a solemn and defiant rallying cry for the Greatest City In The World. In a strange and unexpected way, They Might Be Giants that night became the courageous, proud, and righteous protectors of all who dwelled in those grief stricken five boroughs. I was proud to attend there at The Warfield, so much that for once, I wasn’t even upset that there wasn’t a poster at the end of it all. The uplifting joy and fortitude that The Giants brought and shared with us all was reward enough and I’ll always remember and thank them for that. 

P.J. Harvey, Morris Tepper, War., SF, Tues., September 18

SETLISTS : 

(MORRIS TEPPER) : (unknown), Tears Of Love, Copperhead, Frankenstein’s Daughter, Sandpiper, (unknown), Moth To Mouth, (unknown)

(P.J. HARVEY) : This Mess We’re In, 66 Promises, Mansize, Sky Lit Up, The Whores Hustle & The Hustlers Whore, One Lane, A Place Called Home, 30, Send His Love To Me, Beautiful Feeling, Will’s Song, Dry, Somebody’s Down Somebody’s Name, Kamikaze, Big Exit, Horses In My Dreams, (encore), Angeline, This Is Love, Losing Ground, Down By The Water, Nina In Ecstasy 2

It had been exactly one week since the attacks of 9/11 when P.J. Harvey came to town to play The Warfield. It was just one week before that P.J. herself personally saw the smoke bellowing in the distance from the grisly aftermath at The Pentagon from her Washington D.C. hotel window. She had been in town to play a gig and coincidentally had won the Mercury Prize back home in London for her latest album, “Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea” the very same day, thanking the people giving it to her for it via telephone. She was the first female artist to win that coveted prize and would win it again a decade later with her album “Let England Shake”. This would be the fourth time I’d see her play on that stage, having seen her at two non-consecutive shows there in ’95 and once more in ’98, but clearly the circumstances this time around cast a gloom over the evening that couldn’t be ignored. Though things were attempting to return to normal with plane flights resuming and the stock market reopening, we were all freaked out to hear the news that day of letters filled with white Anthrax powder being sent out to politicians in D.C. and news media offices. So, like the scene at the Megadeth show the previous Friday, security was tight.  

The good news was it was a sold out show and P.J. was at the top of her game. Her new album was a hit, certifying platinum and would chalk up two Grammy nominations for Best Rock Album and Best Female Rock Performance. She relied heavily on that album through her set that night, playing 9 out of its 12 songs, not including two of its B-Sides, “30” and “66 Promises”. She had also just completed an extensive tour that summer opening for U2 playing stadiums everywhere, exposing her music and talent to countless new fans. The ever flamboyant Ms. Harvey had actually turned down her theatrical stage costuming a bit this time around from her previous outings. The first time I saw her, she was doing the sort of “What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?” in a blue, silk nighty look, the second, a sort of Madonna-esque, cone bra sporting, drag strip queen, the third time, sort of looking like Raggedy Ann. This time she simply had a sleeveless black dress and boots with modestly styled, shoulder length black hair. Seriously, she looked like she was just going to a dinner party or something. This was of coarse fine by me. Her music spoke for itself.

P.J. made another interesting selection for her opening act, Morris Tepper, the guitarist for Captain Beefheart. She had chosen Tricky, Ben Harper, and The Rachels the previous times at The Warfield respectively and they were all excellent. Captain Beefheart is one of those many bands that I should know more about and don’t, often cited as a musical influence to many acts back then including P.J. herself. Morris had done work recently playing guitar with Frank Black and had just put out his third solo album, “Moth To Mouth” the year before this. I was impressed by his guitar work as I expected to be, but his singing was a bit off putting. The guy growled a lot, his voice not really on key much, buried under layers of gurgling vocal effects. The crowd was polite and listened all the same and it being quite loud, I had no trouble getting a decent recording of it.

I was making small talk before P.J. started and overheard myself going on about how work had been dead for me at the union as it always was during the summers and things were just beginning to pick back up when the attacks happened. I would be out of work for a good four months, the longest I had ever been out of work except for recently with the pandemic. Most conventions around then had to cancelled or postponed, partially because of all the air traffic being halted. But the good news is that the work eventually did come back and all those conventions that had been postponed extended my work season deep into the following summer, more than making up for my losses. I had the added advantage that I would be picked up to begin my apprenticeship at Local 16 that winter and with the heavy work load that accompanied it, the timing couldn’t have been better.

Anyway, back to the show. P.J. never talked much between songs, but when she did, she was very calm and polite, very English really. Near the end of her set, she said, “It’s a very difficult time for all of us. I appreciate you being here, so thank you.” Then she played the strangely appropriate song “Kamikaze”. Later, she gave a shout out, “San Francisco, it’s a very special time for me for many things, but one of the most important things is that it’s the home of Eric Drew Feldman. San Francisco is a beautiful place.” Eric had played keyboards on Harvey’s “Is This Desire?” album and would also contribute to her “White Chalk” album in 2007 and on “A Woman Walked By”, her album that she did with John Parrish in 2009. Like Morris, Eric had also worked with Captain Beefheart and Frank Black and these days, he currently plays for The Residents. Like I said, it was mostly new material of hers that night, but she did play an interesting, grittier arrangement of “Down By The Water” near the end of the show.

I was once again relieved to see that there was a good poster at the end of the night, making it three out of four posters from her Warfield gigs. But I am sad to say that this was the last time I saw her perform live, though she’s still touring to this day. My apprenticeship at my union actually cost me another opportunity to see her at The Warfield three years later. In October of 2004, we were in the middle of another tense general election, so as a condition of my apprenticeship, I had to do phone banking the night she was in town then and I never forgave my union for making me do it, even if there was free pizza. I remember getting frustrated after doing it for about an hour or so and started using that corny “movie phone guy” voice. After that, I swore never to phone bank again. And like the last three times, her show that night at The Warfield got a poster too. That would have been four out of five. 

Megadeth, Endo, Fill., SF, Fri., September 14

SETLISTS : 

(ENDO) : (unknown), Penicillin, (unknown), Listen, (unknown), Malice, Suffer, Save Us

(MEGADETH) : Dread & The Fugitive Mind, Kill The King, In My Darkest Hour, Burning Bridges, She-Wolf, Reckoning Day, Wake Up Dead, Almost Honest, Use The Man, Train Of Consequences, Hanger 18, Angry Again, A Tout Le Monde, Devil’s Island, Tornado Of Souls, The Conjuring, Mechanix, Sweating Bullets, Trust, Symphony Of Destruction, Peace Sells, Paranoid, (encore), Holy Wars… Punishment Due

It was time to get back on the horse or at least attempt it. 9/11 had just gone down that Tuesday, a mere three days before this show. I was uncertain whether I was ready to see another show as I really didn’t know what to feel exactly then. But it being Megadeth felt strangely appropriate, so I squared up my shoulders, took a deep breath, and showed up. This would be the second time I’d see Megadeth and they were two for two preceding a piece of bad news. Yes, back in 1995, Megadeth had the dubious distinction of playing at The Warfield the day that Jerry Garcia died. Indeed, I was beginning to wonder if Dave Mustaine and his crew had become the harbingers of death incarnate. So when they returned to play The Warfield fifteen years later with Suicidal Tendencies and Children Of Bodom opening, I braced myself for the worst. Thankfully, nothing bad of note happened that time, so I consider the previous two shows to be just unfortunate coincidences. 

In the intervening years since I had seen Megadeth, they had gone through some line up changes. They had completed an acoustic tour that spring and just finished opening for AC/DC that summer. But this time, they were headlining on their own tour, promoting their ninth studio album, “The World Needs A Hero”, which had just come out that May. It was their first new album after signing to Sanctuary Records, having just left Capitol after 15 years with them. Dave was reconnecting to his thrash metal roots again after the commercial and critical failure of their last album, “Risk”, and continued his rebound appearing in an episode of VH1’s “Behind The Music” that year as well. And though we got a diverse selection of songs from their extensive catalog up till then, they only played two new songs that night, opening the set with “Dread & The Fugitive Mind” and later playing “Burning Bridges”. 

They brought along Endo, a nu metal band from Miami, to start the night and there was no question that you could cut the tension in The Fillmore with a knife. Security was understandably terse and thorough with everyone who passed through the doors and guarded the stage with steely gazes, just waiting for a reason to pounce. Endo was brand new back then, having just released their first album, “Evolve”, only six months before this. I managed to figure out a little more than half of their setlist, but Gil Bitton, their singer made it challenging with his blood curdling screaming of his lyrics. As you can imagine, it was loud as hell in there too. 

Gil got into a bit of a disagreement with somebody up front after they played “Penicillin”, barking, “Hey, Fuck me? Fuck you! I might flip out and kick your fuckin’ ass you fuckin’ piece of shit! San Francisco, let me ask you one fuckin’ question. Is everyone here cool like this dude?… Everybody say ‘Fuck You, Dude!’ We’re here to party and have a good time. Listen up. It’s all about fuckin’ respect, know what I mean? We’re up here playing a show for you people. We love to do this. We don’t need people talkin’ shit like that. I think everyone’s morale and consciousness is a little down by everything that fuckin’ happened this past week and it’s fucked up. People are fucked up. Shit needs to change in this fuckin’ world, more positivity than negativity.” As you might have noticed, Gil enjoyed dropping F-bombs. 

Later, between songs he said, “Listen, I fuckin’ grew up on Megadeth, OK? It’s fuckin’ old school, new school, whatever you call it, it’s still rock & roll. Know what I mean? I’d like to give a shout out to Spike 1000. I think they’re in the building.” I had actually just seen Spike 1000 play at The Fillmore headlining the Nadine’s Wild Weekend show a month before this and I thought they were pretty good. Later Gil went on, “San Francisco, listen to me… Whatever we are, we’re all Americans. We’re all fuckin’ human. I think it’s going to change so much for our future and I hope for a positive way, not a negative way. Fuck terrorism! Let’s kill those fuckin’ bastards! I fuckin’ love my country! People are people, assholes are assholes. This song is about paranoia.” Then they played “Malice”, their new single that had been featured in the “Dracula 2000” film soundtrack that year. Yeah, that was a good start, but the heshers in the crowd that night had waaaaaaay more tension to unleash and as we waited for Megadeth to get on stage, that tension only regrew.

By the time they made it on, the audience had already been chomping at the bit, loudly chanting “USA! USA! USA!” and “Megadeth! Megadeth! Megadeth!” for a while. I was pleasantly surprised that they played over the speakers just before they started a spoken word piece by Jello Biafra from the Dead Kennedys called “Shut Up, Be Happy”. Jello recorded it as an intro for Ice-T’s album “The Iceberg” and it was a satyrical public service announcement beginning with “America is under martial law”, saying that “curfew is at 7 pm”, and those “out after curfew will be shot”. It went on to announce several other draconian measures and the punishment for disobedience will likewise being shot and so forth. Considering the considerable jingoistic attitude everyone was feeling, especially in that crowd, even me, it was a daring choice to make. Jello is about as far as one could get from being right wing and he certainly wasn’t a fan of W. Dave and the gang tore through the first three songs of the set in rapid succession and when the crowd started chanting “USA!” again, he paused and said, “It’s going to take more than a couple of chickenshits crashing airplanes into a building to stop us from playing to you” and then they performed “Burning Bridges”. 

Megadeth was trying something new on that tour, playing songs that their fans had requested on their website, a novel idea back in those days. Their guitar work was stellar as it was the time before and I still don’t think Dave gets enough credit for his chops. Dave was a pioneer in the genre of thrash metal and his tenure in the early days of Metallica helped lay the foundation for its sound. He thanked his lead guitarist, Al Pitrelli, after “Sweating Bullets”, and the crowd cheered so loudly, Dave joked, “You know, this is the first city I haven’t had to do that twice”. He then turned around and pointed to his drummer, Jimmy DeGrasso smiling, “This motherfucker actually lives up here!” They finished their set with an intense mash up of “Peace Sells” and a cover of “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath. Dave broke it down a little in the middle declaring, “I can sing all night! And now I wanna hear you. So for a moment, we’re all gonna be in Megadeth. So when I count to four… some of you can’t make it there… I want you to start singing along with me. If you don’t know the words, it doesn’t matter.” He then got the crowd to sing one of the verses of “Paranoid”with him, then repeated it on their own a cappella, reprising back to “Peace Sells” for the big finish. 

Of coarse they were coming back for an encore with the crowd chanting “Megadeth!” at the top of their lungs and I mean everybody. Dave did a little call and response with the crowd, playing a couple notes on his guitar, taking turns with people yelling, as they gradually began “Holy Wars… Punishment Due”, the final and very eerily appropriate song, ending this night of bombastic thrash and existential peril. At the very end, Dave reassured us, “I want to thank you for coming down to join us tonight. Remember, we’re safe in this fuckin’ country. We’ll get ‘em.” We all knew what he meant and roared in applause. Then it was all over. I got through it. I asked the front of house sound guy if he need the setlist, but he said he did, though he did allow me to have the show’s schedule. I was relieved that there was a poster that night, which would be the first one I’d get after 9/11. I got that milestone out of the way as well. 

Megadeth hit a rough patch shortly after this show. They had to cancel most of the remaining dates of that tour because of this national calamity, but they managed to record and release their first live CD/DVD appropriately titled “Rude Awakening” from the shows they would do that November in Arizona. Dave would soon fall victim to a case of kidney stones which got him hooked on painkillers, ultimately causing him to relapse back to old drug habits. Though he attempted to get straight again in rehab, there he accidentally fell asleep with his left arm over a chair, compressing his radial nerve, which lead to a case of severe radial neuropathy, otherwise known as “Saturday Night Palsy”. While recovering in physical therapy, unable to even make a fist with his left hand, Dave obviously couldn’t continue playing, so he broke up the band, Al and Jimmy leaving for good. 

But he’d be back on his feet and playing again in 2004, clean and sober, and with a new lease on life. Yes, Mr. Mustaine found God and became quite the Christian. Sure, laugh if you want, but Dave clearly needed to turn his like around and J.C. helped him do it. From many accounts, he needed it, including from my friend Jim Koehler who was his tour manager for some time in the 80’s. Jim said Dave was totally a drunken, obnoxious wreck and it was one of the worst times of his life having to wrangle him around back then. But after his recovery, I also remember hearing a story from a fellow stagehand who drove Dave in a car to one of his gigs and when they arrived, Dave asked him, “Can I ask you a favor?… Can I pray for you?” The guy naturally said yes and though one might think that I little corny, I thought it was a very kind and considerate gesture. Personally, I think it would be cool to have a rock star pray for me, or any celebrity for that matter. I can use all the help I can get. Sadly after his recovery, Dave also turned into a right wing basket case, accusing Obama of being born out of the country and refusing to play with any metal band from then on who he considered to be satanic, bands like Rotting Christ and Dissection. Maybe he would have been better off as a junkie. But poitics aside and in hindsight, one could at least be thankful that through the age of darkness that was the George W. Bush presidency, that at least Dave would bounce back from his abyss.

Modest Mouse, The Glands, Atlas Systematic, War., SF, Mon., September 10

SETLIST : 3rd Planet, A Life Of Arctic Sounds, Paper Thin Walls, What People Are Made Of, Talking Shit About A Pretty Sunset, Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes, Broke, Trailer Trash, Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine, I Came As A Rat (Long Walk Off A Short Dock), Doin’ The Cockroach, Wild Packs Of Family Dogs, Interstate 8, Never Ending Math Equation, (encore), Night On The Sun, A Different City, Alone Down There

This is it, the last show before the world changed. Part of me is grateful that this grim distinction would fall to Modest Mouse, a band I don’t particularly care for. If this show had been one of a band I loved, the trauma that followed would forever taint my feelings for them. But it being Modest Mouse, I would be spared that pain. Don’t get me wrong, at the time I had wanted to see them play. This indy rock group from the Pacific Northwest fronted by Isaac Brock had garnered a reputation for their original sound and I have to admit, I thought the band’s name was clever. But Isaac also had a reputation for being a bit of a drug fiend and having rather erratic on-stage behavior, going as far as cutting himself up there. Modest Mouse had just released the “Sad Sappy Sucker” album that April and they were just about to put out their new EP, “Everywhere & The Nasty Parlor Tricks” two weeks after this show. We got to hear a couple new songs off that upcoming EP at that gig, “Night On The Sun” and “I Came As A Rat (Long Walk Off A Short Dock)”.

I had just finished two back to back sold out nights with Belle & Sebastian at The Warfield, and unlike Modest Mouse, I was actually impressed with them and have since become a fan. And in a case of cruel irony, 311 was supposed to play the Warfield the following day on 9/11 and I was signed up to usher that one as well which would have been my fourth Warfield show in a row. But when my dear old Mom insisted that I get out of San Francisco just as a precaution, I couldn’t really say no. There had been people that morning expecting the Golden Gate Bridge to be attacked, some even going so far as to set up cameras out on Crissy Field in anticipation of it. I already had to go into my union gig at The Palace Hotel earlier that day to take apart a conference for none other than Lehman Brothers, yes, THOSE Lehman Brothers, the ones who nearly single handed sunk the American economy during the housing crisis just seven years later. 

At the time Lehman had an office in the World Trade Center and that morning their members were clearly inconsolable and the ones from that WTC office were understandably having total nervous breakdowns. None of them knew then who was alive or dead, but thankfully I would learn later that all the people from that company made it out of the Towers safely. That show wasn’t supposed to be taken apart until the following day, but Steve, the business agent in the office at the time pleaded with me to keep it together and take it out. But it was difficult to get through that day, especially since I was also tasked to set up TV monitors around the lobby of The Palace showing, you guessed it, footage of the disaster over and over again. Suffice to say, I wouldn’t be in the mood to see any show that night and not 311 to be sure. But on this unremarkable Monday the night before, there I was in my usual spot clearing the left bar aisle at The Warfield with everyone else, blissfully ignorant to the impending age of darkness.

There were a couple opening acts that night, beginning with Atlas Systematic from Canada. From the get go, I knew it was going to be a loud one, so I’m glad I wore ear plugs. Seriously, the volume on that band’s keyboards was truly grating. Their singer encouraged folks to buy their new album at the merch booth, saying “We’ll sign it!… You can sell it on eBay to your friends!” Good God, that man screamed his head off during the last song of their set and as you might imagine, I wasn’t upset to see them go. They were followed by The Glands who were much more pleasant. They were from Athens, Georgia and were brand new, having just released their debut, self titled album the year before this. Somebody passed out in the crowd during their set and I heard my fellow usher Dave Fineman tell me to stay put while he went to get help. They managed to fish the drunk out of the crowd before he got back though. I never saw The Glands again and sadly never will since their singer-guitarist Ross Shapiro passed away from lung cancer eight years ago.

My batteries were once again running out on my tape deck, so the first half of Modest Mouse’s set sounded sped up until I replaced them. I wanted to like them, really. They are amongst a handful of bands like Phish that are utterly revered by their fans, but I just can’t get into them no matter how I try. It’s an unpleasant feeling for me, the kind of feeling like being left out of the party. But I wan’t having it that night and swiftly lost my patience. Near the end of the set, I overheard myself talking to another usher dryly quipping, “I don’t know if I like it, but it’s art”. I also didn’t appreciate that they took over six goddamn minutes to get back on stage during their encore break. I’m a patient man, but even three minutes is pushing it. Still, like Phish, I would give Modest Mouse the benefit of the doubt and I would see them again to make sure it wasn’t some sort of fluke. I would go on to see Modest Mouse not once, but twice more, first at The Fillmore in 2003, then setting up their gear at Live 105’s Not-So-Silent-Night at Bill Graham Civic in 2006 with The Killers. Even with Johnny Marr from The Smiths playing guitar with them on that latter show, I still couldn’t bring myself to enjoy their music. 

There was no poster to mark the occasion and with what followed the next morning, I suppose the less I remember from this show the better. I learned that Isaac got into a bit of hot water when they played at The House Of Blues in West Hollywood that Wednesday. Apparently, he thought it would be a clever, if not provocative to choose to play videos of buildings being demolished in reverse on a screen behind the band while they played. He even introduced the band coming on stage that night, “Hi, we’re Modest Mouse and we’re going to put America back together again!” Yes, perhaps his drug addled heart was in the right place, but with hardly 24 hours having passed since the Twin Towers crumbled to the ground into fiery, twisted mountains of debris, I think most people would agree that his artistic angle here was entirely too soon. Indeed, I would see seven more shows that month and it wouldn’t be until the last one with Earth, Wind, & Fire that I would even begin to feel a thimbleful of joy again at a concert.

Belle & Sebastian, Jonathan Richman, War., SF, Sat., September 8

Belle & Sebastian, Jonathan Richman, War., SF, Sun., September 9

SETLISTS :

(SATURDAY) :

(JONATHAN RICHMAN) : Couples Must Fight, Hey Mystery Not Of High Heels & Eye Shadow, Me & Her Got A Good Thing Goin’ Baby, Let Her Go Into The Darkness, The Night Is Still Young, Vampire Girl, I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar, Pablo Picasso, Nineteen In Naples, Springtime In New York

(BELLE & SEBASTIAN) : Leader Of The Pack, Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie, There’s Too Much Love, The Magic Of A Kind Word, I Fought In A War, My Wandering Days Are Over, Jonathan David, Slow Graffiti, The Model, The Boy With The Thorn In His Side, Simple Things, The Boy With The Arab Strap, The Fox In The Snow, Family Tree, The State I Am In, Dirty Dream Number Two, The Wrong Girl, Women’s Realm, Legal Man, Everyday People

(SUNDAY) :

(JONATHAN RICHMAN) : I Took A Chance On Her, Give Paris One More Chance, Couples Must Fight, Springtime In New York, Her Mystery Not Of High Heels & Eye Shadow, Nineteen In Naples, Girlfriend, You Can’t Talk To The Dude, Me & Her Got A Good Thing Going Baby, Lonely Financial Zone

(BELLE & SEBASTIAN) : Sleep Around The Clock, There’s Too Much Love, The Magic Of A Kind Word, San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair), Mayfly, Jonathan David, Don’t Leave The Light On Baby, The Model, Wandering Alone, Billie Jean, Simple Things, The Boy With The Arab Strap, You Made Me Forget My Dreams, Judy & The Dream Of Horses, Family Tree, Dog On Wheels, The Wrong Girl, Woman’s Realm, Legal Man

I have been dreading writing about these shows as time marched on knowing that I would once again be reliving the dreaded days of 9/11. Truth be told, I knew pretty much next to nothing about Scotland’s own Belle & Sebastian, but I quickly became smitten by their music and by the end of night one, I was hooked. So, I was especially glad that I had booked both of these two sold out nights at The Warfield. I am ashamed however to say that these ones were the only time I saw them live, though they still tour and were just in town at The Fox Theater in Oakland a couple months ago. I was working that night, but in hindsight, I should have tried to go anyway. But on these nights, I and everyone else was blissfully unaware of the horror that awaited us the following Tuesday. I did manage to catch Modest Mouse also at The Warfield that Monday, but I didn’t care for that band much, so I can say with total certainty that these Belle & Sebastian shows were the last GOOD shows that I saw before the world went to holy hell.

Belle & Sebastian were still relatively new back then, at least new to Americans. Though they had been together five years by then, this was actually their first tour of the West Coast of our fair nation. Selling out back to back shows at The Warfield was a good way to start. The core members met in Glasgow as music students at Stow College, naming their band after a children’s TV program about a 6 year old boy and his Great Pyranees dog. I recognized their name when they were mentioned in the 2000 film comedy “High Fidelity” where Jack Black dissed their sound as “old sad bastard music”. Granted, “Seymour Stein” was playing during that scene, which is in fact a rather sad song, though they didn’t perform it at either of these shows. But rest assured, they have plenty of cheerful, uplifting tunes like “The Magic Of A Kind Word” which they played both nights. 

They were a rather large band actually with eight core members along with a five piece string section, something you very rarely see with any band. Their cellist, Isobel Campbell, who also sang back ups, had joined the band at the tender age of 19, but this would be her last tour. She would go on to a solo career and several collaborations with Mark Lanegan from the Screaming Trees. Their original bassist, Stuart David, had just left the band the year before to form the band Looper and to write novels. Belle & Sebastian had just put out their third studio album, the cryptically titled “Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant” and they were then working on songs for the soundtrack of “Storytelling”, the dark comedy film by Todd Solondz. Sadly, only five minutes of music from that would actually make it onto the film itself. 

One musician I was slightly more familiar with giving me further incentive to witness these shows was the venerable singer-songwriter Jonathan Richman. He had found a new audience recently with his appearance as the singing narrator/Greek chorus for the 1998 Farrelly Brother’s masterpiece “There’s Something About Mary”, but he had long been around being the frontman for his first band, The Modern Lovers, as far back as the 70’s. With that seminal group, like Isobel Campbell, Jonathan started at the tender age of 19 years old and would pen such brilliant tunes as “Pablo Picasso” and “Roadrunner”. Ironically, Jack Black would endorse Belle & Sebastian’s opening act, playing a version of the latter song two years later in “The School Of Rock” movie. I was intimately familiar with “Pablo Picasso” which he played on the first night, from the legendary soundtrack from the greatest motion picture of all time, “Repo Man”, and the incredible cover of it that I recorded at the Maritime with Siouxsie Sioux and John Cale with The Creatures. “Roadrunner” had been a punk standard for years being covered by such notable acts as the Sex Pistols and Joan Jett and there’s actually a music venue named after it in Richman’s home town of Boston that just opened two years ago. 

In honor of his many years of fine work, a tribute album had just been put out six months before these shows called “If I Were A Richman : A Tribute To The Music Of Jonathan Richman”. He was joined on stage those nights by his drummer Tommy Larkins, who along with his minimalist drum kit and brushes also accompanied him on his songs in “There’s Something About Mary”. Though we didn’t hear “Roadrunner”, they did play the golden oldies “Girlfriend”, “Give Paris One More Chance”, and “Lonely Financial Zone”. I was impressed how polite the crowd was shutting up and actually listening which was fortunate because his music is pretty quiet. Jonathan introduced “Couples Must Fight” both nights saying that he and his girlfriend don’t fight and that is wrong, insisting that couples need to let it all out to clear the air. He was an enjoyable and appropriate opener for Belle & Sebastian, so managing the crowd was pretty easy, which I especially appreciated at the Saturday show because I had to work all night. 

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating that the bands that impact me the most are the ones that I when I hear them for the first time, after just a few bars I ask myself, “What the fuck kind of music is this?”. My inevitable devotion to these bands doesn’t always happen immediately with them, but with Belle & Sebastian, it was nearly instantaneous. Strangely enough, the first song I would hear them play would actually be a cover of “Leader Of The Pack” by The Shangri-La’s. And though like I said, I didn’t know anything about them, I imagine even their hardcore fans didn’t expect that one coming. They even brought a motorcycle on stage and pantomimed revving the throttle the “Vroom” bit at the end of the chorus. Nice touch. 

Halfway through the set, they began a cover of “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side” by The Smiths, but Murdoch broke down laughing, soon realizing that he’d forgotten the lyrics and quickly brought a fan on stage named Brian to finish it. That cracked everybody up. A little later, they brought up another fan on stage to play percussion and sing along to “Dirty Dream Number Two”. At the end of their encore that night, they did “Everyday People” by Sly & The Family Stone. Their singer Stuart Murdoch introduced it, calling it “a song by one of the greatest bands to come out of San Francisco… No, it’s not fuckin’ Green Day”. To be fair, Green Day came out of the East Bay, but whatever.

Speaking of the city by the bay, the following night they did a cover of “San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)”, the ubiquitous hippie anthem by Scott McKenzie. Belle & Sebastian would follow that with another stylistic curveball, playing “Billy Jean” by Wacko Jacko himself. We didn’t see that one coming either. But their original tunes immediately got and kept my attention both nights, particularly with such brilliant melodies as “Judy & The Dream Of Horses”, “The Wrong Girl”, and “There’s Too Much Love”. Seriously, to this day “The Boy With The Arab Strap” is one that will make me feel so moved that I get get a little misty. The crowd clapped along to that one on both nights. And I would need such inspirational songs soon after and indeed after these shows, I collected quite a few of their albums. That music help get me through that dark time and I imagine helped quite a few others as well. I was happy as always that there was a poster for those nights, a well deserved one, but that happiness is tinged with the bitter knowledge that it would be the last one I’d get before 9/11. Writing this now and having listened to those nights again, I do feel a touch of shame for having not seen them since and I hope they come back soon, so I can rectify that error. I don’t want these shows to be my last time, but if they were, they were at least good ones. 

Cake, Deke Dickerson, War., SF, Wed., September 5

SETLIST : Ruby Sees All, Frank Sinatra, Love You Madly, Sad Songs & Waltzes, Comfort Eagle, Satan Is My Motor, I’m Coming Down, Sheep Go To Heaven, Daria, Shadow Stabbing, Stickshifts & Safetybelts, Nugget, I Will Survive, Never There, Friend Is A Four Letter Word, Short Skirt/Long Jacket, (encore), You Part The Waters, Italian Leather Sofa, Jolene

I can probably safely say that Cake were at the height of their popularity at this time. Their new album, “Comfort Eagle”, their first one signed on Columbia, had just come out that July and though it didn’t sell as well as the one before, “Prolonging The Magic” which had gone platinum, it would still certify gold. Cake were packing houses from coast to coast anyway and that certainly was the case at The Warfield where I would see the first of their two sold out shows there where I had last seen them there two years before this for their “Unlimited Sunshine” tour. They had recently replaced their drummer Todd Roper with Pete McNeal, though Todd would ultimately rejoin the band in 2016. 

The new album was only a brisk 36 minutes long, but they were definitely getting some airplay with their new single “Short Skirt/Long Jacket”. In fact, I remember MTV using it around then in a commercial segment where they would approach random people on the street and play it to them through headphones to gauge their reactions. There was a tall, black fellow who wasn’t sure at first, but after a few more bars, started to warm up to it and there was another older, balding white guy who was more dismissive, claiming that they were ripping off better big swing bands from the 40’s. That may or may not be true and perhaps some of the members of Cake would even agree with him, but it was a catchy little ditty nonetheless and an instrumental version of it would be used as the theme song for the TV show “Chuck” four years later. 

Cake had the knack of picking out talented opening acts and they continued their winning streak bringing on stage Deke Dickerson that night. Deke is truly a master rockabilly musician, a real virtuoso on his guitar. That music with its frenetic pace demands a level of musicianship that folks in that genre seldom get credit for. In between gigs, Deke would even write articles for Guitar Player magazine. He quickly got the crowd’s attention, storming the stage asking, “San Francisco, are you ready to fuckin’ rock?!?” The bad news is once again the batteries on my recorder ran low during his set, making his songs sound like they were gradually speeding up faster and faster. Though I couldn’t decipher most of his set, I do know that he played “Hot Rod Queen”, followed by “Red Headed Woman”, and later did “Mean Little Mama” and “Hello Blues”. Thankfully, I noticed that my batteries were exhausted by the end of Deke’s set and changed them before Cake was on.

As you might have read before in my previous tales of Cake’s performances, I have noted singer John McCrea’s humorous though prickly attitude. But on this occasion, he at least had the excuse of being sick to warrant his customary snarkiness. It was nothing life threatening, probably just a bad cold or a case of the flu. Keeping his balding head warm under a wool, woodsman’s cap, John said something to the effect that he was considering throwing in the towel on that night or the following one, but he was glad he stuck it out and I’m pretty sure he made it to the next one, though I didn’t attend it. He asked the crowd after “Sheep Go The Heaven” if he could get a cough drop and he got so many offers he had to tell us, “Don’t throw them at me like I’m a zoo animal!… That’s enough!” Part of me was glad he got pelted a little… whiny primadonna that he is. He mentioned it again before they did “Part The Waters”, the first song of their encore declaring, “Every time I come to San Francisco, I get sick… Let’s boo sickness!” and we all booed along with him.

John’s ill health notwithstanding, Cake managed to put on a delightful show as usual all the same, getting the whole house to sing along to “Satan Is My Motor” and clap along to “Comfort Eagle”. Though like I said, the new album was a short one, we still got to hear four of the new songs that night. I enjoyed their wistful cover of Willie Nelson’s “Sad Songs & Waltzes” especially as well as their cover of Gloria Gaynor’s disco anthem “I Will Survive”. Before they did “It’s Coming Down”, John described it as a song about how “Aztecs had a special god” to pray to when one didn’t want to “bother the main god ‘cus he would get really pissed” when “you had an acknowledgement of guilt or something that you did wrong”. He went on, “So, there’s this other god who played cards and drank a lot” that folks could “confess your sins to”. 

Later, during the encore, John admitted, “Cake doesn’t use a setlist… What’s up with that? In order to best serve you, we have to actually feel like what we feel like playing. We really want to play this one” and they did “Italian Leather Sofa” and finished the night with a long version of “Jolene”. I believed his admission considering that this would be the first occasion seeing them perform where they didn’t play their hit single “Going The Distance” since it came out, arguably their most famous tune. But I’m happy to say like their previous Warfield show, that they gave out a poster at the end of the night. This time it was a cartoon depiction of a Wagneresque opera singer, an ironic reminder to Mr. McCrae that sick or not, the show must go on and indeed is not over until the fat lady sings. 

Rollins Band, Mother Superior, Superfuzz, Fill., SF, Fri., August 31

SETLIST : You Didn’t Need, Up For It, I Want So Much More, What’s The Matter Man, Stop Look & Listen, 10X, The Rocker, Nowhere To Go But Inside, Always The Same, All I Want, Hello, One Shot, Going Out Strange, Starve, Thinking Cap, Get Some Go Again, Your Number Is One, (encore), Too Much Rock & Roll, (unknown), Are You Ready, Do It

It had been four years since I had seen Henry on that very stage with Skunk Anansie opening, but he disbanded that old group and enlisted Mother Superior to be his new one just a year later. Mother Superior would be serving double duty this night as the opening act as well. Together, they would record “Nice”, his third one with his new band and would be his final studio album, which had just been released only ten days before this show. Henry had been busy putting that album together in between his work on the “Night Visions” show on MTV, sort of a “Twilight Zone” knockoff that was ultimately short lived and had also leant his voice talents that year playing the character Mad Stan on the animated series “Batman Beyond”. Also in 2001, Mr. Rollins put out a couple spoken word albums, “A Rollins In The Wry” and “Live At The Westberth Theater”. Henry and the band released a live album as well from their performance at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark the year before called “A Clockwork Orange Stage” which I own and revere. Few bands have the raw energy of Henry and company and that album captured it about as well as any live album could. I always found it baffling that his spoken word shows sold at least three times as many tickets as the ones he did with his band. Still relatively young, having just turned the ripe old age of 40 that February, we were all a little surprised when he put performing music behind him for good. 

I would see Rollins perform one more time on the Fillmore stage with a band two years later, but that was it. Sadly, none of his performances at The Fillmore got posters, a cruel oversight. Of coarse, no one would have predicted at the time that ol’ Hank would hang it up so soon, with his brand new album and fresh off of the Warped Tour that summer playing with bands several years his junior. Seriously, Rollins would rock circles around those squirts, making them look downright flabby and weak. And anyone who had the honor of seeing Henry make music will know that his muscular sound was only matched by his mind boggling physique. I’ve said it before. Once you’ve seen that beet red, tree trunk neck of his flexing with its throbbing, ropey veins as he would belt out his lyrics, well, it’s for life. There actually was a third act on the bill that evening, a group called Superfuzz from Denmark, though a rock band from Delhi, India also shared that name, though they formed four years after this. Mother Superior gave them a shout out later between songs, along with “Kim & Jiffy Lube & not necessarily in that order”. 

It didn’t take long for Henry to warm up the crowd and get the mosh pit going. Between songs, he told the story about how he had met Bill Graham ten years earlier at Shoreline, presumably when he was the opening act on the first Lollapalooza tour. “I went up to him and said, ‘Mr. Graham, it’s a honor to meet you. You’ve done a lot of amazing things’ and he looked at me and said, ‘I know’”. Coincidentally, I actually listened to Henry tell that same story while I was putting together my annual holiday CD for friends last week from the time he played Shoreline at Live 105’s first B.F.D. festival in 1994. Graham died in a helicopter crash shortly after he met Henry, just three months later. He went on to say that “Stop, Look, & Listen” was a song about “people who talk too much” and added “I wrote this song about me!” Henry dusted off a Thin Lizzy cover called “The Rocker” saying, “It’s like a band habit, man. We just started playing it last year. We can’t stop playing it!” A couple songs later, he introduced “Always The Same” as “this is something that will hopefully shake the nuts and bolts off your fine, fine frame”. 

The pumped up audience chanted “Rollins! Rollins! Rollins!” just before they did “Get Some Go Again” and they followed it, finishing the set with “Your Number Is One”. He came back out for the encore and addressed us, “I know you’ve all heard the rap at least 50 times, a rap where the guy in the band says without you we’d have no show. He says that partially ‘cus he’s trying to kiss your ass, but mostly because it’s true. In the year 2001, if you’ve noticed, passionate hardcore soul music by people who can actually play their instruments like these guys, (followed by a cheer from the crowd), and the mighty Superfuzz. That kind of music, that audience is drying up and everyone goes to that ball-less La-La-La shit. So if years go by and our audience becomes more exclusive, we’ll love you even more… This song is about that feeling. This song is about being too much, having too much soul, it’s called ‘Too Much Rock & Roll’”. I suppose that speech would have been a hint that Henry was soon going to call it quits with his band, but that night, we were all just stunned in awe of his intensity as his encore continued, finishing the night with “Do It”. Hank appropriately ended it with a crescendo, belting out “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!!!” at the top of his superhuman lungs. 

Billy Idol, War., SF, Thur., August 30

SETLIST : Cradle Of Love, Dancing With Myself, Flesh For Fantasy, Don’t You Forget About Me, Walking The Monster, The Fire Song, White Wedding, Sweet Sixteen, Got To Be Your Lover, Eyes Without A Face, Don’t Need A Gun, (encore), Blue Highway, Ready Steady Go, Rebel Yell, Mony Mony, L.A. Woman

It had been a long time coming for me to bear witness to a headlining concert with the one and only Mr. William Michael Albert Broad, otherwise known as Billy Idol. I had seen him do a brief set at the Bridge School Benefit in 1996, but this show was “An Evening With…”, just him, no opener. This one counts for sure. Of coarse, I had familiar with all his big hits and his snarling, sleeveless visage throughout the 80’s. His videos permeated the airwaves all over the world and clearly he was on top of his game then. But his career came to a crashing halt literally in 1990 when he was in a motorcycle accident that nearly cost him one of his legs. That put him out of the running for a while from touring and even cost him the part of the villainous T-1000 in “Terminator 2 : Judgement Day”. His “Cyberpunk” album in 1993 bombed and for a while, it seemed Mr. Idol was fading into obscurity.

But as predicted, the inevitable forces of nostalgia brought renewed interest in the 80’s around this time, having 20 odd years passed. VH1 had recently aired an episode of “Behind The Music” with Billy and a few days later, he and his longtime guitarist Steve Stevens appeared on VH1’s “Storytellers”. Steve was performing with Billy that night at The Warfield and the show was actually being billed in the ads as “Billy Idol featuring Steve Stevens”. I learned researching this show that Stevens had won a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for his lead guitar work in the theme for “Top Gun” and he did a pretty impressive guitar solo after they played “Eyes Without A Face” that night. Billy had also released a Greatest Hits album in 2001 and we certainly heard most of them at that show.

Before the band came on stage, they played some swingin’ 60’s, London go-go dancing music over the speakers, sort of Austin Powers sounding stuff. Then the crowd went wild, especially the women, when Billy stormed on dressed in leather opening the show with “Cradle Of Love”, immediately followed by “Dancing With Myself”. Billy was doing his signature fist pumping moves, snarling away all evening beneath his trademark blonde hair spikes. I overheard a conversation I had with a young woman who had backstage passes, but I couldn’t remember who she was. I couldn’t join her regardless, so I made my way up front to get a closer look. He and Steve did an acoustic version of “White Wedding”, just the two of them and everybody sang along. It was quiet at first, but then Billy got a cheer when he belted out “Start again!!!” I liked how they did a little breakdown of the James Bond theme during “Don’t Need A Gun” too. 

In concerts, like vacations, one might not remember everything that went right though one certainly remembers vividly when something goes spectacularly wrong. That was the case near the end of Billy’s show when he was having trouble with his wireless handheld mic. The monitor engineer quickly gave him another one and when that one wasn’t working, Mr. Idol flipped his lid. I will never forget the sight of him hurling that mic overhand like a German hand grenade at that poor, cowering monitor guy. Billy missed him, but seriously, you could hurt somebody with one of those things. He abruptly stormed off stage shouting something to the effect of “Make it bloody work!!!… They’ve got a fucking fifth grader on monitors here!” After a good five minutes or so of the crowd cheering “Billy! Billy! Billy!” and the “Let’s go Billy! (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap)” baseball chant for his return, he relented and came back on stage for a five song encore, ending the show with a rousing cover of “L.A. Woman” by The Doors. Incidentally, Billy had a small role in Oliver Stone’s movie “The Doors” playing Cat, one of Jim Morrison’s entourage. I’m happy to say that there was a poster at the end of the night and it was a brilliant one, made by Chris Shaw, one of my favorite poster artists. 

Ween, The Chantigs, Fill., SF, Tues., August 28

SETLIST : What Deaner Was Talkin’ About, The Golden Eel, Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down), The Stallion Part 3, Waving My Dick In The Wind, Take Me Away, Nan, papa Zit, The Stallion Part 5, Voodoo Lady, Back To Basom, Bananas & Blow, Piss Up A Rope, Marble Tulip Juicy Tree, Don’t Sweat It, Dr. Rock, I’m In The Mood To Move, I’ll Be Your Jonny On The Spot, Touch My Tooter, Mister Would You Please Help My Pony?, Buckingham Green, Sorry Charlie, Birthday Boy, She’s Your Baby, The Mollusk, Band On The Run, (encore), Ocean Man, Roses Are Free, Licking The Palm For Guava, Mushroom Festival In Hell, Never Squeal, You Fucked Up

Forgive me once again gentle readers for my prolonged absence. Between the long stretch at work doing Outside Lands and the following System Of A Down show in the park in August and my adventures in Europe in September, I had been derelict in my duty to this blog. So, I’m now taking the baby steps back into the shallow end of the pool here to regale you with the tale Of Ween at The Fillmore. I had seen them only once before as an opener for the Foo Fighters at The Warfield in 1996 with Jawbreaker, but I enjoyed what I heard. But this time their set wouldn’t be just a modest 45 minute sample, but a feast of 32 songs spanning a solid two and a half hours. It was the first night of a two show stint and with both nights sold out, it was a safe bet that there would be a poster at the end of the show and it would be a good one. It was. 

On a sad note, the R & B pop star Aaliyah just died in a plane crash in the Bahamas three days before this evening. She was just beginning a promising film career at the all too young age of 22, having finished making “Queen Of The Damned” and just beginning to film her scenes for the sequels of “The Matrix”. Jada Pinkett Smith would ultimately take over the role of Zee in those movies and if that wasn’t bad enough, the role of The Oracle would have to be recast because Gloria Foster who played her in the original past away from diabetes only one day after this show. That’s two principal actors just four days apart from each other. I thought it was ironic that Foster died from diabetes too since her final character would be one who was known for liking candy, but let’s return to the show at hand. 

It was a transitional period for Gene and Dean, having just left Elektra after the “White Pepper” album to form their own label, Chocodog Records. There had been some legal wrangling as usual before they were free but eventually they released their “Live In Toronto Canada” record that year, though they wouldn’t release any new material until they put out their “Quebec” album in 2003. In the meantime, Ween had made some notable friends in the animation business, collaborating on a number of projects with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of “South Park”. They even contributed a song called “Loop De Loop” to an episode of “SpongeBob SquarePants” the previous November. It’s a jaunty little number about tying your shoes, entertaining as well as educational. SpongeBob’s creator Stephen Hillenburg said Ween’s album “The Mollusk” was one of the things that inspired the show. Ween played “Ocean Man” during the encore that night which had also been used in the closing credits for “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie” in 2004. As you might of read in previous entries, my brother Alex appeared in the beginning of that film with other live actors playing a pirate. It’s a funny movie. Check it out.

I don’t believe there was an opening act on the main stage that night, but up in the poster room, The Chantigs were performing. They were a modest acoustic band with a mandolin player and their harmonies weren’t half bad, though I believe this show was the only time I’d see them play. Between songs, one of them lamented about forgetting to bring their T-shirts to sell, though they did remember to bring their CDs. But as I mentioned, Ween played a long time that night, covering plenty of material that more than made up for the five years waiting to see them once again. When I first saw Ween, it was just the two of them, but this time they were touring with a full band, Claude Coleman Jr. on drums, Dave Dreiwitz on bass, and Glenn McClelland on keys. Together, they were tight.

Once again, I was impressed by the technical skills of Gene and Dean and diversity of genres between their songs. I don’t think Gene and Dean get enough credit for their guitar chops as well, especially in songs like “Voodoo Lady”. Likewise, they kept us in stitches with their hilarious lyrics for numbers with such bawdy titles as “Wavin’ My Dick In The Wind”, “Touch My Tooter”, and “Piss Up A Rope”. But then, they could turn it down on a dime with tender, acoustic tunes like “She’s Your Baby”. Gene said after that song, “I’ll spare you ‘The River’ by Bruce Springsteen right now.” They did however do one cover that evening, “Band On The Run” by Wings, which ended their main set. They finished their encore with squealing feedback and Gene joked, “We’ll see you tomorrow… Hopefully… I mean, we’ll try.” I’m disappointed to say that this was the last time I saw Ween perform and probably won’t again in foreseeable future. Last August, Dean said he’s taking a little mental health break and they would stop touring. After 40 years, I suppose he’s entitled to take a breather. 

Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts, Danielle Spencer, Fill., SF, Fri., August 24

SETLISTS :

(DANIELLE SPENCER) : White Monkey, Blast Off, Forgive Me, 200 Steps, Jonathon White, (unknown)

(THIRTY ODD FOOT OF GRUNTS) : Photograph Kills, Things Have Got To Change, What Do You Want Me To Forget? The Night That Davey Hit The Train, All The White Circles, Wendy, Sail Those Same Oceans, She’s Not Interested, Great Big Sea, Swept Away Bayou, Afraid, Oblique Is My Love, Somebody Else’s Princess, (encore), Full Length Of The River, David, The Legend Of Barry Kable, (encore), What’s Her Name?, Hold You, Folsom Prison Blues

From time to time, I’ve been privy to a handful of shows from so-called “celebrity vanity bands”, but this one probably leads the pack in star power, or at least of that time without question. Russell Crowe had just won the Best Actor Oscar for “Gladiator” that March. Granted, I think in the long run, Keanu Reeves, playing bass for his band Dogstar, won the overall box office draw contest, but suffice to say Russell was on top of the world and his band, the cryptically named 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts, who were just about to release their “Bastard Life Or Clarity” album a month after this show. There had been gossip about Crowe’s boorish behavior off screen, but those stories tend to get exaggerated. He did however had just ended a whirlwind affair with Meg Ryan when they filmed “Proof Of Life” together, but it fizzled almost as soon as it started. As luck would have it, the opening act at this show was Russell’s once and future girlfriend, Danielle Spencer. They had been together since ’89, meeting on the set of the film “The Crossing”, and had reconciled after the Ryan thing. Back together both personally and professionally, they’d marry two years after this, go on to sire two sons together, but ultimately divorce in 2018.

What I and most folks didn’t know that night was that Mr. Crowe had actually been a musician long before he broke through as an actor, that and he was originally from New Zealand, not Australia. There, he performed under the name “Russ Le Roq”, (no kidding), in the early 80’s, busking on the streets of Wellington and even did a stint playing Eddie and Dr. Scott in a stage production of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. By 1992, Russell formed The Grunts and had been touring and recording music as his film career brief respite times allowed. So, by this point, it was understandable that his work on the silver screen would eclipse this obscure band and this would be in fact, The Grunts’ last tour. Incidentally, this will be my last entry for some time since I’m going overseas for a month. Apologies in advance. I’ll miss you too. 

This night would be the first of two sold out shows and rest assured, there was no shortage of nubile young ladies in attendance ready to pledge their undying devotion to the one and only Maximus himself. There was even a sign in the ladies room that said to use the men’s room if the line was too long, something I don’t remember The Fillmore ever doing before or since. That being said, there were certainly a number of celebrity stalker nerds in the audience too. I should know. I was one of them. But at least I had the good taste not to be the dipshit who clumsily blurted out “Maximus!!!” between songs, which drew a frustrated rebuke from Russell during that show. There’s always has to be one and I suppose it was inevitable.

Though Danielle Spencer had been billed as the only opening act, they actually started the evening with a spirited, but mediocre Australian stand up comedian whose name I didn’t catch. He was a burly and surly, a real Bruce. He rambled on a number of subjects that came so rapid fire, I really could only make out a few of them, like about the time he went to Chicago nightclub where they “played music in the toilets louder than on the dance floor”. He also said that he went into a bank in Chicago and asked a teller to “take out $200… She asked how’d you like it? Never thought about it before… said put it in the crack of your ass. I’ll take it out with my teeth!… In Australia, we only get one option. They just hand it to ‘ya.” He later told a story about confronting a crying toddler in a grocery store, yelling at him, “You’re not having a Hershey’s bar!” Pretty rowdy stuff, but it grew tiresome quickly. 

There was another opening act, a graceful Aboriginal tribal dancer accompanied by someone playing percussion sticks and a didgeridoo, introduced as a “warrior for peace”. Rarely do we get dancers for any show, but it was short and sweet. Danielle came on stage finally with a cello player and a guitarist playing songs off her recently released debut album, “White Monkey”. I liked her stuff, sort of Tori Amos/Regina Spektor-esque, a popular sound around that time. That infernal comedian came back out to entertain the crowd during the set change and somehow managed to get them so sing “Shake, Rattle, & Roll” with him. Obnoxious as he was, it did help pass the time.

But we all knew what we were there for and soon enough, they played a bit of “Weather With You” over the loudspeakers, a catchy song from fellow citizens from Down Under, Crowded House, and at long last, there he was front and center. There is a strange chemical reaction, at least with me anyway, the first half second of seeing a celebrity in the flesh for the first time. It’s like a switch in my head gets turned on. Yep, that’s him. That’s Russell. A couple songs in, it wears off a little and tried giving the band’s music an impartial listen. But by the third song, I was sort of.. meh. I was standing next to venerable Fillmore veteran Bill Garby when Russell called the venue “The Fillmore West” between songs. Bill and I looked at each other knowingly and shook our heads, knowing that The Fillmore West was an entirely different venue that had been located about a half mile away. We shrugged and forgave him for it. It’s an easy mistake to make.

Russell was quite talkative between songs, giving lengthy explanations of their meaning, such as for “The Night Davey Hit The Train”. A little backstory of my own, my first encounter seeing Crowe act was a showing of the film “Romper Stomper” at The Roxie in The Mission. Even back in 1992, I could recognize his undeniable acting skill and charisma, though I wouldn’t see him again until his breakthrough role in “L.A. Confidential” five years later. Anyway, “Davey” was a character in “Romper Stomper” played by a young man named Daniel Pollack. Sadly, Daniel was addicted to heroin, fought depression, and was facing an upcoming court case, when he decided to walk in front of train and end it all. He was good actor too and the film was a hit, unfortunately released seven months after his passing. A couple songs later, The Grunts livened the mood back up again a bit having one of the members bust out a trumpet between songs, belting out a few licks of “The Theme From Hawaii 5-0” by The Ventures as well as the theme from “I Dream Of Genie”.  

As expected, the women went nuts for Russell, so it came to little surprise that one of them would throw her unmentionables at him. He chuckled and said, “So, we got a new rule. We don’t need your shit… Don’t throw your underwear if you’re planning on it.” He made a joke later about Tasmania calling it the part of Australia “where people have sex with their own relatives” and asked which was America’s equivalent, “Texas?… Arkansas?” Crowe ended their set, giving another lengthy introduction to a song called “The Legend Of Barry Kable”. That one was about the 9 year old son of a Longshoreman in the 60’s who had been “told by his mates that his wife was having an affair. So, he went back home and he got a kitchen knife. While Barry was sitting on his mother’s lap, he cut off her head… took it back down to the pub and showed it around just to prove that he wasn’t a man to be trifled with… When it came to the trial, the eyewitness refused to testify. Police tied him up, beat him up, ran him over with their squad car. Left him for dead in front of the Royal Opera House in Sydney.” At that point, I just let out a nervous, “OK!”, and hoped he’d change the subject soon.

The band came back for a three song encore, the last one being a cover of “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash. Crowe told one final story before it saying “I’ve been a fan of his for years and years and years” and that “he got a letter” from him that was “quite complimentary”. Crowe said that Cash had his CDs and seen some of his work. Now, I have to real reason to doubt this story, I’m sure he has the letter to prove it, but it felt a little self congradulatory at the time. Still, I’ll give him it. Like I said, he was on the top of his game then after all. He pumped up the crowd before the song, urging them to “try to make the curtains come down! Try to bust up those chandeliers! Try to make people fall out of the balcony!… Don’t fall out of the balcony.” By the end of it all, his voice felt battered and he was pretty much just yelling, but he got an A for effort.

As I had hoped, there was a poster that night, a funny cartoonish rendering of two kangaroos facing each other in front of the Transamerica Building and Coit Tower. If there hadn’t been a poster, I would have been surprised and obviously disappointed, but the women would have flipped out. Crisis averted. Like I said before, the Grunts would soon disband, but four years later Russell would poach a few ex-members as well as Alan Doyle from Great Big Sea to form The Ordinary Fear Of God, (sharing the same initials as Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts). That same year, Crowe would get into that mess over him throwing a cell phone at someone. Anyway, it was the only time I’ve ever seen him and probably the last time as well. But as the last line of “Gladiator” says… “I will see you again. But not yet. Not yet.”

The Go-Go’s, Imperial Teen, War., SF, Tues., August 21

SETLISTS :

(IMPERIAL TEEN) : Butch, Ivanka, Our Time, Sugar, Water Boy, Lipstick, Teacher’s Pet, Million $ Man, You’re One, Yoo Hoo

(THE GO-GO’S) : Head Over Heels, Skidmarks On My Heart, Stuck In My Car, How Much More, Apology, Vacation, Insincere, Tonight, Sonic Superslide, Automatic Rainy Day, Automatic, This Town, Unforgiven, Beatnik Beach, Our Lips Are Sealed, La La Land, We Got The Beat, (encore), Fun With Ropes, Has The Whole World Lost Its Head?, (encore), Throw Me A Curve, I Wanna Be Sedated

May The Go-Go’s forgive me for my neglectful delay of getting to write this installment, for like so many occasions, my work life interceded. Having just finished a grueling stretch in the Golden Gate Park Polo Fields setting up three days of Outside Lands and the big System Of A Down/Deftones show, I have finally come to a point where I’m physically and mentally ready to take on this one. Like before, the CD’s and notes from this show had been collecting dust on my desk, a visual reminder during that marathon of the work to be done. So, in the spirit of divine forgiveness, it comes as serendipitous that I would be writing about The Go-Go’s tour promoting their fourth and final studio album, “God Bless The Go’s Go’s”, released just four months before this show. It was their first batch of new material in 17 years and we were “blessed” to hear eight new songs that night. 

It had only been a year since I had seen them at Sharon Meadows, another show in the park, at one of the big Alice festivals. Such shows around then paved the way for larger ones like Outside Lands and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in the future. At that Alice show, Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day joined them on stage for “Our Lips Are Sealed”. Billy would go on to collaborate with The Go-Go’s on the new album, co-writing the song “Unforgiven”, which they played that night, though there was no surprise appearance from Billy Joe this time. They had recently had two big events in the Big Apple, recording their “Live In Central Park” DVD and joining the likes of rock & roll royalty as Elton John, Billy Joel, David Crosby, and Paul Simon for “An All Star Tribute To Brian Wilson” at Radio City Music Hall. 

Guitarist Jane Wiedlin had added to her acting credits a regular role in MTV’s teen soap opera “Spyder Games”, playing an ex-rocker running a coffee house and though it was only on for one season, it still managed to churn out 65 episodes. Last but certainly not least, singer Belinda Carlisle would fulfill the teenage fantasies of countless young men, and probably quite a few women, when she agreed to do a series of nude pictures for Playboy magazine. I of coarse never looked upon them for hours and hours on end with my yearning, lustful eyes, but I hear that they were clearly touched up to the point where they almost looked fake… so I hear anyway. (A-hem)

An added bonus for the night would be the addition of Imperial Teen. the opening act on that bill. It had been four years since I had seen them open for Dinosaur Jr. at Slim’s and as I’ve said before, they are one of the best opening bands a headliner could hope for. In between those years, their single “You Hoo” had been in the soundtrack for the indy hit film “Jawbreaker” in ’99, they had recently left their label at Universal, and were on the cusp of releasing their next album, “On”. We would hear five new songs that show. It was a packed house when they took the stage and singer/guitarist Will Schwartz introduced the band, “Good evening! Were you expecting someone else? We’re Imperial Teen. Thanks for being here. So we’re from here.” Bassist Jane Stebbins then asked,  “Has anybody seen us before? We’ve never played here!”, and they opened their set with “Butch”.

Keyboardist Roddy Bottom later pumped up the crowd saying how excited he was to see The Go-Go’s and “It’s been a good tour. We’re exhausted, but it’s a good tour… besides our first night”. He went on to gush about how fun it was to check out “the Empire State Building with Jane” and to explore “The French Quarter with Belinda… Those miles slip away” and he followed all that sweet talk appropriately with the song “Sugar”. A couple numbers later Roddy introduced “Teacher’s Pet” as “our New Wave song… New Wave is a kind of music that came out in the 80’s, like after punk rock. It was sorta like a kind of homogenized version of punk rock, kinda had a life of its own”. 

It was enjoyable as always to see Imperial Teen again, especially playing in front of such a large and enthusiastic crowd from their home town. Thankfully, I would only have to wait two short months to see Imperial Teen once again at Slim’s, opening for The Breeders. It’s always an exquisite pleasure to hear their hard hitting drummer Lynn Truell on the skins. She and Go-Go’s Gina Schock are two of the best rock drummers I’ve ever heard and it was gratifying to hear them playing together on the same bill. There had been a handful female drummers at that skill level before, but thanks partially to their work and inspiration they have since passed along, there are many more now. 

They had erected a large, portable screen, what is commonly known as a fast-fold screen in my profession, and The Go-Go’s began their set with a funny video of a young woman playing God floating in the clouds, addressing us along backed by a choir of angles, “Hello?… This is the only way, so be it. Good morning! This is God. I can say it is also a good evening because I made it. It is good, isn’t it? They’re all good. There’s a couple things I’d like to share, kind of pat myself on the back. You know, I never really get to take credit for anything. I do a lot. Well for one thing, I made breasts!… Check this out!” The crowd cheered and then there was a thunderclap. She went on, “Yes!… I made light. That was a good one, huh?”, there was a bit of harps playing then, “I am good, aren’t I? Coming to the stage, something I’m most proud of. I’d like to introduce my finest creation… Please welcome The Go-Go’s!”. The audience erupted in applause as they opened the set with “Head Over Heels”. 

From there they went into “Skidmarks On My Heart” followed immediately by “Stuck In My Car”, one of their new songs. After they finished their hit, “Vacation”, they did a little banter with Belinda saying, “This song’s about the creep we’ve all been with… I don’t know if we’ve been with the same creep.” bassist Kathy Valentine interjected, “I liked him!”, and then Jane said, “He gets around”. Belinda continued, “I think collectively, I’d say about 500 to 600 creeps. This song is for that creep we all dated”, and then they played “Insecure”, another new song. They kept the hits coming as always finishing their set with their iconic, breakthrough hit, “We Got The Beat”. It wasn’t long until they returned for their first encore, starting it with “Fun With Ropes”, which Belinda described as an “early song” that “never was on any album”. 

They came back for a second encore and began it with another new one called “Throw Me A Curve”, Belinda introducing it as a song “for all you full figured gals out there. Maximum respect!” Jane asked, “What about Size 2?… Uh oh, babe is getting annoyed”. People gave the band bouquets of flowers throughout the show and Belinda graciously thanked them for it before they finished the night with a respectful cover of “I Wanna Be Sedated” by The Ramones. As you might have read from previous entries from around this time, many musicians were paying tribute to that seminal punk band’s recently departed singer, Joey Ramone, who succumbed to lymph cancer that April. And though the last time The Go-Go’s played The Warfield back in 1994, there was a poster given out at the end of the night, alas there wasn’t one this round.

I’m happy to report that I would see The Go-Go’s again in the future, at The Fillmore in 2011 to be precise, celebrating the 30th anniversary of their smash hit album, “Beauty & The Beat”. That one got a poster, a brilliant Jason Mecier collage rendition of that album’s iconic cover made out of feminine bathroom products. The Go-Go’s had even received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame that year as well. But by that time, I had given up bootlegging the year before, so this show would be the last one I’d tape personally. This gig would also be the final time I’d see them with Kathy, who would leave the band, filing a bitter lawsuit over royalties. Gina Schock had done the same years before and I’d be lucky to see Gina up close and personal in 2022 when she made a surprise appearance playing drums for The Go-Go’s” song “Tonite” alongside The Linda Lindas at Outside Lands. I shook Gina’s hand and told her she played wonderfully. She confided that she felt a bit of relief joking, “That’s good… I couldn’t hear a thing from my monitors”. 

The Go-Go’s were at long last inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame three years ago, but have since announced their retirement. Of coarse, I don’t believe any band when they say that, but we’ll see. Also, I was lucky enough to attend one of the first showings of The Go-Go’s musical “Head Over Heels” at the Curran Theater in 2018 before it moved on to Broadway, a shout out to Matt Thayer who somehow managed to score us free tickets for stuff yet again. Jane had helped produce it and for a rock & roll musical which by and large have historically been corny as hell, but I admit that it was actually pretty good, funny and well produced. The music wasn’t bad either. 

The Monkees, Little Fuzzy, Fill., SF, Sat., August 18

SETLIST : Overture, Last Train To Clarksville, Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow), For Pete’s Sake, The Girl That I Knew Somewhere, Valleri, Randy Scouse Git, Mary Mary, Your Auntie Grizelda, I Wanna Be Free, I’ll Love You Forever, Goin’ Down, Can You Dig It?, Girl, (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher, A Little Bit Me A Little Bit You, Two-Part Invention In F Major, No Time, Long Title : Do I Have To Do This All Over Again?, She Hangs Out, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Since I Fell For You, Lucille, It’s Nice To Be With You, That Was Then This Is Now, Porpoise Song (Theme From “Head”), Listen To The Band, Daydream Believer, (encore), I’m A Believer, I’m Not Your Stepping Stone, Pleasant Valley Sunday, Overture

It occurred to me while I was doing the prep work for writing about this show that The Monkees was probably the first band that I ever liked when I was a boy. I had always thought that band was Kiss for me, but even before I heard song one from those painted rock stars, I had been watching syndicated reruns of The Monkees’ seminal musical comedy show on TV since I could remember and knew all their hits. One tends to erase these earliest childhood musical memories once they hear The Beatles for the first time, but upon some meditation on the subject, it became clear to me that The Monkees came first. This is obviously ironic since they were clearly a Hollywood studio reaction to Beatlemania in the early 60’s, prompting the recruitment of the so-called Pre-Fab Four and though they and their show were a smash hit, by the time I was first aware of them, they had long since disbanded.

By this time in 2001, the band had already made a couple reunion tours in the mid 80’s and 90’s, marking their 20th and 30th anniversaries, or at least three of the members, Mickey Dolenz, Davey Jones, and Peter Tork, were on board for it. Mike Nesmith had opted out for many reasons, the first being that he didn’t need the money. Believe it or not, his mother invented “White Out”, you know, liquid paper, and having sold the her company to Gillette in 1979 for a whopping $47.5 million, Mike was flush with cash and could do as he pleased. Likewise, Mr. Nesmith had a respectable solo career as well as producing a few notable movies such as “Repo Man” and “Tapeheads”, two films which I consider to be a couple of the finest comedies ever created. Still, Mike kept cordial relations with the others, occasionally appearing on stage with them from time to time and even writing and directing their TV reunion special in ’97. Sadly, Mike wouldn’t be joining them at this show, a real disappointment for me since it being The Fillmore, would have been epic.

I had actually met Peter Tork face to face briefly while I was working at the Maritime Hall in 1997, though I can’t recall what show was there that night. I was instantly star struck when he entered our recording room and found him quite friendly and disarming. Strangely enough, the one thing that I remember most from our conversation was my mistakenly hearing him say that he’d just finished a tour of Europe where they performed in “Reims”. Peter corrected me and said he had actually said “arenas”. Reims, for those who don’t know is a small city in northern France which I had visited with my father years ago that is the birthplace of champagne. I was understandably nervous and distracted. Anyway, little would I have guessed that night that I would see Mr. Tork and his bandmates only four years later. 

The Monkees had been busy during those intervening years, being interviewed by VH1 for their “Behind The Music” special the year before and Davey Jones had recently released his “Just Me” solo album. VH1 had also put out a made for TV biopic movie about the band in 2000 called “Daydream Believer : The Monkees Story”. Davey was also into horseback riding and even competed as a jockey from time to time, a perfect hobby for a man of his diminutive stature. A quick fun fact, while doing research, I learned that he also was the inspiration for the character Chekov on “Star Trek”. Creator Gene Roddenberry saw Davey and thought his show needed an element that appealed to the young people, which would easily explain why Chekov and Davey have the same groovy haircut.

When the show was announced, I was ecstatic and knew I had to be there, hell or high water. The evening opened with some obscure band called Little Fuzzy, who played cute, but catchy pop songs with both a male and female singer. I can’t say where they came from or what became of them, but they were only on stage for a mere five songs. The night belonged to The Monkees and we all knew it. Their set began with their supporting band coming on stage and playing an overture medley of their songs. Though the riffs came fast and furious, I did make out the tunes of “Mary, Mary”, “Daydream Believer”, “Daddy’s Song”, “I’m A Believer”, and of course the “Theme From The Monkees”. Everyone erupted in thunderous applause as the three of the Pre-Fab Four made their way up and began the night with their hit, “Last Train To Clarksville” quickly followed by “Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)”. They had a great bunch of session players in tow with them including a horn section.

They then did “For Pete’s Sake” after which will lead me to a sort of elephant in the room subject that had plagued the band for decades. Peter had co-wrote that semi-eponymous song, which was always played for the ending credits of their TV show and indeed each member of the band were accomplished musicians in their own right. In fact, many of their songs like “Mary, Mary”, “The Girl That I Knew Somewhere”, and “Can You Dig It?” were written by them. But despite the band’s talents and their understandable and loud protests, the show runners insisted that the instruments on their albums be performed by session musicians, mostly done by The Wrecking Crew, a rotating collection of virtuoso musicians such as Hal Blaine, Glen Campbell, Carol Kaye, and others. These expert musicians laid the tracks for dozens of A-list musical stars back then ranging from Frank Sinatra to The Beach Boys and if anybody was going to have ringers play their songs on an album, they couldn’t find a more qualified group of musical geniuses to do so. But when word came out that The Wrecking Crew were responsible for playing all those hits The Monkees had on their albums, their adoring public turned against them in the most cruel and severe way.

The band did their best following the backlash to tour playing their own instruments and doing songs like “Listen To The Band” written by Mike to try to address the issue head on, but it was too little too late. Their fickle, fair weather fans had already coldly written them off. They would spend the rest of their lives trying to climb out of that pit of bitter disrespect, yet another reason why Mike left the band to pursue his solo career. There even was a flashback bit on “The Simpsons” once where Marge was in grade school and a classmate teased her about her Monkees lunchbox, taunting Marge about them not playing their own instruments and claiming, “That’s not even Mike Nesmith’s real hat”, a reference to Mike’s trademark wool cap. Marge’s psychiatrist would later reassure her, “The Monkees weren’t about music, Marge. They were about rebellion, about political and social upheaval!” Anyway, now that this issue has been addressed, I will continue.

Mickey joked with the crowd, “Fillmore! I spent two years here one night!” Davey claimed that they had “400 dancing girls” behind the curtains and that he had written over 200 songs and “that was just this morning” before he sang “I’ll Love You Forever”. Afterward, Mikey praised him saying, “In old Greek mythology, they said Helen Of Troy had the face that launched 1000 ships. Davey Jones had the face that shipped 1000 lunchboxes!” Davey then treated to us to his song “Girl” which he sang years ago when he was a guest star on “The Brady Bunch”. Incidentally, Barry Williams, the actor who played Mike Brady on that show would actually open for The Monkees when I’d see them return to The Fillmore the year after this. Later, Peter strapped on a 5-string banjo informing us that the instrument was an American invention and Mickey joked, “David, remind me not to river rafting with Peter”. Peter responded by playing a riff from “Dueling Banjos”, both gags being references to the film “Deliverance”. Peter then at first began singing the Jackie Wilson classic “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher” alone and was gradually joined by the rest of the band. 

They took a moment to thank a long list of songwriters that penned some of their hits like Neil Diamond, Carole King, and Boyce & Hart. Davey added “Neiman Marcus”, but claimed that his songs were too expensive for them to play now. Peter said that we can still visit him down on Union Square before introducing a song written by a guy “not 3 decades, but 30 decades ago… That’s 300 years for those who can multiply or for those who can’t multiply, Johann Sebastian Bach”. Mickey wisecracked that he is currently known as “Puff Bach” and from there Peter did a solo harpsichord rendition of “Two-Part Invention in F Major”. It obviously was another in a long line of efforts of the band members to reassure their fans that they actually were legitimate musicians, but to be fair, Peter nailed it. He then followed it with “Long Title : Do I Have To Do This All Over Again?”, a brilliant song that Peter wrote for their psychedelic comedy film “Head”. 

The band played a couple riffs of “Day Tripper” by The Beatles during “She Hangs Out” and continued with a handful of covers. Mickey was joined by his sister Coco and talked about his childhood being raised in Los Angeles which he claimed was populated by granola, thus being comprised of “fruits, nuts and flakes”. He said he was one of the nuts and that his father used to come into their living room stark naked singing such torchlight light opera tunes as “Some Enchanted Evening”. With his sister who then lived in San Jose, they would cover a song that his mother used to sing to him in the womb. He joked that it sounded a little different then and made a bunch of muffled singing sounds into his microphone. The two of them did a respectful cover of “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”, the swing hit made famous by The Andrews Sisters. Coco gave him a hug, left the stage, and Mickey went on to tell us, “Before The Monkees, in another life I had a band called Mickey & The One Nighters because it was just for one night, but what a night!” They used to sing a lot of rock and blues tunes calling it his “pre-Monkees singing… my PMS” and then he sang the jazz standard “Since I Fell For You” by Vince Guaraldi, a song made famous by Ella Fitzgerald. 

Next, Peter did a little biographical introduction as well saying that his folks mostly raised him on classical music saying at first he was “skeptical of rock”, thinking that it all sounded alike. But he then heard a song that brought his preconceptions down, adding that “Joshua didn’t bring the walls down so fast” and he “went totally bonkers for the song and I lost any objectivity”. And since then, playing rock to him was like having “a birthday party every night”. The band then joined him in a rollicking version of “Lucile” by Little Richard which featured an impressive saxophone solo. The boys finished their set with their smash hit “Daydream Believer” and they took a moment where they did the chorus a cappella with the audience. Naturally, the came back for an encore, starting with “I’m A Believer” and quickly going into their famous cover of “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone” by Paul Revere & The Raiders. Mickey did a funny bit where he was tossing his microphone between his hands stretched out to his sides, yelling words to the last beats of the songs, and pretending to accidentally toss the mic into the wrong hand he was singing into. They wrapped things up with “Pleasant Valley Sunday”, took a bow as their band reprised the overture, and that was it. 

I would have thrown a total hissy fit if there wasn’t a poster at the end of the night, but rest assured there was and it was a great one, probably one of the best posters The Fillmore ever issued. It was a cartoon image of a semi-submerged Statue Of Liberty with a monkey head, sticking its hand up in a peace sign instead of holding a torch with the skyline of San Francisco in the background, an obvious parody of the ending of “Planet Of The Apes”. It was a timely image too since Tim Burton had just released his well meaning and technically impressive, though mediocre remake of that movie the month before this. Regardless, this was a night to remember, one of those shows where us lowly ushers were spoiled rotten to the core. It relit my love for the band, especially Mickey’s incredible voice, a voice he doesn’t get enough credit for in my opinion. 

The band continued their tour down to the south of the state where they did a show in Anaheim at the Sun Theater. At that show, they recorded a live DVD for the King Biscuit Flower Hour, but Peter abruptly left the band immediately afterwards. Little did I or anybody know that Peter was falling into alcoholism and butting heads with the other two, complaining that he wanted to tour with his own band, Shoe Suede Blues. Peter would never tour with The Monkees again and never will since he sadly succumbed to cancer in 2019. Like I mentioned earlier, I would see The Monkees grace The Fillmore stage one more time the following year, that time only with Mickey and Davey, which once again was an excellent show, though it didn’t get a poster. As of today, Mickey is the last surviving Monkee having lost Davey first in 2012 at the all too young age of 66. I was lucky to catch Mike Nesmith in 2019, just two years before he passed playing at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. He was on the Rooster stage and though it was at a considerable distance, I have the solemn pride that can go to my grave saying that I at least got to see all four of the Pre-Fab Four in the flesh. 

Nadine’s Wild Weekend: Spike 1000, The KGB, Vegas De Milo, The Moss Brothers, Fill., SF, Thur., August 16

SETLISTS : 

(THE MOSS BROTHERS) : Heaven Got Overpopulated, Earth Quakes, Frustration, Psychomonkey, TV Crisis, (unknown), Whiner

(THE KGB) :  Fortune & Fame, Ain’t No Fakin’, Goodbye Girl, Captain Max, Once Upon A Time, Plastic Soul, Time Machine (Schoolhouse Blues), New Wave Song, Reefer Madness, Longshot, Lover Undercover, Player

One thing I always appreciated about The Fillmore back then was that they would occasionally put on showcases of local acts at affordable ticket prices. Though most of the acts on those bills never broke through to fame and fortune, many if not most of them were quite talented and to be sure, to grace that legendary stage would be one of if not the highlight of their musical careers. Such was the case for this show, the flagship concert for “Nadine’s Wild Weekend”. The Nadine in question would be Nadine Condon, a well known and respected promoter, producer, and publicist, (a triple P if you will), of bands in the area and this was partially a celebration of her birthday that weekend. Originally hailing from Louisville, Kentucky, Nadine had first settled in Arizona as a humble hospice worker in Arizona before making a go at breaking into the bay area music scene. Through years of diligent work and most certainly abject poverty, she would mentor and promote bands at such south of market venues as the Transmission Theater, the Paradise Lounge, and others for years, earning her the unofficial title locally of “The Godmother Of Rock”. By this time, she had produced 14 gold and platinum records and recently published a memoir called “Confessions”, a name after my own heart. 

Before I continue, I do have to reluctantly tarnish her stellar reputation a bit for her choice of bands that she helped elevate, starting with Jefferson Starship. For all those who live in the bay area, their beyond cheesy anthem, “We Built This City”, will forever haunt us. I remember catching them years ago opening for Los Lobos at the Marin County Fair and I openly booed them when they played that vile ear worm. Though she had left working for that band in 1988, she would continue to help the careers of Counting Crows, Smashmouth, Third Eye Blind, and (sigh)… Train. And if you’ve read any of my writings involved with any of those bands, you would know of my utter contempt of those four, though the contempt grows exponentially more severe in the order of those band’s listing. I have to give credit to Counting Crows singer Adam Duritz for being a genuinely nice guy and frankly I’m jealous that he got to date Winona Ryder for a brief time. I do relent the fact that all those bands made millions of dollars and I’m still working like a schnook. As an American, I have no choice but to admire them for being rich. But I digress.

I am happy to say that the bands on this bill were in fact enjoyable and talented, especially The KGB. But the evening began with The Moss Brothers and I was surprised to discover when they took the stage how young they were. Brothers Evan on drums was just 15 and his brother Ruben on vocals was only 12. They were accompanied by Kyle Wilson on bass who was the tender age of 14. Their young age aside, I was instantly impressed with their musical chops just a few bars into the opening song of their set, “Heaven Is Overpopulated”. It took very little time for me to see why Ruben was the youngest musician ever to be endorsed by Fender guitars. That kid could play circles around guys several times his age even back then. 

Nadine came out early to introduce them saying, “People of San Francisco, are you ready to get wild!?! Welcome to Nadine’s Wild Weekend 2001. We all know this is really a San Francisco crowd. We have 135 bands in 30 shows in 20 clubs over 4 days and nights for 1 wild weekend!” She thanked her fellow producers and the band Echobrain that would be ending the long weekend of shows with their debut gig at Bimbo’s that Sunday. Echobrain was fronted by Jason Newsted who had just left his duties as the bassist of Metallica after 14 years with that band and had helped produce The Moss Brothers first album, “Electricitation”. Fun fact, Jason and his new band would be taken to court by a Texas based plumbing company called Echo Drain over the name the following year, but the case was rightfully dismissed. You’d think Jason’s band would have actually helped that business, but whatever. I didn’t see Jason around that night, but I imagine he was somewhere in the house enjoying their music. Everybody liked The Moss Brothers and they graciously thanked Nadine at the end of their short set.

They were followed by another set of siblings, Foster Calhoun Johnson and his brother Alec, and their band Vegas De Milo. They were taking this opportunity to hail this show as their record release party for their third album, “Motel California”, a title parodying that ever present, yet overrated song by The Eagles. Once again, Nadine came out and shouted, “135 bands this weekend, 134 to go!” She went on to say that they believed in giving back to their community, so she helped produce a compilation album that was being sold for only $5 at the merch booth and the proceeds would help fund the SIBL project, (Songs Inspired By Literature). That project helped fund 26 reading programs throughout the bay area. She joked, “Will you please welcome to the stage direct from the Nevada State Boys Correctional Institute, Vegas De Milo!” The band came on to the recording of “Also Sprach Zarathustra” by Strauss followed by some scratch work from their DJ’s turntables. 

They were a fun band, though loud as fuck, incorporating some EDM beats side by side with their rock & roll stylings. I couldn’t figure out their entire setlist, but I know they played “Radio”, “Chemical Girl”, and “Payback”, before they ended their set that night with a lively cover of AC/DC’s “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock & Roll)”. They introduced “Payback”, a song that would go on to be used by Fox Sports and a few commercials, saying, “This is a little taste for everybody who said we’d never get out of the garage”. Foster also made sure to thank Nadine and told us that if we see her, to buy her a drink for her birthday. 

Like I said before, I really liked The KGB. They had just in fact been signed to Dreamworks and had recently released their self titled album through them, but were unceremoniously dropped soon thereafter. It’s a pity. Those guys had skills. Not to be confused with the notorious Russian intelligence agency, their name in fact stood for “Kensington Garage Band”, Kensington being a small town just north of Berkeley. Like Vega De Milo, they were quite loud, but I loved their energy and so did several spunky young ladies in the audience that night. Their screams for them between songs were almost as loud as they were. Likewise, they also did a cover that night, “Goodbye Girl” by The Squeeze, described by their singer Toby as “a song we love from the 80’s”. He pumped up the crowd between songs yelling, “People, we made it to The Fillmore! How does it feel!?!” Later, he mentioned that they had made their own refrigerator magnets and said, “If you’ve got a refrigerator, throw your hands in the air!” I actually got one of those magnets that night, but have sadly since misplaced it. Toby also dedicated “Time Machine” (Schoolhouse Blues)” to “all you who have to go back to school in September”. 

The KGB were only on for 45 minutes and though this would be the only time I’d see them, I’m glad I caught them when I did. That band deserved more credit and didn’t deserve the humiliation of having to open for Third Eye Blind for one of their tours. The KGB were followed by the last act of the night, Spike 1000, a nu metal band from Bakersfield. They had played the year before at the previous Nadine’s Wild Weekend at the Transmission Theater and were signed to Portrait Records shortly afterwards. Unfortunately, my tape supply ran out and I only got the first few songs, “Manwhore”, “Nowhere”, and “Spare Change”. They were calling this their “Pain & Suffering” tour, promoting their latest album, “Waste Of Skin”, and as you might imagine, like most nu metal bands, they were very loud and totally bombastic. This would be the only “Nadine’s Wild Weekend” I believe I would witness and sadly The Fillmore would gradually discontinue doing these local act bills as the years went on, so it came to no surprise that there wasn’t a poster that night.  

Whoopi Goldberg, Fill., Tues., August 14

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past thirty odd years, there’s a good chance that you’ve heard of the one Miss Caryn Elaine Johnson AKA Whoopi Goldberg. For those few who are unfamiliar, Whoopi is one of only nineteen people in history to achieve EGOT status, that is a person who has earned an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. But she had a significant tie to the bay area which helped propel her meteoric rise to stardom. Once upon a time, she had been a struggling stand up comedian and actor recently relocated from New York City to the east bay where she became a part of a small theater group called the Blake Street Hawkeyes. In that troupe, she developed what would become “The Spook Show”, her one woman comedic collage of characters which would soon lead her to Broadway, an HBO special, and ultimately, a Grammy winning debut comedy album. 

Her stage name came from her notorious habit of passing gas on stage and just talking through it, sort of a human “whoopie cushion”, and though she chose the last name of Goldberg, a recent encounter with Henry Louis Gates on his PBS television show “Finding Your Roots” concluded that she had neither German nor Jewish ancestry. Whoopi had the good fortune to have her debut film role to be the lead in Steven Spielberg’s “The Color Purple” which would win her a Golden Globe and earn her first Oscar nomination. Her second Oscar nomination for “Ghost” would win her that little gold statue for Best Supporting Actress. Incidentally, she is probably the only Oscar winner in history who smoked marijuana before giving her acceptance speech, well, the only one who has admitted it anyway. She has since helped found a medicinal cannabis company called “Whoopi & Maya” specifically to help women seeking relief from menstrual cramps. 

Along her ascension to glory, she did however make one bomb of a film in San Francisco called “The Telephone” with Rip Torn and John Heard. But thanks to that commercial failure, there is a piece of pavement on Harrison and 7th Street next to the sound stage they used that still has Whoopi’s hand and footprints embedded in the concrete to this day. She would also collaborate with bay area royalty Robin Williams and fellow New Yorker Billy Crystal for Comic Relief, a charity organization to help raise funds for the homeless. I would see Robin on stage at The Fillmore two years later doing a brief impromptu comedy set/introduction for The Rock Bottom Remainders, a band comprised of famous authors. Now if they could only get Billy Crystal to do a show there, I could say I have seen all three.

Anyway, if that wasn’t enough, three years before this show, Whoopi would become an icon to sci-fi nerds like me everywhere when she joined the cast of “Star Trek : The Next Generation” as her character, Guinan. That was brilliant piece of casting which helped make that series the success that it was. It wouldn’t be for another six years before she joined “The View”, so I won’t go into that or any other of her myriad of accomplishments, save one, since it happened around the time of this show. She was honored later that year with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, an annual award given to such comedic geniuses as her since 1998, save for 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID pandemic. Bill Cosby rightfully had his prize revoked in 2018 after everybody found out what a scumbag he was. 

It had been a long time since I had seen any comedy show and I’m pretty sure this was the first one I had ever seen at The Fillmore. The was as she put it “the first I’ve tried to something remotely like stand up” in 11 years and we were the last night of that tour, a finale of sorts. It was just her that evening, so it was a short one, beginning with her being greeted with thunderous applause and Whoopi shouting, “San Fran-fucking-cisco! Hello, home!” Citing her relationship with The Fillmore’s own late founder, Bill Graham, she declared, “I got a whole history with the man who put this together. He used to say to me, ‘Why don’t you play my fuckin’ house?’ So Bill, I’m in your fuckin’ house!” She joked about a wide range of topics during her set from jokes about menopause, menstruation, to unruly pubic hair and politics. Though she had first been forgiving of our then idiot president, George W. Bush, she thought that he “has given drugs a bad name and I don’t like that”. Whoopi also told stories about hanging out with Bill Clinton and eating BBQ and neck bones, complimenting that he “had a little nigga’ in him”. 

By then, she was only a couple months shy of her 46th birthday and Whoopi already had three grandchildren of which she mused about how recently she thought showing them “The Wizard Of Oz” was politically incorrect since the film contained “no black people, no asians, and no straight people”. However, Whoopi didn’t mention any stories about her love life that night, though she had just ended a five year relationship with actor Frank Langella the year before this. Anyway, it was a trip to see her in the flesh, up close and personal during her first time on stage at “Bill’s House” and the night wouldn’t have been tragically incomplete if that show didn’t get a poster. Thankfully, it did and it was a good one too, done by one of my favorites, the brilliant mosaic artist, Jason Mecier. The unforgettable one he did for Willie Nelson is still on the wall near the main bar at The Fillmore to this day.  

Baaba Maal, Karsh Kale, Fill., SF, Sat., August 11

This would be the third show in a row for me that weekend and the fourth Fillmore show out of a whopping ten I would do that month alone. I had just seen Tool with King Crimson the night before at Berkeley Community Theater and they were doing a second night there, but considering the astronomical ticket price I had shelled out to the ticket broker to get into that one, I decided that one of those Tool shows was enough. Thankfully, it also freed me up to see this show. I had recorded Baaba Maal, the Senegalese afro-pop star, at the Maritime Hall in 1998 and was impressed to say the very least by his raw talent and boundless energy. I was actually getting quite a look in with a handful of beloved African performers around that time, having seen fellow citizen of Senegal, Youssou N’Dour on that very stage just a two weeks before this and Babacour Traore from Mali at Ashkenaz in Berkeley shortly before that. 

Even with my utterly non-existent knowledge of music from that part of the world, I knew how lucky I was to see such talent, particularly in venues that small. These guys would be playing stadiums back in their home countries. If you have read the last entry from Mr. N’Dour, you might recall that he had been in town followed by David Byrne and the Afro Celt Sound System, who all had been up north in Redmond, Washington around then to perform at the WOMAD festival, the brainchild of Peter Gabriel. Baaba and members of his band had been part in the creation of the Afro Celt Sound System, but for some reason, probably scheduling conflicts, he and his band weren’t part of that WOMAD line up that year. Regardless, I was lucky enough to see both Baaba and Afro Celt at The Fillmore, so I wasn’t complaining. Baaba was accompanied once again by his 12 piece Dande Lenol or “Voice Of The People” band including blind guitar virtuoso Mansour Seck. They were touring in support of their new album, “Mi Yeewni”, which translates as “Missing You”, the last new studio recording they’d release until Baaba’s “Television” album eight years later.

Karsh Kale was there to warm things up with his lightning fast tabla playing on top of some freaky trip hop beats. He was an Indian American, originally born in the U.K. and was also in town that weekend with Tabla Beat Science, a world music supergroup with Zakir Hussain, Bill Laswell, Talvin Singh, Trilok Gurtu, and Sultan Khan. They would go on to play at Stern Grove the following day and in hindsight, I’m sorry I missed it. I was blissfully unaware of the Stern Grove scene, a weekly free concert series that is put on every Sunday in the summertime, until many years later. Now I go to every show if work allows. Tabla Beat Science’s debut album, “Realize”, had just come out that year and songs from it would be used as sample music for Microsoft’s Windows Vista, which most assuredly earned Karsh and his fellow bandmates a pretty penny. Thankfully, Tabla Beat Science would return to the bay area the following June and I’d have the pleasure of seeing them also performing at The Fillmore. 

Baaba started his set gradually, allowing his drummers to start the tempo, joining each other one at a time before the whole band joined in. His music was so joyous that he had no problem getting the audience to dance almost immediately. That band would continue together until about halfway through the set when Baaba would continue for a couple songs, just him and an acoustic guitar. Even without the band, the entire crowd clapped along and were transfixed on him and his incredibly powerful voice. Incidentally, Mr. Maal has to be one of the skinniest performers I’d ever witness, up there with Richard Ashcroft from The Verve or Iggy Pop, though I suppose all those hours of dancing that he does would keep anybody in marathon shape. Sadly, this would be the last time I’d see Baaba perform and there was no poster at the end of the night, though he certainly deserved one. But he is doing quite well for himself to this very day, collaborating with composer Ludwig Goransson just five years ago on his Oscar winning score for “Black Panther” as well as for that film’s sequel. 

Tool, King Crimson, Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley, Fri., August 10

SETLISTS : 

(KING CRIMSON) : Dangerous Curves, The ConstuKction Of Light, Into The Frying Pan, Level Five, The Deception Of The Thrush, Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (Part IV), Coda : I Have A Dream, Thela Hun Ginjeet, Red

(TOOL) : The Grudge, Stinkfist, Undertow, Prison Sex, Schism, Pushit, Reflection, Soundscape (with Robert Fripp), Sober, Parabol, Parabola, Aenima, Lateralis

I had been looking forward to writing about this particular show for a few reasons, but primarily because it was one of the few concerts I took my dear mother to. At first glance, taking one’s mom to a Tool show might seem a little severe, borderline punishing and I would normally agree, but this one was civilized enough that I felt she was in good hands. For starters, the show was at Berkeley Community Theater, the only time in fact to this day I’d ever seen a show there. Being the auditorium for Berkeley High School, it was all seated and there was not a drop of alcohol served on the premises. That way, I knew my mom would be able to see the band alright and the heshers in the crowd would be unable to mosh and too sober to start any trouble. That and Tool’s new album, “Lateralis”, released just that May, was a distinct departure from their previously moshable music, evolving into more sprawling, even symphonic epic tunes that were so dense and rhythmically complex that they’re practically impossible to interpret with any kind of dance, honestly. No one is really sure what the album title means, possibly a reference to the Vastus Lateralis leg muscle or lateral thinking. 

It had been five long years since Tool had put out “Aenima” and I and their ever growing legion of fans were starving for new material and another tour. Maynard James Keenan, their brilliant, yet enigmatic and reclusive singer, had been busy during those intervening years with his other band A Perfect Circle as well as laying the groundwork for yet another side project of his, Puscifer. The new album had been also delayed do to a lengthy legal battle with their label, Volcano Entertainment. Anticipation for the new album was so great, that the band initially disguised early versions of it, giving the album the title “Systema Encephale” as well as giving each of its songs alternate titles to trick people like Napster. When the album finally broke, it was an instant hit, eventually certified triple platinum, and I listened to it nonstop until the day of this show. The single “Schism” which they played that night would also go on to earn them a Grammy for Best Metal Performance. I was also pleasantly surprised that the riff from that song would later often be used by Paul Shaffer during commercial breaks for “The Late Show With David Letterman”.

The pent up demand for Tool’s return was more than enough to overwhelm the box office the day the tickets went on sale and unless you were very lucky the microsecond the tickets hit the market, you hadn’t a prayer in hell of getting one of them. Well, I wasn’t very lucky. I had to swallow my pride and go to a broker, because I loved the new album and was absolutely determined to see Tool again, hell or high water. As luck would have it, tickets also went on sale on my birthday. The initial sticker shock of $125 a ticket was a very, very, VERY tough pill to swallow and my shelling out the loot for not one but two of those tickets is proof enough to my devotion to that band and my dear mother. Mind you, these days $125 isn’t that alarming, but consider that these were 2001 dollars and such ridiculous ticket prices weren’t nearly as commonplace then. This was the first of two back to back shows and naturally I would have loved to come again the next night if it wasn’t for the ticket price. I had to settle for just one. (Sigh…)

Another significant reason to bring mom to this one was their choice of opening act, King Crimson. I had seen them a few times already and thought their undeniable musical chops would, as a teacher of music, impress her, not to mention that the members were also around the same age as my mom’s. Indeed, I suspect I wasn’t the only person in the crowd who brought one of their elder relatives to this show for the very same reason. Clearly King Crimson was a strong influence on Tool and their sound, so much so that Maynard joked near the end of their set, “As many of you have probably already discovered if you arrived early, King Crimson is pretty much who’ve we’ve ripped off over the years… Don’t tell anyone… Especially them.” But I imagine many of Tool’s younger fans had no idea and they were hearing those prog rock pioneers for the first time. Maynard also joked, “For me, being on stage with King Crimson is like Lenny Kravitz playing with Led Zeppelin or Brittany Spears on stage with Debbie Gibson”.

I was a little surprised that mom didn’t like King Crimson more, considering their unmatched skills as musicians. But after thinking about it, that band can be a little jarring to the uninitiated. They were for me when I saw them for the first time in 1995. Even in the Adult Swim animated show “The Venture Brothers”, Dr. Venture warns teenage Dean that we wasn’t ready for “The Court Of The Crimson King” when he was educating him about prog rock. But mom listened patiently nonetheless and though she wasn’t a fan in the end, I could tell she was at least paying attention. Obviously, she hadn’t heard any music quite like that before, especially when singer Adrian Belew would sing through that weird Peter Frampton-esque electronic voice box for “The Deception Of The Thrush”. 

Near the end of their set, Adrian thanked Tool and said, “This one goes out to someone you may also know… This is for you, Les!”, and they played “Thela Hun Ginjeet”. The Les being Les Claypool of Primus who had covered that song with his side project the Fearless Flying Frog Brigade. I had seen the Brigade many times already since they had formed two years before that and they would play that song every single time I saw them, often as either their opening or closing number. If Les was in the bay area that weekend, there was a good chance he was in the house either that night or the next one. King Crimson’s version of that song was at least half as short as the versions Les would do, but being an opening act that night, I suppose King Crimson had to cut some of their more sprawling tunes short lest their setlist be only 2 or 3 songs in length. Still, I’m glad I caught this once in a lifetime combination of musical talent, especially since Tool and King Crimson would only perform a mere 10 shows together in total. 

This was also a new stage set for Tool who like before had set up projection screens to show guitarist Adam Jones’ beautiful though haunting video montages, but this time had set up a riser beside the drum kit for Maynard to sing from the back of the stage. Backlit by a second smaller screen showing the same graphics as the larger main screen hoisted above the stage, Maynard would sing in silhouette and would pretty much continue to do so with Tool up until this day. By then, Maynard had already taken to elaborate disguises and face painting, partially in an effort to remain anonymous when in public, but this new singing from the back in the shadows thing made clear that he wanted to be left alone as well as intended for his audience to focus more on his music. 

In fact, this was also the first Tool show I would see where there had been an announcement just before they started where a guy said, “The show’s going to start in a few minutes. I’ve been sent out here by Tool and King Crimson to ask a favor. Please don’t take any photos during the show. It’s distracting to the show, the musicians… Give the musicians a break and let them play.” Cell phones that could take pictures were still fairly new back then, but the scourge of obnoxious idiots holding them up during concerts of all kinds was just beginning. Tool, especially Maynard, has remained steadfastly against their use and currently orders those who do in their audience to be ejected if they dare do so. But Maynard always makes an exception for the very last song of their sets now to placate his fans.

Anyway, the wait was finally over and Tool opened their set appropriately with the first song on the new album, “The Grudge”. There was then a long, creepy intro to “Stinkfist” and we were all a little surprised when Maynard sang a few bars of “White Lines (Don’t Do It)” by Melle Mel in the middle of it. Tool would often make extended arrangements of their songs, but rarely would they mess around like that. Afterwards, Maynard commented, “It’s been a while. Seems like there are less hippies now… That’s good.” and then they played “Prison Sex”. Their bassist, Justin Chancellor was having some technical difficulties early on with his bass rig, but they eventually sorted it out. Like I said before, I knew my mom wasn’t really moved at all by King Crimson, but after Tool finished an epic version of “Pushit”, the look on her face said it all. I know when she’s faking interest in something to be polite, saying something like “That’s interesting”, but she was clearly blown away by what she had heard. 

Tool took a new direction from their previous live performance schedule this time and continue from then out by doing a sort of drawn out, instrumental interlude in the middle of their set. I know it comes to an unlikely comparison, but the kind that the Grateful Dead would do. Maynard strapped on a guitar himself, something I’d never seen him do so before or since, though I couldn’t actually tell if he was playing anything for the song “Reflection” and then the band was joined later by King Crimson’s legendary guitarist Robert Fripp for the aptly titled “Soundscape”. That atmospheric instrumental interlude almost spanned a half an hour between just those two songs. But in doing so, it gave the crowd a moment to decompress and for the less gung ho fans, take a break to use the can or get a drink, a non-alcoholic one in this case.

And speaking of sobriety, they brought us all back to Earth once the opening riff of their hit song “Sober” began, followed by the new songs, the introductory slow overture “Parabol”, followed by the brilliant, full throttle volume “Parabola”. Before they finished their set with “Aenima”, Maynard said, “Thanks for coming. I hope to see some of your smiling faces tomorrow night”. There was the customary encore break and he came back and asked of  the crowd, “What I would like you to do is remember this feeling you’re having tonight. Whether you had a good experience, a bad experience, and indifferent experience… a patchouli experience… In the coming weeks, make something positive with it” and then they finished the night with “Lateralis”.

The crowd clapped along to the beginning of that song, and to this day I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a Tool crowd clap along to any of their songs before or ever again. Their time signatures would change so often, most people couldn’t keep up anyway. But it was a satisfying show as always. The two night’s set lists were mostly identical, but on our night, we got “Undertow”, “Prison Sex”, and “Aenima”, and the second night, they got “Eulogy”, “46 & 2”, and “Opiate” instead. Like I mentioned before, it would only be a few short months before I would see Tool again at Shoreline, but I’m very, VERY glad I caught both these shows that year since the band would once again take their dear sweet, but well earned time before touring with a new album, “Vicarious”, yet another five years later. At least Maynard would come back with A Perfect Circle in 2003 to help pass the those long years waiting. 

Tricky, Emiliana Torrini, Fill., SF, Thur., August 9

SETLISTS :

(EMILIANA TORRINI) : Sea People, Tuna Fish, Easy, Finger Tips, 10 To 20, To Be Free, If You Go Away, Baby Blue, Unemployed In Summertime, Dead Things, Telepathy

(TRICKY) : You Don’t Wanna, (unknown), Pumpkin, Give It To ‘Em, Lyrics Of Fury, (unknown), Evolution Revolution Love, Black Steel, (encore), (unknown), Vent

I was all too familiar with Tricky by this time, making this the 7th performance, count ‘em, seven times that I had seen him play in only six years. This would be the third time in a row I’d catch him at The Fillmore, the last time being just that April.  And if that wasn’t enough, I’d see him one more time less than three months later opening for Tool at Shoreline. Coincidentally, Tool would be performing back to back sold out shows across the bay in Berkeley that weekend of which I would see the first day. Tool and Tricky had both been on the main stage for Lollapalooza back in 1997 and I guess they hit it off. Tricky had just released his “Blowback” album a month before this show and I know he played at least three new songs that night. I say “at least” because despite all the times I saw Tricky back then, god help me trying to decipher his lyrics, even during the quiet parts.

Opening that show would be Emiliana Torrini from Iceland. If you thought her name was suspiciously Italian, you would be correct that she is of that decent. Fun fact, her father Salvatore Torrini literally had to change his name to an Icelandic one when he moved there, calling himself David Eiriksson. Believe it or not, that was the law there at the time and likewise, Emiliana had to change her name to Eliliana Davidsdottir. Thankfully, later the laws changed and they were able to go back to their original handles. I am glad to say that whatever name Emiliana would go by, she still was an impressive act to listen to and I thought her music was brilliant. I was able to catch her rehearsing the songs “Easy” and “Telepathy” during her soundcheck and I knew right away that I liked her sound.

Her music sort of melded into that genre of trip hop, drum and bass lounge stuff like Morcheeba and Si Se that was popular around that time, though her voice was powerful and intense, operatic really. Because of her vocal prowess and thick Icelandic accent, it was also hard not to compare her to fellow Iceland citizen Bjork and likewise difficult to comprehend the stuff she was saying between songs. I actually heard myself let out an audible “Huh?” a couple times after she addressed the audience. Though this would be the only time I’d see her live, she’d go on to have a successful career, even singing “Gollum’s Song” for the film “Lord Of The Rings : The Two Towers” and a blistering cover of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” for the “Suckerpunch” movie. 

Tricky also did a couple covers of his own that night including their version of “Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos” by Public Enemy and Eric B. & Rakim’s “Lyrics Of Fury”. Actually, before they even began their set with the new song “You Don’t Wanna”, they walked onstage to the sounds of “Sympathy For The Devil” by the Rolling Stones over the loudspeakers. Once again, Tricky had brought along Ambersunshower and Hawkman to assist him on vocals, the first cooling us off with her silky smooth, come hither siren song and the latter barking out manic, dancehall style rapping with his thick Caribbean patois. All the while, there was Tricky again convulsing and jittering non stop to the point where it was uncomfortable to look at him for too long. 

Amidst the din of their relentless beats, I overheard my friend Liz finding me in the crowd and catching my attention halfway through the show yelling, “Nick! Nick Baker! How you doing!?!” She was there with her friend Bernadette and we chatted a bit and hung out until the show wrapped up. Tricky would also later play a new song called “Pumpkin” which vocals were recorded on the new album by a young , aspiring singer named Allison Goldfrapp, a brilliant musician who I would fall in love with and adore in the years to follow as (you should know if you don’t know by now as), Goldfrapp. 

Just a mere two minutes before the end of the encore, some poor young woman passed out right beside Liz, her friends, and me on the dance floor, dropped like a fleshy stone totally without warning. I told her to stay put until the helpful people from Rock Med showed up to assist her. They came by just as the band was finishing “Vent” with an intense drum solo. It was the middle of summer, so it was a hot one that night and seriously, if you’ve ever heard that song, it’s a perfectly appropriate one to lose consciousness to with its seemingly endless barrage of bombastic rhythm and Tricky screaming, “Can hardly breathe!!!”, at the top of his lungs over and over again. Well, everybody earned a breath of fresh air after it all was over and luckily Tricky got a poster this time. The show he did in April didn’t get one. This would be the first in three shows in a row that weekend for me, the next being the aforementioned Tool gig, and then back once again to The Fillmore for Baaba Maal. 

Patti Smith, Grant Hart, Fill., SF, Tues., August 7

SETLISTS : 

(GRANT HART) : Remains To Be Seen, Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill, 2541, Pink Turns To Blue, Back From Somewhere, Sorry Somehow, You Don’t Have To Tell Me Now

(PATTI SMITH) : Privilege (Set Me Free), So You Want To Be A Rock & Roll Star, Birdland, Gone Pie, Redondo Beach, The Lamb, Boy Cried Wolf, Grateful, Beneath The Southern Cross, Frederick, Lo & Beholden, Seven Ways Of Going, Summer Cannibals, Don’t Say Nothing, People Have The Power, Gloria, (encore), Because The Night, Pissing In A River, Radio Ethiopia, Rock & Roll Nigger

It had been almost five years since I saw Patti Smith, though I saw her perform three times in that year of 1996 alone, twice at Bridge School and once at The Warfield. Since then, my opinion of her, at least her politics had cooled a bit since she chose to support that schmuck Ralph Nader, helping bring about the draconian George W. Bush regime we all were living under then. Patti redeemed herself somewhat campaigning for Kerry in 2004 and speaking at the first protests of the second Gulf War, but the damage was done. Too little too late. And though it can be difficult at times to separate and forgive an artist from their ill advised politics, I still appreciated Ms. Smith for her musical contributions to human civilization and her other altruistic efforts in political activism. 

This was the first of two sold out nights she was performing at The Fillmore and she was still touring in support of her most recent album, “Gung Ho” which had been released in March of the previous year. Her latest single from that album,“Glitter In Their Eyes”, would go on to receive a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance that year, though she didn’t perform it that night. Still, we did get to hear four of the new songs from that album. I was getting some quality Fillmore time then, having just seen the Afro Celt Sound System there a week before this and would see Tricky also on that stage two days after this.

Patti Smith fans were treated to a handful of covers on both nights, both shows getting her reading of “The Lamb” by renowned English poet William Blake. On our night, she sang “So You Want To Be A Rock & Roll Star” by The Byrds and “Gloria” by Them, two venerable hippie acts that graced The Fillmore stage back in its earliest days. On the second day, Patti spoiled the crowd with even more covers starting with “The Wicked Messenger” by Bob Dylan, then “The Last Time” by the Rolling Stones, “Not Fade Away” by Buddy Holly, “Dark Star” by the Grateful Dead, and “Heart Shaped Box” by Nirvana. One would think that this member of rock & roll royalty would get a poster at the end of the night for these back to back sold out shows, but alas everyone went home empty handed.

Before the opener, I took a moment to listen to a pair of musicians up in the poster room, one on a sitar, the other beating a pair of tabla drums. With the aforementioned hippie covers Patti sang, this duo reinforced the sort of flower power flavor seeping in and co-mingling with Smith’s New York proto-punk persona. First on stage was former Husker Du drummer, Grant Hart. I had seen his former bandmate, Bob Mould, a few times since that seminal early grunge band parted ways in 1988, and though I was well aware of Husker Du’s reputation and influence, I was unfamiliar with their music. It was just him by his lonesome playing at first solo acoustic, then quickly switching to solo electric and he dusted off three Husker Du tunes, “Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill”, “Pink Turns To Blue”, and “Back From Somewhere”. 

Grant had been keeping busy during the intervening years having been in Nova Mob until that band’s break up in 1997 and having released his second solo album, “Good News For Modern Man” two years before this show. He had played piano and Farfisa for the song “Persuasion” on Patti’s “Gung Ho” album too. Grant seemed comfortable on stage alone and chatted with the people up front between songs joking, “You guys have any good ideas? Is this a Mensa convention?” Grant followed that by wishing somebody in the audience a happy birthday. This would sadly be the only time I would hear him perform since he passed away in 2017 from liver cancer and Hepatitis C at the all too young age of 56. Obviously, there will be no Husker Du reunion now. Shortly after Patti took the stage she took a moment between songs to say, “I’d really like to thank Grant Hart for playing with us tonight. Grant is one of our national treasures”.

Patti was just a few months shy of her 55th birthday, but she had no hesitation embracing her middle age, complaining that she need “her spectacles” calling it “a Ben Franklin moment”. After her reading glasses were found, she said, “Thanks to Patty Hudson for finding my glasses. She’s bailed me out of many situations” and then she sang “Gone Pie”. A couple songs later, she continued the hippie ambience introducing the tune “Grateful” with, “Anyway, we were in Hawaii an August 1st, which was Jerry Garcia’s birthday. So we officially kicked off Jerry week. Jerry week lasts from his birthday, August 1st, to August 9th when Jerry passed on to another realm. I’m sure the other realms were saying, ‘Whoa! Jerry’s here!’ Can you imagine the other realms thinking they’re hot shit cus’ they’re other realms, wishing something new would happen. But they hear Jerry’s on his way… like lucky them.”

Despite her short sighted decision to back Nader, Patti continued pushing the fight for progressive causes, making a lengthy appeal to the crowd before she did “Don’t Say Nothing”. She began it by declaring, “I got a public service announcement. It’ll only take a minute. Friends… San Francisco is going to have an election in November. Are you aware of that? I don’t even live here and I know there’s going to be an election in November. Alright, calm down for a second. Hearing my voice so loud… It’s making me sick. Alright, anyway… There’s going to be an election in November and when that election comes, people get to decide whether they own their own utilities or leave them in the hands of PG&E”. There was a resounding “Boo!” from the audience, myself included. She followed up asking, “Do you like PG&E?” The boos continued and she asked, “Would you rather have your utilities in your own hands? Well then, don’t be assholes in November. Don’t sleep through November. The only party day in November is November 28th, William Blake’s birthday. You can have a party, but on election day, you have to…”

She paused a moment to listen to what people up front were yelling at her, but she continued, “You’re distracting me. Man, we can get this all over painlessly if you just shut the fuck up. Anyway, the campaigns here are friends of yours. There are people out there who are working night and day on your behalf. Fellow citizens, they’re not being paid. They care and have asked me to talk about it. Their campaign is called the MUD campaign. The San Francisco…” Then she sort of trailed off trying to come up with the words for the abbreviation, “You know what I mean. I know I’m not even a citizen of San Francisco. Anything you can, take out of others, out of business’ hands, out of government’s hands, and put back in your own hands is probably a good idea. No matter who owns the utilities… What’s really important is to understand that our resources are not infinite… Like my dad used to say, ‘You live in a barn?’ My dad used to yell at me for not turning out the lights. He was right. Turn out the fuckin’ lights if you’re not using them. Alright, that’s the end of that… Let’s have some fun!”

It was appropriate that she would follow that with her working class anthem, “People Have The Power” and she punctuated its message at the very end of it shouting, “Don’t forget it!” I regret to say that the MUD, (which I assume stood for Municipal Utility District or something like that), initiative was narrowly defeated at the ballot box that November and San Francisco remains under the cruel, greedy thumb of PG&E. I’m just glad that I now live in Alameda which had the wisdom to have its own public utilities. Sorry, SF. They say you can’t fight city hall, but they gave it a try nonetheless. My tape ran out just before she finished her set with “Gloria”, so I wasn’t able to get the songs of the encore either, but I naturally stuck around to the end to hear them. She opened the encore with her hit “Because The Night”, made famous for a second time in 1993 when 10,000 Maniacs covered it for their “MTV Unplugged” album. This would be the last time I would see Ms. Smith, but she’s still performing to this day at the age of 77, though her hair has turned white as a ghost. 

Afro Celt Sound System, Pina Kollars, Fill., SF, Wed., August 1

SETLISTS : 

(PINA KOLLARS) : (unknown), Cold Storm, Josephine, I Loved The Way, Debt Song, I See The Blue, On A Day Like Today

(AFRO CELT SOUND SYSTEM) : Eireann, Big Cat, Whirl-y-Reel 1, Perc & Pipes, Further In Time, Lagan, Shadow Man, When You’re Falling, Colossus, Riding The Waves, N’Faly

So much in music depends on timing in every sense of the word. It was such serendipitous timing that brought British producer Simon Emmerson to Senegalese afro-pop star Baaba Maal once upon a time which hatched the idea for Afro Celt Sound System. Simon had been working with Baaba on one of his albums when the notion of the similarities between the Gaelic music of Ireland and the Pulaar music of Senegal flipped on the proverbial cartoon light bulb above his head. With the help of two of Baaba’s band members and others from six different countries, being the U.K., Senegal, Guinea, Ireland, and France, they began piecing together songs for their first album, “Volume 1 : Sound Magic” in 1996. That and the two other volumes to follow were released on the Real World record label fronted by the one and only Peter Gabriel.

In another welcome bit of good timing, Mr. Gabriel had just wrapped up his three day WOMAD festival up in Redmond, Washington that weekend. I had just seen another Senegalese afro-pop star, Youssou N’Dour, at The Fillmore just before he performed at that festival as well as David Byrne at The Warfield the day after he performed there. As luck would have it, I would also see Baaba Maal at The Fillmore ten days after this, though he strangely wasn’t at WOMAD with the others. We are occasionally blessed with acts playing at festivals like that one and Coachella that they would also swing by the bay area. I was already a little exhausted coming into this show having seen David at The Warfield on Monday followed by a whole other festival, Area One, Moby’s big bash with Outkast, New Order, The Roots, and others down at the Shoreline. This would also be the first of three Fillmore shows in a row I would see in nine days, this one, Patti Smith, then Baaba. 

Afro Celt Sound System had only toured in America once before in ’99 supporting their second album, “Volume 2 : Release” and though it earned them a nomination for a Grammy for Best World Music, the band took a steep hit in their wallet financing that tour. This time they were playing stuff off of their third one titled, you guessed it, “Volume 3 : Further In Time”. Like I mentioned before, they had in tow a motley crew of talented musicians from several countries including Iarla O’Lionaird and N’Faly Kouyate on vocals, Moussa Sissokho on talking drum, and Johnny Kalsi on percussion. Simon would be front and center for their set armed with his trusty bouzouki. I caught a bit of their soundcheck as I came in before the doors opened and liked what I heard immediately. 

Opening that night would be a young singer/songwriter named Pina Kollars from Vienna, Austria who often just went by her first name Pina. She had relocated to Cork, Ireland and had just been picked up also on Peter Gabriel’s Real World label, though her debut album, “Quick Look”, wouldn’t be released until the following year. Unlike Afro Celt, she was all by her lonesome singing solo acoustic, but she held her own just fine. She came on stage and greeted the crowd saying, “Hello, hello you beautiful people of San Francisco. I’m Pina Kollars. I’ve come with the Afro Celt because I’ve done one of their songs on the new album. I won’t sing with them tonight, but I’ll support them instead. These are a couple songs that got on my new album which will come out in February 2002. This is a song about birth. It’s for my daughter. That was really hard work!” And then she started her set with the song “Cold Storm”. Pina had recorded the song “Go On Through” on the new Afro Celt album singing alongside Iarla, but they didn’t perform it that night. She thanked the crowd later and introduced “Debt Song” calling it one “about a sad couple”. Yes, Pina’s songs were pretty but subdued, so by the time Afro Celt came on, we were ready to liven up ourselves.

A DJ from KFOG named Dusty Rhodes came on to kick off their set praising Afro Celt’s new album and adding, “If you haven’t added it to your collection already, you’re probably gonna want to do it before the night is over. But you’re in luck because it’s available to you at the Fillmore store along with Afro Celt Sound System’s previous two releases. You’re in for a great show tonight. I know you’re going to have a fabulous time. Join me in a big KFOG welcome for Afro Celt Sound System!” From song one, they had my complete attention with their unique mash up of musical styles, especially the mallet and percussion work they did on songs like “Big Cat” and “Whirl-y-Reel”. Simon was all smiles and said between songs, “Great to be back! We said we’d be back, didn’t we?… And without any further ado, we’re going to dance on!” and then they played “Further In Time”. 

There wasn’t a poster at the end of the night sadly and this would be the only time I would see them play. I’m glad that we got to hear five of the new songs that night. But as all great things come to an end, Simon would eventually have a falling out with the other band members and they would acrimoniously split the band in two in 2015, one version of Afro Celt going with Simon, the other with members multi-instrumentalist James McNally and programmer-engineer Martin Russell. And to make matters worse, there will be no reunion in the future since poor Simon passed away just last year, the day after his 67th birthday in fact. It’s a pity that I missed when they played at Stern Grove in 2003 with Sound Tribe Sector Nine. That would have been a hell of a show. Still, I’m glad I saw this rare bird of a band when I did and wish there were more multi-national fusion acts like that around these days. 

Area One: Moby, Outkast, The Orb, New Order with Billy Corgan, The Roots, Paul Oakenfold, Rinacerose, Shoreline, Mountain View, Tues., July 31

SETLISTS : 

(THE ROOTS) : Respond/React, The Next Movement, Panic!!!, Water, Dynamite, Double Trouble, Pussy Galore, You Got Me, Questlove drum solo, Kamal key solo, Ben solo, Scratch solo

(NEW ORDER) : Atmosphere, Regret, Crystal, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Your Silent Face, Turn My Way, Bizarre Love Triangle, Touched By The Hand Of God, True Faith, Temptation, 60 Miles An Hour, Blue Monday

(OUTKAST) : Gasoline Dreams, ATLiens, Skew It On The Bar-B, Elevators (Me & You), Da Art Of Storytellin’ Part 1, The Cut Song, So Fresh So Clean, Spaghetti Junction, Better Dayz, Humble Mumble, Rosa Parks, Ms. Jackson, B.O.B.  

(MOBY) : Hymn, Machete, Go, Porcelain, James Bond Theme, Honey, Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?, (unknown), Bring Back My Happiness, (unknown), Troubles With God, The Sky Is Broken, South Side, Body Rock, Feeling So Real, Thousand

I have to give Moby credit. This was an ambitious festival tour, done in a way I think was actually ideal, but only replicated again the following year with his Area Two tour. Since the demise of the annual Lollapalooza tour, this one stood alone as the one genuinely diverse travelling festival around. Not only did Moby choose brilliant acts, he allowed them longer set times because there were fewer acts on the main stage. I remember Blues Traveler’s H.O.R.D.E. tour did that too, another extinct musical gathering. It’s a pity that the days of the diverse touring festival have come to an end, replaced by gargantuan three day ones in a single location like Coachella or Outside Lands. It’s understandable, I suppose since one can only imagine the logistics and stress involved in organizing and undertaking such an adventure. There were only 17 dates on this tour with only 4 ones on the west coast, so I consider myself lucky. 

Moby was obviously big by then, possibly able to fill some of those amphitheaters by his lonesome. The songs from his blockbuster album, “Play” seemed to be everywhere, on the TV, the radio, commercials, movie soundtracks, you name it. I knew his stuff well having first recorded him at the Maritime in ’99, then seeing him three times the following year, once on that very stage for B.F.D. and then twice more at The Warfield. He was already working on his next album “18” which would be out the following May and if that wasn’t enough, in whatever spare time he had, Moby started his Little Idiot Collective in New York City, a combination clothing boutique, comic book store, and animation studio. Busy guy.

There was no second stage at this festival, but they did put up a massive DJ tent out in the Shoreline’s promenade with a veritable who’s who of EDM talent at the time. Ford had been one of the sponsors, so they had conspicuously parked a Ford Focus near the entrance of tent with a cartoon of a girl in cargo pants and the word “TECHNO” painted on it. I made a point to get a few snippets of jams from there between the sets on the main stage and naturally it was loud as fuck. There was such an abundance of talent in that tent that day, that it was the one of the rare festival DJ tents that I wished I could have spent more time in. But the guys on the main stage came first and first up was Rhinocerose.

As their name suggests, they are indeed French, an EDM band fronted by Philippe Freu and Patric Carre, one of a growing number of acts in that genre that incorporate live instruments and percussion. I was there with a young woman whose identity shall remain anonymous… That and I frankly can’t remember who it was. It was a long time ago and I was a shameless, swinging bachelor back then. But I noted to her coming in that Shoreline had done the audience the courtesy of already turning on the delay speakers on, high up in those steel blue towers. Often, they would wait until later when the lawn was full to do so, but mostly I believe because they did it to save money on their electric bill. Rinocerose were a pleasant, mellow way to start, and though I thought they were quite good, I haven’t seen them since.

The following act on the other hand I had seen plenty before this day and would also see plenty afterwards. Yes, the ever-present Roots were on the bill, a band I had personally recorded on five separate occasions at the Maritime and had seen on several other stages since they were a three piece way back in 1996. You can always rely on The Roots and they were having fun that day, playing a respectable set of seven songs before allowing each member to play solos and cover bits. Their rapper, Black Thought, did a little a cappella in the middle of the song, “Pussy Galore” and later covered a bit of “Peter Piper” by Run DMC. He joked afterwards that “we not just, we not the type of brothers that’ll get all the hits all up in here all at once. You know, we like to let it accumulate, like to let it slowly build up till it gets to the point where it comes back… 1,2,1,2,1,2… Uhhh (sort of a sexual groan)”. I liked that they did a little jazzy arrangement at the beginning of “You Got Me” too. 

Questlove did his solo with a sort of slow build in the beginning and brought that modest drum kit of his into a whirlwind of beats. Then, Kamal Grey the keyboardist led the band through a blues number which sounded suspiciously like “Hoochie Coochie Man” by John Lee Hooker, but I’m not sure. Their DJ followed that with bits from “Push It” by Salt N’ Pepa, “Trans Euro Express” by Kraftwerk, “Simon Says” by Pharoah Monch, and strangely enough, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. By this time, human beatbox extraordinaire Rahzel had left the band, but Scratch had no trouble dazzling everyone with his mind boggling vocal abilities. It’s that diversity of talent which made them an ideal band for “The Tonight Show” and I was fortunate to see them so many times back then during their meteoric rise. The Roots pleased everyone which also made them ideal for festivals and it would only be just a couple weeks shy of a year from then when I’d see them again on that same stage, performing at the Smokin’ Grooves festival.

I high tailed it back to the DJ tent to hear the last couple minutes of “Little Fluffy Clouds” by The Orb, one of the best EDM songs ever created. The Orb are a weird couple of blokes though and they would follow that iconic literally atmospheric song with “Jambalaya” by Hank Williams, Sr. and then a bit of “A Few Of My Favorite Things”. The Roots weren’t the only act who weren’t afraid to make a sharp, stylistic left turn. I’ve always loved The Orb and was glad to catch them if only for a brief time. But I definitely had to get back to see New Order, a band I’ve foolishly and disgracefully neglected to see in their hey day, but was relieved to at last add them to my musical bucket list. They had just reformed in ’98 and would release “Get Ready”, their first new album in 8 years later that October, and we would hear three new ones that day. 

I was too young to see their first band, the post punk pioneers of Joy Division. It had been twenty years that year since their former singer Ian Curtis hung himself. Pity I never could see that sad git alive. Ian and I share the same birthday, you know. What made seeing New Order this time especially irresistible was the unexpected addition of Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins in the band playing guitar. I’ve made no secret to my bitter distain for Billy’s voice, but I always thought his guitar playing was exceptional, one of the few rock musicians who can sing and also play lead, making him a worthy addition to New Order. 

When I had returned to my female companion napping on the lawn, I overheard myself saying that “I didn’t want to wake you. You looked so peaceful”. It was the middle of summer and all day shows at Shoreline are always taxing. When they opened their set with the Joy Division song, “Atmosphere”, she joked, “Man, this is really going to make me feel old.” New Order dusted off their old band’s moody classic “Love Will Tear Us Apart” as well. They allowed Billy to sing the song “Turn My Way” and he casually pleaded with the others on stage saying, “Take my hand and don’t let go”, the songs opening line. He recorded that song with New Order on the new album as well.  As I had feared, Billy’s nasally shrieking voice instantly got under my skin from the first word he sang. I cringed through it and thankfully, he left the rest of the singing to New Order. 

Afterwards, bassist Peter Hook pointed in the crowd and chuckled, “Please welcome our producer Arthur out in the audience. Hello Arthur! He’s got a big dick just like me” and then they played “Temptation”. They wrapped things up with their seminal 80’s dance number “Blue Monday” and then I dashed back to the DJ tent to catch some of Paul Oakenfold. Like The Orb, I was pressed for time and caught just a little of him. I regret that I haven’t seen New Order since, but I did catch Peter Hook with his other band Monoco at The Fillmore just two and a half months later. Peter still tours playing that trademark low slung bass of his, regaling his fans with tunes from both New Order and Joy Division and I’ve been meaning to catch him again. He’s coming in September to play The Warfield, but I will regretfully be out of town for it. Next time, Peter, next time…

I was honored to have recorded Outkast twice in 1998 back at the Maritime just as they were getting big, but by this time, they were HUGE. It had only been three short years, but they went from dressing in street clothes to looking as if they were pimps rom outer space. With the release of fourth album, “Stankonia” the previous Halloween and its smash hit song, “Ms. Jackson”, they would soon be certified a whopping five times platinum and that song would win them a Grammy for Best Rap Performance. The days of seeing them in small venues were officially over. And even then, they would get only bigger a couple years later with “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” and blockbuster hits like “Hey Ya” and “The Way You Move”. They were at the top of their game and the energy in the air was palpable as they took the stage, bringing with the band three back up singers and four dancers.

Andre 3000 was sporting a platinum blonde surfer wig with a tan captain’s jacket, blue bell bottoms, and wide sunglasses. Both he and Big Boi also had an impressive collection of shiny gold chains around their necks. A couple songs in Andre announced, “We’re Outkast from Atlanta, Georgia! We specialize in having a good time!” and “Hey San Francisco! Do we have any cool people in the house? All the fresh people, put your hands in the air!” Later, Big Boi said something like, “If I look different, I put my hair up in a bun the other day. They’re trying to figure out if I’m an impostor or the real deal. I tell you what we’re going to do. We’re gonna move everybody to the back of the bus, is that alright?” and then they did “Rosa Parks”. 

Outkast actually got into a little lawsuit that year over that song, upsetting the then-alive titular civil rights icon. She didn’t appreciate some of the vulgar language Outkast used apparently. The band hired THE Johnnie Cochran himself to fight the charges and eventually settled in 2005 agreeing that there was no wrongdoing and to develop and fund education programs concerning Rosa Parks in the future. Anyway, the show went on, the guys on stage periodically egging on the crowd yelling “Crowd check!” between songs, yelling for them to get out of their seats and throw their hands in the air.. Andre wrapped things up introducing “B.O.B.” asking, “Can we speed it up a little bit?” in an English accent for some reason, calling the song “hip hop on crack”.

To be fair, Outkast was a very difficult act to follow, but it was Moby’s baby and that meant he was the headliner. I caught the very end of Oakenfold’s set in the DJ tent and I came back up the lawn hearing some guy next to us screaming, “Moby!!! I love you, Moby!!!” The set was similar as expected to the other times I had seen him, once again opening with “Hymn”. After they did “Porcelain”, he once again messed around with his guitar doing various solos including a bit of “Zero” by Smashing Pumpkins “in honor of Billy Corgan”. Moby was his usual talkative self once telling the story how he was offered to do the theme to the 1997 James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies” and couldn’t pass it up having grown up on James Bond movies, joining the likes of such bands as Duran Duran doing the opening song. He made a point for us to pay attention to his DJ and percussionist for that one. 

A few songs later, he talked about the first time he was in San Francisco around late 1991 early 1992, calling them his “halcyon days” and his “most wonderful experiences, full moon raves, being outside, surrounded by people you really care about… hugging and loving each other and dancing”. Moby then went on to play three “rave anthems” he wrote, but I only knew the title of the middle one, “Bring Back My Happiness”. Always stubbornly determined to prove to the public that he’s not just a DJ, he then went back to noodling on his electric guitar, joking “maybe when I’m 45 I could get kinda fat, grow a beard. That would be so much fun. Play in a crappy little bar, sit around and play stupid music all day, drink beer”. Well, Moby is 58 today and is still hairless and skinny as a rail. 

He introduced “Body Rock” saying, “If I may be so immodest, I think this song kicks ass”. Moby continued his heavy handed graciousness afterwards, “Something that I feel compelled to do, something that I have to do is say a very, very special thanks to all the musicians and DJs who performed here today. Special thanks to Derrick May, to The Orb, Paul Oakenfold, Rhinocerose, to Timo Maas, The Roots, New Order, and to Outkast. What an amazing bunch of musicians. That’s so cool. I can’t tell you how pleased I am to have so many amazing talented musicians. I’m the luckiest little festival organizer in the world. Now again, if I might be so arrogant and immodest, I think this next song is a beautiful, beautiful disco song”. And then they played “Feeling So Real”, Moby once more scurrying about frantically shouting, “Love make you feel it now!!!”

It had come to the end and Moby knew he was running out of time so he made one final goodbye saying, “Last but not least, I have to say a special thanks to everyone in this wonderful audience. I don’t want to sound like some sleazy showbiz guy. In all honesty, it means the world to me that you’d come down and support our open minded festival.” He finished the night in what was their “time honored tradition in the last eight years” with “Thousand”, literally “the fastest song in the world”. I was drained by the end of it of course, especially since I had seen David Byrne at The Warfield the night before this, but I was glad I went. It would be the last outdoor festival show I’d see that year and on a sad note, it would also be the last one I’d see before 9/11.  

David Byrne, Si Se’, War., SF, Mon., July 30

SETLIST : The Revolution, Nothing But Flowers, God’s Child, Soft Seduction, Buck Naked, Broken Things, And She Was, Once In A Lifetime, The Great Intoxication, Marching Through The Wilderness, Sax & Violins, This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody), (encore), What A Day That Was, Desconocido So, Like Humans Do, UB Jesus, Dream Police, I Wanna Dance, (encore), The Accident, (encore), Moment Of Conception

It had only been a mere 60 days on the dot since I saw Mr. Byrne do his first pass through the bay area on his “Look Into The Eyeball” tour at The Fillmore. With a small venue leg of that tour complete, he was back once again battle tested with his people to play the bigger houses, this time The Warfield. This would be the third time I’d see him there, first in ’94 and again in ’97. It was the day before that fateful show in 1997 that my friend Casey was killed riding his bike in downtown S.F. and seeing him at that aforementioned Fillmore show helped me get back on the horse emotionally. This one did too, especially since it was at The Warfield this time, the same as ’97. And though David’s playing in town the night after Casey’s death was just coincidental, I would recommend his music to anyone grieving anyway. For me, it was “Once In A Lifetime” that moved me the most as it always has since that terrible day and Byrne played it that night as he had every time before. Maudlin associations aside, I can objectively say it was a terrific show, which had sold out so quickly that they added an additional day on Tuesday. I couldn’t see that one though, since I would have my hands quite full at Moby’s Area One Festival down at Shoreline. 

There was an enjoyable opening act called Si Se, a sort of electronica lounge act from New York City. They were brand new then having just released their debut, self titled album, produced by Mr. Byrne himself on his Luaka Bop record label. They had a lovely singer of Dominican descent calling herself Carol C., but the songs were composed by their keyboardist/programmer U.F. Low. Though Si Se definitely had an EDM element, they had a full band with a drummer, bass player, a percussionist, and even a viola player too. I thought they kind of sounded like Morcheeba and were an easy band to listen to, a good choice for an opener. Carol C praised the crowd a couple songs in saying, “We got some dancers in here!” This would be the only time I’d see Si Se perform, but their music would go on to be used in a bunch of commercials and television soundtracks for series such as Project Runway, Six Feet Under, and Sex And The City.

DJ Rosie Lee came out to introduce David giving us a “big KFOG welcome at The Warfield Theater”. She said, “I’m here tonight because after the show a couple weeks ago at The Fillmore, all my colleagues at KFOG came back to the radio station and talked about nothing else for five days! Now these are jaded industry types. It takes a lot to blow them away so I was determined. So, be prepared to face a big Foghead welcome for David Byrne!” As one would expect, the setlist was practically identical to the Fillmore show, except for one surprise of David dusting off the old Talking Heads song “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)”. Likewise, he told almost the exact same introductions to songs throughout the set as he had two months before starting with “Buck Naked” being about his daughter and her aunt who passed away from AIDS. David also mentioned again that “And She Was” had been about his friend in high school in Baltimore who used to drop LSD and hang out at the Yoohoo factory and that “Sax & Violins” had been in the soundtrack of the Wim Wenders film “Until The End Of The World”.

Rest assured, Mr. Byrne played “Once In A Lifetime” again and it was the cathartic release I had hoped it would be. Casey’s friendly ghost is always with me, but thanks in part to David, I was eventually able to navigate the grief to a good place. After that song, he brought out his string section again to accompany the band for the rest of the night and I’m happy to say that it was a long and satisfying set ending with three encores. It felt like we were being spoiled actually. There was no poster at the this one, but I’d only have to wait until the following February to see David once again at The Fillmore. Looking back, it’s still hard to believe that I was lucky enough to catch this “Look Into The Eyeball” tour three different times in only nine months which I think must be the a record for me. 

Youssou N’Dour, Fill., SF, Wed., July 25

SETLIST : Baykat, Misere, Immignes, Shaking The Tree, My Hope Is You, Dounya, Birima, Set, Ligueye, Lang, No More, Mbadane, New Africa, (encore), Aziz, Lang

I suppose I took for granted back then how many opportunities I had to see musical acts from the four corners of the Earth, acts like Youssou N’Dour. He had just been in town the year before at The Warfield and this would be the second time I’d be seeing him at The Fillmore, the first being in 1994. For more insight into his back story, feel free to check out his other reviews. But for all you who are new here, I’ll just rehash a little about this musical legend from Senegal. Like so many international stars who play the modestly sized Fillmore, N’Dour is a superstar in his native country, his infectious afro-pop stylings remain renown throughout African diaspora as well as the rest of the world to this day. His reputation and talent attracted many western artists to collaborate with him, guys like Peter Gabriel. That was Youssou’s voice backing Peter up on his song “Shaking The Tree”, which was the fourth one he performed that night.

Coincidentally, I had just had the pleasure of seeing Babacour Traore from Mali, a neighboring country to Senegal just a day shy of two weeks before this show at Ashkenaz in Berkeley. Traore was brilliant, but quite different, he just on stage playing guitar with a single percussionist. N’Dour as before brought along his rather impressive army of drummers, multi instrumentalists, singers, and dancers, dressed to the nines in the most colorful clothes ever seen. And like the other times I had seen him, his transcendent voice was only matched by his boundless energy. It was a master class in rhythm as each of his drummers played their hearts out all through the set, especially during numbers like “Lang”. 

Youssou and members of his band also took turns joyfully dancing their asses off and had no problem from song one getting the crowd dancing and clapping along too. He even got a handful of enthusiastic audience members to come on stage to bust a move as well. Youssou led everyone a few times singing call and response stuff in his native tongue, though most of us in crowd had no idea what we were singing. Whatever it was, it was joyful and I’m glad I went. Pity that N’Dour never got a poster those three times I’d see him since he certainly deserved one and this was the last time I’d see him live. Still, as of today he’s only 64 years old and has always been in Olympic shape, so I’ll probably get another chance. At least I got the setlist this time to remember him by, especially since apart from “Shaking The Tree”, I had no idea what his songs were titled. 

Echo & The Bunnymen, The Rosenbergs, Glide, Fill., SF, Sun., July 22

SETLISTS :

(THE ROSENBERGS) : If You Wanna Be My Lover, (unknown), (unknown), Paper & Plastic, After All, Overboard, Soaked In Polyester, Secret, Keep It To Yourself, Little Lie, In Pursuit, 

(ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN) : Lips Like Sugar, Rescue, King Of Kings, Seven Seas, SuperMellowMan, Bring On The Dancing Horses, As Eternity Turns, The Back Of Love, The Killing Moon, The Cutter, Silver, Villers Terrace, Flowers, Heads Will Roll, Over The Wall, Nothing Lasts Forever, Do It Clean, Roadhouse Blues, Angels & Devils, Ocean Rain

I followed the very subdued, feminine, and chatty Shawn Colvin show at The Fillmore with its practical opposite the next night featuring Echo & The Bunnymen, a cavalcade of extremely loud goth rock with male singers who were quite brief in comparison with their remarks between songs. This would be the fourth time I’d see Echo in only four years, first at the Great American in ’97 when they had just reformed, followed by a larger show that year at The Warfield after they got their feet wet a bit, and then two years later recording them at Maritime Hall. This would be the first time The Bunnymen would play at The Fillmore, but they must have liked it since they came right back later that December, though I didn’t attend that one. I was disappointed not to catch a bonus free set of Echo at Amoeba Records earlier that day. I either was working or didn’t know about it, but I would have been there if I could have. 

The band had just put out their 9th studio album that May called “Flowers” which had sort of a creepy cover, taken from the cover art of the book “Wisconsin Death Trip” by Michael Lesy. Their music has always been a bit melancholic, punctuated by the somber appearance of their vampirish frontman Ian McCulloch. The Bunnymen were breaking in a new bass player, Alex Germains from The Mountaineers, who was filling in for Les Pattinson who left the band to take care of his ailing mother. Les would rejoin the band four years later. The new material was pretty good and we got to hear four of the new songs that night. We listened to a DJ called Glide spin some ambient stuff early on, at one point almost hypnotizing us with samples of a guy droning, “Relax… You are getting sleepy…” 

First up were The Rosenbergs from New York City. The singer, David Fagin, joked, “Actually, three of us are from New Jersey, but we like to say we’re from New York. Wouldn’t you? We’d like to kiss Echo’s butt for bringing us on their North American tour. You guys are in for a big treat. They sound amazing. They sound like a god.” The Rosenbergs had just put out their debut album “Mission : You” on the Discipline Global Machine label ran by Robert Fripp from King Crimson, but they would soon be blacklisted for their partnering with Napster. This would be the only time I would see them and they would stop performing after the release of their second album just three years later. 

Still, I liked them and their loud energy and humor. We were all taken a little aback when they started their set by playing the chorus of “If You Wanna Be My Lover” by The Spice Girls, who were ridiculously huge at the time and an easy target for parody. Giving a literal shout out to The Bunnymen, David yelped “Lips Like Sugar!” in the middle of their second song and introduced themselves afterwards saying, “Thanks a lot. We are Bon Jovi!”. I was working next to a tall usher named Michael that evening and I heard him asking some questions about video gear since he knew I was a stagehand. He was interested in breaking into working with video and possibly motion capture stuff, though I don’t know if he ever pursued it further. He liked The Rosenbergs and compared them to Oasis of which I could see a bit of their similarities. Like Oasis, they enjoyed drinking and David mentioned, “Last time I was here, I came down with a slight case of alcohol poisoning.”

Before Echo came on, I chuckled with Michael about the end of the night I when I recorded them at the Maritime saying, “I’ve seen Ian with all the lights on and without his sunglasses”. My god… the ghoulish visage of that gaunt, alabaster Liverpudlian under those cruel florescent lights will haunt me to the end of my days. Apart from the new songs, their set was most of the same stuff I had heard before, though I was glad to finally hear them do “Silver” live. Once again, Ian did a couple lines from “Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine” by James Brown near the end of “Do It Clean”. They did their cover of “Roadhouse Blues” by The Doors as well, a fitting tribute to that seminal rock band that had graced that very same stage in their heyday. When they came back in December they did “People Are Strange” instead, their Doors cover made famous in the opening credits of the film “The Lost Boys”. 

This would be the final time I’d see The Bunnymen, though they still tour to this day and in fact just did a show at The Warfield last month, though I opted to see The Damned at The Regency that night instead. It was a tough call, but it was the first time The Damned were touring with their original drummer Rat Scabies in almost 30 years, so I couldn’t miss it. The good news is my cousin Greg went to the Echo show and I’m sure he had a lovely time. On a sad note, this Fillmore show would be the last time I’d see their keyboard player Jake Brockman alive since he’d die in a motorcycle crash on the Isle Of Man eight years later. In a somber coincidence, Jake would be the second member of The Bunnymen to die this way, having lost their original drummer, Pete de Freitas, to another motorcycle crash in 1989. Still, I have the solemn yet joyful memories of this last show as well as a poster to remember Jake by and hopefully I’ll be able to see Echo again someday.

Shawn Colvin, Kim Richey, Fill., SF, Sat., July 21

SETLISTS : 

(KIM RICHEY) : Can’t Lose Them All, I Know, Those Words We Said, Come Around, Hello Old Friend, Bring You Down, If You Don’t Mind, Baby’s Got It Bad, Fading, Our Big Mistake, (unknown), I’m Alright, Straight As The Crow Flies

(SHAWN COLVIN) : Heart Of Saturday Night, Anywhere You Go, Bound To You, Polaroids, Shotgun Down The Avalanche, You & The Mona Lisa

I was no stranger by this time to the honey sweet voice of Shawn Colvin, having seen her once before at The Fillmore and at the Bridge School Benefit. It was a downright placid evening especially since she and her opener, Kim Richey, were both performing solo acoustic. Kim would make a wisecrack later saying that her “favorite part about playing solo acoustic are the stunning rhythm guitar solos” and Shawn would also joke about The Fillmore putting up the barricade in front of the stage. Yes, I think we all agreed with her that there would be no mosh pits that night and praised the audience for being quiet and polite, before going on some tangent about Courtney Love and her favorite perfume being ground up raisons and brown sugar. Shawn claimed it was her “mosh pit smell… sticky & icky”. Indeed, she and Kim would talk so much between songs, that it was nearly just as much a spoken word show that evening. So bear with me as I try to rehash some of the highlights of their ramblings. 

But first, a little backstory for y’all. Shawn had just released her sixth album, “Whole New Year” that March, her first one in four years. She had been busy having given birth to her daughter in ’98 and raising her while dealing with her crumbling marriage which would ultimately end in divorce the year after this. In the meantime, she also lent her voice and singing to “The Simpsons”, playing a character called Rachel Jordan, a gospel singer who would befriend Ned Flanders and help him overcome the grief from the death of his wife Maude. I had hoped she would sing “He’s The Man” that her character sang in that episode and I even drunkenly shouted out for her to play it between songs that night, but to no avail. Seriously, it was a nice tune. That year, her hit song “Polaroids” was also featured in the soundtrack of the film “Heartbreakers” with Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt. 

Kim Richey had a honey sweet voice too and was well received by the audience that night. Originally from Canton, Ohio, Kim had been working around Nashville for years, playing gigs, writing songs for other people, and doing odd jobs until she finally landed a recording contract of her own at the age of 37, just one year younger than Shawn. She joked that “yesterday I was in Merrillville, Indiana. Glad to be here!” and that “Kevin Costner did three baseball movies. Two were hugely successful. I got a song in the third one which I’d like to play for you now” and she did “Come Around”. Afterwards, she told us a little story about how she got a call late at night while sitting on her porch in Tennessee from an old boyfriend. He was way too friendly and probably drunk and that the next song “Hello Old Friend” is “kind of how the conversation went.”

A couple songs later, she told us a story saying, “A lot of people ask me what’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done. This one is hands down the most bizarre thing I’ve ever done. I was asked to go to Switzerland to play a show and I said yeah, sure that’ll be great. Free trip to Switzerland. I’ve never been. That sounds good, get some side gigs, see more places in Switzerland. It turns out all the side gigs fell out except for one gig and we got there and nobody would tell me what the show was and I kept asking what is it, what’s the audience?” She knew it was going to be bad when she saw a hitching post for horses and a banner reading “Welcome to the grand opening of the Authentic Western American Saloon”. And it got worse from there, having to play to a crowd of faux Swiss cowboys who also were allowed to drink all they wanted for free.

Like I mentioned earlier, she had written for people in Nashville and one prospect had wanted a song that was “uptempo and positive”, though she wasn’t a fan of such songs. So she thought she’d be sneaky and do one that was “uptempo and negative… This is a little break up number with a singalong chorus”. It was a catchy one, but I still don’t know its title. She played a lot of stuff that weren’t on her albums that night, one of which was a song that she had become so obsessed listening to that she decided that if she learned to play the song, that she “wouldn’t have to get off the couch and press repeat” anymore. But Kim’s yarns seemed laser focused and brief compared to Shawn’s that followed.

I will give Shawn credit for her excellent diction as well as her angelic voice which made it easy for me to transcribe her setlist. Unfortunately, I ran out of tape before she finished only getting the first six songs of her set. To my defense, I would have gotten more if she wasn’t blabbering for so long, including one story that went on for nearly 15 minutes. I’ll get to that one in a second. She started off right to business in the beginning, opening with “Heart Of Saturday Night” and almost immediately following it with “Anywhere You Go”. But soon, she would become easily distracted, reacting to everything anyone in the audience would blurt out asking “What?” over and over again. Before she played “Polaroids”, she talked a little about the Tour de France that was going on then as it does every summer and joked, “I don’t care what he’s taking”, a reference to Lance Armstrong and the early suspicions of his illegal doping. Little did she know how right she was. Shawn followed it with “Shotgun Down The Avalanche”, and though it might be one of her oldest songs, its lyrics might have been a bit of venting for her considering her impending divorce. 

And speaking of venting, it’s time to recall the long 15 minute story she told that night, a diatribe so long that I will do my best to summarize and not quote word for word. The infamous boy band N’Sync were in town the night of this show, staying at the hotel where Shawn was and she talked about an embarrassing incident that occurred during the one time she got to work with them. She had just given birth to her aforementioned daughter in the summer of ’98 when she got the call for her to participate in some Christmas special for Disney that was being taped that fall. Shawn herself had put out a Christmas record which is why she thought she got the call in the first place. So, she came into one of Disney’s studios to rehearse the song she was going to do alongside N’Sync and instantly began flirting with Joey Fatone. 

The time had come to rehearse and she noted that whenever N’Sync sang, they would “bust a move” and she “wanted to please them”, so she made an effort to dance as well. But she quickly added that “any woman will tell you who has had a child, it sort of stretched out your pelvic floor, a delicate way to put it, basically kind of incontinent for a while”. Well, you guessed it, she jumped around one time too many and peed herself leaving a large, conspicuous stain on the crotch of her pants. The crowd, not yet impatient with the length of the story, erupted in laughter and applause, but she went on. Humiliated, she said that she “couldn’t look at Joey anymore”. 

Shawn apologized to us, but insisted that she “could do worse” and that she was an “enormously scatalogical person… Urine is only the beginning”. From there, people were wanting the show to go on, but she countered, “No more singing. I went on the road and had to give up psychotherapy. Now you’re going to pay. You are now my shrinks… Like the time that I tore a scab off my leg and told my sister that it was a burnt potato chip. Don’t get me started. I’m anal expulsive to the extreme!” Then some joker in the crowd pretended to count her off to begin a song yelling “1-2-3-4!”. She finally relented saying, “OK, I got you. Sorry about that. I won’t talk anymore” and then she did “You & The Mona Lisa”. 

Before my tape ran out, she did introduce a song saying that she had started writing it during the period she was living in Berkeley across the bay. Shawn had later moved into a house in Oakland with a bunch of Deadheads and occupied the attic room on the top floor and drank a lot of beer. Ramblings aside, I did love her music, so I stuck around until the end anyway and there was a nice poster that was given out too. I would usher again the following night for Echo & The Bunnymen, a stylistic left turn in music and a quantum leap louder in volume. I would see Shawn return to that very stage almost exactly a year later and I believe she had a band with her that time and most certainly didn’t talk as much.

Boubacar Traore, Ashkenaz, Berkeley, Thur., July 12

One of my best friends, Matt Thayer, has always had the uncanny ability to score free tickets to all manner of events and that night, he got us ones to see singer-guitarist Boubacar Traore at Askenaz in Berkeley. He had called in to local radio station KPFA who were interviewing Traore earlier that day and bingo, we were in. God knows how many shows he scored over the years calling in to radio stations. It was a very rare occasion that I would see anything at Ashkenaz and it had been years in fact since I’d been there, probably seeing Strictly Roots or some other reggae act. It was renown for bringing in world music and hippie acts, but before that show, I hadn’t thought about Ashkenaz and even assumed that the venue had been closed. But it hadn’t and still remains operational to this very day. During the show that night, the emcee was promoting their effort to replace the dance floor, offering to put donors name on a plaque for making a $200 donation to pay for the new planks. 

I had seen a handful of musical acts from Africa like Femi Kuti, Baaba Maal, and Angelique Kidjo, but Traore is the only one I’ve seen from Mali. “Kar-Kar” as he was affectionately known was 59 years old by this time and as you might expect, was a big deal back in his native country, though he recently had re-emerged from a long absence. The regime of Modibo Keita who Traore was associated with had been overthrown in 1968 and he disappeared, many thinking that he was dead. But he simply moved to France was living a humble life as a construction worker raising his 6 children. Coincidentally, I had just seen the French band Air at The Warfield just two days before this show. Sadly, Traore’s wife died giving birth in 1987, but he began to gradually make music again, getting a record deal three years later. He would write the song “Les Enfants Des Pierrette” as a tribute to his late wife. 

Traore had gotten new attention from his “Mali To Memphis” album in 1999, incorporating his native music with Delta Blues and a portion of the proceeds going to the Music Maker Relief Foundation and L’institut National Des Arts in Bamako, Mali. The year of this show, there had also been a documentary made about him by Swiss director Jacques Sarasis called “Je Chanterai Pour Toi” which is French for “I’ll Sing For You”. One new fan he thankfully picked up along the way was none other than Bonnie Raitt, yes THE Bonnie Raitt. A fellow blues singer-guitarist, she had helped produce his latest album, “Macire” the year before this and was in the audience that night accompanied by another fellow who I think was Jon Cleary, who was in her band. As luck would have it, Bonnie was rehearsing extensively up in the north bay at 101 North studios, ran by my old recording partner Pete Slauson from the Maritime Hall. I came over one day to visit and Pete proudly showed me a stack of Bonnie’s CDs about two feet tall that she had given him. I did my best like everyone else there not to intrude or stare at Bonnie as she sat politely and watched the show. Still, it was hard to resist peeking over at her during the music. I love that woman big time. 

Accompanied by a percussion player, Traore took the stage and quietly sat together on a couple of chairs being introduced by the emcee who praised him for bringing us the “joys, sorrows, and history of the Malian people” through his music. It’s not often that I’m instantly entranced by a musician, but the moment he started strumming that steel guitar of his, I was hooked. His deft skills on that instrument was only matched by his powerful and melodic voice and though I couldn’t understand a word he was singing, the emotional content he expressed was undeniable. He had all of us sitting in our chairs at our small round tables utterly spellbound while he and his percussionist played and we applauded generously between songs. It was an evening with Traore, so there were two sets and during the beginning of the set break the emcee came back on to point out his CDs that were on sale at the merch table.

He eventually came back on on stage and was introduced by Bonnie, who said, “I’m here not because I’m African, but because I love Boubacar Troare and was so honored to have been asked to be representing guitar players of equal genres, to celebrate and welcome the return of the legendary, the rockinest two men in this town, probably in this country in this combination… the inimitable Kar Kar.” It’s a pity that she didn’t play anything with him, but the second set was just as rapturous as the first and because of how close Matt and I were to the stage and the respectful silence of the audience, the tapes came out loud and clear. This would be the only time I’d see Traore, but I’m happy to say he’s still alive at the ripe old age of 82 now. Hopefully, the recent civil war and humanitarian crisis that has engulfed his home country of Mali will be resolved, but it’s a bad scene there now to say the least. This also was the last time I’d see at show at Ashkenaz, though like I said, it’s still open. Now that I’m living in Alameda, I’ll make a point to see another one there sometime. I’m glad I went, a show I would have never known about, and if you’re reading this, many thanks again  to Matt for scoring the tickets. 

Air, Sebastien Tellier, War., SF, Mon., July 9

SETLIST : Electronic Performers, How Does It Make You Feel?, Talisman, Radio #1, Lucky & Unhappy, Playground Love, J’ai Dormi Sous L’eau, People In The City, Le Soleil Est Pres De Moi, Sex Born Poison, Don’t Be Light, (encore), Radian, La Femme D’argent, (encore), Sexy Boy

In a strange coincidence, as I begin writing this installment, I am listening to Air unintentionally. My brother Alex has a radio show on Mixcloud called “The Far Out ‘In’”and I like to write to it sometimes and in this most recent show, he opened it with their song “La Femme D’Argent”. This was my first encounter with Air, but Alex had seen them when they played Bimbo’s in 1998 and again at the Greek in L.A. in 2007. When I saw them that night at The Warfield, I was only aware of Air from their soundtrack for the film, “The Virgin Suicides” directed by nepo-baby Sophia Coppola and Air would go on to also do the score for “Lost In Translation” for her. Honestly, I hated that movie but loved the soundtrack as I do all of Sophia Coppola’s works. She gets great actors and the cinematography is always brilliant too, but Sophia seems absolutely determined to only do dreary and dull stories about wealthy and attractive yet utterly miserable young women. At least Kirsten Dunst in “Marie Antoinette” had cause to be mopey seeing that she was going to be beheaded. But I digress. 

Air is the collaboration between Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel from, you guessed it, France. They brought along in tow an impressive band with them including Jason Falkner from Jellyfish on bass and Brian Retzell, the former drummer of Redd Kross. I learned that their name is actually an abbreviation for “Amour, Imagination, Reve” which is French for “Love, Imagination (obviously), Dreaming”. They had been about since ’95 and were just 6 weeks shy of releasing their second album, “10,000 Hz Legend” and we were lucky enough to hear 8 new songs, more than half of their 14 song set.  My friend Chris Kuckenbaker recently told me that he caught Air on that tour at the Vic Theater in Chicago. Opening that night was fellow Frenchman Sebastian Tellier who was pretty new, having just released his debut album, “L’incroyable Verite” which translates to “The Incredible Truth”. I liked that he had a woman named Pamela Kurstin playing a theremin in the band, not an instrument you hear everyday. It was a short set, only six songs, and though I took a semester of French in college, I couldn’t tell you what the songs were called, much less what they were about. 

Being also unfamiliar with their music, I couldn’t understand Air’s lyrics either and it didn’t help that they sang through copious layers of vocal effects. But I loved their music right away as did all attending in that sold out crowd. One of them mentioned early in the set, “On my last tour, this was my favorite place to play. So let’s play a song that will remind us of the old times” and then they played “Talisman”. I liked that the duo dressed in capes with high collars, making them look a little like magicians or space vampires. They wrapped up the night with a rockin’ guitar version of “Sexy Boy” and left the stage saying “Thank you, sexy people. Have a good night, make sweet dreams. Please, no nightmares tonight, OK? A lot of French kiss and more.” I would immediately go out and pick up their album, “Moon Safari”, at Amoeba and it remains one of my favorites to this day, especially the song “Remember”, though they didn’t play it at this show. I was glad that they gave out a poster at the end of the night and it was a cool one. 

Sadly, this show remains the only time I have seen Air and it’s kind of a sore spot for a couple reasons. Bear with me on this. First, I had a chance to see them in 2016 when I was recruited to work at Outside Lands and Air was on the main stage. But I was double crossed into spooling out the optical fiber runs to the record truck there for the three grueling set up days, but was cut from the crew for the show. For three godforsaken days, my crew and I had to unspool 1500 foot long runs to each of the festival’s stages in the blazing sun, breathing intolerable amounts of dust and diesel fumes. The spools of this cursed bright yellow wire would also become hopelessly tangled as they were laid out leaving us no choice but to struggle over and over again to untangle them. To say it was physically demanding was an understatement, but I especially felt bad for my co-worker David who did it having only one arm, the other he lost in an accident when he was a teenager. I made sure to at least not complain in front of him. 

To add insult to injury, my crew and I were replaced by other video techs for the show and we had to come back after the weekend was over to re-spool the runs. That also denied us a sixth day at work which would have been paying us at time and half all day. We even had to link 4 spools together just to make it to Sutro stage, 6000 feet, well over a mile away, attaching the cable to fences with zip ties and through countless bushes and trees. In short, it sucked donkey dick and I nursed my extremely sore muscles that weekend watching Air and the other acts from that festival over the internet broadcast of their set in my pajamas at home on my computer. Thankfully since then, Outside Lands instead broadcasts the feed at separate stations at each of the stages instead of running it to one big truck. Air’s set was pretty short that day, but they were one of the only bands that year at that festival that I was genuinely eager to see.

The second reason I’m a little miffed about Air is that they are coming to play at The Masonic this coming October, but the cheapest ticket available is currently $333.90. It stings because they’re going to be play “Moon Safari” in its entirety as well. A big a fan as I am of them and that seminal album, they’re out of their fucking minds if they think I would even shell out half of that money to see them on that night or any other. Even if I had that kind of money to blow, I wouldn’t do it out the principal of the thing. But there are people that rich and/or stupid enough to hand that king’s ransom over to those merciless, greedy scumbags at Live Nation. So, in the unlikely event that any of the Air guys are reading this, I will simply say, “Merci, mais je suis desole… Non”.

Shuggie Otis, Geggy Tah, Fill., SF, Sat., July 7

SETLISTS : 

(GEGGY TAH) : (unknown), One Zero, Dumb Submarine, Whoever You Are, I Forgot, Holly Oak, Aliens Somewhere, Sweat

Like vacations, with concerts, you remember little from the ones that went smoothly, but will carry every last gruesome detail to your grave for the ones that went south, especially ones that went as badly as Shuggie Otis. One of the reasons this show tanked so spectacularly was due in part to all the hype that had been generated around it. From that height, he had quite a long way to fall. Shuggie, the son of legendary R & B musician Johnny Otis, had made quite a name for himself back in the day in the late 60’s early 70’s. His virtuoso electric guitar skills landed him gig playing alongside such greats as Frank Zappa and Etta James, even turning down an offer to replace Mick Taylor in the Rolling Stones to work on his solo stuff. He had dropped off the map in 1974 at the very young age of 21 after releasing his seminal “Inspiration Information” album and become a bit of a recluse until David Byrne’s record label, Luaka Bop, decided to re-release it that April. David coincidentally had just performed on that very same stage six weeks before this show and would return to town three weeks later to play at The Warfield. 

But I knew nothing about Shuggie or his music then and was coming in to see him and his opener Geggy Tah sight unseen. They too were signed to the Luaka Bop label and their name comes from the two original members, Greg Kerlin and Tom Jordan, and the mispronunciation of their first names by their little sisters, hence “Geggy Tah”. Their new album, “Into The Oh” (originally titled “Music Inspired By The Fragrance” which I think is better personally), had just been released after a two year delay and six of the songs from their eight song set were new ones.  The show for me was already off to a strange start since it followed two days of first Rammstein at The Warfield, and then El Tri right there on the very same stage at The Fillmore the night before this. I went from Germany, to Mexico, and now… to the Land Of Confusion. 

My friend Matt Thayer was there ushering with me that night and we bumped into his friend John, all of us blissfully unaware of the train wreck we would soon be witnessing. The show started harmlessly enough with Geggy Tah, who had their shit together at least and chatted up the crowd between songs. They mentioned after they did “Whoever You Are”, that they had made a “Spanglish” version which had been added to the “Red Hot Latin” album, one of the series raising money for AIDS research. Greg also mused about during the first time he saw a show at The Fillmore, under a beautiful full moon, his mother had to be lifted in her wheelchair up to the ballroom level by a forklift. I guess the elevator was busted again and though I wasn’t there of course, I doubt OSHA would have approved. Later, Greg dedicated “Holly Oak” to “George Dawson who just died at 103. He learned to read at 98 and he wrote a book that’s called ‘Life Is So Good’”. They finished their set with “Sweat”, Greg saying, “This is for all the people sweating on public transportation”. He politely asked the lighting guy to turn the lights down and joked that he took a shower earlier at the Best Western with all the lights off. It was a hot weekend as usual during the first week of July. 

I was unaware for a long time at the beginning of that gig that my tape deck’s batteries were slowly running low, so most of what I got sounded sped up until it was unlistenable. But what I heard from Shuggie that night was enough to confirm my memory of the event. It didn’t bode well from song one when he came out with his band and was woefully out of tune with his guitar. It took him at least a few minutes to finally get it right and I wondered why he or a guitar tech wouldn’t have tuned his guitars ages ago. But whatever, I gave Shuggie the benefit of the doubt since it my first time seeing him and knowing it had been a minute since he’d performed live. But the night didn’t improve from there, not by a long shot. For starters, when he finally got in tune, the guitar was painfully loud! It’s high pitched, nails going down a chalkboard tone instantly grated every nerve in the house, easily and mercilessly overwhelming his entire backing band. That shrieking guitar fed back all the other mics as well and I can only guess the stress that put the sound people under all evening. 

Now I’d seen my share of inebriated people perform on stage by then, but I wasn’t getting that vibe from Shuggie at all. It was a bit of mystery, since although he was just shy of his 48th birthday, he seemed to act like an elderly person with severe dementia. He shuffled around like Mr. Magoo all night, easily getting distracted, stopping and starting songs over and over again, even playing the same one twice that night. And for the love of god, the man couldn’t keep the beat to save his life, despite his rhythm section’s best efforts to keep it together. I’ll never forget the look on his brother Nicky’s face, playing on drums and the uncomfortable glances he would share with the bass player as they did their darnedest to muddle through the tunes and endure Shuggie’s ramblings. Between songs, he asked, “Can I say some bad words to you?” and one of the guys in the band suggested “George Bush”, but he continued, “Guess what it is… It’s love”. I didn’t know any of his songs, but he did a handful of well known covers including two by Sly Stone, “Everyday People” and “Thank You (For Lettin’ Me Be Mice Elf)”. After another rambling introduction talking about how he bought “Are You Experienced?” by Jimi Hendrix in a record store when it first came out, they did “Little Wing”. 

But even hearing them do those renown hippie classics at The Fillmore, Shuggie and the band found themselves quickly losing the crowd’s attention and folks were starting to conspicuously dwindle out. I’m sure that some of them had demanded a refund at the box office. Even the sound man at front of house had enough of him, especially when Shuggie kept relentlessly bugging him to turn the organ up. I very, VERY rarely leave a show early myself, but this one was warranted and my friends Matt and John concurred. I wanted out so bad, I didn’t even care that I wouldn’t be getting my second poster of the show which I would pick up leaving at the very end in addition to the one I got when I got cut from ushering. The good news is the one they made for the show was a pretty nice one. But despite that, now every time I look up on the long wall of The Fillmore balcony, my eyes are invariably drawn to Shuggie’s poster and the dread from that fateful evening returns just a teensy bit. Shuggie fell off the map again after this tour, but resurfaced in 2013 for another one. I can’t report if it went well, but it’s a safe bet it couldn’t get much worse than this one that I saw. Let’s just say that I’m not eager to see him a second time. 

El Tri, Orixa, Fill., SF, Sat., July 6

One of the things I loved about ushering at The Fillmore was because of its prestige from its long history, from time to time, musical acts who are arena sized successful from other countries would pop in to play there. I knew next to nothing then and still to this day about the music of Mexico, but El Tri was one of their big ones. They had been making music since 1968, over 30 years by then and had just released their 18th album, followed by “Sinfonico II” six and a half weeks after this, recorded alongside a symphonic orchestra. Hailing from Mexico City, they originally called themselves “Three Souls In My Mind”, and began their long career singing their songs at first in English. In due time, they would soon be honored with the title of “Godfathers Of Mexican Rock”. The national Mexican soccer team is also commonly known as “El Tri”, but they derive their name from the three colors in the Mexican Flag. Like many foreign superstars who do a Fillmore show, the place was sold out with local ex pats, who I’m sure were delighted to see them in such a small venue. But this fervor also unintentionally denies curious bay area locals from seeing them though, limiting the band’s ability to reach new audiences in America. 

Opening that night was Orixa, a bay area afro-cuban band that blended many genres from funk to ska to rock and so on. I’d seen them once before at The Fillmore three years before this opening for Cypress Hill and I liked their stuff. Like El Tri, Orixa’s songs were all in Spanish, so I wasn’t able to figure out either setlist, but I know their name mean a family of spirits, though is also the name of a genus of moths.  The band, fronted by Rowan Jiminez, consisted of a pair of brothers Juan & Mark Ciapo, and their cousin Eddie. Rowan and Juan met working in town at Guitar Center. They were again a lively way to start the show, warming up the crowd who definitely gave the bartenders in the house probably one of their busiest nights ever. I’m sad to say that this would be the last time I would see Orixa since Rowan passed away in 2020 after a long battle with scleroderma, a rare autoimmune condition. 

Coming into the show sight unseen with El Tri, I was pleasantly surprised how accessible their music was, though I could only understand a handful of words. Curses on me once again for taking German in high school instead of Spanish, not my wisest life decision. El Tri’s music is pretty straight forward rock & roll, sometimes accompanied by a harmonica. Whatever they were singing, the audience clearly knew every song, every word, singing along LOUDLY to everything they played. There was no shortage of top of the lung screaming and ear shattering whistles between songs as well. I liked that during one of their songs later in the set, they broke it down a little bit and played a few licks of “The Pink Panther Theme” by Henri Mancini. I remember their frontman, Alex Lora, had an impressive head of black, curly hair, looking a bit like Brian May from Queen. He had quite a strong voice and got the crowd to do call and response “Yeah’s” and “Hey’s” in a sort of Cab Calloway fashion. 

What stuck with me even before I re-listened to this one again was a thing Alex did near the end of their set that night. He led the crowd to sing along to “I’ll Stand By You” by The Pretenders, but the only lyric he had them sing to the tune was the phrase… (a-hem)… “Chinga Tu Madre”. Now, like I mentioned before, I only knew a little bit of Spanish, but there was no mistaking that phrase and its meaning for me. And as there might be impressionable, non-Spanish speaking young people reading this, I’ll just say… ask your parents what that one means. Anyway, it was a fun night and I thought it was an interesting contrast to seeing another band from another land, Rammstein at The Warfield, the night before this one. At least, at that show, it would be one of the only times where my German actually came in handy. Granted, there weren’t any pyrotechnics at the El Tri show, but they did hand out an awesome poster at the end of the night, one of a Mayan stone mandala, painted by Jimbo Phillips, one of my all time favorite poster artists.  

Rammstein, Godhead, Crossbreed, War., SF, Thur., July 5

SETLISTS : 

(CROSSBREED) : (unknown), Breathe, Pure Energy, Severed, Regretful Times, Underlined, Seasons

(GODHEAD) : 2000 Years Of Human Error, I Sell Society, Inside You, Sinking, Tired Old Man, Penetrate, Eleanor Rigby, The Reckoning, Break You Down

(RAMMSTEIN) : 5/4, Mein Herz Brennt, Links 2-3-4, Feuer Frei!, Rein Raus, Adios, Mutter, Stripped, Zwitter, Weisses Fleish, Sehnsucht, Asche Ze Asche, Du Hast, Wollt Ihr Das Bett In Flammen Sehen?, (encore), Rammstein, Sonne, Ich Will (encore), Pet Sematery

Once you’ve seen a Rammstein show, take it from me, you are not likely to forget it any time soon. And though it had been almost three years since I had witnessed their insane carnival of pyrotechnics and industrial metal on the Family Values Tour at the Cow Palace, I was more than happy to feel the heat once again. They had just released their “Mutter” album that April and they played 9 out of the 11 new songs that night, leaving out only “Spieluhr” and “Nebel”. Having seen these crazy Krauts do their thing three times by then, I was nonetheless still amazed by the sheer amount of flammable ordinance they would set off on just a single show, making me ponder the sheer volume of firepower they must travel with on a whole tour. Rest assured, the fire marshal was in the building that night keeping a watchful eye on these pyromaniacs. It was also a safe bet that Ruben Goldberg, our stagehand union’s top pyro guy was around shadowing Rammstein’s people. That wise but eccentric fellow swore me in when I became a Journeyman with the local. And as luck would have it, this would be the second night I’d see an impressive fireworks display since the night before had been the Fourth Of July. 

I was in my usual spot clearing the house left bar aisle and my good friend Dan Rubin was also there ushering with me. Opening first that evening would be Crossbreed from Clearwater, Florida, a state renowned for its output of metal bands. They were fairly new, having released their debut album, “Synthetic Division”, on Artemis Records, a label founded by Canadian all female metal band, Kittie. I have to say, I’ve heard some screamers fronting bands before, but their singer James Rietz, was a doozy. Hearing his blood curdling shrieks was frankly painful to listen to and I’m shocked that he has any voice at all after even the short set they did that night, much less that he continues to belt out tunes like that to this very day. James made a wisecrack between songs saying that “it smells like weed in this fuckin’ place” and complained that yet it was illegal to smoke cigarettes. Though they didn’t play it that night, they had been known for doing a heavy metal cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”. It was a pity they didn’t since Chris is well known as one of San Francisco’s favorite sons and frankly, it would have been awesome if he had been in the house to sing a verse or two or at least to witness them do it. 

I was relieved to see Godhead follow them because I had actually just missed them play at Ozzfest on the second stage only six days before this. I think I was taping Marilyn Manson on the main stage at the time they were on. Hailing from Fairfax, Virginia, this industrial band had originally wanted to call themselves Blind, but another band had bagged it first. Godhead too had been noted for an unlikely metal cover, theirs being “Eleanor Rigby” by The Beatles, though they did play it that night unlike Crossbreed. It was strangely appropriate pairing their brutal sound with McCartney’s uncharacteristically tragic lyrics. I thought it was funny that their singer Jason kvetched between songs that the airlines had lost his luggage coming there. Now that’s genuinely something to cry about. But the crowd all decked out in their darkest finery was there to see Rammstein and the band didn’t disappoint as usual.

Opening with the first song on the new album, “Mein Herz Brennt”, which translates to “My Heart Burns”, singer Till Lindemann literally had a firework explode from his chest in the middle of the it. They followed it was the second song off the new album, “Links 2-3-4”, a march of sorts which their nerdy keyboardist Christian “Flake” Lorenz did, stepping in place on his riser next to the drums behind his moveable key rig. I had just finished ushering when I rushed back to see Till strap a flamethrower rig to his head during “Feuer Frei!”, (appropriately meaning “Open Fire!), which spewed out bursts for flame from his mouth every time he sang. We earned a well deserved break from the hot stuff for a few songs, though the guitarists somehow were able to make their jackets billow smoke during “Mutter”. I couldn’t help but think about the scene from the immortal film comedy “Airplane!” when Ted Stryker booked a seat on the ill fated flight and when asked if he wanted smoking or non-smoking. He replied “Smoking” and the lady behind the desk handed him his ticket which was puffing out a steady stream of smoke. Maybe that’s where Rammstein got the idea. Anyway, Till sucked his thumb at the beginning of that song and there was a sample playing of a baby crying too.

Like their openers, Rammstein too played a cover that night, theirs being that of “Stripped” by Depeche Mode. They had contributed that one as the last song for the 1998 “For The Masses” Depeche Mode tribute album which I had in my collection of CDs. There were some great covers on that album, even the one of “Enjoy The Silence” by Failure, a band I’ve never been fond of. Rammstein resumed their pyro antics after during the new song “Zwitter”, when one of the guitarists pretended to have technical trouble with his instrument and their guitar tech came out and in a humorous display of phony frustration, hurled his guitar into a prop amplifier that immediately exploded. Next, Till had a stream of white sparks shoot out of the boot of his left foot during “Weisses Fleish” while Flake did one of his silly dances and also had sparks shooting out of his chest. 

They set off a line of small flamethrowers shooting green fire straight up in front of the drums for “Sehnsucht” but during the next song, the guitarists had an effect that was truly mind boggling. Somehow, they figured out a way to set their microphone stands on fire and still managed to sing into them. Sound gear is notoriously adverse to high temperatures as is all electronics really, so hats off to the guys who figured that one out. Till pointed to random people in the crowd when they did their hit song “Du Hast”, singing the opening line “Du… Du Hast… Du Hast Mich”, meaning, “you hate me”. He didn’t point at me, so I guess we’re still good. I don’t hate him in fact, though we’ve never actually met. Seems like a fun guy. And final proof of that, he put on a strap on dildo flamethrower which shot blasts of fire from his crotch for the final song of the main set, “Wollt Ihr Das Bett In Flammen Sehen?”, the first song off of their debut album, appropriately translating to “Do you want to see the bed in flames?”

A set like that demanded at least one encore, but they were kind enough to give us two. They began with their self titled “Rammstein” song which they had previously played as their opener for the other times I saw them. Once again, Till donned his metallic silver, 100 pound fireproof coat which was engulfed in flames. They did a funny, though unnerving bit near the end of the song where with some help from a couple assistants, the coat was extinguished and removed from him, but his leg was still on fire. Till feigned distress and the band also leaned towards him pantomiming concern. Clearly Till had another fireproof suit on as the flames spread all over his body and he fell to the floor pretending to succumb to them. I have to admit, I and I’m certain the rest of the crowd that wasn’t in on the gag was understandably freaked out by what we were seeing. It wasn’t a stretch to believe that such an accident could occur considering how often these guys would literally play with fire. But the assistants came out again, doused Till with a fire extinguisher and he bounced back on his feet, all smiles. I shouted out, “He’s alright everybody!”, in my best sportscaster voice and got a handful of laughs from the folks around me. 

They finished the first encore with “Sonne” and “Ich Will”, but were generous enough to return to the stage to give us one more. The band had taken off their shirts and Till let Flake sing that last song, a cover of “Pet Sematery” by The Ramones. Joey Ramone, the esteemed singer of that seminal punk band, had just passed away from lymphoma just shy of three months before this show and it was a very respectful rendition of that tune really and I was grateful that they did it. 16 years later, I would actually visit a Ramones museum near where I was staying in Berlin, Rammstein’s home town. But sadly, this would be the last time I’d see these lunatics, though they’re still literally blowing it up to this very day.  So, who knows, I might get another chance… if they can manage to not explode on stage for real in the near future. God knows, they have somehow managed to beat the odds so far… auf holz klopfen (knock on wood). 

Consolidated, Mark Pistel, Guilding The Lily, Slim’s, SF, Tues., July 3

It had been seven long years since I had seen Consolidated do back to back shows only a month apart at both Slim’s and The Fillmore, so I was eager to see them again. They had just released their sixth studio album, “The End Of Meaning”, the year before and this time they had none other than Kevin Carnes from the Broun Fellinis on drums! It was a marriage made in heaven and with the ticket prices at the low, low price of only $8, I would have been a fool to miss it. Opening first that night was Guilding The Lily who at the time had only a self titled album under their belt released a few years before this. Their name is an obscure metaphor meaning to spoil something that is already beautiful or perfect by trying to improve it or by praising it too highly. It being the day before Independence Day, it was sweltering in Slim’s that night, so much so that one of the guys in the band said, “Hot enough for ya?”, between songs. As usual, being on stage first, there were only a handful of people in the audience to watch them and I haven’t seen them since. I did manage to snag one of their stickers though.

But the place filled up a bit more by the time Mark Pistel took over with his blissfully etherial drum and bass sounds. He on the other hand I have seen since, having joined my stagehand union some years ago. IATSE Local 16 is lucky to have such a talented master of audio in its ranks, spoiled really. Mark has an incredible ear as well as sophisticated taste in music, which makes him a virtuoso producer and engineer. He also is a swell guy, friendly as the day is long and I’m glad to know him and consider him a friend. I remember at the end of the first gig we did together at the Marriott, I thanked Mark for his hard work during our little “Dog & Pony Show”, a corny reference to Consolidated’s song of that title. He grinned and I coyly chuckled, “See what I did there?”

If you get a chance to see Mark perform or listen to his stuff, I highly recommend it. And we were lucky to get a double dose of him that night as he would also join Kevin and Consolidated frontman Adam Sherburne on stage for the main event.

Adam was his usual verbose self, lamenting early on about the ever growing invasion of “huge dot coms and rock climbing gyms” in the Mission where he used to live and enjoy “good burritos down at El Farolito”. Later, he introduced another song saying that it wasn’t so much a song but “it’s just a feeling and it’s a feeling about the adults who recognize that we want to protect freedom of speech. That for all the stripper ladies’ unions out there, there are a lot of women out there, out on Folsom Street and our on Capp Street & 18th.” Then some rude jackass in the audience laughed and shouted out, “I know!”. Undeterred, Adam countered, “They are prostituting not because they want to and I don’t find it a funny thing and I think those who do have a lot of misogyny and violence to work on. This is dedicated to all the women who support the women who survive the sex industry and is dedicated to all the men who support those women too.”

Later, he introduced the song “Falling Through You” saying, “This is definitely for someone who loves someone more than anything in the world and until we get to that place, we’re not gonna love anything more than the shit we buy and the way we get ahead.” It was no secret that Adam was a militant vegan and made a point later before they played “Cutting” to make the connection between violence against women and children to “violence against people who are not human”. Finally, he dedicated a song “for anybody that’s involved with activism and for anybody who wants to be but it’s like the rest of the world. It’s pretty damn scary. It’s for anybody who has a heart. This is for you if you’re confused about what to do.” 

Yeah, Adam can be a touch on the preachy side, but I have to admit that I found his words inspiring and try to remember them especially these days when we’re facing the horror of another four years under the merciless Trump regime. It’s good to know that there are people like Adam out there still and I just sincerely wish there were more of them. Activism aside, I wish there were more Consolidated’s out there as well because I find their music brilliant, covering genres ranging from hardcore industrial to soulful funk. It was a foregone conclusion that Kevin’s drumming would be a welcome addition to their sound and I wasn’t wrong. I do have to confess that I haven’t seen perform since, though I believe they got back together briefly a few years ago, playing some shows and releasing the “We’re Already There” album in 2021. Like I said, the world needs more bands like these guys and with some luck, I’ll get another chance someday.

On a sad note, a learned that a couple months after this show, Slim’s ever present doorman, Bob Johnson, passed away from cancer at the all too young age of 53. He was a tough one to miss, being as tall as a tree, and not only did a framed picture of him grace the entrance of Slim’s until the venue closed a few years ago, but also that his ashes were placed in an urn that remained on a shelf above the bar. He was a quiet, but slightly intimidating presence whenever I entered that venue, but those are exactly the qualities that every door person should have and clearly he was revered by all who worked alongside him. On a happy note, one of Bob’s co-workers, Lis Maguire Coyle, more commonly known by people who know her as Tigi, was working monitors that night and though we weren’t acquainted then, I got to know her like Mark when she too would bless my union with her remarkable audio skills. She remembered me vaguely as I would approach her at the end of the nights at Slim’s when she was working the front of house board to delicately pester her for the setlist and/or schedule of the night’s show. She has since relocated back to her home in England, but we remain in touch on Facebook and I wish her as well as Mark all the best.

Phil Lesh & Friends, Col. Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, Greek, Berkeley, Sun., July 1

SETLISTS :

(COL. LES CLAYPOOL’S FEARLESS FLYING FROG BRIGADE) : Thela Hun Ginjeet, Highball with The Devil, Hendershot, Precipitation, Holy Mackerel, Cohibas Splenditos, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Black Sabbath, 2000 Light Years From Home

(PHIL LESH & FRIENDS) : (Jam), Here Comes Sunshine – China Cat Sunflower – Lay Of The Sunflower, Uncle John’s Band – Celebration, Lovelight, )Jam), Cumberland Blues – Rock & Roll Blues, Sugaree, Viola Lee Blues – Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys – Viola Lee Blues (reprise) – Doin’ That Rag – Bertha – Viola Lee Blues (reprise), (encore), Night Of A Thousand Stars

It was a daring combination, putting Phil and Les together. On the surface, it seemed like an ideal pairing, these two masters of bass, but ever since Les and Primus hit the scene, my friends and I always feared that they would blow Phil and the Dead out of the water if they ever opened for them. Indeed, veteran rock stars like Rush and U2 who had employed Primus to open for them on their massive arena tours undoubtedly found themselves with quite the tough act to follow. Even Geddy Lee of Rush, a formidable and legendary bass player in his own right, admitted that Les taught him a thing or two and inspired him to up his game. Naturally, with these two powerhouses of the low end gracing the stage of the Greek for the first time together, there would be no way I’d miss it and the same went for my friend Jeff Pollard who accompanied me that night. And at the ticket price of only $30, even in 2001 dollars, that concert was a steal.

I had been no stranger to Les’ new Frog Brigade project by then having seen them a whopping six times before this show in only two years, including the two Great American Music Hall shows where they recorded their “Live Frogs” albums. Claypool had just performed at the Gathering Of The Vibes festival in New York just two days before this, alongside such respected musicians as Bruce Hornsby, Soulive, and the Tom Tom Club. The Frog Brigade would be opening for Phil on dates around the country for that entire month of July and the folks in the bay area would be lucky to have all three days that entire weekend to enjoy Phil at the Greek in Berkeley, though Les would be only opening on that last Sunday show which I attended. The first day would be just Phil, playing two sets, the second with The Disco Biscuits opening, who I had just seen that May for the first time headlining a show at The Fillmore. 

It had already been a long weekend for me starting with a doozy, Ozzfest at Shoreline. As luck would have it, Primus had been on that tour the year before and had to have known that Ozzy was just in town. Les mentioned during his set, “It’s been an interesting year. I don’t know if you listen to rock radio, but in the past year, there was a song by Primus & Ozzy Osbourne. I find it odd at the contrast you know, doing a year with playing with Ozzy Osbourne, today opening for Phil Lesh. You know, sitting here thinking about it and the THC is starting to tickle me in a certain way. You know, what is the difference between someone like Ozzy and Phil? You know when you think about it, you know I did Ozzfest, there was a shit more black T-shirts in the audience and it’s not necessarily a good thing. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. What it is and I’ve soaked it all up.” 

Les played a few licks of the minor chord bass line of the song “Black Sabbath” and commented, “That’s the dark side”, and then he changed the lick to a cheery major chord and chuckled, “Hey, how ya’ doin? I’m feelin’ good today. Floatin’ around in the sunshine. I’m feelin’ mighty fine as opposed to…” Then he changed back to the minor chord, “Hey… I wish I had more sunscreen.” Yes, Ozzfest that Friday was a brutal metal marathon, but I had also the next day just seen a double dose of hip hop with Kool Keith, first playing at the Van’s Warped Tour at Pier 30/32, followed by another performance later that night at Maritime Hall. My friends noticed my fatigue during Phil’s set when I had to sit down for a spell where I explained to them what I had been through, not to mention that I had just given blood the day before the weekend started in the first place. But I was much younger then and had the energy for such things. 

This would be the second city Phil would play at on his summer tour, the first coincidentally being also at the Greek, but in Los Angeles. He would be joined once again with John Molo on drums, Rob Barraco on keys, Jimmy Herring on guitar, but this time he had the one and only Warren Haynes from Gov’t Mule also on guitar, a real bonus to the band since he also sang. Phil had done a couple small, discrete warm up gigs earlier in June, one at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley and the other at the Expression Center for New Media in Emeryville. It was a particular treat on that sunny Sunday afternoon because the city of Berkeley took this opportunity to declare at that show that it was “Phil Lesh Day”. Yes, the prodigal son of Berkeley High was getting his just due with this prestigious proclamation which Phil accepted with his customary humble graciousness. It was heart warming to see him accept this honor, really. Phil is an outstanding citizen as well as a brilliant musician and a friend to all and it was uplifting to see him recognized for that. 

And as Phil spoke as he does during shows, sparingly and briefly, Les was his usual verbose self, cracking jokes, making wry comments, and saying downright weird stuff from time to time. As he began the Frog Brigade’s set, he was muttering something like, “Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends… Come inside, come inside… The Greek is one of the most wonderful places on the planet. So, enjoy yourself, enjoy the facilities, and here we go!” There was a loud electric crunch that startled everybody when his guitarist, Todd Huth, plugged in and there was an eerie flute intro played in the background. They had a sampler in the band for the only time I can recall, but it was pretty subtle. Once again they opened with “Thela Hun Ginjeet” by King Crimson, their take on the epic prog rock aria that stretched to nearly twenty minutes long. 

Afterwards, Les’ friend and long time partner in comedy, Adam Gates AKA Bob Cock, came on stage being introduced by Les, “This afternoon, we are blessed with the appearance” of what sounded like Senor something or other and Bob proclaimed, “I bless you in the name of the great one… The giant, effervescent, turning slowly mushroom in the sky. I assume you’re already flying into the ether with us. Just to let you know, we respond to enthusiasm.” The crowd let out an enthusiastic “Woo-hoo!” and Les continued, “You’re a good lookin’ bunch. This song is called ‘Highball With The Devil’. I wrote this. I used to have this Scottish tour manager who turned me on to Highland Single Malt Scotch and he told me, ‘Les, you’ll never have a hangover from this lovely stuff. You’ll never have a hangover’… Well, I have had many a hangover from Highland Single Malt Scotch, much to my dismay, so this song is about wrassling with the big brown booze and a little friend that comes and visits you the next day.” 

They let Jay Lane the drummer do a spirited drum solo during that one and the sampler was sending out what sounded like someone speaking Chinese and then a voice asking, “Can you identify these everyday sounds?” Les broke out his upright bass for the following song, “Hendershot”, giving the song sort of a creepy intro with a violin bow. It was another long one and Les improvised a line during the final chorus adding, “Warren Haynes called him Hendershot!” Les dusted off an old Sausage tune, the proto-Primus band that Jay and Todd had also played in, called “Precipitation” and amused us a little with the first verse of “Wynonna’s Big Brown Beaver” in the middle of it. Les also had Jeff Chimenti in the Frog Brigade that time around, a long time collaborator with all things Dead, and he did a lovely keyboard solo during “Holy Mackerel”. 

Les mentioned that they had “just got back from New York, Jet Blue airlines and the woman in front of us was flaggelating the entire trip. New York was good. Played the Jammies. Played with Junior Brown the other day. That was amazing. There was Junior Brown right there jammin’ up a storm. I think he is the one of the better guitar players on the planet. It was an extreme pleasure.” He went on to introduce the Frog Brigade members one by one and when he was finished, he simply said, “I am just the bass player” and then they did “Cohibas Splenditos”. We were surprised at the end of the set when they did a cover of “2000 Light Years From Home” by the Rolling Stones, the first time I ever heard them do it. In the middle of the song, Les broke it down a bit and did the first verse of “Walking On The Moon” by The Police. He would tour with that legendary supergroup’s drummer Stuart Copeland in another new supergroup, Oysterhead, alongside Trey Anastasio from Phish, later that October, but I would have to miss that show. Oysterhead would also play at The Greek, but I would be roped into recording the last official show at Maritime Hall that night for BT, the famous electronica DJ. I chose wrong, but I’ll get into that later.

Like I said before, Phil was a man of few words, letting Warren do most of the singing that show, but they definitely had their shit together musically. They went from one epically long Dead tune flowing into the next and reprise earlier ones again, rarely stopping to regroup. They did a sort of calypso intro and middle portion of “Uncle John’s Band”, an interesting take on that hippie anthem. We were pleasantly surprised to hear them cover “The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys”, a song by Traffic. I had heard the Dead cover “Mr. Fantasy” a number of times, but that was a new one. I had actually heard that former song for the first time when I saw former Traffic frontman, Steve Winwood, do a show at The Warfield four years before this. Though they only did one set it was a looooong set, clocking in at just a couple minutes shy of three hours, easily matching a typical two set Phil show in length if you put the sets together. 

At the end of it all, Phil gave a shout out to Robert Hunter, the Dead’s longtime lyricist mentioning that “practically every show is a Robert Hunter festival” because of all the songs of his that they do. He also added that they were playing four of his new songs that night as well, finishing the encore with one of them, “Night Of A Thousand Stars”. I survived that long, long weekend of music and mirth, wearily shuffling out with my buddy Jeff to the recording of Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World” playing over the P.A. This wouldn’t be the last time I’d see Phil and his collection of various “Friends”, not by half. In fact, I would see him play at The Warfield five times over the next five years alone and God knows how many times I’ve seen Les since this one. Seriously, I’ve lost count. It’s been 23 long years since Les opened for Phil, but I just saw him yet again at the Greek with Primus, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer just six weeks ago. 

Kool Keith, Pier 30/32, SF, Sat., June 30

SETLIST : Break North, Ease Back, MC Ultra, Neighbors Next Door, (freestyle), Blue Flowers, Girl Let Me Touch You

Kool Keith, Esham, Natas & Mastermind, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., June 30

SETLIST : Break North, Ease Back, San Francisco Harvey, MC Ultra, (freestyle), Blue Flowers, Girl Let Me Touch You, Neighbors Next Door, Sex Style, (unknown), Spankmaster, Livin’ Astro, Papa Large

This was an awkward but mirth filled day for my friend Tory and me. We had recorded Kool Keith together at the Maritime in 1999, I on audio Tory on video, and the footage from that show was in fact used as a bonus concert on his “Ultra-Octa-Doom” live DVD, which was recorded from a show he did at The Mezzanine in 2007. But we were both returning to the Maritime that night as members in exile. The long tragic tale of our exit from the employment of that venue, I’ve been over all too many times, but feel free to go back to previous entries for more explicit details. But the Maritime show would be a second helping of Kool Keith for us in that 24 hour period, because as luck would have it, he was also performing a set earlier that day, just down at the bottom of Rincon Hill below at Pier 30/32 at the Van’s Warped Tour. 

Usually acts performing in a city have an exclusivity agreement to not play other venues in town on or around the same day, but whatever, I wasn’t complaining. Still, apart from Esham who would also open at the Maritime later, Kool Keith was not only the lone hip hop act on the bill, but the only act with people of color in it. Warped Tour and punk music in general is pretty notoriously caucasian. But thank god they chose him at least. I managed to get my recorder into the Pier, but for some reason I don’t rightly recall, I only taped Kool Keith there. He naturally was the main reason we were there in the first place, but there were also many notable acts playing that festival as well such as Rancid, The Vandals, Pennywise, and The Distillers to name a few. I think also that I was wiped out from the day before at Ozzfest, so I was pacing myself a little. Warped Tour is always fun though, lots of skaters, ramps, vendors, and copious sunshine. But out on the tarmac for a couple hours in all that can wear anyone out pretty fast, especially if they’d been drinking.

Keith had DJ Evil E, who had been touring with Ice-T, introduce him, busting out some skillful scratching for the crowd first. He broke down one solo with a sample from “Peter Piper” by Run DMC, hitting the line, “Not bad meaning bad but bad meaning good!”, over and over, stalling on the words “bad” and “good”.  And though it was a pretty short set, clocking in around a half an hour, Keith was able to get those suburban white kids to throw their hands in the air and chant along. Jacky Jasper was on tour with Keith and they did his song “Neighbors Next Door” together. Jacky joked afterwards that he was going to join the skaters up on the ramps and is “gettin’ ready to break my legs up there!” Incidentally, Jacky is from Canada and had served eight months in prison for “living off the avails of prostitution”, easily now my favorite way to describe pimping. We didn’t stay long after Keith’s set ended, having little time to get something to eat before climbing Rincon Hill to the Maritime.

Strangely, the most distinct memory I had of that long day was the moment Tory and I had literally just walked through the front door of the Hall. We were there not very long before the doors were to open and though we were no longer working there, our old work passes allowed us in and they were gracious enough not to give us the side eye. We had made it up to the third level where the dance floor was and we couldn’t help but notice that the floors were still sticky, littered with plastic beer and cocktail cups, stinking to high heaven of old, stale alcohol. There had been some crazy DJ show there the night before and I had just blurted out, “What happened to the night crew?”, as we were walking onto the dance floor where I saw Boots the owner and his family frantically trying to sweep it all up. I knew he had to have heard me, but Tory and I remained casual and kept on walking, though I have to admit, I felt sorry for Boots despite how cruelly he treated everybody over the years and for a moment even considered joining in to help him.

By this time, I and everybody else in town had known that the Maritime was on its last legs. It’s weird, but during a venue’s last year, you can almost, (or rather literally in this instance), smell it. I had heard rumors of more bounced checks, shows lost to Bill Graham, supply shortages, insane utility bills, and so forth circulating from Boots’ remaining disgruntled employees. Boots had also been tangling with the city and the local cops ever since the Maritime opened and the chickens were finally coming home to roost. There were many other reasons why the Hall sunk, but I will revisit when it finally plunged into the briny deep for good three months later in due time. Technically, this would be the last official show at the Maritime that I would attend as a patron.

The first opener that night at the Hall was Natas & Mastermind. Like Esham, the duo hailed from Detroit and were in fact former high school chums with him. They were carrying on Keith’s “horrorcore” genre and if you hadn’t noticed yet, Natas is Satan spelled backwards, though he does insist that his name is actually an abbreviation for “Nation Ahead of Time And Space”. Natas’ first album “Life After Death” in 1992 was steeped in some controversy when a 17 year old fan was killed playing Russian Roulette while smoking herb and listening to it. Once again, America chose a musician as their convenient scapegoat/punching bag rather than to enact sensible gun control legislation. Esham’s stuff was pretty dark too though, with songs having titles like “I’m Dead”, “Devilshit”, and “Mr. Negativity”. 

We noticed Little Boots, the owner’s son circulating around trying to sell albums from his fledgling hip hop band The Earthlings and his buddy BOAC in the crowd. They were playing their stuff through the P.A. between sets hoping I suppose that it would help, though I imagine everyone there didn’t know them from Adam. We all were there to see the Kool one and the crowd went wild when DJ Evil E did his thing introducing him, “Make some noise for Mr. Blackula! Mr. Octagon!… Kool Keith!” opening their set with “Break North”. Before they followed it with “Ease Back”, Keith actually gave a shout out to Boots and declared that they were “makin’ a movie… Rated X!” and joked about having to climb the staircases backstage all day. The Hall was indeed taping the show that night as we did for the other times Keith performed there, but to this date, none of the footage from this particular show had ever been made public… as far as I know.

Keith had just released his “Spankmaster” album just a few days shy of four weeks before this show, though the title track was the only new one they performed for it that night. He did however repeat the line “Dark Vader & may the Force be with you”, from the new “Dark Vader” song, between other songs. Jacky asked Keith to “tell them about the hotels” they had been staying in and Keith invited us to “go to the Econo Lodge for $49” before they did “Sex Style”. It’s a pity actually that they didn’t play anything else from that new album. Despite it not being nearly as commercially successful as “Black Elvis”, I thought it had some enjoyable and creative numbers like “Mack Trucks” and “Girls In Jail”. In a surprising move, they brought up some fried chicken that they had been eating backstage and offered it to the folks up front, Keith saying, “Around this time, people want to get fed. Are you hungry? Chicken is good!” Jacky and the others countered that they wanted the crowd to “throw some dank on stage” and asked if they “got some paraphernalia? cigarettes? T-shirts?” and such.

They finished the show with a one two punch of “Livin’ Astro” and “Papa Large” and that was it, like most hip hop shows, short and sweet, clocking in at about an hour. Tory and I didn’t know of the Maritime’s impending doom, but it came to no surprise to us or anyone else when it happened. Writing about this show is yet another part of my long process in letting that venue rest in peace. That being said, we were in no way done with seeing Kool Keith ever again though. He would return to town the following year to play at Slim’s which would ultimately be one of the most, if not the most, infamous shows Keith would ever play, or rather not play as was the case that night. But for the gruesome details of the what I like to call the “O Keith, Where Art Thou?” show, well… You’re just going to have to wait until I get there.

Ozzfest 2001: Black Sabbath, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Papa Roach, Linkin Park, Disturbed, Crazytown, Shoreline, Mountain View, Fri., June 29

SETLISTS : 

(CRAZYTOWN) : Think Fast, Darkside, Hollywood Babylon, Lollipop Porn, Face The Music, Black Cloud, Butterfly, Toxic

(DISTURBED) : Conflict, Voices, Violence Fetish, (unknown), Fear, Droppin’ Plates, Shout, Down With The Sickness, Stupify

(LINKIN PARK) : Papercut, Points Of Authority, By Myself, Crawling, In The End, A Place For My Head, One Step Closer

(PAPA ROACH) : Dead Cell, Blood Brothers, Between Angels & Insects, Snakes, Infest, Walking Thru Barbed Wire, Broken Home, Last Resort

(SLIPKNOT) : People = Shit, Liberate, Eeyore, Disasterpiece, Purity, Eyeless, New Abortion, The Heretic Anthem, Spit It Out, Wait & Bleed, [sic], Surfacing

(MARILYN MANSON) : Irresponsible Hate Anthem, Disposable Teens, The Fight Song, The Nobodies, Rock Is Dead, The Dope Show, Cruci-Fiction In Space, Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), The Love Song, The Death Song, Antichrist Superstar, The Beautiful People

(BLACK SABBATH) : N.I.B., Snowblind, Scary Dreams, War Pigs, Iron Man, Into The Void, The Wizard, Black Sabbath, Paranoid

It was quite the different scene from seeing The B-52’s headline the Gay Pride Celebration the previous Sunday, indeed perhaps the polar opposite. The joyful explosion of color had been usurped by the dark lord of heavy metal himself, Ozzy, as well as an unstoppable avalanche of toxic masculinity. Rest assured, there was no waiting in line at the women’s restrooms for this show. This would be the first and most likely only time, considering his recent health problems, I would see the one and only Mr. John Michael Osbourne. I had seen his bandmates however back in 1995 when Sabbath was touring with a different singer, Tony Martin, at The Warfield, but this was obviously a bigger deal. Ozzy had rejoined the band to do this brutish cavalcade of heavy metal stars and had even been in the works with producer Rick Rubin with the other original members of Sabbath to make a new album, though it had been tabled then so that Ozzy could finish some solo stuff he had been working on that summer. Little would any of the heshers in attendance that night predict that Ozzy would find a completely new audience and notoriety the following year when his reality series “The Osbournes” would debut on MTV and become an unexpected sensation.

But there were plenty of other bands at this thing to focus my attention on that very long day and evening. Zakk Wylde, the touring guitarist for Ozzy’s solo work, had opened the festival with his band, the Black Label Society, on other legs of the tour, but weren’t on this one, leaving Crazytown to begin the day. Disturbed had originally been slated to headline the second stage, but got promoted to the main stage to follow them. Though I was up on the lawn, it was predictably loud as fuck, so the tapes came out loud and clear and I obviously had no trouble hearing any of it. Crazytown, a rap rock act from L.A., had a huge hit back then with “Butterfly” which had the distinction of being the #1 song on the Billboard charts for two straight weeks and paradoxically also been ranked as the 34th Awesomely Bad Song Ever by VH1. They had been originally supposed to be on the Ozzfest the year before, but their troubled frontman, Seth “Shifty” Binzer, had gotten himself arrested, drunkenly throwing a chair through a window somewhere. They were out of place to say the least, but I bet Papa Roach felt a little heat taken off of them by their obnoxious presence. 

It was a foregone conclusion that at least one of the bands that gig would say something about the empty seats up front, but Shifty got the day off to an early start. He immediately pointed to us folks up on the lawn asking, “Don’t they deserve to come up here and party with us too?” and then they played “Hollywood Babylon”. Heavy metal fans are notoriously hard to please and these guys were already being openly mocked as “The Butterfly Boys”, so Shifty had no trouble getting everybody to put their middle fingers in the air and shout, “Fuck you, Crazytown!” I may not be the biggest Disturbed fan in the world, but they were a welcome sight afterwards. I had just in fact seen Disturbed a mere two weeks to the day on that very stage as one of the early acts for Live 105’s B.F.D. and just like before, their chrome domed frontman, David Draiman, couldn’t help himself from persistently ripping on the people in the seats up front. 

He growled, “OK, apparently I have to do this way too often. These motherfuckers right here, you don’t like what you see? Are you not down with the sickness? Then why don’t you get the fuck out of my front row!… Get the fuck out of your goddamn seats! I feel like I need to whip my dick out and piss on you! Anyone else wants to disrespect this band? You’re outnumbered, motherfucker!” It’s the same every time. The few people up front during these early hours scattered in clumps here and there amongst the sea of hundreds of empty orange, plastic seats would shrug and reluctantly get up for a while, only to eventually sit back down again. You’d think after B.F.D. that David would have given up by then. But he and the band continued with their bombastic nu metal and David did that introduction to their cover of “Shout” by Tears For Fears he did before, encouraging the crowd to pour all their hatred and negative whatnot into him. He tried one last time to egg them on before they did “Down With The Sickness” pointing out, “I see a cloud of dust rising in the pit”, up on the lawn while ridiculing the “industry section sitting down… Get the fuck up!” I was relieved when their set ended, just so I could stop hearing his bellyaching.

Next up was Linkin Park, who were quickly on the rise with the release of their debut album, “Hybrid Theory”, that had come out the previous October. I had seen them headline a show at The Fillmore that January, but this would be the final time I would see them live. Poor Chester Bennington, one of their two singers, would hang himself in 2017. Listening to their lyrics, one would get the impression that they were a touch on the melancholy side, but the band was all smiles that day for sure. Their other singer, Mike Shinoda, was much nicer to the people up front, praising them, “Give it up to the back up singers in the front row! I love those people. Chester, she likes you. This chick has been singing along to every song! She’s hot as hell! She’s in a Linkin Park jacket. You’re the best! People up top, you wanna help us sing a song?” And then they did their hit, “Crawling”. 

I had been infinitely familiar with Papa Roach by then, having recorded them a whopping six times in only two years at Maritime Hall, every time as an opening act often the first of many. Though they were a lower card act for this festival, they were by no means the humble opening act they once were. Their major label debut on Dreamworks, “Infest”, had been out over a year and they were raking in some serious money and attention from it. The album would go on to certify platinum three times over and earn the group a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. They were working on their follow up album, “Lovehatetragedy”, at the time and we got to hear one of the new songs that day called “Walking Thru Barbed Wire”. Yes, their clean cut singer, Jacoby Shaddix, might have been less intimidating than most of the other frontmen on that bill that day, but he did manage to get a ribald zinger in, casually mentioning, “It’s kinda hard to find classy girls that’ll let you spit right in their asshole.” He then dressed down a heckler up front, joking, “Hey buddy, do I slap a cock out of your mouth when you’re trying to make a buck? Shut the fuck up now!… Everybody lift your middle finger!” He did give a shout out to his fellow northern Californians and gave a “special thank you for all the roadies that made this all possible” before they finished their set with their hit single, “Last Resort”. 

It had been a year since I’d seen Slipknot headline the second stage at the B.F.D., but like Disturbed, they had graduated to the main stage. They had been busy touring nonstop, performing a mind boggling 260 shows in 2000 alone. In fact, they became so big after this tour that they would soon be headlining arena shows of their own, usually down in San Jose when they would pass through in the future, so this would in fact be the last time I’d see them live. They are still around mind you, but their original bassist and drummer have both passed away since then. “Iowa”, their follow up album to their blockbuster debut, was still one day shy of two months away from being released, but we were lucky to hear four of the new songs that day. Their masked singer, Corey Taylor, declared that the new song, “Disasterpiece”, would “rip your fuckin’ balls off!” He went on later that “the new album is coming out in August. It’s not doing a thing but piss you off, open your eyes, and hip you to the fuckin’ fact that everything, everyone involved in the fuckin’ record industry is lying to you. Everyone involved in the record industry is sucking the soul out of music today and I’m sorry, but I’m not going to let that shit happen anymore! I’ve seen too many people get duped by the sucky shitty fuckin’ bands and we’re sending them a fuckin’ message!” 

Keeping the motif of righteous indignation going, Corey followed that by grunting, “We are done! We have had it! Fuck off and fuckin’ die! Are you with me?!? Right now, we’re going to take you someplace cold and dark. This song is called ‘Purity’”. A couple songs later, he asked, “You still with me Ozzfest? This song is the biggest middle finger to the record industry” and then they did “The Heretic Anthem”, another new one. Seriously, I would hate to be the poor record executive that has to negotiate with Corey. Afterwards, he barked, “I smell a hippie! You guys smell a fuckin’ hippie?!? You know I don’t think we have any hippies here. I think we have crazy motherfuckers here! Do we get the crazy motherfuckers?!? Ozzfest fuckers! If you didn’t come for metal, get the fuck out! We’re going to rip the fuckin’ cock off this motherfucker! This is called ‘Spit It Out’!” Yes, Slipknot is an impossible act to follow, but Marilyn Manson had to try anyway.

Manson was continuing his “Guns, God, & Government” tour which had began the previous October promoting his new “rock opera” album, “Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death)”. He had been getting hit from all sides since the Columbine massacre in ’99 where the killers had been reportedly fans of his music. And yes, once again instead of trying to pass sensible gun control legislation, America chose Manson as their convenient scapegoat/punching bag to lean in on. Everywhere he went, he was faced with boycotts and the bitter, pointing fingers of Christian fundamentalists. He would address this issue head on when he was interviewed about the subject for the Oscar winning documentary “Bowling For Columbine” the year after this. In the meantime, he founded his record label, Posthuman Records, broke off his engagement to actress Rose McGowan, and quickly hooked up with Dita Von Teese shortly after.

This would be the fourth time I’d be seeing Marilyn do his over the top grotesque theatrics and at this point, nothing he did was particularly shocking or even arousing to me anymore. I mean, I thought some of the tunes from his first couple albums were provocative and catchy, but by then, I just found his stuff grating, especially his shrill singing voice. But there he was once again in all his lanky glory donning the fishnet stockings, garter belts, thong, and corset, shrieking and gyrating to his black heart’s content. Manson got the audience to put up their devil horns and declared, “Hail Satan! You are some devil worshipping motherfuckers! I love you for that and you mother loves you for that”, and then they played “The Fight Song”, one of his new ones. In the middle of his obligatory cover of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” by The Eurythmics, he asked us to look at the “person next to you and give them a nice big hug. Then stick your fist in their ass, because that’s what they really want.” Ewww. Sorry, Marilyn. Not these guys.

I’m sure some of the more butch heshers in the crowd took issue with his gender bending and probably split off to check out the second stage which is what I should have done frankly. I actually stayed put on the lawn for most of the show, skipping the other stages, missing guys like Hatebreed and Taproot, though I would soon see Godhead opening for Rammstein at The Warfield just six days later. Marilyn and the band wrapped up their set with “The Beautiful People” and left the stage after setting off some explosive pyro followed by a minute or two of ear splitting feedback. Manson would get in trouble again a month later on the tour, being charged with sexual misconduct against a security officer at a show in Clarkston, Michigan, though the charges would be eventually be reduced to misdemeanor disorderly conduct. Marilyn would plead no contest, pay $4,000, and settle the suit later. I guess that what Marilyn gets for trying to stick his fist in that poor officer’s ass.

But the time had finally come for the man we all came to see, the man whose moniker the festival is named after. By this time, Ozzy was only 53 years old, just a year older than I am now, but he was already shuffling around and ranting like some deranged geezer off his meds. Being an old English rock star, it was a safe bet that Ozzy was deaf as a post, so it came to no surprise that when he repeatedly urged the crowd to scream, he would just as often follow it with, “I can’t fuckin’ hear you!” Still, everybody there loved this maniacal, bug eyed coot and happily traded lines back and forth with him during the first verse of “War Pigs”. Afterwards, he joked that “you can smell the Sweet Leaf out there” and got everybody to chant, “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!” before they launched into “Iron Man”. They wrapped up the festival goading us that “the crazier you go, the longer we will play” and did a smoking version of their classic hit “Paranoid”. And lo and behold, it was over. I drove home understandably spent from the show, but would be at it again the next two days seeing Kool Keith at the Maritime Hall and then Phil Lesh with Les Claypool opening at the Greek that Sunday.

Which leads me to a final last shout out, though totally unrelated to Ozzy and his merry band of headbangers. Two days before this show, the venerable actor Jack Lemmon passed away. I mention this because I was a fan of his work and Jack had unintentionally tied himself into one of my earliest rock & roll memories. I was only 8 years old in 1980 when John Lennon was gunned down and really didn’t know anything about The Beatles at the time. But strangely enough, I knew who Jack Lemmon was and at first misheard the name on TV and thought that he had been the one killed. Naturally, being so young, I couldn’t imagine why anybody would shoot him, but it didn’t take long to learn of my mistake. It was from there that I learned about John Lennon and by extension, The Beatles, and like most kids, that band would establish a beach head for my musical taste to expand from there. Well, 21 years later, Jack would join John in heaven and I can’t help but wonder if I was the only person on Earth who had mixed those two up all those years ago. 

The B-52s, Abigail, Civic Center Plaza, SF, Sun., June 24

SETLISTS :

(ABIGAIL) : If It Don’t Fit, You Set Me Free, Let The Joy Rise

(The B-52’s) : Is That You Mo Dean?, Dance This Mess Around, Roam, Private Idaho, Good Stuff, Strobe Light, Channel Z, Love Shack, Rock Lobster

It had been nine long years since I had seen The B-52’s for the first time on their “Good Stuff” tour, where I was happily tripping balls on mushrooms at the Concord Pavilion. But it had been much too long for a fan of their music as I was. So you can imagine my surprise and joy when I found out they would be headlining the main stage of the Gay Pride celebration for FREE just down the street from where I was living in the Tenderloin. Yes, there were all sorts of colorful attractions and artists on the nine different stages for this 31st annual celebration of all things fabulous, but I was laser focused on the B-52’s and staked out a spot up front early, planting myself stoically like a tree in the blazing sun until they took the stage.

This would also be the first time I’d be seeing The B-52’s with Cindy Wilson, who had taken a break from the band to raise her two young kids when I saw them in ’92, briefly replaced by Julee Cruise, David Lynch’s famous musical muse. Cindy had also taken another maternity leave from the band in 1999, replaced by the multi-talented Gail Ann Dorsey, who I had seen perform as David Bowie’s bassist a number of times. The band had gone on tour co-headlining with The Go-Go’s the year before this, but tour dates sadly didn’t include the bay area. But in their absence, I did enjoy that The B-52’s did a parody of their hit “Love Shack” for “The Simpsons” in 1999 as well, singing the chorus “Glove Slap” instead, accompanying Homer’s habit that episode of casually challenging people to duels by slapping them in the face with a pair of gloves. But Cindy had just rejoined the group in time for me to see her alongside her old bandmates for this one. They hadn’t put out any new material since the aforementioned “Good Stuff” album, but they would soon release a 2-CD compilation album, “Nude On The Moon : The B-52’s Anthology”, the following year, celebrating the band’s 25th anniversary. 

I did manage to record the very short, three song set of Abigail Zsiga, simply known by the stage name of Abigail, before the main act that day. Introduced by Sister Roma,“the sweetest & nastiest” of the Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence, Abigail was a fairly successful dance music artist from England who had made a name for herself doing electronica covers of popular rock tunes like “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M. and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, though she played neither of those that day. She brought some dancers on stage with her that impressed Sister Roma who had praised her for being so cute, young, and petite for being a recording artist. Roma also wondered how she and her dancers could “move in those damn shoes? It’s all I can do to hobble up here in these heels and trust me, my flats are in the car.” 

Afterwards, the Sisters bantered on, thanking sponsors like the San Francisco Chronicle, United Airlines, and JK Sound. I didn’t know him back then, but I would soon become intimately acquainted with The B-52’s venerable sound man Frank Gallagher. At a recent conference we were working together at, I did confirm that Frank was in fact there that day applying his infinite aural skills at the front of house soundboard. He remains their loyal sound guy to this very day and will in fact be at the helm for them when they play in Oakland at the Mosswood Meltdown just six weeks from now. Frank also hosts a delightful podcast called “Sound Man Confidential” where he interviews famous rock & roll people he’s become friends with over the years which is very entertaining and informative. Check it out. Anyway, the Sisters chatted up the audience while the gear was being set up asking folk up front where they were from pondering if they were from New Jersey, Boston, Philly, Venus, or Planet Claire. Roma declared that it was a “queerific day”, a day bigger than just being queer or terrific. She was especially proud of folks who came from places like “Podunk, Iowa” since it was so much easier to be gay in S.F.

The crowd and I went nuts when the band took the stage, opening immediately with “Is That You Mo Dean?”. Cindy’s singing doppelganger Kate Pierson got everybody moving, ordering us to “shake those gay asses!” before they continued with the old classic “Dance This Mess Around”.  Fellow singer Fred Schneider introduced the jitterbug paced “Strobe Light”, a rather obscure number from their “Wild Planet” album, sarcastically as a “ballad for all you lovers, swingers, & stuff” adding it was a “Broadway ballad” that was “slow and long”. Continuing to ham it up with the crowd afterwards, Fred asked, “How many of you are gonna be shackin’ up tonight?”, and then they did, you guessed it, “Love Shack”. He egged us all on near the end of the song getting everybody to chant, “Bang, bang, bang, on the door, baby!”

Finally, they shouted, “Let’s go to the beach!” and finished their set with “Rock Lobster”. Naturally, I would have loved to hear them for hours and hours, but we had to settle for this short and sweet one of a mere 50 minutes. I can’t complain though. It was free after all. As the band took their bows, Roma joked, “Look how close to them I am! Do you hate me?” It was all over, ending an exhausting weekend after back to back shows of the Live Nude Bands marathon and Mike Clark’s Prescription Renewal at The Fillmore. Thankfully, I would have to wait only a single year before I would see The B-52’s on that stage with Puffy Amiyumi, a much more intimate venue than this overwhelming horde of sexually liberated revelers. 

Mike Clark’s Prescription Renewal, B-Side Players, Fill., SF, Sat., June 23

SETLIST : Four String Drive, (unknown), Watermelon Man, (unknown), Red House, (unknown), Is There A Jackson In The House?, Funky Good Time, (unknown), (unknown), (unknown), Chameleon, Viper, (unknown)

I was blissfully unaware of the talent involved with this show when I signed up to usher it, but I was glad I did. Ironically, Mr. Clark was the one member of this band that I had no knowledge of previously. As you might have read before in my earlier entries, I had many encounters with Charlie Hunter and his baffling skills on the 8-string hybrid bass/guitar including a stint working as an intern for his manager.  Likewise, I had seen trombonist and vocalist extraordinaire Fred Wesley and keyboard virtuoso Robert Walter do their thing on stage as well. I had even seen and recorded guitarist Will Bernard, who had showed up to this gig as a guest, on a number of occasions including the T.J. Kirk band which he was a member along with Charlie. And though I had the honor of helping record Herbie Hancock at the Maritime Hall, his former drummer Mike Clark wasn’t with him then. And just to be clear, this is a different Mike Clark than the one who plays with Suicidal Tendencies. 

So yes, Mr. Clark, a local boy from Sacramento originally, had played at a young age with Herbie & The Headhunters in the the early 70’s, but by this time at the ripe old age of 56, had amassed an impressive list of credits under his belt, including drumming alongside such greats as Chet Baker, Tony Bennett, and Albert King. Hell, he even did the drumming for “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” with Vince Guaraldi, you know, the one with The Great Pumpkin. Anyway, he had gathered this acid jazz super group in the wake of the disastrous 2000 election and thought his music would help provide the country some relief with their “prescription renewal” of the presidency. Sadly, his efforts would come to crashing halt with 9/11 less than three months later, but the music helped in the meantime all the same. Still, I was glad to catch this gig, being the second night of only 13 shows they would do on this west coast tour. 

Opening that evening were the always dependable B-Side Players from San Diego whom I had seen them open for many acts by then, recording them three times at the Maritime in 1999 alone. Their singer-guitarist Karlos “Solrak” Paez did complain that he was “feeling a little sick earlier”, but halfway through the set he felt “a lot better”. I wasn’t able to make out most of their song titles, having sung many of their numbers in Spanish, but I know they played “Movement” and closed their set with “Souldier”. Solrak stuck around during the set change meeting people in the crowd and handing out sample CDs of their stuff. 

Likewise, I was only able to make out about half of Mike Clark’s set since they were primarily an instrumental band. But there were a few covers that were unmistakable like “Red House” by Jimi Hendrix and “Funky Good Time” by James Brown, who Fred had played with for years. Fred got the crowd to sing along with the chorus, bellowing, “I want to take you hiiiiiigher!” and they chanted “Fred! Fred! Fred!” during his trombone solo. Naturally, Mike dusted off a couple of Herbie’s unforgettable numbers including “Watermelon Man” and “Chameleon”. 

I heard myself on the tape talking to somebody next to me in the audience that night who had asked me if I had ever had my nose broken before. I replied no and added that I in fact hadn’t even broken a bone before, (and thankfully still haven’t [knock on wood]). I did however tell this person about Pete, my partner in the recording room at the Maritime Hall who had his nose broken so many times that it no longer had any cartilage in it. Pete relished showing folks how he could completely fold his nose over sideways, flat as a pancake, truly a sight to behold. 

Anyway, it was a hell of a show and every player demonstrated their expert skills on their instrument of choice. Mike’s drum kit was pretty standard, no crazy heavy metal gear for him, a real jazz kit. And though he graciously left the solos mostly to the other members that night, he did quite an impressive one of his own near the end of their set. I’m glad I stayed all the way through this late night, but it was a little exhausting since I had already gone through the Live Nude Bands marathon on the very same stage the night before and was facing the colorful hordes of the Gay Pride scene at the Civic Center with The B-52’s the following day. It was an enjoyable, though tiring stretch indeed. 

Live Nude Bands: The Gun & Doll Show, Black Kali Ma, Zen Guerrilla, The Hail Marys, PBR Street Gang, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Bonfire Madigan, The Pre-Teens, Fill., SF, Fri., June 22

SETLISTS : 

(BONFIRE MADIGAN) : Mad Skywriting, 7 Mile Lane, Running

(SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM) : (unknown), Sleep Is Wrong, 1997 (Tonight We’re Going To Party Like It’s…)

Well, I give the concept of this show points for originality. Somewhere, sometime, somebody dreamt up the idea of having a sort of battle of the bands where the loser would have to perform their set at the end of the night, you guessed it, sans clothing, in the buff, jugs out and rugs out, wearing nothing but a smile… yes, nude. I must also give props to the elegance and simplicity of this strange competition as well. The rules were relatively simple. First, each band competes against one another in three separate tug of war matches. The winning group would play the next set and the losers would advance to the next round. After the tug of war matches, there would be a spelling bee between the acts that lost during the first three rounds and the winner would play the next set. And lastly, the final two bands would compete in one last tug of war and the loser would have to, you know, go the Full Monty. Incidentally, the event was appropriately sponsored in part by adult entertainment store chain Good Vibrations and Pizza Orgasmica. All jokes aside, this was also a benefit for the Bay Guardian Community Fund, so at least we were getting our jollies for a good cause. 

This was all brand new to me at the time, but what I didn’t know before writing this was that The Fillmore had actually hosted this unique event the year before as well. The singer songwriter Essence was the one who had to do her set in her “birthday suit” and I must say, I would have enjoyed that. Essence is as fine as May wine, especially compared who did their set nude on this night which I will address later. Truth be told, considering the bold showmanship of many of the acts on this bill, having to perform nude would seem more akin to a reward than a punishment, but all involved seemed genuinely interested in defeating their opponents. Nobody was pulling their punches that night. There were eight bands duking it out on The Fillmore stage over that long evening, each getting a set of only a handful of songs. Also, it must be noted that they were showing on a big screen above the stage, unedited excerpts from the infamous 1995 Pamela Anderson sex tape between set changes. Yeah, we got to see a lot of that tape over the course of the evening and really, it got icky pretty fast.

First up were The Pre-Teens, a local riot grrl punk band trio. They were truly taking on the mantle of DIY artists, releasing their debut album “Why Don’t You Marry It” on their own record label, Sassy Wench Records, booking their own tours, and living frugally together in a one room studio in town. They were followed by Bonfire Madigan led by the incomparable Madigan Shive, a brilliant cellist and singer. She would be performing in a trio that night, missing one from her usual quartet, and together with another violin player and contrabass player, Sheri Ozeki, they would hammer out a few of her tense, yet soulful tunes for us. Like The Pre-Teens, Bonfire Madigan was struggling to make ends meet in San Francisco, which was becoming more and more inhospitable to artists of all kinds with the recent invasion of dot-com assholes. Madigan was in fact trying to raise money then to fight against her impending eviction from her place and to raise awareness of tenant’s rights. Before they played their last song “Running”, Madigan handed Sheri’s glasses to a girl in the front saying that she thought her “glasses would fit well on her head… assuming that you are a girl or a trannie”. Afterwards, they had one of the tug of war matches between sets, pitting PBR Street Gang against The Hail Marys, truly a “girl on boy” match, three band members on each side. I’m afraid PBR’s male upper body strength ruled the day on that one. 

But easily the most memorable and my personal favorite of all the bands on the bill that night would be Sleepytime Gorilla Museum who came on next. This would be the first of many times I would see this act and believe me when I say that they defy adequate explanation. Seriously, I’ve written before of the difficulty in describing a band and their music, but these guys are not only from another planet, they’re from a whole different dimension. Let’s back up a bit. You might recall a few years before this, I was honored and lucky enough to record the band Idiot Flesh at the Maritime Hall opening for Giant Robot II with Buckethead. It was there that I first met their bassist, Dan Rathbun, who had startled me half to death when he magically appeared right behind me when I was recording wearing, well, (sigh)… once again, hard to describe. Let’s just say that the giant bulbous black and white headpiece protruding prominently towards me drew most of the attention.

Idiot Flesh soon parted ways after that show, but its members went on to form this new musical experiment as well as other acts like Charming Hostess and Faun Fables. Their first album “Grand Opening & Closing” wouldn’t actually be available for another four months, so many people like myself were hearing their music for the first time, though legend has it that they actually performed their first concert to a banana slug exactly two years to the day before this night. Together with Dan, there was Carla Kihlstedt on violin, Nils Frykdahl on guitar, and Moe Staiano and David Shamrock on drums and various homemade percussion pieces. To lump their sound into the umbrella term of experimental music feels like a cop out, but there are certainly elements of metal and prog rock in their works, as well as some classical and chamber stuff too. Really, take a moment to hear them when you get a chance if you haven’t already. You won’t be sorry. 

Sleepytime started their set with a blistering instrumental piece, with Moe striking bells and Nils on flute, before taking us down their freakish musical rabbit hole with “Sleep Is Wrong”. I know when I’m turned on by a new band when I have to literally ask myself, “What the fuck kind of music is this?!?” and it was never truer than with these guys. When that first song ended, I had to sort of take a deep breath and really think about what had just happened there. But don’t think that these guys were, you know, menacing or anything negative. In fact, Nils is possibly one of the funniest frontmen I ever heard in my life. For example, after that song, he drolly addressed the crowd in a calm, rather scholarly tone, “Ladies & gentlemen, in case you didn’t know, we are Sleepytime Gorilla Museum from Oakland. It is our greatest pleasure to play for you tonight, to be back in our homeland after our long wayfaring across this wonderful, wonderful land you all live in. Now we would like you to enjoy the following sounds of sexless, ladies & gentlemen. We’d like to dedicate this show to the sexless and the toothless, yes sir.” 

Moe and David launched into an extended drum and percussion solo and when they finished, I’ll never forget that Nils introduced their last song saying that they would be allowing us to get back to our… “Hrrrhrrhuuuuuhh”, (which was sort of a semi-sexual utterance but was totally hilarious). He then wrapped up saying, “Ladies & gentlemen, to prove it is a celebration we’re having, ladies & gentlemen, we are going to play some salsa music. Now we’re going to share with you another party song. If you were alive in the past, why not? Everybody does it and this song is called ‘1997’”. And they finished their set with this sprawling, avant-garde sonic assault that once again left me dumbfounded. Obviously, I was moved by them and made a point from then on to see them as often as I could. I was able to see them nine more times live on stage before they disbanded in 2009, but I’m happy to report that 15 long years later, they reformed and I caught them playing their first show in the bay area after all that time just a few weeks ago at the UC Theater. They still got it.

But the show had to go on, there being plenty of more acts to entertain us and there was also the competition at hand. Next up, they had the spelling bee hosted by a couple members of The Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence, Gina Tonic and Dana Inequity. As luck would have it, this Live Nude Bands show was happening on the weekend of Pride Week. It was a touch chaotic, the emcees clearly just fucking around at first asking the correct spelling of “faux”, but claiming that correct spelling was actually “F-O-apostrophe”. They then asked some more joke words like “Aguilera” and “Sean Cassidy”. They started to get a little less silly hoping to wrap it up asking the spelling of “pique”, “strait”, “vane”, “poseur”, and “fuchsia”. Gina used the last one in a sentence, “The blouse that Dana is wearing is fuchsia!” Sadly, neither Zen Guerrilla nor The Hail Marys got any of them. Every time they got a wrong answer, Dana would set off an airhorn in disapproval. Ultimately, The Hail Marys were victorious when one of them finally spelled “mayonnaise” correctly. 

PBR was a fun band, a real gritty rockabilly sort of group. The banjo player they had was quite skilled actually. I liked that they did a little intro from “Eye Of The Tiger” by Survivor before one of their songs. They didn’t last long as a group, but another act overseas also bears their name now, though they are a DJ duo from Leeds in the U.K. Obviously, both acts got their name from the call sign of the PT boat in the film “Apocalypse Now”. The Hail Marys also had a short, but respectable set. Their lead singer mentioned that “We got songs for sale… We got sex for sale… We got whatever you need, OK?” and then they encouraged everybody to support local music before shouting, “We’re still here! We’re still queer!” The final tug of war took place between The Gun & Doll Show and Black Kali Ma and I’m sad to say that the latter was victorious for reasons I will go into later. Between acts, they had DJ Swift Rock spin some tunes and I was very impressed with his scratching skills. He had been a member of the Supernatural Turntable Artists and the Beat Junkies, but I was sad to learn that he had passed away in 2015 and rumor has it, that it was suicide. Poor guy.

Another piece of bad new befell the world the day before this show, it being the death of blues legend John Lee Hooker. His “Boom Boom Room” bar and venue still puts on shows just across the street from The Fillmore to this day. I’m glad that I got to see Mr. Hooker play a few times during those final years of his and that he made it to the ripe old age of 83. The next act on stage was Zen Guerrilla and their singer, Marcus Durant, mentioned, “On a personal note… John Lee Hooker… Without him, I definitely  would not be playing music… See you on the other side.” I had been familiar with Zen Guerrilla’s music before, having worked as an intern at Alternative Tentacles which was their label, but this was the first time I’d be seeing them live. I was blown away by their manic, bluesy punk energy, akin to stuff by guys like Jon Spencer and Gallon Drunk. This was a band that clearly deserved to be bigger though sadly they never did and they broke up only two years after this. 

OK, one last bummer I have to lay on y’all. This would be the first time I would write after just recently hearing about the passing of Gary Floyd, who was the singer of Black Kali Ma. Amongst such other great bands as Sister Double Happiness and The Dicks, Gary had been around the city doing his thing for years. Near the end of his life, I would see him often riding the N-Judah train with me and I’m glad I got the nerve to speak with him the last time I saw him. We had met before, but it had been many, many years prior, so I introduced myself on the train and asked if he was Gary Floyd. He calmly asked if I was with the I.R.S. which I said no and he confirmed that it was indeed him and I simply thanked him for his work and said I was a fan. That was it. He was really a sweet guy and a very talented singer and songwriter. I was able to catch him perform one more time with The Dicks at the Great American in 2005, but this would be the only time I’d see him play with Black Kali Ma. Gary, though being a rather burly Texan bear of a man, was gay, out and proud for decades, a brave stance for a Texan back in the days of his youth. As the name of his new band suggested, he actually was also a devout Hindu and often would sing lyrics of their teachings in his music. 

Which leads to the last band, which was not so much a bummer, but still infuriates me to this very day. Let’s set aside that I think The Gun & Doll Show sucks as a band. There had been an agreement from the outset of this show that the final losing act would have to play their ENTIRE set COMPLETELY naked and these double crossing bastards had the nerve to not undress until their very last song. I mean, it’s the principal of the thing. I know in my heart that the members of any of the other bands would have honored this agreement, but these jerk face cowards cynically kept us on the hook through their tedious set so we had to hold out to the very end to get what we were promised. And to make matters worse, the only attractive woman in the act just went topless. Their leader, Killian MacGeraghty, was downright ugly and he was one of the only ones to go Full Monty at the end. They brought up a bunch of their friends for the last number, a so-called 50 guitar army, though their numbers were more like in the mid 20’s. My blood was boiling at the injustice of it all and frankly it’s still boiling. Seriously, nothing would have made me happier than to beat living hell out of Killian for that and I’ll never forgive him.

Live 105’s BFD 2001: Blink 182, Staind, 311, The Cult, Disturbed, Fuel, Alien Ant Farm, Pennywise, Mix Master Mike with Mike D, Dyloot, Mystre, The Living End, New Found Glory, Saliva, Shoreline, Mountain View, Fri., June 15

SETLISTS :

(SALIVA) : Click Click Boom, Superstar, After Me, Faultline, Your Disease

(DISTURBED) : Conflict, Voices, (unknown), Fear, (unknown), Shout, Down With The Sickness, Stupify

(FUEL) : Jesus Or A Gun, Comfortably Numb Intro, Innocent, (unknown), Scar, Bad Day

(THE CULT) : Rise, War (The Process), Fire Woman, Peace Dog, Wild Flower, Breathe, The Saint, The Witch, She Sells Sanctuary, Love Removal Machine

(311) : Freak Out, You Wouldn’t Believe, Homebrew, Beautiful Disaster, Misdirected Hostility, Flowing, From Chaos, All Mixed Up, Sick Tight, Come Original, Do You Right, Down

(STAIND) : Mudshovel, Open Your Eyes, Pressure, (unknown), Fade, Outside, It’s Been Awhile, Crawl, Spleen

(BLINK 182) : Anthem Part 2, (unknown), Dumpweed, Aliens Exist, The Rock Show, All The Small Things, Blow Job, Mutt, Stay Together For The Kids

Another summer was upon us and once again Live 105 was putting on their B.F.D., the eighth time the modern rock radio station would be hosting this cavalcade of (radio friendly) stars, making it the longest running festival show in the bay area. The line up for this year didn’t have many big draws (in my humble opinion) except for Blink 182 maybe and they were still pretty new then, but each of the others were respectable and really, there were no stinkers. Still, truth be told, the only band that really stood out for me personally on the bill was Pennywise who were headlining the smaller “Dysfunctional” stage. Regardless, like all festival shows with so many acts stretched out over the day and night, writing about it becomes lengthy and consequently, I will only post this entry on its own without its customary pairing to an adjacent show.

I uncharacteristically arrived there a little late, missing both Tantric, who I’ve never seen before, and Stabbing Westward who I had and enjoyed. Saliva’s set had just began when I got inside and this time I wasn’t stuck up on the lawn and had seats up in the front section, good ones. It was VERY loud and easy to see the stage, especially at the beginning when nobody was there yet. This would be the first time I’d be seeing Saliva, a nu metal band from Memphis, whose singer, Josey Scott, basically looked like a giant six and a half foot baby with stringy, long black hair. Don’t get me wrong, he had very deep and thunderous voice and his band was all butch. They had just put out an album called “Every Six Seconds”, named after the theory that man think about sex that often… OK, maybe every five for me. Saliva made sure to give a shout out to their home town, hoping that we liked their “Memphis style shit”. 

After their short set ended, I ran, as I did at all of these multi stage festival shows to catch the next act on the second stage, The Living End, during the set change. I was able to catch three songs, “Pictures In The Mirror”, “Roll On”, and “Revolution Regained”, before I had to haul ass back to the seats to catch the start of Disturbed. Though they’d been around since ’94, Disturbed didn’t hit it big until the year before this when their debut major label album, “The Sickness”, exploded on the scene, quickly certifying platinum five times over. Sure, there were a lot of nu metal bands around then, especially at that show, but these guys from Chicago were pretty heavy. Their frontman, David Draiman, was a stocky bald brute, kinda’ looked like The Thing. Well, let’s just say David had some issues to work through emotionally in his music, a touch on the intense side.

So, it came to no surprise soon after he and the gang took the stage, they were disappointed by the sea of half empty seats sprawling out in front of them. David grunted, “You know something. I’ve been disrespected right now. We’re here in the bay giving our blood, sweat, and our soul. So the least you lazy motherfuckers can do is GET UP OFF YOUR ASSES IN FRONT OF THOSE SEATS!!!!” He piped down from his blood curdling tirade and joked that our asses might to be “starting to feel numb anyway”. And though his frustration was understandable and I’ve heard many acts in their situation playing at Shoreline say the very same lament, when it’s that early, even such a goading would only get a handful of reluctant patrons to get on their feet. It always came off as ineffective, even counterproductive. Whether anybody stood or sat, there was clearly no problem hearing these guys. Disturbed had to be the loudest act that played that day.

I was a little surprised that they did a cover of “Shout” by Tears For Fears, not a band one necessarily associates with metal music. David introduced it, “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. It’s time for our own semi-private group session of primal scream therapy. All your anger, all your hate, everything that is evil and loathsome inside all of you… I want you to pour that shit into me! I want you to pour that shit into me!!!” Later, he caught his breath, “That’s a little bit fuckin’ better. Are you awake now?!?… Are you down with the sickness?!? Show me!!!” Then they did that hit single, followed by “Stupify” which ended their set. And though, like I said, this would be the first time I’d be seeing them, I’d only have to wait two very short weeks until I saw them once again on that very same stage as one of the earlier acts for Ozzfest. That very well might have been the shortest time I’d wait to see a band on two different bills. 

I was able to catch a couple songs during the set change of Alien Ant Fram from Riverside including their rather manic cover of “Smooth Criminal” by Michael Jackson. Of course this was years before the sexual abuse stuff came out about Wacko Jacko, so even though it was an amusing cover, it hasn’t aged well. Fuel was next on the main stage and they were just about as loud as Disturbed. I wasn’t a huge fan of their stuff, but they had the good taste to do a little intro to their song, “Innocent”, of “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd. I’d see them again in November headlining The Warfield also with Saliva as the first of their opening acts. I often would skip most of the artists in the DJ tents at festivals, preferring to see ones with real instruments, but I made a point to catch one special duo who were featured at this one.

Actually, I lied earlier about not being too drawn to anybody on the bill besides Pennywise, because I was curious to hear Mix Master Mike with Mike D from the Beastie Boys. The two Mikes were a welcome sight, particularly since I hadn’t seen them since the “Hello Nasty” tour they did three years before this. They were doing a DJ set in the “Subsonic” tent, named after the electronica music segment on Live 105 that aired nightly from midnight to 4 AM. There was no rapping from Mr. D this time, but it was a rare pleasure to watch him assist the Mix Master cut it up on the ones and twos like nobody else can. As feared, there was the predictable amount of shirtless mooks in the tent trying to get rowdy like it was a bone fide B-Boys show, so Mike had to calm them down between songs. He scolded them a little saying, “People here jumping around, you should watch Staind. If you wanna get your dance on, get your dance on”. I thought it was strange to site Staind as a mosh pit band though. Their music is more of a sit and brood variety. I would have picked Disturbed. Anyway, the Mikes got the crowd moving, busting out a little of “Shake Ya Ass” by Mystikal and “You Gots To Chill” by EPMD. Coincidentally, Mike D’s wife, Tamara Davis, directed the aforementioned Alien Ant Farm’s music video for their song “Movies” that year.

I hated to leave the two Mikes, but I wanted to catch a few songs of The Cult. They were the obligatory “old man” act on the bill and I thought they deserved at least a little attention from me. So I bolted back to the seats, got three songs, before I bolted back to catch the end of the Mikes’ set, followed in the Subsonic tent by Mystre. I managed to catch Mike D plug his website and lectured us a little saying, “President Bush has this environmental plan that’s goin’ on and I don’t want to preach or anything, but like everybody here, it’s your world, right? It’s not his world. So if you could go to our website, send a letter in if you’re over 18. If you’re not over 18, just spread the word. Let the people know because it’s your world. You want alternative energy, not from oil wells, destroying our world and whatnot.”

I was disappointed that I missed The Cult’s cover of “Peace Frog” by The Doors though. Their very Jim Morrison-esque singer, Ian Astbury, and the band had recently contributed to a Doors tribute album playing “Wild Child” with Doors keyboardist Ray Manzerak backing them up. Unfortunately, “Peace Frog” was covered by Smashmouth (shutter!) on that one. Ian would soon afterwards, join the surviving members of The Doors to tour together calling themselves various names, including Riders On The Storm when I would see them four years later at The Fillmore. Ian also took issue to Shoreline’s seating arrangements musing, “I don’t know what it is, but this thing creates a mystical boundary which doesn’t really exist. Come up if you want to… If you like the heavy metal music with the hip hop sound… this is our heavy metal music with the hip hop sound song. Jump around!” and then they did “The Witch”, followed by the signature hit, “She Sells Sanctuary”.

I was able to catch only a couple songs from New Found Glory, a young punk band from Florida, before I had to bolt back to catch the beginning of 311’s set, but I liked what I heard. I had seen 311 three times by then, but it had been five years since the last time, so I was eager to hear them once more. They were steadily on the up and up before, but by this time, they had hit the height of their popularity. Their new album, “From Chaos” was just about to be released four days from this show and we got to hear one of the new ones, “You Wouldn’t Believe”, though “Amber” would ultimately go on to be the big hit from that album. Their set was the only one I was able to find on archive.org though. Singer Nick Hexum had just recovered from getting his tonsils removed and thanked the crowd adding a ,”Shout out to all the bands. It’s a great bill and a great place to have a fuckin’ show. Know what I mean?” He also mentioned that five days before this evening, it was their 11th anniversary and dedicated “Down” to their fans. And though I like 311 and always will, I regret that I missed most of Pennywise’s set on the other stage because of them. I still managed to catch Pennywise’s last three songs, “Society”, “Alien”, and “Bro Hymn”. They’d play the Warped Tour two weeks later which I would miss, but I would go on to see them a few more times in the future.

But this would be the first and only time I would see Staind. Their hit album, “Break The Cycle” had just come out about six weeks before this show and already it was on its way to be certified five times platinum. They were introduced by the Live 105 DJ Jerod who declared that he was having a “beer party at my house! You guys get the beer! Just come over!” Staind opened with “Mudshovel” and though I wasn’t really moved by their music, I did appreciate their clean sound and quality of their melancholy song writing. Their singer, Aaron Lewis, brought the noise down a bit halfway though their set, playing solo acoustic for “Outside”. He first asked the crowd if, “You guys wanna sing along with me?” which they did, though he goaded them on later saying, “I know you can sing louder than that”. They followed that with their moody metal ballad “It’s Been Awhile”.

The sun had gone down and the only one left was Blink 182. I had just seen them for the first time a mere six weeks before this show at The Warfield and seeing how they were headlining this festival, it was obvious that they had hit it big time. Feel free to revisit that show for further backstory on the band. They were introduced by another Live 105 DJ who declared parodying the famous intro to “Number Of The Beast” by Iron Maiden, “When Blink 182 comes out, we must all raise the sign of rock & roll! We shall read from the Blink Bible, so please stand up, rock & roll signs! Get em’ up. Let’s show these suckers some bay area love. Know what I’m saying? Woe to you, oh the Earth and sea, for the Devil sends the Beast with wrath because he knows the time is short. Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the Beast, for it is a human number… Its number is Blink 182!!!”

Blink 182 wasted no time, launching straight away into the breakneck paced “Anthem, Part 2”. Afterwards, they greeted us, guitarist Tom DeLonge yelling “Hi, San Francisco!” and bassist Mark Hoppus adding, “And all the surrounding metropolitan areas like San Jose and the silicone people who make all the circuit chips”. I was able to get most of their set, nine songs total, including the new single “The Rock Show” and their big hit “All The Small Things”, but the long day had taken its toll on my tape supply. Just as well, as usual I was pretty zonked out from the long stretch bolting between stages. I would return to see B.F.D. the following year with an all new line up, though they did bring back New Found Glory, promoted to the main stage for that one.

Doves, The Webb Brothers, Erland Oge, Fill., SF, Wed., June 13

SETLISTS :

(THE WEBB BROTHERS) : (unknown), Summer People, The Liar’s Club, Fluorescent Lights, Sour Grapes, (unknown), I Can’t Believe You’re Gone, All The Cocaine In The World, In A Fashion, A Funny Ol’ Kind Of Music, Marooned

(DOVES) : Sire Suite, Rise, Sea Song, Break Me Gently, Catch Sun, Satellites, The Man Who Told Everything, Lost Souls, A House, The Cedar Room, New York, (encore), Here It Comes, Hit The Ground Running, Space Face

It was another glorious evening at The Fillmore with yet another addition to the recent invasion of extremely LOUD new indie bands from the U.K. My ears were still ringing from onslaught of the Mogwai concert there just four days before this. Hailing from Manchester, England, the Doves had actually been the backing band for fellow Manchester resident Badly Drawn Boy, who had just performed a disgracefully unenjoyable gig at The Fillmore that May. And though Badly Drawn Boy had beaten the Doves out for the Mercury Prize back home that year, I can assure y’all that the Doves were at least listenable and seemed like pleasant people. Like Badly Drawn Boy, they had only played once in San Francisco before at Bimbo’s 365 Club and were on tour also promoting their debut album. 

They were one of those rare bands like The Breeders that had a set of identical twins in it, being Jex and Andy Williams (No, not the “Moon River” guy), on guitar and drums respectively. They had formed the band literally out of the ashes of their previous band, Sub Sub, when their studio back home burned to the ground taking all their gear and recordings with it. If that wasn’t bad enough, the fire happened on the twin’s 26th birthday and bassist Jimi Goodwin’s girlfriend had just left him. Still, they rose like a phoenix from those ashes and with their new album, “Lost Souls”, they found a new audience and commercial success. This show would be the third date of the new tour and Jimi had such a swell time, he declared it “their best show yet”.

Opening that night was a Norwegian singer-songwriter by the name of Erland Oge, quite a subdued departure from their painfully screechy headliner, whom he hooked up with when he moved to Manchester in 1999. He had been taking a self described “holiday in San Francisco” from his usual “partner in crime”, the other half of the folk duo, Kings Of Convenience. Erland was a brave man playing solo acoustic and even once shushed the disinterested audience members jibber-jabbing away during his set. He was only on for the usual half hour for the first of a two opening act show and though I didn’t get a set list, but I know his final song was “Everybody’s Got A Friend In Stockholm”. It was a brand new song about his “neighbors” and joked that now he had “a lot of friends in San Francisco”. 

Next up were The Webb Brothers, Christaan (Yes, with two ‘a’s at the end), Justin, and James, sired by the great singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb. Still in his early 20’s, their dear ol’ dad Jimmy penned such late 60’s classics as “Wichita Lineman”, “MacArthur Park”, and “Up, Up & Away”. His kid’s music was quite different though, noisy yet well written indie rock. Incidentally, there’s another band called The Webb Brothers from Queensland, Australia, but they play country music and are much older. Anyway, after giving a shout out to “the legendary Fillmore”, one of them said the second song, “The Liar’s Club” was “about a bar in Chicago we probably hang in a little too much”. The following song, “Fluorescent Lights” was similarly “about what happens to some people when they go to The Liar’s Club at the end of the night”. 

The Brothers seemed in good spirits during their set, one of them noting that it was “the first time I’d see people sing along… Yeah, San Francisco!” A few songs later, they brought out one of their cousins from Oklahoma, a young man named Zebediah who “wants to play some licks for y’all”, though for a “very serious song about drug abuse”. Then they did a rather dreamy lullabye called “All The Cocaine In The World” which was actually quite soothing to hear, more of a heroin song really. I liked it though and also enjoyed it earlier when they played it during their soundcheck. Speaking of Oklahoma, I’m afraid it’s worth noting that convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed two days before this show. I had seen The Flaming Lips from OKC at The Fillmore shortly after the Tulsa bombing in 1995 as well. My cousin Abra actually went on a group date to one of her high school dances with McVeigh, (dating someone else, thankfully for her). That was back when McVeigh lived in Buffalo, New York, before he went to Gulf and went meshuggah. 

But I digress, back to the show. The Doves finally came on and they lit up themselves and a giant screen behind them with video projections. During the second song, they showed pictures of the moon and for “Lost Souls” they had a picture of Nico of Andy Warhol-Velvet Underground fame cutting her hair. When they finished their set with “New York”, they showed projections of that city’s skyline, torpedoed ships, and the Hindenburg disaster. In hindsight, it was rather creepy and prophetic considering that 9/11 would take place only three months later. Sorry to bring up another building related disaster, promise it’s the last one. For their encore, the Doves’ first of three songs, “Here It Comes”, sounded suspiciously like “Werewolves Of London” by Warren Zevon. It was so loud, at first I thought it actually was that song and wrote it down accordingly in the original tape case. At least they chose a good song to rip off.

I don’t really remember much about this show otherwise and wasn’t a big fan off of the acts I saw, so it wasn’t surprising that this would be the last time I’d see any of them. What was very unusual about this show was it had the extremely rare distinction of it being a show that got a poster at the end of the night and I can’t locate mine. Seriously, ask anyone who knows me, I have been, am, and always shall be overprotective of all my posters to the point of psychosis. The only other show that comes to mind that shares this rare defect is Superchunk with Overwhelming Colorfast, also at The Fillmore, but in 1994, one of the earliest shows after its reopening. Can’t find that one either. Regardless, I was there and I’m thankful I have the tapes to prove it. I might have forgotten about this one by now.

Spinal Tap, The Folksmen, War., SF, Sun., June 10

SETLISTS : 

(THE FOLKSMEN) : Old Joe’s Place, Blood On The Coal, Start Me Up

(SPINAL TAP) : Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight, Cash On Delivery, Hell Hole, Back From The Dead, Rainy Day Sun, Heavy Duty, Clam Caravan, Sex Farm, Stonehenge, The Majesty Of Rock, Stinking Up The Great Outdoors, Rock & Roll Creation, (Listen To The) Flower People, Christmas With The Devil, Bitch School, Break Like The Wind, (encore), All The Way Home, Short & Sweet, Big Bottom

They say that all comedians want to be rock stars and vice versa, but Spinal Tap is one of those rare acts where the members wore both hats successfully. I can only think of a handful of others like Tenacious D, The Lonely Island, and Flight Of The Conchords that even came close to Spinal Tap’s notoriety. For those few of you who are unfamiliar, Spinal Tap is a semi-fictional English heavy metal band, the hilarious brainchild of comedians Michael McKeon, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer. Respectively, they play the roles of blond haired frontman David St. Hubbins, Jeff Beck doppelganger Nigel Tufnel, and handlebar mustachioed bass player extraordinaire Derek Smalls, bearing a striking resemblance to Lemmy Kilmister from Motorhead.

Together and with help from director Rob Reiner, they starred in the seminal 1984 mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap”, though they first appeared in a sketch on “The T.V. Show” five years before that. Reiner, himself playing the role of Marti DiBergi, the director of the movie, would help Christopher Guest refine the mockumentary to perfection as an artistic medium. Guest would go on to direct himself, his fellow Spinal Tap alumni, and many brilliant comedians in other such mockumentaries as “Waiting For Guffman”, “Best In Show”, “A Mighty Wind”, and “For Your Consideration”. Taking a page from Guest’s efforts, many other notable and brilliant additions to the genre would emerge elsewhere like the films “Drop Dead Gorgeous”, “Borat”, and “Fear Of A Black Hat”. I was extremely fortunate to see this show, since it would be one of only six shows Spinal Tap would do on the west coast.  

And coming back around to the aforementioned “A Mighty Wind”, we had a bonus encounter with the Spinal Tap guys as The Folksmen who would perform that night as the opening act. This also semi-fictional band, a send up of folk vocal trios of the 1950’s and 60’s like The Kingston Trio, The Weavers, and Peter, Paul, & Mary, was created by Guest and Shearer for a taped comedy sketch when they were briefly members of “Saturday Night Live” during that show’s 1984-85 season. Harry would joke about it calling them, “the fake folk music being written in office buildings in Manhattan’s Upper West Side”. Once again respectively, Michael, Chris, and Harry would portray baritone Jerry Palter, bald tenor Alan Barrows, and the also bald, but with a pronounced chinstrap beard, upright bass player Mark Shubb. This was a full two years before “A Mighty Wind” hit theaters, and though I personally remember their old SNL skit fondly, I imagine many people in the audience that night were a little perplexed that this weird folk trio would be opening for their heavy metal counterparts. They were actually booed a little when they opened for Spinal Tap in New York City. You’d think the home city of SNL would get the joke, but whatever.

The emcee for the night introduced them as “First seen on the stage in San Francisco in 1963 at the Lazy Onion cafe, (obviously a parody of the famous S.F. comedy club the Purple Onion). Tonight they return to the bay area to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their first great show. Please welcome, self-released recording artists, The Folksmen!” They opened with their song from the original sketch, “Old Joe’s Place”, a jaunty and infectious acoustic number and I always crack up when Chris would do his little nervous vibrato opening to the chorus, “We-e-e-e-e-l-l-l-l….” They had a new song called “Blood On The Coal” and “Jerry” (I will continue addressing them by their stage names now), prefaced it by saying that “many wonderful folk songs come from tragedy”. The tune detailed a 19th century rail/coal mining disaster when a train was accidentally routed on a collision coarse with a mineshaft, described eloquently in the chorus, “Blood on the tacks, blood in the mine, brothers & sisters, what a terrible time, Old 97 went in the wrong hole, now in mine number 60, there’s blood on the coal.”

What came next was a REAL surprise to us all when they did joyfully silly folk cover of “Start Me Up” by the Rolling Stones. Before I continue, they and Spinal Tap did so many jokes and wisecracks between songs, when I recount them now, I’m going to format it in screenplay form just to save time and to avoid the tedious “He said” introduction every time, so here goes…

JERRY :  You know, you never know where a few of these are going to come from. This one we learned from a young lady who had spent a lot of time traveling with various groups, bands.

ALAN : Well, she was doing other things too.

JERRY : Enough of that, please Alan. This is a family crowd.

MARK : Are you sure of that?

JERRY : An extended family crowd. We learned this little ditty from her and we hope you like it.

MARK : And if you know it, sing along!

ALAN : Yeah, we’d love to have you join us is you remember it. Thank you!

It was particularly funny near the end of the song they did a little cutesy call and response cadence to the line, “You make a dead man cum – Cum!” and they finished the song with a long drawn out “Cu-u-u-u-u-m-m-m-m!” So that was it for them, just three songs. But two years later, when “A Might Wind” came out, they will have expanded their repertoire and as luck would have it return to The Warfield in 2003 on a tour with all the folk bands from that movie, one of only 12 shows they would do in total. So I was very lucky that lightning would strike twice for me. 

The emcee came out and mentioned that the tour was being sponsored by “Endure Undergarments” which reminded me of the time I interviewed my brother Alex’s punk band, The Cat’s Pajamas, for my high school newspaper, where they claimed that they were sponsored by Depends Undergarments. Great minds think alike I suppose. They opened with “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight” followed quickly by “Cash On Delivery”.

NIGEL : Thank you so much! We are the aforementioned Spinal Tap from the U.K…. We can feel wave after wave of love coming at us and of course it’s very dirty love, isn’t it?

Then they did “Hell Hole” followed by their new song, the appropriately titled “Back From The Dead”, which they released online on their own file sharing service, the hilariously named Tapster. I was cut from ushering during that song and made my way up front with my beer after that. They made a reference before they did the Kinks-esque “Rainy Day Sun” to their history of drummers meeting their untimely deaths. 

DAVID : And of course on the drums… He has no immediate family. He’s heavily insured and he’s always wanted to meet Keith Moon, Mr. Skippy Skuffelton of California!

Afterwards, Nigel taunted the crowd up in the balcony a little.

NIGEL : Everyone down here, say hello to everyone up there… Everyone up there, say fuck you to everyone down here!

They did a little jazzy intro to “Heavy Duty” before they continued with it’s heavy metal dirge. 

DAVID : There’s been a large increase of panties thrown on stage since we started.

DEREK : Why do you get them all?

DAVID : I don’t know. I have radar.

NIGEL : You’re a panty magnet.

DEREK : Great panty magnet of the north.

NIGEL : I’ve traveled all over the world. I’ve met people speaking very strange languages which I don’t understand. I don’t really know what the point is frankly. It’s just confusing. I think it’s really a conspiracy.

DEREK : Nigel, those are real other languages. 

Nigel then went on to explain that he had written a song called “Calm Caravan”, but there had been some kind of mix up and it had been listed as “Clam Caravan”, so they didn’t bother to change it. Near the end of the song, Nigel brought out a didgeridoo which they referred to as a “didgeri-don’t” and he, with great anticipation from the audience, blew out bellowing fart noises from it, much to all our delight. They followed it with a new funky rendition of “Sex Farm” where Nigel described David as “our own blonde bombshell”. 

DAVID : Wherever we go around in this world, we are asked two questions. Number one, why are you still doing this? And number two, are you going to do “Stonehenge” tonight?… Are you ready for a history lesson?

And yes, they did the bit from the movie with the ridiculously truncated Stonehenge set piece lowered from the rafters and danced around by dwarves. It was silly and we all saw it coming, but upon seeing it happen live, it was irresistible not to burst out in laughter.

DAVID : We were invited to Woodstock, but we ended up in Tee Neck, New Jersey or someplace.

NIGEL : Which was fucking great! 

Then David muttered something about rock festivals in England like the Redding Festival before they did “Stinking Up The Outdoors”. It occurred to me a couple songs later that “(Listen To The) Flower People” was clearly a parody of the hippie anthem “San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)” by Scott McKenzie, so I suppose Spinal Tap were in the right place to perform it. They took a stylistic left turn afterwards with “Christmas With The Devil” and Nigel wondered “what Christmas must be like for Satan… Lonely man, lonely at the bottom.” We got a very welcome surprise at the end when none other than guitar god Joe Satrioni, (a man I incidentally share a birthday with), for the final song of the set, “Break Like The Wind”. They all thanked Joe for sitting in a doing one of his signature mind boggling guitar solos, but they soon returned, starting their encore with the Buddy Holly-like acoustic number, “All The Way Home”, which they claimed was the first song they had written. 

DAVID : This is a little number first performed at the Electric… something…. Oh yeah, the Electric Banana in New York City. It’s called “Short & Sweet”!

Then the three of them strapped on a bass guitar each signaling which song they were going to wrap up the night with.

DEREK : And now we’ve come to the end. We have nothing left but to come to the Bottom!

And yes, they did indeed play that triple bass ode to the female gluteus maximus, “Big Bottom”, gleefully accompanied by an assortment of buxom young ladies dancing around them. And as much as I wanted the night to go on forever and ever, it was over. They at least were giving out a brilliant poster at the end of the evening. As I mentioned, I got to see The Folksmen two years later on that stage again, but this would be the only time I’d see Spinal Tap, like the song they played, “Short & Sweet”. I can still picture Harry Shearer’s hilarious faces and rock star body language when he performed, probably the funniest aspect of the band to me at least. It’s the sign of a great comedian when you crack up just looking at them. I can think of only a few off the top of my head like Rodney Dangerfield, John Candy, and Harpo Marx. The memory of that night is still fresh with me and hopefully always will be, being a show so rare and so enjoyable. And for years afterward, The Warfield put up a large framed photo in the front its lobby of the band backstage from that show. It was a big one and impossible to miss when you walked inside from the front door. 

In a related story, my brother Alex who had been making a living as an actor in Los Angeles had the good fortune to be cast on the spoof talk show “Primetime Glick” alongside Michael McKeon, a hero to him as well as me. The first episode of “Primetime Glick” would actually air just ten days after this night. Michael was portraying Adrian Van Voorhees, the effeminate band leader in heavy, bright face make up to Jiminy Glick, the obnoxious and incoherent interviewer, played by Martin Short disguised under a morbidly obese “fat suit”. Alex would be the “lead guitarist” of the band, and I use that in quotes because the band never actually played a note, instead just obviously playing along to the recorded music unconvincingly, including “Adrian” playing on a full size harp. 

The irony was that Alex was the only member of the Glick band apart from Michael that could actually play his instrument, though I can’t say for sure if Michael could actually play a harp in real life. Knowing him and his talent as a prolific musician and songwriter, I imagine he at least made an effort to learn it a little. Anyway, Alex and Michael got along well during the three seasons it was on the air and they would often hang out and talk between takes, smoking cigarettes outside the studio where it was being recorded. One of the first things Alex did when he was cast in the role was to bring his vinyl copy of the soundtrack from “This Is Spinal Tap” to have him sign. Naturally, he signed it under his stage name, David St. Hubbins. 

Mogwai,Bardo Pond, Fill., SF, Sat., June 9

SETLIST : Sine Wave, Mogwai Fear Satan, D To E, Like Herod, Ithica 2709, Cody, You Don’t Know Jesus, 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong, New Paths To Helicon Pt. 1, (encore), Christmas Song, My Father My King

It had been only three days since I saw Tortoise, another purely instrumental band, grace the stage of The Fillmore and now it was time to hear their noisy Scottish counterparts, Mogwai. Hailing from Glasgow, they were touring the states that year while back home, Tony Blair had just reclaimed his title of Prime Minister by a landslide. Not that they probably cared in the slightest. Mogwai would most likely describe their beloved Prime Minister as a “tosser”. Both they and the opening act, Bardo Pond, had released albums on the Matador label about six weeks before this show, “Rock Action”, being Mogwai’s third one and the first using synthesizers. In case you were wondering, Mogwai claims to have no relation to the 1984 horror comedy film “Gremlins” and their name means “devil” in Cantonese. Still, I couldn’t help periodically blurting out their name using that adorable chirp that Howie Mandel used to do the voice of “Gizmo”.

Bardo Pond however derived their name from the Tibetan Book Of The Dead and though their first song of the evening was an instrumental, their violinist, Isobel Sollenberger, also sang for them. She played rather disturbingly discordant sounds from her instrument and I was taken aback frankly by just how loud Bardo Pond were. Isobel’s voice was actually pretty spooky, making their music have a sort of “haunted house” vibe to it. I wasn’t able to transcribe their whole set, but I do know they played “Sunrise”, “Inside”, and “Favorite Uncle” that night. Bardo Pond were from Philadelphia and though they had encouraged their fans to tape their shows, I wasn’t able to find this one online, though I found one of Mogwai’s set on the always dependable site, archive.org. 

Chino Moreno, the frontman from The Deftones, was in the house that night, though I didn’t spot him personally. He commented in an interview later that this Mogwai gig was “both the loudest and quietest show I’ve seen in my life. I was so impressed with the dynamics. At one moment, it was so quiet. Everyone in the venue would be silent. You could hear a pin drop. Then, the next moment my chest was caving in because of the noise.” His description was especially apt for their second song, “Mogwai Fear Station”, a sprawling 11 and a half minute long back and forth between almost a lullabye to an ear splitting juggernaut of shoegazer guitars. Seriously, I’ve heard some loud bands in my time, but these guys could go toe to toe with Motorhead or My Bloody Valentine any day of the goddamn week. Indeed, I overheard one guy after “2 Rights Make 1 Wrong” declare, “I can’t hear anything! I don’t care!”

They continued their sonic ear assaults throughout their set and into the encore songs, “Christmas Song” clocking in at 12 minutes and finishing the night with “My Father, My King” at 15 minutes. The final three minutes was pure feedback and when it was all over, I thought I should check the fillings in my teeth to see if they had been rattled out of place. This would be the last time I’d see them at The Fillmore, though I know they returned to play there in 2003, 2006, and just two years ago in 2022. I did however had the honor of helping set up their gear at the ballpark in 2004 when they were one of the opening acts for The Cure at their “Curiosa” festival. Still, I think their music is pretty original, though I wonder what would compel a person to listen to it since you certainly can’t dance, drive, or make love to it. Maybe it would come in handy to the interrogators at Guantanamo Bay. But they did get a lovely poster and seeing Spinal Tap at The Warfield the next night seemed downright placid by comparison. 

Tortoise, Nobukazu Takemura, Jet Black Crayon, Fill., SF, Wed., June 6

SETLIST : Blackjack, In Sarah Mencken Christ & Beethoven There Were Women & Men, Magnet Pulls Through – Eden 2, Tin Cans & Twine, Firefly – Six Pack, Djed, Benway, The Taut & Tame, Seneca, TNT, Speakeasy, Swung From The Gutters, Eros

I had heard the name of Tortoise before floating around because I knew they had collaborated with Stereolab, one of my favorite bands of all time, on a number of musical projects. But other than that, I knew nothing of their music and this would be the first time and last time I’d be seeing any of the acts on this bill. Upon hearing their music, I could immediately hear similarities between them and Stereolab and could see why they worked well side by side. Tortoise was from Chicago and would join a new breed of so called “post-rock” indie bands that would edge out the dour grunge and obnoxious nu metal scenes. They had just put out their fourth album, “Standards” that February and were promoting a limited edition, 2 track tour CD with the odd title of “Gently Gripping The Chin Of An Ape”. This would be the second of two nights they were booked at The Fillmore and like most two show stints, they got a poster and it was a good one.

There were a couple opening acts that night who like Tortoise were purely instrumental bands and the first of the two was called Jet Black Crayon, a local act that was fairly new. When I heard that the guitarist was named Tommy Guerrero, it took a minute for me to make the connection that he was in fact the same guy who was a member of the legendary skateboard crew, the Bones Brigade. I suppose it is a good thing that he has his music since one can’t skate forever, at least not without accumulating some serious scar tissue. Just ask fellow Brigade alumni Tony Hawk. I was downright impressed with Tommy’s improvisational skills on the guitar and the atmospheric sound of the band altogether. They had just put out their first album, “Low Frequency Test” the year before and had a regular gig playing every Sunday at Amnesia in the Mission. Johnny Herndon, the drummer of Tortoise, also played for them that night. 

I liked the samples Jet Black Crayon’s DJ used, including whale song for their first tune of their set and later some snippets of Nixon saying to the Apollo 11 astronauts,  “Because of what you have done, the heavens became a part of man’s world. And as you talk to us from the Sea Of Tranquility, it inspires us to redouble out efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth”. Their last song had samples of a woman laughing too. The second opening act was a musician named Nobukazu Takemura and if you guessed he was from Japan, you would be correct. He had a prolific list of releases on his own, but he had also collaborated with some of us yanks like Yo La Tengo and Dj Spooky. He wasn’t on very long, but I liked how he used one of those “talk box” voice distortion devices for his first song, the kind that guys like Peter Frampton made popular. Other than that, like Jet Black Crayon, his stuff was instrumental, sounding a little like Tricky’s slower trip hop numbers. 

It was quite a relaxing night in fact and like the Stereolab crowd, the audience was placid, polite, and easy to usher. After I was cut from duty, I got my beer and had no problem getting up front. Their sound was layered and complex, but not so far out that it would exhaust you listening to it, pretty lo-fi stuff. My tapes came out loud and clear, but I found a better recording on archive.org made by somebody up in the balcony. I did appreciate that Tortoise busted out a vibraphone for a few tunes, an instrument rarely seen in any band and even more rarely seen at The Fillmore. I had actually been spending a lot of time at that venue, this being the fourth of five shows in a row there in only two weeks. Off the subject, I thought it was cute that Ed Reyes, a jovial veteran usher, the oldest of us there most likely, originally thought he was seeing the hippie band The Turtles that night, quite a different sound indeed. But it being The Fillmore, I thought it would have been a pleasant surprise if Tortoise did a cover of “Happy Together”. 

David Byrne, Joe Henry, Fill., SF, Thur., May 31

SETLISTS :

(JOE HENRY) : Stop, Rough & Tumble, Want Too Much, Trampoline, Great Lake, Like She Was A Hammer, Monkey, Scar, Edgar Bergen

(DAVID BYRNE) : The Revolution, Nothing But Flowers, God’s Child (Baila Conmigo), Soft Seduction, Buck Naked, And She Was, Once In A Lifetime, The Great Intoxication, Marching Through The Wilderness, Sax & Violins, Dura Europus, What A Day That Was, Desconocido Soy, Like Humans Do, U.B. Jesus, (encore) The Dream Police, I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me), The Accident

This was a difficult but necessary show for me to revisit, but fear not, for it has a happy ending. David Byrne was the first show I saw at The Warfield in August of 1997 after my friend Casey was killed on his bike, hit by a van on Market Street. It was the day after he died in fact and if you read about that one, you’d know I wasn’t entirely ready to hear it, but instinctually knew that I had to be there. The same was the case for this show Byrne did at The Fillmore almost four years later. Though that time had passed, the loss was still fresh in my mind and hearing this music again naturally took me back to that mental state I was in previously. But having tasted those feelings once again then and even re-listening to the tapes and writing about it now all these years later, Mr. Byrne and his music helped me face these feelings head on and made space for me emotionally to deal with them. There, you see? Happy ending like I promised. 

So, I will depart from this maudlin introduction and get down to the show at hand. Like I said, it had been four years, but Byrne was back touring in promotion of his new album, “Look Into The Eyeball” which has just come out a little over three weeks before this night. This would be his 8th solo album and though it was only 38 minutes long, it would help further solidify his catalogue of work beyond just his tenure with the Talking Heads. We’d have the honor of hearing six of the new songs at this show and I thought the new material was quite good. He wrote most of the new stuff in a small town in Andalusia, Spain, a place he described as “an ugly town where the wind blows incessantly”. And as you might have guessed, he incorporated some Latin grooves and percussion on this one. 

Opening that night was alt country singer-songwriter Joe Henry from Michigan by way of Charlotte, North Carolina. I hadn’t heard of him before, but I was impressed by the company that joined him on his new album, “Scar”, which included such venerable musicians as Ornette Coleman on sax and guitarist Marc Ribot. I appreciated that he dedicated that album to the comedic legend, Richard Pryor, whose health had been declining then from multiple sclerosis which would ultimately take his life in 2005. In fact, the first track of the new album was called “Richard Pryor Addresses A Tearful Nation”. Incidentally, Joe is married to Madonna’s sister, Melanie Ciccone, and good ol’ Midge repurposed some of his lyrics from his song “Stop”, (which he opened his set with that night), for her song “Don’t Tell Me”. After that tune, he introduced himself, “My name is Joe Henry. I have a new pair of shoes on. It’s all about the shoes, isn’t it?” Later, he described “Great Lake” as a “talkin’ blues song”. Though I never saw him again, Joe would continue to make music and even won three Grammies as a producer. 

The moment I caught sight of David taking the stage, it was if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. That microsecond, I knew coming there to hear him again was the right decision. He opened with “The Revolution”, one of his new ones, but then quickly dusted off the Talking Heads golden oldie “Nothing But Flowers”. He joked, “We’ll do the first part like Caetano, (referring to Caetano Veloso, the famous Brazilian composer), then PFFT! We’ll quick switch it over”. He introduced the next song “God’s Child (Baila Conmigo)” saying, “The next song is written about a very young transvestite. She used to work on the far end of the street where I lived and through an odd turn of events, people in L.A. were making a movie called “Don Juan DeMarco” with Johnny Depp and Marlon Brando. And it had a singer in it named Selena and appeared briefly in the movie. They thought wouldn’t it be great to have someone sing with Selena and they called me up… They called that guy who does the Latin stuff. Yeah, I know who she is. She’s a great singer. Let’s do it. We did this song together. She didn’t need to know what it was about. They decided not to use it along with a lot of other songs they decided not to use, but it ended up in another movie called ‘Blue In The Face’ (a 1995 New York City comedy with an ensemble cast).” 

In a strange coincidence, coming back to the Richard Pryor thing, I knew Pryor was bisexual, but I didn’t know that he hooked up with the aforementioned Marlon Brando once. Seriously, I’m struggling to even picture that now. Any-who, a couple songs later, they did “Buck Naked” which David described as “a song in retrospect I think I wrote for my daughter and possibly myself. When her auntie… Is that how you say it? When her auntie passed away from old age I had to try to explain it to her.” He followed that with another Talking Heads classic, “And She Was”, and I know he has told the tale about it before, but it’s a good yarn which is why I suppose he feels it bears repeating, “This is a song written about a girl I knew in high school who used to take L.S.D. and went out and hung out by the Yoohoo chocolate factory. They make Yoohoo chocolate drink in Baltimore, chocolate drink that has no milk in it, possibly milk chocolate. I thought it was an odd place to go and have your cosmic visions.”

And then the moment came for me to hear “Once In A Lifetime” again which immediately followed. I’m sure you can appreciate that this one above the others resonated with me as sort of an anthem for Casey and my grief and always will really. But hearing the recording of it once again still moves me and gives me goosebumps as it most certainly that night. Afterwards, David graciously introduced his fellow band members while they tended to some technical stuff on stage and he asked the audience, “Can everyone hear me in their earholes?” A couple songs later, he mentioned another song titles “Sax & Violins” that he had written for another movie called “Until The End Of The World” by Wim Wenders, adding “I hadn’t seen it when I wrote the words, but I had read the script”. Speaking of violins, the band had the welcome addition of a bone fide, six piece string section consisting of the Tosca String Quartet from Austin, Texas and an additional cello and violin player for the second half of their set starting with “The Great Intoxication”. Seriously, it is a VERY rare occasion when a band has a string section of any size. 

Bryrne would play “Like Humans Do”, the first single off the new album, for the second to last song of the set and that tune would go on used by Microsoft XP as sample music for its Windows Media Player. Byrne had to edit out a part in it that was a marijuana reference for their version, but I can’t necessarily blame him. He must of made a fortune on that deal. For the first song of his encore, he introduced “The Dream Police” (No, his song, not the Cheap Trick one, though that would have been cool), as “sort of a paranoid lullabye”. But after declaring, “You can crank the mirror ball up for this one”, David followed that with a very, VERY surprising cover of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)”. Oh yes, you know the one, the unforgettable 80’s dance classic that helped make Whitney Houston famous. Hearing David’s very straight forward and respectful version of it actually made me appreciate the song more, maybe even more than Houston’s actually. 

He finished the set with a subdued ballad called “The Accident” and that was that. I was thankful that the show was given a poster at the end and frankly would have been furious if they hadn’t. Believe it or not, I would only have to wait two short months before David would return to town with his band and play The Warfield and once again, I was grateful. And if that wasn’t enough, I would see him yet again at The Fillmore the following February, though that would be the last time I’d see him perform live. But Mr. Byrne is still recording and performing new music to this day and the Heads got together last year to promote the re-release of their seminal concert film “Stop Making Sense” for its 40th anniversary, remastered to be shown on IMAX. Still, it’s doubtful that the Heads will ever do a reunion tour since they recently turned down an offer of $80 million to do it which would have included a performance at Coachella. I suppose after the Microsoft thing, Byrne doesn’t need the money. 

OhGr, Hate Dept, Fill., SF, Sun., May 27

SETLIST : SunBurn, suhlEap, dEVil, EARTHwORm, SolOW, DoG, craCKer, wAteR, HiLo, luSId, WaTergaTe, kettLE, miNUS, chaos, (encore), maJiK

This was a side project of Nivek Ogre from the Canadian industrial band Skinny Puppy, newly formed just the previous year. Skinny Puppy had taken an eight year break before reforming that year as well and cEvin Key from that band would tag along on this tour playing drums and keyboards. The two Kevins, (Nivek is Kevin spelled backwards incidentally), had just put out OhGr’s first album “Welt” and they originally wanted to call the band that name, but another punk band laid claim to it first. Their version of the name was actually an acronym for “When Everybody Learns the Truth”. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about this genre is that the artists change hats between bands constantly, incestuously collaborating with each other. Sometimes the songs they write together end up getting used by other bands like Ministry who used Ogre’s song “The Fall” and their hit “Thieves” which he co-wrote. Nivek had also been a touring member of the Revolting Cocks and Pigface who I’d seen at The Fillmore in 1998 as well.

Opening that night was Hate Dept., fronted by Steven Seibold who likewise had been a member of Pigface amongst other industrial bands. Hate Dept. had been around for a decade by then, though this was also the first time I’d be seeing either bands that night. I didn’t record their entire set, just four songs, but I know they started with “Fiend”, then “Bitch”, “Anger Impulse”, and “Release It”. For that second song, Steven began by saying, “San Francisco is beautiful. You all look a little sad. What’s up with the darkness?” When I heard the song’s title, I overheard myself reassuring who I was with that the song was actually about a female dog. Later, Siebold joked, “The people up front are admiring my apparel… This next song is called ‘Anger Impulse’. Try not standing with your arms folded. They did that in Los Angeles. It’s not cool.” Hate Dept. was pretty heavy stuff and was extremely loud as expected, a real departure from the hip hop infused jam band stylings of Project Logic which I had just seen on that very stage the night before this.

I was pleasantly surprised to see none other than Jim Rose from the Jim Rose Circus come out and introduce OhGr. Speaking in his usually carnival barker cadence, he declared, “I gotta tell you Ogre is one of my best friends and I know you’re gonna have a fuckin’ rockin’ time tonight!” He told the audience that he and his circus were doing seven shows that week at the comedy club The Punchline and treated us to a new act he wanted to try out for the first time on a live audience. He barked, “We got the lizard man over there. You’ve seen him on ‘Ripley’s Believe It Or Not’. He’s attaching a metal chair to his ears and he’s going to attempt to lift it up… He’ll have earlobes to his shoulders! Make sure everyone gets a view.” 

And then the Lizard Man did just that, lifting the chair by the piercings with his elongated hooped earlobes causing everyone to simultaneously cheer and cringe in disgust. Jim asked if they should leave it in his show and the crowd overwhelmingly cheered again in approval. “San Francisco, you fuckin’ rock”, Jim shouted, “We’ll see you next week at The Punchline!” Then he tossed out some “special shock flyers” for those shows adding, “Now if you happen to catch one and don’t want it, throw it up! We’ll throw it till someone gets what they want… By the way, I want to warn you, beware of Ogre imitations. There’s about a thousand of those fuckers out there now and we all know where it started… With Ogre! Let’s hear it for him!” and the audience cheered again.

Nivek and his fellow tattooed and pierced scary looking compatriots took the stage and began their set with “SunBurn” quickly followed by “sulEap”. Like the band’s name itself, OhGr had the interesting practice of mixing up the capital and lowercase letters in each of their songs, a distinction I’d only seen in a couple of acts like Prince and King Crimson, the latter just doing it with their “K”’s. Though they didn’t do it on stage during this particular performance, Nivek would with Skinny Puppy hold fake “decapitations” of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Perhaps that was why the interrogators in Guantanamo Bay ended up using his music to torture their prisoners. Upon hearing about this unauthorized use of their work, Skinny Puppy would send an “invoice” to The Pentagon demanding compensation, but I doubt they got any. Seriously, these guys are Canadians. We should torture people with music from our own country… or just use Yoko Ono. She’s a naturalized American citizen now. 

For the encore, Nivek quipped, “OK… Time for a little spoken word… PIGFACE!!!… It’s getting a little tepid… You heard that song ‘Do You Believe In Magic?’” and then he sang a few bars of that hippie anthem by The Lovin’ Spoonful. I suppose it was appropriate being The Fillmore, though none of us expected to hear it from a band like OhGr. I wonder how John Sebastian would have felt about it. Anyway, they finished the night with their song, “maJiK” and that was that. Sadly, there was no poster at the end of the night for this horde of somberly dressed folks, but there would be ones for the following three shows I would see at The Fillmore in the next couple weeks for David Byrne, Tortoise, and Mogwai. 

Project Logic, Robert Randolph, Fill., SF, Sat., May 26

SETLIST : (ROBERT RANDOLPH) : (unknown), (unknown), The March, Pressing My Way, New York City Freaks, Voodoo Child (Slight Return), I Don’t Know What You Come To Do

Ever since the death of Jerry Garcia, the realm of hippie music was expanding year after to year, filling the void he left with new bands with new directions for the genre. The umbrella term of “jam band” for better of worse envelop many a band under its long shadow and the two acts at The Fillmore that night were amongst them. Though I wouldn’t have guessed a few years before this that jam bands would begin to incorporate elements from hip hop, but lo and behold, it happened. Speaking of strange bedfellows, two days before this show, Jim Jeffords had switched political parties, being coming an Independent caucusing with the Democrats, thus taking the evenly divided Senate out of the recklessly incompetent hands of George W. Bush and his gang of chickenhawks. This would be the only time a Senator ever tipped the balance of power in the Senate by switching parties, though his brave action was short lived when the GOP retook the Senate in 2002.

But back to the show at hand. I had already seen DJ Logic apply his skills on the turntables alongside the jam band masters of Medeski, Martin, & Wood two years before this on that very stage and I was intrigued by this new sub-genre they were creating together. He had released his second album, “The Anomaly”, that year and assembled a live band together for this side band, Project Logic. He brought with him Stephen Roberson on drums, Mike Weitman on keys, Lamont McCain on bass, and Casey Benjamin on sax and flute, and with his mind boggling skills on the ones and twos, they made quite a sound indeed. It was mostly instrumental, but he had a rapper named Subconscious come out from time to time and spit some lyrics. Their new sound would help introduce lily white, suburban hippies to genuine hip hop from The Bronx and in turn would give him and others a whole new audience and commercial success.

Opening that night was the steel pedal guitar virtuoso Robert Randolph. Emerging from a long history of gospel music, he originally played for the House Of God Church back in New York. Indeed, this would actually be his first non-church related tour. Robert would bring his “Family Band” of cousins Danyel Morgan and Marcus Randolph on bass and drums respectively as well as John Ginty on the B-3 organ. He was being billed that night simply by his name, but he would add The Family Band to the act’s title the following year. He was pretty new to the hippies and like DJ Logic, Robert would collaborate with a number of jam bands including Dave Matthews who I had just seen play the first gigs at Pac Bell Park, the new home of The Giants. Robert’s skill on the pedal steel quickly spoke for itself, an instrument I had adored for years and a welcome addition to any band. I was able to decipher all but the first two of his songs in his set that night, including a smoking cover of “Voodoo Child (Slight Return) by Jimi Hendrix.

Calling back to his gospel roots, Robert introduced “Pressing My Way”, preaching that it was a “song that will help anytime in your life… Whenever you think about things that are bothering you at your home, or your job, on your way to The Fillmore. All you got to do is press on!” Afterwards, he told the crowd the next song “we named after our number one fan back home in New York. We heard there were some Nor-Cal freaks too! Marcus ‘bout to give you a beat!” and then they did “New York City Freaks”. Later, he introduced the band, giving his cousins and John a little time each to play solos and then introduced himself saying that his instrument in fact was a pedal steel guitar and not keyboards or turntables. I liked that Danyel did a few bars from the theme song from “The Flintstones” too. Robert then led the crowd to stomp the feet, clap their hands, and scream during “I Don’t Know What You Come To Do”, adding, “Take off your coats! Take off your sweaters! ‘Cus it’s gonna get real hot up in here!”

I was immediately impressed by the sophistication of Project Logic’s songs, not to mention every member’s skills on their chosen instruments, experts one and all. The songs were so dense and complex, that it was frankly a little exhausting taking all of it in at first. Like I had mentioned, most of their songs were instrumentals, but I did know a couple of covers they performed including “Watermelon Man” by Herbie Hancock and “White Lines (Don’t Do It)” by Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel. I was probably one of the only people in the house that recognized when DJ Logic did a little scratching of the theme song from “Dave Allen At Large”, an obscure (at least to Americans) comedy show on the BBC from the 70’s. 

For their encore, they brought up Robert Randolph to finish the night with “Thank You (For Lettin’ Me Be Mice Elf)” by Sly & The Family Stone, who like Hendrix was another musical artist of color who found appreciation early on with the hippies at places like The Fillmore. This would be the last time I would see DJ Logic, but I’d have the pleasure of hearing Robert Randolph & The Family Band two years later as one of the acts on the Sprite Liquid Mix tour headlined by N.E.R.D. and among many other respected artists like The Roots. In a dramatic stylistic left turn musically, I would return to usher for the bleak, industrial metal stylings of Ohgr at The Fillmore the following night, about as different genre of music as one could get from this show. 

David Gray, Nelly Furtado, War., SF, Tues., May 22

David Gray, Nelly Furtado, War., SF, Wed., May 23

SETLISTS: 

(TUESDAY) : 

(NELLY FURTADO) : Get Ur Freak On, My Love Grows Deeper (Part 1), Hey Man!, Party, Turn Out The Light, Shit On The Radio (Remember The Days), I’m Like A Bird

(DAVID GRAY) : Sail Away, White Ladder, Wisdom, Nightblindness, Everytime, Real Love, Babylon, This Year’s Love, Flame Turns Blue, We’re Not Right, Say Hello Wave Goodbye, Gathering Dust, Please Forgive Me, Silver Lining, My Oh My It Just Don’t Stop, Late Night Radio, Faster Sooner Now, All The Love

(WEDNESDAY) : 

(DAVID GRAY) : Sail Away, White Ladder, Nightblindness, My Oh My It Just Don’t Stop, Babylon, This Year’s Love, We’re Not Right, Silver Lining, Twilight, Please Forgive Me, (encore) Shine, Twilight, Late Night Radio, Faster Sooner Now, Say Hello Wave Goodbye

I knew nothing about David Gray before these nights, but I had seen his opener, Nelly Furtado, briefly at one of those Alice In Wonderland gigs where she easily stole the show. In fact, she was so popular by this time, this was more of a co-headlining gig for me in my opinion, though her sets were shorter. Nelly would go on to be nominated for four Grammies the following year, winning one for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and would join Moby on his Area One Festival tour. Not that David was half bad. He won me over pretty quickly. Yeah, his stuff is a little radio friendly but he has an excellent voice and his songs are well written and sophisticated. David isn’t Slayer, nor is he trying to be. Still, I can see why he got that big, though he didn’t start that way.

He struggled for years and almost threw in the towel before his breakthrough fourth record “White Ladders” took off, becoming the 5th best selling album in U.K. in the 2000’s, though technically not from Britain himself. Mr. Gray is Irish. Incidentally, that album was on Dave Matthews’ ATO label, whom I had just seen with his band two days before playing the first concerts at the then named Pac Bell Park, the new home of The Giants. In a strange coincidence, another Gray, Macy Gray was opening for Matthews, who is also named Dave. Both of David Gray’s shows were sold out and they had a pretty nice poster for us at the end of the show too. We were fortunate that The Warfield got two nights of this, being the only other venue on his 33 date tour with back to back shows apart from Seattle. David was busy in 2001, having just finished a European tour briefly earlier that year which had been delayed briefly due to a family illness. 

The crowd went nuts both nights for Nelly, but I only recorded all of her set the first night, getting just two songs from the second, “Turn Out The Light” and “Shit On The Radio (Remember The Days)”. In hindsight, that was a mistake, especially since these shows were the last time I saw either act. I liked the way she opened up the first day with a cover of Missy Elliot’s “Get Ur Freak On”. I know I worked all night on the second day because I had an usher badge, but I can’t remember if I did on the first. Either way, the crowd was pretty easy to wrangle, even for sold out shows. David came out on stage to the sound of Bob Marley’s “Rovers Of Babylon” coming through the speakers, perhaps a nod to Dave’s hit song “Babylon”. He was a handsome young man and of coarse that accent of his made all the girls melt. Before he did “Real Love”, he asked them “Are there any girls here tonight?” Of coarse their screams rang out like they were seeing The Beatles. A little taken aback, he joked, “Not frightened girls, just girls… Thought so.”

He mentioned that they filmed the music video for “Babylon” at The Fillmore last time he was in town and when the audience cheered, he said, “You sound like you were all there.” I was actually quite moved when he quieted things down later, playing “This Year’s Love” solo on a grand piano. Seriously, it’s a very beautiful song. But he brought us back up again with “Flame Turns Blue” joking before it, telling us about the bus driver from their last tour who was a “complete fuckin’ psycho” who “abandoned us in the middle of nowhere.” They did a cover both nights of “Say Hello Wave Goodbye” by Soft Cell and on the first night before it he sighed, “The road has taken its toll on my delicate voice. Some songs are like nicking around the corner to get a packet of fags, but this one is like walking five miles, getting on a ferry, and climbing up a mountain to buy a fuckin’ bag of crisps.” I was particularly impressed by songs like “Late Night Radio” and Dave’s singing of a few lines from “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin during “All The Love”. It was ambitious to try to go toe to toe with Robert Plant on vocals, but he did alright. 

On the second night, he introduced “Babylon” saying “It was a day like any other. I picked over the scattered bones of my career. Suddenly, a small pigeon alighted on a branch near me and whistled me this tune.” Later, he once again expressed his fatigue groaning softly, “Well… It’s been a long, long tour” and then one of the band members agreed, “Yeah, still is.” He went on, “We’re approaching the end of it. Inside these bodies, it’s just like strange… melted… substance” and then they did “We’re Not Right”. I was able to find good bootleg copies of both nights on archive.org, but they only had about two thirds of the second night, ending on “Please Forgive Me”. Thankfully, I have both of David’s sets in their entirety. I’m glad I went to both days and though like I said, these shows were the last time I saw both of them, though they are still alive and kicking, making music to this day.

Dave Matthews Band, Macy Gray, Angelique Kidjo, Pac Bell Park, SF, Sat., May 19

SETLISTS :

(MACY GRAY) : Caligula, Why Didn’t You Call Me, Do Something, Sex-o-matic Venus Freak, Gimme All Your Lovin’ Or I’ll Kill You, I’ve Committed Murder, I Can’t Wait To Meetchu, I Try

(DAVE MATTHEWS BAND) : What Would You Say, Granny, Don’t Drink The Water, When The World Ends, I Did It, Recently, Digging A Ditch, Lie In Our Graves, The Space Between, What You Are, So Much To Say, Anyone Seen The Bridge, Too Much, If I Had It All, JTR, Angel, Tripping Billies, Stay (Wasting Time), (encore), Two Step

Conflicts between my professional and personal lives have often played out around concerts and this blog is filled with examples of them, but this night was a doozy. For starters, I had already been charged by my union to help put this Dave Matthews Band show at the ballpark together, the first concert or rather first two back to back concerts at the then named Pac Bell Park. But shortly after I accepted the call for this job, I was informed by my landlord that I would have to be temporarily moved out of my studio apartment in the Tenderloin on the morning of the second show. You see, they were doing much needed earthquake retrofitting in my ancient building and I needed to move into the studio directly one floor below me for a couple weeks while they did their work upstairs in my place. So, the timing was tricky, but I knew with the proper preparation that I could pull it off.

So, the day before on Friday I was able to load in the gear for the show aided by an army of fellow stagehands as all stadium shows have and still have time to make it to The Fillmore to see a very disappointing show of Badly Drawn Boy at The Fillmore. The less said about that show the better, but if you want to hear the gruesome details of that one, feel free to check out the previous entry. Anyway, I would wake up bright and early the following morning and joined the handful of movers the landlords sent over to help take my stuff downstairs. Having a few days notice, I was able to police up my gear and have it ready to move, so with a little elbow grease, we were able to get it done in a couple of hours. From there, I hightailed it back down to the ballpark, got in with my work pass to watch and record the show, and then rejoined my union crew at the end to dismantle it. Easier said than done and rest assured I was a bit limp by the end of it all, but I pulled it off.

Like I said, this would be the first public concerts held at this brand spanking new ballpark, the new home for The Giants, who would no longer have to share the field of Candlestick anymore with the 49ers. That stadium would ultimately get demolished in 2015 and the Niners would relocate (shamefully) to Levi’s stadium waaaaay down in Santa Clara. I still haven’t been to that one and have heard only nightmare stories about the commute in and out of it as well as how hilariously expensive it is to see anything there. No thank you. But I’m happy to report that Pac Bell Park was quite a pleasant experience and I’ve enjoyed shows there ever since, either as a stagehand or a patron. Pac Bell Park is easy to get to by public transit, the construction was well thought out for getting events set up and taken out smoothly, and its modest size makes it just large enough to get the big tours, but small enough that even in the very back of the top deck, the sight lines are still good. 

But finally to the show at hand. I was no stranger to Dave Matthews by then having seen him fours times, twice at The Warfield and twice at the Bridge School Benefit. And though I wasn’t the biggest fan, I wasn’t entirely surprised that he would fill those two ballpark shows to the brim. He was BIG by 2001, but although both shows were sold out at $50 a ticket (a lot back then), there were tons of extras floating around out front before the show and the scalpers took a bath of these ones. Dave had just released his fourth studio album, “Everyday” that February and it was another hit, certifying triple platinum and becoming his second number one album in the U.S. He was at the top of his game then for sure. 

In addition to that, unreleased songs from the recording of that album had been floating around Napster called “The Lillywhite Sessions”, named after Steve Lillywhite, the album’s producer. Though never officially released, many of the songs were recorded again and released on his next album, “Busted Stuff”. I got to hear a couple ones from those sessions that night, “Diggin’ A Ditch” and “JTR”. And if that wasn’t enough, he put out a couple live albums that year too, “Live In Chicago 12.19.98” and “Live At Folsom Field, Boulder, Colorado”. The latter would be taped that July and because the show went 15 minutes over curfew, Dave and the band were charged $15,000, a grand a minute. Apparently, the folks who ran that stadium were so butthurt by it, they didn’t have any concerts there again until 2016 when they finally allowed Dead & Co. to do a couple shows. Sheesh…

Despite my lukewarm opinion about Dave, one thing I appreciate about him is that he always had excellent choices for his opening acts including many acts of color. That night he had Angelique Kidjo and Macy Gray warming up for him. Other venerable acts he’d have tour would be Jimmy Cliff, Robert Randolph, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, NERD, and Ozomatli to name a few. I was especially glad to see Angelique there, having had recorded her at the Maritime Hall back in ’97 and was very impressed. As all first acts at a stadium show, she started to rather hollow venue, most folks just arriving there as she was wrapping her all too short set. But it being empty, I had no trouble getting down to the outfield area, covered in a modular, heavy duty plastic, flooring called Terraplast. These interlocking white squares a few feet wide on each side would protect the turf, but believe me, they are painful to put in place, very labor intensive. The infield was off limits and the new greenskeeper was understandably nervous and short tempered. 

Angelique startled everybody including myself with the first note she sang which rang out like a gunshot. That got their attention and to her credit, she kept it with her undeniable talent. Being from Benin, she mostly sang in her native tongue, so I was only able to make out a couple songs in her set, “Okan Bale” and her last one, “Tumba”. She won over the crowd with the little time she had and I was glad I could see her not once but twice the following year, both times at The Fillmore. This would be the first time I’d see Macy Gray and it was hard not to love her. There was something intoxicating about her raspy, almost drunken voice and her songs were brilliant. I liked how she riled up the crowd before “Do Something” shouting, “All the ugly people keep quiet!!!” Her band was tight and did a couple funny riffs of the TV themes from “Sanford & Son” and “I Dream Of Genie” before they began “I’ve Committed Murder” and also a few bars of “No Woman No Cry” at the very end of their set. I just found out too that Macy had done the voice for Seeiah Owens, a snowboarder in the video game “SSX Tricky” which I dedicated untold hours to mastering. Thankfully, like Angelique, I would also see her headline at The Fillmore as well as enjoy watching her open for David Bowie at the Shark Tank in San Jose in 2003.

It was quite a different set for Dave from the previous night which I missed but Dave had a couple surprise guests each show. The night before the one and only Carlos Santana himself came out for three songs including a cover of “All Along The Watchtower”. Frankly, I was a little jealous. But we got Trey Anastasio from Phish who came up and joined the band for a 17 minute long version of “Lie In Our Graves”. Dave played an acoustic guitar all night and the crowd was pretty well behaved, though I did overhear someone on the tape telling a guy to “get off the chair, please”. I was able to stick around until “If I Had It All” before I had to regroup with my fellow stagehands backstage, waiting to take the whole thing apart. The load out went pretty fast and I limped on home, totally exhausted from that marathon of a day and conked out on my bed, freshly brought down one flight of stairs that morning in my new, though temporary studio apartment. 

In the aftermath of that show, the good people of San Francisco soon learned that the sound from the ballpark easily made it all the way out to Bernal Heights, much to the dismay of the affluent NIMBYs that reside there. Oh boo hoo. They have to hear bands like the Rolling Stones for free through their windows until 11 PM. Which reminds me, one of the good things about the new ballpark is that there were fences along the field level where you can get a partially obstructed view of the field from outside. So, to those who were shit of luck for whatever reason could still catch a distant glimpse outside for free. The park would change names a few times since, going from SBC Park in 2004, to AT&T Park the following year, to finally Oracle Park in 2019. As much as I despise most corporate named stadiums, I do have to admit, I liked the way Pac Bell Park sounded. It’s a pity they changed it. 

Badly Drawn Boy, Fill., SF, Fri., May 18

SETLIST : Rocky & Jesus Christ Superstar Intros, Fall In A River, Camping Next To The Water, Once Around The Block, Everybody’s Stalking, Shake The Rollercoaster, The Star Spangled Banner – My Country Tis Of Thee, Outside Is A Light, Another Pearl, Distant Town, Bottle Of Tears, Road Movie

Like vacations, one may not always remember all the good concerts, but nobody ever forgets the bad ones as is the case, you guessed it, with Mr. Damon Gough AKA Badly Drawn Boy. This was the first of two sold out nights with the mysterious singer songwriter from the U.K. and anticipation (as well as the hype) was high. He had only performed once before at Bimbo’s and had just been awarded the Mercury Music Prize back home for his new album. He had not-so-humbly accepted that award saying, “I always assumed I was never going to win because good thins don’t happen to good people.” Though a few EPs had been released of his stuff in the previous few years, he had just put out his first LP, “The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast” the previous June. Incidentally, he clearly got that “beast’s” name from the Monty Python “Confuse-A-Cat” sketch.  He had a hit with his music video of “Spitting In The Wind”, (cleaned up from “Pissing In The Wind” as it is titled on the album), which featured strangely enough the famous English actor Dame Joan Collins from primetime TV soap opera “Dynasty”. 

His stage name, he got from an English TV kids show called, “Sam & His Magic Ball”. Speaking of entertainment for the young people, the animated film comedy “Shrek” came out that day too and speaking of ridiculous fairy tales involving repulsive ogres, Silvio Berlusconi had just been re-elected as Prime Minister of Italy the week before this, despite having been forced to resign in disgrace only six years earlier. Anyway, speaking of disgrace… back to the show. Even though it was “an evening with” show with no opener, Badly Drawn Boy was still 45 minutes late getting on stage, not a good start. Then, we had to wait through a long introduction first with the theme of “Rocky” blasting over the speakers. Coincidentally, the band Grand Theft Audio who had just opened for Gary Numan on that very same stage two weeks before this had also used that theme as their intro music. But we’d have to wait even further listening to an additional intro of a recording of the bellringer portion of “Jesus Christ Superstar”. 

So, seven minutes later, he, donning a “Canadian Tuxedo” and a wool cap just above his eyes, and the band finally took the stage, opening the set with “Fall In The River”. Everybody in earshot instantly became annoyed to the point of torture by his screeching guitar sound. Granted, English artists were notorious for being deaf as posts, consequently making them play loud as holy hell, but it was if he tuned his axe like he was trying to fuck with us. Seriously, this was one of the few bootlegs I would listen to where I would actually have to turn it down to make listening to it tolerable. Usually, I would have to crack it all the way up to maximum volume just to make it audible, particularly the acoustic shows. His horrifying sonic assault continued with the second song, “Camping By The Water”, which he dedicated to all those who had attended that first show at Bimbo’s. That was followed by “Once Around The Block” where that fingernails scratching across the chalkboard guitar sound would be front and center with him singing solo, frustratingly stopping and starting riffs between and in the middle of his verses. 

Now him being a “sight unseen” show to me, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, especially considering all the hype that had been raised over these shows, but after a few of these songs, my friends and I were beginning to get that “What Just Happened?” look on our faces. I had even offered to rip one of my earplugs in half and give it to my friend Matt, suffering under the unendurable din. He declined, but you can hear mentioning Lemmy from Motorhead, another English musician who’s deaf as a post and also plays notoriously loud adding superfluously, ‘Know what I mean, jellybean?” The annoyance was taken up another level when he had the audacity to play “The Star Spangled Banner” solo on his guitar. Now anyone with half a brain knows to never even think of attempting that on guitar after Hendrix did it at Woodstock, especially at the hippie holy site of The Fillmore. 

It seemed to go on for eternity morphing into “My Country Tis Of Thee”, though he being English was probably done as the “God Save The Queen” version. We at least got a break from that banshee of a guitar of his for the next song, “Outside Is A Light” which he did solo on a keyboard. Such a relief. it felt as if someone had been twisting a knife deep into our ear canals and finally relented. During that brief respite, I heard my friend and fellow usher Carol ask me, “Is that you in the dark?” and she offered me her extra drink tickets. She’s such a sweetie. I had already drank my beers from the two drink tickets I had, but offered them to my friends, warning them that the bar next to the front of house soundboard was out of beer and to go to the other bar. 

By the time Badly Drawn Boy was playing “Distant Town”, my friends and I were already at the point where we began to heckle him. You can hear me singing “Feel My Heat” and “You Got The Touch” from the film “Boogie Nights” after that song comparing Badly Drawn Boy to the character Dirk Diggler’s obliviously grating lack of musical talent. You can also hear me talking to my friends about DMC from the rap titans Run DMC who I had recorded at the Maritime in ’97 and how he was having vocal trouble that night. I would learn later that at least DMC had an excuse, suffering from a vocal disorder called spasmodic dysphonia at the time. Badly Drawn Boy had no such pass to let him off the hook for this disaster of a show.

Which ultimately led my friends and I to leave the show early, something I would never do, even during a show I hated. That’s how bad we thought the night was going. I didn’t even care that I wouldn’t be getting the extra poster which I would pick up on my way out after the very end of the encore in addition to the one I received as my work as an usher. And it was a good thing I left when I did, because this boring disaster went on for nearly another two hours. The setlist above contains only the songs I made it through before I threw in the towel. I would understandably never see Badly Drawn Boy again, though his career continued with considerably less hype and drastically less commercial success as the years went on. But he will always remain in my memory, setting a new standard of which one measures a bad musical performance. Shuggie Otis would come close, playing The Fillmore a couple months later, but he was just unprepared and sloppy, not nearly as irritating or arrogant as Badly Drawn Boy. His failure that night was only amplified in comparison to the stellar, humble, and (most importantly) professional performance I saw of Tony Bennett only four nights before this at the Civic Center. It’s that attitude and work ethic which is why Tony is lovingly revered to this day and Badly Drawn Boy is not. 

Tony Bennett, BG Civic, SF, Sat., May 12

SETLIST : All Of Me, Speak Low, I Got Rhythm, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, People, I Wanna Be Around, I Left My Heart In San Francisco, Steppin’ Out With My Baby, A Foggy Day, You’re All The World To Me, Old Devil Moon, They Can’t Take That Away From Me, Caravan, Mood Indigo, It Don’t Mean In A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing), Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words), A Little Street Where Old Friends Meet, How Do You Keep The Music Playing?

As a San Franciscan, I took particular pride in finally being able to see Tony Bennett. His signature song “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” will echo throughout eternity as our fair city’s undisputed anthem. So, you can only imagine my surprise and delight when I received the call from my union hall to go down to the Civic Center to be an audio assist for this night. I had been taking calls with the union for over three years by then, but had never attempted to tape a show I was working. I wasn’t sure what kind of risk I was taking or if the Hall would even care, but it being Tony, I felt the urge to tape irresistible. The good news was that during the show, I was free to wander, so shortly after it started, I blended in with the audience and was able to record the whole thing.

This was a benefit for the ASCO Foundation, the American Society Of Clinical Oncologists, cancer doctors for all us laypeople out there. I would work their conventions several times in my career as a stagehand, but this would be the only time I’d be doing one of their parties. Clearly, as doctors they had the money to get Mr. Bennett and afford to book a venue as large as the Civic. They were even able to score Elton John for their convention in Chicago two years later and everybody knows that man doesn’t come cheap. I suppose this show was one of the upsides to our nation’s criminally unequal and hilariously unaffordable health care system. But like I said, this was a benefit, so these doctors at least had the common decency to find a way to give back some of their bloated income to help, or at the very least get a write off on their taxes and/or assuage their consciences. 

Tony had never stopped working in his already very long and illustrious career, but he had a BIG resurgence in the last few years before this show. He found an unexpected new found audience through MTV’s “Unplugged” series, releasing his album from it in 1994 which was such a surprise hit, it chalked up two Grammy Awards, one for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, the other stealing the show with Album Of The Year. It made him some serious money and catapulted him back into the limelight. By the time I’d see him, Tony had already had 9 Grammies under his belt and by the time he passed away, he’d have 20, not including the Lifetime Achievement Award he bagged that year. Tony also founded the Frank Sinatra School Of The Arts in Queens, New York that year, a high school with a focus on the performing arts.

As the title audio assist implies, I was just there to help set up the audio gear that night. Clearly, they wouldn’t let a squirt like me mix such a prestigious show. I helped get the front of house and monitor stations set up, run the mic snakes, push and store road boxes, etc. What made this set up memorable was two things, first being the grand piano. Few artists play live with a grand piano. For starters, you have to be an artist as rich as Tony to afford one and second because of the intense labor it requires to set it. The main body of the piano has to be raised up to the stage by a forklift, wrapped in packing blankets on its side. From there, the legs are attached and then VERY carefully tipped upright. I can’t tell you how terrifying a moment this one was for me. Firstly, this piano easily cost more than what I made in wages in a year, probably two years, and second, if it fell on me, I would die or at the very least whatever part the piano landed on me would be crushed into powder. Thankfully, we all breathed a sigh of relief as the piano was constructed safely as it was deconstructed safely at the end of the night. A grand piano also requires a professional to come in and painstakingly tune the thing, charging hundreds of dollars every time they do it.

The second unusual thing I had to take part in during that set up was putting the pianist’s monitor in place. Now most folks would simply put a wedge monitor on the floor, maybe on a small box to elevate it, next to the player or have the player near one of the larger side fills, but this was a horse of a different color. They had one of those tall, rectangular side fills hooked by its corners on rigging points and hoisted horizontally about ten feet in the air over the piano’s spot and angled diagonally downward. To this day, I have never seen this “sword of Damocles” set up as I like to call it. Thank God, those rigging points are as solid and dependable as they are, but either way Tony’s pianist is a brave man to play under one of those things. Like the piano itself, if one of those fell on you, especially from that height… well, you get the idea. 

And speaking of the pianist, Tony was joined on stage that night by Ralph Sharon, who has been his faithful man on the keys since waaaaaay back in 1958. Most bands don’t make it past ten years if they’re lucky, but these guys had already been together for over 40! Hailing from London, it was Ralph who first discovered the song “I Left My Heart In San Francisco”, at first disregarding it and putting its sheet music in a bureau for a year. But thankfully, he dug it up for a tour they would do together that included a stop in S.F. and they were initially just going to play it there in the Venetian Room of the Fairmont as a sort of novelty song. But it turned out to be a hit and the rest is history. Also joining them on stage would be venerable session players Clayton Cameron on drums and Gray Sargent on guitar.

Little could prepare me to hear the angelic voice of Mr. Bennett. Despite just being a few months shy of his 75th birthday, he sang each song with his unmistakable panache, charisma, and frankly sheer power. People don’t give him credit enough for that juggernaut of a voice of his, especially when he gives a song one of his big finishes, belting out the last word or line with a crescendo that would floor anyone with ears. And he brought the house down that way for many of his songs, starting with “People”, one of the early tunes that made Barbara Streisand big. In a miracle of coincidence, he opened his set with the standard “All Of Me”, a song which I had heard performed by NOFX at The Fillmore the week before. Where Tony and his band played it rather traditionally, let’s just say NOFX’s version was a little faster and louder and leave it at that. I doubt NOFX could have known Tony was playing in town the following week, it being a benefit and not advertised to the public, so that was a weird one.

Tony and the guys covered most of the classic material that they did for the “Unplugged” album, but he did some standards even the kids would know like “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, “Caravan”, and “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)”. Clayton did a brilliant drum solo for that last one as well as a shorter solo during “Steppin’ Out With My Baby”. He got “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” out of the way early in the set, but later on mentioned that because of that song, many people thought that he was from there. Tony corrected them, reminding us that he was actually from Queens, but dedicated “A Little Street Where Old Friends Meet” to all the “blue collar workers… the secretaries, teachers, bus drivers, writers, laborers”. He got a big round of applause when he mentioned that he had been doing this for 50 years and “if I get lucky, I’d love to sing for another 50 years”. 

Though Tony wasn’t able to do another 50, he managed to keep performing another 22, passing away last July, just ten days shy of his 97th birthday. I had actually finished wrapping up a gig at the Fairmont the day before he died and there isn’t a day that goes by when I work there ever where I don’t pass by the Venetian Room where he debuted his signature song or the statue of him on the lawn out front, where I don’t think of him. But in those 22 years, Tony didn’t slow down one iota, quickly going on tour later that fall with K.D. Lang and releasing a album of blues songs called “Playin’ With My Friends : Bennett Sings The Blues” that November, singing duets with K.D. as well as other greats such as Dianna Krall, Stevie Wonder, and Billy Joel. 

He’d gain further fame, fortune, and respect from the young people when he would make the unlikely alliance with Lady Gaga in 2014. Together, they would release their “Cheek To Cheek” album, which debuted number one on the Billboard charts and also won him a Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance. And if that wasn’t enough, that album would gain him the distinction in Guinness Book Of World Records as the oldest person to debut a newly recorded album at number one in the U.S. Tony would tour and perform with Lady Gaga for years, even up to the time of his death when he was suffering from a seven year battle with Alzheimer’s, but could still sing. I would be lucky enough to see him perform one more time three years later at the Bridge School Benefit, even doing a duet of “The Very Thought Of You” with Paul McCartney, for which I’m eternally grateful. He was one of those rare artists that once you’ve heard him, that voice stays with you forever and ever.  

The Disco Biscuits, Fill., SF, Fri., May 11

SETLIST : (Set 1) Nughuffer, Shelby Rose, Basis For A Day, Helicopters, Basis For A Day (reprise), Spectacle, (Set 2), Home Again, Magellan, Jigsaw Earth, Magellan (reprise), And The Ladies Were The Rest Of The Night, Little Lai, (encore), Spacebirdmatingcall, Munchkin Invasion

It had been almost six long years since Jerry Garcia had ascended to hippie heaven and though his fellow Grateful Dead alumni had regrouped in various musical efforts, many new jam bands were claiming ground in the genre. Sure there were guys like Phish and Widespread Panic who had been around for a while and now were attracting arena sized crowds during this hippie power vacuum, but there were also talented lower card entries new to the jam band scene like the Disco Biscuits. Recent California transplants hailing originally from Philadelphia, they had been making music since ’95 and had just released their third studio album, “They Missed The Perfume” a month before this show. This would also be the first time they would be performing at The Fillmore. 

It was “an evening with” show, so no opener and I had to work through the first set into the beginning of the second one. Being a jam band, they had a group of folks in the taping section blocked off by the front of house soundboard where I always ushered. Having them around ensured that the folks would shut up and listen to the music, not to mention that their bootlegs are totally superior to mine. I found a good one on archive.org again, clear as crystal. When they came out on stage, one of them mentioned that it was the last night of their tour and the first time they were at The Fillmore, though he incorrectly called it the Fillmore West, an entirely different venue, but a common mistake to make. They thanked the staff and their tour crew before beginning with “Nughuffer”, a song whose lyrics are mostly comprised of the song title and “I want to go”. Indeed, I actually appreciated that they didn’t sing much during their songs, being mostly an instrumental band. That’s probably why I like Sound Tribe Sector Nine more than any of them who don’t sing at all. 

Still, it was nice that people chilled out and paid attention to their music and these guys were impressive musicians with a wide variety of musical tastes, everything from reggae to electronica. They seemed like really nice guys too. One of them before they started their second set said, “I was sitting out by the pool earlier today. It was a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful day. It was sunny as hell in California and I thought to myself, this is the first time that we’re ending our tour in California. And it’s the first time when we end tour in California, we don’t go anywhere else. This is where we live now. We live in California. We are a California band, the Disco Biscuits are! And I was sitting there by the pool and I was looking up and there was a palm tree. The sun was beating down on my face and I was thinking to myself, Good Lord, it’s so great to live in California! It’s just so great to live in California. It’s so great to be ‘Home Again’”. And then they played the song of that title. 

Sure, I am by no stretch of the imagination a jam band fanatic, but I would impress on any detractors of their genre, that they have stamina at least. Guys like the Disco Biscuits go off in multi-song medleys that stretch well past a half an hour, we’re talking P-Funk long here. I liked what I was hearing, so I stuck around to the end. At the end of their second set, one of them said, “I like to thank The Fillmore for allowing us and our scene here to come on in for the night. Very, very, very honored of coarse. Probably the most honored I’d ever be being that this room is the most historic room in the country. So thanks to them for giving us a chance to bring it in” and then they began their encore with “Little Lai”. They came back on stage for their encore and thanked The Fillmore for having them again, thanked “the crew, Pauly Shore” and somebody called “Footboy”. Somebody in the crowd shouted, “Lobsterfari!” and one of toasted, “To a great tour and many more”. They would return to The Fillmore just six months later, but this sadly is the only time I would see them, though they are still together to this day.  

Incredibly Strange Wrestling: NOFX, The Oozzies, Bottles & Skulls, Fill., SF, Sat., May 5

SETLISTS :

(THE OOZZIES) : Same Old Story, Forget About It, Beat On The Brat, Red White & You, Swingin’ For The Fences, (unknown)

(NOFX) : Fuck The Kids, What’s The Matter With Parents Today?, Shower Days, (unknown), New Happy Birthday Song?, Perfect Government, (unknown), All Of Me, (unknown), (unknown), (unknown), Murder The Government, The Brews

My beloved wife spotted the discs for this show on my computer table the other day and asked me in her customary, half serious accusatory tone if this was “perverted”. Without missing a beat, I replied yes and emphasized that it was VERY perverted, doing my best to briefly explain this spectacle as I will attempt to do with y’all now. This wouldn’t be the first time I’d witness this bizarre, punk rock circus of pain. Two years before this, they were there with The Dickies, the first time ISW would be at The Fillmore, so its reputation had preceded it. Lucha Libre wrestling and west coast punk bands were truly a winning combination if not a marriage made in heaven. This show in fact would also serve as a celebration of ISW’s 6th anniversary and the beginning of a two month tour for them. And thanks to their noble efforts, punk bands from all over the state and elsewhere were gladly lining up to take part and on this night, so we were lucky to have secured NOFX as the headliner. 

Having been doing gigs for nearly two decades by this time, NOFX had been a reliable workhorse in the bay area punk rock scene, though I confess this would be the first time I’d be seeing them play. Their frontman Fat Mike had long since founded his record label Fat Wreck Chords in 1990 mentoring and producing work for a veritable who’s who in the west coast punk scene ranging from The Swinging Udders, to Rancid, No Use For A Name, Tilt, and The (aforementioned) Dickies just to name a few. Though the label released most of NOFX’s stuff, they had just finished their final album on Epitaph the previous June called “Pump Up The Valuum”. They as you might of guessed had to alter the name as to not incur a lawsuit from the makers of that notorious pill.

They had once again constructed the wrestling ring smack dab in the middle of the dance floor of The Fillmore and before the action began, the first opening band of the evening had their short set on the main stage. Bottles & Skulls as they were called were painfully loud and despite the singer’s best efforts, no one could make out a single syllable of whatever he was screaming and yelping through his set. Having the ring in the middle of the floor also insured that it was practically impossible to form a mosh pit of any notable size. But just as well, since the place was about to become a godforsaken mess without one anyway.

If you haven’t read my previous entry about ISW, let me mention one of their more memorable traditions. God knows how it started or what genius thought it would be a good idea, but it was customary to throw taco sized tortillas around like frisbees throughout the proceedings. Granted, as a patron, it was entertaining to fling them around all night. In fact, I admit that I once again embraced the sadistic pleasure of getting one or two embedded in the Fillmore’s chandeliers. Sadistic, because I knew full well that the house crew would have to fish them out eventually, not to mention clean up the revolting mess that the other tortillas would wrought on that poor abused venue. I knew many of that crew and cringe now at the very thought of what they faced at the end of the show. By then, many of the tortillas had been ripped, stepped on, and generally pulverized into floury shards that found their way into every nook and cranny of the place. 

Of coarse, the performers undoubtably resented getting pelted by the low carb discs all night as well. Sure, the wrestlers were expecting it, but the punks were understandably peeved. Trying to play that music, especially at the speed they play is challenging enough without being assaulted by these things and a few made their displeasure known as the night went on which I’ll get to later. The first matches took place during the set break before The Oozzies. Our emcee for the night was Count Dante, a big bear of a man who always wore silk kimonos and did some wrestling himself before for this, and his sidekick Alan Bolte. The Count announced in his deep, theatrical voice, “Are you ready for hot man on man action!?! Are you ready for Incredibly Strange Wrestling!?!” He reminded everybody that they should only throw tortillas and “don’t throw your girlfriends in the ring”.

The night was coincidentally timed to be on the same night as Cinco De Mayo and they took the occasion to have a Quinceanera for the wrestler El Homo Loco who the Count described as a “delicate flower”, but a “savage beast when provoked”, and that “after this ceremony, somebody’s going to be a woman… There’s a new homo in town and he’ll not be ignored!” El Homo Loco was flanked by his “beautiful dyke ring girls” who despite being charged with protecting him, would often become distracted while making out with each other. I’ve included a couple pictures as usual in this entry, so I advise you take a look since as they say a picture is worth a thousand words. To try to describe this pink tutu wearing athlete adequately seems daunting right now. Thank you for your understanding. Following his match, The Poontangler was up next, sporting her enormous, bright pink merkin in her crotch which she used to suffocate her opponent and claim victory that night. Then there was El Macho Sasquatcho, a missing link from the “Pacific Northwest” who did battle with 69 Degrees, a Scientologist boy band with members such as Dancin’ Joey and Bad Boy Corey. Clearly, the crowd was on the side of Sasquatcho. 

The second opener that night after the first set of matches was The Oozzies, a local band comprised of ex-members of Samiam and Fang. They too were loud as fuck, though I could make out most of their lyrics and could decipher all the song titles of their set except for the last one. I appreciated that they did a respectful cover of “Beat On The Brat” by The Ramones. The singer introduced it, “This one goes out to Joey”, paying tribute to that seminal punk band’s singer who had just passed away from lymph cancer 3 weeks before this show. He lightened the mood later asking if anybody in the crowd wanted to wrestle, boasting, “Back in ’68, I used to wrestle alligators!” No one took him up on his offer, though there was more wrestling from the professionals to follow.

The batteries in my tape deck were starting to run out of juice by the time the next wrestling match started, so it was actually kind of humorous to hear Count Dante’s breathless intense commentary gradually speed up faster and faster like he was breathing helium or something. I replaced the batteries and didn’t lose much. Entering the ring to the tune of “YMCA” by the Village People, El Homo Loco would go on to be victorious in his bout with Ms. Sugar Shack. The following match had a pompous Frenchman called L’Emperor taunt the crowd about Cinco De Mayo claiming that “Mexico would have been better off if the French won! Vive La France!” Clearly he was the villain of the match against his opponent, the Mexican Viking.

NOFX stormed on stage and promptly warned the crowd “Don’t throw tortillas!… Unless you have some carne asada… When I go to a club, I don’t want a fuckin’ apple! Don’t get in the ring while we’re playing!” Then Fat Mike complained about his drink that got some tortilla bits in it, “I got a new drink! No tortilla in my drink. I hate unsalted tortillas. Taste like shit!… I dedicate this to anyone under 21” and then they opened their set with “Fuck The Kids”. Afterwards, guitarist Eric Melvin joked with the other guitarist, El Hefe, that next song was about Fat Mike’s mom. Eric went on to tell us that he had “visited my mom the other day, sitting in a chair, her legs uncrossed, just like ‘Basic Instinct’. I saw my mom’s crotch and my wife went like, ‘I can’t believe you saw your mom’s crotch’” Then he turned to Mike and said, “You’re mom’s fat and Jewish too!” and continued the set appropriately enough with “What’s The Matter With Parents Today?”, one of their new tunes.

A few songs later, Mike mentioned, “We just got back from Japan on Monday.” Then somebody in the crowd said “Fuck Japan!” and he countered, “Fuck Japan?… These guys hate everything… I got Misfits cufflinks in Japan!. I bought magic mushrooms with my Visa card in Japan!” Some of the songs in the second half of the set, I couldn’t figure out the titles, but one song I was surprised to hear that I knew was “All Of Me”. They said it was a Billy Holliday song, but lots of people sang it, all the way back to the vaudeville days. I knew it like most people my age from the 1984 film comedy of the same name with Steve Martin & Lily Tomlin. But rest assured, NOFX’s version was quite different, all punk. One of the guitarists busted out a trumpet for an instrumental song near the end of the set, but pleaded to the crowd once again, “Don’t throw tortillas. It’ll fuck me up.”

Before they wrapped up, one of them clumsily sang a little bit of the chorus from “I’ll Stop The World & Melt With You” by Modern English. Fat Mike took us all aback a touch when he said, “We have no business playing The Fillmore cus’ it’s not our kind of place. What I hate the most about this place is the curtains. You don’t need curtains that big. I don’t like the apples. I don’t like the hippies. I don’t like the posters everywhere.” Then another one complained, “$7.50 for a rum and coke!… Buy a CD so we can buy something to eat. Help El Hefe get his nationality change operation!” Of coarse $7.50 was a lot of money for a well drink back in 2001. Still, they did return to The Fillmore at least two more times, once in ’09, the other in ’12. Those shows got posters and this one sadly didn’t and remains the only time I’ve seen them live. But they’re still together and are touring in fact with Karina Henike, the singer from my brothers old band the Dance Hall Crashers. She sings back up and plays keys for them now amongst her many other musical projects. I would see Incredibly Strange Wrestling one more time at The Fillmore, that time with Fear headlining, but they stopped doing them around 2003. Still, it was fun while it lasted and there were some sights from those shows for better or for worse than I simply can’t unsee.  

Gary Numan, Gwenmars, Grand Theft Audio, Fill., SF, Fri., May 4

SETLISTS :

(GRAND THEFT AUDIO) : We Luv U, Stoopid Ass, Rock The House, As Good As It Gets, Death To The Infidels, Fight For Your Right To Party

(GWENMARS) : Venus, Neon Tom, Train Song, Radio Gun, Battery, She Hung The Moon, Strawberry Ice, Cosmic Dick, Come & Get It

(GARY NUMAN) : Pure, Films, Rip, Listen To My Voice, Cars, Dark, Down In The Park, Walking With Shadows, Metal, My Jesus, A Question Of Faith, I Can’t Breathe, (encore), Are ‘Friends’ Electric?, Remind Me To Smile, A Prayer For The Unborn

This would be the first and to this date only time I’d see Gary Numan perform, but he has the distinction of being the only artist who played The Fillmore of which I have a poster of a show I didn’t attend. My friend Drew gave me his poster from a show he had done there with Switchblade Symphony back in May of 1998 and though it is officially against my policy to possess posters of shows I wasn’t at, I accepted his gracious gift and still have it. So, I felt obliged to at least see Gary once in my life to mitigate this imbalance. I, and everybody else on Earth, was well aware of his hit single “Cars”, a song played to death during the early 80’s and one of the flagship music videos during MTV’s earliest days. I had recently recorded Fear Factory doing their techno-metal cover of it at the Maritime Hall, but I was finally able to hear the tune from the master himself at last. 

Not that it was Gary’s only good song and I would argue that “Down In The Park” is equally as enjoyable, a song I had first become familiar with after seeing him perform it in the 1981 concert compilation film, “Urgh! A Music War”. I also appreciated that the Foo Fighters did a brilliant cover of it for the “Songs In The Key Of X : Music From & Inspired By The X-Files” compilation album in 1996, one of the earliest covers the Fighters did. Incidentally, though Gary might have become famous for singing about cars, he had for years taken an affinity to a different kind of vehicle, airplanes. He had already joined the Air Training Corps back home as a teenager, but shortly after he hit it big with his debut solo record “The Pleasure Principle” in 1979, he got his pilot’s license and bought his first Cessna the next day. He even flew around the world in 1981, though he only was successful on his second attempt. He had been detained in India the first time around being suspected of smuggling and spying. I can’t say I entirely blame the Indians. Gary is a weird guy. 

Yes, Gary had been around for some time after making it big way back when. His real last name is Webb, but he picked up his stage name strangely enough from a listing for a plumber in the yellow pages. His use of white make up on his face was also another happy accident as it had been once applied to him during a performance he did on the UK’s “Top Of The Pops” in an effort to cover up his acne scarring. The look stuck. He had already been a pioneer in the field of dark electronic music for years, influencing later acts like Nine Inch Nails and their heavy industrial take on the genre was swinging back around to influence him as well. Gary had just put out his “Pure” album the previous November and it was laden with heavy guitar riffs and brutal industrial beats. He would release a “Tour Edition” of the album that year which included a poster, a bonus CD with a screensaver for your computer, live tracks recorded from a show he did at the Brixton Academy in London the previous October, and a couple remixes. This would be one of the shows he’d be doing on this limited  tour of only 16 dates, so I was lucky to catch him. 

Immediately dispelling my preconceived notions that the show would be exclusively keyboard and dare I say effeminate music, Gary and his openers’ music would prove downright ballsy, especially the first band, Grand Theft Audio, fellow Brits like Gary. They came on stage to the recording of the theme from “Rocky” blasting over the PA for starters and their frontman, Jay Butler, immediately started hamming it up with the crowd saying, “Hello… You’re awake at last” and making some comment about having the “hangover from Hell”. They started with the deceptively titled “We Luv U”, Jay belting out the lyrics, practically screaming them. And being a rock band from the UK, naturally, it was loud as fuck and remained so all night, another one I glad I wore earplugs for.

Jay pointed to the folks upstairs in the balcony and taunted, “What’s the fuckin’ deal with all you down here and like the aristocracy up there? Let’s start some gang warfare!” Later, he said, “I don’t give a shit if you thought we’re awful… Big shout out to Billy Idol”, then he sang a little of “White Wedding”, substituting the lyrics with, “Nice day for a… Fuckin’ wanker.” He continued, “Actually, fuck it. Just thinking about Billy Idol has pissed me off… 1-2-3… Wanker!” The crowd yelled “Wanker!” but it wasn’t loud enough for Jay who goaded them, “My mom swears worse than you! 1-2-3!… Wanker!” and then they played “As Good As It Gets”. Near the end of their set, he pointed out, “Gwenmars’ parents in the house… Then some other fuckin’ guy whose name I can’t remember. It’s Gary something” and then he sang a little bit of “Cars”.

Jay surprised us a bit introducing their last song, that they were going to “sing you a song you’re gonna know, so join in a little bit, so I can fuck off… go back to my dressing room… wank myself silly. How does that sound?… Are you ready in the balcony, you stockbroker scum?” And then they did heavy industrial cover of “Fight For Your Right To Party” by the Beastie Boys, which to this day I believe is the only time I’ve ever heard it played live by anybody. Even the Beastie Boys never played that song live. Jay clowned around a little changing the lyrics to, “…what’s that noise?… You’re just jealous, it’s the Backstreet Boys!” For such a short set, I admit Grand Theft Audio made an impression. Next up was Gwenmars from L.A. by way of Birmingham, (Alabama, not the UK), the only Americans on the bill, though they were quite Britpoppy. They even finished their set with “Come & Get It” by Badfinger, an extremely English song penned by Paul McCartney for the 1969 film comedy “The Magic Christian” with Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr. Ringo was buddies with Peter back then and he even wrote “Octopus’ Garden” while on a yacht with him in Sardinia, another funny story for another time.

Like the others, Gary’s set was extremely loud and though I only knew his music through those two aforementioned keyboard heavy songs, I was impressed by his new industrial strength stuff. He’s a thoughtful songwriter and I’m sorry I haven’t seen him since, especially since he had recently toured with Ministry, another notoriously heavy metal industrial band. I had a prior commitment and had to miss their show together at The Warfield last month. Anyway, I would return to The Fillmore the following night to see Incredibly Strange Wrestling with NOFX, a very, very different scene indeed. But I was glad that Gary’s show got a poster, a very classy, subdued one for the bombastic music we heard that night. 

Blink 182, The Alkaline Trio, No Motiv, War., SF, Tues., May 1

SETLISTS :

(THE ALKALINE TRIO) : My Friend Peter, Stupid Kid, Private Eye, Mr. Chainsaw, Radio, San Francisco

(BLINK 182) : Don’t Leave Me, Aliens Exist, (unknown), (unknown), What’s My Name Again?, The Rock Show, Adam’s Song, Peggy Sue, (unknown), Pathetic, Blow Job, First Date, Mutt, All The Small Things, (encore), When You Fucked Grandpa, Carousel, The Country Song, Dammit

Though Blink 182 had been around for a decade by this time, their meteoric rise to stardom really had just taken off within the last couple years of this show and this would be the first time I’d see them. The dour grunge scene of the 90’s was slowly making way for this new, more uplifting punk pop sound typified by bands like them, Jimmy Eat World, and Green Day. Hailing from way down south of our state in Poway, they originally called Blink, but had to change their name since, as you might have guessed, another band, an Irish techno one in fact, had already laid claim to the name. But the “182”? My immediate thought at the time as to the origin of that was from the 1985 action comedy “Turk 182” with Timothy Hutton, directed by Bob Clark, who also did “The Christmas Story” and “Porky’s”. It was kind of a dumb movie which is why you probably have never heard of it. 

Incidentally, Blink 182 played a funny cameo in teen comedy “American Pie” just two years before this show as a garage band watching that cringeworthy internet broadcast of Jason Biggs doing… I rather not say. Other theories of their famous moniker that have been floated including joke answers from bassist Mark Hoppus such as the number represents the amount of times Al Pacino said the F-word in “Scarface” to Mark’s ideal weight. But 182 was also the number of the ship that Mark’s grandfather served on when he was in the Marines. Finally, the last one I heard was that it represented the 18th and 2nd letters in the alphabet, being “R” and “B” which stood for Rancho Bernardo, the name of Mark’s rival high school growing up and “Blink” was also just a euphemism for the F-word. Put two and two together, but enough about the name.

It had been an exhausting weekend, having already seen Semisonic do an early show at The Fillmore that Saturday, immediately followed by a secret late show with Prince, then back to The Fillmore the next two nights for Iggy Pop and Fatboy Slim. After this show, I welcomed a well deserved rest. Like I said, Blink 182 had just gotten big, selling out The Warfield big, and they were on the cusp of releasing their next album, the hilariously titled “Take Off Your Pants & Jacket”, just six weeks after this show.  Following up their breakthrough smash hit “Enema Of The State” in 1999, it kept them on that steady direction upwards, certifying double platinum and achieving critical acclaim. It also had the distinction of being the first punk album to debut at number one on the Billboard charts. Mark had also just got married in 2000 and shortly afterwards, the band released a live album called “The Mark, Tom, & Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back!)”. Part of that live album was recorded at Bill Graham Civic Center in fact. They had also just been on “Mad TV” doing a sketch called “Leave It To Blink 182” and drummer Travis Barker (and his house) had been featured on “MTV Cribs”. 

The night was being sponsored by Honda and they actually had a brand new, shiny Honda Civic on display out front of the venue that was being held in part of a raffle and was to be awarded to some lucky fan at the end of the tour. I didn’t win it, but am currently the proud owner of a 2010 Honda Fit. The band got a little flack from this promotion from the usual lot of punk purist detractors who had already accused them of selling out for being too polished and radio friendly. But they argued that with the sponsorship, they were allowed to keep the ticket prices low and let’s face it, it wouldn’t be a punk show if it was expensive. They had just finished a tour of New Zealand and Australia and were just about to do two nights at the Hollywood Palladium where they would film concert footage for the music video of their new single, “The Rock Show”. Mark claimed to have written that song in only 10 minutes. 

The first band on that night was No Motiv, a scrappy young punk band also from down south in Oxnard. They were proud members of the so called “Nardcore” movement and their new album, “Diagram For Healing”, had just come out that very day as luck would have it. They were only on for a handful of songs, but they were loud as fuck. In fact, the entire night was deafening. After them, there was the Alkaline Trio originally from Chicago, introduced by a DJ from Live 105. They had actually been on Mark Park from Skankin’ Pickle’s label, Asian Man records, but Mike encouraged them to move up in the world and they were signed to Vagrant and just released “From Here To Infirmary” a month before this show. They too had a short set and mentioned that although they had just moved to Berkeley only three months before this, the last song of their set would be the “cleverly titled” “San Francisco”.  Their guitarist Matt Skiba would join Blink 182 briefly in 2015 when Tom left the band briefly and helped the band record two albums.

The sound was excruciatingly loud when Blink 182 took the stage and I was very glad I had earplugs. Just before I was cut during their second song, “Aliens Exist”, guitarist Tom DeLonge surprised me a little dedicating the song to “our good friend Nick. He’s a nine year old who dances in his underpants, people!” I got my drink and quickly joined the sweaty rabble on the dance floor. I was impressed how fast they played, especially Travis. Mark joked, “Anybody else fat and totally out of breath? You know what’s a turn off? A girl who’s eating raw meat and cheese.” Their wisecracks and banter came fast and furious, so it was hard to make out everything they were riffing, but I made out a bunch of it. Tom was having a little technical problems and Mark pointed at their guitar tech and “commanded thee to change the guitar… This is Larry. Give it up for Larry! How about a big amen for Larry!” The crowd responded, “Amen!”, had them yell it out again, and then continued, “I know this is San Francisco. There’s a lot of liberal people who might not believe in the amen. A lot of Democrats, right?” Tom quickly got in, “Only three of them are old enough to vote… Say fuck you, Mark!” Then the audience did so and went nuts as they began a breakneck version of, “What’s My Name Again?”

They followed it with “The Rock Show”, Tom pointed out their camera guy recording the show in the back saying, “His name’s Cheetah!… Just got a perm and he looks damn good, people! Cheetah hooked up with two girls in Australia at the same time. Speaking of clap, he hooked up with two girls in Australia! Speaking of dog, he fucked a dog!” and then they played “Adam’s Song”. Afterwards, they thanked everybody for coming to the show and mentioned the car in the raffle, asking “Who wants it? We might just leave it though” and continued with their song “Peggy Sue”, (not the Buddy Holly one). Tom clowned around a bit asking if we “wanna hear Mark do a little rapping” and to his credit, he did dust off the first verse of “Bring The Noise” by Public Enemy. A couple songs later they said the next one was “about Iraq… This one’s about apartheid and how it fuckin’ sucks!” and then strangely enough, they played “Blow Job”, a song let’s say… err… wasn’t about those subjects. In fact, many of their songs were not exactly G-rated, though none of the teenagers in the mosh pit seemed offended by it or other such vulgar arias of theirs like “When You Fucked Grandpa” and “The Country Song”.

Anyway, near the end of their set, Tom groaned, “As you well know, we’re going to play two more songs and we’re going to act like it’s the end of our set, but it’s not. It’s called the encore… Say it with me” and everybody repeated, “Encore!” He continued, “We’re going to play two more songs whether or not you want us to. So you might as well stick around ‘cus there’s some crack dealers across the street.” And then they finished up their set with their hit single “All The Small Things”. True to their word, they returned and Tom mentioned that they were filming a video in L.A. the following day and encouraged everybody to come down and join them. Mark ranted manically, “I believe the children are our future! Teach them well and let them lead the way! Show them all the beauty the possess inside! Can I get a ‘shit yeah, motherfucker’!?!… Can I get a big ‘Tom looks like an infected donkey penis with an asshole attached to it’!?!… Can I get a ‘Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal’!?!”

They wrapped up their encore with “Dammit” and I was pleasantly surprised that they had a nice poster given out at the door and it was a Jimbo Phillips one as well. I would see Blink 182 perform one more time at Live 105’s B.F.D. at Shoreline just a mere six weeks later, but shortly afterwards, Tom would suffer a herniated disc in his back and the band would take a short hiatus. Travis also got married in 2001 but would quickly get divorced only nine months later. Branching out from music into fashion, Tom and Mark would found their Atticus Clothing label later that year as well as MacBeth Footwear in 2002. There was a little tension when Tom would poach Travis to form his side project, Boxcar Racer, without Mark, but Blink 182 would regroup in 2003 though. I would have the rare pleasure to see both Boxcar Racer, the only tour that band would do in 2002, and the Alkaline Trio in 2005, headlining their own shows on that very same stage, but those are other stories for a later time. 

Fatboy Slim, Scanty Sandwich, Darren Emerson, Fill., SF, Mon., April 30

Fatboy Slim was just starting to get really big when I first heard him opening for The Crystal Method at The Warfield in 1998. He had been haunted by the disaster at Woodstock the following year when he was playing a set in a dangerously overcrowded aircraft hanger and a stolen van interrupted his set driving though the crowd. Inside, it was being driven by a guy wielding a machete and an abused naked girl was in the back. Fatboy Slim’s set got cut off and the crowd revolted, throwing bottles, cups, and garbage everywhere and he was lucky to get out of that fiasco in one piece. Thankfully, his fortune would soon turn around upon the release of his third studio album, “Halfway Between The Gutter & The Stars” just five months before this show, a less successful but still worthy follow up to his blockbuster “You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby”. The new album title is a variation from a quote in Oscar Wilde’s “Lady Windermere’s Fan” which goes, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars”. He was also blessed with the birth of his son, Woody, that December with his wife, TV personality Zoe Ball, whom he had married the previous year. 

There also was a funny instance a month before this show when Fatboy Slim was DJing an afterparty in L.A. for The Oscars and had none other than Monty Python alumni and fellow Englishman John Cleese politely told him to pipe down. Yes, I can almost hear Basil Fawlty himself glibly saying to him, “I do understand what you’re trying to do here, boy, but nobody’s really dancing. If you turn the music down, at least we can talk.” Well, Mr. Cleese would soon eat his words upon the release of the world famous music video for “Weapon Of Choice” directed by Spike Jonze which came out just a week before this show. Anyone alive then undoubtably remembers it, the sight of Christopher Walken’s brilliant dancing and defying of gravity in the deserted lobby of the L.A. Marriott. Fatboy Slim would win the Grammy for Best Music Video for that one the following year.

So, it was good fortune that I would catch him performing at a venue as small as The Fillmore while he was still on the top of his game. It had been a ridiculously long weekend already for me, having seen three shows in a row at that very same venue starting with an early show with Semisonic on Saturday, followed by a surprise late show the same night with Prince, and then Iggy Pop on Sunday. It was a foregone conclusion that Fatboy Slim would play until the wee hours and to add onto all of that, I would be seeing Blink 182 at The Warfield the following night. But finally on to the show at hand. Thank you for your patience. Naturally, it was sold out and it was a safe bet that the crowd had already pre-gamed a substantial amount of substances.

Opening that night would be Darren Emerson, a respected English DJ and member of the EDM band Underworld. He got the crowd warmed up, slipping in a sample from the intro of the old TV show, “The Six Million Dollar Man”, you know, that whole bit about “we can rebuild him… make him bigger, stronger, faster” and so forth. Darren also played a sped up version of “Rapture” by Blondie, repeating the lyric “DJ’s spinning a set in my mind” over and over. He also spun a bit of “Music” by Madonna, a hit she had put out the previous August that everybody was flipping out over. Fatboy Slim would also sample it later in his set. Mr. Emerson was seamlessly relieved at the turntables by Scanty Sandwich, AKA Richard Marshall, another English DJ of renown and he continued the party until Fatboy Slim was ready. 

Now I like EDM as much as the next person, though I don’t claim to be a huge fan or by any means an expert on the subject. But Fatboy Slim is one of those artists who truly outshines the others in his genre, a real musician. His dense compositions were well thought out and never boring. I swear, I could listen to his stuff for hours on end. His samples were funny too. I liked one part when he repeated the sample, “Wack ass motherfuckerrrrrrrrs!”, rolling the R at the end like a machine gun. He also did a bit from Morpheus’ speech  in “The Matrix” repeating, “Take the blue pill… Take the red pill” and then “I’ll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes”. As predicted, the show went on late and the batteries in my recorder ran out, though I caught it in time to replace them, losing only one or two songs. I still ran out of tape though, having it cut out near the end of his set during “Star 69”, ending it with the repeated sample of “What the fuck”.

But I had plenty of material already from that night and if there was any further proof required that I was enjoying Fatboy Slim, it was that I stuck around anyway to dance until the lights came on and it was over. By then, the crowd had thinned out to less than half of when it started. I believe my friend John was with me in the audience that night and we took a moment to talk to Fatboy Slim as he was cleaning up on stage, thanking him for the lovely time. He was polite and gracious, drenched in sweat but very approachable. I know John was learning to become a turntablist himself with his DJ rig at home, so obviously  meeting Fatboy Slim meant a lot to him. The memory of that night still puts a smile on my face, one of those shows that felt more like a party than a concert. They had an excellent poster at the end of the night as well to mark the occasion, which was good since this was the last time I would see him perform. 

Iggy Pop, Kung Fu USA, The Clap Band, Fill., SF, Sun., April 29

SETLIST : Mask, Espanol, Beat Em’ Up, Raw Power, Search & Destroy, Howl, Corruption, Real Wild One, I Wanna Be Your Dog, Jerk, Homeboy, The Passenger, Lust For Life, I’ve Got A Right, Cold Metal, Death Trip, Down On The Street, No Fun, L.O.S.T., 1969

It had been exactly five years and four days since I had last laid eyes on the one and only Mr. James Newell Osterberg AKA Iggy Pop at The Warfield. Versed as I was in punk rock history up to then, I would eventually discover what an embarrassing philistine I was knowing only “Lust For Life” because of the movie “Trainspotting”. That Warfield show was captivating, but it wasn’t really until this night when I got to see him again, this time even closer at The Fillmore, that I truly began to appreciate his infinite talent, undeniable charisma, and priceless contribution to rock & roll. During those intervening years, Iggy kept busy touring, releasing his “Avenue B” album in 1999, and strangely enough, playing a small part in an episode of “Star Trek : Deep Space 9”. I probably saw that episode and didn’t even realize it was him since he had been playing an alien and was under an impressive make up and costume disguise. And though I have seen Iggy perform a number of times since this show, I still think this was my favorite of all of them.

Not that I was in any shape whatsoever to get through that show. I had in fact been up all night the previous evening having witnessed a double bill at The Fillmore already, starting with Semisonic and ending with a surprise secret concert with Prince! Yes, THAT Prince. The doors didn’t open for his show until 2 AM, he didn’t get on stage until 3ish, and by the time it was all over, I barely made it home and got into bed before the sun came up again. On top of all that, I would return once again to The Fillmore the following night for a very long evening with Fatboy Slim and lastly, Blink 182 at The Warfield the night after that one. Thank God I was still a mere 29 years old then and had the endurance for such things. I certainly wasn’t in Iggy Pop shape. The old man had just celebrated his 54th birthday the week before this and he was as always displaying his chiseled, shirtless physique in all its glory.

Iggy was just about six weeks shy of releasing his 13th studio album, “Beat Em’ Up”, and we got to hear five of his new songs that night. The new album wasn’t his best work, but he covered a lot of material from his extensive career, including some golden oldies from his days with The Stooges. He was backed up that night by an excellent group of musicians who on their own were known as The Trolls, led by guitarist Whitey Kirst and his brother Alex on drums. Sadly, their bassist Lloyd “Mooseman” Roberts, who had also played bass with Body Count, had just been killed in a drive-by shooting two months before this at the all too young age of 38. Poor guy wasn’t even the intended target. He had just finished helping Iggy record the new album too. I’m not sure who it was that replaced him in the band, but the fellow was good. 

I’m so glad that I was making a point to record the musical acts up in the poster room between acts on the main stage particularly that night because I got to witness a few songs from The Clap Band. As their name suggests, they were an a cappella act, just two guys actually, that frantically clapped along to their, shall we say, unique lyrics. Their first song, simply titled “Not My Notebook”, consisted only of the two lines, “This is not your notebook! This notebook is most definitely mine!” They really slowed down and drew out that last line at the end of the song. The next one was titled “Leroy” which was the only word uttered during that song. But the big finale was without a doubt, “Autoasphyxiation Masturbation”. One of the two would sing the title and the other would respond, “Sweeping the nation!… It’s a sensation!… It’s making me crazy!” Near the end of the tune, one of them sang, “First you get a rope and then you do that thing I’ve been singing about for the last minute or two. You take it then you go to town, but don’t go too far ‘cus if you see that bright, white light, you ain’t comin’ back no more!” Yes, The Clap Band was truly inspiring, though this would be the only time I would see them do their “thing”. 

The opener on the main stage downstairs, Kung Fu USA, I had seen before, in that very same venue just six months prior opening for The Cramps on Halloween. I would see them again once again at The Fillmore opening for The Ataris in 2003, the first and one of the thankfully very few shows I actually got caught recording. I lucked out and they only took the tape I had in the deck at the time when I was watching The Juliana Theory, the final opening act of the night and was able to keep the other tapes containing the earlier acts, including Attic Ted up in the poster room, another truly memorable and bizarre group of artists. Anyway, I wasn’t much of a fan of Kung Fu USA and only taped three of their songs that night. I, like everybody else, was there for Iggy.

He finally marched on stage, sporting a new goatee and quickly began his set with “Mask”, the first song off his new album. I will always have the vision of Iggy on stage lurching to one side etched in my brain, sort of leaning into his mic stand like a crutch, similar to the way Shane MacGowan did it, but not because he was wasted. Iggy had even by then been clean and sober for decades. However, I just learned recently that Iggy’s posture is due to his suffering from scoliosis and one of his legs is actually and inch and a half longer than the other. Still, it didn’t hinder him in the slightest from dancing around like a maniac, stage diving into the crowd numerous times, and even getting on top of the bass cabinet during “Real Wild One” and dry humping it missionary style. Iggy demanded they “turn on the house lights! Let me fuckin’ see you! If you don’t I’m gonna to jump, motherfucker! You don’t want me to jump again, do you?”, then pausing before smiling, “Charmed I’m sure… You’re a little fucked up. I’m a little fucked up.”

He transitioned from “Search & Destroy” right into “Howl”, deliriously howling at the top of his lungs in between. Later, he would have a little breakdown during the classic “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, drolly crooning, “Love… love… A funny little word… Some mornings I wake up and say to myself, ‘Man things are goin’ the right way. Things are changin’ and today there’ll be justice. There’ll be honest radio. There’ll be beauty in the government. Yeah, today’ll be a good day.’ But then there are those other days that I wake up and open my eyes and say to myself, ‘You fuckin’ idiot! You fuckin’ fool! There is no justice. There is no beauty in power. There is no hope for the straight.’ On those days, you keep goin’ and I say a little prayer.” And then Iggy continued the song with the lyric, “Now I’m ready to close my eyes…”

Iggy got a little silly again a few songs later during “Homeboy” when he pantomimed drinking tea, grinning devilishly. He covered a few more obligatory ones like the aforementioned “Lust For Life”, but also “The Passenger”, and dusted off a few more Stooges numbers like “I Got A Right”, “No Fun”, before ending the night with “1969”. I’m happy to say that there was a poster that night and a good one, a colorfully doctored up recreation of photo of Iggy performing at a show he did back in ’93. He’s sternly looking upwards crossing his wrists, his arms raised in front of him, a truly striking pose and consequently easy to spot up in the balcony amongst the rows of other posters. I wouldn’t have to wait as long to see Mr. Pop again this time, for he would return to town two years later playing along many others at one of Live 105’s Not-So-Silent Nights at the Civic Center, though granted I would be seeing him at a much farther distance that time. 

Semisonic, Pete Yorn, (Early Show), Fill., SF, Sat., April 28

SETLISTS

(PETE YORN) : Panic, Life On A Chain, Strange Condition, Black, Sense, For Nancy (Cos’ It Already Is), Closet, On Your Side, Dancing In The Dark, Murray

(SEMISONIC) : Singing In Your Sleep, Never You Mind, She’s Got My Number, Chemistry, One True Love, Secret Smile, Get A Grip, Who’s Stopping You, I Wish, Act Naturally, Bed, Delicious, Closing Time, (encore), All Worked Out, F. N. T., El Matador

Prince, (Late Show), Fill., SF, Sat., April 28

SETLIST : The Daisy Chain, Do Right Woman Do Right Man, Car Wash, Ain’t No Way, Joy In Repetition, Paisley Park, Jungle Strut, Batuke – Soul Sacrifice – Toussaint L’Overture – Oye Como Va, Come On, (encore), Alphabet St. 

In all my years bearing witness to these shows, there are a handful of anecdotes that stand out which I keep in my arsenal of go-to concert “war stories” and this night certainly counts as one of them, easily in the top three. The story I dust off from this night I will regale you with shortly, but first, let’s start from the top. I had signed up to see Semisonic at The Fillmore as a “sight unseen” show for me and consequently wasn’t particularly aroused and went in like most of the other nights I had ushered there, not expecting any surprises. Well, the surprise came and to all who had signed up for this rather mundane show, but it was a pleasant surprise to say the least. 

The news came discreetly enough as I was waiting for the doors to open and standing at my post by the front of house soundboard when I was approached by Tina, the head usher. She flatly announced that Prince, yes THAT Prince, was going to do a show on that same stage later that night and asked if I was interested in staying. Feeling like I’d been hit with a bucket of ice water, I paused a microsecond to process what I was hearing, though in hindsight, it felt like eternity. But I naturally said yes and then Tina nodded, strolled away, and left me there stunned, still digesting the news. 

I had never seen Prince, and sadly will never see him again since his untimely passing in 2016, but I always wanted to and now, not only would that wish be granted, but up close and personal at The Fillmore, a venue hilariously small compared to the Oakland Arena which he and The New Power Generation were performing at earlier that evening. To this day, I still can’t believe my luck. Up until then, I hadn’t to my utter shame made any effort to see Prince at one of his big shows. They were usually in Oakland and San Jose, so I wasn’t keen on making the journey much less ponying up the dough for the ticket. But I was also aware at the time that he had been making a habit of performing surprise late shows at clubs when he toured and had done one at Ruby Skye the previous December which my friends Liz and Christine were lucky enough to get into. But this would be the first time Prince would perform at The Fillmore ever, though he’d do other secret shows there in 2004, 2006, and 2014.

So, stunned as I was, I was understandably distracted and found it difficult to care less about Semisonic and their show. Indeed, one could find very little the two acts had in common, though by some miracle of coincidence, they both came from Minneapolis. I had recently wrote about seeing Vertical Horizon playing at The Warfield in which I went into depth about having to reconcile my feelings about bands that I don’t like, though they seemed like nice people and I’m afraid that was the case for Semisonic as well. Feel free to go back and read that earlier review for more elaboration, but to make a long story short, I found Semisonic boring, but inoffensive. They had produced a hit three years earlier with “Closing Time”, which earned them a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song, but their new album, “All About Chemistry” failed to generate much money or interest, so they broke up shortly after this show. They had a handful or reunions starting in 2017, but never toured again. Dan Wilson, the band’s lead singer and guitarist went on to become a successful producer working with such A-List acts as the Dixie Chicks, Pink, Jon Batiste, and Celine Dion. 

Though I have to admit, I was slightly more impressed with the opener, Pete Yorn, a brand new singer songwriter from New Jersey. He had just released his debut album, “Musicforthemorningafter”, and was already on his way up fast, quickly certifying gold. He had even scored the music for the Farrelly Brothers’ comedy, “Me, Myself,& Irene”, the year before. Six weeks after this show, he would record the album, “Live At The Roxy” in Los Angeles and to his credit, he and his band had clocked in 18 long months touring in support of that debut record of his. His original songs were catchy, I admit, but he also opened his set with a cover of “Panic” by The Smiths and would do “Dancing In The Dark” by Bruce Springsteen as well near the end of his set. 

Between acts, the band playing up in the poster room must have gotten word about the impending late show because they did a cover of Prince’s seminal hit, “Little Red Corvette”. One thing that the Semisonic show had that Prince’s didn’t was the camera crew recording them. The Fillmore had just begun participating with UPN 44/Cable 12 to produce their “Live! At The Fillmore” TV series, sponsored by Levi’s. They taped quite a few shows of these back during those years, but the show didn’t last long. I still appreciated their effort because they did it real professionally, like House Of Blues good. I wish the Maritime had that kind of budget. Many acts, certainly ones as big as Prince, that came through The Fillmore had record contracts that wouldn’t let them tape, but quite a few did and the more the merrier. 

So, I was let go from ushering for the first of two times that night, grabbed a beer and waited out Semisonic’s set. Like Vertical Horizon, I was jealously annoyed with them because they too were adored by all the young women. Dan got them to sing a little during “Secret Smile” asking them, “So you know the words to this one, right? Do your part.” Afterwards, he told a bit about the next song “Get A Grip”, a new one, saying that “a couple magazines in England called it a ‘wanking anthem’” which he found initially insulting, until he learned what wanking meant on that side of the pond and concluded they were correct in their declaring it that. A couple songs later, Dan gave a lengthy introduction to another song. He began by saying, “Imagine yourself in a bedroom… No, it’s not that kind of happy story. You’re sitting on the edge of a bed, nearby the number one love of your life is getting dressed, changing clothes, and that there’s been no… frolicking.”

The crowd booed a little but Dan continued, “I’m sorry, you still have to imagine it. Next to you on the bed… On the bed is a birthday present wrapped with care, chosen with great care for a best friend. It’s for a birthday party you were supposed to be at an hour ago, but you and your number one love of your life are having a big fucking fight and the present just sits there like a time bomb of love that won’t go off. Finally, after intense negotiations, the two of you work your way down, dressed and ready with the fucking present, get in the car… You drive in a Cold Warish silence to the party, but by the time you get to the party, this miraculous transformation has occurred and as the door swings open to your already drunken and stoned friends, the two of you have become the happiest couple in the world. After the party, they’ll be hall to pay… Serious rethinking about a lot of big life decisions, but for now, no one can tell, or at least I hope not. And that is just a little bit about what this next song’s about. It’s called ‘Act Naturally’”.

A couple songs later he joked, “Alright you Californians, temporary or permanent. I know the feeling. You got one thing to do this song, but it’s mandatory” and he had them sing “Ooo Ooo Ya Ya Ya Ya” for “Delicious”. They then finished their set with the obligatory “Closing Time” which as expected all the ladies sang along with, an ear worm of a song and I would go so far to call it a “singing in your hairbrush” one as well. Semisonic returned to play one more song for their encore and Dan introduced it saying, “The next thing we’re going to do, it’s a real quiet one. I’d appreciate it if you get it out of your system.” Everybody screamed. Funny, Yonder Mountain String Band did this same primal screaming exercise during their encore on that stage just two months before this. Anyway, after the scream, Dan laughed, “Somewhere high above, an alien surveillance team is worried about the people in this room. This next song is about a place about 40 miles away from Los Angeles, but it feels like it could be another planet, it’s so far away.” And then they finished their show with “El Matador” and that was the first and last time I would see Semisonic or Pete Yorn, yet they will always be immortalized in my memory for being inescapably linked to my memory of Prince. 

So, under strict orders to keep it quiet about the Prince show, the Semisonic crowd politely made their way out of the venue and the stagehands loaded out their gear. I suppose if word had gotten out, some of the patrons from their show might have tried to hide in the bathrooms or something to stick around. I know I would have tried. It was still around 11 PM by the time they had cleared out and I could cut the tension with a knife waiting for the Purple One to arrive. I was grateful that they gave Semisonic a poster for the night and it was one of those rare horizontal ones, though I had to hold onto it all the way through the next show. Obviously Prince infinitely deserved a poster more than them, but since it was a surprise show, it follows that there wasn’t any time to produce one. The usher stickers we were given had the band name “HRH”, which I might be an abbreviation for “His Royal Highness”… you know, for being Prince and all, rock & roll royalty for sure.

The tensions grew slowly but steadily as word got out in town that this show was happening and I watched from the poster room onto the streets below as more and more people were showing up, hoping to score a ticket. They were only selling them that day and though they were only going for $50, one can only imagine how much they were being scalped for. I think Prince’s fan club had first picks, but I don’t know. There were cops, Fillmore security, Prince’s security, and hordes of people circulating below and I couldn’t help feel like I was seeing some sort of scene from the storming of The Bastille down there. Prince’s old band was The Revolution after all. The time finally passed and they opened the doors at the wee hour of 2 AM. 

I won’t exhaust you with Prince’s entire backstory, an epic musical saga stretching back to the 70’s, the whole “Purple Rain” era, and so forth, but I will mention a couple notable events that happened with him that year. He had finally changed record labels to Arista, putting behind his long legal wranglings with Warner Brothers, and consequently was able to drop the whole “Artist Formerly Known As Prince” symbol moniker and start using his name again. He had also just became a Jehovah’s Witness, encouraged by his friend Larry Graham, the former bassist of Sly & The Family Stone and leader of Graham Central Station. This move, though spiritually uplifting for him, would ultimately alienate him from some of his LGBTQ fans, not to mention former Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin. He had even asked Wendy to disavow homosexuality and become a Witness herself which she understandably declined. On a positive note, that year Prince also anonymously donated $12,000 to the Louisville Free Public Library to keep its Western Branch from closing, the first full service library for African Americans. Prince and his band, the New Power Generation or NPG for short, were in the middle of their “Hit N’ Run” tour and they were touring in support of their latest album, “Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic” which was released just a day after this show, taking place technically on April 29th since it was well past midnight.

Which at long last leads to my world famous concert anecdote. Ta-da! Just before it started, they had been playing music over the P.A. from the Fonky Baldheads, a band lead by NPG’s drummer, Kirk Johnson, and anticipation had reached a boiling point as the lights of The Fillmore finally dimmed and the show began. I was stationed at my usual spot by the soundboard and was delighted to hear Prince’s voice booming over the speakers, “How y’all feel? Get freaky in here! San Francisco! San Francisco! Party people!” The crowd, many of whom were adorned in purple sequins and feather boas, went nuts and the first band member, the drummer, came on stage and began drumming a steady beat. Prince’s voice over the speakers continued, “NPG is in the club! Put your hands up!” Then the bass player came on stage, started playing along, and then another bass player, then the keyboard player, but still no Prince. After a while, I was beginning to wonder what was up.

That was when I turned around and lo and behold, there HE was, standing at the soundboard. The shock of the sight of him just a mere five or six feet away from me at the most caused me to literally recoil and let out a startled, “AHH!” Jolted as I was, it didn’t phase Prince in the slightest who was, as you might have guessed, mixing the instruments of his band one at a time until they sounded to his satisfaction, laying low and talking into a SM58 mic in between adjustments. I did my best not to stare like an idiot, jaw agape and eyes bugging, as he finished up and bolted out of the front of house position to run up on stage. Prince strapped on a bass guitar, joining the other two bassists, and he finally spoke in front of us, “There’s nothing to see here! Everybody dance!” A member of the band started playing flute along with them and he continued, “We gonna funk tonight y’all! We got Larry Graham in the building! We got Rosie Gaines in the building! We got NRG in the building! We got Prince in the building! We got y’all in the building too! Clap your hands!”

The jam had been already going on for 12 minutes and Prince finally starting singing three minutes later. The first song of their set would be “The Daisy Chain”, a song so new, it had only been available for download by his fan club just a few days before this show. Prince had brought along a new young man in the NPG called DVS who rapped along to that one. Afterwards, they brought up the legendary Rosie Gaines, who already been singing with Prince since 1990, though as luck would have it, this would be the last time she’d perform with Prince live. They surprised us a little when they did a cover of “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” by Aretha Franklin followed by an even more surprising cover of “Car Wash” by Rose Royce. She stayed on stage for one more, “Ain’t No Way”, before leaving them to continue with “Joy In Repetition”. 

The next song, “Paisley Park”, had always been a big hit for Prince, but I was unaware that this show was actually the first time it had performed live, yet another reason this night was so special. Strangely enough, the most famous song of his that night was the one folks didn’t really know the lyrics for and Prince became a little frustrated by that. He egged us on, “Know the chorus? I can’t hear you!”. At the end of the song, he sort of smirked and scolded us, “Better learn my music!” From there, they were joined by the one and only Shiela E. on drums and percussion and they began a ten minute long medley of Carlos Santana songs before ending it with a smoking version of “Oye Como Va”. Prince joked when they finished, “Thank you! Good night! Sexual Chocolate, ladies & gentlemen… Bet you we’re having more fun than you!” Larry Graham then joined them to finish the set with “Come On”.

They played a little more music from the Fonky Baldheads over the speakers during the short encore break, but then Prince returned along with Sheila E. and Larry Graham to finish it all with “Alphabet St.” He got the crowd to hoot out a bunch of “Whoa-oh-a-oh-a”’s during the an extended seven minute jam before he started singing and brought the house down one last time. He smiled as they finished and declared, “It’s breakfast time, San Francisco. Don’t forget to join the club. We do this all the time!” And then he followed his band off stage, the lights came up, and it was all over. I stumbled out of The Fillmore exhausted but uplifted like I had never felt before and made my way home climbing over Cathedral Hill back to the Loin. By then, it was almost 5 AM and I knew I had to get home before the sun came up or I’d have a hard time getting to sleep. After all, believe it or not, I was to return to that very same venue in a little over 12 hours to see Iggy Pop perform, not to mention Fatboy Slim and Blink 182 the following nights. Yep, that was a stretch.

I suppose I owe this unique event a small epilogue. Prince really opened my eyes that night. Seriously, there isn’t an artist alive or dead that could match him. I mean, think about it. He could not only play several instruments, at least 27 of them by some accounts, but he could SHRED on all of them as well as anyone who devoted themselves to merely one of them their entire lives. On top of that, he sang, wrote brilliant hit songs not just for himself but for many others as well, and last but not least, he could dance! So, take a moment and try to think of anybody else who even closely fits that bill. I admit Paul McCartney comes to mind, but he can’t dance, or maybe Mozart, but he never had access to electric instruments. Suffice to say, Prince remains standing alone, though granted he was less successful with his ability as an actor. I had been tempted after what I witnessed that evening to see him again, but every time he came to town, the ticket price was astronomical. He did other secret shows, including his last one in the bay area at the Great American in 2016, but they wanted $250. And alas, he would die from a fentanyl overdose just shy of seven weeks later. 

I had always naively thought he’d be around forever, especially considering the incredible physical shape he’d been in all those years. I had also equally was deluded to believe that his devotion to the JW’s would exclude him from drugs and other vices, but I was sadly mistaken. Yes, it was difficult to hear the news of his death, but the loss was compounded by the fact that we had just lost David Bowie only three months before that. In the end, I am comforted by the fact that I witnessed this one exclusive musical extravaganza and that Prince has left us a mind boggling catalogue of his artistic endeavors. 

The man put out a whopping 40 studio albums, 5 live albums, countless compilations and collaborations, and unreleased material is still being unearthed today. And if that wasn’t enough, he will forever be immortalized in popular culture from Dave Chappelle’s basketball challenge skit with Charlie Murphy to Prince’s fatal defeat at the hands of Prince Charles on “Celebrity Deathmatch”. I was fortunate enough to see his old band, The Revolution, get back together and play at Stern Grove in 2018, but in hindsight, I obviously should have ponied up the $250 to see Prince again. I just hope I make it heaven in the end where I’m sure he’s blowing people’s minds and getting funky up there on high. 

Tricky, Fill., SF, Thur., April 26

As I had written before, I was getting quite a look in with the one mister Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws AKA Tricky back in those days. Not only I had seen him perform at The Fillmore back in 1995, I would catch him on the main stage of Lollapalooza ’97 for two days, and at the Warfield the following year. And if that wasn’t enough, he’d return to The Fillmore just four months later AND I would see him open for fellow Lollapalooza alumni Tool at Shoreline that November. That’s count em’ eight times in just six years. Whew… Yes, the jarring visage of his convulsing, diminutive frame will be forever imprinted into my memory. So, you must forgive me if I had little more to report from this night from the others since he pretty much played the same stuff as before. My lack of detail from this night is also compounded by the fact that the first of the two discs I burned from the original cassettes didn’t take, so I couldn’t listen to it.

But nevertheless, the second disc was fine and came out nice and clear since as always with Tricky, it was loud as fuck. Typical English musician… deaf as a post. He had a fellow named DJ Tom Thump open for him that night and though I had gotten in the habit of skipping putting DJs on to tape, I would endeavor to record more of them in the future, or at least some of their stuff. Tricky had one bit of a flub during that set, having stopped in the middle of “For Real”, humbly apologizing, “Sorry, I can’t remember the words” and then quickly moving on to “Excess”. He had brought along once more his singers, Ambersunshower and Hawkman, but we were pleasantly surprised to see Ed Kowalczyk, the singer of Live, join him on stage to sing “Evolution Revolution Love”. Ed joked at the end of the song, “Right now, I don’t care so much about Live. I care about Tricky though… Y’all havin’ a good time? Y’all diggin’ on Amber? Y’all diggin’ on Hawkman?” Afterwards, Tricky was cursing the name of George Bush, appropriately during his song “Vent”. Yes, it had only been since December since our country was so spinelessly handed over to W. and his chickenhawk friends and we were all still stinging from it. Still, most of us had moved on from that grave injustice of an election and accepted it, especially when all our minds were derailed on 9/11, just five months later.

Personally, I was distracted enough already by the tragic passing of Joey Ramone eleven days before this, the first of The Ramones to leave us. I knew Joey was sick from lymph node cancer at the time, so it wasn’t entirely unexpected, but it still hurt. I’m just glad I got to see him perform with the Ramones three times before he ascended to punk rock heaven. I’ll never forget seeing someone dressed as Joey with angel wings attached to his back that Halloween at the Tenacious D show at The Warfield. But Joey’s loss would soon be dogpiled on by the deaths of both Dee Dee from a heroin overdose just a year later and poor Johnny from prostate cancer in 2004. But at least we still have Tricky alive and kicking and though that show opening for Tool was the last time I’ve seen him play, there’s still a chance I might catch that twitchy weirdo from Bristol once more.

Shane McGowan & The Popes, Sarah Franklin, Fill., SF, Fri., April 13

SETLIST : If I Should Fall From Grace With God, Donegal Express, Paddy Rolling Stone, Paddy Public Enemy No. 1, The Broad Majestic Shannon, Rock & Roll Paddy, Popes Instrumental, Dirty Old Town, Mother Mo Chroi, The Body Of An American, Granduaile, Skipping Rhymes, Sally MacLennane, Poor Paddy On The Railway, A Pair Of Brown Eyes, Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn, The Irish Rover, (encore), Angel Of Death, Streams Of Whiskey, Bottle Of Smoke, South Australia

It comes with a heavy heart to write about this show, being not only the first time I’ve written about Shane since his passing just four months ago, but also on St. Patrick’s Day no less. Though I have long since forgiven my father for making me miss Shane’s performance when we met up in London on that day sacred to all the Irish seven years before this show, I have never forgotten it, especially since we instead went to a double bill play of “The Maids” by Jean Genet and “No Exit” by Jean-Paul Satre. Talk about a downer and did I mention before that the “maids” were played by two skinny bald men? I had just enough time to run to the pub next door and pound a couple pints of Guinness before last call when the plays ended. Anyway, that’s the last I’ll mention that. Maybe in writing this, I’ll finally find closure.

Not that Shane’s death came to any surprise to anyone. His health had been deteriorating fast and let’s face it, he never was in the pink to begin with. Indeed, the previous year from this show, he had fell unconscious on Sinead O’Connor’s floor from a heroin overdose and had to be hospitalized. But he was soon back on his feet, though characteristically leaning on his mic stand like a crutch when I saw him grace that very same stage only five months before this. Still, it wouldn’t have shocked me or anyone else in the house on that or any other night if he keeled over and croaked right then and there, presumably still clutching his ever present smoldering cigarette. Thankfully, he didn’t expire that evening and like before he and The Popes put on a rowdy good set for us all and luckily this time we got a poster at the end of the show.

This was the first night of a two day sold out stint at The Fillmore and once more, Shane had brought along Sarah Frankyn to open for him. The ad from the show said she was only there for the Saturday show, but I assure you that she indeed was there and I have the tapes to prove it. It was once again just Sarah and her violinist and it was pleasant to hear her syrupy sweet voice serenade us before that mob of drunk hooligans took over. Both acts played pretty much the same stuff as last time, though Shane’s setlist was in a different order. He did however did a cover of “Granuaile” a song made famous by Rita Connolly in the 80’s in Ireland, chronicling the tales of the 16th century Irish pirate queen, Grainne O’Mally. I also liked how Shane’s accordion player busted out a few riffs of “The Star Spangled Banner” during “The Body Of An American”. I’m just glad that this wouldn’t be the last time I’d see Shane alive since he’d reunite with The Pogues six years later and I would see him for one last show again at The Fillmore, the only time I’d see him sing with his old band. In the end, I was impressed by the outpouring of love and grief to Shane’s death and I will knock back an extra Guinness tonight in his memory on this, our first St. Paddy’s Day without him.

The Psychedelic Furs, Tinfed, Vincent The Super Sweetie, Fill., SF, Thur., April 12

SETLISTS :

(TINFED) : Overrated, (unknown), Idol, (unknown), Drop, Immune, Dangergirl, Always/Never, It’s Late

(THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS) : India, Heaven, (unknown), No Easy Street, The Ghost In You, Alive (For Once In My Lifetime), Love My Way, Wrong Train, Heartbreak Beat, Sister Europe, President Gas, (unknown), Only You & I, Forever Now, (encore), Into You Like A Train, Pretty In Pink, Dumb Waiters

It had been a long time coming for me to see the Furs. They were yet another one of those bands that had been around since the early 80’s I knew I should have known more about and didn’t. Like most people, I was only aware of them because of their hit single “Pretty In Pink” and like most people, I also only knew that one because it was the title song of the brat pack comedy film of the same name. For the record, I despise that movie. I hate to burst everybody’s bubble, but in real life, there’s no girl at the end for Ducky. I know… I was Ducky. (sigh) But I soon got to know the Furs and discovered that they were worth the hype. I always thought that they had a cool name, but I found out that night that they had the chops to back it up as well. 

Strangely enough, I had subconsciously known the singer Richard Butler from a side project he had done while on hiatus from the Furs called Love Spit Love, which also included other members from the Furs, Frank Ferrer on drums and Richard Fortus on guitar. I had their debut album, but up until that show, I hadn’t made the connection between him and his original band. The Furs hadn’t released any new material in ten years, but they were touring nonetheless and had been planning a co-headlining tour with Echo & The Bunnymen for that winter, but 9/11 derailed that. The Furs would play at the House Of Blues in L.A. for back to back shows right after this one and the recordings from those nights would be used in a live DVD and CD called “Beautiful Chaos : Greatest Hits Live”.

Opening that night was Tinfed, an alt rock band from Sacramento, though the lead singer, Rey Osburn, claimed that they were indeed performing in their “home town” that night. They sounded a little like Britpop and one of their singles, “Immune”, made it on the soundtrack of the action film “Mission Impossible 2”. Ray made sure to mention that before they played it that night. We were pleasantly surprised when Chino Moreno, the frontman of The Deftones, came on stage with them to perform, “Dangergirl”, a song which he had lent his vocals to on their latest album, “Tried & True”. Living close by in Sacramento, Chino actually would show up to a lot of people’s shows back then, but this would be the only time I would see Tinfed as they broke up only two years later. I caught half a song of Vincent The Super Sweetie up in the poster room between acts before the Furs got started.

I was impressed by The Furs that night and discovered quickly that they had quite a few catchy songs in the arsenal other than the one that made them famous. I was able to decipher most of their setlist except for two songs and I think one of them was “Cigarette”, but I can’t be sure. It’s not on any album, and I can’t find the lyrics anywhere, though they had been performing it at other shows on that tour. Near the end of the set, some lame-o yelled out for them to play “Pretty In Pink” and Richard called him on it saying that he’d play it if the guy could name just one other song they did. That shut him up. Though I knew just as much before that night, a few years later, I would be reacquainted with their song “President Gas” when my friends Dan, Sean, Mike, and Jamie would form their band The Bad Cassettes and cover that one. It was a good set, so I was naturally disappointed that there was no poster at the end of the night. Still, I’m glad I caught the Furs when I did, because I wouldn’t catch them again until 8 years later when they performed at the Regency Ballroom with the Happy Mondays and then I’d wait another ten years to see them at Stern Grove. 

The Soft Boys, Young Fresh Fellows, Fill., SF, Sat., April 7

SETLISTS :

(YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS) : Down By The Pharmacy, Barky’s Spiritual Store, Sittin’ On A Pitchfork, Mamie Dunn Employee Of The Month, Worthless, Taco Truck, Picture Book, Mr. Salamander’s Review, A Little Ray Of Sunshine, My Friend Ringo, Topsy Turvy Theme, Back Room Of The Bar

(THE SOFT BOYS) : Kingdom Of Love, Queen Of Eyes, Tonight, Old Pervert, My Mind Is Connected To Your Dreams, Airscape, Underwater Moonlight, I Wanna Destroy You, Human Music, Leppo & The Jooves, Only The Stones Remain, Sudden Town, Insanely Jealous, Sideways, Evil Guy, Astronomy Domine, Rock & Roll Toilet, Sleeping With Your Devil Mask, E.O.H.S. Wands, Mr. Kennedy, (encore), Train ‘Round The Bend, Leave It To The Soft Boys

Up until that time, having seen Robyn Hitchcock perform on four separate occasions and listened to and collected his music religiously, I arrogantly thought I knew most of what there was to know about that weird musical genius. But no, I knew nothing of The Soft Boys until this show was booked and even then I hadn’t appreciated its significance. For starters, apart from a failed attempt to reunite this band in 1994, promoting a new box set of their work, The Soft Boys hadn’t toured the U.S. in 20 years. They were also billing this as Robyn’s “2001st Birthday Party”, though his actual birthday is March 3, over a month before this and he was only 48, hardly a milestone year by any measure. But the tour would be a successful one this time around and The Soft Boys would actually release an album of new material the following year called, “Nextdoorland” and we got to hear three of the new songs at this show. It was good to hear Robyn playing with a full band again. The last time I had seen him was two years before this when he was solo acoustic at that memorable H.E.A.R. show on that very same stage with the Flaming Lips when the power went out for over an hour.

For all those like myself at the time who have no knowledge of this band, The Soft Boys were formed in the late 70’s, a strange, neo-psychedelic, folk rock act from England fronted by Robyn. Though they only were together a few years, they managed to put out two albums including their second, “Underwater Moonlight”, which many music enthusiasts praise to this day as a seminal masterpiece years ahead of its time. This tour was also being billed as the 20th anniversary of that album. But in the intervening years, Robyn had continued to be Robyn, putting out a steady parade of his bizarro, but utterly original work with his band The Egyptians and often performing all by his lonesome. Morris Windsor and Andy Metcalfe of The Soft Boys would also serve in the Egyptians band for years. Kimberley Rew, The Soft Boys’ guitarist, would go on to form Katrina & The Waves with singer Katrina Lesanich. 

But my ignorance of The Soft Boys aside, the real draw for this show would be that it would be the first and sadly, only time I’d see the Young Fresh Fellows. Growing up, one cassette that I listened to regularly was their debut album, “The Fabulous Sounds Of The Pacific Northwest”, which I had ripped from my brother’s record collection as I did most of my music back in those days. I loved that album and appreciated the talent and identified with humor of these geeks from Seattle. The Fellows had just released “Because I Hate You”, a double album collaboration with the Minus 5, joining it with their new one, “Let The War Against Music Begin”. It was their first new material in six years and we also got to hear three of their new songs that night. Scott McCaughey, the Follows’ frontman, would also play with the Minus 5 in the future alongside R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, and I’d see them open for Wilco at The Warfield the following year as well as serving as Robyn’s back up band when he played at Slim’s in 2006.

Robyn introduced the Fellows at this show in his predictably unpredictable fashion saying, “Welcome to Bill Graham Fillmore Auditorium. Welcome to an extraordinary tale of courage and human endurance beyond that many men would want to go all in the name of comradeship. Specifically together when close all people would say perhaps blood situation happen in sample, two or three guys, their arms around each other with sunglasses. Normal men in hand that these four boys just like four grapes in a ditch with no obvious pain and yet to us weeping quietly to softball by the bank of time and feeling each night comes… Gulp, gulp, gulp… And then suddenly you squeeze your hands together and a bar of soap shoots up. Ladies and gentlemen, THE rock & roll band in the world, the Young Fresh Fellows!” Scott joked, “We’re the Pink Floyd! We come from England to play The Fillmore!”, just before they played their new song, “Mamie Dunn, Employee Of The Month”. They also covered “Picture Book”, a song by The Kinks.

The Soft Boys took the stage on time and I was cut from ushering during their second song and I caught hearing myself ordering an Anchor Steam from the bar with my drink ticket during “Tonight”. They followed that with Robyn introducing “Old Pervert” with another monologue rambling, “When I was young, I was very unhappy. I was mean to ants. I was mean to grasshoppers and I projected a future for myself… Perception of the majority is reality. Therefore, if the majority of people think it’s true, it must be true.” I was hanging next to my friend Pierre at the time and I don’t know why I said it, but I over heard myself uttering, “Huh… I’ll buy that for a dollar.” It’s Robyn after all. Nothing needs to really make sense in the end. One less cryptic dedication Robyn made a few songs later was dedicating “I Want To Destroy You” to George W. Bush. 

Though I unfamiliar with most of The Soft Boys’ music, Robyn sang a few numbers of theirs that I knew which he’d been performing solo for years, opening with “Kingdom Of Love”, as well as doing “Leppo & The Jooves”, “Only The Stones Remain”, and “Sleeping With Your Devil Mask”. Before they played “Sudden Town”, another new song, Robyn introduced it going on a bit about earthquakes and electric trams, another one of his stream of consciousness riffing that I abandoned all hope trying to decipher about a couple sentences in. Perhaps tipping their hats The Fillmore and its illustrious hippie history, they did a cover later of “Astronomy Domine” by Pink Floyd which Robyn dedicated “to anyone who saw the Jefferson Airplane reunion in Golden Gate Park in 1989”. Mr. Hitchcock had often been compared to Syd Barrett and he just in fact played The Chapel a couple months ago singing a set entirely of Syd’s songs. Another cover they did that night which would ultimately make it to the new album was “Train ‘Round The Bend” by The Velvet Underground. A couple of the Young Fresh Fellows would also join the band for their finale of “Leave It To The Soft Boys”.

Yes, The Soft Boys reunion was short lived, much to the chagrin of my brother Alex, who is a bigger fan than I’ll ever be and missed it because he had just moved down to L.A. where they weren’t playing. My show was sold out and I’m thankful that they made a good poster for such a momentous occasion. But Alex has seen Robyn many times since including that aforementioned Syd Barrett tribute show and it would be only a year before I would see him myself playing at the Great American Music Hall. The Soft Boys would also return to town again the following November after that, but it would be the last tour they would do together. Sadly, Matthew Seligman, the bass player of the Soft Boys, died of COVID in 2020. Scott McCaughey suffered a stroke back in 2017, but has since recovered, with the help of a pair of tribute concerts for his medical bills which starred three of the four members of R.E.M., The Decemberists, M. Ward, and others.

On a final sad note, this joyful reunion show that night was tinged with a bit of melancholy, hearing the news that morning of the unexpected death of actor David Graf from a sudden heart attack just nine days before his 51st birthday. You might remember him best as Tackleberry from the “Police Academy” movies. And I know that it might seem unrelated, Tackleberry being quite clearly a hysterical parody of Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry”, but coincidentally five years later, Robyn did write a song about Harry’s nemesis in “Magnum Force” called “(A Man’s Got To Know His Limitation) Briggs”. Anyway, I loved Tackleberry and I think Robyn would appreciate the paradox of that character being simultaneously a rapturous celebration of the Second Amendment as well as a satirical cautionary example of it. 

Vertical Horizon, Sister Hazel, War., SF, Thur., April 5

SETLISTS :

(SISTER HAZEL) : (unknown), Thank You, Beautiful Thing, Strange Cup Of Tea, Change Your Mind, Champagne High, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Just Remember, Happy, Leaving On A Jet Plane, All For You

(VERTICAL HORIZON) : It’s Only Me, You’re A God, Candyman, All Of You, Sweet Emotion, Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning), Japan, Shackled, Give You Back, One The Sea, Send It Up, Wash Away, You Say, Everything You Want

My dear lifelong friend Hefe in my younger days would occasionally accuse me of liking every band on Earth and perhaps for a time that might have been true. But as the years progressed, I found myself steadily becoming more discerning in my musical tastes, especially by this time when I had a respectable amount of concerts witnessed under my belt. And despite my growing more and more picky as I slowly morph into the middle aged curmudgeon I’m destined to become, I still try to hold onto the rather pollyannaish attitude that people are inherently good by nature. Whether a band is comprised of nice people doesn’t necessarily mean they have talent or create music I enjoy. The same can be said for total assholes who might be musical geniuses and all those of the majority in the spectrum somewhere in between. Any way you slice it, the last straw for a band for me is when I hate them and all the girls love them. That one really gets me and I’m afraid that was the case at this one. 

That being the prelude, I’ve finally come to address this show, Vertical Horizon at The Warfield. It was not at all uncommon that I would usher shows back then for bands that were as I called it “sight unseen”. So, it would follow that I would from time to time run into a concert that didn’t agree with me. Now to come back to what I mentioned earlier, I had no reason to believe that either Vertical Horizon or their opening act, Sister Hazel, were not nice people and I got the impression that both of them as well as their fans were so. Likewise, I thought both bands had modest musical talent, especially Sister Hazel, whose guitar work and harmonies were pretty tight. But in the end, as you probably have predicted by now, I found the whole experience grating. Shows like this make me fantasize about Slayer kicking down the doors and brutally overrunning the stage, their bombastic, deafening thrash metal sending these helpless young fans running for their lives towards the exits. And last but not least, I was working as a paid usher that night clearing aisles, so I was obliged to stay to the bitter end whether I liked it or not. 

Sister Hazel were sort of a jam band from Gainesville, Florida, named after a local missionary in the area. Believe it or not, my bother Alex had been in one of their music videos while he lived in Los Angeles working as an actor, though I can’t say which song it was and I’m sure he’s forgotten by now. He was even less of a fan of Sister Hazel, so I didn’t press him on the matter of that experience for fear that he’d have that unknown song stuck in his head once again. Naturally, when one takes part in the filming of a music video, one has no choice but to hear that song over and over and over. Still, their song “Change Your Mind” made it into the soundtrack for the remake of “Bedazzled”, a movie I thought was clever, though not as good as the original with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook.

The one song of theirs that did ring a bell was their radio hit, “All For You”, which they finished their set with. Personally, I felt it was a mediocre knock off of “Hook” by Blues Traveler without John Popper’s legendary harmonica work. In fact, up until then I understandably thought it was a Blues Traveler song as I imagine many others did too, but all the girls liked it and they sang and clapped along with it. It made my teeth grit. To make matters worse, they did two corny ass cover songs, one being “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” by The Police, perhaps the lamest song that band does. Then, they dared to defile the temple of John Denver by singing, “Leaving On A Jet Plane”. Poor John had only been dead in the cold, cold ground for four years and these people had the gaul to butcher his work. It was cringeworthy enough that it was sung by the astronauts in that “Armageddon” movie. Mark my words, the ghost of John Denver will have his revenge some day!!! (Pant, pant, pant…. a-hem…) Anyway, the members of Sister Hazel did seem nice though. Their lead singer, Ken Block, joked with the crowd before they sang one of their new songs, “Beautiful Thing”, asking, “Don’t we need someone in our lives to let us know when you should get just get in the car and go? Go to the woods, go to some cul-de-sac, buy a keg, and have a party?” Sounds pleasant enough. Maybe I should visit Gainesville someday.

Halfway up the Atlantic coast from there in D.C. spawned Vertical Horizon, truly a college band since the founding members met at Georgetown. Their frontman, Matt Scannell, has a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Their smash hit “Everything You Want” had been out for a couple years by then, having reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and certified double platinum. They were a little shall we say more U2ish, but with even cornier songs. It was as if they were playing TRYING to sound important. They swung for the fences maybe, but it was a swing and a miss. So I had mixed feelings when they riffed a little of “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin during their song “Shackled” and later a little bit of “A Few Of My Favorite Things” during “Wash Away”. Some of the girls in the crowd sang along to the latter one. It’s feels uneasy for me when a band I don’t like plays covers os songs that I do like. Listening to their set again, there was one brief glimmer or hope with them when they took it down a bit and just instrumental jammed in the middle of “Wash Away”. Sean Hurley, their bassist, actually did an interesting solo for that and yes for that moment, I forgot about their lame songs and enjoyed their playing skills. 

But frankly, the whole experience made me feel like I was back in suburbia again, back in Alamo, very upper middle class and very, very white. But the time came at long last for that last song of the night and it would be, you guessed it, “Everything You Want”, the titular track of their last album. I had blissfully forgot that godforsaken earworm for years before I had to hear it again yesterday. Ugh. Credit where credit’s due, they got every last girl in the house singing the chorus twice at the top of their lungs. But devoted as I was to my collection of these shows, I stuck it out to the bitter end, strolled outside once again to the cool spring evening air, and did my best to try to unclench my jaw. (Scoff.) But no hard feelings, guys. I know out there are millions of people who like these guys, maybe even a few considering them their favorite band. So, if it makes anybody out there who fits the bill feel any better, I’m sure you’d hate some of the stuff I like too. 

Guided By Voices, Creeper Lagoon, Mike Boner, Fill., SF, Mon., April 2

SETLISTS :

(CREEPER LAGOON) : Dreaming Again, Chance Of A Lifetime, Cumaway, Sunfair, Wonderful Love, Wrecking Ball, Every Sat, Dead Deadly, Keep From Moving, Empty Ships

(GUIDED BY VOICES) : (unknown), Skills Like This, (unknown), Shocker In Gloomtown, Run Wild, Chasing Heather Crazy, Watch Me Jumpstart, A Girl Named Catherine, Frostman, Alone Stinking & Unafraid, Glad Girls, Enemy, Pivotal Film, Tight Globes, Frequent Weaver Who Burns, Zoo Pie, Things I Will Keep, Instrument Beetle, Mushroom Art, Game Of Pricks, Lethargy, Soul Train College Policeman, Pop Zeus, Tractor Rape Train, I Drove A Tank, Back To Saturn X, Choking Tara, Teenage FBI, The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory, I Am A Scientist

Guided By Voices had been one of the last bands that I had recorded at the Maritime Hall about a year and a half before this, so seeing them up front and personal at The Fillmore felt like part of my continuing grief therapy and rehabilitation. Like the first time I encountered them, they played another of their long sets with an arsenal of songs breaching well past over the count of forty. It still amazes me that frontman Robert Pollard and the band can commit so many of those tunes to memory, especially considering their reputation for excessive drinking. Anyway, they had been their usual prolific selves since the last time I saw them, releasing a hefty box set of music the previous September called, “Suitcase : Failed Experiments & Trashed Aircraft”, a four CD compilation with 25 songs on each disc. If that wasn’t enough, they’d go on to put out three more box sets in 2005, 2009, and 2015. Not content to simply dust off golden oldies, they were also on the cusp of putting out their 12th studio album, “Isolation Drills”, just a week and a day after this night, which would turn out to be their most successful and highest rated album to date. We were lucky enough to hear seven of the new songs from that album at that show. 

But the morning had gotten off to a tense start in the news when one of our naval intelligence planes accidentally collided with a Chinese fighter jet and our guys had to make an emergency landing on Hainan Island in Chinese territory. I knew at the time that my cousin Randy had been a senior official in Colin Powell’s State Department handling Asian affairs, so I figured he had his hands full. But what I didn’t know and learned years later, that it was Randy who personally dug up the obscure treaty paperwork America had drafted with China that allowed those stranded airmen to ultimately be released back into our custody and diffused the situation. Thanks be to Randy. I’m glad he’s on our side. He would go on to serve as Undersecretary Of Defense under Trump heading the China desk. If you thought I had reservations of his working for Bush, that paled to my trepidation for him working under Donald. But I trust the man with my life and simply advised him that if he had to shake Donald’s hand, make sure to wash his hand later… thoroughly. Personally, I would have chopped off my hand just to be sure, but that’s just me. But I digress, back to the show. 

I had seen Creeper Lagoon once before at The Fillmore opening for Pavement in 1997 and enjoyed them. They were a dependable local opening act managed by Jordan Kurland, who I had interned with at the management of Primus. I remember Jordan roaming around the place, he being very tall, was always easy to spot. I don’t remember if we spoke, but I was proud that he was making a name for himself around town managing Creeper Lagoon as well as a growing list of respectable artists and organizing the Noise Pop Festival every year. As luck would have it, he’d just began managing the New Pornographers and I had just seen Neko Case, one of that Canadian supergroup’s illustrious members, doing back to back shows opening for Nick Cave just the week before at the Palace Of Fine Arts. Jordan always had good taste. 

Creeper Lagoon had just put out their “Take Back The Universe & Give Me Yesterday” album, their first recorded for the Dreamworks label, and we got to hear four of their new tunes that night. The single “Wrecking Ball” would be used that winter in the soundtrack for the “Vanilla Sky” movie with Tom Cruise, which I hated, but also in the “Hellboy” soundtrack three years later, which I thought was passible. But this would be the last year with this band’s original line up. Founder Sharkey Laguna would have to replace the three other members soon with new people when singer Ian Sefchik spiraled into drug addiction and left the band, taking the other two with him. And though this would be the last time I’d see them perform, they would briefly reform with the original crew in 2017 to do a reunion show at Bottom Of The Hill. I’m sorry I missed that one.

But the real star of the show for me was the act up in the poster room that night, the one and only Mike Boner. As I had mentioned in an earlier installment, I had been taking a more completist attitude in my recordings around then and was making more of an effort to tape those lonely, fledgling artists up there who bravely stood on that little stage and did their best to to entertain or at least keep the patron’s attention. If you have never heard of Mike Boner, be not dismayed, for he was an obscure poet, singer, and performance artist who I had seen as a regular at Bucky Sinister’s open mic nights at The Chameleon in the Mission almost every Monday when I used to live down there. 

And if you ever had witnessed Mr. Boner’s (a-hem) art, rest assured you would have had it seared into your memory for all eternity. Take my word for it. As I had seen before, Mike had chosen to don onto his wiry, pale, raven haired frame a loose fitting summer dress and crooned his cringe inducing voice with a passionate intensity that is practically indescribable. Maybe try Norman Bates crossed with Bobcat Goldthwait and you’d sort of in the ballpark. Seriously though, if you can get past his incredibly disturbing stage presence, his lyrics were actually pretty sophisticated. But good luck convincing poor Raffle Box Annie of that, who had been stuck up there in her usual spot on many a night listening to Mike’s insane rantings on God knows how many occasions. 

But in the end, the night belonged to Guided By Voices. Bob stumbled up on stage with his bandmates and greeted us, “Hey San Francisco! We travelled all around the world with this rock & roll circus on stage before your eyes right now… This rock & roll sausage party that you see… We know how to kick it out.” A few songs in just before they did the new song “Chasing Heather Crazy”, he mentioned that the band were going to do an in store at Amoeba Records the next day and I am sad that I had missed it. I probably had to work. Listening to the show, I was relieved that it had come out clear and was impressed that despite the exhausting number of songs and their brevity, that I was able to easily decipher Pollard’s lyrics and transcribe the majority of their setlist that evening. It’s a testament to his talent that he had such precise diction considering how drunk he was as always. Still, I underestimated the amount of tape I’d needed for them and wasn’t able to get absolutely everything, so I admit the song count listed above is a little incomplete.

On top of Guided By Voices, Pollard had somehow found the time to put out solo material as well with his band, Robert Pollard & His Soft Rock Renegades. He had just released his second solo effort, “Choreographed Man Of War” that year. I may not have gotten everything that show, but I know for a fact that he did three of his solo numbers, “Instrument Beetle”, “I Drove A Tank”, and “Frequent Weaver Who Burns”. Cryptic song titles aside, Bob would expand the titles further introducing songs like “Mushroom Art” as “Living With You Is Difficult In My Mushroom Art”. He would crack a joke later about his first solo album, “Speak Kindly Of Your Volunteer Fire Department” saying it was his “best album… It sold 40,000 copies!” 

Later, Bob addressed the crowd slurring, “Guided By Voices was formed in 1983, much to the dismay of our mothers and fathers. But here we are playin’ a packed fuckin’ house at the fuckin’ Fillmore makin’ dad proud… the same space that Billy Graham was on… you know, the preacher Billy Graham. But I can tell you, we can drink you under the table, boys & girls. We toured Australia last year and they said, you guys can’t drink us under the table. Yes we did. We drank them DOWN UNDER the table. That’s a bad pun, but I like it. Cus’ we come from the great state of ‘Ohi-err’! We know a couple of Creeper Lagoon guys come from ‘Ohi-err’. Soggie and I come from ‘Ohi-err’. If you get a chance, come up and sample some of the pizza in ‘Ohi-err’.” Then they went on to play the first song off of Robert’s new solo record, he introducing it as “I Drove A Tank In A Russian War”. 

Afterwards, he joked, “This is an old song, but a new song cus’ you don’t know it. It’s called ‘Back To Saturn X’”. Sadly, three songs later, my tape ran out, but I made sure to record a little over some of Creeper Lagoon in order to get the song “I Am A Scientist”, one of my favorites of theirs. I was glad that they had a poster for them at the end of the night since the certainly deserved one in my opinion and it was a good one too. Guided By Voices would actually play again at The Fillmore a mere two months later, but I missed that one, having been up to my eyeballs at the Gay Pride hootenanny down at the Civic Center with The B-52’s. I’m just glad I caught the one of the two Fillmore shows that had the poster. Thankfully, I wouldn’t have to wait long to see Mr. Pollard and the gang again, for they would return the following year, this time playing at The Warfield, the largest venue I’d ever see them perform in before or since. 

Guster, Great Big Sea, Ben Kweller, Goh, Fill., SF, Fri., March 30

SETLISTS : 

(BEN KWELLER) : Ice Ice Baby, Walk On Me, How It Should Be (Sha Sha), Debbie Don’t Worry Doll, Wantin’ Her Again, Make It Up, In Other Words, No Reason, Problems

(GREAT BIG SEA) :  Donkey Riding, When I’m Up (I Can’t Get Down), Everything Shines, Goin’ Up, Boston & St. John’s, The Night Pat Murphy Died, Consequence Free, General Taylor, Lukey, It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine), Mari-Mac, Ordinary Day

(GUSTER) : Happier, Great Escape, New Song 2, Bury Me, What You Wish For, Parachute, I Spy, Happy Frappy, X-Ray Eyes, Airport Song, Ramona, Time Of The Season, Either Way, Center Of Attention, Fa Fa, (encore), I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today, Demons, Barrel Of A Gan, Mona Lisa

I was coming in sight unseen once again for this act at The Fillmore, knowing not a single song or any fun fact about Guster or any of the other acts for that matter. Indeed, up until that night, I thought they pronounced their name “Goo-ster”. I could tell by the sort of middle class, white, college crowd mingling about that the bands would follow suit and I wasn’t entirely wrong. I found Guster to be talented though inoffensive, sort of a Bostonian addition to the whole Dave Matthews jam band crowd that had been expanding larger every year. Perhaps it was a cultural response to the then declining influence of hyper masculine nu metal acts like Limp Bizkit. Yes, they might have been at Woodstock ’99 with them, but that’s more or less they had in common. Guster had been around since ’91, but with the release of their “Lost & Gone Forever” album the year of that disastrous music festival, they had been gaining some level of notoriety. I appreciated that they recorded some of that album at The Plant in Sausalito and also since they were part of this jam band crowd, there was a pro taper there that night and a quality copy of this show can be found on archive.org. 

The first act would be Ben Kweller, who although had recently moved to New York City with his then girlfriend and future wife, Liz Smith, was actually a San Franciscan by birth. He was so young then, only 19 years old, but with a face so boyish, he looked barely a day over 12. Still, I liked him right away, bravely taking the stage all by his lonesome with an acoustic guitar and opening with a hilarious folk rock cover or “Ice Ice Baby” by (you guessed it) Vanilla Ice. Oh no, we didn’t see that one coming. For sure, even at this young age, he was clever. I liked that he called his new limited edition extended play album, “EP Phone Home”, despite my distaste for most puns. He took a break from his guitar a couple songs in to play “How It Should Be (Sha Sha)” on the piano and followed that with “Debbie Don’t Worry Doll” back on the guitar but with a little harmonica solo. 

I was becoming more and more of a completist in my efforts with this amateur recording habit of mine as the years went on. I was already making an effort to get all of the songs the opening acts at a show instead of just a handful as I had done when I first started. But at this show, I also taped some of the musicians playing during the set changes up in the poster room. Usually, I would pop up to hear a song or two, but didn’t bother to tape anything unless I head something extraordinary. That night, it was a band called Goh, though I only was able to get three songs of theirs and haven’t seen them since. They were passing out flyers that night for a CD release party they were having at the Hotel Utah five days later. I’m glad I started to tape the acts up in the poster room. Some of the people The Fillmore bring in up there are truly talented, even though most patrons pay little to no attention to them at all.

The next act on the main stage would be Great Big Sea coming from the frosty islands of Newfoundland and Labrador. Though I had seen my share of Canadian bands up until then, I have to admit we rarely got to hear talent from that part of their country and haven’t since. And like most Canadian acts that would play The Fillmore, they were absolutely huge back north of the border, yet virtually unknown here in the states. I liked their rock & roll tinged sea chanties, with rowdy odes to drinking like “The Night Pat Murphy Died”. They also covered “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” by R.E.M., a song I’m not particularly crazy about, but I have to admit that I did enjoy their version of it. 

Guster took the stage to the recording of “Feels So Good” by Chuck Mangione, an amusing choice and put me at ease a little knowing that these guys at least had a bit of a sense of humor. I was cut from ushering by the second song “Great Escape” in which their singer, Ryan Miller, introduced themselves as being “from the northeastern portion of the United States” and then praised The Fillmore saying, “It’s like the spirit of the 60’s are still alive!” It might not have been my favorite style of music, but I could tell right away that they had talent. Guster wrote catchy songs and their vocal harmonies were pretty tight as well, especially with songs like “Barrel Of A Gun”. Ryan went afterwards saying that the band originally was going to take 2001 off, but they already had some new songs they wanted to try out including the one they did next that was so new, that it didn’t have a name yet and they kind of made up the lyrics. They were just calling it “New Song 2” and wished us luck trying to find it on Napster. I still don’t know what song that was, so I guess I was lucky to hear it, whatever it might of eventually morphed into.

Before they did “Bury Me”, someone in the crowd asked how drummer Brian Rosenworcel’s ankle was. A little peeved at first, Ryan responded, “No… Hence begins the audience interaction part of the show” and explained that it actually was guitarist Adam Gardner who had “on the first day of the tour, sprained his ankle playing racquetball.” Thus, that was the reason Adam was wearing “an unattractive leg brace” as well as “sock with sandals lethal combination”. Ryan joked that if any of us read Maxim magazine, that this was the “first no-no” with the “25 to 34 demographic” and urged Adam to “lose the sock and sandal combo”. 

A couple songs later, he told us that after the band finished college at Tuft’s university in Boston that, “everybody went to New York or San Francisco” and when they played their first gig in town at the Great American Music Hall, most of the audience had also been Tuft’s alumni. But as the years passed they started to see see more new people show up to their gigs and wanted to dedicate the title track from their first album, “Parachute”, to “the lovers”. A couple songs later, they again brought in a little humor and did a cheesy muzak version of “Happy Frappy” all done on keyboards and synthesizers, ending it with ukuleles. Ryan mentioned that they get tired of playing the same stuff after six years and felt like playing it “the way we like it.” 

In another overture of respect towards The Fillmore, they surprised us with an impromptu cover of the hippie anthem, “Time Of The Season” by The Zombies. Ryan said that they “used to listen to it all the time in the bus and thought it would be fun to try it. So, that’s what we’re going to do, try to play it. And if my keyboard meanderings weren’t enough, I’m going to try to play bass guitar for the very first time ever… You’d think before a sold out Fillmore show that we’ve would have played this song once in front of an audience before, but no.” To their credit, they pulled it off, playing it surprisingly close to the original actually. Ryan reassured himself and the band saying afterwards, “It wasn’t so bad.” He later thanked the openers, teasing Alan Doyle from Great Big Sea, asking the crowd if they “want to see my Alan hair flip”, then whisking his bangs sideways.

They finished the set with their latest single “Fa Fa” and Ryan joked that they were going to do the “ego stroking ritual of the planned encore”, drolly going on about the pretense of them going off stage, the clapping, and them coming back on. He ended it simply saying, “So just clap after we’re done and we’ll come back on… We still need the ego stroking.” And true to his word, the band came back, this time bringing Ben Kweller with them. Ryan took the mic again, “Thank you, San Francisco! You wouldn’t let us leave. This is our friend, Ben. This song we wrote with Ben and wouldn’t play it without him. Also a debut!” and then they played “I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today”. Ryan joked later that “you know those lyrics were written by Ben cus’ it’s not called ‘Demons’ or ‘Fall In Two’, but ‘I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today’. I hope to take a big lesson from that.” That song and “Ramona” wouldn’t be released until two years later  on their “Keep It Together” album. 

Near the end of the encore, Ryan thanked The Fillmore one more time and admitted, “I was sitting on the toilet thinking about how many people who had shat in that toilet.” A touch indelicate, though I suppose he had a point there. Guster did something unique that night or at least something I had very rarely seen. They went completely off mic for their last song, “Mona Lisa”. Ryan introduced it saying, “I’m not sure if we did this the last time we played here, but some point in the middle of the set, you’ve been quiet… We thought it might be cool to sort of end the show with it totally unplugged. So all that is required is that if you have any meathead comments to shout out, that’ll be done right at this moment!” We all took a few seconds to loudly let go whatever was on or not on our minds and then the band took a couple steps forward away from their amps to the front of the stage, wielding only a couple acoustic guitars and a tambourine. Thankfully, the crowd piped down and really, we had no problem hearing them finish the show with that song. I was pleased that they had a poster for us at the end of the night and though I wasn’t about to run out and buy any of Guster’s albums, I was nonetheless happy to see them perform again when they played at The Warfield six years later.  

Nick Cave, Neko Case, Palace Of Fine Arts, SF, Mon., March 26

Nick Cave, Neko Case, Palace Of Fine Arts, SF, Tues., March 27

SETLISTS : 

(MONDAY)

(NEKO CASE) : Set Out Running, No Cease Fires! (Crimes Against The State Of Our Love, Baby), Twist The Knife, Stinging Velvet, Look For Me (I’ll Be Around), Make Your Bed, Favorite, Outro With Bees, Wayfaring Stranger, Porchlight, Furnace Room

(NICK CAVE) : West Country Girl, People Ain’t No Good, Henry Lee, The Mercy Seat, God Is In The House, Sad Waters, Wild World, Papa Won’t Leave You Henry, Loom Of The Land, And No More Shall We Part, Stagger Lee, Into My Arms, (encore), The Ship Song, Love Letter, Little Empty Boat

(TUESDAY)

(NEKO CASE) : Set Out Running, Twist The Knife, Stinging Velvet, Look For Me (I’ll Be Around), Favorite, Wayfaring Stranger, Furnace Room Lullaby

(NICK CAVE) : West Country Girl, Sad Waters, Henry Lee, The Mercy Seat, God Is In The House, People Ain’t No Good, Wild World, Papa Won’t Leave You Henry, Straight To You, And No More Shall We Part, Stagger Lee, Into My Arms, (encore), Do You Love Me? (Parts 2). Love Letter, The Ship Song, Little Empty Boat

Truth be told, I had only been to the Palace Of Fine Arts to see “Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Animation Festival”, the birthplace of “Beavis & Butthead”. So, one can only imagine the juxtaposition I’d be experiencing between that hilariously vulgar event and this one, a two day audience with the crown prince of melancholy, Mr. Nick Cave. Speaking of the art of film, “Gladiator” had just won the Oscar for Best Picture the night before these shows. The Palace Of Fine Arts was downright civilized and they even played a polite announcement before the music started reminding the audience that smoking was not permitted , refreshments from the lobby weren’t allowed in the main auditorium, and “out of consideration to the artists”, they weren’t allowing flash photography either.  I was beginning to feel like I was on some kind of school field trip, honestly, everyone seated quietly in their seats, but we forgot about all that once the shows started and quickly found ourselves immersed in the music. 

It had been three years since I had seen Nick Cave & Bad Seeds at The Warfield, but this time Nick was on his own… sort of. This was being billed as just Nick Cave, but he had brought along a handful of talent to back him up those evenings including Warren Ellis From The Dirty Three on violin and accordion who had become a full fledged Bad Seed by then. Joining them would be fellow Dirty Three member Jim White on drums as well as Susan Stenger on the Big Bottom bass as they were calling it. I actually missed guitarist Mick Turner, the only member of The Dirty Three not brought on board for these shows, but Mr. Cave’s the boss and who knows, maybe they asked Mick and he just couldn’t swing the dates or something.

Opening that night would be Canadian songstress Neko Case. This would be the first time I’d have the pleasure of hearing Neko sing and thought it a strange coincidence that both acts that night shared the initials “NC”. I can’t recall any other show I’ve seen that had that distinction, but if there was, it was astronomically rare. She had recently helped form the indy supergroup The New Pornographers releasing their first album, “Mass Romantic”, the previous November. But Neko had plenty of her own material, having also put out her second solo record with her band of so-called Boyfriends, “Furnace Room Lullaby”, the year before and was in the midst of recording her “Canadian Amp” EP, a short album, half of which were covers, that she played completely on her own. 

Nick too had been busy during the years I hadn’t seen him. Somebody during the first night yelled out a marriage proposal early during the show and he responded, “Too late! I’m married now.” Indeed, he had just tied the knot in ‘99 to Susie Bick and they had just sired twin sons, Arthur and Earl, the year before this. Sadly, Arthur would pass away in 2015 after accidentally falling off a cliff. But this was a happier time for Nick obviously, having recently kicked his heroin and alcohol addictions and was on the verge of releasing his “No More Shall We Part” album, which would come out only two weeks after these shows. Both nights we were treated to the new songs, “And No More Shall We Part” and “God Is In The House” and he did “Love Letter” during his encore on the second night.

The acoustics of the Palace were stellar and these shows had the added benefit of being populated with an audience that actually shut the fuck up and listened. I swear, it was like a night at the opera in there, so quiet you could hear a pin drop. And thank god almighty for that, because my recordings came out clear enough that that I could hear Neko’s heavenly vocals perfectly and had no trouble transcribing her or Cave’s setlists. She covered a healthy assortment of her works including a cover of “No Cease Fires! (Crimes Against The State Of Our Love, Baby)” by Destroyer, a band fronted by Dan Dejar, a fellow member of The New Pornographers. I could see why she got big so quickly, that voice of hers worthy of the Sirens of yore. I especially enjoyed her petal steel guitar player and have written before how much I enjoy that instrument in bands, like the one I heard with the Mojave 3 at Slim’s just three weeks before these nights. Still, Neko did have a couple hiccups technically. At the first show, they were a little confused before beginning the last song of their set and Neko joked, “I’m loaded, San Francisco!” And on the second night, she stopped early on during the song, “Stinging Velvet” to scold the soundman. The crowd had been crying out for her vocals and she ordered, “Set the vocal level and just leave it there!” Other than that, the shows went smoothly.

Nick’s arrangements of his songs with this new band were elegant and frankly sophisticated compared to what I had heard before with him and the Bad Seeds. He spent most of the time behind his grand piano, playing solo on a couple numbers like “Papa Won’t Leave You Henry”, transforming that tune from the driving, manic din of the original version into a heartbreaking piano ballad. I could see how Nick’s collaborations with Warren would eventually evolve into composing movie soundtracks like they would do with their first one together for the film, “The Proposition”, which would come out four years later. I heard myself on the second night letting out an “Amen!” after he finished “God Is In The House”.  

Yes, these were unique performances and I would never see this lineup again, but it wouldn’t be long until I would see Mr. Cave reunited with his Bad Seeds for back to back shows at The Warfield the following year. Likewise, I would see Neko again at that venue that year as well, playing with The New Pornographers and once again with them there in 2007. Honestly, I was never a big fan of that band, though I did enjoy hearing her perform solo once more opening for Calexico at The Fillmore in 2004. Granted, BGP didn’t often book anything at the Palace, but considering that both nights were sold out and this was such a unique band, you’d think they’d have sprung for a poster or any merchandise for this, but alas, they didn’t. 

Suzanne Vega, Bob Hillman, Fill., SF, Sat., March 24

SETLISTS:

(BOB HILLMAN) : Too Bad For You, Tolstoy, (unknown), (unknown), I Need You, Bolted Down, Las Vegas, Valentine’s Day, Greenland, The Late Night, This Didn’t Happen To Me

(SUZANNE VEGA) : Marlene On The Wall, Small Blue Thing, Caramel, Gypsy, When Heroes Go Down, Rock In This Pocket (Song Of David), Penitent, Stockings, Harbor Song, Some Journey, Room Off The Street, Songs In Red & Gray, Solitaire, In Liverpool, (I’ll Never Be) Your Maggie May, The Queen & The Soldier, Widow’s Walk, World Before Columbus, Luka, Tom’s Diner, (encore), Left Of Center, (encore), Cracking, Rosemary

It had been a minute since I had last seen Suzanne play and I really liked her the first time I caught her at The Warfield, so I was looking forward to this one. She hadn’t graced a stage in town or released any new material since that show in 1996 and it was understandable since she was going through a bit of a rough patch during those intervening years. Vega had just gotten a divorce from her husband Mitchell Froom in ’98 and during this tour, she was still in the midst of recording her new album, “Songs In Red And Gray”, which wouldn’t be released for another six months. Still, we were lucky to hear six of the new songs that night and as you can imagine a few of them like “Widow’s Walk” would help her exorcize the demons from that doomed relationship.

During that time away from touring, she kept busy raising her young daughter and also published a book called “The Passionate Eye : The Collected Writings Of Suzanne Vega” which was an assortment of poems, lyrics, essays, and journal pieces that she had accumulated over the years. Incidentally, Soul Coughing named their first album “Ruby Vroom” after her daughter with Mitchell, Ruby Froom. Ruby is all grown up now, currently 27 years old, and has been performing from time to time alongside her mother recently. In a strange coincidence, the aging Russian space station Mir had just been allowed to burn up in the atmosphere the day before this show, ending its tenure as the only manned station in orbit and paving the way for the I.S.S. So, in a sense, it was another cosmic relationship coming to a crashing end. 

But like Soul Coughing, Suzanne at least had many musical friends and admirers to get her through this difficult time including singer songwriter Bob Hillman who had opened for her that tour. Bob had met Vega performing at Jack Hardy’s Monday night songwriter’s meetings in L.A., a fellow member of the so-called “fast folk” scene there. It was just Bob and his guitar bravely facing the Fillmore crowd that night, though he did bust out a harmonica for one of his songs early on in his set. A touch nervous, he admitted that The Fillmore was twice as large as any venue that he had performed in previously and mentioned that he had brought his girlfriend there that night for their third date. I like to think that he scored later, as is tradition on third dates, especially since they were soon married afterwards. He was even more nervous playing for his hometown in L.A. later that tour, but was gratified to be so well received there that he was even given an encore, a rare occurrence for any opening act. In a strange coincidence, I had just seen Sid Hillman open up for the Mojave 3 at Slim’s just a couple weeks before this, but I don’t believe they are relations.

Like Bob, it was just Suzanne and her acoustic guitar up on stage all by her lonesome that night, donning a long black coat and dress, her hair glistening metallic red with those signature vulcan bangs of hers. Artists like Vega would often try out the new stuff with a small tour like this without all the bells and whistles of a big tour in larger venues with a full band and such. So this show was considerably more subdued and intimate yet equally as entertaining. The place was packed with her fans who shouted song requests early on between songs which she encouraged them to “get it all out” of their systems after playing “Caramel”. As expected, she covered all the hits like “Luka” and “Left Of Center” along with the new material, finishing her set with “Tom’s Diner” which she got the crowd to sing along and clapping, doing the “duh-da-duh-da-duh-da-duh-da”’s acappella along with her. They had a great poster at the end of the night, a sort of cartoon scene of a breakfast with a red and white checkered table cloth, most likely a reference to that song. I wouldn’t have to wait long, only seven months later before I would see her play again, that time at The Warfield once again with a full band. 

The Funky Meters, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Fill., SF, Fri., March 16

SETLIST : You Hot To Change (You Go To Reform), Fire On The Bayou, Ain’t No Use, (unknown), Keep On Marching (Funky Soldier), People Say, Africa, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), Cissy Strut, Soul Island, You’re The One, (Doodle Loop) The World Is A Little Bit Under The Weather, Seven Desires, Love The One You’re With

I discovered a newfound appreciation for the works of these fine musicians and for funk music in general since I was lucky enough to witness the reunion of the original Meters at The Warfield four months before this show. At the time, I had no idea of the significance of that once in a lifetime show and up until I wrote about it recently, the magnitude of that convergence of talent, I still hadn’t entirely realized. Yes, the reunion was short lived, just one night, but Art Neville and George Porter, Jr. kept the good times rolling with The Funky Meters, replacing Zigaboo Modeliste with Russell Batiste, Jr. on drums and Leo Nocentelli with Brian Stoltz on guitar. Brian had previously toured with the Neville Brothers and as you might have guessed, Russell had come from the lineage of the renowned Batiste musical family of New Orleans, cousin to the great John Batiste who most people know from being the former bandleader of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”. 

This was the first of two long nights at The Fillmore and it was graced with a fine poster at the end of the show, created by Chris Shaw, one of my favorite poster artists, who appropriately decorated it with a cartoon of a fierce, bright green gator in a murky bayou. In fact, I just discovered that they used the recordings from those two nights to put out a live album called, “Fiyo At The Fillmore, Volume 1”. Which songs from which night they pulled to make that album remain a mystery to me and I don’t believe they ever released a Volume 2, but whatever. Strangely enough, my recording had been stopped and started all over the place in my tapes, so I can’t reliably say that the setlist I have presented here is actually in the correct order, but you have my assurances that those songs were indeed performed. I’m definitely going to have to pick up that album some day.

One of the big attractions to this show for me was the fact that the Dirty Dozen Brass Band was opening. Though this would be the first and only time I would see them, their reputation as masters of the second line, Baptist church tinged, New Orleans sound preceded them, playing music and putting out albums since the late 70’s. Their most recent album, “Buck Jump”, had been produced by John Medeski, the keyboardist of Medeski, Martin, & Wood and John lended his skills on the B3 organ for that album as well. The band had a long list of talented musicians come and go throughout the years, so it comes as no surprise that “Uncle” Lionel Batiste, one of that previously mentioned extensive musical family, had also played drums from them for a time. They got the crowd nice and warmed up very quickly, stretching out long percussion solos as early as their second song. They mostly did instrumentals, so I didn’t know the names of most of what they did, but I do know they played a smokin’ version of “Superstitious” by Stevie Wonder and another of their own called “Feet Can’t Fail Me Now”. 

The Funky Meters clocked in well over two hours of music that night, doing such funk epics as a 14 minute long “Ain’t No Use”, a 17 and a half minute long version of “People Say”, and a 20 minute long rendition of “Africa”. George got to do a truly impressive bass solo for that last one. They also borrowed one of the Dirty Dozen guys, I think it was Roger Lewis, to do a saxophone solo for their cover of “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” by Sly & The Family Stone. Russell got his chance to wow us on the drums during “(Doodle Loop) The World Is A Little Bit Under The Weather” and (I believe) they wrapped up the night with “Love The One You’re With” by Stephen Stills. It was an exhausting though fun show as expected, but I’m sad to say that this was the last time I saw The Funky Meters and am afraid I will never will again. Art passed away in 2018, living to the ripe old age of 81, but poor Russell died unexpectedly of a heart attack just last September at the all too young age of 57.

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, The Sword Project, Fill., SF, Mon., March 12

SETLIST : Black Book, Discretion Grove, Church On White, The Hook, Phantasies, Vague Space, 1% Of One, Trojan Curfew, Troubbble, Jo-Jo’s Jacket, Jenny & The Ess-Dog, (encore), Pink India, Keep The Faith, That’s What Mama Said

Mr. Malkmus had recently re-emerged on the music scene with this new solo project and I was eager to hear it. I was still licking my emotional wounds from not being able to record Pavement at the Maritime just before they broke up in 1999, having been stuck at a union gig up on Nob Hill whose evenings. Pavement will always evoke feelings of loss for me regardless since their Warfield show back in ’97 would be the last show I would see with my lifelong friend Casey who would be killed riding on his bike on Market Street shortly afterwards. I’m sure there are many others out there, perhaps yourself gentle reader, who have similar feelings toward musical acts that are forever coupled with such tragedies. But I know Casey would have wanted me to go on and seeing Stephen was part of the grieving process for me. Ultimately, it helped I think and I was actually pretty impressed with this new project of his, The Jicks. Coincidentally, Mr. Malkmus was processing grief of his own then, writing one of his new songs, “Church On White”, about his friend, novelist Robert Bingham, who had recently passed away from a heroin overdose only six months after he was married. The song’s title is a reference to Robert’s old address in New York. Stephen had performed music at his wedding and served as an usher at his funeral. 

So grief stricken and burnt out from touring with Pavement, Stephen sought to start life anew, relocated to Portland, Oregon, and recruited his girlfriend Heather Larimer on percussion and back up vocals as well as a cadre of local, talented ringers. Together they would release his first self titled album, though they had considered first calling it “Swedish Reggae”, just a day shy of a month before this show. Having only an album’s worth of songs to play, which they performed that night all of them but one, “Deado” the last song on the album. They would pad their sets on this tour with a handful of covers as many first album bands traditionally do on their first tour and The Jicks would finish the night with a cover of “That’s What Mama Said” by the obscure Australian 70’s rock band Coloured Balls. They were so brand spanking new that the tour had only began five days before in Vancouver following their debut gig at the Bowery Ballroom in New York. 

Opening the show was an interesting, but also new band also from Portland called The Sword Project. They played mostly dense instrumental songs, a couple with a violin playing along, so I wasn’t able to decipher any of their song titles. I imagine most of what they played came from their debut EP which had just come out that year. Anyway, they would ultimately shorten their name to simply Swords two years later, but then they broke up in 2006, so this was the only time I’d see them. This would also be the only time I’d see The Jicks too, but Stephen is still making music to this day and there had been a couple Pavement reunions since, though I missed them both. Pavement’s percussionist, Bob Mastanovich, would serve as The Jicks’ tour manager and by 2012, The Jicks began performing a handful of Pavement covers here and there like “Shady Lane” and “Stereo”.

Stephen had always been sort of drunken, smarmy smart alek on stage, but having just been released from Pavement, was at least cheerful this time around. The band was also in good spirits, cracking jokes all night as well. Hell, even his own father, decked out in a V-neck sweater introduced his son’s band, first introducing himself, “You don’t know me, but I’m Steve’s dad!” After the first song, Malkmus said that the band’s name was a combination of “jerk and another four letter word starting with D… My parents don’t know. I didn’t tell them yet.” Making an indirect rib of The Fillmore, he made some sort of wisecrack about Grace Slick’s daughter being in the audience, saying she was named “Oil Slick” and pondering why she would name her such. 

After “Phantasies”, bass player Joanna Bolma called it “a wall of Malkmus!” Later, Stephen would say “1% Of One” was about a “blind soundman”. Their drummer, John Moen, also monkeyed around with the crowd later, doing his impression of a heavy metal double kick drum sound. For the first song of their encore, Stephen made yet another wisecrack for the hippies saying he was going to play “Pink India” like Van Morrison “even though I hate him.” Funny, I had just seen Van at The Warfield only two months before this and though Van didn’t get a poster, The Jicks did and it was a good one. But like I said, this would be the last time I’d see Stephen. He would eventually break up with Heather, but would shortly afterwards marry Jessica Jackson Hutchins having two daughters together, and after a three year stint living in Berlin, is currently back in Portland again. 

Mojave 3, The Sid Hillman Quartet, Slim’s, SF, Sun., March 4

SETLIST : My Life In Art, She Broke You So Softly, Give What You Take, In Love With A View, Sarah, When You’re Drifting, Caught Beneath Your Heel, This Road I’m Traveling, Where Is The Love, Some Kinda Angel, Yer Feet, Mercy, (encore), Trying To Reach You, Baby’s Coming Home

After two exceptionally long and draining nights with Leftover Salmon at The Fillmore and Col. Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade at The Warfield, seeing a subdued show with the Mojave 3 at Slim’s was a welcome respite. Frankly, I was just glad I wasn’t ushering and could enjoy this one as a civilian. Those two marathons were fantastic shows, but even back when I was that young, those outings were starting to take their toll. The soothing heroin country sounds of Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell could soothe any savage beast and would make the hardest of hearts grow misty. Indeed, having just watched the Niner’s lose the Super Bowl two nights ago, my bizarre fantasies of the Mojave 3 as the Halftime Show entertainment lifted my spirits. I couldn’t help but imagine after a minute or two of “Where Is The Love”, everybody in the stadium would grow deathly silent and then begin crying remorsefully on each other’s shoulders. We had to settle for Usher. Still, a boy can dream. Maybe next year. 

It had been five years since I had seen the Mojave 3 open for Lush at The Fillmore and I was glad that I could catch this, the second of two nights they performed at Slim’s. I would have liked to have done both nights, but like I said, I was putting in a late one with Mr. Claypool the night before this. Looking back at what I wrote in ’96 about that Lush show and most of my work writing about those early years, I wasn’t nearly as thorough as I am now, so at least I have a chance to fill in a few details about the Mojave 3 that I didn’t put in beforehand. For starters, they originally wanted to call their new band simply Mojave, but they discovered that there was a band in Germany who had swiped that name. Like I said, this was the second band for Neil and Rachel who despite having recently divorced and their first band, the ear splitting shoegazer pioneers Slowdive, disbanded in ’95, they still were carrying on professionally, releasing the Mojave 3’s 3rd album, “Excuses For Travelers”, the previous May. Neal would also channel his art into his first solo album called “Sleeping On Roads” that year.

Opening that night was Sid Hillman and his Quartet. Sid, the nephew of Chris Hillman of The Byrds and former UCLA philosophy student, had been a sort of jack of all trades in L.A., having also recently acted in movies like “Arlington Road”, “City Of Angels”, “Men In Black 2”, and “Ghost World”. Funny, I remember him in that last movie, having been particularly rude to Thora Birch’s character. He had been following the Mojave 3 on this brief but intense four week, 22 show tour in 19 cities. The following nights they would also do back to back shows at the Troubadour back in Sid’s neck of the woods in West Hollywood. He was mellow as to be expected at such a show, but I couldn’t help but thinking listening to him again that he sounded a lot like Luna who I had just seen at The Fillmore the week before this. It was the beginning of the end of the so-called nu metal jock rock genre and more and more acts like Sid were emerging out of it. But Sid would eventually retire his Quartet four years later, though they would have a reunion in 2019 just before the pandemic. 

We were treated to five of Mojave 3’s new songs that evening, starting the set with two off the new album, “My Life In Art” and “She Broke You So Softly”. Quiet as my recording of their set was, I was relieved to find their show on archive.org or at least everything they played that night up until “Yer Feet”. Neil asked the crowd, “Our second triumphant night in San Francisco, so interesting, were any of you here last night? You’re going to hear the same set again. Is that OK?” Then a fellow next to me joked, “Slower this time, OK?” Yes, they did play almost the exact same set, though they did rearrange the song order and the last one of the set the night before had been “Dagger”, a Slowdive song. They then did “Give What You Take” accompanied by a pedal steel guitar, an instrument I adore and wish more bands would use. Seriously, as if their music wasn’t melancholy enough. Adding the pedal steel made their sings sound so mournful, that it starts becoming funny. 

Neil managed to crack up the audience a little before “Sarah”, presenting a lucky fan with an unusual souvenir, an expired glow stick. He showed it to us all saying, “We got this in Athens in Georgia. It’s a glow stick. It doesn’t glow anymore, but… uhh… someone asked me to take it to San Francisco and give it to you. I think they used to live here and wanted something. I said, ‘Can I take it to Baltimore?’ They said no and I said, ‘What about Seattle?’ They said no.” Neil shrugged and gave it away plainly stating, “There… It’s a glow stick and it doesn’t glow. It’s like a fucked up Olympic flame.” Like most English acts, the show was relatively short, at least a damn sight shorter than Leftover Salmon or Claypool, clocking in at just over an hour. I was grateful to get a good night sleep at last and wouldn’t see another show for over a week. 

Still, I’m glad I caught it since I would never see the Mojave 3 again, though they did tour in 2011 opening for Band Of Horses which I sadly missed. Thankfully, Neil and Rachel reformed Slowdive again and I saw them just last year at The Warfield, 30 very long years since I had seen that band last. In a strange twist of fate, Slowdive has found a new audience through the unlikely ally of TikTok. I wouldn’t have guessed in my wildest dreams back in ’92 that three decades later, kids would take a shining to videos of their music, but the more the merrier. In those in between years, Neil continued to make music and I actually managed to catch one of his solo shows at the Great American in 2009, the final full year I would be bootlegging. He was doing a lot of surfing in his spare time back then. I wonder if he had time to catch a few waves down on Ocean Beach… probably not. Rachel had been in a relationship for a while with Mark Kozelek of the Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon, but has since married Steve Clark, Slowdive’s tour manager. I hope the Mojave 3 get back together someday and I certainly hope I don’t have to wait for them as long as I had to wait for Slowdive. 

Roni Size Reprazent, Virgin Megastore, SF, Sat., March 3

Col. Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, B-Side Payers, Boomshanka, War., SF, Sat., March 3

SETLIST : Thela Hun Ginjeet, Col. Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, With A Little Help From My Friends, Shattering Song, Climbin’ The Ladder (Pts. 1 & 2), 16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought Six, Hendershot, Highball With The Devil, 2000 Light Years, Hair, (DJ Disc solo), Whamola, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. I-IV), (encore), Taxman, Tomorrow Never Knows

This is one of those rare occasions when I would see an early show during the day and then either usher or see a show later that night. You had best believe, this night ending with Mr. Claypool would ensure that it was indeed a long one, wrapping up around 2 am. It had already endured one long night the previous evening with Leftover Salmon at The Fillmore, they playing nearly three hours between their two sets and encore. But before I get to Les and his cavalcade of stars, first thing’s first, and speaking of first things, this would be the first time I’d see an in-store performance at Virgin Megastore. Virgin, the ubiquitous umbrella corporation and brainchild of British billionaire Richard Branson, had in their infinite wisdom decided to renovate the gargantuan corner building at 4th and Market, turning it essentially into one giant Tower Records. Now, you’ll hear no complaints about it from me especially since this behemoth temple to capitalism and popular culture would afford me the occasional free show.

And this first show there would be Roni Size Reprezent. I had recorded him once at the Maritime Hall two years almost to the day before this show and Roni was actually playing at the Hall that night as well. I couldn’t go because I was of coarse had my dance card full with Claypool. Roni did a surprisingly long set for an in store performance, clocking in at about 73 minutes. I made sure to get there early, but it was still pretty packed. Thankfully, it was loud enough to hear in the back. I wasn’t able to get a set list, nor make out most of the songs they did, but I do know that the first one they performed was “Dirty Beats”. Beware, the chorus of that song gets stuck in your head and stays there forever, so I won’t repeat it to you now. It was the height of the drum & bass stuff coming out of England and Roni had just put out his “In The Mode” album the previous October featuring guest artists like Method Man, Rahzel, and Zach De La Rocha. Roni and the gang got the crowd dancing, one song sampling, “Clap you hands everybody!” and another getting us all to chant “1-2-3-4 Frisco rocks!” I love drum and bass music and frankly don’t listen to it enough, much less go out and hear it live.

But that has never been the problem with one Mr. Leslie Edward Claypool. Yes, believe it or not, this would be the fifth time I would see him and the Frog Brigade since they had recorded the “Live Frogs” album at the Great American just five months before this. If that wasn’t enough, I would be seeing Les for a SIXTH time just four months later opening for Phil Lesh at the Greek! That’s six times in less than nine months. So, as you might imagine, I was well versed in the material at the time. And though, yes, they mostly played the same stuff, I’m happy to say we were treated to a variety of very special guests that night, though I will get into that later. One reason that this was such a long stretch was that there was not one, but two openers for the Frog Brigade, a band I knew all too well for their musical stamina. 

The first act was a band called Boomshanka, who were local, but I had otherwise never heard of before. I couldn’t help but wonder if they got their name from a bit in the English TV comedy series “The Young Ones”, a phrase the hippie Neil would utter supposed to translate to “may the seed of your loin be fruitful in the belly of your woman”. Regardless, they were on and off pretty quickly and were followed by the always dependable B-Side Players, a band I had already recorded three times before at the Maritime. It would be only three months until I would see them again at The Fillmore opening for Mike Clark’s Prescription Renewal. They were always an excellent opening act, but they complimented the Frog Brigade particularly well. Like Boomshanka, I couldn’t figure out their setlist, but I do know they played “Movement” that night. There was an impressive flute solo during that one. Near the end of their set, there was an equally impressive percussion solo and they riffed a little of the “007 Theme” from James Bond. 

After a lengthy intro, Les finally took to the stage, wearing once again his stars and stripes helmet and military regalia. Jay Lane on drums was sporting his furry horned hat and white fur vest over his bare torso. Skerik was notably not with them this time on sax, so Jeff Chimenti filled in some of his parts on keys, though there were some surprise sax players joining in later as well to help make up for Skerik’s absence. As they had done before, they opened with King Crimson’s “Thela Hun Ginjeet” which stretched out well beyond ten minutes. Following that, they did that “Sgt. Pepper’s” schtick again playing the first two songs, replacing the lyrics to “Col. Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade” and Jay Lane, like Ringo in The Beatles, would be the drummer singing “With A Little Help From My Friends”. Like he had done during the New Year’s shows at The Fillmore three months prior, he changed one of the lyrics, following, “lend me your ear and I’ll sing you a song” with “and I’ll try not to smoke all your weed”.  

The first of many guest musicians that would join them that night would be saxophonist Kenny Brooks, who I had seen perform many times with Alphabet Soup and others. I can recognize his conspicuously pronounced shoulder tilt while he’s blowing his horn from a mile away. Kenny played along to a nearly twenty minute long rendition of “Shattering Song” and Les once again did his little breakdown in the middle of it, crooning a couple verses from “Riders On The Storm” by The Doors. Les did one of more increasingly common mild scoldings to the mosh pit during that song saying, “Let’s be careful out there. I see a couple of boneheads. We don’t want boneheads. Respect the people around you. This is the last time I’m going to say this.” 

After that, Brian Kehoe from M.I.R.V. came on stage to do a guitar solo during a cover of “Climbin’ Up The Ladder (Pts. 1 & 2)” by The Isley Brothers. That was a rare one and I don’t think I’ve ever heard Les play that before or since. Another fine saxophone master Les had fill in for Skerik that night would be none other than Ralph Carney who I had just seen sit in with Leftover Salmon at The Fillmore for a couple songs just the night before. It was appropriate that the next song they played together would be a cover of Tom Waits’ “16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought Six”. Ralph had collaborated with Tom on many of his recordings and performances over the years. Primus had backed up Mr. Waits for his recording of his song “Big In Japan” as well and Primus likewise employed Tom to lend his voice to their song “Tommy The Cat”. 

Les encouraged Ralph further during “Hendershot” slowing down in the middle of the song to address him, “I understand that you are an expert at the baritone sax. Can you give us a sample? Can you give us more than a sample? Can you give us a slab of what the baritone sax sounds like?” Rest assured, Ralph gave us one of his signature master works of woodwind genius, hitting all the subtle lows and exalted highs. They did another long one, “Highball With The Devil”, Les introducing it, maniacally cackling, “Come on kiddies, gather ‘round, there’s a new sensation in town called Frog Brigade! Hee-hee! Hee-hee!” Les did a couple licks of “Master Of Puppets” by Metallica in the middle of that one as well. 

Though I had heard the Frog Brigade do a few covers before, this would be the first time I’d hear them perform “2000 Light Years” by the Rolling Stones. I was actually unfamiliar with the song at the time and had to ask somebody else at the time what song it was. Adam Gates AKA Bob C. Cock played a little guitar on that one and Kehoe wowed the crowd, playing his guitar with his teeth a little. Les teased a teensy bit of “Cygnus X-1” by Rush during that song, perhaps a precursor to Primus going on tour and performing the whole “Farewell To Kings” album twenty years later. There would actually be a third cover I would hear that night that I has never heard before or since being “Hair” by Graham Central Station. The Frog Brigade had just gotten off of a six week tour with Galactic and their singer, Houseman, joined the band on stage to sing for that one. Les chanted for a bit, “Houseman, let me tell you something. I say it’s not fair to judge Houseman by the length of his hair.” Next, they did the mind bending instrumental “Whamola”, giving DJ Disc and Jay both long solos before ending their set with Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”. 

The band marched off stage, Les leaving his bass in an eerie sample loop until they came back, starting their encore with a cover of “Taxman” by The Beatles. They were joined with original Primus drummer Herb Alexander on a second drum kit as he had done during the New Year’s shows and also joining them once again was fellow Lollapalooza alumni Jerry Cantrell from Alice In Chains on guitar. And like that New Year’s gig, they wrapped it all up with a twenty minute epic cover of “Tomorrow Never Knows”, also by The Beatles. DJ Disc and M.I.R.V. came on stage to do solos indeed fulfilling Les’ prediction that the song was going to be a “clusterfuck”, though in a wonderful, wonderful way. And also like before, they ended it by having each musician put down their instruments one at a time ending the cacophony with Les, Jay, and Herb finishing last. Like during the encore, Les had left his bass repeating a sampled loop until they put us out of misery and killed it. 

Mr. Claypool’s dabblings with Sausage and The Holy Mackerel were commendable, it was obvious that this show filling The Warfield firmly solidified that Les had well expanded his resume beyond Primus. But unlike the Great American shows where I had gotten fully bone fide official live albums from and the Fillmore New Year’s shows that had posters, strangely enough, I didn’t get anything from this one. Still, Les had been spoiling me up until then, so I didn’t mind so much. Like I had mentioned earlier, it would only be another four months until I saw the Frog Brigade again. It also wouldn’t be long until Les’ artistic restlessness would have him branch off once again and form his Bucket Of Bernie Brains band the following year, do another New Year’s show with the Frog Brigade at The Fillmore, and then finally reform Primus in 2003.

Leftover Salmon, Jim Page, Fill., SF, Fri., March 2

SETLIST : (Set 1), White Freight Liner, Ride, Valley Of The Full Moon, Do The Boogie, Last Days Of Autumn, Steam Powered Aeroplane, Blue Green Slime, Little Maggie, Junco Parter, Let’s Have A Party, (Set 2), Zombie Jamboree, Whispering Waters, Riding On The L & N, Bend In The River, Stranger, Jim’s Rap, Almost Cut My Hair, The Other Side, High Five, Soul Shakedown Party, Do You Wanna Dance – Ranking Full Stop, Jokester, 4:20 Polka, (encore), Euphoria, Rise Up Wake & Bake

It had been almost three years since I’d seen Leftover Salmon at the Mountain Aire Festival, but this time it was their own show and I got a much longer set this time around. Indeed, it clocked in just shy of three hours long between their two sets and the encore. Since I had seen them last, bass player Tye North had left the band and had been replaced by Greg Garrison. This would also be the first time I’d see them with Bill McKay on the keyboards who joined the band the year before this. One of them introduced him between songs as “Bill McKey on the kays!”. This show was the first of two sold out nights at The Fillmore, but I could only see this one since I would be at The Warfield the following night for Les Claypool and his Frog Brigade. This would also be the last time I’d see Leftover Salmon’s original banjo player Mark Vann alive. He would succumb to a long battle with cancer the year after this show and ultimately be replaced by Noam Pickelny. 

Not listed on the show’s bill, but performing was a a fellow named Jim Page, obviously not to be confused with the Led Zeppelin guitar god. No, Jim was a humble singer, songwriter, street performer, and social activist from Seattle. He would later describe it as “Seattle town where the ground rumbles all around you.” Just three days before this show, the Nisqually Quake shook the SeaTac area, a pretty big one measuring a 6.8 on the Richter scale. Nobody died at least, except one guy had a heart attack because of the shock of all of it I would imagine. Jim only did four songs to open that night, but the only one I could figure out the title for was the first one, “Never Alone”. Jim would come on stage later and play alongside Leftover Salmon, doing some crazy spoken word rant during jam session that felt like it went on for eternity. Before he left the stage, they mentioned that Jim was going to playing at some Irish festival down at Fort Mason that weekend. 

Leftover Salmon were tight as usual that night and thankfully, like so many other hippies, they were taper friendly, so I was able to find a high quality bootleg of this show on archive.org. They gave a shout out to their home state of Colorado early saying “Valley Of The Full Moon” was about Telluride. I had forgotten how fast these guys played, especially during a breakneck speed one like “Little Maggie”. There was a welcome surprise near the end of the first set when venerable master of all woodwinds Ralph Carney joined them, first on sax for “Junco Partner”, then on clarinet for “Let’s Have A Party”. As luck would have it, Ralph would show up to Claypool’s show the following night and play a few songs there too! Ralph being local, I was lucky to see him as often as I did, God rest his kind soul. After a very short set break, Leftover Salmon returned on stage opening with a funny calypso samba number called “Zombie Jamboree”. A couple songs later they described “Riding On The L & N” as a tune about “riding a train through Kentucky”. Between songs, one of the guys in the band called Mark Vann, “Vann Jovi”, and he joked about all the ganja smoke billowing in the room, slurring, “Y’all folks, y’all sound like y’all on somethin’ y’all” before they did “Bend In The River”. 

They made some interesting choices of songs to cover before they finished their set starting with a couple numbers from the 60’s, Bob Marley’s “Soul Shakedown Party” and then “Do You Wanna Dance” by another Bob, Bobby Freeman. Jim Page came back on stage to rap a bit during “Soul Shakedown Party” which was thankfully brief. The one that surprised me was their intense version of “Ranking Full Stop” by The English Beat. Suffice to say, these guys were well versed in many styles of music. I was disappointed that despite Leftover Salmon packing The Fillmore for back to back shows, there wasn’t a poster at the end of the night. I would see them one more time at The Fillmore three years later but as luck would have it, I’d be going to the exact two times they didn’t get a poster in all the numerous nights they graced that stage. 

KMEL Jams: De La Soul, Richie Rich, Kofy Brown, Mr. C The Slide Man, Sugar Free & JT The Bigga Figga, Fill., SF, Thur., March 1

SETLISTS :

(DE LA SOUL) : Buddy, Oooh, All Good?

(RICHIE RICH) : Touch Myself, Game Don’t Stop, I Get 5 On It, I Ain’t Gonna Do

This night was being billed as one of those “KMEL Jams” shows, a traditionally chaotic cavalcade of quickly rotating hip hop acts, but the night belonged to De La Soul as far as I was concerned. Even though they were the middle act on the bill, I still considered them the headliner and I listed them above as such. Not to say that the other acts were chopped liver, they weren’t, but De La was clearly a massive cut above the rest. I had seen them plenty up till then, even having had recorded them on four separate occasions at the Maritime Hall. They were finally releasing new material, the first stuff in over four years, starting a proposed trilogy of albums with “AOI : Mosaic Thump”, that just came out the previous August. The AOI stood for “Art Official Intelligence” and the second installment “Bionix” would come out nine months after this show. The third installment was never actually completed since the band had a falling out with Tommy Boy Records, rumored to be over streaming their stuff on the web, a fairly new thing for musicians back then.

An assortment of DJs from KMEL came and went introducing the acts that night and trying to pump up the crowd. The first act on was Kofy Brown, a singer who played bass as well. As you might have guessed, her name was an alternate spelling of Coffy Brown, the titular character from the Pam Grier film. She only got to do about three songs, which was pretty much what most acts got that night, but I liked what I heard. Kofy got the audience riled up, doing the standard call and response bit, “Do the ladies run this mothafucker? (Hell yeah!) Do the fellahs run this mothafucker? (Hell yeah!)” She would go on in later years to form the rock band Sistas In The Pit and I would have the pleasure of seeing them perform a few times, once opening for Iggy & The Stooges at The Warfield. I did find out recently that she’s butting heads with another new hip hop artist calling herself the same name but spelling it “Koffee Brown”. It’s not been settled yet, but Kofy did send her a cease and desist letter.

On the lighter side of the news, the next act came quite a bit out of left field. William Perry Jr. from Chicago had been known by the stage name DJ Casper, but a couple years before this show, he would forever adopt the moniker Mr. C The Slide Man. Not to be confused with Mr Cee the hip hop producer from New York, this guy… you guessed it, created the “Cha Cha Slide” song. For those of you who haven’t attended a wedding, bat mitzvah, quinceanera, or any other gathering that involves drinking since 1998, it has become one of those ubiquitous group dance numbers at each and every blessed occasion worldwide and shall remain so for all eternity apparently. But up until that night, I was blissfully unaware of the song’s existence. Mr. C came on stage to the sounds of the the theme song from “Sanford & Son” playing over the speakers and he greeted the crowd, saying something about Ja Rule being there. I looked around, but I didn’t see him. Maybe he was backstage. 

Anyway, he got everybody to space out on the dance floor a little and he chanted them through those dance moves, turn to the left, to the right, the cha cha part of coarse, and so on. Turned out that Mr. C had created the song when he was a personal trainer at a Bally Total Fitness Club and if you listen to it again, yeah, you can see it basically is a low impact aerobic routine. So, silly as the song is, I must give Mr. C credit for helping overweight people at weddings work off some of the cake and booze. It’s hard not to have fun dancing along to it I admit and I got a kick out the women he brought on stage from the audience to do the steps along with him. The song obviously made him a lot of money too, surprisingly landing #1 on the UK charts for weeks, and even was in a sketch on “Saturday Night Live” a few years ago with John Mulaney. I’m sad though to say that Mr. C got the Big C and passed away from cancer just five months ago at the all too young age of 58, but like I said, that dance song will outlive us all.

It was a little strange to have De La as the middle act, but it was welcome to hear them do their thing as always. A DJ from KMEL who I think was named Rosary came out to introduce them, having a drink and riling up the crowd cheering, “If you don’t know you’re about to be educated tonight!” Like the others, De La only had time for three songs, being “Buddy”, “Oooh”, and “All Good?”. The last two were off the new album, with guest vocals by Redman and Chaka Khan respectively. “Oooh” was even nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. After “Buddy”, they did that whole bit asking which side of the crowd the party was at, one of them claiming that it “seemed like when Kofy Brown was on, the party was on this side”. Yes, their set was over before we knew it and they swiftly moved on to Richie Rich.

I had never seen Richie before, though he was a local from Oakland and been making music since the 80’s. He was the first bay area rapper to sign to Def Jam, but he left two years before this show to form his own label, Ten-Six Records. His fourth album, “The Game” had just come out the previous September and he did two new songs that night “I Ain’t Gonna Do” and “Game Don’t Stop” He had the DJ play some long intro, but I was a little startled at first how loud Richie got the girls up front screaming. It was deafening. Between songs, he asked us, “How many y’all remember when Oakland was 415?” For all those out of towners, that currently is the area code for San Francisco, but prior to 1991, it also included Oakland. Nerd alert. 

The night ended with Sugar Free & JT The Bigga Figga taking turns and rapping together. I think I’d seen JT show up at gigs and rap with people on stage before, but this would be the first time I believe I’d seen him officially on a bill. JT was from The Fillmore area, so at least his commute home that night was short. I liked his stuff too and was impressed finding out how prolific he was, releasing four albums in 2000 alone. He’d also go on to produce other notable hip hop artists as Master P, The Game, and San Quinn. I couldn’t figure out his setlist that night, but I do know that they performed “Playaz Club”. Sugar Free got the folks chanting “Ain’t no party like a Frisco party!” and “Make money money money, make money money!” When it was all over, JT told everybody to “be careful driving home. It’s raining.” Yes, it was an enjoyable night of hip hop, but I would soon experience a dramatic change of gears musically the following night on the very same stage with the bluegrass jam band Leftover Salmon. Unfortunately, neither show would get a poster. The good news was I would only have to wait eight short months until De La would return to play once again on that very same stage for a lot longer than three songs and that one got a poster too. 

Luna, Rainer Maria, Fill., SF, Sat., February 24

SETLISTS

(RAINER MARIA) : Artificial Light, Spit & Fire, (unknown), (unknown), Broken Radio, (unknown), Thought I Was, The Contents Of Lincoln’s Pockets, Breakfast Of Champions

(LUNA) : Eggnog, Four Thousand Days, Lovedust, Pup Tent, Double Feature, Rhythm King, Friendly Advice, The Slow Song, Sideshow By The Seashore, Dear Diary, Lost In Space, 23 Minutes In Brussels, Tiger Lily, Moon Palace, Superfreaky Memories, Bonnie & Clyde, (encore), Bewitched, Freakin’ & Peakin’ 

Sadly, this would be the third and final time I’d see Luna perform at The Fillmore. Between these shows and the two times I saw them open at The Warfield for the Cocteau Twins in ’94 and Lou Reed in ’96, I had gotten to know Mr. Dean Wareham and company pretty well. I’m just glad that on this final occasion, they finally ponied up a poster at the end of the night for them. Just 18 days before this show, the band had released their “Luna Live” album with tracks recorded from shows they had done at the 9:30 Club in D.C. and The Knitting Factory in New York City. Though they wouldn’t put out the “Romantica” album for another year, Dean and the gang treated us to a sneak peak of its opening track “Lovedust” as their third song of their set that night. Luna had another song, “The Old Fashioned Way”, used as the opening theme to the romantic thriller “Kill Me Later” with Selma Blair which would be in theaters on the unfortunately timed release date of three days after 9/11, though they didn’t play that song that night. 

Opening for them would be Rainer Maria, an Emo trio from Madison, Wisconsin. Named after the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, I thought they were quite an upbeat band to be warming up for such a low key act as Luna. Rainer Maria had just released their third studio album, “A Better Version Of Me” just a month and a day before this show, but they would ultimately disband five years later, getting together once and a blue moon for a handful of reunion shows, including a New Year’s Eve show at The Bowery in Brooklyn, New York back in 2014. The singers, Caithlin and Kaia, reminded the crowd on more than one occasion that they’d be playing at Bottom Of The Hill the following night.

Like I had written previously, Luna had become familiar to me, so there wasn’t anything particularly surprising in their set. Still, I was glad that they had once again included their cover of Serge Gainsbourg’s “Bonnie & Clyde”, a duet Dean did with his bandmate and then girlfriend Britta Phillips, she obviously singing the Brigitte Bardot part. They had played it the previous time Luna was at The Fillmore, but I was into Serge’s music by this time and appreciated it more. Dean and Britta sealed the deal, getting hitched in 2006, and continued to tour together making music as a duo appropriately named Dean & Britta, but I haven’t seen them or Luna since this night in question. But Luna is still around and in fact performed on New Year’s Eve at The Fillmore just six weeks ago and they also released a bunch of live albums from shows they did on their 2022 tour. 

Willie Nelson, Apartment #9, Fill., SF, Thur., February 22

SETLIST : Whiskey River, Stay A Little Longer, Good Hearted Woman, Funny How Time Slips Away, Crazy, Night Life, Me & Bobby McGee, I Been To Georgia On A Fast Train, Blue Skies, Georgia On My Mind, All Of Me, Stardust, Mommas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys, Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground, On The Road Again, You Were Always On My Mind, Will The Circle Be Unbroken?, Seven Spanish Angels, City Of New Orleans, To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before, Luckenbach Texas (Back To The Basics Of Love), Whiskey River (reprise), Still Is Still Moving To Me, Milk Cow Blues, Poncho & Lefty, (instrumental), My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It, Me & Paul, Gypsy, Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms, I Never Cared For You, The Great Divide, Just Because, Pick Up The Tempo, Yesterday’s Wine, The Party’s Over, The Thirty-Third Of August, There Will Be No Teardrops Tonight, Whiskey River (reprise)

It had been four long years since I had first set these eyes upon the beloved Red Headed Stranger. Back then, I was recording him with Pete at the Maritime Hall and I had only been able to go topside to watch him live for a little bit since we were working. So, you can imagine my elation when I heard I’d be seeing him proper and for his first time ever performing at The Fillmore no less. And just slightly shy of the ripe old age of 68, one would think that Mr. Nelson would have played there by then, but better late than never I suppose. He would more than make up for it soon, doing multiple show stints at The Fillmore again the following year and in 2003. I’m happy to say that I attended one of each of those shows as well. 

Willie had been his usual busy self touring and releasing album after album since I had last seen him. He had just put out his (gasp!) 48th studio album, “Milk Cow Blues” the previous September, a compilation of duets he shared with guys like B.B. King, Dr. John, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Jimmie Vaughn. It was doing well, having reached the #2 spot on the Billboard Blues charts. Hopefully, by this time Willie had settled his troubles with the I.R.S. and was back in the black again. He had also lended his voice the previous May to an episode of “The Simpsons” playing himself in the “Behind The Laughter” episode. Coincidentally, that month he would also appear as himself on another animated TV show, being interviewed by Space Ghost on its first episode of their 7th season. His interview involved “the ol’ Kentucky Shark”, who had been the mascot to a failing liquor chain that had recently bought Space Ghost’s show. Chalk one for Willie being open minded. 

There was an opening act that night called Apartment #9, but I spent most of the time before Willie got on checking out a band called The Bellyachers up in the poster lounge. Though they had a full band on other occasions, it was just the two adorable singers and their acoustic guitars up there that night, but the sweet voices of those young women and their tunes had attracted an impressive amount of listeners for a poster room act. Along with a handful of originals, they covered a few interesting songs including the bluegrass gospel standard “I’ll Fly Away”. One of the singers commented that playing there made her feel “so pretty” and she felt like “I should get married or something”. Afterwards they covered “Can’t You Hear Me Calling” by Bill Monroe and finished their set with “Carrie Brown” by Del McCoury and Steve Earle. They had dedicated that so-called “murder balled” to their friends Cathy Jo and Sherry who presumably were in the crowd watching them. Funny, I had just seen another bluegrass act, the Yonder Mountain String Band, less than two weeks before this night at The Fillmore as well. 

But the night belonged to Willie and once again, when he stepped out on stage, his fans went nuts and I had that unmistakable feeling that nothing could possibly harm me when I was in his benevolent presence. As always, he sprung into action with “Whiskey River”, a song he would reprise twice later on that night, including the last song of the show. He was touring with the same band I had seen him with before including his sister Bobbie on the piano. They did all the songs they played at the Maritime and then some, clocking in a set well over two hours long consisting of almost 40 songs! He did all his hits as well as covers he made famous like “Good Hearted Woman” by Waylon Jennings, “Blue Skies” by Irving Berlin, “Yesterday’s Wine” by George Jones and Merle Haggard, and “Seven Spanish Angels” by Ray Charles. He also covered Hank Williams’  “There Will Be No Teardrops Tonight” as the second to the last song of his set before finishing up with the aforementioned second reprise of “Whiskey River”. 

Unlike Jeff Beck at The Warfield two nights before this, Willie would get a poster for his sold out two night stint of shows. It was sort of an ugly poster, but a poster nonetheless. The one he’d get the following year would be one of artist Jason Mercier’s brilliant collage masterpieces and would be so admired that the original currently graces the wall of The Fillmore down on the dance floor level next to the main bar. Like I mentioned before, I would be lucky to see Willie at one of those shows and the following year there, but also at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. That would be the weird day when I saw Willie there in the park and then hauled ass downtown to see Olivia Newton-John playing alongside the S.F. Symphony that night, but I’ll get to that one later. I would see Willie one more time at the final Bridge School Benefit in 2016, but thanks be to the grace of god that he still is alive and performing today having turned the ripe old age of 90 last April. He’s actually going to play the Greek in Berkeley just five days before he turns 91. It’s sold out, but maybe I’ll try to crash it. 

Jeff Beck, Willy Porter, War., SF, Tues., February 20

It had been a strange week in the news leading up to this show. The first map of the human genome was published, Dale Earnhardt died slamming his car into a concrete wall at the Daytona 500, and Robert Hanssen was arrested for spying for the Commies. So, seeing the one and only electric guitar god and seven time Grammy winner, Mr. Jeff Beck, was a welcome distraction for all of us. This would actually be the second guitar hero concert I’d be seeing in less than a month, having just been dazzled by Eric Johnson & Alien Love Child at The Fillmore with Derek Trucks opening. Mr. Beck, like Mr. Johnson, was one of those venerable acts that I should have seen by then, but hadn’t. Going way back to swinging London of 1965, Jeff had taken over for Eric Clapton when he left The Yardbirds, though they started butting heads and after only just 20 months in the band, he left and went out on his own. Mr. Beck is one of only 26 people to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame twice like Clapton, once with The Yardbirds and once for his solo work. And if that wasn’t enough, one needs only to take one look at the guy and you’d instantly know that he was the template for Nigel Tufnel, the guitarist of Spinal Tap and Christopher Guest’s alter ego.

So, better late than never that I would be seeing this first of a two night sold out stint at The Warfield. Sadly, it would be the second night that would be recorded for a live album and his music being entirely instrumental, I have no idea what the setlist was the night I saw him. But rest assured, to all the fans out there, he shredded quite mightily. But the opener, Willy Porter from Wisconsin, that night was subdued by comparison. It was just him and his acoustic guitar which is brave enough, but especially ballsy when you’re standing in front of a sold out crowd of Jeff Beck fans. But Mr. Porter held his own, singing his melancholy, yet well composed tunes with his baritone voice, layered with a mountain of reverb. It was so much reverb in fact, that I hadn’t a prayer making out a single lyric and consequently was unable to figure out any of his setlist either. The audience was polite and Willy would chalk this tour under his belt, joining such other notable acts that he’s opened for such as Sting, Paul Simon, and Jethro Tull.

Donning a simple white tee shirt and black leather vest, Jeff and the band took the stage and I was immediately astounded at his dexterity, especially since he didn’t use a pick. By this time, Jeff had just turned 56 years old and was branching out musically with his new album, “You Had It Coming”, which had just come out two months before this show. This eighth studio album would garner him another Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Jeff took an interesting angle with this one, experimenting with electronic dance music, though this would be the first time in 20 years that he’d be touring without a keyboard player. This would be, however, the first time he’d be touring with a second guitarist since he had been in The Yardbirds. Joining the band in that capacity would be Jennifer Batten, who had the honor and infamy of being Michael Jackson’s guitarist for the previous five years. Adding another musician from an unlikely musical group, Jeff had also brought along the drummer of The Spice Girls, Andy Ganadeen.

Backed by such able musicians, Jeff quickly confirmed his reputation to me. Even Rolling Stone magazine granted him 5th place in their list of all time greatest guitar players. Like I said, I was unable to score the setlist, but I’m sure he dusted off some of his golden oldies like “Heart Full Of Steel”, “Shapes Of Things”, and “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago”. One song I know for certain that he played was an inspiring instrumental cover of “A Day In The Life” by The Beatles. I was also impressed with the enthusiasm of his fans who cheered loudly and clapped their hands in unison even after the lights came up when he was done with his encore. So you can imagine our collective disappointment when we discovered that they weren’t giving away a poster at the end of the night. At least WIllie Nelson would get one for his two sold out shows at The Fillmore starting two nights later. Still, I’m glad to say that I had the pleasure of at least seeing Mr. Beck perform once, especially now after his passing just a year and two weeks ago. 

The Frustrators, Fetish, The Influents, One Time Angels, Fill., SF, Sat., February 10

SETLISTS :

(THE INFLUENTS) : Simple Girls, Where I’ll Go, Not The Same, Chain Parades, Tears Not Suicide, Taking Time, (unknown), Nothing New, (unknown), See You Again, Give The Anarchist A Cigarette

(FETISH) : Powerstrip, Paint You A Picture, Pins-N-Needles, Shotgun, Whatever Whenever, Weak, Eucalyptus, Silver Electric, Whiskey, Baby It’ll Be Alright, Lipstick, Love Song, S & M

(THE FRUSTRATORS) : You’re Only Human, Trout, (unknown), A Drink Please, Then She Walked Away, Living In The Real World, The Great American Midget Toss, (unknown), (unknown)

Like Yonder Mountain String Band who had played at The Fillmore the night before, I was coming into this show fresh as a daisy, though that was pretty much all the two shows had in common. Yes, unlike those jam band bluegrass people, The Frustrators along with the other acts that night were all punk. I would be pleasantly surprised to discover that the bass player of The Frustrators was none other than Mike Dirnt from Green Day. This whole show was entirely a showcase of the acts on Green Day’s own label, Adeline Records, which they had founded in 1997. Looking for a side project, along with drummer Art Tedeschi and singer Jason Chandler from Violent Anal Death (Eww) and guitarist Terry Linehan from Waterdog, they were searching literally for a name for themselves and being fans of the TV comedy “Three’s Company”, initially wanted to call their band The Ropers. But as luck would have it, there was a band in D.C. with that name, so they instead opted for The Regal Beagles, but a band in L.A. had beaten them to that name as well. Being thwarted by these turn of events, they channeled their “frustration” into the name they ultimately chose, though I discovered there is a surf rock band in the Czech Republic that shares that name as well. What can you say, great minds think alike. Incidentally, this would be my sixth show in a row I’d see at The Fillmore. I’d see Jeff Beck at The Warfield ten days after this, but the following four shows would also be ones at The Fillmore, so I was seeing a lot of that venue that winter. 

But I digress… Keeping to their east bay punk rock ethos, the show was only charging $8 a ticket that night, a staggeringly low price for a four band line up even at prices back then, and was being billed as another one of those “Fillmore Sessions” gigs. The Frustrators had put out an EP the year before, but they wouldn’t release their first album, “Achtung Jackass” until March of the following year. So, it’s not surprising that the word hadn’t gotten out in the bay area which might have explained why there were so few people in the audience that night, maybe half sold at most and I imagine many of them were friends and family of the bands. The One Time Angels were first, having a short set as expected and though I didn’t get a setlist or could decipher their songs listening to them, I know they performed “Fall From Grace” and “Mercury”. They were so new back then, they claimed that night was “pretty much their first gig” ever. 

The following act, The Influents, were a new act formed from members of Pinhead Gunpowder, a side project of Billy Joe Armstrong, the frontman of Green Day. Bass player Bill Schneider was Billy Joes’s guitar tech as well as Mike’s bass tech for years and ultimately became Green Day’s tour manager. The Influents’ guitarist and singer, Jason White, I had seen performing with Green Day as the first time they’d play with a second guitarist at the Bridge School Benefit in 1999 and that position would officially become permanent in 2012. It had been a long time, but I guessed he passed the audition. Jason had been lingering around with the band so long, in fact, that he had appeared in their video for “When I Come Around” kissing his real girlfriend in it when it was filmed way back in ’94. Jason would also take part in the side project The Network with all three members of Green Day and I’d see them, (in disguise), opening for Green Day at The Warfield in 2005. The Influents sounded a lot like Green Day actually, but I suppose that’s understandable. Jason’s lyrics were at least easier to decipher than the One Time Angels’, so I was able to figure out most of their setlist. I liked that they finished their set adding a rather unexpected short trombone solo in the middle of “Give The Anarchist A Cigarette”. 

Fetish was up next and I was able to snag their setlist, the only one I was able to get my hands on that night. Like the others, they were local, but they do share their name with a band from South Africa. Believe me, it’s best you don’t try to google the name. Let’s just say that Fetish brings up… uhh… a variety of subjects. Anyway, they were pretty cool. Their singer Matt Olyphant’s voice reminded me a bit of Mike Patton’s. He had everybody say “Hi to Dylan”, explaining, “I just had a son. That’s my baby boy” and pointed him and his mother out to the crowd. I just hope that baby had earplugs on that night and I’m pretty sure he did. Like the other openers, I haven’t seen Fetish since, but I learned that Matt has gone on to be a successful painter and still lives in the bay area. Hard to believe his baby boy is turning 23 years old this year. 

The Frustrators were an interesting, though not distant departure from Green Day, maybe a little harsher, a little more rockabilly at times. Before the show began, I have the distinct memory of a pretty young woman walking around with a plate of chocolate chip cookies and asked me if I wanted one. When she said they were a dollar each, I pled poverty, but she showed me mercy and gave me one anyway. That was a damn good cookie too, homemade, not the packaged kind. Funny that I still have that sense memory. Anyway, The Frustrators came on stage and reminded us to hold on to our raffle tickets that had been passed out earlier, beginning their set with “You’re Only Human”. A few songs later, Jason said to the crowd, “A long time ago, there was a band called Cheap Trick” and told them that their song “Dream Police” was “a great song but the lyrics were all wrong.” And so, they rewrote the lyrics and sang it as “A Drink, Please”, pronouncing the last word in two syllables as “puh-lease”. As you might imagine, the song was about drinking. A little later, they made some sort of wisecrack about thinking they were still at Gilman Street, calling it “The Gillmore”. Jason wished somebody in the crowd named Sean a happy birthday and polled the room asking if they should “hold out” or “go now” for the raffle drawing. 

They thought the girls wanted to hold out and the boys wanted to go now, but they did one more song before announcing the winner. They first announced the number “206041” and Jason yelled, “Get your ass up here!”, but nobody responded. He shrugged and joked, “Raise your hand if you want it”. Of course, everybody screamed and raised their hands as I did, but they drew again, strangely drawing the very next number sequentcially, “206042”, Jason joking, “I don’t care if you have it or not” and then a woman raised her hand, but then refused to come up. He chastised her, hissing, “Why do you turn The Fillmore into a house of lies?” They finally managed to give the prize away, whatever that was. I frankly don’t remember. Doing another cover, but this time not changing the lyrics, they then did a sped up punk version of Blondie’s “Living In The Real World”. After following that with “The Great Australian Midget Toss”, he made some gay short person wisecrack about “this guy came out of the cupboard today” and took another sharp left turn telling us, “two days ago, my dog jumped off a 3rd story balcony” and went on that the dog had landed “on the trellis below the balcony and jumped again another 12 feet!” We all cringed a bit, but I think the dog was OK. My tape supply ran out just after that anecdote. The Frustrators went on to do a few more songs before finishing the night, but I can’t say which ones they were. 

It had been since that last Bridge School show that I saw any member of Green Day and I wasn’t expecting to get so up close and personal with them that night. Earlier, when the doors had just opened and there were only a handful of people in the house, Mike Dirnt himself approached me when I was talking to another usher and offered me one of the raffle tickets. To this day, I can’t remember what the raffle was for probably because I was so distracted that he would be talking to me in the first place. The thing I remember most was that he told me I had “an honest face”. That was probably the highest compliment I’ve ever received from any celebrity, if not the only one really. In addition to my close encounter with Mike, Billy Joe came out about halfway through The Frustrators’ set and danced in the sparsely populated mosh pit with us! Seriously, everybody knew it and tried to bunch up around Billy Joe as close as possible, turning it into more of a rugby scrum than a pit. Still, it was nice to be so literally close to him and Mike, a rare occasion which would draw the envy of any Green Day fan, especially after they got stadium big when “American Idiot” came out. Mr. Dirnt would have his hands full with that new level of success, setting aside The Frustrators for nearly a decade. They would reunite in 2011 and record a new EP, but this Fillmore show was the only time I’ve seen them live. Sadly, Adeline Records would ultimately close up shop in 2017, so I was glad to see all these bands when they were still new.

Yonder Mountain String Band, Fill., SF, Fri., February 9

SETLIST : (SET 1) Easy As Pie, High On A Hilltop, End Of The Day, Pan American, Roll On Blues, Check Out Time, If There’s Still Ramblin’ In The Rambler (Let Him Go) –  Dominated Love Slave – If There’s Still Ramblin’ In The Rambler (Let Him Go)

(Set 2), Loved You Enough, A Father’s Arms, Shady Grove, Rambler’s Anthem, Sorrow Is A Highway, Bluegrass Breakdown, Must’ve Had Your Reasons, New Horizons, Left Me In A Hole, Keep On Going – Mason’s Children – Keep On Going

(Set 3), Boatman – The Bolton Search, Rag Mama, Half Moon Rising, Granny Woncha Smoke Some, On The Run – High Cross Junction – On The Run, Peace Of Mind – Dogs Prelude – Follow Me Down To The Riverside – Peace Of Mind, (encore), Mother’s Only Son

This was my first encounter with the Yonder Mountain String Band and I was coming in sight unseen and unheard. From their name, I deduced that they were some kind of bluegrass band and my suspicions were correct, though for better or for worse, they will forever be lumped in with the so-called jam band crowd. From the town of Nederland, Colorado, 17 miles east of Boulder and ironically named since it means “Low land” and the town’s elevation is 8,232 feet, banjo player Dave Johnston and singer Jeff Austin had founded the band there in ’98, having relocated from Urbana, Illinois, a very different landscape indeed. Before they were in a band with the hysterical moniker of The Bluegrassholes. But when Yonder Mountain got together, they got big fairly quickly, their debut album “Elevation” having just been released in the fall of 1999. They had also put out a live album on their own independent label called Frog Pad Records just a couple months before this show called “Mountain Tracks : Vol. 1”, recorded from a two day stint at the Fox Theater in Boulder.

It was their first time playing at The Fillmore, but it was already sold out. Like I said, I didn’t know what to expect, so I drastically underestimated the amount of tape I should have brought that night. In fact, I only have one full tape of their stuff to speak of, really only getting their first set and a little over half of their second. Little did I know these guys were in it for the long haul that evening and did a whopping three sets! One rarely sees a band play three sets at any venue and if they do, rest assured it’s a jam band like Galactic or something. Anyway, the good news is that they being of the jam band ilk, had their cadre of bootleggers in the house that show, setting up their gear near the soundboard, and an excellent quality copy of the entire night is available on archive.org. Good for them, especially since I wasn’t in the mood to stick around to the bitter end anyway because there wasn’t a poster. 

Yonder Mountain wouldn’t release their 3rd studio album, “Town By Town”, until later that year, but they performed 9 of its 15 songs at The Fillmore that night. Like most bluegrass bands, one obviously needs some level of musical talent to play that genre and these guys had the skills for sure. But as always, I was annoyed by bluegrass fans using their instrumental noodling as the background music for their inane, drunken conversations, especially during the first set which was acoustic. The band came out and gathered in front of a single microphone on a tall straight stand and their mandolin player and singer, Jeff Austin, introduced themselves as “the opening act… the Yon-dare Moun-tane String Quartet”. Funny guy, Jeff. He mostly did the talking between the songs that night calling “End Of Day” a song about “a lot of people not knowing your name.” Before they did “Check Out Time” he mentioned the new album they were working on with Tim O’Brien the last few weeks and called this tune a “waltzy number” and encouraged the audience to “grab a partner” to dance. The first set was a short one, clocking in around 45 minutes and just before they finished the set, Jeff said that “we’re going down to Electric Avenue… It’s four blocks that way… It’s not much different than the Connecticut Yankee” (a reference probably to the bar of that name near Bottom Of The Hill). 

Yonder Mountain came back out for the second set and were all on separate microphones and pick ups this time and remained so until the end of the show. Jeff joked, “Was the opening act OK? They were too quiet I think”. All plugged in, they extended their jams a lot longer than they had in the first set. A few songs in, Jeff really displayed his lightning fast mandolin chops during “Shady Grove”. A few songs later, he asked us if we “can feel the Yeehaw factor in the room?” and then announced that they were going to do (jokingly) “a very serious” cover of mandolin virtuoso Bill Monroe’s “Bluegrass Breakdown”. They finished the second set with a mash up of “Keep On Going” and “Mason’s Children” and Jeff made sure beforehand to thank all the people who came to the show from out of town as well as anybody who “hung up a single poster… handed out a single flyer” for them. That last one went on for a spell, over twenty minutes, giving the band plenty of time to do their solos. 

After one more short break, they returned for their third and final set, mentioning that they had “sampled several beverages” in their time away from us. After “Rag Mama”, Jeff mentioned that most of them had never set foot in that building before and when they got there earlier, they spent time “just wanderin’ around… laughing and crying.” A couple songs later, Jeff mentioned that the band “raised a very poignant question” wondering if indeed the folks at The Fillmore were the “best smelling” crowd they had ever played to and praised the “variety” of odors emanating from us. They then revisited the subject of the “Yeehaw Factor” saying that we had started around a 1 and were about a 3 at that point, though a 5 had never been achieved. As you might expect, they goaded the audience to holler at the count of 3, and everybody yeehawed their lungs out, which Jeff responded that he had “never heard anything like that before”. 

They did another 20 minute long extended jam later mashing up “On The Run” with “High Cross Junction”, giving Dave an opportunity to floor us with his intense banjo picking. They finished their last set with an even longer medley of tunes starting with “Peace Of Mind”, going into “Dogs” by Pink Floyd and “Follow Me Down To The Riverside”, before returning to “Peace Of Mind” once again. It was cool to hear them do that cover, especially since I’d recently heard Les Claypool do it with his Frog Brigade on that very stage just six weeks before on the night before New Year’s Eve. Yes, it was quite a different scene that night from the brash East Bay punk stylings of The Frustrators who would grace that stage just 24 hours later. Those punks weren’t much for instrumental solos and I doubt a single song I heard that night was longer than four minutes. The Yonder Mountain guys would return to The Fillmore later that November to do two nights there, but I didn’t attend either show. Of course, that one got a poster. However, I did catch them again the following year, that time headlining at The Warfield. 

They Might Be Giants, OK Go, Fill., SF, Wed., January 31

SETLISTS : 

(OK GO) : (unknown), Hello My Treacherous Friends, What To Do, It’s Tough To Have A Crush When The Boy Doesn’t Feel The Same Way You Do, Bye Bye Baby, We Dug A Hole

(THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS) : Young Man – Fingertips, Boss Of Me, She’s Actual Size, Hypnotist, Don’t Let Start, Older, Cyclops Rock, Particle Man, Cowtown, Maybe, Spy – Mr. Tambourine Man, We Want A Rock, It’s Not My Birthday, Talking To An Angel, Ana Ng, Twisting, James K. Polk, I’m Not Your Broom, Birdhouse In Your Soul, The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight), Dr. Worm, (encore), Robot Parade, New York City, Drink!, Istanbul

To those who have read this humble blog of mine before, y’all know that I was no stranger to the work of They Might Be Giants by then. In fact, this would be the sixth time I would see them perform, the third such time at The Fillmore alone, though it had been almost a year and a half since I last had the pleasure. But the wacky brilliance of the duo of John’s Flansburgh and Linnell would have a new distinction that year of our Lord, 2001. They would have fresh fame and fortune with their new hit song “Boss Of Me” which was as you probably know the theme music for the television comedy “Malcolm In The Middle” that had just premiered three weeks before this gig. One can only guess the mountain of cash they’ve accumulated from the royalties from that show since then. This anthem wouldn’t even be released officially until their new album “Mink Car” came out on the unfortunately timed date of September 11th that year and even then, the song only made it onto the European and Australian versions of it. Still, “Boss Of Me” went on to win the Grammy of Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media that year and would permanently get stuck in the minds of everybody who would ever hear it, which is more or less everybody in America anyway. 

I was lucky to see OK Go from Chicago open that night, since they would soon get big themselves, but they were still only a few years old back then. Their singer Damnian Kulash and bassist Tim Norwind had met as youngsters at the Interlocken Arts Camp in Traverse City Michigan and they named their band after when their art teacher would say, “OK Go!”, when he had them begin to draw. Incidentally, they had also recently become the house band for Ira Glass on his radio show, “This American Life”. OK Go had put out a couple EPs which got the attention of the Giants’ booking agent, Frank Riley, and he got them signed to Capitol just three months after this show. Their debut album wouldn’t be released until September of the following year, but it’s all been upward from there for them, though I believe this was the only time I ever saw this band. I was impressed by their energy and goofiness, a good opener for the Giants. After they played “What To Do”, Damian described it as a song about being “in a van for so many hours” and mused about what should one do and someone in the crowd yelled out “Ecstasy!”. They also played a song halfway through their set with a hilariously long title called “It’s Tough To Have A Crush When The Boy Doesn’t Feel The Same Way You Do”. 

Instead of it being just the John’s, They Might Be Giants were touring with a full band this time, an ensemble aptly named The Dan Band, consisting of Dan Hickey on drums, Dan Miller on guitar, and Dan Weinkauf on bass and keys. It was quite a different vibe from the ear splitting angst I witnessed with Linkin Park the night before on that very same stage. They gave Hickey time for an impressive drum solo early on. I was pleasantly surprised to run into my brother’s ex-girlfriend Tiffany at the show, she herself an even more devoted They Might Be Giants fan that I was. I hadn’t seen her since she and Alex parted ways years ago and I was frankly a little taken aback by her enthusiasm during that show. I mean, she was ecstatic bordering on manic, dancing franticly, her eyes popping out of her head. The yells and shrieks she let out during that show were truly indescribable. 

Linnell was his usual chipper self, introducing “Cyclops Rock” as a song about “a friend of mine that’s got one eye in the center of his forehead and no other eyes at all.” I also thought it was funny when they did an inordinately long pause during “Particle Man”. The Giants surprised us with a cover of Lesley Gore’s “Maybe I Know” a song produced by a very young Quincy Jones which Linnell claimed was recorded “back in the 1930’s”, though it actually came out in 1964. A couple songs later, they also did a rather straightforward cover of “Mr. Tambourine Man” by The Byrds, an appropriate one to do at that hippie landmark. I also was happy to hear them play a rather rare B-Side, “It’s Not My Birthday”, one of my favorites. Flansburgh got all fired up near the end shouting out the introductions of the band during “The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) and getting the crowd to do a few disco Woo Woo’s to the beat. He thanked everybody afterwards and said if the audience wasn’t there, “we’d feel real shitty about it.” They finished the set with “Dr. Worm” and Linnell cracked me up singing a couple lines from the chorus of “Don’t Cry Out Loud” by Mellissa Manchester in the middle of it. Wrapping up the encore, the band did a sort of extended flamenco instrumental intro to “Istanbul”.

Up till then, I had always associated They Might Be Giants with joyful and humorous feelings, but that night was tinged with a bit of a somber note. The Libyan terrorists who downed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland were convicted the day of this show. And in a strange coincidence, the next time I would see They Might Be Giants again would be just 8 days after September the 11th. Once again at The Fillmore, they would perform their cover of Cub’s “New York City” at that somber show, but with an intensity and poignant context that was truly undeniable, a touching tribute to their wounded home town. Seeing them perform so soon after that terrible day helped me get through the early stretch of that catastrophe and I hope that performing helped them endure it as well. 

Linkin Park, Styles Of Beyond, Taproot, Fill., SF, Tues., January 30

SETLISTS : 

(STYLES OF BEYOND) : Subculture, (unknown), Gigantor, Nine Thou, Style Tips

(TAPROOT) : (unknown), Day By Day, (unknown), Now, Comeback, I, (unknown), (unknown)

(LINKIN PARK) : With You, Runaway, Papercut, Be Myself, Points Of Authority, High Voltage, Crawling, Pushing Me Away, And One, In The End, A Place For My Head, Forgotten, One Step Closer

Many people have forgotten just how successful Linkin Park were back then and how fast they hit the big time. Members had played together for a couple of years, but it wasn’t until 1999 when they would pick up their second singer, Chester Bennington, joining Mike Shinoda and it wouldn’t be until October the following year, just three months before this show, that they would release their blockbuster hit album, “Hybrid Theory”. Originally they wanted to call the band Hybrid Theory, but they thought they might get confused with the EDM artist, Hybrid. Despite being only 38 minutes long, that album would go on to be certified a whopping 12 times platinum, sell over 32 million copies worldwide, making it the best selling debut album since “Appetite For Destruction” by Guns N’ Roses. Their brilliant single, “Crawling”, would go on to win the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance and would have the added distinction of making their turntablist, Joe Hahn, the first Korean American to win a Grammy. Incidentally, I noticed Joe had a Decepticon sticker from the Transformers on his DJ table case that night. 

This would be their first time headlining this brand new “Street Soldiers Tour” as well as their first tour with a second guitarist. But credit where credits due, the Maritime Hall got them first. Linkin Park performed there the previous October, just three days after they released that album, but they played down in the lower ballroom, so even if I was still working there then, I wouldn’t have been able to record them anyway. And speaking of recording, I have good news and bad news, first the bad news. Upon burning the discs of this show to hard drive, I discovered that the second disc which had Linkin Park’s set was not functioning. Granted, I still have the cassette master, but I wasn’t about to dig it out and burn it to disc again. The good news is that not only is there another copy of that gig, it was an official release by the band itself and obviously of a superior quality sound wise to say the least. They titled it “Rock-Am-Ring 2001” for some reason. It was a short set, but understandably so since as I mentioned, they only had the one album at the time and it was a brief one at that, so they had to pad their songs with a little filler here and there. Their set clocked in start to finish around 54 minutes total.

With the mind blowing success of the new album, Linkin Park would found Machine Shop records that year and their first opening act that night, Styles Of Beyond from the San Fernando Valley, would sign to that label four years later, though they would ultimately leave it in 2008. They were still brand new back then and like Linkin Park, had only their debut album under their belt. They were introduced by some guy who got the audience to do a bit of call and response, him yelling “San Fran!” and the audience yelling “Frisco!” a few times, before giving a shout out to their turntable guy, DJ Cheapshot. I was impressed by Style Of Beyond’s verbal dexterity and quality of their songs which got the crowd pumped up for sure. Ryu and Tak, the rappers from Styles Of Beyond, would come out later on stage to rap along to the song “Points Of Authority” with Linkin Park. They were a fun band and I liked their energy, but I don’t think I’ve seen them again, nor the following act, Taproot. 

Still, I might get a chance to see the latter since my wife and I a couple years ago bought a house near Ann Arbor, Michigan where they’re from and will likely retire there someday. Taproot had originally sent their first demo to (sigh) Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit who was about to get them signed by Interscope, but Taproot pulled out at the last minute and went with Atlantic instead. The rumor was System Of A Down poached them, which pissed off Fred so much, he had System Of A Down kicked off his Family Values tour in 1999. But whatever, Taproot had just put out their third album and first with a major label, “Gift”, the previous June. They were more or less stylistically similar to Linkin Park and were likewise extremely loud, making it next to impossible to transcribe the songs. I was only able to figure out half their set. 

Their singer, Stephen Richards, talked to the crowd a bit, giving a shout out to a band from Sacramento called Simon Says and asking, “Are you havin’ a good time so far? On behalf of the band, this is a great fuckin’ experience. You guys are great.” But then he took a bit of a surprise left turn when he went on, “But… The ego inside of my mind, being the vocalist, having a microphone, I want to know how many males here know what a queef is?” The men in the crowd, myself included, cheered and he continued, “Exactly. Now that I have control of this shit right here, I want everybody on the count of three, make the noise of a queef. I dare you. Are you guys with me? Are you with me? 1-2-3!” Then I’ll just let you imagine what kind of sounds followed afterwards, but Stephen then grimaced and muttered, “Fuckin’ disgusting. This next song goes out to all the girls” and then they did “Now”. Ewww…. I can see why Fred Durst liked them. 

One thing I remember right off the bat from this first encounter I had with Linkin Park was how incredibly loud they were, certainly a good night for earplugs. This would be the first time Chester, donning a head of bleached blond short hair that night, would use a vocal delay on his voice during “High Voltage” live. My God, when that man did his Cobain-esque scream-singing, it totally gave me the creeps. I mean, I hadn’t seen pulsating veins pop out of guys neck like that since Henry Rollins. It sounded like he was about to expel a firehose of blood from his mouth any second, dousing his audience. Conversely, Mike was considerably more subdued, he sporting a head of short blue hair and did most of the rapping in the songs. I noticed one of their guitarists was wearing rather conspicuously large can earphones on his head, performing most of the set sort of hunched over. 

Later, they had a false start playing “In The End” and they started again, Mike apologizing, “You guys are kicking our ass and that wasn’t right. We want to live up to your standards”. Mike saw something left on stage and he first thought it was a “baby bottle” and then joked, “We deserved it.” They would further show their graciousness after the gig had ended, sticking around to sign autographs. Actually, even though the security people were kicking people out, Linkin Park stayed put and wouldn’t budge until the last fan was made to leave. Awww… I am happy to report, that after a bit of a drought, I finally got another poster at the end of this show and it was a good one too, though it was a pity that They Might Be Giants didn’t get one there the following night. It wouldn’t be very long until I would see Linkin Park perform again, just five short months later in fact as one of the openers on the main stage of Ozzfest that year at Shoreline. I would be witnessing that set at a considerably father distance than I had seen them at The Fillmore and I’m afraid that would be the last time I’d see them perform sadly since poor Chester would eventually hang himself in 2017.

Eric Johnson & Alien Love Child, The Derek Trucks Band, Fill., SF, Fri., January 26

SETLISTS :

(THE DEREK TRUCKS BAND) : Rasta Man Chant, 555 Lake, Ain’t That Lovin’ You, (unknown), For My Brother, (unknown), (unknown), (drum solo), (unknown), (unknown), Yield Not To Temptation, Turn On You Love Light

(ERIC JOHNSON & ALIEN LOVE CHILD) : Zenland, Trademark, Nothing Can Keep Me From You, Enzo Shuffle, Move On Over, Last House On The Block, Rain, The Boogie King (Tribute To John Lee Hooker), S.R.V., Righteous, Elevator Sky Movie – The Shape I’m In, (encore), Cliffs Of Dover, (encore), World Of Trouble, Spanish Castle Magic, (encore), Red House

It was a night for guitar heroes at The Fillmore, a treat to all those who admire the fine art of noodling. It would be the first show I would see after our country was officially and spinelessly handed over to George W. Bush and his goons the week before, so we were all in the mood for some entertainment or at the very least, a welcome distraction. Like so many axe men before him, Mr. Eric Johnson had taken a shine to his six string instrument at a young age, first picking it up at age 11 and joining his first band at only 15. Since then, he made a name for himself with his chops and would be the ripe old age of 46 by the time I would first hear him perform that night. He had recently formed a musical side project he called Alien Love Child, releasing their “Live & Beyond” album the year before this. The single “Rain” had garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Instrumental and naturally, they played it in the middle of their set.

Though this was my first time seeing Eric, but I had recorded Derek Trucks before opening for (sigh) Zero at the Maritime back in 1998. Back then, Derek was only 18 years old and already had skills on the strings to go toe to toe with almost anybody. Still a young man, having just turned the legal drinking age the previous June, he was back and this time he brought along his then girlfriend/future wife Susan Tedeschi. They would tie the knot later that year and have two kids together, a son the year after and a daughter in 2004. Hard to believe their son is as old now as Derek was then. Susan would come out near the end of his set to join the band in their cover of Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Turn On Your Love Light”, an appropriate hippie anthem for The Fillmore, having been covered for years by the Grateful Dead. Not an uncommon occurrence, Cowboy Mouth having covered “Iko Iko” just the last time I was there. They would also cover Blue’s songs “Ain’t That Lovin’ You” and “Yield Not To Temptation” that set as well. Guitar dazzling aside, both bands were backed by more than able musicians including a surprisingly remarkable flute player in Derek’s band. That one got a long solo before they finished their set with “Love Light”. 

Though I was unfamiliar with most of Eric’s work, there was no mistaking his instrumental masterpiece “Cliffs Of Dover” which he did for his first encore. That one nabbed him a Grammy ten years before this and would go on to surface in a number of commercials as well as in the “Guitar Hero” video game. And like all those who excel at electric guitar, it would come to no surprise that Eric would cover not one but two songs at The Fillmore from the true master, Jimi Hendrix. They ended their second encore with “Spanish Castle Magic” and wrapped up the show with their last encore, “Red House”. To my frustration, there wasn’t a poster for this gig as there wasn’t for Cowboy Mouth, but at least Linkin Park would get one the following Tuesday. I was seeing a lot of Fillmore gigs then, this one being the second of ten I would witness out of 11 shows. 

I did manage to catch Susan Tedeschi on her own just two years later opening for the Rolling Stones at the Shark Tank in San Jose, but I almost missed her. I was taking my parents there that night and I always get lost trying to find that godforsaken arena. One would think an arena wouldn’t be so hard to find.

But it would be 13 long years before I would see Derek again, but it would up close and personal the next time, helping to set up his gear headlining the Sutro stage at Outside Lands, then alongside her officially in the Tedeschi Trucks Band. I’ll never forget the sight of the comedians Lewis Black and Craig Robinson, having finished their sets in the comedy tent, hanging backstage with us dancing to their music. Lewis was sort of doing a stunted, jerky, little sway back and forth dance with his usual resting grumpy face while conversely Craig was all smiles, getting down big time, his arms swinging joyfully in reckless abandon. It would be a less time between until I would see Eric again however. I would catch him in 2006 at The Warfield opening for another guitar god and a man who coincidentally shares my birthday, Joe Satrioni.

Cowboy Mouth, Young Dubliners, Fill., SF, Fri., January 12

SETLISTS : 

(YOUNG DUBLINERS) : Rising – Change The World, Neverending, Fisherman’s Blues, Stop Me, Red, What Do You Want From Me, Breathe, Follow Me Up To Carlow

(COWBOY MOUTH) : Go To The Mardi Gras, Whatcha Gonna Do, Louisiana Lockdown, So Sad About Me, Easy, Always Leaving, Iko Iko, (unknown), Mardi Gras Mambo, Let Me Hold It Open For You, Everybody Loves Jill, Get Out Of My Way, Everything You Do, New Orleans

We were almost a couple weeks into the new century and I was already lining up my accustomed amount of shows to see, though this would be my first and only time with Cowboy Mouth. They were a rock band out of New Orleans named after a play by Sam Shepard and Patti Smith and had the distinction of being one of the only bands I have ever seen where the drummer was also the lead vocalist. Fred LeBlanc, a gregarious mountain of a man, led the band with the sweaty intensity of somebody on a serious amount of cocaine, though I suspect his enthusiasm was fueled primarily by the Holy Spirit. His effort was truly impressive. Cowboy Mouth had a modest hit with the song “Jenny Says” in 1996, but had since been dropped off of MCA after their release of the “Easy” album the year before this.

Opening that night were the Young Dubliners, a rowdy Irish American rock band from Santa Monica that I had once recorded with Pete at the One Festival at Pier 30/32 three years prior, a rather eclectic choice as an opener for reggae legends like Burning Spear and Toots & The Maytals. They were promoting their latest album, “Red” and all but the last two songs they performed that night were new. Their lead singer and rhythm guitarist, Keith Roberts, got the crowd nice and pumped up early, shouting after the first song, “San Francisco, you crazy fuckers! We’ve always loved this town!” and he praised the Fillmore before asking, “Anybody with Irish blood in ya?”, before they did “Neverending”. Afterwards, he gave a shout out to Fisherman’s Wharf and did their cover of “Fisherman’s Blues” by The Waterboys. A couple songs later, Keith joked that it was “very early for us to be up”, asked if “anybody by any chance” had their new album and that “after the show, we’ll be right back there” by the merch booth to “see how many shots we can do”, and then they played “Red”. He also gave a shout out to Johnny Foley’s, a renown Irish bar near Union Square before they played “Breathe”. Sadly, this would be the last time I’d see the Young Dubliners, though they are still around today.

I was coming in sight and sound unseen for Cowboy Mouth, so I didn’t really know what to expect. Being from the Big Easy, I was expecting more of a funk or second line type act and they certainly did a couple numbers in that style, but other tunes they did they were something altogether different. They’re a hard one to describe, so I’ll not muddle through it for long, but for a band from that town, their songs were mercifully short and their solos brief as well. Their songs were downright poppy at times, but not too cheesy. It was a safe bet that there were many New Orleans transplants in the house and along with the bawdy antics of the Young Dubliners, by the time I was cut from ushering, most everybody in the audience had a good look in with the bartenders. Seriously, it’s not as hard to have fun at a concert when everybody’s wasted.

After their first song, Fred cheered that it was the “third night of our Mardi Gras 2001 tour… This ain’t Los Angeles! This is San Francisco, baby!” and he led them into “Whatcha Gonna Do”. Technically, Mardi Gras didn’t start that year in New Orleans until February the 27th, but one would not blame him and the band for getting an early head start. I was impressed by the clarity and diction in Fred’s voice which made transcribing their setlist easier, but his bellowing lead vocals while drumming as heavy as he did, one would get winded just watching him. Later in the set, he wished a happy birthday to someone named Laurie followed by a cover of “Iko Iko”, an additionally appropriate one for the Fillmore, having been covered for decades by the Grateful Dead. It happens all the time, in fact, the Derek Trucks Band would cover “Turn On Your Love Light” the very next time I was at The Fillmore.

One number that got the folks dancing was “Mardi Gras Mambo” which Fred introduced saying, “That’s Mardi Gras in a nutshell, y’all. You’ll hear one song you know in your heart and you’ll be drunk enough to dig the next one you never heard before in your life and y’all be dancing in all the right places!” That mambo beat was indeed infectious and irresistible. Near the end of the set, Fred got a little extra worked up grunting, “Did you ever have one of those days when you just want to tell everybody to get the hell out of your way!?!”, and then he started a steady drum beat commanding, “Let’s get some rhythm here!” and they played “Get Out Of My Way”.

Before they finished up their set, Fred thanked the audience, declared “this is the biggest crowd we’ve played to in the city of San Francisco”, and encouraged everybody to check out their website, adding there’s “lots of things I like about San Francisco, lots of things I love about San Francisco.” Finally, he praised our city town one more time saying, “If I had to live in one city on the west coast of the Untied States instead of the South, it would be San Francisco. Why? Because it’s the city that reminds me of the great place that we call home” and then performed appropriately, “New Orleans”. They went on for a while afterwards and though I had run out of tape after that song, I stuck around to watch the encore. Still, there was no poster though. Along with this show, I would be spending plenty of time in The Fillmore in the next couple weeks, seeing 10 of my next 11 gigs there.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse, War., SF, Thur., January 11

SETLIST : Sedan Delivery, Don’t Cry No Tears, Love & Only Love, Cinnamon Girl, Cortez The Killer, Rockin’ In The Free World, Big Time, Welfare Mothers, Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown, Hold Back The Tears, Like A Hurricane, (encore), Tonight’s The Night

We were getting spoiled that night to be sure. Neil Young, being the hippie royalty that he was and still is, had The Warfield at his disposal to snap his fingers and magically summon a sold out show there in less than 24 hours not once, but three times. He had recently reunited with his Crazy Horse buddies, their first outing in six years since the last H.O.R.D.E. tour, and were using these three shows at The Warfield as sort of a live rehearsal for their upcoming tour of Argentina and Brazil, including a headlining spot on the gargantuan Rock In Rio Festival. Neil would a release a live album from their performance at the festival, adding to his endless arsenal of live material including his “Red Rocks Live” DVD which had just come out the previous September. 

Neil had been busy the previous year, touring with his old bandmates in the long awaited reunion of Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young. I had caught them playing acoustic at Neil’s annual Bridge School Benefit that year and it was refreshing to see those geezers together again. On top of that, Neil had also just released his “Silver & Gold” solo album. Around this time, he and Crazy Horse had been recording some new material at Toast studios, but the project ultimately got shelved. The new material however did get rerecorded when Neil did the “Are You Passionate” album with Booker T & The MGs and he finally released the so-called “Toast” album just in 2022 with 4 alternated versions of some of the new songs along with 3 unreleased outtakes. 

It was a relief to see Neil alongside Crazy Horse again, especially at a venue as small as The Warfield. In fact, I can say for certain that this would be the smallest venue I’d ever see Mr. Young grace the stage. In a strange coincidence, the “Crazy Horse” strip club was and remains immediately adjacent to that venue and I’m sure the irony wasn’t lost on the band. I wonder if any of them ever popped next door for a look-see or maybe a lap dance. Well, Neil probably wouldn’t have gotten away with it considering his wife Pegi and sister Astrid were in tow those nights. They would sing back up vocals for him on the first night, but I think they just hung out backstage on the second night. Yes, I would be seeing the second of the two nights they performed there, having missed my opportunity to get on the list for the first, hearing about it too late. I was a teensy bit fortunate however going on the second night, since the night before, it was pouring rain. 

There was some bated breath the next morning, waiting to hear Neil’s decision on whether he and the the band would return, but when the word came through on KFOG that all lights were green just a few hours before the doors would open, I pounced at the chance. For those lucky enough to get tickets, Neil was quite generous, charging a mere $20 a pop, affordable even a with the prices back then. The band was in fine form that show, covering a healthy range of their material and though many of the songs went on well past the ten minute mark, especially “Like A Hurricane” and “Cortez The Killer”, after seeing Les Claypool for New Year’s, my patience was well practiced. Sadly, like Van Morrison the week before, this hippie icon and foreign bay area transplant was not given a poster for his two sold out shows. I suppose since these gigs were booked at the last second, there was no hope of making a poster in time anyway. Still, I’m glad I saw them when I did since I wouldn’t see Neil for nearly four years until I caught him once again at Bridge School.

Van Morrison, War., SF, Wed., January 3

SETLIST : Hot Little Mama, Try For Sleep, 1-2-3 I’m In Love Again, Don’t Mess With My Man, The Dark End Of The Street, Good Morning Blues, Back On Top, Fire In The Belly, Domino, Old Black Joe, Frog Went A-Courting – Outskirts Of Town – Long Distance Call, Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel No. 8), In The Afternoon – Joe Turner Sings – Don’t You Make Me High – Sex Machine, Real Gone Lover, Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven When You Smile), Sometimes We Cry, Bright Side Of The Road, Georgia (On My Mind), Goin’ Down Geneva, Brand New Cadillac, Help Me – Good Morning School Girl, (encore), My Girl Josephine, Shake Rattle & Roll, Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On, Roll Over Beethoven, Gloria 

Happy New Year once again! Yes indeed, whether you think the new millennium began the previous year or not, there was no denying that by this show, we were all firmly planted in the 21st century. And as luck would have it, yours truly would be hammering the keys right now on the cusp of another new year, 2024, a full 23 years later, so as always, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. I’m glad that we’ll be starting things off right with a class act like Van Morrison. It was unusual to have a show booked so early at The Warfield just a couple days after New Year’s, but it was welcome nonetheless. This would be the first of two shows he’d do there, both of them sold out in a matter a minutes. I had seen Van just once before headlining the Guinness Fleagh in Golden Gate Park in 1998, but this would be the last time as of now that I would see him perform. 

It was an evening with show of sorts, though he had Linda Gail Lewis, the sister of Jerry Lee Lewis, warm up the crowd with a handful of songs before Van took the stage. She was backed by Van’s six piece band, all decked out in matching red suits and I liked the songs they did together, especially her sassy cover of Irma Thomas’ “Don’t Mess With My Man”. Unfortunately, things went south between Linda and Van during this extensive nine month tour and there was some controversy whether she left on her own or was canned. Either way, she sued Morrison for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination, though her claims would later be withdrawn. If that wasn’t enough, later that year Van had a dust up with his neighbors next to his seaside home in Dalkey, Ireland. Apparently, Van tried to widen his driveway and his neighbors took legal action against him and stopped it and though Van tried to take it all the way to the Irish Supreme Court, his appeal was denied. Ol’ Mr. Morrison already had a reputation for having shall we say a difficult personality, so one could only imagine what it must be like to be his neighbor.

Anyway, Van was touring promoting his (Eee-gad!) 28th album, “You Win Again”, comprised mostly of duet covers which he sang with Linda. “Old Black Joe” by Stephen Foster would be the only song they’d play from that album at this show, but there were plenty of other covers played as well, literally half the set. I didn’t know much of Van’s music then, but I did know a few of the big hits including “Domino” and “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven When You Smile)”. Truth be told, I only knew the latter because Dexy’s Midnight Runners covered it in an episode of “The Young Ones” and I didn’t even learn the truth of the song’s origin until many years after I saw that version. I remember my brother Alex was disappointed to learn that Dexy’s didn’t write that one which would have given them at least one notable song they did besides “Come On Eileen”. Near the end of the set that night, some drunks started badly singing the “Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh’s” from the melody of “Jackie” between songs and one of those drunks even more annoyingly sang along to their cover of “Shake, Rattle, & Roll” during the encore, loudly and horrifyingly flat. 

Still, it was hard to be mad at him. Every Irish party animal and hibernophile (look it up, it’s a word) in the bay area was there, cheerfully sauced and dancing. It came to little surprise that they ended that night with the seminal hippie anthem “Gloria”, but Galactic had also finished their show with that song just three nights before on New Year’s Eve. Whether they did it knowing that Van was coming so soon after them or if it was just a coincidence, I can’t say. I’m just glad they had the good taste to not perform “Brown Eyed Girl” that night, a lovely song, but infinitely overplayed. I must note that it was an extreme letdown to discover that there was no poster at the end of the night. One would think such a renowned hippie, especially one who had spent so much time in the bay area, and doing two sold out shows at The Warfield would at least deserve one. 

2000

Col. Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, Fill., SF, Sat., December 30

SETLIST : Thela Hun Ginjeet, Col. Claypool’s Fearless Frog Brigade, With A Little Help From My Friends, Riddles Are Abound Tonight, Calling Kyle, Hendershot, Recreating, Prelude To Fear, (set break), Pings On The Wing Pt. 1, Dogs, Pigs (Three Different Ones), Sheep, Pings On The Wing Pt. 2, (encore), Taxman

Col. Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, Fill., SF, Sun., December 31

SETLIST : Prelude To Fear, Col. Claypool’s Flying Frog Brigade, With A Little Help From My Friends, Highball With The Devil, Thela Hun Ginjeet, 16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six, Hendershot, The Ol’ Diamondback Sturgeon (Fisherman’s Chronicles, Pt. 3), Shattering Song, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 1-4), Here Come The Bastards, (encore), Moby Dick, Tomorrow Never Knows, (encore), Harold Of The Rocks

Galactic, War., SF, Sun., December 31

Well, this is it, last call for the 20th century. There were those who pointlessly argued that the year before was the real end of the millennium, but whatever. I’m just glad I no longer have to try to spell millennium anymore. I always get it wrong the first couple of tries. Yes, we had firmly planted our flag into the 21st century at the end of that weekend and there was no going back. Included along with these back to back New Year’s shows, I’m also going to regale you with my witnessing of the tail end of Galactic’s set at The Warfield. How I was able to gain entry to that show to catch its final hour, I will explain later, but suffice to say that was one long stretch of music and memorable one at that. This would be the first of many times the Frog Brigade would perform on New Year’s at The Fillmore and I would be privileged to attend this one along with the following New Year’s shows there for the next two years. 

But for that fateful year of our Lord 2000 A.D., I had quite the quadruple dose of Mr. Leslie Edward Claypool’s latest musical experiment, the Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, who as Colonel of this rag tag assembly of oddball geniuses, is their leader. I had the honor of attended both nights of the recording of his “Live Frogs” albums at the Great American Music Hall only two months prior to these shows and they played mostly the same songs this time around as well. The first of these two nights was being billed as the final time that the band would perform Pink Floyd’s “Animals” in its entirety. And that was indeed the case for the past 23 years, but Les relented and started performing it once again this year along with several other covers, mostly of The Beatles. As luck would have it, his latest incarnation of the Frog Brigade includes Sean Lennon, who he calls “Shiner”, the youngest son of the late Beatle, John Lennon. But on these nights, 23 years ago, it was the original lineup, including Primus drummer Herb Alexander, who had been their second drummer in the Frog Brigade’s maiden line up at their debut at the Mountain Aire Festival. Herb would sit in on a second drum kit for the New Year’s show, but not the night before. As I had written previously, Les was taking a hiatus from Primus then, being quoted of saying, “I’m not here to air any dirty laundry, but after working with someone for so many years in close quarters, there is bound to be a skid mark or two on the big Primus underwear” and that Primus was “taking a little snooze, a siesta.”

There were however a few principal differences between these Claypool shows, so I’ll elaborate starting at the top with the first of the two. This show on the 30th was one of those “an evening with…” gigs, two sets and no opening act. As I mentioned before, the second set was all “Animals” as it had been at the Great American shows. Galactic had also been playing the Warfield that night, but with Robert Walter’s 20th Congress opening up instead of Ozomatli. The Frog Brigade came on stage to the recording of “Also Sprach Zarathustra”, a not so subtle, but appropriate nod to Stanley Kubrick’s “2001 : A Space Odyssey”. After opening their set with the epic prog rock classic, “Thela Hun Ginjeet”, they had a false start playing a version of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” with Les substituting its lyrics with “Col. Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade”, so I listed the title in the setlists accordingly. They followed that one naturally with its companion piece from that seminal album, “With A Little Help From My Friends” and they had their drummer, Jay Lane, singing lead as The Beatles had done with their drummer, Ringo Starr. To this day, I think this is the only time I ever heard Jay sing lead on any song he performed. 

After the second set, they came back for the encore and had a surprise guest, Jerry Cantrell, the guitarist of Alice In Chains, to join them on yet another Beatles cover, “Taxman”. They had opened that song on the second night of the Great American shows, but it didn’t make it to either of the albums. Les introduced him and said, “I hope you enjoyed yourself” and encouraged the crowd to “come tomorrow night.” It shredded as all the songs did that evening and Les even did a little breakdown in the middle of it singing that bit from “The Wondrous Boat Ride” from “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory”, Les groaning, “There’s no earthly way of knowing which direction we are going” and so forth. It would be a precursor to Primus actually putting out a complete album covering the songs of that movie 14 years later. Incidentally, the show was a steal being only a $20 ticket, though the following night was $45, which was still a bargain considering the amount of music we got. They left the stage to the sound of Jay doing a little human beatbox which he did the following night as well. I went home and got some sleep, conserving my strength for what was next to come. 

The second and final night was being billed on the flyers as the “NYE Frogout!” which included “Surprise Performances”, “Party Goods”, and strangely enough, a “Midnight Audio Orgy”. One big difference this show had over the previous night was that there was an opening band, Banyan, the instrumental supergroup founded by Stephen Perkins, the drummer of Jane’s Addiction and Porno For Pyros, who assembled an impressive collection of virtuosos including Nels Cline on guitar, Willie Waldman on trumpet, and Mike Watt on bass. Stephen had many various other artists come and go from this band such as Rob Wasserman and Steve McKay, the saxophonist from The Stooges. Banyan had just released their second album, “Anytime At All” the previous year, the first two albums both dedicated to Mark Perkins’, Stephen’s deceased brother. You might recall Mark had died during the time Porno For Pyros performed at The Warfield back in 1993, the first show I ever bootlegged. Banyan were an excellent opening act, sounding a little like a marching band on acid, giving Nels, Willy, and Mike plenty of time to do mind blowing solos. But since all their songs were instrumental, I still have no idea what their setlist was and I believe this was the only time I’d ever get to see them perform. At the end of their set, Stephen wished a “Happy New Year’s to Les Claypool and the guys.”

Unlike the night before, the Frog Brigade just played one long set instead of breaking it up into two. But what a long set it was indeed, clocking in at just under three hours from start to finish. They came on stage once again, this time to recorded sounds of thunder and forest creatures. Some of the meatheads in the audience were chanting “You suck!” as well. Hell, the first tune, “Prelude To Fear” alone was over 20 minutes long. Les took a moment and told the crowd, “We’re going to have a fuckin’ good time tonight. It already started awesome with Banyan. We are cruisin’! We are cruisin’!… Cus’ I just took some mushrooms! Woo!” I have every reason to believe that Les was on mushrooms that night, it being such a special occasion, he having no reason to lie really, and the fact that each song went on and on for so long. Not that he was playing bad, far from it, and to my memory never has. I’m just amazed that he could still perform as well as he did under the influence. I would go so far to say that this night was easily one of if not the best Frog Brigade show I’d ever witness, top three for sure. But I suppose Les couldn’t do mushrooms for every show he did. That would eventually start taking its toll pretty fast.

Anyway, they once again did those “Sgt. Pepper’s” covers and Jay improvised a bit this time, singing “I can’t tell you but that green bud is mine” and “I just want somebody to smoke”. Afterwards, they did “Highball With The Devil” in which Les introduced it saying that this was a “song about when the booze gets ya” and that it required “a little clapping”. So, Les led us to clap along to the beat, the first and only time to my memory Les every asked one of his crowds to do so. In the middle of the tune, he bantered with guitarist Todd Huth, “You know there’s a fellah, a fine fellah sporting the motorcycle pants of doom. Todd? You’ve had a bout or two with the Highball devil, am I correct?” He then invited Todd to either exorcise this experience or express how it feels musically through his instrument and Todd did one of his incredible noodle sessions. When he finished Les praised him saying, “Todd, hat was rather extraordinary. I feel the emotion. It didn’t make me teary eyed or anything, but I could feel it.” They followed that song with “Thela Hun Ginjeet”, epically long as usual. Les took a moment to ask, “Was anybody here last night?”, and claimed though he had a good time, that the crowd that night were “some dead son of a bitches” and he thought they were “too stoned.” But he reassured the crowd that night that he could “feel the energy tonight”, despite it being a “scary thing doing something new” and he introduced Herb on the second drum kit.

This would be the first time I’d hear Les cover “16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six” by Tom Waits. Clearly being a fan of his work, Les along with Primus guitarist Larry LeLonde had played bass and guitar respectively on “Big In Japan”, the first song off Tom’s album “Mule Variations” released just the year before this show and Tom, as most of you probably remember, was the guest vocalist on Primus’ album version of “Tommy The Cat”. Incidentally, Les played a few bass licks and chants of “say baby, you wanna lay down with me” from “Tommy The Cat” in the middle of “Shattering Song” that night. Les gave a shout out saying, “People ask me all the time who are your influences? Who you like to listen to?… I say Tom Waits of coarse.” In the middle of it, Les did a little breakdown and also sang a few lines of “Hello Skinny” by The Residents, another clear influence on Les and a song he had recorded with himself with Primus on the “Miscellaneous Debris” EP. Yep, that Tom Waits cover went on so long, Les joked when they were finished, “Never thought we’d get out of that one!”

They followed that with “Hendershot” and Les broke it down again saying that they had already heard “the good, the angelic forces”, but now was ready to introduce the “beast, the dark forces, Beelzebub… His name is Skerik and he’s a lovely man” and Skerik proceed to do some ranting through thick layers of effects before doing a mind bending saxophone solo. Les also monkeyed around with the lyrics of the chorus singing, “His momma called him Hendershot… His greasy old granny called him Hendershot… Old man down by the river called him Hendershot…” Eenor did an excellent guitar solo which Les praised, “Boy’s on fire tonight!” Next, I was pleasantly surprised to hear, after a lengthy drum solo introduction, the Frog Brigade do a unexpected Primus song, “The Ol’ Diamondback Sturgeon (Fisherman’s Chronicles Part 3)”. Claypool thanked the crowd in the middle of it saying, “This means everything to me. It’s a wonderful thing and for the next five minutes or so, I want it to mean everything to you… Fly little birdy, be free!” and he continued jamming with the band for a damn sight longer than five minutes. He even busted out a violin bow on his bass for a bit during that one.

Just when I thought the songs that nights couldn’t get any more exhausting, they went on a full 21 and a half minutes on “Shattering Song”. Les pointed out that his “wife’s standing on the corner of the stage” and that she “looks very lovely this evening”. Jay made a wisecrack later on how all the band member’s wives were hot, especially Herb’s. I could tell Les was mildly annoyed by Jay and countered, “Jay is one of those fellows who tells it how it is. Anything else until we leap into this new year?” Jay then started moaning strangely and Les pressed him to get to “get to the point”. Les then asked the audience, “How’s it going so far? I’m having a marvelous time myself” and then had the band “bring it down for your ol’ grandad, fellas”. He then did a bass solo followed by a few lines of “Riders On The Storm” by The Doors. They then finished the last song of the millennium doing their cover of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” by Pink Floyd which included a stellar solo by their keyboardist Jeff Chimenti.

Near midnight, Les pointed out “You know it’s getting extremely close to that time. It’s unbelievably close to that time” and mentioned that he would remain the Colonel of the band stating that it had been fairly decided and there would be “none of that dimpled chad bullshit for me”, a clear reference to the election fiasco we all had just finished enduring. He then asked, “Are any of you folks high this evening?” and that due to the fact that “a small man who’s about to take the seat in the Oval Office” that we perhaps should “stay high for  four years.” But he then recanted that maybe that was “not such a good idea”, condemning the “old cronies”, how it was a “dangerous time”, and suggesting that the countdown that night maybe not so much a countdown, but for the country “leaping back 10 years”.

Then at long last the hour was upon us, Les bellowed the numbers of the countdown, and shouted, “Happy New Year!”. The balloons bundled above the lighting truss were released and everybody went bonkers and Les sang a few lines of “Auld Lang Syne”, mushing up the lyrics eventually, singing “may old…whatever the words might be.” He then praised the crowd saying they were truly attractive and encouraged them to “do something fun next year… Don’t fuck around. Have a good time. “ Les pointed out, “So now, you may have noticed people distributing devices” and he was going to “show you how to work this thing.” The devices were kazoos and he instructed us to put the “square end, not the pointy end” in our mouths and “don’t blow, just sing… Don’t stuff your weed into it”, then glancing over to his drummer and in a mockingly accusing tone, “… Jay Lane… Let’s hear some fuckin’ kazoos!”

From there, he had us singing through our kazoos the riff of “Here Come The Bastards”. Clearly pissed off as we all were at that current political situation, Les chanted during the chorus, “Georgy Bush! Georgy Bush! Come for your ass! Georgy Bush!” That would be the last song of the main set, but rest assured, Les never wavered in his criticism of W throughout the following eight years. It was a foregone conclusion that they would return to the stage for an encore which they most certainly did and as expected, it was a long one. They started once again with a cover of “Moby Dick” by Led Zeppelin and like in the original, Jay and Herb each went off on the mother of all drum solos. When they finally finished, Les declared, “That was a party! Best New Year’s I’ve ever been to!” 

They then went into another 20 minute plus long epic, this time being “Tomorrow Never Knows” by (once again) The Beatles. During the song, they invited Mike Watt with his bass back on stage and Les introduced him saying, “Mr. Mike Watt is an extraordinary man” and that he had “an interesting perspective on the world… So, Mr. Mike Watt, can you give us some fat ass licks?” Then, Mike did what he did best and treated us to an impressive solo which Les praised as “such a fine display of clusterfucking, I think you’d agree” and went on, “I think it’s time to move on, move into 2001 and to prosper and to multiply and to do the thing you do.” Before he began the last song of the show, Les referenced the ticket price saying that they were “almost at the $45 mark, so we had to come back out” and they began playing “Harold Of The Rocks”.

During that song, Les reminded the folks up front, “You fellas play nice in that mosh pit” and paused after the song’s second verse to say, “So, thanks again for coming out tonight. I also want to take this opportunity to apologize for the ugliness of our New Year’s Eve shirt.” He admitted, “I designed it” and reassured us that “nobody’s feelings got hurt” that it “looks like shit” since it was all on him. It didn’t matter to me since I didn’t get one anyway. So, they at long last wrapped things up with a big finale and once again Jay did his inexplicable human beatbox ending. Les had the house bring the lights up so he could get “a good look at ya!” 

Like most New Year’s shows, I stumbled out of the venue elated and totally wasted, but unlike any of these shows, I had been tasked on a mission to complete afterwards by our head usher, Tina. After I was cut from ushering, she asked me if I wanted to check out the remains of Galactic’s set at The Warfield of which I gladly said I did. She then handed me off a manilla envelope stuffed with some paperwork and told me I could get into the show with it, being on official business to deliver it to the office there in the balcony. So, I hoofed it over Cathedral Hill, marched down there and did just that. Before I knew it, I was watching a completely different New Year’s show. Believe it or not, they had just begun their THIRD set starting at the wee hour of 2 AM. I’d already seen Galactic twice before at The Fillmore and a bit of their after hours set at Mountain Aire in 1998, so I knew they’d be on for a while and I got over an hour’s worth before they finished their performance.

I was once again pleasantly surprised that shortly after I got there, Galactic revealed a special guest, one of them joking,”and behind curtain number 1!…”, as none other than Skerik strolled onto the stage. Yep, that irrepressible funky gremlin still had some gas in the tank, hauled ass like me over to The Warfield, and wailed on his sax yet again that night. Like Banyan earlier, Galactic was primarily an instrumental band, so I didn’t know the titles of their songs, but I certainly knew their cover of “We Want The Funk” because none other than that song’s creator, Mr. George Clinton, was on stage with them singing it! He was introduced by one of the Galactic guys declaring, “The master is in the house!” and George did his thing throughout the song getting the audience to “put your hands together”, chanting “party people pumpin’ their fists like this!”, him yelling “P!” and the crowd yelling “Funk!”, and so on. That was a welcome and pleasant way to usher in the new millennium, that song like so many others that evening clocking in well over a half an hour long. 

Near the end of their set, one of the Galactic guys addressed the crowd saying, “Galactic would like to personally thank everybody for coming out tonight. For it is a new year, a new year, let’s do it right… Don’t drive if you’re fucked up.” They left the stage, but quickly returned to finish the evening with a cover of “Gloria” by Them, getting everybody to chant out the letters of that name along with them. As luck would have it, the very next show I would see would be Van Morrison, the author of that song, on the very same stage just three days later and coincidentally, Van finished his encore with “Gloria” as well. Perhaps Galactic saw that Van was coming and covered that song as an homage. There was an added bonus that on top of the posters I received from both of Mr. Claypool’s shows, I also got one from Galactic as well and it was a Jimbo Phillips one to boot, one of my favorite poster artists. Yes, the millennium was officially over, but I’d only have to wait three short months and, you guessed it, I’d see the Frog Brigade yet again, this time at The Warfield where I had ended this epic New Year’s. And if that wasn’t enough, I’d see them yet again that May opening for Phil Lesh at the Greek. That’s, count em’, six Frog Brigade shows in only seven months. 

I’m also happy to report that on top of those fine posters, I was able to find a quality bootleg of the Frog Brigade’s set from the New Year’s show on YouTube. I of coarse have seen Claypool many times since then, including just a couple months ago at the Fox in Oakland, not to mention the ticket I got to see Primus at the Greek this coming April. Yes, Les might be the ripe old age of 60 now, but he’s still going strong and probably will remain performing for many years to come. In fact, just this year he released a five CD box set, “Adverse Yaw : The Prawn Song Years” which included the “Live Frogs” albums, “Purple Onion”, “The Big Eyeball In The Sky” from his Bucket Of Bernie Brains band, and his two solo albums, “Of Whales & Woe” and “Of Fungi & Foe”. And yes, on top of the following two years seeing the Frog Brigade at New Year’s, I would see Les again do New Year’s shows with his “Hatter’s Ball” in 2005 also at The Fillmore and again with Primus in 2010 at The Fox as well as that unique New Year’s Day show at the Great American on the first day of 2012. If I hadn’t seen him last October and will be again seeing him in April, I might have been tempted to see him this New Year’s at the Great American with his Les Claypool’s Bastard Jazz band. Clearly, I love the guy, but even I have to set some boundaries here.

Alice In Winterland: Everclear, Fastball, Nelly Furtado, War., SF, Fri., December 15

SETLISTS :

(FASTBALL) : This Is Not My Life, Morning Star, Nowhere Road, Dream, The Way, On The Road Again

(EVERCLEAR) : El Distorto De Melodica, When It All Goes Wrong Again, Heroin Girl, Like A California King, Fire Maple Song, Strawberry, Wonderful, AM Radio, Everything To Everyone, I Will Buy You A New Life, Santa Monica, Father Of Mine, (encore), Local God, Sin City

This would be the fourth and final time I’d see Everclear and the only time I’d see either Fastball or Nelly Furtado. Nelly was brand spanking new back then, having just celebrated her 22nd birthday less than two weeks before this show. The Canadian singer songwriter had just released her debut album, “Whoa Nelly!” that October and it just exploded. It would go on to sell over five million copies and would reap in four Grammy Nominations including Best Pop Vocal Album, Best New Artist, and for her hit single “I’m Like A Bird”, nominations for Song Of The Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Yes, that earworm of a song of hers was all over the radio, especially Alice who was sponsoring this show as their “Alice In Winterland” concert. Even Nelly herself described it as a “hairbrush song” and I’m confidant that women out there understand that reference.

So, you can imagine how mortified I was to discover I accidentally taped over her extremely brief set opening that night. In fact, I can’t even tell you what band it was that I recorded over her, but they were some rowdy punk band and the show was in San Francisco. I’m actually surprised I did it because I thought Nelly had the voice of an angel and she certainly won over the audience as well as me that show, so I have to conclude that I did it accidentally. Anyway, Nelly is still a young woman, younger than I am at least, so I might get a chance to redeem myself and catch her performing again some day.

Like I said, this was another Alice show and once again, my former school chum from S.F. State, Sterling James, was there to emcee between acts. This was arguably the height of Everclear’s popularity and they were quite productive that year, releasing not one but twin albums, “Songs From An American Movie: Volume One : Learning  How To Smile” in July and “Volume Two : Good Time For A Bad Attitude” just a month before this show. The first volume, inspired by frontman Art Alexasis’ recent second divorce had already been certified platinum by then and though there was some confusion with their record company after the release of the second volume, that one still certified gold. 

On a somber note, their new song from Volume One, “Wonderful” had been used as the graduation song for Columbine High School that summer, that community still recovering from the tragic massacre that had taken place there. Naturally, they played it that night along with all their other hits. Art had been personally busy as well that year, making a brief appearance in the Heather Graham comedy, “Committed” and testifying before Congress on behalf of the bill HR 1488, the Compassion For Children & Child Support Enforcement Act or ACES. With a little help from his star power, the bill passed. 

The second opener, Fastball, had a huge hit with another Alice earworm, “The Way”, which two years before had raked in Grammy Nominations for Best Long Form Video as well as Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals. However, their latest album, the ironically titled “The Harsh Light Of Day”, would sell less than 85,000 copies. But the fans that night loved them all the same and it was hard not to like these guys since their songs were so catchy and though their set was only six songs long, they still treated us to a couple of whimsical covers, “Dream” by the Everly Brothers and “On The Road Again” by Willie Nelson.

Art and the band were on top of the world that night, clearly in a good mood. Coincidentally, the last time I had seen them was on that very same Warfield stage the previous winter headlining the SnoCore tour with Soul Coughing, Redman, and DJ Spooky. The band was introduced by Alice’s morning hosts, one of them being Gretchen Lancour. Being only nine days after this night, Art shouted out “Merry fuckin’ Christmas!!!” to the crowd before they played “Heroin Girl”. Art pointed out the people up in the front of the dance floor being “really fucking cool” and goaded the crowd to scream louder to match them. Pumped up, he had no problem then getting them to sing along to the chorus of “Strawberry”. Afterwards, he took a moment to wish a young woman named Danielle a happy birthday. Everclear made a curious, but interesting choice singing the lyrics of “AM Radio” to the tune of “Mr. Big Stuff”, the R & B classic by Jean Knight, afterward declaring that this was the “best fucking time they’ve ever had at The Warfield”. They came back for their encore and Art joked, “You guys by now should know you’re not getting rid of us that easy” and they finished the night with another cover, “Sin City” by AC/DC.

Aimee Mann, Grant Lee Philips, Fill., SF, Tues., December 12

SETLIST : One, Choice, That’s Just What, How Am I Different, Save Me, It’s Not Safe, 4th Of July, Red Vines, Susan, Ghost World, Long Shot, Sugar Coated, Quits, (encore), Wise Up, Deathly, Stupid Thing

This was one of those dreaded nights in history where most people who lived through it remember where they were when they heard the bad news. As luck would have it, it was none other than Aimee Mann herself who announced to the crowd at The Fillmore that George W. Bush had just been handed the presidency. Ironically, Aimee had just finished performing “Save Me” when she casually dropped that bomb on us. I was disappointed though not entirely surprised, but there were a few gasps and at least a couple people shouting, “No!” But what was done was done and I suppose if anyone is going to break such bleak news to you, at least it came from her syrupy sweet voice. 

Yes, the recounts and the legal wrangling had been going on since election day, but the Supreme Court finally lowered the boom and spinelessly handed over the keys to George, a metaphorical and literal drunk driver. Of coarse, none of us could have entirely predicted the death and suffering that would follow during W’s reign of terror. Even Aimee blew it off a bit trying to console us saying that we had “4 years of comedy” to look forward to, but it was still a hard pill to swallow. Still, listening to and writing about this now, I find it cathartic to take a deep breath, square my shoulders, and dive in on the beginning of this age of darkness. Indeed, considering that everything I’ve written about up till now happened almost entirely during the Clinton years and I pretty much stopped bootlegging at the end of the Bush ones, I take comfort in the thought that I’m basically at the halfway point of this absurdly  long confession. 

Which leads me back to the show at hand. I was pretty unfamiliar with the works of Aimee Mann before this night, though I have learned a lot since I started doing my research as usual. I was aware of her songs in the soundtrack of the P.T. Anderson movie “Magnolia” which had come out the previous winter, the long awaited follow up to his seminal masterpiece “Boogie Nights”. I thought the bit in that movie with everyone singing her song “Wise Up” was actually pretty stupid, but I enjoyed the rest of the film nonetheless. The aforementioned song “Save Me” which was also on that soundtrack went on to receive a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. Her husband, Michael Penn, the brother of actor Sean Penn, had done the music for “Boogie Nights” and even played a small role in it, the sound engineer named Nick (Yay!) who records Dirk Diggler’s cringeworthy songs in the middle act. 

Before that, Aimee had a wildly eclectic and prolonged rise to stardom. She had been enrolled in the famed Berklee College Of Music until she dropped out after 18 months and from there, believe it or not, she once was a part of Ministry in early 80’s, briefly having as she phrased it “a dysfunctional romance” with that band’s deranged frontman, Al Jourgensen. One can speculate that any romance with Al would probably be characterized so, but I digress. From there, she formed the band Till Tuesday, a damn sight less dark and bombastic than Ministry by any measure, and had some moderate success on that front. I never made the connection that she was also the etherial female voice singing the chorus of “Time Stand Still” by Rush. 

She began her solo career in the 90’s, briefly playing with the Squeeze, as well as forming the Acoustic Vaudeville project with her husband, a stage show of music and comedy which employed such now notable talents as Janeane Garofalo, Patton Oswalt, and David Cross. P.T. Anderson had become familiar with her work seeing her as a regular performer at the Largo, a nightclub in L.A. which featured other moody songwriters such as Elliot Smith, Fiona Apple, and Rufus Wainwright. Finally, she even played a bit part in the Cohen Brothers cult classic, “The Big Lebowski”, as one of the German Nihilists. So, suffice to say, Aimee had quite the impressive resume coming into The Fillmore that night. 

Though she had been a successful and respected musician for years, her then record company, Geffen, had refused to release her latest album, “Bachelor No. 2 Or The Last Remains Of The Dodo”. For whatever reason, maybe they just thought the title was too long, Aimee took that album and released it on her own new label, Super Ego Records that May. Her persistence paid off, inspiring other disgruntled artists to follow suit and do it themselves, and she made a lot of money in the process with that album and the seven others that would follow it.  Michael Penn played guitar and back up vocals for five of the new songs as well. 

Opening that night was a respected local songwriter named Grant Lee Phillips, who I had just disbanded his old group, Grant Lee Buffalo, the year before to also pursue a solo career. He had just put out his “Ladies’ Love Oracle” album online that January and was there just playing solo with his acoustic guitar, save for his second to last song. He busted out a drum machine for “It’s The Life”, even jokingly singing a bit of “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins at the beginning of it. He praised The Fillmore, saying, “This is a nice room to sing in, not echoey at all” and pumped up the crowd reassuring them that they were “ever so close to Mann-time… the Mann-hour is approaching!” Though I never watched it personally, Grant had also just began acting in the show “Gilmore Girls” that year, playing the local town troubadour. 

I thought Aimee’s choice of beginning her set with the Three Dog Night classic, “One”, was an appropriate one considering the history of that hippie venue. Though Three Dog Night as far as I know never played the Fillmore or The Fillmore West back in the day, they did perform at The Fillmore East in New York City. Later Aimee introduced “Ghost World” as “a song about graduating from high school and having no idea what the fuck to do with your life”. Afterwards, she joked that the song “almost rocked” and asked the crowd, “Remember that show when Aimee almost rocked? It was pretty good”. Then some folks  up front hooted, “Wooo!”, and she pointed to them and laughed, “They thought we rocked.”

One of the guys on stage in her band mentioned that she had been looking at Styx records in a store today, (most likely Amoeba on Haight Street), and she went on telling us that she had “developed a really unhealthy fixation with Styx”. She told the story about how recently a friend of her watched a video tape, a long form concert movie with vignettes with actors between songs and a “crazy Mr. Roboto-like theater” and watched their “Behind The Music” episode on VH1 too. She even threatened to “do a version of ‘Lady’ right now” which was met with a round of applause, though we weren’t that lucky and she went on to finish her set with the appropriately titled “Quits” instead. She came back for an encore and wrapped up the night with the aforementioned “Wise Up”, “Deathly” and “Stupid Thing”.

I’m happy to report that they gave us a cool poster at the end of the show, the entire background of it being a box of Red Vines licorice. Clearly, that was a reference to her song “Red Vines” which she performed in the middle of her set that night. Yes, Aimee dropped a bomb on us with the news about W., but we still had a few more carefree weeks before he would be inaugurated. Nine months later, we would all witness the horrors of 9/11 and as luck would have it, the first show I’d see after that terrible day would also be at The Fillmore, but it would be Megadeth. Quite a different mood to say the least at that show, but not entirely the wrong kind of music to assuage the anxiety we were all feeling then. But I will get to that show in due time. Though Aimee did return to The Fillmore the following year, I missed it and this would to this day be the only time I would see her perform live. On one final, silly, and totally unrelated note, every time I think of Aimee, the song “Amy Grant” by the Young Fresh Fellows gets stuck in my head with Mann’s name substituted for Grant’s. If you haven’t heard that song, I strongly advise you against it now. It’ll get stuck there for life… with Mann’s name instead too. 

Rancid, AFI, The Distillers, War., SF, Sat., December 9

Rancid were about at the peak of their popularity back then, having just released their fifth album that August, simply titled “Rancid”, their first on Hellcat Records, Tim Armstrong’s own label. Produced by Brett Gurewitz from Bad Religion, it managed to squeeze 22 tracks in just under 40 minutes, very punk, and though it got good reviews, it didn’t make as much money as their previous releases. Around that time, Tim had also formed a musical side project called The Transplants with Travis Barker, the drummer of Blink 182, and released a self titled album two years later. Rancid were home in the bay area after six weeks on the road, ending the tour amongst many friends and family at this packed, sold out Warfield show. And it must be said that it was an impressive line up, some heavy hitters here, but I was a little miffed that I had to work all night. Still, the crowd was a damn sight easier compared to wrangling the finicky hippies at the David Grisman show there the night before that. 

Opening the show were The Distillers, a still very new band fronted by Brody Dalle from Australia. Brody, a former professional swimmer and two time Catholic school dropout, had met Tim while she was playing at the Summersault Festival with her old band, Sourpuss. And though Tim was 32 and she had just turned 18, they were quickly engaged and her new band, The Distillers, got picked up by Hellcat Records, and then presto! Their first self titled debut album came out that April and there they were on stage that night. I have to admit, they were pretty fucking heavy and had impressive chops for people that young. In fact, they made the others that night seem downright poppy. Brody’s singing was so indecipherable, that I didn’t have a prayer in hell transcribing her setlist. The mosh pit went bonkers for them and suffice to say, they were a tough act to follow.

I was more than familiar with AFI by then, having seen them headline The Fillmore just two months before this show. That night, though it was Christmas season, AFI had decorated their set with about a half dozen glowing jack-o-lanterns, presumably leftover from Halloween. To add to their spookiness, they came on stage to the recording of the creepy theme song from the horror movie “Poltergeist”. Their singer, Davey Havok, also came out later near the end of Rancid’s set to help sing along to “Rejected” and “Ruby Soho”. I didn’t get their setlist that night either, but I do know that they opened with “Strength Through Wounding” and they ended their set with “The Days Of The Phoenix” and “Totalimmortal”. Davey mentioned between songs how much the  enjoyed being on the road with these bands and since this was their last night of the tour, they wanted to especially give a shout out to their “big brothers in Rancid”. 

Between sets, Rancid unfurled a giant black and white jolly roger flag, the cover of the new album, behind their set and soon they took the stage, Tim wearing a black leather, chrome studded biker jacket, aviator shades, and a bandanna. Lars Fredriksen had dyed his mohawk bright purple and wore a black Motorhead shirt with the sleeves torn off. I had the bad habit of not bringing enough tapes to shows back then, so I was only able to get about the first half hour of Rancid’s set. As you might expect, they covered all their big hits up till then, but I do know for certain that the first three songs of the night were “Maxwell Murder”, “Journey To The End Of The East Bay”, and “Name”. At the end of their set, Tim acted like he was going to throw his guitar into the audience, but relented at the last moment.  

It would be a few years until I would see The Distillers and Rancid again, but there was some serious drama happening during those in between years. Three months after this show Lars’ brother, Rob, tragically died of a brain aneurysm. Then, Tim and Brody’s marriage fell apart after Tim saw pictures of her kissing Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme in Rolling Stone magazine. In fact, the next time I would see The Distillers, they would be opening for the Queens Of The Stone Age at the scene of the crime right there at The Warfield, on that very same stage. Brody and Josh would marry two years later after that show in 2005 and have three kids together, a daughter and two sons. Unfortunately, that marriage also crumbled acrimoniously, custody battles, restraining orders, and all. This would also be the last time I’d see AFI perform live, but they’re still together and touring to this day. Finally, this night with Rancid would hold the dubious distinction of being the last show I would see before George W. Bush was so spinelessly handed the presidency just three days later, ending that historic, embarrassing six week struggle to decide the election of 2000 on a catastrophic note. 

The David Grisman Quintet, Blue Blades Of Grass, War., SF, Fri., December 8

It had been a few years since I recorded Grisman at the Maritime, but I was happy to join once again with his enthusiastic crowd there to cheer for him and his quintet. There had been some renewed interest in his music around then after the “Grateful Dawg” documentary had been released earlier that year, the soundtrack released the year after. Directed by David’s daughter Gillian and cinematography done by Justin Kreutzmann, the son of Grateful Dead drummer, Bill Kreutzmann, the film chronicles the friendship and collaborations Grisman had with Jerry Garcia starting way back in the 60’s. Also that year in April, “The Pizza Tapes” were released. Legend had it that these recordings of Garcia and him were given to a pizza delivery guy as a tip, but copies had later surfaced around New York City and were getting popular, so they wisely decided to put it out and made it nice and official. They re-released it again ten years later with 16 additional tracks and alternate takes, playfully titling it, “The Pizza Tapes : Extra Large Edition”. Turns out, it contained the only known recording of Jerry playing “Amazing Grace”. Longtime friend and former quintet member, guitarist Tony Rice helped them record these tapes, but I’m sad to say Tony just passed away a couple years ago, apparently while making coffee.

It’s always a pleasure to hear Grisman play, a true master of the mandolin and the genre of bluegrass. My only real complaint about the show, as is always my bone to pick with bluegrass shows, is that the volume of the music was painfully low and to make matters worse, since such music is often just instrumental as Grisman’s was, the drunks in the crowd selfishly use that music as just the background score to their own conversations. The Warfield is a rather big place for such intimate music anyway. It was a long night too, since I had to usher through the opening act, the first of David’s two sets, the set break, and the beginning of the second set. Like hippies, the bluegrass crowd is a tough one to wrangle as well. Still, once I was let go from ushering and got a beer in my hand, I was able to unwind and lighten up. It also was a welcome distraction from the stressful recount and legal efforts to settle the election that was still boiling over. This would be the last weekend of that strange phantom period, the presidency spinelessly being handed over to George W. Bush later that Tuesday. David even made a little wisecrack between songs, first saying that he was for Bush, then quickly adding, “Let’s face it, he’s greatest mandolin player… Sam Bush!” 

The Blue Blades Of Grass band got the crowd warmed up, being pretty straightforward bluegrass music, though they sang well. They performed the traditional bluegrass classic, “Pig In A Pen”, a song Garcia and Grisman did together for years, including way back when they were in the Old & In The Way band. As usual, Grisman had brought along a talented roster of musicians to comprise his quartet including Matt Eakle on flute and bass flute. It’s not often one hears flute in bluegrass music, so Matt’s contribution made the songs a little different than you would typically hear at such shows, gave it sort of a jazzy Canned Heat sound. Come to think of it, you don’t see flute players live with any bands of any genre very often really.

David introduced the others about halfway through the show, starting with Joe Craven on “percussion, violin…, and just about anything he lays his hand or any other body part on, a virtuoso on nearly everything” and also mentioned that he was “about to become a papa again.” Next, he praised the “Latin touch” that his guitarist, Enrique Coria from Argentina, a man they called “El Magnifico”, and lastly, he introduced Sam Bevan, “the newest and youngest member of the group”, on upright bass. James Kerwin also took a turn playing bass with them that night. Enrique had quite an impressive solo in the second set and he got the crowd to clap, whoop, and stomp their feet to his flamenco stylings. Matt had one hell of a flute solo as well. I didn’t get a setlist that night, but I do know that they played “Pupville” near the end of the show which David dedicated “for all the kids here”, mentioning a few including ones called Chelsea and Patrick. 

I would return to The Warfield the following night to see Rancid, a very different genre and audience to be certain. Technically, this was the last time I’d see David play a full set with his quintet, but I did see Grisman many years later briefly performing at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park. Unfortunately, he was on the Banjo Stage and it was so hopelessly crowded and we were so far away, that and we were stuck right next to some filthy, deranged homeless guy, dancing wildly without a shirt who absolutely stunk to high heaven, the kind of odor that’ll make your eyes sting. My friends and I didn’t stick around to listen to David for very long and we moved on to other acts at stages elsewhere. 

Wash Me, Kennedy’s, SF, Wed., December 6

SETLIST : Playground – Johnny Ohio, Two Sides Of Midnight, Tava, Stalker, Dig Dug, Surfin’ Messiah, Monkey Armaggedon, Clock Song, Ice Cream Headache, Sugarfree, Ain’t No Fun (If The Homies Can’t Have None) – Rebecca, Run For Your Life, Warsaw, Sarin Daydream

It warmed my heart on this cool autumn day to revisit this show. Wash Me was the brainchild of my dear friends Dan Rubin on guitar, Mike Chen on bass, Jamie Lewandowski on drums, and Quan Hill on vocals. They had jammed together long enough to make a respectable set worth of songs and though I saw them perform together a number of times, this would be the one and only time I would record them myself. Wash Me had landed a gig playing at Kennedy’s, an (obviously) Irish bar across the street from Bimbo’s 365 Club in North Beach. Strangely enough, they also served Indian food there that wasn’t half bad. Their show was early enough in the day that the sun was still out, but they had gathered a modest crowd of friends like myself to watch them do their thing.

Though I am naturally biased for my compadres, I can speak objectively to say that Wash Me was a great band. Though they weren’t together long, to this day, I can still remember their songs clearly. There are so many bands out there that I have seen over and over again like Phish or Modest Mouse where to this day I couldn’t hum two bars of any of their songs, much less identify a single title of one. Granted, Wash Me was pretty no frills, stripped down, poppy punk music, but those brilliant melodies and lyrics they composed will stick with you, some for life, no kidding. I think with the right promotion and opportunities, Wash Me could have and certainly deserved to move on to bigger and better things, but it was painfully clear that the folks at Kennedy’s weren’t supportive to say the least. I don’t think they even turned off the background music at the bar while they were playing, very disrespectful. But my boys played loud enough to drown it out and then some.

I believe Quan’s then girlfriend and future wife, Amy, was in the back handling the merch and mailing list. Quan pointed out that she was wearing a Tootsie Roll baseball hat and between songs, Mike encouraged the audience to buy their stuff on the internet and mentioned a show they were going to do soon at The Stork Club in Oakland. Dan told everyone that the drummer wanted them to buy him a beer before they played “Tava” and I’m pretty sure at least one person obliged him. He then introduced “Surfin’ Messiah” as “their religious number” and got us all to grunt and holler like apes during “Monkey Armageddon”. Quan described the next two numbers, “Clock Song” as “a song about somebody who wakes up too early in the morning” and “Ice Cream Headache” as “also about a guy who doesn’t like his job”. 

They delighted us with a couple clever cover songs including a bit of “Ain’t No Fun (If The Homies Can’t Have None)” by Snoop Dogg before they played “Rebecca”. Afterwards, they did “Run For Your Life” by an obscure band called The Beatles, it being the last song on their “Rubber Soul” album. Finally, Dan introduced “Warsaw” as a song “by a depressing English band called Joy Division” and they began it at first playing the post-punk standard really jazzy, before reverting back to more like its original version. Mike mentioned again about their stickers and mailing list in the back before they wrapped it all up. To this day, it remains the only live performance I ever saw at Kennedy’s, but thankfully I was able to see Wash Me a few times back then, as well as several other musical incarnations of those wonderful, wonderful people.

Common, Planet Asia, Fill., SF, Sun., December 3

By this time, Common Sense had committed to changing his stage name permanently to simply Common. His fourth album, “Water For Chocolate”, his first on a major label, had been out a little over eight months and was a critical and commercial juggernaut, quickly becoming his first gold record. To make it, he had assembled a super team of respected hip hop professionals called the Soulquarians at Electric Lady Studios in New York. Comprised of Questlove from The Roots, who I had recorded together with Common at the Maritime Hall the year before, J. Dilla from Slum Village, James Poyser, D’Angelo’s keyboardist, and Pino Palladino, who would soon take over as bass player for the Who after John Entwistle died, they would collectively write, produce, and record this album named after the novel by Laura Esquivel. Its unique mixture of hip hop, R & B, and Fela Kutiesque afro-pop would earn Common a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance and his album landing on many Albums Of The Year lists. Incidentally, rumor had it back then Common was dating Erykah Badu, who had famously broken up with Andre 3000 from Outkast three years before this. 

I’d always felt that there isn’t enough hip hop shows at The Fillmore, though the Maritime was hoarding most of the best acts of the genre at the time.  Along with the aforementioned Common show with The Roots, I had recorded Common another time at the Maritime in 1998 and Planet Asia three times the previous year alone.  I’d hoped after the Maritime’s sinking in 2001, The Fillmore would pick up the slack, but hip hop shows remain there few and far between in my opinion. That being said, Common was certainly a class act and a welcome one. It was clear that he was breaking through to the mainstream as a musician then, but he would elevate himself only further as the years passed, adding the titles of actor, author, model, producer, and activist. And it’s always a point of pride for me as I’m sure it is for others when they witness a future A-Lister on the cusp of hitting the big time.

Planet Asia was, is, and will always be a reliable opening act, one that I’ve written plenty about before, so I’ll skip the biography stuff. I will say that they had a new album out that year called “How The West Was One”, and being local, they started the show saying how grateful they were to be there and even pointed out a couple of their cousins in the audience. I didn’t get their setlist, but I do know they played “Callin’ The Shots”. They also did plenty of freestyle that night. I couldn’t decipher all of Common’s setlist, but I do know that he performed five songs off the new album, starting to its first two songs, “Time Travelin’ (A Tribute To Fela), and “Heat”, followed by “A Song For Assata” , “Cold Blooded”, and “Funky For You”. Just before Common played that last one, he did an intro of P-Funk songs of both “Not Just Knee Deep”, which he got the crowd to sing a long to the Whoa-whoa-whoa’s, and “P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)”. After that song, he did “I Used To Love H.E.R.”. As luck would have it, 23 years later, I had just seen George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic last night at the Fox in Oakland. It’s not entirely coincidental since most hip hop artists sample George’s stuff anyway I suppose. 

I’m afraid I ran out of tape after the following DJ solo finished, but I got most of Common’s songs, though I’m sorry now I didn’t bring more cassettes. This was an important show. I appreciated that Common was touring with a real drummer which always brings a hip hop sound up a notch. That drummer was good too, so was his trumpet player. You don’t get a lot of trumpets at rap shows. Common spoke to the crowd a lot between songs, talking about a variety of things ranging from being “down for unity”,the history of the Black Panthers, or how “love is freedom”. I’d see Common again three years later at The Fillmore, part of the KMEL House Of Soul show with Talib Kweli, Gang Starr, and others, but I’m afraid neither show got a poster at the end of the night.

The Offspring, Cypress Hill, MXPX, War., SF, Sat., November 25

SETLISTS :

(CYPRESS HILL) : We Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That, Lick A Shot, Get Out Of My Head, Can’t Get The Best Of Me, Hand On The Pump, How I Could Just Kill A Man, Insane In The Brain, Bring It On, A To The K, War Pigs, Cock The Hammer, I Wanna Get High, Stoned Is The Way Of The Walk, Hits From The Bong, Riot Starter, Rock Superstar

(THE OFFSPRING) : Bad Habit, All I Want, Come Out & Play, Million Miles Away, Gone Away, Have You Ever, Americana, Gotta Get Away, Staring At The Sun, Damnit, Original Prankster, Get A Job, Session, Smash, Kid’s Aren’t Alright, Self Esteem, Pay “The Man”, Pretty Fly (For A White Guy), Want You Bad

It had been only five months since I’d witnessed Cypress Hill and The Offspring on the main stage at B.F.D. and though they performed admirably as usual, I never thought I’d see them tour together on their own. Granted, they were both from the beautiful south of this glorious state, but apart from that, the two acts had little in common stylistically or otherwise. Regardless, somebody thought it was a good idea and/or maybe the bands just hit it off and this unlikely double bill had an enthusiastic crowd of both their fans there to welcome them. Despite their popularity, the show had been moved to The Warfield from the Bill Graham Civic Center, a venue over three times larger, probably due to low ticket sales. I must confess, this being a confession, that I had neglected to go into much detail about The Offspring when I wrote about B.F.D. because frankly I spent most of their set checking out Slipknot headlining the second stage that night, so I’m glad at least I get this entry to catch up a little. 

The Offspring had just released their “Conspiracy Of One” album just eleven days before this show, their last one with Ron Welty on drums, replaced briefly by the ever present drum master for hire Josh Freese before Atom Willard from Rocket From The Crypt took over. Ron would be fired two years after this show and lead an unsuccessful effort in 2020 to squeeze some unpaid royalties from the band. The new album, though not as commercially successful as the previous one, nonetheless went platinum. Perhaps as a not so veiled stab at the notorious greed of the music industry, The Offspring titled their new DVD “Huck It”, just released that year, filled with stunt and skate videos interspersed with footage of their live performances and interviews.

This was also during the time when America was coming to grips with the undeniable overtaking of streaming and file sharing of music, led by Napster. The Offspring and Cypress Hill both saw the writing on the wall and had firmly taken sides with Team Napster. The Offspring not only sold T-Shirts on their website fused with the Napster logo, but the band had donated money to its notorious founder, Shawn Fanning. The band even attempted to make their new album free for downloading, but the bosses at Sony weren’t having it. They eventually compromised and allowed the single “Original Prankster” go out for free. Incidentally, their brand new single, “Defy You”, recorded just that month, would be featured in the soundtrack of the upcoming Jack Black comedy film, “Orange County”. 

Opening the evening was MxPx from Washington who I’d seen open for Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros at The Fillmore the year before this. I liked these guys. They had talent, opening their set with the intro to “Baba O’Riley” by The Who, a band I had just seen earlier that summer. MxPx had just put out their fifth studio album, “The Ever Passing Moment” that May and though I didn’t get their setlist, I know they played “My Life’s Story” and “Responsibility” from that new one, as well as “Middlename”. Cypress Hill were still touring with Sen Dog’s rock band, SX-10, who had spent that summer touring with Limp Bizkit (groan), that tour also sponsored by Napster. 

Those lovable stoners got the venue nice and cloudy, covering all the usual hits as well as treating us to five songs from their new “Skull & Bones” album. B-Real gave a shout out to Tre, a DJ from KMEL, before they did “Hand On The Pump”. We all got a bit of a surprise when they did a cover of “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath, played pretty close to the original actually. Cypress Hill also did a thrash metal sort of end to “Cock The Hammer”, but then quickly got stony again following it with “I Wanna Get High” which melded right into “Stoned Is The Way Of The Walk” and “Hits From The Bong”. B Real got the crowd to chant, “Hell yeah! I get high!” before taking a break, allowing their percussionist Eric Bobo to regale us with an impressive solo. Having the rock band with them, they opted for doing “(Rock) Superstar”, instead of the “(Rap) Superstar” version of their new hit single to finish their set. 

The Offspring had another fun filled, energetic performance, dusting off all their hits up till then and treating us to five fresh ones from the new album. Strange, I just noticed that three songs in a five song stretch had titles ending with the word “Away” that night. I guess they like that word. The singer Dexter and guitarist Noodles praised the crowd for being so “handsome” and pointed out all the folks with AFI T-Shirts moshing up front, a band on The Offsprings’ own Nitro record label that I’d just seen at The Fillmore a month before this. As luck would have it, I would also see AFI play on that very stage two weeks later, opening for Rancid. The Offspring took a little breather, doing a funny “intermission” bit halfway through their set playing some vintage, recorded instrumental bossanova music before performing “Get A Job”. The band got the crowd to sing along to the “Whoa Oh”’s during “Kids Aren’t Alright” as well as the “Ow Ow Ow Ow”’s of “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)”. Giving a subtle dig on having their show moved from the Civic, Dexter mentioned how glad he was playing at The Warfield instead of “one of those big places” before finishing the night with the new song, “Want You Bad”. 

I was being spoiled back then with both bands playing as often as they did, this being the sixth time I’d see Cypress Hill in less than five years. B Real, Sen Dog, and the gang would soon return to San Francisco the following July, doing one of those secret $5 shows at Slim’s that Miller Genuine Draft was sponsoring back then. I’d have to wait a little longer to see The Offspring play Live 105’s Not-So-Silent-Night in 2003 at the Civic with Jane’s Addiction, Iggy Pop, and other musical acts of note. Though sadly there wasn’t an official poster given away at the end of this Warfield show, I found a homemade one for that show being sold on Etsy which wasn’t half bad.

Peter Murphy, GAMH, SF, Fri., November 24

SETLIST : Cool Cool Breeze, All Night Long, Keep Me From Harm, Indigo Eyes, Subway, I’ll Fall With Your Knife, Marlene Dietrich’s Favorite Poem, A Strange Kind Of Love, My Last Two Weeks, Big Love Tiny Fool, Gliding Like A Whale, Cuts You Up, Time Has Got Nothing To Do With It, Just For Love

Peter was giving his bay area fans an intimate treat that night playing in the cozy confines of the Great American. He’d just been to town the previous March, where I’d seen him perform at The Warfield, a venue that could hold at least eight times as many people (legally). This time the once and future frontman of Bauhaus was only touring with two other musicians in tow, Hugh Marsh, a Canadian electric violinist, and Peter DiStephano, the former guitarist of Porno For Pyros. Together, the three of them would kick off this, the first night of a two night stint at the Great American. I would be spending the following evening at the aforementioned Warfield seeing The Offspring and Cypress Hill, an entirely different musical experience altogether. Six days after this show, Peter and the guys would record their set at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles and use it to make the “aLive Just For Love” album. 

It was an evening with the dark lord of Goth, but they opened both nights with a screening of a short film called “The Grid”. This dark, blurry art piece follows Mr. Murphy himself as a time traveller in search of the first cell of his existence. With pointed elf ears, black mascara, and donning skintight, black clothes and boots from head to toe, Peter crawls, prances, and generally moves mysteriously, wandering around a barren concrete wasteland to the sound of atonal whistles, electronic beeps, and white noise. It was filmed in 1980 by his then girlfriend and avante garde performance artist Joanne Woodward, AKA JoWonder, (no, not the wife of Paul Newman, though that too would have been an intriguing collaboration). Anyway, it helped set the mood for the evening. They had originally screened the movie during Bauhaus’ U.K. tour in 1980 and I imagine the audience was as equally as confused and mesmerized as I was by it that night. JoWonder definitely took a page from some of David Lynch’s early works.

I enjoyed Peter’s stripped down sound this time around, a more gentle, introspective departure from his playing with a full band. After seeing him perform a couple times solo already as well as the back to back shows at The Warfield with Bauhaus two years before this, I was starting to become familiar with his vast repertoire, but it seems like every time I see him play, it feels brand new. His setlist that night, with the exceptions of the final song of the set and the encore was identical to the one on the live album. The song “Just For Love” was brand new then and wouldn’t be released until the “Dust” album which would come out a year and a half later. It would be only six months later when I would catch Mr. Murphy returning to once again play The Fillmore and that time he performed every single song from that next album. 

Shane McGowan & The Popes, Sarah Franklyn, Fill., SF, Fri., November 17

SETLIST : If I Should Fall From Grace With God, Donegal Express, Paddy Rolling Stone, Paddy Public Enemy No. 1, Lonesome Highway, The Broad Majestic Shannon, Popes Instrumental, Dirty Old Town, Mother Mo Chroi, The Body Of An American, (unknown), Skipping Rhymes, Sally Mac Lennane, A Pair Of Brown Eyes, Poor Paddy, The Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn, The Irish Rover, (encore), Streams Of Whiskey, Bottle Of Smoke, The Angel Of Death

It had been exactly one week shy of five years since I’d seen Shane play The Fillmore with The Popes. He had been busy touring with them in the interim and had recently sang guest vocals for the Dropkick Murphy’s songs “The Wild Rover” and “Good Rats”. I had also seen some grainy, old, black and white footage of Shane with some friends in the Sex Pistols documentary “The Filth & The Fury” which had been released earlier that year, singing the opening lines to “Anarchy In The U.K.” His teeth were crooked, but mostly still intact back then. Actor Johnny Depp had also become friends with Shane and had directed and appeared in his music video for “That Woman’s Got Me Drinking”, playing a little guitar for that one too. The Popes had just put out their “Hollywood Boulevard” album that March, of which Shane wrote three of the songs, but they didn’t play any of the new songs that show.

I had just celebrated Thanksgiving the night before with my family and I was eager to dance off a few of the pounds I gained at that meal. Opening the gig was singer songwriter Sarah Franklyn. It was just her and another young woman playing acoustically, but the drunks in the crowd listened politely. She had a sweet, feminine voice, the kind that almost sounds like sunshine, and her music was rather soothing, a nice departure from the bombastic “wizard metal” of Ronnie James Dio, which I witnessed at The Fillmore the week before. But the calm soon gave way to the crowd going nuts when Shane opened up with the old Pogues classic, “If I Should Fall From Grace With God”, one of eight Pogues songs they’d perform at that show. Mr. MacGowan once again took his mark on stage, drunkenly leaning on his mic stand like a crutch, muttering and snarling out his slurred lyrics, letting out the occasional shrill, yet somehow joyful shriek. All the while, Shane would nurse a smoldering cigarette, indoor smoking bans be damned.

Like before, it was a rowdy good time, the kind of music that makes you feel like you’re a stumbling, foul mouthed Irish drunk even if you hadn’t touched a drop and was without a single cell of Celtic blood in you. But when you hear the staccato of Tommy “The Beast” McManamon’s tenor banjo, it just triggers something in all of our collective genetic memory young and old, especially when they dust off ancient, traditional drinking classics like “Dirty Old Town” or “Poor Paddy”. Rest assured, there was the expected amount of bone fide, full-blooded, Emerald Isle ex-pats in the audience along with their friends and kin. Before they did “The Sick Bed Of Chuchulain”, Shane made the joke, “How do you know E.T.’s a Protestant?… He looks like one!”, but then dismissed racism in general, mumbling something about being a “Jewish Catholic”. He cackled a little before teasing us by crooning playfully a few lines from “San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)”, the hippie anthem by Scott McKenzie. 

They finished their set with a rip roaring version of “The Irish Rover”, but cooled us off finishing their encore with a somber, yet beautiful cover of “The Angel Of Death” by Hank Williams. Shane introduced it saying that it was the last song Hank wrote and encouraged the audience to toss on stage some acid or “Purple Haze”. Frankly, I doubt he needed any more of either than he was likely on already. I wouldn’t have to wait long to see Shane do his thing again, for he and The Popes would return to that esteemed venue a mere five months later for back to back shows, once again with Sarah Franklyn opening up for them. And though this gig didn’t get a poster at the end of the night, the next visit would, the only poster I’d get from of the three times I’d see Shane and The Popes play The Fillmore.

Dio, Yngwie Malmsteen, Doro Pesch, Fill., SF, Thur., November 16

SETLISTS : 

(DORO PESCH) : I Rule The Ruins, White Wedding, Burning The Witches, Terrorvision, East Meets West, Metal Tango, Burn It Up, All Are We

(YNGWIE MALMSTEEN) : Far Beyond The Sun, Evil Eye, Trilogy Suite Op : 5, Red House, Badinerie, Blue, Molto Arpeggiosa (Arpegios From Hell), (acoustic guitar solo), Black Star

(DIO) : Sunset Superman, Invisible, Stand Up & Shout, Don’t Talk To Strangers, All The Fools Sailed Away, Magica Theme, Lord Of The Last Day, Fever Dreams, Feed My Head, Eriel, Annica, Challis, As Long As It’s Not About Love, Losing My Insanity, Otherworld, Magica (Reprise), Holy Diver, Heaven & Hell, Long Live Rock & Roll, Man On The Silver Mountain, (encore), Rainbow In The Dark, The Last In Line

This would be the first time I’d see the one and only Mr. Ronald James Padavona and afterwards I’d be ashamed that I hadn’t seen him sooner. Indeed, he had performed at the Maritime Hall when I was working there during the spring of 1998, but upon hearing that he had brought his own monitor board and we couldn’t get the hook up to record, I passed on sticking around for his show. Truth be told, I knew very little about this metal legend, knowing only the song “The Mob Rules” from the soundtrack to the animated film “Heavy Metal”, which unfortunately he didn’t play that night. I also remember seeing Henry Rollins doing one of his spoken word shows and going on about Dio, praising his songs for them being like “Hey Devil Woman… Beware!!!” or something like that. Hank was obviously a fan. Thankfully, I got to see Dio twice more before he passed away in 2010 and upon doing research for this show, I learned some more about him.

It is common knowledge that the world has Ronnie James Dio to thank for the so-called “devil’s horns” hand gesture ubiquitous with heavy metal shows. But in case you didn’t know, the story goes that it was Dio’s old Italian grandmother who would use the gesture towards someone giving you the “evil eye” as protective magic against it. Does it work? Maybe, but it couldn’t hurt. There’s a lot of evil eyes out there. Anyway, as a young man, though Dio hadn’t had any formal vocal training, he learned at a young age to play the trumpet, which he credited for his breath control techniques. He had made a name for himself in the music world fronting bands like Elf and Rainbow, before replacing the freshly fired Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath in 1979. Despite making some incredible music together, soon Dio would butt heads creatively with the other Sabbath guys and part company with them along with their then drummer Vinny Appice to form his own band, simply called Dio. From there, he would compose hit after glorious metal hit starting immediately with “Holy Diver” and “Rainbow In The Dark”.

So, I would clearly be showing late to the party as a Dio fan, but I made it all the same. He had just put out his 8th studio album, “Magica”, that March, a concept piece told from the viewpoint of his villainous character, Shadowcast. Being the leader of the dark forces from the netherworld, this character had invaded our planet, vaporizing people into pure, evil energy and the album’s heroes, a master and apprentice names Eriel and Challis, must recite a spell from the sacred book of Magica to defeat him. You get the idea, real D & D stuff going on here. I heard someone coin his music style once as “wizard metal” which is not entirely an inaccurate nor unflattering way of describing it, I suppose. 

We got to hear 7 of the new songs at this gig, the first of this tour that would take him and the band all over America and then shortly after the holidays, on the road again here and then to Europe with Alice Cooper and Ratt the following spring. Dio had plans to record sequels to this new album afterwards, but those plans were tragically cut short by his diagnosis of stomach cancer. He had written a new song called “Electra” for the project which would be released in the 2007 reissue of the album. Three years after Dio died, “Magica” had a special re-release with a 2-disc version containing bonus and live tracks from his earlier tour in the spring of 2000 and his tour in 2002. Sadly, most of those live tracks came from their show that March at The House Of Blues in Hollywood and not from this Fillmore one. 

It was quite an impressive line up that night, beginning with Doro Pesch or simply Doro, the “Metal Queen” from Dusseldorf, Germany. In a genre overrun with icky boys, her powerful voice cut through the mediocre acts and sexist detractors to cement her reputation as the singer of the band Warlock in the 80’s. She had struggled at first establishing her career as a solo artist in between leaving Warlock and this show, but she was back in full force, having put out the “Calling The Wild” album just two months before this and joining Dio’s tour, her first tour of America in ten years. Incidentally, a couple years ago, Doro gained the distinction of being the first heavy metal artist to perform a drive-in concert during the COVID epidemic.

She would dust off a few Warlock tunes that night, opening with “I Rule The Ruins” and also finishing up the set with “Metal Tango” and “All We Are”. For their second song, she sang a brilliant cover of Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” and later did “Burn It Up”, both songs from the new album. Sadly, Doro’s father passed away earlier that year and to make matters worse, Doro had some more awful news when Mario Parillo, who played guitar and keys for her, fell ill and had to leave the tour, ultimately finding out that he had cancer and succumbing to it shortly afterwards. Mario had been replaced by this time with Oliver Palotai, a German-Hungarian classically trained musician who performed admirably. Though this would be the only time I’d see Doro, she’d go on with other members of Dio’s old band to form the Dio Disciples the year after his death, singing tribute to the master and keeping his music alive. 

Following Doro was the inimitable Yngwie Malmsteen, the Swedish guitar virtuoso. Though I had heard that he had a reputation for being kind of a pill, he had an equally popular reputation for shredding beyond belief on the guitar. After hearing his chops that night, I can safely say that the stories of his abilities were well founded. Seriously, I have heard some noodling in my time, but the speed at which this guy did his thing was mind boggling. In the middle of his set, he blew us all away with a blistering version of “Badinerie” by Johann Sebastian Bach and an equally mind blowing rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s “Red House”. Yngwie had just released his new “War To End All Wars” album just nine days before this show and he played the new track “Molto Arpeggiosa” from it near the end of his set. Yngwie had Mark Boals back on lead vocals that night, who had briefly left the tour and was replaced by Jorn Lande. Mark would also go on to sing for the Dio Disciples.

Dio also had a couple wandering members of his band return to play with him on this tour, Craig Goldy on guitar and Jimmy Bain on bass. About halfway through their set, Dio had Craig do an impressive guitar solo, a brave move after following Yngwie. I was instantly struck by Dio’s charisma and the frankly seductive power of his voice. This diminutive, 58-year old rock gremlin in a deep-V black sequin shirt was living proof that star power isn’t something you get from your looks. His is such a rare talent, the type that instantly gets his audiences right in the palm of his hand from song one. It next to impossible not to like Dio. He’s the kind of performer like say Prince, Bob Marley, Dolly Parton, or David Bowie, that if you don’t like them, you’ve probably got something wrong with you. Being amongst particularly Dio’s fans at one of his own shows was such a joyful feeling, they loved him so much. He really got the crowd to sing along to “Heaven & Hell” and “Long Live Rock & Roll” near the end of the set.

This night, like Youssou N’Dour at The Warfield two nights prior, was also a welcome distraction from the ongoing recount effort that was going on in Florida following Election Day which was just nine days before this. That stressful limbo would go on for almost four more miserable weeks. On the lighter side of the news, that day the soon to be ex-president, Bill Clinton, became the first of his office to visit Vietnam since the war. And it had been a rewarding gig, finally hearing Dio’s irresistible siren song. Pity there wasn’t a poster, nor would there be one when Dio returned to The Fillmore two years later. Obviously, he deserved one. I must confess though, whenever I think of Dio, I inescapably think of one of the times I saw The Supersuckers and their singer Eddie Spaghetti did a breakdown near the end of one of his songs singing to the chorus of Duran Duran’s “Rio”, “His name is Dio and he dances in the sand!” and so on. Curse Eddie for getting that stuck in my head and sorry if I just got it stuck in yours. Use your devil’s horns to break the curse!

Finally, I should acknowledge that this show marks the first Fillmore show my friend Alan Ralph would witness. He had just moved to town and though we wouldn’t be formally introduced until years later, this show would be the first of literally countless ones he’d attend in his illustrious career out here in the bay area. I used to think I saw a remarkable amount of concerts until I met Alan, who not only saw a multitude as a civilian, but would work through every practical rank in show biz at these gigs, from ushering, to security, to merchandise, to stagehand work, you name it. He, to this very day, goes on the road handling merch for bands like Rival Sons and Death Angel for weeks and months on end and has an ever expanding collection of guitar pics from practically every musical act in existence past or present. And if that wasn’t enough, he’d go on to take excellent photos and write reviews of current shows for spinningplatters.com. His exceptional writing skills have inspired me to up my game here on my end. Keep an eye out for Alan at your next show. He’s often the tallest guy in the room.

Youssou N’Dour, War., SF, Tues., November 14

It was a welcome sight to have Youssou N’Dour and his crew back at The Fillmore after six long years. In fact, he was the third show I saw at that esteemed venue after it reopened in 1994, following its prolonged earthquake repair and retrofit. The master vocalist from Senegal had returned once again to regale us with his special brand of “mbalax” afro-pop, a genre he is so associated with him back in his native Senegal, that he’s often credited for having invented it. Youssou had a busy year in 2000, having signed to Spike Lee’s 40 Acres music label and releasing two volumes of his “Joko” project, starting with “From Village To Town” that March, his first new material in six years. It would go on to be nominated for a Grammy for Best World Music Album and this tour he was on here was likewise his first American tour in six years.

The second volume released six months later would be called “The Link”, which is the English translation of the word “Joko”from Mr. N’Dour’s native tongue, Wolof. Youssou would create a foundation called The Joko Project, seeking to end the digital divide in Africa, literally linking the continent to the rest of the world electronically. He partnered with Hewlett Packard and they helped build internet access centers, online communities, and such. In addition to all that, he had just been nominated the month before this to be a Good Will Ambassador of the Food & Agriculture Organization (or FAO) of the United Nations. Earlier that year, Youssou also helped organize and headlined “The Great African Ball” in New York City, a festival of talent from all over the African diaspora. On a sad note, he had also been on the bill that year at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, the ill fated one where a stampede during Pearl Jam’s set killed nine people just three months before this night.

We all were in desperate need of Youssou’s uplifting music since by this show, it having been exactly one week since Election Night. The country as well as the rest of this poor planet were waiting anxiously to see where the chips were going to fall, so this night was a welcome distraction from all the talk of “hanging chads” and the rest. Seriously, the extraordinary range and sheer power Mr. N’Dour has with his voice is something to behold. His vocal dexterity once again was only matched by the skills of his band, especially his percussionist. My God, that man was fast. There were plenty of folks on stage as well as in the audience dressed and dancing in their immaculate and colorful African attire. I didn’t know the names of any of the songs in his set other than “Shaking The Tree” near the end, the one he collaborated on with Peter Gabriel. It was rewarding to see a man of Mr. N’Dour’s talent at a venue the size of The Warfield, though I would see him perform one more time back at The Fillmore again only eight months after this show.

The Original Meters, War., SF, Sat., November 11

I know I often say that I underestimated the significance of many of the shows I saw in the day, but I believe this one fits the bill more than the others. I had been familiar with The Meters’ songs from the shows of The Funky Meters as well as keyboardist Art Neville’s work with The Neville Brothers, but I was woefully ignorant to their history and influence. This was a rare show to say the least. The Meters hadn’t performed a set together since 1977, a full 23 years before this and technically it had been since 1970 since they had played as a quartet since they had Cyril Neville in the band during those in between years. This was a ONE NIGHT ONLY reunion, capitalized there obviously to reinforce its importance. Yes, there might have been some bad blood between the members, but there’s nothing like a truckload of cold, hard cash to mend fences. Apparently, a couple of wealthy businessmen had some extra piles of money laying about, so they offered it to them for this one-off gig and they accepted.

The festivities of the evening were however unavoidably colored by the crippling anxiety each and every one of us were feeling after Election Day the previous Tuesday. Yes, that election. There we were trying to forget that our nation was without a President-Elect and the gnashing of teeth and tearing of clothes was well upon its way down in Florida. The power of the funk was however enough to distract us all from that horrible debacle for an evening, a testament to the skills of The Meters. As luck would have it, a month and I day after this night, it would be none other than Aimee Mann in the middle of her show at The Fillmore, that would break the news that the Supreme Court had sided with George W. Bush, beginning his age of darkness. But enough about that, back to the show at hand.

I had taken for granted, as many had, The Meters’ work over the years. Even the Rolling Stones had to defend them from racist assholes when they took them on tour between ’75 and ’76. I didn’t know before doing research for this show that they had also been the band in the original recordings of “Right Place, Wrong Time” by Dr. John and “Lady Marmalade” by Labelle. The Meters were nominated four times to be accepted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame but never admitted, though they did received a Lifetime Achievement award from the Hall in 2018. During their time apart, The Meters had been busy doing their aforementioned projects. Drummer Zigaboo Modeliste had just released his first solo album that year as well as starting his new website, Zigaboo.com. Art, bassist George Porter Jr., and guitarist Leo Nocentelli, had toured with The Funky Meters with Russell Batiste Jr. on drums, the cousin of Jon Batiste, the former bandleader for Stephen Colbert. Leo would leave the band, but remain living and performing around the bay area, being replaced by Brian Stolz. Later, Brian would be replaced by Art’s son, Ian. Russell sadly just passed away unexpectedly just a few weeks ago from a heart attack at the young age of 57. I blame the Louisiana diet.

I saw Huey Lewis stroll by me that night while I was ushering downstairs. Naturally, it was sold out big time and I did my best to wrangle the crowd as they opened the night with “Fire On The Bayou”. George got the crowd to sing the title to the beat of his cowbell for that one. Art made a joke later saying that “we’re all family now” and “we can’t get out”. There was no shortage of folks dressed in New Orleans regalia, beads, masks, and all, including one woman with little white lights woven in her hair and a fellow with a tall, red silk fez hat. Tickets were expensive that night, $50 just for the balcony, which was a lot back then, though I shudder to think how much the scalped tickets were going for at that one. Whatever anybody paid, they certainly got their money’s worth and then some. The Meters played for nearly three hours that night, covering all their hits like “Africa”, “Cissy Strut”, and “People Say”, jamming out some songs for over fifteen minutes. They dusted off a rare one called “Chug Chug Chug A-Lug” as well. So-called jam bands are a dime a dozen these days, but they and so many others owe an Everest sized mountain of debt to these pioneers. They practically invented the genre.

There was a brilliant poster that night by legendary poster artist Jim Phillips and it was one of those rare horizontal ones to boot. Being one night only, I would never see the Original Meters together again, but it would be only four months later when I would see the Funky Meters play The Fillmore again. The Meters, this original line up, would reconvene only a handful of times elsewhere including the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 2005, partially in an effort to help boost morale to the city after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. They also played at Bonnaroo with Dr. John and Allen Toussant in 2011 and a couple one off gigs back home in New Orleans at Voodoo Experience and the Howlin’ Wolf. The following year in 2012, everybody but Art collaborated with Page McConnell the keyboardist from Phish to form The Metermen, an intriguing though unlikely combination. I didn’t get a chance to see them and I’m afraid there will never be another reunion of The Original Meters since we lost Art in 2019. Still, looking back, I’m proud I was able to catch this once in a lifetime night, truly musical history. 

The Dandy Warhols, TV Eye, Fill., SF, Sun., November 5

SETLISTS :

(TV EYE) : Idiot Wind, A Lot Like Me, Geographical Cure, My Love, Rerun, Masonic Rite, Throw The Line, Survival Of The Fittest

(THE DANDY WARHOLS) : Be-In, Mohammed (From Balcony), Bohemian Like You, Shakin’, Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth, I Love You, Hells Bells, Green, Minnersoter, Hard On For Jesus, Horse Pills, P.D.X., Get Off, Boys Better, Genius, Solid, Country Leaver, (encore), (unknown), Mercedes Benz

Things were looking up for the Dandy’s around this period. It had been over two years since I had seen them open for Curve at the Maritime and now they were headlining The Fillmore for their first time. Prior to that, I had seen them steadily graduating to larger venues, starting with me seeing them twice at Bottom Of The Hill, then onto Slim’s. The Fillmore was a natural fit for them as it is with some bands that play there. They thought so too since they would continue to play that beloved venue practically every single time they’d return to town from then on. It was a pivotal time in history as well, the catastrophic election night of 2000 being only two days after this. Earlier that week, the first crew of the International Space Station would also start their work.

The recent elevation of status of the Dandy’s could be attributed in no small part to their latest album, “13 Tales Of New Bohemia” which had just dropped that June. With their new smash hit single, “Bohemian Like You”, they would rake in the cash from licensing it to everyone from Vodaphone and Ford ads to soundtracks for several films and TV shows like “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. It was a very catchy song to say the least. Singer guitarist Courtney Taylor-Taylor said he wrote it after witnessing a pretty girl pull up in her car to the corner traffic light while he was looking out the window of his apartment and he had an instant fantasy about what it would be like to be in a relationship with her. With the success of that song and the new album, Courtney took out a loan and bought a warehouse in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, dubbing it “The Odditorium”. There, he and the band would rehearse, mix, and record new music as well as host an art space and continue their customary endless nights of drug and alcohol fueled revelry.

The band went through a change recently then as their original drummer, Eric Hedford would leave the band being replaced by Courtney’s cousin, Brent DeBoer. Eric was pissed predictably over royalties. And it being The Fillmore, I’m afraid Zia on keys had to keep her shirt on this time. In fact, her (much appreciated) usual toplessness would sadly become a thing of the past after this show. All good things much come to an end I suppose, after all, she would be officially off the market the following October, marrying the band’s manager, Travis Hendricks. The Dandy’s had been on tour in Australia that summer, releasing a version of the new album out there with a bonus disc that had seven extra tracks. They had also performed on “The Late Late Show” with Craig Kilborn two days before this show in L.A. and they would return to that city immediately afterwards to do back to back gigs at the El Rey Theater.

Opening that night was a band called TV Eye, presumably named after the 1970 Stooges’ song. There are actually a few bands that claim that name, but I believe the one I saw that night was a rock band from Linkoping, Sweden and were ex-members of the bands the Raped Teenagers (eww) and Second Sight. The members had colorful stage names like Johnny Rocket on vocals, Mat Detective on guitar, Psycho Patrick on drums, and Mr. Everglade on bass. The Dandy’s did a sort of etherial instrumental intro before morphing into “Be-In”. After I was cut from ushering and ordered an Anchor Steam, Courtney got the crowd to sing “Happy Birthday” to their guitarist Peter Holmstrum, though his birthday was actually two days before this. A few songs later, he introduced “Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth” as “one from the where are they now file”, claiming that the song “dates back to 1966”.

Mentioning their recent tour, Courtney claimed they “learned this Australian folk song… it’s really old” and they played their cover over AC/DC’s “Hells Bells”, one of those bonus tracks from the Australian release of the new album. After they finished their set with “Boys Better”, he joked “So, instead of, uh, going off stage and changing our costumes and you guys scream and freak out for an encore” that they were just going to hang out to let everybody “smoke a cigarette… Zia has to pee, so anybody else has to pee, pee now, or hold your pee… OK, so let’s all take five and reconvene.” I actually did take his advice and took a much needed pee. Zia came back on stage and said the show from the previous tour they did at the Great American, (which I missed three months before this while I was traveling in Europe), was their favorite and the one they did there at The Fillmore that night was the favorite of the current tour, which received an impressive round of applause. 

Halfway through the first “encore”, Courtney mentioned “sometime in your life” everybody had to check out the picture by the stairwell of “Pete Townshend at The Fillmore” though he actually was at Winterland in that picture. After saying the next song would be their last, the crowd booed and he smirked and said “Let’s all be friends now. Besides, it seems like we play here every fuckin’ two months”. He pretended to start walking off saying, “See you guys later” but quickly stepped back and continued, “When we first started like six years ago, we would drive 12 hours to come here and play garage parties rather than 2 hours to Seattle. Have you guys ever been to Seattle?” Zia then asked, “Any you guys ever see us at The Purple Onion?” Courtney made fun of i’s former owner, Tom Guido, who had just lost that venue the year before, “Go figure. It’s like Crispin Glover driving the Exxon Valdez”, though he thanked Tom for “being part of our fucked up lives.”

At the end of the second encore, Zia did a cover of “Mercedes Benz” by Janis Joplin, introducing it saying, “I’ve only ever done this song twice, but there’s not a more suited city for this song, so I hope you guys like it.” Perhaps Zia was inspired to perform it by the famous photo of Janis by the Fillmore’s downstairs main bar, snapped by my old colleague from the Maritime Hall, Grant Jacobs. Janis, like Zia had been at all the previous Dandy’s shows I’d seen, was topless in that pic too. They played the traditional instrumental “Greensleeves” once again over the speakers once it was over, a tradition BGP had done for ages before but hadn’t dusted off in a while. It was a pity that there was no poster that show, but the Dandy’s would get several of them from future Fillmore shows in 2003, 2005, 2012 (which I attended), 2016, and just this year in 2023. I would have to wait three years to see them, or rather just Courtney and Peter, do an acoustic duo version of the Dandy’s at a special Popscene show at 330 Ritch Street, another story for another time.

The Cramps, Kung Fu USA, Fill., SF, Tues., October 31

SETLIST : Everybody’s Movin’, You’re Gonna Miss Me, Cramp Stomp, Let’s Get Fucked Up, Oo-wee Baby, Domino, Garbageman, Creature From The Black Leather Lagoon, If Thing Hard On, Elvis Fucking Christ, Papa Satan Sang Louie, Human Fly, New Kind Of Kick, Cornfed Dames, Drug Train, You’ve Got Good Taste, TV Set, Can Your Pussy Do The Dog?, (encore), Dinner With Drac, Mad Daddy

I may have said it before, but it bears repeating that there isn’t a band alive or dead who is better suited to play on Halloween than The Cramps. The Damned come in a respectable second, but even their goth powers are no match for the sheer psychobilly lunacy that they unleash on this very special holiday. Indeed, the last time I witnessed their insane antics was on a Halloween four years before this at The Warfield. Since then, their bass player, Slim Chance, had left the band, replaced by Sugarpie Jones. Speaking of horrifying nights, the catastrophe that was Election Night 2000 was just one week away from this gig.

It had been a memorable three day stretch starting with the Bridge School Benefit, then B.B. King at The Warfield, and then this. Opening that night was a local trio named Kung Fu USA, just a year old in fact. I only taped one song from them and never saw them again. Lux was dressed in one of usual head to toe shiny, black bondage outfits with matching high heeled pumps. But it was hard to take my eyes off of Poison Ivy that night, dressed in a (gulp!) see through black body stocking, matching witches hat, and I would say nothing else but a smile, but Ivy’s not known for smiling much.

They got warmed up after a couple of songs and then Lux barked, “Two songs in  and I’ve already spilled my wine, god damn it! Every time that happens, it makes me want to say ‘Cramp Stomp!’” As usual, there were many imaginative costumes worn that evening, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what I was dressed as at that one. After “New Kind Of Kick”, Lux thanked everybody for their “tumultuous round of applause”. A couple songs later, he announced, “Tonight, PBS and Showtime present, Roy Scheider, Charlotte Margenswamp (or something garbled like that) in ‘Jane Ayre Meets Jaws Revenge’, a 19th century classic about a governess who falls for the police chief of a small resort town who is searching for the Great White shark who ate her charge” and then they did “TV Set”. They usually end with an epic version of “Surfin’ Bird” ending in an apocalyptic climax with Lux rolling around on stage with his microphone down his throat, but this time they ended with an equally long and maniacal “Mad Daddy”.

I’m always happy when they hand out a poster at the end of the night, but I was especially impressed with this one. It was a black poster with the show’s text forming a red skull, a striking an instantly recognizable image. In fact, ever since the folks at The Fillmore put it up with the other posters in the balcony, it remains without a doubt the one your eyes are irresistibly drawn to first. From the floor, one needs only glance up for an instant and bam, there it is standing out like a sore thumb in the middle of all the others. Sadly, this would be the last time I’d see The Cramps on Halloween and though there have been many others since on that spooky holiday, none could quite come close to the high bar they set.

I would see The Cramps one more time at The Fillmore three years later, but until then, they were taking a bit of a break from touring. Just three months after this show, their old guitarist Bryan Gregory who had left the band in 1980, would pass away from heart failure, though some suspected it was AIDS. Lux would go on to voice a character on an episode of “Spongebob Squarepants” in 2002 titled “Party Pooper Pants”, playing the lead singer of an all bird rock band called The Bird Brains. Perhaps it was a take on Bad Brains. You never actually see Lux or even hear him sing. They were a puppet band in a live action scene in the show and Lux just introduces them. Anyway, Tom Kenny who had voiced Spongebob attended Lux’s memorial in 2009, God rest Mr. Interior’s  very, very strange soul.

B.B. King, War., SF, Mon., October 30

SETLIST : Overture, Let The Good Times Roll, I’ll Survive, Bad Case Of Love, Peace Of Mind, Caledonia, All Over Again (instrumental), Early In The Morning, Ain’t That Just Like A Woman (They’ll Do It Every Time), You Are My Sunshine, I’m Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town, Three O’Clock Blues, The Thrill Is Gone, I Know (You Don’t Love Me No More), Don’t Go No Further, Please Accept My Love, Rock Me Baby, Makin’ Love Is Good For You

I was ecstatic to see for the first time the one and only B.B. King, the master of all things blues, inspiration and mentor to rock & roll pioneers from Elvis to The Beatles, but I was annoyed to death that it had to be a BGSE show. Yes, the venerable master of his beloved guitar Lucille was slumming it playing a “Bill Graham Special Event”, not to say that he and his esteemed band weren’t payed handsomely. Rest assured they were, for this was a big money conference party for J.P. Morgan. There was less than 300 people there at The Warfield, a venue that can (legally) 2000 hold more than that, so they closed off the entire balcony in an effort to make the floor seem fuller. Even then, there was little for the ushers to do, especially having little point clearing aisles for such a sparse audience. It was a welcome respite from the stretch I had the night before at the Bridge School Benefit.

Mr. King had been held in high esteem amongst the elder BGP community, being one of those blues masters who had served on many of those early eclectic bills at The Fillmore, The Fillmore West, and Winterland, sharing the stage with hippie acts like Moby Grape, The Mothers Of Invention, and The Byrds. He had gotten recent commercial and critical attention with his collaborations with Eric Clapton. Together, they put out the “Riding With The King” album that June which would go double platinum and win them the Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album. Jimmy Vaughn and Wendy Melvoin and her twin sister Susannah from The Revolution were also featured on the new album as well and they would perform the new song “Three O’Clock Blues” later that night. B.B. had known Eric since he was a wee 22 year old guitar protege back at the Cafe Au Go Go in 1967. Mr. King had also leant his talent to Eric’s, “Duets” album three years before this, joining him on the song, “Rock Me Baby”.

Earlier that year, Mr. King opened the third of his BBK’s Blues Clubs in Times Square, but it closed its doors in 2018. Also in 2000, there was an animated children’s TV show out called “Between The Lions” and the main character was called “B.B., The King Of Beasts” and he was modeled after you-know-who. And if that wasn’t enough, he had been the spokesman for One Touch Ultra, the blood glucose monitoring device, ever since he was diagnosed with diabetes in 1990. Those commercials with him played all the time back then. So, all things considered, Mr. King had a lot on his plate for a man who had just turned 75 years old. The usual blues purist detractors gave him a little shade for his newest works sounding too clean, but fuck ‘em. He sounded great that night.

Like I said, I didn’t have a lot to do but scowl resentfully at the rich bankers who got to see this genius for their own private little wing ding and I would say only about 50 of them were playing attention at all. When I got cut from ushering, it was open bar, so I REALLY made an effort to make up for lost time. I was pounding beer as fast as I could stomach it, so much that one of the bartenders eventually cut me off. I can still see that look of bitter distain in his eyes as he simply shook his head no, but I was able to continue my relentless beer intake from bartenders elsewhere in the house. Not to blame him in the slightest. He was just doing his job, but I knew that as an usher I was an annoyance to him to begin with. I gave him a sort of sly, “Oh, it’s like that, eh?” and went on my way. I knew I’d suffer for chugging all that fizzy liquid, because about halfway into B.B’s set, I had to pee most urgently. This is one of the principal reasons I don’t drink at shows anymore. When it became too much to bear, I bolted, did my business with the force of a firehose, and scrambled back.

Because there were so few paying attention to the show, the front of the dance floor was practically deserted. Those god damned, philistine suit people were all mingling about and talking shop in the back amongst the small, round cocktail tables and hors d’oeuvres. The band, all dressed in suits, came out and did a bit of an overture before Mr. King joined them, one of the band declaring him, “The King Of The Blues!”. And sitting at on his stool front and center, there was I, dead center right in front of him, less than 10 feet away. He opened with “Let The Good Times Roll” by Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five and they’d also cover “Early In The Morning” by them too later in the set. I was being spoiled that night and I knew it. He covered a lot of crowd pleasers including a nice sing-a-long version of “You Are My Sunshine” and his big hit, “The Thrill Is Gone”. He gave long introductions to his band members near the end and mentioned that they had backed him up in 80 different countries.

Though this would be the only B.B. King performance that I’d officially attend, there was one notable exception a few years later. I was up in Arcata visiting some friends and smoking a lot of weed as it is the custom in Humboldt County when my friends and I discovered that Mr. King was in town playing a small club that night. We went down there in a futile effort to get tickets, but it was predictably sold out and we were meandering around the club considering our next move when we spotted Mr. King, clear as day, through a window in his trailer parked beside the club. Not sure what to do, my friend Dave impulsively decided to approach the trailer, knock on the door, and see if B.B. wanted to smoke some weed. A little worried at first that we were causing a scene, Dave returned saying that he had politely declined. Pity he didn’t try to get us on the guest list. We actually did stick around for a while and heard most of B.B.’s set that night through an open window at the front of the club. We could actually hear him quite clearly and could even see a bit of the stage too. I guess I was lucky that night as well. 

Coincidentally, Mr. King would play his last bay area show at The Warfield in 2014, passing away the following year at the age of 89. He left behind not only his remarkable musical legacy, but a mind boggling 15 illegitimate children, 3 who would come forward admitting he was their father after his death. He wasn’t a the worst dad in the world though, not disputing any of their claims of parentage, even paying for college and trust funds for all of them. Still, that’s nothing compared to fellow blues contemporary Screamin’ Jay Hawkins who had officially sired 33 kids, 12 of which met for the first time at a 2001 reunion, and he may have sired up to 75. Still, as one could imagine, dividing up King’s estate after he passed was a bit complex.

Bridge School Benefit 2000: Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, Neil Young With Friends & Relatives, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beck, Foo Fighters, Shoreline, Mountain View, Sun., October 29

SETLISTS :

(NEIL YOUNG) : Flying On The Ground Is Wrong, Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing, Mr. Soul

(FOO FIGHTERS) : Big Me, Up In Arms, Breakout, My Hero, Learn To Fly, Everlong

(BECK) : Tropicalia, Bottle Of Blues, Sing It Again, Go Easy, O Maria, Static 2, Burro (Jackass – Spanish Version)

(RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS) : Road Trippin’, Californication, What Is Soul?, Beverly Hills (Century City), Scar Tissue, Parallel Universe, Otherside, I Could Have Lied, Trouble

(TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS) : Baby Please Don’t Go, A Face In The Crowd, Mary Jane’s Last Dance, Little Red Rooster, To Find A Friend, I Won’t Back Down, Breakdown

(DAVE MATTHEWS BAND) : One Sweet World, What Would You Say, Crash Into Me, Tripping Billies, All Along The Watchtower, Cortez The Killer

(NEIL YOUNG WITH FRIENDS & RELATIVES) : Words (Between The Lines Of Age), Old Man, Red Sun, Heart Of Gold, Daddy Went Walkin’, Razor Love, Tonight’s The Night

(CROSBY, STILLS, NASH, & YOUNG) : Cinnamon Girl, Marrakesh Express, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Helplessly Hoping, Dream For Him, Suite : Judy Blue Eyes, Teach The Children, Love The One You’re With

Another glorious year had come and gone and it was time once again for the Bridge School Benefit. I was able to get a ticket, though I heard that scalpers were asking as much as $2000 a pop for this one. Jerry Pompili from BGP mentioned between acts that night that “if you want to pay that much, call the Bridge School and make a donation. They’ll take care of you.” This was my eighth Bridge School in nine years and this acoustic cavalcade of stars was always one I’d look forward to. It was also the first year they were webcasting the shows, doing it through Intel and accepting donations over the internet.

This year’s line up was especially tempting because it would be the first time I’d see the freshly reformed Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young. This would be their first tour together in 25 long years. Neil had taken interest in the idea after collaborating with Crosby and Stills on three new songs, “Looking Forward”, “Slowpoke”, and “Out Of Control” for a new Buffalo Springfield box set. I remember hearing from my friend and expert in all things Neil, Jeff Pollard who was with me at this show, that Mr. Young allegedly said he’d steadfastly refused to work with those guys again until they had put out three new albums of original material since the time he split with them, but I guess Neil relented in the end. They would all kiss and make up, pow wow in the studio once more, and put out “Looking Forward” in 1999, CSNY’s fifth and final studio album. It might not have been their best work, but if anything, it was worth it for the money. Theirs would be the 8th highest grossing tour in the world that year. 

David Crosby had been in the news that January after it was revealed, unexpectedly to say the least, that he had been sperm donor for two of Melissa Etheridge’s kids. Sadly, one of the kids, Beckett died from an opioid overdose a couple years ago. The disastrous 2000 election night was only days away from this show and David had served as a member of the Democratic Party Credentials Committee during their convention down in Los Angeles. That February, Mr. Crosby had a book published called “Stand And Be Counted”, an examination of his and other artists’ involvement in political activism over the decades. I actually read it and found it quite interesting and well written. One bit that always stuck with me was his warning to other artists to be very, VERY careful on whose horse you back politically since politicians are human after all and fall from grace from time to time. One needs to look no further for an example than John Edwards, the Democratic candidate for Vice President that election getting caught years later having an affair while his wife was dying of cancer. A random fun fact to lighten things up again, the late great comedian Phil Hartman designed the logo for Crosby, Stills, & Nash back in the day when he was a graphic designer before he made it big in comedy.

I couldn’t find the tapes of Neil Young’s traditional opening of the show, where he’d play two or three tunes just him by his lonesome as well as Canadian duo Tegan & Sara who followed him, but I do remember them. Tegan & Sara were brand new back then having released their debut album “Under Feet Like Ours” only the year before under the then moniker of Sara & Tegan and had just dropped their second album, “The Business Of Art” three months before this. Their song “My Number” would be used in the soundtrack of romantic drama film “Sweet November” with Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron, a movie filmed in San Francisco earlier that year. Neil threw a bit of a curveball, opening the gig with three Buffalo Springfield songs in a row, “Flying On The Ground Is Wrong”, “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing”, and “Mr. Soul”. It had rained mercilessly the night before so obviously I was glad I chose this show instead of that one. Still, Robin Williams had been there for that day and he was cracking jokes like, “They’re gonna have the Ark built in just an hour. I know Noah!”, to try to raise the spirits of those poor, soaked concertgoers. His hair was dyed blond, so he probably was working on the film “One Hour Photo” around then.

It was a stellar line up as always at Bridge School that year, but as luck would have it, I had already seen the next two acts after Neil just two days before this. Yes, both the Foo Fighters and Beck had played a show at The Warfield that Thursday, a special secret “MGD Blind Date” where the patrons were brought to the venue by limo, practically force fed gallons of free MGD and Round Table pizza, unaware of who was playing until the curtains rose. Before that show, I hadn’t seen the Fighters since the Tibetan Freedom Concert in ’96 and they had picked up Taylor Hawkins on drums and Chris Shiflett on guitar since then. Guitarist Pat Smear had left the band a couple years before this, but would eventually rejoin them in 2011. The MGD gig was a fun show and you heard no complaints whatsoever from me for seeing two such class acts so soon again. And it was different anyway since both acts were playing acoustic this time. 

First on of the two, like before, was the Foo Fighters. I had neglected to mention a few bits about them in my writings of that Warfield show, so I’m going to go over them now. Sorry, a couple days late but better late than never. Dave Grohl and the band had hit it big with their latest album, “There’s Nothing Left To Lose”, especially with their new single, “Learn To Fly” and its brilliant music video, which won the Grammy for Best Short Form Video the following year. They would play that song as well as two other new ones, “Stacked Actors” and “Breakout” that night as they also did at The Warfield. There had been a bit of a brew ha-ha earlier that year when their guitarist, Nate Mandel, led a benefit concert that January for “Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives”, an AIDS denialist group. That organization had been condemned by the Office Of National AIDS Policy and thankfully all links that the Fighters had to them on their website were eventually removed. I remember it being bit of a big deal that year, somewhat tainting their latest good fortune and it was just awkward to say the least, especially for their fans in San Francisco.

But you wouldn’t have guessed it phased Dave in the slightest at that show or at The Warfield one. He and the band were tight as usual and he was once again his usual, jolly self. Dave joked at the end of their set that they “thought about doing ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ (by Arlo Guthrie) in its entirety” but they thought it would be “too much”. This would be the last time I’d see Dave without facial hair not to mention it would be a whopping 21 years until I would see him and the band again playing at the Dreamforce convention. That show would be the last appearance of Taylor Hawkins with the Fighters in the bay area before his untimely and tragic death a few months later from an overdose while they were on tour in Columbia. Incidentally, Tom Petty who would play later that night had asked Dave, who had sat in on a number of shows with the Heartbreakers including on an episode of “Saturday Night Live”, if he wanted to play drums for the Heartbreakers back in 1994 after Stan Lynch left the band. Dave had back then recently though tragically, freed up from Nirvana, but he declined and instead opted to continue on his own, forming this band he has to this day. It just occurred to me that the Fighters have the song “Learn To Fly” and Tom’s got “Learning To Fly”. Maybe somebody will do a mash up someday.

Though the Fighters didn’t play anything that I hadn’t heard from the Warfield show, Beck mixed up a little. In fact, the only song he did that show that he’d played at the other one was “Jackass” and this time he did it in Spanish! Appropriately, he had titled the song “Burro” on the setlist this time and arranged it with his Brass Menagerie horn section full on mariachi style. Beck did some obscure ones too like “Go Easy” and the ragtime jazzy “O Maria” off of the “Mutations” album. I’d seen Beck play the Bridge School once before in 1995, but this would be the only time I’d see him play at this benefit with other band members backing him up, where it wasn’t just him.

Next up was the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I had just seen them the previous December headlining the Cow Palace, hot off the release of their smash hit “Californication” album. I was especially intrigued to hear their set for this would be the first time I’d hear them perform acoustically. Their singer, Anthony Kiedis, still had the same short haircut, but had dyed it dark brown this time. We were extremely fortunate at this show to hear the Peppers open with “Road Trippin” which was one of only four times they performed that song live and they haven’t played it at all since 2004. The Chilis made good choices for their acoustic sound that night, not playing anything too bombastic. “Scar Tissue” sounds better acoustic in my opinion. This was probably the only show you could get Flea to sit on a stool for the entire set, everyone being so used to seeing him bounce around like hyperactive kangaroo all night. Speaking of kangaroos, I learned doing research on this show that Flea was actually born in Australia. Crickey! Anyway, they did a few eclectic yet tasteful covers, “What Is Soul?” by Funkadelic, “Beverly Hills” by the Circle Jerks, and finished their set with a rather somber version of Cat Stevens’ “Trouble”. 

I’d seen Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers play the Bridge School once before in 1994 and they were an always welcome addition to the bill. Tom had been doing well recently, having new success with his latest album “Echo” which had come out the previous year, going gold in just the first three months. He had recently received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame as well. The band had tried to release the new single “Free Girl Now” for free on the web, but Warner Brothers pulled the plug on that after two days. That album would however be the last one with bassist Howie Epstein who had succumbed to heroin addiction that would ultimately take his life three years later. Howie played on the album, but wasn’t on the cover because he flaked on the photo shoot. Tom himself had just gotten out of rehab for heroin the year before this and sadly, Mr. Petty too would ultimately succumb to an accidental overdose in 2017. 

But Mr. Petty was alive and well as were his Heartbreakers who were in good form. It must be noted that Tom was sporting a sort of awkward mod-bowl haircut that night, not his best look. They opened with the old blues standard “Baby Please Don’t Go” and went on to do a stellar set, including a sweet cover of Willie Dixon’s “ Little Red Rooster”, where he got us all literally howling and barking during the bit where he sings, “The dogs begin to bark now, hounds begin to howl.” At the end of his set, Tom got the audience to sing along to a bunch of call and response “hey hey hey”’s during a sublime and subdued “Breakdown”. Jerry Pompili came out afterwards calling it a “magical set” and then did the annual raffle.

Dave Matthews would be the third act there that night who I’d be seeing at the Bridge School Benefit for the second time, having seen him on the bill there before in 1997. Dave mentioned it was a little chilly when he came out, though it was a lot less wetter than the night before and politely thanked the audience and the Bridge School for inviting them there. The Dave Matthews Band were their talented yet inoffensive selves again, but I did appreciate when Neil came out near the end of their set to play “All Along The Watchtower” and “Cortez The Killer” with them. Dave is often the butt of jokes for allegedly being bland, but the sheer intensity of his “Watchtower” would have impressed any skeptic. Mr. Matthews had been working on new material at the time, having just built his recording studio at his country home just outside Charlottesville, North Carolina, but he didn’t play anything new that show. 

Neil was up next, his second of three appearances that night, this time with his own band, being billed as “With Friends & Relatives”. One had to give him credit for playing so many songs both days, a challenge for any musician, especially one his age even back then. Neil had his lovely wife and benefit co-founder Pegi and his sister Astrid on background vocals as well as the legendary Donald “Duck” Dunn from Booker T & The MGs and The Blues Brothers on bass. Neil had just put out the “Silver & Gold” album and played three new songs off it that night, “Razor Love”, “Red Sun”, and “Daddy Went Walkin’”. Neil would switch between guitar and the organ, occasionally playing harmonica too and they ended that set with a cool, serene, and sort of spooky version of “Tonight’s The Night”.

It didn’t take long for them to change the set and Neil was back with his old quartet and I have to say it was good to see those geezers together again, opening with “Cinnamon Girl”, one of my favorites. After “Marrakesh Express”, CSNY did “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” which I had coincidentally heard Saint Etienne do their infectious, electronic dance cover of just a month before this at The Fillmore. They also played “Dream For Him”, the only song they’d perform from their new album in their set that evening. The show ended with the finale of “Love The One You’re With” accompanied, as was by tradition, by some of the folks that had performed earlier. I saw Beck, Dave Matthews, Pegi and Astrid from Neil’s band singing along up there. Strangely enough, actor Woody Harrelson had been in the house on the first night and sang along to the finale too. It would be four long years before I’d see another Bridge School and as luck would have it, the Chilis would be at that one once again, though Anthony Kiedis’s hair would be a little longer that time. This was an enjoyable start for my Halloween weekend and I would follow this with B.B. King at The Warfield on Devil’s Night and then The Cramps at The Fillmore for Halloween itself.

Beck, Foo Fighters, War., SF, Thur., October 26

SETLISTS :

(FOO FIGHTERS) : Breakout, My Hero, Learn To Fly, This Is A Call, Aurora, Stacked Actors, Ain’t It The Life, Next Year, I’ll Stick Around, Monkey Wrench, Everlong

(BECK) : Loser, New Pollution, Novacane, Nicotine & Gravy, Debra, Mixed Bizness, Milk & Honey, Hotwax, Jackass, Devil’s Haircut, Sexx Laws, Where It’s At

This was an unusual show for a few notable reasons. First and foremost, it was a secret show, a show where the acts were not revealed to the fans until the curtain opened for them. It was someone big to be sure since this gig was sponsored by the cheap yet ubiquitous beer giant Miller Genuine Draft. They had been putting together these so-called “Blind Date” shows around the country doing the same scenario with such A-List acts of the day as David Bowie, Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, Hole, and The Chemical Brothers. They had just put on Metallica on a few days before this in L.A. and this one was to be the last Blind Date of the year. 

The second reason this show was a horse of a different color was that there was free beer all night! The bad news is that (obviously) it was Miller Genuine Draft. However, the good news was that it was paired with unlimited slices of Round Table Pizza! I’m just glad they went with Round Table and not with something more stomach churning like Domino’s or Little Caesar’s. They had set up folding tables in the lobby and there were literally stacks upon stacks of extra large boxes filled with pepperoni and cheese pizzas. As an usher, I wasn’t allowed to touch either beer or pizza until I was cut for the night, but I made up for lost time once I was released.

Now the secret of who was playing was no secret at all to the folks working the show that night, it being the combination of the Foo Fighters followed by Beck. We were given explicit instructions not to spill the beans to the patrons that evening and I kept my lips sealed. A great double bill it might have been, but I had already seen Beck that May at the Civic and again in Golden Gate Park just a month before this. Furthermore, I’d see both Beck and the Foo Fighters just two days later performing at the first day of the Bridge School Benefit. My cup did overfloweth that year for those guys. The Foo Fighters had actually headlined one of these Blind Date shows at The Fillmore back in 1997, but I missed that one. Still, I was glad to see the Fighters again, this being the first time I’d catch them since the Tibetan Freedom Concert four years prior to this.

A DJ named Jared from a “certain radio station” that he declined to name came out to introduce the show shouting, “Let’s hear it for Miller Genuine Draft! God bless ‘em… You guys have a little MGD tonight? Where’d you guys come from?… The East Coast?” There were a smattering of cheers and boos. He went on, “The midwest?… The south?” Strangely, everybody booed the south, but they predictably cheered when he finally asked about the West Coast. He teased the crowd asking if anybody knew who the first act was and people shouted out their random guesses. One guy yelled out, “Brittany Spears!”

So, people were pleasantly surprised when the curtain finally rose for the first time revealing the Foo Fighters and they started right away with “Breakout”. Dave Grohl was his usual goofy, talkative self joking after the song, “If you haven’t figured it out, we’re the Foo Fighters. We like free beer as much as the next guy. We get free beer every night which leaves me to believe that you people might appreciate it a little bit more.” Dave then (appropriately) belched loudly and they played “My Hero” which went straight into “Learn To Fly”. During that song, Dave stopped in the middle and pointed to the crowd in the pit, “I need to share a message of peace and love and joy for a second. There’s a woman who’s getting kind of upset that she’s getting thrown around up front. I’m cool with that, so I’m going to invite her to sit by the side of the stage. I don’t want to see anybody upset now. I’m just trying to make everybody fuckin’ happy ‘cus that’s the kind of guy I am. I don’t even care if I have an orgasm as long as my friends do.”

After “Aurora”, Dave smiled and said, “That is so progressive rock shit!”, took a sip of beer, and joked, “This MGD shit is fuckin’ gross! I’m just fuckin’ with ya. I’m just fuckin’ with ya. I don’t want to lose my paycheck” and then they did “Stacked Actors”. It got kind of rowdy up front, people trying to stage dive and such, one of them grabbing at Dave. He laughed after the song, “You motherfuckers tried to take my pants off!… I kind of liked it actually”, then he belched again and continued, “Now I know you guys are at the point where you’ll pretty much make out with anybody. I’ll get there sometime. I’ve been there. It’s a nice place. Works for me. I’ll let you know once I get there.” He started pointing around to the folks in the pit, “I’ll be making out with him and you and you and him…” 

Later, he revealed before playing “Next Year”, “So, you know what… We gave our song to a TV show. Now it’s the theme to this TV show. Whatever. We were all freaked out about doing it and we weren’t sure if we should do it or not. But, uh, we did it as a favor to our good friend David Letterman. Joke!” Dave got a rimshot from the drums for that one. He mentioned that they also played the song earlier that day on “The Jay Leno show”. Turns out, he was telling the truth and that song had become the theme to the sitcom “Ed’ on NBC that year. Show creators Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman were actually from “the Late Show With David Letterman” and “Ed” ran for four seasons from 2000 to 2004. Not being much of a fan of network TV stuff, I never watched it. Apparently, there was some brew ha-ha over the rights to the song from Viacom, so they tried to replace it during the second season with “Moment In The Sun” by Clem Snides, but there was so much public outcry that they returned it to the “Next Year” song for seasons 3 and 4. It had some interesting supporting actors like Michael Ian Black, Justin Long, and John Slattery though.

Anyway. after the song, Dave said, “This is how much we wanted to come up here and play to a bunch of people drinking free beer. We played last night in Los Angeles. We woke up this morning as early as shit, totally fuckin’ hungover, and we went straight to the Jay Leno show, played it there, hopped on a fuckin’ plane, and came up here. We got here a half an hour ago!” The crowd erupted in applause and then they did “I’ll Stick Around”. Afterwards, Dave wanted “to dedicate these next two songs, fuckin’ shit hot set, to Taylor ‘cus he’s a fuckin’ trooper right there. That’s Taylor Hawkins playing the drums!” They gave Taylor a round of applause too and the band did “ Monkey Wrench” followed by the last song, “Everlong”. Before they finished, Dave shouted, “Be responsible drinkers! Tip your waitresses! Breathilize before you analyze!… They finished, took a bow, and the curtain went down again. 

The curtains rose once more after the break to the unmistakable opening acoustic guitar licks of “Loser” by Beck. I read a while ago that Beck found the whole Blind Date thing a little jarring, having to go on after the Fighters. A lot of those folks in the mosh pit were a bunch of sweaty, fraternity mooks and by that time, they were all sauced up on MGD. He did his best and did great as always as far as I could tell though. After a few songs in, I was at last cut from ushering and began to pound MGD and pizza as fast and as much as my poor, much abused digestive system could endure. Why, oh why did it have to be MGD? (Groan) But still, the price was right and after drinking four or five, the taste fatigue would give way to the drunkenness at last. All I had to do was keep from vomiting and piss like a firehose all night. 

Beck pretty much covered all the hits he had done at the shows I saw earlier in the year, though he left out his usual solo acoustic stuff to save time since he only had an hour. He introduced the band at the beginning of “Mixed Bizness” including his horn section, The Brass Menagerie, and did that little breakdown of “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie again in the middle of the song. Beck broke it down as well for the epic “Debra” wooing the subject of the song, “I’ll pick you up late after work. I know you had a hard day at your job. The boss is working you too hard. You got a run in your stockings. Your high heels are hurting your feet. I got a little sympathy for you, girl! That’s when I say… (singing)… Lady, step inside my Hyundai… (speaking again)… I’ll take you anywhere you want to go. Where you wanna go? You wanna go to Thailand? You wanna go to Jamaica? You wanna go to Long Island? You wanna go to Arizona? I’ll take you for a trip around the world! Or if you want to go around the block, that’s cool with me too.”

He did that schtick again during the song boasting of his “17 octave vocal range”, saying that there were “many kinds of athletics, but none is more vigorous” than vocal athletics. Beck said you “have to start below sea level” and starting singing way low gradually wailing his way up to a high pitched crescendo and naturally, the crowd went wild. After “Milk & Honey”, Beck said, “This is a little something for the west coast. There’s a lot of people here tonight from many places from across the land. And while you’re visiting here, I’d like to bring you some west coast flavor… It’s called ‘Hotwax’”. At the end of his set, he added “I’d like to thank you for being an exceptional audience tonight. I know you didn’t know what you were going to get… Maybe you didn’t want it, but maybe you needed it. So we’d like to leave you right now with a little extra flavor” and they ended the show with “Where It’s At”. 

The tapes from that night came out well enough, but I was glad to find a good copy of the Foo Fighters set on the foofighterslive.com website. They also had a decent poster at the end of the show as well and if that wasn’t enough, let’s just say I took a little or rather a lot of the show home with me when it was over. There were still an impressive few stacks of pizzas left over, so I helped myself to a couple extra large pepperonis and carried the boxes home with me and my freshly bloated abdomen. My modestly sized refrigerator back at my even more modest studio apartment was filled to the brim with the leftovers and it kept me happily fed for the next few days. 

The Dirty Three, Shannon Wright, Orso, GAMH, SF, Wed., October 25

SETLIST : Deep Waters, (unknown), (unknown), Some Summers They Drop Like Flys, Some Things I Just Don’t Want To Know, I Really Should Have Gone Out Last Night, Sue’s Last Ride, (encore), Everything Is Fucked, (unknown)

First off the bat, I should confess, this being a confession and all, that I was quite drunk at this show. So, listening to the tapes again helped fill in some much need blanks. I had been a fan of The Dirty Three ever since I heard them open for Morphine at The Fillmore five years before this show and had made every effort to see them when they would come to town thereafter as well as pick up any album of theirs I could lay my hands on. Coming off of the critical success of their last album, “Ocean Songs”, they had just put out “Whatever You Love, You Are” that March. This new brilliant musical offering won them an ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) award for Best Adult Alternative Album. 

It had been two years since I’d seen this instrumental trio from Down Under and they once again made the classy choice to call the Great American their home away from home when in town, the second of a two night stint there. I would go on to see them perform at that venue three more times in the future in 2003, 2005, and 2009. Opening that night, Orso, also members of a band called Rex, entertained the crowd with their duo of harpsichord sounding keys and guitar. Following them was Shannon Wright, a singer songwriter from Chapel Hill, North Carolina by way of Jacksonville, Florida. She had signed to Touch & Go alongside The Dirty Three and was quite a screamer that one. Definitely got an A for effort, physically and emotionally. I can hear myself drunkenly blurting out the Beastie Boys sample line,”It’s got a funky beat and I can bug out to it!” between songs.

The members of The Dirty Three were busy that year. Guitarist Mick Turner had released a couple solo records as well as a couple for a band he was also in called Bonnevill. On top of that, Mick had partnered up again with drummer Jim White to become the instrumental duo of The Tren Brothers. They backed up Cat Power for her debut breakthrough album, “Moon Pix” two years before this. Cat Power would open for The Dirty Three when they returned to the Great American in 2003, but I’m afraid I was drunk at that one too and made a bit of an ass of myself at that one again. It’s nobody’s fault but my own, but something about the The Dirty Three really lends itself to heavy drinking. Jim White and violinist Warren Ellis also backed up Nick Cave on his tour of Australia earlier that January. Warren had already become a member of The Bad Seeds by then and would go on to collaborate with Mr. Cave on many projects including some brilliant movie soundtracks like “The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford”.

Between songs during The Dirty Three’s set at this one, Warren was going off on one of his long strange talks and mentioned something about a dangerous neighborhood and I yelled out something about East Palo Alto. That town used to have a reputation for being dangerous back then, but now of coarse you have to be filthy rich to live there. He stopped and asked me to repeat it which I did, but he still didn’t hear me, and asked again which at that point I was too embarrassed to go on and there was an uncomfortable pause where a few of the people around me were glaring at me disapprovingly. Warren shrugged and said that whoever said it can write it down on a note and give it to him later. I kept cheering and such between songs, but at least had enough self awareness to not chime in anything else for the rest of the show.

It was hard to make out the stuff Warren was rambling about between songs that night on tape and it usually is even when you can hear him clearly. However, I was able to make out one of the things he said introducing “Everything Is Fucked” the first song of their encore, saying it was “a song about drinking poison and waiting around for the other person to die.” Likewise, being an instrumental band, even one I knew pretty well, I still had a hard time figuring out the setlist, but I managed to make out all but three of the tunes they played at that gig. He asked the audience for requests at the end and I was pleading for “The Dirty Equation”, but they didn’t play it. They had a couple interesting posters on sale that night for the show, a large red one with an illustration of a lion on it and another black one with an orange cat for the previous night. I believe the merch guy said that the lion image came from some a Polish fairy tale of something. I think Orso had made them because their name was above the other two acts suggesting they were the headliner that night. Though I was beat from seeing The Tragically Hip at The Fillmore the night before and this show going past midnight, I was glad a came, especially since the ticket only set me back $12. 

The Tragically Hip, Chris Brown & Kate Fenner, Fill., SF, Tues., October 24

SETLIST : Grace Too, My Music At Work, Membership, Twist My Arm, Fully Completely, Putting Down, Gift Shop, The Last Of The Unplucked Gems, Ahead By A Century, Greasy Jungle, Freak Turbulence, Nautical Disaster, Tiger The Lion, Wheat Kings, Train Overnight, Boots Or Hearts, 700 Ft. Ceiling, Courage (For Hugh MacLennan), Lake Fever, At The Hundredth Meridian, Sharks, Poets, Flamenco, Fireworks, Stay, New Orleans Is Sinking, Fire In The Hole, (encore), Bobcaygeon, Little Bones

This was one of those rare shows at the modestly sized Fillmore where it hosted an arena sized band, albeit a band that fills arenas in its home country. Often is the case for visiting J-Pop bands and such was the case for The Tragically Hip from the Great White North. Yes, these Canadians from Kingston, Ontario were so renown amongst their ex-pat communities in America, whenever they would visit, their countrymen would snatch up the tickets to their shows instantly, leaving none for us Yanks.  Consequently, The Hip never really caught on in America commercially, but were respected by music fans and other musicians worldwide in the long run. Rest assured, they are considered a national treasure in Canada where they would be the best selling band in their home country for twenty years, the 4th overall. There were plenty of Toronto Maple Leafs jerseys in the house that night, a handful of them lined up in front of the stage. This was one of those rare occasions where the Fillmore gave out a horizontal poster at the end of the night too. Coincidentally, The Hip’s guitarist has the same name as my dad, Robert Baker, a fair common name, I admit.

The Hip had just put out their “Music @ Work” album that June, releasing it early on the web, a new marketing move for bands back then, but became more common as time rolled on, and they performed 7 of the new songs that night. Their singer Gord Downie would also release his first solo record, “Coke Machine Glow”, the following year. This was the first of two sold out gigs at The Fillmore. I would be seeing The Dirty Three at the Great American Music Hall on the second night. I’ve only been able to locate a single disc with just the first six songs of their set that show, about a half hours worth. But I’m happy to report that they recorded a video of their show that night and I found it on YouTube, a good quality one too. It was a long night since I had to work through the opening act, the singer songwriter duo of Chris Brown & Kate Fenner from New York City, and The Hip were doing two sets, so I had to work through the first set and until they started their second.

But it was time well spent. I was immediately impressed by Gord’s voice. I know he probably heard it all the time and it’s frankly kind of obvious, but it bore a striking resemblance to Michael Stipe’s from R.E.M. Though both bands started around the same time, R.E.M. a few years earlier and their music is similar, geographically there was some considerable distance between them. But who knows? They probably secretly stole from each other all time. Michael shaved his head first. That’s official. Gord was different however in that he’d do these weird sort of mumbling spoken word cutaways during his songs from time to time. He was quite the poet, brilliant really. Adding some additional tragedy to The Tragically Hip, Gord would pass away in 2017 from a brain tumor at the all too young age of 53 years old. But his revered memory lives on to all those hosers who appreciate his work.

Very much alive and intense that night, Gord was dressed in a white, long sleeved collared shirt with a grey vest, though he ended up losing the vest after they played “Gift Shop”. Sweating though that first shirt, he changed into a collarless, long sleeved, black shirt for the second set, also with a different vest he’d eventually take off. I noticed he was wearing inner ear monitors which were starting to become more and more common at shows. Gord didn’t talk much between songs, but he did mention that “Fully & Completely” is a song that is “still reverberating down the hall.” The band was touring with a young, attractive blond woman named Julie Dorion singing background vocals and slapping the tambourine all night. She had a moment to shine, singing a couple verses of “Flamenco” on her own earning her some well deserved applause. 

I was looking forward to revisiting this one after doing the research and for one other special, yet bittersweet reason. The Tragically Hip would actually be the last band that I would ever usher for and record at The Warfield. Yep, when they played there in 2007, I got the word from Ian Berzon, the head usher at the time, that they were discontinuing my traditional position at the Left Bar Aisle and something just clicked and I knew it was over. Naturally, I will write more about that when I get to it, but I will never forget The Hip because of it. I always had a feeling the last one would be of a band I didn’t know or didn’t know very well.

King Crimson, Fill., SF, Thur., October 19

SETLIST : Introductory Soundscape, The ConstruKction Of Light, Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (Part IV), Coda : I Have A Dream, Into The Frying Pan, FraKctured, Thela Hun Ginjeet, Dinosaur, Improv, ProzaKc Blues, Improv, One Time, Frame By Frame, Red, (encore), Three Of A Perfect Pair, Elephant Talk, (encore), The Power To Believe III : Deception Of The Thrush, “Heroes”

I wasn’t sure what to make of King Crimson the first time I saw them at The Warfield five years before this. I knew the name and knew they were one of those many bands that I should know more about but didn’t. But this time, I’d be seeing them closer at the much smaller Fillmore. Yes, it had been 31 fucking years since they were beneath the roof of the Fillmore West, a different Fillmore but a Fillmore nonetheless, where they performed alongside the Chambers Brothers and Nice with Keith Emerson in December of 1969, the height of hippiedom. They made a live album from those shows. This time they were stripped down, playing as a quartet or “double duo” as they and their fans called them then. They had been a “double trio” before, but had been recently downsized as their bassist Tony Levin took a hiatus to do some session work and drummer Bill Bruford split too. This time, it would only be their venerable guitarist Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew on guitars and vocals, Trey Gunn on his various weird, custom stringed instruments, and Pat Mastelotto on drums.

They had just put out “The ConstrucKtion Of Light”, their 12th studio album, which sadly didn’t do as well as their previous ventures critically or commercially. Fripp wasn’t happy with it either and said so in public. But as I was still (relatively) ignorant to their work, I was blissfully unaware of most of the songs and whether they were new ones or old. I was however very much aware of their song “Thela Hun Ginjeet” which Les Claypool had performed just ten days prior to this show both days of his back to back shows at the Great American Music Hall with his new band the Fearless Flying Frog Brigade. He played it more or less faithfully to the style of King Crimson, but Les’ version went on about three times longer than they played it at this show. I, and everyone else on planet Earth, also knew their final song of the night, “Heroes” by David Bowie, that Fripp had contributed his signature guitar wailings for the original recording. They would also release a live album in 2000, “Heavy ConstucKtion”, with songs recorded from their European tour earlier that summer.

Robert once again sat discretely on his little stool and the band was rather dimly lit as was their thing, I guess. Like before, the fans pretty much stood there transfixed by their multilayered musical mazes, not music for any kind of normal dancing to say the least. Yes, this is the kind of music you have to be a music student to even begin to understand what they’re doing, music for smart people, booksmart anyway. The dexterity of the guitar playing that night was beyond belief, further solidifying their reputation as virtuosos at least in my opinion. I have to admit, seeing one of their shows does kind of make you feel a little smarter at the end of the night. At least when I run into prog rock fans in the future, I can boast of seeing King Crimson, even if I still know just a thimbleful about them. They covered a lot of material from their decades of work, including “The Power To Believe III : The Deception Of The Thrush” from the ProjeKct Two side band Fripp and Adrian whipped up a couple years before this. 

It had been sort of a rough week in the news. The U.S.S. Cole had just been attacked the previous Thursday by Bin Laden’s suicidal goons and to a galactic sized lesser degree of tragedy but still unfortunate, Rage Against The Machine announced they broke up (for their first time), the day before this show. On the lighter side of the news, that year astronomer Marc Buie discovered an asteroid and named it “81947 Fripp” after their esteemed guitarist. He’d also discover a second one the same night and named it after Brian Eno, who had produced and composed alongside Fripp for years. This would be the first of the three sold out King Crimson shows at The Fillmore and at least I knew with some certainty that there would be a poster at the end of the night and there was. As luck would have it the next time I’d see King Crimson was opening for none other than Tool at Berkeley Community Theater the following year. I actually took my dear ol’ mom to that show, partially because I thought she’d be intrigued by their musical complexity, but she was in fact more impressed with Tool. Go figure. I would see King Crimson one more time at The Fillmore in 2003, but that would be the last time for me, though I’d see Adrian and Trevor in other things in the future. 

Col. Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, GAMH, SF, Sun., October 8

SETLIST : Thela Hun Ginjeet, Shattering Song, Hendershot, Girls For Single Men, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts 1-4), (set break), Pigs On The Wing Pt. 1, Dogs, Pigs (Three Different Ones), Sheep, Pigs On The Wing Pt. 2, (encore), The Awakening, Harold Of The Rocks

Col. Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, GAMH, SF, Mon., October 9

SETLIST : Taxman, Here’s To The Man, Running The Gauntlet, Riddles Are Abound Tonight, Thela Hun Ginjeet, (set break), Pigs On The Wing Pt. 1, Dogs, Pigs (Three Different Ones), Sheep, Pigs On The Wing Pt. 2, (encore), Tomorrow Never Knows

It is a strange, yet happy coincidence that I begin writing this today of all days. Last night I saw Mr. Claypool at the Fox Theater in Oakland reunited with his beloved Frog Brigade to do a bay area show for the first time in 20 years. Except this time I’m paying three times as much for a venue that’s ten times larger. Sigh…Technically, the Frog Brigade did a show up in Napa a few months ago, but that’s a little far north to still be considered bay area in my opinion, but I digress. Yes, once upon a time, early in the summer of 2000, Les decided to put Primus on hiatus after their “Antipop” album. In that meantime, he formed his “midlife crisis band”, though he was only 36 years old at the time, and debut this new band at the Mountain Aire festival up in Angel Camp in Calaveras County. Originally, Les thought up the name “Les Claypool’s Thunder Brigade”, but Michael Bailey, the honcho at BGP and longtime friend and supporter of Les, suggested it “sounded too heavy” for the sensitive hippies during that weekend of jam bands and their ilk doing their thing up in the forest. 

Instead, Les considered the history of that area and Mark Twain’s immortal short story of “The Celebrated Jumping Frog Of Calaveras County” and changed the name accordingly. Les had recruited an impressive motley crew of ringers for his team, including Todd Huth on guitar and Jay Lane on drums, reuniting the original Primus AKA Primate AKA Sausage. Jack Irons, the original drummer of the Chili Peppers and later Pearl Jam, as well as Primus drummer Herb Alexander were once employed, but just for that single Mountain Aire gig though. He also got Jeff Chimenti on keys who had cemented his hippie cred for years playing alongside Phil Lesh and other Dead projects, but strangely enough, he also used to play keys for En Vogue. Go figure. 

On sax, there was the inimitable Skerik, the bubble eyed joker from Critter’s Buggin’ and Garage A Trois, a perfect goofball jester juxtaposed to Les’ dry sense of humor. Finally, they threw a wild card in there with a tall tree of a man with long blond dreadlocks going by the name of Eenor Wildeboar. He would go between playing guitar and a thing called a cumbus, sort of a Turkish version of a 12 string, fretless banjo. Les had plucked Eenor out of the ether literally, having him audition through a mail order competition Les advertised for in the newspaper of all things. Lucky Eenor, but I thought he was a good fit. Les recognizes talent when he hears it. Les actually thanked “Dave Lefkowitz Management”, who I used to intern for, for organizing the audition and finding him before giving Eenor a solo at the beginning of the first night.

I couldn’t believe my luck when I was able to score tickets for both days of these shows at the Great American no less, just a block from my studio in the Loin and only for $20 each. Even more fortuitous was the fact they were recording a live double album those nights! Predictably, I was over the moon and a complete spaz at both shows. Primus’ first album, “Suck On This”, was a live album and had an indelible, transforming effect on me and my friends. I mean, that one was important to us. Knowing fully these nights were being taped, I was up front and made sure my voice was heard between songs, trying to do a sort of high pitched coyote-like yelp and the occasional Middle Eastern trilling to differentiate me from the others in the crowd. I admit, it was obnoxious, so much so that I got a couple dirty looks from the guy in front of me, but I swear, I didn’t do it during the music or when Les was talking. Either way, you can’t really hear me on the albums anyway, so it was a futile gesture in the end. Regardless, I still had the time of my life and am intensely proud that I was able to witness that important milestone in Mr. Claypool’s musical career.

The other big deal about this show was the second set on both nights was to be the entire album of “Animals” by Pink Floyd from start to finish. I was intrigued and frankly didn’t know the album that well, so it was a much needed refresher course for me of that piece of work. Though brilliant, it tends to be overlooked, a bit sandwiched between the twin powerhouse monoliths of “Dark Side Of The Moon” and “The Wall”. It wasn’t much of a stretch for Les considering Primus had already released a cover of “Have A Cigar” years ago on their “Miscellaneous Debris” EP of cover songs. Folks playing albums in their entirety for sets was sort of a new thing back then, but now everybody does it. 21 years after these shows, Les and Primus would tour playing Rush’s album “Farewell To Kings” for their second set which was brilliant.

Les came out both nights wearing a striking, shiny American flag helmet and black naval captain’s jacket with bright red lapels, an outfit made for a Colonel. Jay Lane was sporting an impressive rhino horn helmet as well. They opened with a cover of King Crimson’s “Thela Hun Ginjeet”, a sprawling 15 minute plus prog epic on the first night and ended their first set with it on the second night. As luck would have it, I would see THE King Crimson play The Fillmore just ten days later and yes, they played it too. I got to know that tune well. Les did a little breakdown of “Riders On The Storm” by The Doors during “Shattering Song”, perhaps a nod with his singing the “killer on the road, his brain is squirming like a toad” line to the amphibian motif. Before they played “Hendershot”, Les admitted that “he wasn’t really a Colonel”, for which I yelled out that he should be a general! Modestly, Les insisted that he should immediately be demoted to Captain and that all further merch they sell reflect that. Soon after, Les did eventually drop his rank entirely from the band title and abbreviate it simply to his “Frog Brigade”.

Afterwards, Les rambled a bit with the crowd before “Hendershot”. Someone up front offered his hat to him for which he said he was “glad you’re offering your hat… It’s a fine hat. I’m just not sure if it’s for me”. He then said he’d ask around the other band members and offered it to Skerik. At the end of the first set on that first night, the band offered up another Pink Floyd cover, a sprawling version of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”. They wrapped up the song and Les said they’d be “back in 20 minutes with more Pink Floyd than anyone can stand.” I was impressed how faithful Les and the band were to the original arrangement of “Animals”. They definitely had it down pat and upon listening to the shows again, it did occur to me that’s Les’ voice and Roger Waters’ are kind of similar. For the encore on the first night, Les introduced “The Awakening”, saying that he found a copy of an album by an obscure band called The Reddings when he was a kid and that song was on it. He got together with some guys and played it at a rally at his high school and it would be one of the first songs he’d ever record. 

Before they wrapped up, Les told a story about when he was young, he was going to start a band and he was “going to call it Primate because I like Primate, being a fan of the monkey, chimp, and whatnot. So I was looking around for a guitar player. Guitar players are hard to find, especially the kind of guitar player I wanted. I didn’t want one of those shiny hairball son of a bitches that were chomping around backstage back in those days, wearing their spandex and their little bullet belts. And I looked and I looked and I looked and I looked and along came a fellah named Todd Huth. Now I knew Todd Huth from high school days. He was the guy in junior high who could play guitar and went out with Denise McGerry. Now, Denise McGerry had the biggest tits in junior high” He went on to say they’d play venues around the area, they’d play Berkeley Square, and added that he’d never played the Great American before then. With Todd Huth, they put together the first of their songs being “Too Many Puppies”, “Prelude To Fear”, “Here’s To The Man”, and of coarse… “Harold Of The Rocks” and they finished with that one.  Les, bellowed out singing “God Bless America” as they hit the last note and he laughed, “That’s it. Go away.” Night one was over.

On the second night, they surprised us with not one, but two Beatles covers, opening with “Taxman” and ending the show’s encore with “Tomorrow Never Knows” with Herb joining in on a second drum kit. I would also hear the Frog Brigade also cover “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” followed by “A Little Help From My Friends” a couple times in future shows including the New Year’s Eve shows they’d do at The Fillmore just a few months later. Now that I think about it, it’s a pity that they didn’t do any Beatles’ covers with Sean Lennon last night. I wonder if they’ve done any in other shows or with The Claypool-Lennon Delirium. Neither cover made it to the albums, sadly. Anyway, during “Taxman” that night, they opened with a long psychedelic intro and Les teased a little of “No Quarter” by Led Zeppelin in there too. Like their opening with “Thela Hun Ginjeet” the night before, this was a long first offering, over fifteen minutes. They even broke down the song near its end and played a verse and chorus of Primus’ “Wynnona’s Big Brown Beaver”.

Les addressed the crowd after the song, “So we were here last night, made a lot of racket, recorded that racket. Was anybody here last night? Well, for those of you who were here, I listened to the tapes on the ride home and you sounded fuckin’ great!” The audience and I erupted in applause and he went on, pointing to guy up front, “Especially this guy right here. Yep, that’s it. I recognize that one there. So anyway, you’re going to hear some good shit, some semi-good shit… Umm… Here we go” and they continued with “Here’s To The Man”. Les took a moment in the middle of the song to say, “I know you’re wondering. You’ve been thinking it since you walked in the door. You’re saying ‘Who’s that hot sexy man in the corner holding on to the saxophone?’ I can say from this point on that I can’t say anything that can make you enjoy this man any more… Ladies & gentlemen… Skerik” and he let had him do a solo. He playfully scolded him for going longer than his allowed “time allotment” but forgave him because he was so sexy.

I refrained a little from my coyote yipping from the night before, except during “Dogs” where everybody was doing it, but you can hear me laughing maniacally between songs. Les apologized after “Riddle Are Abound Tonight” saying “I kinda fucked that last one up”, but Jay reassured him, “That’s OK. He’s got Pro Tools!” Les went on, “So… We’re going to do another tune. It’s going to be a long son of a bitch” and invited folks to “go in the back, take about 20 minutes… and we’re going to come back out and play a shitload of Pink Floyd for you folks.” and they ended the set with the aforementioned “Thela Hun Ginjeet”. It was good to revisit the “Animals” songs and by the end of the night, I felt I had redeemed myself a little for my previous ignorance. Like on “Dogs”, everybody likewise let out a bunch of bleats for “Sheep”. 

We all screamed our heads off for the encore which was handsomely rewarded with that stellar “Tomorrow Never Knows”. Les introduced the song thanking everybody and believing that the night’s tapes would sound as good as the previous ones. He also pointed out that night would have been John Lennon’s 60th birthday, though he said they were going to play it anyway. He still thought it was appropriate. It was intense to hear Les play with two drum kits backing him up for the first time. The only other occasion I would see that was when Primus played New Year’s Eve in 2014 at The Fox and Danny Carey of Tool came out on a second kit for their encore of “Moby Dick” by Led Zeppelin. Exhilarated but exhausted, I had endured a long stretch having done Bad Religion at The Warfield and AFI at The Fillmore as well working during the day right before these two nights. It was more than worth it.

The “Live Frogs” records wouldn’t be released until April of the next year for Volume 1 and July for Volume 2. Those live albums were a hit and Les would reissue them just shy of the twentieth anniversary of the shows in 2019, printing on special edition “green splatter” vinyl. The first volume would go on to win the Best Live Album at the second annual Jammie Awards. (Woo hoo!) Les would continue touring and making new music with his Frog Brigade for a few more years as well as putting together another side project, Oysterhead, with Stuart Copeland from The Police on drums and Trey Anastasio from Phish on guitar. I’m eternally ashamed that I wasn’t able to see when Oysterhead played at the Greek in Berkeley in 2001. I had been indentured to record BT, the electronic dance music DJ, at the Maritime Hall that night and it being the last official show of the Hall, I couldn’t pass that up. Still, I think it was a mistake. Chalk that one up to Stockholm Syndrome. I also missed Jane’s Addiction playing at Shoreline that night with Prodigy. Anyway, eventually, Les would reform Primus in 2003 once again with Herb on drums. 

Later in 2000, Les got together with Bob Weir opening for his band Ratdog with a one off project he called the “Rat Brigade” along with Weir and sax player Kenny Brooks, he borrowed once again Jay and Jeff on drums and keys, who had become permanent members of Ratdog. I’m sorry I too couldn’t see that incarnation, but I would witness many incarnations of the Frog Brigade with various members coming and going. If that wasn’t enough, Les would also form the Duo De Twang band with Brian Kehoe from M.I.R.V. as well as the Fancy Band a few years later. But as I said before, it would only be a couple months until I would see the Frog Brigade perform at The Fillmore on New Year’s Eve and the night before it. They would only perform the “Animals” album on the first night though. And it would only be three more short months after that I would see the Frog Brigade AGAIN, this time at The Warfield. Rest assured, there were many more times in the next few years I’d see them, including three more separate New Year’s Eve shows at The Fillmore. 

And yes, last night at The Fox was incredible as always. I was especially glad I got to see Les play with Sean Lennon on guitar and vocals since I had missed their collaboration in The Claypool-Lennon Delirium a few years ago. I’d seen Sean before with his mom, Yoko Ono, skrieking away as only she can do (thankfully), in the IMA band at the Tibetan Freedom Concert and another time with his band, Ghost Of A Sabre Tooth Tiger, at The Independent, but I’d never seen him play with Les. I’m sure last night wasn’t the last time I’d ever see the Frog Brigade, but if it is, I can confidently say that I’d seen them plenty and I know that there will always be a fan out there who’s seen them more. And considering Les just turned 60 years old last week, I think it’s safe for him to finally call the Frog Brigade his midlife crisis band.

AFI, The Nerve Agents, Tiger Army, Fill., SF, Sat., October 7

SETLISTS :

(TIGER ARMY) : Nocturnal, True Romance, Moonlite Dreams, Fog Surrounds, Fuck The World, Outlaw Heart, Horror Hotel, Never Die

(AFI) : Fall Children, Let It Be Broke, The Prayer Position, Sacrifice Theory, Malleus Maleficarum, A Single Second, I Wanna Get A Mohawk (But Mom Won’t Let Me Get One), File 13, A Story Of Three, Third Season, 3 1/2, Cruise Control, The Days Of The Phoenix, Morningstar, The Last Kiss, Totalimmortal

I have discovered recently that AFI has become one of those watershed bands that tends to split music lovers’ opinions on them. The first time I saw these kids from Ukiah, they were opening for my brothers’ old band, the Dance Hall Crashers, at this very same venue and they were brand spanking new. Back then, they were very young, played mostly punkish ska music, and dressed in unassuming T-shirts and jeans. But soon, AFI would don the black and become part of the vanguard of the emerging emo or “screamo” scene. Lead singer Davey Havok had been reborn as this straight edge vegan ghoul with thick black eye makeup. He had even been asked to become the new singer of The Misfits after AFI toured with their side project Samhain earlier that year. The Misfits’ then singer Michale Graves had left the band shortly after I recorded them at the Maritime the year before, but Davey declined their offer. He had contributed vocals to the “Son Of Sam” tribute album to Samhain as well as to the song “Jeckyl & Hyde” by The Nerve Agents who were the first band to play that evening. AFI had also picked up Jade Puget and Hunter Burgan a couple years before this to be their guitarist and bassist respectively, completing their current line up.

I’m not sure if I had mentioned this before, but in case I forgot when I wrote about them opening for the Crashers, there are a few theories for what AFI is an abbreviation of. The most popular answer is “A Fire Inside”, since it is the only one the band acknowledges, but other theories include “Asking For It”, “Anthems For Insubordinates”, “Abuncha Fucking Idiots”, “Another Fucking Idiot”, and “Ants Farming Indonesia”. Whatever one thinks it stands for, by this show there was no denying that they had hit it big time with their new album, “The Art Of Drowning” which had just dropped the month before this night. Davey was even touting the show as their record release party. They would soon leave Dexter Holland from The Offspring’s label Nitro to be picked up by Dreamworks in 2002.

I was pretty beat from work and checking out Bad Religion at The Warfield the night before, but I soldiered on. The first opener that night was Tiger Army and like AFI had ties to Samhain, having their drummer London May as a member since their founding in 1996, though he would leave the band the year after this show. Their bassist Geoff Kresge was also the former bassist for AFI, but had traded in his electric for an upright for this new psychobilly band. They had released their debut album the previous October and were freshly relocated to the LA area. AFI’s drummer Adam Carson had also drummed for Tiger Army, playing drums on their new album in fact, so they were a tight knit group.

The Nerve Agents were loud and rowdy as hell. I think their set might have actually been cut short by the Fillmore folks because it was so nuts out there. They joked that they hadn’t played the Fillmore since ’69 with Jefferson Airplane. In fact, this hardcore punk band was only together for a very short time, just three years. They had just released their first of only two albums, “Days Of The White Owl” that Independence Day. The Nerve Agents would go on to play their last shows at The Pound the following year. Their songs were so ridiculously fast and the singer’s lyrics hopelessly buried in the din of it all, I was only able to make less than half of their songs, “Unblossomed”, “Out On The Farm”,“Fall Of The All American”,“Next In Line”, and “Dead Man Walking”. Their singer, Sheric D, thanked AFI near the end and said they usually don’t play in front of this many people. When somebody in the audience said it was because they sucked, he joked, “maybe it’s because we suck. Yeah, we suck ass. But we’re playing The Fillmore and you’re not. Ha ha. We’ll probably not play here again.” I’m afraid he was correct, but at least he got a chance to have everybody to say hi to his mom who was there in the audience and also “Ryan’s dad”, whoever that was.

The crowd went nuts when AFI got on stage to the sound of the climax of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” blasting over the speakers. I’ve got to hand it to AFI, their fans knew all the lyrics and didn’t just sing along to them, they screamed. I suppose when one sings like Davey, one would have to scream along. He thanked the crowd for coming out, coming from “fucking everywhere” to see them, but joked, “I think someone’s throwing liver pate at us. It’s kind of gross”. I would go on to see Tiger Army open for bands at The Warfield, Rancid in 2003 and then twice with Social Distortion the following year. I would only have to wait a couple months to see AFI again, also opening for Rancid at The Warfield with The Distillers. Davey made sure to thank Rancid at this show, telling the crowd how they helped them get big after they heard their first 7” vinyl EP. 

My tape ran out during “Third Season”, so I took off a little early. I heard myself talking to a young lady saying I would walk her home, but I can’t peg who it was, probably my friend Liz. Before I took off, I caught Davey mentioning that “one of the great punk bands of all time”, T.S.O.L., were playing at Slim’s that night and if we hurried we could catch their set, coincidentally another band with an abbreviated name. He also dissed on the crowd barricade in front of him saying he thought everybody felt too far away. I’m happy to report they gave out an excellent poster for the show that night inked by Chris Shaw, one of my favorite poster artists.

Bad Religion, The Promise Ring, Ignite, War., SF, Fri., October 6

SETLISTS :

(IGNITE) : Taken Away, Ash Return, (unknown), Banned In D.C., A Place Called Home, Aggression, Embrace, In Defense

(BAD RELIGION) : Don’t Sell Me Short, (unknown), Stranger Than Fiction, New America, (unknown), Suffer, Henchmen, You’ve Got A Chance, (unknown), Atomic Garden, (unknown), We Can Take Them On, (unknown), (unknown), Yesterday, No Control, (unknown), A Walk, Watch You Die, The Fast Life, Mona Lisa, Do What You Want, Along The Way, Change Of Ideas, (unknown), Generator

It’s a little challenging to write about this Bad Religion show due to a recent bout of FOMO. I had just finished a long stretch at work, seeing once again the discs of this next show lonely and collecting dust on the corner of my writing desk. On the last day of my work, I swung by the Fox Theater in Oakland to pick up tickets for Les Claypool’s Flying Frog Brigade the following Wednesday and a couple for P-Funk for me and my friend Jeff Pollard for November. And lo and behold, Bad Religion was playing there that night when I got those tickets. I was utterly exhausted and knew that I had to meet my parents the following morning and to make matters worse, my wife had a catastrophic day at work and was in dire need of comforting. So, I made the call and decided not to stick around. Bad Religion had also played the Masonic the previous December which I also had to miss which makes this sting a little more. And as of next year, I haven’t seen them in two decades, so hopefully the next time they roll through town, I’ll make it up to them.

That being said, I am proud to say that as of today, I have seen them perform seven glorious times and would see them grace the stage of The Warfield twice more after this show in both 2002 and 2004. The year after this show, Bad Religion would be dropped from Atlantic and would return to making records at Epitaph headed by their guitarist Brett Gurewitz, who had just rejoined the band after recovering in rehab. They had just put out their 11th studio album, “The New America” that May produced by none other than the legendary Todd Rundgren, whose DVD I had just recorded at the Maritime earlier that year coincidentally. Turns out that though Todd was one of Brett’s heroes, they and the rest of the band butted heads right away creatively and the recording process was pretty unpleasant for all those involved. It would be the last album with Bobby Schayer on drums and singer Greg Graffin had just gotten divorced that year as well. Bad Religion had finished touring with Blink 182 that summer and on their own shortly afterwards through Europe, but this was the tenth show on their autumn tour back home in the States.

The DJ they had play between sets was a strange choice to open the show, a combo of monotonous synth samples, backed up by jazzy drums and a trumpet belting out bebop improvisations. The punks in the crowd weren’t particularly offended by this, just a touch confused. They continued to patiently hear him out, applaud politely, and drink their beers. The first band, Ignite, picked up the energy soon enough, especially since they did a rowdy cover of “Banned In D.C.” by Bad Brains. They dedicated their song “Embrace” to all “the east bay hardcore kids”. 

The next act, The Promise Ring, had clearly worn out their patience by the end of their set. The rock band from Milwaukee didn’t win any friends with their mediocre playing to the point that they were being actively booed by the last couple songs. It’s a rare occasion when a band gets booed off stage and I have to confess that I joined in on that chorus of disapproval. What I didn’t know was that their singer guitarist, Davey Von Bohlen, had been suffering from a brain tumor and had to drop out of the tour to get surgery for which he thankfully made a full recovery. The chorus of booing was funny at the time, but finding this out in my research made me feel a little guilty, though I still think they sucked that night. Poor guy got a post operative infection and which nearly killed him too.

People don’t boo bands for absolutely no reason, but it didn’t help that Davey came out telling the crowd that the A’s lost that day. He asked them to not to “kill the messenger” but he made it worse when he reminded everyone that the Giants originally were from New York and pointed out his Mets hat. They were already booing them but said he was only wearing it to cover up his scar from brain surgery. He joked “Isn’t baseball for fat guys anyway?” before they sang “Living Around” which he also dedicated to the Giants. That also didn’t endear him to the punks there. Brett tried to smooth things over when Bad Religion took the stage later, shrugging between songs, “I liked The Promise Ring!” The crowd remained unconvinced. 

Before Bad Religion started, they played a recording of some mechanical sounds, kind of like when Arthur and his knights were building the Trojan Rabbit in “Monty Python & The Holy Grail”. A few songs in, Greg dedicated their new song, “New America”, as a “homage to the 2000 presidential campaign” and mentioned that he was on the lookout for a pair of shoes he lost at the Warfield show they played there six years before this. I was at that show incidentally. Later on, he dedicated “Henchmen” to the “Republican National Committee”. Near the end of their set, they performed “The Fast Life”, a B-side only released on the Japanese and European versions of the new album. Greg split backstage for a moment, presumably to freshen up and the other band members teased him for being incontinent and played a little jazzy jam session while he was away. 

They finished their set with “Generator”, Greg describing it as it “begins like a commercial”. I was pretty beat from working earlier that day by the end of that show, so when my tape ran out during that song, I decided not to stick around for the encore. There was no poster given out later and I had yet another day of work ahead of me and AFI at The Fillmore the following night. As you can see, I was able to decipher most of Bad Religion’s set that gig, but a handful of songs escaped me. I’m still happy with the ones I was able to figure out considering the impressive number of short punk songs they plow through in a set. 

Billy Bragg & The Blokes Kevin So, Fill., SF, Tues., October 3

SETLIST : Milkman Of Human Kindness, She Came Along To Me, England Half English, Christ For President, Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key, Jane Allen, All You Fascists Are Bound To Lose, St. Monday, There Is Power In A Union, Against The Law, Dreadbelly, Greetings To The New Brunette, California Stars, A New England, (encore), Upfield, The Space Race Is Over, The Saturday Boy, Tears Of My Tracks, Sexuality

Billy had been touring for over two years now, singing tunes from the “Mermaid Avenue” albums, his collaboration with Wilco performing unreleased Woody Guthrie songs. He had just put out the second volume from that project that May. I had recorded him at the Maritime in ’98 and he had played The Fillmore the following year, though thankfully, this time around, Billy got a poster and it was a good one. Opening that night, was Boston songwriter Kevin So. He described himself modestly as the “Asian Stevie Wonder” or “Chinese-American Bruce Springsteen”. Before becoming a singer, he had studied jazz at USC and had put out his first album “Individual” in ’97. I saw on his website that he makes artsy bracelets on the side as well, a man of many talents, though this would be the only time I’d ever see him. 

Billy was his usual talkative self that night. Though he covered most of the same stuff as he had the previous year, he did break out a new one, “England, Half English” which would be the title track of his next studio album that would be released the following year. It was difficult to hear his customary diatribes between songs on my tape, but rest assured he covered a lot of ground covering subjects ranging from labor unions, the Olympics, and globalism to goatee beards. He asked the crowd what the state song of California was and got quite a few shouts of suggestions from them before they did “California Stars”. Before he wrapped up the set with “A New England”, Billy introduced the band including once again Ian McLagan from The Small Faces on keyboards. Near the end of the encore, he joked about what keeps him inspired in these times, you know, what keeps him going and he said “two words… boy bands.”

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Flogging Molly, The Gadjits, Fill., SF, Mon., September 25

SETLISTS : 

(THE GADJITS) : Bad Gadjit, We Were Right, Outsider, (unknown), All The Way, B.C., Seat 6, (unknown), Beautiful Girl

(FLOGGING MOLLY) : Swagger, Selfish Man, The Likes Of You Again, Black Friday Rule, Worst Day Since Yesterday, Devil’s Dance Floor, Salty Dog, Delilah, Sentimental Johnny

(MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES) : Dr. D, Allow Them, Hope I Never Lose My Wallet, 1-2-8, Last Dead Mouse, All Things Considered, He’s Back, Someday I Suppose, Temporary Trip, Where’d You Go?, Cowboy Coffee, Wrong Thing Right Then, The Rascal King, The Skeleton Song, Howwhywuz Howwhyam, Hell Of A Hat, The Impression I Get, Tin Soldiers

It had been a minute since I’d last seen the Bosstones in ’95 at The Fillmore and then twice as the opening act on the main stage at Lollapalooza, first at Cal Expo then at Shoreline the following day. And though I got a healthy sampling of their work then, sadly, this show would be the final time I’d see them perform live. Turns out, they disbanded only last year. Apparently, their singer, Dickey Barrett, got a little pilled. He bought into the whole anti-vax movement, performing at a rally for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called “Defeat The Mandates”. It’s a pity. The guitarist of the Bosstones, Nate Albert, went on to get a degree in political theory from Brown University and became Executive Vice President of A & R for Warner Brothers, as well as being Executive VPs for both Capitol and Republic. Big money there. 

But by this time, the so-called Third Wave of ska music was beginning its steady decline in popularity. The Bosstones’ new album, “Pay Attention”, hadn’t sold nearly as well as their last one. It would be the last album on Mercury Records and the last time Nate as well as trombonist Dennis Brokenborough would record with the band, but the first with their new sax player, Roman Fleysher. The first act performing that night was The Gadjits from Kansas City, who were very young at the time, having just been signed to Tim Armstrong from Rancid’s record label, Hellcat, in ’97. Their lead singer dedicated “We Were Right” to the Bosstones and later praised the next act, shouting “Flogging Molly kicks ass!”. They also played a brand new song that night called “All The Way” that wouldn’t be released for over another year on their next album, “Today Is My Day”. 

As the singer of The Gadjits said, Flogging Molly indeed kicked ass. I knew what to expect from the Bosstones by then, but it being my first time seeing them and I was floored by Flogging Molly’s breakneck energy and catchy melodies. Founded in ’95, Dublin native Dave King, the former lead singer of Fastway with Fast Eddie Clarke from Motorhead, and his new group had been the resident Monday night band at an Irish pub in L.A. called Molly’s, hence their name. They felt they were flogging the place to death every time they played there. Flogging Molly had just released their first studio album, “Swagger” mixed by Steve Albini, that March and also had a live one called, “Alive Behind The Green Door” put out in three years before that. They certainly whipped up the mosh pit, bringing out the rowdy Irish in everybody. Incidentally and speaking of rowdiness in general, Dave has the logo of Manchester United tattooed on his chest. He also dedicated “Likes Of You Again” to his recently deceased father that night. I especially loved the hilarious song “Worst Day Since Yesterday”, a song Dave said was about hangovers and joked that was why he needed glow in the dark guitar picks. Near the end of the set, Dave introduced a song saying it was about an “old Irish pirate” who “many many moons ago during the 15th century” was  “one of Cortez’ killers and you and me know, San Francisco, since he was Irish, he was well hung. This song’s called ‘Salty Dog’”. Afterwards, they did a frantically paced version of “Delilah” by Tom Jones. 

One thing about this show I remember distinctly was the unmistakable presence of several members of the Hell’s Angels. I’d been accustomed to seeing a handful of them at a gig before, but there had to be at least a dozen there that night. And I must say, one of the most potent images from all my rock & roll experiences burned into my brain was the sight on one of the Angels literally standing on the railing of the balcony directly overlooking the stage right side during the first half of the Bosstones’ set. He was casually leaning his back on the wall behind him, sipping a bottle of beer. Equally as memorable, was the sight of the befuddled Fillmore security guards nearby, uneasily looking at each other with a sort of, “Screw that. You tell him to get down from there” look on their faces. The perched Angel eventually came down on his own volition much to their relief, but I thought that striking sight was fascinating. I wish I had a photo of it. 

Though the crowd had worked out a lot of rowdiness for Flogging Molly, the Bosstones got the troops to rally and kept up the pit through their set. The band was introduced by one of the DJs from Live 105 who asked the crowd if “everybody got a buzz?” and then the band took the stage to the sound of “War” by Edwin Starr coming over the speakers. About a half hour into their set, a weird argument broke out in the pit after “1-2-8” and Dickey confronted a guy in the crowd asking him “What’s your beef?” and he coaxed this skinny, angry dude on stage who was accusing them of selling out or something. Dickey rebutted “I got a microphone. I can say what the fuck I want. If you don’t like the Bosstones, I understand that. But what the fuck are you doing here? You’re holding up some prime real estate for folks who want to see the Bosstones.” He went on, “All I want you to do is have fun. That’s the only reason I’m in San Francisco.” But the guy kept on arguing yelling at everybody to calm down and back off and insisting rather unconvincingly that he was just fucking around. Dickey countered, “If he’s just fuckin’ around, that’s cool. That’s all I ever do is fuck around” and he told the crowd to give him his hat back and that the bar give him a “beer on the Bosstones”. He later rebuked “the dudes that flipped us off” earlier and mocked their “Maroon 5 mentality” which got a big laugh and then they did “He’s Back”. 

Later, he took a more cheerful posture, saying that the Bosstones “do some things well. But one thing we do exceptionally well” is get good opening acts and got a round of applause for The Gadjits who had been touring with them “all over Canada”.  And as for Flogging Molly, Dickey said they “played the kind of music I grew up with” and when he played one of their Irish songs for his father, “he cried”. And when he played one of the punk songs for his brother, “he beat the shit out me”. Before “Cowboy Coffee” he gave a bunch of random stuff to a guy named Ryan up front who was yelling along lyrics including a pair of drumsticks and a pint of Guinness from Flogging Molly. Near the end of the set, he dedicated “The Skeleton Song” to his friends in H20, NOFX, the Dance Hall Crashers, and the Swingin’ Utters. It was a pleasant surprise to hear him include the Crashers, my brother’s old band. I was pissed there was no poster for this one at the end of the night, though the Bosstones had gotten one after other shows that they played there that I missed. Ska bands were rare to headline The Fillmore back then and now they are even rarer.

Saint Etienne, DJ Bob, Fill., SF, Sun., September 24

SETLIST : Filthy, Lose That Girl, Don’t Back Down, Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi), Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Sycamore, Boy Is Crying, Nothing Can Stop Us Now, Erica America, Downey CA, Shoot Out The Lights, Like A Motorway, Sylvie, Sail Away, (encore), Ready Or Not, People Get Real, (encore), He’s On The Phone

As I had mentioned in the previous entry, this was one of those rare occasions where I attended a festival in the park and high tailed it over to another show that very same evening. In this case it was the Alice Now & Zen Festival with Beck, The Go-Go’s, Tonic, Travis, and Dogstar. I didn’t know anything about Saint Etienne before this show, but afterwards I would become a die hard fan. So much so, that I would put up the poster from this show in my kitchen later when I was living in the Outer Sunset and it would remain there for many years. But on this night in question, it was indeed one of those “sight unseen” shows. They had only a DJ opening for them that night, so it was an easy one to usher for which I was grateful, since I was bushed from the festival earlier that day. He was named DJ Bob and he mostly played obscure 60’s go go dancing music, appropriate enough since I just finished watching The Go-Go’s earlier that afternoon.

Saint Etienne, though named after a French football team, were actually English and had been around for about a decade. This however would be only the third time they had toured the US, performing just 13 shows in 12 cities this time around. Saint Etienne’s singer, Sarah Cracknell was actually the fourth singer in that band’s history, becoming its permanent one after the first three rotated in and out quite rapidly, her first single being “Nothing Can Stop Us”. I’m happy to say she is still with them to this day. My god, that woman is so sexy it hurts. The microsecond she opened her mouth to sing, I was instantly smitten by her irresistible siren song. The band had just put out their “Sound Of Water” album that June, a more atmospheric electronica one than some of their previous work. Sarah had also just put out her first solo record “Lipside”, which had been delayed for three years, as well as a collection of B-sides and new tracks called “Kelly’s Locker”.  She sang “Ready Or Not”, the first song of the former at the beginning of their first encore that night.

She looked fine as May wine at that show dressed in a skin tight, red sequin, one piece mini skirt, twirling and dancing with her sexy white feather boa. I overheard myself ordering a pale ale after I was cut from ushering in the middle of “Don’t Back Down”. Though I was brand new to Saint Etienne, I was pleasantly surprised to hear their acid house dance cover of Neil Young’s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”. It was such a stylistically divergent version from the original that on the surface, one wouldn’t think it would work, but it did. Even a Neil Young purist like my friend Jeff Pollard approved. Later in the set, they played “Like A Motorway” which had been in the soundtrack album for the action film “Speed”, though it wasn’t actually used in the movie. Coincidentally, Keanu Reeves, the star of that film, had performed with his band Dogstar earlier that day at the Now & Zen Festival. Who knows, maybe Keanu was there.

Alice’s Now & Zen Festival: Beck, The Go-Go’s, Travis, Tonic, Dogstar, Golden Gate Park Sharon Meadows, SF, Sun., September 24

SETLISTS :

(TRAVIS) : Writing To Reach You, Driftwood, Why Does It Always Rain On Me?, Turn, The Humpty Dumpty Love Song, Slide Show, Blue Flashing Light

(TONIC) : Open Up Your Eyes, Future Says Run, Sugar, Soldier’s Daughter, Casual Affair, Dancing Days, If You Could Only See, You Wanted More

(THE GO-GO’S) : Vacation, Tonight, How Much More, Apology, Head Over Heels, Sonic Superslide, Has The Whole World Lost Its Head?, Kissing Asphalt, Beatnik Beach, Our Lips Are Sealed, Skidmarks, We Got The Beat

(BECK) : New Pollution, Loser, Mixed Bizness, Salt In The Wound, Debra, Tropicalia, One Foot In The Grave, Nobody’s Fault But My Own, Jackass, Where It’s At, Devil’s Haircut, Sexx Laws

This was quite the long day musically speaking. It’s not often that I would see a daytime festival and then go to another concert the very same evening, but I did do that a handful of times in my concert going career and may still do it again someday. I remember well seeing the 420 Festival in the park in 1994 with Fishbone and then hauling ass over to the Greek in Berkeley to catch Soundgarden. Ten years later, I would do the unlikely combination of seeing Willie Nelson in the park at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and then seeing none other than Olivia Newton-John at Davies Symphony Hall with the SF symphony backing her up. That was a weird one. Anyway, I would have just enough time to catch the line up at this, the 3rd annual Alice’s Now & Zen Festival, and make it to The Fillmore later to see Saint Etienne for the first time. And at only $20, it was a steal even back then.

I was disappointed that I was late and unable to see the set of Dogstar, Keanu Reeves’ band. I did catch the tail end of their last song, so at least I have the experience of seeing Neo himself with my own eyes. I appreciated that he had the good taste to not sing and just play bass. There are so many celebrity vanity bands where their singing voices are downright cringeworthy. What I heard was pretty good actually, though I haven’t seen them since. He still tours with them from time to time between films. Honestly, considering the amount of work he does in this town, you’d think I would have bumped into him at least once since then. He was spending a good deal of time in the bay area around then filming “Matrix Reloaded” and “Matrix Revolutions” simultaneously. Though I didn’t see him then, twenty years later, just before the pandemic, he was filming the helicopter finale at the building across the street from the Hyatt Embarcadero where I was doing AV work for a writer’s conference. But as you can imagine, I was busy and he was way too high up from us for me to really see anything. In a minor coincidence, Saint Etienne had a song, “Like A Motorway” in the soundtrack album for the action film “Speed” which Keanu starred in, though the song wasn’t actually played in the movie.

Anyway, the next band, Travis, I had just seen a mere two months before this, headlining their own show also at The Fillmore. They were their pleasant Scottish selves once again, though their set was truncated compared to last time, doing only seven songs. My old classmate from college and resident Alice DJ Sterling James introduced them saying, “The band that’s coming up now… (big cheer from the audience)… I see you’re familiar with” and let the crowd know that they could meet them after their set at the merch booth. They opened with “Writing To Reach You” and between songs, the singer Fran Healy gave another one of his chipper pep talks, smiling as always, “What a lovely day! The next song is about letting go, taking your hands off the steering wheel. Don’t do it when you’re driving. Just do it with your life” and then they did “Driftwood”. Afterwards, he looked up in the sky and joked that it was “definitely not going to be any rain today” before they did “Why Does It Always Rain On Me?”

He followed that talking about how when you make a wish like you “take an eyelash off of someone’s cheek and blow it to the wind and make a wish. The next song is kinda like a song that has all these cool wishes in it. Not like, oh, I wish I had a Lamborghini, oh, I wish I had a million dollars, but kinda like human wishes. This is called ‘Turn’”. They did a cute tune called “The Humpty Dumpty Love Song” which Fran admitted afterwards that it was the first time the band had played it live. He gave a little speech similar to something he said at the Fillmore show saying, “This is a song about songs. I think songs say lots of things… the lights that we navigate our lives by, the use of art, films. Songs are like the bookmarks in your life… If you hear that again, it takes you back in time.” They finished their set with “Blue Flashing Light”, which was a bonus track in the American release of their hit album, “The Man Who”. 

They were followed by Tonic from Los Angeles introduced by Gretchen, another Alice DJ. She reminded the crowd that the station’s new CD “Alice Music : Volume 4” was on sale at the merch booth and the proceeds went to help breast cancer charities. That year, Tonic’s song “Mean To Me” had recently been in the soundtrack for the film “Gossip”, though they didn’t play it that day, and their singer, Emerson Hart, had just gotten married. Like Travis, their music was pleasant but unoffensive, a typical band one would hear on Alice. They did do a rather impressive and respectful cover of “Dancing Days” by Led Zeppelin near the end of their set and Emerson got the crowd to scream pretty loud at the count of three. 

Sure, Beck was a big deal to me back then, but I had seen him plenty over the years, even catching him just that May headlining at Bill Graham Civic and I would see him yet again playing with the Foo Fighters at the MGD Blind Date show at The Warfield only a month after this. So the real draw for me that day at the festival was The Go-Go’s. I had recorded them the year before at the Maritime after having not seen them in five years, so I was eager to check them out again. I felt spoiled frankly. Those women are rock & roll royalty in my opinion. To punctuate that point, they were endorsed that day by Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day who came out to sing the Jane Wiedlin bridge in the middle of “Our Lips Are Sealed”. He is a big fan obviously and the crowd went nuts for it.

Sterling had come back out before their set began and introduced David Thompson, the vice president of marketing of WebEx, one of the festival’s sponsors before The Go-Go’s came on. For a stuffed shirt, David was pretty pumped up, joking about how everybody hates commuting and that the next time you’re stuck in traffic on the way to a meeting or something, get hooked up with his company, which actually was one of the pioneers in web conferencing back then. The technology wouldn’t really take off until Zoom came along and the pandemic hit. Anyway, they allowed some young lady named Melissa on stage and said they were having her “share the high point” in her life as she would introduce her favorite band, shouting, “I’m not worthy!… The Go-Go’s!” They played a good handful of their hits, but also did a few brand new ones like “Apology”, “Sonic Superslide”, and “Kissing Asphalt” which wouldn’t be released until their next album, “God Bless The Go-Go’s”, came out eight months later. It would be their first album of original material in 17 years, but their last one too. Incidentally, Billy Joe co-wrote, played guitar, and sang back up vocals on the song “Unforgiven” on it, though they didn’t perform it at that gig. They wrapped up their set with a rousing version of “We Got The Beat” which had a little breakdown near the end of it where Belinda sang the chorus of “All The Small Things” by Blink 182.

Beck did a funky intro doing a little “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See” by Busta Rhymes before breaking into “New Pollution”. He did a spectacular set as always, doing most of the songs I had heard from his Civic Center show. He did treat us to a rare B-side from his most recent album, “Midnight Vultures”, called “Salt In The Wound”. Beck put it out on an EP that was only available through his website and only 10,000 copies were made. Afterwards, he gave a shout out and a little solo for each of his band members, calling his horn section “The Brass Menagerie” and himself “The Artist Currently Known As Beck” (a little joke at Prince’s expense I guess), before they ripped into “Mixed Bizness”. He did a little bit in that song, playing a couple bars of “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie. 

They brought the mood down for his gettin’ busy anthem “Debra” and Beck really hit the super high, “Star Search” notes on that one. He joked “obviously being a diva, it takes a while to get the 17 octave vocal range”, claiming it went back to the “castrados of the 15th century”. During “Tropicalia”, Beck gave a shout out to his tenor sax player, David Arthur Brown, whose wife just had a baby four days before this show. They wrapped up their set busting out some “serious equipment”, being a banjo expertly handled by Smokey Hormel, and played “Sexx Laws”. I know I said earlier that The Go-Go’s was the big draw for me that day, but upon hearing Beck’s set again, I must say he was in fine form that day. They were tight. They left the stage in a din of feedback and Beck howling incoherently for nearly a minute into his mic. 

Elastica, Meat Puppets, Fill., SF, Wed., September 20

SETLISTS :

(MEAT PUPPETS) : Armed & Stupid, Take Off Your Clothes, Hercules, Push The Button, I Quit, Sam, Oh Me, Pieces Of Me, When I Stop Dreaming, Up On The Sun, Fatboy/Fat/Requiem

(ELASTICA) : How He Wrote Elastica Man, Line Up, KB, Mad Dog God Damn, Vaseline, Da Da Da Ich Leib Dich Nicht Du Leibst Mich Nicht Aha Aha Aha, Annie, Moody, Stutter, Human, Car Song, You Arse My Place, Connection, (encore), My Sex, The Bitch Don’t Work, Waking Up

I had seen Elastica a few times when they were just taking off in 1995, once also at The Fillmore and then on two dates on the main stage at Lollapalooza that year. But five years later, the band was on its last legs. The only other original member of the band by this time apart from its painfully sexy front woman, Justine Frischman, was the bassist Annie Holland. Her guitarist Donna Matthews had left the band having picked up a nasty heroin habit. If that wasn’t bad enough, she had a torrid backstage romance with drummer Justin Welch that ended in a catastrophic break up. Thankfully, Donna eventually got clean and now teaches music at Dartington College in the UK. They were touring with the second and final album, “The Menace”, and we got to hear seven of the new songs that night. Justine had broken up with her boyfriend, Damon Albarn from Blur, recently as well. I and I imagine most people at the concert were unware of their parting then, otherwise she would have gotten a litany of marriage proposals from most of the single men and a few single women in the crowd that night, myself included. I’m sure some couples would have been amenable to swing as well. It was San Francisco after all. 

Anyway, Elastica had just finished playing at the Reading Festival that August, Pulp headlining that second day of the festival, and there they were, playing a sold out show at The Fillmore for what would be their last tour. There had been a bit of a dust up during the years since I’d seen them last between Elastica and the band Wire who had sued them over similarities between their song “Three Girl Rhumba” and Elastica’s big hit single “Connection”. In a strange twist of legal fate, Elastica’s music publishing company, EMI, had hired a musicologist who testified that the songs were indeed similar and said that a percentage of royalties should go to Wire, but for some inexplicable reason Wire’s publishing company, Carlin, actually negotiated a LOWER settlement than what was recommended. Wire ended up just getting a few thousand dollars. But in the end, there were no hard feelings and Wire even allowed Elastica to steal a little more from them for another song they did called “Lowdown”. Yes, the music industry indeed makes for some strange bedfellows. Coincidentally, Wire just played The Fillmore earlier that May, though I missed it. Pity though. It was one of only eight shows they did on that tour. 

Speaking of strange bedfellows, one thing that made this show even more intriguing was the opening act, the Meat Puppets from Seattle, quite a departure from Elastica’s sound stylistically. I had seen them once before headlining The Fillmore back in ’94 when they were riding high from their collaboration with Nirvana for their “Unplugged” album. There, Kurt Cobain and the band covered a couple of their songs, “Plateau” and “Lake Of Fire”, but for some reason the Meat Puppets played neither of those songs at this show.  While Elastica was falling apart, the Meat Puppets were just getting back on their feet. Bass player Chris Kirkwood had been strung out, even going missing for a spell, before cleaning up and helped to reincarnate the band with his brother Curt on guitar. Their new album, “Golden Lies”, would come out just a week after this gig and their set was mostly new material, seven songs out of their set of eleven. They also did a cover of “When I Stop Dreaming” by the country duo The Louvin Brothers, Curt introducing it saying, “let’s do a little bit of the down home”. Their drummer, Shandon Sahm, would pop up from behind his drum kit periodically between songs shirtless, sticking up his devil’s horns, and sticking out his tongue. One time that night, somebody was screaming something at the band between songs and Curt joked, “I’ll meet you later… I’ll meet you in Salinas and we’ll exchange information.” 

The audience went nuts when Elastica took the stage, Justine sporting a tight tank top and low rise jeans. Someone (predictably) yelled out “I love you, Justine!” and she didn’t look up, muttering, “Yeah, I’ve heard that one before.” Ouch. Like I said, she just broke up with Damon. A couple of their new songs were covers including and English version of “Da Da Da Ich Leib Dich Nicht Du Leibst Mich Nicht Aha Aha Aha” by the obscure German 80’s band Trio as well as “Moody” by ESG. The former roughly translates to “I love you not, you love me not”, perhaps another not so subtle jab at her ex-boyfriend. Though Elastica got a poster when they played The Fillmore in 1995, there wasn’t one that evening. And yes, there won’t be any future ones either.

Still, Justine went on to put the music industry behind her and actually lives nearby in the north bay with her husband, Ian Faloona. As luck would have it, after Elastica disbanded shortly after this show, she went to Boulder, Colorado and got a masters degree in visual arts from the Nuropa Institute, a Buddhist liberal arts college where my sister Erica attended at the time. Erica had no memory of Justine being there, though it’s understandable since she was unfamiliar with her music and had no idea what she looked like. That’s where Justine met her husband who was a professor of meteorology and has since gone on to have a modestly successful career as an oil painter. Though Justine had given up performing, she did help produce British rapper M.I.A. and co-wrote some of her music for her debut album “Arular” in 2005. Yes, Elastica had come and gone and so did the so-called Britpop movement shortly afterwards, but they would remain one of the revered notable artists from that brief musical movement. 

Moby, Hybrid, War., SF, Sun., September 17

Moby, Hybrid, War., SF, Mon., September 18

SETLISTS :

(SUNDAY) : Honey, Porcelain (acoustic), Ring Of Fire, Feeling So Real, Thousand, Porcelain, Find My Baby, James Bond, Go, (unknown), Everloving, Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?, Me & Bobby McGee, The End, If Things Were Perfect, Ah Ah, Bring Back The Happiness, Move (You Make Me Feel So Good), Everytime You Touch Me, Natural Blues, The Sky Is Broken, Body Rock

(MONDAY) : My Weakness, Find My Baby, Machete, Porcelain, That’s When I Reached For My Revolver, Go, (unknown), Everloving, Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?, White Rabbit – Me & Bobby McGee, (unknown), Ah Ah, Bring Back My Happiness, Move (You Make Me Feel So Good), Everytime You Touch Me, Natural Blues, The Sky Is Broken, Body Rock, Honey, Porcelain (acoustic), Feeling So Real, Run On

It had only been less than a year since I recorded Moby at the Maritime and just a mere three months since I’d seen him on the main stage at Live 105’s B.F.D. festival. So between those shows and these last two of Moby’s three run stint at The Warfield, (the third show added by popular demand), I got to know that hyperactive bald shrimp pretty well around then, not to mention seeing him headline his Area One and Area Two festivals the following two years and then once again at The Warfield in 2005. Moby was still riding high on the success of his “Play” album and had just released “Mobysongs : 1993-88” that July, a compilation of his greatest hits with Elektra and had just launched this new American tour beginning at Red Rocks in Colorado the week before this. The single “Flower” had also just been used in the action film “Gone In 60 Seconds” released earlier that summer.

There was an opening act that night called Hybrid, a British electronic music dup, but I didn’t record them. I just thought they were local DJs and didn’t think much of them at the time, though I did find out that Julee Cruise, the oft employed siren singer from various David Lynch projects, contributed vocals on their debut album “Wide Angle” that came out the year before this. They went on to re-release it as a double album later, calling it “Wider Angle”, the second disc being a live set from this tour which they called “Live Angle”. I believe they used the songs “Burnin’” and “Kill City” from their recordings of these San Francisco gigs. 

Moby mostly played the same stuff both days I saw him, though he juggled around the order. On Sunday, he did the “James Bond” song, “If Things Were Perfect”, “Thousand” and “Honey” and on the second day, he did “My Weakness”, “Machete”, “That’s When I Reached For My Revolver”, and “Run On”, a variation of the old spiritual hymn “Run On For A Long Time” by Bill Landford & The Landfordaires. He also took time as he always had before to show off how god damned eclectic he is and regaled the crowd with some random acoustic covers, doing “Ring Of Fire” by Johnny Cash and “The End” by The Doors on Sunday, and “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane and a little riff from “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix on Monday. He unfortunately did “Me & Bobby McGee” by Kris Kristofferson and made famous by Janis Joplin both days, a song which I despise. A long time ago I worked in a novelty family restaurant in San Ramon named Bobby McGee’s as a bus boy and let’s just say it was an unpleasant experience and leave it at that. 

Both nights, Moby did an acoustic solo version of his hit song “Porcelain” as well as the full band electric version. On Sunday, they introduced “Feeling So Real” with one of his back up singers doing a slow soulful intro with the song’s title, it’s only lyric actually apart from Moby madly hopping about jabbering, “Love make you feel it now!” Later, I overheard myself ordering a pint of Anchor Steam from the bar. Moby mentioned something on that Sunday show he said the night before he’d “like to reiterate. One of the things I’ve always loved about San Francisco… One of the only places or at least 10 or 11 years ago where you had a thriving dance culture. I remember I first started making records in 1990-91 and at that point you’d go over to Europe… come back to the US and the only places that had anything going on were New York, L.A., and San Francisco.” He mentioned one of the “best events I’ve played was a rave called Toontown” at the Fashion Center around ’92-’93. His DJ did an entertaining solo between songs later, scratching “Aw yeah!” along with the drummer. Moby, a conspicuously vocal vegan and skinny as a rail as always, joked with the crowd asking, “Do you think I’m getting fat?” He then did a bluesy intro to “Body Rock” that had a little guitar noodling from “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin.

During the Monday show, he did an impressive percussion solo during “Bring Back My Happiness” and did a little of “California Love” by Tupac during that version of “Body Rock”. His buxom black back up singers played a little gag on him that night between songs, saying they wanted to make an “Oreo cookie” with him and they hugged him simultaneously from the front and from behind wiggling and laughing hysterically. You could tell Moby was pleasantly surprised, laughing loudly as well. Like I said before, he’d return to the bay area with his Area One festival the following year at Shoreline with an all-star line up including the Outkast, New Order with Billy Corgan, The Roots, and Paul Oakenfold. Also in 2001, Moby would release his “Moby : Play – The DVD” with live footage of him performing on Jools Holland and that DVD would be nominated for a Grammy for Best Long Form Music Video. I’m also happy to report that these string of shows got a poster and it was a pretty good one too.

Alice Cooper, The Donnas, War., SF, Fri., September 15

SETLISTS :

(THE DONNAS) : Are You Going To Move It For Me, Hyperactive, Check It Out, Skin Tight, Do You Want To Hit It, Hook It Up, Well Done, Hey I’m Going To Be Your Girl, Get You Alone, Get Out Of My Room, Living After Midnight, Doin’ Donuts, Zero

(ALICE COOPER) : Brutal Planet, Gimme, Go To Hell, Blow Me A Kiss, I’m Eighteen, Feed My Frankenstein, Wicked Young Man, Dead Babies, Ballad Of Dwight Fry, I Love The Dead, Black Widow Jam, No More Mr. Nice Guy, It’s Hot Tonight, Caught In A Dream, It’s The little Things, Poison, Take It Like A Woman, Only Women Bleed, You Drive Me Nervous, Under My Wheels, School’s Out, (encore), Billion Dollar Baby, My Generation, Elected

Part of me was actually happy that it had been so long in the career of one Mr.  Vincent Damon Furnier AKA Alice Cooper that I would finally see him perform. Sometimes it takes a while for me to appreciate the impact of such a rock and roll pioneer as he. Alice had always been around when I was growing up though, his hits “School’s Out” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy” ubiquitous on the radio. His gruesome, unmistakable visage would appear on the TV from time time, from his alliance with legendary wrestler and fellow serpent enthusiast Jake “The Snake” Roberts on WWF to his hilarious cameo in the film “Wayne’s World”. Alice had hit a rough patch in the early 80’s with alcohol and drugs, and not only cleaned himself up, but helped Dave Mustaine of Megadeth clean up too when he was on tour opening for him. It wasn’t until much later in the 90’s that I learned that it was Alice’s song “I’m Eighteen” that Johnny Rotten used for his impromptu audition for the Sex Pistols that fateful day at Viviane Westwood’s boutique. Johnny’s mom was a big fan. I also learned that, like the Grateful Dead, because of the increasing size of his live audience in the early 70’s, that it demanded that his live stage system upscale to meet the firepower arenas required. Necessity was truly the mother of invention and partially through his efforts, line arrays and advanced monitor systems were soon commonplace.

But influence and technical stuff aside, Alice was a cultural phenomenon. He was part of the proto-punk movement emerging from Detroit in the late 60’s along such contemporaries as The Stooges and the MC5. Originally, he wanted to call his band Nazz, but Todd Rundgren had already laid claim to that name. Ironically, I had just recorded Todd’s live DVD at the Maritime just weeks before this show. In need of a new name, he chose Alice Cooper, being seemingly innocuous and a funny contrast to his macabre stage persona which he cobbled together from Betty Davis in “What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?” and the character of The Great Tyrant in “Barbarella”. It didn’t take long for the American public and then the world to clutch their pearls in terror at this diminutive midwesterner which catapulted him into the limelight. 

Fast forward about thirty years, and there I was on the dance floor of the Warfield awaiting his arrival to the stage. Alice had turned 52 years old that year, just a year older than I am now, incidentally being born the day after my wife who had also grew up in Michigan near Detroit. He and the band had just played in Russia for the first time that and had also recorded a live DVD at the Hammersmith Apollo that July.  Earlier that year in February, he had taken part in a cavalcade of stars in Melbourne, Australia including Roger Daltrey (who I had just seen with The Who three and a half weeks before this show), Peter Frampton, Paul Rogers, flanked by a 30 piece rock symphony and 10 person choir, doing a variety of rock standards by The Beatles, The Who, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and Queen. As a nod to Roger, Alice played “My Generation” for his encore that night and imagine most if not all the tour. Mr. Cooper was promoting his (gulp!) 14th studio album then, “Brutal Planet”, which had taken a more industrial sound than his previous work, and we were treated to six of the new songs that show. 

But as luck would have it, what thunderstruck me the most that night was the opening act, The Donnas. There had been talk of this band of very young ladies from down the peninsula in Palo Alto, but I hadn’t heard of seen them at all until this show. They had all grown up together down there, meeting in the 8th grade, and forming other bands calling themselves “Ragady Ann” and “The Electrocutes”, (God, I love that name), before morphing into The Donnas. They adopted the stage names, corresponding to the initials of their real last names as Donna A. (Brett Anderson) on vocals, Donna R. (Allison Robertson) on guitar, Donna F. (Maya Ford) on bass, and Donna C. (Torry Castellano) on drums. Perhaps it was a nod to punk rock pioneers The Ramones who used their band name for their last names. Fellow usher Jeff Gitlow went to school with Maya and said she was nice, but quiet and brooding. He said she used to wear an army helmet everywhere. 

Word was out about them and by the time of this show, they already had three albums on Lookout! Records under their belts, the latest one being “Get Skintight”. Soon, they would move up in the world, signing to Atlantic and their next album, “The Donnas Turn 21” would have a bonus track on the Japanese version of Mr. Cooper’s “School’s Out”. The next album also would have a cover of “Living After Midnight” by Judas Priest which they played at this show as well as their new song, “Do You Wanna Hit It?” Further honoring their rock & roll mentors, they would do a brilliant cover of Kiss’ “Strutter” for the film comedy “Detroit Rock City” the year before as well as play the prom band in the film “Jawbreaker”. Incidentally, the former drummer of Kiss, Eric Singer, taking over the “Catman” character made famous by Peter Criss, was playing with Alice on this tour. And speaking of “Cats”, the stage musical of that name had just closed in New York City five days before this show, ending a mind boggling, 18 year, 7,485 show run. But we were seeing an entirely different, though equally horrifying stage experience, that evening.

Yes, I admit, being an embarrassingly horny young man at the time, I was distracted by the downright hotness of The Donnas when they first took the stage, but by the time Brett had introduced their second song “Hyperactive” as one “about partying all night long”, I found myself enraptured by them. Their bare bones siren song had hooked me and I found myself once again in that rare state where I was asking myself what the hell was I actually hearing. They were indeed “skintight” as band technically and though their sound was fairly uncomplicated as rock bands go, their songs were utterly brilliant and their stage presence was beyond charismatic. I dare say I fell in love that night, but on so many levels. 

They kept up the chatter between songs, asking “Any guys here wearing skin tight pants tonight? I thought there would be!”, before doing “Skin Tight” and “This song is about picking up guys. It’s called ‘Get You Alone”. Later, Allison joked, “How many of you there suffer from seasonal allergies?” and Brett continued, “Alright, this song is for all our parents who are here tonight. It’s called ‘Get Out Of My Room’!” Near the end, Brett said that the audience was “looking hotter than last night” and went on, “We’re not going to give in to the guys who want us to take off our shirts. That sucks! But for the rest of you, we got some stuff to give away, to the loudest girl in the audience!” Everybody screamed their lungs out as she tossed out a few shirt to the folks up front. The Donna’s set was the usual 45 minutes for a single opening act but all too short for me, so I was determined to see them again and would as often as I could afterwards. I would have to wait two years to see them once again at The Warfield, then opening for Jimmy Eat World. I had to miss their Fillmore show in 2001 since I was too late to get on the ushers list and worked the Carlos Mencia show at The Warfield that night instead, quite a different show indeed. But I’m happy to report that I got to see The Donnas perform six more times after this night until they played their last bay area show at Slim’s in 2009.

Alice began his set as you might imagine theatrically with an intro by “The Controller”, a narrator of sorts from “Brutal Planet” album, claiming to be “the only piece of technology left in the city of the dead… run by the sadistic metal maniac Alice Cooper!” The crowd cheered as the disembodied voice warned us “Go now while you still have a chance, before it’s too late!” and then the band opened with the title track of the new album. Later, they did an extended jam session to the tune of “Black Widow” where Eric got to do an impressive drum solo which transitioned into a creepy toy piano intro before they did “No More Mr. Nice Guy”. Later, I overheard myself talking to another usher and I mentioned that I had eaten at Taqueria Cancun across the street and I was “regretting it”. Speaking of ailments, Alice did a bit before performing the new song, “It’s The Little Things”. He said, “You know, I’m not one to complain but I will. I woke up this morning with… a headache, and I had a backache, and I had a toothache. That’s alright. I can deal with that. But I came all the way to San Francisco and some guy in the front row has a Marilyn Manson T-Shirt on! Now that really pisses me off! It’s the little things that drive me wild!”

Granted, many a punk and metal act owes a debt of gratitude to this original “shock rocker”, but it’s fair to say that Manson probably stole more from him than all of them. Still, though middle aged, Alice’s stage show made Manson’s stage show seem tiresome in comparison. They did a bit where he collected body parts and assembled a monster, flipping a switch, electrocuting it and bringing it to life. The green giant lumbered about the stage as he sang, “Feed My Frankenstein”. He took a beat to introduce the band later pointing out that his bass player Greg Smith was wearing a see-through shirt and had purple hair and he declared that the keyboard player Teddy Andreadis was “ripped from the pages of ‘Hollywood Confidential’!” And then Alice saved himself for the end simply announcing, “And of coarse… Me!” The crowd roared and they did “Under My Wheels”.

They followed that with “School’s Out”, an appropriate song to finish their set and then returned shortly, starting their encore with “Billion Dollar Baby”. Alice did the aforementioned cover of “My Generation” which morphed into “Elected”, a song reminiscent of “I Wanna Be Sedated” by The Ramones. This was also an appropriate song to end on, it being an election year and Election Day was about six weeks away. I remember they had people storm the stage with masks of George W. Bush, Al Gore, both Hillary and Bill Clinton, and I think Nixon too and they bounced around throwing monopoly money everywhere. It was quite a spectacle. I and the rest of the audience would be disappointed later to discover that there was no poster printed for the evening, but after witnessing it all, I was glad I came big time. 

A Perfect Circle, Sunna, War., SF, Tues., September 6

SETLIST : Magdalena, The Hollow, Sleeping Beauty, Orestes, Brena, Thomas, Thinking Of You, Rose, Renholder, 3 Libras, Diary Of A Lovesong, Over, Judith

Please forgive me, gentle readers, if I don’t have a whole lot to say about this show, but it’s for a few reasons. First and foremost, it seems the recording of this show has gone AWOL which isn’t unto itself entirely too surprising. Considering the piles of tapes and CDs I’ve rummaged through all this time, one or two shows are bound to get lost in the shuffle. Hopefully, it will turn up someday and I can amend this entry. Secondly, this show comes right on the heels of their first show at The Warfield the previous October. And considering the setlists were probably all but identical, you can understand how I could easily get the two shows confused for each other. Lastly, it was 23 fucking years ago, be kind. For more info on the band and its history, check out the review of the previous show. Thank you again for your patience.

That being said, I was at least able to fish out their setlist online and there was a poster that night which also shared the date for the show at The Fillmore in Denver they did the week before this. That at least is unique about this show since despite having other posters with show dates of other gigs in the city, area, and/or around the state, this is the only one I can think of which also included one from out of state. Incidentally, The Fillmore in Denver had just opened the year before, one of many to bear that famous name to open around the country, including venues in Philadelphia and Charlotte, NC. By then, A Perfect Circle’s debut album, “Mer De Noms” had been out almost four months and would go platinum by (appropriately) that Halloween as well as win “Best Debut Album” at the California Music Awards that year. This was around the time that singer Maynard James Keenen was starting to wear more and more elaborate costumes for his performances with A Perfect Circle as well as his other band, Tool, partially in an effort to no longer be recognized on the street. I think he was wearing a long blonde wig at this one. 

A Perfect Circle had been on the road briefly that spring opening for Nine Inch Nails for their “Fragility v2.0” tour. But on this headlining tour, they had brought along Sunna, an industrial rock band from Bristol who had just released their debut album, “One Minute Silence”, exactly a month before this show. I was happy that Maynard and the gang once again did their mash-up, “Diary Of A Lovesong”, comprised of “Diary Of A Madman” by Black Sabbath and “Lovesong” by The Cure, an inspired pairing. After eight grueling months, A Perfect Circle’s tour ended and Maynard would rejoin Tool to record what would be their “Lateralus” album. A Perfect Circle would soon tour the following year, though I would not see them again until 2003 at Shoreline for the last Lollapalooza tour.

The Who, Unamerican, Shoreline, Mon., August 21

SETLIST : I Can’t Explain, Substitute, Anyway Anyhow Anywhere, I Don’t Even Know Myself, My Wife, Bargain, Baba O’Riley, Drowned, The Kids Are Alright, Relay, Pinball Wizard, The Real Me, Who Are You, Magic Bus, Behind Blue Eyes, You Better You Bet, 5:15, Won’t Get Fooled Again, (encore) Naked Eye, Let’s See Action, My Generation

After seeing The Who for the first time at the Bridge School Benefit the previous October, I was determined to see them again at one of their own shows. Bridge School’s always acoustic and let’s just say The Who definitely needs to be heard electric. And like at Bridge School before, I had brought along my dear ol’ mom in tow.  The Bridge School show had gone on so late before, going all the way until midnight, though actually it was 1 AM because of the daylight savings time switch that night. So, I thought it was only fair to her and myself that we also see The Who at a more appropriate hour. The Who had been busy touring for the first time as a five piece since 1982. They had Zak Starkey, the son of Ringo Starr, on drums and I have to say seeing him play for the first time, that he was impressive. His father taught him well. I mean, no one could replace Keith Moon, but Zak effectively channeled his manic monkey-like energy. The Who requires a heavy hitter. They also had veteran keyboardist John “Rabbit” Bundrick who worked with Pete Townshend and The Who on and off since 1977. Apart from a laundry list of world class musicians he’s played for including Roger Waters, Free, and Bob Marley, Rabbit has the distinction for being the principal musician for the cult film masterpiece “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”.

But there was one crowning achievement, the highest such in my opinion that any persons could aspire to, The Who had the honor of receiving in that fine year of our Lord 2000. Yes, The Who got to play themselves on an episode of “The Simpsons”. And it wasn’t just any episode. “A Tale Of Two Springfields” was “The Simpsons” 250th episode. Apparently though, Pete thought others would be doing their voices like in “Yellow Submarine”, so he blew it off. Personally, I think he was lying and either didn’t want to do it or was bitching about not being paid enough for it. In a strange twist, the show actually got Pete’s brother Paul to do his voice for him. The public was none the wiser. Roger Daltrey on the other hand was ecstatic about doing his part, having been a fan of the show for years. In fact, when he met Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer and many others, they debated about which one of them was more in awe of the other. Anyway, it was a very funny episode, one of “The Simpsons” finest, ending with the band playing “Won’t Get Fooled Again” which they also played at this show.

The circumstances of this Shoreline show were actually unique in all the history of my concerts. To this day, it remains the only concert I’ve seen after stepping off an international flight earlier that day. I had just finished a visit to my dear old dad in Amsterdam as well as stretches checking out Paris and Luxembourg. On a sad note, when I had just arrived in the old country, the Concorde had just crashed in Paris, so everybody was bummed, especially in Paris understandably. To make matters worse, while I was there, the Russian submarine called the Kursk sank, killing all 118 of its crew. Still, I enjoyed myself all the same. It’s hard not to have a good time in Amsterdam. So, when I flew back, I made sure there was enough wiggle room for mom to pick me up at the airport and for us to grab a quick bite to eat before the show began. Thankfully, all the stars were aligned, my flight was on time, and I didn’t even feel jet lagged.

There was an opening act also from England called Unamerican, fronted by former World Party guitarist Steve McEwan. I only recorded one of their songs and don’t really remember much about them. The only had one album, and though they worked on a second one, it was never released. We were up on the lawn and couldn’t hear them that well anyway. The Who got on soon after and we were treated to a wide array of their songs for nearly three hours starting with “I Can’t Explain”. Clearly winning the fashion contest for the night, bassist John Entwistle was donning a lime green leather jacket over a rainbow colored shirt and bolo tie. His guitar strap had a print of a skeleton’s arm and hand along it, draping over John’s lanky shoulder. Pete was his usual chatty, smart aleck self, joking to the purple lit crowd as he came out, “You’re all purple. Purple people like last time!”

They quickly followed with the golden oldies “Substitute” and “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere”. By the latter, Pete had already busted out some of his trademark windmill arm spins and some impressive guitar solos in that lengthy new arrangement. People often associate The Who with their studio work and stuff like the “Tommy” movie and stage musical, but they forget just how hard Pete shreds on the guitar live. Afterwards, Pete worked a bit tuning his guitar, complaining that it sounded “too clangy.” He then went on to talk about projects that were never completed before they released the “Who’s Next” album, including one called “Lifehouse”, an unfinished, multi-media rock opera follow up to “Tommy” which they had around 30 songs written on and off over the years. They then performed one of them called “I Don’t Even Know Myself”. 

Afterwards, Pete said that it was “nice to be back in this place of good works, to be bringing Who brutalism to this lovely place”. He then puckish praised John calling him their “resident bass player”. He responded, “I’m always here.” Pete joked, “He’s very green tonight” and John introduced the next song saying that “I wrote this while I was walking my dogs” and did “My Wife”. Pete got a little peeved at the usual bunch of lazy rich people sitting up front before they did “Bargain”. He playfully chided them, “You guys really wanna be here or you want to be somewhere else? Because if you want to be somewhere else, you can go wherever you want to. If you’ve had too much prozac, or too much to drink, or too many gins, or paid too much money for your seats, I’ll give you your money back! You can go and watch Kenny G. You know, why buy a front seat if you’re going to sit in it? I’m sure I owe you something.” Then the offending patrons started to stand and he went on, “No, I’m not making you stand up. I’m just finding somebody to hurt.” They followed that with the thunderous rock anthem “Baba O’Reilly” which Roger finished with a harmonica solo. They cooled things off a little having Pete do a solo acoustic version of “Drowned” and then Roger put on an acoustic guitar of his own, joining the rest of the band for an extended version of “The Kids Are Alright”.

Pete did one more of his little rants before doing “Relay” introducing it as “this is another one of those ‘Lifehouse’ songs. This one was definitely from the second batch of writing. I got more of a grip. I’d done some work on the script which Roger helped with. This was in 1974 or 1975. We were coming back to it again and by that time, I’d really formulated this idea in the future…” Then Pete paused hearing someone yelling at him in the crowd and grinned, “We don’t take requests. We don’t. You know, we get a lot of requests for ‘I Can See For Miles.” And then he rolled his eyes. “You know, there’s five of us up here … and only two of us are really skilled in the art of singing.” Roger quipped back, “Only one of us here tonight.” Pete went on, “Anyway, I started to form this idea of what would be necessary for rock & roll to reach China. And it wasn’t the internet. It wasn’t telephone lines but it was some kind of cable linked experience that we’ll share. We’’l jack into it and we would be here rocking and they would be there rocking and we would be rocking and we’d all rock together. But it would be like Ozzy Osbourne on acid!”

Pete laughed, “And thank god we never got to make the movie, ‘cus it was as tacky as that in some places. And a lot of thoughts behind it were about, you know, the fact that we’re trying to recognize the fact back in the 1970’s, rock was trying to be a new church. It wasn’t worthy to be a new church but we did know how to congregate. That’s what we do. We congregate, don’t we? And sometimes we congregate and feel something very special and sometimes we congregate and the guy on stage tells you to stand up or sit down. We pay him too much or too little. And sometimes we get really, really high without smoking any drugs. And the next song is very specifically about that network and it’s called ‘Relay’!”

After the obligatory “Pinball Wizard”, they went into a blistering long version of “The Real Me” and though I thought Roger’s voice was a little shaky in the beginning, he was on point big time by then and nailed it. Roger even made a wisecrack later that “Mark Twain was right”, (presumably about the coldest winter he ever spent was a summer in San Francisco), and he was “fuckin’ freezing” saying that he was just getting warmed up well over an hour into their set. They did a long and dynamic version of “Magic Bus” and John gave a jaw dropping bass solo during “5:15”. I noticed that there were roman numerals inlaid on his bass frets. They finished their set with a climactic “Won’t Get Fooled Again” The Who soon returned and began their encore with two obscure ones, “Naked Eye” and “Let’s See Action”, before wrapping up the night with a sprawling, 16 minute, epic version of “My Generation”. Seriously, that one went all kinds of places stylistically, from eerily quiet to thunderous, ending with a bombastic, feedback soaked climax. 

I’m sad to say this was the last time I’d see The Who, at least The Who with John Entwistle. John would pass away only two years later just before they were starting a new tour. So this would be the last full tour with him. They said it was a heart attack, but he had cocaine in his system. People always were distracted by Keith Moon’s relentless partying and Pete’s guitar smashing antics, but John could tie one off as well the rest of them. He just did it more quietly. At least I can say that I got to see him three times live, those two times with The Who and that one time he did a solo show at The Fillmore. I was also relieved that I was through this show, I was finally able to cajole my brother Alex to see The Who. He worshiped them for God’s sake and frankly he’s the one, like with so many other great bands, who introduced them to me in the first place. The final straw that broke his proverbial camel’s back was that I pointed out the fact that his own MOTHER had seen The Who twice and he hadn’t seen them once, not to mention the time we saw Pete at Bridge School playing solo in 1996. But unfortunately Alex had tickets to see The Who that fateful tour when John died. His show at the Hollywood Bowl was to be the first of that tour, but to The Who’s credit, just a mere four days after John’s passing, they soldiered on. The band enlisted session pro Pino Palladino to fill in for him and he remained as their bassist for fifteen more years. Zak’s still playing drums for them too. Incidentally, I always thought Alex’s bass style was similar to Entwistle’s, an excellent one to emulate to be sure.

I’m happy to say that the video of The Who’s set from that evening at Shoreline is on YouTube in almost its entirety, missing only “My Generation” at the very end. The Who finished that tour in 2000 and Pete managed to get through it all smashing his guitar live on stage only once at Jonas Beach near New York City. They wrapped it all up with shows at Royal Albert Hall back home in London which had such notable guests performing alongside them as Paul Weller, Eddie Vedder, Noel Gallagher, Nigel Kennedy, and Bryan Adams. The recordings from that night were later used to make a live CD and DVD. The Who started supporting the Teenage Cancer Trust in 2000 as well and the following year, Pete would get a Lifetime Achievement award from the Grammys. Anyway, I did see Roger one more time in 2009 on his own. He was performing solo at a giant party for Oracle at their big convention. I was working it at the Moscone Center, but the party was on Treasure Island. Yet I managed to stowaway on one of the fleet of buses going out there and though I was dead tired from work and had to be up in the morning again for it, I pressed on. That’s what The Who would do, right? I would have gone just for Roger, but Aerosmith was also there and I’d never seen them before and haven’t since. It was worth it. 

Travis, Leona Naess, Fill., SF, Mon., July 17

SETLIST : All I Want To Do Is Rock, Good Feeling, Writing To Reach You, As You Are, Driftwood, The Fear, Good Day To Die, Why Does It Always Rain On Me?, Turn, Safe, Coming Around, Slide Show, Blue Flashing Light, (encore), Just The Faces Change, …Baby One More Time, The Weight, Happy

Though Travis had been playing in Scotland since 1990, they were still relatively new to us Yanks. Their first album “Good Feeling” had come out in 1997 and their latest one, “The Man Who” had just dropped in stores in 1999 and would go on to go triple platinum. One of the hidden tracks on the American version of that album, “Blue Flashing Light”, was played at this show. Travis had been touring a lot, stopping a few times in the bay area then, though I had missed them up till this night. They opened for Oasis at the Berkeley Community Theater that April as well as an in store set at Virgin Megastore earlier that day, but I was busy recording the Dance Hall Crashers at the Maritime. Before that they had did a gig at Bottom Of Hill that January. So, they were making up for lost time with us folks in the states, playing for a fourth time in just seven months. Incidentally, they’re named after Harry Dean Stanton’s character in the Wim Wenders film, “Paris, TX”, a very solemn movie for such an upbeat band.

They got singer-songwriter Leona Naess to open that night. She was English by birth, but had been in New York City for some time, having originally studied anthropology at New York University before switching her major to music. Her father was briefly married to Diana Ross, but they divorced in 1982 when she was a kid. Her debut album, “Comatised”, had just come out that March and two of her songs, “Charm Attack” and “Lazy Days”, were used in the soundtrack for the teen comedy “Whatever It Takes” with James Franco. I have never seen it, but apparently it was a box office bomb and the critics thought it sucked. Too bad for Leona. I only recorded a couple of her songs during her set, so I don’t know if she played either of those, but I do know she did “Chase” and “Panic-Stricken”.

Travis got on stage to the organ intro of “Your Time Is Gonna Come” by Led Zeppelin, a respectful nod to the Fillmore’s hippie legacy. I was immediately impressed with the powerful voice of their frontman, Fran Healy. Seriously, there are only a few people in rock who can belt it out with that kind of force such as Maynard James Keenan, Ann Wilson, Ronnie James Dio, or Chris Cornell. Whenever I hear such a powerful voice, I do grow concerned that the singer will ultimately ruin their voice doing that, especially when Fran does the chorus to “Turn”. Travis is still around today, but I haven’t seen them since 2001, so I can’t say if Fran’s voice still has a punch. Anyway, one thing that did bug me about Fran was the way he smiled when he sang.  He doesn’t mean any harm by it obviously. That’s just one of my pet peeves when singers do that. But I have to hand it to Fran, the girls just melted for that accent of his.

They played a couple songs that wouldn’t be released until their next album “Afterglow” in 2001, “Coming Around” and “Safe”, though the latter actually had been written in 1992. During “Driftwood”, they had the mirror ball light up for the crowd. Always cheerful, after their syrupy sweet “Why Does It Always Rain On Me” which had all the girls singing along to the chorus, Fran suggested the audience go out the next day and “do something nice for someone… If a lot of people do that, we can have a revolution.” Later, he mused that “songs are like fireworks. When they explode for everyone to see, it’s the most beautiful thing, and the record companies, the radio stations fade away… We use these stars to navigate this crazy thing called life.” Corny as it might be, I appreciate the sentiment. Seriously, listening to Travis makes me fell like a cold hearted cynic and reminds me I gotta lighten up a little… maybe smile more. Fran did make a point to praise the photo in the Fillmore lobby of The Who performing the last note of the last song of one of their shows at Winterland. And as luck would have it, the next show I would see would be… you guessed it… The Who at Shoreline.

One thing I liked about Travis’ gig was their eclectic choices for a couple of songs they did during their encore. I don’t think anybody was quite prepared for when they did a rather straight forward, acoustic version of “…Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears. Granted, Britney was at the height of her popularity, but it was like none of us knew how to feel just then. In another nod to our Fillmore’s hippie forefathers, Travis made the wise decision to make their next tune “The Weight” by The Band. Fran took some time to tell the crowd that The Band performed their last show at Winterland and that Martin Scorsese filmed it to make the concert movie “The Last Waltz”.  They nailed the harmonies on that one too. Travis ended the night with a rousing version of “Happy”, Fran doing a duck walk and guitarist Andrew Dunlop doing karate kicks and rolling around on his back. They also had a good poster that night thankfully. Though I had missed them all those times before, it would only be two short months until I’d see Travis again as one of the opening acts for the Alice Now & Zen Festival in the park with Beck and The Go-Go’s.

Dave Vanian & His Phantom Chords, The Amazing Crowns, Slim’s, SF, Wed., July 5

SETLISTS :

THE AMAZING CROWNS : Still Royal, Shivering In The Corner, Baby’s Out On Bail, Halos & Horns, Perfect Sin, Hat Size, Harem Caravan, 1965 GTO, Chop Shop, Sin City, Do The Devil

DAVE VANIAN & HIS PHANTOM CHORDS : Haunted Garage, Voodoo Doll, Piece Of My Heart, This House Is Haunted, Pretty Girl, Born To Be Wicked, (unknown), You & I, Jezebel, Chase The Wild Wind, Town Without Pity, After The Lights Go Out, Whiskey & Me, (unknown), Big Town, Frenzy, (unknown)

It had been about two and a half weeks since my last show, a bit of a stretch for me back then, but a welcome one considering how busy I was. Ironically, it has been a spell since I had written since I had been mired knee deep in the Dreamforce convention in town, a show I just wrapped up after twelve long days. I had been seeing the discs of Dave Vanian & His Phantom Chords sitting patiently on the corner of my writing desk that whole stretch collecting dust and it’s a relief to finally get to it. I had taken the time to listen to them before my work commenced and was able to transcribe all but three of the songs they performed in their set. Those other three I presume are ancient covers whose titles have escaped me. The music world had a shock the week before this show at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark where during that rain soaked day, the crowd surged, trampling 9 people to death and injuring 26 during Pearl Jam’s set. Distraught from the tragedy, PJ nearly called it quits, but after a sojourn to collect themselves emotionally, returned to the stage the following month and I’m happy to say they are still together to this day 23 years later.

Though Mr. Vanian has never left the stage and was in fine form. I was actually lucky to catch this band of his, a side project from his usual endless touring as lead singer of The Damned. Dave had put this so-called “gothabilly” act together after The Damned’s (short lived) break up in 1989 and they had put out their first and only self titled album six years later. This project of Dave’s would be brief and he would soon return to The Damned and hasn’t toured with The Phantom Chords since, at least as far as I know. Their style as the name suggested was a bit of a mash up between goth rock and rockabilly. In the beginning, Dave had enlisted former Damned guitarist Roman Jugg and bassist Bryn Merrick, though neither of them were present in this touring band. The show was a steal, costing only $12 to get in, a bargain even way back then.

Seriously, I could have sworn I’d seen this opening act, the Amazing Crowns before either at the Maritime or elsewhere, but I found nothing else in my records. Suffice to say, I caught them at least this time. Anyway, this swing band from Providence, Rhode Island had just released their “Royal” studio album that June as well as their “Playback Live” album, recorded at a three night stint in their hometown and released the previous March. They had actually at first been called the Amazing Royal Crowns, but had to change their name in 1997 over a dispute with the Royal Crown Revue, another swing band of note around that time. I was glad to catch them too since they disbanded two years later, although they did a reunion in 2015 in Boston opening for the Bosstones and one more time in Chicago for a tribute to friend and touring partner Eric “HiFi” Kish of Hi-Fi & The Roadrunners who had died in a motorcycle accident.

They got the crowd warmed up and rowdy, introduced to the stage as “born to be bad and bad since birth! It’s the heart achin’, it’s the bone breakin’ sounds of the Amazing Crowns!” Though it was mostly their original material, they did one cover which they called a “song by a roots rockabilly band. It’s very obscure. They’re kinda Australian, Scottish. They’re a very obscure rockabilly band that went by the initials AC/DC!” They then went on to do a swinging version of “Sin City”. Their singer, Jason “King” Kendall later introduced a couple members of the band saying one “got the best place by Fenway Park! He knows more about Grand Funk Railroad than anybody!… Judd Williams on drums!” The he asked, “You thinking ‘How do I find a guy like that on stand up bass?’ Guys ask ‘How can I be a guy like that?… You can’t… On the big doghouse bass, Jack ‘The Swinger’ Hanlon!” King went on finally asking, “What can I say about him that hasn’t already been said? J.D. Burgess on guitar!”

Warmed up by the Amazing Crowns swinging antics, everybody got their dancing shoes on when Dave began his vampirish baritone crooning, opening with “Haunted Garage”. He followed it with “Voodoo Doll” saying he was going to “take y’all down to the Louisiana swamp.” He joked that he later got through “Pretty Girl” by “the skin of my teeth” and that “some of us know the songs” before they continued with “Born To Be Wicked”. Though I didn’t know those aforementioned covers, one cover I and everybody in the house knew for certain was his passionate rendition of “Town Without Pity” by Gene Pitney. Near the end of the set, Dave introduced “Big Town” saying “this is where we get out in the car and drive across the Nevada desert and we go to Las Vegas.” I wish I had known that Dave and the band were going to play at the Covered Wagon the following night. I would have enjoyed seeing him again, particularly since like I said this would be the only time I’d see him with the Phantom Chords. Still, I would only have to wait a year for him to return singing for The Damned at the Great American Music Hall and I have seen Dave with them countless times since.

The Ventures, Casino Royale, Tiki Tones, Electric Peach, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., June 17

This would be the second and final time The Ventures would perform at the Maritime and the last time I’d see any of the original members alive sadly. Pete had recorded them the first time around the previous year and though I was jealous then, I totally understood, primarily because they spawned from his generation and were one of the few bands that played at the Hall he actually knew. That was an epic show and we had hoped that a live album and/or DVD would come from it, but it never materialized. The Ventures instead went on to record one in Japan a year later. Still, I was honored to have this one under my belt this time around. Anyone on Earth who counts themselves a fan of surf guitar rock knows and owes a debt of gratitude to this venerable instrumental band.

There were also an interesting variety of openers that night, starting with the local synth pop duo, Electric Peach. Following them were the Tiki Tones, who graced the stage in bright, colorful Hawaiian shirts. As their name suggests, they were the very definition of mellow lounge rock and the band members had given themselves tiki inspired stage names like Koro on drums, Lono and Shag on guitars, Ku on bass, and of coarse Lord Wahini on organ. They had just released their third album “The Leisure Experiment” that year. Finally, there was Casino Royale, a go-go dance band that had just formed the year before this, comprised of members of several local bands including Idiot Flesh, the Clubfoot Orchestra, Charming Hostess, and Eskimo. There are actually a few bands that claim this name, including one from Croatia, but this one had just completed a tribute album to Burt Bacharach. All and all, the three set the informal mood of the night and I’m sure many a tropical cocktail was consumed by the audience.

This night was actually a welcome change of pace from the testosterone heavy B.F.D. festival I had attended the night before, headlined by Limp Bizkit, the obnoxious kings of the frat rock nu metal of the time. Song after song, The Ventures soothed my jangled nerves with their syrupy sweet guitar licks, covering all their surf rock classics like “Pipeline”, “Walk Don’t Run”, and “Hawaii 5-0” as well as covers of “Runaway”, House Of The Rising Sun”, and “Wipeout”. I knew I was blessed to get this one, but like I mentioned before, it would be the last time. Bob Bogle passed away in 2009, Nokie Edwards in 2018, Gerry McGee in 2019 and finally Don Wilson just last year. But their contribution to their genre will never be forgotten particularly since they were rightly inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2008 by none other than John Fogerty from Credence Clearwater Revival.

Live 105’s BFD 2000: Limp Bizkit, Stone Temple Pilots, Moby, Slipknot, The Offspring, Cypress Hill, Third Eye Blind, Incubus, Godsmack, Snake River Conspiracy, Shoreline, Mountain View, Fri., June 16

SETLISTS :

(CYPRESS HILL) : Hand On The Pump, Real Estate, How I Could Just Kill A Man, Insane In The Brain, Cock The Hammer, Checkmate, Can’t Get The Best Of Me, Lick A Shot, A To The K, Rock Star

(THE OFFSPRING) : Bad Habit, All I Want, Walla Walla, Gone Away, Come Out & Play, Staring At The Sun, The Kid’s Aren’t Alright, Gotta Get Away, Smash, Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)

(SLIPKNOT) : [sic], Eyeless, Wait & Bleed, No Life, Liberate, Purity, Prosthetics, Spit It Out, Eeyore, Surfacing

(STONE TEMPLE PILOTS) : Crackerman, Vasoline, Tumble In The Rough, Wicked Garden, Sin, Big Empty, Interstate Love Song, Plush, Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart, Down, Dead & Bloated, Sex Type Thing

(LIMP BIZKIT) : Show Me What You Got, Break Stuff, Just Like This, Faith, Re-Arranged, Counterfeit, Take A Look Around, Nookie

It actually had been four years since I caught the B.F.D. at Shoreline and it always provided a dependable fun time out, at least something for everybody even if it’s a little, shall we say, radio friendly. Some years were better than others, but they were always good. For some reason, I was late to the show, something I abhor, so I ended up missing Everclear open on the main stage. I like them and had seen them plenty by then, but I’m not a huge fan. I just want my money’s worth, damn it. I did make it there in time for the act that followed, Godsmack. They were still pretty new back then having just toured with Limp Bizkit, that night’s headliner, through Europe and were just a few months shy of releasing their second album, “Awake”. Between songs, the lead singer praised the “hot chicks” who were there, but predictably scolded the people up front for sitting while the kids up on the lawn were “working their asses off”. He taunted the people in the seats asking whether they were “too drunk to stand up or way too old to be in this fuckin’ place?” Being in the seats myself, I felt a little self conscious. I couldn’t decipher their setlist, but I do know they played “Going Down” and “Voodoo”.

I had to move fast that day because on top of the second “Dysfunctional” stage, there was also a smaller “Local-Lounge” stage. There, I was able to catch a song from Snake River Conspiracy before I had to bolt over to the Dysfunctional stage in time for Incubus. It had been only a few months since I saw them on the SnoCore tour at The Warfield with Puya, Mr. Bungle, and System Of A Down. I had taped them once at the Maritime as well, but it was nice to get a little closer to them this time. I truly regretted going back to the main stage to catch Third Eye Blind instead of catching AFI on the Local-Lounge stage hat day. Those pompous bastards had the nerve to do an utterly cringe inducing cover of “I Wanna Be Sedated” by The Ramones. Frontman and uber-douchebag Stephen Jenkins tried and was unsuccessful in getting the crowd to sing along. If that gut wrenching rendition wasn’t blasphemous enough, Third Eye Blind also did “Baba O’Reilly” by The Who at the end of their set. That one really got me. That band needs a serious ass kicking. It was gratifying to hear people on my tape in the background screaming, “You suck!” at them. At least I’d be seeing The Who on that very same stage a month later where they’d perform that song correctly. Jenkins did mention something about being up on the lawn four years ago “high as a kite”. I wish he had stayed there.

The good news is those obnoxious cream puffs were followed by Cypress Fucking Hill. It was like giving water to a man dying of thirst. Cypress Hill was touring with a full band this time, drums, bass, and guitar in tow. I’m just glad that the predominantly lily white lineup for B.F.D. had at least one act of color. If that wasn’t bad enough, there wasn’t a single woman on either the main or the Dysfunctional stage that year. Cypress Hill’s fifth album, “Skull & Bones”, just dropped in April and they had another hit on their hands with “Rock Superstar”. They would play again at The Fillmore in August, but I’d be overseas in Europe and miss it which is a pity, since they used the recording of their show that night to make the “Live At The Fillmore” album. Geez… The one time I miss them back then. 

The “DJ With No Name” introduced them asking the crowd if anybody snuck in any weed because “now’s the time to use it!” At the end of their set, rapper B-Real reminded them that their “3rd annual Smokeout Festival” was happening in San Bernardino that October, apologizing then for doing a “shameless plug”.

I thought it a strange but enjoyable combination of having The Offspring follow Cypress Hill, but I would be pleasantly surprised to see them touring together again and play The Warfield five months later. Apart from being Californians of the southern variety, on the surface they seem to have little in common, musically or otherwise, but it worked. The Offspring would release their “Conspiracy Of One” album that November which though not as successful as earlier stuff, would still go platinum. 

I made sure to bounce back to the Dysfunctional stage in time to get a good spot for Slipknot. I knew that one would be popular. There had been rumors that Slipknot and Limp Bizkit, who were headlining that night, had been feuding, but whatever came between them, they ultimately resolved. Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst even joked later that night during his set that “besides all the shit talk, those motherfuckers are bad as fuck!” Years later, Fred would pay tribute to Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison at his service in Des Moines when he died in 2021. I found some footage of this bonkers set Slipknot did at B.F.D. on YouTube, but it’s pretty jittery. I literally had just seen Slipknot headline at The Warfield six weeks before this and their set was basically the same one. They only had one album by then after all. But they kicked ass once again and the mosh pit was beyond belief. I’d see them one more time the following year also at Shoreline, but they’d be on the main stage for Ozzfest with Black Sabbath. 

They opened their set with the recording of the old country ditty “Get Behind Me Satan & Push” by Billie Jo Spears as they’d done the other times I saw them. I managed to fend off the swirling throngs of shirtless tough guys and god knows it was loud enough, so the recording came out better than expected. Singer Corey Taylor said before “Wait & Bleed” that they’d just gotten back from Germany and asked if we missed them. “Germany can fuck off compared to you crazy motherfuckers!!!”, he growled. Afterwards, he asked if “any of you crazy motherfuckers” were at their recent Warfield show and I raised my hand to be counted. 

Corey went on to tell the crowd “a little story” saying, “I don’t know if you guys noticed this or paid any attention, but I was walkin’ in here and there was this no life motherfucker holding up a ‘Be True To Jesus” and ‘Burn In Hell’ sign. I don’t give a shit what religion you are. So, I was just going to fuckin’ walk by. But as I was walking by, that dickless fuckin’ Christian cocksucker had the fuckin’ balls to turn to me and my boys and say, ‘You know what? Slipknot sucks!’” The crowd booed loudly and then Corey continued, “And you know I can’t keep my mouth shut. So I stopped, I fuckin’ looked at him and I said, ‘Yeah, that’s nice. But you know what? Jesus is fuckin’ old news! You have to get the fuck over it!’ I don’t give a shit about a god who can tell me what the fuck I can fuckin’ listen to, god damn it!!! If Satan lets me listen to my own music, so fuckin’ be it! I wanna see your fuckin’ fists in the fuckin’ air right now! ‘Cus this song goes out to any motherfucker out there who thinks they’re better than you or me or anybody on this fuckin’ stage, or anybody outside this fence! I wanna see how high you can jump!!!”

Corey got everybody to do that crouch on the ground bit during “Spit It Out”again, repeating, “Get down on the fuckin’ ground…” and then getting them to bounce up “like somebody just fucked you in the asshole!” and go totally nuts when the drums dropped in again. I remember that mosh pit kicked up a lot of dust making breathing a little challenging. I took off after that song to go back to the main stage for Moby. Getting almost the entire set of Slipknot prevented me from getting most of Moby’s on the main stage, but I already had recorded him once the year before at the Maritime and I would go on to see him perform twice in a row headlining at The Warfield just two months later. I was seeing a lot of Moby back then but when choosing between them, Slipknot wins easily. Sorry Moby. I did catch Moby doing a minute or two of guitar solo on stage before doing “Body Rock”, saying he felt the urge to “jerk off”.

I actually was excited to see Stone Temple Pilots the most that night. I hadn’t seen them since my first time, catching them at The Fillmore back in 1994. They were too big for that place then already. They had recently put out their platinum selling “No. 4” album. The video for their new single “Sour Girl” had Sarah Michelle Gellar from “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” in it, though they didn’t play it that night. And the Pilots were tight that show, really the highlight of the festival. Frontman Scott Weiland had developed a reputation for his conspicuous consumption of substances and had been in and out of rehab in the intervening years, but he seemed together that evening. He was his old shirtless boogaloo machine again. Scott joked, “Pleasant to be in the merry land of sex & acid!” before doing “Wicked Garden”. He also got a little cheeky before they performed down saying, “Well,  you’re all so polite. We’ve got to break out one written by Stone Cold Steve Austin. So here you have it…”

They would do a little jazzy introduction before finishing their set with “Sex Type Thing”, walking off stage to the sound of police sirens. This would be the final time I’d see Stone Temple Pilots though. The band would break up in 2002 and Scott would go on to join Velvet Revolver with the members of Guns N’ Roses (minus Axl Rose obviously). I was lucky enough to see Velvet Revolver a couple times at The Warfield, once in ’04 and then again in ’07. The Pilots would get together briefly in 2013, but Scott and the rest of the band would end up embroiled in lawsuits over rights to the band’s name. Scott would then sadly die of an overdose overdose in 2015.

It was a little weird seeing Limp Bizkit again after the debacle of Woodstock ’99 where they seemed to bear the most blame for, at least amongst the artists that performed there. I mean, Moby, The Offspring, Everclear, and Godsmack, who were on this bill earlier that night, all performed at that doomed festival, but everyone was looking in Limp Bizkit’s direction when that festival took a steep nose dive into oblivion during their set and afterwards. Still, that disastrous performance didn’t harm their career in the short term. Their 3rd album, “Chocolate Starfish & The Hot Dog Flavored Water” would come out four months later and would be so successful, it would sell a million copies in its first week alone before ultimately going six times platinum. So, whatever criticism I would have for Mr. Durst and company is tempered by the fact they’re rich and I’m not. Scott Weiland actually co wrote and sang on a song on that album. But this would be the peak of Limp Bizkit’s career and indeed for nu-metal in general. Guitarist Wes Borland would leave the Limp Bizkit the following year and I’d see them just one more time opening for Korn at The Warfield in 2003.

But no band in their right mind would want to follow Stone Temple Pilots and sure enough, more than half the crowd had emptied out of Shoreline by the time Limp Bizkit stormed on stage. I remember it was freezing cold by then too and the seats up front were so deserted, Fred encouraged the “people in the front to scream for all the people in the back to get up here!” By then, the ushers stopped bothering and people from up on the lawn were pouring down front in droves freely. I was able to slither my way closer getting down to about the fifth row. Fred rightly praised other bands that night including Cypress Hill and Stone Temple Pilots, asking the crowd, “How many killer songs Stone Temple Pilots have!?!” 

Despite it having been a long day and evening, whenever I do a festival, I always make a point to stick it out to the bitter end. Every time I leave before the last song is finished, I always feel a lack of closure. So, I did the courtesy of sticking around for Limp Bizkit, braving the cold. Fred did however drop one dis that evening, dedicating “Counterfeit” to Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. Trent as well as Marilyn Manson were feuding with him around then as well. Limp Bizkit, Stone Temple Pilots, and Godsmack from this festival would also go on to also play the WXRK Dysfunctional Family Picnic in New Jersey the following week. I’d return to Shoreline to attend the B.F.D.’s the following two years in a row, but those would be the last one’s I’d do. Live 105 stopped doing the B.F.D. after 2017, changing formats and management in recent years. I hope they do it again some day. The bay area needs more festivals.

Todd Rundgren, Keno, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., June 11

SETLIST : I Hate My Frickin I.S.P., Play This Game, Love Of The Common Man, Yer Fast (And I Like It), Black & White, Trapped, There Goes My Inspiration, Number 1 Lowest Common Denominator, Open My Eyes, Love In Action, Hit Me Like A Train, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Bang On The Ukulele Daily, Temporary Sanity, Couldn’t I Just Tell You, Mystified – Broke Down & Busted, Buffalo Grass, One World, The Ikon, Hammer In My Heart, Worldwide Epiphany

Todd Rundgren is one of those artists that people should know about but don’t and I’m afraid that was the case for me before this night. Most people like myself only knew him from his song “Bang On The Drum All Day” that was ubiquitous from commercials from things like Carnival Cruises to serving as the theme song for the Green Bay Packers. However, I did know the “Open My Eyes” song from my brother who was a fan of Todd’s first band, Nazz. But going over merely his music producing credentials, from Hall & Oates to Bad Religion, I feel even less worthy to have recorded him. If that wasn’t humbling enough, Todd used the tapes from that night to make his “Live In San Francisco” DVD. Just the thought of this master of the studio using my tapes for an official release of his makes me very proud. Not that that Todd and I ever even met or was aware of my contribution. As it is all too often, I wasn’t mentioned in the credits. But like so many others that got released without so much as a bloody thank you, I will always retain a shred of solemn pride for my microscopic contribution to the arts.

Todd had already been a music legend and technical wizard well before the dawn of the internet. After the end of Nazz in 1969, he briefly became a computer programmer, actually designing the first color graphics tablet. From there he would be the first artist to have an interactive TV concert, produced “No World Order” in 1994, the first interactive album, and was one of the earliest users of the internet to distribute music. I had found out one piece of tragic trivia while researching this. There had been unfounded rumors of there being a feud between Todd and John Lennon in the 70’s and Mark David Chapman, John’s assassin, was wearing a Todd Rundgren “Hermit Of Mink Hollow” TV shirt when he shot him. Police even found a copy of his album “Runt: The Ballad Of Todd Rundgren” in Mark’s hotel room. Of course, none of it is remotely Todd’s fault and he in fact toured extensively with another Beatle, Ringo Starr, for many years.

One final tidbit, which I heard a little about back in 1991, was the paternity of actor Liv Tyler. I’d knew about Aerosmith, though wasn’t a big fan, when I heard the story going around that she was singer Steven Tyler’s daughter, but I didn’t know that she had been raised by Todd Rundgren and her mom. She was even going by the name Liv Rundgren up till then. Her mother, former Playboy centerfold Bebe Buell, had an affair with Steven, but believed, quite wisely, that in his then deranged, drug addled state, that Steven would be an unfit father, putting it mildly. But Steven eventually got clean and the truth came out in the end publicly, but Todd and Liv remain close and the rest is history. Todd actually had just gotten remarried a couple years before this show. By this time, he was just about to release “One Long Year”, his 17th studio album, just nine days after this show in fact.

When I first came to this gig, I thought it was, like most, unlikely to produce a live CD or DVD. So, you can imagine my shock when I came up the staircases of the Maritime to discover a jib camera rig set up on the dance floor. To those who don’t know, this rig is a boom device used to mount a camera on one end, and a counterweight with camera controls on the other. You’ve probably seen one once in your life. You get the picture. But there had never been one at the Hall before, so I knew they meant business that night. I took a deep breath, went downstairs, and did the soundcheck as focused as possible. The good news is mixing the bands was pretty simple. The first band, Keno, was just a four piece rock act and Todd’s band was just a power trio. When you’re as tight as Todd and his guys were, it was easy to do my job. But I’m sure there was no goof I could pull that night that Mr. Rundgren couldn’t fix in the studio afterwards.

It was a very civilized crowd there at the Hall that night. Todd’s music isn’t really the kind of stuff you dance to, so they pretty much stood there transfixed, bobbing their heads a little. He opened with the first two songs off the new album, “I Hate My Frickin ISP” and “Yer Fast (And I Like It)”. A couple songs later, he described “Number 1 Lowest Common Denominator” as “the first song I wrote about sex.” I thought it was cute that Todd played “Bang On The Drum All Day” solo on the ukulele, introducing it as a “old Hawaiian war chant.” His fellow trio partners, Kasim Sulton on bass and Trey Sabatelli on drums were excellent and they both got to do impressive solos at the encore during “The Ikon”. I enjoyed watching it again here while writing. It’d been a while. I have to admit that the jib camera looked good, making me wish the Maritime had one all along really. It just occurred to me that this recording would be the LAST one, chronologically speaking, I recorded at the Hall that eventually produced a CD or DVD. Whoa… It’s a good one to end with I suppose.

Primal Scream, Fill., SF, Sat., June 10

SETLIST : Swastika Eyes, Shoot Speed / Kill Light, Pills, Burning Wheel, MBV Arkestra (If They Move, Kill ‘Em), Insect Royalty, Kill All Hippies, Keep Your Dreams, Kill All Hippies, Exterminator, Blood Money, Rocks, Kowalski, Accelerator, Don’t Call Me Nigger Whitey, (encore), Higher Than The Sun, Medication, City, Movin’ On Up, (encore), Kick Out The Jams, No Fun

I can say that this show has the unique distinction of being the only time I worked at The Fillmore as a stagehand. I had been ushering as usual at my station by the front of house soundboard when I was approached by the venerable master of all things audio, the late great Chris Charuki, who, knowing I was a stagehand with Local 16, implored me to join the crew at the end of the night to load out their gear. I have to admit I was hesitant. Part of me was clinging to my status as a passive observer at that esteemed venue, but when I looked into Charuki’s puppy dog eyes, I couldn’t say no. He passed away in 2018 and I miss him dearly. Thankfully, it was a quick load out, being just Primal Scream performing that night and I was even given a tour shirt, though I’ve since misplaced it. Besides, I owed it to my dear brother Alex who was a huge fan. He had just moved to L.A. earlier that year and though he didn’t catch Primal Scream when this tour swung through his neighborhood, he’s caught them several times before and since then.

Primal Scream had been a sort of anomaly in the so-called Britpop world, flirting with various genres over the years. Hailing from Scotland, their singer Bobby Gillespie had been the original drummer for The Jesus & Mary Chain. Bobby wasn’t very talented with the drums, playing only a snare and a floor tom whilst standing during the Chain’s earliest days, since he lacked the skill to play a full kit. He blossomed as Primal Scream’s frontman though. I was sort of coming late to the party seeing the band, though I’d been familiar with their work through my brother and liked what I heard. I remember their song “Rocks” was on “Beavis & Butthead” and they mistook the lyric “Get your rocks off” to be “get your rock salt”. 

Anyhow, I hadn’t had much chance to see them before since this would be their first headlining tour in 8 years. Primal Scream had just released their 6th studio album that January called “XTRMNTR”, obviously “exterminator” with all the vowels removed. Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine helped produce and played guitar on it, though he wasn’t touring with them. Primal Scream had taken a departure from their previous acid house psychedelia to produce a more industrial electronica sound for that album. In fact, they played mostly new songs in their main set, taking up all but three songs that were older. During their first encore, they even played a new song called, “City”, that wouldn’t be released until their following album, “Evil Heat”, in 2002.

Bobby Gillespie had a reputation for being quite the party animal even by Britpop standards and it was a safe bet that he was high as kite that night on stage. Primal Scream was practically proud of their reputation of superhuman drug intake but they still delivered, though I noticed Bobby sweats a lot. It took him a bit, but Bobby straightened himself out over the next few years, fathering a couple kids, getting married, and ultimately becoming sober in 2008. The band then had recently picked up Darrin Mooney as their new drummer as well as Mani Mounfield on bass from The Stone Roses who had recently disbanded. 

The new album’s single had the provocative title “Swastika Eyes” which they opened their set with and I also caught them rehearsing it during soundcheck. It didn’t help that the first song on the new album was called “Kill All Hippies” at a place like The Fillmore. Some of the old timers might have taken offense if they were paying attention when they played it that night. But they further raised eyebrows that show when near the end of “Higher Than The Sun”, Bobby sang the chorus of Sly & The Family Stone’s “Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey”, a song that most wouldn’t even dare utter its title much less sing it these days, despite its strong anti-racist message. For their second encore, they did a couple other covers, “Kick Out The Jams” by the MC5 and also “No Fun”, from another renowned Detroit proto-punk band, The Stooges. I was grateful they had a nice poster that night, a welcome addition to getting a free shirt. Afterwards, I was proud that I helped load out the band, quickly dispelling any hesitancy I had earlier. It went fast, but I was a little jittery riding on The Fillmore’s notoriously rickety freight elevator. This wouldn’t be the last time I’d see Primal Scream at The Fillmore. They would return three years later as the unlikely opener for Underworld. That was a unique pairing.

But I have to confess, this being a confession after all, that I fibbed a bit at the beginning of this. I actually had worked one other show at The Fillmore in the capacity of a union stagehand, but I’m resolutely not proud of it. To my defense, there were notable differences between the Primal Scream and this other show, one, it being a private benefit, not open to the general public. Secondly, I was just a camera page, a job I enjoy but rarely get from the union, not a sound guy. I was happy to get the work, but when I found out later who was playing, I was beyond mortified. Of all the bands, it was… Train. And to any of the gentle readers out there who’ve read anything involving that godforsaken band I’ve written, you’d know I hate them passionately. I seriously considered calling the union back and have myself replaced. 

At least Matt Nathanson was the opener, a local singer songwriter who had been managed by Jordan Kurland, the fellow I used to intern for at Primus’ management and current honcho of the Noise Pop Festival. Matt’s music is inoffensive, but infinitely more tolerable than Train’s. Women love Train and there were plenty of them there fawning over them that night, which makes me hate them even more. Anyway, I was reassured slightly since it was for charity and my alma matter, The San Francisco Boys Chorus, joined them on stage for a few numbers. It was near Christmas then and I think they sang a few carols together. I don’t want to be a Grinch but still, it was overall a painful memory, especially since I accidentally made eye contact with their singer, Pat Monahan, a couple times that night. I feel unclean even writing about it all these years later.

The Original P, Clyde’s Ride, Broun Fellinis, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., May 19

The old school crew from Parliament Funkadelic had returned to play the Hall just eight months after I recorded them there last. This time they had officially adopted the moniker of “The Original P”. Feel free to visit the previous e

The Original P, Clyde’s Ride, Broun Fellinis, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., May 19

The old school crew from Parliament Funkadelic had returned to play the Hall just eight months after I recorded them there last. This time they had officially adopted the moniker of “The Original P”. Feel free to visit the previous entry from that show in September of ’99 if you want to read more about their history. And though I didn’t save either recording for myself, nor have I been able to find it on the web, rest assured they covered a lot of material and many golden oldies as they had done previously. I am sad to say that this would be the last time I’d see three of the four original P-Funk members together alive, leaving Grady Thomas the last man standing. We lost Raymond Davis five years after this show, Calvin Simon last year in January of 2022, and “Fuzzy” Haskins just last March. And yet despite his notorious partying for decades, their old leader George Clinton has somehow managed to clean himself up, shave off his trademark harlequin locks, and still tours to this day at the age of 82. Mind boggling.

I am happy to report however that the video of the set of Clyde’s Ride was on YouTube. You can see on stage that Pinky was doing monitors that night. They were a nine piece funk band from San Diego and they were quite good for a bunch of white kids. They had a solid horn section and had a man and woman named Lani and Derek singing together. Clyde’s Ride put out their debut, self titled album in 1997, but that was it for them. They weren’t together long. I didn’t get their setlist, but I know they opened their set with “Aisles Of Smiles” and played “Silver Dollar” two songs later.

The Broun Fellinis were first on that night and though I had taped them personally a zillion times at The Elbo Room and elsewhere, this would be the one and only occasion I’d get to tape them at the Maritime. I was overjoyed and honored. Maybe Keith, their sound guy who also worked at the Hall still has a copy of that night, but I haven’t seen that fellow in years. Unlike Clyde’s Ride, the Fellinis are still around and playing in the bay area regularly, over thirty years for them now. They’ve aged well, I might add. They would go on to release their “Out Through The N’ Door” album four months after this gig. This would be one of the final shows I’d record at the Hall, leaving only three more to go for me before that doomed venue finally sunk.

Stereolab, Chicago Underground Duo, War., SF, Wed., May 17

SETLIST : Blips Drips & Strips, Infinity Girl, The Free Design, Barock-Plastik, Op Hop Detonation, Metronomic Underground, Des Etoiles Electroniques, Household Names, (unknown), Analogue Rock, (unknown), French Disco, (unknown), (encore), (unknown), (unknown), John Cage Bubblegum

This would be the largest venue I’d ever see Stereolab perform in as a headliner, returning to the bay area after just playing at The Fillmore the previous November. And if you have been following my humble little writing endeavor here for a while, you’d know how much this band means to me. A friend asked recently who my favorite bands were of all time and though I named a bunch, Stereolab impulsively blurted out of my lips first. So, you could imagine my conflicting feelings as all fans of a band who witness one of their favorites get sold out Warfield big, the simultaneous pride for their success and the loss of the (a-hem) intimacy you had with them perviously. But after this night, Stereolab would play all their following San Francisco shows back at the cozy ol’ Fillmore from then on out. So, conversely, I feel then a since of betrayal from the music consuming public, though a sense of relief that they didn’t go on to get stadium big.  Naturally, I think they deserve it and then some, but that’s show biz. Not to say playing The Fillmore is small potatoes, far from it. Stereolab sells out every show there without fail. I once had to pony up $125 back in 2019 to get a resale ticket and that says something. I wouldn’t do that for just any band.

I was working all night as an usher, so I got the sticker and for some reason it was titled “Cricket” that gig. I distinctly remember it being the house right aisle, or Aisle 3, I was keeping clear. Though I was pissed I had to work all night, the Stereolab crowd has always been a civilized bunch and easy to corral. The hypnotic nature of their sound tends to paralyze most listeners in their tracks, so they don’t move around much anyway. Apparently, there was a DJ opener named the Chicago Underground Duo, but I don’t remember them. This was the first date of Stereolab’s North American tour, still promoting their latest album, “Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night”, which had come out the previous September. I’m glad it was plenty loud enough, so the recording came out good. We got to hear at least four songs off the new album too. Now I say “at least” because despite my obsession with this band there actually were (gasp!) a handful of songs in this set which I didn’t know and for the life of me still can’t decipher. The one at the end of the set after “French Disco” was a long instrumental. Hopefully, some gentle reader out there knows or maybe I’ll find out some other way in the future and will update this. Anyway, even though I was working through the set, I had the time of my life and Stereolab was at the top of their game. 

I remember Laetitia wore her hair the shortest I have have ever seen it, a really close cropped sort of “Joan Of Arc” look. It might have been because the Luc Besson film “The Messenger : The Story Of Joan Of Arc” with Milla Jovovich in the starring role, had just come out the previous October. Laetitia is French after all, but who knows. Maybe she was just keeping it short for low maintenance since her son Alex had just entered the terrible twos. She said “Merci” to the crowd when their set ended and for the encore she told us, “We are going to play another new song… You can say you heard it first. It’s got many parts to it.” She then thanked everyone and “Also, the hospitality of this venue. Rock & roll is very sweet here.” Awww… I remember distinctly singing along loudly to the chorus of their last song of the night, “John Cage Bubblegum”, even getting the attention of some of the nearby patrons as I belted, “Aye-yaye-aye-yaye-yaye-yaye!” and so forth. Sweet as it was, it was bittersweet when it had to end and there wasn’t a poster, though Stereolab got one when they played The Fillmore the last time around. I would have to wait another year and half until they would return to play The Fillmore once again, but I’m proud to say that I would continue to see them at that venue at least 11 more times. Frankly, since I haven’t been keeping track of my shows after I stopped bootlegging in 2010, I’ve lost count.

Bernie Worrell & The Woo Warriors, Taos Hum, Food, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., May 13

Though I had quite a few encounters with George Clinton before this, I don’t believe I ever had the pleasure of seeing his original Parliament Funkadelic keyboardist much less record him. Yes, one Mr. George Bernard Worrell, Jr. just turned 55 years old the month before this show and he had been bringing the funk on the keys already for decades, having also played alongside such venerable musicians such as Adrian Belew, Sly & Robbie, The Talking Heads, and Bill Laswell just to name a handful. I imagine few people know, myself included prior to doing my customary research, that Bernie had also attended Juilliard and holds a degree from the New England Conservatory Of Music. Real funk music demands quality musicianship and Bernie was definitely in the top of his class. Bernie was also a founding member of David Letterman’s band on the Late Show, the CBS Orchestra, though he only played with them for Dave’s first year there in 1993. Bernie got replaced by a horn section, their loss in my opinion. I have a soft spot in my heart for people who shred on keys since my mom used to teach piano.

The first act that night was a band called Food, a name so obvious and brilliant for a band yet baffling that no one had used it up till then. They were a jazz group started by woodwind player Iain Ballamy from the U.K. and percussionist Thomas Stroenen from Norway. They roped in a few other guys from Norway and had just put out their first self titled album that year. Great name aside, I haven’t seen them since. This would be the second time in two months that I would record Taos Hum at the Hall, the first being with the Zen Tricksters. To this day, I still don’t know which of the two shows or what songs from both that they used for their live album. Though I’m eternally grateful that the album came out, part of me really doesn’t care since I’m not a big fan of their music. Off the subject, the country of India reported the just exceeded a billion people that day and I can say with confidence that there has to be at least one band from there better than Taos Hum. 

Bernie, however, I am a fan of and it was an honor to have this Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee in my resume of recordings. He and his Woo Warriors band had just performed the night before at Palookaville in Santa Cruz and the set from that gig is available on Internet.archive though the set from the Maritime isn’t. Pity, I would have enjoyed hearing that again, yet Bernie has no shortage of live material out on the market, especially from that year. I assume the sets from both nights were similar and most certainly included a couple P-Funk tunes. Thankfully, I’d see Bernie a couple of years later with Colonel Claypool’s Bucket Of Bernie Brains band, an ingenious supergroup of Bernie, Les Claypool on bass, Buckethead on guitar, and Brain Mantia on drums. It was brilliant, though short lived collaboration, but I still got to see them play three times between 2002 and 2003. Buckethead was at the Palookaville gig, but I don’t think he was at the Maritime one. I think I would have remembered that, having recorded that mysterious guitar hero at the Hall before. He makes quite an impression.

On a final note about this show, I wasn’t entirely sure that this gig was going to happen for me in the first place or if I was in fact able to come back to the Maritime Hall at all. Exactly one month and a day before this, I was fill in for Wade at the Hall to record reggae star Lucky Dube. I had just gotten through his soundcheck when I was approached by his young, friendly, American tour manager and I explained who I was and took him down to the recording room to show him around. Now, Lucky Dube had performed at the Maritime before, so I had assumed that they knew all about the recordings there, but the guy was unaware. I guess they didn’t get the tapes before for whatever reason, but this tour manager was not only amenable to the idea of us recording, he was also genuinely interested in putting out a live album and/or DVD. It seemed like a win-win, right?

So, naturally I took him to talk to Boots about it and returned to the recording room to do the soundcheck for Zulu Spear, who were the opening act that night. Well, I don’t know exactly what went down between Boots and the stage manager, but I heard the volume of their argument predictably rise from upstairs. Boots just couldn’t keep that gaping, fat trap of his shut yet again and he stormed down into the recording room, chewed me out, and told me to take a hike. By then, I knew recording Lucky Dube was out of the question, but I was holding on to thin sliver of hope that we still could do Zulu Spear. I liked that band, but alas, Boots pulled the plug on the whole evening and I skulked out of there. 

I wasn’t planning on returning to the Hall ever again and was frankly done with it, but Wade called me up anyway for Bernie’s show and I didn’t hear another word about the whole Lucky Dube fiasco. By this time, Boots had bigger problems than little ol’ me. The Hall was quickly falling apart and even the monthly poster for May was just a collage of previous monthly posters. The Glenda, the Good Witch of the North from the May 1998 poster even says a defiant, “They Shall Never Conquer”. By the following May, the Maritime would be no more. I’d record only four more shows there after Bernie. Still, It’s a pity we didn’t get to record Lucky Dube because he would be gunned down eight years later in his native South Africa during a hold up. He was mistaken for a rich Nigerian, a very unlucky turn of events if you pardon the expression, but his killers were caught and are currently spending the rest of their lives in prison. They better hope not to run into any of his fans on the inside.

Beck, Café Tacuba, BG Civic, SF, Tues., May 2

SETLIST : Beercan, Novacane, Mixed Bizness, Loser, Hollywood Freaks, Milk & Honey, Minus, Sexx Laws, Debra, Tropicalia, Lampshade, Pay No Mind (Snoozer), Dead Melodies, One Foot In The Grave, Nobody’s Fault But My Own, Rowboat, Jackass, Bra, New Pollution, (encore), DJ Swamp solo, Where It’s At, Devil’s Haircut

It had been three and a half since I’d seen Beck, especially since by this time had put out not one but two albums. “Mutations”, though not as commercially successful as his previous one, “Odelay”, still won him a Grammy for Best Alternative Album and his latest “Midnight Vultures” would quickly be certified gold. “Mutations” had been so anticipated by my family that my sister, brother, and I actually got copies of it for Christmas. Understandably, all these years later, who gave which copy to who escapes me now. Beck had a hit with this latest one and was riding higher than ever having recently headlined Coachella the previous October debuting four of the new songs live just a month before the new album dropped and performing on “Saturday Night Live” later that December. After this American tour, Beck would go on to also headline huge festivals overseas such as the ones in Reading and Leeds. And if that wasn’t enough, “Midnight Vultures” would also be nominated for a Grammy for Best Album. Beck’s updated band reflected the big sound of the new endeavor with a three piece horn section and two new female back up singers. 

Cafe Tacuba originally from Juarez, Mexico was opening that night at this sold out show. From their humble beginnings playing a coffee shop in Mexico City back in ’89, they had worked their way up to be quite famous in their home country. They had also just contributed a song to the soundtrack of the critically acclaimed film, “Amores Perros” the year of this show. Their latest release, a double album called “Reves / Yo Soy” would be nominated for a Grammy for Best Latin Rock / Alternative Performance and would win them a Latin Grammy for Best Rock Album. Their music was brilliant and infectious, one of the best openers I’d ever see open for Beck. After their set was clear, Beck’s one was quickly put together.

It was quite a sight on stage, hard to describe really. There were a few pairs of towering, orange pylons surrounded by foot wide, ribbed tubing which hung from above. The risers for Beck’s musicians were covered in some sort of rubber padding. Beck eased into his set warming up the crowd with a jam that included the chorus from Busta Rhymes’ “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See” which flowed right into “Beercan”. During that tune, he did a little breakdown, doing the chorus from “Electric Avenue” by Eddie Grant. A couple songs later during “Mixed Bizness”, Beck did a little bit of “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie too, before allowing the drummer to end it with a solo of his own. They did “Loser” next and it was actually reassuring by this time to hear it again, knowing that Beck, having 7 albums under his belt and bigger than ever, would never have this song imprison him with the moniker of “one hit wonder”. 

Afterwards, he played four new ones, “Hollywood Freaks”, where he got the crowd to repeatedly sing “Sha-na-na-na-na-na-na-Aw yeah!” and then said ,”I wanna take you on a little bit of an odyssey right now”, before doing “Milk & Honey”. The band did a strange noise piece they called “Minus” before launching into the rambunctious “Sexx Laws”. Afterwards, Beck went into a sort of love preacher stream of consciousness saying, “As I was pulling into San Francisco this time, I always forget what a beautiful place this is… beautiful streets, beautiful houses… This is a beautiful place to fall in love. This is a beautiful place to meet somebody special. This is a beautiful place to make love!” He then sang soulfully, “To make loooooove! Feel like making loooove! There’s nothing wrong with a little…” And then the band hit a beat. He asked the band, “Give me another bump!” and then they hit another beat and he sang, “Ain’t nothin’ wrong… Ain’t nothin’ wrong… Ain’t nothin’ wrong with a little Nicotine & Gravy!”

For the final new song in this four song stretch, Beck took it way down, seducing the crowd with “Debra”. Anybody who saw this tour will never forget the point during the song where a bed draped in red satin sheets and a huge mirror ball were lowered onto the stage from the rafters. Beck undulated in the bed as a galaxy of reflected beams of light filled the Civic Center. That was about as close as one could approach getting it on with music just shy of Sade or Prince. Beck kept it relaxed, changing into a jumpsuit with pink sequins during a percussion solo which then flowed into “Tropicalia”, the first of three songs off of the “Mutations” album which I would be hearing live for the first time. He then had the rest of the band take a breather to do some acoustic solo bits as he was accustomed to do at all his headlining shows.

We were actually fortunate that night, for it would be the last time to date that he played “Lampshade”. He had only played it twice that year, in New York City the previous February and this show, and it would be one of only seven times he’s EVER played it live. He then did four more solo tunes, including “Dead Melodies” and “Nobody’s Fault But My Own”, also off the “Mutations” album. I’m glad he asked for requests then because he squeezed in a bit of “Rowboat”, a song which had the distinction of being covered by Johnny Cash. I heard Johnny sing it himself at The Fillmore in 1996, the last time I saw Cash alive. Beck brought the band and the pace gradually back up with “Jackass”. 

They got funky again, doing what Beck called a “boogaloo” jam which they called “Bra”, calling out his bandmates one at a time, allowing them little solos before ending the set with “New Pollution”. When they came back on stage, DJ Swamp did a long introduction, scratching electronic samples to the beats of “Louie Louie”, “Eye Of The Tiger”, and “Smoke On The Water” to much applause. They wrapped up the encore with the hits “Where It’s At” and “Devil’s Haircut” which flowed into a thunderous finale. The band all put on crossing guard vests, hockey shin and shoulder pads, and wandered about the stage bumping into and rolling around with each other. Beck did some robot dance moves, put on some 3D glasses someone up front in the crowd gave him, and placed an orange traffic cone on his own head. One guy even rode a bicycle from the wings across the stage all the while the stage lights flashed as the band dismantled the set. Some reviewers attributed this avant garde performance art as well as the bizarre set as a homage to Al Hansen, who was Beck’s grandfather and a famous “Fluxus absurdist” artist. This spectacle went on for a good ten minutes or so before it was all over. 

As I mentioned in the previous show I wrote about, I thought it was an interesting coincidence that Slipknot had a similar sonic apocalypse ending to their show two days before this at The Warfield, though most would agree that the two acts are significantly different stylistically. BGP had made a poster for this night, but it wasn’t one of the ones the public could buy, but you still can check it out online. It was a big poster too. This would also be the last tour with DJ Swamp in the band. I’d see lucky to see Beck two more times that year, once headlining Alice’s Now & Zen Festival in Golden Gate Park that September and only a month after that playing without his band at the Bridge School Benefit, acoustically as always there. On a personal note, Beck’s upbeat year would be tempered by the depression he’d be burdened with after ending his nine year relationship with Leigh Lemon. At the risk of being self-indulgent, he would write 12 of the 14 songs in a single week after his break up for his next album, “Sea Change” which would come out in 2002. That certified gold album was also a hit with critics, so at least his misery didn’t harm his career none.

Slipknot, One Minute Silence, Mudvayne, War., SF, Sun., April 30

SETLISTS :

(MUDVAYNE) : Dig, -1, Death Blooms, Under My Skin, Internal Primates Forever, Cradle

(ONE MINUTE SILENCE) : Rise & Shine, 1845, Holy Man

(SLIPKNOT) : Get Behind Me Satan & Push Intro, [sic], Eyeless, Wait & Bleed, No Life, Liberate, Purity, Prosthetics, Spit It Out, Get This, Surfacing, Scissors

No band would follow Slipknot after this. Their days as an opening act would be forever behind them well over a year before their second album would even make the shelves. In fact, the debut self-titled album was certified platinum just two days after this show and would ultimately go double platinum. I’ve always said there is no better endorsement for a band other than the “Jesus Saves From Hell” crowd picketing your show. And there they were, signs and megaphones in hand to fruitlessly berate the amused heshers waiting to get inside before the doors opened. One of the picketers literally had a banner reading “Listen To Slipknot You Will Burn In Hell”. Nobody was more flattered than Slipknot’s drummer Joey Jordison who joked later, “That ruled! It shows we’re making a difference. We tried to con the banner out of the guy, so we could put it on stage!” Sadly, Joey passed away two years ago suffering from an acute case of transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder that causes the spinal cord to become inflamed, though his official cause of death is still unknown. Despite what the picketers think, there is still no reliable accounts of the current whereabouts of Joey’s soul.

I’d actually had recorded two of these three bands at the Maritime before this, One Minute Silence opening for Sepultura back in February of ’98 and Slipknot just five months before this opening for (sigh) Coal Chamber. Though I’m grateful Coal Chamber used the footage I recorded for a live DVD for that show, I’m still pissed off that they didn’t put my name in the credits or pay me one red cent for my efforts. The insult stung deeper since Slipknot, a clearly superior band was the opener for such a mediocre band, and they didn’t use what recorded there at all. But whatever, read the review of that show if you want to hear more bellyaching. Let’s move on.

Like I alluded to before, Slipknot were officially big, a headlining act, so much so that they outgrew the Maritime and were playing to a sell out show at The Warfield, holding around 800 more people than the Hall. I believe that the Warfield had actually snatched up Slipknot from them for this tour since I’d seen them listed in ads for the Maritime, though it was moved to the Warfield before the listing made it to the Maritime’s monthly poster. The band was going though a little dust up with Korn around that time complaining about their drummer, David Silveria, posing recently for a Calvin Klein ad. On one leg of this tour, Slipknot’s singer, Corey Taylor, held up a copy of “Teen People” magazine opened to the page with the ad and shouted, “People like that are destroying music!” before lighting it on fire. Korn and Slipknot eventually reconciled, both agreeing that it was a bad move by David. Korn even parodied his “modeling career” in the video for their song “Twisted Transistor” which my brother acted in. Check it out when you get a chance, it’s a very funny video.

First on stage that night was Mudvayne from Peoria, Illinois who were on the cusp of releasing their first album, “L.D. 50” four months after this night, named after a term in toxicology which means the “lethal dose to kill 50% of a population”. You can guess the music was as dark as the title, partially also due to it also being executive produced by Slipknot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan. Like Slipknot, Mudvayne too had creepy stage names and had a penchant for theatrical and gruesome masks and face paint. Incidentally, their guitarist Greg Tribbett’s brother Derrick plays bass with the band Dope who I also recorded opening alongside Slipknot at that Maritime show the previous November. Small world. Mudvayne’s first album would go gold after a year and then they’d get big with their second one, so much so I’d see them headline their own show at The Warfield five years later.

Mudvayne were as loud as they were intense, their singer, Chad Gray, introducing their new hit “Dig” loudly demanded, “I want to see the ceiling dripping with blood!!!” A couple songs in, he thanked “from across the sea”, One Minute Silence, and a “traveling band of fucking crazy people from Des Moines, Iowa… Slipknot!!!” and then Chad said,”Let’s see the floor go up and down for this one! It’s calisthenics, people!” The Slipknot crowd is a tough one to please, even for a band as heavy as Mudvayne, so there were a few wise ass detractors up front. Chad joked before they played “Cradle”, the last song of their set, “We got one more song and we’re outta’ here…that some of you seem happy about”, but he still thanked the folks up front. Next up was the aforementioned One Minute Silence, a nu metal band from Ireland, a rare bird being not a country a person would immediately associate with the genre. Their second album, “Buy Now… Saved Later” had just hit the shelves a day shy of three weeks before this night. Since I’d recorded them at the Maritime, they had replaced their original guitarist Chris Ignatiou with Mossimo Fiocco.

Slipknot took the stage as they had done before with a long intro starting with the sounds of “Get Behind Me Satan And Push”, a twangy country tune recorded by Billie Jo Spears in ’68. Once again, they left the chorus skipping on the line, “Get Behind Me Satan”, before taking the stage to their noisy sampling track, “742617000027” and then ripping into “[sic]”. Corey announced, “Welcome to the year of Slipknot, motherfuckers!!!” As you could guess, the pit went totally berserk and pretty much stayed that way for the remainder of their set. They took a pause finally after “Eyeless” and Corey yelled, “What the fuck is up, San Francisco!?!” and demanded that the lighting guy “light this up so I can see all my friends” After the lighting guy obliged him, he gazed upwards saying, “I can see we got all the crazy motherfuckers in San Francisco in one place!” After “Wait & Bleed”, he wanted to “ask a real fuckin’ crazy question. How many of you sick motherfuckers have the Slipknot album!?! Wanna hear a song we haven’t played in San Francisco ever!?!” and then they did “No Life”. Corey had everybody give it up for the openers and thanked the crowd too before making the rather unsettling demand, “I wanna see this place explode like Oklahoma City!!!” before playing “Liberate”. I think you know the reference he’s making. 

A sore spot was brought up with the band, Corey saying they were “getting a lot of fuckin’ questions about the next song, why we took it off the album” about the “greedy cocksucker who made us take it off” and then insisted, “Fuck them, we’re going to play it”. He was referring to the song “Purity” which indeed had been taken off the debut album at the last minute. Its lyrics had been based on the story of Purity Knight, a young girl who had been tortured and buried alive, a narrative right up Slipknot’s alley. Well, there had been some back and forth whether the story was true or not and if it wasn’t, whether or not it would be under copyright. Ultimately, they dodged the legal headache by leaving it off the album and replacing it with “Me Inside”. Slipknot has since re-released the song for their “Disasterpieces” DVD as well as the “9.0 Live” album. There had been a video crew that night and Corey mentioned them before “Spit It Out” saying we were “being videotaped for their next home video”, so he challenged the audience, “You ready to prove who’s the craziest crowd in North America!?!” The thought that they’d use the video from that night and not the night at the Maritime irked me, but it turns out neither footage was ever used. 

Corey got the everybody in the crowd to stick their middle fingers in the air after “Get This” and declared “Surfacing” our country’s new national anthem. Finishing their set, he dedicated “Scissors” to “the sickness”, whatever that means to you I guess, ending in a sprawling, drawn out, ear splitting finale. Funny, though stylistically apart as bands could be, Beck also would do a sort of apocalyptic finale at the end of his show only two nights later at the Civic Center. Thankfully, you can find good bootleg recordings of both Mudvayne’s and Slipknot’s sets on YouTube. I was however disappointed at the end of this show to see that there was no poster. Still, I would only have to wait a mere six weeks before I would hear Slipknot’s psychotic joyful noise once more when they would headline the second stage at Live 105’s B.F.D. Festival, a welcome addition to that shows relatively inoffensive line up. Incidentally, “Gladiator” just opened that week in theaters, but the opening battle did remind me a little of Slipknot’s pit that night.

BR5-49, The Road Kings, Wilson Gil & The Willful Sinners, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat. April 22

It was quite the juxtaposition going from Rick Springfield’s overly enthusiastic 80’s rock stylings at The Fillmore the night before to this, an old timey revue of country and rockabilly acts. The nation had also been rattled that morning by the terrible optics on the news of the seizing of Elain Gonzalez, the Cuban boy who had been brought illegally into Florida by his father. The taking of that infamous photo of the guy all dressed up in black tactical gear snatching up the crying kid was one of several unfortunate incidents which would ultimately cost Al Gore the White House eight months later. But for that night, on the other side of the country, we would be magically transported to the land of Pre-World War II Honky Tonk.

I’d seen BR5-49 the year before opening for the Brian Setzer Orchestra at The Warfield and I was impressed by their class and musical chops. Named after the phone number of Junior Sample’s car salesman skit on “Hee Haw”, they had toured all the previous year with Brian and accumulated enough live recordings to put together their “Coast To Coast” live compilation album. So, it having been released that year, my recording that night at the Maritime was already highly unlikely to ever be used for anything. That band was in a sort of transitional period having just been dropped by Arista Records when they merged with Sony, but would soon be picked up by Lucky Dog Records a year later. It was hard not to like these guys with their cheerful, upbeat demeanor, dressed to the nines in snazzy vintage suits, bolo ties, and cowboy hats.

Texas rockabilly band The Road Kings were opening that night. They were still pretty new having just put out their debut self titled album the year before this gig. Local hillbilly Wilson Gil was also there, but like Rick Springfield from the night before, this show too was sparsely populated. Still, I was glad to do it, especially since shows featuring country and related genres like rockabilly were few and far between for me. I appreciated that the Maritime, despite all its faults, was committed to bringing these acts into its roster of shows, a welcome distraction from all the metal and hip hop. BR5-49 has been on hiatus for over ten years now, their members moving on to other bands and solo  projects. Their original bass player retired completely joking, “I’m not doing anything now, and I’m getting damn good at it!”

Rick Springfield, Brian Copeland, Fill., SF, Fri., April 21

SETLIST : Affair Of The Heart, I’ve Done Everything For You, Love Somebody, Don’t Talk To Strangers, I Get Excited, Inside Sylvia, Free, State Of The Heart, Medley : What Kind Of Fool Am I – Carry Me Away – Everybody’s Girl – Calling All Girls – Bruce – Stand Up – Human Touch, Jessie’s Girl, (encore), Medley : Love Is Alright Tonight – Living In Oz – All Day & All Of The Night

Now, I know what you’re thinking and you would be absolutely correct that this was one of the guiltiest of guilty pleasure shows. But Rick Springfield was correct in his assumption that the 1980’s were at the cusp of a new revival, having that had 20 years officially past by already. Hair metal, new wave, and old school hip hop people were beginning to get a second look. Mr. Springfield himself had been in a self-imposed hibernation, having just released his first album in over ten years, “Karma”. Understandably, he had taken the time off to raise his two sons born in ’85 and ’89, but to also treat his chronic depression. By 2000, with his sons having grown a bit, he was out and about again in force, doing this extensive tour that year to various venues, country fairs, and whatnot. The tour actually had been postponed for a year, but better late than never I guess.

I have to admit, the moment I heard this show was coming to The Fillmore, the very first thing that popped in my head and remains there to this day was Alfred Molina’s deranged scene near the end of “Boogie Nights”. That movie had only been out less than three years and cemented itself firmly into pop culture, due in no small part to its unforgettable soundtrack. It was one of those soundtracks that was so brilliantly executed, that the scenes in that iconic film are inexorably linked to the songs in them. Very few movies have achieved this level of distinction, such films like “Pulp Fiction” and “Repo Man” come to mind. Which leads me back to Mr. Molina and if you are familiar with the movie and probably are, bear with me. I’ll try to make it short. For those unfamiliar, Rick’s big hit, “Jessie’s Girl”, was used while Molina’s character, high as a kite freebasing cocaine, rambles on while the main characters nervously proceed with a botched robbery. Anyway, when the song came on, Alfred shouted, “Ricky Springfield! Buddy of mine!” and proceeded to dance about in his underwear and open silk robe singing along badly to its lyrics. Let’s just say events in the scene went downhill from there and leave it at that. No spoilers. If you haven’t seen it, see it. I even labeled the tape that night “Rick[y] Springfield” in that scene’s honor.

Anyway, back to “Ricky”. Apart from that hit song and his various acting roles in the early 80’s, notably playing Dr. Noah Drake on “General Hospital” and in the pilot episode of “Battlestar Galactica”, I had no other knowledge of this Australian born pop star. His return to making music that year coincided with the release of a couple greatest hits albums, “Greatest Hits Alive” and “VH1 Behind The Music : The Rick Springfield Collection”. Though his return to touring was a long time coming, the crowd was sparse that night, populated almost exclusively by women around their late 30s early 40s. Naturally, this would track being of the age twentyish years older from when the fans were teens and tweens when Rick hit it big around ’81. There was no poster at the end of the night, which was obviously disappointing to myself, but even more to his devotees.

The Fillmore made an interesting and welcome choice of having comedian Brian Copeland open the show. This was a supremely rare occasion mixing the two genres of comedy and music. It reminded me of the time my folks saw Julio Iglacias at Shoreline with Rosanne Barr opening back in the 80s. Talk about an odd couple. But Brian was no stranger of opening for famous musicians, having also supported Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin, and Ringo Starr. Brian was very funny and sort of a local hero, having been a fixture on KGO Channel 7, the bay area’s ABC affiliate as well as its radio station. Brian grew up in lily white San Leandro and went to school at Moreau Catholic High School in Hayward just across the street from my friend John’s old flophouse. Telling the story of that experience would gain Brian critical success a few years later with his one man show, “Not A Genuine Black Man”. It initially had a six week run at The Marsh Theater, but due to overwhelming demand, had its run extended to a whopping 25 months. It remains the longest running one man play in San Francisco history. He eventually took it on the road to 30 cities, doing over 700 performances in a 7 year span.

He covered a multitude of subjects that night, joking that La Mas training had to have been a cheap, lazy man’s idea, lampooning the notion that the pain of childbirth could be mitigated with simply breathing hard and saying, “You know how much an anesthesiologist costs!?!” He went on to talk about Mark Fuhrman from the O.J. trial and how he said the N-word 41 times. “That’s not racism, that’s Tourette’s!” Brian mused about how old movies wouldn’t be as acceptable in our socially evolving society claiming that “Snow White” had only two female characters, one being an evil backstabber and the other being a “dipshit” who was “happy to clean up for seven guys”, even singing as she did so. He also defended porn on the internet asking “what would you rather have a 15 year old boy have in his hand, his dick or an Uzi? You can’t shoot people while you’re masturbating… I speak from experience.” 

We all cracked up when he wondered, “If Dr, Kevorkian had a patient that lived, would that be considered malpractice?” He also criticized Clinton’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy in the military wondering if recruiters would resort to using indirect questions to determine if new recruits were gay like “What do you think of Bette Midler?”, “Should a wicker basket go on a table or a wall?”, and “Are the color of these socks green or teal?” He mocked the recent adoption of a stretch of highway by the Ku Klux Klan wondering, “Wouldn’t we be tempted to just litter more?” Brian also taunted deniers of evolution in Kansas posing the head scratcher of how come there were flying monkeys in “The Wizard Of Oz”. Anyway, he was hilarious, covering a lot of ground and getting a ton of yucks during his brief twenty minute set.

But the star of the show soon bounded on stage to the ear splitting shrieks of those fans, screaming like they were kids again. I had to hand it to Rick, even though the house was less than half full, he acted all night like he was playing to a fucking stadium. Rick definitely got an A for effort at that show. I thought it was funny and frankly a little scary how he’d toss his guitars to his guitar tech off stage between songs. I guess the guy had practice since he caught every one, making it look easy. He opened with “Affairs Of The Heart” before doing a cover of Sammy Hagar’s “I’ve Done Everything For You”. Then he asked if anybody had seen his movie “Hard To Hold” and asked, “Who got to see my naked butt!?!” before playing “Love Somebody” from that movie’s soundtrack. Afterwards, he offered some chocolate to the people up front and wondered since he had just blew his nose into one of the white towels on stage, if he could keep it. 

Rick did some extensive, but fairly impressive guitar noodling before playing “Don’t Talk To Strangers”, getting all the women to sing along loudly to the chorus. He even went to individual women up front asking “Who really sucks up here? Who can’t sing at all?” and offered his mic to them to sing the title line in the chorus. The first one did it and he shook his head saying, “That was in tune”, and then offered the mic to the woman next to her. After her off key reciting, Rick nodded and smiled, “That was horrible!”. Finally, he brought up an adorable little girl, presumably the daughter of one of his fans, on stage and her reciting was genuinely heartwarming, getting a rousing round of applause. Funny to think that the little girl there has to be around her mother’s age now and undoubtably will remember her little solo at The Fillmore for the rest of her days.

Before he did “I Get Excited”, he recounted about “when I was about 20 years old, I had a mad crush on Greta Grabo… who was about 80 at the time.” There was a melancholy bit after tell us the origin story of his new song “Free”, recalling recently how his neighbors had lost their 4 year old boy, who drowned in Lake Tahoe. Rick said that he’d wake up around 3 am and look across the street to see his neighbors house with all its lights on and he then got the crowd to sing along with that song’s chorus. But he managed to bring the mood back up with a cover of “State Of The Heart” by Mondo Rock, an Australian band who were big there in the 70s, before finishing his set with a medley of seven songs and then finishing with “Jessie’s Girl”. Rick did another three song medley for his encore ending the show with a spirited cover of “All Day & All Of The Night” by The Kinks. Before finishing, Rick thanked his band, pointing out his drummer was brand new being “a virgin until two hours ago!”

Redman & Method Man, Outsidaz, ZZYZX, Capitol Eye, Big Chaly, Maritime Hall, SF, Mon., April 17

I had been introduced to the hip hop dream team of Redman and Method Man in 1998 when they headlined at the Maritime and had also caught Redman on his own as one of the opening acts for the SnoCore tour at The Warfield the previous year. By this time, their debut album together, “Blackout!” had finally dropped and had been in stores for over seven months. Digital downloads of music were starting to get popular to the point where the guys from Metallica had literally just filed their infamous lawsuit against Napster that very day. Anyway, the new album was a hit, being certified platinum the following January and would be sort of a precursor to their stoner comedy movie, “How High”, which would come out that shortly afterwards. The duo had also been on the ridiculously successful Hard Knock Life tour with Jay-Z the previous summer. Joining fellow openers Ja Rule and DMX, Method Man would notoriously stage dive a lot on that tour. 

Method Man had also been busy on his own around then, joining his Wu Tang Clan crew in the recording of “The W Album” that November. Redman would be featured on the “Redbull” song for that one. Method Man also contributed the song “Know Your Role” for the “WWF Aggression” soundtrack album, his song being the theme song for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson at the time. WWF would be renamed WWE two years later, resolving a legal battle over the name with the World Wildlife Foundation. With all the recent success, Redman & Method Man were also picked up by St. Ides to market their disgusting beer. There might be no accounting for taste, but for the truckload of money they were likely paid for that campaign, I’d be all over it too.

There were a few talented openers that night, including the Outsidaz, who I had just recorded there at the Hall the previous November on the Lyricist Lounge tour. By then, their debut album “Night Life” had been out four months, dedicated to the rapper Slangton, a member who had been recently murdered. Also there was ZZYZX, named after the small town in unincorporated San Bernadino county formerly known as Soda Springs. That town took the moniker in an effort to be the last word in the english language and I suppose the rapper took it too in order to be the last artist one would find alphabetically in a record store. Before him was Capitol Eye, a group out of Long Beach which incorporated an actual band of drums, bass, and guitar with them, mixing in a healthy dose of jazz and punk into their hip hop stylings. Named presumably for their lead rapper, I-Man, they would release their debut album “Mood Swingz” that August. Which leaves Big Chaly as the first act that show, though I can’t recall anything about him or his brief set. Though Redman & Method Man would enjoy the height of their critical and commercial success during this period, they would only release one more album, “Blackout! 2” almost ten years after its precursor.

Dance Hall Crashers, The Muffs, Tilt, Buck, Maritime Hall, SF Sat., April 8

SETLIST : Shelley, Make Her Purr, Mr. Blue, Next To You, My Problem, The Real You, Triple Track, Just Like That, Truly Comfortable, Othello, Remember To Breathe, Go, Beverly Kills, Cat Fight, Good For Nothin’, American Girl, Don’t Wanna Behave, Lost Again, (encore), Skinhead BBQ, The Truth About Me, DHC

This was a show I couldn’t pass up, even specifically asking Wade who was then the head recording engineer at the Maritime if I could have it. When I explained to him that this was my brother’s former band and my long history with them, he obliged me and I am forever grateful. However, I was disappointed to find out two months later that the Crashers would release “The Live Album : Witless Banter & 25 Mildly Antagonistic Songs Of Love”, dashing my hopes that they would use my recording that night. Likewise, when they put out their live DVD in 2005, “The Show Must Go Off! : DHC – Live”, any prospects of the video recorded that show were lost as well. I don’t blame them really since the House Of Blues was a much better run and more renowned recording operation than the Maritime’s, especially during the Hall’s depressing “Blue Period”. Still, I was glad the gang was there as well as the supremely talented opening acts they brought along with them. It was gratifying to greet my old friends at the Hall and give them the nickel tour, showing them the recording room and catching up with them at dinner and before the doors opened.

This was being billed as the “Girl-O-Rama” tour, perhaps a play on words for the “Punk-O-Rama” compilation albums that were regularly being released from Epitaph Records at the time. It might have been a subtle barb against them as well, noting the conspicuous absence of female artists on their roster. The tour had brought along The Muffs, fronted by the late great Kim Shattuck, who actually would have just turned 60 years old last week, but sadly succumbed to Lou Gehrig’s Disease two years ago. I had seen them open for Veruca Salt at The Fillmore in 1995 and they had their cover of Kim Wylde’s “Kids In America” featured in the film comedy “Clueless” that year. That cover would also show up in the video game “Rock Band 2”. The year of this show, The Muffs put out their “Hamburger” greatest hits album as well as the “Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow” album the previous June. Like the Crashers, The Muffs contributed a 30-second song, “Pimmel”, to the “Short Music For Short People” compilation album and though the Crashers played their song “Triple Track” that night, I can’t recall if The Muffs played theirs. Kim would briefly replace Kim Deal in The Pixies in 2013, but I didn’t see them when they played the Fox. Those jerks fired her at the end of that tour, so sadly this would be the last time I’d see Kim alive.

Before The Muffs, Tilt played as well, and like The Muffs, I had also seen them a few years before this at The Fillmore, then opening for Sausage. Fronted by a talented woman called Cinder Block, she had been the only female artist on the Fat Wreck Chords roster until they picked up The Muffs in 1998. Both bands played on the Van’s Warped Tour later that summer. Tilt had just released their fourth and final album, “Viewers Like You”, the previous August, but Cinder was already beginning to move on from performing, having formed the merchandising company Cinder Block Inc. two years before this. She had been printing swag for other bands like AFI and for the Warped tour, but later expanded to bigger acts like The Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, REM, and Phil Collins. Tilt would ultimately disband a year after this show making it also the last time I’d see them perform live. 

The Crashers were still hornless and would remain so until they disbanded, just doing a three piece with the brothers Hammon, Jason on guitar, Gavin on drums, and Mikey Weiss on bass. This “third stage” version of the Crashers was still promoting their most recent and final album of original material, “Purr”. I’d had heard some of the new songs when they headlined The Fillmore the year before and I must say, though the album was only 33 minutes long, they were some of the best songs they had ever written in my opinion. Seriously, some DHC songs are so catchy, they become ear worms. Jason said in an interview that “Purr” was his favorite album of theirs, being the closest recreation of their live sound, other than their live album obviously. 

Jason was wearing a cowboy hat and tan, khaki shorts that night as they took the stage and opened their set with “Shelley”. I was sad that my friend Tory was no longer working the video switcher since he too grew up with Jason and Gavin and whoever was manning the switcher that night wasn’t nearly as skillful or dexterous as Tory was. The crowd was pumped up as they always were for them in their home neighborhood. Elyse asked them “Are you ready to jump on this one? Don’t spill your beer!” before they did “Next To You”. I was glad that they treated their old school local fans to a couple golden oldies like “Truly Comfortable” and then “Othello”. I’m understandably biased towards the latter since my brother Alex wrote it, though I still think it’s one of their best songs. 

Later, Karina addressed the crowd saying, “We wrote this next song for all the ladies out there because we figure there are a lot of men who like to watch girls fight and we think it’s pretty lame. It’s called ‘Cat Fight’. So this one goes out to all the girls.” Afterwards, Elyse joked, “There’s a lot of lovely ladies in the house. Guys might want to take advantage…” then she laughed and corrected herself, “Well, not take advantage, but it’s true, there’s lots of lovely ladies” and then they did “Good For Nothin’” She also reminded them, “We did a live record in L.A. It was the longest fuckin’ show we’ve ever played in our lives, like 25 songs” and then she laughed, “We tried… just FYI.”

Karina talked a little more asking, “You guys feel like singing at all?” and looked up and down at a few people up front playfully accusing them of being tired. While coaching them through through singing “Who-oh-oh” for the chorus of “Don’t Wanna Behave” the boys teased her a bit, playing a slow, labored, riff that kind of sounded like that “batter-up” bit at baseball games. She leered a little and said it they would stop playing, she could finish explaining it to them and joked that Jason was drunk and couldn’t remember the song. Elyse mentioned that “I think it smells like pot up here” and pointed to a few folks up front reassuring them, “No, it’s not you.” At the end of the set, Karina thanked everyone and the opening acts, joking that if anyone “had missed them, you fucked up.” She also pointed out, “I know Oasis was playing in Berkeley, so thank you for coming out to this, & the Bammies too!”. The crowd booed Oasis, who were playing at Berkeley Community Theater that night. Good for them.

They came back on stage to start their encore with another chestnut from days of yore, “Skinhead BBQ”, then “The Truth About Me”, and finished the night as was tradition with their anthem, “DHC”. As always, part of me hoped that they would dust off “Street Sweeper”, but they never indulged me with that one. I handed off the tapes to the gang and that was it. I was sad that my brother wasn’t there to enjoy the show, but he had just moved to L.A. I wouldn’t see The Crashers again until over three years later where they’d play their final bay area show at Slim’s. I like to think that someday the Crashers would do a reunion show, especially since my brother Alex is back living in the bay area again, though Slim’s has since closed its doors. The gang are still all alive and well and God knows they have a multitude of former members to choose from to join in such an endeavor.

Luna, Mark Eitzel, Fill., SF, Sat., April 1

SETLIST : Bewitched, Tracy I Love You, 4000 Days, Hello Little One, Pup Tent, Superfreaky Memories, Lost In Space, 23 Minutes In Brussels, Tiger Lily, Bonnie & Clyde, Friendly Advice, (encore), Fuzzy Wuzzy, Moon Palace, (encore), 4th Of July

I was familiar with Luna by then having already seen them twice as an opener at The Warfield and headlining once before at The Fillmore about two and a half years before this. I had mentioned previously that The Fillmore’s booking agent, Michael Bailey, was a fan of theirs, even introducing them on stage a couple times, which I never witnessed him do for any other band. Luna had just put out “The Days Of Our Nights” album out on Elektra the previous October, but would be promptly dropped by that label for being “not commercially viable” and has since gone out of print. Still, they would be quickly snatched up again by Jericho Records which, strangely enough like Elektra, was also a subsidiary of Warner Brothers. Robbing Peter to pay Paul, sort of. Anyway, Luna did a cover of Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine” on that album and their new song “The Old Fashioned Way” would be used in the opening scene of the crime drama “Kill Me Later” with Selma Blair a year later, though the band didn’t play either song in their set that night.

Anyway, Luna’s bassist Justin Hardwood had just left the band to return home to his native New Zealand and had been replaced by Britta Phillips. She and frontman Dean Wareham would become romantically involved and would ultimately marry seven years later. Britta had the distinction of being the singing voice for Jem in the “Jem & The Holograms” animated show in the late 80’s. The couple would later form the musical duo of Dean & Britta as well. Luna would also release a a live album with the elegant but unimaginative title of “Luna Live” in 2001, recorded from gigs they did at the 9:30 Club in D.C. the previous December and at the Knitting Factory in New York City two months after this show on my birthday coincidentally, July 15th. That album would wrap up with a cover of “Bonnie & Clyde” by Serge Gainsbourg and Luna indeed played that one at this gig, Britta singing the Brigette Bardot parts. 

Mark Eitzel from American Music Club was there, opening as a solo act. The bay area native began his set with a respectful cover of Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through The Night”, an old lullabye made famous by many country and rock balladeers like Elvis and Willie Nelson. Mark had disbanded American Music Club over six years before this gig, but was busy putting out seven albums of solo material since and was just about to put out his eighth, “The Invisible Man” a year after this. A departure from his previous work, the new one would lean more towards electronic music. He did treat us to two new songs, “Without You” and finishing his set with “Proclaim Your Joy”. Later that October, bands like Calexico, Lambchop, and others would put together a tribute record of Mark’s songs called, “Come On Beautiful”. I don’t remember who was making the announcements at this show, but he thanked Mr. Eitzel after his set and said, “We don’t get enough of Mark. He’s living in New York City now.”

As before with Luna fans, it was very subdued, making it an easy show to usher. After the third song “4000 Days”, Dean got a little peeved when he discovered that someone had drank his beer on stage. He muttered, “Who drank my beer when I was up in the dressing room? I didn’t drink this. It was full!” He paused for a moment to tune his guitar and shrugged, “I forgive you, whoever you were.” Dean thanked the crowd after “Superfreaky Memories” for “bearing with” them. Like I said, they did “Bonnie & Clyde”, the second to last song in their set and Dean introduced Britta to the crowd, saying that this night was the first time they were playing the song live. They would come back for two encores, finishing the second one with “4th Of July” a song from Galaxie 500, Dean’s old band. It was appropriate to perform it in a way, because it was April Fool’s Day. Though this show didn’t get a poster, Luna would return less than a year later to The Fillmore and that show would get one.

Mix Master Mike, Rahzel, Choclair, Cali Agents, Super Dudes, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., March 30

It had been exactly a year and five days since I had last recorded Mix Master Mike at the Hall and here he was there once again to dazzle the kids with his incomparable skills on the ones and twos. Mike had just began a 37 city tour two weeks before this starting in Detroit. After touring extensively with the Beastie Boys, replacing Hurricane as their DJ in 1998, he had also put out his solo album “Anti-Theft Device” the same year. This time, he was touring in support of his new one, “Eye Of The Cyclops” which had just hit the stores nine days before this show. It would go on to receive critical acclaim, including winning Best Electronic Album at the California Music Awards. I really appreciated that he sampled a ton of bits from my favorite film parody “Hardware Wars” in it.

Mike had brought along human beatbox extraordinaire Rahzel from The Roots to open for him and he was most welcome on the bill, returning to the Maritime after using some of my recordings from the last show he did there with Pfife Dawg the previous July on his debut album. Rahzel had put out “The Fifth Element : Make The Music 2000” the previous July and seven of the seventeen tracks on that one were “interludes” from the show I recorded. The interludes included his signature hit, “If Your Mother Only Knew”, showcasing his uncanny ability to spit beats and sing at the same time. Naturally, he performed it at this show. I don’t recall getting any money and certainly didn’t get any credit from that album, but I’m just glad it’s out there with all the others just the same. They at least acknowledged that the interludes were recorded at the Maritime.

That year, Rahzel also leant his voice to the snowboarding video game “SSX” and its sequel “SSX Tricky” the following year as the game’s announcer. Mike contributed to a lot of the music for those games as well. I would become highly addicted to both games, spending countless hours running those courses, doing insane tricks and such, to the point where I frankly couldn’t get much better. I can still Rahzel’s voice in my head shouting, “Tricky, Tricky, Tricky!”, when a character pulls off a dope move in the “SSX Tricky”. They even made it possible to unlock Mix Master Mike as a secret character in that one. Those games would be huge hits and would spawn further sequels in which I would waste even more hours of my precious youth. Rahzel had been also keeping busy in 2000 apart from the touring and voice work to do guest appearances on albums for artists such as Lyden David Hall, Roni Size Reprezent, Everlast, and Common.

There were other talented openers that night including Choclair, a Canadian rapper from Toronto. Starting his rap career at the tender age of 11, by the time he played the Hall, Choclair already had over a dozen albums under his belt. He had just signed to Priority Records the year before, putting out his “Ice Cold” album which would certify gold and win him a Juno award for Best Rap Recording.  Maritime vets Cali Agents were there once again too, the dream team hip hop duo of Rasco and Planet Asia. As many times as I recorded them, it would still be another couple months before they would finally drop their debut album, How The West Was One”. 

This show had been brought in as a replacement for an unlikely musical collaboration called Subset. Believe it or not, Mir Mix-A-Lot teamed up with The Presidents Of The United States Of America, (Yes, THAT band, the one that did “Lump” and “Peaches”). God only knows why they thought their respective talents of booty rap and quirky college rock would mesh, but they were all from Seattle, so it at least we know that they knew each other from around the hood. It was a short lived project and though they had recorded some songs together, this supergroup yielded no official releases and the whole project dissolved that year, probably explaining why the show was cancelled in the first place. Mix-A-Lot wanted to take the band into a harder, electronic direction and those nerds in The Presidents weren’t having it I guess. The Subset show was still listed on the monthly poster, so it had been cancelled fairly abruptly, late enough to still be on the poster and not have Mike’s show listed instead. I wouldn’t have to wait long to see Mix Master Mike do his magic again, since I would see him play at The Fillmore the following February in 2001 and another two more times there in less that two years.

The Flaming Lips, Looper, Maritime Hall, SF, Tues., March 28

SETLIST : What A Wonderful World Intro, Race For The Prize, Riding To Work In Year 2025 (You’re Invisible Now), Thirty-Five Thousand Feet Of Despair, Feeling Yourself Disintegrate, She Don’t Use Jelly, Slow Nerve Action, Over The Rainbow, Lightning Strikes The Postman, Waitin’ For A Superman, What Is The Light?, When You Smile, The Spark That Bled

This would be the second show I’d do during the “Blue Period” at the Maritime, the short stretch of shows I’d do after my partner Pete was fired. If anything would explain, though not excuse, my betrayal in returning to work at the Hall after the owner’s brutal purge of my friend and mentor, it would be the opportunity to record the Flaming Lips. If you’ve read this blog for a while and God knows I hope you have, you’d know that I had been a big fan of these Oklahoma weirdos for years. But even with my adoration for the Lips, I drastically underestimated the quantum leap they were making then artistically and commercially.

The Lips had released their seminal album, “The Soft Bulletin” the previous May and I had seen them once since then playing the E.A.R. tour at the Fillmore that July. At that infamous show, there was a blackout that lasted for a couple hours, truncating their set and having members of that tour to come out on stage in the darkness to perform acoustically through a bullhorn. This was not exactly the ideal circumstance for the Lips to debut their new material to the bay area, but here at the Maritime, they would find a second chance and I’d be there to record it. Considering the complex nature of the new songs, the Lips had decided to tour this time as a three piece, being their singer Wayne Conye, Steven Drozd playing keys and guitars, and Michael Ivins mostly on bass. Steven, who had been their drummer, would let pre-recorded tracks of his drumming substitute for the real thing this time. They had erected a screen behind them that had stuff projected onto it during their set and Wayne had a lipstick camera mounted on a mic stand in front of him that relayed his image onto that screen as well.

They had brought along the band Looper from Glasgow, Scotland to open for them that night, an electronic music outfit fronted by Stuart David, who had just departed as the bassist from Belle & Sebastian that year. Looper were still only a couple years old as a band and were just about to release their second album, “The Geometrid” on the SubPop label two weeks after this show. Wayne joked at the end of his set after thanking them for coming on tour with them all the way from Glasgow that they were “kind of hard to understand”. He said, “So if you see them, say hello” and if you had trouble deciphering their thick accent to “just smile and nod along… They’re nice people.”

After Looper’s set, the Lips came on stage introduced at first a recording of Louis Armstrong singing his timeless classic “What A Wonderful World” and then by a disembodied electronic voice saying, “Ladies & Gentlemen, please welcome on stage, one of the most unique, sound generating vessels in the known universe, The Flaming Lips” and then Wayne kicked off the the first song off the new album, “Race For The Prize”, smashing a mallet into a gong throughout the tune. During that song, the screen behind him displayed images of Leonard Bernstein conducting spliced in between footage of atomic explosion tests. The footage on the screen morphed into heart surgery and plane crashes for “Thirty-Five Thousand Feet Of Despair” afterwards. Incidentally, speaking of film footage, “American Beauty” swept the Oscars just two days before this show. Anyway, Wayne put on a funny, lizard head hand puppet and had it mouth along into the lipstick camera to the words of “Feeling Yourself Disintegrate” next, accompanied by a person on the screen mouthing a beat box riff. They had a little quiet piece at the end of that song, both Steven and Michael playing gently on separate keyboards while Wayne played around with his theramin. 

When they finished, the band started throwing T-shirts, pieces of candy, and confetti into the crowd, though Wayne tried to calm them down saying, “I know it’s free stuff, so don’t go crazy too quick” and then they did their old hit, “She Don’t Use Jelly”. Steven played a lap steel guitar for that one and I caught sight of a fan dressed head to toe in a white bunny outfit up front. In the next song, “Slow Nerve Action”, Wayne replaced his lizard puppet with a talking nun hand doll and would use it as well to simultaneously mouth along the lyrics of that tune too. It’s strange. The Lips had always been colorful, having decorated their stage with Christmas lights before and with various bouquets of flowers this time, but after this tour, their stage shows started turning more and more into some sort of fever dream, psychedelic children’s party. Seriously, after this, you’d see more and more of these “Furries” showing up in the crowd and on stage, balloons, naked people, and stuff, ultimately leading to Wayne getting into a giant inflatable, clear plastic ball and being rolled out to be carried around overhead by his audiences. God help the clean up crew for any of those mopping up one of their gigs. Confetti gets everywhere.

They took it down a bit after that and Wayne addressed his audience saying, “This song is probably one of the greatest songs of all time. It’s up there with ‘Happy Birthday’ and ‘Merry Christmas’”. Now that latter song, I can’t say which he’s referring to but somebody yelled out the traditional song to yell out at a rock show which he responded, “No, not ‘Freebird’… It’s one of those songs that if you want to sing along to, we encourage that, OK? But the thing about this song is that it’s so familiar to you , that you’ll begin to sing the song and you realize you don’t know the words. So sometimes, people will say, gee, I don’t know the words and not sing. We don’t want this to happen. If you begin to sing and don’t knot the words, just mumble.” Wayne covered his mouth and did a little mumbling before he continued, “Just as loud as you would be singing. No one will really know the difference between whether you’re singing words or if you’re just mumbling along and then no one will be embarrassed if they don’t know the words, OK?… You’ll see.”

Wayne then crooned the immortal, “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, being led off by a snippet of Judy Garland from “The Wizard Of Oz” repeating “Why?” over and over again. It was a touching and respectful cover of the old standard and indeed, those who didn’t know the lyrics mumbled along convincingly beside the others who did. From there, they shifted gears and did, “Lightning Strikes The Postman” with images of marching bands on the screen behind them cut between bits of Evil from the film “Time Bandits” blowing up a dog with lightning strikes from his fingertips with Wayne shouting the song’s lyrics through his megaphone. They then followed it with the sublime “Waitin’ For A Superman” and during the song, Wayne held a little mechanical toy bird in his free hand that flapped its wings throughout the performance of the song. Even then, that song gives me a little lump in my throat, it is so beautiful and sentimental. It became even more so after 9/11 and to me became that morose period’s de facto theme song. Finally, for “What Is The Light?”, they projected bits from the space teleportation finale of “2001 : A Space Odyssey”. It was funny at the end, after Wayne thanked Looper again he wanted to also thank the venue which he called the “Maritime Ballroom”, joking it had “something to do with the sea and shipwrecks and that all seemed appropriate to us, I suppose.”

All and all, it was an uplifting experience, probably the one I did during the Maritime’s “Blue Period” of which I’m proudest. None of us knew just how important that album the Lips put out was then and few of us appreciated how lucky we were to see them during that period. I’ll never forget talking to Boots, the Maritime’s tyrannical owner, how proud I was that I got to record them, though he cynically dismissed their work as “whiney, college music”. Boots’ remarks aside, the Lips would laugh all the way to the bank, having that album top many a top ten list that year, including being awarded NME’s album of the year. We got to hear five of the new songs live that night too. This album would gain the Lips fame and fortune and the next time I’d see them, they’d be headlining a sold out night at The Warfield three years later, the very place I recorded them in my first bootleg there in 1993 when they opened for Porno For Pyros almost ten years previously to the day.

Ice Cube, War., SF, Fri., March 24

SETLIST: Natural Born Killaz, Hello, (unknown), (unknown), Chin Check, The Nigga You Love To Hate, Check Yo Self, (unknown), Steady Mobbin’, Bow Down, Supreme Hustle, Cheddar, Foe Life, Gangstas Make The World Go Around, 3 Time Felons, We Be Clubbin’, You Can Do It

Anyone who wishes to continue keeping their heads in the vicinity of their shoulders would be wise never to even suggest that Ice Cube has sold out, but it was a foregone conclusion that by this show he was at least rich and famous. Still, he admirably made a point to give some of his riches back to the community from where he emerged and made a point to encourage others in the hip hop community to follow suit. Between his work with N.W.A. and having just released his sixth solo album, Cube had little left to prove musically. Likewise, he had just produced, wrote, and starred in “Next Friday”, the sequel to his breakthrough comedy “Friday”, which had hit theaters two months before this show, his 13th movie acting, 4th as a producer. He had also made a very impressive acting performance in “Three Kings”, arguably his best, just the year before this. His new movie, though commercially successful, making twice as much money as the original, clearly wasn’t as funny as “Friday”, partially because Chris Tucker didn’t return to reprise his role of Smokey. But likewise, Cube’s new album, “War & Peace : Vol. 2”, his final album on Priority Records and coincidentally also a sequel, didn’t fare so well either with critics and to make matters worse, it would be the first solo album Cube would release that didn’t go platinum.

It was not and still isn’t my place to even hint at a dis at one of the greatest Playas to ever walk the Earth, but there was no denying that the age of Gangsta Rap was coming to a close. It was only natural and in fact inevitable. Whenever any new music genre rises from the streets and finds mainstream success, the corrupting power of money will rob the genre of its urgency and DIY street cred. Now, this isn’t all bad news. With the rise and eventual overtaking of rap as the most popular and lucrative forms of popular music, a new crop of rap superstars like Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Kanye West, and Puff Daddy just to name a few would elevate the genre to stadium level crowds. Just as well. Ice Cube had just turned 30 years old the previous June and maybe the time was right for him to move on from his wilder days of youth.

It would be later that summer that Cube would help lead that big crowd vanguard joining the “Up In Smoke” tour with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, briefly reforming N.W.A., though without MC Ren and the recently deceased Eazy-E. That tour would also include Eminem, Nate Dogg, Kurupt, and D12 amongst others, but would take place way down at the Shark Tank in San Jose, so I unfortunately missed that one. But I would get treated to a few special guests touring with Cube for this spring solo tour of his. He brought out Mack 10, WC, and DJ Crazy Toones, AKA the Westside Connection with him. I’m sad to say that I just learned that DJ Crazy Toones died of a heart attack in 2017 at the all too young age of 45. They got Chuy Gomez from KMEL to introduce the show and he wrapped up at end of the night as well.

Cube made the interesting choice of using Wendy Carlos’ opening theme to “The Shining” to play when he took the stage, a perfect introduction before starting his set with “Natural Born Killaz”. From there, he wasted no time getting into the new material, playing “Hello”, the first song off the new album. We were treated to two more new ones during his set, “Supreme Hustle” and “You Can Do It”, the last song of the set. But to be sure, he packed in a few crowd pleasers like “The Nigga You Love To Hate”, which he got the crowd to put up their middle fingers and chant “Fuck you, Ice Cube!” This also gave him the opportunity to do the old standby of splitting up the crowd and having them shout, “Party over here, fuck you over there!” 

They did the smash hit, “Check Yo Self”, but omitted “It Was A Good Day” surprisingly. After “Steady Mobbin’”, Cube asked the crowd, “Y’all like that one? Can we go back when I first started doin’ this shit?” and then he repeated “Westside Connection kept the west coast on the map” three times and said, “I’m gonna show you how” before he and the Westside Connection did their hit, “Bow Down”. He also had WC and Mack 10 each do a solo song of theirs, “Cheddar” and “Foe Life” respectively. Cube pumped up the audience between songs declaring that he’d been “waiting to do Frisco for about four months” and he had the lighting guy turn up the lights in the house so he could see “how many gangstas we got in here.”

He also gave props between songs, shouting, “Give it up for KMEL! Dopest radio station in the bay! KMEL’s been playing Ice Cube forever!” and he went on about how when “niggas start being peaceful, that’s when they start fighting. Got to keep it gangsta”. Cube encouraged the crowd to “go crazy, Frisco! It’s Friday! Ain’t got nothing to do, ain’t got no job, already budded the fuck out. Don’t worry about that” before they did “We Be Clubbin’”.  At the end, he had everybody “put a Dub in the air, Westside!”, having the crowd form a “W” with their hands and then declared, “Thanks for the support! I’m outta this bitch!” And then he sauntered casually off stage. It was over. 

I’m ashamed to say this was the last time I saw Cube performing live, though I am equally as proud to say that I got to see him six times in only eight years, three times at The Warfield alone. He wouldn’t put out another solo album until six years later. Upon listening to the new material and Westside Connection stuff from this show, I realize that it was good stuff and shouldn’t have moved on so nonchalantly from Cube. Still, it’s hard to reconcile my love of his music with his inexplicable behavior recently, refusing to get vaccinated for COVID despite promoting the wearing of face masks at first. 

There was also a bit of a dust up after Cube, promoting a 13-point plan called the “Contract With Black America”, had contact with Donald Trump’s campaign through Jared Kushner just two months before the 2020 election. The idea that Donald would seriously entertain any of the plan’s points, particularly infusing a half a trillion dollars into the Black community and exempting black Americans from paying income taxes, would appear to be wishful thinking at its worst. But Cube was clearly too smart not to know this and was perhaps making this overture to try to put the screws on to Biden to keep up support with the black community or at the very least, hedge his bets if Donald was re-elected. Regardless, people freaked out a little bit when Cube did this, particularly since in 2016 he not only said he’d never endorse Trump, but made a song two years later called “Arrest The President” where he called Donald, “Russian intelligence”. It didn’t help that Kanye got pilled around the same time too.

In the long run, what I think about Mr. O’Shea Jackson is of little concern. Cube’s indelible mark on rap music and popular culture is undeniably a significant one. I’ve said before that very few artists can command a stage quite the same way he can. And that voice… It’s funny, when his very own flesh and blood son, O’Shea Jackson, Jr., played the role of his own father in the biopic “Straight Out Of Compton” in 2015, I couldn’t escape that he just didn’t quite have his father’s signature voice. On one final note, and I’m sorry I have to blurt this one out, but having been married to a hair stylist for the past eight years, I’ve developed the eye of knowing when a man’s coloring his hair and I’m uneasy to say Cube is obviously doing it. I mean, it’s OK. It’s his hair and his choice. It’s a free country, but personally I think he’d be better off going grey or just shaving it all off like Dr. Dre does. 

Zen Tricksters, David Gans, Taos Hum, Viscous Rumors. Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., March 4

SETLIST : Leave Me Out Of This, Shakedown Street, Down The Road, Rubin & Cherise, Scarlet Begonias, Light Of Life Jam, Truckin’, Elenor Rigby Jam, Comes A Time, Say That I Am, Travelin’ Light, Unbroken Chain, Dark Star, Hard To Handle

Oh boy… This is a tough one to write about. And no, it’s not just that it was another godforsaken hippie show. This was my first time back working at the Maritime as recording engineer since the previous November. To first time readers, let me briefly rehash the depressing circumstances which pre-dates my return and to all my loyal readers, feel free to skip ahead. My former recording partner and mentor, Pete Slauson, had a long delayed final falling out with Boots, the Maritime’s tyrannical boss over our unpaid royalties, and Boots abruptly fired him. In solidarity, I followed Pete and quit. My lifelong friend and video engineer at the Hall, Tory, shortly followed suit. Boots had found a replacement willing to do the job, paying a paltry $50 on a show by show basis. The fellow who replaced me was named Wade Furgeson and in a strange small world coincidence, my brother Alex was actually friends with his sister Piper where they both lived in Los Angeles.

In another strange coincidence, Wade’s main moneymaking gig at the time was working as a security guard at the O’Farrell Theater, the birthplace of the modern adult film industry, which was just a block away from where I was living at the time in the Tenderloin. Clearly, $50 a show wasn’t going to cut it as a means of full time employment for Mr. Furgeson. Since there was only one set of keys for the recording room and Wade knew I lived close by to his main gig, I would pop by the lobby of the O’Farrell to either pick up or drop off these keys. I can still feel my bashfulness from every time I’d skulk in and sheepishly ask, “Is Wade here?” and one of the doorman would say something like, “He’s in the Jungle Room” and then they’d go fetch him for me. Anyway, strangely enough, I can’t entirely recall how Boots was able to conscript me into the lion’s den of the Maritime once again, but clearly I jumped at the chance since my decision occurred so impulsively. Yes, I knew I was coming in just to fill in for Wade when he couldn’t do it, but I still consider this one of the most rash choices I had ever made in my life.

I will never forget the look of quiet disappointment in Pete when I told him that I had gone back to work there. I know he forgave me for doing it, but I know it took me down a peg in his eyes. It was even harder to break the news to Tory, to one of my oldest friends. He took it better than I thought he would. Still, what I did hurt our friendship and amongst other boorish behavior on my part during that period and afterwards, ultimately led to Tory distancing himself from me to the point where he severed our friendship entirely. Even though my return to the Hall was brief, only filling in for Wade for a grand total of 10 shows before the Maritime finally tanked, this betrayal continues to haunt me to this day. I cannot entirely excuse my cowardice and greed, but understand, I was addicted. The recording gig at the Maritime was and will always be my proudest accomplishment professionally. It was my dream job and I loved it intensely. This was the behavior of an addict and in that moment, I succumbed to my weakness. Whew… This is a confession after all. I’m glad to get this off my chest and though I’d spent years apologizing for and deeply regret this decision I made, I hope still that Tory may some day read this, understand, and forgive me. Likewise, I hope Pete, who passed away in 2020, is on high in soundman’s heaven and feels the same.

OK, with that unpleasant business aside, I’ll press on with the show at hand. This betrayal is punctuated that my return to the Hall would begin with the Zen Tricksters. Not only did I have no interest in recording this band, having already recorded them once there in 1998, but it was a hippie show. Yes, this band who primarily covered the Dead, who were practically a cover band themselves, had returned and once again, they had David Gans opening for them. Rob Barraco, the ever-present keyboardist for all Dead side projects was with these guys then, between tours with Phil Lesh, The Other Ones, and The Dead. Rob also has the unfortunate distinction of being the keyboardist who played on the theme song for “The Cosby Show”. However, The Trickers was Jeff Mattson’s band, another one of those who I like to call the “Dead Ringers”, who would also go on to be the lead guitarist for the Dark Star Orchestra, and like Rob, contribute to other Dead related side projects. It helped that Jeff had an uncanny resemblance to Jerry Garcia, especially when he grew out his lambchops, making him look like Jerry in the 70’s before he grew out his beard. As luck would have it, I had already just seen both Rob & Jeff playing with Lesh at the Warfield the previous April. 

The Tricksters came up early that night to back up David Gans during his set for “Bird Song” and “Crazy, Crazy, Crazy”. Jeff backed him up again for “The Return Of Grevious Angel” and both Jeff & Rob played with Gans for an acoustic version of “Attics In My Life”. Don’t get me wrong, the Tricksters weren’t a bad band, far from it. I always joke whenever the Dark Star Orchestra or the Tricksters come to mind or in conversation, that the Dead never sounded that tight. Covers aside, the Tricksters had a couple albums of their own out by then of mostly original material including the “A Love Surreal” album which they had just put out the year before this. They played both “Down The Road” and “Say That I Am”, both original tunes from that one at this gig.

The good news out of this godawful mess I made for myself was that one of the openers that night, Taos Hum, used my recording from that night to put out a live album. Granted, I wasn’t a fan of their music, but it was another credit to my resume and though I didn’t get any money for it apart from the $50 blood money I took for the night’s work, at least the CD got made at all. I suppose I have Josh Porter to thank for that, since he had been working in the production office of the Hall at that time and was promoting Taos Hum. I think he might have been their manager back then as well. I’m also happy to say that though this first of the these post-Pete Maritime shows would be one that I was less than thrilled about, some of the others I would do afterwards would be exceptional. These included the Flaming Lips, a longtime favorite of mine who had just released their seminal album, “The Soft Bulletin”, the Dance Hall Crashers, my brother’s old ska band, and the legendary Todd Rundgren, who would release a live DVD from the show I recorded there. 

Finally, on a less serious note, I had come up with an appropriate name for this disgraceful point in my life and the Maritime’s history, calling it the “Blue Period”. This reference I lifted from Picasso, was accurate for a couple of reasons, but mainly for the mood of the Hall and myself at the time. Anyone who has worked at a venue during the last year or two of its decline before closing knows of this feeling of malaise in the face of the venue’s inevitable doom. I would also refer to this period with the gallows humor moniker of “The Last Days In The Bunker”, a name whose origin I think you all can guess. Indeed, this ennui is felt I imagine in any business or even relationship coming to its whimpering end. But the title of “Blue Period” actually came initially from a completely organic, unrelated, and obvious origin. 

When Pete had left the Hall, he had taken his lava lamps from the recording room which had flanked our video monitor since the beginning of our work together. Their absence had made the recording room a touch on the dark side, so one of the lighting guys upstairs, probably Steve, kindly set up one of their spare PAR can lights on the floor of the room in the back with a dark blue gel in its frame. I aimed the light to reflect its cool blue glow off of the rounded, white plaster wall in the back and there it stayed until Hall’s final show over a year and half later. In a microscopic way, this new appearance of the recording room helped me emotionally continue this work since I think it made my subconscious feel like it was a different job from beforehand which it really was. Whatever shreds of joy that remained in my employment at the Hall would quickly fade and when the venue finally sank the following year, it came as some relief to all those involved, even I imagine in some way for Boots.

Peter Murphy, War., SF, Thur., March 2

SETLIST : Final Solution, The Scarlet Thing In You, Wild Birds Flock To Me, Mirror To My Woman’s Mind, Deep Ocean Vast Sea, Disappearing, I’ll Fall With Your Knife, Crystal Wrists, Subway, The Sweetest Drop, Hit Song, Indigo Eyes, Surrendered, Roll Call, Huuvola, Cuts You Up

It had been over two years since Mr. Murphy graced the Warfield stage with his old band Bauhaus for back to back sold out shows, but this time the dark prince of Goth was doing his own stuff. He had brought along good company to join him on stage and for this performance, including Kevin Haskins, the drummer for Bauhaus as well as Love & Rockets. To his left and right that show would be Eric Avery, the original bassist of Jane’s Addiction, and another Perry Farrell co-worker and fellow Peter, Peter DiStefano, who had been Perry’s guitarist in Porno For Pyros. It was “An evening with…” show with Mr. Murphy, so it was an easy one to usher as well as an early one, just having to wait out the DJ and a couple songs into the set before I’d be cut loose to have a drink and enjoy myself. This was just the second date of Peter’s new solo tour, his first in 5 years, which had just began in Anaheim the night before this. I witnessed the show he did at The Fillmore the previous tour as well as both nights Bauhaus did at The Warfield in ’98, so I felt fairly versed in his work. Feel free to revisit my reviews of those shows at your leisure, gentle reader.

They started the show with a cover of “Final Solution” by Pere Ubu, a band I always felt I should know more about. They were one of the few acts in my favorite rock documentary, “Urgh! A Music War!”, that I’ve still never seen. Having Peter do one of their songs is endorsement enough. Afterwards, Peter greeted his fans saying, “Salaam… Hi!… Shalom”, and then promptly continued with “That Scarlet Thing In You”. He hadn’t put out a new album since 1995’s “Cascade”, but he did cover material from all five of the solo albums he had put out by then. After they finished “I’ll Fall With Your Knife”, he joked, “Thank you! That was good, wasn’t it?” and introduced the band before continuing with “Crystal Wrists”. 

I wouldn’t have to wait nearly as long as before to be in the presence of this vampirish baritone once again, since he’d return to town only eight months later to play the Great American and I was there front and center. On that, the “Just For Love” tour, he’d bring along only two other musicians, the aforementioned guitarist Mr. DiStefano and Hugh Marsh on violin. Six days after that Great American show, he’d perform at the El Ray Theater in Los Angeles, recording his “aLive Just For Love” live album. Naturally, I’ll expand on all that when I get to November. Although this night’s appearance would be the largest of the various venues I’d see Mr. Murphy do a solo show in, unlike Bauhaus, The Warfield didn’t provide a poster for this one.

The Cure, Fill., SF, Thur., February 17

SETLIST : Out Of This World, Watching Me Fall, Fascination Street, The Last Day Of Summer, Maybe Someday, From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea, If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, 39, Prayers For Rain, Bloodflowers, (encore), A Strange Day, A Forest, (encore), The Figurehead, Disintegration

This was one of those nights where we ushers were spoiled. The last time I saw these venerable Goth rock virtuosos four years before this, they had packed the Shark Tank arena in San Jose and here I’d be seeing them up close and personal with only about 1000 other people. Suffice to say, this would be the smallest venue I’d likely ever see The Cure perform. To add to the privilege I and my fellow ushers were being awarded that night, this would be the very first of only six small club dates The Cure would be playing, one of only two on the west coast. They were promoting their latest album, “Bloodflowers” which had just been released two weeks before this night. This was one of those charmed occasions when a big band like them would do a short run of club shows to debut, and frankly rehearse, their new material before taking it to the big venues in a full blown worldwide tour. The band had actually been in town signing autographs at Virgin Megastore downtown the day before, but I didn’t hear about it.

This long awaited new album had been delayed for over two years, being touted as the third album in a trilogy along with “Pornography” and “Disintegration”. They would record a live DVD in Berlin called “Trilogy” two years later playing each album in their entirety. Many agreed that the new material wasn’t as good or memorable as the stuff from those other seminal works. Melody Maker even titled their review of the new album, “Goth-Awful!”, giving it a paltry 1.5 out of 5 stars. Still, it was nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album and Robert Smith, their famous frightwigged frontman, insists that it was his favorite. Naturally, you didn’t hear so much as a peep of complaint from me or anyone else there that night. Like I said, we were being spoiled. There actually had been rumors that “Bloodflowers” would be The Cure’s last album of original material. Though it would be their final album on the Fiction record label, they would eventually sign to Geffen in 2004 and put out the self-titled “The Cure” album that year and then the “4:13 Dream” album four years afterwards. They have since wrote some new songs, but haven’t released any new albums. 

Making it an even more rare and exclusive privilege for me, I was one of only a handful of people in the house to hear their soundcheck which included their big hits “Just Like Heaven” and “In Between Days” which weren’t played in their set that evening. We lucky few were amongst the first to hear some of their new songs including “Out Of This World” and “Watching Me Fall” performed live, the first two tracks off the new album which they started their set with. The latter song would be used in the end credits of the horror film “American Psycho” which had just been screened at Sundance a month before this. Other new tunes also played were “The Last Days Of Summer”, “Maybe Someday”, “39”, and the title track “Bloodflowers”. In fact, The Cure having also played “Out Of This World” and “Bloodflowers” during their soundcheck, I am one of those even fewer people to hear those tunes first performed in public… period. Lucky me, I guess. Coincidentally, it was a good time to brood to these mopey songs in the bay area since Santa Rosa native Charles Schultz, the cartoonist of “Peanuts”, had just passed away five days before this. Good grief indeed.

Speaking of cartoons and strange coincidences, as I mentioned in my previous entry, there was a strange though utterly obscure coincidence between this night and the show I saw 12 days prior. Thrash metal veterans Anthrax had just played The Warfield, taking the stage to a recording of “Uncle Fucka”, the infamous song by the Canadian cartoon duo of Terrance & Phillip from “South Park”. It turns out that Robert Smith had just recently leant his voice to that conspicuously vulgar animated show for their “Mecha-Streisand” episode. “South Park” creator Trey Parker, who had up till recently emulated Smith’s hairstyle for years, sought Smith out to do battle in the episode with ol Babs herself, who had turned into a gargantuan robotic dinosaur and was terrorizing the titular town. Trey was obviously a big fan and Smith was gracious enough to have his lines recorded over the phone for him. In the episode, Smith transformed into “Smithra”, a gigantic Mothra creature with Smith’s signature hairdo and he grabbed Mecha-Striesand by her tail and flung her into outer space where she exploded. The show ended with Smith walking off into the sunset and Kyle declared, “Disintegration is the best album ever!” and Cartman yelled, “Robert Smith kicks ass!” To this day, Smith is the only celebrity portrayed on that show in a universally positive manner. So, it was timely that The Cure would perform the epic “Disintegration” for their final song of their last encore.

Anyway, if any members of The Cure and Anthrax ever have an opportunity to hang out together, at least they’ll have “South Park” to help break the ice. In a related story, Smith, along with Cure drummer Jason Cooper and guitarist Reeves Gabriel, David Bowie’s guitarist who would join The Cure in 2012, had recently collaborated with Trey to form the one-off band COGASM, derived from the first two letters of each member’s last names. They composed a song called “A Sign From God” that was used in the soundtrack to Trey’s film comedy “Orgasmo”. They had also recorded a B-Side for that song called “Wrong Number” which was listed as being recorded by The Cure, but it was only released officially as one of their songs on the “Galore” greatest hits album.

But back to the show. Big Rick Stuart from Live 105 was there and apologized for the show’s 40 minute late start saying that there was a voucher system to get the fans in which had been taking a little while to process everyone and encouraged folks inside to check out the poster room. Despite the voucher system, I heard people were paying as high as $1000 bucks a ticket from scalpers. The line to get in had snaked around the block and there was no shortage of weepy eyed Cure fans hoping against hope of getting a miracle ticket. All and all it was definitely worth the wait for which Smith sheepishly apologized for at the beginning of the show. God knows most of those fans would have waited for all eternity to see this one. Good heavens, the screams these people let out during the encore breaks were deafening. 

It’s reassuring to revisit this night again since I had just missed The Cure at Shoreline last month, a long 23 years later, being stuck at work ironically at a Psychiatrist’s convention. Certainly, many a Cure fan and presumably some if not all of the band’s members could use some relief from depression. I’m just grateful that this show got a poster and it’s a good thing too. Those fans might have torn the place apart if there wasn’t one and I’d have probably joined them. That gig was a true rarity amongst the long list of shows under my belt. Incidentally, 2000 was a special year as well, being the first year of a new century which was a leap year since 1600. We won’t see another one until the year 2400 and I have a feeling The Cure won’t be touring anymore by then.

Anthrax, Systematic, Fu Manchu, Unband, War., SF, Sat., February 5

SETLIST : Crush, Fueled, I Am The Law, Antisocial, Inside Out, Room For One More, Among The Living – I’m The Man – Time – Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.) – Be All End All, Hy Pro Glo, 604, Metal Thrashing Mad, A.I.R., Only, (encore), Phantom Lord, Got The Time, Caught In The Mosh, Bring The Noise, Cupajoe

Though it had been four years since I saw Anthrax for the first time opening for The Misfits at The Fillmore, I had just recorded three of their members at the Maritime in their other band, Stormtroopers Of Death. There, guitarist Scott Ian, bassist Dan Lilker, and drummer Charlie Benante, would ultimately steal the footage from that show and release it in their “Kill Yourself : The Movie” DVD, giving neither me or Tory, who cut the video that night, credit or one thin dime for our efforts. I wouldn’t find this out until just a couple months ago and I’m still a little bitter. Can you tell? Despite this underhanded backstabbery, I was blissfully unaware of it at the time Anthrax took the stage at The Warfield that night. To me, it was just another show in my long road to getting my live show groove back after my unceremonious departure from the Maritime as their full time recording engineer. I would however return there on a part time basis, filling in for Wade, my replacement, when he was unavailable, starting with the Zen Tricksters a month after this show, but I’ll get to that later. My return to live music was a slow one, partially since live shows traditionally are more plentiful in the springtime, but soon my diet of concerts would return, especially by the fall of this year.

It was an impressive line up of thrash metal acts that night, starting with Unband, who were pretty heavy, though I haven’t heard of or seen them since. I thought it was funny that they ended one song chanting the lyric, “I like to feel like a piece of shit” which they got the crowd to chant along in a sort of sing-songy kid’s voice. Systematic was next, a band who had been just signed as one of the first acts on Lars Ulrich’s The Music Company label. They would release their first album, “Somewhere In Between” the following year. I’d only see them one more time, opening for Metallica at The Fillmore in 2004, which would be their final show in the bay area before they split up that year. But it was the penultimate band, Fu Manchu, that I was mostly interested that night. They, along with Puya who I’d just seen opening for System Of A Down at the very same venue for the SnoCore tour only two weeks prior to this, were both openers for Type O Negative at the Maritime. Though Type O wouldn’t let us tape that night, Puya and Fu Manchu did and I was very impressed with both their chops. Fu Manchu was just on the cusp of releasing their “King Of The Road” album only nine days after this show. 

It was sort of a transitional period for Anthrax as it if for many bands who release a greatest hits album. They had to leave Ignition Records shortly after I saw them at The Fillmore in ’96 after the label went bankrupt and were then signed to Beyond Records. The “Return Of The Killer A’s” hits compilation had just been released a month and a half before this night through that label and though Dan wasn’t playing bass with them like he had with S.O.D, Frank Bello was. They had employed their former singer Joey Belladonna to do, strangely enough, a cover of The Temptations “Ball Of Confusion”, the only recording that would have he and their current vocalist, John Bush, singing together. John would go on to do a short tour with his former band, Armored Saint, later that year as well. There had been some talk of Anthrax touring with both singers, but Belladonna dropped out at the last minute. Unfortunately, Beyond would also go bankrupt, but Anthrax would sign to Sanctuary Records three years later.

It was a strange yet obscure coincidence that Anthrax would introduce their set with a bit from “South Park”, Terrance & Philip’s infamous song, “Uncle Fucka”. I would see The Cure play The Fillmore only 12 days after this show and Robert Smith had recently just lent his voice to their “Mecha-Streisand” episode. Just goes to show you that bands as divergent as Anthrax and The Cure can still find commonality in something. I’m sad to say I only got the first five songs of Anthrax’s set that night, having run out of tape early. There’s a bootleg CD of their set floating around out there somewhere, though I’ve been unable to locate it online, but I’m glad it’s out there all the same. Still, there’s some quality footage from their show in Salt Lake City on YouTube from this tour. John praised their new compilation before they played “I Am The Law” and encouraged their fans to sing along. Though this would be the largest venue I’d get to see Anthrax headline in and they packed the house, sadly there was no poster that night.

Snocore 2000: System Of A Down, Incubus, Mr. Bungle, Puya, War., SF, Sat., January 22

SETLISTS : 

(MR. BUNGLE) : The Thing Strikes, The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, Ars Moriendi, None Of Them Knew They Were Robots, Retrovertigo, Travolta, My Ass Is On Fire, Vanity Fair, Goodbye Sober Day

(INCUBUS) : New Skin, Privilege, Favorite Things, Pardon Me, Vitamin, The Warmth, Make Yourself, Calgone, When It Comes, Redefine

(SYSTEM OF A DOWN) :  Suite-Pee, X, Suggestions, Know, Snowblind, DAM, Spiders, DDevil, Marmalade, Darts, Chic N’ Stu, Soil, Peephole, War?, Sugar

It’s not every day one begins a new millennium. Indeed, the entire planet was going through a transitional period of sorts and like my personal experience, not all of it was pleasant. I was just relieved that we made it through that New Year’s without all the computers bugging out. It had been three weeks into this new era with little hiccups apart from Bill Gates stepping down from Microsoft the week before this. I was still reeling from the unceremonious departure of Pete and myself from the Maritime Hall and frankly I was depressed and remained that way for quite some time. My love life was practically nonexistent and I was drinking too much to be sure. The election, or rather selection, of George W. Bush at the end of the year and the following disasters of 9/11 and the wars spurned thereafter, kept me in this melancholy limbo until I found my way out of it around 2005. But in the meantime, I had ushering to distract me from my malaise and was able to refocus my time and energy towards my work with Local 16. If I couldn’t be happy, at least I was making more money. Speaking of which, I was finding that I was being recruited more and more to be a full time usher at The Warfield that year, being paid, but having to work through the entire show. That was the case for this first show of the millennium, the SnoCore Tour. The extra money always helped, but I always preferred to volunteer. You get cut for the main act and you get a free drink. 

This cavalcade of stars was on its 5th year, but this would be the final year of the tour before it would be cleft into two separate tours afterwards. One would be the SnoCore Icicle Tour, devoted primarily to funk and jam bands, and the other would be known as the SnoCore Rock Tour, featuring (naturally) rock and metal bands. It was a pity that they did this since the tour had brought eclectic groups together allowing their varied fans to absorb and appreciate each other’s styles as the Lollapalooza tour once had. Call it human nature I guess for birds of a feather to flock together. This year’s tour had just begun exactly a week before in San Diego, headlined this time by System Of A Down. It had only been two months since I’d last seen the first act of the night, Puya, opening for Type O Negative at the Maritime and I was impressed by their sound. Type O didn’t let us record that night, but Puya did. They had been touring with Ozzfest the summer before, playing on the second stage which was headlined by Slipknot. Being the first of a four band line up that night, Puya’s set was brief, but they got the crowd warmed up a bit. They were heavy, though mixed in funk and Latin percussion into their bombastic jams. I’m sorry to say that this was the last time I’d get to see them play live. 

The next act, Mr. Bungle, was the main reason I was at that show. It had been five long years since they played The Fillmore and I was eager to hear their demented tunes once again. Mike Patton was quickly back on his creativity horse after the dissolution of Faith No More in 1998, but he was still embroiled in his feud with Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chili Peppers which I had written about previously. Though their back and forth began with Kiedis originally accusing Patton of copying his vocal style, anyone hearing Bungle’s set that night would swiftly dismiss that notion. To me, it’s pointless to compare Bungle with the Chilis, but clearly Mike’s vocal abilities, not to mention prolific musical repertoire, are on a higher level than Anthony’s. But with the “Californication” album just released the year before, Kiedis was laughing all the way to the bank, but I digress.

I suppose Mr. Patton was in a strange place emotionally as well around this time and in a way was taking it out on the SnoCore crowds this tour. Fed up with the nu-metal Sport-O’s populating his audiences, Mike and the band seemed utterly determined to bring these jocks to the edge of gay panic with their antics. They would dress up like the Village People, wear wigs and dresses, and in one famous instance in Myrtle Beach, Patton simulated oral sex with his microphone, until the enraged machismo crowd started pelting him and the band with coins and stuff. Even at this show, they kept up their homoerotic assault, though it fell a little flat, being San Francisco. A few songs in, he shouted, “Welcome to the Sno-Queer Tour!” and asked, “Are there any raging hot dicks out there? I’m trembling just thinking about them. Any tight shirts out there?” Later, he introduced his percussionist as “RuPaul” and asked the crowd, “Have you heard the rumors about Pantera? About Phil? He came out of the closet! Keep up the fight, Phil!” If that wasn’t enough, at the end of the set he thanked the “Boys & Girls”, claiming the set was “the best fucking blowjob I ever had!”

Gay baiting notwithstanding, it was an exceptional set, beginning with a cover of Henry Mancini’s “The Thing Strikes”. I was working one of the main aisles but on another aisle was my friend Bruce and I could hear him on the bootleg I found of this show on YouTube, attempting to help a girl who had passed out. He and the girl’s companions were having trouble helping her up, she being “too heavy”, so Bruce advised her to stay put while he went to fetch her some orange juice from one of the bars hoping that it would “get her blood sugar back up”. Upon his return, apparently the passed out girl came to and took off to whereabouts unknown. It still was nice of Bruce to try to help. He even sweetly reassured the girl’s friends that they wouldn’t call their parents about this or anything. Haven’t seen Bruce in years. I hope he’s OK and quit smoking for the love of God. I can still smell the pungent reek of tobacco from his clothes in my mind.

Anyway, this would be the last tour Bungle would play for almost twenty years and I regret not seeing their reunion in 2019, especially since it was one of the last good shows to come through town before the pandemic hit. But in the interim, Mr. Patton was his usual busy bee self, playing in other numerous bands like the Fantomas, Mondo Cane, and Tomahawk and founding Ipacac Records with Greg Werckman, who I interned for at Alternative Tentacles. Patton was even asked to join Velvet Revolver but declined, joking, “I think everyone else knows why I was not interested, except them, which is the funny part.” Just as well. Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots was a much better fit, though I can’t help but wonder what any Guns N’ Roses song would sound like from Mike’s unique throat.

Next up was Incubus, who I had recorded at the Maritime back in 1998. Their star was quickly rising with the release of their third studio album, “Make Yourself”, which had just come out the previous October and would ultimately get certified double platinum. Their lead singer, Brandon Boyd, had just shaved off his then trademark dreadlocks and they played four songs off the new album, “Privilege”, “The Warmth”, “Make Yourself”, and “When It Comes”. It would be only five months until I saw them again on the main stage of the B.F.D. Festival at Shoreline and they would return the following year to headline back to back shows at the Warfield. 

Like Incubus, System Of A Down was also on the up and up, clearly since they went from opening for Slayer at The Warfield just a year and a half before this to headlining themselves. Their singer, Serj Tankian, mentioned that Slayer show after “Suite-Pee”, the first song of their set. They were such fans of Slayer that they had changed their name from “Victims Of A Down”, just so they’d be closer to them alphabetically in record stores. The band had come a long way, particularly since they still only had their debut album out and their next album, “Toxicity”, wouldn’t come out for nearly another two years. They came on stage that night to the sounds of the “March Of The Empire” from “The Empire Strikes Back”. Between songs, Serj would spout lines of his intense poetry, like screaming, “Where are the gods we were promised!?!” after playing “Know” and asking, “Where is the devil? Where is the hopping, little bunny rabbit?” and declared a “people feeding frenzy” before launching into “DDevil”. Before they played “Soil”, he dedicated the song to “all those motherfuckers talking to themselves outside.” 

Though like I said, their next album would be out for a while, they still treated the crowd to a couple new songs, “X” and “Chic N’ Stu”. The latter song actually wouldn’t be released until 2002, being the first song on “Steal This Album” . They also did a cover of “Snowblind” by Black Sabbath. Incidentally, their guitarist, Daron Malakian, had been in a band with that song’s name previously, so one can assume he was a Sabbath fan and it was his idea to cover it. I can see what Serj and Patton were friends since both System and Bungle weren’t your run of the mill metal bands. They and their bandmates obviously had musical chops comparable to any prog or jam bands out there and I appreciated that they were elevating heavy music beyond the nu metal meatheads who had been dominating the music scene up till then. There was once again no shortage of T-shirts and swag on sale on this SnoCore tour, as well as displays for snowboarding and stuff around, but sadly there was no poster for the show. 

On a personal note, I’d like to apologize to all my loyal readers out there since it had been some time since I had added to this blog. After completing writing about that exhausting year of 1999, I understandably wanted to take a little breather, especially since I had just moved to Alameda as well. I took it upon myself before beginning to write again to finally put in chronological order and inventory my entire poster collection during this period also, a task a very long time coming. I’m truly regretful that I hadn’t done this sooner, since it was a herculean task to say the least, taking weeks to complete in my spare time between working jobs. I’m happy to say that I got it done finally, unleashing me to write once again. Furthermore, it unearthed a lot of shows that I’d forgotten about and refreshed my memory of the shows that I will eventually get around to chronicle. So, I thank you for your patience. Onward into the 21st century…

1999

Red Hot Chili Peppers, 311, Bicycle Thief, Cow Palace, SF, Tues., December 28, 1999

SETLISTS : 

(311) : Freeze Time, Freak Out, Misdirected Hostility, Lucky, Beautiful Disaster, All Mixed Up, Come Original, What I Was Thinking, Down, Do You Right, Feels So Good

(RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS) : Around The World, Give It Away, Your Pussy’s Glues To A Building On Fire, Scar Tissue, Suck My Kiss, Parallel Universe, If You Have To Ask, Otherside, Out In L.A., I Could Have Lied, Organic Anti-Beat Box Band, Guns Of Brixton Intro – I Like Dirt, My Lovely Man, Right On Time, Tiny Dancer, Under The Bridge, Me & My Friends, (encore), Soul To Squeeze, Fire

This is it. Last show of the millennium. I know some people insist that the end of 2000 was the actual end, but that’s kind of lame. God knows, everybody was wetting their pants around this time in anticipation of the so-called “Y2K” disaster that never happened. Still, one can’t blame folks for being cautious. Even my parents stocked up a bit up at their ranch in Ukiah. I remember them telling me a story about how mom was asking dad whether he had enough “ammo” for something, it being a metaphor for something else, but dad had to stop and think for a moment. He did have a shotgun and pistol up there, used primarily for taking out rattlesnakes, but for that instance, pop had to consider defending the ranch from the two legged variety. I had attended a New Year’s Eve concert every year since 1991, but I chose to spend this special one with my friends. Besides, there wasn’t anything playing that night that I felt I couldn’t miss. Instead, I and my friends got drunk with hundreds of other revelers out at Alamo Square and watched the sky light up with fireworks when midnight dropped in front of the Seven Sisters. I had the mother of all hangovers the next morning, but I’m happy to say I was suffering through it in a large bed with three attractive, (though clothed), young women. I wouldn’t trade that memory for any show.

Though this would be the second time I’d be seeing the Chilis at the Cow Palace, I will never forgive myself for missing the one they did there that was historic. Yes, my long time readers will remember I missed them on New Year’s 1991-1992 with Nirvana and Pearl Jam opening so I could hang with my friends in the pouring rain in the parking lot of the Grateful Dead at Oakland Arena. Afterwards, I came down with a really, REALLY nasty cold and had to fly to London the next day. That memory, I would have gladly traded for the Chilis show or practically any other show now that I think of it. It had been three long years since I’d seen the Chilis at the Tibetan Freedom Concert as well as 311, who also played The Warfield that year. I can say with some certainty that this is the last show I ever saw at the Cow Palace for which I’m thankful. I despise that venue for reasons I’m sure I’ve bellyached about already.

This was an important time in the history of the Chilis. They had just fired guitarist Dave Navarro the year before who had been descending into drug addiction. Conversely, Flea had talked former guitarist John Frusciante to get cleaned up at the Las Encinas Drug Rehabilitation Center at the beginning of the year and soon the newly reconstituted Chilis would once again team up with producer Rick Rubin to create their smash hit album, “Californication” that June. It’s inspiring that John was able to turn his life around so dramatically, his arms scarred from years of heroin abuse, not to mention his reconstructed nose and dental implants he received after suffering from an oral infection. Before hitting the road on tour proper, they did some warm up gigs playing high school proms calling it the “Stop The Hate” tour, a response to the recent Columbine shootings. There, students who wrote essays on how to prevent violence would get to see them play. 

But if their aim was to prevent violence, they chose the worst possible place to relay the message that summer when they were the last act of the catastrophe that was Woodstock ’99. The place had already gone to holy hell by the time they went on stage there, but they had the astronomically bad choice of timing to end their set with a cover of “Fire” by Jimi Hendrix. Ironically, a group at the festival there to promote gun control had passed out candles for a vigil and well, in a very short period of time everything was burning. Anthony Kiedis claimed that at the end of their set, the band was quickly whisked off to the airport and the looting didn’t actually begin until they were checking into their hotel in Manhattan. Clearly, that was bullshit, but after that disaster of a rock festival, it’s understandable that all parties involved were not eager to share the guilt of it all. I guess it makes sense the Chilis soon went on tour in Europe. I’d leave the country too if I were them. They famously did a free show in Moscow then to a crowd of over 200,000 Russians. On a smaller sad note, Flea had his prized turquoise “Felapants”, (named after Afro-rock artist Fela Kuti), stolen when they were in Milan.

While the rest of America would have to wait until March for the band to tour promoting the new album, I was lucky to be able to see one of only four shows they’d do in California before they hit the road to Japan, New Zealand, and Australia. They had played in San Diego two nights before this show and then did Arco Arena in Sacramento the following night and wrapped up this micro-tour with a New Year’s Eve show at The Forum in L.A. I’m pissed that I didn’t know about the Arco show. I definitely prefer that venue (or any other fucking venue) to the Cow Palace and they had Primus opening for them that night instead of 311. Still, the Chilis were back on top and were tight, showcasing six songs from the new album. 

Though like John, Anthony was clean and sober, his feud with Mike Patton around that time was reaching a boiling point. Frustrated that he felt Mr. Bungle was getting kicked off of festival tours at Anthony’s request, that Halloween, Bungle did a show in Michigan openly mocking Anthony and his band. They crudely covered Chili’s songs, changing the lyrics and pantomiming injecting a syringe of heroin into the ghost of Hillel Slovak, their dearly departed original guitarist. I love Patton and Bungle and yes, it may have been Halloween and Mike had a bone to pick with Anthony, personally it didn’t sound funny. Maybe you had to be there. On the lighter side of the news, Anthony was dating “Sporty Spice” from The Spice Girls around that time, their relationship inspiring the Chili’s new song “Emit Remmus”, though it wasn’t played that night. Flea was going through a rough patch having just broken up with his girlfriend Marissa Pouw and battling depression, but was keeping busy during those years taking some parts in movies, notably in “The Big Lebowski”, the remake of “Psycho”, and “Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas” the year before. Drummer Chad Smith had some good news in ’98, welcoming the birth of his son Justin.

But back to the show. I will never forget that I actually personally let another band down that night seeing this show. A bit before this night, I was at a friend’s place in town and the members of the band Born Naked were there. Their drummer had mentioned that the band was playing in town on the 28th and asked if I was interested. In hindsight, I should have simply said I had a prior commitment and left it at that, but I impulsively mentioned that I was seeing the Chilis. Well, he mocked me jovially saying, “Well we know where your loyalties lie! I guess you’re more into something like this!”, and he contorted comically, parodying Anthony’s signature gyrations when he was on stage. At least I could partially make it up to them when I caught Born Naked a couple years later playing at The Fillmore.

There actually was an earlier opening act that night that I was unaware of, up until just yesterday in fact while I was doing research, called Bicycle Thief. Obviously, I missed them. This short lived band was fronted by Thelonious Monster singer Bob Forrest featured guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, who would become the Chilis’ guitarist ten years later until John would reclaim that position another ten years down the road in 2019. But Josh and John were friends and contemporaries, John even playing lead guitar on one of the songs on Bicycle Thief’s first and only album, “You Come & Go Like A Pop Song” released that year. Josh also has recently played guitar for Iggy Pop’s new band, The Losers, along with Chad on drums. Because the Chilis’ were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2012, Josh became the youngest person in history to join that venerable institution at the young age of 32, beating out Stevie Wonder who got in when he was 38. 

I’m sorry I missed Bicycle Thief. Like I said, that band was short lived. When I arrived at the Cow Palace, their set of which I was blissfully unaware had ended. In fact, I showed up just as 311 began their first song. Now I know I would have preferred to see Primus over 311, but they did fine that night anyway. I will defend that band, even though they tend to get lumped into a blob of bands that typified music in the 1990’s. People forget that they wrote memorable songs, especially the ones off their self titled third album, and back then, their sound was rather unique. I appreciated that such a band could emerge from Nebraska as well. One shining memory from that show actually occurred during the set change between the bands. Up a couple dozen rows in the bleachers there were some spunky young ladies who entertained the crowd, periodically pulling up their shirts to tantalize the eager young men (and rest assured some young women), with the brief visage of their bouncing naked breasts. This went on for a few minutes before most of the women seemed to lose interest in it, but I recall one of them, the ring leader of the bunch, fruitlessly tried to egg them and the crowd on. It felt rather anticlimactic by the end of it all, if you pardon the expression.

But soon enough, the Chilis took the stage and went right into “Around The World”, the opening track of the new album, before revisiting their last hit single, “Give It Away”. For a reason I still can’t fathom, they allowed John to sing a couple solo numbers. I had learned very quickly when he played with Trulio Disgracias at the Maritime back in ’97 that not only could John not sing, but his voice is seriously at the level of Yoko Ono cringe-worthiness. He did one of his own, the cryptically titled “Your Pussy’s Glued To A Building On Fire”, but later on committed the musical equivalent of a crime against humanity when he covered “Tiny Dancer” by Elton John. I’ve always hated that tune to begin with, but to hear Frusciante sing it was positively torturous. I’m just glad he abbreviated the song, keeping it just under two minutes, but it was two minutes of pure hell. Anthony was kind, praising him afterwards saying “it’s nice to have John back” and that “he’s a very sweet man”.

Anthony was sporting a new hairdo, though he had been wearing it short since he chopped off his until then trademark mane of long, straight Fabio-like locks, it was now dyed conspicuously blonde. I will dare say Sasha Baron Cohen would go on to steal his look for when he did the “Bruno” movie ten years later. Flea was his usual harlequin self, bopping around stage and cracking jokes all night. He introduced himself in the beginning, declaring “I’m George Burns!” Before they did “Scar Tissue”, Anthony praised the crowd adding, “You smell good too. Nothing like the bouquet of 14,000 kids from San Francisco.” Afterwards, he encouraged the young women to throw up their bras, panties, and used tampons on stage for the next song, “Suck My Kiss”. Flea wished everybody a Merry Kwanza before they did their next new song, “Parallel Universe” and then took an extended bass solo for “If You Have To Ask”.

They continued into the new material again with “Otherside”, but Anthony seemed half serious when he was trying to recruit someone up front to come up and sing it for him claiming that “This song is a shot in the dark for me”. The new album had been out five months, so there was bound to be at least a few people up front who knew the lyrics, but Anthony sang it anyway. He dedicated “Blackeyed Blonde” to Curtis Mayfield who had just passed away two days before this show from complications from type II diabetes and introduced “I Could Have Lied” saying, “Somebody broke my heart one time. It’s a good excuse to write a song.” Rumor has it, it was inspired by his brief relationship with Sinead O’Connor in the early 90’s. Most of the material that night was newish but they did dust off some classics like “Out In L.A.” and “Organic Anti Beat Box Band”. Anthony took a moment to give a shout out to some old bay area venues before that song like The Fillmore, The Stone, Berkeley Square, and Slim’s.

Before they did “I Like Dirt”, another new one, they did a little intro to it, playing the opening licks to “Guns Of Brixton” by The Clash. Flea stopped clowning around for a bit and got all sincere with the crowd saying “Nothing else matters but love!” They played the obligatory “Under The Bridge” before wrapping up their set with “Me & My Friends”. It took a while for them to return to the stage for their encore, but they did starting it off with “Soul To Squeeze” before ending the night with their cover of “Fire”. One would think that after the calamity they took part in that summer at Woodstock ’99, that they’d never, EVER play that song again, but they did. Now that I think about it, I saw many alumni from that doomed festival that year, including Sheryl Crow, Moby, Jamiroquai, The Brian Setzer Orchestra, not to mention James Brown, The Roots, and Jewel just in just the previous month alone. But all and all, one has to give the Chilis credit for the new album, going platinum a whopping seven times, easily making it their most successful one. It was also a sign to their fans as well as their detractors that as they were gracefully maturing into their 40’s, they weren’t entirely the brain dead, jock rock, party animals of their youth anymore. Thanks once again to John and his excellent songwriting, the new material was clearly some of their best songs they have ever written.

And three short days later, the people of the Earth would wake up to the 21st century. The Y2K disaster thankfully never materialized and life went on as usual, with the exception of the Panama Canal which was handed over to Panama after midnight. An usher had given me the schedule from Galactic at The Warfield from their New Year’s show, if memory serves, I believe it was Jordan who saved it for me. 2000 would be a sparse year for me show wise, doing only an even 60 in total. It might sound like a lot to the average person and it is, but bear in mind that I had done 18 in the previous October alone. It took me a while to get my groove back, seeing only five shows in the first three months of the year, but I caught some good ones all the same. 1999 was a great year, a banner year for me in music. And as I put that year to bed, along with the century and millennium, I’m filled with gratitude and relief that I can move forward.

Chicago, Jewel, The Girl & I, War., SF, Thurs., December 18, 1999

It had been two and a half weeks since I saw my last show, Stereolab at The Fillmore, easily the longest I had gone without a show in a very long time. If you haven’t been following along, I was still in mourning after leaving the Maritime Hall, so if you want to go back and hear me bellyache about it, please do. But for now, I’m moving on for which I’m eternally relieved. This was one of the few BGSE (Bill Graham Special Event) shows I’d ever do, where the house would have the place rented out for corporate parties. I mean, with the sparse crowd, this one being I would estimate no more than four or five hundred tops, and all the free food and hooch, you’d think I’d love these things. But no, and no matter how easy the job is there, I can never escape the feeling that I’m at a company party. Even when I’m not working one of these things and just happen to be there, I can’t shake that feeling.

From the get go, and this happens at every corporate party, any act would be lucky to have less than half of the crowd jibber jabbering throughout their set. Never is this more annoying to me and the artist when this happens to a solo acoustic act like Jewel. There’s something terribly undemocratic about having talent like that there was that night playing at a private party. Like all these BGSE shows, everyone knows there’s no shortage of true fans of these acts out there who would give a whole lot to witness it, unlike most of these uncaring stuffed shirts. Jewel looked pissed that evening, especially near the end of her set. At least it wasn’t as blatantly hostile and sexist as the crowd she faced at Woodstock ’99 that summer. Glad she got clear of that one before that doomed festival self destructed. Jewel still was professional and sang her best, especially belting out the “Star Search” long notes during her hit “Save Your Soul”. She had been criticized the year before for lip syncing the national anthem at Super Bowl XXXIII, so it was good that she could still prove to the world she has the pipes. 

Jewel had also just released her Christmas album, “Joy : A Holiday Collection” the month before, but didn’t do any songs off it this night. She’d also just released her first full length video “Jewel : A Life Uncommon” on DVD that year. And to top it all off, Jewel also had her debut acting role around that time in Ang Lee’s western, “Ride With The Devil”, co-starring with Tobey McGuire and Jeffrey Wright. I only was able to decipher about half her set but apart from the aforementioned “Save Your Soul”, but I know she opened with “Pieces Of You”, then “You Were Meant For Me”, followed by the ultra-cute “Do You Wanna Catch A Cold With Me?” Later, she’d do “Sometimes It Be That Way”, “Near You Always”, and “Barcelona”. There was another an opening act that night called The Girl & I who weren’t half bad either. But it was just a young woman singing on an acoustic guitar and some other guy playing along on conga drums and she struggled to be heard to the very few people who were there when she played in the beginning. 

Both opening sets were quiet enough that I overheard some of the wisecracks I was making with fellow ushers. There was some sort of announcement in the beginning and I joked that he should have added to “not eat the brown acid”. I went on hoping that Marilyn Manson would show up, though I doubted there would be much crowd floating or stage diving at this one. The singer off The Girl & I did mention that a lot of her favorite bands played there like Shawn Colvin and Nine Inch Nails, (an interesting combination who should tour together sometime), before she finished their set with a cover of “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega. It was a strong finish. I could hear myself later talking with someone about Lollapalooza ’95 and how I got Beck’s autograph there just before Chicago was introduced. There was some executive type, to this day I still can’t recall who this party was for though clearly it was for rich people, who gave a speech thanking his boss, his wife, “the best decision” he ever made, and encouraged everybody to hug the person next to them. 

To attempt to chronicle the expansive history of the band Chicago would take a while. By this time, they’d already been around over thirty years and this being my first and only time seeing them, I don’t think I’m in a position to be the best person to do them justice. But I will tell you what I do know and leave it at that. Most people like myself only knew Chicago from the years that Peter Cetera was singing in the band where he’d for better or worse peg the band for a time firmly in the dreaded genre of “yacht rock”. Now, I knew enough about them to know that their body of work stretched into several directions, having just released their (gulp!) 26th album that year, “Chicago XXVI”, each album numbered in roman numerals. It was a live album appropriately recorded that year in the city of Chicago. 

Like Jewel, they had also just put out a Christmas album recently, the “Chicago XXV : The Christmas Album”, the year before this.  But yeah, despite Chicago’s endless chops, they’ll always be associated with syrupy, soft rock lamentations like “Hard Habit To Break”, “Hard To Say I’m Sorry”, and “If You Leave Me Now”. Still, I appreciated when that last song had been used in the movie “Three Kings”, ironically played while the heroes were infiltrating an Iraqi fortress disguised as Saddam Hussein’s entourage. Come to think of it, “You’re The Inspiration” was also used cleverly a few years ago in “Deadpool” when the titular hero had a knife stuck in his head. Regardless, even if I did knew more about Chicago, I’m afraid I only recorded one song that gig, “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”. I think I was just tired and demoralized by the whole corporate party experience and called it an early night. I only have one tape full of material from that show, so I either lost the other one, or didn’t bring a second tape. Either way, I didn’t get Chicago’s set and haven’t seen them since. 

But I will leave you with one strange and unlikely association I have with the band. As luck would have it, in high school I used to live just a few doors down from Chicago’s trumpet player and founding member, Lee Loughnane. He had a swanky mansion just down the street from my folks’ old house in Alamo and my sister Erica used to babysit his son Brian and daughter Patricia. One night, Erica couldn’t do it, so I filled in for her. They were good kids and we watched “E.T. : The Extra-Terrestrial” on VHS together. I never forgot when Brian cracked up at the sight of the person dressed in a spacesuit coming into Elliot’s house to take control, Brian giggling, “You’re not in outer space!” He understood the irony, even at that young age. Lee’s house was an impressive one, tastefully decorated. I noticed he had a lot of Tom Waits stuff around including a couple of his albums up on the walls in picture frames. Lee no longer lives in that house though, currently residing in Arizona. Hard to believe those kids are in their fucking 40’s now.

Stereolab, Papa M, Fill., SF, Wed., November 23, 1999

SETLIST : John Cage Bubblegum, Infinity Girl, Escape Pod (From The World Of Medical Observations) AKA Heavy Munich, The Free Design, Op Hop Detonation AKA Buggy Boo!, Metronomic Underground, Monday, Strobo Acceleration AKA Amalgamatea, Analogue Rock, Blue Milk AKA Piano Mode, The Seeming & The Meaning, Come & Play In The Milky Night AKA Moody, Tone Burst, Super-Electric

It had only been four short days since I heard the calamitous news that Pete had been fired from the Maritime and Tory and I decided to leave as well. It took me a while to get back into my groove of regularly attending shows. Frankly, for the first half of 2000, I had little stomach for it. So, I must say how grateful that the first show I’d see after that emotional atomic bomb would be Stereolab. There are only a handful of bands that could reach me when I am that low and they’re up on the top of the list, at least in the top three. Seeing this gig at least gave me a little wiggle room mentally so I could eventually climb up the rest of the way. I had always hoped that Stereolab would one day play at the Maritime and I’d get to record them, but alas it never happened, and after this night, they would be firmly in the iron clutches of The Fillmore from then on out.

Before I continue, if you forgive my towering immodesty, my record keeping has been accurate 99 times out of hundred and probably better, but I do have to part company with the internet’s account of the setlist for this night. I know I was attending the first show of their two day stint at The Fillmore, so I think they might have listed the setlist for the second night by accident. Incidentally, the setlist I swiped from the sound person that night was handwritten on stationary from the Phoenix Hotel, a fashionable place well frequented by touring acts, so at least I know where they were staying then. The Phoenix was just down the street from me when I was living then in the Tenderloin, though I didn’t really hang out much at it, occasionally getting a drink in its bar. Anyway, one of the many things I appreciate about Stereolab is their habit of totally changing their sets from night to night. So, there’s no mistaking the difference between these two lists, not even close. Also, setlist.com has the opening act listed as Olivia Tremor Control instead of Papa M. But it was over twenty years ago and I can say that I’m probably the only person, or one of very few who would give a flying fuck on any level.

But speaking of Papa M, yes, they, or rather he was there as the opening act that night.  This was the brainchild of a guy named David Pajo, a highly prolific musician and songwriter, most notably being the guitarist of Slint. Papa M. was the third part of a trilogy of albums he put out, the first two being “Ariel M”and simply “M”. David had actually filled in as the bass player from Stereolab briefly in 1995, but I didn’t see them that year. Up till then, he had done work with Tortoise, Royal Trux, and others and afterwards would go on to play with Zwan, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Interpol just to name a few. He currently is touring with The Gang Of Four. David had just released his “Live From A Shark Cage” album just a month before this night. Tim Gane, the guitarist from Stereolab, helped to produce it. Yeah, David had talent and his set was relaxing as well as easy to usher. He also won some brownie points with The Fillmore’s old guard that night when he did a respectful instrumental cover of “Turn Turn Turn” by The Byrds.

I was especially eager to see Stereolab that evening since it had been two years to the day since I’d seen them play the Great American. Though I was up to my eyeballs in shows during those years, I missed them and glad they had come to town again. As it turns out, they were taking a little hiatus because Tim and singer Laetitia Sadier were having a bouncing baby boy named Alex. He would be their only offspring before they separated three years after this, though they still tour together to this day. During this time off, they wrote some new songs and had just released “Cobra & Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night” just two months before this show. We were lucky to hear five new ones performed in their set. 

Laetita had a really short haircut then, probably the shortest I’d ever seen it. The band was breaking in their new bassist, Simon Johns, the fifth since their inception, though Johns would stay with them for the next ten years. Guitarist and back up singer Mary Hansen had formed the band Schema with members of Hovercraft that year, though she sadly had recently lost her father. Even more tragic, Mary would join him three years later after being hit by a car while she was on a bike. I’m grateful I saw her as often as I did back then and I’d see her play with Stereolab two more times before she was gone. I’m sorry, this has taken a bit of a dark turn.

Indeed, I should celebrate this show even more since I must declare after listening to it again, that it was one of the best sets I’d ever hear them do. I had to work through the first two songs, but I dashed fast as lightning upstairs when I was cut, snatched my drink tickets, and bolted back downstairs. I can hear myself on the recording going up to the bar and getting a Sierra Nevada pale ale during “Heavy Munich”. Back then, it was only that or Bud on tap, an easy choice to make. Laetitia was in a happy mood and spoke some French with a few of the fans up front. You can hear me at the end of tape rejoicing that they had played “Tone Burst” saying that it was “one of my favorites”. I was also very relieved at the end of the night when Stereolab got a poster. If they hadn’t gotten one especially since they were doing a two night stint and I was feeling a bit emotionally fragile, that I might have made a scene. It was appropriate that Stereolab had finally played the hallowed halls of The Fillmore  having proved themselves over their career to be more than worthy. Though they would return to play The Warfield the following year, the largest venue I’d ever see them headline in, they would return to The Fillmore again in 2001 and I would see them play there exclusively from then on out. It’s hard to believe as of the last time I caught them there last year, I have seen an even dozen Stereolab shows at The Fillmore. That’s over half of the 22 times I’ve seen them live in total.

The Roots, 75 Degrees, Eternal Measure, Mike T, Kelis, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., November 19, 1999

OK, this is it. Last call. Though I would return to the Hall to fill in for Wade, my replacement in the recording room for a mere ten shows in 2000 and one more time for the final show in 2001, this gig with The Roots would be the final one I’d work as a full time recording engineer at Maritime Hall. The confrontation between Boots the owner and Pete my partner was a long time coming. Boots had been less than forthcoming for years about the royalties we were owed from the CD and DVD releases that the Hall had been putting out and Pete was at his limit. By this time, Boots was already bouncing checks left and right. I can’t say what was the last straw that put Pete over the threshold to make that fateful phone call, but he did it the day after this show. Pete warned me it was coming, but I naively shrugged it off hoping that he was just blowing off steam. Heartbreaking as the results were, I have to admit the moment I received the news had some comic timing.

Pete had phoned me that morning telling me he was going to do it and it was not my place to tell him to reconsider. Part of me hoped that this reckoning would result in Boots opening the books to reconcile the matter, but that was wishful thinking at its worst. I waited to hear how things were going that morning, but figured it would be a while, so I decided to take a shower. I’d just gotten to through my usual routine as people do in the shower and was in the final stages of washing off the soap suds from my body when, you guessed it, the phone rang. Anxious to hear what had transpired, I didn’t wait and burst from the shower to pick up the phone, trying to get the water out of my ear when I listen out of the phone’s receiver. Well, it was Boots, not Pete. Boots quickly informed me that he had fired Pete and when I questioned his motives, naturally he got angry and defensive merely stating that he was “tired of his shit”, told me I could join him if I wanted, and promptly hung up.

At that moment, butt naked, still dripping suds, I saw red and seriously considered getting dressed, buying a gun, marching over to Boots’ office, and personally send him back home to Hell. But I took a beat, called Pete and talked through it. Pete seemed relieved and not surprised in the results in the slightest. I was totally traumatized and didn’t know what to do. Pete said he obviously was not going back to the Hall and told me that I could do what I wanted. Well, I didn’t want to stay at Maritime without him, but still had Tory to consider. I thought about it and called Tory what had happened and what I was going to do and Tory agreed that he’d bail too. Tory was no fan of Boots, nobody at the Hall really was. So that was it.

But I was ashamed when four months later, Boots had asked me if I could fill in for Wade for a night and I had accepted. I was emotionally in a bad place over what had happened. Seriously, it was classic addictive behavior and I was too selfish and stupid to see it. I had missed the Hall, recording all these great musical acts and was envious that the Maritime was still carrying on despite us and I still wanted part of it. I was especially ashamed because of Tory and my going back after he had also packed up with Pete felt like the worst kind of betrayal. I’d known Tory since I was 6 years old, one of my oldest friends, if not the oldest. Tory seemed a touch peeved when I told him I was going back, but seemed to understand. He had already moved on and was looking elsewhere for work. There was no way he could have sustained himself financially full time just on the money Boots was paying him. I think he was getting only $50 a show back then.

Likewise, Boots offered me the same instead of the royalty scheme we had set up with Pete before this. Junkie as I was, I would have done it for free which before that time, I was practically doing anyway. Of course, I didn’t let Boots know this and took his blood money. And though I would only do those shows that I mentioned before, enough to just count them on both hands and one toe, the money did help, but I’d give it all back and never have returned at all if I had to do it all over again. I guess this is the “confession” part of my blog. I still harbor the guilt from that decision and will carry it with me for the rest of my days. I was a different person then obviously and like to think that today if I ever had to make such a terrible choice, that I would remember this time and opt for the moral one. But that being said, one would understand that my occasional returns to Hall at least afforded me to do a handful of shows that I remembered fondly, including getting to record The Flaming Lips, my borther’s old band the Dance Hall Crashers, and Todd Rundgren. The recording from Todd’s show would go on to become his “Live In San Francisco” DVD, though as usual, I didn’t end up in the credits.

But enough of my lamentations. Y’all will hear enough about these shows as I did as a “scab” in the future when I get to them chronologically. I like to call these last days of the Maritime, “The Blue Period”. I named it that for a couple reasons, but partially because the lighting guys had a leftover par can light on a floor stand and they had parked it in the recording room. It had a navy blue gel in its frame and I would light it up, reflecting off of one of the recording room’s white plaster walls giving the room a soothing blue glow. Pete had taken his lava lamps with him by that time, so the room needed some additional lighting anyway. Also, as it is with all venues on it’s last legs, it was truly a depressing time to work there, a real “blue” period filled with bounced checks and dwindling resources. By the end, Boots was having the sound guys use VHS tape labels stretched alongside each other to label the boards because he wouldn’t spring for board tape. But again, I digress and I have one last show to regale you all about.

As you might have read before, The Roots were no strangers to the Maritime. This would be the fifth (and final) time I’d record them there. Why, when I first encountered them at the Hall way back in December of 1996, they were still a three piece act headlining their first tour. But with the release of “Things Fall Apart” that February, it had become obvious that they were outgrowing the Hall and would soon be moving on to bigger and better venues. Like James Brown, who had rocked the house the night before, The Roots had made the unfortunate decision to join the bill of Woodstock ’99 that summer. At least they got through their set at that doomed festival and had hit the road before everything went to holy hell. But even though they had just co-headlined a show with Everlast at The Warfield with Macy Gray opening just two months before this night, they still packed the Maritime from top to bottom.

I’m glad to say that I would see The Roots four more times in the years that followed this show, but this would be the last time I’d see them with rapper Malik B. in the band. He had left The Roots after this tour, though he’d return to do vocals on other albums. Tragically, he passed away three years ago at the all too young age of 47, though the cause of death to this day has still not been revealed. Whenever somebody dies under such circumstances, it is more often than not either a drug overdose or suicide. As I said before, few would have predicted just how big they would become, ultimately taking the mantle of the house band for “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” ten years later and then following him to “The Tonight Show” in 2014 where they still reside today. 

This show had some decent, quick opening acts, but I do remember The Roots’ set being a good one, probably one of the best that I’d ever hear them perform. 75 Degrees who had been on the bill when The Roots played at the Hall eight months before with Common, was second to last this time. The first act was the young Kelis, who was getting fresh attention with her debut “Kaleidoscope” album, produced by Pharrell Williams and The Neptunes, which just came out that year along with the single “Caught Out There”. She was only 20 years old when she performed at the Hall that night, not even old enough to legally drink yet. Originally, that song was meant for Busta Rhymes, but he had turned it down, lucky for Kelis. Her chanting of “I hate you so much right now!” sticks in your head almost as much as “Milkshake”, the infectious song that Pharrell would pen for her four years later that would supercharge her career. 

Strangely enough, the thing I remember most about their set that night was the little musical interludes they did at the end of the show. The band was clowning around and did little songs for each other, cracking each other up on stage. Though I can’t recall the others, I remember as if it was yesterday that they did an acapella version of “Feel The Heat”, that ridiculously silly rock song from “Boogie Nights” done by John C. Reilly and Mark Wahlberg. Those who had seen the movie will never forget their off key voices and corny lyrics while they rehearsed it in a recording studio along with Wahlberg’s cringe inducing cover of “The Touch” by Stan Bush. Other than that, The Roots pretty much covered most of the same ground they did when they had performed at the Hall the previous March.

So, that was it. Finito. Though a small part of me was bracing for the impending divorce from Boots and the Hall, that night I was focused entirely on The Roots and their fun set. But reliving this show means reliving the divorce. I finish this installment with bittersweet feelings of my whole experience with that dreaded pirate ship of a venue, but also with an overwhelming sense of relief and graditude. I’m also relieved that in my future writings that I won’t be blindsided anymore discovering the CDs and DVDs of ones  I did, unaware of their release. Confession is good for the soul and though it was painful to relive those terrible feelings again, it is cathartic as well. That time there will always be a part of me and I’m proud of the work Pete, Tory, and all the others involved took part in. Even though we didn’t get credit for a lot of the things we recorded there, those CDs and DVDs exist and are enjoyed by those musical acts’ fans in perpetuity, despite how obscure some of them might be or how good they were. At least my tenure at the Maritime ended on a high note with The Roots.

James Brown & The Soul Generals, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., November 18, 1999

SETLIST : Overture, I Can’t Turn You Loose, Mercedes Benz, At Last, A Little Bit Harder, Get Up Offa That Thing, Cold Sweat, Gonna Have A Funky Good Time, Super Bad, Get On The Good Foot, My Mama Did Told Me, Every Piece Of My Heart, Heavy Juice, solos, If You Ever Leave Me – Prisoner Of Love – The Payback – I Found Someone, This Is A Man’s World, Hot Pants (She Got To Use What She Got To Get What She Wants) – Make It Funky – It’s Too Funky In Here – Funk On Ah Roll, Try Me, I Got You (I Feel Good), The Popcorn Intro – Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag, Please Please Please, Get Up (I Feel Like A Sex Machine)

OK, obviously this is a big one, maybe the most important show I ever taped at the Hall. Straight out of the gate, I just want to say how shocked I was that Pete left me this one to do. I mean, Wilson Pickett was one thing, but the Godfather Of Soul, Mr. Dynamite, AKA Soul Brother Number 1? Maybe it was because he had already taped Mr. Brown back in 1996 at the Hall but more likely that he was fed up with Boots the owner. This would be the second to last show I’d do at this venue as a full time recording engineer, but I was so excited at the prospect of doing it that I could scarcely devote any thought to the Hall’s impending doom. I’ll leave the details of this unpleasant divorce for The Roots who played the following night.

All morning, I’m ashamed to say that I had the “Weird Al” Yankovic song “Living With A Hernia” stuck in my head, his parody of “Living In America”. A funny song it might be, but as luck would have it, wasn’t performed that night. I also made the unwise decision to give blood that day. I was in the habit of giving blood routinely back then mostly because the medical world so desperately needed it and continues to, but also because I was aware that the act was good for men’s health, spurning my body to produce fresh blood cells. The word I heard was that it helps men particularly because women do this replenishment naturally through menstruation. Anyway, I did it around lunchtime that day, knowing I’d get to the Hall around 3 PM, well ahead of the usual time for soundcheck. Well… I was wrong. They don’t call Mr. Brown the hardest working man in show business for nothing.

When I arrived, I was horrified to discover that not only was his band there already, but they had set up on stage and were smack dab in the middle of their soundcheck. With a woozy head, I frantically turned on the recording room, got the input list, and did my best to piece together the mix as fast as I could. The good news was that they were such a tight band, that mixing them was that much easier. The bad news was that it was easily the largest band I had ever had to mix, forcing me to improvise like a motherfucker to bus inputs together in the 8 tracks out of the 24 I could do that with. Right away, the four audience mics had to take up two tracks. There was no way around that. My memory is understandably fuzzy, but I believe I put all the guitars and keys on two tracks, the horns and back up singers on another two, along with all the percussion, toms, and overhead cymbals on the last two. Somehow I squeezed them all in there and had a half decent mix by the time they finished their soundcheck. I caught my breath, made sure all my tapes were properly labeled, and waited for the glorious event.

Now one thing I wanted to point out was that James Brown had his dressing room that night right next door to the recording room in Grant’s office. Boots personally knew I was there, but unconvincingly gave me the whole, “Oh, I didn’t know you were even here” routine at the end of the show, intercepting me with the tapes before I could give it to Mr. Brown or any of his crew. He took the tapes and told me that he’d take care of it, but somehow (a-hem!) that never happened that night and the tapes were left on the shelves in the recording room the following day. Oops. To be fair, I have sympathy for Boots on this one. It was no secret that Mr. Brown’s tour manager was a just a wee bit of the demanding sort and it’s a safe bet that if he was aware of the recording going on, he’d shut it down right away, so I’m glad Boots kept it on the DL. It wasn’t the first time he pulled a sneaky fast one on acts that had performed there and rest assured, it wasn’t the last. But still, if Boots hadn’t bent the rules as much and often as he did, the Maritime would have never got off the ground, much less put me in the recording chair of a James Brown concert. For that alone, I must thank him.

Fast ones aside, it happened. Like I said, this was the biggest band I ever mixed, save for one that probably tied it, being the time all the members of the Hothouse Flowers joined  Donal Lunny’s Coolfin on stage there that August. All and all, it was at least 40 odd inputs, we’re talking full drum and percussion kits, 3 basses, 5 guitars, 5 keyboards, a full horn section, and back up singers. The Soul Generals weren’t messing around. When you get a band that size, it’s no longer a band, it becomes an orchestra. And with his reputation, came the tour rider which I’m sure cost the Maritime a bundle. For starters, I know they had him shacked up at presidential suite at the Fairmont on Nob Hill. I shutter to think how much that one costs a night. Along with the catering and amenities, they had set up an old school hair drying chair in Grant’s office for him. Dear lord, the work that must go into maintaining that bulletproof helmet of hair he has must be exhausting. Furthermore, the Soul Generals all had matching suits with bow ties and cumberbunds that certainly needed to be dry cleaned after every performance. I noticed in other gigs they would do that year, they had blue suits, but that night they were red. I imagine they would rotate between the two and probably had more sets that I don’t even know about and that’s just for the band. The extensive wardrobe that Mr. Brown has donned over the decades is truly mind boggling. Like the late great country legend Rose Maddox once eloquently coined, he made “Liberace look like a plucked chicken”. It came to no surprise that the floor tickets would be $50, the balcony ones $75, to cover the costs of it all. It doesn’t sound like a lot of money today, but back then that was a bundle.

Before I continue on to the show, it should be noted that Mr. Brown was as busy as always that year. He, along with The Roots who played the Hall the following night, made the unfortunate decision to be on the bill of Woodstock ’99 that summer, but were long gone before that festival self destructed. He had also been the entertainment for the Super Bowl halftime show in 1997. As luck would have it, he had just released “The Merry Christmas Album” just two days before this show, his (gulp!) 58th studio album and the 4th Christmas album he’d put out in 31 years. Like back in 1996, the Soul Generals were lead by Hollie Farris, their trumpet player and musical director. It was no secret that James had been battling drug addiction for his entire career, though he held a strict no drug policy with his band members, and had just finished a stint in rehab the year before only to be charged with marijuana possession and unlawful use of a handgun only a week later. He had allegedly taken a woman named Mary Simons hostage for three days demanding oral sex when he discharged the weapon, though the charges were ultimately dismissed. To go into the myriad of other charges leveled upon him in his life ranging from domestic and sexual abuse, car chases with the police, and numerous assaults would imply that Mr. Brown perhaps was the most dangerous man in show business as well as the hardest working. I suppose one would have to work hard to be that dangerous.

Speaking of Mr. Brown’s troubles, he had a similar track record with his love interests. Along with the nine children he admitted to siring, he had at least three kids out of wedlock, including the last one, James Jr., who he fathered with his lead back up singer in the Soul Generals, Tomi Rae Hynie. They held a wedding ceremony three years after this show, but there was legal wrangling over the validity of their marriage after James’ death, but she was ultimately  decreed as his widow in the end and was entitled to her share of his estate. But that ruling was struck down three years ago when a judge determined that she was not legally his widow since she had failed to annul her previous marriage. Tomi was there that night, introduced by the diminutive Danny Ray, James’ longtime emcee, and did a few songs with the Soul Generals before James took the stage, including a cover of Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz”. She had actually been working as a Janis Joplin impersonator in Las Vegas when they first met two years before this show. She also did a quick cover of “At Last”, the wedding standard by Etta James.

Anyway, like the first time I’d witness this spectacle of soul, they brought the house down once again. James burst onto stage after a medley of his hits and the traditional introduction by Danny Ray and the band went straight into “Get Up Offa That Thing”. I was still desperately trying to piece together my mix during that song, having had so little time to do it during the soundcheck, but by the time they followed it with “Cold Sweat”, I think it was passible. I’ll never forget that Chris, one of the Brotherhood Of Light guys, had advised Tory to get extra close in his close ups for the video that night and Tory obliged him, though I thought he should have ignored him. Tory was great at his job by then and needed no coaching for his skills on the camera and video switching. They covered hit after hit, James doing his signature dance moves, finishing with Danny Ray coming in doing the traditional bit where he would escort him off stage, draping him in a cape. But James would soon return to finish the night with the seminal soul classic, “Get Up (I Feel Like A) Sex Machine”.

And like that, it was all over. I had little time to grab some beer to celebrate, but managed to grab a couple pints from the bar to blow off some steam with Tory. We hung out in the back alley of the ground floor near the cafeteria to try to stay clear of Mr. Brown and the load out. Bonz, the head of security, even gave us the stink eye when he saw we were drinking beer out there and told us to stay out of sight. We assured him that we were going to drink up and skeedaddle soon. After a minute or two, we were almost done when none other than Mr. Brown himself walked by us on his way to his tour bus and as you might imagine, we were caught by surprise. But Tory and I quickly regained what composure we had, shook his hand, and probably blubbered something about how much we loved him and how much he ruled that night. I remember he was all smiles and had a firm handshake and before we knew it, he floated past us like a jewel encrusted breeze and he was gone. That was it. That was my little microscopic moment with the Godfather Of Soul. And even though that show would sadly be one of my last at the Hall, the memory of that wild, funky night sustains me to this day and makes me proud.

Buju Banton, Beres Hammond, Hurricane Gilbert & Majestic, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., November 14, 1999

It had been a long extended weekend of shows at the Maritime and this one would end the five night stretch. And what a night to end it on, a late, LATE reggae show with Buju Banton. Though it was definitely a stylistic left turn from the night before from the bombastic sounds of Slipknot and Coal Chamber, oddly enough Buju had just been signed at Epitaph Records, a label populated almost entirely by punks. Granted, punks and rastas had always a good relationship, particularly with guys like The Clash, Bad Brains, and The Police, but having Buju on their roster is still a little bit of a surprise. His music is about as dancehall as it comes, but nevertheless, along with his new album, “Unchained Spirit”, Buju would collaborate with Rancid for three songs, “No More Misty Days”, “Hooligans”, and “Life Won’t Wait”. 

Beres Hammond who opened that night would also appear on Buju’s new album, contributing vocals for the song, “Pull It Up”. Though I’d never seen the reggae veteran before, I was familiar with Hurricane Gilbert & Majestic who had just performed at the Maritime that July opening for Beenie Man. Like Beenie Man, Buju would torture me into the wee hours of the night doing his halting thick drum and bass music. It’s like he’d do part of a song, break it down, toast some acapella in his indecipherable Jamaican patois, and then start all over again. I mean, I like dancehall as much as the next guy, but after a couple hours of this on top of the sheer exhaustion from this stretch of concerts, I was more than ready for it all to be over. Little did I know that by the same time, the following week that it all would be. After The Roots played the following Friday, my partner Pete finally confronted Boots the owner and Boots fired him. I’ll get to that soon enough.

Coal Chamber, Slipknot, Dope, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., November 13, 1999

SETLISTS :

(SLIPKNOT) : Intro – 742617000027, [sic], Eyeless, Wait & Bleed, Surfacing, Purity, Spit It Out, Eeyore, Scissors, (unknown)

(COAL CHAMBER) : Loco, Big Truck, No Home, Bradley, Not Living, Untrue, First, Clock, I, Tyler’s Song, Oddity, Sway

Ugh. Here we go again. No sooner than I had just got through bellyaching to you all about how S.O.D. clumsily ripped off my recording of them for a live DVD, that I find Coal Chamber, the very next show literally the day after, would also release a live DVD without my knowing about it. Now before I continue, I will say that having vented so much about S.O.D. and taken a beat to think it all over, I’m not nearly as furious as I was a couple days ago. To begin with, I’m coming to the end of my bittersweet history with Maritime Hall and I’m finding myself more and more grateful that so much stuff we recorded there had been released in one form or another, whether we got money or credit or neither. At this point, I’m just glad they exist and somebody got to appreciate them. Secondly, upon hearing Coal Chamber’s set again, I was reminded that I wasn’t really a fan of their music. I’m not exactly enthusiastic about bragging that I have them in my resume of recording accomplishments. Nevertheless, they liked the video that Tory and I made that night, enough to add it to the 2005 re-release of their debut album as a bonus DVD. 

Besides, Coal Chamber didn’t rip us off like S.O.D. did. Boots the owner had mixed the DVD himself and made a deal with them. I know Boots was in on this one because he did one of his trademark misspellings in the credits spelling the word video, “Vidio” when he listed the video crew. I swear to God, only Boots would screw something up that simple. Boots had listed guys who had done video work with the Hall after Tory had left with Pete and me, guys like James McCloud. And though the video system was basically designed to be run by a single person, Boots had listed four different guys in the video department. Naturally, I am pissed that neither Tory or I were listed in the credits, but Boots did list Pete in the audio crew, though he listed his role as “Basics”. Seriously, just the wording he used obviously screamed that he wasn’t intending on giving Pete or me one thin dime from this DVD. At least placing him on that list of credits at all confirmed that the set was recorded during our tenure there and there’s no denying that Tory and I did that one. Still, we got hosed and as Stephen Colbert once so eloquently phrased it, I’m just “screaming into an Altoid’s can and throwing that can over a cliff into the ocean”. Even if Pete was alive today, I’m sure he’d find trying to shake Boots down over it or any of the others wouldn’t be worth the headache.

The good news about this show was it was the first time I got to see Slipknot. This was one of those rare gigs where the opener blew the headliner out of the water. I mean, I’ve seen guys get clearly upstaged like when I saw Radiohead open for Soul Asylum or when The Cranberries opened for Suede, but not like this. Slipknot stomped on them with both feet and buried them alive. Dear God, I thought when The Misfits had Gwar open for them recently at the Hall that they would be a tough act to follow, but Coal Chamber tried their best and managed to get a pittance of the mosh pit Slipknot got, probably the craziest the Maritime would ever have. At least Dope, the first band on that night, didn’t have to follow Slipknot. They had just rolled through the Hall two months before this opening for Fear Factory and I thought they were pretty good, better than Coal Chamber anyway. They once again did their industrial metal covers of “Fuck Tha Police” by N.W.A. and “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” by Dead Or Alive. The band Amen had been on the bill for this tour, but I don’t remember if they were at the Hall that night. They were between record labels and I think they might have had to drop out of the tour.

There was little to prepare me for the spectacle that is Slipknot, other than I knew they were pretty heavy and getting popular fast. One thing I knew and was curious about was the fact they were from Des Moines, Iowa, just down the road from all my kin in Ames. The idea that such a remarkable group of psychos could emerge from such an obscure place still boosts my morale. Their debut self titled album had just come out that June while they were touring around with Ozzfest headlining its second stage. This was being billed as the “Livin La Vida Loco” tour and this was their second to last show opening for Coal Chamber. Slipknot clearly took a page from Mr. Bungle with their matching speedsuits and assigned mask characters. But the real star of the show in my opinion with that band was their drummer, Joey Jordison, who sadly just passed away a couple years ago from a rare neurological condition called acute transverse myelitis. Joey was one of the fastest, tightest metal drummers that I ever had the honor of seeing perform. Slipknot was so outrageous and frantic, that many people would overlook his skills on the skins.

That man’s drum kit turned out to be a bit of a controversy that night between me and the monitor engineer, Jack Shaw. Now, I did and still have the utmost respect for Jack. He’s a brilliant sound man, ten times the sound man I’ll ever be, but I had to part company with him that night when he refused to set up overhead mics for the drum cymbals. He had affixed all of  Coal Chamber’s mics in place, but with all the inputs that he had to dig up for Slipknot, he came up short, so he simply didn’t put the overhead mics out. I did my best to try to implore him to simply just use Coal Chamber’s overhead mics, even if he just used one of them, and convince him of the importance of Slipknot, but he wouldn’t budge. I wouldn’t normally go to Boots over such a matter, but I thought it was that important. Well, I should have predicted that there would be blood over this and when Boots confronted Jack in the only way Boots knows how to confront people, Jack took it as the last straw and quit the Hall when the show was over. I still feel guilty about the whole incident and would take it back if I could, but let’s face it. It was the Maritime and Jack would have quit eventually anyway. Disappointed as I was, I’m happy to say after cranking up the high hat mic and some of the high end on some of the other drum mics, that enough of the cymbals bled through to be passable.

Before they took their places on stage, they played a weird recording of a bunch of southern kids yelling profanity at each other. I still can’t figure out where they sampled it from. Singer Corey Taylor pumped up the crowd, yelling, “Are you ready for the fuckin’ sickness, people!?! Let me see your middle fingers in the air! Are you ready to tear this place apart!?!” He stuck up his middle finger, fingernails painted black, leading a vast sea of middle fingers on the dance floor and in the balcony. The crowd cheered when the droning “[sic]” intro began and the mosh pit exploded the moment they began playing “Eyeless”. The stage was crowded with their nine members, but there was room enough in the wings for a couple of their techs to watch over them. One of them, a skinny shirtless fellow was wearing an Elvis wig, sunglasses, and had the words “The King” along with a cartoon crown painted on his chest in large black letters.

Corey took time to give a couple speeches between songs that night. After “Wait & Bleed” he addressed the crowd saying, “You know, not too long ago, we rolled though here on a little thing called Ozzfest. Do I got any friends from that fuckin’ day here? Let me see these fuckers! Light these fuckers up so I can see my friends here!” The lighting guy obliged him and he went on, “If you were there, you know I said some pretty horrible things about hippies & love, peace and all that fuckin’ bullshit. Well, I got something else to fuckin’ say, cus’ there’s a lot of idiotic, pussy motherfuckers ruining music today and I’m personally fuckin’ tired of it, are you!?! I’m not gonna mention any fuckin’ names like Kid Rock, Eminem, that fuckin’ shit. I don’t give a fuck. I just want to see your middle fingers in the air! Because if you feel the same way I do, I want to hear you sing this song till it makes this fuckin’ ceiling shake! This song is called ‘Surfacing’!”

Afterwards, he spoke again catching his breath, “I’m not afraid to kill you all. I just need one second please. Shhh… This song is about something terrible that happened to a little girl. This song is about a girl in a box. This song is called ‘Purity’”. During the song, another interesting thing happened. Corey would stand still at the edge of the stage, extended his free hand, holding an open bottle of water, and started pouring little splashes of water onto the heads of the security guys up front. As you can imagine, they weren’t very pleased about that amongst other things and they absolutely aired their grievances with the band when their set ended, but I’ll get to that in a bit. The DJ, his table adorned with a black tarp with large, white letter banner on it saying “People = Shit”, did a series of little scratches for the intro of “Spit It Out”. Corey got everybody to put their fists in the air and near the end of the song, the DJ did a rather impressive stage dive into the mosh pit. 

For their second to last song, they did “Scissors” and the member with the pointy nose mask brought out a metal beer keg with a ribbed tube attached to it and he rubbed the tube with a percussion stick occasionally banging the side of the keg. The big guy in the bald clown mask pretended to play pocket pool as security rather brutally took away in a choke hold some young man who bum rushed the stage. At the end of the song, the DJ knelt at Coreys feet and he brought him in, hugging him, the DJs face nestled in his torso. Yeah, it was a touching moment, but for the last song, of which I still don’t know the title, Corey went someplace dark, giving us a little melancholy monologue.

It began, “I can hear the maggots scream. I can feel the shadows of hell. I can feel your filth like a coat or sweater on my fuckin’ eyes. I still don’t believe a fuckin’ word you say to me… Your own existence is a joke. You hide yourself inside skin & bone. Do you people even know who the fuck you are? Do you people know who the fuck you are!?! Can you see right through the fuckin’ haze?” The guy in the pointy mask simulated jacking off his own nose, hypnotising the guitar player next to him and Corey continued, “Conspiratorial bloody gaze of your own pathetic ways to get through your own fuckin’ pathetic days. You break bones on your own. You break bread with your enemy and you still look yourself in the mirror every day. Your friends lie and they cheat and they fuck you around until you can’t even see yourself. What is real? Am I real? Am I real to you? Can you hear me? Am I real to you!?! Or am I just another lie?… I… I feel sick. I know why…”

The bald clown faced guys put his fingers down his own throat as Corey wrapped things up, “But you’ll never listen to me. Even though I show it all to you! You’ll never listen to me! You just keep going around, let yourself behind until there’s nothing left!” He kept screaming “Until there’s nothing left!” and the bald clown started kicking things on stage over, tearing off the banner from the DJ table. I have to say, having to pause and replay this monologue over and over again was beginning to take its toll on me. It was starting to get so depressing that it became hilarious. Anyway, the band climaxed at the end abusing their instruments until the set finally finished in a chaotic din. I took a deep breath and took a moment to process what I had just witnessed. I knew this recording was important to me, but knew it would probably never be published. Slipknot was already too big by then for the Maritime and could do a live DVD their own way and they did, having just put out the “Welcome To Our Neighborhood” DVD just four days before this show and then “Disasterpieces” three years later. They would also rerelease a 10th anniversary special edition of that double platinum debut album with a bonus DVD of a live set they did in 2000 from a festival in The Netherlands called “Dynamo Open Air”.

But I was still proud of the work Tory and I did and was looking forward to meeting the band when I would hand the tapes off to them. Because of the lack of space, they had actually parked Slipknot in the hallway on the level where the recording room was, so I found them right away. And that’s when they were having shall I say an awkward encounter with the Hall’s security. When I strolled around the corner, I came upon a melee in progress between security and members of the band, each lunging and angrily shouting at each other while more sensible members of each group tried to hold everybody back. I found the closest Slipknot member who wasn’t engaged in fisticuffs and it happened to be their bass player, Paul Gray, the one with the pig mask. Paul didn’t seemed phased in the slightest from the commotion just a few feet in front of him and very casually took the tapes, signed the release, and thanked me. I was pleasantly surprised by his friendly demeanor, especially since he was a rather burly fellow. I’m sad to say that this gentle giant, the one member of Slipknot I actually met, would pass away eleven years later from an accidental drug overdose.

But at least I would get to see him and their original drummer perform with Slipknot a couple more times the following year when the headlined The Warfield and again in 2001 when they would lead the second stage at the B.F.D. festival at Shoreline. Yes, Slipknot wouldn’t be opening for any other acts for a while after this, promptly beginning their own headlining “World Domination” tour just two weeks after this show. Indeed, I believe they were supposed to play the Maritime again when they returned to town the following April, but they were too big by then and The Warfield snatched them up. After that, they would graduate to playing arena sized venues and continue to do so to this day. The last time they played in the bay area in 2019, they headlined at Shoreline, calling it the “Knotfest” tour. Yeah, and poor Coal Chamber had to follow them that night.

They cleared out all of Slipknot’s gear and there was once again a little elbow room on stage. They set up a couple par cans as uplights on the front corners of the drum riser and one below the guitarist. This would be one of the last shows bassist Rayna Foss would do before taking some time off to give birth and spend time with her first child and was replaced for a time by Nadja Peulen. She would then return after Nadja left the band in 2002, claiming that she and her husband had found Christ. Either that, or she just wanted to stop being in a band that sucked. I know I sound harsh, but understand, Coal Chamber had just been kicked off a tour opening for Insane Clown Posse because their fans hated them. Seriously, when you can’t even get fans as lame as the Juggalos to like you, maybe it’s time to call it a day.

Coal Chamber had played the Hall the year before with Sevendust and their singer Dez Farfara made a note of it saying the last time they had played there, that there had been only 150 people attending and boasted of the crowd they had amassed at this one. Frankly, most folks were obviously there for Slipknot and quite a few bailed after their set was over. Still, the dance floor was pretty full and managed to get a little mosh pit going for some of their faster numbers. They had set up a step box in front of the drum riser where during “Not Living”, Dez laid down on his back for a bit and then sat Indian style in front of it. I have to admit, I thought their guitarist Miquel Rascon was pretty funny the way he would do little robot moves throughout his grating guitar playing and that he wore a face veil when they did “Tyler’s Song”. At the end, he was futzing around with some sort of theremin device and when it was all over, they set off a confetti cannon. Yes, blown away they might have been that night by Slipknot, but they swung for the fences anyway. I’d see them one more time three years later at The Fillmore headlining a tour sponsored by Jagermeister.

S.O.D., Skinlab, Crowbar, 40 Grit, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., November 12, 1999

SETLIST : We Are The World/What’s That Noise Intro, March Of The S.O.D., Sargent ‘D’ & The S.O.D., Kill Yourself, Milano Mosh, Speak English Or Die, Make Room Make Room, Fuck The Middle East, Douche Crew, Celtic Frosted Flakes, Ballad Of Jimi Hendrix (played twice), Ballad Of Jim Morrison, Ballad Of Michael Hutchence, Ballad Of Nirvana, Ballad Of Frank Sinatra, Ballad Of Freddy Mercury, Chromatic Death, Fist Banging Mania, Skool Bus, No Turning Back, Not – Momo – Taint – The Camel Boy – Diamonds & Rust – Anti-Procrastination Song, King At The King – Evil Is In, Charlie Don’t Cheat, Milk, (encore), Aren’t You Hungry? Pussy Whipped, Freddy Kruger, United Forces

It’s hard for me to write this one. This show took place on the day of the Duzce earthquake in Turkey which killed over 70,000 people, so I try to keep that in mind when consider the personal and professional slights that I endured from this night. I had been accustomed in my research of these many Maritime shows to discover that bands had clandestinely taken footage from our recordings and released them for official and unofficial videos and CDs. Everyone from Keith Emerson to Public Enemy thought our material was good enough to steal, but for some reason, what the Stormtroopers Of Death did stings a little more than the others. They had taken the set we recorded and used footage from it for their live DVD “Kill Yourself : The Movie”, splicing in a handful of songs into the movie and having the entire set to watch in the DVD’s special features. That in unto itself wasn’t that upsetting. It was just the way they tried to cover their tracks in using it. But before I continue in my rant of self pity, I admit now that it hurts the most because I like these guys.

For starters, every time the Maritime or San Francisco was mentioned, the film makers covered it with an obnoxiously loud electronic beep. At first, I thought they were censoring out some bad language, but for the folks who know S.O.D., know that they, especially their lead singer, Billy Milano, have reputations for having potty mouths to say the least. So that wasn’t it. Personally, I thought it would have been less intrusive to just leave a bit of silence instead. Most folks would just attribute it to a gap in the recording or something. Though I didn’t realize this attempt to cover their tracks right away, I instantly noticed that the film makers had cropped the image of the video on the bottom portion to leave out the “2B1” logo that was on all the copies given to the artists at the end of their sets. I’m not entirely sure what the band was hoping to accomplish by this, since I knew immediately that the footage was from the show I did and if Boots, the Maritime’s owner was aware and wanted too, could dig up the master tapes and prove it in court like we had with KRS-One. 

It definitely didn’t help S.O.D. that the director, Bill Philputt, basically confessed to the footage’s theft about an hour and twenty minutes into the DVD commentary of the movie, literally saying, “We had to add a bleep into the sound there because we were going to mention the name of the city this was filmed in which of course we couldn’t do due to some licensing negotiation problems that we were having with our attorneys” He even slipped up and mentioned that the show had taken place on the west coast. All that, and the fact that Mike repeatedly mentioned that they hadn’t toured in 14 years, landed this show squarely in the middle of 1999, promoting their new album, “Bigger Than The Devil” which had just been released that May. On a side note, I did appreciate the fact they were calling their tour the “Killeth Fair”, an obvious parody of the Lilith Fair, a festival which I will just say is quite a different scene from this show and leave it at that. Yep, we still have them cold, but to add insult to injury, I know there’s little to nothing to be done about it. The DVD came out over 20 years ago and I doubt it made much money, not enough to bother suing over anyway. It would take a lot of money to convince me to contact Boots in any way to begin with. As with all the others ripped off from the Hall, it’s not so much the money, but the credit I wished I could have had, especially for Tory. He did such fine work that night. 

It helped a bit that in lieu of traditionally labeling the gig by the location and date, they gave our show at the Hall the moniker of the “Ronnie Dobbs Entitilitus Foundation Benefit” for the movie. For all those who don’t know, Ronnie was a hillbilly character comedian David Cross regularly played on “Mr. Show” on HBO and “Entitilitus” was a fictitious disease that he suffered from. This disease Ronnie claimed “no one knows where entitilitus comes from or what entitilitus is, but entitilitus kills” and encouraged others to bring awareness to his ailment by having people participate in “Talk Backwards Day”. Wearing his trademark black mullet and trucker’s hat, the shirtless Ronnie breathlessly finished his plea asking if folks that if they found themselves in a crowd “ya’ll wear condoms on both your ears… I think it’s funny.” Scott joked on the commentary that they managed to raise $18 for the Foundation at that show, but I can’t say that this humorous angle is enough for me to forgive them, at least not yet. They still haven’t found a cure.

Hurt feelings aside, it was a fun and momentous occasion. Like I said, the band hadn’t toured in 14 years apart from a single one-off gig they did in New York City which they recorded the deceptively titled “Live At Budakan” album, which I own and enjoy.  These were funny guys and their work reflected it, brutal as their sound was. Many people misunderstood them, thinking they were actually serious when they penned songs like “Speak English Or Die”, clearly a satire on racism in general, but Americans are pretty dumb. Some skinhead types didn’t get the joke and would show up to some of their gigs, but would soon discover that the whole white power thing wasn’t exactly welcome there. Guitarist Scott Ian is jewish, for heaven’s sake, and Billy often reminds him of that on stage. And to help clarify their stance, Billy had an S.O.D. T-shirt on that night with the words “I’m Not Racist. I Hate Everybody” on the back.

Anyway, during the intervening years, the members apart from Billy were refocusing on their primary band, Anthrax, and Billy was doing well managing bands like Agnostic Front. S.O.D. was sort of a lark for them to begin with, recording their seminal debut album, “Speak English Or Die”, in only three days with no real intention of continuing the act in the future.  Since their inception in 1985, S.O.D. only did a little over a dozen live shows in total, but they had recently got back together in 1997 for another reunion show in Hoboken, New Jersey, and then did about nine more other random gigs, including the Milwaukee Metal Fest and the Full Force Festival in Germany. But the lure of playing together brought them once more into the recording studio and like before, they found themselves hatching songs at a breakneck pace, writing four new ones in the first day alone.

Opening that night were thrash mainstay’s 40 Grit, their third time playing the Hall and Crowbar, who I saw many moons before opening for Pantera at The Warfield. With Pantera vocalist, Phil Anselmo, guitarist and singer Kirk Windstein would take part in metal supergroup Down, who I saw at The Fillmore four years before this. Skinlab, who I’d seen open for many bands at the Maritime, had moved up to the penultimate act that evening. In fact, that band holds the distinction of tying for the record for number of times of any other act I’d see play at that venue, matching Merl Saunders, both chalking up SEVEN times performing there. They edged out The Earthlings, The Mermen, and Papa Roach who all come in second with six shows each. I’ve said it before, but it merits repeating that although I wasn’t a fan of Skinlab in the beginning, they improved over the years and grew on me. And though this would be the last time I’d record them at the Hall, I would at least see them play once more opening for Judas Priest at The Fillmore three years later.

S.O.D. had quite an impressive set of gear on stage for this tour. Both Scott and bassist Dan Lilker had adorned the massive stacks of amps with the visage of their cartoon mascot, “Sargent D”, a skull wearing an army helmet smoking a fat cigar, but he was only the right half of The Sarge’s face. The other half was that of the devil and adding to the satanic, or at the very least pagan, motif, drummer Charlie Benante had his dual kick drums decorated with large, red, upside down pentagrams. Billy had dyed his hair blond for the tour making him look conspicuously like Food Network TV star Guy Fieri, unintentionally of course, since Guy wouldn’t even get famous on TV for another seven years. Maybe Guy stole his look,,, Think about it…. Scott was sporting a black bodied electric guitar with flames painted on it and wore a white tank top with the logo of the adult magazine “Hustler”, a shirt he mentioned he ultimately lost in the aforementioned DVD commentary. Billy caught a glimpse of himself up on the Maritime’s giant video screens after they did “Kill Yourself”, pointed and joked, “Look at that big, good lookin’ guy up there!”

They did a little breakdown near the end of “Speak English Or Die” where they did a few licks from the beginning of “Raining Blood” by Slayer. On other legs of the tour, they would do a couple licks from “Angel Of Death” instead. As contemporaries of each other, it was an homage, but it turns out that S.O.D. was a big influence on Slayer around the time they wrote that song, so it kind of went full circle. S.O.D. would go on to do a very Slayer-eque single of their own called “Seasoning The Obese”, an obvious parody of “Seasons In The Abyss”, though they didn’t play it live on this night. They covered a lot of new material at this show, six new ones not including the “Ballad” songs which I’ll get into later. After they did “Make Room, Make Room”, Billy noted the songs extraordinary length, clocking in at “like three minutes, epic like three songs in one!” 

After they did “Fuck The Middle East” which Billy claimed was a love song, they did “Celtic Frosted Flakes” an homage to the now disbanded Swiss extreme metal band Celtic Frost. At the end of the song, Billy asked Scott the key question of the song’s chorus, “What ever happened to Celtic Frost?” and Scott made claims about the band member’s current whereabouts. He said “Tom Warrior has a new band with Paul Baloff (of Exodus). Martin Ain is running a club in Zurich and Reed St. Mark is teaching aerobics.” Apparently, Scott would change up the descriptions for every show, but it was true that Reed had become a personal trainer of some kind. Sadly, Martin passed away in 2017 from a heart attack at the too young age of only 50. Technically, Celtic Frost was still together in 1999 and wouldn’t actually disband for another nine years.

Back to the show, they then went into a series of “Ballads” like I mentioned where they’d play a bit of music from a famous rock musician for a couple bars and then Billy would shout “You’re dead!!!” They started with the “Ballad Of Jimi Hendrix”, doing the first couple bars of “Purple Haze”, then did ones for Jim Morrison, Michael Hutchence, Nirvana, Frank Sinatra, and Freddie Mercury. For that last one, they did a bit of “We Will Rock You” and Billy sang to the thumping beat, “You are, you are, DEAD NOW!!!” You get the idea. A couple songs later, Billy did a little spoof on the B-52’s singing something about “S.O.D. in the Hate Shack” and Scott played a little riff from the beginning of “Rock Lobster”. Afterwards, Billy pointed out Pinky our monitor engineer and asked him his name, celebrating his hippyish appearance and making a “Freedom Rock” wise crack. They then did a six song medley in nine seconds, a medley so fast they reprised it twice. The crowd started chanting for their song “Pussy Whipped” a little later, but Billy rebuked them saying, “You Want ‘Pussy Whipped’? Well, guess what? You got ‘Milk’ instead!” which they finished their set. That tune is a textbook example of S.O.D.’s work, a brutal metal song about not having any milk for your cereal in the morning. 

When they came back after loud chants of “S.O.D.! S.O.D.! S.O.D.!” from the crowd during the encore break, Billy beckoned Scott to come back on stage getting the audience to slowly chant, “Baaaaldy! Baaaaldy! Baaaldy!” then Billy introduced Scott joking, “It’s Stone Cold Steve Austin! Man, you are ripped!” and mentioned that he had a fight with him the day before, said sorry, and gave him a hug. Billy introduced the rest of the band calling Dan “the man with the blackest of souls and blackest of hearts”, Charlie “the motherfucker with the magic feet… not the guy above N’Snyc”, and came back to Scott, first admiring his shiny bald head, then declaring him the “Israeli assassin, the Matza marauder, the rabbi of destruction” He’s not entirely wrong there. Scott does hold a black belt in Krav Maga. Scott payed him back calling Billy “the big daddy, the nature boy, the man of the hour, the tower of power, the guy who’s too sweet to be sour!”

They opened the encore with another new one “Aren’t You Hungry?” and Billy noted afterwards that they’d “been about three weeks on tour” and this was the “first gig where all the ladies showed up” and got all the women to scream “Yeah!” He asked them, “You’re all very special, you know why?… You were born with something very special. Something that could conquer any country, control any man, and is stronger than any weapon fuckin’ made. It’s called a pussy” and then they finally played “Pussy Whipped”. After “Freddy Kruger”, they finished the night on an uplifting note, playing “United Forces” and the crowd took the opportunity to storm the stage right and left, dancing, stage diving, and hugging Billy and shaking his hand, much to the predictable consternation of the Redcoats in security. 

Despite my bitterness about the DVD, I’m glad I got to do this show, being one of a limited number of live shows the Stormtroopers Of Death would ever do. They would return to the Hall one more time along with Anthrax to each play short sets at the Thrash Of The Titans show in 2001, a benefit for Chuck Billy, the lead singer of Testament, who was suffering for cancer at the time but has thankfully recovered. Billy Milano was the emcee for that show. But alas the Stormtroopers Of Death haven’t toured since. The closest S.O.D. has come to a reunion was a couple years back, when Ian, Dan, and Charlie teamed up with vocalist Mike Patton to do a video on YouTube parodying their old song, this time calling it, “Speak Spanish Or Die”. Still, if I ever, by some miracle, run into any of these band members in the future, I’m going to have a hard time holding my tongue about this debacle. I just hope it’s not Scott. I’m positive he could kick my ass. I only got a yellow belt in Krav Maga. Billy, Dan, & Charlie probably could kick my ass too come to think of it. Fuck it. I’m lucky. It’s another baby and a rare one at that. I’ll take it.

Guided By Voices, Joe Doe, Those Bastard Souls, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., November 11, 1999

SETLIST : A Salty Salute, Tight Globes, Frequent Weaver Who Burns, Zoo Pie, Things I Will Keep, Pop Zeus, Release The Sunbird, Dragons Awake!, And I Don’t (So Now I Do), Surgical Focus, Do Something Real, Cut-Out Witch, Picture Me Big Time, Shocker In Gloomtown, My Valuable Hunting Knife, Teenage FBI, Tractor Rape Chain, Submarine Teams, Alone Stinking & Unafraid, Time Machines, Game Of Pricks, I Am A Tree, Big School, Far-Out Crops, The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory, Subspace Biographies, Maggie Turns To Flies, Psychic Pilot Clocks Out, I Am A Scientist, Don’t Stop Now, Circling Motorhead Mountain, (encore), Whiskey Ships, Motor Away, Hot Freaks, Hold On Hope, Echos Myron, (encore), Postal Blowfish, Peep-Hole, Smothered In Hugs

I had been curious about Guided By Voices ever since I saw their name listed on the acts populating the side stage of Lollapalooza in 1993. They were performing then on another leg of the tour than I saw, but I took note that they were one and made an effort to see others on that list as well. I also knew them from a cover The Breeders did of theirs called “Shocker In Gloomtown”, which they played that night. Both bands were Ohio natives and I’m sure they had to have played together once if not plenty of times. But on this occasion, GBV were at the Hall and I was recording them, sight unseen. Renown for their prolific frontman, Robert Pollard, they were on tour promoting their 11th studio album in only 12 years, “Do The Collapse”, produced by Ric Ocasek of The Cars, and Pollard had just released his third solo album, “Kid Marine” that year as well. To this day, he’s responsible for penning almost 3,000 songs. This was a man who did his homework, fitting since he used to be a school teacher.

Opening first that night were Those Bastard Souls, the solo side project of David Shouse from The Grifters, who I’d seen open for Sebadoh two years before at The Fillmore. Then, they had none other than Fred Armisen on drums, a full five years before he would join the cast of “Saturday Night Live”. He wasn’t on tour with them this time, not that I would have known him then either, but I was sad that I couldn’t have that credit under my belt now knowing and admiring his works as an actor and comedian. The next opening act, I was familiar with, that being John Doe from X. I had seen X at The Warfield back in 1993, but was unfamiliar with Mr. Doe’s solo work. In a strange coincidence, his ex-wife and fellow X bandmate had just performed a spoken word set at the Maritime just four days before this show. 

Like Mr. Pollard, John was a prolific artist as well, taking a break from X, who had finished a short lived “farewell tour” the year before. He would eventually rejoin them as well as his other band The Knitters in 2005. In the meantime, he was also quite busy acting that year, playing roles in movies like “Drowning On Dry Land”, “Sugar Town”, “The Rage : Carrie 2”, “Forces Of Nature”, “Wildflowers”, and “Brokedown Palace” as well as appearing in episodes of TV shows like “Veronica’s Closet”, “Martial Law”, and “The Strip”.  I’ll never forget his brief role in “Boogie Nights” that had come out a couple years before, where he played Julianne Moore’s estranged ex-husband.

But I digress. It is difficult to accurately describe the music of Guided By Voices, primarily because they had so many songs. To use a reductive phrase like “indy rock” really doesn’t do them justice. Still, listening to them now, I can’t help but think of The Who, especially since Pollard likes to swing around his microphone and do high kicks like Roger Daltrey. They both kind of have curly hair too. Also, though the band comes from Dayton which is about as American as one could be geographically, I can’t help but think that Guided By Voices sound English. Maybe it’s the way Pollard sings, almost as if he had an accent, something in the way he slurs his vowels or the way he puckers his lips like Mick Jagger. He was and remains a notorious, though friendly drunk when performing. After about an hour into their two hour plus set, he commented “We’re getting to the point where we’re really drunk now. This is when we do all the old tunes… We went through 5 cases of beer, a bottle of Jack Daniels, & a couple bottles of cabernet… Oh yeah, and a bottle of water!”

Yeah, it’s hard not to like Pollard, such a funny guy. Donning a black, long sleeve shirt and black jeans, he introduced the band at the beginning of their set as “Emerson, Lake, & Pollard… We’re schooled in the 4 P’s of rock : punk, pop, prog, & psychedelic!” They had brought along a neon sign that they hung behind the drummer reading, “The Club Is Open”, the first three words glowing in blue, the last one in red. Near the end of the set, a fan bum rushed the stage and Pollard gave him the mic to sing the song “Postal Blowfish”. It was a long night, the second show in a five show stretch at the Maritime for Tory and me, but we took the time to eat Thai food after the show was over, one of our traditional “victory laps”. Thinking about what we heard that night with GBV, I couldn’t help but think of Martin Short and his character of Irving Cohen, a decaying caricature of elderly Tin Pan alley vaudeville songsmiths. Irving, like Pollard, was a ridiculously prolific songwriter, his character claiming to have authored over 100,000 songs and would make up songs on the spot just asking for the band to give him “a bouncy C”. When I would see Guided By Voices again two years later at The Fillmore, they would play an even longer set, clocking in at about three hours. Great songs, though.

Eric Burdon, Neal Schon, Jody Counter, Robert Leroy Jones, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., November 10, 1999

This was a last minute addition to the shows in November at the Hall, too late to be listed on the monthly poster. It’s last minute scheduling is probably the main reason that it only had about 50 people attending, a pitiful turnout even for the Maritime and especially for rock & roll royalty like Eric Burdon. Yes, I got to record the once and future singer of the seminal British invasion group The Animals. After years of legal wrangling, Eric had just put together the “New Animals” band the year before this show, but actually didn’t officially secure the name legally until years later in 2013. Coincidentally, Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys had just did a spoken word show at the Hall three days before this and would lose the rights to his band’s name the following year. Eric & The New Animals were there for a charity event put on to raise funds for sick kids I think, though I can’t say exactly for sure. The fact that the gig was for charity only punctuates the failure of the show to get a crowd at all and was frankly kind of depressing. In fact, if it hadn’t been a charity gig, the show probably would have been cancelled. I remember Robert Palmer’s show at the Hall got the plug pulled on it the month before when it had about the same number of tickets sold. That one really stung, since I liked his music and Palmer would die unexpectedly of a sudden heart attack in 2003 at the all too young age of 54 and consequently, would never get to see him.

The fact that they had Journey guitarist Neal Schon there on this bill wasn’t enough to boost the crowd’s numbers either. It’s a pity. One would think, despite the short notice and lack of promotion, just with the amount of friends they as well as bay area rocker Jody Counter had in town on the guest list that it would have more people. It didn’t help that it was a Wednesday night as well. Still, Eric’s band was tight, consisting of two members from the prog rock band Spock’s Beard, Dave Meros on bass and Neal Morse on keys. Dave was also performing double duty as the band’s tour manager. They also had Dean Restum on guitar and Aysley Dunbar on drums, who rumor had it lost out to Mitch Mitchell to be the drummer for the Jimi Hendrix Experience from a coin toss. Folks might remember that Eric and Animal’s original bassist Chas Chandler were good friends of Jimi’s and helped him establish his career when he moved to London from Seattle.

Eric literally had just stepped off a plane and immediately drove to the venue and got on stage, still wearing a blazer and long scarf when he started his set. He joked that this was the first gig he did in San Francisco since he was sober, but technically it was the second since he did a set at the Black & White Ball at the Civic Center that June. Yes, Eric spent some time in San Francisco around 1969 after the original Animals parted ways. Here, he would pen “San Francisco Nights” and predictably, that was one of the songs he played that night. He also began his famous collaboration with the funk band War here, lending his vocals to such hits as “Spill The Wine”. That tune had recently gotten big again in 1997, immortalized by the soundtrack to the film, “Boogie Nights”. I can still close my eyes and see long, Steadycam scene around the poolside at Jack Horner’s house when that song was playing. Though I didn’t get a set list, I know he also did “Sky Pilot”, bellowing out the chorus till he was red in the face. Eric finished the show with “House Of The Rising Sun”, giving it a slow, acapella opening. There was little hope that the recording from that night would be used, since not only the turnout was abysmal, but Eric would put out three, (count em’), three live albums between the year before and the following year, “Live At The Coach House” and “The Official Live Bootleg” Numbers 1 & 2.

Still, it was an honor to have recorded him and Neal Schon too who I had taped before when he unexpectedly sat in with the members of the reggae band Strickly Roots the year before, a memorial for their recently deceased lead singer Jahson. Neal was very nice to me both nights and though I still think most of Journey’s songs are corny earworms, plaguing bay area denizens to this day, I did appreciate his warmth and his unquestionable skill with a guitar. Unfortunately, he too had just put out a live album of his recent solo work, “Piranha Blues”, which he recorded at the Piranha Lounge in Oakland that year. On a lighter note, Eric had just tied the knot recently to Marianna Prostou, a lawyer from Greece, and I believe they’re still married to this day. But it would be 18 years later when I’d finally see Mr. Burdon again when he played Stern Grove with a new assortment of Animals. He put on a great set again even at the young age of 77, his hair white as a ghost. I do have to admit, it was a little scary meeting him at the Hall, not only because of his stature in rock & roll history, but for the fact that he looked a lot like Boots, the Maritime’s psychotic boss. 

Spitfire Spoken Word Tour : Jello Biafra, Andy Dick, Exene Cervenka, Krist Novoselic, Michael Franti, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., November 7, 1999

This show was a unique change of pace for me being the one and only spoken word show that I would record at the Hall. I love spoken word shows, but they are too and far between for me. This collection of speakers was part of the Spitfire tour, the brainchild of Zach De La Rocha, the vocalist for Rage Against The Machine. Annoyed by the apathy he was encountering on tour with his band, he decided to put together this cavalcade of stars to promote social activism and though Zach wasn’t leading the bill on this leg of his 20 city tour, they had none other than the high priest of punk himself, Jello Biafra at the top of the list. The tour had the unfortunate timing of also being at Woodstock ’99 that summer, so there was understandably no mention of that catastrophic event during the evening. They had set up a handful of booths in the back of the Hall for many causes and there were plenty of petitions to sign and schwag to give out. And though I’d seen Jello do spoken word and perform music before, as well as Exene who I’d seen play with X at The Warfield in 1993 and also do spoken word set along side Henry Rollins also that year at that venue, I’d only seen Novoselic and Franti perform as musicians and had never seen Andy Dick before in either capacity. Jello was no stranger to the spoken word scene, having released five spoken word albums on his label Alternative Tentacles by then, a label I used to intern for a few years before this. All and all it was an impressive group of names and it only cost $15 to get in, a cheap show even in 1990’s dollars.

Jello was going through a bit of a personal catastrophe that year, dealing with the seemingly endless legal battles with his former bandmates in the Dead Kennedys. He had steadfastly refused to let the band use the song “Holiday In Cambodia” for a Levi’s Dockers ad, citing that the move was about the most un-punk thing a band could do, especially siding with a company that had shall we say a not so stellar track record with its labor relations. Apparently, there had been a whistleblower at Alternative Tentacles, though I couldn’t imagine who, that found an oversight in their accounting which left the other bandmates shy of around $75,000. I mean, I’d be surprised if Jennifer or Greg in the office would do it, but I don’t know. It happened. Anyway, Jello insists it was an accident and took steps to correct it, but they sued anyway. The others won their case, costing AT over $200,000 in the end, half of all future royalties, and the rights to the name of the band. DK quickly hired a new singer and began performing again under the original name. Jello was pissed that the judge agreed that the oversight somehow caused the the other band members to lose royalties they WOULD have gotten from that Levi’s ad, but by the following year, the nightmare would finally be over for Jello. I could never bring myself to see DK without Jello and sadly now I never will after the passing of drummer D.H. Peligro, who died from an accidental fall only six months ago.

Jello had been active in the Green Party in 1999, even going so far as having their New York chapter attempt to draft him as their presidential candidate for the 2000 election. Jello chose Mumia Abu-Jamal, the activist wrongly imprisoned on Death Row, to be his running mate, but the party ultimately chose Ralph Nader as their candidate and Jello campaigned for him vigorously. Well… we all remember the tragic results of that notorious election and I’ll refrain from wallowing in my bitterness towards Nader and his misguided crusade. Jello was there to promote his varied talking points of economic and social justice, including such as ideas as the non-violent extermination of the rich, spraying yuppies with whipped cream until they leave town, ending homelessness by allowing people to squat in vacant buildings, and melting down SUVs, (which were still kind of a new thing back then), and using the metal to make a giant cross he’d send to the Vatican… C.O.D. of course. He also made sure to give a shout out for supervisor Tom Ammiano who was trying in one of his many unsuccessful bids to run for mayor of San Francisco.

Krist Novoselic had taken to political activism even before the end of Nirvana, helping organize the benefit for Bosnian rape victims at the Cow Palace in 1993. There would be the one and only time I’d see Franti perform with the Disposable Heroes Of Hiphopricy and then quickly move on to the band he fronts today, Spearhead. Franti was no stranger to Jello, who at Alternative Tentacles, put out the debut and only album from Franti’s first band, The Beatnigs. Krist and Jello would hit it off at this show and go on to form the punk supergroup, the No WTO Combo, a one-off musical act that after wrangling with clubs and the police curfew, performed a single show up in Seattle three weeks after this night, supporting the protests that were raging on up there at the time. They managed to get Kim Thayil to play guitar for them, the first gig he’d do after the recent break up of Soundgarden. This rare musical event was recorded that night and put out a live album which included the DK classic, “Let’s Lynch The Landlord” as well as early live versions of “Electronic Plantation” and “New Feudalism” which Jello would release years later with his Guantanamo School Of Medicine band. 

Krist was continuing to make music, having formed the band Sweet 75 in 1997 and had also just directed a pseudo-documentary the year before this show called “L7 : The Beauty Process”, for those grunge pioneers, who’d I’d seen open for Nirvana two of the three times I would see them perform live. On a personal note, Krist had just divorced his wife that year and began taking an interest in flying, getting his pilot’s license in 2002. He spoke briefly at the Hall that night, first reading a funny piece that was basically a word salad of political pleasantries, mocking how politicians string meaningless talking points together with flowery language. He had a freshly shaved head, finally embracing his gradual hair loss. Believe me, I was losing my hair then too, but wouldn’t start shaving my head regularly for a few more years down the road. 

Anyway, then Krist got down to brass tacks making some thought provoking points about how America could reform its election process, more accurately reflecting representative democracy. To this day, Novoselic is a hard one to label politically, being a sort of Libertarian who supports left wing causes, yet freaked folks out a bit recently with his seemingly tacit approval of Trump during that terrifying regime. I’m sure after January 6th, he recanted any admiration he had for Donald. Sure, he voted for Obama, but then he turned around later and voted for Ron Paul and Gary Johnson. Go figure. Politics aside, he at least got a round of applause after he burped in the middle of his set. It was good to see him again. I had been almost six years since I saw Nirvana play their last bay area show on New Year’s ’93-’94 in Oakland. I just remembered at that New Year’s show, moments before the countdown, Krist sang a little line from “California Uber Alles”, changing the lyrics to “Welcome to 1994… Knock knock on your front door…” I’m sure Jello was proud.

Exene has also freaked out people a little recently with her rambling rants against getting vaccinated, though this would be decades later obviously. But on this night, she mostly talked about mental health issues, including stories about her mother who suffered from them. This would be one of the only occasions that I would take a picture alongside a bone fide rock star. Tory had his camera with him when I came to give her the tapes from her set and got a quick pic with her. I know I have it somewhere, but for the life of me, I still can’t find it. Sorry. I looked damn handsome in that pic if I do say so myself. As luck would have it, her ex-husband and fellow X bandmate, John Doe, played just four days later at the Maritime, performing solo opening for Guided By Voices. 

Clearly the skinny white elephant in the room that night was Andy Dick. How he got on the bill was beyond me, but as an American, I can’t help but enjoy witnessing a train wreck. Andy was hitting one of the many, many rough patches he would experience in life that year. He was smack dab in the middle of the legal aftermath from his arrest that summer where he got really high and wrapped his car around a utility pole. He was convicted of felony possession of two grams of Coke, misdemeanor possession of marijuana, and possession of smoking device, something I didn’t even know you could get arrested for at the time. He was shackled with three years of probation, though the charges were dropped once he completed an 18 month long stint in a drug diversion program. Andy joked about it on stage that night saying, “A class for drugs? I know everything there is to know about drugs!” He whimsically dismissed any grievances he had with the cops who arrested him because he was “obviously guilty”.

But his legal problems continued that year when he was questioned in the suicide of his friend, actor David Strickland. He and David had been partying for three straight days in Vegas when David, drunk on a six pack of beer and having just been serviced by a sex worker in his hotel room, ended up hanging himself. He had been discovered by a private detective sent out by Brooke Shields, the star of the NBC sitcom, “Suddenly Susan” where David had a regular role, after he didn’t show up to work. Poor guy was only 29 years old. Though no charges were filed against Andy, his legal woes would continue to this day, including several arrests for indecent exposure, public intoxication, and sexual battery. Yes, Andy was a crude and infamous groper.

But apart from his then recent run in with the law, I was happily unaware of his egregious behavior and enjoyed his talk. He cracked me up with a song he did at the end of it called, “I’m Not Stalking You (I’m Just Calling A Lot)”, a hilarious, though obviously creepy ode to his former girlfriend. I especially remember the line “How’s your new boyfriend, have they found his body yet?” And though the sitcom, “NewsRadio” had ended that May, Andy was able to at least get some work doing a voice on the animated series “Dilbert”, playing the title character’s assistant. Scott Adams, Dilbert’s creator, if you didn’t know has been in the news recently, making some racist remarks on his podcast, joining Andy in becoming pariahs to the public. 

Thankfully, Franti is still respected and going strong with Spearhead to this day. Back that year, he had his new song, “Sometimes”, added to the soundtrack to the film comedy “Mystery Men”. Coincidentally, I had just seen Tom Waits, who played a part in that movie, just a week before this show for the first time at the Bridge School Benefit. Unlike Andy, Franti had a few choice words about the police that night, recounting a harrowing encounter after being pulled over, an all too common trauma experienced by black men in America. Exene would also take part that year in a cult video called “Decoupage 2000 : The Year Of The Goddess” with legendary cult film star Karen Black and, (showing up again like a bad penny), L7. Sadly though, she had just closed the doors on a novelty store she owned down south called “You’ve Got Bad Taste”. Jello, despite his legal wranglings, also found time to be in a couple movies that year. First, he was in the horror comedy “The Widower” which he actually played Satan. The reviews of the movie are dismal, but I’d love to see him play that role anyway. He also was in a movie called “Virtue” with local swing artist extraordinaire Connie Champagne where he played a “VR Poker Dealer”. The whole night was an uplifting experience and it being a spoken word show, mixing it live was ridiculously easy.

Suicidal Tendancies, Suicide Machines, Custom Made Scare, Oppressed Logic, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., November 5, 1999

SETLIST : (OPPRESSED LOGIC) : This Is Reality, You’re Doing It Wrong, Don’t Come Back, P.C. Full Of Shit, Abort The Kids, Living Abortion, Eighty-Sixed

As I mentioned in the previous entry, it had been a few days of stylistic U-Turns, first starting with the Pet Shop Boys at The Warfield that Wednesday followed by the Lyricist Lounge with EPMD at the Maritime the night before this. But this time, I’d be recording the punk rock pioneers Suicidal Tendencies from Venice, California. Like so many venerable punk rock acts of yore, I was introduced to them by my brother Alex. They had forever immortalized themselves in music history with their anthem to teen angst, “Institutionalized”. That tune would be one of many great ones that would comprise the soundtrack to the greatest movie of all time, (in my opinion), “Repo Man”. That song, with its hilarious narration from their lead vocalist Mike “Cyco Miko” Muir, and breakneck chorus of “I’m not crazy! Institution! You’re the one who’s crazy! Institution! You’re driving me crazy! Institution!” would undoubtably save countless young folks from the brink of ending it all. Yes, we all only want a Pepsi in the end… But as luck would have it, they didn’t play it that night, though they dusted off plenty of other golden oldies, including “Saw Your Mommy”, one of their oldest ones. 

Suicidal Tendencies had been around for a while, but hadn’t put out a new album in five years, just releasing “Freedumb” that May, though their fans mostly hated it. They had been tearing up mosh pits since 1981 when Mike was only a 17 year old, straight edge, 10th grade dropout, the brother of skateboarder Jim Muir of the pioneering Dogtown skate team. He also was a boyfriend friend of the late great actor, Bill Paxton. The band’s sound had evolved some over the years, especially during the time they had Robert Trujillo on bass, who brought a little funky prog metal into the mix. Together with guitarist Dean Pleasant and Brooks Wackerman on drums, the four would perform double duty also playing in their alter ego band, Infectious Grooves. Brooks, drumming protege since the age of 5, would leave the band the following year to join Bad Religion and now plays drums for Avenged Sevenfold. By this time, Josh Paul had replaced Trujillo on bass, but Rob would go on to play with Ozzy Osbourne and later in an obscure little band called Metallica.

But one group that made quite an impression on me that night, despite their set coming in at just under 15 minutes, was Oppressed Logic from Oakland. They were lead by a skinny young man with a short mohawk named Mike “Cyco Loco” Avilez. Whether he got the “Cyco” in his nickname from Muir, I can’t say, but it’s probably likely. Apart from Avilez, the band had just began an entirely new line up, including his wife Adrianne on bass, and had just released their new album, “It’s Harassment”. Both Mike and Adrianne had taken turns playing bass for the Angry Samoans in 1996 and 1997 respectively. Oppressed Logic still managed to squeeze 8 songs into their short set, even leaving a little time to chat. Obviously, most of their songs were about a minute or two minutes long. Adrianne looked pretty that night, her shiny, red hair with two side pony tails and wearing a black tank top and matching shorts. Her bass was adorned with several stickers and curiously, she had an eyepatch over her right eye, but I can’t say if that was a prop or not. 

Mike was making wise cracks when he was introducing songs like “You’re Doing It Wrong”, saying, “You’re doing it wrong by standing around. It’s about working. Fuck work!” Their new drummer Egore was certainly a quick one and by the third song, he’d taken his shirt off. He had what I presume was a friend, a bald guy in a black T-shirt and shorts squatting next to his drum kit for their entire set, mouthing the lyrics to the songs. Near the end of their set, Avilez introduced “Abort The Kids” announcing that it “goes out to all you people who have kids”, got into the mosh pit up front for a bit, and cried “Waaa!!!” like a baby near the end of it. Keeping with the abortion motif, they did “Living Abortion” and he egged on the crowd demanding that he “see you guys fuckin’ slam!” 

Before the last song, “Eighty-Sixed”, he said that it “goes out to Gilman Street cus’ you’ll never see us at Gilman Street. And it goes out to Max Frost cus’ I’m not going to give him no more beer… You need T-Shirts talk to this guy… The fuckin’ around guy” and he pointed to a chubby guy up front on the stage right side.  Avilez shook his hand and handed him a half full pitcher of beer from the stage. They had a small delay helping the guitarist fix his amp and Mike said, “Thank you to the Maritime Hall for letting us play. Suicidal is coming up soon. Go in the back to buy our shit for cheap!” Yeah, I liked those guys and was happy to see that they had posted their set on YouTube from the video I gave them, especially since I hadn’t saved a copy for myself. I did run out and buy a live album they did and still have it today and I was lucky enough to see them one more time open for The Dickies at the Covered Wagon Saloon three years later.

I don’t remember much from Custom Made Scare. That band wasn’t around for long, but the next act, The Suicide Machines, had been around since 91’ and still play to this day. The punk ska band from Detroit were originally called Jack Kevorkian & The Suicide Machines, an homage to the famous doctor embroiled in the debate over euthanasia, but abbreviated it. They had toured on the Warped Tour that summer along with Suicidal Tendencies and seeing that they had a little something in common with their names, it’s not surprising that they’d take an interest in each other. The Machines were just about to release their third, self titled album three months later, but this would be the last tour they would do with bassist and tour manager Royce Nunley. After eight years with the band, Royce was butting heads with guitarist Dan Lukacinsky and would ultimately leave the band in 2001 to start Blueprint 76. The Machines had also added a new drummer, Ryan Vandeberghe, who had just replaced Derek Grant. I would see them again performing on the Warped Tour in 2003 and then opening for Pennywise at The Warfield three years later.

Likewise, Suicidal Tendencies had been going through numerous line up changes since their inception, leaving them with Mike Muir as their only original member. It must be noted that Dean, who joined the band three years before this show, is still in the band to this day, easily making him the longest serving non-original member. That band has gone through thirteen drummers, for God’s sake. Incidentally, Muir had fought and lost to pro skateboarder Simon Woodstock on “Celebrity Boxing” three years before this show. God, I miss that show.

Anyway, I remember it was a great set, but I regret that I wouldn’t see them perform again until (gulp!) 17 years later, when they opened for Megadeth at The Warfield with Children Of Bodom, quite an interesting line up that night for sure. There, I finally got to hear them play, “Institutionalized” live at long last. In a small coincidence, I saw the Red Room Orchestra do the music of “Twin Peaks” a couple months ago at the Great American Music Hall, and although I couldn’t attend the following night, the band then did music from the soundtrack of “Repo Man”. I regret missing it, but it was my wife’s birthday and that is easily more important, even if it’s a live show with stellar musicians playing music from my favorite movie at one of my favorite venues. I love live music, but I love my wife a lot more. Still, I was able to see videos of the show on YouTube including their rendition of “Institutionalized”. They got none other than comedian Kevin McDonald from “Kids In The Hall” to do the vocals and his hilariously shrill, though off time ranting of the song’s lyrics is something to behold. Check it out if you get a chance.

Lyricist Lounge : EPMD, Da Outsidaz, Planet Asia with Rasco, Screwball, Saafir, Encore, Dungeon Squad, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., November 4, 1999

It had only been six months since the legendary hip hop duo EPMD played the Hall and this time they were headlining the Lyricist Lounge tour and had just put out their sixth studio album, “Out Of Business”, that July. It was the second national tour of this rap enthusiast spectacle, the brainchild of Anthony Marshall and Danny Castro. Slick Rick and Xzibit would headline on other dates of this tour, both acts I loved and had taped before at the Hall. The line up that night would be a remarkable change of genres from my seeing the Pet Shop Boys the night before at The Warfield, a very white English synth pop act fronted by two diminutive gay men to the bill this night, populated by an army of muscular, butch, predominantly black fellows who I assume were mostly straight. I would take another sharp left turn of genres the following night at the Hall, switching from these mostly east coast rappers to the thrash punk stylings of Suicidal Tendencies from Venice, California. Strangely enough, the Lyricist Lounge tour would swing way north to Arcada the day after this show, but then bounce twice as far down south the next day to perform in L.A. Glad we could catch these guys before they got too road weary. The Lyricist Lounge had done their first national tour at the Maritime the year before by De La Soul with its own impressive roster of talent which included the then unknown Eminem, five full months before “The Slim Shady LP” was released. Though none of the opening acts this time would reach that level of meteoric stardom, all were nonetheless skilled on the mic.

Coincidentally, around this time Eminem was a part time member the Outsidaz, one of the openers that night. The New Jersey act fronted by the duo of Young Zee and Pacewon were collaborating with him on the road and in the studio before Eminem struck it big. Eminem even gave them a shout out at the end of “Just Don’t Give A Fuck” and other songs. Joining them in their collective on stage that night was Rah Digga, who was a couple with Young Zee at the time and they had sired a daughter together named Sativa, who was two years old then. The three of them were also guests on the song “Cowboys” by The Fugees on their multi platinum, hip hop juggernaut, “The Score”, put out three years before this show. Rah Digga would ultimately leave the band when at another Lyricist Lounge the year after, Q-Tip from Tribe Called Quest introduced her to Busta Rhymes and she’d then join his crew, the Flipmode Squad. 

Though the Outsidaz were on the cusp of releasing their debut album, “Night Life”, the following January, their group had been struck by tragedy when member Slang Ton was gunned down two months to the day before this night. Ton got into an argument with a couple guys in a restaurant back in New Jersey and one of them shot him in the chest and leg. Though he made it to the hospital, apparently he already had extensive lung damage from years of smoking weed and succumbed to his wounds. The Outsidaz dedicated their new record to him and I’m quite sure they gave him a shout out on stage that night as well.

I was glad Planet Asia was there with Rasco too. I had taped Rasco the year before when he opened for the Hieroglyphics and had already taped Planet Asia twice that year when he opened for Slick Rick that May for the Mystik Journeymen that July. Together the duo make Cali Agents, but they both had plenty of solo stuff of their own, all of which they covered that show. I learned doing research on this show that Planet Asia was a member of the Five-Percent Nation, a renown Islamic black nationalist movement based out of New York City. He along with the aforementioned Busta Rhymes were adherents to their teachings, along with other such notable New York City rap artists like Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Erykah Badu, Guru, and for a time, LL Cool J. Now I know what Ice Cube was rapping about in his song “When Will They Shoot?” when he said, “I met Farrakhan and had dinner, Now you ask if I’m a Five-Percenter. Well, no but I go to where my brothers go, Down with the Compton Mosque, Number 54”. And now I know. That movement help inspire hip hop slang such as “word is bond”, “dropping science”, “break it down”, and “represent”.

Saafir, who used to dance beside Tupac Shakur in Digital Underground, was also there promoting his third album, “The Hit List”. The hip hop quartet Screwball from New York City was there too, three months shy of their debut record, “Y2K : The Album”. Sadly, this would be the only time I’d see them, since half their members have passed away, KL who died of an asthma attack in 2008, and Hostyle in 2020, the cause of his death still unknown. The folks from the Lyricist Lounge the year before had put together a compilation album, “Lyricist Lounge, Vol. 1” comprised from tracks from the artists of the first tour and they would released “Vol. 2“ from folks the year after this one. Kinda weird that they skipped this year, but maybe that also makes it special. This would be the last time I’d see EPMD, but I’d see both Planet Asia and Rasco together again when they opened for the Cali Comm tour, headlined by The Pharcyde at The Fillmore two years later.

This would be the first Maritime show I’d record that month of November, but I was blissfully unaware that it would be my last there working full time. I mean, I was however well aware of my partner Pete’s displeasure with the owner, Boots, for a number of reasons I’ve gone over before, but by the end of the month, tensions finally came to head and Boots fired Pete. I would follow Pete, though I returned from time to time to fill in for Wade Furgeson who became my replacement in the recording room until the place finally tanked in the spring of 2001. I will rehash all this when I get to the last show of the month, The Roots, but like I said, back then, it was just steady as she went. There were plenty of brilliant acts that month to look forward to and the new monthly poster, which I found out had been painted by Kathy, Boots’ wife. It depicted a young Native American woman holding a dead turkey by one of its legs while sitting on a rock under a starry moonlit night in front of some pumpkins and corn stalks. Sure, Kathy was no Picasso, but it was OK and definitely parlayed the November/Thanksgiving motif. I still miss Kathy, God rest her sweet soul.

Pet Shop Boys, War., SF, November 3, 1999

SETLIST : For Your Own Good, West End Girls, Discoteca, Being Boring, Happiness Is An Option, Can You Forgive Her?, Only The Wind, What Have I Done To Deserve This?, New York City Boy, Left To My Own Devices, Young Offender, (set break), Vampires, You Only Tell Me You Love Me When I’m Drunk, Se A Vida E (That’s The Way Life Is), Don’t Know What You Want But I Can’t Give It Anymore, Always On My Mind, Shameless, Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots Of Money), It’s A Sin – I Will Survive, (encore), It’s Alright, Go West

I’d been familiar and enjoyed the music of the Pet Shop Boys since I was a teenager, first seeing the music video for their smash hit “Opportunites (Let’s Make Lots Of Money)” in 1985. They were a special band to me since they were one of the only musical acts both I and my biological father both enjoyed. But I soon discovered their many other catchy synth pop tunes and was thrilled that I was finally able to see them live for the first time. It was their first world tour in eight years and they were promoting their eighth studio album, “Nightlife”, which they had put out less than a month before this show. The Pet Shop Boys had only been on the road for two weeks since they started the tour in Miami. That year, they also had collaborated with playwright Jonathan Harvey to create the stage musical “Closer To Heaven” which ran at the Arts Theater in London and other worldwide locations a couple years later. They performed the title song as well as “Vampires”, “In Denial”, and “Shameless” from that musical during their show that night.

There was no opening act, making this “an evening with…” show, but the Pet Shop Boys did two sets. So, I had to work through the first set, the set break, and then the first couple songs of the second set before I could be cut from ushering and really start enjoying myself. Still, it wasn’t a difficult crowd to wrangle, even though it was sold out. I was relieved to have a couple days off before this show after finishing October, a month where I’d been to 23 shows in 31 days, on top of one of the busiest work months I’d ever have with Local 16, and finished this marathon with The Creatures at the Maritime for Halloween. Though sadly November would be my last month working full time at the Maritime, I did mercifully only 12 concerts that month. Still, November too was a stretch.

The duo of singer Neil Tennant and synth maestro Chris Lowe strolled out onto an impressive, multi level stage set designed by legendary deconstructionist architect, Zaha Hadid. When Hadid wasn’t masterminding plans for massive elaborate pavilions, auditoriums, and train stations, he found time to put together this zigzagging structure that looked like a scene out of “Fantastic Planet”. Sure fellow deconstructionist Frank Gehry might have made an opera set or two, but the Pet Shop Boys were pretty cool. Neil and Chris were wearing black overcoats and matching baggy samurai pants called Hakama. On their heads, they wore sunglasses and cartoonish, bleached orange spiky hair wigs making them look like characters out of “Dragon Ball Z”. The crowd went nuts two songs in when they broke into “West End Girls”.They followed it with “Discoteca” joined on stage by a female back up singer and afterwards, Neil introduced the next one saying, “This is a song about friendship. It’s called ‘Being Bored’”. That back up singer really belted it out for the next song, “Happiness Is An Option”. A few songs later he gave a shout out to Dusty Springfield who sang along in the recording of their next song, “What Have I Done To Deserve This?” They then were joined by 5 burly black guys dressed as old sailors to be back up singers for “New York City Boy”. Four of the five of them actually were from New York turns out.

At the end of the first set, they took off each other wigs revealing their bald and greying scalps. Just as well, since it obviously wasn’t their hair and must of been hot as hell to wear them. They returned after twenty minutes and Neil greeted the crowd, “Thank you very much! Welcome to part two. This song is all for the vampires out there.” I was cut from ushering after that song and got myself a beer before heading up front. A few songs later they got the crowd to sing along enthusiastically to their upbeat dance cover of “Always On My Mind”, made famous in the 70’s by Elvis. The Pet Shop Boys originally did that song in 1987 for a TV show commemorating the tenth anniversary of the King’s death, but it was such a hit, they decided to record it as a single. Afterwards, they prefaced “It’s A Sin” with a few bars of church organs and Neil preached, “And now… We must all beg for forgiveness.”

When they returned for their second and last encore, Neil introduced the back up singers and Chris before ending the night with their infectious and strangely moving cover of “Go West” by The Village People, another band my dad liked. I’m sad to say the headphone mic for my recording was starting to crap out during that show, but I got most of it nonetheless.Though the Pet Shop Boys didn’t get a poster that evening, they would get one when they returned to play at The Warfield again three years later and it was a nice one. They did promise at the end of this show that they wouldn’t wait as long to play again. But the 2002 show would the last time I’d see them, though they just toured again this year with New Order, so they’re still active. 

When my dad passed away in 2008, he had us play the aforementioned “It’s A Sin” as one of the songs at his memorial. I imagine he did it as one final stick in the eye to the Russian Orthodox Church which cruelly shunned him when he came out as gay. Likewise, I think it might have been a not so subtle jab back at his own father, but I can’t say that for sure. Incidentally, Barry Humphries AKA Dame Edna, passed away today. Dad loved her. One thing’s for sure, I think this would have been at least one concert he’d have enjoyed seeing with me. Pity he never did, but then again, I’ve probably seen enough concerts for the both of us.

The Creatures, Switchblade Symphony, The Voluptuous Horror Of Karen Black, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., October 31, 1999

SETLISTS : 

THE VOLUPTUOUS HORROR OF KAREN BLACK : Story Of Vanilla, Spelling Bee, Am I Blue, Bills To Pay, Black Date, Underwear Drawer, Chopsley Rabid Bikini Model, Get Out Of Me, Shopping Spree, Pillowcase, Oh Diane

THE CREATURES : All She Could Ask For, Disconnected, Turn It On, Take Mine, Pinned Down, Miss The Girl, Venus Sands, Pluto Drive, 2nd Floor, Red Light, Night Shift, Prettiest Thing, Exterminating Angel, (encore), Don’t Go To Sleep Without Me, Red Over White, (encore), Peek-A-Boo

I feel a tinge of sadness writing this now, knowing that this was the last Halloween I would be working at the Maritime, as well as the last time I’d encounter The Creatures and Switchblade Symphony. Both bands had been dear to me having performed there a number of times, especially since the lovely and talented singers of Switchblade Symphony actually remembered my name. I don’t want to go so far as to say we have a history together, but they were one of the opening acts of the very first show I recorded at the Hall with Pete, going on just before Christian Death in September of ’96. Indeed, writing about this final show of this exhausting October where I did 23 shows in 31 days, not to mention working for Local 16 in one of my career’s busiest months, fills me with a sense of relief that is only matched by my feelings of bittersweet nostalgia. I was still recovering from attending the Bridge School Benefit the night before which went into the wee hours, a show so long, that I wasn’t entirely upset that I would be missing its second night to do this one. I do regret however, that I would be missing The Cramps at The Fillmore that evening, perhaps the greatest band anyone could witness on Halloween.

But all those feelings will take a back seat momentarily as I remember the first act of that gig, The Voluptuous Horror Of Karen Black. I struggle to find the words to accurately describe this collection of New York City rock & roll weirdos, but I’ll try. This act is the brainchild of performance artist, filmmaker, founder of “The Cinema Of Transgression”, and former Calvin Klein model Kembra Pfahler, the sister of Adam Pfahler, the drummer of Jawbreaker. Donning a gargantuan head of stringy black hair, most likely a wig, a pair of knee high, black leather boots and matching black bikini bottom, all she had on otherwise was a coat of blue body paint and a smile. Joined by a second similarly adorned topless female that night, insured that they would have my undivided attention during their brief set as well as a persistent boner. It was my understanding that any venue with topless performers weren’t supposed to serve alcohol, but I would be the last one to bring that to anyone’s attention. 

A few years back, I had discovered that the band had released a live CD from their performance that night and were selling it on the internet and although I had sent them the money to send me a copy, I never received it. It’s not entirely surprising and I didn’t waste that much money, but it still pisses me off. I’m still waiting to get the live CD from GZA’s show at the Hall, but I’m not holding my breath on that one either. The good news is that I was able to hear The Voluptuous Horror’s set on YouTube, though it was audio only. I doubt YouTube would have allowed the video to be shown unless they blurred out the offending bare nipples. The Hall had decorated the side fills on stage with fake cobwebs and it being Halloween, I wore my skull mask all night while I worked. 

Kembra started their set asking, “Is that a rainbow I see? This song is Story Of Vanilla! Halloween 1999, Ladies & Gentlemen!” A couple songs later, she introduced the appropriately titled “Am I Blue” calling it “a love story between those above and those below”. Afterwards, she celebrated the night saying, “This is going to be a glamorous Halloween, Siouxsie, Switchblade Symphony in the house! This next number is about money difficulties. I’m sure you all can identify”, and they played “Bills”. Then came “Black Date” where she declared, “Love is the greatest perversion! Wanna grab the hand of the person to right or the left?” and that the next song, “Underwear Drawer”, was “all about throwing out the old and bringing in the new.” A third topless dancer, this time in red body paint and freakish face make up stormed the stage and danced for “Chopsley Rabid Bikini Model” and Kembra, feigning shock asked, “Do you think it followed me all the way from New York City? I saw it moving backstage!”

I cracked up a little when she lamented, “My mother has been complaining, ‘Karen, when are you going to have some kids?’ This is our exorcism number!” and then they did “Get Out Of Me”. Next she introduced “Shopping Spree”, saying, “This next glamorous, well choreographed number you all might know. It’s a heavy metal number and it’s for all you people with shopping disorders!” They wrapped up a couple of songs later, Kembra announcing that we had “seen the decomposition of you favorite band, The Voluptuous Horror Of Karen Black! Until next year, we love you!” And after 37 mind bending minutes, it was all over. I never did see this macabre spectacle again, though I did learn that Kembra went on to work with the group, Future Feminism, which popularized the slogan, “The Future Is Female”. Good for her, I wish her well, even if I never got my album. I’m just honored that it’s out there. And after them, I would record Switchblade Symphony for the last time and they performed admirably as both times before. They would break up shortly after this show, making it undoubtedly their last one in the bay area. 

It had only been five months since The Creatures last played the Hall, that coupled with the back to back shows they did there a year before that, I was well versed in their material by then. They were still on tour promoting the “Anima Animus” album, which they had released that February. Siouxsie, fashionable as always, was hearing a white and silver lame vest with a zebra pattern like fur collar over a matching jumpsuit. It kind of made her look a little like Cruella DeVille. Budgie on the other hand had a on a pair of white short shorts which I will simply just say were VERY short. Frankly I was relieved that he planted himself behind his drum kit for most of the show. 

They has a special guest for many of the songs that night, a young boy, couldn’t have had been older than eight or nine tops, dressed in a brown cloak that made him look like a Jawa. Can’t say for sure how he was related to the band at all, but Siouxsie brought him on stage during their second song, “Disconnected”, hugged him and danced with him a little. He scampered into the wings for a bit, but soon came back on before the next song and Siouxsie joked, “OK, I’m married to you, right? Come back for more?… If I’m going to get married, I should know your name, kid.” The kid said his name was James and she joked, “Related to Osterberg maybe?” referring to the real last name of Iggy Pop. She had the kid press a sample on her keyboard during “Turn It On”, making him technically part of the band, at least that night. Siouxsie was handed a bouquet of flowers at the end of that one which she placed off stage for later.

She took off her vest for their third song, “Take Mine” revealing a skintight, black tank top underneath and…a-hem… Siouxsie clearly wasn’t wearing a bra. The conspicuous boner I had during The Voluptuous Horror Of Karen Black sprang back to life again as she dedicated the song “for all the empty spaces out there.” She pounded a pair of conga drums with little white mallets for that tune. A couple songs later, she shook a string of bells on her fist while hitting a rectangular percussion block with a drumstick during “Miss The Girl” and afterwards, slipped on a pair of hand cymbals for “Venus Sands”. Siouxsie had her dancing shoes on for “Pluto Drive”, getting down to the fans up front on both sides of the stage. For the next one, “2nd Floor”, she asked the lighting guy for some more red lights “with a little bit of blue this time”, but didn’t get it. Afterwards, she pleaded with him again, this time in Spanish, asking for some more “Roja! Aye Caramba!” which was understandable since the next song was “Red Light”, an old Banshees song from 1980.

They followed that with their second Banshees song of the evening, “Night Shift”. Siouxsie did a slow, sultry opening to that tune, pantomiming spinning her index finger at her temple and smacking her forehead while singing the lyrics “out of my mind with you”. Budgie hopped off his drum kit and hit the congas with mallets alone with Siouxsie singing “Prettiest Thing”. He switched to pounding a giant, upright bass drum for “Exterminating Angel”, the last song of their set and Siouxsie wished the crowd a Happy Halloween as they strode off stage. When they returned, she once again encountered the boy and said, “You’re still here? It’s getting late for you”, and gave him another hug. She held him gently from behind as she sang the lullabye, “Don’t Go To Sleep Without Me” and led him off stage, giving him a little peck on the lips, before finishing the first encore with “Red Over White”, punctuating its ending with a blood curdling shriek. For their second encore, Siouxsie opened by saying, “This is the last time we’ll be here this millinneum. So, see you next millineum! Don’t a thousand years go fast?” and then they began their final song of the night, the Banshees classic, “Peek-A Boo”. 

Near the end of the song a fellow who looked like he stepped right out of Burning Man joined her to dance, wearing a black, feathered carnival mask and a suede vest. Little Boots, the stage manager, strolled out to kick him off stage, but clearly Siouxsie was down with it. They put an arm around each other and did a bit of a chorus line kick walk and slowly made their way off stage as the song was winding down. Little Boots looked pissed, but back then he often looked pissed. The security also accosted a young man when he tried to bum rush the stage to grab a setlist. And that was that. October was officially over, though technically it was already November since The Creatures didn’t really get on stage until midnight. Though that fact frustrated me since I was so tired from Bridge School the night before, it was welcome to my friend Dina who showed up late to the show, but just in time to see The Creatures. 

Like I had mentioned, this would be the last time I’d see them, but it wouldn’t be long until Siouxsie and Budge would return to San Francisco three years later reuniting with the Banshees for the “Seven Year Itch” tour. As you might have guessed, by then it had been seven years since the Banshees toured, back when I saw them then for the first time for back to back shows at The Warfield in 1995. They would play The Fillmore in 2002 and would not only perform the three Banshees songs they did at the Maritime at this show, but record them for a live album when they did shows in London at Shepherd’s Bush that July, six weeks after I would see them. I like to think that this Creatures show was sort of a warm up for those songs for that following tour and I’m happy to say that The Fillmore show got a good poster.

Bridge School Benefit ’99: The Who, Sheryl Crow, Pearl Jam, Neil Young, Tom Waits, Brian Wilson, Green Day, Billy Corgan & James Iha, Lucinda Williams, Shoreline, Mountain View, Thurs., October 30, 1999

SETLISTS : 

(NEIL YOUNG) : (Opening Set) Long May You Run, Good To See You, Heart Of Gold

(BILLY CORGAN & JAMES IHA) : Stay (Faraway, So Close!), Ol’ 55, Stand Inside Your Love, Summer, Age Of Innocence, Glass & The Ghost Children

(GREEN DAY) : Geek Stink Breath, Hitchin’ A Ride, Warning (live premiere), Longview, She, King For A Day, When I Come Around, Scattered, Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)

(BRAIN WILSON) : California Girls, In My Room, Surfer Girl, Add Some Music, Do It Again, Lay Down Burden, God Only Knows, Let Me Wonder, Help Me Rhonda, Surfin’ USA, Good Vibrations, Love & Mercy

(TOM WAITS) : Gun Street Girl, Jockey Full Of Bourbon, Hold On, Chocolate Jesus, 16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought Six, Tango Till They’re Sore, Innocent When You Dream, Tom Traubert’s Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen)

(NEIL YOUNG) : I Am A Child, Good To See You, Heart Of Gold, Greenville, Surfin’ USA, Harvest Moon, Looking Forward, Out Of Control, Long Man You Run, Southern Pacific, Mother Earth (Natural Anthem), Slowpoke, Old Man, (encore), I Shall Be Released

(PEARL JAM) : Soldier Of Love, Wishlist, Thin Air (live debut), Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Footsteps, Last Kiss, Yellow Ledbetter

(SHERYL CROW) : Everyday Is A Winding Road, Leaving Las Vegas, Riverwide, Strong Enough, Juanita (with Emmylou Harris), If It Makes You Happy, The Difficult Kind, It Don’t Hurt, Home

(THE WHO) : Substitute, I Can’t Explain, Pinball Wizard, Behind Blue Eyes, Tattoo, Mary Anne With The Shaky Hands (1st live since 1989), Boris The Spider, Who Are You, There You Go, I Walk The Line, Ring Of Fire, Won’t Get Fooled Again

Aswad, Eek-A Mouse, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., October 30, 1999

Festival shows, especially the one’s that went this long, tend to take a lot of time to cover, so apologies in advance if this piece goes long as well. The Bridge School Benefit often goes late, due to its impressive roster of talent, usually seven or eight acts, but this one was special for many reasons. For starters, it being the Saturday show, started at 5 PM instead of 2 PM like it does on Sunday. Adding to the lateness, this one had the dubious distinction of taking place on the eve of daylight savings time, AKA “fall back”. So, though we were gaining an hour on the clock, we actually got out of there at 1 AM instead of midnight. Now, this wouldn’t have been an issue with me, but my sister, my friend Jeff Pollard, his lovely wife Christine, and I roped my dear mother into joining us for this hootenanny. Though she may have been only 60 years old at the time, I having just turned 50 am beginning to understand just what a physical undertaking this show must have been for her. She deserves much credit for being a good sport and sticking it out to the very end.

Cruel as it may sound to stick around to that late hour, her and our suffering I’m afraid were compulsory, since the final act of the night was none other than The Who. I had been waiting all my life to see these legendary British rockers, though I did manage to catch their bassist John Entwistle do a solo show at The Fillmore in 1994. It had been ten years since they had done a tour and I had missed their last one in 1989. The line up that night was equally as punctuated by the presence of Tom Waits. Likewise, I had been waiting for all eternity to see this enigmatic artist, who despite taking residence in nearby Sebastopol, never played live around the bay area. My guess is that he just wanted to avoid being recognized by the locals, but it still annoyed me that I hadn’t seen him perform up until then. All the other acts, though stellar, I had seen plenty up till that point and would have been less inclined to stay as late for.

Before I continue to the show at hand, I have to point out that this was one of those rare shows that I chose to miss working at the Maritime on that night. The Hall was hosting reggae acts Aswad, who I still haven’t seen yet, and Eek-A Mouse, who I had seen there altogether too many times. But what stung missing that show was the unlikely opening act of Sir Mix A-Lot. The legendarily horny hip hop artist had a short but spectacular set and though I wasn’t in attendance to record him, I made sure to get a copy of that set to compensate. Like I had written before, my partner Pete, who came out of the woodwork once again to take the helm in the recording room, had little or no interest in hip hop music, but even Pete was impressed by Mix A-Lot’s skills on the mic. There are many MC’s out there with excellent diction and speed, but there’s no one who even comes close to him. His ability to clearly and seemingly effortlessly annunciate his lyrics at his break neck velocity boggles the mind. And of course, he finished his set with his smash hit, “Baby Got Back”. Thankfully, I was able to witness his unmatched skills in person seven years later when he did an intimate show at the Red Devil Lounge. But back to the Bridge School gig.

This was my seventh Bridge School show in eight years, the lucky thirteenth in the Benefit’s rich history. I had only missed the year before since ‘92, partially because I was recording Bunny Wailer at the Maritime on its first day and that I wasn’t particularly impressed with the line up that year. This would also be the first Bridge School to be broadcast over the internet, though there were  complaints about the broadcast’s reliability, image, and sound quality. But that wasn’t entirely unexpected, after all, it was only 1999. Neil Young did his traditional brief, solo opening of the night before quickly yielding the stage to Lucinda Williams. Hers was the one setlist of the show that I don’t have, though I know she was joined by Neil and Emmylou Harris, who was on the bill replacing Lucinda for the following day, for Lucinda’s songs, “Greenville” and “Sweet Old World”. Emmylou had actually gotten a shout out from Jill Cunniff from Luscious Jackson two days before this when she played the Maritime. Jill played a song called “Why Would I Lie?” which Emmylou had sang back ups on the album version of it and Jill praised her recent collaboration with Linda Ronstadt for an album of duets they made together called “Western Wall”. Pity neither artist got to sit in with each other that weekend. Lucinda was doing well that year, having just won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album for “Car Wheels On A Gravel Road”.

The Smashing Pumpkins had graced the Bridge School stage two years before and they were back again, though truncated to be billed simply as Billy Corgan & James Iha. The band was going through a transitional period then, having lost their bass player D’arcy Wretzky who was hitting a rough patch, having just divorced her husband and suffered a miscarriage. Unsuccessful in her pursuit of an acting career, poor D’arcy would descend into drug addiction leading to her arrest of possession of crack cocaine. Thankfully, the band’s drummer Jimmy Chamberlain had bounced back from his drug habit and just got out of rehab. So, he joined his bandmates for the last two songs of their set, at least making them for a small time three quarters of Smashing Pumpkins on stage.

They had replaced D’arcy recently with ex-Hole bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur, who had left the dumpster fire that was Courtney Love after her five year contract with the band had expired. However, she wasn’t at this show, Billy explaining after they finished playing “Summer”, “We were gonna play with our new bass player tonight, but she’s in a chess tournament in Italy. So we’d like to bring out another friend of ours… Jimmy Chamberlain. Fresh off the Billy Squire tour.” Billy then introduced “Age Of Innocence” saying, “We’d like to play a new song for you. It’s about a week old.” The new album “Machine/The Machines Of God”, where that song as well as “Stand Inside Your Love” and “Glass & The Ghost Children” would eventually debut, wouldn’t come out for another four months, but it didn’t sell that well and the band split up shortly afterwards. Billy and Jimmy would form the band Zwan, who I caught at The Warfield four years later, before the Pumpkins reformed in 2005. And though the Pumpkins are still playing today and back to playing arena sized venues, this would be the last time I’d see them.

The duo casually took the stage, Billy dressed in a long, black coat and fishing hat, James also dressed in black and they opened up inexplicably with a cover of U2’s “Stay (Faraway, So Close!). They followed it with another cover, “Ol’ 55” by Tom Waits, one of Tom’s oldest songs that was later made famous by The Eagles. James sang that one. Hopefully, they asked permission from him and they probably did since they also played it the following night. If not, I guess Tom didn’t mind, though it would have been nice if he had joined them on stage for it. One wouldn’t guess that the Pumpkins were coming apart then since their career had been nothing but a meteoric rise since their inception, recently awarded with back to back Grammy wins for Best Hard Rock Performance for their songs “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” and “The End Is The Beginning Is The End”. The latter song had been part of the soundtrack for the catastrophic flop “Batman & Robin”. Maybe that movie was the real reason the Pumpkins were on the skids. The movie was that bad, nearly destroying the careers of all involved with it. To make matters worse, Billy produced the music to the religious hysteria horror film, “Stigmata” with Patricia Arquette and Gabriel Byrne that year which was even less watchable than “Batman & Robin”. Both films got plenty of nominations for Razzie awards, but thankfully didn’t win any.

Coincidentally, the band to follow would be the one that was on first when the Pumpkins headlined the Lollapalooza tour in 1994, the bay area’s own Green Day. Yes, while the Pumpkins’ star was starting to fade, Green Day’s was on the rise. This would be their first live performance with Jason White on rhythm guitar, officially ending Green Day’s status as a three piece. Jason had actually played a small part kissing a girl during their music video for “When I Come Around”. On a grimmer side note, bassist Mike Dirnt had just divorced his wife, Anastasia Serman, that year, and though he’d remarry in 2004, that second marriage would quickly dissolve the same year. He’d marry for the third time in 2009 and so far, that one sticking. Their next album, “Warning”, wouldn’t be released until the following October, almost a year after, but we were treated to the live premiere of the title track. Billy had a lot of energy that night introducing the band before singing “Hitchin’ A Ride”, saying, “We’re Green Day from Oakland, California! I’d like to thank Neil Young and everyone around him” and then he let out a high pitched yodel. Before the did “Warning”, he introduced Jason and joked, “Check out his butt!” Jason turned his backside to the audience to for a moment and they applauded.

It was interesting to hear Green Day play acoustic, probably the first time they had done it, at least for an entire set. They hit their instruments as hard as they did the electric ones, but it still was a little weird, like Metallica’s set had been two years before this. Still, “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” clearly was made to be played acoustically, so that one didn’t feel out of place. Though “Warning” wasn’t commercially successful as their previous albums, they bounced back with a vengeance big time when they put out “American Idiot” four years later. Hell, the next time I’d see them, they’d be headlining the goddamn ballpark and they’re still just as big. They played the ballpark again in 2021 and headlined one of the days at Outside Lands last year.

The (then) young act of Green Day would soon give way for the surf rock elder statesman, Brian Wilson. I had just seen the former leader of The Beach Boys at The Warfield a mere ten days before this show. So, if you want more backstory about Brian, feel free to revisit my entry from that night. Once again, he had brought along his band, The Wondermints, and though he still came off as stilted and singing flat, I think he was a little looser that he’d put a few performances under his belt by then. Neil, Eddie Vedder, and Sheryl Crow joined him on stage to sing back up for “Surfin’ USA”. Since they weren’t allowed to use amplifiers for this acoustic event, they replaced the theremin they normally employed for “Good Vibrations” and did that part with an acoustic guitar with a slide bar. And though Brian’s songs were infinitely appreciated, his set went on a bit long, contributing to conspicuous length of this night. I had hoped mom would have liked Brian, but as a former voice teacher, she was unimpressed by his off key attempts to harmonize to say the least.

Tom Waits might not have been performing quite as long as Brian, but the fellow Southern Californian, was equally as revered to me. I was ecstatic when he took the stage, donning an old, rumpled fedora hat with the brim tilted up in the front. Tom was lit from underneath, giving him an appropriately ghostly look to him, it being Halloween weekend. He had been out of the limelight for a few years, but had triumphantly returned to form with his new album, “Mule Variations”. Having left Island Records, he was free to explore musically with this seminal piece, his first studio album in six years. I appreciated that he used Primus to be his band for the first track on that album, “Big In Japan”, though I didn’t find out it was them until years later. I’ll never forget that song since earlier that year, the front of house sound engineer at The Fillmore accidentally left that tune on a repeating loop for almost a half hour between sets of the Chris Cornell show there. I got to know that song well that evening.

We were lucky to hear two new songs that night, the sublime “Hold On’ and the hilarious “Chocolate Jesus”. That album would nab him a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album and a nomination for Best Male Rock Performance. The musicians he assembled were tight, though they had just played their first live show in three years recently in Austin. Also that year, Tom found time to play a part in the comedy “Mystery Men” where he played Doc Heller, who made non-lethal weapons for that band of misfit superheroes. I was equally as delighted to hear Tom’s hysterical banter between songs that night. Before playing “Hold On”, he claimed it was “a song written by Gregory Peck and was Lincoln’s inaugural address”. Tom also dedicated “Chocolate Jesus” to “everyone there who’s like me that might have difficulty getting up for church on Sunday” and sang that song through a bullhorn wrapped in black gaff tape. Finally, before “Innocent When You Dream” he joked that it was a “song my dad taught me when I was a kid… That’s a lie… This is a song I learned from some kids behind a theater… That’s also a lie… I learned it from Gregory Peck… That’s also a lie. They’re all lies… No, they’re not.” He finished his set with the sentimental ballad, “Tom Traubert’s Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen” and left the stage, saluting the kids and audience saying, “Good to be here. Thanks for asking us.”

Neil Young came up afterwards, abdicating his usual final slot on the bill to The Who. He covered a good assortment from his long career as well as three new songs from his latest album “Looking Forward”, that had just been released four days before this show, his final album with Crosby, Stills, & Nash. About halfway through his set, he played the title track, followed by “Out Of Control”, and later did “Slowpoke” for the second to the last one. He brought up some folks from the show to do the Bob Dylan classic “I Shall Be Released” for his encore. His set was followed by Bridge School veterans Pearl Jam who would be returning to this annual benefit for the fourth time and I’m proud to say that I’d witnessed all four appearances. They would play at a total of nine times in Bridge School Benefits thirty year history and singer Eddie Vedder would play twice as a solo artist. But tragedy would strike PJ the following year when they played the Roskilde Festival and nine people were suffocated to death in the crowd when they were on stage. Though they tried to calm the crowd down, it was too late and they cancelled their next two concerts after that, even contemplating splitting up for a while. I was lucky to see Pearl Jam as often as I did back then in the 90’s, but I wouldn’t see them for another eight years until I would finally catch them again at the Civic Center.

PJ had just replaced their drummer Jack Irons with fellow Seattle native Matt Cameron, who had just became a free agent after the break up of Soundgarden. Though the “Binaural” album wouldn’t hit the stores for another seven months, we were treated to the live debut of their new tune “Thin Air” that night. Eddie introduced it, comparing it to getting a “new bike or a new coat” and they just “can’t wait to try it out.” That new album wasn’t a hit as much as their earlier stuff, being the only one that didn’t go platinum. Thankfully, they started to release official live “bootlegs” after that, appeasing hardcore fans like my friend Jeff and relieving me from having to tape them in the future. They also did a cover of “Last Kiss” by Wayne Cochran which PJ had given to their fan club as a Christmas single, benefitting refugees from the recent fighting in Kosovo. Eddie told another little story before “Footsteps” saying that Neil had taken him for a walk in the woods recently and confessed that he was his father. Eddie said, “Cool”, and when he asked if he could move in with him, Neil said no.

And as much I enjoy Sheryl Crow, the show’s length was starting to take its toll on us by the time she was on and it was getting really, really cold. We did our best to bundle mom up and assure her that the night would wrap up soon, but even I was starting to lose my patience. Still, it was nice that Emmylou Harris made another appearance joining Sheryl on stage for “Juanita”. I did appreciate Sheryl’s bravery doing “a bit of an experiment” as she put it, strapping on an accordion to play “Strong Enough”. She even did a little lick of the theme to the movie “The Godfather” before playing it. She’s no Weird Al, but I think she pulled it off well enough, especially for a beginner. 

Sheryl was still riding high in her career after winning a Grammy for Best Rock Album for “The Globe Sessions” that year. Lots of recent Grammy winners on the bill at Bridge School that year. She had also made her acting debut in “The Minus Man” with her then boyfriend actor Owen Wilson. Sheryl and the band did something sweet halfway through her set, turning around to play “If It Makes You Happy” to the kids behind her. Following that, she did “The Difficult Kind” saying it was an ill fated attempt to win back an old boyfriend, but she was glad it didn’t work since she had a new boyfriend who was “fabulous” which certainly had to have been Owen. But after such a long parade of talent, the time came at long last to see The Who. They had Zak Starkey, the son of Ringo Starr, on drums touring with them, though he only played tambourine for about half the songs at this one.

Not to be outdone, by Tom Waits, Pete Townshend had plenty to say between songs that night as well. Before “Pinball Wizard”, he mentioned it was the second time he’d been to the benefit, the first being three years before as a solo act, and this time he’d brought Roger and John, despite complaining that “they all should be in bed”. He went on to say that he was “still in tears to have seen Brian Wilson… so unbelievably moving” and was inspired by the collection of talent backstage. Pete made a bit of a disclaimer before they did “Mary Ann With The Shaky Hands” saying that it was a “rather touchy song to be playing tonight” and that people should “take it as it was intended” as a tune about “a man who falls genuinely, deeply, and permanently in love with a girl whose hands shake.”

They gave Entwistle a chance to sing and Pete joked as he lurched over his mic stand that “he’s going to stoop over to sing but not as much as Tom Waits”. John, appropriately wearing a necklace with a silver spider pendant, did “Boris The Spider”, a perfect song for a (pre) Halloween concert. Pete continued to ham it up after the song ended, pretending to see a spider on the ground and repeatedly trying to stomp on it shouting, “There he is!!! After 39 years!!!”, but afterwards apologizing saying that they don’t so stuff like that anymore. He then prefaced “Who Are You” telling the audience that “this is where we used to play a tape in 1975”, that it was “still a new thing to do” and that now people would just “buy something by Casio or Yamaha and press button 16, but when I first did it, it was brilliant because back in those days, synthesizers were made in America!”

They took a bit of a left turn after when Roger and Pete did a little Johnny Cash mash up of “I Walk The Line” and “Ring Of Fire”, but it fell apart after a couple minutes, Roger laughing that he hadn’t “played it in years”. Pete ribbed him back, “it was just getting good when you stopped!” Before they finished the night with “The Kids Are Alright”, Pete did one more riff about Tom Waits saying that he “may have been stooped over, but he has the most beautiful family” and Pete wondered “coming from England as I do how can you father so many children when you have a goatee beard”, but he laughed and dedicated the song to him anyway. Pete raised a few eyebrows then saying that he could say what he wanted about Tom since he had “left the building” and claimed, “You see, it’s like when someone’s dead and you can say whatever you want about him… John Lennon? I fucked him!” Embarrassed a little when he glimpsed the children lined up in their wheelchairs behind him, he made a caveat, “Oops! Forgot where I was for a minute. I didn’t really. That’s just an example of the kind of thing you say about people after they’re dead.”

We shivered as we stumbled back to our car after the show ended. It had to have been after 2 am, or rather 1 am after the clocks were set back, when we finally got mom home. I still give her props to this day for her stoicism on that long night, but I’m glad I could share that with her. It was mom’s second Bridge School, seeing the one in 1996 before and not only did she see Pete Townshend also at that one, but she would accompany me to see The Who when they returned to play the Shoreline the following summer. I made a point to taunt my brother Alex who had never seen them despite being perhaps the biggest Who fan I know apart from Duke the stagehand from The Fillmore who positively worships them. I made sure he never forgot that his own mother had seen The Who twice until he finally got to see them a few years later. Coming back for the next day’s show was tempting, but I chose to record The Creatures with Siouxsie Sioux at the Maritime instead. It was definitely a more appropriate show for Halloween and let’s face it, after all the time I spent at this musical marathon, once was more than enough this time around. Still, I consider this Bridge School line up to be one of the best in its history.

Luscious Jackson, Ben Lee, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., October 29, 1999

SETLIST : Pele Merengue, Here, (unknown), Electric, Ladyfingers, Naked Eye, Angel, Summer Daze, Space Diva, Devotion, Why Do I Lie?, Country’s A Callin’, Christine, Sexy Hypnotist, Nervous Breakthrough, (encore), Surprise, City Song (NY State Of The World)

Ever since I finally broke into writing about these October shows, I’d been looking forward to revisiting Luscious Jackson. They were and still are one of my favorite bands ever, but getting to this concert means that I’m nearly at the end of one of the longest monthly stretches of shows I’d ever endure. It had been nearly four years since I’d see them play at The Fillmore, the Edge the year before that. I’m sure I don’t have to remind the readers how much I enjoyed their music and how hopelessly horny I was for singer/guitarist Jill Cunniff. They had just put out their new album, “Electric Honey” four months before this and the single “Ladyfingers” had already been scooped up to be in the soundtracks for both “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Charmed”. The single “Why Do I Lie?” that had been put out with the “Fever In Fever Out” album in 1996 was also on the soundtrack for the film “Good Will Hunting”. Petra Hayden had been a guest violinist on the songs “Space Diva” and “Lover’s Moon” on the new album, a year before she was struck by a car crossing the street in L.A. that put her out of commission from performing for months. I’m happy to say she recovered and I saw her play with the Red Room Orchestra just this last February. But back to Luscious Jackson.

Naturally, the band had been busy promoting the new album, going on tour earlier that year alongside fellow Grand Royal label mates, Cibo Matto. They both would join the line up of the Lilith Fair that summer. I can’t remember why I had to miss that tour when it came around to play Shoreline that summer, but I regret it since it would be the last Lilith Fair, save one more put together 11 years later that ultimately was cancelled mid tour. Luscious Jackson had just replaced their keyboardist, Vivian Trimble, with Singh Birdsong and added Tia Sprocket on percussion, though both Singh and Tia would pinch hit on guitar and bass. DJ Alex Young was also on the turntables for this tour, warming up the crowd between sets and playing along with the band. Vivian had grown tired of touring and wanted to stay put on their home turf in New York City and started a band called Dusty Trails with Josephine Wiggs from The Breeders. I’m sad to say that Vivian just passed away after a prolonged battle with cancer last month at the all too young age of 59.

Opening that night would be Ben Lee, a singer/songwriter from Australia, who had also just been signed to Grand Royal. His song, “How To Survive A Broken Heart” had been featured in the soundtrack for the comedy, “There’s Something About Mary” the year before and he had put out the “Breathing Tornados” album that November. As luck would have it, Petra Hayden was a guest on his album as well, contributing back up vocals to his song, “Nighttime” along with Donovan Leitch, the venerable hippie icon, more commonly known simply as Donovan. Speaking of hippie icons, that album also had Sean Lennon, John Lennon’s youngest, doing back up vocals on the song “Sandpaperback”. Undoubtedly, somebody would had to have made the obvious “Sandpaperback Writer” pun when they made that one. Too easy. Ben was dating actress Claire Danes at the time, though they would split up four years later. He would marry actress Ione Skye in 2008, who coincidentally had just divorced, Grand Royal founder and Beastie Boy, Ad Rock, the year of this show.

It was a fairly well sold evening that night and the audience was enthusiastic when they took the stage, opening with “Pele Merengue”. Between songs, Jill asked, “Did anybody watch that really cheesy show on the WB network that we were on?”. Jill had been referring to the “WB Radio Music Awards” which aired two nights before this and continued, “It was so bad… You were smart not to watch it.” After, they did “Here” they got the crowd to participate for the next one, an instrumental, getting them to scream for a while every time they said, “Go!”. Gabby Glaser teased us a little afterwards, saying, “I’m about to make a confession tonight since it’s the city of love”, then hesitated, “Sorry I can’t to it”, the switched to a comical English accent, “It’s smutty and dirty. I can’t. Maybe later.” She grinned as she did a little bit of the bass line from Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust” before they played “Ladyfingers”.

Gabby was in the middle of saying something before they played “Angel”, when somebody threw a pair of underwear at her, hitting her in the face. She laughed it off, telling the crowd that they had “just saw Tom Jones in Las Vegas” and told a story about one of the many women who threw her underwear at him, as was tradition at his shows, and the pair was so big, that “it looked like a table cloth.” Tom gave that woman a kiss on the lips and he let her rub his leg for the rest of the show. Somebody up front was complaining that they couldn’t hear the vocals, so Jill encouraged them to get closer to the P.A. It being two days before Halloween, she then asked the crowd “Is anybody going to go trick or treating? I’m going with my niece and nephew… very exciting.” 

They brought things down for a bit, doing the aforementioned “Why Do I Lie?” Jill introduced the song, wanting “to do an advertisement for something”, going on to say “I wrote a song with Emmylou Harris who is a wonderful singer if you don’t know her and it’s on an album with Linda Ronstadt called ‘Western Wall’ and I highly recommend the entire album.” The album was a series of duets with her and Linda and the song Jill wrote with Emmylou was called “Sweet Spot”.  As luck would have it, Emmylou was in town for the Bridge School Benefit down at Shoreline for the next two nights and it was a pity she couldn’t have been in the house that night for a cameo, since she had originally sang back ups for this song. Singh switched to guitar for a couple tunes after that and Jill made an observation that she felt like they “were in The Fillmore in 1969” marveling at the graphics mixed into the video feed on the Maritime’s giant screens adding, “And that’s just fine with me.”  Sure, Jill didn’t realize that The Fillmore and BGP were the Hall’s mortal enemies, but she was astute in the sense that both venues were sharing the talents of the Brotherhood Of Light guys.

She went on to introduce “Christine”, saying “I used to write a lot of songs when I was a teenager, but I would never play them to anyone. I was much too shy. So, I wrote a song about it. It could be about any girl, any boy.” Afterwards Jill said, “we’ve been spending so much time in Las Vegas on this tour for some reason. We added a new song to our repertoire… It’s actually about all the girls who assist the magicians” and they went into “Sexy Hypnotist”. Jill shook a tambourine for a bit in the middle of that one and for the last tune of their set, “Nervous Breakthrough”, the first song on the new album and one of my favorites. I swear to God, there’s something about the adorable way Jill dances on stage that just turns me all weak in the knees. I can’t help it.

They came back for an encore and Jill asked the audience “to do the pogo dance for the next song. We also will be doing it” and they all hopped in unison throughout “Surprise”. Jill then invited “a few people” to dance with them for their last song of the night, “City Song (New York State Of The World)” as was the “Luscious Jackson tradition”. The audience accepted that invitation and then some, filling every square inch of the stage to the point where folks could barely move to their mild dismay.  Gabby politely requested that they didn’t step on her pedals. Near the end of the song, she shouted, “Make room for Kate!” and drummer Kate Schellenbach joined her at the front of the stage, Tia taking over for her on the drum kit. One of the random people dancing on stage I recognized and that’s another story.

The Maritime’s psychotic owner, Boots, finally realizing that he had alienated my partner Pete to the point where he was rarely coming in to work anymore, leaving me alone most of the time, tried to recruit a volunteer assistant for me to help out in the recording room. Personally, I think he was fishing for someone to replace me that he didn’t have to pay for. He found some young man named Xander who I believe had been an usher and introduced him to me. I quickly discovered that despite his friendly demeanor, that he knew jack shit about sound and wasn’t particularly interested in learning anything about it. He mostly just sat around and I did my best to ignore him and do my job. Well, Xander, obviously bored, asked if he could go upstairs to watch the end of the show and I obliged him.  When I saw him on stage dancing with the others on the video, I simply rolled my eyes and shook my head apathetically. He was even hamming it up before the song began, doing a little obnoxious chorus line kick routine with another guy until Jill told him to cut it out. After the song ended, Boots caught him amongst the throngs of stage bum rushers and gave him one of his trademark tongue lashings. Let’s just say that was the last I saw of Xander.

I can’t say how relieved I was to catch that show since Luscious Jackson would disband the year after this to make time for their families and pursue other projects. Unfortunately, Grand Royal would soon go out of business, filing for bankruptcy a year and a half after this night. Jill and Gabby have both put out solo records since then and after having kids of their own, eventually assembled and released an album together called “Baby DJ”, comprised of songs for children. It would be a full fifteen years later in 2014 until Luscious Jackson would finally return to the bay area and I would see them perform at The Independent and they were just as awesome as I remembered them to be. I will always have warm feelings for Luscious Jackson and I’m proud to say that I just put up their poster from The Fillmore show they did back in 1995 in my new bedroom here in Alameda just a few weeks ago.

A Perfect Circle, Laundry, Enemy, War., SF, Wed., October 27, 1999

SETLIST : The Hollow, Orestes, Magdalena, 3 Libras, Thomas, Brena, Diary Of A Lovesong, Rose, Judith

This side project of Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan had been developed all year and now they were ready to be thrown in the deep end of the rock & roll pool. I had missed the show they had done in September at Slim’s, getting their sea legs opening for Oxbow, but now the word was out and they were getting big, Warfield big, though I would say the venue was only half full at this show. As you can imagine, I’m kicking myself for missing that Slim’s gig, especially since I thought Oxbow ruled and they were only changing $5 to get in, but it was sold out before I could buy a ticket. For al those who have read my stuff before, you would know that I was and remain a big fan of Tool and Mr. Keenan’s powerful voice and stage persona, so I was naturally curious to hear what this new endeavor sounded like.

To be fair though, it wasn’t Maynard’s baby. For years, guitar tech Billy Howerdel had plied his craft with acts like Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, and Fishbone before working for Tool in 1992. There, he became friends with Maynard, who was even gracious enough to shack Billy up at his house in North Hollywood three years later. As luck would have it, I had some extensive time listening to Tool’s soundcheck at their back to back shows at the Warfield in 1996 where they had let their guitar tech fill in for Adam Jones and I was impressed with his chops, even getting the deadpan praise of Maynard saying that he had “passed the audition”. That guitar tech had to have been Billy. In his downtime, Mr. Howerdel wrote and recorded songs until he put together a five song demo of his work. Initially, he had hoped to recruit Elizabeth Frazer of the Cocteau Twins whose band had just imploded a couple years before to sing for him, but she declined. 

Upon hearing Billy’s stuff, Maynard thought he’d give it a go and from there, they were off to the races. They enlisted Troy Van Leeuwen who had been a session player for Korn and Orgy, and would eventually play guitar for Queens Of The Stone Age. Also, A Perfect Circle employed Paz Lenchantin from Failure, the band that opened for Tool at that aforementioned Warfield show in ’96 and was the first act on the main stage of 1998 Lollapalooza tour where Tool was the penultimate act on that bill. Like I said, this stuff was new, so new that A Perfect Circle had actually only performed their first live show two months before this at the Viper Room in L.A. Word got out fast and just two and a half weeks before this show, they were playing at Coachella. Troy was performing double duty that night, kicking the show off with his band, Enemy, a name which seemed like an obvious one for a rock act though inexplicably nobody had taken by then. Troy also had a Failure alumni in his new band, Kelli Scott on drums. I’ve made it no secret that I wasn’t a fan of Failure, so I was relieved to hear that they’d broken up, though I still do give them props for their cover of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy The Silence”. 

Also opening that night was Laundry, Tim “Herb” Alexander’s band, the once and future drummer of Primus. I’d seen Laundry open for Tool during their first headlining Warfield show in 1994, but by this time, Herb had left Primus and was spreading his talent around to several other projects. He had actually been A Perfect Circle’s drummer for some of their earliest gigs including this one, playing double duty that night like Troy did with Enemy, but Herb would eventually be replaced by legendary session drummer Josh Freese, who had been touring with Devo and Guns N’ Roses. Incidentally, Maynard had named his first son Devo, so it’s understandable why he’d have taken a liking to Josh, who had first learned drums listening to Devo’s “Freedom Of Choice“ album. Afterwards, Herb would go on to play with the Blue Man Group, an obvious fit considering his skill and the convenience that he’d recently shaved his head, and also play drums for Maynard’s other musical side project Puscifer, before rejoining Primus in 2003. Laundry had just released their second album, “Motivator”, and Herb was singing vocals for the band as well as playing drums this time. Near the end of their set, they did a respectful cover of Pink Floyd’s “Welcome To The Machine”. Herb doesn’t have the best singing voice in the world, but let’s face it, neither does Les Claypool. I’m just glad I caught Laundry one more time, since they would disband shortly after this show.

I wasn’t then and still unsure entirely how I feel about the music of A Perfect Circle. I appreciate that they are a spooky, radical departure from Tool’s bombastic sound as is Puscifer, but none of the songs really stick with with me save one. They did an interesting mash up of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Diary Of A Madman” and The Cure’s “Lovesong”. Now, I’ve heard a couple variations of the title used for this mash up including “Diarrhea Of A Madman” and “Ozzy’s Cure”, but regardless, it was a compelling composition. Apart from that one, they did a relatively short set, playing eight songs that would be part of their debut album, “Mer De Noms”, (french for “Sea Of Names”), that wouldn’t even hit the shelves until six months later. After that album came out, A Perfect Circle would return to The Warfield four months later and I would see them again. Thankfully, they got a poster that time.

As I mentioned before, my brother Alex was in the video for their single, “3 Libras”, where he can be seen obnoxiously accosting Maynard as he stumbled through the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in L.A donning a wig of long, stringy, black hair. and then Alex paired up with a young woman and joined a group of couples doing some ballroom dancing. Folks might remember that the Ambassador was the place where Robert Kennedy was assassinated and it had been used for private events, TV and movie shoots, as well as music videos alike since that fateful day in 1968 ever since. I regret to say Alex is not a fan of A Perfect Circle’s music, nor Tool for that matter, but that video does have the distinction of being the first of many on camera acting jobs he would have during his time in L.A. Anyway, Maynard mentioned that they were playing at the Cactus Club in San Jose the following night and finished their encore with “Rose” and “Judith”. But after that, the secret was out and A Perfect Circle went on to bigger and better things, opening for Nine Inch Nails the following spring before headlining their own tour.

And though as I reiterated, A Perfect Circle’s music didn’t make that much of an impression on me, this show remains as one that would forever haunt me in my memory for another reason. For the first time in my life, I stuck around at the end of the show to attend a ritual called “Shift Off” that had normally been reserved for The Warfield’s full time employees, security, bar, and maintenance people.  These full timers could hang out and cash in tickets to have drinks after the crowd had dispersed and blow off some steam. At the time, my friend Drew, who had been my plus one ushering that night, had been dating one of The Warfield’s many young, attractive waitresses and he wanted to linger about, specifically to impart to her that they had “some babies to talk about”. I believe that was a reference to his desire to knock her up or at least enjoy the process of attempting to do so. Well, upon declaring this to the young woman, she wasn’t receptive and we were lingering about, just about ready to leave when Maynard, the rest of the band, and their friends had come back on stage in their street clothes, about to leave as well.

At first sight, my dear friend in an instant got stars in his eyes and impulsively marched down the aisle of The Warfield’s main floor in an attempt to get Maynard’s attention. He at first waved towards him and beckoned him to come and talk to him from the stage down below to him on the dance floor, but Maynard wasn’t taking the bait. Frustrated, Drew returned to me while I was finishing my last beer, clearly distressed over the situation. After a few seconds, he clenched his jaw, shook his head, and grew a steely determination in his face, declaring to me, “I’m going back there, man!” and before I could stop him, Drew was marching double time back time down the aisle towards his target. 

Then Drew let out a syllable that haunts me to this day. He loudly blurted out, “HEY!!!” to Maynard, startling everybody in the house, echoing into its cavernous ceilings and silencing everybody else. God almighty had to have heard that. It totally reminded me of the scene in David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” when Dennis Hopper first encountered Kyle McLachlan, stopping him terrified in his tracks with that utterance. And I have may mentioned before, that though Drew may be of average height like myself, he is quite muscular, arms filled with tattoos, and has one of those intense, thousand mile stares. Maynard and his people stood there like deer in headlights for what felt like ages and I was thinking to myself how I was going to explain all this to the authorities. But Drew finally broke the tension by simply pointing to Maynard and proudly uttered… “MJK”. He repeated it again confirming Maynard’s initials before declaring, “I fucking love you, man!” I saw Maynard take a half breath of relief before replying that he loved him too. 

With the tension (slightly) broken, Drew immediately asked him in his usual jovial tone, “So, where we goin’? Where’s the party at, yo?”. Then Maynard’s girlfriend, who I believe was his future wife Lei Li, took him by the arm and led him away after Maynard graciously shined Drew on saying something to the effect that they weren’t into that or had to go or something. Anyway, Drew strolled back up the aisle to me and I caught my breath and calmed down, relieved that there we weren’t going to be entangled in any kind of legal trouble from this incident. Years later, I was enlisted into the audio crew for A Perfect Circle when they played the Civic Center in 2017 and I messaged my dear friend Drew who had long since relocated to Colorado that if I ran into Maynard, I would say, “HEY!!!!” I got a crew shirt from that show and sent it to my friend for Christmas.

Del & Casual, Ugly Duckling, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., October 24, 1999

SETLIST : freestyle, Disastrous, Eye Examination, Future Development, Dr. Bombay, Press Rewind, Catch A Bad One, Mistadobalina, DJ – freestyle, Boo Boo Heads, Phony Phranchise, Proto Culture, At The Helm

After a grueling five day run, which after one day off was preceded by another five day run, it was a relief that this final show was this one. I had been accustomed to mixing hip hop at the Hall for a couple years now and basically knew what to expect when Del & Casual performed that night. God knows, I had more than enough experience in my previous encounters with their hip hop supergroup, the Hieroglyphics, who had finally released their long awaited debut album “3rd Eye Vision” the year before this. I had recorded the Hieroglyphics crew at five separate gigs by the time this show came up, but on this occasion, Del and Casual would be performing on their own, so I wouldn’t have to sort through the din of various mics being passed around their numerous members and so forth. This gig was added too late to make it to the monthly poster, but it still was fairly well attended. These guys had little trouble finding fans to come see them at the Maritime since we were on their home turf in the bay area.

Del’s “Future Development” album had already been out a couple years and he was just on the cusp of releasing “Both Sides Of The Brain”. Likewise, it had also been a couple years since Casual had put out his second solo album, “Meanwhile…”, but he had just released a single called, “VIP”. Six weeks before this show, Del performed at the launch party for Sega Dreamcast, the video game console, at Club Townshend. He gave a shout out to Sega a couple times during this show declaring that they “were back” and that their “new shit is hella fresh”. Sadly, Del backed the wrong horse there and this would be the last console Sega would ever produce, ultimately eclipsed by the PlayStation 2. Opening that night were Ugly Duckling from Long Beach and though they were a bunch of nerdy white boys, I thought they won the crowd over with their talent and humor. They were brand spanking new back then and had just put out their first EP, “Fresh Mode”, that April.

There was a DJ spinning records between acts that night and before Del’s DJ took over, he finished his set playing Pharoah Monche’s “Simon Says (Get The Fuck Up)”, a staple for hip hop DJ’s at the time. He even massaged his pecs and mouthed along with the lyric ,”Girls, rub on your titties”. Del’s DJ had a small case full of vinyl records that had a Korn sticker on the side of it. In a strange coincidence, A Perfect Circle played The Warfield three nights later and my brother Alex had parts in music videos for both that band and Korn. Small world, eh?

His new album wasn’t out yet, but Del was still calling this the “Both Sides Of The Brain” tour. The sides of the stage had been decorated with posters promoting the upcoming album, “Supreme Clientele” from Ghostface Killah from the Wu Tang Clan. Domino from the Hiero crew came out and introduced Del, strolling on stage wearing a tan fedora and a black “Cottonmouth 3.5” T-shirt under a blue and white checkered, long sleeve collared shirt. Del was flanked by fellow rapper KU from the Bronx and they warmed up the crowd with a little freestyle before doing “Disastrous”, a new one. KU got the crowd riled up repeatedly chanting “When I say D-E, Y’all say L! D-E!” and the crowd answered “L!”.

Del got back into familiar territory with “Eye Examination”, took off his collared shirt and followed that with “Future Development”. After Del said, “I don’t want to talk about anybody else. I don’t give a fuck. I feel you deserve a real show so I’m gonna give it to ya’”. And then he said he was going to “take you back to 1975” and said something about bell bottoms before doing “Dr. Bombay”. When they wrapped up, he said the song was from “ancient times, but it still works”. Del let out a rather impressive belch into his mic before doing another new tune, “Press Rewind”, which he did the first verse a cappella and then the song morphed straight into “Catch A Bad One”. They cut into “Mistadobilina”, KU and Del chanting at the beginning, “He still exists!”, before Del adding the caveat, “He on the run though”. 

They then got the audience to chant “I like what I’m hearing right now!” before they gave the DJ a solo followed by another freestyle session. Pinky, a hippie veteran from Yoshi’s, was working the monitor board, but I saw Little Boot, the owner Boots’ youngest son who was the stage manager dabbling with it for a bit as well. After “Boo Boo Head”, Del belched again into his mic before introducing another new one called “Phony Phranchise”, declaring “I don’t care what sells” decrying rappers with “your phony jewelry that y’all be rentin’”. He went on later saying “we don’t need no fuckin’ video if y’all going to peep this shit anyway. Y’all know what the real is. I’m not going to spend all my scrilla on some digital video with doves coming out my arms that aren’t real”. 

Del reiterated his passion for video games introducing the final new song of the night, “Proto Culture”. He explained, “anybody out there seen ‘Robotech’ knows what Proto Culture is, the energy source that nigga’s was funkin’ over. We gotta get that Proto Culture”. I was and still am a big “Robotech” fan, so I appreciated the reference. He followed up, praising video games, shouting, “Fuck watchin’ TV when you can control the screen!” Del shook hands slapped a bunch of the fans up front five before finishing his set with “At The Helm”. It was a fun show, despite the occasional squeaking mic, but I was sad that this would be the last time I’d record Del or any of the Hiero crew at the Hall, especially since Del would release his seminal “Deltron 3030” album the following year, easily his best work since his first album.

The Black Crowes, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., October 23, 1999

SETLIST : Black Moon Jam, Black Moon Creeping, No Speak No Slave, Go Faster, Hotel Illness, Sting Me, Kickin’ My Heart Around, Oh Well, My Morning Song, Horsehead, Sometimes Salvation, Bled To Death, Wiser Time, Cursed Diamond, Gone, Thorn’s Progress, Thorn In My Pride, Be Your Side, Jealous Again, Virtue & Vice, (encore), Sick Again, Nobody’s Fault But Mine, Remedy

It had been less than a year since the Crowes played the Hall, but once again they brought their own monitor board, so we couldn’t get the hook up down in the recording room. So, I was able like last time to just couple the stereo feed from upstairs with my audience mics and do a simple stereo recording for the night, leaving me plenty of leisure time to relax, have some beer, and enjoy the show. The time before, the Crowes were just a month from putting out the “By Your Side“ album, their first outing since Columbia absorbed American Recordings, so this time we were treated to live renditions of the title track, “Kickin’ My Heart Around”, and “Virtue & Vice” which they ended their set with that night. It had been three years since the release of their previous album, “Three Snakes & One Charm”, having been stymied after scrapping their “Bands” album when American Recordings rejected it. 

But it had been an eventful time for the Crowes in 1999. Singer Chris Robinson had just divorced his first wife, Lala Sloatman, the niece of Frank Zappa, and had started dating actress Kate Hudson, a different daughter of a celebrity, her mom being Goldie Hawn. They’d marry the following year on New Year’s Eve in Aspen and though there were rumors that Kate was in the house that night, I never saw her. Kate would be nominated for an Oscar for “Almost Famous” the following year, a movie which I despised, though I do admit that she clearly was the best part of it. They would sire a son together in 2004, but split up three years later.

Also earlier in ’99, the Black Crowes performed in a pre-game show for Super Bowl XXXIII and co-headlined a tour along with Lenny Kravitz that spring. On that tour, poor Rich Robinson had his vintage 1963 Fender Esquire guitar ripped off in Grand Rapids, Michigan, never to be recovered. To make matters worse, their keyboardist Eddie Harsh had to suddenly leave the tour to have emergency surgery to fix his twisted intestine. While he recovered, the band continued, placing a human sized, inflatable, green alien to stand in his stead in front of his unmanned keyboards. They had recently replaced their bass played Johnny Colt, who had left the band to become a yoga instructor, with Sven Pipien. Sven would also be replaced mid-tour the following year by Greg Rzab, but would rejoin the band in 2005.

But the most significant achievement of the Crowes that year was their brilliant collaboration with guitar god Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin. They had just completed back to back shows of this musical marriage made in heaven at the Greek Theater in L.A. just four days before this night, which would ultimately lead to the release of their “Live At The Greek” double album. Sadly, Mr. Page was not at this Maritime show, but the band would play a smoking hot version of “Nobody’s Fault But Mine”, the Blind Willie Johnson cover that Zeppelin made famous, for the second to last song of their encore that evening. Page and the Crowes would do a show at Shoreline the following August and I’m ashamed to have missed it. As much as I enjoyed that Maritime gig, I would have savored it more if I knew it would be the last time I’d see the Crowes for a decade. Yes, it wouldn’t be until 2009 when I would see them again, performing as the entertainment for the Dreamforce conference which thankfully I was working at time and was able to get in for free.

After the gig, members of the band scooted over to the Maritime’s rival venue, The Fillmore, to check out fellow jam band southerners Gov’t Mule and where guitarist Audley Freed and Chris joined the band on stage for their encore. They were flanked by none other than John Popper, the harmonica virtuoso from Blues Traveler who’d I see them perform alongside with during the H.O.R.D.E. tours in both 1994 and 1995. They did covers of “32-20 Blues” by Robert Johnson and “The Hunter” by Albert King, both masters of the blues genre and naturally, I was sorry I couldn’t witness that. Just as well, since I needed the rest and appreciated having down time at the Crowes show, a well earned respite being the fourth show in a five day run. I would have the hip hop duo of Del & Casual to finish that stretch the following night and the rest did me good.

Echo & The Bunnymen, Otherstarpeople, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., October 22, 1999

SETLIST : Get Carter Intro, Rescue, Crocodiles, Evergreen, Loose, The Fish Hook Girl, Seven Seas, Bring On The Dancing Horses, The Back Of Love, What Are You Going To Do With Your Life?, Fools Like Us, The Killing Moon, I Want To Be There (When You Come), Altamont, The Cutter, Lips Like Sugar, Nothing Lasts Forever, Do It Clean, Roadhouse Blues, (encore), Villiers Terrace, Over The Wall (encore), Ocean Rain

I was being spoiled that week at the Hall with the array of talent I was able to record and smack dab in the middle of this five day run was none other than Echo & The Bunnymen. They had reformed two years earlier and I was lucky to catch their first gig in the bay area after their reunion at the Great American, a remarkably small venue for such a prestigious band, and later that year, after they got over their first tour jitters, when they played The Warfield. But this time, they were mine all mine. I knew it was a longshot that they’d use any of my recordings for an album and indeed they would go on to release the “Live In Liverpool” album three years later, but I was honored nonetheless to have them in my long list of unreleased credits. Like so many other bands, I understood the value of putting out a live album from their home town, honoring their history and fans.

In the years between when I saw them last, they had released another album of new material called, “What Are You Going To Do With Your Life?”, their eighth one in their illustrious career. The year before, bass player Les Pattinson had left the band for personal reasons, primarily to take care of his elderly mother, though some think it was partially because he was butting heads with frontman Ian McCulloch. This would leave the band with only Ian and guitarist Will Sergeant as the only remaining original members and the new album was completed using session musicians. It had the London Metropolitan Orchestra backing them up too as well as, strangely enough, a couple tracks featuring guests, the Fun Lovin’ Criminals. But Will hated the new album and after the group left London Records the next year, he would explore other projects on the side like his band, Glide, which opened for Echo & The Bunnymen on other legs of the tour this year and the one the following year. 

Opening that night was Otherstarpeople, a new group for Jennifer Finch, who had just left L7 citing health and money issues, as well as grieving over the deaths of her father and her friend and roadie named Umber. Together with bandmate Xander Smith, they had just put out their debut album, “Diamond In The Belly OF The Dog”, two months before this show. The single “Then There’s None” was a hit and appeared on both soundtracks for “Office Space” and “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” both which came out that year too. I thought they were quite good, though I’m afraid this would be the only time I’d ever see them.

But soon enough, they fired up the fog machine and Echo & The Bunnymen casually sauntered onto stage, accompanied by the theme song to the movie “Get Carter”. Ian was his usual vampirish self and Will was wearing a black tie with white polka dots, packing an electric guitar with a Union Jack sticker in the center area of its body next to its pickups. A few songs into their set, they did a cover of “Loose” by The Stooges before playing “The Fish Hook Girl” which Ian claimed was a Rolling Stones song, though said it was a Beach Boys song after they had finished. Coincidentally, I had just seen Brian Wilson at The Warfield two days before this show. Actually, I still can’t find the original owner of that song, but the band had also released it as a B-Side to their new single, “Rust”. Ian was probably just joking and it was theirs.

A few songs later, he introduced the title track of the new album saying, “This is a new song. As usual, San Francisco is playing the hell out of it.” They immediately followed it with another new one, “Fools Like Us”, which Ian prefaced that it was a “New song. Some of you may know it. Some of you won’t.” A couple tunes later, they did “Altamont” and part of me was sorry Pete wasn’t there for it since he had been one of the monitor engineers at that doomed music festival. Ian fooled around a bit in that one, singing the line “don’t care if you do” in a ridiculous Elvis voice. Afterwards, he had a little back and forth with an audience member, made a comment about the YMCA, and even sung a little from the chorus of the Village People song before mumbling to the guy in the crowd, “That’s where you’re staying tonight, anyway.”

Like many of the best frontmen like Iggy Pop and David Yow, Ian comes off as a little stiff at first, but after a few songs in he lets himself go more and more, his little dance moves getting increasingly fluid as the set went on. He cracked a joke after “The Cutter” declaring, “You do realize, we’re from Liverpool. It’s the center of the universe.” Ian cooled off, squatting briefly in front of an electric fan that they’d put on stage in front of him before the band did a soulful acoustic version of “Nothing Lasts Forever”. Before they finished their set with a medley starting with “Do It Clean”, Ian continued his tomfoolery scatting a bit of “the leg bone is connected to the thigh bone” and so on from the novelty song “The Skeleton Dance” followed by a couple lines of the crooner classic “When I Fall In Love” made famous by Nat King Cole.

They ended the medley with “Roadhouse Blues” by The Doors, a band that they famously covered before doing “People Are Strange” for the opening song of the soundtrack for the horror film, “The Lost Boys”. During that last song, Ian tweaked the lyrics slightly, singing “San Francisco lady… Give up your vows.” In the middle of the medley, Ian belted out a couple lines from “Do The Twist” by Chubby Checker and “Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine” by James Brown and ended it all with a short reprise of “Do It Clean”. They strolled off stage, but they soon puffed up the fog machine and the band returned for their first encore and once again Ian hammed it up singing a little bit of “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” by Leo Sayer before they did “Villiers Terrace” and “Over The Wall”.

When they came back on for their second encore, Ian had something wrapped up in a white napkin or paper towel and at first tried kicking it into the audience, but came up short and it landed at the front of the stage. He picked it up again and said, “This one’s faulty”, and kicked it into the audience successfully on his second attempt. They then closed the night with a serene rendition of “Ocean Rain”, their drummer using white mallets instead of sticks for that one. After they wrapped up and finally walked off, a handful of die hard fans leapt on stage and hastily snagged the setlists.

But perhaps the most distinct memory I have of that show was when I came upstairs to give Ian the tapes from the set that night. The band had been shacked up in the offices on the stage right side of the house for some reason instead of the customary one on the other side and when I entered, the florescent lights were all fired up and there was Ian all by his lonesome. I didn’t expect to find him alone which was initially off putting but I was horrified to see him under the unspeakably unflattering illumination of those lights. Seriously, I knew he was English and pale as a ghost, but there, without his traditional sunglasses, he looked like one of the Walking Dead. My friends Dina and Liz assured me that in more flattering light, he is quite handsome, but I can still see Ian’s ghostly visage from that night in my mind to this day. I had mentioned before that my friend Liz was friends with Will Sergeant and she told me that he was being cheeky with her once and insisted that she would looking fetching if she dressed up like a cat. I can’t say I entirely disagree, but Liz looks good in anything.

Public Enemy, Champtown, Blood Of Abe, Virus.Kom, Moon Rocks, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., October 21, 1999

Linton Kwesi Johnson, Azibo Tribe, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., October 21, 1999

I can’t begin to describe the elation I felt the moment when I saw that Public Enemy was coming to play the Maritime Hall. Sure, there had been no shortage of hip hop legends to pass through that venue up till then, but one would have a hard time finding a rap fan who didn’t elevate that seminal act to the highest rung of the genre. That, and it had been five long years since I’d seen PE play The Fillmore with The Goats and Midnight Voices, so I was more than ready to see them again and I was even more overjoyed that I’d be recording them personally. Before I continue, I would like to point out that this show was unique in that the Maritime was holding two completely separate shows that night, Public Enemy starting bright and early, the doors opening at 6:30 and the show starting at 7. The Hall was quickly emptied of fans when PE ended their set and then the doors opened again at 9 and the venue was filled once again for reggae poet Linton Kwesi Johnson who began at 9:30. I’d seen a handful of acts like Stereolab and The Fugees do an early and then a late show on the same night before, but this remains the only time I’d ever been at a venue that had early and late shows with entirely different acts. Incidentally, I thought this double feature was the perfect stylistic antithesis of seeing Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys at The Warfield the night before, the living personification of music for white people.

But back to the show at hand. Yes, it had been a while since Public Enemy had played in town. If they’d toured during those intervening years, clearly I missed it because I was working or just didn’t know about it. But the band and its members had been keeping busy.  Chuck D had released his first solo album in 1996, called “Autobiography Of Mistachuck”. Years before, he had declared lyrically in their classic jam “Welcome To The Terrordome”, that “never be a brother like me go solo”, but one can chock that line up to a number of interpretations. Seriously, even the most die hard PE fan didn’t seriously expect such a prolific genius like Chuck to relegate his entire artistic efforts exclusively to one endeavor. That new solo album at least freed him up finally to do other things. Likewise, the year of this show, Flavor Flav had released a solo single called “Git On Down / The Hot 1” and though he made efforts to put out a full length album called “It’s About Time”, it never actually materialized. Flav was hitting one of his many rough patches in life around then, being hit up for child support and descending again into drug addiction, causing him to go in and out of rehab. By 2000, he’d sunk so low, that he was scalping baseball tickets to support himself and his bad habits.

But the year before this show, PE received critical acclaim for their first time soundtrack for the movie, Spike Lee’s “He Got Game”. Spike had originally approached PE to score “Malcolm X”, but they turned it down. I think Chuck D and the gang made the right choice there, being a period piece, it would have been a little anachronistic and would have distracted from the story in my opinion. Probably would have still been awesome anyway. In 1998, Chuck also made an appearance on “Space Ghost : Coast To Coast” where Space Ghost shared with Chuck that his favorite rapper was M.C. Escher. Then a “Rappin’ Space Goblin” came out spitting rhymes about how kids should stay in school, that they should look both ways before they cross the street, and for them to eat their vegetables. Then Zorak shot the goblin with a ray gun, destroying him. 

Anyway… Speaking of rap artists being permanently taken out of the public eye, Public Enemy’s master of the one’s and two’s, Terminator X, had suffered severe leg injuries in a motorcycle accident and had been replaced just before this show by DJ Lord who remains as PE’s DJ to this day. As bad luck would have it, Flav had broken both his arms, also in a motorcycle crash in 1995 while in Milan, Italy. Clearly, motorcycles and Public Enemy don’t mix. Though his crash took Terminator X out of the DJ business, he remains alive and well and strangely enough currently owns and operates an ostrich farm in North Carolina. Yeah, most people didn’t see that one coming, myself included. 1999 was a still a productive year for Public Enemy though. Chuck D had just launched Rapstation.com, a site dedicated to the genre with a TV and radio station and free MP3 songs and ringtones to download. Of coarse, today that isn’t remarkable, but back then it was a brand new innovation, especially for a hip hop artist. Furthermore, PE just released the “There’s A Poison Goin’ On” album that July which was also released over the internet. It’s too bad that the album didn’t get as much praise or sold as well as their others since I think it is some of their best work. 

They had gotten some flack over the album’s last song, “Swindler’s List”, being accused of being anti-Semitic, though upon listening to it and reading its lyrics, I don’t agree and think it was just singled out for its provocative title. In fact, there was a conspicuously Jewish rap act that opened for Public Enemy that night, Blood Of Abe. They were a hip hop duo from L.A. comprised of a couple guys called Benyad and Mazik. The recently departed Eazy-E from N.W.A., a rapper who also had been accused of anti-Semitism, had actually produced their first album in 1993. They had been on hiatus after Eazy’s death in 1995, but had just come out to perform again that year, so I was lucky to see them. I thought they were quite good actually. Champtown from Detroit was there too and Chuck and Flav had appeared in his video for his song, “Bang Bang Boogie”. But like most rap shows, the openers played quick sets and PE, having limited time themselves, kept their set to a tight hour.

That had to be one of the happiest moments of my life when the tapes were rolling and the legendary hip hop act stormed on stage. I can still close my eyes and see Flav prancing around with that hilarious, cumbersome, fur laden Viking helmet on his head and his trademark clock dangling from a gold chain around his neck. They quickly covered a lot of ground that night, checking off most of the big hits and hitting a few newer ones like the title track of the aforementioned “He Got Game”. It was a little strange that the show began with sunlight still streaming through the Hall’s windows, especially since it was a hip hop show, which often started late. Seriously, I wish it never ended, but alas, it did and they had to make way for the late show. Reggae gigs always go late at the Hall, but I was impressed how quickly and efficiently the turnover between the shows played out. I was skeptical to say the least that our people would be able to pull it off on time, but they proved me wrong for which I was grateful. 

I was familiar with Linton Kwesi Johnson, like most reggae artists, because of my friend Hefe. A bone fide reggae encyclopedia, Hefe had introduced me to this virtuoso or verbosity years ago and I was impressed with his conscious and intelligent lyrics. Linton was born in Jamaica, but had relocated to Brixton when he was 11 years old and had been toasting his poetry to music since 1978. By the time of this show, he was celebrating over 20 years as a recording artist, having just released his “More Time” album. Indeed, Johnson was renown for his intellect off the stage as well, holding fellowships and honorary professorships with several universities in the U.K. He had also written for music magazines such as the New Musical Express and Melody Maker for years. In fact, the year before this show, Linton was awarded in Italy the Premio Piero Ciampi Citta di Livorno Concorso Musicale Nazionale and though I obviously don’t know exactly what that is, it sounds prestigious enough. I know enough Italian to know he got it Livorno anyway. He is also the first black poet and only the second living poet to have his poetry work published by Penguin Modern Classics with his book, “Mi Revalueshanary Fren”.

Opening for Linton that night was the Azibo Tribe, who I had recorded opening for Eek-A Mouse at the Maritime that February. As much as I hated to see Public Enemy leave, Linton was a good follow up act backed up by The Dennis Bovel Dub Band. Rest assured, he and Chuck D would appreciate each other’s talent and eloquence, but I’m sure Public Enemy was long on their way down the road by the time Linton took the stage. Clearly Linton and Chuck have intense distastes for racism and police brutality, as well as admirable efforts to promote social justice in their respective countries and the rest of the planet. Having spent all the live long day and night at the Maritime, by the time Johnson finished up, I was exhausted and limped on home, hoping to preserve my strength. It was after all only the second show in a five day stretch of gigs at the Hall and I had Echo & The Bunnymen to do the following night.

I had been so accustomed to not having my recordings at the Hall being used, especially by the more famous ones like Public Enemy, that I had to absolutely no expectation that they’d use any of my stuff. The thought had never really crossed my mind really. So, the joy upon my accidental discovery that PE had taken one of the songs I had recorded that night was only matched by my blood curdling shock. As I had done countless times before, I was browsing through records at Amoeba on upper Haight just three years later in 2002 and found myself flipping through the CDs of… you guessed it… Public Enemy. There I found their compilation album, “Revolverlution” which they had just released that year. Upon flipping it over, I read the track listings on the back of it and while scanning down the songs, saw a live version of“Myuzi Weighs A Ton”, a song from their debut album, “Yo! Bum Rush The Show”. I kept reading the fine print next to the song title to read… “Live San Francisco 10/21/99”. It took a couple seconds for the information to sink in before a light bulb flipped on in my head and I literally shouted out, “Wait a goddamn minute!!! What the hell!?!?” 

Hoping that I hadn’t startled any of my fellow music shoppers with my outburst, I composed myself and reread the track listing a couple more times before realizing that it was indeed from that show and immediately purchased the CD and brought it home to listen. Yep, it was my work and I quickly phoned my partner Pete to tell him the news. Once again, like with KRS-One, our stuff was good enough to steal, it being ripped off from the DAT tape of my monitor mix which I had given them at the end of their set along with the VHS video of their set, which as you know we had done for every act that performed at the Maritime. Naturally, there wasn’t any credit for me mentioned in the album’s liner notes, not to mention not a single red cent in compensation for our work, but Pete passed along the news to Boots who shortly afterwards he got in touch with Public Enemy’s people. God knows who’s responsible on their end for the decision to clandestinely take that song and put it on their album, but I’m infinitely flattered that they felt my work was worthy enough for them. We got some money for it eventually, though I can’t recall exactly how much it was, so I can say with confidence that it wasn’t a lot. Seriously, I would have given it all back and then some to have my name on that album in black and white, but alas, not to be. But I have the solemn pride knowing that my work adorns a track on an official Public Enemy album, one of the few live tracks they’ve released in their career.

Brian Wilson, War., SF, Wed., October 20, 1999

SETLIST : The Little Girl I Once Knew, This Whole World, Don’t Worry Baby, Kiss Me Baby, In My Room, Surfer Girl, California Girls, Do It Again, I Get Around, Let’s Go Away For Awhile, Pet Sounds, South American, Surfin’ USA, Back Home, (set break), Sloop John B, Wouldn’t It Be Nice, Darlin’, Add Some Music, Lay Down Burdon, God Only Knows, Good Vibrations, Your Imagination, Help Me Rhonda, Be My Baby, (encore), Caroline No, All Summer Long, Barbara Ann, Fun Fun Fun, (encore), Love & Mercy

Supersuckers, Gaza Strippers, Hai Karate, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., October 20, 1999

It wasn’t often when I chose a different show over a Maritime gig back then, but this was clearly a special one and was not to be missed. In a strange turn of fate, I would leave the Supersuckers to Pete to record in lieu of seeing this one and only Mr. Brian Wilson, the former singer/songwriter/bassist/keyboardist/composer of the Beach Boys, a band that Pete knew all too well. Pete had built their recording studio in Big Sur and had been their monitor guy ever since Brian suffered a nervous breakdown in 1964 all the way until they had their big comeback hit “Kokomo” in the 80’s. But Pete didn’t mind and totally understood. He had heard those old songs plenty and he had regaled me with a mountain of anecdotes about his time with the seminal surf rock band over the years we worked together. Not only would I be fortunate to catch Brian at this show at The Warfield, but he would return to the bay area afterward to play at the Bridge School Benefit at Shoreline just ten days later. If I remember correctly, I believe Neil Young was hanging in the back that night watching the show.

Brian had finally shaken free from the psychological and legal grip of his one time therapist and all around life manager, Eugene Landy, a few years before this, going so far as dropping a restraining order against him. With his new wife, Melanie, and two new adopted children in tow, Brian at last got cleaned up from the wrongly prescribed schizophrenia drugs he was on and was making new music again. He had recently completed his “Imagination” album and after finishing a small tour of a dozen shows on the east coast and Japan, the first solo tour he ever did, he was beginning another tour that fall. Brian would quickly have a falling out with the producer of that album, Joe Thomas, suing him for damages that freed him up to do future projects without Joe, though he’d work with him years later on other albums in 2012 and 2015.

It was “an evening with” show, so there was no opener, though Brian did two sets that night, so I had to usher through the first set and intermission before I got let go. They played a short documentary video before the show began and I’ll never forget when Mike Love came on the screen, everybody booed… then laughed. It’s no secret that there had been a teensy bit of tension for decades between Brian and his cousin, culminating in a lawsuit from Mike in 1992, suing for royalties and song credits. Love would get $5 million out of it in the end. Guitarist and singer Al Jardine would join Brian for later tours, but Love held onto the rights to Beach Boys’ name and continue to tour on his own. Brian once called Love in an interview “a maniac… an egomaniac.”

Thankfully, they buried the hatchet in 2012 to do a 50th anniversary reunion tour with all the surviving members of the original band. I deeply regret not seeing that tour when they played the Greek in Berkeley, but like The Misfits, who I recorded at the Hall two days before this, when I saw the ticket price to see the original line up, I took a pass. The same went for when Brian did a tour in 2016 celebrating the 50th anniversary of “Pet Sounds”. I believe I was working across the street at The Fairmont for Local 16 when he did that show at the Masonic. As I alluded to, the folks on that 2012 reunion tour were the surviving original members, and having so few left, namely Brian, Mike, and Al, I felt it wasn’t worth the cash. Still, it would have been enjoyable, especially since it was quite a comprehensive show. 

By the time of this Warfield show however, Brian had just lost Carl to cancer the year before, joining Dennis, who drowned in 1983 at the young age of 39, making Brian the unlikely last surviving Wilson brother. To make matters worse, Brian had just lost his mother Audree the year before that. So, the idea that so soon after his mental, (and legal), recovery, that Brian would take the stage again made everybody a little on edge. Clearly, Brian was still a little funny in the head and had always been eccentric and suffered from manic depression, but the decades of drug and alcohol abuse, on top of all the residual side effects of his psychoactive medication, had taken its toll. Though he was greeted on stage to a thunderous standing ovation, he rather rigidly sat behind his piano, showing little if any emotion at all. I’ll never forget the sight of Brian after almost every song doing this weird clapping thing, keeping his hands about only an inch apart and clapping very quickly, sometimes while standing. Thankfully, he was flanked by an absolutely outstanding band of ringers with him, mostly from the L.A. band the Wondermints and other notable musicians like Paul Mertens, the sax and woodwind player from Poi Dog Pondering and Jeff Foskett, the touring guitarist for the Beach Boys who knew the source material backwards and forwards.

They opened with the rather obscure oldie, “The Girl I Once Knew”, a single that had been released while they were recording “Pet Sounds”, yet didn’t make the cut for that album. But we soon got into familiar territory a couple songs later, when they did an exalting rendition of “Don’t Worry Baby”. Brian was obviously singing flat all night, but the effort he added to his voice in contrast to his pitch perfect voice back in the day. He smoked cigarettes for most of those intervening years. But seriously, I think it lent an interesting urgency to the music, an almost extra earnestness to the lyrics since they were being delivered with this effort. Brian had a teleprompter too, but no one could blame him for that. It had been decades since he had last been on tour. Brian would talk though, commenting briefly about the songs, calling “Kiss Me Baby” a “cute little soft ballad” and telling the audience that he had wrote “Surfer Girl” in his car. 

He declared that “California Girls” was officially the Beach Boys’ anthem, suggesting that The Beatles’ was “Let It Be”. Brian did do one funny bit before they played “Let’s Get Away For Awhile”, telling the audience that they all had to “get exercise for the day” and had them rapidly stand up and sit down a few times. He repeated this exercise later after they finished “Add Some Music”. They finished the first set with “Back Home” and when they returned, Brian introduced the band. He had everybody hold up their lighters before they performed “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and was impressed by their vast numbers. Before they did the hit, “Good Vibrations”, Brian jokingly asked the crowd if they wanted some good vibrations or some bad vibrations. They finished the second set with an inspiring cover of The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby”, played so serenely that I was moved to tears… really. Their rendition made me appreciate that song so much after that, I used it to dance with my mother at my wedding reception 16 years later. I learned after this show that Brian was obsessed with that song to the point where he used to listen to it over and over again for days and weeks on end.

For their encore, they began with “Caroline, No” and then did “All Summer Long”, followed by “Barbara Ann”, which Brian declared to be “the greatest rock & roll song” ever and that we all were “going to flip your lid when you hear it.” I just learned in writing about this that “Barbara Ann” was actually a cover, first recorded by a band called The Regents. Finally, they finished their first encore with a rollicking version of “Fun, Fun, Fun”. The thunderous standing ovation that followed brought Brian back with the band to finish the night with the bittersweet “Love & Mercy” which he dedicated to Chuck Britz, their former recording engineer between the years of ’63-’67 who was dying of brain cancer. Chuck would ultimately lose his battle with the disease the following year. Bt thanks to Chuck and Brian, the music lives on and after that night I can still hold my head up high and say I saw a Beach Boy..

I’m also happy to say that they had a great poster for us at the end of that evening, one of the rare horizontal ones. It was a colorful painting of what looks like Brian behind a baby carriage in some kind of greasy spoon diner with his wife holding the baby in front of an elderly waiter behind the counter. Brian had just relocated to St. Charles, Illinois, ironically about as far away as a Beach Boy could get from an ocean in the continental U.S., and adopted his daughter Delanie that year, the second of five children he would adopt with his new wife Melanie. So, the poster was an appropriate one for this man starting his life over again and settling down with a new family at the age of 57. This tour also coincidentally coincided with a TV mini-series about him and the band released the year after this called “The Beach Boys : An American Family”, which though I felt was well acted and produced, it clearly was written in favor of Mike Love and consequentially, Brian hated it. Still, I learned from that show that Al Jardine had been training to become a dentist when he joined the band, an anecdote that Pete for once was unaware of. 

The Misfits, Gwar, Speedealer, Maritime Hall, SF, Mon., October 18, 1999

SETLISTS : 

(GWAR) : Babyraper, Ham On The Bone, Tune From Da Moon, Filthy Flow, Jiggle The Handle, The Salaminizer, Maggots, Nitro Burnin’ Funny Bong, Vlad The Impaler, Jagermonsta, Horror Of Yig, My Girly Ways, Whargoul, A Short History Of The End Of The World, Gwar Theme

(THE MISFITS) : Kong At The Gates, Forbidden Zone, Witch Hunt, Lost In Space, Crawling Eye, Static Age, TV Casualty, Last Caress, Dig Up Her Bones, I Turned Into A Martian, Crimson Ghost, Mommy Can I Go Out & Kill Tonight, Scarecrow Man, Saturday Night, Resurrection, Pumpkinhead, Death Comes Ripping, Green Hell, Halloween, Day Of The Dead, Hate The Living Love The Dead, Shining, Don’t Open Until Doomsday, We Are 138, (encore), American Psycho, The Hunger, From Hell They Came, Helena, Die Die My Darling

Nobody follows Gwar, except this time. Seriously, just visualizing a band attempting to go on after that traumatic, gruesome spectacle took some effort. Though I suppose if any band could try, one might be The Misfits. It had been four years since I saw The Misfits at The Fillmore with Anthrax, Life Of Agony, and Cannibal Corpse and over five years since I saw Gwar headline The Warfield with their alter ego band the X-Cops and R.K.L. opening. The Misfits put out their second album without Danzig, called “Famous Monsters”, just two weeks before this show. In an interesting bit of marketing, the band had action figures made that year of themselves and were filmed in a guest appearance in the George Romero horror movie, “Bruiser”.

Continuing with the line up I saw before with Jerry Only, he would remain the sole original member on bass, along with his brother Doyle, now calling himself Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein, their young new singer, Michale Graves, and Dr. Chud on drums. To his credit, Doyle only missed being an original member by a couple of years, having worked for them as a roadie before joining the band in 1980 at the tender age of 16. I learned that they had approached Dave Vanian of The Damned, who coincidentally had just played The Fillmore two weeks before this, to be their singer after Danzig left but he declined their offer. It’s a pity. That would have been an interesting marriage.

Murphy’s Law had been on other legs of this “Gwarmageddon” tour, but weren’t at this one. The first band on was Speedealer from Lubbock, TX, formerly named REO Speedealer, which I still think is one of the funniest, ingenious names that I had ever heard for a band. Sadly, REO Speedwagon disagreed and threatened to sue them if they didn’t change it, citing the baffling logic that their fans would confuse the two which is fucking idiotic. Keeping the name would only serve to promote REO Speedwagon and make them more money. It would have been brilliant if they had toured together, but alas, not to be. Their bassist, Casey Orr, would be playing double duty that night also playing with Gwar.

Gwar once again pulled off their highly disturbing magic, though truncating their set a little to make time, playing on stage surrounded by an impressive fake stone temple facade. They started with a skit with a jungle explorer with a huge phallus and his female assistant accidentally summoning the band after saying their name and then opened with “Babyraper”, the first song of their most recent album, “We Kill Everything”. That song is the only one they’d ever play live from that album after this tour. Their singer Dave Brockie who plays Oderus Urungus, hated that album so passionately that if that album was even mentioned on their on line message board, the person mentioning it would be banned for life. Suffice to say, it was their least successful album. 

Anyway, they continued with “Ham On The Bone” and Slymenstra Hymen took a loose stone from the set and clocked the explorer with it, triggering torrents of liquid squirting out of his head into the audience. There was some weird subplot involving their enemy, some gruesome looking ghoul with a giant scrotum for a chin called Scroda Moon, who told the band that they had to reassemble a broken tablet or it would bring about the end of the world. Oderus threatened anybody stupid enough to try to get on stage that they would promptly get their asses kicked. They then brought up a guy with a giant fake head, claiming that he had won the “date with Gwar” competition and that they were going to show him what he won. The lucky guy was then decapitated and gushers of blood sprayed into the crowd from his neck. For the song “Jiggle The Handle”, Gwar brought out a giant “inter-dimensional portal potty” puppet toilet with bulbous eyes and sharp pointy teeth lining it’s lids. The bowl would spew out clouds of fog, its lids flapping as it spoke and Slymenstra pretended to take a dump in it. 

Then for “The Salaminizer”, they brought up a guy disguised as Marilyn Manson who told them they should “go back to art school”. Well, as you can imagine, they took offense and proceeded to beat and torture him, before cutting his head off. Afterwards, a fat zombie Elvis took the stage and started posing to “Also Sprach Zarthustra”. They played “Maggots” as members of the band had a karate battle with him. Elvis was winning for a while, but Slymenstra got the upper hand, landing a kick to the head and several punches before another slashed open his bloated stomach with a giant sword. Elvis stumbled around the stage as they pulled out his guts and played with them. For “Nitro Burnin’ Funny Bong”, a new song that Oderus detests today, they brought out a giant crack pipe that bellowed smoke into the front as one of them passed it around to audience members as well as band members to “take a hit” from it. Continuing with the drug theme, they brought out a giant syringe and injected heroin into the Scroda for “Vlad The Impaler”.

Afterwards, Scroda asked Oderus how he could “regain his humanity” and Oderus suggested losing the scrotum off his chin before summoning the “Jagermonsta” to get him drunk. The enormous undead buck deer took the stage and sodomized Scroda before getting him wasted and was then decapitated too. During “Horror Of Yig”, there was an opening bit with some bagpipe music playing while Slymenstra juggled torches and then spit fire.

Then she took center stage scolding the band for getting Scroda too fucked up to reassemble the tablet and then sang a tribute to the “power of pussy” with “My Girly Ways”. Oderus had the crowd give her protruding fake tits a round of applause. Near the end of their set, Slymenstra took a giant tampon out from between her legs and flushed it down the monster toilet causing “a rift in the fabric of reality” and the band then had to do battle with a giant one-eyed alien. 

OK… Let me catch my breath… Like I said before, Gwar obviously was an impossible act to follow, but The Misfits did their best. The stage guys managed to deconstruct Gwar’s massive set and got The Misfit’s (almost as impressive) set erected in a remarkably short period of time. The Misfits had a huge drum riser adorned with spikes and skeletons. They took the stage adorned with their trademark “devilock” hair dos and opened with “Kong At The Gates”. That song had been used recently as the theme song for WCW wrestler, Vampiro. 

In a curious collaboration, the band had been touring with that wrestling federation that year, playing at gigs and even interacting with the matches. Unfortunately, at one of these matches, Vampiro’s nemesis Berlyn performed a piledriver on Dr. Chud which may or may not had given him a concussion. It’s pro wrestling, so it’s hard to tell what is real. In a related story, there was an incident involving members of the band and legendary wrestler the “Macho Man” Randy Savage. Doyle had in fact married Savage’s ex, Stephanie Bellars, and at a wrestling event that year, he drunkenly confronted Graves, who was literally about half his size. The tense scuffle got broken up and there were no charges filed and Doyle would ultimately divorce her in 2013 anyway. But back to the show.

Their set went well and frankly, upon hearing it again on YouTube, it was better than I remembered it to be. Perhaps I was just too shellshocked by Gwar to appreciate them at the time. Another thing that jarred me was when I tried to hand off the tapes to Oderus. Dave Brockie had taken off his giant prosthetic head in their dressing room and there, covered in sweat, I tried to reassure him that the release form was just there to insure that the Hall wouldn’t use the footage without their permission. He, like so many others, was naturally suspicious and refused to sign. Those accusing, bright, intense eyes had me frozen like a Jagermonsta in the headlights for a moment and I can still see them in mind to this day. At that point I thought to myself that I’d better get while the getting’s good or I literally might get decapitated. I left the tapes with him and told Boots about it. To this day, I don’t know if the issue was ever resolved, but I had little time or stomach to deal with it. 

There was one hiccup during The Misfits when Doyle’s amp blew a fuse, causing a bit of a delay after they played “Day Of The Dead”. Graves mused about Dr. Chud, asking what kind of a doctor he was, suggesting that he was indeed a gynecologist and told the crowd, “If you have any problems in that area, talk to Dr. Chud.” The delay also gave him a “chance to check out all the chicks in the crowd” and he pointed to a few saying, “There’s one, there’s one, there’s one.” Not to be totally outdone theatrically by Gwar, they did have a bit when a guy dressed as Frankenstein emerged from under a sheet on a half elevated gurney and rampaged around the stage for a song or two. 

I would get to see The Misfits one more time in 2003 at the short lived Avalon Ballroom, but by then Jerry Only was doing all the singing. But I do regret not seeing the reunion of the original Misfits in 2019, especially because The Damned, Rancid, and The Cro-Mags were opening and The Misfits had Dave Lombardo from Slayer on drums, but I just thought the ticket was too expensive. Tragically, this would be the final time I’d see Gwar perform. Dave Brockie would succumb to a heroin overdose in 2014, dying at the all too young age of 50. The band has continued with a new singer, but no one can really replace that 50 billion year old sired from a supercomputer father and petri dish mother, assembled on the planet Scumdogia. Talk about a tough act to follow. I’m just glad he didn’t cut my head off that night and hoped he enjoyed the tapes.

One strange epilogue to the saga of The Misfits would be the recent activities of Graves. Now I know for better or for more likely for worse, The Misfits had always attracted a certain “white power” element in their fan base, though I can’t really understand why for sure. Yeah, they all were white boys and their songs are violent, even flirting with sexual violence, but I never thought in my limited knowledge of them that any of their songs were racist or had any particular political stance. That being said, in recent years there is no denying that Graves has become, shall we say, “pilled”. Why he did it, I don’t know, but Graves got seriously involved with the Proud Boys, so much so that he was actually scheduled to perform a private show for them the very afternoon of the deadly January 6 rally in 2021. At least he didn’t storm the capitol building… or did he?…

It makes me sad, because I thought he had a good voice and he was gracious to me, unlike the folks from Gwar, when I handed the tapes off to him at the end of the night. I remember distinctly afterwards when Kathy, Boots’ wife, came down to the recording room while I was closing up and asked who I had passed the tapes off to and when I told her, she claimed that I had given it to the wrong person and that Graves “wasn’t in the band.” Far be it for me to argue with the wife of the boss and I loved Kathy, but Graves’ hairdo and makeup certainly suggested otherwise.

Pennywise, Strung Out, Straight Faced, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., October 16, 1999

SETLIST : Fight Till You Die, Rules Made Up By You, Unknown Road, My Own Country, Living For Today, Stand By Me, Can’t Believe It, Society, Perfect People, Pennywise, Nervous Breakdown, Greed, Give & Get, Make It Through Today?, Alien, Bro Hymn

It had been a long, exhausting five day stretch of shows, but I was bouncing off the walls to have Pennywise finish this one up. I had seen them only once live headlining at The Fillmore four years before this and I was chomping at the bit to see them again. They blew me away at that show and by this time, I was a big fan. So I was naturally hoping that they’d use our stuff for a live album, but was once again let down when they instead released the “Live At The Key Club” album the following year. Like Stuck Mojo from Atlanta, two days before, they understandably selected a venue near where they were from in West Hollywood to get a home town crowd for their live album. Still, the band liked the stuff we taped at the Maritime enough to actually request later for a second VHS of their set that night. To my memory, no other band we recorded had asked for a second copy before this.

In the intervening years, Pennywise suffered a tragic loss with the death of their bassist Jason Thirsk. Suffering from alcoholism and depression, he had left the band attempting to recover in rehab, but still he shot himself in the chest in 1996. Jason was only 28 years old. Randy Bradbury took over on bass and in honor of their fallen comrade, they changed a line in their song “Bro Hymn” to “Jason Matthew Thirsk, this one’s for you”. But by this time Pennywise was riding high again, having just released their fifth album, “Straight Ahead” four months before this and fresh off co-headlining the Warped Tour that summer. I would see them co-headline that tour at Pier 30/32 four years later. Pennywise recently just did a tour in 2020 for the 20th anniversary of that album and Strung Out opened up for them again for it.

What I didn’t hear about at this show was of an infamous incident that had occurred with members of the band that June. Guitarist Fletcher Dragge and Randy were guests on the radio show “Loveline” with Adam Corolla and Dr. Drew. They had in fact been on that love advice show back in 1995, but were temporarily banned from it after Fletcher, drunker than a poet on payday, vomited on Dr. Drew while they were on the air. Fletcher had a penchant apparently for aggressive vomiting, having regurgitated on KROQ DJ Riki Rachtman for allegedly for not playing enough of their music on the air and even routinely puking on the band’s own audiences. For a strange peace offering, when they returned to “Loveline”, Fletcher presented Dr. Drew with a trophy filled with Fletcher’s vomit. Then, it got worse from there.

They were there to simply help talk to callers and to promote their appearance at the upcoming KROQ Weenie Roast, but once again, Fletcher was wasted and progressively got more intoxicated as the show continued, repeatedly using profanity despite being told each and every time he did it to cut it out. After about an hour and a half, Fletcher got increasingly incorrigible and basically took everybody in the recording room hostage, blocking any of them from escaping with his massive, 6’5”, 300 pound body. He threatened to shit in his own hand, throw it at Corolla, then force him to eat it. To make matters worse, he claimed to have a live hand grenade and said he was going to blow them all to “poo poo city”. Thankfully, there was no hand grenade and the cops came and de-escalated the situation, so there were no charges filed. But back to the show at hand.

Pennywise had brought along Huntington Beach punks, Straight Faced. They had been going through a number of line up changes in their short history leaving them then with only two original members, Johnny Miller on vocals and Ron Moeller on guitar. Straight Faced would ultimately break up two years later. Following them, were the aforementioned Strung Out from Simi Valley. They were one of the first bands to get signed to Fat Wreck Chords. They too were going through some changes having just fired their bassist, Jim Cherry. He would die of heart failure in 2002, though people thought it was a drug overdose at first, but Jim was clean at the time. The three bands had just did a gig at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma just the night before, a venue that Boots at the Maritime was booking for a the time. Jim Lindberg, the singer, pointed out that some of the security guys up front that night had also been at the show at the Phoenix. This also was one of those gigs at the Hall which had been co-produced by Goldenvoice.

It was a tight set as always for Pennywise, who had no trouble whipping up the entire dance floor into a circle pit and there was no shortage of crowd floaters and stage divers. They had plenty of young ladies hanging out on stage with them lingering in the back as well and their amplifiers were littered with beer and water bottles. Tory did an especially terrific job on the video that night, ably keeping up with all the action. Before they played “My Own Country”, Jim told the crowd to get out and vote or the country would be taken over by “right wing assholes” and ended that song declaring, “Fuck the government!” Of coarse, we all learned just how correct he was after the George W. Bush’s regime took over America the following year.

Jim invited a couple young women and some hyperactive guy in a Hooters shirt on stage to sing along with the band for their punk rock cover of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me”. They couldn’t carry the tune to save their lives, but they clearly were having a good time anyway. Before they did “Perfect People”, Fletcher taunted folks like N’Sync, Brittany Spears, and the Backstreet Boys and shouted “fuck all the record companies!”  Afterwards, Jim caught sight of himself on the video screens, laughing, “Look, I’m on TV!” and he gave himself the middle finger. They then did a cover of “Nervous Breakdown”, by fellow Hermosa Beach natives, Black Flag. Before they did “Make It Through Today”, some kid got on stage and Jim had asked if anybody had seen his other shoe which the kid was missing. The kid gave him the other shoe to show the crowd what it looked like and Jim sniffed it, joking, “You need to get some odor eaters, dude.” 

In the middle of that song, Fletcher was involved in a little scuffle with another fan who had gotten on stage, but the guy got dragged off quick and it didn’t interrupt their playing. Somebody threw some water on Jim too and he thanked whoever did it after the song was over and assured them that they already had “plenty of water on stage.” They then did their new single, “Alien”, and Jim introduced it saying that it was “about Columbine, believe it or not.” That massacre had just happened that April. They finished up their set, bringing an army of fans on stage, filling it to absolute capacity, to sing along to “Bro Hymn”, which Jim dedicated to their fallen bassist, Jason Thirsk. Dusty and the other security guards fruitlessly tried to get overwhelming influx of kids off stage, but at least they managed to keep the band from being overrun by them. All’s well that ends well. Thankfully, I wouldn’t have to wait as long as I did before to see Pennywise perform and I’d see them again headlining the second stage at Live 105’s B.F.D. two years later.

Incognito, Diasfunk, Network:Electric, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., October 15, 1999

It was another radical stylistic turn that week and the fourth show out of a five day stretch at the good ol’ Maritime. After some white boy reggae with the Long Beach Dub All Stars, there were a couple heavier nights with Stuck Mojo and then Type O Negative. This evening, it felt like a little time out with Incognito. They were a sophisticated acid jazz band based out of London fronted by guitarist, singer, and composer Jean-Paul “Bluey” Maunick. Originally from the island nation of Mauitius in the Indian Ocean, Bluey relocated to London when he was 9 years old. They had been making music together since 1981 and the list of their past and current members is long and impressive. Trumpet virtuoso Chris Botti was even part of this band once.

Joining them on stage with a couple other singers was the lovely and talented Imaani Saleem. She had recently become famous, at least in the old country, for getting second place at the Eurovision Song Contest the year before with the song, “Where Are You?” Incognito also had another hit seven years before this covering Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing”. And for all you keen-eared flaming liberals out there, they will recognize their song “Need To Know” as the theme song to the progressive political radio and TV show “Democracy Now!” This was pretty funky stuff, not your typical “quiet storm” jazz. They walk a fine line being just a little shy of being so sophisticated, that the average music fan wouldn’t be able to follow along.

Incognito had just played the Montraux Jazz Festival that July and their set had been circulating as a bootleg album and you can find it on YouTube. I do admit, their Maritime show was a bit of a whirlwind wedged in dead center of that ridiculously intense month of 23 shows in 31 days. I do remember that they were tight as hell which made mixing them a breeze, despite the size of the band. On top of all the singers, they had a horn section too. But listening to the Montraux show now, there is no doubting their originality and chops, especially the singer’s harmonies. I don’t remember Network:Electric, but the DJ, Diasfunk, was pretty talented and still makes music in the bay area today. Incognito recently celebrated their 40th anniversary of their debut album, “Jazz Funk”, re-releasing a special addition retrospective of it with a whopping 106 tracks. I suppose if anybody wanted to get to know this band better, that would do the trick.

Type O Negative, Fu Manchu, Puya, Clan Of Xymox, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., October 14, 1999

SETLISTS:

(CLAN OF XYMOX) : This World, Jasmine & Rose, Out Of The Rain, Muscovite Mosquito, Michelle, Going Round 97

(FU MANCHU) : King Of The Road, Hell On Wheels, Eatin’ Dust, Over The Edge, Module Overload, Hotdoggin’

I was continuing onto day three of another five day stretch of shows, so I wasn’t completely let down when Type O Negative said we couldn’t record them that night. I knew better to try to talk back to their frontman, Peter Steele. I mean, seriously, that guy’s like eight feet tall and he’s from Brooklyn. He was also going through a rough patch emotionally, suffering though bipolar disorder then and was dealing with a bit of a cocaine and alcohol habit to boot. At least I got some time to relax, though I made a point to stick around to watch their set that night. It had been five years since I had seen them open for Nine Inch Nails at The Warfield and I was impressed by Peter’s towering stage presence and his skill as a songwriter. They were a good opener for Nails back then. For some reason, Frontline Assembly, who had headlined a the Maritime just six months before this show, were listed as an opening act on the monthly poster, but they were there that night. I wish they had been there. Love that band.

Still, it was an interesting and surprisingly diverse line up of talent that night. Starting off was Clan Of Xymox, the darkwave pioneers from The Netherlands. “Xymox” incidentally was derived from “zymotic”, a scientific term meaning “causes fermentation”. Anyway, I remember my friends Liz Farrow and Dina Robinson, who always had excellent taste in the music of the genre, were excited to see them, though the Clan were brand new to me. Along with other gloomy goth rock acts like Bauhaus, The Cure, and Echo & The Bunnymen, (who coincidentally would play at the Hall a week after this), Xymox got an early start, forming way back in 1981. And with the rise of the newer dark acts like Nails and Rammstein, interest in the founders of the genre brought them back together in 1997 after a long absence. Ronny Moorings, their singer definitely fit the bill, unsmiling with a head of poofy, jet black hair. Interesting guy though. He completely taught himself music and like most Dutch people, he speaks around five languages fluently.

In a stylistic left turn, Puya followed them. They were a band from Puerto Rico and their name means “sharp point” in Spanish, though it also is the name of a well known brand of coffee where they’re from. It’s kind of hard to peg exactly what kind of music Puya is, incorporating multiple genres like salsa, rumba, bombs on one end and rock, prog metal, and rap on the other. I’d get to see them a year later when they were the first act on the Snocore 2000 show at The Warfield with System Of A Down, Incubus, and Mr. Bungle. Puya had just released their second album, “Fundamental”, their first on a major international label, RCA, and they just finished touring on the second stage with Ozzfest that year, second to last with Slipknot. They were having a good year back then and I liked their energy. Then the night took another turn with Fu Manchu. I love these guys. Their particular brand of sludge metal is always music to my ears. I got to tape those guys at the Maritime two years before this opening for Corrosion Of Conformity with Machinehead. 

I did find out that probably one reason why Type O Negative didn’t want us to tape was that they already had a live DVD in the can from a set they did at the Bizarre Festival in Cologne, Germany just seven weeks before this evening. They were originally taped for a live music TV show called “WDR Rockpalast”, but Type O Negative liked it so much, they bought the footage and released it seven years later as the “Symphony For The Devil” DVD. I can’t blame them, since that was a crowd at least ten times the size of the Maritime’s, and was done with a 12 camera crew, and real quality three chip cameras at that. That show even had a crane camera rig. 

Type O Negative had just put out their 5th studio album, “World Coming Down”, just three weeks before this show, so we got to hear some of the new material, though I wasn’t able to get a set list for that night. But I do know, like their set in Cologne, they opened that night with a cover of Pink Floyd’s “In The Flesh?” and they also did covers of The Beatles’ “Back In The U.S.S.R.” and an especially heavy “Day Tripper”. That much I remembered. Peter was obviously a Beatles fan, so much so that his band was playfully referred to as “The Drab Four”. I’m glad, despite my fatigue, that I stuck around to watch their set, especially since this would be the final time I’d see Type O Negative. I only found out a couple years ago when I was writing about the Nine Inch Nails show at The Warfield in 1994 that Peter Steele had died of sepsis brought on by diverticulitis in 2010. I was wondering what happened to that band and of coarse was saddened to hear the news. Poor guy was only 48 years old. After his death, keyboardist Josh Silver went on to become a paramedic with the New York City Fire Department and guitarist Kenny Hickey and drummer Johnny Kelly would tour with Danzig and also form the band Silvertomb.

Stuck Mojo, Speak No Evil, Haste, Unjust, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., October 13, 1999

It was day two of another five show stretch and it was frankly a relief to hear some bombastic rap metal after two consecutive shows of reggae. I knew that these guys would be on stage on time and their sets comparatively short. Stuck Mojo, the rap metal pioneers from Atlanta had been to the Hall before back in ’97 opening for Testament and though that headliner wasn’t recorded, Stuck Mojo and Machinehead the other opener were that night. But despite having that one in the can as well as this gig, Stuck Mojo would release “HVY 1” coincidentally just one day before this show, a live album taped the year before at The Masquerade in their home town. I can always sympathize with a band wanting to put out an album with a home town crowd, but naturally I still was disappointed.

Speak No Evil had just played the Hall four months before opening for Zebrahead, but I didn’t remember much about them or the other openers that night. Like the Zebrahead show, the gig that evening was poorly sold, maybe 300 or 400 fans tops. I guess I can also understand why a band didn’t want to put out a live album with so few in attendance. In addition to that, it didn’t help that Stuck Mojo was falling apart from the inside as well. The guitarist, Rich “The Duke” Ward was butting heads with their singer, Bonz. Drugs and in fighting had taken its toll on them to the point where they were no longer speaking and by the following year after releasing their final album, “Declaration Of A Headhunter”, they would part ways. Stuck Mojo would have a reunion with their original members at The Masquerade fifteen years later, but they didn’t go any farther together from there, though Rich Ward did get the band together two years later with a new singer and a new album.

One thing that set Stuck Mojo apart from other such nu metal acts of the period was their rather blatant distain for Bill Clinton. I can’t say for sure why they had a bone to pick with Slick Willy, but they were known for getting their crowds to chant, “Fuck Bill Clinton!”, making them sort of a right wing alternative to Rage Against The Machine, not the Rage were exactly fans of Bill either. Stuck Mojo also had a song called “Throw The Switch” that left little doubt about their support for sending rapists and home invaders to the electric chair and in their song “Southern Pride”, they also had a line saying, “on racism we don’t dwell.” Yeah… maybe it’s time for America to dwell on that subject. Politics aside, I will say that they were a tight band, especially with Rich’s remarkable guitar skills, and they had no trouble whipping up their fans into a frenzy in the mosh pit. On a lighter note, I do remember Stuck Mojo playing an intro to them coming on stage of The Doors’ “L.A. Woman”, doing the breakdown part in the song where Jim Morrison sings, “Mr. Mojo Rising!” over and over. Since I heard this intro also on a recording of a show they did in Phoenix five days after this show on YouTube, I assume they used that intro for every show they did on that tour.

One funny epilogue to the demise of Stuck Mojo was Rich Ward’s formation of the band Fozzy. Rich had befriended the renowned WWE wrestler Chris Jericho after one of his matches in San Antonio and after hitting it off, they made an unlikely musical alliance. With Rich on guitar and Jericho on vocals, they first called themselves “Fozzy Osbourne”, an obvious comedic name combination of the Muppet and the metal godfather, but eventually abbreviated it. They did a sort of Spinal Tap persona for the band, claiming that they had been touring in Japan when their record company went broke stranding them there for 20 years while other notable metal acts like Dio, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest would “steal” their songs for themselves, though they were obviously just playing covers. Jericho took the stage name and persona of Moongoose McQueen and stayed in character while touring on and off the stage claiming that he’d never heard of Jericho. Conversely, while Jericho was not touring with Fozzy, he’d claim he was a big fan of McQueen. I’m happy to report that Fozzy is still together over 20 years later and has released their eighth studio album, “Boombox”, just last year. 

Long Beach Dub All Stars, Barrington Levy, Tippa Irae, Half Pint, Maritime Hall, SF, Tues., October 12, 1999

As I previously written, I had one day off from a five day stretch of shows and this one would christen another five day run. It didn’t help that this one would be another reggae show like the Peter Tosh Birthday Celebration two days before, since it would likewise run late and long. Though one could argue that former Sublime band members, the Long Beach All Stars, weren’t necessarily a reggae band, there could be no denying that all the openers that evening were. Every reggae fan worth their salt knows and respects Barrington Levy, the venerable singer from Jamaica. Neither Mr. Levy nor fellow Jamaican Half Pint or Tippa Irae from the UK had ever played the Hall before, but Pete had left me this show to record myself nonetheless. And though my recordings came out just fine that night, the Hall would release a DVD in 2006 of Barrington’s show he’d do at the Hall just four months later when he was there for their Bob Marley Day Festival. Another disappointment on top of the Junior Reid DVD, (who had just performed at the Hall the night before this), Boots would release from a show Reid would perform in Berkeley at Ashkenaz in 2006.

I was busy as hell, but I did catch on the news before I came over for the show that Peres Musharraf had taken over Pakistan in a coup and it was also reported that the 6th billionth human on Earth was born. Believe it or not, though that was only 24 years ago, we’re up to 8 billion now. And speaking of crowds, the Long Beach Dub All Stars were a crowd unto themselves. By this time, they numbered 10 members in total with Opie Ortiz once again singing lead. It had only been three years since that fateful night when Bradley Nowell, their original singer, had overdosed at that Ocean Beach motel I used to live by just hours before he was supposed to play at the Maritime. But in those intervening years, I had recorded the All Stars there on three separate occasions including one just eight months before this night.

Though they never would put out any of the live material I had taped there, they had managed to release their first post-Sublime album, “Right Back”, just two weeks to the day before this show. On that album, they had all of the openers from this bill contributing vocals, Barrington on two of them, Tippa Irae and Half Pint on one each. I believe some of the openers joined the All Stars on stage that night to perform some or all of those tracks, but I can’t remember for sure. It would make sense that they did. Though I haven’t seen the All Stars, Tippa Irae, or Half Pint since, I would be lucky enough to catch Mr. Levy one more time four years later opening for Steel Pulse at a “Reggae In The Park” festival in Golden Gate Park’s Sharon Meadows. With these long two days of reggae acts, I would find strange relief in the bombastic rap metal of Stuck Mojo who would headline at the Hall the day after this.

Peter Tosh Birthday Celebration : Bunny Wailer, Junior Reid, Andrew Tosh, Sister I-Live, Lasana Bandele, Dani Spencer, Prince Rastan, Kid Sister, Sister Alreca, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., October 10, 1999

SETLIST : (BUNNY WAILER) : Benediction, Bald Head Jesus, Rasta Man, Blackheart Man, Armagadeon, Fighting Against Conviction, Dreamland, Love Fire, Crazy Baldhead, No Woman No Cry, Legalize It, Jesus Baldhead Jesus, Rockers, Rock N Groove, Dance Rock, Rootsman Skanking, Cool Runnings, Rule Dance Hall, Rock Stone, Simmer Down, Walk The Proud Land, Jailhouse, I Stand Predominate, I’m The Toughest, Hypocrite, The Specialist, Hypocrite, Keep On Moving

As I had mentioned before, I was on a five day marathon of shows and I would have only one day off after this one before beginning another five day run. To end this first run with the Peter Tosh Birthday Celebration would prove to be a doozy. Reggae shows at the Maritime were notorious for running late and long, but that is doubly true when it’s a festival line up like this one. They had done this celebration for Mr. Tosh the year before at the Hall with Bunny, Andrew, and Lasana, once again co-produced with the “Out Of Many One” people, but this time they had six other acts piled onto the bill. In fact, it was such a long show, that the doors had to open bright and early at 3 PM that day to fit them all in, though it still went until the wee hours of the morn. In fact, I had to run down to the cafeteria downstairs and grab some food to go between acts halfway through the show just to eat dinner while mixing at the console in the recording room, probably the only time I had to do that. I assume the guys working upstairs had to take turns, but I was riding solo that night.

Peter Tosh’s son Andrew had just played the Hall that July opening for Michael Rose with The Skatalites, so this would be the third time I’d be recording him, not to mention the third time recording Bunny, the second time I’d tape Lasana, Prince Rastan, and Dani Spencer, and the fourth time I’d tape Sister I-Live. It was a bit of a coincidence that we had three “Sister” acts on the bill too, Ms. I-Live as well as Kid Sister and Sister Alreca. But I was overjoyed that I’d finally get to see and tape the one and only Junior Reid that night for the first time. I had been positively addicted to his “One Blood” album since high school and though I’d seen his old band Black Uhuru as well as their other former singers, the aforementioned Michael Rose and Don Carlos, this would be my first time with Mr. Reid in person. 

My encounter with him after his set was the highlight of that night for me and easily the most memorable. Since the other artists had been spread around into the various rooms and offices of the Hall, he was relegated to the office on the stage right side of the venue, opposite where most of the others were. When I entered inside after his set to hand him off the tapes, the oppressively bright florescent lights were all on and Junior Reid was alone in there, donning a towering purple turban. I did my best to keep my cool and calmly explain who I was and why I was there, but he just stared at me with those big, bulbous eyes of his. He wasn’t mean or impolite or anything, but I swear he was looking at me like I was some sort of extra-terrestrial. He simply nodded, took the tapes, and signed the release form without so much as uttering a syllable. Though he put on a stellar set as expected, I would be disappointed years later when Boots would put out a live DVD in 2007 of Junior Reid playing at Ashkenaz in Berkeley.

If it had just been Bunny Wailer alone, the show would have been three hours long. He once again performed a set list as long as my arm, but also talked all our ears off between songs. The other acts were mercifully brief in comparison. As before the previous year, there was no shortage of Peter Tosh covers, as well as golden oldies from Bunny and Peter’s alma mater, The Wailers. For those who have been living under a rock all their lives, that was a little band they had together with Bob Marley. Bunny did four of their old tunes that night alone, including two of Peter’s solo songs. 

And on a side note, like when I had paired my reviews of Christian Death and The Sisters Of Mercy shows together the week before, this two show combination came out with two gigs in the same genre, making that October an even more unusual one. Incidentally, though I had a day off before this show, the Maritime did host the annual SF Comedy Competition finals as they had for the past couple years, though I must have left that one for Pete. I honestly don’t know if those Finals were taped that year. Maybe I just wanted a day off or if I had a job lined up with Local 16, but by that time, if I couldn’t make the gig, Pete could honestly care less and we’d just let that show go untaped anyway.

Pavement, Calexico, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., October 8, 1999

SETLISTS : 

(CALEXICO) : Glowing Heart Of The World, The Ride Part II, Minas De Cobre, Wash, The Black Light, Tulsa Telephone Book, Lost In Space, Stray, Jesus & Tequila, Frontera/Trigger 

(PAVEMENT) : Father To A Sister Of Thought, Cream Of Gold, The Hexx, Gave Architecture, Carrot Rope, Grounded, Date With IKEA, Folk Jam, Spit On A Stranger, Carrot Rope, Give It A Day, Cut Your Hair, You Are A Light, Rattled By The Rush, Major Leagues, Debris Slide, (encore), Stop Breathin’, The Killing Moon – Green Grow The Rushes, Two States

Pavement, Calexico, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., October 9, 1999

SETLISTS : 

(CALEXICO) : Wash, The Ride Part II, Minas De Cobre, Windjammer, Sundown Sundown, Tulsa Telephone Book, The Black Light, Stray, Over Your Shoulder, Frontera/Trigger

(PAVEMENT) : Gold Soundz, You Are A Light, Billie, Conduit For Sale!, We Dance, Cream Of Gold, Stereo, Kennel District, Folk Jam, Trigger Cut, Range Life, 1979, Spit On A Stranger, Platform Blues, Unfair, (encore), Loretta’s Scars, Shady Lane, The Hexx

I would characterize these two shows that Pavement did at the Hall as the ones that (sort of) got away. During this period, as I’d written before, I was finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile my work schedule with Local 16 and the demands of recording at the Maritime. So when I was booked to work the nights of these shows for an AV gig at the Stanford Court hotel on Nob Hill, I was understandably disappointed. The good news was that my call time for those nights were late ones and I could stay around the Hall long enough to do the soundchecks and to tape Calexico’s set for both shows. So, technically I didn’t miss them, at least not entirely, but I was pissed I wouldn’t get the credit and experience of recording Pavement, a band that I had grown to enjoy and respect. I’ll never forget how they adorned their stage set those nights with a series of colorful LED rope lights that entangled amongst their mic stands. 

I had seen Pavement five times in just four years before these shows at the Hall, starting with two days with the Lollapalooza ’95 tour, once at the Tibet Freedom Concert the year after that, and then two more times in 1997 at both The Warfield and The Fillmore. As you might remember, that Warfield show would be the last one I’d attend with my friend Casey who died shortly afterwards, being hit by a van on his bike on Market Street. So, Pavement is a band I can never forget and it was hard to leave them in Pete’s hands to tape, but I’m glad to say Pete actually enjoyed them. It took a lot to impress a guy like Pete and when I asked him afterwards about what he thought of them, he mentioned that he wasn’t sure at first about their sound, but by the second night he felt that he was beginning to get it. I felt the same way when I first heard them too. Pavement can be a challenging band even to their fans like me. Sometimes their playing can seem gratingly sloppy and their lyrics indecipherable.

It also didn’t help that the band was basically crumbling before our eyes at those shows either. Frontman Stephen Malkmus had always been a bit of a drunken pill, but his frustration with his bandmates was finally boiling over. They basically phoned it in recording their last album, “Terror Twilight”, opting to play Scrabble instead of making music half the time and though it had just been released five months to the day before these Maritime shows, the death knell was finally ringing for Pavement. The band would perform at Coachella the next day and that’s when Malkmus announced that it was all over of him. Pavement would play their last show at the Brixton Academy in London about a week later. Malkmus even attached a pair of handcuffs on his mic stand at that last show telling the sold out crowd of 4,200, “These symbolize what it’s like being in a band all these years.”

Malkmus would immediately go on to found his solo project, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, and I would see them play at The Fillmore two years later. I liked his new material and would go so far to say that the songs were actually a little more easily digestible than Pavement’s stuff. I am happy to say that in 2010, the band kissed and made up, doing some reunion shows and then doing it again another decade later. They had planned to reunite in 2020, but the pandemic put it off a couple years. Sorry to say I didn’t go to either of the reunion shows. I mean, I was a fan, but not enough of one to shell over the money they were asking for tickets, especially for the show at the Masonic last year.

Thankfully, Calexico have never stopped touring or making music and I have had the pleasure of seeing a some more times since those nights at the Hall, a couple times at The Fillmore and once with Iron & Wine at The Warfield. I had seen Calexico open for the Dirty Three at the Great American the year before and immediately recognized their talent, so I’m proud I got to tape them. And though we had plenty of good material recorded of Calexico from those shows, they ended up making a live album called “Scraping” from a show they would do at the Great American in 2002. 

One final thing, I have the distinct memory of another show at the Hall, though I can’t recall who the headliner was. It might have been Guided By Voices the following month after Pavement broke up. I was confused after a band’s set that night and was trying to find one of their members to hand the tapes of the set off to and I mistook somebody backstage for one of the members this mysterious band. The fellow politely told me he wasn’t one of them and I realized later that the man I spoke with was Mark Ibold, the bass player of Pavement. Doing research for this show, I learned that Mark has since gone on to be a bartender in New York City. Though perhaps not as glamorous as being a rock star on tour, one would have to agree it’s slightly less noisy.

Better Than Ezra, Sixpence None The Richer, Jeremy Toback, Maritime Hall, Thurs., October 7, 1999

Before I continue, I should point out the sheer volume of shows I did that long month of October. In only 31 days, I managed to squeeze in 23… Sheesh, even writing about it now seems mind boggling. It should be noted that it is primarily the fault of the Maritime, booking an unusual amount of gigs, 18 in total out of the aforementioned 23. The Better Than Ezra gig here would also be day two of a five day stretch of shows, following The Sisters Of Mercy the night before at The Warfield, quite a different scene altogether. At the end of that stretch, I’d get one day off before starting another five day stretch. I can’t say if that month holds the record for most shows in a month, but I can say with some certainty that it is in the top three.

It had been four years since I’d seen Better Than Ezra when they played both the Live 105 B.F.D. festival and also headlining a show at The Fillmore. The following year, the band had a falling out with Cary Bonnecaze, their original drummer, who relentlessly pursued his former bandmates with several lawsuits. By this time they had replaced Cary with Travis McNabb on drums and had also added James Arthur Payne, Jr. on guitar. Cary claimed he was owed a million bucks “based on his role in fortifying the band’s reputation.” Dubious as that claim might have been, they settled out of court. But Cary wasn’t done and tried suing them again in 2016 when they rereleased their album “Surprise” for its 25th anniversary, claiming that they didn’t have the right to do so without his permission. Not sure how that ended. What I do know is that this would be the final time I’d see Better Than Ezra.

I made a point to bug one of the band’s tour guys and ask about the origins of their name as I had done when they played The Fillmore in ’95, but I once again was stonewalled. He was pleasant about it anyway like last time. There are currently two leading theories, the first being it derived from an Ernest Hemingway quote from his book “A Moveable Feast”. In the description of an annoying sound, Hemingway wrote that it was “no worse than other noises, certainly better than Ezra learning to play the bassoon.” The other theory is that early on in the band’s career when they hadn’t established a name yet, that they were in a local battle of the bands and that one of the other bands was called Ezra and in an impulsive moment, they simply took the title in the hope that they were indeed “Better Than” that band.

The show began with a short set from Jeremy Toback, the former bassist of Seattle rock band Brad, which also had Stone Gossard, the guitarist of Pearl Jam as one of its members. I don’t remember much about him, but one thing that absolutely stood out about this show was the second opener, Sixpence None The Richer, who were just making it big with their hit single “Kiss Me”. To those unfamiliar with this tune, it was absolutely ubiquitous back then, turning up in TV and movie soundtracks left and right. Before that song, they had been a modest Christian rock band from Nashville by way of Texas, but one fateful night the year before this show, they played that single at The Viper Room in L.A. and caught the attention of A & R executive John Kalodner. He managed to not only get it into the soundtrack to the teen comedy “She’s All That”, but it became the film’s theme song. 

Suffice to say, it was and remains a catchy little ditty, possibly the girliest song ever written. It’s so syrupy sweet, I remember those uncouth ruffians from Buckcherry once joked about it saying that it sounded like the theme to a tampon commercial and that they assumed it was written by some girl who had never been royally fucked over by some guy. For the record, it actually was written by a man, Matt Slocum, the band’s guitarist while they were on tour in The Netherlands. Sweetness aside, They certainly made a name for themselves with that tune, garnering them a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals. It got them signed on Elektra and with their third and self titled album and they made a bundle, going platinum just a couple years after its release. It also has the distinction of being the first song Taylor Swift learned to play on the guitar when she was at the tender age of 12.

Unlike Better Than Ezra, the origin of Sixpence None The Richer’s name was not so secret. It was derived from a quote from C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity” where he wrote of a boy giving a sixpence coin to his father and comparing it to his “belief that God had given him and us the gifts we possess and to serve him the way we should, we should do so humbly.” Christian, the band might have been, but they were discreet about it, enough that most people like myself were unaware of it entirely. It was hard not to like Sixpence and let it be said that like so many other so-called “one hit wonders”, they actually had many good songs in their repertoire including a cover of “There She Goes” by The La’s which also was a hit in its own right. It was a good bill and even though it had been promoted by Live 105 and also as the “Arizona Jeans Music Festival” strangely enough, the turnout that night was low, probably around 300 people.

But just as Sixpence’s star was rising, Elektra, the same record company that had just picked them up had just dropped Better Than Ezra. They had just finished the “How Does Your Garden Grow?” album and though they would continue to make music over these years, this would be the height of their popularity. Like I said, this would be the last time I’d see them, though I did get to see Sixpence one more time four years later at the Alice Summerthing festival in Golden Gate Park opening for Macy Gray. 

One final memory from that show at the Hall was that it was the only one in my memory to have a spotlight. For some reason, they had this cumbersome thing deadlifted up to the balcony and it was so bright, that it must have been torture to the poor folks on stage lit by it. At least there was no risk of them showing up too dark for the video. I also remember that there were sound baffles around the drummers that night, another thing I don’t think I had ever witnessed at the Maritime before this. The blinding reflections from the baffles made the spotlight even more intolerable, but at least they helped the drums sound cleaner.

The Sisters Of Mercy, DJ Tube, War., SF, Wed., October 6, 1999

SETLIST : Fly & Collision Of Comas Sola (Tangerine Dream Intro), Ribbons, Train – Detonation Boulevard, Come Together, Amphetamine Logic, Giving Ground, We Are The Same Susanne, On The Wire – Teacher, Temple Of Love, Will I Dream, Flood I, Bei Mir Bist Du Schon, Dominion – Mother Russia, Summer, Romeo Down, Flood II, (encore), Fist And Last And Always, Vision Thing, (encore), Something Fast, This Corrosion

It had been over a year and a half since the Sisters were in town, then playing at the Maritime. You might recall from that outing that they steadfastly refused to allow us to record them and that their tour manager chewed out Boots the owner, loudly proclaiming him to be a “dickhead” for all to hear. That and poor Jerry Carmine getting dismissed from the stage crew after accidentally pulling over a small lighting truss to the ground. So, it came as no surprise that when the Sisters returned to the bay area, they selected a different venue. 

As I mentioned when I wrote about the Maritime show, their frontman Andrew Eldritch had recently released the “Go Figure” album under the moniker of SSV, an album explicitly made to get them out of their contract with East West Records, a subsidiary of Time Warner. Andrew had been trying to end that acrimonious relationship for years and was finally able to put it to rest. Technically, the project was called SSV – NSMABAAOTWMODAACOTIATW which apparently is an acronym from, “Screw Shareholder Value – Not So Much A Band As Another Opportunity To Waste Money On Drugs And Ammunition Courtesy Of The Idiots At Time Warner”. But like before, they were just touring playing the golden oldies and to this day haven’t released any new original material since 1993. So, it was basically the same show as the year before, though they didn’t do “Anaconda”, “Some Kind Of Stranger”, or their cover of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” this time around. However, we did get to hear “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon” and they played “Vision Thing” at the end of their set this time. Andrew recently teased that they’d put out something new in 2016 if Donald Trump won the election, claiming that he couldn’t “keep quiet if that happened.” It’s currently 2023 as I’m writing this and the Sisters are going to play at the Masonic in a couple months, their first tour in 14 years, but I’m afraid we’re still waiting for any new stuff.

In a strange coincidence, just five days before this show, ex-Sisters bassist Patricia Morrison was in town playing with The Damned at The Fillmore. As I had written before, she had left the Sisters back in 1989 complaining that Andrew owed her money. And as luck would have it, when the Sisters played the Maritime the year before, The Damned would also play there with Patricia on bass just four weeks later. Maybe one of them was stalking the other back then, maybe both. Either way, I doubt Patricia ever got the money Andrew owed her.

It was an easy show to usher that night since there was only a DJ opening, a fellow by the name of DJ Tube. Goth kids mostly stay put and aren’t pushy. Time went by fast and I was cut from my ushering duties and I was mingling and sipping my beer with the other sullen folks in black soon enough. But what I remember most distinctly from that evening was something I witnessed up in the balcony. The music was loud as hell and you can even hear me on the tape complaining that I was getting “asphyxiated” by the numerous smoke machines bellowing endless clouds into the dance floor, so I perched myself up in the balcony and watched the grim spectacle from above. It was so ridiculously loud that I had no problem getting a strong enough signal for the recording up there. That’s when it happened.

Near the end of the show, I witnessed one of the security guards behind the barricade in front of the stage snatch a disposable camera from one of the fans and smash it to bits on the top rail of the barricade. It was during a relatively quiet part of a song, so all attending could hear the piercing crack clear as a bell as the camera splintered into a half dozen pieces or so. The sight of this portly, dark haired thug’s self satisfied grin will haunt me to my grave. I can still see him folding his arms and chuckling to himself. Not that I entirely disagreed with what he did, after all, it was his duty and it certainly added a layer of unexpected drama to the festivities. But yes, it did seem excessive and downright bullyish. Still, I have to give credit to Mr. Eldritch who witnessed this incident below just a few steps in front of him. Not so much as a flinch, he just kept brooding about as nothing had happened and the show went on. 

Christian Death, Mortiis, Godhead, Diet Of Worms, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., October 3, 1999

It had seemed like an eternity ago when I had first met Pete at the Maritime and we recorded this band, my first outing with him over three years before this. I was just a babe in the woods learning the literal ins and outs of patching the inputs of the soundboard and navigating the various buttons and settings of the ADAT machines. But by this time, I’d done it on my own on so many occasions, I could practically do it in my sleep. Pete had long since given up any interest in recording at the Hall and without a doubt had even less interest if that was possible in the dark industrial stylings of Christian Death. There weren’t a lot of old hippies at this one. 

On a side note, when I publish my latest entries to this blog, it almost always is in two concert reviews and the dichotomy between the two shows naturally served to accentuate the eclectic nature of the concerts I was enjoying back then. But in a strange coincidence, the following show would be The Sisters Of Mercy, a band much in the same genre. So, for my first time readers, let it be known that this doesn’t happen often and I have certainly more diverse tastes in music than that of these gloomy Gus’. And as I often did for bands like them, I made sure before the show began to look up on high and reassure the Almighty that this band didn’t necessarily represent me and asked to not be sent to Hell for recording them. Christian Death might have a bone to pick with the big guy upstairs, especially when they repeatedly yell out “I don’t want your fucking god! I don’t need your fucking god! He just wants to fuck me!” in their song “The Corruption Of Innocence”. I’d just assume stay out of it.

Another dark metallic band that was supposed to play at the Hall the week before in the lower ballroom was Mercyful Fate. Since we didn’t record any of the shows in that space of the building, we didn’t have to show up to any of the gigs there. But I made a point to try to catch that one, since I had recorded both King Diamond playing solo and also with Mercyful Fate, his original band, at the Hall the year before and was curious to see that macabre goofball again. I would ultimately be disappointed when I showed up to find that the show had been cancelled, but I wasn’t half as let down as some poor fellow I met out front. That unfortunate soul had taken a Greyhound bus all the way from L.A. for that show and I had to be the one to break the news to him. Anybody who has taken that godforsaken bus up and down I-5 knows just how interminable and unpleasant a ride that is. To this day, I still don’t know why that show was cancelled, but that’s show biz. Anyway, back to Christian Death.

In the intervening years between this show and that first historic evening I met Pete, Christian Death was going through a bit of a rough patch. Infighting, creative differences, and fatigue from years of touring had caused the band to splinter in twain about ten years before, one faction going with the original singer Rozz Williams and the other with Valor Kand, the guitarist, each struggling to retain the band name. Valor ultimately won the rights and Rozz then tragically committed suicide the year before this show. Apparently, the cabinet where Rozz hung himself is on display to this day in the L.A. Museum Of Death. (Shutter!) I’ll have to visit someday. But Valor had been busy with his version of the band, releasing that year alone a compilation album called “The Bible” as well as two other ones, “The Scriptures” and “Atrocities”. 

There was a handful of notable openers at this gig, starting with the Diet Of Worms, not to be confused with legislature that sought to reform the Holy Roman Empire in 1495. It would be cool if they actually showed up. I’d be curious to see their reaction to the music that night. Following them was Godhead, an industrial act out of D.C. They would have the dubious distinction of being the first and only act to sign to Marilyn Manson’s Posthuman Records label. Though short lived, they did manage to put out one album called “2000 Years Of Human Error”. The year before, they had released on their own an album called “Power Tool Stigmata” and though I wasn’t exactly their biggest fan, I did appreciate the cleverness of that title. Last but not least was Mortiis from Norway. Fronted by former Emperor bassist Havard Ellefsen, they would endure over the decades and are actually celebrating their 30th anniversary this year. Havard makes quite an impression on stage, donning gruesome facial prosthetics making him look like some kind of goblin.

The Damned, Wench, The Doormats, Fill., SF, Fri., October 1, 1999

SETLIST : Curtain Call Intro, Wait For The Blackout, Disco Man, Plan 9 Channel 7, I Just Can’t Be Happy Today, The Shadow Of Love, Dozen Girls, Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde, Neat Neat Neat, Democracy, Curtain Call, Looking At You, drum solo, New Rose, Eloise, Love Song, Smash It Up (Pts. 1 & 2), (encore), Ignite

For those who had read about The Damned’s previous appearances at Maritime Hall and the Phoenix Theater, it should come to no surprise how thrilled I was to see them again only a year later. This time I wouldn’t be cooped up in the recording room, but face to face with the venerable punk rock pioneers. It was a long shot that they would have used any of my recordings from the Maritime for a live album considering that they had so many other live albums by then, but I was bummed to learn that they would release the “Molten Lager” live album the very month of this show, recorded from a gig they did in Mulhouse, France in 1994. Though it was billed as their “Halloween Tour”, they would in fact play that Halloween in Boston at the Paradise Rock Club. But hell, every night is Halloween with The Damned and I would see them on that ghoulish holiday a year shy of two decades later at the Regency Ballroom. Better late than never. This would be the first time I’d see them at The Fillmore and you can imagine how pissed I was when they didn’t get a poster at the end of the night. I’d have to wait two more times of them playing there until 2017 when they finally got one.

Opening that night were the rowdy punk stylings of The Doormats. They were a fun bunch of local guys, launching into their set with a breakneck paced punk cover of “The March Of The Empire” from “Star Wars”, well, “The Empire Strikes Back” technically. They also did another wild cover of Jerry Reed’s “Eastbound & Down” from the film “Smokey & The Bandit”. The Doormats, now middle aged like myself, still do gigs around the bay area to this day. Following them were a band called Wench who were an interesting pick to open for The Damned, being quite a dark, ambient, industrial band. Contrary to their melancholy sound, the lead singer was actually a really sweet young lady who thanked the audience profusely between songs. Don’t know what happened to that band, though there were a couple other bands with the same name. One was an all girl rock band that was around from ’87 to ’93 and the other was a more recent Australian prog stoner act that were around from 2007 to 2013, but broke up after their drummer tragically died of cancer.

Like I said, it had only been a year since I’d seen The Damned, but they had already been through two drummers since then. They had replaced Garrie Dreadful with Spike T. Smith that February, but by this show, they were touring with Andrew “Pinch” Pinching from the English Dogs. He’d remain in the band for an impressive 20 years, longer than any other non-founding member apart from Monty Oxymoron, until Pinch was finally replaced only last year with Will Taylor. Like the others, Pinch was exceptional and a good fit for the band. They even gave him a little time to do a solo near the end of their set in which he was accompanied by some DJ scratches and samples of breaking glass, an interesting and unexpected addition to their sound that night. Other than that, they were the same line up with Patricia Morrison again on bass and Monty on keyboards.

The Damned had a fantastic set, covering their usual hits, though we did get a couple oddballs with “Dr Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde” and “Democracy”. Captain Sensible was his irrepressible smart alecky self, donning his trademark red beret and round sunglasses. After they opened with “Wait For The Blackout”, he joked, pointing to somebody up front saying, “We love ya’ except for you. You stink of shit.” He teased somebody else up front after “Plan 9 Channel 7” asking, “You wanna pay me back that money you owe me?” When they came back for their encore he made some sort of joke about the Backstreet Boys and praised The Fillmore, giving thanks “to all the ghosts of all the greats. Jim Morrison who’s Patricia Morrison’s brother… Jimi Hendrix who was my dad.” The Captain then introduced the final song of the evening, “Ignite”, kicking it off by screaming, “My ass is on fire!” 

Though it would be some time until The Damned would play The Fillmore again, I’d see them two years later when they played the Great American and two years after that at Slim’s. Seriously, I think I’ve only missed them a couple times when they’ve passed through the bay area, once I know for sure at the Burger Boogaloo festival in 2018 and another opening for The Misfits the year after at Oakland Arena. The Damned were actually just in town a few months ago opening for Blondie at the Masonic and despite the hefty price tag for that ticket, that was one double bill I couldn’t pass up. I vowed never to use Ticketmaster again after that night and I still haven’t. Captain didn’t tour with them this time which was a disappointment, but to make matters worse, it was because he refuses to get vaccinated for COVID. It’s hard when your heroes let you down, like when Johnny Lydon said he liked Trump, but I forgive him, just like I forgave Johnny. They’re only human.

Gang Starr, Nice & Smooth, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., September 30, 1999

We were spoiled to have Gang Starr back at the Hall again, just a mere two months after they had performed there last. To read more about the history of the iconic hip hop duo of DJ Premier and Guru, feel free to refer to that previous show in July. Following their fifth album, “Moment Of Truth”, put out that March, Gang Starr had just released their compilation, “Full Clip : A Decade Of GS ’89-’99” three months later and by August, it had already gone gold. Contrary to what the Maritime’s monthly poster said, this show was not in fact the “Lyricist Lounge” tour. That tour would however play at the Hall just two months later, headlined by the incomparable EPMD accompanied by an impressive roster of hip hop talent such as Planet Asia and the Dungeon Squad.

One thing that was different about this show from their previous appearance was that they had Nice & Smooth opening for them this time. They too were a rap duo from New York City comprising of Gregory “Greg Nice” Mays and Darryl “Smooth B” Barnes. Together, they had finished their fourth album, “Blazing Hot”, which they released only a month after this show. They had been tight with Gang Starr and had done guest vocals for their song, “DWTCK” on their “Hard To Earn” album back in 1994. I think Nice & Smooth are still together, having celebrated their 30th anniversary with a tour a few years ago in 2016. This would be the only time I’d see them, though I would have the honor of seeing Gang Starr one more time four years later at The Fillmore on a bill arranged by KMEL’s House Of Soul with Talib Kweli, Common, and Goapele. Sadly, Guru would die from blood cancer seven years after that.

They Might Be Giants, You Were Spiraling, War., SF, Wed., September 29, 1999

SETLISTS 

(YOU WERE SPIRALING) : Will You Love Me Tomorrow, (unknown), Excellent Body, Lightning Twice, This Is The Road, (unknown), Take On Me

(THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS) : Drinkin’, Spider, James K. Polk, She Thinks She’s Edith Head, Older, Twisting, Cyclops Rock, Spiraling Shape, She’s Actual Size, Man It’s So Loud In Here, Letterbox, Narrow Your Eyes, Ana Ng, The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight), No One Knows My Plan, Shoehorn With Teeth, (encore), Particle Man, The Famous Polka, New York City, Why Does The Sun Shine (The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent Gas), She’s An Angel, Dr. Worm, (encore), Spy, Counterfeit Faker, Birdhouse In Your Soul, (encore), Maybe I Know, Istanbul

As you might have gathered by now, I was no stranger to the works of They Might Be Giants, this being my fifth occasion seeing them perform. But this was an interesting time for the iconic, nerd-core duo of John’s Flansburgh and Linnell. Not only was their live album, simply titled “Live”, to be released about three and a half weeks after this show, but they had also just put out “Long Tall Weekend”, their 7th studio album, two months before this. The latter was the first of its kind, being the first full length album by a major label artist to be released in MP3 format over the internet. Certainly, they wouldn’t be the last, but back then, it was revolutionary and of course had it’s share of doubters amongst their critics and even their fans. I myself was still blissfully unaware of the underlying potential of the digital streaming of music and dismissed it naively as a sort of gimmick or fad.

They Might Be Giants had just left their label Elektra, though they would have the last laugh. Indeed, they would ultimately be the most downloaded band that year. But they weren’t new to being innovative. As you might recall, John Linnell had launched his “Dial-A-Song” phone service years before and just a year after this show, he’d update it for the internet, offering the songs instead to be streamed via flash doc. Furthermore, just that June, they had contributed the song “Dr. Evil” to the Mike Myers sequel, “Austin Powers : The Spy Who Shagged Me”. So between that and packing the house at the Warfield once again, it was safe to say that the Giants were doing well for themselves. 

I was impressed with their opening act, You Were Spiraling, fronted by keyboardist and vocalist Tom Brislin. Tom was a classical piano prodigy from New Jersey who had been in bands since he was only 10 years old. He and a few of his music student buddies at William Paterson University formed the band and caught the interest of the Giants a few years before this. John Linnell would release some of their early stuff, including their debut self titled album, on his subscription only record company, the “Hello CD Of The Month Club”, also known as the “Hello Recording Club” or just “Hello” for short. That club was an outlet for the Giants to put out some solo work of their own along with then unknown NYC acts such as Soul Coughing. You Were Spiraling had just put out their third album, “Delusions Of Grandeur”, through the club that year, but it would be the last release they’d do there and also the last one they’d do with that band name, soon shortening it to simply Spiraling. They would put out their first album, “Transmitting”, under that new name three years afterwards. 

From their first song, a cover of the Motown classic “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” by The Shirelles, I could tell Mr. Brislin had classical chops. He had a strong voice and made it look easy. They did a half dozen of their own songs before finishing their set with an impressive cover of A-Ha’s hit, “Take On Me”. It was so well done, that I believe firmly it is one of the rare occasions where the cover was superior to the original. I hope the fine Norwegians from A-Ha got to hear it, or maybe not, since they’d bound to be jealous. Tom would also continue to play keys for other several notable artists such as Yes, Meatloaf, and recently Kansas.

We were introduced to some of the Giants’ newer material starting their set that night with the instrumental “Drinkin’” that went straight into “Spider”, though it should be noted that some of the new songs were just older tunes that got shelved. “Drinkin’” was written in ’93 and their cover of Leslie Gore’s “Maybe I Know”, which they played second to last that night dates back to the 80’s. Leslie incidentally was famous for singing “It’s My Party” and “You Don’t Own Me”. Before the Giants did “Cyclops Rock”, they mentioned the new downloadable album and did a little jingle for it twice, singing “They Might Be Giants on emusic.com!” Then Flansburgh said the song was “about a guy with one eye instead of two. That’s the way he is… angry and he resembles myself.” Afterwards, they thanked You Were Spiraling and dedicated appropriately the song “Spiraling Shape” to them.

It was gratifying to hear the Giants with a full band again, especially when they did a jazzy, dynamic, big band rendition of “She’s Actual Size”. After they finished “Man, It’s Loud In Here”, another new song, Linnell introduced “Letterbox” as it being a “chestnut from the vaults… That’s where we keep our chestnuts.” Then, they had a false start to “Narrow Your Eyes”. Flansburgh apologized, claiming that he just “learned the song two days before.” He joked about the area around the Warfield, that it was weird to “be on a block where there’s more people muttering to themselves than in Brooklyn”, calling the neighborhood an “open air mental institution”, and stating that “we’re scared of this place and will be leaving shortly, but not before playing this song.” They did a couple encores that night including a six song one for the first encore before finishing their second one with their hit cover of “Istanbul”. Though I’d be disappointed that there wasn’t a poster for the show that night and that I wouldn’t see them in 2000, I’d be lucky to see them twice the following year, both times at the Fillmore. 

ITF USA DJ Championship, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., September 26, 1999

This night would be the third time the International Turntabalist Federation, or ITF for short, would bring its national finals to the hallowed halls of the Maritime. Though I didn’t save the tapes of the other two, I was lucky to find this one on YouTube. They used excerpts from the competition for the first hour of it, then rough footage of their own cameras on stage for the rest. The first half was unquestionably my stuff and it was Tory’s camera work, though he had little to do that night since the DJ’s mostly stayed put. The monthly poster had billed this show as the “World Championship”, though it was in fact the “USA Championship”. The “World Championship” would take place shortly after this one in Hawaii and was being billed as the “Battle In Paradise”, hosted by Mix Master Mike.

This one was being hosted by Rasco of the Cali Agents and Planet Asia and he graced us with a set of his own once the competition concluded. He was no stranger to the Hall and would be back there only five weeks later with EPMD for the Lyricist Lounge. There was no shortage of talent that night with Excess, Fresh, and Impereal from New York City, Perseus from Rhode Island, Mike C from Sacramento, Remedy from San Jose, and Snaykeyz from Vallejo. But the night belonged to the one and only Mike Relm, our man from San Francisco and former fellow S.F. State alumni. He had been a film student while I was there and I probably saw him around, but didn’t realize it back then. Equally as impressive were the calibre of the judges that night, being Apollo, Vin Roc, Shortkut, and Cue, all masters of the 1’s and 2’s to be sure. If anyone was qualified to judge that night, it was those guys. Their ears are too good to sneak any mistakes past them.

I heard the DJs all pair off and duel each other that night in three separate rounds, but it was clear that Relm was a cut above the rest, so when he was triumphant at the end of the night, it came as little surprise. It was his first win of any major DJ competition and Mike would go on to win second place in the “World Championship”, only being edged out by A-Trak. Though scratching wasn’t new to the hip hop scene, it was definitely a young man’s sport that night. Relm was only 21 years old that year, but A-Trak was only 17! Both DJs would go on to have illustrious careers, the latter going on to be (the artist formerly known as) Kanye West’s first touring DJ and later being one half of the hip hop duo, Duck Sauce.

Now, granted this was over twenty years ago, that these were young, uncouth ruffians, and competition was high as the rafters, but the dissing that was done with their samples got downright nasty at times. Back then, it was still acceptable to call your adversary “Faggot” and get away with it. Indeed, Snaykeyz used the unlikely source of folk singer Jewel’s “Pieces Of You” to repeat the (other) F-word, undoubtably used out of the context Jewel had intended for her own song. Also, Perseus used a sample of someone blurting, “What!?! You wanna battle me!?! Get outta here, ya’ faggot!” But like I said, it was Relm how held the day and he finished off one of his battles with the unmistakable voice of Eddie Murphy imitating his drunk father during his stand-up concert movie, “Raw”, declaring, “This is my house and it you don’t like it, get the fuck out!”

Parliament Funkadelic, Say What, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., September 24, 1999

George Clinton had played the Maritime plenty in the last three years up till then with the P-Funk All Stars racking up at least 10-12 hours of live material already in the can, so Pete let me have this one. Forget a live album, we had enough stuff to make a box set and then some. But this show was different this time, primarily because George wasn’t in this incarnation. They were billed as “The Original Parliament Funkadelic”on the Maritime’s monthly poster, but they were officially called “The Original P”. It was many of the All Stars in the band, but they were touring with all their original singers, Grady “Shady” Thomas, Clarence “Fuzzy” Haskins, Calvin Smith, and Ray “Stingray” Davis.

Let’s set the clocks back aaaaaaallll the way back to 1956. These guys were all old friends from Parliament, New Jersey which is where they got their name from, though some believe they got it from the cigarette brand. George was only 15 years old when the band formed, simply calling themselves The Parliaments and they were more of a male harmony, doo-wop ensemble back then, like the Temptations. They would relocate to Detroit where George would write songs for Motown on the side and they would ultimately release the seminal “Funkadelic” album in 1970 and then ultimately change the band name to “Parliament Funkadelic”.

Fast forward many, many years and many, many different incarnations of the band and we find ourselves in 1999. George had just played the catastrophic Woodstock ’99 festival with the All Stars, and these guys had split off to do this thing. Separately, they had just released their own album called “What Dat Shakin’” under “The Original P” name. They and their voices were in good shape for men of their age. “Fuzzy” had cleaned up his act, getting off drugs and even becoming a Christian minister. I considered it to be an honor to record these great founders of funk, especially since “Shady” is the only surviving member of that four still with us today. We just lost Calvin just last year. We were also lucky that night that they had Dawn Silva sitting in with the band, one of the original “Brides Of Funkenstein” singers. Dawn and Lynn Mabry had been back up singers for Sly & The Family Stone before George helped put that band together, which would open for P-Funk on tour, then they would perform double duty as P-Funk’s back up singers.

Also, there was Greg Thomas, no relation to “Shady” Thomas, joining them on saxophone who had joined P-Funk back in 1978 and has been with them ever since, playing woodwinds and singing as well. Greg had toured with all sorts of other bands like Cameo and The Gap Band, not to mention a list of session work a mile long, more like several miles long. Listening to a recent interview of him, he pointed out something I never really noticed before. George Clinton never played an instrument. It’s remarkable after all these decades that I never noticed that. He clearly had the ears and the talent of a conductor, a role George performed with understated modesty, despite his colorful attire and hair. And even though he wasn’t there to lead them that night, P-Funk played all the hits and clocked in a respectable couple solid hours of music. Any less and the fans would have been disappointed. Luckily, The Original P would return to the Hall in May of 2000, only 8 months later. It would be one of only ten shows that I would do there that year, filling in for Wade who had taken over the recording full time then, so I had the pleasure of recording these guys twice.

Kool Keith, DJ Spooky, Jimmy Luxury, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., September 22, 1999

SETLIST : Fantastic Voyage, Ego Trippin, Funky, Two Brothers With Checks (San Francisco Harvey), Ease Back, Freestyle, More Bounce To The Ounce, Sex Style, Blue Flowers, Livin Astro, Poppa Large

Let’s face it, any Kool Keith show is a special show. But this one would probably turn out to be the most important of them at least for me and my friend and partner, Tory. By this time, we’d already been fans of Mr. Thornton, bordering on obsession. Though I had the honor of recording him the year before, this would be Tory’s first, which was important unto itself. What we didn’t know back then was that nine years after this night, Keith would do a show at the Mezzanine and it would be taped for a the live “Ultra-Octa-Doom” DVD and the footage from the Maritime show in its entirety would be used on that DVD for its bonus footage. I had long since gave any hope that Keith’s or any other artists footage from the Hall would be used by then. Even the stuff that was supposed to come out maybe had a fifty-fifty chance of seeing the light of day in the first place. I was at that Mezzanine show with Motion Man and saw that they were taping it, though I was understandably skeptical. It was sad but not surprising when neither Tory’s or my names ended up in the credits on the packaging. At least they were in the credits rolled in the footage at the end of our set. It’s ours and it’s for the ages which makes me infinitely proud, maybe more than any other thing the Maritime would put out. Maybe it ties with the Bad Brains album, but it’s in the top three for sure.

This fateful evening, Keith was touring with DJ Spooky and Kutmasta Kurt and riding high on the critical and commercial success of his “Black Elvis / Lost In Space” album, which had just been released only six weeks before this show. Both Tory and I had listened to it non-stop and were well versed in its jams. On the way to the show, I mused that it would be cool if Keith actually got his hands on a life-size, mechanical replica of an alligator that he could operate remotely, a reference to a line in the song, “Maxi Curls”, where he uses the phrase “Remote Control Alligators” in its chorus. I still think that album might be the best work he’s ever made, undeniably the one that made him the most money anyway.

I suppose it was for the best that “Black Elvis” was delayed in its release by four months, originally supposed to be put out alongside the “First Come, First Served” album the previous May. Keith’s stuff in my opinion is best digested slowly. There’s a lot to take in. However, Keith was understandably pissed that the new album was delayed and encouraged his fans to contact the record company, Columbia, to complain about it. The song “Test Press” that he’d put out later was about that friction. Keith had just adopted the persona of Dr. Dooom for that previous album, literally killing off his previous persona, Dr. Octagon, in the first track. Dr. Dooom would continue to flip songs detailing his penchant for things like eating human flesh, Flintstone vitamins, and pet rodents. It was another marriage made in heaven with his collaboration with both DJ Spooky and Kurt.

But the opening act, Jimmy Luxury was a bit of a departure from your run of the mill bay area hip hop act. Jimmy had coined the term “swing-hop” and as you might have gathered, it is a mash up between swing music of the 40’s and 50’s with hip hop. He was a white fellow donning a vintage suit and fedora and to his credit, he managed to pull it off. Jimmy was new then, just releasing his first album “A Night In The Arms Of…” that year. It was a refreshing take on the swing genre, which was beginning to wane in its popularity after a big spike in interest that decade. One of Jimmy’s songs, “Love Me Cha Cha” would be used in the background during the film comedy, “Me, Myself, & Irene” with Jim Carrey, though didn’t make it to its soundtrack album.

But the night belonged to Keith and he was in fine form, possibly the best set I’ve ever seen him do live. He wore a sports jersey of some kind, maybe a football or hockey one, with the number “5” on it. His hype man had one too, but with the number “31”. I can’t say what team or who those numbers belonged to and am not really even sure what color they were. They looked red, but they might have been orange, lit red by the stage lights. So I theorize that it might have been Jeff Garcia’s from the 49ers since they were in San Francisco and Garcia had just become their new quarterback that year, wearing that number “5”. Keith also wore his rubber Elvis wig all night along with a pair of wide sunglasses and I couldn’t help but wonder how he kept from sweating profusely under that thing. I suppose it helped that he had a shaved head, but I tried wearing one of those for a Wolverine costume for Halloween a few years later and I sweated like Nixon in church. 

We got to hear his usual assortment of hits from his solo stuff and the Ultramagnetic MCs, but were treated at least to one of the new songs, “Livin’ Astro”. Keith would go on to play at Palookaville in Santa Cruz the next night and at Coachella three weeks later. Tory and I were walking on air after that show. Seriously, that night meant a lot to us. Keith was and remains one of my heroes. We went to OSHA Thai on Geary for our ceremonial “victory lap” feast afterwards and had one of those meals so large, that the waitress double checked with us that we were indeed just two people eating that night. But we still finished it all. Tory was one of those few friends of mine who could go toe to toe with my insatiable appetite. As I finish writing this, I can’t help but feel a tinge of loneliness. Tory has since moved on to Colorado and we really aren’t in contact anymore. But the memory of that night with Keith sustains me and I hope it remains a happy one for him as well.

Chris Cornell, Fill., SF, Mon., September 20, 1999

SETLIST : Sunshower, Can’t Change Me, Flutter Girl, Mission, Preaching The End Of The World, Seasons, When I’m Down, Pillow Of Your Bones, Moonchild, Sweet Euphoria, Like Suicide, Follow My Way, (encore), All Night Thing, Steel Rain

After three years since my last seeing Soundgarden at the Henry J. Kaiser, I hadn’t thought about Chris Cornell till he finally resurfaced to release his first solo album, “Euphoria Mourning”. That was in fact the last show I’d see at the Kaiser which still to this day remains dormant, at least as a rock venue. Chris’ new album was so new that it was the released the day after this gig and he pronounced that this Fillmore show was their first ever! Lucky me. However, I found out that it was actually the fourth show of the tour, the previous three being in Cambridge, MA, New York City, and in D.C.

It would be his only solo record before joining Audioslave a two years later, but he’d put out a few more solo records after that band parted ways in 2007. Soundgarden had been splitsville for over two and a half years by then and Chris was wrestling with some serious personal demons as well. His marriage was falling apart and he was suffering from depression which was aggravated by his drinking. After the birth of his daughter, Lillian Jean, the following year, he’d finally divorce his first wife in 2004, but would quickly remarry to his second wife that same year. Though I’m sure this new album and tour helped, as we all know, his demons would take him down in the end and he’d take his own life in 2017. At least we’d have him around for another 18 years.

Though I wasn’t initially impressed by the songs from the new album, the majority of the material he performed that night, upon hearing them again, they grew on me. People, distracted by his superhuman voice and dashing good looks, forget how talented he was as a songwriter. There was a funny bit about the album’s title which was the now and future title, “Euphoria Mourning”. But at the time, Chris and his manager debated it thinking when one pronounces the title out loud, they hear “Morning” instead, so after much deliberation, they decided to change it to that. But afterwards, Chris realized that the first one was better and joked that the second title sounded like a “potpourri scent” and changed it back when the album was rereleased in 2015. Though it wasn’t a commercial success, selling less than 400,000 copies, it won over critics and even garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for the single, “Can’t Change Me”, the second song he played that night.

It was just an “evening with” show for Mr. Cornell and since he only had that one solo album, it was a relatively short set, making it an early night for me. Early in his set, he mentioned that the closest thing he had done to a solo show before was when he was much younger, he and Matt Cameron opened for Jonathan Richman, playing 12-string guitars, but couldn’t recall where that happened. Though like I said, most of the material was from “Euphoria Mourning”, we were treated to “All Night Thing”, a song from the Temple Of The Dog band, for the first song of his encore. Also, earlier he did “Mission” and “Seasons”, songs that he wrote for the “Mission Impossible 2” and “Singles” soundtracks respectively, and gave us one Soundgarden tune, “Like Suicide”.  Technically, “Flutter Girl” was a Soundgarden song too, being an outtake from “Superunknown”. 

He thanked the people of The Fillmore saying that it was only the second or third time he’d played there, but that “they treat you like a human being which is very rare.” Though I never saw Soundgarden play there or know exactly when they did, I do know they played The Warfield once in 1992 since I’d seen the poster from that night. After the show ended, Chris and his band immediately went to L.A. to play back to back shows at the Henry Fonda Theater and from there, to tour Europe for a month before returning to the States to continue playing gigs until the following March. I’m happy to report that there was a poster given away at my show that night and it was a good one. That helped make up for The Fillmore denying one to the Dance Hall Crashers for their second time headlining there two nights before this. 

Dance Hall Crashers, No Use For A Name, Limp, Fill., SF, Sat., September 18, 1999

SETLIST : Go, Make Her Purr, Mr. Blue, Buried Alive, Shelley, The Real You, Next To You, Beverly Kills, My Problem, Triple Track, Enough, Cat Fight, Sticky, Everything To Lose, Good For Nothin’, Queen For A Day, Just Like That, Lost Again, (encore). Cricket, Elvis & Me, He Wants Me Back, DHC

It had actually been three long years since I heard my brother’s alma matter, the Dance Hall Crashers at Live 105’s B.F.D. at Shoreline. They were back at The Fillmore, headlining there again for the second time in their illustrious career with No Use For A Name opening for them there also for a second time. Reggae veterans Israel Vibration played the Maritime the night before, but as usual, Pete and I didn’t record them since they’d already put out a live album with our stuff, so I had that night off. This time around, DHC had Limp on the bill, who were also bay area natives. The lead singer, Phil Ensor, celebrated that fact when they took the stage and praised The Fillmore, declaring that although it was their first time performing at the venue, he had been “coming there for many, many, many, many years.” Despite their undeniable talent and that they had just released their second album, “Guitarded” that February, Limp had the unfortunate timing around then that Limp Bizkit would be at the height of their popularity. Limp was often being confused for those dingbats, though their music was radically different. 

Limp had actually employed guitarist Scott Goodell to be their first drummer, one of DHC’s many former members like my brother Alex. I had seen them once opening for The Offspring at Maritime Hall the year before, but since that bill was touring with their own monitor board, we didn’t get a hook up for the multi track recording, so I took the night off and just watched that show instead. I was impressed with Limp and their frenzied energy as I was at this show. They did a rather respectful cover of Boston’s “More Than A Feeling”, although Phil did joke before playing it that they would be playing a “guessing game” with the crowd and that they were “probably not old enough” to recognize it. One cover they did, which they had also played at the Hall which certainly everybody recognized and was a crowd pleaser was “Holiday Road” by Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, which they saved for the end of their set. Of course, everybody on Earth knows that tune as the theme song to the seminal film comedy, “National Lampoon’s Vacation”. Limp brilliantly flew through it at first, then brought it down to a hush in the middle, getting the audience to sing the “Whoa-oh-oh-a-oh-oh” between lines, before bringing it back to a faster and faster pace, climaxing at the end. It was a brilliant cover and I certainly hope that Mr. Buckingham and all those involved with the movie have heard it at least once.

Next up was No Use For A Name, who played admirably as always, they being one of the most reliable opening acts I’d ever see. The singer, Tony Sly, recognized one of his fans up front during his set, saying he “saw you before at other shows, the Tahoe one” and he offered him a towel. Karina from DHC came up on stage and sang back up vocals on one of their songs that night as well. They also did a fun punk cover, doing Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy The Silence”, probably the best cover I’d ever heard of that moody anthem, clearly the most cheerful version of it anyway. Also, the did a breakneck paced punk cover of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” which I appreciated since that song is so overplayed and held with such sanctimonious regard, that it is a relief to hear it performed with such humor and upbeat optimism. 

No Use For A Name was in a bit of transitional period that year. I believe this was the first show I’d see them without their lead guitarist, Chris Shiflett, who left them to join the Foo Fighters. No one can really blame him for trading up, even on the eve of No Use For A Name’s release of their new album, “More Betterness!” which came out just 17 days after this show. The Foo Fighters were huge, even back then. Thankfully, they found a replacement for Chris almost immediately with guitarist Dave Nassie, formerly of the 22 Jacks. DHC had some new songs from “Purr” album they released that year on Pink & Black Records, an off shoot of Fat Wreck Chords, owned by Fat Mike of NOFX. Years later in 2015, Karina would join NOFX as their keyboardist and back up singer. We were treated to six of their new tunes amongst their extended catalogue of hits.

Like before in 1995, it was gratifying to see them headline there in the native bay area and be surrounded by friends, family, and their long term devoted fans. Elyse asked them if they got the new album and how many folks out there owned turntables. Before they played “Shelley”, Karina asked the crowd how many of them were there at the 1995 show reminding us that No Use For A Name played with them that night too. Like them, DHC was tight, especially the Hammon brothers, Jason on guitar and Gavin on drums. Seriously, they always made it look more than easy. They make it look fun. Everybody looked like they were having the time of their lives on stage. They even played “Triple Track”, which was only 30 seconds long, that they had added to the compilation album “Short Music For Short People”. All the songs on it were around the same length, totaling 101 songs, yet still altogether being less than 50 minutes long. That has to be some kind of record, no pun intended. No Use For A Name and Limp also contributed tracks to that album. They finished their main set with “Lost Again”, though it didn’t take them long to come back on stage, brought back with the audience chanting, “DHC! DHC! DHC!” Karina joked, “That’s our name, don’t wear it out!”

But I have to admit the strongest memory of this show was the feeling of profound embarrassment I felt during their encore. They were egging on the crowd asking for requests and as usual, I screamed out “Street Sweeper!”, one of their earliest songs which they never played live anymore. But before wrapping up the night with the customary “DHC” theme song, they dusted off their golden oldie, “He Wants Me Back”. As you might recall from my previous writings about them, yours truly was brought in at the last minute to play their trumpet player in a music video of it made for a SF State film student recorded out on Ocean Beach. Karina and Elyse had invited the crowd up to sing along on stage with their impeccable voices and you can imagine the utter mortification I felt when I froze up and for the life of me and couldn’t remember the lyrics! Karina even made a point telling the crowd not to come up if they didn’t know the words. I must had heard that song a couple dozen times that day we shot the video, but that was seven years before this and I was caught by surprise to say the least. 

To my defense, I was bootlegging that night as always and feared that I would get caught if I had joined them on stage under all those lights. But still, I was disappointed in missing out, especially since most people on stage with them simply danced or just sang during the song’s chorus. Naturally, the song’s lyrics came back to me as clear as crystal while they sang it. I at least enjoyed the experience vicariously through the joy of those who did manage to join them on stage and listening to the whole show while writing this fills me with mirth and gratitude that I got to see them as often as I did, even after my brother was no longer performing with them. Other than my inaction during that encore, the only regret from that show was for a second time The Fillmore shamefully didn’t give them a poster. 

Crash Worship, The Master Musicians Of Jajouka, Subarachnoid Space, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., September 9, 1999

I couldn’t wait to see this one, especially since Pete gave the show for me to record. He had done the first time they played the Hall, strangely enough on April Fool’s Day the year before and to say that this freakish collection of pagan artists made an impression would be an understatement. They had the reputation of performing at a venue once… ONCE… then never invited back again, so having them do their thing at the Hall for a second time was fortunate. Between all the fire and various liquids splashed about all night, they make a bit of a mess. I know they left a decent sized burn mark on the dance floor from at least one of the two shows they did at the Maritime. I’m glad I caught it for several reasons, yes, but the main reason wouldn’t be revealed until the show was long over. This would be not only one of just four shows they would do that autumn, but indeed the last shows they would ever do. I know one of the four shows was at the Aztlan Theater in L.A., but the final performance of this bizarre spectacle known as Crash Worship would take place six weeks after my night in San Diego. Many members would scatter to parts unknown, but a few of their locations are not so secret. Simon Cheffins, their percussionist and effects specialist, went on to form the Extra Action Marching Band. Markus Wolff relocated to Portland, Oregon and Adam Nodelman unfortunately relocated to the afterlife, passing away in 2008 at the young age of 43, the cause of death still a mystery.

But one attraction of the show that night that most probably will never die was the opening act, The Master Musicians Of Jajouka. For over a thousand years, these guys have been carrying on the traditional music of the Jbala Sufi people of the Riff Mountains of northern Morocco, passing down their skills and knowledge of pipes and drums from father to son. At the very least, I appreciated that the Hall had booked a line up with such an eclectic roster, something that most venues woefully neglect. If the name of the these Masters sounds remotely familiar, you might be a fan of beat poetry or at least of the early works of the Rolling Stones. Let’s set the clock back a handful of decades and continue. 

Once upon a time, in the 1950’s a fellow named Mohamed Hamri took it upon himself to get these guys together to play and promote them. It was blind luck that during that time, the venerable beat poet William S. Burroughs had taken residence in the area, still dealing with the fallout after accidentally slaying his wife in an urban legendary incident, performing his “William Tell act”. It was that time, he would compose the writings that would ultimately become “Naked Lunch”. But while he was in the area, he and his fellow expatriates, Brion Gysin and Paul Bowles, would encounter these musicians, Brion first hearing them at a music festival in Sidi-Karem. It is disputed who amongst the three coined their “Master Musicians” name, but it was one of them. Burroughs would cite them and the piper god Pan,“god of panic” on more than one occasion.

From there, one of the Stones’ sound people got word of them and passed it on to guitarist Brian James who immediately took a fancy, perhaps while under the influence of some of Morocco’s popular mind altering substances. Mr. Jones to his credit made a live recording of their work and published an album titled “Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka” which would be released in 1971, three years after Brian’s untimely “death by misadventure”. In the intervening years, the band changed hands and members, splitting the band between Bachir and Ahmed Attar and the aforementioned album would be rereleased in 1995, undoubtably reigniting interest in them. So, fast forward to 1999 and I would be lucky enough to be on the receiving end of their talent. 

But before I continue, I must share a ridiculous anecdote that stuck in my head for that entire evening. Years before this show, my friend Hefe’s father had visited Morocco for some reason and had an interesting encounter on the street while there. I know this sounds like a stupid joke, but my lifelong friend swore that this is what happened. A young man approached Hefe’s dad in the street in broad daylight and asked him in a warm, friendly voice if he knew how a Moroccan pickpocket picked pockets. He said no and the young man went on to demonstrate. He said, “First he takes out his hand”, and then he showed him his hand, then said, “Then he puts it in your pocket”, then he put it in Hefe’s dad’s pocket. Then he said, “Then he takes out your wallet”, which he did and then he grinned and announced, “Then he runs away!” Well, that young man took off with Hefe’s dad’s wallet down the street and despite the pursuit Hefe’s dad made, he got away. He must have been fast since Hefe’s dad was skinny as a rail, like his son, and certainly wouldn’t have given up easily. I have to give credit to Hefe’s dad for having the humor and humility to share that story and though it might be embarrassing to him and the good people of Morocco, it makes for a funny story and worth sharing.

But as usual, I digress and must get back to the show. These Moroccans weren’t the first on stage that though, being preceded by Subarachnoid Space. They were a psychedelic improvisational group, adding to the eclectic bill that evening, and were led by a fellow named Mason Jones, no relation to Brian Jones. Let’s just say this wasn’t he kind of music one would dance to and leave it at that. What I did remember strangely enough about this act was Mason’s head. He was a stout fellow with a thick black beard and with some strikingly, abnormally pronounced wrinkles on his forehead. Even after all these years, I never forgot that. He would go on to found Charnel Records, a label specializing in experimental music such as his. Incidentally, their name is derived from a space formed by an opening in the brain that is filled with cerebrospinal fluid. Though I’m sure my father, God rest his soul, who was a neurobiologist and my father in law who is a neuropathologist would appreciate the name, I highly doubt they would be into their music.

But they were only on for about a half hour and the Jajouka boys were up next. Their sound beguiled me. I mean, I don’t want to lump them into the so-called world music thing. I always thought that phrase was sort of a cop out, but suffice to say, I hadn’t heard anything remotely like that before that night. They came out dressed in their causal, earth toned, soft clothes and traditional instruments and just started jamming. Almost immediately, their instrumental music put me in a trance, so much so, that I had to sort of snap out of it from time to time to focus on mixing them. Thankfully, the crowd shut up enough, that I could pick up what they were playing and keep them balanced. What I didn’t expect was that after their set was done, their leader, which I assume was Bachir Attar, said they were going to take a break and “have a smoke” and then return for a second set which they did. It wasn’t on the schedule for the night, but I wasn’t complaining.

As crazy and memorable as the spectacle of Crash Worship as it was, I found myself more captivated by these guys, so much so that when Pete was at the Hall again, I made him a point to play him the tape of their performance from that night, something I’d never done before with him. I thought since Pete was of that Beat generation, he’d be interested, but after five or ten minutes of it, he simply folded his arms and casually said in his gruff voice that he’d had heard enough. Still, I was honored that I had the opportunity to record them, perhaps even more than that of Crash Worship, even if that was their last show in the bay area. I was just relieved at the end of the night that they hadn’t burned the place down. 

Billy Bragg & The Blokes, Freedy Johnson, Fill., SF, Sat., September 4, 1999

SETLIST : Accident Waiting To Happen, Milkman Of Human Kindness, I Guess I Planted, Eisler On The Go, Glad & Sorry, All You Fascists, Sulk, Shirley, A New England, (encore), The World Turned Upside Down, Jeane, Upfield, I Don’t Need This Pressure Ron, (encore), Walk Away Renee, Debris, Rule Nor Reason

It had only been since the previous December since I’d recorded Billy at the Maritime when he was in town doing a benefit for local dock workers, so I knew more or less what I was in for that night. He and the Blokes were playing The Fillmore this time, though they were playing the following night at Palookaville in Santa Cruz, which was booked by the folks at the Maritime then. Billy was in between volumes of the “Mermaid Avenue” albums, the Woody Guthrie revival project that he had done with Wilco, but was still singing tunes from the first album. Feel free to go back and read about it from the Maritime show. It was a big hit and I’ll leave it at that. 

Billy had an interesting year in ’99 having just moved to Dorset and appearing to speak at the House Of Lords. There he sought reform for UK’s general elections, hoping to rearrange the Upper House in a manner that would more accurately reflect the result of the election, calling it the “Bragg Method”. Hopefully, people didn’t confuse it with the other Bragg Method which is a technique in which a beam of X-rays is directed against a crystal, the atoms which because of their lattice arrangement, reflect the ray in the same way as a series of plane surfaces… As luck would have it, the SPIE optics show was just in town and I usually work it every year. Makes me wonder if Billy has heard of this other method. Also that year, he had a social housing development named after him in Barking, UK called “Bragg Close”. Billy attended the opening of it, musing about his family’s history in the area and how proud he was.

Anyway, back to the show. Opening that night was songwriter Freedy Johnston. I managed to tape only one song from his set, but it was one of his hits, “Bad Reputation”. Freedy was originally from Kinsley, Kansas, but had relocated to New York City where he accumulated a respectable catalogue of songs, some finding themselves on movie soundtracks like “Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead”, “Kingpin”, “Heavy”, and “Kicking & Screaming”. He had just released his fifth album, “Blue Days Black Nights” just six weeks before this evening.

Billy mentioned early in his set between songs, that there was a hotel workers strike going on down near Union Square and he voiced his support for them and their pursuit of a living wage before playing “I Guess I Planted”. He had veteran musician Ian McLagan from The Small Faces on keyboards that night and before they played Ian’s song, “Glad & Sorry”, Billy told a story about how fans of The Faces and The Small Faces would butt heads about which band was better, though Billy reassured both camps that Ian had been in both bands. Ian had done session work with everybody from the Stones, to Bob Dylan, Frank Black, and John Mayer just to name a few. I was lucky to have stumbled into a pub in Camden Town when I was a student in London in ’92 and catch him and his band doing a show there. I was glad to see him again, but I believe this would be this last time since he passed away in 2014.

Before he played “All You Fascists”, which Woody had written all the way back in 1941, Billy said he had been inspired to do the “Mermaid Avenue” album by The Clash whose members would write anti-fascist slogans on their instruments. But he noted that Woody was the first to do it, even before electric guitars, famously scrawling “This Machine Kills Fascists” on his acoustic and Billy joked that Woody was a Clash fan. He also gave a shout out to imprisoned activist Mumia Abu-Jamal and mentioned a rally for him at Dolores Park the following weekend with Michael Franti. The aforementioned song didn’t make it to the first “Mermaid Avenue” album, but made it to second volume and Billy always played it.

Afterwards, he took a moment to just speak to the ladies in the house to give a shout out the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team who had just won the World Cup which was met with a rousing round of applause. He joked that the guys “can go on with your silly runny runny, catchy catchy game”, but he and the ladies can go to any country and “strip off to our bra and penalty shoot out” with anybody and they didn’t have to “dress up with big pretend muscley things and tight ass trousers” or with a “crash helmet with a visor”. He then praised soccer as a game for all nations and an “extension of the socialist ideal” adding that “the World Series is not the World Cup”, before playing “Sulk”. He encouraged the men in the audience to “stop playing hackey sack” and “go for the goal!”

After the first song of the first encore, Billy mentioned that the WTO were meeting in Seattle at the end of November and as you may or may not remember, it didn’t go so well. The protesters rioted and made a mess of the place, though most came to just make their voices heard. Up until that point, I had actually been registered to vote as “anarchist”, but after that scene, I decided that my little inside joke might be a red flag to certain domestic intelligence agencies. I then changed my registration to become a member of the “Bachelor Party”, though after over seven years of matrimony, I finally got around to change it again and am now a member of the “After Party”. But if confrontational politics isn’t your thing, you might want to skip a Billy Bragg show. I remember seeing him on a double bill with Robyn Hitchcock who talks as nearly as much as Billy does between songs, though his banter is a teensy bit more scatological. But Billy isn’t an unreasonable man, he spoke of the upcoming election and of George W. Bush and would put the question to him and his people if they were compassionate and if they were, that they were welcome at his show.

But Billy wasn’t all fire and brimstone politics. He did a funny spoken word piece called “Walk Away Renee” at the beginning of his second encore and did a sentimental acoustic number, “Rule Nor Reason”, to finish the night. Though there wasn’t a poster to commemorate the gig, Billy returned to play the Fillmore the following year and he got one then. In one final note, upon hearing Billy sing again in this recording, I couldn’t help but think about just how pronounced his accent is. I mean, there are many English people who sound American and vice versa, but when you hear him, he leaves absolutely no room for doubt. It’s as almost as if he’s EXTRA English, but hey, it’s the way the good lord made him I suppose. One thing I will give him credit for, despite his heavy East London accent, Billy has excellent diction which made figuring out his set list a breeze.

Fear Factory, Static X, Dope, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., September 2, 1999

SETLISTS : 

(STATIC X) : Stem, Sweat Of The Bud, Otsegolation, The Trance Is The Motion, I’m With Stupid, Love Dump, Push It

(FEAR FACTORY) : Shock, New Breed, Flashpoint, Zero Signal, Self Bias Resistor, Edgecrusher (with Stephen Carpenter), Scumgrief, Descent, Pisschrist, Resurrection, Demanufacture, Martyr, Scapegoat, Cars (with Koichi Fukuda), Angel Of Death (with Tom Araya), Dead Embryonic Cells / Roots Bloody Roots, Replica

It had only been eight months since Fear Factory had played the Hall with Static X opening for them, so I knew what I was in for. I would invite y’all to revisit my writings about that January show if you’re curious about more of their biographical stuff, but I’ll skip it mostly this time as not to repeat myself. This time, these two nu metal acts were touring with their own monitor board, so I wasn’t able to get a multi-track recording of them this time, but I was still able to get a stereo mix of the night. Though I didn’t save it for myself, you can find a comparable set of Static X on YouTube from a show they had played in Detroit the week before this show. Both bands had just finished a stint on the Ozzfest tour that summer. Fear Factory had been brought in to headline the second stage, replacing Judas Priest, and they were still promoting their album, “Obsolete”, from the year before, their only album to go gold.

Static X had been ridiculously busy even for rock band standards, playing over 300 shows that year alone. This time, they had the band Dope with them, the first to play that night. Dope were still pretty new, having formed in ’97 in New York City. They were appropriately named as they were shall we say amateur pharmaceutical salesmen, a side gig to help support themselves and their efforts to make music. Their frontman Edsel Dope and his brother, keyboardist Simon Dope, were friends with Marilyn Manson and his band and they would go on to release their first album, “Felons & Revolutionaries” only 12 days after this show. One of their hits from that one was an industrial metal cover of N.W.A.’s seminal hip hop classic, “Fuck Tha Police” which naturally they performed that night. They also did a cover of Dead Or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)”, which would be bonus track on their album in a later pressing. Dope’s guitarist, Tripp Eisen, fed up with not getting paid royalties, would leave the band to join Static X in 2000, replacing Koichi Fukuda.

As I had mentioned in the show they did the previous January, I would see Static X and their frontman, Wayne Static, one more time three years later when they played the Warfield with Soulfly and then Wayne would succumb to a drug overdose in 2014 and die in his sleep. What I didn’t know until recently was that his wife, adult film star Tera Wray, would die just a year afterwards, tragically taking her own life. Static X however did reform in 2019 and toured celebrating the 20th anniversary of their album, “Wisconsin Death Trip” with an unidentified vocalist wearing a gruesome “Michael Myers” style mask that looked suspiciously like Wayne calling himself “Xer0”. Some people have speculated that it was Edsel Dope who was the masked singer, despite Edsel denying it to this day. Dope would go on to have several line up changes over the years, including 7 different drummers, though I believe this was the only time I ever saw them.

There were several guests of note appearing on stage with Fear Factory that night starting with Stephen Carpenter, the guitarist of the Deftones, who joined them for the song “Edgecrusher”. Then, the aforementioned Koichi Fukuda joined them for their cover of Gary Numan’s “Cars”. But the big surprise came later when none other than Tom Araya, the bassist and vocalist of Slayer, took the stage with them to do Slayer’s unforgettable metal classic “Angel Of Death”. Rest assured, the pit went bananas for that one. Coincidentally, I had just seen Slayer’s drummer, Dave Lombardo, perform with Testament at The Fillmore only five days before this show. Fear Factory also did a cover of “Dead Embryonic Cells / Roots Bloody Roots” by Sepultura, the second to last song of their set. I’d see Fear Factory play one more time five years later at The Warfield with Lamb Of God and Children Of Bodom, but that would be for the last time for me. 

GZA, Dr. Israel, The Deadbeats, Ginseng Root, Maroon Descendants, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., August 29, 1999

SETLIST : Reunited, Publicity, 4th Chamber, Duel Of Da Iron Mic, Bring The Ruckus, Clan In Da Front, Dreddy Krueger (Freestyle), Prodigal Son (Freestyle), Labels, Liquid Swords, Living In The World 2Day, Cold World, Beneath The Surface, Mic Trippin, String Play, Hip Hop Fury, Crash Your Crew, Breaker Breaker, Triumph, Older Godz, GZ (Freestyle), Gold, Killah Hills 10304, Breaker Breaker (Remix) Outro

This was one of those rare and bittersweet occasions where all these years down the road, I find another album. Yes, once again, in doing research for this show, I found that our stuff was good enough to steal. Now, to be clear, this was an unofficial release, a bootleg with no label of any kind, so I won’t be pointing fingers at any suspected guilty people. I found it on Discogs and Mixunit and am currently awaiting the CD of it in the mail, but I can say with almost absolute certainty that my name won’t be listed in the credits, if there are any, which I sincerely doubt. But Mixunit at least allowed me to sample snippets of each song and clearly it’s my stuff. There’s no way this was somebody in the balcony with a portable set. The vocal and audience mics are way too clear for that. And yes, this is MY stuff. Pete had never had any interest in rap acts and left them all to me ever since Run DMC played at the Hall over two years before this. But if he knew of GZA’s talent and reputation he might have reconsidered leaving this one to me.

This would be the first time I’d see the one and only Mr. Gary Eldridge Grice. I had the honor of recording fellow Wu Tang Clan alumni, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Method Man, on separate occasions the year before at the Maritime, but I wouldn’t see the Wu Tang Clan altogether until three years later at The Fillmore. GZA mentioned during the show that people were always asking him when they’d get together again and he assured them that it would be soon. I would soon discover that “The Genius” was a name well earned by this artist. To this day, I still struggle to conjure up any names in hip hop that are on the level of GZA’s lyrical mastery. But as usual, I knew jack shit about him at the time. Shortly after this night, I mentioned the show to my friend Drew and he kicked me down a copy of his platinum selling “Liquid Swords” album, which I loved immediately. That one came out in ’95 and continues to be a seminal masterpiece of the genre. 

Along with his cousin RZA and ODB, GZA formed the Clan initially as a three man trio in 1992. He had dropped out of school in the 10th grade and worked briefly as a bike messenger before Wu Tang took off. His lack of formal education obviously didn’t hinder his vocabulary, not to mention his renowned ability to play chess. The last time I saw him, a few years ago at The Independent, a fan in the front row even brought a portable chess set and played a game with GZA while he performed, though they didn’t have enough time to finish the game when the encore came to an end. Maybe they finished it backstage later. Anyway, by the time of this show, GZA’s third solo album, “Beneath The Surface”, the title a reference to his “underground” roots among other things I’m sure, had been out for only a couple months. Not as critically and commercially successful as “Liquid Swords”, it nonetheless quickly went gold. It was a pretty packed house that night and there were plenty of chants of “Wu Tang!” before GZA took the stage as well as after his set ended. I don’t remember much from the openers, but Maroon Descendants had just played the Hall that June opening up for Rahzel. 

GZA was accompanied by a trio of rappers, Allah Mathematics, Dreddy Kruger, and Prodigal Sunn. Mathematics had been one of the founding member of Wu Tang and had taken to producing by then, including the aforementioned “Beneath The Surface” album. Prodigal Sunn did a little acting on the side, even appearing in an episode of “Sex & The City”. Near the end of their set, they teased the audience, “If y’all want us to go home, be quiet!” Naturally, everybody made noise and they continued. At the end of the show, the soundman played “Steppin’ Out” by Steel Pulse over the speakers as the crowd dispersed. Earlier in the set between songs, GZA warned people not to trust record labels and as much as I feel a little burned by the bootleg album coming out, I’m just glad it came out at all, label or not. Seriously, when I found about it, I felt a great swell of pride, something I hadn’t felt since I discovered Public Enemy used one of my songs. I can go anywhere on this planet, hold my head up high, and boast about this album in a loud, steady voice. There isn’t a hip hop fan on Earth worth their salt that hasn’t heard of Wu Tang.

Testament, The Haunted, Fill., SF, Sat., August 28, 1999

SETLIST : D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate), Down For Life, Demonic Refusal, Low, Burnt Offerings, Into The Pit, 3 Days Of Darkness, Eyes Of Wrath, Legions Of The Dead, Riding The Snake, True Believer, Over The Wall, (encore), Dog Faced Gods, Disciples Of The Watch

It always feels good to hear some genuine bone fide bay area thrash metal music in its home, or at least home region since they were originally from Berkeley. Needless to say, there were plenty and familiar faces in the crowd for these guys. It had been a transitional period for Testament having just parted ways with both their bass and lead guitarists, Derrick Ramirez and Glen Alvelais, as well as Jon Dette on drums. Their old guitarist James Murphy rejoined the band, along with Death bassist Steve Di Giorgio and Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo for their new album, “The Gathering”, though the last two were switched out for the touring band by Steve Smyth and Steve Jacobs. Dave was on drums that night though, which was fortunate. Probably the only show they did with him back then here, at least the only San Francisco show anyway. I guess Jacobs joined the band later. Finally, Jon Allen would take over for Jacobs the following year. Suffice to say, they’ve had more ex-members than Menudo. This new album would be the only one Lombardo would do with Testament, though he just rejoined the band just last year since Slayer called it quits in 2019 (allegedly, I’ll believe that when they’re all in their cold, cold graves and even then maybe). Word is Testament’s working on a new one, so I might get another shot.

Singer Chuck Billy would be diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer shortly after this tour and would undergo chemo that thankfully cured him of it and I’m happy to say that he’s alive and well today. Nothing can take down that hairy hulk of a man, tougher than Chewbacca. On a much less perilous bit of bad news, the Maritime had put on the “Thrash Of The Titans” show to help pay for his medical bills in 2001, but I didn’t get to record that one since it was after Pete and I got the heave ho from there. Wade, the main recording guy clearly wanted that one and I can’t say I blame him. That was a who’s who of bay area metal that night. In another terrible turn of events, James Murphy was diagnosed with a brain tumor around then too, but likewise was able to get it treated early and made a full recovery. But I digress.

I had seen Testament at The Fillmore before back in 1995. That was a profound honor since I would discover that night because the show was being recorded for the “Live At The Fillmore” album. But this being just a normal gig for them this time, still to me, is always an honor to see them or any metal show at The Fillmore. The venue elevates the genre and its graceful ambience makes a curious juxtaposition to the bombastic music and crowd. Rough as they are, the fans don’t make a mess of the place, at least no worse than fans of any other genre of music. Incidentally, I’ve always admired Testament’s hair. There’s a forest of well kept locks up there with them and it being August must get pretty hot. Makes sense that most of them wear shorts on stage. Dave’s hair was short then, but then again he was only only in the band briefly. 

Pissing Razors was originally supposed to open for Testament that night, but they were replaced by The Haunted from Gothenburg, Sweden for some reason.  They were still pretty new back then, having just released their debut, self titled album the year before this. Like Testament, The Haunted were as loud as fuck, so the recording came out nice and clear. Damn, their singer, Peter Dolving, could yell. Makes my throat sore just listening to him. I was lucky to see him then though since he’d quit the band shortly after this gig along with their drummer Adrian Erlandsson. Though Peter would return back to the band in 2004, he’d leave again in 2012. The other band members had been in At The Gates and they played one of their songs that night.

All night, Chuck sang into his mic, still attached to the top half of his mic stand, like Freddie Mercury. He’d carry the thing about like a riding crop and frequently would pantomime guitar playing on it. After they finished “Into The Pit”, Chuck praised their new album saying it was some of the best stuff they’d ever done and then brought up a handful of heshers who had won some kind of contest. He let these young headbangers sing along to “3 Days Of Darkness” commanding them to sing louder than all us motherfuckers. Testament were tight that show, heavy as it gets. They gave Dave a drum solo near the end of their set and he was impressive, one of the best metal drummers ever in my opinion. 

The crowd repeatedly chanted “Testament!” during the encore break until they came out again and Chuck introduced the band. He praised northern California for the quality of our weed, lamenting how awful it was everywhere else, then  finished the night with “Dog Faced Gods” and “Disciples Of The Watch”. I’m sad to say that this was the last time I’d seen Testament, but like I said they’re still around and I hope I get another chance. Maybe if they do The Fillmore again, they’ll finally get a poster. Third time’s a charm I hope.

Steve Earle & The Bluegrass Dukes, Fill., SF, Wed., August 25, 1999

Steve was yet another one of those artists that I knew I should have known by then, but shamefully hadn’t seen, so I was eager to catch this show. He’d been making music since the 1970’s and I was impressed by “Copperhead Road” when I heard him play a live version of it on TV once, though the show it was on escapes me. We were still in the midst of the “Alt-Country” scene, where older veterans like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Merle Haggard were getting accolades from young fans and young musicians alike. It wasn’t the over-polished Nashville scene, though Steve had done plenty of work there. He and the other vets had gone on to influence guys like Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, and The Jayhawks. However, Steve hit a rough patch a few years before this show, falling into addiction to cocaine and heroin, leading to him getting busted and going to jail for a couple months. But he went into treatment and is thankfully clean to this day.

Steve had just released his 8th studio album that February, “The Mountain”, his first album entirely dedicated to bluegrass music. He had been backed by Del McCoury and his sons, Ronnie and Robbie, for that album, but I don’t think they were in his road band that night. Dedicated to mandolin virtuoso Bill Monroe, who had just passed away three years before this, the new album brought him critical success, garnering him a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass album. Tim O’Brien who had contributed backing vocals on that album was with Steve on stage that night. Tim had been in a band called Hot Rize for years before this and his fellow bandmate, Charles Sawtelle, just passed away that March. Tim had also just started his own record label that year called Howdy Skies Records. Venerable hippie legend Peter Rowan had also joined the band that night on stage.

He looked good that night, in shape. Steve was only 44 years old when I’d see him here. Though professionally things were looking up for him, it was a solemn time for Steve as well, since he had just witnessed the execution of Jonathan Nobles the year before, a death row inmate that he had befriended. He would go on to write “Over Yonder (Jonathan’s Song)” during this time, but it wouldn’t be released until the following year on the “Transcendental Blues” album. He remains a vocal opponent to the death penalty to this day as well as various other liberal causes. Steve would go on to play at Farm-Aid less than three weeks after this show.

Bluegrass music was a good fit for Steve clearly and his new interest in the genre would pay off in the long run. He would soon become chums with billionaire Warren Hellman who would be the founder of the annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park in 2001, though Steve wouldn’t begin playing at it until 2002. But rest assured, Steve would be there with bells on for every year afterwards, playing on the main Banjo stage at the end of one of the days all those weekends. God knows how many times I would see him there, though apart from an in-store performance he would do at Amoeba Records ten years later, this is the only time I’d see him indoors at one of his own shows. Still, it was a good one and I’m glad it was loud enough so the usual bluegrass fans’ jibber jabber didn’t distract me too much. Sadly, there was no poster that night.

Ministry, L7, War., SF, Sun., August 22, 1999

SETLIST : Reload, Crumbs, Psalm 69, Filth Pig, Eureka Pile, So What, Bad Blood, Just One Fix, N.W.O., Deity, Hero, Thieves, (encore), Supermatic Soul, Jesus Built My Hotrod, Lava, Supernaut

It’s no secret that I was into practically any of the bands that were on the Lollapalooza tours back in those days and this show had two of their hallowed alumni, Ministry who played on that bill in 1992 and L7 two years after them. I had heard a rumor that L7 was favored to be on the ’92 tour, but got sidelined for some reason. I remember distinctly hearing their album, “Bricks Are Heavy” being played during set changes that year at Shoreline. But like I said, they were finally brought in for the 1994 tour, which like the ’92 tour, had an excellent lineup, one of the best I’d ever witness. So, then five years after that, these two titan headbanging acts would team up making it a show I simply couldn’t allow myself to miss.

Little did I know that both bands would be hitting such a rough patch around this time. Al Jourgensen had grown depressed after the release of the “Filth Pig” album three years before and was helplessly sinking further into drug addiction. Their touring guitarist, William Tucker, just killed himself earlier that year, eating a bunch of pills before cutting his own throat and Ministry dedicated their latest album to him. Just released two months before this show, Al the and the band were touring in support of their hilariously named “Dark Side Of The Spoon” album, which despite getting a Grammy nomination for its single “Bad Blood” for Best Metal Performance which also made it on the soundtrack for the blockbuster film, “The Matrix”, that year, was given a less than enthusiastic review from the critics and fans. To make matters worse, Kmart pulled the album over its cover which was the back view of a naked fat lady sitting in front of a blackboard with “I will be god” written repeatedly on it. I’m not half as surprised that Kmart pulled it as much as the idea that one would find a Ministry album in that store in the first place. Ministry would be dropped from Warner the following year and poor Al even had to have a toe amputated when it got infected after he accidentally stepped on a discarded hypodermic needle. Then, they were dropped off the lineup for Ozzfest, being replaced by Soulfly. If that wasn’t bad enough, Al nearly lost his arm the year after that when he got bitten by a poisonous spider. Yeah, there are folks with problems, then there are folks with Al Jourgensen problems.

L7 was having a tough time as well then, though not nearly as life threatening. They had just replaced their bassist, Jennifer Finch, a couple years prior to this with Greta Brinkman very briefly, then to be quickly replaced by Gail Greenwood from Belly. Then they would replace Gail for this tour with Janice Tanaka from Stone Fox. Like Ministry, L7 also were dropped from their major label, Reprise, and their new album, “Slap-Happy” also wasn’t fairing well critically or commercially. In a miracle of coincidence, rapper KRS-One, who had just become the vice president of A & R at Reprise that year, I had just help record at the Maritime the night before this show. Good thing I didn’t know about L7 getting dropped then. I might have had mentioned it to KRS-One and caused some friction, well, more friction than there was already between him and the Hall.

One fun fact though, the photography for their new album was done by none other than actor Viggo Mortensen, yes Aragorn himself. I swear, that guy always keeps you guessing. The month before this show, the band played a prank at the Lilith Fair in Pasadena, which they shamefully weren’t invited to, and flew a plane over the show sporting a banner that read, “Bored? Tired? Try L7” and the following day they flew another plane over the Warped Tour in Asbury Park, New Jersey, with a banner saying, “Warped needs more beaver… love, L7”. One could call those cries for help, but I would argue that the band wasn’t getting the recognition they deserved. Seriously, both festivals would have been lucky to have them.

All this ultimately would lead to L7 to go on hiatus in 2001 and wouldn’t reunite for another fourteen long years. In fact, this show would be the last time I’d see them until they played at the Folsom Street Fair a full twenty years after I saw them at this one. It actually shocked me to learn it had been that long since I’d seen them play when I looked them up again in my archive list. However, I did catch Jennifer Finch with her band Otherstarpeople open for Echo & The Bunnymen at the Maritime that October and saw Donita Sparks with her solo band, The Stellar Moments, open for The Donnas at the Great American Music Hall in 2007. L7 drummer, Demetra Plakas was touring with Donita in that band as well. Another fun fact, the year after this show, guitarist Suzi Gardner would become the first woman to have her breasts plaster-casted by none other than Cynthia Plaster-Caster, the artist renown for casting plaster impressions of rock’s most famous… shall we say… members.

And I’m glad to say Al pulled himself out of his rut eventually and by the inexplicable grace of Cthulhu is somehow still with us to this very day. I think he was partially motivated, like so many of us then, to come back to life in order to help resist against George W. Bush and his regime. God, Al hated that man. Thankfully, I would go on to see Ministry several times since, including just before the pandemic when they were on the bill for Slayer’s final tour. But despite all the problems both bands were enduring then, it was still a fun filled show. It’s a foregone conclusion that it was loud as hell and it was equally a safe bet that the mosh pit up front was nuts. Pity there was no poster that night to commemorate this momentous pairing of bands. 

KRS-One, Various Artists (Truck Turner, I-Born, Thor-El), Frisco Crew & B.A.A.C., Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., August 21, 1999

There had been enough water under the bridge for KRS-One to return to the Hall after the legal stuff was settled over his, (e-hem), unauthorized usage of our recordings in his previous album, “I Got Next”. Seeing that he liked our recordings enough to steal them, Pete stuck around to record this one, perhaps hoping Mr. Lawrence “Kris” Parker would use our stuff again. But it didn’t happen. At least it was nice to have Pete around to take the helm at the end of the night after letting me record the openers. Like I said from the show the night before, this would be the last weekend Pete would come in to record anything at the Hall apart from the Pavement shows the following October. And as leery as we were to have the offending Mr. Parker back at the Maritime, it was at least a welcome antidote to all the hippie music we heard the night before with the David Nelson Band. But the one thing KRS-One had in common with Mr. Nelson was that this show was also announced late and wasn’t listed on the Hall’s monthly poster.

It was just two days after KRS-One’s 33rd birthday. I learned researching this show that his stage name isn’t just a play on his nickname, Kris, but also an acronym for “Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone”, a fun fact I didn’t catch before. The acronym does beg the question on who are the ones that knowledge’s reign misses. Maybe I’ll ask him that if I ever get another chance to meet him in the future. It was kind of a weird time for KRS-One. On top of his extensive performing and recording, he took it upon himself to also pick up the moniker of vice president of A & R at Reprise Records. He’d end his relationship with Jive Records the following year, shelving the release of his “Maximum Strength” album for nearly a decade, and ultimately also leaving his position at Reprise the year after that. He did manage to get one song, “5 Boroughs”, on the soundtrack for the film, “The Corruptor”, an action flick starring Chow Yun-Fat and Mark Wahlberg.

Speaking of movies, one of the openers, Truck Turner, took his name from a movie, a 1974 blaxploitation film starring Isaac Hayes and Yaphet Kotto. I’ll have to check that one out someday, the poster from it looked pretty bad ass. Though I have seen “The Corruptor”, I thought it was disappointing. Chow Yun-Fat was trying to break through to American audiences after “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and never quite pulled it off. Anyway, I don’t remember much from the other openers. I’d see KRS-One one more time live three years later playing with Michael Franti at his “9/11 Power To The Peaceful” gig in Golden Gate Park, but this would be the last time he’d be recorded at the Hall. The following night, I would once again be making a musically stylistic drastic left turn and catch Ministry with L7 at The Warfield. Coincidentally, L7 had just been dropped that year from Reprise which makes me can’t help but wonder if KRS-One had anything to do with it. 

The David Nelson Band, Legion Of Mary, Maritime Hall, Fri., August 20, 1999

This hippie bill got my partner Pete out of the woodwork to record once again. As I had written many times before, he’d grown disillusioned with the Hall and the shenanigans of its cruel owner, Boots, but he reluctantly showed up for this show and KRS-One the following night. I remember he wanted to at least attempt that he was making a bit of an effort and still cared. Third Eye Blind played the night before at the Hall with the Afghan Whigs opening, but we didn’t record that, though I can’t rightly recall why. Either I was working elsewhere or the band simply didn’t want the show taped. Whatever the case was, I’m eternally grateful I didn’t have to endure that awful band led by that insufferable, pompous dickweed Stephen Jenkins, but I did like the Whigs though. This hippie show was announced late, so it didn’t appear on the monthly poster. 

A very different scene at the Hall from that show though from the night before. These were old school hippies, starting with the Legion Of Mary, the former side band of Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders which played originally between the years of 1971 and 1975. Though neither of them were in that band anymore, they had the ever-present Martin Fiero from Zero on saxophone. Seriously, there was no escaping that guy back in those days. I’d rather not try to count how many times I’d seen Zero up till then. The Legion Of Mary had already played the Hall only two months before at the Hall opening for Buddy Guy and also for Little Feat there the previous October. Coincidentally, I had also seen David Nelson open for Little Feat at the Fillmore back in 1995 as well as had once previously help record him with Pete opening for Merl Saunders & His Rainforest Band back in 1997. 

So, yes, the music was familiar that night. David had been a founding member of the hippie band, The New Riders Of The Purple Sage, who would pen one of the most renowned hippie anthems, “Panama Red”, and naturally they dusted that one off for that show, near the end I think. This would be the last time I’d see David play a whole set, though I think I caught him once or twice at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass after I stopped bootlegging. David often showed up to those. He is as of today alive and well at the age of 79, though Martin and Pete have since passed. After that weekend, Pete would only come in to run the recording room for the Pavement shows the following October and that was only because he had to since I had work with the union later those nights. I still regret to this day not getting to record that band, though I was able to stick around long enough those gigs to record their opener, Calexico, who I really admire. Still, it was good for Pete to hear some newer music, even if it was to be the last ones for him and Pavement won him over in the end, but I’ll get to those shows later when I get to October.

The Brian Setzer Orchestra, BR5-49, War., SF, Wed., August 18, 1999

SETLIST : Hawaii Five-O, Hoodoo Voodoo Doll, This Cat’s On A Hot Tin Roof, Let The Good Times Roll, Guitar Rag, Let’s Live It Up, Gloria, The Dirty Boogie, Drive Like Lightning (Crash Like Thunder), Sleep Walk, Stray Cat Strut, Jump Jive & Wail, ’49 Mercury Blues, (Every Time I Hear) That Mellow Saxophone, Rumble In Brighton, (encore), Rock This Town, (encore), Die Moritat Von Mackie Messer (Mack The Knife), Jumpin’ East Of Java, Malaguena, Brand New Cadillac

This show was a long time coming for me. As little as I knew growing up about music, I at least recognized the contribution of one Mr. Brian Robert Setzer and his old band, The Stray Cats. With their smash hit, “Rock This Town”, that song would haunt me for years and still does. I’m ashamed to say it always would pop into my head every single time I’d see war footage on TV of America blowing up stuff. I know I’ll have to answer for that in the afterlife and who knows, maybe Setzer will too. For some reason, perhaps it was his signature Teddy Boy look, but I always thought he was English. He was actually a New Yorker from Long Island and would often perform at the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center.

Brian was back on top with his latest hit, “Jump, Jive, & Wail” from the third album, “The Dirty Boogie”, which had come out the year before this. I know I’d said before that the whole swing music fad was in its decline around this time, but upon re-examining this show, I will recant and proclaim that Brian was the an astronomically huge exception. In fact, that hit remains the biggest song to ever come out of that brief movement, so ubiquitous that I’d be subjected to it constantly during the corporate events I’d work for years. Santana’s “Smooth” would dethrone it as the mainstay company anthem eventually and the Black Eyed Peas’ “Let’s Get It Started” would take that mantle shortly afterwards. Little did I, nor I think most people would know that Brian’s big hit was actually a cover from Louis Prima, one of swing’s most talented founders. That cover of his would earn Brian a Grammy for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals and another song on that album, “Sleep Walk” would win the Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.

It was Brian’s time to shine and he was at the height of his game. This show was the first of two days he had at The Warfield and the house was filled with all sorts of folks in vintage clothing doing their fancy swinging dance moves, the women all dolled up in liberty curls. It was a nostalgia crowd to be sure and though this would be the only time I’d see Brian perform, I’d never forget around that time seeing him on some thing on MTV and being taunted by Johnny Lydon from the Sex Pistols. Johnny gave him a calendar for a present to “remind him what year it was”. Typical Johnny, that smart ass. One should at least give Brian credit for cashing in big time on songs in public domain. But like many notable acts I’d see that year, Brian made the unfortunate decision to play at Woodstock ’99 only a little more than three weeks before this gig and like everyone else involved in that catastrophe, I’m sure he was eager to put that memory behind him.

Opening that night was BR5-49, a genuine, old timey, honkytonk band from Nashville. They would return to town the following year, being one of the only acts I’d record at the Maritime after my partner Pete’s unceremonious sacking in November. There, I’d learn that their name was derived from the phone number used by a used car dealer in a recurring sketch on “Hee Haw”. Founding member, Chris Scruggs, is actually the grandson of Earl Scruggs, the banjo virtuoso who did the legendary theme song for “The Beverly Hillbillies”. Though I’d record them the following year at the Hall, they didn’t use any of my stuff since they’d release a live album called “Coast To Coast” that year from a variety of dates from touring. These guys had talent, not just with their instruments, but with their three part harmonies. That’s not easy to do and I remember they were nice gents as well.

Regardless of what people think about swing music, Mr. Setzer’s operation is an impressive one. I mean, that’s a 15 piece band he wrangles up there, 5 of which are saxophone players. I don’t think people give Brian enough credit for his well honed chops on guitar too. He strolled out in his suede creepers with 2 inch soles to begin the show, wearing a dark purple suit adorned with silver dollar sized 5 point stars, though he’d eventually strip down to his wife beater shirt by the end of the main set, exposing his tattoo laden arms. Brian was packing a shiny, matching, dark purple Gretsch guitar and his horn players donned pink dinner jackets, black pants, and black bowling shirts with Brian’s logo stitched on them. Their music stands had little lamps hidden and shining inside little plastic skulls. Before they began, they played a recording of the old 1950’s TV jingle for Chevrolet, “See The USA In Your Chevrolet” sung by Dinah Shore, then he orchestra opened with the classic TV instrumental theme song to “Hawaii 5-0”. As luck would have it, I’d just help record The Ventures, the original authors of that theme, at the Maritime only five months before this night. 

We were actually lucky the Warfield shows happened at all since Brian had been suffering vocal cord problems then, causing him to cancel a few shows earlier on the tour. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case that night and he sounded fine, allowing him to play a satisfying set, naturally revisiting a couple of The Stray Cats big hits like “Stray Cat Strut” and the aforementioned “Rock This Town” which they played for their first encore. They also did a cover of Henry Mancini’s seminal instrumental theme to “The Pink Panther”, followed by the inevitable “Jump, Jive, & Wail”. Brian did give a nod to the locals during “Rumble In Brighton”, replacing the lyric with “Rumble in San Francisco” and “Rumble on the bay tonight”. For his second encore, Setzer came out wearing a glittery pink shirt and regaled the crowd with lively paced rendition of the Kurt Weill tune, “Mack The Knife”, from his “Three Penny Opera”.  Sadly, most folks were familiar with that song around that time from the haunting 1988 McDonald’s commercial with that piano player with the giant moon head. I still shutter when I think about it. That commercial is infinitely more disturbing than that song’s macabre lyrics. Anyway, he finished the night with a rousing swing cover of The Clash’s “Brand New Cadillac”, but sadly there was no poster at the end of the gig.

Luciano, Ivory Coast Stars, Mishka, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., August 14, 1999

It had been only five months since Mr. Jepther Washington McClymont, AKA Luciano, graced the Hall with his melodious voice and Pete decided to let me have the reins of the recording room this time around. I guess the show was just added at the last minute since it wasn’t listed on the monthly poster. Luciano was bringing once again his brand of pious rastafarianism to the pot filled, smoky cavern of the Maritime. I had written about him before, but I learned this time around that he got his stage name from his friends comparing him to Luciano Pavarotti, the world famous Italian opera singer. He was a little pudgy too, but nowhere near Pavarotti’s well known rotundness. I also learned that before he became a professional singer, he worked for a time as an upholsterer.

Luciano had just parted ways with his longtime producer, Philip “Fatis” Burrell that year. In a completely unrelated and frankly bit out of left field thing, Luciano also received the “Key To Kansas City” that year as well. Seriously, one doesn’t particularly associate reggae with that town, especially serious roots reggae like his, but hey, whatever. It’s encouraging nonetheless. I remember the opening act, Mishka, was pretty good. He was from Bermuda by way of Nova Scotia where he was born and where is mom was from. Interesting guy. His uncle was actually the puppeteer who created Miss Piggy from “The Muppets” and Mishka was also an accomplished champion windsurfer. Though this would be the last time I’d see him or the Ivory Coast Stars, I’d get to see Luciano again three years later playing at the Warfield for the Bob Marley Day show with Mikey General who he had played with at the Hall the aforementioned show at the Maritime the previous March. He’d return to play the Warfield again only three months later in 2002 for the One Love Festival with Dean Fraser who had also been at that show in March. 

Hothouse Flowers, Donal Lunny’s Coolfin, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., August 12, 1999

I had been mostly unaware of San Francisco’s extensive Irish community by then, but had since grown familiar with some of them when I relocated to the Outer Sunset. Suffice to say, there’s a lot of them out there and many of those from the Emerald Isle and their kin found their way to the Maritime that night to catch a couple of venerable acts. Kool Keith was supposed to play the night before this with DJ Spooky at the Hall, but that show got postponed until the following September. Anyway, I had heard the name of the Hothouse Flowers before, mostly because I’d seen their name on a rather striking, bright red, cartoonish poster at the Fillmore from a show they headlined back in 1989 before the big quake shut it down. The Indigo Girls opened for them on that one, those women being fairly new back then.

The Flowers were new back then as well, but got big fast. Bono from U2 discovered the two leads in that band busking on the streets in Dublin back in ’88 and quickly signed them to his label, Mother Records, which led to a deal with London Records. From there, their first album, “People”, would become the most successful debut album in Irish history. Their newfound stardom would ultimately burn them out, causing them to disband in 1994, but they reformed the year before this show and left London Records when their contract expired the following year. Not that I would have known it, but these guys were huge in Ireland, stadium big. In fact, they had just released a live album recorded at their National Stadium in Dublin, so the chances they would use anything I recorded that night were hopelessly slim. Still, they had a pretty full house at the Hall that evening. 

Though the show had been originally billed on the monthly poster as “An Evening With” the Hothouse Flowers, there was in fact an opening band that night, Donal Lunny’s Coolfin. Mr. Lunny was a veteran musician, having been  performing since the late 60’s. He was 52 years old when he played the Hall that night. Mainly playing traditional Irish instrumental music, Donal would strum left handed on a Irish bouzouki, similar to the original ones from Greece. Coolfin was one of many musical collaborations he had assembled in his long career and the musicians he brought along with him were excellent. He had a drummer, keyboardist, fiddle player, and fellow named John McSherry playing the Uilleann Pipes, a sort of Irish bagpipe contraption he’d monkey with while sitting. 

John would also play a whistle for a couple songs as well and he would lend his talents to the album Donal put together under the Coolfin banner. Also playing on that album and joining them on stage that night would be Sharon Shannon, though she had left the tour briefly to do some shows in London before this. Sharon would also sit on stage that night, she playing fiddle and also accordion and a whistle occasionally. I thought Sharon was pretty cute actually and I caught her grinning when she caught sight of her image on the giant screens. I didn’t catch all the song titles they played, but I do know that did “The Green Fields Of Glentown”, “The Swedish Jig”, “Spanish Point”, “Blackbird”, “Kickdancer”, and “Costa De Glacia”. As a couple of those names imply, Donal and the gang would tinge their Irish style with accents of other lands, like Spain, Sweden, but also Moldavia, “Moldavian Tripych”, on one of the songs he did on the album, though he didn’t play it that night. He needed Marta Sebestyen to be there to sing it and she wasn’t on the tour with them.

What made this show particularly memorable, at least for me, was that Donal and his people would join the Flowers on stage at the end of the night to play alongside them. I mean all of them were up there, both band’s instruments at once, making it the largest band I even had to mix together, save perhaps for James Brown and his vast army of musicians. There had to be at least 45 inputs to wrangle leaving me scrambling to put figure out how to cram them all into 24 tracks, 16 being dedicated to single instruments and two of those were for audience mics. Somehow I pulled it off and my mix wasn’t a complete disaster. 

This would be the only time I’d see either bands, but I’m sad to say that Donal was in the news this year for something unthinkably tragic. He had been romantically involved with Sinead O’Connor a few years after this show and they sired a son together, who they named Shane. The relationship between Donal and Sinead however soured causing them not only to break up, but for Sinead to lose custody of Shane in 2013. The poor kid would go on to suffer from depression and ultimately take his own life last January at the young age of 17. The blow hurt Sinead so badly, that she would be hospitalized when she too would threaten to take her own life. Thankfully, she didn’t do it, but it goes without saying that she hasn’t been the same since and surely Donal hasn’t been either.

Moby, Boom Boom Satellites, Maritime Hall, SF, Tues., August 10, 1999

Every once and I while, I get to see a show of great importance, and my appreciation of these shows doesn’t always emerge right away. Moby had been around for years and was a regular in the electronic dance music scene. I would go so far to proclaim him one of its pioneering founders, but I never really swung with that crowd. Moby also was no stranger to SF, having lived there briefly when he was a boy, as well as being part of the aforementioned rave scene which would clandestinely invade warehouses all over the bay area late at night to do their thing. I was never in the know about these things back then and frankly was too preoccupied with other shows that didn’t go on so late into the wee hours. I may have been young back then, but I still had to work in the morning.

The worm was finally turning for Mr. Richard Melville Hall. Though prolific and hard working, at 33 years of age, he was growing weary of not breaking through with his music but that would all change upon the release of his fifth album, “Play”. He had even considered giving up music entirely if it wasn’t a hit and would go back to school to study architecture. To make matters worse, his mother died of lung cancer just before he started recording it. Not to say that “Play” took off right away, it didn’t. Sales were sluggish in the beginning and it didn’t help that the first gig he would do promoting it would be to a mere 40 people in the basement of Virgin Megastore in New York. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the first official show of the tour would be at the catastrophic Woodstock 99’ Festival. That disaster had only taken place three weeks before this night. 

The good news was as the tour went on and more and more people were exposed to his new material, word caught on. Before everyone knew it, practically every song on that album started turning up in all manner of mainstream film soundtracks, TV shows, and commercials. When the smoke cleared, Moby had sold over 12 million copies of that album and garnered himself a Grammy nomination. Of coarse, there were no shortage of detractors from his rave community that accused him of selling out and I’m sure there are still plenty of those folks still harboring that grudge to this day. But “Play” was in a category unto itself. Moby had plenty of diverse musical influences from punk to country to soul, you name it. He even once sang vocals for Flipper for a couple gigs. Perhaps he took a page from Beck, mixing up hip hop with these various styles, but what the hell, it worked. Seriously, listening through it now, it’s hard to deny its genius.

Part of his success with this new album came with the new stage show that he assembled. Such music desperately needed live musicians and real instruments and he knew it, so it was good that he at the very least had a real drummer backing him up as well as a back up singer, a bassist, a turntablist, and percussionist. Moby kept the crowd engaged, orbiting from one instrument to another between songs, from electric to acoustic guitars, hitting the congas and keyboards too. In addition, there we a few extra pairs of intelligent strobe lights spaced out around his set. 

Moby had brought along the Japanese electronic music duo, Boom Boom Satellites, with him for this tour. They were brand new, having just put out their first album, “Out Loud” the year before, but I thought they were pretty cool. Like Moby, they too had brought along a live drummer to back them up on tour. Sadly, this would be the only time I’d see them perform as their guitarist and vocalist, Michiyuki Kawashima, would succumb to complications from a brain tumor in 2016. Poor guy was only 47 years old. I’m glad their talent was rewarded nine years later when their songs “Scatterin’ Monkey” and “4 A Moment Of Silence” would be in the soundtrack for the blockbuster superhero epic “The Dark Knight”.

Though I didn’t get the setlist from that night, I was able to get a pretty comprehensive account of the songs that were played from a review in SF Gate. He opened with the meditative intro “My Weakness”, then went into “Find My Baby”, “If Things Were Perfect”, “Porcelain”, and “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?”. He busted out some percussion for “Machete”, then switched to acoustic guitar for “Everloving”. Moby took a rather radical stylistic turn picking up an electric guitar to play a few bars of “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath. He would do this at most of his shows playing covers that ranged from “Ring Of Fire” by Johnny Cash to “Stairway To Heaven” by Led Zeppelin. One would think he was making an all too unsubtle point of his eclectic tastes and musical talent, even showing off a little, but what the hell, it was his stage and he used every second he could to impress. Moby stepped up to a keyboard then for “Honey”, but when I soloed him down in the recording room, he basically was just playing one note, though his frantic thrashing about on stage suggested that he was doing a little more, but that again was all part of the show. His breakneck pace commanded attention.

Similarly, he was only playing one chord on his acoustic guitar when he did the “James Bond Theme” that he had composed for the movie “Tomorrow Never Dies”. I was mortified to discover too late that I had it turned all the way down accidentally in my monitor mix, but was at least relieved that it made it loud and clear to the multi-track recording. Seriously, he was hitting that chord with all his might and I was baffled why I couldn’t hear it all until it was almost over. I thought he was going to break a string or two. From there, they played “Natural Blues”, “Bodyrock” claiming before that song that “if it was humanly possible, I’d like to have sex with each and every one of you… But I’m old and invalid, so I’ll sing you a sexy song instead.” Moby made another little joke before playing “Feeling So Real” saying “in all modesty” that it was “the greatest disco song ever written”. I noticed between songs, he often mutters, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you”.

For the last song of the night he did “Thousand” which I believe still holds the Guinness Book Of World’s Record for being the fastest song ever written. It is in fact played at 1,015 beats per minute and is understandably a big finish for his musical marathon. Like I said before, I had no idea the importance of this show, especially as a BIG feather in my recording career list of artists, but the rest for Moby as they say, is history. He just got bigger and bigger after that and the venues I’d see him in the future would reflect that. Next stop for him performing in the bay area would be playing the main stage at B.F.D. the following year, then back to back sold out shows at The Warfield, followed by headlining his own Area One and Area Two Festivals at Shoreline. 

When I gave him the tapes at the end of his set that night, he was drenched with sweat, but all smiles and very polite. I joked with him that I loved him on “Space Ghost : Coast To Coast” and he giggled a little about it. The year before when he had been a guest on that cartoon interview show, Space Ghost had been sprayed with a gas that made him crave human flesh and he ate Moby’s brain before he could finish the interview. The irony that such a publicly vocal vegetarian would die in that manner surely wasn’t lost on him.

King’s X, Protein, Swarm, Ultraglide, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., August 1, 1999

King’s X was one of those bands that I knew that I should know more about, but didn’t. Despite not knowing song one from them, I knew they were respected amongst the peers and though were lumped into the prog-metal scene, that their eclectic tastes ran through a spectrum of styles. Jeff Ament, the bassist of Pearl Jam, even proclaimed that “King’s X invented grunge”. Yes, they’d already been around for twenty years by the time they came to play the Hall. It can be said that only a place as square as Springfield, Missouri could spawn such a unique band. Hard rock bands with black singers like Doug Pinnick aren’t particularly unique, but they’re aren’t many that break through into the mainstream, especially ones from Missouri. But they and others such as Love, Bad Brains, and Living Colour just to name a few are spectacular. I still think the Bad Brains album I recorded at the Maritime is the one I’m most proud of to this day. 

But another distinction that set this band apart was their relationship with the big guy upstairs, their name, a not too subtle reference to the crucifix. Obviously, they were Christians and their lyrics often reflected that. King’s X made little effort to cater to the so-called Christian rock scene, but the followers of Jesus bought their albums anyway, which I’m sure they didn’t discourage either. But as luck would have it, I’d be recording them just as their relationship with the bible thumpers was going sour. Pinnick had the courage to finally come out as a gay man publicly just shy of his 49th birthday and to turn a biblical phrase, those thumpers weren’t going to turn the other cheek and subsequently washed their hands of him and his band. It’s a pity. Doug had sung gospel in his church growing up. But Christian book stores that used to carry their music cut them off as well as the Diamante Music Group who used to distribute their albums. 

My father went though a similar divorce from his faith when he finally came out, more or less around the same age as Doug actually, though he had been Russian Orthodox. Doug has since turned agnostic and the other members of the band have politely disassociated themselves from the church and especially from the Christian rock business entirely. I suppose King’s X would get the last laugh when I saw them open for Dio at The Fillmore three years later. Holy Diver indeed. The band also had a change in record labels the year before, leaving Atlantic for Metal Blade and were then touring with their most recent and seventh studio album, “Tape Head”. 

I was glad to see Protein was on the bill, having seen them also at The Fillmore, but back in ’97. They were an impressive band, but short lived, having just put out their second and final album, “Songs About Cowgirls” that year, so I was fortunate to not only see them twice, but get to record them as well. Members from that band went on to form The Mother Truckers whose vulgarity is only matched by their sheer brilliance. Likewise, King’s X are still touring to this day and each member has an impressive resume of other solo work and collaborations to boot. These guys are always working it seems. Hard to believe that Doug’s 72 years old now. I just wish that the show had been more well sold, probably just a couple hundred people made it that night. I was happy that the monthly poster for August was a good one though, one of my favorites the Maritime put out, a collage of swinging 60’s stuff. The sight of James Colburn in a tuxedo from “Our Man Flynt” sitting in a backwards chair, holding a martini, with his big toothy grin always puts a smile on my face.

Toots & The Maytals, Wailing Souls, B-Side Players, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., July 30, 1999

It had been a fairly busy month, ending on this gem to make a Baker’s dozen. The one and only Toots Hibbert had brought the house down at the Maritime on three separate occasions by then, including the previous two New Year’s Eve’s. But this would be the first and only time yours truly would get to record him all by my lonesome. It was quite an honor and an unexpected one at that, but as I had written umpteen times before, Pete was slowly growing alienated from the Hall and was leaving more and more shows to do, including reggae stars like Toots who had been firmly in his wheelhouse. That, coupled with getting to record the Wailing Souls on my own for the first time, would quite firmly plant a mighty feather in my career cap. When it comes to reggae, those names cut glass.

But I was very familiar with the first act, the B-Side Players, who I had recorded twice that year, first opening for Indigo Swing on Valentine’s Day, then at the 420 Hemp Festival, being the second to last act just behind Vince Welnick & The Missing Man Formation. Indigo Swing incidentally had just played the Hall again only three weeks to the day before this show. Once again, the B-Side Players brought their unique blend of funky, latino tinged rock music to warm up the crowd, an ideal opener for practically any act seeing that their eclectic tastes pleased so many. I had always hoped they’d use some of our stuff for an album, but alas they never did. Like the Mystik Journeymen who played the Hall the night before, the Wailing Souls would go out to release a live album from a show they did a year later. I mean, it’s deflating enough having them not use my stuff, but Pete’s mixes of their sets in ’96 and ’98 were stellar as all his mixes were. But having used stuff recorded after our unceremonious sacking allowed Boots to not pay anybody royalties. Go figure, but enough sour grapes.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating that Toots is one of those rare performers that one can ALWAYS rely upon to do an excellent show and I mean each and every time. Few acts such as Tool, Los Lobos, and Stereolab, in my humble opinion, can share this distinction and this show was no exception. It was pure joy from start to finish, leaving everyone within earshot with a big grin on their face that would last for days. He was 57 years old when I taped him that night, but I assure you, if I had attempted to give the performance he gave, even at my then young age, I’d would have been taken away in an ambulance gasping for air probably before I even made the halfway point. The man had stamina, that’s for sure.

But I dare say, there was one particular moment from that evening that would be seared into my memory for all time and it happened long after Toots had left the stage. As always, I had gathered up the VHS and DAT tape to hand off to the artist and made my way to his dressing room upstairs. Pete had given the tapes on the other occasions, but I had naturally assumed to hand them off to Toots himself. When in doubt with any act at the Hall, I always went for the lead singer, partially because they were the one I would be most likely to recognize. But this was my first and would be the only time I’d get to come face to face with the one and only Sweet & Dandy man himself and I was looking forward to it as you might imagine.

So, I made it to the dressing room door with the tapes, but Toots was still inside and one of his people told me to wait a bit as he was cooling off, making himself presentable, and so forth. There I waited… and waited. It seemed to go on forever and it being a reggae show, had predictably gone on until the wee hours of the morn, especially since it was the weekend. Well, my patience finally wore out and I decided it had been long enough and I sheepishly made my way into the dressing room. And lo & behold, there was the man standing up tall in all his glory… dressed only in his tidy whiteys. Needless to say, I was stunned and wasn’t at first sure what to do. I found myself jabbering a bit trying to explain who I was and why I was there. 

Still, I’m happy to report that Mr. Hibbert wasn’t upset in the slightest by my intrusion, giving me a rather puzzled look instead. I averted my eyes and quickly backed away, leaving him to finish getting dressed. A short while later, he did emerge at last and greeted me. The thing was, he had no idea about the recordings not only from that night, but from the three other times he played the Hall. Apparently, the tapes had been handed off to his manager instead and for some inexplicable reason, Toots never knew about them. I could tell this irked him a little and after I finally left the tapes with Toots, I noticed he was already having words with his manager about just that. 

This would be the final time I’d see the reggae legend at the Hall, though I would be blessed to see him four times more, twice at The Warfield in 2002 and 2007, once at The Fillmore in 2009, and at his final bay area appearance at Stern Grove in 2019. Yes, Toots has passed on, succumbing to COVID at the age of 77, but I will always have those many joyous moments to sustain me in dark times… as well as the visage of him in his Y-Fronts.

Mystik Journeymen, Living Legends, Aceyalone, Planet Asia, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., July 29, 1999

Forgive me, gentle readers, for I have sinned. It has been (gulp) nearly six months since my last entry and I feel I owe y’all an explanation before I continue. My wife and I had back all those months ago received the jarring news that our building was being bought by new owners and they were intent on moving in and giving us the heave ho. The details of the move out are of little consequence, so I’ll just skip ahead to the happy news that we’ve found a new home across the bay in Alameda and are gradually setting up shop. Having been about ten days in, the computer desk, the internet, and more importantly my mojo to write again is up and running.

Few people I imagine enjoy moving, but I’m certainly not one of them. My wife and I had been at Ocean Beach in SF just a few weeks shy of ten years. I’m a guy who likes to stay put. So, this move dislodged me from my usual mindset which allowed me to do this little musical history project, but I am now ready to wade my way into the shallow end of this pool at least. I’m flexing old muscles here, so I appreciate your patience and understanding that I may not be entirely on my A game for a while, but I’ll do the best I can. Jolly good. OK, now that this nervous disclaimer has been established, I will return to the task at hand.

I suppose starting once again with the Mystik Journeymen is strangely appropriate, being a hip hop act by the summer of 99’ I’d be familiar with. I am now on the east side of the bay where they hail from as well, they just being just next door to me in Oakland. The Journeymen had already regaled the Hall with their skilled brand of DYI rap three times, once opening for Busta Rhymes and again for Ol’ Dirty Bastard the year before and headlining the Hall for the first time merely four months prior to this one. They were there headlining again, ably backed up by the Living Legends crew which they shared members with, as well as with Aceyalone and Planet Asia. And as before, they all were at home in the bay area and surrounded by familiar faces, everyone enthusiastic, hands in the air, immersed in thick clouds of herb smoke.

What is mysterious about this show was the fact that the Journeymen, despite having played the Maritime all those occasions chose not to have us multi-track record them that night, yet they still allowed us to record their video. I certainly hope it wasn’t because the poor quality of my mixes, though I hadn’t heard a peep about it before then or since. It was probably more likely that they were suspicious of Boots and his shenanigans or something, but they would eventually overcome their trepidation a year later when they would use the following recording for a live album. Though I naturally was happy for my future replacement, Wade, to have that album credit under his belt, you can imagine my disappointment that they didn’t use any of the four shows I had taped for them up until then for anything. Yes, I’m afraid this would be the final time I’d get to tape the Journeymen at the Hall, but I would at least get to see both them and the Living Legends crew perform four years later at The Fillmore.

M.A.B.D.: The Flaming Lips, Robyn Hitchcock, Sebadoh, Sonic Boom E.A.R., IQU, Fill., SF, Wed., July 28, 1999

SETLISTS :

(ROBYN HITCHCOCK) : (unknown), My Wife & My Dead Wife, Kirago Street, Beautiful Queen, Insanely Jealous

(THE FLAMING LIPS) : The Spiderbite Song, Race For The Prize, Feeling Yourself Disintegrate, She Don’t Use Jelly, Slow Nerve Action, Waiting For A Superman, What Is The Light?, The Observer, When You Smile, Suddenly Everything Has Changed, The Gash, The Spark That Bled

This was a real unique show for several reasons, but first and foremost it was due to a prolonged blackout that happened at the beginning of it and the unusual steps that were taken dealing with it, but I will get into that later. This was the second of a two night stint called the “The First International M.A.B.D. Tour”, short for Music Against Brain Degeneration. It had been four long years since I had seen its headliner, The Flaming Lips. I was a big fan and was looking forward to hearing their new material from “The Soft Bulletin” which had only just been released the month before this show. By this time, the band had parted ways with their guitarist Ronald Jones, who some claimed was suffering from acute agoraphobia and/or paranoia, though he was also fed up with the heroin and alcohol habits of their drummer, Steven Drozd. Steven’s habit had gotten so bad that he almost had to have his arm amputated from an abscess that had festered dangerously from his injections, just like Jared Leto in “Requiem For A Dream”. Thankfully, Steven recovered and took up the guitar as well as backing vocals. Their first song of the evening was called “The Spiderbite Song”, written about his ordeal, parodying the fact that they initially told the public that his abscess was due to such a wound.

The Lips’ line up in part was the second thing that was weird about this gig. They were just a three piece here, being Steven, singer Wayne Coyne, and bassist Michael Ivins. They had pre-recorded Steven doing the drum parts on video and were playing them while projecting the video of it behind the band on a large screen, along with random footage such as atomic bomb blasts, aerobic videos, and Leonard Bernstein directing his orchestra. The next weird thing was that they had set up a transmitter that would pipe the stereo mix from the show into headphones that people could check out at the back of the venue. Wayne instructed the crowd to tune their receivers to 96.9. They were trying to promote brain health and awareness of hearing loss and thought that somehow this headphone thing would help, but to be honest, very few people wore them that night, which would explain why nobody has done this since. You can get hearing assist headphones at stage theater shows, but I’ve yet to see one again at any music venue. Seriously, The Lips are such a notoriously loud band that for the headphones to be effective at all, one would have to be listening to them outside on the street or at least in the poster room. 

Anyway, let’s go back to the top. The show had just kicked off when lo and behold, the place went dark. The Fillmore’s emergency lights kicked in and all the security folks busted out their flashlights. We’d assumed that this was just another one of PG & E’s fuck ups and the power would go back on shortly. This was the time when Enron was screwing with California and there were frequent “brown outs”. But the juice had been knocked out of the whole block and everybody was soon accepting that it wasn’t coming back right away. Then something magical happened. They were able to scare up a bullhorn with a CB on curly wire attached to it and Wayne from The Lips took the stage and addressed the crowd. Every flashlight in the house was used to light him up and he and Lou Barlow from Sebadoh proceeded to take turns serenading the crowd in the meantime. One of the security guy held up the bullhorn for the acoustic guitar and the CB was used for the vocals. 

It was hilarious, frankly. We all knew we were experiencing something special and just went with it. Even Lou, being the sour puss that he is, did a funny, overly sensitive acoustic cover of “Cold As Ice” by Foreigner, followed by a straight up one of “Wichita Lineman” by Glen Campbell. It had been over an hour before the lights went back on, but they finished this weird hootenanny with Wayne singing a truncated version of “Waterbugs”. Wayne served as a sort of emcee for the rest of the night saying, “We’re doing our best to entertain while we were stuck in the dark. We’re trying to keep the show moving along cus’ I still think people want to get home before four o’clock in the morning. Well, some people don’t, some people do and we respect that.” So, they did the changeovers as fast as they could and the sets of the openers were pretty short starting with IQU, pronounced “ee-koo”, from Olympia, Washington followed by Sonic Boom E.A.R., an experimental music group fronted by Peter Member, formerly of Spaceman 3. Jason Pierce had split off from Spaceman 3 to form Spiritualized, the first band I ever ushered for at The Warfield when they opened for The Jesus & Mary Chain in 1992. Cornelius was supposed to be on this leg of the tour, but they didn’t make it for some reason.

One of the big draws of this show for me was that Robyn Hitchcock was there, always a favorite. It had actually been a while since I’d seen him, three years in fact, when he co-headlined The Warfield with Billy Bragg. He was playing solo again, though he did bring up Tim Keegan, a man who had toured with him for years, to accompany him on guitar for “Beautiful Queen”. Wayne introduced Robyn before his set, mentioning that he had broke a string last night but was a trooper and kept on playing anyway and thanked the people who were trying out the headphones. There was a strange recording before Robyn got on stage of a man going on about conscience, appearance, and reality, but it was sort of hard to follow. Robyn was his usual brilliant self, going off on his stream of consciousness verbal tangents between songs. He had just released “Jewels For Sophia”, his 12th studio album that year, but he didn’t play any new stuff that night. 

Robyn also had starred in a sort of quasi-documentary called “Storefront Hitchcock” the year before, directed by Jonathan Demme. It was basically just him playing in an abandoned clothing store in New York City and I’m sorry to say that I still haven’t seen it yet. It’s definitely on my list, especially since I just watched Demme’s “Silence Of The Lambs” last night. Next up was Sebadoh and this being the fourth time seeing them in four years, the third time at The Fillmore, I was actually getting a little tired of Lou Barlow’s whiney schtick. Lou did however get a little grin out of me when he sang the chorus of The Lips’ “Turn It On” between songs, one of my favorite tunes from the band that sadly I haven’t heard them play live since 1995. Sebadoh still were OK and they were an easy band to usher for, though the show was going on late from the delay from the blackout earlier. In hindsight it was a good thing I caught them then because the band went on hiatus for 14 years shortly after this show, though I still haven’t seen them since. I thought it was amusing that they played a recording of “If I Only Had A Brain” from “The Wizard Of Oz” between sets.

So, at long last The Flaming Lips took the stage. They played a rather monotone voice recording of a man checking the headphone system before they started, repeatedly droning, “Left… Left center… Center… Center right… Right…” It went on for a few minutes, then the band performed “The Spiderbite Song” briefly to test it out.  Then Wayne joked that they were going to step off into the wings for a second and then “burst onto the stage” and everybody was to just pretend that it was them coming out for the first time. We all obliged him and had giggle about it. They then went straight into the first song of the new album, “Race For The Prize”, a tune they would open most of their shows with from then on. I was impressed by the beauty and brilliance of their new material and we were lucky to hear a whopping nine new songs out of their twelve song set. I regret that my tape ran out during “When You Smile”, making me lose the last three songs, but I was able to find a good recording of the night on YouTube, though it was missing the final song, “The Spark That Bled”. It was almost the same set as the night before, but the Tuesday show got “Riding To Work In The Year 2025” and “Thirty-Five Thousand Feet Of Despair”, while we got “What Is The Light?”, “The Observer”, and “Suddenly Everything Has Changed”.

Wayne introduced the song “Waitin’ For A Superman” warning how sad it was to people with “a heavy heart” and “we don’t always play happy, escapist” tunes. He thought this one was “the saddest song that we do”, though went on to claim that sad songs can also make you feel happy, but if this one didn’t to “try to bear with us”. And he was true to his word. It was and remains one of the saddest songs I would ever hear. In fact, listening to it again while writing this, I not ashamed to say that I broke down into tears again, still processing the horror of the school shootings in Uvalde, Texas from last week. Indeed, this song served as a sort of unofficial theme song for the tragedy of 9/11 which happened two years after this show. At the end of this hauntingly beautiful tune, somebody in the crowd shouted out, “I feel sad!” and Wayne apologized, “I’m sorry. We’ll do our best to try to lift you up” and then they played “What Is The Light?” 

The Lips did however go on to play one of the happiest songs I know, “When You Smile” a little later. That song is so sweet and sentimental that I included it in a compilation disc my wife and I made for our wedding in 2015. That one brings me tears of joy instead of sorrow and for all those out there currently with the blues, I recommend listening to it right away. It’s good therapy. Wayne did a sort of slow ending to that song, singing out the words gradually slower until finishing and joked, “See! I promised you I’d get you out of that slump.” Yes, it was a long, but memorable evening and I would be lucky to record The Lips a year later at Maritime Hall with the same set up, playing many of these same songs. Still, despite all the times I saw them back in the day, it just occurred to me that next year, it will have been twenty years since I saw them last when they played The Warfield with Liz Phair. Shame on me, especially since I missed the tour where they were playing their brilliant remake of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side Of The Moon”. I should check them out again next time I get a chance.

Social Chaos Tour : TSOL, The Business, UK Subs, DOA, DH Pelligro, The Vibrators, Sloppy Seconds, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., July 25, 1999

SETLISTS :

(UK SUBS) : Emotional Blackmail, C.I.D., Stranglehold, Party In Paris, I Live In A Car

(THE BUSINESS) : Suburban Rebels, The Truth The Whole Truth & Nothing But The Truth, Spirit Of The Street, Do They Owe Us A living?, Saturday’s Heroes, Justice Not Politics, Out In The Cold, Loud Proud & Punk, Real Enemy, Smash The Discos, Harry May, (encore), Drinking & Driving

This was an impressive lineup from start to finish. I had long heard of TSOL, or True Sounds Of Liberty, predictably through my brother Alex who had been my ear to the ground for quality punk music all my life. I knew they were important, being one of the pioneers in the L.A. punk scene since 1978. They were headlining this so-called “Social Chaos Tour”, co-sponsored by Goldenvoice, and were preceded by other veterans of the genre, English, American, and DOA from Canada. I know that Murphy’s Law, D.R.I., and Vice Squad were on the bill, but they were playing downstairs on a stage in the hiring hall so I didn’t get a chance to see any of them. Strangely enough, one of the distinct, if not the most distinct memory from this show was the opening act, Sloppy Seconds. Though the youngest band on the bill, they had been playing music for 15 years already by then. The singer, simply known as B.A., was a big guy, probably around 300 pounds and his skinny as a rail guitarist, Ace “Spice” Hardwhere had a guitar that had the body of a Fruit Loops cereal box. Anyway, I still can never forget B.A.’s flushed, crimson face loudly braying their song, “Why Don’t Lesbians Love Me?” and finishing with one called, “I Don’t Want To Be A Homosexual”. They being the first act had maybe a handful of people to hear their gritty sound echo in the cavernous walls of the Maritime. Poor guys had to start after the doors opened at 5:30 in the afternoon. They were from Indianapolis of all places, but I haven’t seen them since.

Next up were The Vibrators, they and the UK Subs making punk rock since 1976. DH Pelligro, the former drummer of the Dead Kennedys, followed and I looked around to see if Jello Biafra was in the crowd or backstage that night, but he was nowhere to be seen. Jello usually shows up to all these punk shows, but it was no secret that there was bad blood between him and the the other former members. Maybe he was just out of town at the time. They would reform DK years later with a new singer, but Jello never sang with them and most likely never will. It was good to see DOA play the Hall again, having graced the venue the year before, though it was shamefully undersold. UK Subs put on quite a set, even if was only about twenty minutes long, as most of the openers sets were. During the song “Stranglehold”, their shirtless guitarist Nicky Garratt rolled one of his Marshall stacks over to the center of the stage and lay down on it for a bit while he was playing. The crowd was getting bigger by the time they came on and the mosh pit was growing accordingly.

So, everybody was nice and warmed up by the time The Business took the stage. This rowdy bunch of Cockney blokes from South London had been around since ’79, but I’m afraid this show was the first time I’d heard of them. I thought it was funny that in one of the reviews I saw for the show the frontman Micky Fitz and one of the others were in suits, most definitely worn ironically. Micky came out in a wife beater shirt and immediately announced that our city was the “best crowd in America” and that “We’re the Spice Girls and we’re from fuckin’ London!” before ripping into “Suburban Rebels”. A couple songs later he asked “Where’s the punk rockers?!?”, followed by the punks applauding, and he then said, “Skins, wait your turn. There’s plenty for you!” and then “Do They Owe Us A Living?” Then after, he obliged them saying, “Punks, you had your turn. Where’s the skinheads?!?” and did “Saturday’s Heroes”. 

Micky dedicated “Justice Not Politics” to Lars Frederiksen from Rancid who produced The Business’ last album and his wife Megan. Lars had married her the year before this show, but they’ve since divorced. After that song, Micky gazed up at one of our video screens and joked, “I just looked up there and I thought ‘Fuck, he looks like me’. Then I realized it was!” Just before they played “Harry May” at the end of their set, Micky took a moment to thank all the bands, the staff, and even the “redcoat” security guard in front of him. He put his hand on top of the tall, young black man’s backwards baseball cap saying, “Some guys think he’s an asshole, but he’s working class and he’s doing this for his family!” The guard remained surprisingly stoic and still, not even looking at him, and simply nodded in agreement when Micky took his hand off him. They brought up some kid with a shaved head like Micky’s and he sang along to the song, shouting “What’s his name?!?! Harry May!!!” Micky goaded the crowd on prodding them, “That wasn’t loud enough, eh?” The kid shook his head no and they did it again. That was cute. The kid couldn’t have been more than nine or ten.

The other shining memory of this night was their encore, “Drinking & Driving”. I can scarcely think of any song ever written which was more punk than this. Never had such flagrantly reckless and irresponsible behavior be more celebrated. Naturally, the pit was bananas by then and there was no shortage of folks floating, stage diving, and dancing on stage with the band singing along to the chorus, “Knock it back! Have another one! Drinking & driving is so much fun!” They were a hard act to follow. Incidentally, it just occurred to me that there were a bunch of “initials” on this tour, being TSOL, UK Subs, DOA, and DH Pelligro. Hmm… Sadly, I learned that Micky passed away from lymph cancer back in 2016, so this would be the one and only time I’d see The Business, but I’m very glad I did.

Finally, TSOL wrapped up the evening with a tight set clocking in a hair under and hour. They had just reunited that year after settling a long standing dispute with their former guitarist Joe Wood over the rights of the band’s name. I had actually had seen both the singer “Gentleman Jack” Grisham and guitarist Ron Emory in their side project, The Joykiller, which opened for Pennywise at The Fillmore in 1995, though I didn’t make the connection back then. I do remember liking them as I did TSOL on this gig. Like The Business, they got a bunch of fans onstage and I read one account of the show saying that the frustrated security guys were chasing down those patrons later, threatening to beat them up. Yeah, the “redcoats” were pretty rough guys.  But TSOL were a fun bunch all the same and I’ll never forget their last song of the night, “Code Blue”, a sort of a playful ode to necrophilia. Ewww… Such vulgarity didn’t stop Jack from getting 2,200 votes when he ran for Governor during the infamous recall election of 2003 that ushered Arnold Schwarzenegger to power. Ironically, 2,200 is roughly the capacity of the Maritime. As much as I love Arnold, it’s a safe bet Jack would have been a more competent Governor. There had been a listing on Discogs that said the band did an unofficial VHS release of the video from that night, but I haven’t been able to find it. I am glad to say that UK Subs did post the songs from their short set on YouTube though.

Foxy Brown, Suga-T, Colorfolks, Gabba, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., July 23, 1999

Though I had never heard the one Miss Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand AKA Foxy Brown, I and all the the house that night were given quite an earful as well as quite an eyeful. She left her long handle behind and derived her stage name from the seminal 1974 action movie of the same name and she is proud to call Pam Grier, who immortalized the role, a friend, mentor, and even a “second mother”. This fresh faced young woman hailing from Trinidadian and Chinese decent had in very little time made a name for herself in hip hop circles starting at the tender age of only 15. At this show, she was just about six weeks shy of her 21st birthday. Foxy signed to DefJam in 1996 and with her debut album, “Ill Na Na”, she went quickly went multi-platinum and earned her legions of fans and respect from her peers. She helped prove that a lady especially one that young could go toe to toe with the East Coast big boys and hold her own, even becoming a member of the rap supergroup The Firm along with Nas, AZ, and Cormega, who was later replaced by Nature.

But this was a turbulent and transitional time for her, having just released her follow up album, “Chyna Doll” seven months before this show. As expected, it didn’t match the commercial success of her debut album, a tough one to follow, though it did have the distinction of debuting number one on the Billboard 200 when it was released, making her only the second female rap artist at that time to achieve that other than Lauryn Hill. She had also recently broke off her engagement to fellow rapper Kurupt, but Foxy had the additional misfortune to agree to join the “Get Up On A Room” tour with R. Kelly earlier that year, a name which has recently been mired with infamy. That doomed tour quickly fell apart from cancelled dates due to low ticket sales, a disastrous melee at their Miami show which left 8 people suffering from stab wounds, to having Busta Rhymes leave the tour shortly afterwards. Foxy would see the writing on the wall and leave the tour that June, but would begin her own tour a month after this show, so their loss would ultimately be our gain. And despite all that, she at least had the good fortune not to take part in the catastrophic Woodstock ’99 festival which happened to be the weekend of this gig.

I remember enjoying the final opening act that night, Suga-T. A local act hailing from Vallejo, she too was a young woman fresh to the hip hop scene with a great deal of talent. Like Foxy, she also would be a member of a rap supergroup, The Click, which included such notable bay area artists as E-40, D-Shot, and B-Legit. Though I haven’t seen her since, I read that she now goes by her non-stage name, Tenina Stevens, and teaches music as well as accumulated an impressive amount of academic degrees including an AA in Business, a BA in Psychology, and an MA in Organizational Management. Like I had mentioned before, we got an eyeful of Foxy Brown. She came out dressed in a loose, gold chain mail top and let’s just say not much else beneath it. She was indeed foxy and she knew that, but she was unashamed, unapologetic, and supremely confident. It didn’t take long for my throbbing loins to cool off enough so I could stop watching her bouncing curves and appreciate her raw talent as a performer. There are few women in hip hop who can match her flow even to this day, joining such fierce, respected East Coast female acts as Queen Latifah, Salt N’ Pepa, and MC Lyte.

Unfortunately, Foxy hit a rough patch starting the year after this show, first suffering from a bout of depression, followed by treatment for an addiction to opioids. Then she got into hot water in 2004 after a fight she had with a couple of manicurists in New York City. The year after, she suffered serious hearing loss which required surgery to restore it. Then, she violated her probation from the aforementioned fight and was put in jail for an entire year. If that wasn’t bad enough, Foxy got into a fight with a fellow inmate while inside and was put in solitary for a whopping 76 days. Though she was released in 2007, she got into trouble yet again three years later after she swore and even mooned her neighbor who had previously put a restraining on her. Foxy threw her BlackBerry at the neighbor as well, but the charges were ultimately dropped the following year. This show would be the only time I’d see Foxy perform, but I’m glad to say she has since stayed out of trouble and has taken to touring again in recent years, even collaborating with new hip hop acts like Nicki Minaj.

Michael Rose, Andrew Tosh, The Skatalites, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., July 16, 1999

SELIST : Overture, Short Temper, Party In Session, Sensemillia, Ganja Bonanza, Cookie Jar, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, Mondays, How You Fi Do That?, Right On, Gone A New York, Shine Eye Gal, Plastic Smile, I Love King Sallasie, General Penetentiary, Black Maria, Happiness, Youths Of Eglington, Abortion, Dance Wicked, Sponji Reggae, Solidarity

It was an interesting day to put it mildly. Being the day after my birthday, I decided to revisit one of my old birthday traditions and spend the day at the water slides. My friend Liz Farrow joined me on the ride down to Raging Waters in San Jose when the big news of the day came over the radio. Poor JFK, Jr. crashed his plane and died along with his wife Carolyn and her sister Lauren. We didn’t see that one coming. And despite recent lunatic fringe conspiracy theories that he is somehow still alive, we have yet to hear from him which is a pity since who knows what he might have accomplished if he had lived to this day. Yes, John-John was gone, but we did our best to enjoy our time at the slides. After a long time visiting every fun filled attraction Raging Waters had to offer, Liz and I took a breather to lie down in the sun and I distinctly remember laying on my left side, using my right hand to massage her back. I had done it for so long, that I ended up getting the mother of all sunburns on the entire upper right half of my body. Combined with the stinging chlorine from the water, my poor skin on that side was in excruciating pain for several days, feeling like weeks. In time, the dead skin from the burn eventually peeled off and I was well again, though for a while the right half of my body was conspicuously tanner that the other half.

Another thing that had happened on the ride down, though totally out of left field, I think deserves mentioning. On the way, we were passing by Bay Meadows Race Track in San Mateo and I don’t know if it was the power of suggestion or something, but for a split second I could have swore I saw a brown horse being flung high into the air, as if it was being launched by a catapult, its legs flailing wildly. On closer inspection, I saw that it was simply a brown, single engine plane rising into the sky above the tree line, but it did cause me to glance twice. It was so convincing and made such an impression, that I had mentioned that vision in the beginning of my first novel, it being a dream waking the main character. But I’ve digressed way too far here and must go back to the show at hand.

The pain of my fresh sunburn was just starting to kick in as we had returned to the city and Liz dropped me off at the Maritime to work the show of the evening, a reggae cavalcade of stars. Pete came out for this one, the only one to my memory that he did that month. Michael Rose was a big one. The former Black Uhuru frontman had played the Hall twice already, once in April of ’98 opening for The Wailers and again just six months before this show, that time headlining. I had been confused before and thought that January show was the one that was used for the live album the Hall put out, but I can say with certainty now that this was the show that was used. For starters, I have the original recording of the whole show and it matches as well as what Michael was wearing that night corresponds to the photo on the album’s back cover. This is the one and it’s a great one at that. I think it is possibly the best sounding of all the albums the Hall put out primarily because Pete mixed this one down in the studio and not Boots this time. One needs only hear a handful of bars from any of the songs and you can hear Pete’s sound, especially in the drums. Pete knew how to mix reggae, big time. He was the best and it showed.

He did however allow me to record the opening acts as usual and I was especially honored since the first one were true ska pioneers and heroes of mine, The Skatalites. I have already written about their illustrious history, having seen them twice before, once in the line up of the Skavoovee tour at The Warfield with the Special Beat in 1993, then again on the second day of the Tibetan Freedom Concert in Golden Gate Park in 1996. Uplifting as the experience was for me this time, it was rounded by a tinge of sadness since the band had lost two of its original members the year prior, tenor saxophonist and flute player Tommy McCook and then fellow tenor saxophonist Roland Alphonso just six months after him. They were mentioned with solemn pride between songs and despite their losses, the band carried on and got the crowd skanking. It was also an honor to record the second opening act that night, Andrew Tosh, the son of Peter Tosh and Shirley Livingston, the sister of Bunny Wailer. Andrew had played the Hall opening for his esteemed Uncle Bunny the previous October and to my pleasant surprise, Pete had left that night entirely for me to do, so this would be the second time I’d get to record Andrew. I’m happy to say he remembered me when I approached him later to give him the tapes of his set and he was friendly and gracious as before. Fully Fullwood and his band who were backing up Michael that night also used to back up Andrew’s dad amongst many others.

Michael took to the stage dressed in his shiny, black leather pants and matching jacket, his dreads tied immaculately into a massive turban shape on his head. It took a while, but he eventually took off the jacket near the end of his set. From Jamaica he might be, but even performing on a stage in San Francisco in the middle of summer would test anyones tolerance of heat. Joyous as the occasion was, Michael too was affected by the loss of someone, a mentor particularly close to him, Dennis Brown. He even called for a moment of silence between songs for “the crown prince of reggae” as he called him. Dennis had died a little over two weeks before this show from pneumonia brought on by years of respiratory problems aggravated by prolonged cocaine abuse at the young age of 42. In fact, his funeral was held in Kingston just the day after this show and if Michael wasn’t already obliged to complete his tour and was home, rest assured he would have attended and performed at it. Michael went on to say Dennis “was a loving & good human being” and that he “was his godfather in this biz”.

Michael honored Dennis’ memory well that night by playing a hell of a show, covering a lot of material in two long hours. It was so long, in fact that several songs had to be left out of the live album in order to make it a single disc including “Party In Session”, “Ganja Bonanza”, “Right On”, “Happiness”, “I Love King Selassie” “Youths Of Eglington”, and “Gone A New York”. Michael was in top form as well as his band and with Pete on the recording console, it was an ideal performance to turn into an album. But this would be the final time I’d record any of these acts at the Hall, though I’m happy to say I got to see Mr. Rose perform one more time three years later at Slim’s with Mutabaruka. That was quite a show as well, an excellent musical pairing.

The Cult, New American Shame, Bif Naked, War., SF, Thur., July 15, 1999

SETLIST : Lil’ Devil, Sun King, Rain, In The Clouds, Edie (Ciao Baby), Fire Woman, The With, Peace Dog, New York City, Revolution, Sweet Soul Sister, Wild Flower, She Sells Sanctuary, (encore), American Horse, Love Removal Machine

It’s a very rare occurrence that I see a concert on my birthday, though it being in the middle of summer, one would think there’d be shows lined up on that day all the time. But really, there haven’t been that many at all. It is even a rarer occurrence that I would work on my birthday, having done it only once for a union call, which I did for a favor for one of our business agents and instantly regretted. But to my memory this Cult show was the only time I actually ushered on my birthday and though I was hesitant to do it, especially since I would have to work through two opening acts and it was sold out, it went off fairly smoothly and I was in a good mood all night. I turned 27 years old that evening, the notorious “rock star death” age AKA “The 27 Club”, taking down such notable ones recent ones like Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse, as well as veterans like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, Robert Johnson, Pigpen from The Dead, and Jim Morrison. So, young and dumb as I was, I had the wisdom at least to take it upon myself to be a touch cautious that year and I’m happy to report I’m still around all these years later. So far, so good… knock on wood.

It had been over four years since I had last seen The Cult and it was a good thing I saw them back then when I did. Shortly after that previous Warfield show, the band fell to pieces and didn’t get back together until this one. Singer Ian Astbury had spent time in those interim years with a side project called the Holy Barbarians as well as releasing a solo record. But he reformed The Cult with original guitarist Billy Duffy and had recruited Matt Sorum on drums as well as ex-Porno For Pyros bassist Martyn Lenoble. It’s easy to spot Martyn, being skinny as a rail, smiling with his mouth of crooked teeth. They all were brand spanking new on tour having played the first time back together only a month prior at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in L.A.

First to open that night was Bif Naked, a Canadian singer/songwriter, originally born in New Delhi and covered in tattoos. Her third album, “I Bifics”, would be released in the states only twelve days after this show and though I only recorded one of her songs that night, it was a new one called “The Peacock Song”, the first in her set. She said that although they were from Vancouver, she was a San Jose Sharks fan, a brave thing to say for a Canadian hockey enthusiast. I also only got a couple songs of the following opening act, New American Shame from Seattle. I know the first one was called “Broken Bones”, but can’t name the second. They were a pretty solid rock & roll band and a worthy opener for The Cult, but their career was short lived, so I’m glad I caught them when I did. They had put out just one self titled album on Atlantic four months before this show and quickly disbanded less than two years later. The Cult would have a falling out with Atlantic Records too in a couple years, causing them to split from the label and each other in 2002, though they would reform again four years later.

But like I said, I had a good time that evening and the fellow ushers knowing it was my birthday, were congratulatory and kind to me. I remember being gifted quite a few drink tickets as the show went on and I enjoyed those beers immensely. The Cult is actually a good show to get drunk at. Most of the other patrons were, so I was in good company. The Cult took the stage to the recording of “Duel Of The Fates”, the intense score by John Williams for “Star Wars Episode I : The Phantom Menace” which had just come out in theaters two months before this. You know, it was the music playing near the end for the light saber fight with Darth Maul, one of the only good parts of that movie, frankly. Ian once again served well as the frontman that night at The Warfield. Before they played “Rain”, he entreated the crowd to “please feel free to exercise the right to do anything you wish.” For me, that was permission to drink more, which I happily did.

Thankfully, Pete would take the helm in the recording room the following night at the Maritime for Michael Rose, allowing me time to recover from my predictable hangover. The only other concert I would see on my birthday after this one would be Os Mutantes, a band huge in Brazil, playing at Stern Grove in 2007, though I was tempted to see the Kronos Quartet on another birthday, but didn’t follow through with it. I’d see The Cult two years later perform third to last at Live 105’s B.F.D at Shoreline, the final time I’d see them, but I did catch Ian singing for the Riders Of The Storm band in 2005 at The Fillmore, basically filling in for Jim Morrison, backed by fellow Doors alumni, Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger. Yes, like I mentioned, Jim had died at 27, but Ian did a good job channeling his mojo.

Gang Starr, Bored Stiff, Foreign Legion, Jay-Biz, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., July 11, 1999

Though I knew very little about Gang Starr before this show, I was aware of their reputation as one of the finest east coast rap acts around. The simple fact that my friend Tory manning the video switcher that night was excited to see them was a reliable endorsement enough. Tory had much keener taste in hip hop at the time and I’m sure he still does to this day. Gang Starr was riding high in their career, one could argue the peak of their popularity. They had just released their fifth album, “The Moment Of Truth”, in March of ’98 and it only took two months for it to go gold. It would be their most commercially successful album as well as receiving heaps of praise upon it critically. Additionally, they went on tour later that year supporting Rage Against The Machine when they too were at the height of their game. Gang Starr was primarily headed up by their frontman Guru, which stands for Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal, and DJ/Producer, DJ Premier. Together they put on seriously entertaining set, I mean these guys were tight. Guru has a powerful, yet precise and clear vocal technique that I’ve only heard matched by a couple of other east coast contemporaries such as Chuck D and Rakim.

I also enjoyed the support acts that night, especially Foreign Legion, a trio from the bay area, fronted by Prozach, a skinny white shrimp of a man, and Mar Stretch, a black fellow at least a foot taller than him and twice his mass. They made an eccentric pair and I guess it shouldn’t be that weird that they would have met working in a strip club. Stretch was a DJ there and Prozach had kept the bar maintained and stocked the place with cleaning supplies, which rest assured most such places needed desperately. Anyway, with their clever and formidable rap skills as well as DJ Design on the ones and twos, they got the crowd warmed up nicely, followed by Western Addition and Fillmore locals, Bored Stiff. I’m glad Gang Starr came back to play the Hall only four months later, for I would never see them again. Poor Guru would succumb to myeloma in 2010 at the all too young age of 48. Such a pity to lose such talent so young, especially with all the lousy rap acts out there that get to live.

Beenie Man, Tanto Metro & Devonte, Hurricane Gilbert & Majestic, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., July 10, 1999

It was a stretch that week, doing 5 shows in 6 days and this was number 4 and a late one at that. Pete, as previously mentioned a few times, had grown estranged from the scene at the Hall, leaving me to do this reggae show, a genre that he usually covered universally. In fact, Pete didn’t record any of the shows at the Maritime that month, not that I was complaining. These were all acts of high quality and I was proud to be at the helm for each and every one of them. This was real, bone fide Jamaican dancehall music too. There are few reggae fans around the world who don’t instantly recognize the name of Beenie Man and I caught him there just as he was at the cusp of the height of his stardom. The year after this show, he would release “Art & Life” which would earn him a Grammy for Best Reggae Album. The bad news is that after Pete ultimately left the Hall and I followed him, only substituting for our replacement, Wade, on a handful of shows, Beenie Man would play the Hall again nine months after this and the recording of that show would be used to make a CD. That hurt. I’m happy for Wade, for the few releases he got, but I would have liked to have this one under my belt. Regardless, I still have the experience of taping Beenie Man and hearing his music. I also enjoyed the openers, fellow Jamaican dancehall mainstays, Tanto Metro & Devonte and Hurricane Gilbert & Majestic, both talented acts. Incidentally, Hurricane Gilbert is named after the 1988 storm which really messed up Jamaica, seriously damaging 80% of the nation’s housing, leaving a quarter of the island’s 2 million citizens homeless, and killing over two hundred people. Incidentally, Boots did one of his usual fuck ups on the monthly poster and listed Tanto Metro & Devonte as separate acts.

Still, I can’t say I completely enjoyed Beenie Man live. It’s not that I don’t like his sound, it’s just after ten or twenty minutes of it, I start to lose my mind a little. Beenie Man, even by his own admission, has such a thick patois that most of the stuff he toasts is practically incomprehensible. When I hear him, I can’t help of thinking of the scene in the “Star Wars” parody, “Hardware Wars”, when in mocking frustration, Princess Anne Droid berates the indecipherable Darph Nader, “I don’t understand what you’re saying… Are you talking to me?” And like I said before, this was a late one, I mean really late, even for a reggae show. It was already a Saturday night, meaning it started at 9 instead of 8 and the openers went on late and long as well. I don’t think it ended until at least 2 am. After a couple hours of Beenie Man’s relentless barrage of tunes, abruptly halting mid-song and starting up again, then flowing into the next over and over, I was exhausted by the end of it all. After doing Gang Starr’s show the following evening, it was nice to finally get a good night’s sleep.

I haven’t seen him since that night, but I do remember hearing that Beenie Man got into a little hot water with the LGBTQ community a few years later. Some of his songs were, shall we say, less than complimentary to homosexuals, one even suggesting violence towards them, though he later refuted that interpretation. Under pressure from protests, Beenie Man was even removed from the 2004 MTV Music Awards. But he soon saw the light, never played those tunes ever again, publicly apologized, and even signed an agreement with other artists called the Reggae Compassionate Act in 2007, vowing to never perform any anti-gay material. I remember my friend Terri, a devout reggae fan and lesbian, was particularly upset with him at the time around this show. I lost contact with Terri over these long years, so I can’t say if she ever forgave him. He understandably wants to put the whole matter behind him forever, especially these days when such lyrics would be utterly unthinkable, at least in San Francisco.

Indigo Swing, 008, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., July 9, 1999

Swing music had its moment in the sun for a few of those years, but the tide of its popularity was near the end of its gradual ebb. San Francisco’s own Indigo Swing was one of the better bands that had been frequenting venues back then and I enjoyed them the last time they played the Hall five months before on Valentine’s Day with the B-Side Players. That was a classy show, but like that one, this night was sparsely attended, even though it was being billed as their CD release party for their new album, “Red Light!”. Their frontman John Boydston, AKA Johnny Boyd, would soon depart the band shortly after this show for good. He would be replaced by a young lady named Nicole Vigil and the band would shorten its name to simply Indigo, but they would eventually call it quits in 2001, having not found a record label to pick them up and that was that, gone but not forgotten. I still believe that swing music will never really die, being an integral part of the history of popular music and who knows? Maybe I’ll live someday to see another revival of this venerable genre.

Another band that came and went after this show was the opening act, 008. I had seen them once before opening for The Funky Meters at The Fillmore and thought they were pretty good. Their drummer, Morgan, was actually one of the house managers at The Fillmore at the time and I had known him previously from being a roommate of my friend Kenny, who was a fellow SF State student who studied a semester abroad with me in London. Kenny had lived in the ground floor of our building in West Kensington, affectionately known as “The Dungeon” and I and my flatmates lived on the top floor, known as “The Tower”. Anyway, Morgan dropped by the recording room before his set and I showed him some of our previous work, though I can’t recall which show we watched. I never forgot that he said our stuff looked like “German television”. Funny, because it was true, especially since we were still taping in the 4 X 3 format. Morgan was a gentle giant and I admired him, but he soon left The Fillmore and I can’t say where he ended up, but I wish him the best.

The Go-Go’s, Berlin, The Lunachicks, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., July 7, 1999

SETLISTS :

(BERLIN) : Masquerade, Touch, (unknown), No More Words, Steps, You Don’t Know, The Metro, Take My Breath Away, Sex (I’m A…)

(THE GO-GO’S) : Surfing, Head Over Heels, How Much More, Tonight, Vacation, He’s So Strange, Automatic, Lust To Love, Turn To You, This Town, Get Up & Go, I’m The Only One, Fun With Ropes, Cool Jerk, Beatnik Beach, We Got The BEat, Skidmarks, Our Lips Are Sealed, (encore), can’t Stop The World, Has The Whole World Lost It’s Head?, (encore), My Heart Will Go On, Johnny Are You Queer?

I had to wait five long years since I got to see The Go-Go’s for the first time when they reunited at The Warfield, but this night they were playing the Maritime and I was getting the honor to record them, or so I thought. Sadly, they had brought their own monitor board, and like all bands that bring theirs, we were unable to get to hook up our stuff to multi track record them, though we were able to tape the openers, The Lunachicks and Berlin, that night for which I’m eternally thankful. We were however able to figure out a way to pipe down a stereo feed from the front of house, giving us at least the board feed of what was feeding the show, and that coupled with our audience mics gave us at least a half decent stereo recording. I was lucky to get a copy of their set as well as Berlin’s and I can tell you, it was a hell of night.

There had been a bit of tension with The Go-Go’s that year because their drummer, Gina Schock, had sued the band to recoup royalties that was owed to her. But they had resolved the case that year and Gina was touring with them and by the looks of it, they were not only getting along, but having the time of their lives that show. Belinda was doing well for herself up till then with a successful solo career, singing such smash hits as “Heaven Is A Place On Earth”, “Mad About You”, And “I Get Weak”, and even released a greatest hits album from her solo work that year.

The first band on that night were The Lunachicks from New York City. They were talented as they were hilarious, the singer claiming that the band was there to “bring the turd back to Sa-turd-ay”. I remember they did a rowdy punk cover of “Just What I Needed” by The Cars. They had just released their final album, “Luxury Problem”, the month before and would disband a year after this show. Sadly, they wouldn’t use any of the live stuff I taped that night since they had already released a live album the year before called “Drop Dead Live”, recorded back in their home town at Coney Island High.

Next up was Berlin, who I had seen for the first time three years before playing The Fillmore. Like fellow LA rockers, The Go-Go’s, Berlin had recently reformed and were also having their share of legal wrangling. Singer Terri Nunn had wrestled the rights to use the band’s name from the other original members and was touring with a new band of ringers. I was happy to say Terri was very sweet to me that night and even addressed me by my first name. It is an astronomically rare occasion when any person of note calls me by my name, much less remembers it and she did once again when I set up Berlin’s gear at the Black & White Ball four years later. But like The Lunachicks, Berlin also had released a live album recorded elsewhere, theirs a year after this show taped at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano called “Live : Sacred & Profane”. I can’t blame them or The Lunachicks. Most bands like to record their live albums on their own turf.

Though I was able to multi track record Berlin, they were tough to mix since it was excruciatingly loud on stage. I mean, they were up there with Motorhead, the noise bleeding into all the mics. I remember my dear departed friend Tumbleweed was alive and well working their monitors that night and said that they had him basically push all the faders up full blast. God bless that man for indulging them, especially since I believe Boots the owner gave him grief for it. A couple songs in, Terri pumped up the crowd asking, “Hello! How you like girl’s night so far? I’m loving this!” She went on saying that her back up singer had never worked alongside so many girls before and that the other guys were “ecstatic” and that they were “finally a minority”. A couple songs later, she introduced the song “Steps” saying “This is about my divorce!”

Afterwards she asked the crowd, “You having fun? So are we! We’re sweating our ass off too, are you? So, this next song you probably heard before and I want to dedicate it tonight to my God-daughter who’s in the audience. She’s just entering womanhood now and like all women that age she doesn’t know how beautiful she is yet. Well, you are. This is for you, Tera. It’s called ‘Take My Breath Away’.” Yes, they naturally played their big Oscar winning hit single from the blockbuster film, “Top Gun”. I had mentioned before that my wife loathes that song when I wrote about their 1996 Fillmore show, so I won’t go into that again. Speaking, of blockbuster films, I found out researching this show that Terri actually auditioned for the role of Princess Leia in “Star Wars”, but of course lost out to it to Carrie Fisher. Incidentally, I also learned writing this that Jane Wiedlin played Joan Of Arc in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure”. I’m not entirely surprised to have missed that since she was disguised with her bowl haircut and never uttered a word throughout the entire movie.

Anyway, like many people playing the Hall for the first time, Terri was wowed by the giant projection screens on the sides of the walls saying, “It’s really weird looking up and seeing your face 17 feet tall!” At the end of their set, Terri mentioned that they were going to come back soon to play with a bunch of bands at the Bay Meadows race track, but I didn’t catch that show. They wrapped it up with their racy hit song, “Sex (I’m A…)”. Between sets, I caught a glimpse of The Go-Go’s who had been using Grant’s office next door to the recording room as their dressing room and Gina and Jane smiled at me, though I was too bashful to talk to them.

The place was packed as The Go-Go’s took the stage to the sound of “Thank Heaven For Little Girls” from the film “Gigi” playing over the speakers. I even spotted a group of folks in the crowd dressed in bathrobes with facial masks and towels on their head like The Go-Go’s adorned on the cover of their first album, “Beauty & The Beat”. Like Terri, guitarist Jane Wiedlin and bassist Kathy Valentine were also impressed with the projection screens, pointing and smiling at them. Jane turned around and playfully bent over, displaying her butt a bit. The band opened with the instrumental song, “Surfing” and then their singer Belinda Carlisle sprang onto stage to sing, “Head Over Heels”. When the song was over, somebody handed Jane a white flower with a long stem and she attached it to her mic stand. They then did “How Much More” and then Belinda thanked the crowd shouting, “Bartender! A round for everyone!”, obviously a joke. She did go on asking for someone to bring her a glass of red wine before introducing “Tonight” saying it was from the aforementioned “Beauty & The Beat” album “recorded about 200 years ago.” They followed that with “Vacation”, a song to this day which gives me goosebumps, one of the best songs ever written in my opinion.

A few songs later, Belinda joked that “the next song is my punishment for being late to rehearsal. So, I get to look like an asshole for about 40 seconds.” She then started “Turn To You” doing a sort of silly, jazz scat intro to it. Meanwhile, Jane took off her shirt leaving her just with her black bra on for the rest of the night. It was understandable being the middle of summer and was sweltering in there, the show totally sold out. They then did “This Town” and afterwards Jane laughed, “I smell marijuana in here! You all are in big trouble!” A few songs later Belinda turned to her and said, “This next one is the oldest song in the set. Jane wrote it when she was about 3. Didn’t make it to the first album and we really regret it”, and then they performed the hilarious “Fun With Ropes”.

The band did a funny bit on the next song, a cover of “Cool Jerk” by The Capitols. Belinda ordered the band to “bring it down, listen up!” Jane smiled gleefully and obeyed, going so far as getting down on her knees as she strummed along, doing a bit of a limbo. Belinda continued, “Now I know some of you people are wondering why the hell are The Go-Go’s back again? Well, let me let you in on a little secret, my friends.” She then started rhyming to the beat, “As you can see, we’re still foxy, but time has took its toll. So we need some bucks for some nips and tucks before we get too old.” She then strolled over to the drum kit and went on, “Now, Gina Schock, she really rocks. You know she’s got the beat. So pitch in for a facelift, so she’ll look twice as sweet.” Gina laughed and did a little drum solo.

Belinda then sauntered over to her bass player and rhymed, “Now, Kathy here’s a sexy babe, as smart as she is pretty. But she’s dreaming of a C-Cup bra, cus’ she wants bigger titties.” Kathy grinned, then squeezed her breasts together and shimmied a little. The band continued the song shouting out instead of “Cool Jerk”, shouting “Implants!… Lipo!… Eye-job!… Botox!” and Belinda sang, “Gimme some collagen!” They then got everybody dancing to “Beatnik Beach” before immediately going into their big hit, “We Got The Beat”. During the first few bars of it, we all knew what we were hearing and the entire audience bounced up and down to to beat in unison. They went into “Skidmarks” which went seamlessly into the final song of their set, another big hit, “Our Lips Are Sealed”. Incidentally, Tom Hanks was recently given “The Colbert Questionnaire” on the late night talk show host’s program and when asked what his favorite song was, he declared that it was that one, even reciting its first verse.

When the band came back for their second encore, Belinda took a moment to introduce the band saying that she needed a break to “catch my breath”. She looked over at Jane and said, “To my far left, the girl in the bra, she has no shit on. She’s trying to get attention. Any takers? Miss Jane Wiedlin”. Jane took a bow. Belinda then stood by Kathy and joked, “On my immediate left, the girl who wants bigger titties. Actually, I like her titties just the way they are.” Jane blurted out, “Don’t mess with Texas!”, a homage to Kathy’s home town of Austin, and Belinda said her name and Kathy also took a bow. Belinda strolled over to Charlotte on guitar and slyly purred, “On my right, she’s strong, she’s smart, she’s sexy. She’s a mother, a proud mother… motherfucka’…Miss Charlotte Caffey!” She took a bow too. Charlotte had just given birth to her only daughter Astrid in 1995 and her husband is none other than Jeff MacDonald from Redd Kross.

Finally, Belinda went back to the drum kit and asked, “Hey babe, can I have a cigarette? I always bum cigarettes off of Gina. Anyway, I know it’s not politically correct to smoke up here, so don’t follow my example. On drums, from Baltimore, Miss Gina Schock!” Gina stood from her drum stool, took a bow, handed Belinda a smoke from a pack she had, and they both lit one up. Then Jane took her mic and said, “Last but not least, the person who makes me laugh more than anyone else in the world, the incomparable, the beautiful, the eternally voluptuous, Belinda Carlisle!” Then they surprised me a bit, doing a rocking cover of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”, a tune made famous by the blockbuster film “Titanic” which had come out a couple years prior to this show. Like Berlin’s hit, “Take My Breath Away”, that song too won an Oscar for Best Song, not to mention a Golden Globe as well as sweeping the Grammies too. Come to think of it, this was probably the only show where I saw two different acts play an Oscar winning song each. Anyway, that tune morphed into “Johnny Are You Queer”, another song made famous in a film, that being “Valley Girl” with Nicolas Cage. Coincidentally, “Con Air” with Mr. Cage is playing on the TV right now as I write this.

Anyway, the show finally ended and I have to say that it was one of the best and most memorable I ever witnessed at the Maritime, or in my whole life for that matter. Like I said before, I got to set up Berlin’s gear four years later, but I heard of a embarrassing incident involving them just recently. They had the poor judgement of playing on New Year’s Eve at Mar-A-Lago immediately after Trump lost the election in 2020. If that wasn’t bad enough, they played alongside Vanilla Ice. Terri publicly apologized for showing up there afterwards and I guess I’d understand if she really, REALLY needed the money or if they were holding some her loved one’s hostage or something, but the damage is done. I felt bad for Vanilla Ice too, who I had recorded at the Maritime five months before this show and found him to be a very nice person.

It wouldn’t be long until I had the pleasure of seeing The Go-Go’s again for they would play a year later in Golden Gate Park at Sharon Meadows at the Alice’s Now & Zen Festival with Beck, Travis, and Tonic. I would however have to wait another eleven years until I would get a chance to catch them again, when they played The Fillmore, but sadly, I haven’t seen them since. They recently performed at the Masonic, but I had to miss it. I was able to catch their jukebox stage musical “Head Over Heels” a few years ago, scored entirely with songs from The Go-Go’s at the Curran theater before it moved on to Broadway. To add to the band’s accomplishments, I’m happy to say they were just inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame last year as well. So, as you might imagine, having this show under my belt remains one of the proudest moments of my career.

Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros, MXPX, Fill., SF, Tues., July 6, 1999

SETLIST : Digging The New, London Calling, X-Ray Style, White Man In Hammersmith Palais, Tony Adams, Straight To Hell, Rock The Casbah, Yallo Yallo, Brand New Cadillac, I Fought The Law, (encore), Techno D-Day On Omaha Beach, Tommy Gun, (encore), Down The Road, Forbidden City, Bankrobber

I missed my opportunity to see one and only Joe Strummer at The Warfield back in 1991 when he was filling in as the singer for The Pogues, the one time I could have seen him perform before this. I was however lucky enough to see Joe’s fellow Clash bandmate Mick Jones when he did a Warfield show that very same year with his band, Big Audio Dynamite II, though I can’t say I was a big fan of their music. The Pogues had temporarily lost their singer Shane MacGowan in 1991, leaving the band under the weight of his alcohol addiction and his attempt to have a solo career and was replaced by the band’s lead guitarist Philip Chevron. But then they had to have Joe pinch hit for Philip when he became ill. That Warfield show was over a year before I started ushering and frankly, I didn’t even hear about it happening until it was already over. I had grown up listening to The Clash, but had resigned myself to the fact that I’d never see them since they had disbanded in 1985. Joe had kept himself busy in the intervening years, writing music and even playing roles in Alex Cox’s movies such as “Sid & Nancy”, “Walker”, and “Straight To Hell”, a movie clearly named after his song which he also played at The Fillmore that night. Joe also had a bit part in Jim Jarmusch’s “Mystery Train”, playing a drunk who was pissed that everybody was calling him Elvis. But this time away from making records and touring, what he described as his “wilderness years”, would eventually come to a close with his new project, playing with The Mescaleros.

Joe had been struggling for years to get out of his contract with Epic Records and finally shook himself free of it in 1989 and immediately put out his first solo record, “Earthquake Weather” on Sony Records fronting a band he called the Latino Rockabilly War. But the album was such a commercial flop that he was quickly dropped by the label and then ten long years had passed before he was picked up again by Mercury, which he recorded the first Mescaleros album, “Rock Art & The X-Ray Style”, which would ultimately be released that October. So, we were all hearing his new material for the first time and were fortunate to hear five of his new tunes that night amongst his golden oldies. Opening that night were MXPX, a punk band from up north in Washington and like any young punk band, they were ecstatic to be opening for this pioneer of their genre. It’s not often most folks get to meet their heroes, much less collaborate with them professionally.

Speaking of meeting one’s heroes, I have to mention a cute story that happened with this show. By this time, my friend Liz Farrow, who would occasionally assist me recording at the Maritime, was working as a production assistant for BGP, and I had given her my old beat up Toyota Camry which she was using to run errands for them. As luck would have it, two days before this show on Independence Day, Liz was tasked to run down to the airport and retrieve Joe’s luggage which had been delayed and bring the luggage to his hotel room in Japantown, just up the hill from The Fillmore. I believe he was staying at the Kabuki. Anyway, Liz gets to his hotel room and Joe opens the door, taking the luggage with great relief from her and thanked Liz profusely. Apparently, he was so desperate to get them back since they contained his daughter’s Beanie Babies. They were all the rage back then.

Anyway, back to the show. MXPX played a spirited, though short set. The singer mentioned that we wouldn’t be seeing them for a while since they were about to record a new album which he claimed would probably be out in October. The album would be “The Ever Pressing Moment”, but wouldn’t actually come out until the following May. They did however release a live album exactly three weeks after this night called “At The Show”, recorded the year before at the 9:30 Club in D.C. I would see MXPX again five years later opening for Simple Plan at The Warfield. But the night belonged to Joe and his band and after eagerly awaiting him for what literally was my whole life up until then, the lights went down and he took the stage.

He opened with the appropriately titled, “Digging The New”, one fresh off the presses, but it didn’t take long for him to dust off “London Calling” immediately afterward. A couple songs later, they did “White Man In Hammersmith Palais” and Joe got a little miffed at the air conditioner blasting him on stage. It being the middle of summer, The Fillmore would crank it up then, but he wasn’t having it, shouting “Turn The AC off!” in the beginning of the song, then again “AC off!” between singing lines a little later. I assume they finally did since he didn’t complain about it after that. Afterwards, Joe introduced his band, describing his Scottish bass player Scott Shields as coming “from north of the border”. He then talked about the song “Tony Adams”, saying he wanted to “talk to the ladies if you don’t mind”. He went on explaining that back in the 1930’s, women’s soccer was so popular in England that their matches would command crowds of up to to 30 to 40 thousand fans, but “men got jealous” and “cancelled the whole show”, but was reassured that women’s soccer had a “modern lineage” and was thriving once again. Tony Adams, not to be confused with the Sinn Fein politician, was actually a ball player for Arsenal, but Joe said that the song wasn’t actually about him, claiming “it’s a song about going to a festival, losing your friends and losing your mind, and kind of enjoying it.”

Later, he riffed a bit between songs saying, “I’ve been hiding under a rock for 15 years. A lot of moss under there, ya? Anyway, I got some of the moss. I’ll have a look at the moss. Watch the way it slowly crept out of the edges of my cave, down onto the meadow, then it took over the meadow, and then it hit the hedge, then it hit the fence, then it hit the bridge, then it hit the ice rink. Then it took over the entire town and city beyond that, and then the country, then it took over the whole of Italy & Greece and all that shit. This moss is going places, so I decided to take this moss, get these honchos together, and get my ass on the road here!” The crowd roared with approval and then they began the instantly recognizable “Straight To Hell”. In the middle of the song, he got the audience to cheer again, shouting “Hey! We’re fuckin’ alive, ain’t we?!?”

A couple songs later, Joe dedicated his big hit, “Rock The Casbah” to Topper Headon, the drummer of The Clash. Following that, he did another new song, “Yallo Yallo”, and then introduced his cover of “Brand New Cadillac”, saying, “There’s only two British rock & roll songs. One is “Shakin’ All Over” by Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, OK? This is the other one by Vincent Taylor & The Playboys”. He finished the set with “I Fought The Law”, but soon came back for the first of two encores. The first song he did when he came back was a new one, “Techno D-Day”, which he was calling “Techno D-Day On Omaha Beach” then. Joe said that it was festival season in the UK and he was on one recently near a beach and he had brought his “incredible large calypso record collection” with him and when the cops came round to give the festival the third degree with their decibel meters, he would play them Harry Belafonte until they went away. Then they would blast their techno stuff with impunity. He finished the first encore with “Tommy Gun” but warned the crowd to “just be careful with the ladies up front here, mosh-heads.”

For the second and final encore, they did a couple more new ones, “Down The Road” and “Forbidden City”, before finishing with the classic, “Bankrobber”. I’m happy to say that The Fillmore made a cool poster for the occasion, featuring a bright red cartoon slot machine, adorned with flames and a devil’s head with a martini beside it. Damn good thing they had a poster too, since when Joe returned to play The Fillmore two years later, there wasn’t one. I’m so glad I also caught that show in 2001, since Joe would die of a heart attack a year afterward just a couple months after his 50th birthday. I almost didn’t make it to that last show too. Though my brother did take me to the Big Audio Dynamite II show back in ’91, he missed Joe when he played with the Pogues and both Fillmore shows, which I know he regrets. We all thought Joe would be around forever, but we all found out about his congenital heart defect when it was all too late.

Jamiroquai, Union Square, SF, Sun., July 4, 1999

SETLIST : High Times, Alright, Space Cowboy, Soul Education, Virtual Insanity, Planet Home, Supersonic, Miss You, Getting Down, Too Young To Die, Black Capricorn Day, Light Years, Deeper Underground, (encore), Canned Heat

It is a very rare occasion when a show takes place on Independence Day, partially I think that venue employees would likely get holiday pay. But this was one of those rare shows where it did. To make it even rarer it was one of those free shows put on in Union Square and I’m afraid the last of such shows put on there, or at least the last one I would see. Union Square got renovated shortly after this and though they would host occasional music, dance, and whatnot, it never was any bands of note, none that would remotely draw a crowd like this one. I think the only other free Union Square show I saw was Lush back in 1992. And like that glorious show, Jamiroquai also packed the place front to back. I would say around 8,000 people would be a fair estimate. It had been two years since I’d see Mr. Jason Kay play at The Warfield. Though his big hit, “Virtual Insanity” had been out for a while, he clearly was still a big draw. Researching this, I discovered that there even was an official Jamiroquai wall calendar made that year.

So, the crowd went nuts as he took the stage in one of his trademark big hats. I believe this time it was a big. black furry one. He had quite a few musicians with him, changing in and out for solos, at least eleven of them. After a few songs, he joked about it being the 4th of July saying, “Well, my my, it’s a good job that over 200 years ago you got away from us or else you’d have police with big tits on their head carrying truncheons. Then you’d be eating sandwiches and talking like me and drinking cups of tea, doing all that thing.” He went on, “started off this morning and there were three people right up front.” Someone in the crowd obviously got his attention and he laughed, “Hey! That’s a nice ass but can you put it away till later? Please, put that ass away!” Unfortunately, this was one of those cases where my batteries started running out in the middle of the show, so the recording speeds up gradually until I finally replaced them in time for the encore. Still, even sped up, Jamiroquai’s diction is so excellent, that I had no trouble deciphering his lyrics and getting all the song titles.

After the first four songs, he did his aforementioned big hit and then he pointed to the large building on his right and joked, “Oh my God! There’s somebody robbing the underpants from Macy’s!” A couple songs later, he did a rather respectable cover of “Miss You” by The Rolling Stones, obviously a big influence on his work. During “Get Down”, Jamiroquai had someone join him on stage to do a jazzy flute solo. For “Deeper Underground”, the last song of the set, he introduced it by asking, “Did anybody see ‘Godzilla’?” The guy to my right immediately blurted out, “Yeah. I didn’t like it.” Yes, the Matthew Broderick movie put out the previous summer was a critical failure and barely made the money back to pay for its bloated production. Jamiroquai quipped, “I only heard it for about three seconds in a bar scene. Oh my God! That’s huge! Look out behind you!” Just as well, I suppose. That movie is best forgotten. Anyway, it was an upbeat song and it was unique that he brought out a didgeridoo player for that one.

Jamiroquai came back for one more song for his encore, saying, “I would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors for the last five to six years, Levi Strauss.” Incidentally, Levi’s was founded in San Francisco if you didn’t know. He continued, “This tune, hopefully we can remember. There’s like five different versions of it. We do know what we’re doing, don’t we?” They then tore into “Canned Heat”, a brilliant disco tune, even getting the crowd to do a few high pitched “Woo Woo” chants for a bit. Everybody was dancing joyfully and clapping as he pumped us up shouting, “Party people, do you feel alright?!? Put your hands together!” They got a rousing round of applause and calls for more songs at the end, but that was it. He waved goodbye and said, “San Diego, next stop! We’ll see you sometime later on!” Sadly though, this would be the last time I’d see him play. Jamiroquai made the ill fated decision to join the bill at the catastrophic Woodstock ’99 less than three weeks after this show. He understandably took a break from music for a while after that, but has since returned to touring and writing new material. Maybe I’ll get another chance someday.

Sunny Day Real Estate, Mike Watt & The Black Gang, Sunset Valley, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., July 3, 1999

It had been only eight months since I taped Sunny Day at the Hall for the first time, but I was happy to see them again. I enjoyed their unique, sophisticated music and I remember that our front of house engineer, James Shaw, was a fan as well. James was a talented guy and a bit of a smart alec, and though I’m sure he thought very little of my skills as a sound man, probably and rightfully so, I still admired him. But it is always a ringing endorsement when a sound guy likes your stuff. Anyway, Sunny Day were still touring supporting their last album, “How It Feels To Be Something On”, so it basically was the same show as before. It would be the last time I’d see them live since they would break up two years later, though they would have a brief reunion in 2009 which I missed. And as I think I mentioned last time, they wouldn’t use any of my recordings for an album, particularly since they already had one in the can from their show that May at The Breakroom in Seattle, their home town.

One good thing about this gig was that I got to tape master bass player and songwriter extraordinaire Mike Watt. From Firehose, to playing with Porno For Pyros, to his solo work and beyond, Mike was a tireless musical workhorse. I mean, the list of his collaborations even by then all those years ago was impressive. This time he was touring with a band he called The Black Gang. And like his demeanor on stage, Mike was genuinely nice to me when I handed him his tapes at the end of set. The man is like a ray of sunshine. Anybody who doesn’t like Mr. Watt is not worth knowing. So, it was sad to hear a year later that he came down with a nasty infection in his perineum. For those who don’t know what that is, well… there’s no way to put this delicately. It was his taint. There, I said it. It put him out of commission for a while, but I’m happy to report that he recovered and went on to continue making music. I would get to see him again three years later opening for Mission Of Burma at The Fillmore. Then, he was touring with a new band he called The Secondmen, an obvious parody of his first band, The Minutemen.

Lost At Last, DJ Adam & Gamma Ray, Gabe Real / Miss E, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., June 26, 1999

It had been only six months since hippie fusion rock band Lost At Last played the Hall, that time backing beat poet Terence McKenna. They were the opening act then for Jai Uttal, but they were back this time as the headliner and since I already went through their backstory before, I’ll just get on with it. The show was being listed as a benefit for the Climate Theater, but the tickets were still pretty cheap, being only $15. This was clearly a crusty crowd, all steam-punk, (mostly) young hippies gearing up for Burning Man. Indeed, the MC of the evening spoke of it which I’ll get into later. Among the drummers standing in the crowd beating their harnessed toms and snares, fellow revelers had erected a cloth banner in the form of a hornless, devilish face between two poles and held aloft. The mouth of the face was agape and large enough for several people to fit through and served as sort of a portal to and from their strange hippie realm. One of the drummers had a black furry hat with horns on it, reminiscent of Fred Flintstone when he attended his Loyal Order Of Water Buffalos gatherings.

The MC emerged eventually from the mouth of the giant face and addressed the crowd, his wireless handheld mic at first not working, but eventually turned on and brought up to a decent volume. He was quite a theatrical young man, clad in a tall burgundy top hat and matching waistcoat, definitely looking like he just stepped out of the Edwardian era. He spoke boldly saying, “Welcome!” a bunch of times, his voice growing louder each time until he was yelling. He went on, “Ladies & gentlemen, boys & girls, welcome to white heat, white lights! A techno tribal ritual and celebration” then saying under his breath, “Whatever the hell that is.”

He continued, “We tonight are a celebration, a family of diverse communities that have come together to give you a taste of our revels in the desert. But on the night of September 4th, 1999, just a few short months away from…” then his voice delved into deep drone, “the millennium!”, his voice then returning to normal, “an estimated twenty to twenty five thousand people will gather in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.” Somebody cheered, “Rock City!” and the MC confirmed, ”Yes, Rock City! You said it right and our city’s so big! It’s a city, is it not? It has to be a city. It’s so large our celebration this year is going to take the form of a clock and at the center of our clock, there will stand a lone figure, a lone figure that waits this moment each year, attended by everyone, his consumption by glorious flame! Let me hear you say Amen!”

The crowd cheered and he kept preaching, “Oh yeah, Amen! And brothers and sisters, let me hear you say Amen when I say that heroes die to be reborn! Ladies & gentlemen, boys & girls, brothers & sisters, I have good new for you. Tonight, we are that hero!” His voice then immediately dropped and muttered quickly, “slash heroine”, then returning to normal, “And together in the circle we shall be initiated, together in that circle”, then dropping to a whisper, “we shall be reborn.” His voice shot up, “We are the circle! We are the tellers and tell-E’s! We are the story! If it’s a story, what kind of story is it?” He scanned the crowd listening as they shouted out random answers and pointed about until fixing on one person, “Yes, anybody? What is that? Ding! Ding! Ding! You won the prize. Dark Angel, please?”

A slender, dark haired goth lady emerged on stage and presented the one in the crowd who guessed “Love Story” a stuffed polka dotted elephant. The MC smiled and said, “We aim to please at the Resurrection show. Oh, you win this lovely prize. But wait, there’s more! You get an autographed picture of me! Oh yeah, check out those pants. So friends, if it’s a love story, don’t we need a couple of lovers? Do we have any lovers here?” He pointed to a pretty, young girls on stage in a cloth, white dress and said, “Why you, yes indeed. I believe you fit the bill quite perfectly.” A couple ladies on stage sat on stools and started singing a high pitched “Hoooooo” in harmony while one of them played an acoustic guitar and was eventually joined in by another fellow with them also on guitar.

The young woman in white was joined in the center of the dance floor by a young shirtless man wearing matching white, cloth trousers and together they did a sort of “love dance”, undulating and embracing each other. But their semi-erotic gyrations were soon interrupted when they found themselves surround by some black clad dancers bearing torches and others with long sticks protruding from their fingers and aflame on their ends. They encircled the lovers clearly now in distress and all the while the MC kept ranting on. The male dancer finally made his way to the mouth of the face banner and crept towards it, at first blocked by a couple guys with crossed swords in his way. The dancer eventually got past them and then the MC invited everybody in the audience to “follow into the underworld”. Shuffling through a few people at a time, the crowd passed though the mouth and then there was more drumming and people dancing with torches. Seriously, if the Fire Marshall was there and I can’t say if he was, he would have a conniption seeing all this fire lunacy going on. As far as I know, there were no injuries. Coincidentally, Rammstein had just performed at the Hall with their usual impressive arsenal of pyrotechnics six days before this, but we couldn’t record them because they had brought their own monitor board again and we couldn’t get the hook up to tape.

Anyway, back to the show. A single smart light fixture had been set out in the middle of the dance floor and was lit up, projecting a swirling cone of white upwards to the ceiling through the thick cloud from the fog machines, burning sage, and marijuana smoke. As the MC droned on asking stuff like, “Would you die for love?”, the speakers started blasting this long, ambient keyboard intro that I’d hear Moby use for opening his sets after that year. Two performers on stilts emerged from the mouth of the face banner, dressed in a futuristic armored looking outfit, lined with pulsating, colorful, thin, bendable light snakes. On their heads were similarly lined, long bike helmets, reminiscent of the heads of H.R. Giger’s Aliens. They stomped and danced about looking like extras from “Tron”, thankfully given enough room from the revelers as they not get knocked over.

After they lumbered away, a bunch of young men and women in white togas emerged, who I like to call The Lone Tree Worshippers, an obscure in joke with some old friends that I won’t delve into. They were true commune types, doing their sort of dance around the maypole thing with the light on the floor and one by one the band started taking the stage. It started out real slow with them, the band accompanied by a young, female dancer in a white veil swaying like a hypnotized cobra to the drone of the band. Finally, their singer, Jaya Lakshmi, came out with her cropped, blonde hair, white tank top, and painted colored dots on her face and midriff that glowed under black lights shining on stage. The others in the band were similarly adorned as they were the last time I saw them play at the Hall. The songs eventually picked up the pace and more fire dancers came out on the floor, this time with a couple shirtless guys spinning around short staffs with fire on the end like Darth Maul. The face banner had been disassembled by then and a couple white cloth, conical tee pees were erected on the dance floor, each lit up from inside. The shirtless fire dancers spinning their staffs were joined by another one, a bald fellow in a black body suit with white striped sleeves.

Seriously, I liked these guys. It wasn’t just this strange, bacchanalian scene. Lost At Last could play and was easy to dance to. It wasn’t often you’d see a harmonium in a live band either. That instrument makes any song sound like a gypsy tune. They also had a shirtless guy on stage who dinged a triangle and the drummer had glowing drumsticks. But I believe this was the last time I’d see Lost At Last perform. Jaya still sings and plays harmonium to this day, doing music and yoga with a fellow named Ananda Yogiji, performing at new age music & art festivals and hippie yoga retreats all over the west and Hawaii. Guitarist Deva Priyo still plays with a band called Gypsy Moon as well. The show was a sight to see that night and like Crash Worship, is one of those things I’d like to show unassuming folks from parts elsewhere if they’re curious to see an example of a typical night’s entertainment in the city by the bay.

Rahzel, Phife Dawg, Bukue One, Maroon Descendants, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., June 25, 1999

I had been no stranger to the talents of beat box master Rahzel, having recorded him four times already at the Hall with The Roots, but this would be the first time he’d play there as a solo act. Little did I know that some of his vocal handiwork that night would be used in his debut solo album, “MTM 2000”, the following year, MTM standing for “make the music”. Yes, Rahzel took six whole snippets from the show that night and used them as interludes between studio tracks, consisting of tracks 1, 3, 6, 8,11, and 13 on the album, the tracks titled, “The Human Beat Box”, Super Dee Jay”, “Just The Beginning”, “For The Ladies”, “Wu Tang Live”, and “If Your Mother Only Knew” respectively. Unfortunately, my name was left out of the credits, simply stating that each track was written and produced by Rahzel M. Brown for Rahzel Enterprises Inc. and recorded at Maritime Hall, San Francisco. At least we got the venue and city. But I’ll talk about those tracks later. I would get to record Rahzel one final time five months later with The Roots at the Hall, but that would be the last time, indeed the final show that I would record at the Hall with Pete as my partner. I’ll get into that one when I reach November as well, a whole other story to be sure.

A couple more more incidental tidbits before moving on, good ol’ Rammstein had played the Hall with Soulfly five days before this, but once again they brought their monitor board and we could get a hook up to tape, so I skipped it. In hindsight, I should have at least watched the show, but I’d seen them both twice in the last two years, recording Soulfly both times they played the Hall, and decided to get my beauty sleep that night. Also Echo & The Bunnymen were originally listed on the monthly poster to play that night, but for some reason didn’t make it, though they would play the Maritime four months later and I was overjoyed to record that one.

On a sad note, this would be the final time I’d see Phife Dawg from Tribe Called Quest when he was alive. He had his well documented falling out with Q-Tip the year before bringing Tribe Called Quest to an acrimonious end for the time being and he was on his own, doing solo work as well as Rahzel. He would also release his debut album the following year, titled “Ventilation : Da LP”, but he would use no tracks I recorded on this gig. Poor Phife was already dealing with the debilitating symptoms of diabetes and he would require a kidney transplant in 2008 which coincidentally he had performed at UCSF just up the street from where I’m writing this now. That transplant would ultimately fail requiring him to get another in 2012, but he would ultimately succumb to his condition and pass away four years later.

The good news is that he and Q-Tip made amends and even toured again briefly in an effort to help pay for his medical bills, but their collaboration wouldn’t last, deteriorating personally once again all too quickly. It’s a pity. Phife was a talented rapper and knew how to please a crowd. Also opening that night and I’m glad to say is still alive and well was Bukue One AKA Tion Torrence. He was billed simply as Bukue as Phife Dawg was simply listed as Phife that show, most likely once again another all too common mistake Boots made in the ad listing. The show was added too late to make it to the monthly poster in time. Bukue One was brand new then as well, releasing his debut album “Lastarfighta” the year before. Hailing from the nebulous region between Berkeley and Oakland, his father was also a musician, once singing back up in Marvin Gaye’s touring band.

Though it was a pretty decent sized crowd, I don’t believe it was sold out. Like I said before, Rahzel did some funny interludes throughout the night between songs including an homage to the Wu Tang Clan called “Wu Tang Live” on the album. Rahzel has the uncanny talent to do beat box or rap and hum a melody of a song simultaneously and he did so there, covering “Wu Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin’ To F’ Wit”. He also did some video game noises from “Mortal Kombat”, finishing with, “Scorpion wins! Fatality!” But the big hit, which would end up as the last song on the album and ultimately his signature song was “If Your Mother Only Knew”. There he would do the beat and the chorus at the same time, but pause in the middle to challenge the crowd, asking them “Ya all think I ain’t doin’ that shit? You don’t think I’m doin’ that shit? You think there’s some other shit goin’ on? I’m gonna slow it down a bit. I’m gonna slow it down a little bit so you can hear the pronunciation on everything I’m saying.” He then started back up, this time doing the song slower, rasping out the sexy line of the song title, inexplicably and seamlessly between his beats. The crowd was amazed and I was too. On the album, there is a pause afterwards on that last track leaving a couple minutes of silence before revealing a hidden track at the end where Rahzel teams up with Kenny Muhammed The Human Orchestra to do a beat box battle with DJ Skribble & DJ Slinky. It was a funny bit, also filled with kung fu fighting sound bites. Seriously, there are very few people in the world who can do what Rahzel does, which makes me all the more proud that my stuff ended up on his album, especially it being his first album. Like I said, Rahzel would return one more time to the Maritime with The Roots that November, but he would soon leave the band for good and fellow beat box expert Scratch would go too in 2003.

Zebrahead, The Pilfers, Speak No Evil, Papa Roach, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., June 12, 1999

SETLIST (PAPA ROACH) : Snakes, Walking Through Barbed Wire, Infest, Revenge, July, Broken Home, Legacy, Thrown Away

Pete had surprised me the night before showing up for Meat Beat Manifesto, being neither hippie nor reggae music and thus having little interest to him, but I knew I had the Zebrahead show to myself. Come to think of it, I don’t think he ever recorded any of the punk or punkish shows at the Hall. Zebrahead had been at the Maritime before opening for Far the previous July and I got that one too. They were good then as they were on this occasion, but neither show sold well, the balcony closed off and the floor less than half full. It was the best and worst of times for that band in 1999. They were at the height of their popularity, but were dealt the heartbreaking news of one of their singers, Ali Tabatabaee’s diagnosis of Hodgkin’s Disease right in the middle of the Warped Tour which they had joined shortly after this show. The good news is that after enduring chemo and radiation, Ali recovered and even continued writing music throughout this ordeal. The new songs would come out the following year with their new album, “Playmate Of The Year”. I would see Zebrahead one more time seven years later opening for Reel Big Fish at The Warfield, but this would be the last time I’d record them at the Hall.

This would also be the last time I’d record a band I’d grown infinitely familiar with at the Maritime, Papa Roach. Believe it or not, this would be the FIFTH time I’d tape those guys, easily making them the band I taped the most there. Well, Zero comes in a close second at four, but Pete was at the helm for three of those, though we could have done more of Zero’s shows if we didn’t get so sick of them. But that’s another story which I’ve already been over. In fact, I saw Papa Roach the last four times they opened for bands at the Hall in merely eight months. And yes, as I also mentioned before about them, they were just on the cusp of becoming big with their triple platinum, major label debut with Dreamworks, “Infest”, which had the hit single, “Last Resort”. But I would have one more time to hear them do their thing, the first of four bands playing to the handful of their buddies from up north in Vacaville up in front and an otherwise nearly empty Hall.

They didn’t phone it in and they never did. Whatever you might feel about them and their music, I am proud of Papa Roach. They got big, but they worked for it and I like to think that their frequent appearances at the Hall helped play a small part in their success. We were lucky to hear them perform four of the new songs that night, half their set, almost a year before their new album would be released. I’m glad I kept the recording for this last show, especially since it is the only one I have. Their singer, Jacoby Shaddix, came out in a matching earth toned, short sleeved, collared shirt and slacks, making him look a little like a UPS employee. But he sang his ass off as always, committed to his performance. Just before singing “July”, he joked, “Don’t be afraid to look like a dipshit since I’m on stage doing it.”

After that song, Jacoby leapt into the crowd at the beginning of “Broken Home”, but his arm accidentally clotheslined a young woman up front as he descended. He hugged her and apologized at the end of the tune saying, “I’m so sorry! I just pummeled this lady. I guess you should expect some flamboyancy and abuse when you come to a Papa Roach show.” He went on laughing, “You don’t know if I’m going to kick you or give you a hug. Maybe I’ll kick you AND I’ll give you a hug!… I think you’re all just jealous cus’ the voices are just talking to me inside my head.” He mentioned that they were playing in their home town of Vacaville at an all day festival with eight other bands soon and then strangely undid his belt, tucked in his shirt, refastened the belt and pulled it up to chest like an old man. Jacoby then bellowed, “This song is dedicated to every last motherfucker who wants to flip the fuck out with me and if you don’t, I’m gonna rip your fuckin’ hair out!” They finished with what would be the last song on their next album, “Thrown Away”, and after a short, but fun filled 37 minutes, they were gone and on their way. I would see Papa Roach a couple more times at Shoreline in 2001 as one of the opening acts at Ozzfest and a year later there headlining Live 105’s BFD. Yep, that’s how fast they got big.

They would be followed by the L.A. metal band called Speak No Evil, brand new having just released their first self titled album that year. This would be the only time I’d see them since sadly their guitarist Lee Rios died in a bike accident fifteen years later in Miami. Sadly, this would be the only time I’d see the following band, The Pilfers, a band that really impressed me. They were also new with a self titled album, led by former Toasters singer, Coolie Ranx. The “raggacore” band were just about to release their major label debut on Mojo Records, “Chawalaleng”, and as I hoped for every band I recorded at the Maritime, prayed that they would use some of my stuff for a CD or DVD. They didn’t, though they had tried to put together a live album from a show they did at CBGB’s which was never released and they split up in 2001, briefly reforming again seven years later.

Meat Beat Manifesto, Dub Pistols, DJ Hive, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., June 11, 1999

It was a great disappointment to me that we couldn’t record Buddy Guy the night before this show. Though a completely different scene stylistically, coming in this night to do Meat Beat Manifesto helped soothe the loss of that one. Granted, Buddy had plenty of live material under his belt, but to have that legend amongst our list of talent recorded at the Hall would have been special, particularly since it was a safe bet that his buddy Carlos Santana would have likely shown up to jam with him. I can’t say whether he showed or not, though I have seen him play with Buddy before this. Opener Angela Strehli has quite an impressive singing voice and at least we had recorded Legion Of Mary previously. I believe this was around the time my future friend Frank Gallagher was touring as Buddy’s soundman, but I would become acquainted with the venerable Scotchman until a few years later.

I myself had recorded Meat Beat Manifesto only six months before they returned once again to the Maritime when they were part of the Electronica Hanukkuh, an all night festival which they were one of the middle acts. They had gotten a fair amount of time on stage that night, but this time, they were headlining and got a proper set. I was a little surprised that Pete would show up to this one to record since he had little to no interest in the genre. Things were looking good for MBM around that time. They had just won a Bammie for Outstanding Electronic Album that March and had their song “Prime Audio Soup” in the soundtrack for “The Matrix” which also came out that month. One of the openers, DJ Hive, a drum and bass artist from L.A. also had his song, “Ultrasonic Sound” in that soundtrack too. He just goes by the name Hive now, perhaps to not be confused with another DJ Hive who lives in Honduras. After watching the recent reboot of the film series with “The Matrix : Resurrections” that came out this year, I was reminded of the impact that movie and its soundtrack lent credibility to the genre to both the film and music history.

Another opener on the bill that night were the Dub Pistols, a group from jolly old England. They were still pretty new then, having just released their first album the year before, but they too would have a song put on the soundtrack of a major motion picture that year, the song “Keep On Movin’” in the film “Mystery Men” which came out that August. Like the show the night before, there would be another future friend in the house that night, Mark Pistel, who had replaced Jon Wilson in MBM and was touring regularly with the band. I wouldn’t become friends with Mark until around fifteen years later when he started doing work for IATSE with me, but when we did meet, he remembered that night as well as the Electronica Hanukkah. Brilliant man, Mark. He and the band were still touring, playing songs from their most recent album, “Actual Sounds & Voices” which came out the previous June, so the mostly played the same stuff I had heard the last time they were there. Pete as always made the mix stellar and there was plenty of strobe lights and fog machine action upstairs from us. Those guys made great music, impossible not to dance to. People forget with the almost universal presence of electronic music these days around the world that there were early pioneers such as Meat Beat Manifesto and they deserve credit.

Guinness Fleadh ’99: Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, John Lee Hooker, Golden Gate Park Polo Fields, SF, Sat., June 5, 1999

SETLISTS :

(BEN HARPER & THE INNOCENT CRIMINALS) : Gold To Me – Fight For Your Mind, Burn One Down, The Will To Live, Faded, Roses From My Friends, Ground On Down, Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

(ELVIS COSTELLO) : Accidents Will Happen, The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes, Talking In The Dark, Toledo, (I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea, New Amsterdam – You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Any King’s Shilling, Oliver’s Army, Everyday I Write The Book, I Still Have That Other Girl, Veronica, God’s Comic, Alison, Long Journey Home, (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love & Understanding, (encore), Pump It Up

(VAN MORRISON) : Moondance, Days Like This, Cleaning Windows, Vanlose Stairway – Trans-Euro Train, Help Me, Philosopher’s Stone, Naked In The Jungle, In The Afternoon – Joe Turner sings – Don’t You Make Me High – Sex Machine, Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven When You Smile), Georgia (On My Mind), Precious Time, See Me Through – Burning Ground, Gloria – Pretty Thing

Shows at the Golden Gate Park Polo fields came and went, usually no more than one a year, but this was a compelling one. It was being labeled as the “Guinness Fleadh”, the first word there obviously the festival’s sponsor, the second, the Gaelic word for “Festival”. This would be the first of four Fleadhs put on in America that year, the next three put on in Chicago, Boston, and New York City with a variety of acts taking turns on each bill. Luckily, we were spared having to endure Hootie & The Blowfish at this one. I had taken a particular fancy to attending since the headliner was Van Morrison, a musician revered globally and practically worshipped in the whole of Ireland, north and south. His reputation for having a quick temper and frankly being a bit of a prick proceeded him, but when taken in account with his undeniable talent, one can easily forgive him for his lack of social graces. Having never met him much less see him perform before, I cannot confirm or deny these allegations and as the years pass, I tend to lend such rumors less and less credence anyway. The other draw to this bill would be the penultimate act, Elvis Costello, whom I was already a big fan and had seen live before. Though his father was of Irish decent and his birth name was Declan Patrick MacManus, Elvis was actually born in London and spent his childhood and teenage years growing up in jolly old England.

Then again, there was virtually nothing Irish about Ben Harper and John Lee Hooker who preceded them both on the bill that day. I like to think if one ingests enough Guinness, they’d turn a bit Irish, at least temporarily. One act who was supposed to play that day was Shane MacGowan, arguably a man that was TOO Irish, if there could be such a thing. Sadly, Shane couldn’t make it being stranded somewhere with visa problems. He did make it to the Fleadh in Chicago 12 days later, but I wouldn’t have been able to see him anyway since he would have headlined the side stage and I was too dug in up at the main stage to catch Van Morrison. I’d already seen Shane at The Fillmore in 1995 and would see him play there twice more in 2000 and the following year with his band, The Popes, so no terrible loss, though I do appreciate that toothless git. Van Morrison’s daughter, Shana, who had been living in Marin county for years already, was also there on the second stage, but I believe she joined her dad later at his set to sing back up vocals for a bit.

Though I had received comp tickets for the show, it was still unlike me to arrive late, especially a festival with so much talent, but I was that day for reasons I don’t remember, missing both Moxy Fruvous and The Cardigans. I’d at least seen the latter twice before at The Warfield, but I was mortified that I only caught the last song of John Lee Hooker. Despite the fact that this would be the fourth time I’d see him play, I knew at his advanced age, at least 80 by then, though the actual year of his birth is disputable, that his days were numbered. My fears would be realized when he would pass away two years later, confirming this as the last time I’d see him alive. Brief as it was, I’m glad I caught a glimpse of him one final time. He would be ably followed by Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, an act that I’d gotten to know well, seeing him once every single year since I’d first see him open for Luscious Jackson in 1994. He always delivers and did again that day, sporting a yellow Toots & The Maytals shirt. Ben shredding on his pedal steel guitar is an ideal act for the middle of a festival like he did at the Mountain Aire festival the year before and I have yet to meet anybody who didn’t like his music. He did a smoking cover of Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” that afternoon.

It had been three years since I saw Elvis Costello at The Fillmore, but he was still touring with just him and Steve Nieve, the piano player from his old band The Attractions. He had been going through a bit of a transitional period, having just left his old label, Warner Brothers, and moving on to Polygram. Also, his marriage to Cait O’Riordan was dissolving, their divorce finalized two years later. The good news was that he was in the mood to branch out to new things, beginning with a new collaboration with celebrated singer/songwriter Burt Bacharach. Elvis and Burt even performed “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” together in the film comedy “Austin Powers : The Spy Who Shagged Me” that year. Elvis would also appear in the comedy “200 Cigarettes” that year as well. Pity Burt wasn’t with him that day. That would have been a hoot. At least he played “Toledo” a few songs into his set from the “Painted From Memory” album he did with Burt, a song Elvis described as being “about a man who betrayed his lover and he’ll do anything, anything known to man, only to man, to delay his confession.” He also did “I Still Have That Other Girl” from that album, introducing it as “a song about a guy who wants to give in to temptation. Have any of you given into temptation?… I know you’re very pure out there. This guy wants to give into temptation, but he still has something on his mind.” I got the feeling that this last album he did with Burt was more than just a little venting about the breakup of his marriage.

Also that year, Elvis contributed a song with Paddy Moloney from The Chieftains called “Long Journey Home” to the Grammy winning soundtrack for the PBS miniseries, “The Irish In America : Long Journey Home”, and he played that song near the end of his set. Lastly, if that wasn’t enough, Elvis appeared on the 25th anniversary special of “Saturday Night Live” that year, parodying his infamous abrupt switch of songs he did on that show in 1977, causing him to be banned from the show for another twelve years. Rumor has it show producer Lorne Michaels gave him the finger all the way through his performance. But this time, twenty two years later, he interrupted the Beastie Boys singing “Sabotage” and then they backed him up as he once again played “Radio Radio”. He didn’t play that song at the Fleadh, though he did dust off a satisfying number of golden oldies after being first introduced by some DJ from KFOG starting with “Accidents Will Happen” and then “Angels Want To Wear My Red Shoes”. He surprised us a little when he passionately covered the Beatles’ “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” in the middle of performing “New Amsterdam”.

Elvis also did a funny little breakdown in the middle of “God’s Comic”, saying “I have to tell you this song came to me in a dream! I dreamed I saw the almighty being and he was bestride a giant (what sounded like) Bertram water van full of tropical fish, a glass of Tang in one hand and (something unintelligible) in the other, looking for the lost episode of ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. Looking down at everything we’ve done with creation and boy is he pissed off, particularly in the field of popular entertainment. And the almighty held himself up by his mighty elbows and he said, ‘Elvis?’ and I said, ‘Uh-huh.’, ‘cus he’s a little behind in the times. He says ‘there’s a fellow up in heaven called Elvis and he sings all the time. It’s so sad that he died so young. Just think if he had lived a little bit longer, all of the wonderful songs he could have recorded.” Then he paused, kept riffing a little with Steve before singing, “Her name is Rio and she dances in the sand!” That got chuckle and somebody out in the crowd shouted up to him that they loved him in which he replied, “I love you too… The almighty says you’re OK”. He finished up his set with “(What’s So Funny) ‘Bout Peace, Love, & Understanding”, trading in his acoustic guitar for an electric for that one and brought it back for an encore, doing “Pump It Up”.

It was better late than never that I finally got to see Van Morrison. Hard to believe that by the time I set eyes on him, he had already put out his 27th studio album, “Back On Top” and this was almost 23 years ago. He’s done fifteen more studio albums since then. I was actually kind of struck on how Van looked, almost an amorphous everyman, partially because he hid a little behind his dark sunglasses, charcoal hat, and coat. It almost felt like he was incognito, like he was in the witness protection program or something, trying to blend in with his large band, horn section and all. Furthermore, he wasn’t much for chatting between songs, apart from the occasional “Thank You”. Strictly business for Van. But he opened his set with a song everybody on Earth was familiar with, “Moondance”, quickly reminding us all that we knew this guy’s work at least. And there was no hiding or a hint of reluctance in his voice, intensely soulful and strong.

I was relieved that he had the good taste not to play the ubiquitous “Brown Eyed Girl”, a song that is downright compulsory in weddings and karaoke nights alike. Van did however bust out the oldie “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven When You Smile)”, a song I originally knew from Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ cover they performed on the UK comedy series, “The Young Ones”. In my usual youthful ignorance, I thought that was Dexy’s song up until just before then. He also played a rather unexpected bit of James Brown’s “Sex Machine” in the middle of “Don’t You Make Me High” as well as a respectful cover of Ray Charles’ “Georgia (On My Mind)”. One tune that was unmistakably his alone was “Gloria” which they ended their set with and Van introduced it saying that it was “a song ripped off from ‘You Pretty Thing’ by Bo Diddley”. Coincidentally, I had just seen Bo only three months before this opening for Tom Petty at The Fillmore and as luck would have it, Tom ended his show with “Gloria” as well. This unfortunately would be the only Guinness Fleadh I’d see, though I would get to see Van Morrison one more time at The Warfield a year and half later. I strolled through the thick fog out of the park at the end hearing the recording of “What A Wonderful World” sung by Louis Armstrong over the speakers.

Blondie, Dangerman, War., SF, Sun., May 30, 1999

SETLIST : Dreaming, Hanging On The Telephone, Screaming Skin, Atomic, Union City Blues, Shayla, Sunday Girl, Maria, Call Me, The Tide Is High, In The Flesh, Boom Boom In The Zoom Zoom Room, Rapture, One Way Or Another, (encore), Heart Of Glass

I’d been waiting for this one a long time, all my life really. From as long as I could remember, I looked upon the visage and heard the siren song of one Miss Debbie Harry and like Olivia Newton-John and Daisy Duke, I was irresistibly drawn to her, but had no idea why. It wouldn’t be until March of 1997 that I would first set eyes upon her in person when she would perform alongside the Jazz Passengers at The Fillmore. There, I would hear but one Blondie song, that being a bebop rendition of “One Way Or Another”. So, you could imagine my elation when I heard that not only were the seminal New York band at long last touring again, but they were going to grace the stage of The Warfield. Though I was just shy of 27 and Debbie was turning 53 years old that year, but you’d better believe that I would have still gladly volunteered to become her love slave for the rest of my days if she’d asked me that night.

It had been sixteen long years since they had toured together and with the release of their new album, “No Exit”, that February, Blondie had embarked on a thirteen month tour. Their long hiatus happened for many reasons, but one was quite serious, being that of guitarist Chris Stein’s health problems. Not only was he recovering from years of drug and alcohol addiction, but he had contracted pemphigus vulgaris, a rare autoimmune disease of the skin. This heinous condition caused a number of debilitating symptoms, most obvious being skin blisters, but that wasn’t the least of it. This condition used to be 90% fatal, but with recent treatments, had reduced mortality down to 5-15%. So, with Chris’ recovery, he would once again take his place next to his former girlfriend and devoted bandmate. Stein also had the good fortune that year to get married to actress Barbara Sicuranza, whom he would later sire two daughters with.

Drummer Clem Burke had been keeping busy in the intervening years playing with an impressive list of reputable acts including The Romantics, Pete Townshend, Bob Dylan, The Eurythmics, Dramarama, The Fleshtones, Iggy Pop, and Joan Jett. It wouldn’t be until around this time that I grew to not only appreciate Clem as a drummer, but just how important a drummer is to a band in general. Indeed, in my opinion, many bands can be good, but they will never be great unless they have a good drummer and go so far to proclaim them the very bedrock foundation of any group. Blondie had also brought Jimmy Destri, their old keyboard player along with them as well. Debbie pointed out after they played “Sunday Girl” that show that Jimmy “has quite a history in San Francisco”, having an “infatuation or defatuation” with the town. His sister Donna used to sing backing vocals for Blondie back in the day, though she wasn’t along for the tour this time and Jimmy would ultimately leave the band again in 2004 to become a alcohol and addictions counselor.

As you can imagine, the show sold out quickly. I had never heard Dangerman, the lone opening act of the evening, but I was impressed by them, especially by Chris Scianni, their singer/guitarist. They had just released their self titled debut album that year on Sony/Epic 550, produced by the venerable Brendan O’Brien. Dangerman had an eclectic style, ranging from ska from one song to rock and latin beats the next. I didn’t get their set list, though I know the last few songs of their set were “Roll ‘Em Down”, “Let’s Make A Deal”, “Good Friend”, and “High Heeled Sneakers”. Chris introduced the first of those songs saying, “This one goes out to all those law enforcement who fuck with me, know what I’m saying?” Despite their obvious talent, their label didn’t really know what to make of them and failed to promote Dangerman as well as they deserved, and they were abruptly dropped just as quickly as they’d been picked up. Chris now works as a real estate agent in Colorado, though he still plays in a group called the Tangiers Blues Band and has done work sporadically with others including Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. In between sets, a DJ from Alice came out to make announcements, mentioning an upcoming Ben Fold Five show as well as a raffle for tickets to the upcoming Lilith Fair.

But the night belonged to Blondie. They made us wait for it a little too. Before the lights went down and they took the stage, they played the theme song to the film “The Natural”. The cacophony of cheers from the sold out crowd grew steady as one by one, the band found their places, reaching a crescendo when Debbie emerged. There was no mistaking the opening riff of “Dreaming” as they began, though Debbie’s vocals were cut off during the first line of the song. One by one, they went through golden oldies and some of the new stuff, including their new hit single, “Maria”. I had to admit, the new one was catchy and yes, it did sound like a Blondie song and the other new tunes were good too. As big a fan as I was, there were plenty of hits and obscure tunes I would have like to have heard that night, but I understood that their time was limited. Blondie would release a live CD from this tour, simply titled “Live”, later that year in November, taking tracks from their gigs in Vegas, New York, Chicago, and the Glastonbury Festival, though no material came from this show.

A funny thing happened about halfway through the show. Somebody up front handed Debbie a bouquet of tulips to her and she at first grinned and said thanks. She then surprised us all taking a bite out of the top of one of them and spitting her mouthful of flower petals into the crowd. Say what you want about Blondie, but people tend to forget that they are still old school New York punks. Yes, they finished the night with their sugar coated smash hit, “Heart Of Glass”, but these guys used to play breakneck paced other lyrically disturbing songs like “X Offender” and “Rip Her To Shreds” at CBGB’s back in the day. Still, I was satisfied thoroughly by what I saw that night, though I was absolutely furious that they didn’t make a poster for it. At least they had one for their show at The Fillmore they would do three years later. It’s hard to believe that I’ve waited exactly twenty years since then to catch them again. Blondie is going to play out here with The Damned opening this May and neither hell nor high water is going to keep me from seeing that one.

Slick Rick, System Of Beyond, Planet Asia, M.O.S., Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., May 22, 1999

We went from one soul legend at the Hall the night before with Wilson Pickett to a hip hop legend the following night. Yes, yours truly got to tape one Mr. Richard Martin Lloyd Walters, otherwise known as Slick Rick. The one and only Slick Rick the Ruler would grace the Maritime accompanied by a handful of entertaining openers. Though I don’t remember much about the others, I did enjoy Planet Asia and would see him in the years to come many times on his own and in the Cali Agents with Rasco. He was still brand new back then and had just released his first self-titled EP only the year before this show. Now, to be honest, I didn’t know Slick Rick at all, though I knew of the hip hop classic jam, “La Di Da Di” which he did with Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew. I did learn afterwards that he was the third artist to be signed to Def Jam and would release “The Art Of Storytelling” only three days after this show, his highest charting album which went gold in it’s first month.

This would be a triumphant return for Rick, having just put a long legal ordeal behind him, ending a five year prison sentence in 1997. He had gotten entangled in a feud with an ex-bodyguard who had been threatening and trying to extort him. Rick tried to shoot this guy, injuring but not killing him, and paid the price, being convicted of attempted murder. While incarcerated, they did allow him a furlough to come out and record the aptly titled album, “Behind Bars” in 1994, but this would be the first new material he’d put out since then. “The Art Of Storytelling” would feature collaborations with such hip hop royalty as Outkast, Nas, Canibus, Redman, Snoop Dogg, and Raekwon, and amongst his old hits, there were certainly a handful of new ones showcased that evening.

One of the things I liked about Rick, as I’m sure most do, is his infectious rap style. As the new album’s title suggested, his manner was that of a teller of tales, even reminiscent of ancient scribes of old. Like Rakim or Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, he was one of those rare rappers who never screamed or shouted his lyrics, presenting each syllable with crystal clear diction through his pronounced London accent. Likewise, it was even rarer to hear any rapper with such an accent, at least one that wasn’t part of the whole Bristol trip hop scene at the time. Yes, though he had long since relocated to New York City, Rick was from London, though he was already easy to differentiate from other rappers primarily due to his eye patch. I was so stupid and naive back then, that I thought it was some sort of prop, but he was indeed blind in one eye, from an injury he received from broken glass when he was an infant. If that wasn’t enough to make him stand out, certainly his jewelry did. Yes, Rick was adorned that night in his customary assortment of chains and rings, his teeth laden with thick gold grills. The value attached to the precious metals on his person probably was worth more than most make in a year, certainly more than what I would make.

But adornments and English accent aside, Slick Rick was by no means a snob and made everybody feel welcome at the party. In his short, but sweet set, he got everybody’s hands in the air and the ganja clouds billowing. And I have to say, that my encounter with Rick at the end of the night was one of the most pleasant experiences I’ve had handing off tapes to folks at the Hall. He was a real gentleman and thanked me warmly. He’s the kind of guy who automatically puts you at ease and of all the artists I met at the Hall over the years, Rick was one of the few who gave me the genuine feeling that we could be friends. Though this was the only time I’d see him play, he’s still around, so I might get another chance some day. I did however manage to see Doug E. Fresh play the Independent years later and he naturally played their hit, “La Di Da Di”, and Snoop Dogg covers it practically every time I’d see him perform as well.

Wilson Pickett, Nick Gravenites & Friends, Faye Carol, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., May 21, 1999

Many a lay person already knows Mr. Pickett’s music even if they didn’t know his name, myself included before this occasion. Of all the first sources of those covering his music that I would know, it was none other than stars from the World Wrestling Federation who did a music video in 1985 singing, “Land Of 1000 Dances”, a song Wilson made famous, though it was originally recorded by Chris Kenner in 1962. These wrestlers and their managers did shall we say less than a stellar rendition of this hit, but thankfully the singing talents of such people as Hulk Hogan, King Kong Bundy, Rowdy Roddy Piper, The Macho Man Randy Savage, and George “The Animal” Steele hasn’t been unleashed on the general public since as far as I know. A more respectful tribute in popular culture to Wilson would come six years later with the release of Alan Parker’s 1991 film, “The Commitments”. Indeed, Wilson would be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame that year as well and it’s safe to say that this movie helped win votes for him.

In that film, a struggling group of Irish musicians form a soul band with that name and performed several standards in their repertoire including “Mustang Sally” and “In The Midnight Hour”, which revived mainstream culture’s interest in Wilson and his career. Wilson himself was sort of a “Waiting For Godot” character in the movie, the band members hoping for him to appear at one of their gigs to join them on stage, though ultimately, he never did and the group eventually disbanded. In a strange coincidence, the veteran trumpet player in the band called Joey “The Lips” Fagan was played by Johnny Murphy who I would see act in a small stage production of “Waiting For Godot” in Dublin, Ireland when I was on spring break from classes in London when I was studying overseas there in 1992. Anyway, apart from these two widely divergent examples of Wilson’s work, I knew little more than that about his career and influence on music in general, though I knew he was important.

This made it all the more surprising when Pete left me this show to record. It was downright shocking that he not only gave a legend like Wilson for me to do, but also openers Nick Gravenitis and Faye Carol, both local soul fixtures of the bay area. Pete had known Nick personally for years from his long career playing with Electric Flag and Michael Bloomfield amongst others. Pete had already recorded Nick’s expert guitar work twice at the Hall, once during the Doug Kilmer Benefit in 1997 and again a year later opening for Toots & The Maytals that New Year’s Eve. Yes, “Nick The Greek” was mine to do that night and I was honored. He played a long set that night as well, so long in fact that Wilson literally didn’t begin his set until after “The Midnight Hour” (ba-dum-boom!) That night, Nick told a funny story about how the “Wicked” Wilson Pickett lived up to his name. When he and Michael Bloomfield started The Electric Flag, they stole Wilson’s drummer at the time, Buddy Miles. Buddy, the esteemed drummer of the Band Of Gypsies, incidentally had played a very long set of his own, headlining the Hall in May of 1997. Though a long time had passed, Nick said that both of them were in fear for their lives for years and hoped that Wilson had gotten over it by then.

As far as I could tell, all was copacetic and Wilson didn’t mention it, not on stage anyway. I suppose it was easy for him to bury the hatchet considering how things were going for him at this time. Like I said, “The Commitments” was a big shot in the arm for his career. He had cleaned up his act from ages of cocaine and alcohol abuse and had even been nominated for a Grammy for his latest album “It’s Harder Now” that year. Wilson also made a cameo in the “Blues Brothers 2000” reboot movie, though it was a commercial and critical flop. Speaking of disappointing movie franchises, the long awaited prequel “Star Wars Episode I : The Phantom Menace” had just come out two days before this show and naturally, I was the nerd in the front row for the midnight showing. As most who stayed up late to witness its debut, I was left with a sort of “What just happened?” feeling and frankly am still getting over it to this day.

But I’m happy to report that Mr. Pickett did not leave me or anyone else in the Hall that night with that feeling. There was no shortage of sweat drenched, dirty dancing down on the floor that set as he covered all his big hits. He brought up a couple people on stage near the end and had them sing a verse or two, cracking everyone up with his over the top shocked reactions to the eccentric performances. It was easy to have fun at a show like this with all formalities confidently chucked out the window. And though as usual, nothing came from my recordings, the privilege of getting to tape this legend wasn’t lost on me and remains one of my proudest achievements during my short time taping at the Hall. It is especially a milestone since I believe this would be the final time Wilson would perform in the bay area, at least the last time I’d ever hear of him playing around here. He would pass away in 2006, just two months shy of his 65th birthday sadly, an age too young for his genius, but outliving many of his soul contemporaries like Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, and Otis Redding. But thanks to him and the many gifted people in the whole Stax Records scene, the world gained a lot more soul at a time it was desperately needed.

The Cranberries, Jude, War., SF, Mon., May 17, 1999

SETLIST : Promises, Animal Instinct, Loud & Clear, Ode To My Family, Sunday, Linger, Wanted, Salvation, Saving Grace, You & Me, Daffodil Lament, I Can’t Be With You, Waltzing Back, Ridiculous Thoughts, Delilah, Zombie, (encore), (unknown, but probably Pretty, Shattered, When You’re Gone, and/or Desperate Andy), Dreams

I had gotten to know The Cranberries rather early in their appearances in America, having been an opening act for Suede at The Warfield in 1993, then headlining there just a year later with MC 900 Foot Jesus. They got big fast back then. But it had been five years since I’d last enjoyed their sound live and I was eager to see them again, especially since they had released not one but two albums since, “To The Faithful Departed” in 1996 and “Bury The Hatchet” which had just came out less than a month before this show. They began their set with the latter album’s new single “Promises” and would play seven other new songs that gig as well. It hadn’t done as well commercially as their previous albums, but it still went gold. Opening that evening was Jude, a nasally voiced local singer/songwriter who had previously been a solo act, but had a band this time around. I had seen him open for Luna at The Fillmore in 97 and for Chris Isaak at The Warfield only six months before this, so I was becoming familiar with his work, though I believe this would be the last time I’d see him play.

Though this also would be the final time I’d see The Cranberries, it was obvious that they were on the top of their game then, this tour just beginning the month before, but going on to do a whopping 110 shows in total and not ending until the following July. On top of that, the band had just done a guest appearance on the TV show “Charmed”, playing their new song “Just My Imagination” which they naturally performed at this show, and would even play at the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo that December. The band’s continued success catapulted their singer Dolores O’Riorden to international stardom and made her the fifth richest woman in Ireland at the time. They had a full house of enthusiastic fans that night at The Warfield, lots of women and certainly those of Irish lineage abound.

This would be the only time I’d see Dolores with her cropped, dyed blonde pixie cut hairdo incidentally, a cute look for her. Her ethereal voice was stellar as before and she had no trouble getting everybody to sing along to old tunes like “Ode To My Family” and especially for the chorus of “Linger”. She dedicated “Pretty” to all of the women in the house and took her shoes off near the end of their set as they began playing “Ridiculous Thoughts”. Listening to the show again, I found a new appreciation for Dolores’ singing in that her voice was not only angelic and powerful, but noticing for the first time her incredible diction. Some Irish singers like Shane MacGowan practically need subtitles when you hear them speak, much less sing, an accent challenging to decipher even to native Irish folks. I also realized that Dolores took a page from Siouxsie Sioux a little, who I had just recorded with The Creatures at the Maritime only nine days before this night.

Like I mentioned before, this would be the final time I’d see The Cranberries play, the reason being a tragic one. Like Sugar Minott who I had seen coincidentally only three days before this at the Maritime, Dolores would die unexpectedly at a young age, being only 46 years old when she accidentally drowned in a bathtub in 2018. Poor thing had struggled for years with insomnia and had developed a dependence on alcohol and sleeping pills, a dangerous mix that would cause her to slip into unconsciousness that fateful night in the tub. At least she had something to break the ice with Jim Morrison when she got to heaven, though he was almost twenty years younger when he died in his bathtub. Still, it was really heartbreaking to hear of her passing and in true Irish fashion, the night of the sad news, I got drunk and listened to her singing “Dreams” at Woodstock ’94 over and over again, weeping profusely. That was the final song I’d hear her play at the end of their encore that last show.

The Meditations, Sugar Minott, Northwest Nyabinghi, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., May 14, 1999

Two months was a long time between reggae shows at Maritime Hall, but this one brought Pete out of the woodwork to do what he does best. I had recorded the previous twelve shows there and Pete’s absence was starting to become conspicuous, having not been in the Hall since The Ventures played there the previous March. As I had written before, he was getting fed up with Boots the owner and clearly had confidence in my abilities by then, not to mention cared little for work he wasn’t getting paid for and was caring less and less as time went on. But these were classy and respected reggae acts and there was still a chance they’d might use our stuff for an album and/or DVD someday, though ultimately none of them did. So, I just kicked back, labeled and delivered the tapes at the end of the sets as before, and tried to keep up with the inevitable onslaught of joints being passed to me by my mentor.

We’d already taped both The Meditations and Sugar Minott at the Maritime, the former playing alongside Pablo Moses in March of 1997 and the latter two months afterwards there. This one was being billed with a co-sponsor along with 2B1 called “Out Of Many One”, whoever they were. It would be the first and only time The Meditations would play the Hall on their own and not backing up a band with their formidable vocal harmonies as they had done with so many other reggae acts of note like Gregory Isaacs, Jimmy Cliff, and The Congos. This would also be the final time I would see Sugar Minott, since he would pass away unexpectedly eleven years later at the young age of 54, the cause of death still undetermined, but probably due to a previous heart condition. I did however enjoy his contribution to the reggae Radiohead cover album by the Easy Star All-Stars, singing vocals on their version of “Exit Music (For A Film)” in 2006. In a sad coincidence, I would see The Cranberries at The Warfield the following Monday, which would be the last time I’d see their singer, Dolores O’Riorden, who would also die young in 2018 at the age of 46.

Motorhead, Dropkick Murphys, Hatebreed, Skarhead, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., May 9, 1999

SETLIST : Bomber, No Class, I’m So Bad (Baby I Don’t Care), Over Your Shoulder, Civil War, Take The Blame, Too Late Too Late, The Chase Is Better Than The Catch, Nothing Up My Sleeve, Born To Raise Hell, Shine, Dead Men Tell No Tales, Overnight Sensation, Sacrifice – Orgasmatron, Going To Brazil, Iron Fist, Killed By Death, (encore), Ace Of Spades, Overkill

I was completely thrilled to tape heavy metal pioneers Motorhead for the first time. They had played the Hall one night before in 1996 back in the Family Dog days there when I was still an usher or “Peace Dog” as we were known them and never forgot helping their frontman and musical mastermind, Ian “Lemmy” Kilmster, through the crowd on the dance floor to get backstage. I still see him in my mind’s eye nodding a moment to thank me at the end, clad in old, red military waistcoat and a saber in a scabbard at his side and I can still feel that magical moment when he touched my elbow before he left me. As much as I dearly hoped they would use my recording that night for an album or DVD, my hopes would ultimately be dashed upon learning that they had just released a live album called “Everything Louder Than Everyone Else” that March, recorded in Germany. Furthermore, they would put out a live DVD the following year from their show back home in London at the Brixton Academy for the band’s 25th anniversary. Still, a boy can dream. Always on the move and touring, Lemmy found time to continue making new music and would release the 15th, yes 15th, Motorhead studio album the following year called “We Are Motorhead”, though we didn’t hear any of those new songs at this performance. Lemmy had also made a brief appearance that year playing himself in a low budget horror comedy called “Terror Firmer”, released just before Halloween. I’ve seen him in a few things like “Eat The Rich”, but haven’t caught that movie yet.

This was a particularly great line up, especially since they would be joined by the Dropkick Murphys. They had played the Hall the year before opening for Agnostic Front, but this would be the first time they would be touring with their new and permanent singer, Al Barr. Their old one, Mike McColgan had just left that band to become a firefighter and front other musical projects and Al had only filled his spot two months before this show. He had been the singer of The Bruisers who had toured with the Murphys previously. Also joining the bill would be Hatebreed from Bridgeport, Connecticut and Skarhead from New York City. Both bands were pretty new then, each just having just one album under the belts at the time. All around, it was a pretty manly show and the mosh pit had no shortage of thugs and heshers doing what they do best all night long. It was quite a masculine left turn from Siouxsie Sioux and The Creatures the night before, though they too were from jolly ol’ England. Rest assured, there was no shortage of business at the bar for this occasion, it being one of the heaviest drinking crowds one could ever witness. I’m sure the bartenders made a bundle that night, not to mention a few of the toilets being violently tainted with vomit. Incidentally, Motorhead had been listed on the Maritime’s April monthly poster to play three weeks before this, so I assume that it got postponed or it was a mistake or something. I was just glad they were there and would have shown up either time regardless.

As always, the sound was cranked up to maximum volume for Lemmy who was notoriously nearly deaf as a post from decades of sonically assaulting countless crowds. He lumbered casually on stage with the band dressed in a collared shirt opened halfway down his torso with the sleeves rolled up and took his usual stance in front of his microphone, angled down a few inched from above him. He declared, “We’re Motorhead and we’re about to kick your ass!” before diving right into “Bomber”. A few songs later he taunted his fans saying, “You’re very quiet for San Francisco”, which of course goaded them on to cheer. He put his hand to his ear a couple times, unsatisfied at first by the low noise level, but eventually nodded and continued, advising the crowd, “Don’t try to dance to this. You’ll tear yourself to fuckin’ pieces” and then they played “Take The Blame”. Some more songs down the line, he thanked the crowd, saying “Not bad for a Sunday night? Hope you gone to church today. Here’s an interesting song. It’s so interesting, we haven’t played it for ten or fifteen years” and then they did “Shine”. After they finished that one, Lemmy sneered, “This is another one for the oldies fans out there, for you older people, you menacing old granddads in your wheelchair… It’s called ‘Dead Men Smell Toe Nails’!”, which was obviously him parodying the title, “Dead Men Tell No Tales”. The lighting guy had set up a couple par cans on stage beneath Lemmy that night to uplight him in an eerie green for “Orgasmatron”. It was fucking creepy to be honest. He also introduced “Going To Brazil” asking, “Who hear remembers rock & roll? I remember fuckin’ rock & roll and it sounds like this!”

After finishing their set with “Killed By Death”, Lemmy returned to the stage with a loose, dangling cigarette trailing smoke out of his mouth. He put his hand to his ear again, egging on the crowd, and laughed, “I’m fuckin’ deaf, you know… Guess which song we’re going to do next.” We all knew what was coming and the mosh pit exploded as they went into their hit song, “Ace Of Spades”. When they finished he introduced Phil “Wizzo” Campbell on guitar who was wearing a T-shirt with a big English Bulldog with a nose ring on it and a wool hat. Strange that he kept that hat on all night considering how hot it must of been for him up there on stage. Lemmy also introduced Mickey Dee as “the best drummer in the world” and Phil introduced Lemmy saying, “On my left, one of the 20th century’s greatest tunesmiths, Mr. Lemmy Kilmister!” The crowd went nuts and they finished the evening with “Overkill” which the often ended their shows with, dragging out the ending as the song title suggested.

Though I would go on to see Motorhead a few more times in the years to follow, this would be the only time I would record them at the Hall. I would see them play there a year later when they were touring with Nashville Pussy, but just just as a civilian. One thing I will NEVER forget about that night was the scene backstage after it was all over. Now, I know most lay people have a stereotypical notion about what backstage at rock shows are like, but I would quickly dispel such stereotypes, informing them that most folks are too busy cleaning up and moving on to the next gig. But this time, it was the real thing. I mean there were all manner of party people packed in back there guzzling beer and liquor and probably ingesting God knows what other substances.

And I could hardly believe my eyes at the line of spandex clad “Backstage Bettys”, as Jack Black would phrase it, literally lined up single file to get into Lemmy’s dressing room. Incidentally, Jack had just played his first ever road gig with Tenacious D a week and half before this at the Hall. Anyway, I somehow managed to slip my way past the hordes of revelers and would-be one night stands to hand Lemmy off the tapes, but I didn’t linger. Now that I think about it, perhaps I should have, though I may not have survived to see the dawn. I played the tapes for Pete the next week and he was astounded how mid-range heavy it sounded, but I assured him that was how Lemmy’s bass always was and soloed it so he could hear it. Lemmy’s bass always sounded tinny and compressed, almost like a guitar. I’ve heard other sound people say that comes from so many years of playing excruciatingly loud, that the particular range is all Lemmy’s ears can really hear anymore. Pete shrugged and said “whatever”. I thought my mix went well though In hindsight, I should have taken the audience mics all the way down while they were playing to help differentiate the instruments. It was such an overwhelming cacophony upstairs that everything bled into every other mic in the first place.

The Creatures, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., May 8, 1999

SETLIST : All She Could Ask For, Disconnected, Turn It On, Take Mine, Pinned Down, Guillotine, Another Planet, Miss The Girl, Say, 2nd Floor, I Was Me!, Sad Cunt, Prettiest Thing, Exterminating Angel, (encore), But Not Them, Standing There, Pluto Drive – Nightclubbbing, (encore), Right Now

It had been nearly a year since one Susan Janet Ballion and her then husband, Peter Edward Clarke, AKA Siouxsie and Budgie, graced the Hall with their presence with back to back Creatures shows, accompanied by John Cale from the Velvet Underground. I didn’t know their music from Adam then, though I’d been a big fan of Siouxsie & The Banshees, having seen them also doing back to back shows in 1995 at The Warfield. I wasn’t even aware The Creatures existed until they came to Hall those nights, but by this show, I knew their music pretty well, at least the songs they performed previously. The last time around was their first tour as The Creatures since 1989 and they hadn’t put out a new album yet, though they did play five new songs. Those songs would end up on their new album, “Amina Animus”, which had just been released the day after Valentine’s Day that year and they played all of them again, including three other new ones, playing the entire album’s worth of new tunes except for “Don’t Go To Sleep Without Me”. The new album was a critical success, even making the top ten of P.J. Harvey’s favorites.

They didn’t have Cale with them this time, but they brought along two bass players, a young man and woman. The man would switch off and play guitar from time to time, the woman, a violin for a couple of numbers. This would be the first show listed on the new monthly poster and apparently the Hall had booked Japanese new age musician Kitaro on the same night to play at The Palace Of Fine Arts, the only show Boots booked there as far as I know. This show was “An Evening With” gig, so it was over with fairly early, the second of three consecutive shows I’d do at the Maritime that weekend. Pete had recorded The Creatures when they were in town the last time, so he left it to me to do and I was assisted by a very enthusiastic Liz Farrow. She worshipped Siouxsie and I knew she’d be on cloud nine all night and she was. Coincidentally, another act from jolly old England, Motorhead, would play the Hall the following night, but Liz would sit that one out. But both shows were just what I needed to erase the trauma of having to endure Third Eye Blind and Smash Mouth who had played at the Hall the night before this one. (shutter!)

Siouxsie would do her sexy, serpentine dance moves as she always did throughout the show and just at the cusp of turning 42 years old, was the center of everyone’s rock & roll star fantasy that night, including myself. Like I had written before about Bill Beeb, fellow UK resident and singer of Frontline Assembly who had played the Hall a couple weeks before this, she also had a very limited vocal range but more than made up for it with her infinite charisma and stage presence. Always the height of Goth fashion, Siouxsie took the stage that evening in a silver, reflective, plate mail tank top and mini skirt with a matching star emblem necklace. She also donned silver arm guards, what armorers in the old days called “Vanbraces”, making her look like a goddess from a Wagner Ring Cycle opera.Continuing the motif, behind her on the drums, Budgie wore a silver lame vest. They had brought along with their gear four moving lights that were spread equidistantly on stage, flashing strobes and beams all night, cutting through their fog machine. In addition to the new songs, they played a handful of other Creatures tunes I hadn’t heard the last time, opening with “All She Could Ask For”. Just before they did “Turn It On”, somebody up front handed her an inflatable dragonfly strangely enough. She joked, “What you got there? Gimme, gimme, gimme!” Siouxsie made a playful buzzing noise as she held it aloft, undulating it to make its wings flap and smirked, “Cold weather here, bad weather for the bugs.”

Like before, Budgie would emerge from his drum kit from every now and then to play different instruments, first coming out for “Take Mine” to hammer away at a couple standing tom drums with little mallets. Siouxise introduced the song, sneering, “Bloodsuckers and leeches, watch out. Your time is up.” She too would occasionally play a nearby keyboard/sampler and percussion pieces. For “Guillotine” she slipped a pair of castanets on her fingers. During “Miss The Girl”, Siouxsie hit a small cylinder thing with a drumstick, introducing the song, “This is the end of the American tour. Got one more after tonight. Sorry for the people who couldn’t make it and ‘miss the girl’.” They would play at the Fenix Underground in Seattle the next night before flying to do a couple gigs in Japan three days later, then begin their European tour the following week.

After that song, she took a drink from a bottle of beer and chuckled, “I don’t mind it. They get nervous. OK, I’m going to give you some very bad advice, so don’t do it. Cus’ sometimes you just need to have a fuckin’ drink. But with that, I say, drink a toast, cus’ I fucked it up yesterday when I tried to say it.” They had played Palookaville in Santa Cruz the night before, the other venue Boots regularly booked. She smiled and said, “Champagne for my true friends and true pain for my sham friends!”, then trilled her tongue and began singing “2nd Floor”, a song apparently about getting drunk.

When they finished, somebody up front handed her a wilted white flower with a long stem and she looked at it disparagingly, playfully muttering, “This poor thing has seen better days. What are you trying to say?” She then caught sight of the projector screens on the side of the walls which I believe were showing bits from “Night Of The Living Dead” and she hissed and poked the flower toward one of the screens saying, “Scary things on the screen!”, then went into “I Was Me”. Budgie came out again, this time leaving drums to play an acoustic guitar for “Sad Cunt”, one of their songs that I hadn’t heard before that show. Siouxsie accidentally hit the sampler during the song, activating the flurry of middle eastern horns, that sound like Rhaitas but I can’t say for sure, that they would sample during “Exterminating Angel” later. When it came time for that tune, Budgie stood and hit a bass drum at his head level with mallets, and that song ended the set.

They came back for their first encore and Siouxsie coyly suggested that the crowd was forcing them to return. She spread her arms wide and said “I need to be drawn and quartered, over that side, over that side, and right down the middle”. After a few moments, she looked back at her husband and said, “OK, Budgie. This is a long time to be casual”, then launched into “But Not Them”. She put on her castanets again for “Standing There” and taunted Budgie a little saying, “You’ll never get a drummer off his drum kit”. He pretended to stall a little until she spoke again, “Oh, he slays me every night.” She then changed her voice to sound like Mickey Mouse and chirped, “OK, Pluto!” and then they went into “Pluto Drive”. The song with its strip tease drum and bass rhythm morphed into the Iggy Pop song, “Nightclubbing” and just before they finished, a young lady bum rushed the stage, hugged Siouxsie, and kissed her on the shoulder before she was taken away by one of the security guys.

The applause brought them back for a second encore and she thanked the crowd, saying “We’ve been on the road a long time. You’ve been a Duracell battery. Keep this bunny going!” and she made a little walking motion with her arms and giggled. They finished the night with “Right Now” and for that song, she put on a little blinking star light chachkie that somebody up front handed to her earlier, fastening it to her neckline. Just before she left the stage, yet one more bum rusher young lady made it to the stage to kiss her on the cheek as she departed. The crowd cheered and stomped when they were done, hoping for a third encore, but to no avail. The sound guy put on “Nice N’ Easy” by Frank Sinatra and the audience began to disperse, though he reassured those who wanted to keep the party going that “there’s an after hours party in the basement.” Back then, the Hall hosted the “Death Guild” dance night in the club downstairs, a showcase for all the Goths, playing their anthems till the wee hours of the morning. Liz and I enjoyed that night, probably more than most we did together, but we wouldn’t have to wait long to see Siouxsie and Budgie again. They would play the Hall one more time just five months later, appropriately enough on Halloween.

Third Eye Blind, Smash Mouth, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., May 7, 1999

Eee-gad. Just reading either band name separately would be enough to give anybody the willies. But let it be said that both of them were still pretty new back then and hadn’t been around long enough yet to induce the inevitable nausea that the saying of their names now produces. Yes, I have written about both before, Third Eye Blind playing the Fillmore in 1997 and Smash Mouth opening for Blur at The Warfield the same year, so I won’t go into either of their origin stories much, but it’s fair to say that 1999 was a pivotal year for both of them, so there are details worth mentioning before I go into the show itself.

Third Eye Blind had been riding the gargantuan wave of their first multi-platinum album and were on the cusp of releasing their long awaited follow up titled, “Blue”. Rumor had it that the name was derived from the Blue Lamp Cafe on Geary which was just a few blocks away from where I was living at the time and that the band frequently played there. I can’t confirm or deny that since I rarely hung out there, mostly spending my drinking hours at the Edinburgh Castle up the street, and wouldn’t be caught dead there if they were performing in the first place. The band had just begun working on the new album that January and had recently completed a tour with Eve 6. Frontman and future legendary douchebag Stephen Jenkins was already scheming to usurp complete ownership and control of the band in the process, much to the dismay of lead guitarist, songwriter, and founding member Kevin Cadogan. Kevin would be unceremoniously fired from the band shortly after “Blue” was released and he was forced to sue, successfully I might add, Jenkins to get the royalties he earned writing most of that albums tunes. The quality and commercial success of Third Eye Blind’s music immediately declined after Kevin’s departure confirming he was indeed the brains behind their songwriting and guitar sound.

As I alluded to before, Jenkins boorish behavior was quickly garnering him a well deserved reputation around town and ultimately nation and worldwide. It was bad enough that he acted this way, but he claimed San Francisco as his home town, further sullying our fair city’s already unfairly besmirched reputation with the rest of the country. That year, he had already embarrassed himself and the band with an expletive laden drunken rant at the Bammies that March. In a baffling display of arrogant hubris, he published his speech later on line on his website. Additionally, Jenkins had insulted several rock press people at a secret show they had performed the night before this. Third Eye Blind showed up at the Paradise Lounge, a small south of market nightclub, to try out some of their new stuff under the name “Two Guitarists & A Boob Local Band Titty”. Jenkins asked if there were any members of the press in the audience which he immediately declared that they “all fucking suck.” But the cruelest thing of all about him around this time was that he was dating none other than statuesque actress Charlize Theron until they broke up two years later, sending him into a period of deep depression. I like to think that she came to her senses and dumped him. Yes, life can be unfair to say the least.

Smash Mouth were also about to release the follow up to their likewise successful first outing a month after this, an album called “Astro Lounge” which would include the single “All Star”. Now anyone alive in the 90s and thereafter knows this song and would be tortured by it for the rest of their days, showing up in countless movie soundtracks including that year’s “Inspector Gadget”, the song in the opening credits of “Shrek” two years later, TV shows, commercials, and God knows what else. The show at the Hall was actually supposed to be just Smash Mouth, a Coca-Cola sponsored event announced so suddenly, that it wasn’t even advertised for, much less listed on the Hall’s monthly poster. Third Eye Blind had toured with Smash Mouth the year before playing amphitheaters and since they were in town, I guess they got invited to join the bill.

A strange thing happened that night in terms of the recording. Neither band would allow us to tape the audio, but for some reason allowed us to tape the video without the sound. Maybe they thought they could dub in the songs later or something. Maybe they just wanted it for the projection screens that night, I can’t say. I was at least released from any responsibility of having to mix them, though my friend Tory was on the hook to do his magic in the video room that show. I would have to endure Third Eye Blind one final time in my life when they were on the bill at Live 105’s annual B.F.D. festival at Shoreline the following year, but this would be the final time I’d see Smash Mouth. Don’t get me wrong though. Despite my less than flattering opinion for both bands, I would have changed my tune on them considerably if they’d allowed us to record and release a live album and/or DVD, especially during this pivotal time in both their careers. Say what you want about them personally and the style of their music, as an American, I have no choice but to admire them both for being rich.

Though their singer Steve Harwell would come nowhere near the level of infamy that Jenkins achieved, he managed to receive a dishonorable mention in these last couple of years. It was to the band’s eternal shame that they headlined the entertainment at the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota in 2020, an all too obvious super spreader event during the height of this recent pandemic. Steve openly mocked the pandemic and the virus while on stage, making me wish momentarily that he and the band fell victim to it. But that urge would pass and I feel guilty for ever even thinking it. Nobody deserves to die from that virus, not even Stephen Jenkins. But to make matters worse, a year later Steve got belligerently drunk at The Big Sip beer and wine festival in Bethel, NY, threatening his own audience and allegedly gave them a Nazi salute. I know it was a festival dedicated to drinking, but clearly he should have saved getting shitfaced until after their set. Well, after that, Steve wisely retired from the band citing health problems. Whether it was true or not, I think we all can agree now that it was for the best.

Tenacious D, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., April 30, 1999

SETLIST : Jesus Ranch, Flash Gordon – Wonderboy, Kielbasa, The History Of Tenacious D, Karate, Kyle Quit The Band, Tribute, Special Thing, Lee, Explosivo, Sensitive, The Road, Friendship, City Hall, We Built This City (On Rock & Roll), Sasquatch, Rocket Sauce, Rock Your Socks, Hare Krishna, Star Trek, Spider-Man, The Cosmic Shame, Double Team, (encore), Kyle Took A Bullet For Me, Pinball Wizard, The Five Needs

As the past few years went by, I was becoming more and more aware of Jack Black, but I hadn’t the foggiest notion of the who, what, why, and so forth of Tenacious D. Though I didn’t make the connection until years later, I’d seen the young Jack in his first commercial. He, at the tender age of 13 wearing a tan pith helmet, was in a commercial for the video game “Pitfall!” from Activision in 1982, a game I actually played and enjoyed. Like I said, I didn’t make the connection, but I definitely noticed him later in the first movie I ever saw him act in, “Bob Roberts”, where he played a trench coat wearing fanatical follower of the titular character played by Tim Robbins. I’ll never forget the intensity of his gaze as he met Bob for the first time in the movie and I instantly thought to myself, “OK… This one is operating on another level. Who the fuck is this guy?” I would notice him again exhibit that same intensity with his small but memorable part in “Mars Attacks!” and with his role as Sean Penn’s brother in “Dead Man Walking” which Robbins directed, one of the only dramatic film roles Jack would ever do.

Turned out Jack and his partner, Kyle Gass, had met Tim Robbins while performing in the play “Carnage”, which Tim had produced and directed in 1989. Kyle also had a small role along side Robbins in the supernatural thriller “Jacob’s Ladder” which came out a year later. Before that, they had been members of a theatrical troupe in L.A. simply called the Actor’s Gang. There they caught the attention of comedian David Cross who later employed them in his HBO series “Mr. Show” alongside Bob Odenkirk. Together, the duo had been making appearances, performing around that town for three years until HBO in their infinite wisdom decided to give them a shot, allowing Jack and Kyle to make a couple half hour shows and they were an instant hit. I being too cheap to afford even basic cable, still using a rudimentary pair of rabbit ears for my TV at the time, was blissfully unaware of their newfound success much less their existence. It is common knowledge amongst their fans that they had derived their name from a sports term used by Marv Albert, an abbreviation of “Tenacious Defense”, but just in case you didn’t know, now you do. They had only done those first two episodes on HBO before this tour and the next two episodes wouldn’t air for another six months.

They were so new to those outside of L.A. and the fans of their show, that the performance they did at the Hall that night was in fact their FIRST road gig ever! Understanding this now, I am filled with pride from this fact. Indeed, they wouldn’t even get signed to Epic Records until the following year and their self titled debut album wouldn’t be released until the year after that. By this time, they had made friends with such rock stars as Maynard James Keenan from Tool and Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters and would go on tour to open for them as well. Then there is the little matter of Jack’s acting career to follow. Yes, he’d go on to steal the show in the film “High Fidelity” the year after this and would follow with hit film after hit film such as “School Of Rock”, “Shallow Hal”, and “King Kong”. He’s been an A-lister ever since. Incidentally, in 2006 Jack would go on to marry a young woman I knew in college who once lived nearby me in the Mission named Tonya. She is the daughter of jazz musician Charlie Hayden, one of a set of triplet girls, who I had seen open for Joe Henderson at The Fillmore in 1997. You can read more about her in the bit I wrote about that show if you’re so inclined.

But back to the show. My buddy Tory on video however did know about these guys and was very thrilled to do it and I know he had good taste, especially with comedy, so I was getting excited about it too. It was an evening with Tenacious D, so there was no opening act and it all wrapped up pretty early. The show was also announced with little notice, so it was never listed in the Hall’s monthly poster or even was advertised for much, not that it needed to be. The house was quite full with extremely enthusiastic fans from top to bottom. Their buddy Lee came out to meekly introduce them saying, “The next band is on the last leg of their world tour. They’ve seen a lot of faces and they’ve kicked those faces’ asses. So get ready to have your asses’ faces kicked… Tenacious D.”

Though obviously it wasn’t the last leg of their world tour, it was still a funny line and the sound of the audience’s applause was deafening as the duo took the stage. But I’m afraid their introduction soon fell flat as our faithful sound crew couldn’t get Jack’s guitar to work. Down in the recording room, I rubbed my temples in frustration saying aloud, “Two fucking guitars, guys… That’s it. That’s all you had to get right tonight…” Kevin and Jerry scrambled as Kyle nonchalantly stalled for time apologizing for the “technical difficulties” and attempting to field questions from the crowd. But they eventually got the guitar to work and they got rolling. It really was only about a minute or two, but it probably felt like an eternity to Kevin and Jerry on stage in front of everybody.

Jack thanked the crowd and welcomed them to “the historic first road gig and what a packey-packed house. That’s tremendous. I was afraid it was going to be a ghost town, but instead it’s packey-packs.” I caught both of them glancing throughout the night at their set lists scotch taped on the backs of their guitars between songs though by the end of the tour, I’m sure they had it all down pat. They went through a couple songs until the end of one where Jack pretended that some pyrotechnics on stage didn’t go off and did a bit where he had a hissy fit. Lee came out to deal with it, but then skulked away. Jack said, “You have to have pyrotechnics when you play the big venues. Pay no attention to the help.” He then scolded Kyle saying that his “blood is boiling” and that “fuckin’ rockets” were supposed to be flying. Kyle retorted, “Don’t look at me!” but Jack was inconsolable saying “Kyle, I told you specifically, tell our helper, our special helper to place it in a particular way. I gave you a fucking map of the stage, said here’s where the pyrotechnics are!” Kyle responded, “Don’t blow a gasket!” Jack lost it yelling, “So what I’m saying, Fuck off! Fucking shit air, you fucking shit ass!” and then Kyle shuffled off the stage, shaking is head, simply muttering, “You’ve got a nice vocabulary.”

Yes, it was a bit and obviously staged, but we all went along with it laughing throughout as Jack sang “Kyle Quit The Band”. But then Kyle quickly returned saying that it was “great to be back” and they went into their hit song, “Tribute”. Afterwards, Kyle asked the audience, “Did anyone watch our television show?” which was met with thunderous cheers. Jack pretended to be surprised saying, “I thought you were all here from the grassroots campaign, from the flyers. Well, that’s a shocker.” There was a bit of a dust up in the front when Jack tossed out one of his guitar picks and he asked “What’s going on here? There’s a melee over a pick. People freaking out over a piece of plastic. Just because we touch it, doesn’t give it magical powers.” Then Jack smiled slyly and nodded, mumbling, “Yes, it does… it does.”

He went on to “give props where props were due” saying “There’s a lot of people who make up the Tenacious D family that you don’t see, behind the scenes, behind the curtain. Not pulling the strings, but just helping, doing the things that we ask to be done and they scurry away and do things. And it’s time to say if there’s one guy who did the most things for us and he’s done so many fucking special things, it this guy… Peter Lee Parker. Get out here!” Then Lee came out again and Jack said, “He’s gonna sing a song and it’s a dream come true scenario, so please, humor him” and Lee sang “Special Thing” which was followed by Jack and Kyle serenading him with “Lee” followed by “Explosivo”. Jack then dedicated the next song to “Laura, my backstage Betty”. Laura was presumably actress Laura Kightlinger whom Jack dated from 1996 to 2005. Kyle then followed “I’d also like to dedicate this one to Tracy”. Jack looked peeved then said, “That doesn’t take any steam away from my dedication, Kyle. So now I guess it’s half dedicated to Laura… Bullshit” and then they played “Sensitive”.

Afterwards, Jack introduced “The Road”, “Now this being our first official road gig, we didn’t know quite what to expect, except for one thing with our creative imaginations. We were able to visualize the scenario and it was not a pretty scenario. Hours on the road!” Jack grimaced painfully shouting “my hemorrhoidal tissue! It’s too hard! Motel 6’s, one after the other and it’s hard, hard bullshit”. Kyle quipped, “Why did we ever leave L.A.?” Jack looked annoyed and continued, “And we wrote a song about how hard the road is and how much bullshit you have to put up with.” Afterwards, Kyle marveled for a moment at the Maritime’s giant projection screens for a moment joking, “You know I wish I had this sized TV screen at home. That would be fun, huh?” He then waved and smiled, watching himself for a few seconds. I’m sure Tory in the video room got a kick out of that one.

They went on to do “City Hall”, a tune about tearing down City Hall in a riot, then becoming kings themselves, only to ultimately fight over it themselves. As kings, Jack declared that marijuana was legal and that “whoever said it wasn’t legal is fucking dead!” and that heroin and “ka-kane!” were now legal too. Then he said “pennies are abolished” and that they were to be melted down to “build a copper edifice of my face and a smaller one of KG next to me”. They went on to do an a capella version of Jefferson Starship’s “We Built This City (On Rock & Roll)”, a song San Franciscans are painfully familiar with. If it was anyone but them singing it, I would have been pissed. Jack went on to say that Tenacious D was actually their “second passion”, the first being “our endless search for Sasquatch”. He scolded the crowd, “Go on, don’t believe he doesn’t exist. That would mean more prizes and rewards for the real believers later. It’s not easy to search for Sasquatch, going out in the bush with some fucking freaks. You see some broken twigs, check it out, sniff it, taste it. Couldn’t have been human because of the angle of the fuckin’ tree!” Naturally, they then played “Sasquatch”.

Somebody in the audience was crying out for their song “Rocket Sauce” and they thought it over for a second and agreed to do it, though it would be a second version and sang the lyrics to the tune of The Beatles’ “Blackbird”. People were then cheering for Lee to come back out on stage and Jack said they wanted him because he was “a tall drink of water” but they had “more cushion for the pushin’ on stage! He’s a fuckin’ asshole!” A few folks had been blurting out the stereotypical calls for “Freebird” and Kyle obliged them with a few bars of the opening of that Skynyrd song, though Jack insisted that although Kyle knew it, that “he’s not going to play it.”Jack introduced “Hare Krishna” saying “I wasn’t very popular in high school. I had a lot of foibles. I figured out why I wasn’t popular. It was because I needed it so bad. I need them to love me, everyone of them. So I put in the extra mile, trying to make them laugh, making a shithead out of myself. Then people kind of laughed for a minute, then they were like that’s too uncomfortable to be around. This is a song about that and those times”. Then they kind of surprised me doing the theme song to the original “Star Trek” series with the obscure lyrics that were written by Gene Roddenberry, the show’s creator.

Then they did another “kick ass theme” being that of the “Spider-Man” cartoon. The crowd’s pleas for Lee to return to the stage were assuaged when he came out in the middle of the song dressed in a rather primitive Spider-Man body suit. Lee danced around clumsily as Jack mocked his costume in song, singing “he knows a lot of fun Taebo!” Lee then pretended to punch and kick around him and Jack cracked up singing, “Stay still or else he’ll get you with his fuckin’ Matrix moves! That’s a cheap ass body suit and I can see his package, yeah!!!”. The first “Matrix” movie had just come out two months before this. The mayhem kept going and Jack complained singing, “It’s going on way too long! It stopped being funny five minutes ago!” Lee finished the song spraying Jack with a bunch of silly string and Jack hit back shooting him repeatedly with a double barrel Nerf gun until it was empty and Lee fell down on the floor in defeat. Jack complained that “he got Spidey-Spray in my fuckin’ rum & coke, Jack & coke, Jack & coke”. Kyle joked that “he looked very familiar to me.” Incidentally, the first of those “Spider-Man” movies starring Tobey McGuire wouldn’t hit the theaters until three years later, so one could say this was another example of Tenacious D being ahead of their time. Jack wondered, “Where is Lee? He’s never here when Spidey’s around. Goes and fuckin’ hides probably… Peter Lee Parker…”

Jack went on to encourage people to quit their day jobs saying that your kids would be happier if you “focused on your craft” and that he and KG would check up on you later and tell you to continue, but if they told you to stop then you had to stop. They then played “The Cosmic Shame” and then Jack flirted with a handful of girls up front before singing the raunchy tune, “Double Team”. He asked one if she “Smoked grass? Have cable? Have carpet?” and declared that there were “a lot of possible Backstage Betty’s in the audience.” Jack did a funny bit near the end of the song introducing KG as the lead guitarist to a loud round of applause, then said, “On the drums… no one. On the bass… no one, and on the keys… no one. And on the sax… no one. And on the flute… no one. But seriously, on the three lizard Moog, you might have heard him a bit… NO ONE!!! But on lead vocals, it’s M-m-m-m-m-meeee, JB!!!” That ended the set, but they almost immediately were back with the crowd chanting “D! D! D! D!”

Jack immediately was getting loud pops from his guitar when he plugged back in and thanked the sound men nonetheless saying, “That’s the crack Maritime sound staff, working overtime”. Jack got it back and then Kyle’s guitar went out prompting him to joke, “Can someone call The Fillmore please?” That got a few groans from the crowd and definitely got some from the staff including myself. The very mention of the Maritime Hall’s mortal archenemy definitely struck a nerve. But Kyle was right. This was getting downright embarrassing. Seriously, two acoustic guitars and vocal mics. That was it, no amps, nothing. While they tried to get KG’s guitar working again, they sang “Kyle Took A Bullet For Me” anyway. They got it working after that song and KG apologized, “I was just kidding about The Fillmore. I was just kidding!” They then did a weird pantomime of Jack calling KG on the phone, hanging up, having KG star 69 him back, and Jack morosely threatening to kill himself.

Kyle then reassured him about auditions opening up for the musical “Tommy” which picked him right up and they then did a mock audition, doing a manic cover of “Pinball Wizard”. They cut off the song about halfway through abruptly saying, “that was all we had prepared for the audish”. Jack apologized for their sloppy performance and wished them luck with the European tour and hoped it kicked ass, but then came back insisting that they “lick the crack of my ass because I don’t give a shit if you don’t like it because I know we rock as individuals and as a collective! You fucked your mother and I saw it in the back room! Bullshit!!!” Jack then mooned the crowd and gave them the middle finger. Needless to say, everyone was loving every second of it.

A voice on the speakers, probably voiced by Lee backstage, in a effeminate English accent urged him to come back, saying that they loved the audition and they wanted him for the role of Tommy and Jack apologized for his outburst. But then the crowd jeered when Kyle was denied getting a part, but Jack tried to console him saying that they’d rock again together when he got back from the European tour. He then went into some strange pantomime dance and simulated cunnilingus, picking a pubic hair out of his teeth while KG brooded around the stage and pretended to eat ice cream, went driving, put in a VHS tape into its machine, and so on. Jack called KG again drunkenly taunting KG in a Cockney accent saying he missed him and said he wanted to fly him out there, “would be first class, but it’s going to be coach”, and join the cast with him. Clearly despondent, Kyle puts his index finger in his mouth and pulls his thumb trigger making a gun noise, leaning lifeless onto his mic stand. Jack simulates riding a motorcycle, finds his friend, and sinks his head into his chest in despair.

Jack then said, “The moral of this story is don’t do anything… Ever! You might hurt your friend’s feelings.” Jack then introduced “The Five Needs” as their final song rebuking the protests of the crowd saying that “no amount of cheering” would help in that they indeed had no more songs that they could possibly play. Still, for a band that didn’t even have an album out for another two years, they managed to put on a show for an hour forty which is impressive. Then it was all over. They unplugged their guitars, took a bow, waved good bye, and walked off stage. The whole experience was strangely introspective, sort of a show that was about what it means to put on a show, like Bowie and Ziggy Stardust or Steve Martin’s stand up career. Most certainly they replayed most if not all of their in between song bits word for word for every show. But I know too that they most likely tweaked it all as the tour went on, occasionally adding new stuff and taking other stuff out and there was no doubt there would be a heaping amount of improvising with the crowd each and every time.

I eagerly went backstage to give the tapes to the guys, but couldn’t find Jack anywhere, but I eventually ran into Kyle. He was very gracious and took them from me and he politely shook my hand. Turns out, he grew up in Walnut Creek, the next town over from Alamo where I was from, though he is twelve years older than me. NOFX played the Hall the following night, but for some reason I can’t remember, it wasn’t recorded, which was a pity. I like those guys and would get another chance to see them two years later when they headlined the Incredibly Strange Wrestling show at The Fillmore. Tenacious D went on to bigger and better things and I would see them again playing The Warfield on Halloween also two years later and packing the Civic Center five years after that promoting their movie, “Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny”. And by that time, it is safe to say that they had shed their first road show jitters ages ago.

Frontline Assembly, Switchblade Symphony, Spahn Ranch, Plan 9, Maritime Hall, SF, Tues., April 27, 1999

SETLIST : Retribution, Prophesy, Vigilante, Resist, Surface Patterns, Plasticity, Comatose, Falling, Millennium, (encore), Liquid Separation, (unknown)

It had only been six months since Frontline Assembly had played the Hall and they had returned with the two opening acts they had brought with them before that fateful Halloween night, Switchblade Symphony and Spahn Ranch. As you can imagine, the show was practically the same, though Frontline Assembly had a handful of new songs. As luck would have it, their tenth and latest album, “Implode”, was just released that very day and they opened their set with two new tunes, “Retribution”, the first track of the new album and then the second one, “Prophesy”. They did “Falling” just before the last song of their set. Later that year, singer Bill Beeb and the band would provide the soundtrack to “Quake III Arena”, a first person shooter video game. One of these days, I’m going to have to try playing it.

As before, they had brought along their camouflage netting decorated set pieces with them, TV’s blaring static under the keyboard player, and their own Intelbeam light, blinding the crowd with strobe and laser effects. I was impressed with ferocity of the mosh pit that night as well as Tory’s work on the video system. It had only been a couple months since the Robocam stuff had been installed, but watching the set from that night, I could see his skills were noticeably improving and would continue to show after show. That performance along with Slayer at The Warfield two nights before, effectively counterbalanced the hours of hippie music I had been subjected to for the previous two weeks, recording not only Zero, but two nights of KVHW with Jazz Is Dead at the Hall, as well as ushering for Phil Lesh at The Warfield. Bill made me laugh too when he introduced the song “Comatose”, saying, “Got a little flavor for you now, so pucker up!” Mr. Beeb might have a painfully limited vocal range, but he’s a charismatic frontman and a true gentleman.

One opener that wasn’t on the bill before on that Halloween show the year before was Plan 9, a local Misfits cover band, not to be confused with the Rhode Island neo-psychedelic band formed in 1979. Normally, I have a difficult time remembering opening acts that I didn’t keep recordings of, but I distinctly remembered really, really not liking them. To be honest, I never was a fan of The Misfits either, though I do appreciate Danzig and his solo work. Coincidentally, the real Misfits would play at the Hall that October with none other than Gwar opening up for them, though they had some young ringer singing for them that night and bassist Jerry Only was the band’s sole original member. But it was always a pleasure to see and record Switchblade Symphony, a band I adored ever since they opened for Christian Death in 1996, the first show I ever recorded with Pete at the Maritime. They would release their third and final album, “The Three Calamities”, less than a month after this show, so like Frontline Assembly, they probably treated us to some new tunes that night too. I was lucky to see those sweet young women as often as I did, especially since they would break up almost immediately after the next time they’d perform at the Hall opening for The Creatures, also on Halloween. They were an appropriate band for that holiday to be sure, as were the bands they were supporting for both those macabre evenings.

Slayer, Meshuggah, Sick Of It All, War., SF, Sun., April 25, 1999

SETLIST : Bitter Peace, Death’s Head, War Ensemble, Evil Has No Boundaries, Hell Awaits, Born Of Fire, Stain Of Mind, Postmortem, Raining Blood, Dittohead, Die By The Sword, In The Name Of God, Criminally Insane, Scrum, Dead Skin Mask, Seasons In The Abyss, Mandatory Suicide, Angel Of Death, South Of Heaven, Chemical Warfare

Like I had written in the previous entries, I had been inundated with hours of hippie music for the previous couple weeks and was desperate in need for Slayer, the ultimate antidote. I will always love the Dead and all their incarnations as well as many of those they have influenced over the years, but I never could escape the feeling that I never was a hippie, nor ever truly will be. But strangely enough, with all their bombast and fury, Slayer always made me feel at home. The world can be a brutal place and life can be unforgiving and in a way, Slayer’s music helped me embrace that and made me as well as their millions of fans feel a little less alone. It had been a year since I first had the pleasure of their company and they were back to once again to shake the very foundations of The Warfield.

I was excited to hear that Sick Of It All would be the first opening act that night. My friend Hefe had turned me on to the New York hardcore punk band years ago and I believe I saw them at Slim’s with him, though I didn’t record it for some reason. I was so impressed by them then, that I bought one of their stickers at the merchandise booth and put it on my locker at my job at Tech Services in the San Francisco State student union. In my mind, I can still see the circular sticker with their logo, a red dragon encircling an NYC emblem with the bands name above it and the title of their latest single “Just Look Around” below it. Now, one could question the wisdom of putting a sticker with the words “Sick Of It All” on your locker at work, but I didn’t really think about it that way at the time. I hope it didn’t demoralize any of my fellow co-workers and I don’t think it did ultimately since nobody ever said anything about it.

Pleased as I was that they were there, Sick Of It All wasn’t necessarily a metal band. Like I said, they were hardcore east coast punk, part of a movement in the Big Apple during the 80’s that included such acts as Agnostic Front, Biohazard, and the Cro-Mags. But they had recently switched to west coast record label Fat Wreck Chords founded by Fat Mike from NOFX the year before and had just released “Call To Arms” with two months before this show, their fifth studio album to date. Any band, no matter how heavy and talented they were had a hard time winning over the Slayer crowd. Those heshers have high standards, but Sick Of It All did their very best and I thought they did great. Their singer, Lou Koller, thanked Slayer for taking them on tour and joked, “If you don’t like what you heard, complain to Slayer”, then played their song “Maladjusted”. Predictably, there was at least one detractor in the mosh pit and Lou called out that “little bitch in the Sepultura shirt”. Lou scolded him saying he “fucked his mom” and said, “I toured with that band! You had to pay to see them, bitch!” Served him right. He should have known better than to heckle a guy from Queens.

Meshuggah had a easier time with the audience, perhaps since they were warmed up a bit and getting drunker, but also that they were more of metal band, albeit a touch on the prog side. They were one of those Swedish death metal bands that had been making their way stateside like Opeth, Tiamat, and Amon Amarth, Swedecore, some people called it, part of the Gothenburg scene. Despite their complex musical style, often dabbling in weird time signatures like 5/16, 17/16, or 23/16, the crowd still embraced their thrashy sound. This would be the only time I’d see them touring with bassist Gustaf Hielm, who left the band two years later. With this tour and the release of their third album, “Chaosphere”, they steadily grew a larger following and helped advance their metal musical movement farther into the mainstream.

But the night belonged to Slayer, of course. They were still promoting their most recent album, “Diabolus In Musica” which was brand new the time I saw them previously and they opened their set with the first two songs off that album, “Bitter Piece” and “Death’s Head”. Slayer also played “Stain Of Mind” and “Scrum” off that album later in their set as well. Like Meshuggah, they were dabbling in more sophisticated musical stuff, experimenting with tritone dissonance with the new album, murky, tuned down guitar chords, playing mostly in C-Sharp. Their new direction was also a much deserved rebuke to the frat boy nu-metal that had been permeating popular culture at the time, just what we all needed in my opinion.

As always, Slayer tore it up. My only real complaint about the show was the fact that I had to work all the way through their set, being a paid usher that night instead of being a volunteer. I guess Tina needed extra help that night dealing with the throngs of headbangers on the dance floor. I know I have mentioned it before, but it bears repeating that the Slayer crowd is much easier to usher than one might imagine. Indeed, after a couple weeks trying to wrangle the hippies, the Slayer crowd was a bit of a breath of fresh air. These guys had no interest in spinning in place or shambling from person to person, hugging each other. Once Slayer began their sonic assault, their legions of fans would stop at nothing to get up front or they simply stood in place, banging their heads to the beat, putting up their devil horns, and occasionally giving in to the irresistible urge to scream the band’s name. Slayer would go on to tour with Ozzfest later that summer with a stellar line up of other bands including the Deftones, Rob Zombie, Primus, and Slipknot, but to my eternal shame, I missed it for some reason. It would be over two and a half years until I would see Slayer again at The Warfield, the third of five times I would see them perform at that venue.

KVHW, Jazz Is Dead, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., April 23, 1999

Jazz Is Dead, KVHW, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., April 24, 1999

SETLISTS :

(FRIDAY) :

(JAZZ IS DEAD) : Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo, Let Me Sing Your Blues Away, Row Jimmy, Stella Blue, Here Comes Sunshine, Eyes Of The World, Weather Report Suite, Estimated Prophet, King Solomon’s Marbles, Scarlet Begonias

(KVWH) : (Set 1), What I Say, Same World, Five B4 Funk, City Of Tiny Lights, (Set 2), Spring Water, Slumber, In Time, Tangled Hangers, Express Yourself, (encore), A New Africa

(SATURDAY) :

(KVHW) : Why Can’t We All Just Samba?, Footprints, High & Lonesome, Point Of No Return, You’re The One, (encore), It’s Impossible

(JAZZ IS DEAD) : (Set 1), Help Is On The Way, Slipknot!, Dark Star, Crazy Fingers, Terrapin Station, Blues For Allah, Terrapin Station (reprise), Franklin’s Tower, (Set 2), Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo, Let Me Sing Your Blues Away, Row Jimmy, Stella Blue, Here Comes Sunshine, Eyes Of The World, Weather Report Suite, Let It Grow

These shows would round out a weeklong marathon of hippie music starting with the last of the three shows Phil Lesh did at The Warfield and the 420 Hemp Festival headlined by Grateful Dead keyboardist Vince Welnick at the Hall that Tuesday. As I had mentioned in my previous entry, I would be getting a heaping amount of music from guitarist Steve Kimock from all these shows, a man I was already infinitely familiar, having recorded him countless times at the Hall with Zero, even recording that band only two weeks before this show. Donna Jean Godchaux-McCay was there also having performed with Phil, but she just sang the intro to “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” both nights with Jazz Is Dead. Incidentally, Phil Lesh not only played that song with Steve and Donna as did Jazz Is Dead, but they both played “Dark Star” and “Terrapin Station” too. I got to know those songs pretty well that stretch. With all these shows including the Zero show under my belt, that clocks in five times I’d see Steve play in only two weeks.

He would be joined by fellow Zero member, Bobby Vega, the “V” in KVHW, on bass, who would frankly steal the show on both nights. Bobby was rather subdued when he would play with Zero, but KVHW allowed him to flaunt his chops and he did so with amazing skill. Fellow Zero alumni, Martin Fiero, also showed up and played sax with them for a while as well, though he managed to get through both shows without busting any of his usually corny jokes. That Zero show I recorded at the Hall two weeks before I had pledged would be the last time I’d ever record them and low and behold, I was stuck with three of the five members of Zero for two more nights. These shows had the unique distinction of being the only shows at the Hall where each band took turns being the headliner, KVHW on the first day, Jazz Is Dead on the second. I have only seen that happen twice before in my long years of witnessing live music, the first being British shoe gazer bands Lush and Ride taking turns with the shows they did at The Edge in Palo Alto back in 1992. The other was when Big Head Todd & The Monsters took turns with Dave Matthews Band at The Warfield in 1995.

Doing the honors once again of addressing the crowd between singing songs was Ray White. Funny guy, Ray, as well as being a gifted guitarist and having a voice as strong as it was beautiful. Between songs on the first day he thanked somebody in the crowd named Luis for his “beautiful glasswork… herbal glasswork” and whistled the theme to “Leave It To Beaver” while the others tuned up. He also thanked another fellow later named Herbie saying, “part of this goes to the guy who keeps me on time to rehearsals and stuff”. After a few more songs, people were enjoying the revelry and he declared, “You’re all waking up now! Well, let’s dance, like this! We’ll all do the Michael Flatley!” Flatley’s “Lord Of The Dance” show had just premiered recently, the follow up to his smash hit Irish dance show, “Riverdance”, though I admit I never saw either of those shows live back then.

I know I whine bitterly about hippies and hippie music, but upon revisiting the recordings from these shows, I have to admit that I was privileged to have these gigs under my belt. That is true particularly in this case, since the recordings from Jazz Is Dead were used to make a live album. Yes, they mixed, mastered, and released the “Laughing Water” live album a mere two months after this show. I’m glad my work was at least good enough to be put together so quickly. If I had fucked up, it likely would have taken longer. Pete, who usually did these hippie shows, left this one to me. He had recorded Jazz Is Dead almost a year ago to the day and KVHW that September, so he probably didn’t think either band would have used any of our recordings. Still, Pete having become increasingly demoralized by the situation at the Hall with Boots the owner and was leaving more and more of these shows for me to record as well as more reggae and soul stuff too. I wasn’t complaining for sure, especially since it increased my chances to have official releases of my stuff put out into the world. But after all the hours I clocked in with these hippies, hearing Slayer at The Warfield the following night was indeed the antidote to all their prolonged noodling.

420 Hemp Festival : Vince Welnick & The Missing Man Formation, B-Side Players, Ali Khan Band, Most Chill Slackmob, Maritime Hall, SF, Tues., April 20, 1999

The jovial festivities of that evening were tempered by the tragic news of the Columbine massacre that day. What was monstrous and unthinkable would become all too common as the years went on, but suffice to say that everybody could use a joint for this one. This would be the third time the Maritime would be hosting the 420 Hemp Festival, but the final time for me. The celebration of all things weed related had been expanded to all three floors of the Hall, allowing vendors, musicians, DJs, and revelers to keep the stony activities going all night. Indeed, it had been billed as going from 4:20 in the afternoon to 4:20 in the morning, though I can’t confirm it went on that late, I having my duties fulfilled long before that. It was only $20 to get in, but there was a $50 ticket that allowed access to the “VIP Lounge” they had that night, though I still have no clue where it was or what perks it offered.

The day’s terrible news didn’t prevent me from appreciating the honor of recording Vince Welnick who headlined that night with his band, The Missing Man Formation. That band’s name, a clear reference to the loss of fellow Grateful Dead member Jerry Garcia who passed away in 1995, was an unneeded reminder that Vince was the final living member of that seminal hippie band that I hadn’t had recorded at the Hall by then. We’d taped Phil, Donna, Bruce Hornsby, Bobby, and Mickey at the Philharmonia sing-a-long show the previous December and taped Bill playing with Merl Saunders opening for Toots & The Maytals that New Year’s Eve. I had long admired Vince for his undeniable skills on the keys, his powerful and melodic voice which the Dead desperately needed, and his overall positive vibe. He had been a founding member of The Tubes, thus was no stranger to folks in the bay area.

And speaking of familiar faces, the rest of the bill that night included bands that had frequented the Hall a number of times, starting with the Most Chill Slackmob. Once again their dreadlocked frontman, Ngaio Bealum, would use his formidable comedic skills to emcee the festivities throughout the night, doing double duty performing with his band as well. They were followed by the Ali Khan Band, then the B-Side Players who both filled the cavernous, smoke permeated walls of the Maritime with their stoney and danceable tunes. This would be the third time Ali Khan would play the Hall in only four months. It’s easy for a crowd to enjoy a show, especially a long one like this, when they’re all baked to gills. I’m sure there was no shortage of business at the snack bar and there was plenty of bottled water sold as well.

I didn’t retain any of the recordings from that night and wasn’t able to find any online, but as you might have guessed, Vince played a good handful of Dead tunes. One song for sure he played was “Samba In The Rain” which he wrote for the Dead, but other bits he had done with his band around that time included “Cosmic Charlie”, “Way To Go Home”, “Here Comes Sunshine”, “The Wheel”, and “Stella Blue”. Probably played at least a couple of those, if not all of them. He also did his own song, “Golden Days”, a touching ode to Jerry. Steve Kimock had played guitar on Vince’s self-titled debut album he released the year before, but I can’t remember if he joined him on stage that night, though it was likely. I had just recorded Steve with Zero, less than two weeks before as well as seen Steve perform with Phil Lesh at The Warfield only three days before this show and he’d grace the Hall with back to back shows playing in KVHW with Jazz Is Dead only three days after. Yes, that’s five times total, so it’s safe to say I had enough Kimock to last me for a while by that Saturday. Jazz Is Dead would also play their versions of “Here Comes Sunshine” and “Stella Blue” on both of the nights they performed.

Sadly, this would be the final time I’d see Vince Welnick perform or alive for that matter. It had been no secret that he took the death of Jerry very hard and that he too had battled drug and alcohol addiction for many years. Vince also suffered from crippling bouts of depression and all that pain ultimately led to his suicide in 2005. I and the rest of the world’s grief would be amplified to utter horror upon learning that he dispatched himself by cutting his own throat in front of his wife. I still shutter when I think of it. But I try to remember the joyful times I spent hearing him play and finally the last and only moment I shared with him, a brief exchange when I gave him the tapes of his set at the end of the night. He was as friendly as any musician I had ever encountered, thanking me, smiling sweetly, and warmly shaking my hand. Vince would play The Fillmore less than two months later and again in August, but I didn’t go to either of them. It’s a pity. I had taken him for granted like all the other Dead members and thought he’d be around performing forever. In a strange twist of fate, upon researching this show, I found somebody online trying to sell a medical ID that Vince had from that year, issued to him from Grateful Dead Productions through Principal Life Insurance. They had mistakenly listed his first name as Leo, which was his middle name. Why anyone would want such a thing, much less pay money for it is beyond me, but there has to be at least one fan out there who’s crazy enough to get it.

Phil Lesh & Phriends, War., SF, Sat., April 17, 1999

SETLIST : (Set 1), Dark Star, It’s Up To You, Days Between, Dark Star, My Favorite Things, Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo, Bird Song, (Set 2), Terrapin Station, Down With Disease, Dark Star, Friend Of The Devil, Casey Jones, (Walk Me Out In The) Morning Dew, Going Down The Road Feelin’ Bad, And We Bid You Goodnight, (encore), Box Of Rain

Mr. Lesh had firmly gotten his groove back almost four and a half years after the untimely death of Jerry Garcia and the disbanding of the Grateful Dead. Phil had already got his feet wet playing a one off charity gig the year before also at The Warfield with the Dead spin-off, The Other Ones, and doing the Philharmonia sing-a-long show at the Maritime the previous December. But he now was officially touring under the moniker of “Phil & Friends”, a project that would continue for many years to come with a steady rotation of respected musicians, an expansive list almost too long to count. As luck would have it, this first of many incarnations I’d witness would be playfully dubbed “Phil & Phriends”, as two of the members of this new collective would be members of Phish, they being singer/guitarist Trey Anastasio and Page McConnell on keyboards. It seemed a natural and perhaps unavoidable collaboration seeing that Phish had more or less taken the vanguard on the post-Dead hippie jam band movement since we lost Jerry. Phish was taking a break from playing together anyway until later that summer and would also take a two year hiatus starting in 2000, so that bands loss was our gain.

Also joining them would be Grateful Dead alumni Donna Jean Godchaux, the widow of their late keyboard player Keith, though she had since remarried taking the hyphenated name Godchaux-McKay. Donna had sang alongside Phil at the aforementioned Philharmonia show and though I never was particularly fond of her grating voice, she thankfully was only on stage for only four songs, “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo”, “Bird Song”, “Going Down The Road Feelin’ Bad”, & “And We Bid You Goodnight”. On drums would be John Molo who would be the go-to guy for Phil for many years to come as well as other Grateful Dead side projects. In another example of God’s sick sense of humor, only a week to the day after swearing I wouldn’t record much less see Zero again, low and behold, there was their guitarist Steve Kimock once more on stage in front of me noodling away. Not that I was complaining, it was just weird. Steve’s an exceptional guitarist and a perfect fit for Phil.

This would be the last of a three night run at The Warfield, all benefiting the Unbroken Chain Foundation. I was only able to sign up for this one and couldn’t do the first night anyway as I was working at the Maritime recording Stabbing Westward with Placebo, a very different show stylistically speaking to be sure. As I had mentioned previously in this humble writing project of mine, I never bothered to bootleg Dead shows before since so many others did with infinitely higher quality gear and the recordings of any of the Dead’s shows were easily available if I wanted them. And even though there were no shortage of Heads there in their customary taped off section on the dance floor with their recording decks and elaborate microphone setups, I still taped it myself and would do so for all the Phil shows that I’d attend in the future. Something deep down told me I should, sort of giving myself permission to since these shows weren’t officially the Dead. Still, I had no trouble finding a stellar quality bootleg of this night and I predict I will have no trouble finding copies of any of the Phil shows I saw at The Warfield or anywhere else thereafter in the future. Likewise, that goes for all the other Dead side projects in the years to come as well.

Like the old Jerry and the Dead shows, there would be two sets and I would have to work extra hard that night since I was once again a paid usher instead of a volunteer, having to endure herding these meandering stoners through both sets and the intermission. I’ve always said the hippie crowds were the toughest to usher and I won’t get into it again why that it is, but I made it through the night somehow. It was an interesting set, the sophisticated way they arranged their songs. The Dead had often made sprawling medleys between two or three of their tunes, but this night they actually opened with “Dark Star” for once, melded into two songs including the old standard “My Favorite Things”, reprised it and then surprised us all reprising it one more time during the second set after a couple songs in. Furthermore, they gave us a little easter egg at the end of the final reprise, playing a bit of “The Other One”. Trey was clearly having a good time on stage all night and even surprised Phil during “Casey Jones”, monkeying a little with the lyrics, singing “Trouble ahead, Phil in red!”. Phil got a kick out of it and busted up laughing, they playing under red lights at that moment and I believe Phil had a red shirt on as well.

I understand, I dare say maybe even more than many, of the complaints that non-fans of the Dead hold, having seen them a number of times and as a bay area resident am resigned to the fact that we out here are practically married to that band and their members. Yes, their music isn’t for everybody, not even for me sometimes. As much as I love Phil and the Dead, I still to this day haven’t been able to connect with the music of Phish at all and I’ve tried to at a number of their shows, though I do appreciate Trey and his solo work slightly more. But I would dare any Dead music detractor to listen to their rendition of “Terrapin Station” at that night’s show and still turn their nose up to it. I will always have mixed feelings for a number of the songs the Dead played in their history, but that epic tune is nothing short of a masterpiece and they indeed performed it masterfully that night.

At the end of the second set, Phil would give a speech which he would continue to give at the end of his shows for the years to come, encouraging the audience to become blood and organ donors, he having received a liver transplant himself the year before after nearly dying from Hepatitis C. That night, he said “This is a very special moment for me because there were times I wasn’t sure I’d ever be playing music again or anything else for that matter. But the reason that I am here is that there’s a family of people out there who in the most stressful and tragic situation were generous enough to donate the organs of a loved one who passed on to eight people including myself. One of the things this brought home to me was the importance of organ donation and blood donation to the health of millions of people and affect the lives of millions of people from diseases like HCV and many others. Half the people who have hepatitis C virus are not aware of it. Won’t be aware of it until they start getting sick. And when they get sick, they’ll be on a list, but the list will be so long, it’s possible they’ll need 28 thousand organs in one year, as opposed to 9 or 10 thousand. So I wanna urge everyone here to become an organ donor. But the most important part is to inform your family in writing it is your desire if you can should anything awful happen to you, to be an organ donor so you can save lives. So be sure to tell your families if you make that step. Also, one last thing, blood donation is important too. There’s a shortage of whole blood in the hospitals all around the country. If you have a chance and have good blood, give some.”

Phil thanked the crowd which generously applauded him and he said that these shows were one of “the finest experiences” of his life and he said they’d be right back for the encore. He returned shortly, introducing the members of the band, including Steve “on interstellar, super-luminal guitar”, John on “Mother Earth drums”, and Trey on “magma flaming lava volcano guitar”. The band wrapped up the three night run with “Box Of Rain”, an appropriate song being the one that Phil first started his singing with the Dead shortly before they disbanded. I always liked that tune, a particularly sentimental one for me. It would be a couple years until I would see Phil play with another lineup of “Friends”, but I would be treated regularly to many more to come as the years went on. Still, I didn’t have to wait long at all then to hear more hippie music, since I would record none other than former Dead keyboardist Vince Welnick at the Maritime only three days later. Frankly, I was surprised he didn’t show up to any of Phil’s shows, nor any other former member either. And if that wasn’t enough, I got to record not one, but two back to back shows at the Hall the days after with Jazz Is Dead and KVHW, also with Steve Kimock. God help me, I got to see Steve play four times in only two weeks. Thank almighty Lucifer that Slayer played The Warfield immediately after all these shows, a perfect and potent antidote to any hippie music.

Stabbing Westward, Placebo, Flick, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., April 15, 1999

SETLIST : (PLACEBO) : Scared Of Girls, Brick Shithouse, Allergic (To Thoughts Of Mother Earth), You Don’t Care About Us, Bionic, 36 Degrees, Without You I’m Nothing, Every You Every Me, Bruise Pristine, Lady Of The Flowers, Nancy Boy, Pure Morning

(STABBING WESTWARD) [partial] : Waking Up Beside You, Shame, Drowning, Haunting Me, What Do I Have To Do?, Hopeless, Sometimes It Hurts

I was disappointed to see that Stabbing Westward had brought their own monitor board to this show, thus preventing us from getting the split to do a multi-track recording, but I thought this show was worth sticking around for, still able to get the simple stereo recording from the front of house guys upstairs coupled with our audience mics. It’s never as good, but was certainly better than nothing and I would do it again for such shows as The Go-Go’s later on when they too brought their own monitor board. And even though there was not much work to be done recording it, Liz Farrow stuck around with me to enjoy the music as we were fans of both Stabbing Westward and the opener, Placebo. The former had proved themselves three times over to me already to be a dependable and talented opening act, warming up the crowds for Killing Joke at Slim’s in ’94, the Sex Pistols at Shoreline in ’96, and just five months before this show with Depeche Mode at the Oakland Arena. However, this would be the first and only time I’d see them headlining their own gig.

But I have to say that both Liz and I were equally as thrilled to see Placebo and I would go so far to say that one could call this show a double headliner, though I can’t recall anything about Flick, the first band. Like Stabbing Westward, I’d just seen Placebo just the previous December, they as the first band on the Not-So-Silent Night show at the Warfield and making quite an impression in their short set then. By this time, their second album, “Without You I’m Nothing” had been released and Placebo were starting to get the attention I felt they deserved. One of their songs “Every You, Every Me” had been included in the soundtrack for “Cruel Intentions” which came just six weeks before this night. When they played it about halfway through their set, singer Brian Melko introduced it saying “If you listen carefully when you go to the movies, you might hear this song.” I have to admit, I still haven’t seen that movie yet, though I know it helped make Reese Witherspoon the star she is today.

Brian said of the song in an interview that he had studied drama as a young man and knew the play “Dangerous Liaisons” of which the movie was based. He and the band watched an early cut of this new remake on their tour bus when considering doing a song for it, but insisted “if he (Ryan Phillippe’s character) doesn’t die in the end, if it’s a happy ending, we don’t do it.” Thankfully, they stuck to the original ending and Brian thought their song fit “in quite well” saying their lyrics were “quite perverted and manipulative”. Incidentally, Reese would marry Ryan six weeks after this show, though they would later divorce in 2007. I was able to find a great sounding bootleg of Placebo’s set from that night on some Russian website, but was only able to find a partial listing of Stabbing Westward’s setlist. Both bands would play well that show, but sadly this would be the final time I’d see Stabbing Westward, though I’d get to see Placebo one more time opening for She Wants Revenge at The Warfield seven years later.

Salt N’ Pepa, Lukas Prata, Jungle Bizkit Bop City Project, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., April 11, 1999

Frankly, I was equally as surprised as I was ecstatic when I learned that the legendary team of Salt N’ Pepa was going to play the Hall. Along with other New York City acts like MC Lyte and Queen Latifah, they would be pioneers not only as the first successful female hip hop acts, but pioneers in the genre entirely, easily as influential as such NYC contemporaries as Run DMC, Public Enemy, and L.L. Cool J. They and Queen Latifah were also the first female hip hop acts to win Grammies, which they both did in 1995. These women were there at the birth of this musical revolution. Everybody in the world knows that Salt N’ Pepa have been putting out absolutely infectious jams since 1985 and I felt quite honored that I would get to record them that night, not to mention relieved that Pete had left it for me to do. Sure, Pete didn’t give a fig about hip hop, but I thought even he wouldn’t resist the opportunity of doing an act of this stature.

Part of the surprise of this show was due to Salt N’ Pepa not touring for four years. Both Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandi “Pepa” Denton were in a bit of a transitional period around this time. Salt was very, VERY pregnant at this show with her second child, son Chapele. She eventually married his father Gavin Wry on Christmas the following year after dating for ten years, but then soon suffered a bruising four year long divorce from him. Pepa, also married her on again off again boyfriend, Treach from Naughty By Nature, only nine days before this show in a Kansas City tattoo parlor, strangely enough. They had a more formal ceremony later that July, but like Salt, she divorced shortly afterwards in 2001. It does make me wonder what is the overall success rate of tattoo parlor marriages, but I digress. Shortly before this show, the duo would also have the bad fortune of signing to Red Ant Records who quickly went bankrupt afterwards, going under even before the release of their fifth and final studio album, “Brand New”. The album still did well enough, quickly going gold, but they would ultimately disband in 2002. Thankfully they eventually got back together and even starred in “The Salt N’ Pepa Show”, a reality series on VH1 about them in 2008.

Opening that night was the Jungle Bizkit Bop City Project, a latter extension of instrumental hip hop band, Jungle Bizkit, who I’d seen a couple times before, including once at the Hall in ’96. I loved those guys and were glad to have them back. They had a couple singers this time including Caitlan Cornwell who had sang alongside fellow bay area bands Alphabet Soup and The Mo’Fessionals. Their set that night has the unique distinction of being what I believe is the only time the first of more than three bands played the longest set of the night. Clocking in at about an hour, they easily beat Lucas Prata, who did a measly 20 minutes, and Salt N’ Pepa who played only 45 minutes. Though he was wearing a San Francisco Giants jersey that night, Prata was from NYC, brand new with his single “Fly Away”. He used to be a backup dancer for Downtown Julie Brown on “Club MTV”.

Salt N’ Pepa ran a little late, but they eventually took the stage dressed in various bright yellow and black outfits, accompanied by their DJ, Deidra “Dee Dee” Roper otherwise known as Spinderella. Salt looked adorable beyond words strutting around in her yellow overalls. Opening with their smash hit, “Push It”, followed by “Tramp” and “I’ll Take Your Man”, they would also be joined from time to time by four female backup dancers. I don’t know the setlist, sadly not having the recording of this one either, but I do know they also played “Shoop”, “Gitty Up”, “RU Ready”, “Hold On”, “Do You Want Me”, “Let’s Talk About Sex”, “Whatta Man”, and “None Of Your Business”. Considering how short their set was, those were probably most if not all the songs they played.

A couple funny things happened during “Whatta Man”. Before the song, they asked for “three good men” to join them on stage and they had no shortage of volunteers. Pepa asked one to take his shirt off and he obliged on the condition that “you gotta promise to respect me.” To his credit, he had impressive abs. They dedicated the song “to all the men out there who have jobs.” Also, Salt, who I had mentioned was super preggers at the time, turned sideways and caressed her belly when she did the line, “You so crazy, I think I wanna have your baby”. That got a big laugh from me and I’ve never forgot it. I wouldn’t learn until years later that the song was a reinterpretation of the 1968 soul song “What A Man” by Linda Lyndell. As wonderful and a privilege as this show was, I can never forget how it was mysteriously empty. Hip hop shows at the Maritime had always sold well, at least filling the dance floor and I assumed that this one would be absolutely packed, but there was only around 300 people there! Maybe it was just a fluke, or bad promotion, but I was stunned, ashamed even. Such hip hop royalty deserved better for sure.

One mildly humorous thing I will never forget from this show was when one of the young, Red Coat security guards stopped me by the stage door for a moment when I went to give the band the tapes at the end of the night, asking me if I could say hello to Spinderella for him. I smiled and shined him on a bit, saying I would if I ran into her. Can’t blame the guy for having a bit of a crush. Spinderella is fine as may wine. If anything, I would have said hello to her from me, being single at the time. On a side note, researching this show, I learned that daytime TV personality Wendy Williams auditioned for Salt N’ Pepa’s DJ before Spinderella did. Sadly, Spinderella sued the duo over unpaid royalties a couple years ago after she was ousted from the band and recently settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. It’s a pity that they fell out so hard. They even left Spinderella almost completely out of the recent Salt N’ Pepa biopic that was on the Lifetime Channel.

Zero, Sky Cries Mary, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., April 10, 1999

SETLIST : (Set 1) Forever Is Nowhere, La Fiesta, Catalina, Eight Below Zero, On Your Way Down, Baby Baby, (Set 2) Nefertiti, Cole’s Law, Gregg’s Eggs, Papa Was A Rolling Stone, Gregg’s Eggs (reprise), Anorexia, Hey Hey My My (Out OF The Blue), Can’t Keep A Good Man Down, (encore), Golden Road, Whiter Shade Of Pale, Use Me Up

We’d all but given up recording Zero at the Hall for reasons I’ve long since explained in previous entries, but for those reading for the first time, I’ll be brief. Zero had already released a couple live albums that we taped there and frankly, we were getting bored with them. It had been a while since we done any of their shows there and we weren’t going to do this one either. But word got out that the second of the two day stint they had lined up that weekend was going to be their last show ever and naturally I thought it would be significant. Pete just shrugged and said for me to have at it, leaving me to record on my lonesome.

I’d already taped the opener, Sky Cries Mary, just two months before this show as well, but I consoled myself in the knowledge that I would have at least one Zero show under my belt that Pete didn’t do himself. As you might have guessed, it wasn’t their last show ever and I felt a little burned for having done it. Even at the encore, mustachioed singer Judge Murphy said “God only knows if this is the last gig, probably not.” I hear they even joked about it when they would do later gigs saying stuff like it was their “3rd annual last show” and such. This would be the last one for me though. Fool me once, shame on you and so forth. In fact, I’m pretty certain that this was the last time I saw Zero perform again. Sax player Martin Fierro died in 2008 and Judge did too in 2013. The others are still kickin’. I would see guitarist Steve Kimock a few times in the years to come collaborating with various Grateful Dead offshoots and I caught drummer Greg Anton playing at Terrapin Station in San Rafael a few years ago with Melvin Seals and Stu Allen.

I am happy to report that the recording of that night still exists and is available online at archive.org and as Zero shows go, this one was pretty good. Zero did a few covers in the second set including soul standard “Papa Was A Rolling Stone”, a bit of “Hey Hey My My (Out Of The Blue) by Neil Young before going into “Can’t Keep A Good Man Down”, Procal Harum’s “Whiter Shade Of Pale”, and “Use Me Up” by Bill Withers. They had a young woman named Lauren Miller singing along with them that night and for most of the second set, they were joined by none other than Boots, the Maritime’s boss. Yes, he dusted off his alto sax and let loose. Boots seemed happy, really in his element up there on stage and for the encore, he called them “Maritime’s favorite” and got a round of applause to get them back on stage. I’ve always been hard on Boots for his quick temper, questionable business practices, and tyrannical leadership skills, but I have always admired him anyway. He genuinely loves music and his family, had occasional moments of kindness, and obviously the whole Maritime experiment would have never happened without him in the first place.

Napalm Death, Neurosis, The Melvins, Skinlab, Will Haven, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., April 7, 1999

SETLIST : (NEUROSIS) : The Doorway, End Of The Harvest, An Offering, Belief, Under The Surface, Times Of Grace

It was one of the most impressive line ups I’d ever have the pleasure to record that night of any genre of music though it most certainly was the antidote to the earful of hippie tunes that I heard the night before with Medeski, Martin, & Wood at The Warfield. Seriously, it doesn’t get much heavier than any one of these guys and we had five of them in row. And for only $14, the show was surprisingly affordable. First and foremost, it would be my introduction to the one and only Napalm Death. Though I wasn’t familiar with their music, their reputation preceded them as heavy metal pioneers. Hailing originally from Meriden in jolly old England near Coventry, but since relocated to Birmingham, they had been making ears bleed since 1981. By this time they had released their 8th studio album, “Words From The Exit Wound” the previous October, their last work before their acrimonious split from Earache Records.
I’m always frustrated trying to describe any band’s sound, but that goes double for describing metal, especially since there are so many perceived sub-genres ranging from such terms as thrash, black, crust-punk, sludge, doom, post, to drone metal. But Napalm Death has the distinction of having its own classification being “grindcore”, a term coined by their guitarist Jesse Pintado, calling it a mix of “noise & chaos”. I would say that it’s a fair description, especially for the songs they do which are conspicuously brief. In fact, they hold the Guinness Book Of World Records’ record for the shortest song ever recorded, “You Suffer”, clocking in at just 1.316 seconds, just enough time to scream “You suffer, but why!?!”. The band made an appearance on the UK talk show “Chris Evans’ TFI Friday” that year and did three songs which lasted in total only 59 seconds. But Napalm Death played a full and satisfying hour at the end of the night which I will get into later.

The first act of the evening was Will Haven who I had seen once before opening for fellow Sacramento band The Deftones at The Fillmore in 1997. They were still fairly new and wouldn’t release their second album, “WHVN” for another five months. They were followed by Skinlab, who I was infinitely familiar with by then. I’d recorded them at the Hall four times before this, twice in ’97 opening for Machinehead and D.R.I., once in ’98 opening for Deicide, and just that January opening for Fear Factory. Like The Earthlings, who I was subjected to record opening at hip hop shows repeatedly, I was at first unimpressed with at first, but grew to enjoy them as they also improved as time passed. Likewise, I was almost as familiar with The Melvins, who I’d see perform at Slim’s twice in ’94 and ’97, as well as the side stage of Lollapalooza in ’96, but I was absolutely ecstatic to have this opportunity to record them for the first time at the Hall. I ran into King Buzzo, their frontman upstairs after their soundcheck and spoke with him briefly. He’s a easy one to spot with unmistakable giant frizzy hairdo. I quickly spilled my guts about how happy I was and he politely humored me. When I mentioned that I used to be an intern for Dave Leftkowitz, managing the bands merchandise for the “Melvins Army”. Buzzo chortled, “Oh, I’m sorry”. I guess by that time, the band had parted ways with Dave as their manager.

Indeed, they were going through a transitional period then, having recently joined Mike Patton’s new record label, Ipecac Records. An Ipecac, incidentally, is an emetic, a syrup that is used to induce vomiting. The label’s slogan was “Ipecac Records : Making People Sick Since 1999”. Along with The Melvins, they had an impressive roster of artists including Mike’s many side projects such as the Fantomas which King Buzzo was a member, Tomahawk, and Mondo Cane. Coincidentally, Mike had founded the new label with Greg Werckman who I had worked for with my other internship with Alternative Tentacles which I was doing simultaneously alongside my internship with Lefkowitz. On this label, The Melvins quickly released a trilogy of albums that year with material they’d been stockpiling with the titles “The Maggot”, “The Bootlicker”, and “The Crybaby”. There was even a lost album of songs that wasn’t released until recently called “Three Men And A Baby”. Suffice to say, The Melvins have always been prolific. Along with these new projects, they were touring with a new bass player Kevin Rutmanis who had just replaced Joe Preston. One would have hoped with all their different releases that The Melvins put out some of the stuff I recorded, but alas to no avail.

What made this show particularly special was that this would be the one time I’d get to record, or even to this date, see Oakland’s own Neurosis. I had however seen their alter ego band, Tribes Of Neurot, open for Pigface at The Fillmore the year before, but didn’t like them much. But I did enjoy Neurosis’ brand of percussion heavy, avant-garde metal very much. They were just a few weeks shy of releasing their “Times Of Grace” album produced by the legendary Steve Albini. It was actually supposed to be played simultaneously alongside the Tribes Of Neurot album, “Grace”, but I imagine few people actually did that. On it’s own, Neurosis’ new album did get a good deal of positive reviews. Four of the six songs they played in their set that night were new ones.

Their performance also had the unique distinction of having their own projections done by their touring video engineer calling himself Pete Inc. They had draped a large white sheet on stage behind the band and projected videos onto it from their own projector in the balcony while the videos were also projected on the Maritime’s screens on the side, mixed in with our video feed. While they hammered out their tunes, we were subjected to a variety of layered images such as diagrams of brains, lightning, twitching naked bodies, marching soldiers, war torn city ruins, and fields of static. One of their guitarists pounded a small stand up drum kit for the song “An Offering” and the other guitarist played a small Moog keyboard for “Belief” and also a set of electronic tom drums for “Under The Surface”. I loved their music and definitely saw how bands like Tool and Mastodon took a page from them.

And then there was Napalm Death. Honestly, coming in sight unseen, I was unprepared for what I was to witness. As they took the stage, they appeared rather unassuming, dressed casually in T-shirts, shorts, and such. Their singer, Mark “Barney” Greenway introduced them in his proper English accent and then his voice quickly morphed into a barking, Cookie Monster-like roar. I was transfixed by the sound of it and the way he would do little baby steps around the stage like a dizzy, hyperactive toddler. Apparently, Barney got his nickname as a derivative of Barney Rubble from “The Flintstones”, a joke about the way he’d stumble around when he was drunk. But the thing I remembered the most about him was the way he would repeatedly try to blow air up from his bottom lip to try to clear away his long hair from his face, emphasis on “try”. The hair would just come back down again and he’d do this sisyphean task throughout the entire set. All and all, it was a unforgettable cavalcade of metal and though it took 17 years, I got to see Napalm Death play again with The Melvins at Slim’s and it was well worth the wait, especially since they had Melt Banana on that bill. On a quick side note, this night was the first show of the month and I was impressed by the new monthly poster the Hall put out for it, especially since Boots didn’t misspell anything on it for once.

Medeski, Martin, & Wood, DJ Logic, War., SF, Tues., April 6, 1999

SETLIST : (Set 1) Seven Deadlies, Untitled Blues, Thaw, Brigas Nunca Mais, Rise Up, Swamp Road, (Set 2) Partido Alto, Hey Hee Hi Ho, Toy Dancing, Start / Stop, Combustication, Sugarcraft, Psychedelic Sally, Hey Joe, (encore), Spy Kiss

With the death of Jerry Garcia, a new wave of jam band acts rushed in to fill the void including Medeski, Martin, & Wood, one of a few who were strictly instrumental. It was these bands that I appreciated the most frankly, because it allowed me to focus entirely on their prowess as musicians more than lyricists which was the genres’ strength in my humble opinion. This trio along with other instrumental groups of the era such as Sound Tribe Sector Nine and the Disco Biscuits helped expand jam bands’ audience as they incorporated different styles into the genre itself like funk, hip hop, and even electronica. Such was the case with these guys as they were touring and playing alongside DJ Logic who was one of the only DJ’s to see the creative and commercial potential in collaborating with such groups. He has added his turntable stylings for other such hippies as John Mayer, Jack Johnson, John Popper from Blues Traveler, moe., and Robert Randolph, that last one I’d see open for him with his new band Project Logic at The Fillmore two years later.

Medeski, Martin, & Wood had just signed to Blue Note Records in New York where DJ Logic hailed from and I assume they had met there. He had been mentored by Vernon Reid, the guitarist of Living Colour, who I had coincidentally just recorded at Maritime Hall only a month before this show. In another strange bit of timing, I’d just seen fellow fresh Blue Note signee Charlie Hunter eleven days before this gig and Charlie had toured and played alongside Medeski, Martin, & Wood as well. I’d seen the trio twice before at The Fillmore both in ’95 and ’96, but now they were big enough to play The Warfield. Unfortunately, the show was so quiet, I could barely hear anything in my tapes apart from Medeski’s keyboards. I liked the bit he did during the show where he played a little of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” by Marvin Gaye though. I also caught a bit of myself at the bar asking the bartender if I could get five ones so I could tip her for my beer. Their first set was acoustic, but I do remember enjoying how DJ Logic melded with the band when he joined them for their second electric set. It made me wish more jam bands employed DJs.

The Ventures, The Mermen, The Ziggens, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., March 27, 1999

SETLISTS :

(THE ZIGGENS) : Junipero Serra, Molly’s Lips, Goin Richtor, Surfin Buena Park, Tim The Dinosaur, Burpin USA, Joseph, Surfungus, Breakin The Law

(THE MERMEN) : (Set 1) Latina, Le Jiz Hot, Sponge Cookie, Burn, Splashin’ With The Mermaid, Curve, Lonely Playboy, Astroboy, Emmylou Rides Clarence West Then South, Merry Go Round, (Set 2) Song From Dead Man, Unto The Resplendent, Here Kitty Kitty, Sway

Though I hadn’t seen The Ventures before this night, one would have to have been living under rock to have not heard at least one of their famous instrumental surf anthems, especially in California. If it wasn’t the unforgettable theme song to “Hawaii 5-O”, one could never forget the haunting ending of “Pulp Fiction” where John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson casually strolled out of the diner to their tune “Walk, Don’t Run”. Indeed, the venerable group from Tacoma, Washington were billing this show as “Hawaii 4-O” being their 40th anniversary and they were touring with (mostly) their original line up. Their drummer Mel Taylor had passed away in 1996 and was replaced admirably by his son Leon. The big news was that they were once again touring with original guitarist Nokie Edwards who had only played with the band on rare occasions since he left the band in 1984.

Pete was in the house that night, but he let me record the opening acts as usual. The Ziggens were there as the first opener and I’d had the pleasure of taping them only two months before when they were touring with their buddies, the Long Beach Dub All Stars. They once again warmed up the crowd with their fun, surf punk stylings, even doing cheerful covers of The Vaseline’s “Molly’s Lips”, a song made famous by Nirvana, and “Breaking The Law” by Judas Priest. Enjoyable as they were, one couldn’t come up with a more appropriate opening act for The Ventures than The Mermen. I have said on multiple occasions that they were already an ideal warm up for any headliner, but surf rock was definitely the band’s wheelhouse.

Unlike The Ventures though, The Mermen were not for once in their original line up for this show. Frontman Jim Thomas introduced the band saying that their original drummer Martyn Jones was “out in Africa traveling somewhere”. Furthermore their bass player, Alan Whitman, had “some serious back problems” and had been “in bed for two weeks” and “almost had an operation”, but was “getting better” and they were planning to get “back together in about a month”. Until then he had “assembled this thing with these really amazing guys” he thought we’d really like what they were going to do there. Jim had brought in Mike Silverman on bass and “Magic Pipe” (which I will go into in a bit), Randy Clark on guitar (the 1st and only time I’d see The Mermen with two guitarists), and Vince Littleton on drums. Randy had worked with a number of artists in town as a session player and would go on to teach music at the renowned Blue Bear School Of Music at Fort Mason. I’d actually recorded a couple times Vince recently when he played the Hall backing both Merl Saunders and the JGB Band. But his main gig was playing with Super Diamond, the Neil Diamond cover band which remains hugely successful doing corporate parties and regularly playing at Bimbo’s 365 Club.

Mike was a horse of a different color though, being the one man band known as That 1 Guy and also a member of The Fabulous Hedgehogs, a brilliant and underrated band. Though he played bass for most of The Mermen’s set, he did bust out the aforementioned “Magic Pipe” for a while. This homemade contraption was what he called a “broken Bowflex”, an electronically rigged pair of metal pipes, connected by adjustable, phosphorus bronze joints, each pipe hoisting bass strings. At 7 feet tall with 13 points triggering sound effects and samples, Mike would slap, pick, hit with a drumstick, and take a bow to the instruments strings making all manner of sound. It was sort of a Diddley Bo from the future and in a strange coincidence, I had just seen Bo Diddley open for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers at The Fillmore twelve days before this show. And as I had written before, Bo derived his stage name from that rudimentary instrument. Before Vince did his “Magic Pipe” solo, Jim joked, “Watch this guy! He’s my plumber!”

It was a unique show that the Hall allowed The Mermen to do two sets as an opening act, something I don’t think I’d ever seen before of since. Though I personally didn’t keep copies of any of the sets that night, I was able to find The Mermen’s sets on archive.org including bits of six songs from their soundcheck, including “Casbah” and “Testing The Pipe” which they didn’t perform later that night. One of their first songs they did play was “Sponge Cookie” a song they had contributed to the Sony Playstation for a motorcycle racing game called “Road Rash 3D”. Jim dedicated the song “Burn” to a woman named Jennifer Burns who was in the audience who he described as having “too much energy” to burn. Jim also introduced the song “Lonely Playboy” a cover from a band called The Playboys, which Vince’s dad and uncle had played in years before. That band had actually opened for The Ventures in 1961 and when the song ended, Jim added that Vince had “good blood running in that family” and joked that Vince was the “greatest unknown drummer” who had played at “every one of your weddings.”

Afterwards, Jim pointed out a fellow in the crowd named Shigemi Koniyama who was part of the band Shig & Buzz as well as drumming occasionally for Hot Tuna. Though Shig had been shunned by his family in Japan for becoming a musician, Jim praised him and then played Shig’s tune “Astroboy”. Jim laughed that he would beg Shig to call him, but he wouldn’t return his calls. For the next song, Jim explained that “Emmylou Rides Clarence West Then South” was an homage to singer Emmylou Harris and also Clarence White, who he claimed was his “favorite guitarist”. After their set break, they started with a song from the 1995 Jim Jarmusch film “Dead Man” with Johnny Depp. Randy had played guitar with Neil Young for that movie’s score. The Mermen wrapped things up with the song “Sway” which Jim said was meant to give the listener the swaying sensation of a hula dance or palm tree.

One thing that also made this night memorable and unique was this was one of the only, if not the only, show at the Maritime where the Brotherhood Of Light guys were operating three oil plate projectors upstairs instead of the usual two. Having one of the projectors fill out the center of the ceiling gave those in the house basically a complete oil plate light show from one side of one’s peripheral vision to the other. Quite a sight indeed. The endless undulating would be appropriate for surf music I suppose, what with the waves and all, and even the venue itself with it’s ship-like construction and history amplified the “maritime” theme of the show. The Ventures played flawlessly covering the hits I mentioned earlier as well as covers of “House Of The Rising Sun”, “Wipeout” by The Safaris, and “Pipeline” by the Chantays. Coincidentally, they did a cover of the epic guitar instrumental “Telstar” which Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers also covered at that The Fillmore show I mentioned earlier. It would have been nice if The Ventures put out an album from this show, but unfortunately for us, they released a live album called “V-Gold Live!” that year from a show they did in Japan. Sadly, this would be the last time I’d see The Ventures. Nokie died in 2018, leaving Don Wilson as the only surviving original member today.

Charlie Hunter & Adam Cruz, Yoshi’s, Oakland, Fri., March 26, 1999

To my best recollection, this was the first time I had ever attended a show at Yoshi’s. The premiere jazz club, nestled in the center of Jack London’s Square in Oakland, had been putting on classy gigs for years, but I knew little to nothing about most of the acts that frequented there. However, I knew Charlie Hunter intimately from all the times he’d grace the Elbo Room with his Trio every tuesday when I lived next to it in the early 90’s and from my experience working as an intern for his manager. But Charlie had long since moved on and up in the world, relocating to New York City and signing to Blue Note, the apex of jazz labels. Still, Charlie keeps a soft spot in his heart for the bay area and returns often to play to old friends and relatives out here, often at Yoshi’s and over the holidays. This show it was in the spring though and he was playing for the first time with just a drummer accompanying him. He had just put out his aptly titled “Duo” album that year with New York City session drummer Leon Parker, his third release on Blue Note. Filling in for Leon was Adam Cruz, an equally talented master of the skins.

I believe my friend Matt Thayer joined me on this adventure and likely drove me there. It was the later of two shows he did that night, doors not even opening to us until 9:45. Long gone were the days of seeing Charlie do two full sets and an encore for only $5. He played just a touch over an hour and it set me back $20 this time. We were seated amongst the others in the crowd at one of the small round tables and I was impressed by the cleanliness and formality of the place. The acoustics were perfect and though it was pretty quiet, the crowd, unlike the folks at the Elbo Room, shut the hell up and listened. Seeing the show there that night made me feel like a bit of grown up. A word of advise, Yoshi’s is an ideal place to take someone out on a classy date.

It was interesting to hear Charlie’s sound stripped down to just him and drums. One could really concentrate on him and his baffling ability to play both guitar and bass lines simultaneously on his custom 8-string guitar. I didn’t know any of the new material and wasn’t able to pick up a setlist, but I do know that he played “Belief”, “Do That Then”, “The Spin Seekers”, and “Mean Streak” from his new album the night before. He also did a cover of Chet Baker’s “You Don’t Know What Love Is” and a song called “Dersu” and another called “Dakar”. Considering Adam Cruz was new to playing with Charlie, it’s likely they played the same stuff. Adam busted out some steel drums and percussion during a song halfway during the set which earned him a well deserved round of applause and praise from Charlie at the end of it. I could hear my recording of the night grow louder and clearer near the end of the set, so I think Matt and I moved to a table closer to the front of the stage. I would ultimately visit Yoshi’s from time to time in the future when they wisely expanded their roster of artists to include hip hop people that would come in and play with a live band backing them up, a marriage made in heaven.

Mystik Journeymen, The Coup, Mix Master Mike, The Earthlings, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., March 25, 1999

It was a stellar line up of bay area hip hop at the Maritime that night, one that I never forgot, one of the best to be sure. The Mystik Journeymen had long since been bringing houses down with their DIY brand of hip hop. It had been five long years since I first saw them open for Onyx at the DNA Lounge, but I had recorded them once at the Hall by then when they opened for Busta Rhymes the year before this show. Though they probably still weren’t big enough to fill the Maritime on their own, having The Coup and Mix Master Mike there insured that it was wall to wall heads upstairs. I had just seen Mix Master Mike alongside his crew of master turntablists, the Insvisibl Scratch Pickles, opening for the Beastie Boys, also performing double duty as their DJ, at the Oakland Arena the previous September. So I was well aware of his mind boggling skills on the 1’s and 2’s, but this would be the first time I’d see him perform just on his own. I loved the way he’d splice in bits from movies into his tunes, like snippets of the score from “The Omen” and samples of Bruce Lee and “Enter The Dragon”. Almost too routine to mention, The Earthlings once again were able to finagle their way onto this historic bill since Little Boots, the owner’s son and the Hall’s stage manager, was in the band handling the sampling. This would be the… (sigh)… fifth occasion I’d tape these guys, but they clearly were having a good time and as I’ve said before, as the years went by, they got better. Still, this would be the final time I’d record this band, but I was lucky enough to tape Mix Master Mike one more time at the Hall when he headlined there a year later.

The one band that I’d never seen before this night however was The Coup led by the incomparable Boots Riley. Not to be confused with the Maritime’s tyrannical boss, Riley remains the only person on planet Earth I’ve ever heard of other than Boots Hughston and his son with that rare first name, though they couldn’t be more different. Not a paunchy, middle aged, pasty white, stingy, capitalist dictator with a mullet, Boots Riley was a young (at least then he was), diminutive, black, Commie activist with a prodigious afro. He had actually been making music since 1991 with this band, formed after he quit working for UPS with his friend E-roc. The Coup had just put out their seminal third album, “Steal This Album”, (an homage to Abbie Hoffman’s legendary “Steal This Book”), four months before this show and they were quickly gaining notoriety. Left wing leaning lyrics aside, the band was tight, their talent undeniable. Though this would be the only time I’d get to record them at the Hall, I’ve seen them perform five times since then and they always put on a great set.

On a side note, the weekend of this show saw the premiere of the sci-fi epic “The Matrix” in theaters. I remember talking to my partner Pete who had also seen it that weekend and curiously surprised how much he enjoyed it. Pete, a steadfast hippie well into his 50’s, wasn’t exactly one to follow popular culture, but he knew a good thing when he saw it. Impressive as it was, I was nonetheless miffed that it beat “Star Wars Episode I : The Phantom Menace” for Best Visual Effects at the Oscars the following year. I guess everybody was gaga over that “bullet time” scene. On another side note, the Journeymen would go on to put out a live DVD from their “Broke Ass Jam” tour the performed at the Hall the following year, though I didn’t record that one. Still, one review of the DVD claimed that their set came from a show at the Hall in 1999, which makes me wonder if ol’ Boss Boots took the set I did and screwed me out of the credits. It’s doubtful and the review was probably mistaken, but I wouldn’t put it past him for a second. The Journeymen would return to headline at the Maritime once again only four months later, but we didn’t tape them that night which I will go into when I get to the shows in July.

Roni Size, Krust, Dynamite MC, DJ Die, DJ Rinse & Flow, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., March 21, 1999

The whole drum and bass scene was still in its infancy around this time and Mr. Ryan Owen Granville Williams, AKA Roni Size, was one of the artists leading the genre’s vanguard. His breakthrough album “New Forms” had only been out about a year and half, but it had already went platinum a whopping five times over. From his humble beginnings as a 16 year old school dropout in Bristol, he along with such Bristol sound pioneers Massive Attack, Tricky, and Portishead introduced the world to a new sound of jungle beats with live drums and double bass. Apart from those acts I listed, I was mostly ignorant to this new scene, but the show that night was a satisfying taste of it. I would later come to call this sound “Ali G Music”, a reference to the character Sasha Baron Cohen created who typically listened to this kind of stuff and used it for his background score.

He had assembled a crew of talented musicians that ultimately made his band Roni Size & Reprazent or Roni Size / Reprazent. Each of these members, Krust, DJ Die, and rapper Dynamite MC had a chance to showcase their talents that gig before coming together at the end of the night with Roni for the main event. Roni and DJ Die had also collaborated recently with their “Breakbeat Era” project which had just released the “Ultra-Obscene” album, but they wouldn’t put out the second Roni Size album, “In The Mode”, for another year and a half. The air upstairs in the auditorium was thick with dank ganja smoke and beats went well on until the wee hours of the morning. Suffice to say, Roni’s sound was a severe stylistic departure from the death metal we heard the night before at the Hall with Morbid Angel.

It was a strange evening already having heard that the film “Shakespeare In Love” upset “Saving Private Ryan” at the Oscars for the Best Picture award earlier that night, not to mention the little matter of NATO beginning its bombing campaign to force the Serbians out of Kosovo at the same time. Pete had left this show for me to record once again and Liz Farrow was there to assist me. I remember their singer Onallee had the voice of an angel and though I didn’t save the recording or get a set list, I know they at least played “Bullitproof”, “Our Disease”, and “Control Freak”. That voice of hers was haunting and unforgettable. I would go on to see Roni Size & Reprazent do an in store gig at Virgin Megastore in March of 2001, but I didn’t see them perform at the Hall later that night, having stopped working there by then and haven’t seen them perform again since, though they are all still around and making music.

Morbid Angel, Nile, Vile, Maladiction, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., March 20, 1999

It had only been eight months since Tampa, Florida’s own Morbid Angel had headlined the Hall and they had once again brought fellow southerners, Nile, along with them to open again. I thought it an interesting coincidence that the last show I saw before this a few days before was fellow Floridian Tom Petty who was from Gainesville. Very divergent musical styles though. Strangely enough, my partner Pete was there that night to record which was unexpected since he had little to no interest in metal, especially death metal like this, but I was glad he was there nonetheless. It did sting a bit to hear that Morbid Angel, or most likely frontman Trey Azagthoth, complained that the bass was too loud in the previous recording I had done for them, but I bet their bass player at the time, Steve Tucker, had no problem with it. Certainly Pete’s mix was perfect as it could be and the band still didn’t release any of the material he did for them that night. There’s no pleasing some folks. By this show, Morbid Angel hadn’t released any new material for a while, but would eventually put out their “Gateways To Annihilation” album a year and a half later.

The real news about this show would come from the opening act, Vile, who had played the Hall the previous November opening for Deicide. They were a local death metal band from Concord, not far from where I grew up in Alamo and like the other acts on the bill that night, brutally heavy and loud as fuck. Pete as usual had left recording the opening acts to me and I did their set like the others and hadn’t thought much about it. But in doing my research into the Deicide show, I discovered that Vile had used three songs I taped from the Morbid Angel gig on a compilation album called “Rare Tracks 1996-2004” which they released in 2007, eight years after this show.

They put out the songs “Terminal Existence”, “Cradle Of Deceit”, and “Path To Incineration”, all very metal titles indeed. They introduced that last one during their set as a “brand new one” which they had “just finished this week”. I had recently contacted the band after downloading the album and was able to exchange messages to one of their members who had recently moved to Texas during the pandemic. I tried to finagle a copy of CD from him, but he sort of shined me on, saying that they had a bunch still in boxes from the move and he’d try to send me one in the future. Still waiting for that one, but whatever. That’s show biz. I’m not bitter though. It would be highly doubtful that I would get one thin dime from it even if the album made any money and as usual I wasn’t listed in the liner notes. I’m just glad that it came out at all, really the only official release of any of the metal we recorded at the Maritime and it was only three songs.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Bo Diddley, Fill., SF, Mon., March 15, 1999

SETLIST : Rip It Up, Jammin’ Me, Runnin’ Down A Dream, I’d Like To Love You Baby, Swingin’, Call Me The Breeze, Breakdown, Listen To Her Heart, I Won’t Back Down, You Don’t Know How It Feels, Mary Jane’s Last Dance, It’s Good To Be King, Telstar, Mona, Little Girl, I’ve Got A Woman, Little Maggie, Lay Down That Old Guitar, Lucille, The Letter, Walls (Circus), Angel Dream (No. 2), Even The Losers, Guitar Boogie Shuffle, Room At The Top, Another Man Done Gone, You Wreck Me, (encore), I Don’t Wanna Fight, Free Fallin’, Free Girl Now, Gloria

Mr. Petty once again returned to the hallowed halls of The Fillmore for another residency. Though this time around he was only doing seven shows compared to the whopping twenty-two he did two years before this, we were nonetheless spoiled to have him and The Heartbreakers for as long as we did. As previously, these shows were in unbelievably high demand amongst the ushers not to mention his fans. So I was able to only get away with seeing one of them, but I made damn sure that the show I saw had the one and only Bo Diddley opening that night. I couldn’t make two of the nights because I was taping Robin Trower and The Abyssinians at the Maritime anyway. What I didn’t know was that they were filming the night I saw at The Fillmore as well as the night after to make a DVD that would be released later that year called “High Grass Dogs : Live At The Fillmore”, their first new live DVD in over seven years. I only learned about the existence of this official release days ago when I started researching this show again and to this date, I haven’t seen any of it, apart from a song or two I was able to view on YouTube.

I’m not disappointed though. By this time, I’d seen Tom so often, three times during that last residency at The Fillmore alone, that I really didn’t search it out. But though I have recently purged my man cave of most of my DVDs and CDs, part of me feels that I should have this DVD, entitled to it really, for no other reason than a sense of closure. This is especially true since Tom is no longer with us. I am happy to say that this wasn’t the final time I’d see him perform. He played as he so often did at the Bridge School Benefit the following year and I caught most of his set on the main stage of Outside Lands when I worked at it in 2014. I even got to see him again reunited with his first band Mudcrutch and played the Fillmore in 2016, just one year shy of his unexpected death. Had to shell out $100 for that one, but obviously I’m now glad I did it. Yes, I like so many of his admirers had naively assumed that he’d just keep playing forever, especially since guys like me were spoiled rotten getting to see him play so often.

He and the band were on the cusp of releasing the “Echo” album which came out a little over a month after these shows. This would be the final album they’d do with venerable producer Rick Rubin and this would be the last tour they would do with Howie Epstein on bass and background vocals. Poor Howie got deep into heroin addiction that caused him to leave the band and ultimately led to his death four years later at the all too young age of 47, an ominous precursor to Tom’s own untimely demise. Howie didn’t end up on the cover of the new album since he didn’t even show up to the photo shoot for it, an obvious red flag right there. But the band carried on fine without him and they even were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame a month after these gigs. We were fortunate to hear a number of the new songs that night including “I Don’t Wanna Fight”, which is still the only Heartbreakers song to feature Mike Campbell on main vocals, also “Room At The Top”, “Free Girl Now”, and “Swingin’”.

Before Bo Diddley came on stage that night, a DJ from KFOG warmed up the crowd asking how many fans out there were at The Fillmore for the first time. He encouraged everyone to check out the poster room, the merchandise table, and to grab a free apple from the lobby. Tom came out afterwards to much applause and introduced Bo as a “living legend” and with a big smile on his face, Bo emerged, declaring that “this feels like 1955 all over again”, the year he started performing music professionally by the way. He was a sight to behold, there with his trademark hat, shades, and box shaped guitar. Bo went through a number of raw, bluesy numbers including a funny song about being a jealous guy and pleading with his lover to “put your suitcase down” and stay. He went on to say they got “drunk as hell” and “sent the kids over to the neighbors”, then lamenting that he had spent the rent money on those “shoes you wanted from Payless”. I loved the line in that song about how he could make her “body shake like a California earthquake”. He would come out later with Tom to play Bo songs “Mona” and “Little Girl” as well. Sadly, this would be the only time I’d see Bo perform before he passed away in 2008.

I’ll never forget that just after he died, my pub trivia team at the Edinburgh Castle called ourselves “No Diddley” in his honor. But one of the questions that night was asking “Who was Ellas McDaniel and why was he in the news today?” We didn’t know that was his real name and when we got it wrong, Karl the Quizmaster chastised us to the bar saying, “To the team who thought they knew Diddley… You don’t know Diddley!” Shame on me. I should have known that and haven’t forgotten since. But I did learn that his name is actually derived from a homemade rudimentary kid’s string instrument called a “Diddley Bow”. It is a single string nailed to something, even the side of a house, played like a bottleneck guitar with various objects used as a slider, similar to the monochord zithers of central Africa. He had played his early self titled hit single “Bo Diddley” on one string like he was using the children’s instrument. But he had also recently found some new commercial and critical success releasing his “A Man Amongst Men” album in 1996 which garnered him a Grammy nomination for for Best Contemporary Blues Album.

Like he had done in the shows I saw in 1997, Tom played for well over two hours and covered a wide array of his hit material as well as several interesting cover tunes. He opened his set with Little Richard’s “Rip It Up”, later doing his song “Lucille” as he did two years before. They also played “Telstar”, the famous guitar instrumental from the 50’s, “Call Me The Breeze” by J.J. Cale, “I’ve Got A Woman” by Ray Charles, “The Letter” by The Box Tops, and “Another Man Done Gone” by Vera Hall. Van Morrison and Them had made that last song famous and Tom ended the night covering Van’s hit “Gloria” which he had played two years before as well. Indeed, with Bo in the house and their playing of so many old standards, it was beginning to feel like the halcyon days of rock & roll at The Fillmore again. Bill Graham was often fond of pairing new psychedelic rock artists with blues legends on the same bill like pairing the Grateful Dead with guys like James Cotton, so this all felt right. Like Tom’s last residency in 1997, I got the feeling that Bill’s ghost was probably floating around there that week.

Love & Rockets, Orgy, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., March 14, 1999

Love & Rockets was one of those bands I was always aware of growing up in the 80’s, but didn’t get a chance to see. I remember by dear brother Alex going through a period in his teenage years where he sported a conspicuously tall coif of dyed black hair which bared a striking resemblance to guitarist Daniel Ash’s rooster-like mullet. And though I wasn’t a fan of their music per se, I knew of both their hit songs “No New Tale To Tell” and “Kundalini Express”, which they naturally performed that night. Their music was pretty basic as far as their tune structures and lyrics, Ash making no effort to hide his distain for guitar solos, but one couldn’t deny their ability to make a good hook, especially for those two tunes. Hear them and they’re in your head for life. I still wonder if Kundalini was a reference to the biker in “Mad Max” who had his hand ripped off and wanted it back, but I can’t really say. Being a big fan of Love & Rockets and bit of a goth herself, my friend Liz Farrow was there assisting me in the recording room with a big smile on her face all night.

What I didn’t know, or at least until recently then was that the members, Daniel, David J. on bass, and his brother Kevin on drums, were essentially Bauhaus without Peter Murphy singing. I had seen Bauhaus’ reunion tour, playing two days at the Warfield the previous August and was floored by the experience. That tour was a smashing success, but Love & Rockets had a new album of their own that year called “Lift” which they released just two months after I saw those Warfield shows on the Red Ant label. They hadn’t toured or recorded new material in two years after the “Sweet F.A.” album, which they’d made with American Recordings, but things went really south with them when they made that record. A fire had broken out in a house which American owned where the band was living and recording at the time, torching their gear and months of work. A lengthy legal battle ultimately exonerated the band from any wrongdoing, but left them with some hefty legal bills and hurt feelings. This new tour, as enjoyable as it was would be their last for a while, performing their final show in Toronto only a few weeks after this one. Bauhaus would reunite in 2005 and play two more shows at The Warfield which I would be once again lucky to attend both. Love & Rockets would also reunite for a one off show at the Coachella Festival that year but would get back together for good two years later, though this gig at the Maritime would be the only time to date that I’ve seen them perform live.

The good news is that this show would be a redemption of sorts with the opening act, Orgy. They had been the first act on the bill on the Family Values Tour that I saw at the Cow Palace the year before with Korn, Rammstein, Ice Cube, and Limp Bizkit. But unfortunately, I made it into that show late, catching only the last couple songs of Limp Bizkit and missing Orgy entirely. They had quickly made a name for themselves with their debut album “Candyass” which had only come out the previous August and their hit single, a nu-metal cover of New Order’s “Blue Monday”. Their set was short and sweet, but I’ll never forget what happened when I gave the band the tapes. They’d only been off stage a matter of minutes but had already retreated to their tour bus parked outside on 1st Street. I took it upon myself to try to track them down with what limited time I had between sets anyway and went outside to give the tapes to them. There on the sidewalk, I was accosted by their tour manager who was oblivious to the fact we were recording and blurted something about how the band was all freaked out about it. I did my best to console him, but I had to bail back inside to get to work. I never heard anything more about it, so I figure the band really could care less and the manager was just busting my balls. That was the only time I ever had to leave the building to give a band their tapes.

It was a fairly packed house for Love & Rockets and like the crowd that I saw at Bauhaus, the fans loved them and were dressed in full goth regalia. There were even some fire dancers in the house that night. At one point, Daniel even threw out glow stick bracelets that said “Love & Rockets I Am Godhead” into the audience, taken from a lyric of their song “R.I.P. 20 C”. Yes, the night had a little bit of a Burning Man feel to it. I didn’t get a setlist, but I do know that they played those two hits I mentioned before and also a cover of T. Rex’s “20th Century Boy”. It was a pity, as it is always, that they didn’t use any of the recordings we made that night, but they did put out a live double album of their own four years later called “So aLive”, a reference to their 1989 song of the same name. They had used stuff from a gig they did in Irvine in 1987 and another at The Palace in L.A. in 1996 for that album, but I thought Tory did an excellent job filming them that night and our work would have made a great DVD.

The Abyssinians, The Congos, George & The Wonders, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., March 13, 1999

This would be the third time The Abyssinians played the Hall, the first in September of 1997 also with The Congos opening for them, the second just five months before this show. But I believe this was the one that was used for the live album. The liner notes say it was done in ’99 and this was the only time they played the Hall that year. Seriously, I would have had a hard time telling the difference between the shows since Pete mixed all three and they played with The Congos twice who already released a live album of their own from stuff we recorded from them. At least Boots did a decent job mixing the Abyssinians’ album, but after a half dozen records under his belt by this time, his skills were bound to improve eventually.

What I can tell you from that night was at least is that it was a good show, emceed by the ever-present Rocky Allen Bailey. He did his usual “What a show! The reggae music! The music with the message” routine and the evening was rounded by the customary, relentless onslaught of joints passed to me by Pete. It was a reggae show after all and also helps explain why I have a hard time differentiating between their gigs. I did notice one of the singers making some statement about how the 999 in 1999 is just 666 upside-down before they sang “19.95 Plus Tax”, an observation made by most people who lived through that year. It was nice to get a day off, having done both Robin Trower and the Supersuckers there just before that and I had two more to go on this five day stretch with Love & Rockets at the Hall and Tom Petty finishing the run at The Fillmore. It was quite a variety of musical styles that week.

Supersuckers, Zeke, Murder City Devils, Hai Karate, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., March 11, 1999

I had seen the Suckers a few times by then, but always as an opening band, first with Bad Religion at the Warfield in 1994, then again with Reverend Horton Heat at the Fillmore in the following year, and once more at the Greek in Berkeley opening for the Butthole Surfers. The poster from that second show still graces the wall of my bedroom in a frame to this day. But this would be the first time I’d see them headlining their own show and I got to record this one. It was a small, but enthusiastic crowd that night and the bill was all bands from Seattle. The Suckers were originally from Tucson, but they had since relocated there and had signed to Sub Pop. They would release a compilation of songs on that label that year in August called “How The Supersuckers Became The Greatest Rock & Roll Band In The World” and an album of new stuff later that October called “The Evil Powers Of Rock & Roll”.

But their relationship with that label would soon sour and they would move on to the big leagues and sign with Interscope shortly afterward. That pairing would collapse almost immediately as they would drop the band about as quickly as they picked them up during a flurry of corporate restructuring and the new album wouldn’t be released until later. The Suckers went on to form their own record label called Mid-Fi Recordings and they’ve been doing their own stuff ever since. Frontman Eddie Spaghetti made a subtle jab about the situation that night saying between songs, “We’re gonna have a new album soon, I promise. It’s been too long and we’ve been trying, but the record companies have a way of making us feel like this next song”. Then they went into “Beat To Shit” which the he coaxed the crowd into chanting along with him.

Like I said the openers were all Seattle people starting with Hai Karate named after the budget aftershave from the 60’s and 70’s. That had the tagline that it helps “fend off women” and it probably did, but for the wrong reasons naturally. Of course Boots had to misspell at least one thing on the monthly poster and he listed them as “High Karate”. They would return to open for the Suckers again when they came back and played the Maritime seven months later. The third band, Zeke, had already played the Hall once opening for DOA the previous May. Sadly, they had released a live album of their own that year called “True Crime” from recordings they had done between 1993 and 1996, so they weren’t interested in our stuff. I remember some of the more rowdy members of the crowd tossing the occasional plastic beer cup at them.

But the real shining memory of that show was the Murder City Devils who played second that night. They had been in town also playing the Noise Pop Festival that year and from the opening line of “I Want A Lot Now (So Come On)” howled by their singer, Spencer Moody, I was hooked. Spencer looked like a pudgy nerd from an 80’s screwball comedy, but he had all the energy and sheer theatrical commitment of Iggy Pop. I was transfixed by his absolute manic persona, slurring the lines at full volume into his mic, flanked by the others playing their proto-punk mayhem. I really liked Leslie Hardy on the organ. Leslie had briefly been a member of Hole, playing bass for them in 1992, but her organ added a unique sound to the Devils. Unfortunately, she would ultimately suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome and have to leave the band a couple years later, replaced briefly by Nick Dewitt for the band’s last few gigs. Yes, the Devils would break up shortly afterwards in 2001. In the interim period, guitarist Dan Galluci would go on to play in Modest Mouse and their other guitarist, Derek Dudesco, would form Pretty Girls Make Graves and The Cave Singers, but the Devils would reform five years later and they’re still playing today.

But when they left the stage, I only wanted more. I never forgot their brief set, but the only songs I knew for sure that they played were that first one, “18 Wheels”, and “Dancing Shoes”, which was about half their set anyway. I made sure to show the video of their performance immediately to Liz Farrow when she came into help me record Love & Rockets three days later and she was likewise impressed. Ultimately, they would a release a live album from their last show two years later performed in their hometown of Seattle, crushing any hope that they’d put out anything from their set I recorded that night. I only regret that I didn’t save a copy of them from that evening, though I found footage of them playing a gig five days before this show on YouTube. It took me nearly 20 years to see them again, but I did when they played Slim’s in 2017.

The Suckers came on stage to the tune of AC/DC’s “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)” playing over the speakers and they quickly got the pit into a frenzy covering a number of their songs in their short set, just under an hour’s worth. I didn’t get the list, but I do know that they played “Bad Bad Bad”, “Ron’s Got The Cocaine”, “She’s My Bitch”, and “Creepy Jackalope Eye” which they always performed. I remember their guitarist, Dan “Thunder” Bolton would compulsively comb his feathered hair between songs that gig. It was a whirlwind of punk tunes that night and the Suckers would soon be onto their next gig heading down through the state on their way to Austin to play South By Southwest. But as I mentioned before, it wouldn’t be long until I would get a chance to tape them again at the Hall when they returned to play there that October.

Robin Trower, Puddle Junction, Stonesthrow, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., March 10, 1999

SETLIST (PUDDLE JUNCTION) : Never Enough, Fruits Of Your Labor, Separation Of Union

Though I was unfamiliar with Robin Trower before this show, afterwards when I knew of his history, I was actually a little surprised Pete gave this one for me to record. Robin was of his hippie generation, a respected guitar master. I had seen Procal Harum at The Fillmore in 1995, but Robin had long since left that band after joining them in 1967, just after the release of their hit song, “A White Shade Of Pale”. From there, Robin formed his own band and cemented his legacy with the seminal album, “A Bridge Of Sighs”. I was actually taken a little aback when my friend Drew mentioned to me when this show was announced how impressed he was by Mr. Trower. Drew was more of a nu-metal fan and if a geezer like Robin could make that kind of impression on Drew, I knew he would be great. Not that he was a geezer, or at least not by then. Robin was only 54 years old at that show, but I do have to admit that he did look older. But then again, he was English, pale, and very skinny, though I’m happy to report that he is still alive and well as of today. I do remember from his set that he was extremely loud and as a consequence of the decades of playing at such volume, was wearing some sort of dual ear hearing device which I assumed was some sort of hearing aid or maybe ear plugs. Either way, it was excruciating for the crowd upstairs, but I have to admit that he shredded, definitely from the school of guys like Hendrix and Clapton. Robin had put out a live double album that year called “This Was Now ’74-’98”, half recorded from a show in Pittsburgh in 1974, the second from Seattle in 1998, so there was little hope that he’d release anything that I taped from him that night.

Still, it’s a pity I didn’t save the recording from his set, but I was able to find the video of the set of the opening act, Puddle Junction, on YouTube. They were a jam band from Chico and had played the Hall once before in March of 1997 opening for the JGB Band. They definitely took a page, perhaps a “Jimmy Page” (ba-dum-boom!), from Led Zeppelin, but I was impressed by both their keyboard player and guitarist. Strangely enough, their set was only 23 minutes long, giving them time for only three songs. The opening song, “Never Enough” was a boogie woogie number, “Fruits Of Your Labor”, the second, was a blues number, and the final one “Separation Of Union”, was a rather curiously structured jam band tune which the singer said was based off the works of the Sufi poet Rumi. I never forgot that line from the chorus, “Drown in the water and you know you’ll never get wet.” Makes you think.

Luciano, Mikey General, Dean Fraser, Firehouse Crew, Dennis The Menace, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., March 6, 1999

Reggae had returned once again and Pete was there on what was becoming a rarer and rarer appearance from him. Pete had become frustrated and fed up with Boots and his shady business practices, not to mention his downright psychotic temper tantrums. By this time until Boots fired him in November, the number of shows I was doing there to Pete’s was easily at least ten to one. The shows had become so frequent, especially it being March, and it was a relief to have him there, especially since it was reggae and he was infinitely more skilled and experienced to mix the music. Having him there also ensured that there would be copious amounts of joints passed between the two us as well. It was my sister Erica’s 25th birthday and I though I don’t believe she was at that show, my thoughts were of her as they always are on that day of the year.

This would be the first time I’d see Mr. Jepther McClamont, AKA Luciano, and I believe that went the same for Mikey General. Luciano had recently joined forces with the UK born singer along with the Firehouse Crew who were also there performing alongside them that night. He had formed Jah Messenjah Productions in his home country of Jamaica and started their own record label called Qabalah First Music. As the name suggests, they were determined in their words “to provide people with spiritual uplifting music in there times of degradation”. Maybe they were pissed at Clinton over the Lewinsky thing too, but they were steadfast against other Rastas who were exhibiting what they called “slackness”, promoting profanity and gun culture. Yes, this was some old time religion reggae with plenty of bible quotes and chants of “Jah Rastafari”. It was also a treat to have reggae saxophonist virtuoso Dean Fraser on the bill that night and he came out to play with Luciano as well.

Common & The Roots, 75 Degrees, Dangerzone, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., March 5, 1999

I had drastically underestimated how huge The Roots were to become back then, but this show was indisputable proof that they were moving on to bigger things. I had already recorded them three times at the Hall, in December of ’96, August of ’97, and again in May of ’98, not to mention seeing them open for The Fugees at one of those rare double early and late shows at The Fillmore in ‘96 and the side stage at Lollapalooza in twice in ‘95. I had taken for granted that they’d tour reliably and I’d be able to see them in small venues and on side stages of festivals, but with the release of their new album, “Things Fall Apart” less than two weeks before this show, the writing was on the wall. The Roots moved triumphantly into the mainstream with that album, garnering Grammy nominations for their hit single “You Got Me” for Best Rap Performance By A Dup Or Group to the album itself for Best Rap Album, losing to the unstoppable juggernaut of “The Slim Shady LP” by Eminem. Jill Scott had co-wrote that single and was to be the female vocal on the album, but was replaced by Erykah Badu at the label MCA’s insistence, though I believe Jill was touring with them and sang that haunting tune with them that night. Despite the importance of this gig, Pete still left it to me to man the recording room, but I was ably assisted once again by my friend Liz Farrow.

The Roots’ new level of popularity was in fact a source of mild contention for me and this show. My partner Pete and I were both allowed one person each to let be on the guest list for every show and also one half price ticket each in addition. Since Pete rarely used his, he allowed me to use both guests and half price tickets for my friends, which I used often. But this show was so big, that it was hopelessly oversold. Now, I tried to get my friend Hefe on the list along with the extra guest for him, but he wanted the two other half price tickets for two more friends as well. But when I tried to request them in the office, I was given some pushback because of the show’s popularity and I had to kvetch about it a bit, before they finally relented and at least gave me the guests, but not the half price tickets. Hefe was understandably pissed when I had to break the news, though when I questioned him recently on his memories of that show, he claimed he wasn’t there, saying that he had never seen Common before, but my memory remains stubbornly solid on this one. Maybe it was a different Roots show where this stressful pickle developed, but I know it happened at a Roots gig for sure.

Regardless, like I said it was balls to the wall full at that show and the line to get in stretched around the block and took forever to process. I’m sure all the new money folks increasingly populating the area weren’t happy with all the commotion and litter from that night. And coming back to Common, he was the other reason that this show was such a must see. He had steadily grown more popular as the years went on, but he was at the cusp of joining The Roots on high in the mainstream when he’d release his first major label album, “Like Water For Chocolate” a year after this show on MCA. Questlove, the mastermind drummer of The Roots, produced that hit album. Around that time, they, along with an assorted collection of musicians and artists such as Bilal, and J Dilla from Slum Village, had been collaborating together, calling themselves the “Soulquarians”. This collective would congregate at Electric Lady Studios in New York City to create stuff, much like the Dungeon Family did down south in Atlanta, and likewise what they put together was brilliant. This would be the last tour with Malik B. rapping in the band, though he’d return in the future from time to time to be featured in songs on their albums. I was sad to learn researching this that Malik B. died last year at the all too young age of 47, the cause of death still a mystery.

The show upstairs that night, like I said, was packed, so packed that I didn’t even try to negotiate the crowd when I went to give the artists the tapes at the end of their sets. Usually, I’d go upstairs, exit the stage right backstage door, and just walk around the periphery of the crowd, circling to the other side door leading to the backstage area on stage left. This would allow me to check out the upstairs and avoid having to futz around with my keys to negotiate the locked doors in the level below where the recording room was. But I went around downstairs this time after one look at that crowd. It was hot and muggy as hell up there too. But it goes without saying that it was a stellar show. As always, I’d hoped that The Roots would use some of our stuff for a live recording, especially since this was their fourth time performing there. In fact, they’d come back to play the Hall that November, which would be the final show I’d do at the Maritime before Boots fired Pete. But alas, they went on to do a live album of their own that year called “The Roots Come Alive” which used recordings from that tour made in New York City and Zurich, Switzerland. They also played at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma the following night and I’d of liked to go, but had to work at the Hall helping Pete record Luciano. The Roots would however make the unfortunate decision to play on the disastrous Woodstock ’99 Festival only four months later, but it didn’t hinder their career ultimately.

The Alkaholiks, Kottonmouth Kings, Dial 7, The Blowpops, Marginal Prophets, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., February 27, 1999

SETLIST (MARGINAL PROPHETS) : Hip Hop Hypocrisy, Talkin’ Out The Side Of Your Neck, Girlfriend Is The Best, Spotlight, Best Lover (The Masturbation Song), Phat In The Whole

I was no stranger to both The Alkaholiks and The Kings, the first I had recorded twice there in June and October of ’97, the latter three times the previous year alone in April, June, and November. It was a ironic pairing between bands, one being black and rapped about drinking, the other white and rapped about weed. Together they had their bases covered and the few people who attended that show were drunk, stoned, or both by nights end. Neither band had produced anything new by then, so it was basically the same stuff as before. The show was added too late to be listed on the monthly poster. I don’t remember much about Dial 7 or The Blowpops, but I definitely liked the Marginal Prophets. I was looking forward to recording them since I was a fan of co-rapper Keith Knight, the cartoonist that did “The K Chronicles”, a brilliant and hilarious strip. Luckily, I was able to find their set on a website called patreon.com and enjoyed revisiting it. Keith praised the recording saying it was clearest version of them live that he ever heard and that “Best Lover (The Masturbation Song)”, which they played second to last in their set, was the best version that was ever recorded. I am touched and honored to receive such praise. Guess this is no longer a thankless job after all.

Anyway, they were a fun band and were even more entertaining that they had added perennial musical jester Stark Raving Brad to the band playing percussion. He strolled out on stage with the band, clad as usual in his black & white striped referee shirt and introduced the band saying, “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, It is my supreme executive pleasure to kick off the evening introducing the first of five juggernaut bands hailing from San Fran freak show California. The four time Milton prize winners, six time national MVPs, perennial contenders for MUNI operators of the month. They’re weighing in collectively at 17,420 pounds and they’re close personal friends with… that dude right over there!”. Brad pointed out to someone in the crowd and continued, “Their long run in the freak show circuit for their bodies constant overproduction of industrial strength, stud farm calibre testosterone, they are reportedly so perpetually horny that they’d fuck a big of worms if you’d hold it. I’m sure at the wrong place and the wrong time. This is the Marginal Prophets.”

It was practically empty by the time they started and I doubt there were more than a couple hundred folks there all night, but they all carried on and performed admirably nonetheless. Keith was wearing a red plaid kilt on stage that gig, along with a T-shirt with Elvis’ face on it with the words “I’M DEAD” underneath it in big block letters. When they did “Girlfriend Is The Best”, he laid down in front of the bass player for a bit while he riffed followed by Brad laying on his back to him, then popping up onto to his feet without using his hands. They cracked jokes between songs saying they were selling “sex and merchandise” in the back later, including “$10 blowjobs”, though admitting they were only actually worth $6. One of them said he thought he smelt something burning and another said it was the Maritime and “something’s always smoking”. For the last song, Keith was introduced as “K. Knight, K. Squared, Artist Extraordinaire” and Keith joked, “Read my comic strip, you scumbags.” At the every end, Keith went to introduce the band members and I’ll never forget the other rapper saying, “They don’t care, man!”, his words echoing in the cavernous, empty hall. Well, I cared. Those guys were good and once again, I’m glad that they liked my stuff. I don’t think the Prophets play anymore, but thankfully, I still see “The K Chronicles” in papers to this day.

Vernon Reid & Co., Giant Robot II, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., February 26, 1999

It had been six long years since I’d seen Mr. Vernon Reid perform with his band Living Colour. You might recall the story I’d mentioned at the beginning of this whole endeavor when I had witnessed promoter Michael Bailey take the tape from a bootlegger on that fateful night at The Warfield in 1993 while that band was on stage and that act was the catalyst that started my own turbulent love affair with bootlegging. So, in a roundabout way, I do owe this a bit to Vernon. Living Colour broke up a couple years after that show, but he stayed busy putting out his first solo album, “Mistaken Identity”, in 1996 and producing “Papa” by Salif Keita and the “Memphis Blood : The Sun Sessions” album by James Blood Ulmer, both which earned Grammy nominations. I like that the first song on his album was called “CP Time”, the name Roy Wood Jr. uses for his recurring skit on “The Daily Show”. One can’t help but wonder if that was where he got the name.

All that aside, this wasn’t a Living Colour show, being something quite different altogether. This was the sort of line-up one would see at Yoshi’s or some other posh jazz club. Vernon was part of a sort of prog-funk super group including Trevor Gunn from King Crimson, playing that weird Chapman Stick of his, Percy Howard on bass, and Charles Hayward from This Heat and Camberwell Now, a renowned session drummer from England who also dabbled in drumming for dance and theater. Trevor was taking a break from his duties from King Crimson then, which had just been downsized to a four piece, along with Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, and Pat Mastelotto. Between Vernon and his buddies, not to mention Buckethead and his band Giant Robot II, there was an overflowing cup of musical noodling that night. Seriously, this was the kind of show that boggled the mind trying to keep up with these master musicians, the kind of show music students went to. I was a little surprised Pete gave a show of this stature to me to record, so I felt honored, really.

As usual, Boots had to flub one thing on the monthly poster and when he listed Vernon Reid’s name, he had in parenthesis after it (X Living Colour). I suppose that typo is a bit in the grey area, but whatever. Speaking of Vernon’s name, I do remember some confusion on what to call the band and label the tapes accordingly. Since his name was first on the list, I simply called the band “Vernon Reid & Co.” When I presented the tapes to him at the end of the set, he did seemed a little confused that that they were to go to him. He wasn’t upset or anything, in fact, acted quite humble and friendly about it. Vernon took the tapes anyway and that was that. At the end of the year, he played with John Forgerty, doing his song “Fortunate One” in front of the Lincoln Memorial for the “America’s Millennium Gala” on New Year’s Eve. But it would be another four years until I’d see him again when Living Colour finally reformed and played the Great American Music Hall and then another six years later in 2009, when they played The Regency. Needless to say, he shredded at those shows as usual. Yes, Mr. Reid in my opinion is one of the best rock guitarists that has ever lived and frankly is underrated.

GBH, 98 Mute, Against All Authority, Billy Club, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., February 24, 1999

I admit that I hadn’t heard of GBH before that night, but soon learned that they were punk rock pioneers. They had formed in 1978 in the UK almost immediately after the punk scene had taken off there with such contemporaries as the Sex Pistols, The Damned, and The Clash. Though their name had been thought to be derived from the legal acronym for “Grievous Bodily Harm”, the band had since denied that claiming that it actually stood for, “Girls, Booze, & Hash”. Hell, it’s what it means to you that matters, I suppose. Though they hadn’t released a new album since “Punk Junkies” in 1996, they had recently put out a split album called “Punk As Fuck”, with Billyclub who were opening that night with them, each doing three songs on that album.

Billyclub were from Dallas and had Karl Morris from The Exploited on guitar and Matt McCoy from UK Subs on drums, both respected veteran punk bands in their own right. Following them were Against All Authority from Florida and 98 Mute from Hermosa Beach. I remember it wasn’t that well sold, but there was plenty of rowdy behavior in the mosh pit filled with punks dressed in their typical regalia, spikes, and mohawks abound. Goldenvoice was also co-promoting the show that night as they had done with Fugazi two nights before this. I always liked mixing punk bands because they were always pretty basic, guitar, drums, bass, maybe two or three folks singing at the most.

Though I can’t remember much more about that evening, I’ll never forget a story Bones, one of the stage guys, told me about GBH. Sometime during that night, Bones approached their singer, Colin Abrahall, and asked him, “Hey, remember that time a few years back when you and the band got chased down the street by a gang of skinheads after your show at Gilman Street?” Naturally, Colin remembered and said yes of which Bones offered him his hand to shake and said, “Sorry about that, dude.” Yes, though Bones had since grown his stringy, dark hair out long, one could still see the telltale tattoos he has on his scalp if you look closely. I’m glad to know that Bones had since reformed his wayward ways and I always enjoyed working with him at the Hall. Hope he’s doing well. Sadly, I never saw GBH again though they did return to play at the Maritime when Wade was doing the recordings there two years later, performing alongside US Bombs, Youth Brigade, and the Cockney Rejects. Sorry I didn’t see that show even if I couldn’t tape it.

Fugazi, The Ex, The Thrones, Maritime Hall, SF, Mon., February 22, 1999

SETLIST : Birthday Pony, Place Position, Facet Squared, Latin Roots, Styrofoam, Recap Modotti, Margin Walker, Furniture, Two Beats Off, Break, F/D, Closed Captioned, Arpeggiator, Public Witness Program, Bed For The Scraping, Floating Boy, (encore), Long Division, Blueprint, Waiting Room, Break-In, Reclamation, No Surprise, Number 5, (encore), Smallpox Champion, Five Corporations, Version

Even though I knew little of Fugazi’s music apart from maybe “Waiting Room”, I was certain that this was an important one. Their name preceded them, especially amongst other musicians. They were respected. Since Ian MacKaye formed the band after Minor Threat dissolved in the mid-80’s, Fugazi earned the reputation for their unique blend of rock, punk, jazz, and God knows what. To call it alternative feels like a cop out. Seriously, I have always hated trying to describe what bands sound like, but to pigeonhole this one is an exercise in utter futility. Suffice to say, they were one of a kind and ahead of their time. They had also garnered the respect of their fans by insisting that their shows be affordable, often around $5 which was ridiculously low, even in 1990’s dollars. This policy of theirs had prevented them from playing many venues, especially large ones. Rumor had it that they had been offered a slot in the Lollapalooza festival more than once and turned it down because the ticket prices were too high. But Boots at the Hall had the wisdom in seeing the value of booking this show and put it on, collaborating with Goldenvoice, and folks packed the venue easily from top to bottom with the low price of $6 to get in.

Fugazi had released their fifth album, “End Hits” the previous April and were touring with The Thrones and The Ex. The Thrones was actually a one man band, a solo project of a bass player named Joe Preston. He even introduced himself on stage as “The Thrones”, perhaps a parody of the “royal we”. The Ex were from The Netherlands, and though I had been there several times visiting my father, who lived there most of his life, I’m ashamed to say that I had never heard of them, or practically any other Dutch band really, except for maybe Urban Dance Squad or Bobby Farrell, the singer from Boney M. Bobby lived pretty close to where my pop was living at the time in the Bijlmermeer, though I didn’t get into Boney M until years later. The Ex had been around since 1979 and had just put out their 10th studio album, “Starters Alternators”, the previous October, produced by grunge wizard Steve Albini. Interesting as they both were, the crowd saved their energy and attention mostly for Fugazi.

Pete, knowing nothing about the band had left the show for me to do, but my friend Liz Farrow was in the house that night assisting me in the recording room. Anthony Kiedis, the lead singer from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, was hanging out backstage and I’ll never forget the look on his face when Ace, one of the office guys at the Hall pointed his video camera at him and asked him if he was “having fun”. Ace had been shooting footage on the side for his cable access music program, “Reality Check”, and one couldn’t blame him for seizing the opportunity to have such Rock & Roll royalty in his show. But Anthony was having none of it and just sat there silently, looking at him with an expression of utter contempt. After a few seconds of that, Ace got the message and moved on. I don’t blame Anthony for being reclusive. The Chilis were hitting a rough patch back then.

When Fugazi took the stage, there were at least a dozen people hanging out on stage all night with them including member of Bratmobile, who had just gotten back together after a five year break and were touring with Sleater-Kinney that year. Ian dedicated the song “Break-In” to them that night, one of only a few times they played that song on the tour. The song “Latin Roots”, the fourth song played in their set, was one of only three times they performed it on that tour as well. Ian immediately insisted that the lighting guy up in the balcony turn the lights all the way up and after a while, he obliged him. It was a loud one for sure, so loud that the noise was causing the robot cameras to vibrate a little. During their set, someone actually threw a rubber ducky with the words “Thanks For The Show” written on it with a black marker at guitarist Guy Picciotto. He commented between songs, “You know, in the history of the band, I’ve been hit with a lot of things. I’ve been hit with wine bottles, hit with Coke bottles, hit with books, hit with stones. It’s the first time I’ve ever got hit in the neck with a duck”. He kept that ducky on top of his guitar amp for the rest of the show.

About halfway through the set, a second drummer came on stage, whose name escaped me, and he joined the band on a smaller drum kit, consisting of only a kick, snare, and hat. Their main drummer, Brendan Canty, had an interesting bell hanging on a stand to his right, something I hadn’t seen any other have before to my recollection. The second drummer played on a couple songs during the encores as well. Ian dedicated “Long Division”, the first song of the first encore to a friend of his who he had stayed with when he was in town at least eight times over the years, but now can’t stay with him anymore. He didn’t say why, but I got the impression that it was because he had passed away. For the end of the second encore, Guy busted out a clarinet for the eerie and haunting song, “Five Corporations”, joined by their second drummer who played along with him on a trumpet. Though they had done two encores with seven songs in the first and three songs in the second, the crowd still cheered for more, but that was it.

I will always remember how friendly and polite Ian was to me when I gave him the tapes of the show at the end of the night. He was a real gentleman, polite to the point of being Canadian. It made me recall a bit that fellow punk D.C. native Henry Rollins did at one of his spoken word shows when he said he and Ian tried to outdo each other on how boring they were backstage. Henry said he would say, “Oh yeah, well when I’m backstage, I play chess!” and then Ian would counter, “Oh yeah, when I’m backstage, I read!” And so on. As always, I had hoped that Fugazi would have used the stuff I taped that night, but sadly they didn’t. Recently, I discovered that they were avid in sharing their live recordings and one can find most of them on dischord.com, including the one I did from that night. The list of shows they had to choose from was impressive, over a 1000 spanning their illustrious career, so releasing a live album would be rather redundant anyway. The website did complain in its notes about the show about the fact that I had split up Ian and Guy’s vocals, putting Ian on the left, Guy on the right, but I felt compelled to since Guy sang almost as much as Ian did throughout their set. They also bellyached that the guitars were too low and granted, they were in the beginning, but I got it balanced after a few songs. Picky picky.

Though I couldn’t find any of the video footage on Youtube, one can find a video of Fugazi’s set at The Edge in Palo Alto which they did the day before and they played mostly the same stuff. Of course, our stuff sounded and looked better. I also discovered that a poster was made especially for this show, but I didn’t see it on sale with their merchandise guys that night. In fact, I saw it for the first time in a frame at Escape From New York Pizza on Upper Haight years later, a hilarious day-glow pink and green graphic of Jerry Springer’s smiling face on it. Some day, I’ll have to find one and get it for myself. Years later, I became friends with a fellow named Jason Schwartz and I was delighted to learn that he had attended this show too. It’s always nice to meet someone later on down the road that you’d share such an experience with, especially since this would be the only time I’d get to see Fugazi. They went on “infinite hiatus” three years after this gig and haven’t toured since. On a side note, every time I think on this band, I can’t help but think of Al Pacino in “Donnie Brasco” saying the line, “I don’t know how you knew that was a Foo-Gay-Zee”. The band had always gone with “Foo-Gah-Zee”, but I can’t say which is the proper Italian way to say it. I’ve got some friends in Sardinia that I should ask sometime.

Bob Marley Days 1999

Eek-A Mouse, Joe Higgs & The Fully Fullwood Band, Pato Banton, Azibo Tribe, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri.., February 19, 1999

Gregory Isaacs, Twinkle Brothers, Sister Carol, Cornerstone, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., February 20, 1999

Israel Vibration, Don Carlos, Ras Shiloh, Prince Rastan, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., February 21, 1999

SETLIST (PATO BANTON) : Revelation, Exodus, Situation Crazy, Stay Positive, Jamming, One World (Not Three), Legalize It (A Capella), Don’t Sniff Coke, My Opinion – What The World Needs Now Is Love

Suffice to say, I got my fill of live reggae that weekend, more than most people in the world experience their entire lifetimes. As you can see, I decided to do these three gigs in one fell swoop and I’ve done this for several reasons. One, is that it was being billed as a three day festival, put on by Moss Jacobs and Ragga Muffins whoever they are, so it felt right keeping these shows together. Also, as you might have guessed from previous entries about reggae shows at the Hall, I was subject to a relentless barrage of joints from my partner, Pete, clouding my brain to the point of being catatonic, so trying to differentiate between these days would already be tricky. The Hall was basically hot-boxed with a thick fog of the dank all weekend. Finally, we had recorded practically all of these artists at least one time or more, even releasing a Gregory Isaacs CD/DVD already the year before, so that too made my memories of that weekend additionally unreliable.

That being said, I do remember quite vividly Pato Banton’s set on the first night. Thankfully, he would be one of the first acts that weekend, making my mental state clearer than shall we say by the time we got to Israel Vibration. This whole weekend was being billed as the “Bob Marley Days” festival and naturally, many of the artists paid homage to the legendary reggae pioneer by playing some of his songs. But none of others could match the sheer perfection Pato had achieved with his cover of “Jamming” that night. Before he did that song, Pato pointed out that one could go to the far corners the world and mention Bob Marley and people know his good work, even if it’s the only artist of that genre they know. Yes, it was one of the most ripping renditions of that seminal reggae standard, but it was also one of those rare songs when after it finished, the crowd started cheering loudly, then the cheering grew steadily louder. I can still see the look of exhalation in Pato’s face as he took it all in. He challenged the crowd then to “take it to the next level” and greet the person next to you in the crowd if you didn’t know them. Pato had no trouble as always getting the audience to sing along to “Don’t Sniff Coke” and at the end of his set, did a surprisingly heartfelt and respectful rendition of Burt Bacharach’s “What The World Needs Now Is Love”. His set was a natural choice to make an album from and that one came out a year later. It is still one of my favorites, probably the best of the reggae albums the Hall would ever release.

One disappointing thing about that weekend was the conspicuous absence of Alpha Blondy who was supposed to headline on the first night. He played the Hall the previous August, though we were frustrated that we weren’t allowed to record him then. I don’t think he had a bad experience, since he came back to play the Hall in 2000, so who knows? They were able to get Eek-A Mouse at the last minute to fill in for him, an act who played the Hall so often, that Pete let me take over for that one and was gracious enough to let me take the helm for Sister Carol and the Twinkle Brothers as well. We didn’t record Israel Vibration on the last night either, since we were still haggling with them for their use of a few live tracks on their recent live album that they hadn’t paid us for, much less gave either Pete or I credit for recording. Boots would ultimately released DVDs of later performances by Eek-A Mouse and Don Carlos that had been taped by Wade, the engineer who replaced us, though in my obviously unbiased and modest opinion, Pete’s recordings were superior. But in the end, the marijuana addled smiles of all those who witnessed these three days were what really mattered. Seriously, after that weekend, I had to take a few days off the weed to get my marbles back.

Sepultura, Biohazard, Spineshank, One Minute Silence, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., February 16, 1999

SETLIST : (BIOHAZARD) : Urban Discipline, Shades Of Grey, Resist, What Makes You Tick, Wrong Side Of The Track, Breakdown, Tales From The Hard Side, These Eyes (Have Seen), Salvation, Punishment, Hold My Own

This show is a bit contentious for me, since Biohazard ultimately put out a live DVD from the Hall, but it most likely was recorded by Wade, who replaced Pete and me. I say most likely because I can’t find any record on line of them playing the Hall again after Pete and I were so unceremoniously given the axe by Boots. I checked all the posters and couldn’t find any listings or mentions. But the DVD does indeed exist and many shows at the Hall were never listed on the posters and any records of them have all but disappeared by now. Truth is I’m just jealous. I liked Biohazard and wanted this one for myself. I’m just glad something of theirs came out from the Hall. It means they liked our stuff at least enough to publish it. I did think it was strange that all the songs on the DVD had splices of singer and bassist Evan Seinfeld, reminiscing about the band years later in 2007 while sitting on a couch at some unspecified bar or nightclub. Still, I could have sworn one of them mentioned during their set on the DVD that their fifth album, “New World Disorder”, was coming out soon, which would put it squarely in this time period, since it was release that June. It would be their first and only album on a major label, Mercury, but their relationship with them soon soured. Anyway, some day, I’ll have to look Wade up and put my mind at rest on who’s really the daddy of this baby.

However, I will never forget giving the tapes to Evan after their set was over. For anyone who’d seen them before, they know that Evan is a rather striking figure, burly and covered in tattoos. Though he was friendly to me, when I presented him with the release form, he looked at me with a little skepticism. I reassured him that nothing would be done with the tapes on our end without consulting and making a mutually beneficial agreement with his band and he joked that if not, I’d be receiving the “Brooklyn Beatdown”. I know he was just kidding, but it was duly noted. Evan’s gruff exterior had actually come in handy the year before when he was cast as Jaz Hoyt on HBO’s prison drama series, “Oz”, a role he’d play for several years. Incidentally, he is also second cousin to another obscure television figure, Jerry Seinfeld. I had seen Biohazard once before opening for the House Of Pain at The Fillmore in 1994, one of the first shows I’d see there when it reopened that year. I also knew their song, “Tales From The Hardside” when it was hilariously critiqued by Beavis & Butthead in one of their episodes.

What I didn’t know about Evan until I started looking into them for this, was his history in the adult video world. After he started acting in “Oz”, he caught the attention of porn star Tera Patrick and they started dating, ultimately getting married after a couple of years. I guess she was impressed by his scene in the series where he went “The Full Monty”. Evan and Tera, let’s just say… collaborated on a couple of projects, he under the stage name “Spyder Jonez”, until they split up in 2009. Evan then married another fine actor in the industry, Lupe Fuentes, in 2011 and then amicably left Biohazard to pursue other projects. But this was Sepultura’s show in the end and they did a fantastic job as they had done when they played the Hall the previous October. For some reason, though I speculate it was just first time jitters breaking in their new singer, Derrick Green, they didn’t allow us to record their set then, but they did on this occasion. I suppose Derrick had gotten his sea legs after a few months on the road and they’d thoroughly worked out how they wanted the new songs off the “Against” album, which had also just been released that previous October. Also opening were Spineshank, who were no strangers to the Maritime, having played there twice before, opening once for Fear Factory, then again opening for Machinehead. Anthrax had been listed on the monthly poster as one of the openers, but sadly they weren’t there that night. Pity, I always wanted to record them at the Hall, but never got the chance.

Cake, Dieselhed, Adam Elk, War., SF, Wed., February 16, 1999

SETLIST : Is This Love?, Friend Is A Four Letter Word, Hem Of Your Garment, Stickshifts & Safetybelts, Frank Sinatra, Mexico, Sheep Go To Heaven, Rock N’ Roll Lifestyle, Ruby Sees All, Comanche, Satan Is My Motor, Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps, You Turn The Screws, Let Me Go, You Part The Waters, Shut The Fuck Up, Going The Distance, Italian Leather Sofa, Never There, (encore), I Will Survive

This was the third time I’d seen Cake in three years and I watched as they steadily grew more popular, headlining larger and larger venues. Their third studio album, the aptly titled “Prolonging The Magic”, released just five months before this show, not only prolonged their success, but surpassed it in some ways. Though they might always be known for their hit song, “The Distance”, which landed #4 on the Billboard charts, their new single “Never There”, would grab the #1 spot and hold onto it for three weeks. It didn’t take long for that album to go platinum and the song “Hem Of Your Garment”, which was their third song played that night, would be included in the soundtrack for the Farrelly Brothers comedy “Me, Myself, & Irene” the following year.

Opening that night was local boy Adam Elk, who was friendly and upbeat. He joked that the keyboardist Josh would “soothe your hearts, pull on your heartstrings with this one”, for their song “Great Mistake”. Following them were country/punk Arcata transplants Dieselhed. I’d seen their members in a couple of other bands, their drummer Danny Heifetz in Mr. Bungle and their bassist Atom Ellis in the long defunct thrash/funk band Psychefunkapus. They had just put out their 4th album “Elephant Rest Home”, a collection of previously unreleased songs, that year on Bong Load Records. Dieselhed had also recently been touring with venerable guitar legend Link Wray, a couple members serving double duty playing in his band as well. Like Cake, they had a trumpet player in their band and they all had a lot of talent. The singer opened their set describing San Francisco as “one of my favorite cities in the world”. Pity that they broke up the year after and this would be the only time I’d see them perform. Guitarist Zak Holtzman would go on to form Dengue Fever two years later with his brother Ethan, a band which is still together and I adore.

Cake was introduced on stage by a DJ named Chris Kay who said they were “coming from the heart of California’s fertile central valley”. I was roped into working all night as an usher, but it wasn’t that hard to manage. Singer John McCrae did his usual egging on of the crowd, getting them to sing along to the choruses of “Frank Sinatra”, “Sheep Go To Heaven”, and “Satan Is My Motor”. For that last one, while the crowd sang the title over and over, he said, “everybody has a part of themselves that they don’t particularly like or want to talk about in public. Right now, publicly acknowledging yourself, singing loudly and bodily and uncompromisingly. You can’t control it unless you know it’s there.” After, he said he woke up with a lump in his throat that morning and thought of canceling the show, but carried on anyway and then played a cover of “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps”, a whimsical ditty made famous originally by Doris Day. I would hear that song again as the theme for the British TV comedy series, “Coupling”, clearly a knockoff of “Friends”. Incidentally, John would break his hand moving furniture a month later, which would postpone their European tour that year. Tough luck for him, I guess. At least, he would be consoled by the fine poster that was made for this show, an amusing four panel cartoon of various dogs. He ended the set with “Never There” thanking the crowd, saying that “in a big city like San Francisco, you have your choice of bands”, and thanked us for choosing them. They returned to do their cover of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” for their encore, but my tape ran out before I could get it. Rumor has it, Gloria didn’t like their version of it because of the profanity they used. Personally, I thought Tony Clifton did it best. It would be over two years until I would see Cake again, also playing the Warfield, just six days before 9/11.

Indigo Swing, B-Side Players, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., February 14, 1999

Riding the wave of swing music popularity that had then recently gripped the country, this would be the first of two shows that Indigo Swing would do at the Hall that year, returning to headline again there less than five months later. I liked these guys. Like most swing bands they had class, dressing in vintage suits on stage and played tight as drums. Up till then, they had been playing every Wednesday at 330 Ritch Street and had only just released their debut album, “All Aboard!” the previous July. But Indigo Swing were just about to drop their first major label album, “Red Light”, on Capitol Records that year. Though they weren’t big enough to fill the Hall, much less the dance floor, Indigo Swing played skillfully and all those swing enthusiasts who frequented the gigs of that genre were there also in vintage wear and hairstyles, doing their acrobatic dance moves for all to enjoy. It was a pleasant departure from the uncouth, stoner knuckleheads who were at the Long Beach Dub All Stars show the night before there and it being Valentine’s Day, made it a romantic show to boot. Granted, there were a couple slow numbers for the lovers to dance The Clench.

Opening that night were the B-Side Players from San Diego and I believe this was the first time I’d see them, or the first time I’d record them at least. I’d see them play two more times that year, returning to the Hall to open for the Wailing Souls and Toots & The Maytals in July, then a month later, being the first band to play at The One Festival at Pier 30/32 alongside KVHW, Maceo Parker, Burning Spear, and Jimmy Cliff. It’s actually a little tricky trying to describe their music, almost a heavier version of War, but incorporating various musical styles from the Caribbean such as Cumbia, Samba, San Montino, and Jarocho. Having a little something for everybody made them an ideal opening act, a real crowd pleaser. I would go on to see them open for several more acts in the years to come and they never disappointed, though they would rotate several members in and out of their ranks, mostly the horn players.

Long Beach Dub All Stars, The Ziggens, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., February 13, 1999

SETLIST : April 29 1992, Garden Grove, 54-46 That”s My Number, Trailer Ras, Have A Little Faith, Scarlet Begonias, (unknown), Work That We Do, Insight, (unknown), Ball & Chain, Right Back, Little District, One More Cup Of Coffee, People Funny Boy, Soldiers, 40 Oz. To Freedom, Kick Down, Live At E’s, Pay To Cum, Get Ready, Fugazi, Pawn Shop, My Own Life, Take Warning, Badfish, Let’s Go Get Stoned

It had been almost two years since the tragic lethal overdose of Sublime singer, Bradley Nowell, who had been slated to perform with his band that fateful night at the Maritime. Since then, I had become quite familiar with the band formed in that death’s aftermath, the Long Beach Dub All Stars. With all the original members and a new singer, they had already played the Hall once in 1997, headlining its first 420 Hemp Festival and being one of the acts on The One Festival line up in 1998 down on Pier 30/32. This would also be the second show we’d be using the robot camera system and my friend Tory was starting to get better at it as I could tell from what little video I found of of that night. For some reason, I had a single song from their set recorded in my DVDs, the song, “Kick Back”. Why I only had that song or what I didn’t have the entirety of their set is still a mystery to me, but I take what I can get.

It was good to hear and see that tidbit. They were tight and I thought it was funny that their bass player had cigarette dangling out of his mouth through the whole song. The singer did a little bit of the chorus from “Nothing From Nothing” by soul singer Billy Preston during that tune as well. The band would go on to release the album “Right Back” that September, but they would lose three of their original members shortly afterwards. They did a few respectable covers that night including “54-46 That’s My Number” by Toots & The Maytals, who they opened for at The One Festival the year before and had just played the Hall for New Year’s Eve. They also covered “Scarlet Begonias” by the Grateful Dead, “One More Cup Of Coffee” by Bob Marley, and “Pay To Cum” by Bad Brains, a song that coincidentally had just been played on that stage a few nights before by The Sick, who were opening for Vanilla Ice. Speaking of openers, the band The Ziggens warmed up the crowd before the All Stars that gig. They too were from Orange County and friends of theirs, signed to their Skunk Records label, describing their music as “cowpunksurfabilly”. They were recorded and produced by their guitarist, Michael Happolt, who actually adopted Bradley Nowell’s dalmatian, Lou Dog, after Bradley’s death and cared for that dog until it passed away and rejoined his original master in 2001.

I believe this was the occasion where I tussled with the All Star’s sound engineer a little over giving his effects two separate tracks on the ADAT recording that night. I had only 24 tracks to work with and 16 not them were dedicated to single instruments and couldn’t be grouped and the All Stars were larger than the average punk/ska band. I tried to reassure the engineer that his effects could always be added later, but he insisted that they were part of the live show experience. Boots naturally sided with the engineer, but he was strangely conciliatory towards me and was uncharacteristically very friendly and diplomatic throughout the exchange. I eventually relented and made room, grouping the drums’ toms and overhead cymbals together. I like to think that my little protest was at least evidence that I was growing more confident in my skills as an engineer. The All Stars would return to the Hall in October, one of the last shows I’d record there alongside my partner Pete, but that would end up being the last time I’d see them perform live.

Vanilla Ice, The Sick, Papa Roach, 40 Grit, Maritime Hall, SF, Tues., February 9, 1999

Oh boy… OK, before you start cracking jokes, let me first just start off that despite any opinions one might have about the one Mr. Robert Matthew Van Winkle, otherwise known as Vanilla Ice, we all know who he is. Indeed, no one who lived through the late 80’s/early 90’s escaped the visage of him dancing to his hit song, “Ice Ice Baby”, clad in parachute pants with that bulletproof pompadour on his head. Like it or not, that one’s in our skulls for life. The success of that song and his persona would become the source of endless resentment to downright derision of from the hip hop community. Vanilla Ice would be the target of many a vented spleen ranging from Eminem who claimed to have “ripped out his blond dreads” in his song “Role Model” to Kevin Bacon’s merciless impersonation of him on “Saturday Night Live”.

Now, that being said, Mr. Van Winkle was painfully aware of this and took it hard when his star quickly faded from the mainstream. People often overlook just how young he was when he catapulted to fame, releasing his hit album, “To The Extreme” in 1990, just shy of his 23rd birthday, less than six years older than me. But just a years later, his movie “Cool As Ice” was a critical and commercial disaster and even Mike Myers lampooned him in his first “Austin Powers” movie, showing him frozen in a hyperbaric chamber next to Gary Coleman. Ice fell so low that by 1994, he attempted suicide one night by ingesting heroin, cocaine, and ecstasy. Thankfully, he’s since recovered and got married in 1997, having his first daughter the following year and another in 2000. Knowing his brand was tainted around this time, for better or for worse, he chose to reinvent himself and explore the genre of nu metal which was at the height of its popularity at the time. Ice had been dabbling with new music on the side, playing in a grunge band called Pickin’ Scabs around then as well. He had recently met producer Ross Robinson, who produced for such acts as the Deftones, Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Sepultura, as well as shared Ice’s love of motocross racing. From there, they put together his new album, “Hard To Swallow”, recruiting a respectable stable of musicians to record it, including Sonny Mayo, the guitarist from Snot, who’d recently disbanded due to the untimely death of their singer, Lynn Strait.

The critics were predictably cruel towards Ice’s new found direction and one would think that even if the album was any good, which it wasn’t, they still would have been equally enthusiastic to stomp on it. I mean, the songs weren’t particularly horrible, it was just he was a little late to the party for the whole nu metal thing, and it all felt just a bit old hat. The good news is that they assembled a good line up of opening acts that night, including 40 Grit, Papa Roach in one of their last appearances at the Hall as an opening act, and The Sick. I really enjoyed The Sick, an underrated punk metal outfit originally from Concord near where I grew up, and was surprised that no one had taken that name for a band sooner. Though I didn’t find any other footage of that show on line, I was glad to see that The Sick’s set was not only on YouTube, but they had it also on their own webpage. They prefaced the video claiming they “think this was when we opened for Bad Brains” which they actually did at the Hall the following year. Whether or not they plum forgot they opened for Vanilla Ice, which is highly doubtful in my opinion, and innocently wrote that in is up to you to decide.

The Sick clearly had one of their buddies up in the balcony set up with a static wide shot of the stage on a consumer grade camera, the sound being atrocious, but marginally better than my cassette bootlegs. In the video, you can hear the sound of Born Naked being played as they got set up, the band my roommate Patrick used to manage, covering the songs “Minus One” and “Innocent”. I’m glad that band at least got some props being played between acts frequently at the Hall. After their first song, the singer took off his shirt and yelled at the crowd to “wake the fuck up!” He had a lot of energy, jumping around a great deal all through the set. Near the end, he dedicated a song to all the skateboarders in the house, calling them “people who have problems with cars” and followed it with a cover of Bad Brains’ “Pay To Cum”. As luck would have it, the Long Beach Dub All Stars would also play that song at the Hall a few days later. Afterwards, they thanked the other opening acts and dedicated their last song to the “Ice Man”. I have to admit, I could have swore I heard the singer saying, “I can’t believe we’re opening for fucking Vanilla Ice!”, but I probably imagined it. But, it’s understandable since practically everybody was thinking it.

It wasn’t a very well sold show, in fact by the end of it, I doubt there were more than a 100 people left, but his fans were enthusiastic nonetheless. I would guess at least half those there that night were friends and family of the opening acts, they all being local. Ice came to the stage wearing a Chicago Bulls jersey and a backwards baseball hat and we all watched him do his thing. He dedicated his song, “S.N.A.F.U.” to Bill Clinton who had just been acquitted by the Senate for the whole Lewinski thing that very day. He of course did “Ice Ice Baby”, but afterwards did his nu metal version which he called “Too Cold”. Hearing him scream the chorus “ICE ICE BABY!!!” will be forever seared into my ears. Ice also did covers of “Stop That Train” and “Play That Funky Music”, but he didn’t do an encore.

This show has the unique distinction of being the very first show the Maritime put on with its new robot camera system. They say necessity is the mother of invention and since Boots had systematically alienated every cameraperson and video director that ever set foot in the place, this was certainly a long time coming. For over a year, I had unsuccessfully tried to bring in new recruits, so he rigged up three cameras just below the railing of the balcony, one right, one center, one left, and ran their cables into the video room. I’ll never forget the sight of Boots monkeying with one of the cameras, standing on a tall ladder, his bloated, pasty face just an inch or two in front of the camera’s lens. From the recording room, I watched his sour puss on my monitor in mild disgust as he futzed with it until it worked properly. But once it was up and running, down in the video control room, on you left hand, one could control all three camera’s movements, left, right, up, down, zoom in, and zoom out, and with your right hand you can switch between them, all the while staring at their corresponding monitors throughout the show. The system worked well and as Morgan, the drummer from the band 008 so accurately described it, our work looked like “German television”. I think of it as a complement.

Suffice to say, to pull it off operating this new video plate spinning trick with any degree of skill was a tall order, but I knew just the man for the job. My friend Tory was looking for some work where he could expand his video and directing skills, so this opening came at an opportune moment. There was a big part of me that was absolutely hesitant about bringing him in since he was a lifelong friend and I knew full well the toxic work environment that Boots had festered there for years. I warned Tory repeatedly about Boots, but I was confident with him hidden away from sight in the video control room most of the time that he’d at least be separated partially from it. I was very protective of Tory back then, overprotective even, but he proved not only a master director, but took Boots’ boorish behavior with dignity and professionalism. Tory would do most of the shows at the Hall from then on until Boots fired Pete in November and we covered a lot of great acts. All those shows with Tory made me very proud. I enjoyed having him on board and I thought we made a good team. After almost every show, we would celebrate by having what I liked to call “the victory lap”, with a feat at OSHA Thai just down the street from where I lived in the Tenderloin.

On one final note, I just want to say one thing about Vanilla Ice. Of all the celebrities I’ve had an encounter with over the years, I have to admit that my short moment with him was one of the most pleasant. I approached him as I did all artists who performed there after his set with the VHS and DAT tapes of his set and had him sign the release. Ice was nothing but smiles and thanked me warmly and genuinely. Naturally, I had mixed feelings as most people did about him and was uncertain what I was in for when I did this, but he put me instantly at ease. Being face to face with him, I could immediately sense what people saw in him, his natural charisma. So, you can say what you want about his music and stage persona, I stand by my story that Vanilla Ice is a nice guy.

Sky Cries Mary, Ali Khan Band (Not Recorded), Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., February 5, 1999

This was kind of a weird one, though most are weird in their own special way. For starters, it is unusual for the opening act to not have us record instead of the main act. I can’t really say why the Ali Khan Band didn’t want us to do it. After all, they had just performed at the Hall only a month ago at the Psychedelic Ball on New Year’s Eve there with Toots & The Maytals. We recorded them that night and we didn’t hear a peep out of them or any other band for that matter. Maybe they didn’t like our mix, but I doubt that since Pete was on the boards that night and his was flawless as always.

The second thing was the very identity of the band to begin with. I have some blurry memory of them being some hippie jam band as we were accustomed to hosting at the Hall, but I found their profile online as a rock/trance band from Seattle, though the timeline checks out. The Seattle band had been around since the late 80’s, but would break up that year after releasing their 4 song EP “Seeds” that October. That Sky Cries Mary would reform five years later, break up again, and reform once more. Like I said, I can’t be sure. Sorry. But if they had made an impression on me, I’d probably would have remembered more.

SnoCore ’99: Everclear, Soul Coughing, Redman, DJ Spooky, War., SF, Tues., February 2, 1999

SETLIST : El Distorto De Melodica, Amphetamine, Electra Made Me Blind, You Make Me Feel Like A Whore, Sick & Tires, Fire Maple Song, Strawberry, One Hit Wonder, The Twistinside, Like A California King, Everything To Everyone, I Will Buy You A New Life, Santa Monica, (encore), So Much For The Afterglow, Heroin Girl, Father Of Mine, Local God, Sin City

It was the dead of winter, though one would be hard put to find a single flake of snow on the ground in San Francisco. Yes, the so-called 4th annual “SnoCore” tour was back in town, sponsored by all sorts of snowboarding gear guys as well as Levi’s and Spin magazine. It was billed as “The Ultimate Winter Experience” and “A Gathering Of Tribes, Music, Culture, & Physical Stimulation”. They were supposed to play the Civic Center, but the show had been moved to The Warfield, presumably because of low ticket sales. Not that the line up wasn’t any good, it was. But Soul Coughing had just played The Warfield less than five months before this, DJ Spooky just four months before and Redman only 7 weeks before both at the Maritime, and Everclear had been touring non-stop since I saw them the first time opening for Primus on New Year’s Eve in Oakland in 1995. Speaking of Primus, they had headlined the SnoCore tour the previous year, but that show was all the way down at San Jose Event Center, so I skipped that one. Redman was on the first leg of this tour and would be replaced by the Black Eyed Peas for the tour’s second half.

Lack of snow aside, I did appreciate that this tour was at least trying to bring black and white acts together on the same bill. Eclectic festivals such as Lollapalooza were quickly fading out and never really returned sadly. DJ Spooky was an inspired choice to have on this bill, spinning tunes at the beginning and between acts. He would once again dust off some familiar and clever samples in his beats such as video game noises from “Robotron” and “Tempest”, bits of Neil Armstrong and the moon landing, and the sound of Cyrus from the movie “The Warriors” asking, “Caaaaan Yoooouuu Dig It!?!” He also played a bit of “Fly Like An Eagle” by Steve Miller and “Weapon World” by Kool Keith, followed by a long scratch solo, then scratching the line from the Beastie Boys’ “Shake Your Rump”, “It’s Tha’ Joint!”, before Redman took the stage. He introduced himself asking the crowd, “Are you ready to get high?” then got on stage accompanied strangely by the song “Relax” by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, then got the crowd to put their hands in the air and chant “Oh yeah!” Some folks were enthusiastic, but the crowd was still pretty sparse in the beginning and he struggled a little to get them to wake up. But he did get them a little rowdy by the time he got to play “Whateva Man” and ending his set with “How High”.

Between sets, DJ Spooky busted out some Jimi Hendrix stuff from “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”. I didn’t know it at the time, but this would be the last time I’d see Soul Coughing. They were at the top of their game creatively and commercially, but Mike Doughty was knee deep in alcohol and drug addiction and had enough of the band. After dropping Soul Coughing like a hot stone, he immediately hit the road in a rental car, playing solo acoustic shows around the country. To this day, Mike is bitter about the whole experience and flat out refuses to play any of their songs which is a pity since those songs were so good. They did an epic version of “St. Louis Is Listening” that show. I’m just glad I got to see them as often as I did back then and this last set was fantastic as always. So I got to hear Mike get everybody to chant, “Candy Bar!” when they did “Super Bon Bon” at the end of their set for their final goodbye. Afterwards, there was a raffle contest before Everclear got on and some young lady in the crowd won a brand new PlayStation with her winning ticket. DJ Spooky spun records one more time starting with the beginning of Madness’ “One Step Beyond” then going right into Public Enemy’s “Welcome To The Terrordome”, cutting up the line, “Hear the drummer get wicked” a bunch of times. Further extending his eclectic tastes, Spooky even did a bit from “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath.

Like Soul Coughing, Everclear were also at the height of their popularity then and I’d see them one more time at The Warfield a year later. They were still touring playing songs from their hit album, “So Much For The Afterglow” which went double platinum and chalked up their first and only Grammy nomination to date for Best Rock Instrumental for their tune, “El Distorto De Melodica” which they opened their set with that night. Though as the years went on, they would not see the same level of success as they had then, they always put on a lively set. Frontman Art Alexakis had a ton of energy that night and their fans loved them. He egged them on to sing along to “Strawberry” claiming that even his five year old daughter knew the lyrics and to their credit, the audience were pretty loud, singing the chorus, “Don’t fall down now, you’ll never get up”. They also sang along pretty loud to “I Will Buy You A New Life” as well. Art mentioned between songs that he lived in San Francisco five years before and mused about how the rich people lived up in the hills and all us poor people lived down below them. As usual, they wrapped up their set with their hit song “Santa Monica”. I wasn’t surprised that there wasn’t a poster since it had been moved from the Civic Center, though naturally I hoped there would be one.

Maceo Parker (Not Recorded), Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., January 29, 1999

It was disappointing that we weren’t allowed to tape Maceo that night, he being the legendary soul saxophonist everybody adored and wanted to work with. We still got to do fellow master saxophonist Karl Denson, though we had already done him a couple times before with the Tiny Universe as well as the Greyboy Allstars. The Greyboys actually put out a live album that year called “GBA Live”, though I can’t say if any of the stuff on it is ours or where the songs came from. I hope it’s from us, but I doubt it. Maceo was just a couple weeks shy of his 57th birthday on Valentine’s Day and was already a living legend. He had been collaborating around that time with Prince & The New Power Generation and even got a song tribute from Jane’s Addiction called “May Cat’s Name Is Maceo” on their 1997 “Kettle Whistle” compilation album. Maceo had also recently released an album of his own called “Funk Overload” the previous August that featured his son Corey rapping on it. I’m pretty sure he was there performing along side him that night as well.

I can’t recall why Maceo didn’t want us to record, but I do remember appreciating that I had the night off to go upstairs and enjoy it. Pete let me do Karl Denson and he took off early. Seeing Maceo perform live is one of those shows that makes you feel more like a sophisticated as a person in general, not to mention very cool. His skill is beyond reproach and when you hear him belt out a classic like “Pass The Peas”, it gives you goosebumps. I imagine Maceo at least had an enjoyable experience since he would return the following August to play at The One Festival with Jimmy Cliff and Burning Spear amongst others that Boots put on once again at Pier 30/32, though we didn’t tape that one. It was a no brainer that Boots would want this show for the Hall, being a saxophonist himself, a former member of the Hoodoo Rhythm Devils. Maceo also played The Fillmore that October and I’m afraid I missed that one as well, especially since it got a cool poster. That night, I’d be at Type O Negative at the Maritime, but ironically they would let us tape that night either.

Violent Femmes, El Destroyo, Fill., SF, Thur., January 28, 1999

SETLIST : Rejoice & Be Happy, Look Like That, Country Death Song, Blister In The Sun, Prove My Love, Don’t Talk About My Music (Shut Your Mouth), Candlelight Song, Out The Window, I’m Nothing, Confessions, Faith, I Held Her In My Arms, Good Feeling, Dance Motherfucker Dance!, I’m Bad, Gimme The Car, (unknown), American Music, Black Girl, Gone Daddy Gone, Add It Up

It was great to have the Femmes back at The Fillmore after a couple long years of absence. Indeed, that venue seems like it was made for them. I was well versed in their music by then, having also seen them three different times at The Warfield and once at the first Live 105 B.F.D. at Shoreline. They were still touring with drummer Guy Hoffman of The BoDeans, who had replaced Victor De Lorenzo back in 1993, but this time, they had their famous “Horns Of Delimma” horn section with them to back them up for a few songs. That included the one and only Steve McCay from The Stooges on saxophone, making this not only the first time I’d see Steve play, but the first time I’d see the Femmes with horns. My future friend Kristie had been a member of that crew and would play trumpet with them on other occasions at The Fillmore, but she was there that night as a civilian, watching the show. I would actually not meet her until the following year.

Opening that gig was a local band called El Destroyo, fronted by a fellow named Jimmy Friedman. Their last album actually had bassist Brian Richie from the Femmes playing on it, but Brian didn’t perform with them on that occasion. They were a rather quiet acoustic act for most of their set, but the audience was polite and heard them out. Jimmy admitted that he was suffering from the flu and had to “drag myself out of bed” for the show and “might die mid-set”, though he assured the crowd if he did that they weren’t to blame. He joked that his drummer had just learned all his songs and added jokingly that guitarist had too. I didn’t know their music, but I do know near the end of their set, they played a song called “You’re The One” followed by another called “She Don’t Care”. El Destroyo would return to open for the Femmes again later that year also at The Fillmore, but I’d miss that one.

It was good set for the Femmes, including a couple of frontman Gordon Gano’s more religious tunes, opening for example with “Rejoice & Be Happy”, but he balanced them with darker numbers like “Country Death Song” and “I’m Nothing”. Watching the show, I was annoyed a couple times by a fellow who would whistle along loudly and I did my best to avoid him, but you can hear his high pitched whistle on a couple of the songs on my tapes. Brian would sing a few numbers that night including “Don’t Talk About My Music (Shut Your Mouth)” and “Dance, Motherfucker, Dance!”. Gordon would describe him before playing “Gimme The Car” as the “most underrated, most unexplained bass player in rock & roll today”. Sadly, there was no poster at the end of the night, though the show when the Femmes returned that September got one.

Bad Religion, No Use For A Name, Hate Fuck Trio, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., January 16, 1999

SETLISTS :

(NO USE FOR A NAME) : (unknown), Don’t Miss The Train, (unknown), Justified Black Eye, Leave It Behind, Redemption Song, Soulmate, Fatal Flu, Straight From The Jacket, The Answer Is Still No, Invincible, On The Outside

(BAD RELIGION) : Against The Grain, Them & Us, The Biggest Killer In American History, American Jesus, Spirit Shine, Turn On The Light, Come Join Us, Dream Of Unity, 21st Century (Digital Boy), No Control, Heaven Is Falling, A Walk, Shades Of Truth, The Happy Killers, Do What You Want, Faith Alone, Sowing The Seeds Of Utopia, Atomic Garden, Along The Way, Change Of Ideas, News From The Front, Hear It, Tomorrow, Generator, Fuck Armageddon… This Is Hell, God Song, Infection, We’re Only Gonna Die

It was a high honor to record Bad Religion that night, particularly since they had no real official live recordings to speak of, at least none that I could find. This would be the fifth time I’d see them though, having caught them twice already at The Warfield in 1994 and 1996, opening for Pearl Jam at the notorious “Hurl Jam” show in Golden Gate Park in 1995, and once more at The Edge in Palo Alto in 1996. Brett Gurewitz had reunited with the band in the studio to record the song “Believe It”, but he wasn’t touring with them still and they didn’t play that song that night. The band was finishing the last show of the Californian leg of the “No Substance” tour that had been going on all the previous year. This would be the third time Bad Religion would play San Francisco in only nine months and they played four songs off that last album that night.

Opening for them were a clever band from Denver called the Hate Fuck Trio, made up of two brothers, Jon & Sam DeStefano. We had the balcony camera set up that night and I think my friend Dan was operating. After them, No Use For A Name was up next. I’d seen them a couple times before, once on the second stage at 105’s B.F.D in 1995 and then opening for my brother’s old band, the Dance Hall Crashers, later that year at The Fillmore. No Use For A Name had just recently lost their guitarist Chris Shiflett who left them abruptly before the beginning of this tour to join the Foo Fighters and was quickly replaced by Dave Nassie. That night, they did a funny, punk rock version of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”. I’ve always liked these guys and would be happy to see them once again open for the Crashers at The Fillmore later that year after they released their next album, “More Betterness!” that October.

Bad Religion had been around since 1979 when Greg Graffin was just a wee lad of 15 years old and by this time he and the band seemed like veterans even though they were only in their mid-30’s. They quickly got the crowd worked up and Greg was doing his usual wise cracking between songs. After “Them & Us”, he proclaimed that it was “great to be up here in the land of politics” and congratulated us on “your newly renovated City Hall. It looks magnificent. That is a symbol of California efficiency, isn’t it? Now just get that guy to do something with that fucked up airport and make this first best punk city scene in California”. The City Hall had just been refurbished, yes, sporting the black dome it has today. He later joked that though the band was only allowed to play 30 minutes when they were in town last for the Warped Tour, this night they would be playing 35 minutes.

At the end of the song “Spirit Shine”, one of the Hall’s crew walked across stage and the bassist Jay Bentley playfully scolded him, asking, “Are you with the band?” Greg said something about that their band was increasing in size over the years, leaving folks to wander around the stage aimlessly. Later, Greg introduced the tune “Dream Of Unity”, calling it “a song about the L.A. punk scene which we know is the best. San Francisco is the second best” There was a predictable amount of boos, but Greg immediately followed up, “It’s quickly changing. Things are definitely flowing north” and called that tune “a song of bewilderment and delusion”. Jay later wished Fat Mike from NOFX who was there that night a happy birthday, though Mike’s birthday wasn’t until the 31st, over two weeks later, and got the crowd to sing a truncated version of the birthday song to him. Greg joked, “Jay doesn’t know or care when my birthday is” and introduced the next song “No Control” as some of that “old time Bad Religion”.

He then described “Shades Of Truth” as one of the saddest songs he had ever written and he knows “because I was sad when I wrote it”, though it wasn’t the saddest song they did and promised to play that one later. In the middle of “The Hippie Killers”, he sang the title line from Iron Butterfly’s “Ina Gotta Devita”, an appropriate one to roast there, being the Maritime and in San Francisco. As luck would have it, Iron Butterfly was one of the opening acts for Greg Allman at the Maritime’s grand opening back in 1995. Continuing on the subject of hippies, Greg said “This is the city of love. Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love” and reminded us that this was the 30th anniversary of the Summer Of Love, though technically that happened 32 years before in 1967. He went on commenting on the projections on the side screens, “It’s the psychedelic drugs, oil lights, reminds me of what makes San Francisco so special, their innovation, rather integration into music. Put a flower in your hair and go to San Francisco, man! That was the platform against which the punk scene got started and revolted against. Thank you!” Yes, it was a bit of a jab at his hippie hosts, but it wasn’t entirely untrue.

Greg continued, “I got shit last week from a student of theology”, who “crossed the line and pointed his finger” asking him if he was aware he was “going to hell” and told him to get some “faith in my life”. But he responded, “I got a lot of faith, but faith alone won’t save us” and the band went into the song “Faith Alone”. He also gave a “shout out to the guy at the bar who gave me a coffee. Didn’t even ask questions” and added that the guy did some gesture hitting himself in the chest. Greg then joked, “do me a favor and make a pledge that you’d never do this” and he did that stupid hip hop dance when you pump your open hands in the air, as a comedian I once heard describe it as the “closing the overhead luggage compartment dance”. He added, “you don’t have to follow me, but the world would be a better place” if they didn’t.

After “Change Of Ideas”, he introduced Jay to the crowd calling him, “Jay Bentley – male prostitute”, a reference to the old “Fred Garvin” comedy sketch Dan Ackroyd did years ago on “Saturday Night Live”. Greg then bragged that he was “fluent in two languages, three if you count scientific nomenclature”. Near the end of the set, he kept his promise to do the saddest song they know, “Generator”, also in the “saddest key, sung by the saddest man, Greg Graffin”, but reassured the crowd it was ok to sing along with him. They finished up with “We’re Only Going To Die” a tune they had written “all the way back in 1982”. It was a great experience and I only wish that what I taped could have become a live album as always, but having them there was a privilege enough for me. Though this was the only time they ever played the Hall, I would see them three more times at The Warfield in 2000, 2002, and 2004.

Fear Factory, Skinlab, Spineshank, Static X, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., January 9, 1999

SETLIST : Shock, Zero Signal, Self Bias Resistor, Edgecrusher, Smasher – Devourer, Big God, Scumgrief, Securitron (Police State 2000), Descent, Pisschrist, Resurrection, Demanufacture, Replica, Scapegoat

It had been four long years since I saw Fear Factory open for Megadeth at The Warfield, that fateful day when Jerry Garcia passed away. The memory of singer Burton C. Bell stunning the staff when he yelled, “Fuck Jerry Garcia! I’m glad he’s dead!”, will be seared into my brain till my dying day. But they were back as a headliner this time and let’s just say fate got a little revenge on that band shortly before this show. They had been touring back east when in Philadelphia when their truck got stolen along with all their gear, lights, and merchandise. Still, it was unfair to System Of A Down and Shineshank, who had their stuff with them. The truck would later be found empty and engulfed in flames near the Walt Whitman Bridge. At least Static X didn’t lose their shit. They were on this tour along with Spineshank, but local act Skinlab was there instead of System Of A Down.

Static X had been around since ’94, but their debut release “Wisconsin Death Trip”, (named after the 1973 Michael Lesy book), would not be out until two months later. Their frontman, Wayne Static, was from Chicago and had previously been in a band with Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins called Deep Blue Dream. Wayne’s look was quite striking, his dark, black hair shellacked to point straight up like he was falling down an elevator shaft and with a braided “chintail” beard. These guys were talented, wrote good songs, and were relatively successful for one of these nu-metal bands. Static X would return to open for Fear Factory again at the Hall in September, but then they would have their own monitor board and I could only get a stereo recording of that night. They would get big enough to headline The Warfield in 2002 with Soulfly opening for them, but that would be the last time I’d see them perform. Poor Wayne would die from a prescription drug overdose in 2014, whether it was accidental or not is still uncertain.

Spineshank had played the Hall opening for Machinehead four months before this show, having just released their “Strictly Diesel” album, and they’d be back just five weeks later there opening for Sepultura. Burton C. Bell would sing on their tune “Stain” for that album. And well Skinlab… They were practically the nu-metal house band, playing three times before at the Maritime, opening for both Machinehead and D.R.I. in ’97, then for Deicide just two months before this gig and would come back the following November opening for S.O.D. Knew those guys’ music well and I had said it before, but it bears repeating, that as the years went by, they got better. Being local, they had their usual allotment of hesher friends and relatives in the house. It was pretty well sold that night, enough to open the balcony.

Fear Factory had released the concept album, “Obsolete” the previous July which had a hit with their bonus track, a cover of “Cars” by Gary Numan, though they didn’t play it that night, sadly. Concept albums are always dodgy, running the risk of being pretentious or downright stupid, but I’m glad to say this one was alright. It told a tale of protagonist Edgecrusher and his dystopian future, encountering Smash – Devour, an egg shaped killer robot, and being captured by the Securitron, a worldwide law enforcement organization of their machine controlled society, and so forth. Furthermore, Fear Factory would go on to release a compilation album of their hits that year called “Messiah”, which would also serve as the soundtrack of the computer video game of the same name.

They had brought their own high tech light array, strobes, and set up (presumably) fake skulls with spinal columns attached to them on their microphone stands and one between the drummer’s tom drums. As expected, there was a fog machine too. We would install the robo-cam system at the Hall the following month, but for that show we still just had the trusty single balcony wide shot camera. There would be a friend of Fear Factory in the Hall that night recording a video bootleg of the show also from the balcony and he’d post it on YouTube years later. Not a great video, but there was a funny bit at the end when he went backstage and the camera had been left on, whether it was intentional or not, I can’t be sure. He didn’t seem to be pointing the camera at anybody deliberately and I doubt he was trying to tape them without their knowledge. There was one great bit for me personally watching it again when he went off exploring the upper decks above the band’s dressing room and found the narrow metal staircases leading to the rafters above the stage. He didn’t stay there long, that area being dark and treacherous.

Fear Factory played a lively set and there was a bit of a mosh pit for a couple songs and the occasional crowd floater. There was one guy on the bootleg video who wasn’t impressed and blurted into the camera’s mic with a pronounced souther accent, “Lamest mosh pit I’ve ever seen!” Just before they played “Self Bias Resistor”, they used the introduction of N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton”, sampling the words, “You’re about to hear the strength of street knowledge”. Fear Factory would also use another hip hop sample after “Edgecrusher”, using Flava Flav’s voice from Public Enemy yelling, “Damn, that shit was dope!”. There was the sound of an alarm at the beginning of the “Securitron (Police State 2000)”, song which I swore was used from the alarm in the movie “Aliens” near the end when Ripley was escaping the exploding atmosphere processor and the recording, “You have (such and such time), to reach minimum safe distance”, was playing.

There was one memorable little snafu at the show about half way through. The folks who posted the setlist online thought the band had stopped because someone threw a shirt at guitarist Dino Cazares, during the song “Descend”, but they were wrong. Dino stopped the band because he was having a bit of a verbal tussle with one of the Hall’s security guards who was up in front of the stage in the barricade. Dino had sprayed the crowd with a water bottle during the song and the guard took offense to it getting wet in the process, even after Dino offered him a towel after to dry off. Dino chastised him, yelling, “Act like your working it, if you can’t handle sweat like the rest of us! I threw him a towel and he’s still crying! It’s just water!” then Burton chimed in saying, “I get spit on, pissed on, shit on every night and you cry over water!?!” The crowd then chanted, “Dino! Dino! Dino!” until they started playing again. At the end of the night, Burton thanked all the opening acts and Dino came up front and shook hands and high fives the fans up front. He tossed them a bunch of guitar pics before doing a quick crowd float, then waved goodbye and exited.

Cue’s Hip Hop Shop, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., January 8, 1999

Here we go… Happy New Year! Yes, we begin the long celebration that was this year of our Lord… 1999. And what a year it was. Between the steady diet of shows recorded at Maritime Hall, there were more than enough other gigs ushering at The Fillmore and The Warfield, as well as other shows elsewhere, usually as a patron. In grand total, it came to 129 glorious musical adventures for that year, give or take a show. This year is a bit of an enigma as I did so many and I was at the height of my live recording intake, yet my record keeping seemed to have dropped off from my usual meticulousness. I found it challenging to piece together where I had put a lot of the art and clippings from the shows that year and even a couple gigs’ dates were left out completely. But with a little research and determination, I managed to piece it together the best I could and I’m satisfied in the most part with what remains. God knows it’s a lot. Maybe it’s for the best that it’s just slightly incomplete.

Anyway, this, the last year of the millennia would face nitpicking arguments about if that it was or the year 2000 or 2001 was, yadda, yadda, yadda, It was the last year with a 1 in front of the 3 other numbers, that we all could at least agree upon. Things were changing around the world and one could feel the future heading towards us all like a runaway freight train. Europe had just adopted the Euro as its official currency the week before and our beloved president, Bill Clinton, had his trial in the Senate over the whole Monica Lewinski thing begin the day before this show. I would turn 27 years young that July, the fabled and cursed “rock star year” causing me to be extra cautious not to die like so many had at that age. I was single and though I had a few random romantic encounters since my break up with my girlfriend Lisa the year before, I would mostly be up to my neck with all these shows and work. It was a miracle that I slept at all. Only a young person could have kept up with that pace.

The first show I’d have the pleasure of seeing would be this revue of hip hop DJs at the Hall, the first I’d record as well. The bill was being hailed as “Cue’s Hip Hop Shop”, the brainchild of DJ Cue AKA Frank Cuevas, a talented turntabilist in his own right and producer of such wax scratching masterpieces as the “Bullet Proof Scratch Hamsters”, “DMT (Drum Machine Technicians)”, and also as a member of The Space Travelers. He had put together an album of various local talent including Rasco, DJ Apollo, and Vin Roc, all who were there that night with him. Rasco, an abbreviation for Realistic, Ambitious, Serious, Cautious, & Organized, was also a member of the Cali Agents and Planet Asia, both of which would play the Hall in the future. DJ Apollo was a member of the Invisbl Scratch Pickles, a group of scratch artists that I’d seen the year before, wowing the crowd with their skills, opening for the Beastie Boys in Oakland the year before. Along with Vin Roc, they all took turns doing their cuts, transitions, and such for hours, each a master at the skill, mind bending stuff really. It should have been better sold a show, but it also was just after New Year’s and people fizzle out for a couple weeks. Still, it was a golden age for scratch masters like these guys, Mix Master Mike, and Kutmasta Kurt, and I’m bitter thinking about some of the EDM artists around today who make zillions, but have no skills on the ones and twos. But it seemed appropriate that Pete and my last year at the Hall would begin with this one, so casual and free spirited. By November, Pete would leave the Hall over various issues with the boss, Boots, and I would follow him, occasionally substituting for our replacement, Wade, until the Hall finally sank for good in 2001.

1998

Psychedelic Ball : Toots & The Maytals, Merl Saunders & His Funky Friends with Bill Kruetzman, Nick Gravenites, Maritime Hall, SF. Thurs., December 31, 1998

It had been a long industrious year for me musically, between the shows at the Hall, ushering at The Warfield and The Fillmore, not to mention the occasional show at other venues around the bay area. I had done 17 concerts in December alone, quite a stretch for any month, but especially for a December. I was fortunate enough to catch the first of two Primus shows at the Warfield the night before, so I wouldn’t have to miss them completely that year, having already missed them when they played the SnoCore show down in San Jose that February. This show at the Hall was one of those there that was being sponsored by the Cannabis Action Network and there was no shortage of that fine plant being smoked in the Hall all night. I was quite familiar with all the acts there that gig, both Toots and Merl having played there the previous New Year’s Eve. This was Toots’ and Jai Uttal’s third time at the Hall, Nick Gravenites’ second time, and Merl’s SIXTH time.

Oh yes, I knew Merl quite well by this New Year’s, but at this show there would be one critical difference. Merl would have none other than THE Bill Kreutzman from the Grateful Dead playing drums for him in this “Funky Friends” band instead of his usual Rainforest Band. I saw Bill with his wife in the stairway during Toots’ set and I shook his hand saying what an honor it was to record him and have him there that night. He was polite, quiet, and gracious about it. Seemed like a nice guy for that brief moment we shared together. Bill had collaborated with Merl that year on his album, “Fiesta Amazonica”, which was a collection of unreleased tracks they recorded together at Fantasy Records. For that project, Merl employed a young singer from Bulgaria named Mariana and I believe she was there performing that night as well.

Jai Uttal was actually playing in the Hiring Hall on the ground level of the Maritime that gig, but like I said, we’d already taped him twice, including one show I had done myself only 19 days before this. Didn’t see his stuff being too busy upon the levels above him and his Pagan Love Orchestra, but the telltale scent of patchouli oil and burning sage wafted up the stairs and permeated the whole building. Being a show of such prestige, Pete was there to be at the helm at the recording room for the night, but I was happy to be his squire, fetching him jack & cokes from the bar along side many beers I imbibed that night. Likewise, the joints passed freely all over the place. Grant and Bobby were partying in Grant’s office next to the recording room all night and we were in good company with them and all their party people. Things ran smoothly and I gave Pete and everybody a hug after the countdown. There was a balloon drop upstairs and Toots kept them dancing late into the evening. Little did I or Pete know that this would be our last complete year working at the Hall. Pete would have his falling out with Boots the owner the following November, quit, and I would follow along with him, only filling in for Wade our replacement about a half dozen times in 2000 before the Hall tanked completely. But for this night, we were blissfully oblivious to this impending doom and enjoyed the regalia.

Primus, MIRV, Laundry, War., SF, Wed., December 30, 1998

SETLIST : Wynonna’s Big Brown Beaver, Fizzle Fry, Duchess & The Proverbial Mind Spread, Pudding Time, Those Damn Blue Collar Tweekers, Kalamazoo, Puddin’ Taine, Turkey In The Straw Intro – Jerry Was A Race Car Driver, Bob, My Name Is Mud, Bob’s Party Time Lounge, Feliz Navidad, Seas Of Cheese, The Air Is Getting Slippery, Tommy The Cat (with DJ Disk), (encore), Here Come The Bastards

It was a relief to see that Primus was doing two shows at The Warfield at the year’s end, so I’d be able to see the first one and then still be able to help record Toots & The Maytals at the Maritime for New Year’s. Still, it would mean that I wouldn’t get the New Year’s poster from Primus and miss seeing Spearhead, their opening act for that night, but these are the choices one must make when living in a city like San Francisco with such a wide variety of venues to choose from. I was however able to see both Laundry and MIRV open for this evening, each worthy acts in their own right. Laundry was drummer Herb Alexander’s band after he left Primus and their being there was further evidence that there was no hard feelings. I’d seen them once before opening for Tool in 1994 also at the Warfield. Herb isn’t the best singer in the world, but then again neither is Les Claypool, and singing while playing the drums in particularly tricky.

Herb was keeping busy with that band and would put out their second album, “Motivator”, the following year and I’d see them one final time opening for A Perfect Circle at that very venue before he would move onto other projects. Earlier in 1998, Herb also put out an album with a group called Attention Deficit with ex-Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick and renowned session bass player Michael Manring. Herb would even play drums briefly for A Perfect Circle as well as the Blue Man Group. With his already shaved head, Herb fit right in. MIRV was fun as always, a band that had long played with Les opening for Primus as well as his other solo projects. Bryan Kehoe would once again regale us with his passionate rendition of the Neopolitan standard, “O Solo Mio”. Kehoe would eventually team up with Les to do the Duo De Twang side project years later. This was actually the first time I’d seen Primus play the Warfield since 1992, before I was ushering, and before that I saw them there in ’91 with The Limbomaniacs opening, MIRV’s old band. During one of their songs, MIRV played a few licks of “Auld Lange Syne” on his guitar too, but other than that, the only other song I knew that they played that night was “Unabomber”, which had MIRV repeatedly chanting “Bow-wow-wow-yibbee-yo-yibbee-yay” from P-Funk’s “Atomic Dog” in a creepy guttural tone.

Primus had their new drummer Brain for a couple years by then, so all us old school fans had grown used to him and his style. We all still had a soft spot for Herb, but Brain was a smart choice to replace him. Still touring, playing stuff from their last endeavor, “The Brown Album”, they found time to release an EP of covers and a couple live golden oldies called “Rhinoplasty”, though we heard no songs from that EP on that night. Primus had also headlined the first ever SnoCore tour that year in February with Blink 182, the Long Beach Dub All Stars, and The Aquabats, but they played all the way down at San Jose Event Center and I guess I was too lazy and/or cheap to haul my ass down there to witness it. Les was sporting a bit of an afro that year, one of many hairstyles I’d see him don over the ages. It was a good look for him, but like most of his hairstyles or beards, didn’t last long. I had a sticker badge that night, so I think I actually worked all through the show as an usher, something I had never done for a Primus show before.

This would be the 7th annual New Year’s gig Primus would play in the bay area and up to this point and I had seen two of them, the first one at Bill Graham Civic in 1992-1993 with The Melvins and Mr. Bungle, and then at Oakland Coliseum for 1995-1996 with Tool and Everclear. Though I’d be at the Maritime the next night, one thing both shows had was an impressive oil plate projection light show. After playing “Fizzle Fry”, Les pointed it out, saying, “Now wasn’t that pretty?” and introduced his friend Will in the balcony and said he didn’t know what he was going to do and that Will probably didn’t either. He then admitted it might be good or it might be shit and that we’d all have to wait and see, but that he was “glad you’re all here for this experiment and God bless America!”

As usual, the band delivered covering a variety of tunes from all their albums and even doing a couple whimsical musical additions. Guitar genius/lunatic Buckethead came out to do a solo during “Those Damn Blue Collar Tweekers”. Les would interject a few funny musical tidbits here and there, singing a little “Turkey In The Straw”, though it was “Chicky In The Straw” in his version, at the beginning of “Jerry Was A Race Car Driver”. After the song, Les did a amusing banter after somebody threw a joint on stage up at him, saying, “one of the perks of being in a semi-famous rock & roll band is sometimes people throw marijuana on stage”. But he said since he was going to run for president some day, he’d have to decline and throw it in the garbage can which prompted a chorus of boos and chants of “Smoke it! Smoke it! Smoke it!” from the crowd. He offered it to Larry asking him if he would “stick it in your vagina?” and Larry took it saying he’d take care of it later.

To celebrate the holiday season, Les did a little a capella version of “Feliz Navidad” and we all sang along before they played “Seas Of Cheese” and as usual, Les busted out his his upright bass with bow for that one. From there, they surprised me a little going then into “The Air Is Getting Slippery”, a song I only think I had heard live before only once at Lollapalooza in 1993. Les usually followed “Seas Of Cheese” with “Pork Soda” or “Mr. Krinkle”. Les took a little pause in that song to introduced Larry and say he’d play us a bit of the “six string ban-gee”. Though I wasn’t there for the big fiesta the following night, I saw that they played appropriately enough a cover of Prince’s “1999” at the end of their set after the countdown and balloon drop. For the second to last song, Les announced, “We’re almost at the end… so close we can taste it” and brought out DJ Disk to do a little turntable scratching magic for “Tommy The Cat”, Les describing him as a “fine fellow and a wee wee man”. Les would do a few licks of “Dueling Banjos” during that song and also played the first verse and chorus of “Toys Go Winding Down” in the middle of “Bob’s Party Time Lounge” earlier. At the end of “Tommy The Cat”, Les sang a couple lines of “There’s No Business Like Show Business” before thanking everybody, taking the encore break, then coming back again and we were lucky to have Herb briefly rejoin the band, playing drums for the finale of “Here Come The Bastards”.

Motley Crue, Laidlaw, Soul Circle, War., SF, Wed., December 16, 1998

SETLIST : Dr. Feelgood, Girls Girls Girls, Enslaved, Live Wire, Shout At The Devil, Afraid, (Tommy speech), Wild Side, Home Sweet Home

The so-called hair metal bands of yore had been around long enough by this time to become nostalgia acts, but it was safe to say that Motley Crue was still not one you’d want to take your kids to see yet. They were emerging from a long turbulent period, the kind that make other bands rough patches look positively tame. Since their inception in 1981, Motley Crue had set a hilariously high bar for others to follow who wished to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh. Their relentless diet of sex, drugs, alcohol, and all around irresponsible behavior over the years had become the stuff of legend. But all this was finally catching up to them in a variety of ways. Singer Vince Neil had left the band in the early 90’s to pursue his solo career, releasing “Exposed” in ’93 which was a hit. He then put out “Carved In Stone” in ’95 which wasn’t so much, but that was nothing compared to the cruelest of fates that befell him that year. Vince would tragically lose his four year old daughter Skylar to cancer. Mired in grief, he established a Memorial Fund in her name to help fund cancer research and would hold an annual golf charity golf tournament for it as well.

Vince had been temporarily replaced by John Corabi, but the fans disapproved and they kicked him to the curb, enticing Vince to join them again. John would sue the band for royalties shortly afterwards. But the others were descending further into their various addictions and to make matters worse, were having multiple run ins with the law. Bassist Nikki Sixx would be arrested in ’97 after a show in Greensboro, North Carolina for instigating a riot, suggesting that the crowd attack a black security guard there which whom also allegedly poured beer on that guard’s head. Also, drummer Tommy Lee would further his infamy when a sex tape of he and his wife supermodel Pamela Anderson would surface. If that wasn’t enough, Tommy would be arrested for kicking Pamela while she was holding their infant son Dylan and serve four months in prison. They predictably divorced and Tommy would be released from incarceration and rejoin the band on this tour just two months before this show. Finally, Tommy would also get in trouble over an incredibly ill advised swastika tattoo he got on his arm which brought on yet another lawsuit and he wisely had it removed.

But all troubles aside, like I said, the band was digging themselves out of this mother of all abysses and I would have the honor of seeing them at a relatively small venue from the ones they had been accustomed to playing. They were originally supposed to play at the Cow Palace, but the show got moved to The Warfield because of low ticket sales. Being an arena show, they managed to somehow squeeze their impressive stage set onto that stage, lights, truss, fog machines, and all. Motley Crue had put out their 7th studio album, “Generation Swine”, the year before, but were touring this time promoting their “Greatest Hits” compilation which included the new songs, “Enslaved” and “Bitter Pill”, which they performed that night. Also, they had recently had the good news of finally being released from their contract with Elektra Records and now had ownership of their master recordings.

I chose to usher this show, missing the Deftones who were at the Maritime Hall that evening and since Pete didn’t show up for it, they weren’t recorded which is a pity, despite the fact we’d taped the Deftones there once before in 1996. Still, Quicksand was opening for them that night and it’s a shame we didn’t get it. We didn’t tape either of the Zero shows at the Hall that were there a couple days later, though we did that out of choice. We’d taped them enough, already having two live albums of theirs put out by then, and frankly as you might have read before, Pete and I were sick of them. On the lighter side of the news, our esteemed US military dropped a bunch of bombs on Iraq that night in retaliation for not allowing U.N. weapons inspectors to do their thing there, but more likely as a convenient distraction from Bill Clinton’s complicated romantic problems. Three days after this show, he’d be impeached by the House for the whole Monica Lewinski thing, though would ultimately be let off the hook by the Senate. In a strange coincidence, as I write this 23 years later, FX is in the middle of airing their “American Crime Story” miniseries on the subject.

But I digress, back to the show. There were a couple openers that night, the first being a local act called Soul Circle which were alright. Their singer sounded a bit like Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots, but I never saw them again. A boy/girl duo out of Europe would also take that name in 2016, the boy Irish, the girl Hungarian, but I don’t imagine their music is at all similar to this one. The second act was Laidlaw from Orange County, who were introduced by a DJ from KSJO. They were a rock band with a down and dirty southern flair produced by Crue’s very own Nikki Sixx. They were rowdy and pretty talented actually and would also go on to open for such acts as Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, and The Scorpions. I didn’t get either set lists from the openers, but I do know Laidlaw played one song called “Catfish Stew”.

When Crue finally took the stage, they played a little recording of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” followed by a rather square sounding male voice talking about “the multipurpose applications” to the word “Fuck”. The voice would list all manner of uses for the expletive such as “Difficulty : I don’t understand this fucking question!” and so forth, finishing the list with “Say it loudly and proudly… Fuck You!” Then everyone went bonkers when the band ripped into their hits, “Dr. Feelgood” and “Girls, Girls, Girls”. After they did “Enslaved”, Vince said to the audience, “That was a new one, but do you wanna go back in time a bit? Around 1980?” and then the band played “Live Wire”. After that, the entire house chanted, “Crue! Crue! Crue!”

Then something happened at that show which would become one of my most enduring rock & roll memories. I had been cut from ushering and was up front near the stage and after they played “Afraid”, Tommy came out from behind his drum kit wearing a headset mic and maniacally addressed the crowd. Shirtless and sweaty, he screamed, “Holy fuck! What’s up!?! You don’t know how happy it feels to be free! Ya’ll have any fucking idea how happy I am to be with y’all right now!?!” We all cheered and he continued, “When I was locked up in that motherfucking jail for four months, I gotta tell you, I felt each and every one of you motherfuckers sending me love!!!” Then he switched gears a bit yelling, “We’ve been in this motherfucking city many times and as I look around I can’t believe I ain’t seen no titties yet!!! Where’s the goddamn titties!?!” Instinctually, I pulled up my shirt, revealing my nipples to him along with a couple other ladies up front with me and to our surprise, Tommy produced a fire extinguisher and started spraying us all with it. I can tell you from that experience, that getting doused with that stuff up close in COLD!!! He laughed, “I’m going to make your nipples hard!!! That shit feel good!?!” But Tommy wasn’t satisfied, complaining “We’re going to Denver tomorrow! Don’t make me tell them we only got three tithes and that’s it!?! Boo!!!” Then more women obliged him and he praised one, saying, “Those are fresh! Fresh titties!!!”

And the rest is history… Yeah, that would be the only time I’d see Crue. For some reason, I didn’t bring enough tapes with me, getting only a little over the first half of their set. Shame on me. I was sort of dismissive of them and regret that. Tommy would quit the band the following year, going solo and playing in the Method Of Mayhem band, but they’d get together again on a couple reunion tours as most bands that had been together that long do. I am proud to say as an epilogue to this night that years later, I played “Dr. Feelgood” between lectures at an Anesthesiology conference at the Moscone Center. I think one or two doctors in attendance appreciated it.

Chris Isaak, Jude, War., SF, Mon., December 14, 1998

SETLIST : Wandering, I’m Not Sleepy, Please, Speak Of The Devil, Somebody’s Crying, Wicked Game, Go Walking Down There, Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing, Black Flowers, I Want Your Love, Diddley Daddy, drum solo-instrumental, Blue Hotel, Down Get So Down On Yourself, Only The Lonely, (unknown), San Francisco Days

It had been three long years since Chris had played the Warfield, also in December and somehow it felt right for him to play there around Christmas. Maybe it’s just all the fancy outfits he wears on stage that fills us with holiday cheer. He had just put out his seventh studio album, “Speak Of The Devil”, that September and we were lucky to hear six of the new songs that night as well as “Go Walking Down There”, which wouldn’t be released until ten years later on his “Forever Blue” album. There was a young man named Jude opening that night and I thought him quite a brave soul to take the stage at such a large venue solo, just him and his guitar. He did fine, serenading us with his high pitched voice, singing his songs, though one of his tunes had a smidgen of John Mellencamp’s “Jack & Diane” in it. In the holiday spirit, he also did a bit of the “Snow Miser Song” before doing one of his own at the end of his set.

In the years between I had seen Chris last, he had found time to further his acting career. Though shackled with a Razzie Award for Worst New Star for his role in the Bertolucci film, “Little Buddha” in 1995, he had recently bounced back, playing the role of astronaut Ed White in the miniseries, “For The Earth To The Moon”. Ed was the first American to do a spacewalk, but tragically died in the Apollo 1 fire in 1967. Chris also played himself and did a song on “Melrose Place” that year. Being a local rock star for well over a decade by then, he had a packed house, the first time he’d have two back to back shows at The Warfield and his fans adored him as always, especially the ladies. After they played “Please”, he thanked everybody for showing up, had the lights turned up in the balcony, and said, “God bless you people in the cheap seats!”

Mr. Isaak always had the gift of storytelling and he spun a fews yarns between tunes, including a long one before “Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing”. He dedicated it to all the couple in the house, the ones who were committed for years and years. Chris went on about how such a person in that kind of relationship would “wake up in the middle of the night and the only thing in the world you want is a 16 ounce Dixie cup filled with gasoline” that you’d throw into their mates face. And as the victim would be “running around and screaming in pain, you’d look all detached with a cigarette in your mouth”. He joked, “I’ve never had that feeling, but I had that feeling described to me in detail by my ex-girlfriend” and went on about even though it “could of written it off as she’s mean spirited”, he knew she was sweet deep down. Finally, he advised the men out there that “if you’re having a discussion, you’ve already lost” and to just “be a man and take the blame”, claiming that she’ll ultimately “let you off with a light chastisement”.

He did another one, first praising his drummer who he referred to as “Reverend Kenny Johnson”, for all he did for the community. Chris told a meandering story about he picked him up, honking the horn of his car loudly, which is “something you don’t hear in the Sunset”. He asked Kenny what kind of car it was and he replied that it was a “Ford Probe”, then asked what color, which he answered “flesh color”. That got a laugh and Chris asked him if that color was “standard or custom”, which he replied “custom”. Then, the tale went on about how they went down to 3rd street and got some chicken & waffles, met up with a couple of “dancing girls named Kiki and Amber, went back to a bus filled with scented candles, and from there I kind of got lost in the story.

Anyway, the band eventually got around to playing a rollicking cover of Bo Diddley’s “Diddley Daddy” that had a harmonica solo. Chris also did a respectful acoustic cover of Roy Orbison’s “Only The Lonely”, an artist he had often been compared to and obviously took a page from. Unfortunately, my batteries ran low near the end of the set, speeding up the recording, but still getting everything. They ended their set with their ode to their home town “San Francisco Days” and that was that. As usual, Chris was graciously signing autographs for everybody who wanted one at the merchandise booth and I waited patiently in line with his fans to get one. The only thing I had for him to sign though was the paper sleeve in my cassette tape I used that night, but he didn’t seem to mind or even notice. I was disappointed that there was no poster given out at the end of the night, especially since he was doing two shows there and as mentioned, was his home town. Still, it was a fun one to end this six show in a row marathon, but I’m afraid this would be the last time I’d see Mr. Isaak perform live. He’s still around and hasn’t left the area as far as I know, so I might get another chance some day. Hard to believe he turned 65 this year. Even back then, when he was in his early 40’s, Chris always appeared so boyish.

Redman & Method Man, Pirate Djs, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., December 13, 1998

SETLIST : Big Dogs, 4-3-2-1, Slide & Rock, Bring The Pain, Whateva Man, Suspect Chin, Pick It Up, (Richie Rich – Freestyle), M.E.T.H.O.D. Man, What The Blood Clot, Well All Rite Cha, Dangerous Grounds, I’ll Bee Dat!, How High

My hip hop education continued that night with the perpetually baked, dynamic duo of Redman and Method Man. Redman had a brilliant show at the Hall before in June of 1997 with The Alkaholiks, but this was the first time Method Man was in house. His fellow Wu Tang Clan compatriot, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, had performed that July, making this the second of that legendary rap group that I would have the pleasure and honor of recording. GZA would also eventually play at the Hall in July of 1999 and later Ghostface Killa would too, but I wasn’t at that one. We had no video crew to speak of this gig, so I just set a wide shot up in the balcony and that was it. There were just DJs opening, so it was an easy mix and their set that night was just a hair under forty minutes, so I didn’t have to work too late. The show was announced too late to make it to the monthly poster.

These guys had been having a busy year, though they were just beginning their famous collaboration. Their first album together, “Blackout!”, wouldn’t even be put out until September the following year, which would be a big success debuting at number three on the Billboard 200 charts and going platinum. Method Man told the crowd at the end of the set to keep an eye out for it. They originally were going to call the album, “America’s Most Blunted”, which I thought was a clever name, but that’s how it goes. Method Man had just released his second solo album, “Tical 2000 : Judgement Day” less than a month before this and he had a role in the crime drama “Belly” that year as well. Redman too had a few projects under his belt that year, releasing his fourth studio album, “Doc’s Da Name 2000”, just five days before this show and performed its single “I Bee Dat!” for the first time in the bay area. He had also took part in the hip hop super group, the Def Squad, with Erick Sermon of EPMD who had discovered him years ago, as all as Keith Murray and Hurricane G. They put out the record “El Nino” and both that album and his new one also went platinum.

They had an enthusiastic and packed crowd that night, filling the Hall with clouds of weed smoke. Soon after they took the stage, one of them entreated the audience, “somebody pass the weed up in this bitch!”. Then later when they did “Pick It Up”, they had the audience“take a buddha break” and light it up. Women were storming the stage and one got to do a little bumping and grinding with Method Man before she was escorted off into the wings by security. Local rapper Richie Rich, the first from the bay area to be signed to Def Jam, was invited on stage to do some freestyle to boot. Between their collaborations, Method Man did his signature “M.E.T.H.O.D. Man” song and Redman did his jam, “Whateva Man”. They ended their set with “How High” which would be the title of their stoner cult comedy they starred in that would hit the theaters three years later. There were all sorts of random friends on stage holding up posters on sticks of album promos and they gave shout outs to lots of other local artists at the end, including Dru Down from Oakland. I would actually see Redman again only just a day shy of three weeks later, performing in the Snocore tour at The Warfield with Everclear, Soul Coughing, and DJ Spooky, quite a different show from this one indeed. The duo would return to the Maritime in 2000 and I would get to record them again, but it wouldn’t be until 2002 at The Fillmore that I’d see Method Man finally with the Wu Tang Clan for the first time.

Jai Uttal & The Pagan Love Orchestra, Lost At Last with Terrance McKenna, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., December 12, 1998

Mr. Uttal had already played the Hall the year before, so this was one of the few hippie shows Pete let me alone to record. He and his Pagan Love Orchestra were still touring supporting his “Shiva Station” album and pretty much played the same stuff as last time. The opening act caught my attention though, Lost At Last. They were fairly new having just released their debut album the year before and dividing their time between the bay area and Hawaii. The band had in fact played at the Hall the previous October for the “Burning Man Decompression Party”, but for some reason, we didn’t record that night. They had an interesting sound, melding hippie jam band music with archaic instruments and computer driven tech sequences. Their music was pretty original actually and their singer, Jaya Lakshmi had the voice of an angel and frankly the body of one as well. Midriffs were all the rage back then. She and the band were meticulously done up with aboriginal glow in the dark face paint and scent of patchouli oil and burning sage permeated the air in the Hall all evening. The band and Jaya are still around making music, but I found that there are at least two bands with the same name, one a bar band from Bellingham, Washington and another a heavy metal band from Norway. I don’t think any of them are in danger of getting confused with the others.

Joining Lost At Last on stage was none other than psychedelic guru Terrance McKenna who opened their set with one of his… well, I’ll let you decide. He said, “I want to sing and speak tonight about the opalescent expressences of the abyss, the abyss of living language that pure from the psychedelic bonding. The psychedelic bonding is the Earth turning inside out, its rivers, the Ganges, (and a whole bunch of others I can’t pronounce), it’s mountains, Kilimanjaro, (once again, a bunch of others), its islands, (I did make out Manhattan which got some chuckles from the audience), its people, Celtic, black, white, yellow, gay, straight, gone, forgotten. I want to speak of the opalescent expressences of the abyss, shining lights of the mind so that language fills until it overflows the goblet of understanding.” Yeah… you get the idea. From there the band began jamming and he started to ramble and shout in what I imagine was some ancient language from Tibet or something. Even the crustiest of bay area hippies would have looked at the spectacle that night and thought, “OK, guys… Let’s take it down about 20% there…”

Yes, Terrence had a long history with psychedelic substances, being a ethnobotanist and mystic, a graduate from UC Berkeley, and author of several books. Like the band he was with, Terrance bounced between the bay area and Hawaii as well. He cultivated and preached the gospel of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, as well as other psychoactive plants around the world, studied numerous schools of thought ranging from shamanism to the kabbala, and collected butterflies in Indonesia, while occasionally smuggling hashish. McKenna did have an interesting theory that ancient cavemen developed partially because of mushrooms which not only improved the visual acuity making them better hunters, but also made them hornier. Having the extra food around and the boosted sex drive allowed our species to multiply and become the dominant one over time. Though some critics panned it for its lack of empirical evidence, I still think it’s a compelling one. Sadly, Terrence would join the great beyond two years later, succumbing to brain cancer at the too young age of 53 in San Rafael.

Depeche Mode, Stabbing Westward, Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, Fri., December 11, 1998

SETLISTS :

(STABBING WESTWARD) : Drugstore, Nothing, Haunting Me, Waking Up Beside You, What Do I Have To Do?, Save Yourself, Sometimes It Hurts, Shame

(DEPECHE MODE) : Question Of Time, World In My Eyes, Policy Of Truth, It’s No Good, Never Let Me Down Again, Walking In My Shoes, Only When I Love Myself, Question Of Lust, Home, Condemnation, In Your Room, Useless, Enjoy The Silence, Personal Jesus, Barrel Of A Gun, (encore), Somebody, Behind The Wheel, I Feel You, (encore), Just Can’t Get Enough

This show was a long time coming. I grew up listening to Depeche Mode and had friends including my dearly departed friend Casey who absolutely worshipped them. If Casey hadn’t been struck down on his bike the year before, I can fucking promise you he would have been at this show with me. So, I was seeing them for the first time and seeing them for the both of us and I knew his spirit was along side me. I felt a tinge of shame since I really didn’t get into their music personally until a few years before this. They’d always been around in the periphery of my life, being distracted by the classic guys in my youth, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, and so on, but better late than never. Still, DM were always present in my musical upbringing and in fact, “People Are People” was one of the first music videos that really caught my attention when I was growing up, seeing it on “Music Box” when I was 12 visiting my dad in Amsterdam. Sadly, I haven’t seen Depeche Mode since, though I did see singer Dave Gahan do a solo show at The Warfield five years later. I remember specifically missing Depeche Mode in 2001 when they returned on the “Exciter” tour because I was the ring bearer at my sister’s wedding that day, a good excuse as any.

This was the “Singles” tour and a triumphant one it was. The band was emerging from a long rough patch in the 1990’s. First, Andy Fletcher had a complete nervous breakdown in ’94, then Alan Wilder left the band disillusioned and bitter a year later. Martin Gore also was suffering from stress induced seizures and then there was poor Dave. He descended into hopeless heroin addiction to the point of nearly dying from an overdose in ’96. Thankfully, he went into rehab, moved to New York, and bounced back. The band had just finished their new album, “Ultra” the year before and were on the road once again. As I mentioned in the previous entry, I was missing Incubus play at the Maritime that night, but I would go on to see that band several times in later years. Papa Roach was opening for them, but as I’ve written before, I’d already recorded that band enough to be sick of them, though this would be the first time they’d play the Hall not as the very first of a four band line up, moving up to the second band on stage.

Speaking of openers, Stabbing Westward was a welcome and appropriate one. All of the Chicago based industrial acts of the late 80’s-early 90’s owe a lot to DM and I’m sure that wasn’t lost on them one bit. They were assuredly honored beyond words. Like Dave, they had also recently relocated, they to Los Angeles and had just released their third album, “Darkest Days”, that April. I’d seen them a couple times already, once opening for the Killing Joke at Slim’s in ’94 and again at the B.F.D. festival at Shoreline in ’96, so I knew their stuff fairly well. The fans in the packed arena gave them a good reception and they finished their set with their hit song, “Shame”. But those fans soon went absolutely bananas when DM took the stage adorned by a set and video projections designed by acclaimed director Anton Corbijn.

They teased the crowd with an instrumental introduction but quickly followed up with the classic, “Question Of Time”. I was instantly impressed by Dave’s vigor as a frontman, matched by few I’d seen before like Mick Jagger or Iggy Pop. On stage, he seemed inexhaustible, running about while singing and swinging his mic stand around. He made it look effortless. They brought out a couple back up singers for “Condemnation” dressed in sparkly sequin outfits and gave the song a real gospel feel to it and brought the singers back to sing along to “I Feel You” at the end of the set as well. Dave introduced “Enjoy The Silence” saying, “Let’s see if you remember this one!”, which the audience clearly did, erupting in cheers and applause at the first few bars of the tune. He egged them on shouting, “I know you can sing! Let’s hear how loud you can sing!”, and we all obliged him. Seriously, there are very few occasions in my life when I heard a crowd sing along to a song’s chorus as loudly as we all did that night. I mean, it was deafening and Dave was on cloud nine hearing it.

For their final song of the night, they brought the house down with “Just Can’t Get Enough”, a perfect one to end it with, definitely leaving on a high note. That song is so joyous and when one hears it live, it’s hard not to get goosebumps. The band would fly to L.A. the next day to perform at the KROQ Acoustic Christmas show, being joined on stage by Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins to play guitar and sing along to “Never Let Me Down Again”. Like I said, this show is the only one to date I have seen with them, but I hope they tour again some day. They are just entering their 60’s, still have plenty of fans, and actually were just inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame last November. But with over 14 studio albums and over 100 million of them sold in their long career, they can do as they please naturally. On a somber note, I would learn days later of the tragic death of Lynn Strait, the singer of Snot, who was killed in a car crash that night. Such a pity. Snot would have been an interesting opener for DM.

Live 105’s Not-So-Silent Night: Sugar Ray, The Cardigans, Less Than Jake, Placebo, War., SF, Thur., December 10, 1998

As mentioned about the show before, this would be a complete change of pace from the Einstuzende Neubauten show the night before at The Warfield. It would be highly doubtful that the teenage suburban crowd from this show would have gone for the German experimental band, but I think the mind fuck would have done them some good. Speaking of mind games, there was some bit of confusion on my part over the show’s very existence when I was doing research and listening to it again. It was being billed as Live 105’s annual “Not-So-Silent Night”, but was strangely enough competing with another show from the station with the very same name that was being performed that night down in San Jose at the Event Arena. At first, I thought I’d gotten the year wrong or something. Suffice to say, the San Jose show boasted a much more impressive line up with Cake, Everlast, Garbage, Hole, Rancid, Soul Coughing, and The Offspring. As much as I would have enjoyed that show, the drive down there and back is always a headache and I’d just seen Soul Coughing in September also at The Warfield, The Offspring just two weeks before at The Maritime, and I’d seen all the others at least once before then with the exception of Everlast, though I’d seen him a couple times as the frontman for the House Of Pain.

Not that these acts were slouches at all. I’d enjoyed Less Than Jake very much when they headlined the Ska Against Racism show at the Maritime that March and was surprisingly impressed with The Cardigans when they played The Warfield that May. This would be the only time I’d see Sugar Ray, but I would see Placebo again in 2006 opening for She Wants Revenge at The Warfield as well. Placebo were pretty good too. The incredibly nasal voice of their singer Brian Molko is a hard one to forget. All the members were conspicuously androgynous and very English. They were pretty new back then, having just released their second album “Without You I’m Nothing” in October, but would soon attract the attention of David Bowie and tour with him. Placebo would also record a cover of T. Rex’s “20th Century Boy” for the soundtrack of the Todd Haynes movie “Velvet Goldmine” that year. I didn’t know any of their music of course, but I do know that they ended their set with “Pure Morning”.

In between bands, the venerable DJ Aaron Axelson would spin tunes, playing such crowd pleasers as the remix of Cornershop’s “Brimful Of Asha”, the Norman Cook (AKA Fatboy Slim) version, and snappy remixes of Soul Coughing’s “Circles”, and the ever-present “Bittersweet Symphony” by The Verve. Also providing levity and introducing the acts were a couple DJs from Live 105, who made sure to rile the audience up dissing the competing show down south, getting them to shout, “Fuck San Jose!” The female DJ mentioned something about Placebo’s drummer getting “arrested for smoking indoors”, but I doubt she was serious. The guy DJ then joked, “I got one word for you… Less Than Jake!”. The mosh pit picked up a little for them, the band energetic to the point where I wondered if they were on cocaine or something. The lead singer started the set screaming, “Time to go apeshit!!!” and “Who’s here to see Sugar Ray and doesn’t give a rat shit about us!?!?” The sweet, cool, Swedish sounds of The Cardigans mellowed everybody out again, naturally playing their big radio hit, “Lovefool”.

But the crowd picked up again for Sugar Ray. Hailing from Newport Beach, they originally wanted to call themselves the Shrinky Dinks, but had to change their name out of fear of being sued by toymaker Milton Bradley. Sugar Ray would always be known for their hit single, “Fly” which featured reggae star Super Cat. Though it was a bouncy, dancehall departure from their other more punk orientated songs, there was no denying it was catchy and it certainly didn’t hurt their career none. The album it was on, “Floored”, released the year before would quickly go double platinum. They played that hit as expected, followed by “Iron Mic” and “Every Morning”, (the latter also a bouncy dancehall ear worm), but I didn’t know any of their other songs.

Their dreamboat frontman, (seriously, the girls at the show went nuts for him), Mark McGrath, would eventually do all sorts of TV work, from hosting and competing in celebrity game shows, to a cameo on “The Office”, to starring in the second “Sharknado” movie. As corny as he is, I appreciated that he was a fan of Lynn Strait the frontman of fellow So-Cal punks Snot, who would die tragically in a car crash the day after this show. Mark would contribute to the song “Reaching Out” on the tribute album, “Strait Up” a year later and even get a tattoo to memorialize Lynn. It’s hard not to like Mark and he graciously thanked all the other bands at the end of their set. I was even a little pleasantly surprised when he encouraged the crowd to see Incubus at the Maritime the following night, the Hall being the competitor to The Warfield, but obviously Mark didn’t know or care. I would miss that Incubus show though, seeing Depeche Mode in Oakland instead that night.

Einstuzende Neubauten, I Am Spoonbender, War., SF, Wed., December 9, 1998

SETLIST : The Garden, Die Explosion Im Festspielhaus, Haus Der Luge, NNNAAAMMM, Zebulon, Die Interimsliebenden, Installation No.1, Der Schracht Von Babel, Ich Bin’s, Headcleaner, Wuste, Dedukt, Ende Neu, Salamandrina, Sonnenbarke, Bili Rubin

This would begin another six show in a row run and what a show this was. I knew very little until this point about Einstuzende Neubauten but they had a solid reputation for being weird and were lumped into the great expanse of musicians deemed “experimental”. Their name literally translates from German to “collapsing new buildings” and I must confess, every time I say the name, I feel the irresistible urge to shout it while banging my fist on a table like the Fuhrer. It’s awful, I know and I feel bad every time I think about it. I also knew that this band was the brainchild of Blixa Bargeld, the singer/guitarist from West Berlin who I’d seen a few times already playing with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Blixa had been doing double duty between the two bands since the early 80’s until he finally parted ways with Nick in 2003 to devote himself entirely to Neubauten and to spend more time with his family, though he’d show up from time to time to play with Nick again years later.

Opening that night would be I Am Spoonbender, another so-called experimental act. They were local guys, fronted by Dustin Donaldson, the drummer of queer punk pioneers, Pansy Division. This project of his would be quite a radical departure from his old band, involving tons of samples and multimedia stuff. Their name is a reference to celebrity psychic Uri Geller who would travel the world performing acts of telepathy and telekinesis including the old spoon bending trick. They were an unusual opening act to be sure, making one contemplate what music is in general. We’d be subjected to seemingly random samples of things like babies crying, electric drill noise, and what sounded like creaking door hinges. Experiencing their set was frankly a little jarring, but I assume that was their intention.

Slightly more accessible, Neubauten was a real band, instruments and all, and Blixa did sing a few songs that one could actually follow along with, though we were inundated with all manner of sounds like roaring jet turbines, ear splitting screeches, and banging metal. One could see how later industrial metal acts like Nine Inch Nails took a page from Blixa. Near the end of their set, they brought out a metal plate set up vertically at a 45 degree angle and periodically poured gravel down in, making the sound sort of like a rainstick, if the beads and stick were metal anyway. I’d say you’d get the picture, but you really need to see this spectacle live to really wrap your head around what Blixa and his crew were doing. The crowd that night were pretty much the same people who showed up to see Nick Cave, well dressed and brooding, just like Blixa. There was however one young woman down on the dance floor near me who screamed like she was seeing The Beatles between every song, a real fan to be sure. The show the following night at The Warfield with Sugar Ray, The Cardigans, Less Than Jake, and Placebo would be obviously a radio friendly, stylistic left turn from this show, though neither of them would get a poster, sadly.

Molotov, Ozomatli, Fill., SF, Sun., December 6, 1998

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from this show having never heard of either band. This was a sight unseen show, but at first glance, I thought with a name like Molotov, maybe they’re a punk band, maybe even Russian. But I was wrong, for they were from Mexico City, though their music did have some punk elements to it. They even did a surprising cover of “Anarchy In The U.K.” by the Sex Pistols near the end of their set. Molotov did an interesting mix of rap and rock, singing both in English and Spanish. They were still pretty new, having released their second album “Donde Jugaran Las Ninas?”, meaning “Where will the girls play?”, the year before and an album of remixes of those songs called “Molomix” earlier that year. The album cover of the former showing a young woman’s legs in a school uniform raised a few eyebrows back home and some stores wouldn’t sell it. Apparently, the name of the album is a humorous homage to fellow Mexican rockers Mana who had an album called, “Donde Jugaran Los Ninos?”, ninos meaning boys for y’all who don’t know.

Not that I have any grasp of Spanish other than some key words and phrases. I took German in high school and French in collage. Naturally, being a Californian, Spanish would have been much more useful especially at this show, since both bands spoke to the crowd in that language mostly. They did have one song halfway through their set called, “Chinga Tu Madre”, which I did know the meaning of the title. If you don’t know what it means, let’s just say it’s a song about the Oedipal Complex and leave it at that. They opened their set with an interesting re-working of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” which they called, “Rap, Soda Y Bohemia”, rapping verses between snippets of the original.

Though I really enjoyed Molotov’s rowdy set, I was particularly impressed by the opening act, Ozomatli, and I dare say that they even stole the show a little. Their name is a Nahuatl word from their astrological symbol of the monkey, which also serves as a god of dance, fire, the new harvest, and music. They were brand new back then, having just released their debut self-titled album that June. Ozomatli had been a bunch of guys trying to organize a worker’s union in L.A. before that who didn’t receive recognition, but were given the the lease of an abandoned building for one month in consolation. There they formed this band and before you know it, they were touring with everybody, even Carlos Santana. In fact, they had just played The Fillmore two nights before this opening for Los Lobos, a show I’d have liked to have seen, but was working across town at the Maritime recording The Black Crowes.

Incidentally, it had been a hell of a week, this night ending a six concert in a row run. Quite a variety of acts that week. Like Los Lobos and Molotov, Ozomatli would change seamlessly between genres and make it their own. There are few bands that new which would make that kind of impression on me. Naturally, I didn’t know their songs or their setlist, but I do know the second last song they played in their set was “Super Bowl Sundae”. At the end of the set, they slowly marched single file into the crowd with percussion instruments, jingling bells, and the trumpet player and did a sort of second line thing like they do in New Orleans. They got the crowd to dance and clap along as they snaked their way through everybody for a couple minutes and eventually ended it, going backstage. They would do this ending many times that I would see them in the years to come. Speaking of which, it wouldn’t be for another five years until I’d see them at The Warfield opening for the All American Rejects, but only two months later, I would see them headline their own show at The Fillmore. They would play there often, almost every year, and even released a live album recorded there in 2005, though sadly I wasn’t there to attend that one.

Billy Bragg & The Blokes, Corey Harris, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., December 5, 1998

SETLIST : The World Turned Upside Down, St. Swithin’s Day, She Came Along To Me, I Guess I Planted, The Milkman Of Human Kindness, Eisler On The Go, Christ For President, Tank Park Salute, Must I Paint You A Picture?, A Lover Sings, Another Kind Of Judy, All You Fascists Are Bound To Lose, My Flying Saucer, California Stars, (encore), Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards, Hoodoo Voodoo, A New England, (encore), There Is Power In A Union, The Saturday Boy, Ingrid Bergman, Song About A Bear That Ain’t Got No Name, Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key

This would be the first time I’d see Billy play with a band, having seen him once before in 1996 playing solo opening for Robyn Hitchcock at The Warfield. Robyn was solo on that one as well. Mr. Bragg was riding high on the success of the “Mermaid Avenue” album, his collaboration with Wilco doing unpublished songs of Woody Guthrie. Relations between Billy and Wilco had soured by this time over the mixing and sequencing of the album leaving them to part ways and sing the songs they did together separately on the road. More likely the rift was over money as usual, but what’s done is done. At least “Mermaid Avenue” was such a hit that they released a sequel album in 2000 of the tunes they hadn’t used in the first one, then a complete recordings release afterwards. We were lucky to hear nine of Woody’s songs that show.

This occasion was actually a benefit for the Neptune Jade Committee, raising money for the legal fees of those opposing the unloading of a cargo ship trying to use non-union labor. The band Chumbawamba, also renowned left wing activists, did benefit shows in support of the workers as well. The story goes that the protest at the port of Oakland was in solidarity with 500 striking dockworkers in Liverpool who had been sacked. ILWU Local 10 refused to unload the ship and global shipowners represented by the Pacific Maritime Association who then sued the activists. But thanks partially to the efforts to support the union guys that night, the suit was eventually dropped. The Neptune Jade left Oakland for Vancouver, but the dock workers there also refused to unload the ship. They then tried Yokohama, Japan, same deal. The ship finally ended up in Taiwan where it reportedly was finally unloaded. Though the dispute was thankfully resolved by the time of this show, they donated the proceeds to help out the dockworkers in Liverpool.

Billy was touring with Ian McLagan from the Small Faces on keyboards which must have been a treat for Billy since the his band was a big influence on him. As luck would have it, I accidentally stumbled into a pub in north London when I was studying overseas in 1992 and there was Ian with his band playing a free set, so this would be the second time I’d see Ian perform live. Billy would go on to play one of Woody’s songs, “Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key”, on Letterman ten days later accompanied by Natalie Merchant, who sang the song with him on the album. Opening that show was a blues and reggae musician from Denver named Corey Harris. He had performed on both of the “Mermaid Avenue” albums, playing guitar, lap steel guitar, backing vocals, and handclaps on the first, and acoustic guitar on the second. I recall it was just him on stage solo that night and the crowd listened to him politely. Billy did mention later something about fireworks going off over on Treasure Island during Corey’s set, but I didn’t see them, nor knew what the occasion was for them.

It wasn’t that well sold since the balcony was closed off, but the floor was pretty full and his fans were certainly enthusiastic. Liz Farrow was there helping me in the recording room, but for some reason, they wouldn’t allow us to film video that night. It is rare when an artist allows us to do one, but not the other. I was able to find a bootleg of his set on line and I think there had been a DVD release to boot, suggesting that somebody was filming that night, but I haven’t found any footage of it anywhere. I’m just glad somebody else got it and was able to listen to Billy’s set again. He started things off singing the first two songs acoustic on his own before inviting some “beautiful blokes” on stage to join him. One thing about Billy, like Robyn Hitchcock, is that he has the gift of gab, talking a lot between songs. He praised the Maritime saying that the “last time two times I played in the bay area, it was in shops or football stadiums” that were “not conducive to rock & roll shows”.

He educated the audience plenty that night about what was going on with the Neptune Jade and the history of Woody Guthrie, pointing out that Woody was a member of the Maritime Union during World War II, making Billy playing there at the Hall all the more poignant. He then told the story of Hans Eisler before the tune “Eisler On The Go”> Hans was an anti-fascist activist in Germany during the rise of Hitler who had to flee to America in 1933. His warnings unheeded in America until it was too late, our government added insult to injury by having the House Un-American Activities Committee try him for being a communist. Hans was so disillusioned by this, that he fled the US in 1947 and ending up in East Germany. Billy joked that Eisler had “less a sense of irony than Alanis Morisette” choosing such a place to end his days.

Billy continued talking politics joking that he recently did a gig in Minnesota supporting “the separatist movement led by Jesse Ventura”, who had recently just been elected governor to everyone’s surprise. He then chimed in making wisecracks about the ongoing proceedings in Washington of which Bill Clinton would be impeached exactly two weeks after this show. Billy posed a “personal question” to the audience asking them “If the president ejaculated on an item of your clothing, you’d keep it, wouldn’t you? Even if it was accidental, like if he wiped his dick on your curtains or something.” Seriously, it did make one think. He admitted Clinton was wrong for “putting fingers in the intern”, but said the “only real victims were Hillary and Chelsea”. Billy then got a laugh quickly adding, “Woody wrote a song about it”, introducing “Jesus Christ For President” and saying that if Jesus was the president, the Republican congress would impeach him for healing the sick and feeding the multitudes. He finally added that prosecutor Ken Starr was “nothing more than a sheet sniffer” and going after Clinton “turns him on” and “steams up his glasses”.

Billy mentioned that he and the band had been in the country since the previous Thursday and that he had watched the Vikings play the Cowboys on TV in Chicago. It was getting his mind off England getting booted off the World Cup that week. Being just after Thanksgiving, he went on saying in 1621, the Pilgrims left England for being too stuck up, first going to Holland, but then “couldn’t handle it”, and made the unwise decision to try their luck enduring the winter in Massachusetts. Billy laughed that the local natives thought we were pathetic and had to explain to us that “this is a turkey. It’s like a chicken. C’mon, we’ll give you a hand.” Billy then complained that we were paying too much attention to the Founding Fathers and wondered, “What about the Founding Mothers?” He then digressed into the current mindset of folks in Chicago wondering if Michael Jordan was going to continue playing with The Bulls there, saying it was a bit like Schrodinger’s Cat, wondering if he was in or out. Coming back to England getting out of the running in the World Cup, he told a story about how he found comfort in a bakery in Philadelphia that made rhubarb crumble, describing that he considered rhubarb to be the “celery of the gods”. That night, Billy said St. George appeared in a dream dressed as a “West Ham fan” and told him that there was “more to life than football” and to “get a fucking life”.

Before playing “All You Fascists Bound To Lose”, he spoke of how The Clash used to write antifascist slogans on their guitars like Woody famously had scribing, “This machine kills fascists” on his and claimed Woody would have been a fan of The Clash. He introduced the song saying that it was from Woody’s “Sandinista period”. He also celebrated the recent arrest of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London that October saying he was longer welcome to “do his Christmas shopping there”. Pinochet died eight years later almost to the day in Chile under house arrest for a mountain of his crimes. He joked that “if you know any fascists, send them to England” and scolded Secretary Of State Madeline Albright for not arresting him herself. Billy lightened the mood introducing “My Flying Saucer” saying that Woody hadn’t written music for its lyrics, but had made a note for its tempo saying it should be “supersonic boogie”. Billy pointed out that although Woody was mainly known for being a country and folk singer, that he actually had spend a good portion of his life in New York City and appreciated all kinds of music.

Billy mentioned that the BBC would soon air a documentary about the making of “Mermaid Avenue” called “Man In The Sand” and hoped that PBS would air it soon as well. I admit that I still haven’t seen it yet, but definitely want to now after revisiting this show. They ended the set with the hit song, “California Stars” which Billy arranged to sound more like a cajun zydeco song opposed to the country rock ballad that was recorded on the album. When he came back for the first encore, he joked that he was looking in the crowd and seeing the look in their eyes as if it was ok for them to dance to it. Billy said it was ok referring how lamely he dances, saying “I dance the way I dance because I’m somebody’s dad.” He went on to observe that most rock & roll stars don’t write songs for kids anymore, but that Woody did and then sang the whimsical, “Hoodoo Voodoo”.

For the second encore, he introduced “A Song About A Bear That Ain’t Got No Name” talking about the expansive archive of songs Woody still had to offer. Billy said if you combined this song with “This Land Is Your Land”, you’d have a complete picture of Woody, the former showing his “mischievous toe rag” side. It indeed was a randy one, sung to the tune of “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow”, which Woody’s daughter Nora claimed was his intention, but filled with his ribald lyrics about sparks coming out the bear’s asshole and a few digs at Republicans. They wrapped up the evening with a fast paced, hillbilly version of “Way Over In The Minor Key”, an even more radical departure from their version of “California Stars”, since it was a melancholy ballad on the album. It was a fun night altogether and for a good cause and I would get to see them perform again a year later when he returned to town and played The Fillmore.

The Black Crowes, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., December 4, 1998

SETLIST : Remedy, Sting Me, Go Faster, Thick N’ Thin, High Head Blues, Ballad In Urgency, Wiser Time, My Morning Song, By Your Side, Stare It Cold, Blackberry, Kickin’ My Heart Around, Jealous Again, No Speak No Slave, (encore), She Talks To Angels, Hard To Handle, Twice As Hard

I was frankly a little surprised when this one was added since the Crowes had always played BGP venues before. But it figured with the Hall’s history with bay area hippies that they’d hear about the Maritime and would be amenable. It was a good fit really, especially with the psychedelic oil projections and stuff. It had actually been a few years since I’d seen them, the last time being on the bill for the H.O.R.D.E. Festival at Shoreline with the Allman Brothers, Blues Traveler (as always), and others. The Crowes had been quite busy that summer, co-headlining a tour with Lenny Kravitz, then doing another tour opening for Aerosmith. They were just on the cusp of releasing their fifth studio album, “By Your Side”, which would come out a month after this gig. So, we were fortunate to hear three of their new songs live for the first time, “Go Faster”, “By Your Side”, and “Kickin’ My Heart Around”.

As fantastic as a show as it was, the one memory that sticks in my head to this very day was something that happened early before the doors were even open. I had just gotten the mic list from the stage guys and was up in the balcony setting up the single video camera covering a wide shot of the stage when the Crowes’ road manager stormed in and started to berate people. I was next to our front of house sound engineer, Kevin, when I heard the guy’s booming voice demanding, “Where’s the fucking gack!?!” Apparently, they were expecting access to cocaine. His demand echoed in the Hall’s cavernous room and Kevin and I looked at each other with a sort of “is this guy serious?” look at each other. Whoever the road guy was talking to tried to reassure him that they had plenty of weed, but he was inconsolable, screaming, “WE already have weed!!!” This was also a strange situation considering the band had just gotten through some line up changes partially because of drug addiction. Their guitarist, Marc Ford, had just left the band due to his debilitating heroin habit and went into rehab. They had just replaced their bassist, Johnny Colt, as well.

But like I said, it was a great show as they always did and it was a full house, a sharp contrast to the sparse crowd that was at the Hall for Goldfinger the night before. It was an evening with, so it was easy to mix for Pete. I wished he would have given this one for me to do, but he was wise enough to know how important this band was and as always he mixed it better than I ever would have. They never used anything we recorded from that show sadly, but even stranger, there seems to be no bootlegs from that show to be found anywhere as well. The Crowes, like the Dead, had allowed their fans to tape and there had always been at least a handful of guys showing up to their gigs with their professional grade recording gear, setting up their tall mic stands in a section in the back of the dance floor. I’m pretty sure they were there that night as well, but like I said, I’ve come up empty trying to find this show online. On a final and unfortunate note, guitarist Rich Robinson had a bit of bad luck three months later when they were doing a show in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His prize vintage 1963 Fender Esquire was stolen and despite all efforts to find it again, the guitar was never recovered.

Goldfinger, Let’s Go Bowling, Betty Blowtorch, Liars Inc., Maritime Hall, Thurs., December 3, 1998

Though I was glad to see Goldfinger headlining the Hall, I had a feeling they would’t big enough to fill the place and I was right. The dance floor had probably about 300 people and of course the balcony was closed in an effort to make the floor look more full. Not that they weren’t talented or deserved to have a full house, but they had made a name for themselves primarily as an opening act since they formed four years before this show. I in fact had seen them three times by then opening for Primus at the Bill Graham Civic Center, then for No Doubt at The Fillmore, and again for the Sex Pistols reunion at Shoreline, all in 1996. I knew they were busy that year, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they even made it into the Guinness Book Of World Records for playing a mind boggling 385 shows in a single year, the most of any band in one year, a record they held until 2010. Some orchestra in Germany called the Kurochester Bad Kissingen did 727 in a year, but it’s probably safe to say Goldfinger still holds the record at least in America.

Like I said, Goldfinger had been around a few years and had always a dependable opening act. They were from L.A. as all the acts were, or at least from the area. The singer/guitarist, John Feldmann, actually met the bassist when they worked together in a shoe store. They had released their second album, “Hang Ups”, a year before this show and though it wasn’t a successful as their debut album, the single “Superman” made it onto the film soundtracks of the Farrelly Brothers’ comedy “Kingpin” and “Meet The Deedles”. Goldfinger was starting to steer their music away from ska by this time and was gravitating more into straight on punk music. Feldmann had also taken up producing other artists that year, including Showoff, Mest, and The Used. One band that was clearly sticking with the ska sound who was there was Let’s Go Bowling. I’d seen them many times by then and even knew them a little, they having toured with my brother’s old band, the Dance Hall Crashers. Hell, they were just at the Maritime a month before this opening for Men At Work. I was spoiled being able to see them so often back then and especially for being able to record them twice there in such a short period of time. Liars, Inc. was there too, but I don’t remember much about them, since they were first, playing to practically no one there, and for such a short set. They would go on the following year to play on the Emerging Artists Stage at the infamous Woodstock ’99 disaster alongside Moby and Bijou Phillips.

But the opener Betty Blowtorch made quite an impression on me. They were an all girl punk band with a penchant for raunchy lyrics and stage names. The singer called herself Bianca Butthole, the rhythm guitarist was Sharon Needles, and the lead guitarist was Blare N. Bitch. It figures that three of them were ex-members of Butt Trumpet, a band with one of the funniest names I’ll ever hear. I remember they had a short punk song called “I Left My Gun In San Francisco”. Betty Blowtorch were still brand new and wouldn’t release their first six-song record, “Get Off” until a year later, sporting such memorable song titles as “Shut Up & Fuck” and “Party Till You Puke”. One can’t help giggle at the lyrics for the former, “I don’t want conversation! I just want penis penetration!”. Bianca cracked me up with her stage antics, sporting pig tails, and wearing shin guards and knee pads. For the song, “I Wanna Be Your Sucker”, their other singer Mia X strutted about the stage holding a giant sucker prop with the song’s title written on it, occasionally straddling the sucker’s long stick in a suggestive manner. They also did a cover of the Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right To Party”, getting folks up front to sing along. Fun stuff.

Betty Blowtorch met a tragic end in December 2001 though. While on tour and having just finished a show opening for Nashville Pussy in New Orleans, Bianca was killed in a high speed car crash on Interstate 10, a passenger in a car going over 100 m.p.h. and her driver intoxicated. Their set at the Maritime would be the only time I’d see them perform. The band had just appeared in the comedy “Bubble Boy” with Jake Gyllenhaal that year and had been slated to play New Year’s Eve weeks later in L.A. That year, former L7 bassist Jennifer Finch was touring in the band, replacing Sharon on guitar when she abruptly left the band with drummer Judy Molish mid-tour. Afterwards, Blare went on to form The Blare Bitch Project and a Black Sabbath cover band called Black Sabbitch, both also hilarious band names. The others went onto various all female cover bands as well. Sharon and Judy joined a AC/DC cover band called Hell’s Belles and Judy also played in Cheap Chick. Incidentally, this gig was the first show of the month and I was happy to see the Maritime’s new monthly poster was a good one and Boots somehow managed not to misspell anything this time.

Tricky, Whale, Fill., SF, Wed., December 2, 1998

I was more than familiar with Tricky by this time, having seen him four times already, first opening for P.J. Harvey at The Warfield in ’95, then twice at Lollapalooza in ’97, then a mere four months before this night headlining at The Warfield. So, Tricky had been getting around a lot, even playing a small role in the science fiction film, “The Fifth Element” the year before, playing Gary Oldman’s henchman, with the appropriate name of Right Arm. Gary’s character, Dr. Zorg, ended up blowing Tricky to smithereens when he failed him. But Tricky was no failure as an artist to be sure and he was there doing his songs while maniacally trembling for me and the crowd that night and performed well as always. It was nice to finally see him in a smaller venue than before and I was glad that this show got a decent poster at the end of night. He played mostly the same stuff as I saw him perform in August as one would expect, including an dreamy trip-hop cover of Blondie’s “Heart Of Glass”, the chorus sung by Carmen Ejogo again. She had recently taken over for Tricky’s original female singer Martina Topley-Brid, who was the mother of his daughter, Mina Mazy. Tricky and Carmen had gotten married that year in Las Vegas, but they eventually broke up too.

Opening that show was a rock band from Sweden called Whale. They were a funny bunch of folks and as luck would have it, that night was the lead singer Cia’s 35th birthday. They had the crowd wish her a happy birthday and one of the other members declared that “she’s a rockin’ bitch!”. That guy also gave a shout out to Dog Beaver, the band that was playing upstairs in the poster room between acts. He asked, “Anybody been upstairs to see Dog Beaver? Now that’s a show!” He then dedicated their next song to them, calling them “our new friends”. Dog Beaver, a local freeform improvisational band, would often play up in the poster room and I would occasionally tape them when I could get a break to go upstairs and watch them, though I didn’t that night. Like I said, Whale had a sense of humor, claiming on their website that their name was actually Southern Whale Cult 1987, though they later admitted that it was just a joke. But sadly, this would be the only time I’d see them perform since they would disband the following year. I would however go on to see Tricky a few more times though, three times in 2001 alone, playing two separate shows at The Fillmore again, once in April and once more in August, then opening for fellow Lollapalooza ’97 alumni Tool at Shoreline that November.

Deicide, Skinlab, Vile, Infestation, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., November 28, 1998

SETLIST : When Satan Rules His World, Bastard Of Christ, Blame It On God, Lunatic Of God’s Creation, Serpents Of The Light, They Are The Children Of The Underworld, Oblivious To Evil, Dead But Dreaming, This Is Hell We’re In, Sacrificial Suicide, Deicide, Father Baker’s, Behind The Light Thou Shall Rise, Tick Or Betrayed, Once Upon The Cross, Dead By Dawn

I’ve said it before, but when I witness death metal bands perform, I make sure to look upward and give the big guy upstairs reassurances that their opinions don’t necessarily represent me and to ask politely not to send me into everlasting perdition for being there. Well, that went double or maybe triple for this one. I don’t know exactly what was this band’s bone to pick with the Almighty, but they definitely have it in for him. Their very name literally means “god killing”. Formed in the late 80’s in Tampa, Florida, they along with fellow grind-core heshers, Cannibal Corpse, had been freaking out Christians ever since. In their inception, Deicide’s singer/bassist, the hulking raven haired brute Glen Benton, reportedly stormed into the offices of Roadrunner Records, slapped his demo on the desk and growled, “Sign us, you fucking asshole!”. They took the bait and were signed the next day.

Like I said, these guys made enemies of the followers of Christ everywhere they went, even overseas. Deicide was banned in Valparaiso, Chile of all places after they made a promo poster with Jesus sporting a bullet hole in his forehead. Speaking of foreheads, Glen was also notorious for repeatedly branding an inverted cross into his own. If that wasn’t enough, he received the ire of animal rights activists as well, for expressing his interest in burning live rodents to death. Five years before this show, he freaked people out during an interview with NME at his home when he shot a squirrel in front of them with a pellet gun, complaining that they were messing up the electrical system up in his attic.

Blasphemy and animal cruelty aside, it still was a lively evening. Can’t say I remember much about the first opener, Infestation, and can’t even definitively say who they are or where they’re from since there at least four metal bands that claim that name. Chances are it was wither the one from London, since they formed that year, or the Swedish one, who had been around since 1990. I did, however, know both Vile and Skinlab, having recorded them both recently before this gig at the Maritime. Vile played with Cannibal Corpse in August and Skinlab opened for D.R.I. that July. Vile, a local band from Concord, would return the following March with Morbid Angel and use the recording I did that night to put four of the songs on their “Rare Tracks 1996-2004” album. Skinlab would also play the following January opening for Fear Factory. Unknown to me, Deicide had just released a live album, “When Satan Lives”, the month before this, recorded at the House Of Blues in Chicago, which pretty much derailed any chance of them using my recording that night for anything sadly.

It wasn’t sold out, but the dance floor was full at the Hall and those who were there were loud and aggressive as you might imagine. Glen and the band were dressed mostly in black leather, a couple of them sleeveless, and Glen was sporting an imposing, spiky armored shoulder plate, a Pauldron as it is known to those who make armor. They had somebody come out on stage in introduce them, saying that they were “from parts unknown!” Before they played “Bastard Of Christ”, Glen shouted, “What the fuck! We’ve never been here before! You know who we are, right? We’re Bastards Of Christ!!!” They ripped through their set pretty quickly, playing 17 songs in only an hour. After “Father Baker’s”, Glen joked, “We have a few more for you, then we’re going to Salt Lake to entertain some Mormons!” Just before they wrapped it up, he reassured the crowd that “there’s another record on its way. We’re halfway there and I think you’ll be surprised… Not let down, but surprised.” That album would eventually be “Insineratehymn” that would come out a little over a year afterwards.

Outkast, Black Eyed Peas, Melky Sedek, Headquarters, Most Chill Slackmob, Esinchill, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., November 27, 1998

The dirty south returned in force at the Hall. Outkast and the Black Eyed Peas had both played there that year, Outkast in February and the Peas in September headlining the Lyricist Lounge tour. I was glad to have the Most Chill Slackmob back in the house too. They played at the 4/20 show there the previous April. Melky Sedek was back again, the brother and sister of Wyclef Jean who had also played the Hall in January. It was the day after Thanksgiving and I suppose all the dancing helped the audience work off the former night’s gluttony. Yes, it was an all star line up and the crowd reflected that. It was sold out, very sold out. It takes a lot to fill that place to the point of it being uncomfortable, but they certainly pulled it off that night. 

Outkast had just released their new album, “Aquemini”, just two months before and it already was a resounding success. By this time, it had already gone platinum and by the following July, it would go double platinum. Incidentally, they got the name as a combination of Big Boi and Andre 3000’s astrological signs, they being Aquarius and Gemini respectively. They did get some heat from their new single, “Rosa Parks”. Apparently, the real Rosa Parks didn’t appreciate her name being used and objected to the obscenities in the song as well. The case was tried in Ann Arbor, Michigan, coincidentally where my future wife grew up, and the judge ultimately accepted Outkast’s argument that it was a homage and settled in their favor. 

The Black Eyed Peas were getting bigger and bigger as well, still touring in support of their last album, “Behind The Front”, released that June. They brought along some of the “Dungeon Family”, the artist collective both bands belonged to in Atlanta. I know for sure that Witchdoctor was one of them. They had set up the bands in front of a big banner hanging high above on the front of the DJ’s riser and turntables with Outkast’s logo which what looked like a giant silver grill of a car. There were even small replicas of the front halves of vintage cars flanking both sides of the stage as well, making it feel as if it was some sort of drag race party late at night in an abandoned parking lot or something. I didn’t keep the recordings from that show, but I know that the Peas played “Fallin’ Up” and “Joints & Jam” for sure. I remember distinctly at the end of the show meeting Taboo, giving him the tapes from their set, and how friendly and thankful he was to me, despite his wearing some rather scary war paint on his face that night. Finally, Boots kept his reputation for misspelling band’s names on the monthly poster, listing Outkast as “The Outkast”.

The Offspring, Unwritten Law, Limp, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., November 25, 1998

SELIST : All I Want, Session, Walla Walla, Gone Away, Kick Him When He’s Down, The Meaning Of Life, Have You Ever, Pretty Fly (For A White Guy), Bad Habit, Cool To Hate, I Choose, Smash, Intermission, Come Out & Play, Mota, Genocide, Self Esteem, Gotta Get Away, Nitro (Youth Energy)

The Offspring were brand new when I first saw them at The Fillmore four years before this, but by this time, everybody knew who they were. They had just released their fifth studio album, “Americana”, literally a week before this gig and they already had a hit with their hilarious single, “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)”. The song is a biting mockery of “wiggers”, (an abbreviation of which I don’t care to explain), that infest the Huntington Beach area where the band is from. In fact, Weird Al Yankovic would go on to parody the tune, recording his own “Pretty Fly (For A Rabbi)”, making it the second song he’d remake of theirs, the first being “Laundry Day”, a parody of “Come Out & Play”. Kurt Cobain once said that you know you’ve made it show business when Weird Al does one of your songs, but you definitely have made it if he’s done two. Unfortunately, The Offspring were touring with their own monitor board, so we couldn’t get a hook up in the recording room, so I had the night off. At least I was able to hang out, watch the show, have a few beers, and record it on my own tape deck, but I was disappointed not to have them or the other two bands in my roster of stuff I taped at the Hall.

I hadn’t seen the first opener Limp before, but I thought they were a fun band. They finished their set with a cover of “Holiday Road” by Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, made famous by being the theme song for “National Lampoon’s Vacation”. At the end of the song, they did the chorus faster and faster until it ended at breakneck speed. I had however seen the second opener, Unwritten Law, once before opening for Bad Religion at The Warfield in 1996 and thought highly of them and was glad they were there. Unwritten Law had just signed to Interscope records the year before and had just released a self titled album from them that June. They did an interesting cover of “Guns Of Brixton” by The Clash, starting it off normally as it was a reggae tune, then switching to a punk style in the middle, then reverting back to reggae to finish it. Between songs, the singer bantered with the crowd saying, “Wow! There’s a lot of people in this room! Where the girls at?!?”. The women cheered and he responded, “Yay! People with vaginas!” At the end of their set, they did a song called, “C.P.K.”, which stood for “Crazy Poway Kinds”, not “California Pizza Kitchen” as some might have presumed. They were from Poway, a conservative suburb of San Diego, and the song was named after a bunch of bored white kids at Abraxas High School who started a gang as a joke. I’d see Unwritten Law perform again four years later opening for Sum 41 at The Warfield and they would frequently perform on the Van’s Warped Tour in the years to come. 

It was a jam packed house that evening, sold out I believe. The young audience made a lot of noise and there was no shortage of action in the mosh pit, as well as crowd floaters and stage divers. Their fans knew their songs very well and they particularly sang loudly to the tune “Bad Habit”. It would be a couple years until I’d see them again in 2000, but I’d catch them twice that year, once at Live 105’s B.F.D. at Shoreline, then again at The Warfield with Cypress Hill opening, who also was on the bill at the B.F.D. that year, an eclectic pairing if there ever was one. Recently, my young cousin Nate gave me bottle of hot sauce made by The Offspring’s singer, Dexter Holland, called “Gringo Bandito”. I have to say that it was pretty good stuff, (pretty spicy for a white guy as it were). The headquarters that produces it is actually located next door to their recording studio down south. Dexter also recently received his PhD in molecular biology, which would explain one reason why his hot sauce is so well crafted I suppose. 

Sunny Day Real Estate, 764-Hero, Track Star, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., November 21, 1998

SETLIST : In Circles, Pillars, Guitar & Video Games, The Blankets Were Stairs, 100 Million, Every Shining Time You Arrive, Waffle, The Prophet, Song About An Angel, How It Feels To Be Something On, Rodeo Jones, (encore), J’nuh, Roses In Water, Days Were Golden

I was coming in dry as a bone for this one, having not heard a thing of Sunny Day Real Estate before that night. I did see their frontman, Jeremy Enigk, open for Sebadoh at the Great American Music Hall in 1996, but I didn’t make the connection at the time. I did however know the first opener, Track Star, for having seen them twice, once also at the Great American opening for Stereolab also in ’96 and the following year opening for Cornershop at Slim’s. At least this time I was able to record them properly at the Maritime. They actually weren’t on the tour originally, but were filling in for The Rapture who had to drop out for some reason.

Sunny Day were from Seattle and had made a bit of a splash when they started, being one of the pioneers of the new emo movement, but quickly broke up. They broke up so fast that they didn’t even finish recording their second album, the appropriately named “LP2”, before they all just threw in the towel. In fact, a few songs had no lyrics put down at all, so Jeremy just made up gibberish for them. He said later that he got a kick out of when the Japanese tried to translate them. Their bass player, Nate Mendel, and drummer, William Goldsmith, joined the Foo Fighters. Goldsmith came back for their reformation in 1997, but Mendel didn’t, being replaced by Jeff Palmer of The Mommyheads, then later by Joe Skyward.  They would make two more studio albums and also a live album before breaking up again in 2001. I was a little pissed to learn of their live album, simply called “Live” which was recorded in May of 1999 at a show they did in Eugene, Oregon, less than six weeks before they returned to the Maritime. Certainly, I would have liked them to use some of my stuff, especially since it turned out that the band ended up hating their live album, which is one of the reasons they left Sub Pop records.

This show they were promoting their latest record, “How It Feels To Be Something On”. They were a simple drum, bass, and two guitar quartet with no fancy lights, bells, or whistles, though they had a road guy come out frequently between songs to change out Dan and Jeremy’s guitars.Their lead guitarist, Dan Hoerner, did however wear a full brown suit on stage, but eventually took off his coat after the fourth song, “The Blankets Were The Stairs”, saying “this is all too much”. Jeremy was more modest, wearing a plain white T-shirt. It was Dan’s the first time he’d ever been in San Francisco and he cheered, “I think I like it!” Jeremy had an interesting singing style, a high pitched, but focused voice, really unlike anything I had heard before that. Their music was truly original as well, dreamy and beautiful for rock music, definitely influencing many to follow like Fall Out Boy, The Get Up Kids, Dashboard Confessional, and The Shins. 

Dan introduced the title track of the new album near the end of their set, then before they finished with “Rodeo Jones”, people up front were yelling out requests. He thanked them, then noticed a few were peeking at the setlist taped to the stage at his feet and he joked, “That’s no fair! You can see the list!” Thankfully, there’s a YouTube video from a fan recording up front and he grabbed the list and showed it to the camera. I had transcribed about half the songs before that, so it was just the thing to fill in the gaps. The show itself wasn’t sold enough to have the balcony opened up, but the floor was pretty full and I have to hand it to their fans. They were pretty enthusiastic and cheered loudly between every song. When they came back for the encore, Jeremy thanked the crowd for “making them feel very welcome”. They finished the show with the placid “Days Were Golden”, and at the end of it, he and Dan took off their guitars and simply walked off stage, leaving the drummer and bassist continuing. The bassist eventually stopped and walked off, leaving William on drums still thumping away, and then eventually he stopped. I was impressed with them for sure. It also was a thoughtful juxtaposition to the knucklehead stoner scene at the Ganja Skateboard Party at the Hall the night before with the Kottonmouth Kings and Papa Roach and I was glad when Sunny Day returned the following July.

Ganja Skateboard Party : Kottonmouth Kings, Insolence, Carcinogen, Papa Roach, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., November 20, 1998

I can’t say I remember too much from this night, since as the party was advertised, there was copious amounts of marijuana around. Pete had left this one to me, being a young person’s show, and I plundered his Altoid’s tin of leftover roaches to match the ambiance of the evening. The Kottonmouth Kings had already played the Hall twice already that year, once opening for Eek-A Mouse in April for the 4/20 Festival show and again only two months later opening for The Urge so, yeah, I got to know those goofy stoners pretty well that year. This would also be the third time I’d record Vacaville’s own Papa Roach at the Hall. They had literally had just played there the week before opening for Soul Brains : The Bad Brains Reunion and earlier that March with Salmon. Little did people realize that they’d soon be signed to Dreamworks and make more money than everybody they ever opened for, but back then they still the first band out of four playing to the nearly empty cavernous walls of the Maritime. I’d record them for a fourth and final time the following June when they opened for Zebrahead and then they moved on to bigger and better things. As also advertised, there was plenty of skateboard products and clothing vendors around, sponsored by companies like Real Stereo, Anti-Hero, Spitfire, Thunder, and Lucky.

John Lee Hooker, Charlie Musselwhite, Zakiya Hooker & Blues 4U, Fill., SF, Sat., November 14, 1998

This was a show I couldn’t pass up. Yes, I’d seen John twice before, once at the Good Road Festival at Shoreline in 1992, then again at the Tibet Freedom Concert in 1996, but only for a short mid-day festival set and at a considerable distance from the stage. At The Fillmore, I’d be much, much closer and this time he was there headlining and playing a full set, the second night of a two day stint there. I left veteran reggae band, The Abyssinians, for Pete to record at the Maritime, knowing  full well he’d be head engineer that night anyway. Luckily, The Abyssinians returned to play there only four months later and from that recording, the Hall released a live album. Everybody wins. Mr. Hooker was getting his just due around this time after decades of touring and recording. 

That year, Chess Records released a 50th anniversary collection of his songs and he had additional commercial success putting out an album of duets called “Best Of Friends” then too. His flyers for the show advertised that this tour was in support of that one, in which he collaborated with such renowned artists as Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Ike Turner, Ry Cooder, Jimmie Vaughn, members of Los Lobos, as well as locals Bonnie Raitt and Carlos Santana. John himself had become a local, taking over the bar across Geary from The Fillmore the year before and christening it “John Lee Hooker’s Boom Boom Room”. There, a regular stream of local funk, soul, and blues acts would perform every week, with the occasional DJ party and still so to this day twenty years after the bar’s namesake would pass on. It’s a very cool place and would naturally be the site of several post-Fillmore after parties, announced and improvised.  Yes, the man known the world over as the Godfather Of Blues also bought residences in Los Altos, Redwood City, and Gilroy to boot. And if that wasn’t enough, that album had just followed his release of “Don’t Look Back” which won him Grammies for Best Traditional Blues Album and Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals for the title track duet with Van Morrison. Not bad for a man in his 80’s, or approximately that age. His exact date of birth has never been determined.

Another special thing about this show was the fact that the first opener was none other than John’s daughter Zakiya and her band Blues 4U. She had been performing for a few years by then and had just put out her second album, “Flavors Of The Blues”, the year before. She had changed her name from Vera after the break up of her first marriage, her new name meaning “Pure” in Hebrew, but coincidentally also meaning “Intelligence” in Swahili. Zakiya was rebounding from a pair of tragedies in her life, her youngest son John killed in car crash at the young age of 20 and her other son Maurice put in jail three years after that. You would have never known of her heartache that night when she was performing alongside her new husband, Ollan Christopher, who played bass, co-wrote their songs, and was her producer as well. They had clever banter between songs, playfully ribbing each other and trying to get the “ladies” and “fellahs” to take their respective sides. I didn’t get a setlist, but I knew one song was “Let’s Do Something (Even If It’s Wrong)” and a soulful cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”.

Next up was the venerable blues harmonica genius Charlie Musselwhite and his band. Charlie would join John and his crew, the Coast To Coast Blues Band, after his set too. He had played a bit that year in the “Blue Brothers 2000” reboot movie playing in a band that called themselves the Louisiana Gator Boys which had a who’s who of blues greats like B.B. King, Bo Diddley, Eric Clapton, Koko Taylor, Jimmie Vaughn, and Dr. John. You know, I’ve never seen that movie in its entirety, though I am still a big fan of the original. Shame on me. I’ll check it out sometime. Likewise, I didn’t get a setlist from him either, but I do know the second song of his set was, “Gone Too Long”, followed by “38 Special”. A couple songs later, he did “Voodoo Garden”, “I’m Going Home”, and “Blues, Why Do You Worry Me?”

There was a brief set change and then Lisa from KFOG introduced his band and things got rolling. They did about five songs before John came out, showing off their chops and warming up the crowd. I would meet John’s guitarist, Rich Kirch, years later when he’d play with the Farlow-Kirch Band with bassist Dave Tolmie, a buddy I worked with for years in Local 16. Dave used to play bass with Commander Cody and Huey Lewis briefly and was a hell of guy, God rest his soul. I’d see Rich again in 2004 when Pete was recording stuff at The Plant in Sausalito with Nick Gravenites. Talented guy, Rich. Hell of a guitar player. I could really only recognize a couple songs from John, though. Unlike many blues singers, whose tales of heartbreak and hard times usually lend themselves to clear diction, John’s vocals are actually kind of hard to decipher. But that voice is unmistakable. He did his big hit, of course, “Boom Boom” and before that did a tune called “Rockin’ Chair”. The band tore it up that night, a class act show start to finish. I’m glad I caught John when he did, since he was nearing the end of his life. The last recording he’d make was with hippie keyboard impresario Pete Sears that January for a song called “Elizebeth” which they recorded at Bayview Studios in Richmond across the bay.  And then I’d see him perform one final time for a short set at the Guinness Fleagh in Golden Gate Park with his buddy Van Morrison the next year. Sadly, John at long last would pass away two years later. But he left behind an respected legacy and one hell of a Fillmore poster which was passed out at the end of the show.

Soul Brains, Missing Link, Papa Roach, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., November 13, 1998

SETLIST : Attitude, Sailin’ On, Coptic Times, On Like Popcorn, At The Movies, Right Brigade, Pay To Cum, House Of Suffering, Re-Ignition, Sacred Love, Voyage Into Infinity, Soul Craft, Tongue Tee Tie, Rally ‘Round Jah Throne, I & I Survive, How I Love Thee, Day Tripper, She’s A Rainbow, Youth Are Getting Restless, (encore) I Against I

This was a very important show for me, probably the most of all the shows I recorded at the Maritime. Their set that night would be used for a live album, the first entirely recorded by yours truly. Maybe if Pete knew it would have become an album, he’d of stuck around for this one, but he didn’t know Bad Brains from Adam, so finder’s keepers. Even if they hadn’t have used it for an album, just the honor and privilege of recording them was good enough for me. But this album was a crowning achievement for me and listening to it now to this day makes my heart swell with pride. It had been three long years since I’d see them open for the Beastie Boys, who I’d just coincidentally played two months before this again at the Oakland Arena. Since then, singer H.R., an abbreviation of “Human Rights”, though it was listed on my album as “Hunting Rod” which it originally stood for when he was a kid, clearly had cleaned up his act, or at least was on the good pills. He and his brother, Earl Hudson, and the rest of the band had patched things up since his schitzophenic meltdown on that 1995 tour and were now on the road calling themselves “Soul Brains”. I think they did it partially for legal reasons, probably wrangling with their record company of money or something.

The first to open that night were the ever-present Papa Roach, who were just on the cusp of getting huge, bigger than Bad Brains or anybody else they ever opened for at the Hall. They had just released their “5 Tracks Deep” EP which would eventually catch the attention of big shot record executives, first by Warner Brothers, but then ultimately getting them signed to Dreamworks. Their “Infest” album they would then release a year later would explode in popularity, quickly going triple platinum and earning them a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. Two songs from that previous EP, “Revenge In Japanese” and “Thrown Away”, would also be on that new album. But back then, they were still our humble warm up act from Vacaville, playing so often, they were practically the house band. It would only be a week before they would perform there again opening for the Kottonmouth Kings at what was billed as a “Ganja Skateboard Party”. Following them was a band called Missing Link, which I can’t say I remember, but I do know they share the name with a German pop band from the 80’s hailing from Monchengladbach, a suburb of Dusseldorf.

My buddy Tom Murphy was on monitors that night, dutifully manning his board in his trademark sleeveless black shirt. Dan Rubin was once again skillfully operating the lone camera in the balcony and this would be the first time Liz Farrow would assist me in the recording room, just me and her. Like I said, H.R. was on good behavior, all smiles, swaying and spinning about in his dark sunglasses and long white scarf. They ripped though the first half of the set pretty fast doing their punk stuff before chilling out and doing reggae songs for the last half, including a truly stony cover of “Day Tripper” by The Beatles. I’m sure the reggae tunes came to the relief of the long suffering security guys trying desperately to wrangle all the crowd floaters and stage divers that night. Bad Brains pumped up the house one more time for the encore, doing an intense rendition of “I Against I”. Before H.R. walked off stage, somebody threw him a joint and he held up up saying that “I heard marijuana was officially legal now in San Francisco, California now. Is that true?”, then thanked everybody holding up his flaming lighter. After the crowd cleared out, H.R. even helped sweep up the stage and when I gave him the tapes, he gave me a surprisingly affectionate hug, though we had just then met. It was the kind of hug that went on a little longer than one would expect and he rested his head sideways on my shoulder when he did it. I gave him a polite pat on the back and was thinking to myself, “Uhhh… OK…” I can still feel the weight of his boney dreadlocked skull in memory to this day. That one is for life.

So, being the fan as I was, you can imagine my exaltation when I learned that my recording would become an album and the glowing satisfaction I felt when I held it in my hand for the first time. As usual, though it was mine, Pete was still listed as Head Engineer and I as 2nd Engineers, mistakenly listed in the plural. Typical of Boots to misspell that on such an important album. They had also used some songs from the show Bad Brains did at the Hall in 2000 after Pete and I departed, engineered by a fellow named Andy Stackpole, who I don’t believe I’ve ever met. Sadly, the album doesn’t list which songs he or I did, but part of me doesn’t care or even wants to know. Reviews of the album were mixed, mostly complaining about H.R.’s singing that night, but I couldn’t see what the beef was. He sounded at least as good as any of their other live stuff, but then again, I am understandably biased. For some reason, I only have the last half of their set from the original recordings in my collection, starting off halfway through “Soul Craft”, so the setlist listed above might be out of order, but I know they played all those songs.

Before I wrap it all up, I’d be amiss if I didn’t give a short eulogy to Lee “Scratch” Perry, who I just learned ascended to join Jah this morning at the age of 85. Yes, the Bad Brains live album might be the one I’m most proud of, but Lee’s was the first we did with Mad Professor and the Robotix Band. It is a forgone conclusion that Bad Brains and any other band, obviously the ones who play reggae, owe him many thanks for his expansive body of work and influence. Sure, H.R. was eccentric and maybe a little mental, but Lee was from another dimension. I am grateful for seeing him as many times as I did and especially for that first album and Jah willing, I will make it Valhalla some time in the distant future and thank him personally.

Galactic, Robert Walter’s 20^th Congress, Fill., SF, Thur., November 12, 1998

This would be the third time that year I’d have the pleasure of seeing Galactic, the second time headlining at The Fillmore. Continuing a long tradition of funky talent coming out of New Orleans, these guys made a big splash in a short time. They would go on to play The Fillmore plenty of more occasions to come and rack up more posters than any other band to play there. By this time, their second album album, “Crazyhorse Mongoose” was out, only a couple months old. Their singer, Theryl DeClouet, announced it proudly at the beginning of their set declaring that “The Goose is loose!” Opening that night was Greyboy Allstars keyboard virtuoso Robert Walter and his new band the 20th Congress. Where he got that name is a mystery to me, but I like it still. Sounds official. Robert had played with Galactic drummer Stanton Moore with his old trio along with guitarist Will Bernard, who I’d seen a few times on his own and with T.J. Kirk. Robert is a charming fellow, quietly and politely introducing himself and the band and a few of their songs. I wasn’t able to get a setlist, but I do know he played a cover of Ronnie Foster’s “Funky Motion” as well as his originals, “Vegetarian Bake Sale” and “What Goes Around”.

Galactic played a long and fun filled set as they did six months before there and what little I saw of them at the Mountain Aire show after that up in Angel’s Camp, when they played a late night set in a tent after midnight. These guys are true workhorses. It’s exhausting just witnessing one of their shows, so one could only imagine how they feel at the end of the night. Theryl dedicated one of the songs to all the ladies and went into a long story about “funky love” while the band backed him up playing a mid-tempo groove behind him. He went on about two people “in the bay area” who were “so in love, they couldn’t let it go” and how they would argue, but “then go home and get it on!” Theryl asked for a show of hands in the audience if they knew what he meant and continued talking about how the guy would jealously follow her around town to a “Thai restaurant, to the House Of Nanking, and even to The Fillmore”. That story went on for about five minutes before they actually got to the song. Like Robert Walter, I didn’t have a setlist for these guys, but I knew they played “Change My Ways” and “There’s Something Wrong With This Picture”, which I had heard them play before. Additionally, they did a couple covers, “Tippi Toes” by The Meters, which I knew from Primus’ covering it on their “Miscellaneous Debris” EP and the Lee Dorsey soul standard, “Get Out Of My Life”, which Jerry Garcia Band played all the time.

Cypress Hill, Orixa, Fill., SF, Sun., November 8, 1998

SETLIST : We Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That, Real Estate, Hand On The Pump, Checkmate, Pigs, Looking Through The Eye Of A Pig, Lick A Shot, Cock The Hammer, Insane In The Brain, (unknown), Dr. Greenthumb, I Wanna Get High, Stoned Is The Way Of The Walk, Hits From The Bong, Steel Magnolia, I Remember That Freak Bitch, Riot Starter, Funky Bilingual, Hole In The Head, Illusions, When The Shit Goes Down, How I Could Just Kill A Man

Though this would be the seventh time I’d see Cypress Hill perform in only six years, this would be only the second time I’d see them headline their own show. Every other time was at Festivals, twice in a row on the second stage of Lollapalooza ’92, then twice again on the main stage of Lollapalooza ’95, then once more at the Smokin’ Grooves tour gig in ’96. This would be the second time they would play this hallowed venue, having been there once before in ’95, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last. They were already huge, but with the release of their fourth album, the aptly named “IV”, dropped a month before this show, they would soon become the best selling Latin rap group of all time. Cypress Hill even recently became the first hip hop group to get a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. We got to hear seven of the new songs that gig. They had a hit with their single, “Dr. Greenthumb”, which they performed at the end of their set. The origin of the name of that tune is still in dispute, but it may have been culled from a villain in the 1970’s cartoon, “Josie & The Pussycats” who ruled creature plants. Anyway, any musical act that plays The Fillmore already is elevated in the concert experience just by being there, but for some reason Cypress Hill felt like they truly belonged there. I mean, they could be the house band or play stints for weeks like Tom Petty did in ’97. They have certainly returned a number of times since this night and even released a live album from their show there in 2000, which I was unfortunately out of town for. 

I had also recorded B-Real earlier that year in May when he toured with Psycho Realm, opening for Funkdoobiest at Maritime Hall, the only time to my knowledge that ever performed up here with that crew. Somehow during his busy schedule or touring and recording, B-Real found time to contribute his voice to the song “The World Is Something New To Me” which was in, believe it or not, the animated children’s film “The Rugrats Movie” that year. Yes, he was part of an all star ensemble who did a few lines each, playing newborn babies in adjacent cribs in a maternity ward. Seriously, the talent on that song was formidable, consisting of Dawn Robinson from En Vogue, Lisa Loeb, Patti Smith, Lou Rawls, Laurie Anderson, Gordon Gano from the Violent Femmes, three members of the B-52’s  (Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, and Cindy Wilson), Pfife Dawg from A Tribe Called Quest, Lenny Kravitz, Beck, Jacob Dylan, and Iggy Pop. I think perhaps since the filmmakers got Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo to do the music and write that songs, it helped recruit such an armada of stars. B-Real only had two lines in the song, the second one in the tune, “How did I get here?” and later on “This world is way too big!” Anyway, back to the show.

I was very impressed by the opening act, Orixa, a Latin alt-rock group who employed a full band. I think their sound help influence Cypress Hill in the next few years to come when they would tour with a full band for a while. Public Enemy did too. Lots of rap acts were doing this in fact, probably seeing the popularity of the nu-metal movement and wanting to get a slice of that pie. Cypress Hill didn’t have a full band by then, but they were touring with a drummer along with their percussionist, Bobo. I would enjoy Orixa again three years later again at The Fillmore when they opened for legendary Mexico City rock band El Tri. It didn’t take long after Cypress Hill took the stage that the air was thick with marijuana smoke. No fog machine was needed that night for sure, the whole house being hotboxed, which is no small feat. The Fillmore is small, but not that small. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, there are very few acts that helped bring about mainstream acceptance of herb than these guys. 

They went through the first few songs pretty fast, going straight from “Real Estate” right into “Hand On The Pump”. After they did a bit of “Pigs” and the new “Looking Through The Eye Of A Pig”, B-Real asked the crowd, “you know what I want to do when I see a pig?… Can you guess?” then they went into “Lick A Shot”. They all joined in an extended drum and percussion solo between “Cock The Hammer” and “Insane In The Brain”, getting everybody in the house to clap along to the beat. Then B-Real introduced “Hits From The Bong”, praising the “sticky, green, northern Cali weed” saying they should toss him up some since ours was so much better than everybody else’s and entreated everybody to light up and pass it around. B-Real praised KMEL a couple times and dedicated “I Remember That Freak Bitch” to all the freaks in the house. But at the end of the song, Bobo pretended to disparage the amount of the audience’s freakiness and B-Real countered by saying what he’d do if he were us in the crowd and then did “Riot Starter”. Just before “When The Shit Goes Down”, B-Real asked us to remember this day, November 8th, and rambled on about writing the weed national anthem to be recited every 420. At least being mashed to the gills, I had my disappointment eased a little when we didn’t get a poster at the end of the night.

DJ Shadow, Latyrx, Blackalicious, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., November 7, 1998

I had the pleasure of recording DJ Shadow twice before at the Hall the previous year, once opening for De La Soul in April and then again during the epic Electronica Hanukkah festival that December. So, I got to know his music pretty well, but this time he was there as the headliner, the first occasion I’d see him as such. He had formed a collective of artists at the time in the city called Quannum Projects and the openers that night were both part of that. They would all put out the works from their Solesides Records label, which is still totally independently owned and operated. By this time, Shadow had released the “Preemptive Strike” record, a compilation of his singles and stuff he’d recorded since his groundbreaking “Endtroducing…” album. He had plenty of friends and fans in the house that night and for the rest of us, the honor of seeing the openers for their maiden shows in San Francisco.

First up was Blackalicious, a rap duo consisting of Gift Of Gab and Chef Xcel. They were brand new, the two of them meeting it Sacramento while going to school at UC Davis. I was blown away by their sound, especially the brilliant, rapid fire vocal style of Gift Of Gab. I’d see them quite a few more times in the years to come, but I’m sad to say that Gab passed away two months ago from kidney failure at the all too young age of 50, just a year older than me. But I and all who got to hear him spit can count themselves lucky, especially that night when they were so new to the scene. They wouldn’t even release their first album, “Nia”, for another nine months. Second, up and also brand spanking new were Latyrx, friends of Blackalicious and also from the Sacramento area. They also were a rap duo, made up of Lyrics Born and Lateef The Truthspeaker. They likewise were very talented and I’d see them a number more times as well, both as Latyrx and Lyrics Born’s solo work. Once again, Boots the owner, screwed up on the Maritime’s monthly poster, putting the bands out of order and spelling Blackalicious as “Black Delicious”. He’d done so many typos on his posters, by then it was like a tradition.

Men At Work, Howard Jones, Let’s Go Bowling, Maritime Hall, SF, Mon., November 2, 1998

SETLISTS :

(HOWARD JONES) : You Know I Love You Don’t You?, New Song, Love Is A Good Thing, No One Is To Blame, Like To Get To Know You Well, Tomorrow Is Now, Everlasting Love, Pearl In The Shell, Let The People Have Their Say, What Is Love?, Things Can Only Get Better

(MEN AT WORK) : Touching The Untouchables, Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive, Catch A Star, Blue For You, I Can See It In Your Eyes, No Sign Of Yesterday, Overkill, Everything I Need, The Longest Night, Lifeline, Underground, Helpless Automation, No Restrictions, Down By The Sea, Who Can It Be Now?, Can’t Take This Town, Down Under, (encore), Waiting For My Life To Begin, It’s A Mistake, Be Good Johnny

It had been a year since I was treated to the return from the boys from down under when they had played their show at the relatively tiny venue of the Great American Music Hall. With the impending beginning of the new century, the music of the 1980’s was just on the cusp of returning to popular culture as golden oldies and Men At Work was one of that decade’s finest bands. I had hoped that Pete would give me the whole show to record on my own, but he was no dummy. He knew how big Men At Work were and it was just as well, since clearly he was and always will be the superior engineer and his mix sounded perfect that show as always. This would be the first night my friend Liz Farrow would sit in with us in the recording room, learning the gear and the routines we did. She would go on to assist me for several shows in the next couple years I served at the Hall and her friend Christine Ogu would as well from time to time. My buddy Dan was also in the house that evening dutifully manning the video camera in the balcony.

A unexpected, but welcome bonus to the gig was that they had Let’s Go Bowling as the first act. They had played with my brother’s band, the Dance Hall Crashers, a number of times and it was a delight to record them. Pete let me have that one since he knew I was a fan. Their ska sound went well with the bill and honestly, they would be a good opening act for practically anybody. It’s hard not to love those guys. Also accompanying Men At Work on this tour would be fellow 80’s music impresario and Live Aid alumni Howard Jones from Wales, who frankly stole the show that night. He got the crowd worked up so much that they were singing along to almost every song he did, especially “Everlasting Love” and “Like To Get To Know You Well” the tune I knew from the soundtrack of the hilarious film comedy “Better Off Dead”. Seriously, there are only a handful of concerts in my lifetime I’d hear a crowd sing along that loudly. Not to be outdone, Men At Work’s frontman Colin Hay did his best to get them to sing along to a couple of their songs like “Who Can It Be Now?” and “It’s A Mistake” as well, with almost as much success. Speaking of celebrities from the 1980’s, that evening had the added tinge of weirdness in that Jesse “The Body” Ventura had been elected governor of Minnesota that night.

Men At Work played a solid set as they had when I saw them at the Great American and Colin was his hilarious and charming self. He cracked up the crowd clarifying a bit of the lyrics of “Overkill” saying of the song’s chorus, “that’s ‘ghosts appear and fade away’, not ‘goats appear and fade away’ which is what many people think it is. When goats appear they very rarely fade away I find.” Their flute/sax/keyboard player Greg Ham also made some giggles introducing his tune, “Helpless Automation” calling it new wave music and asking, “Anyone remember new wave music? Those tight red pants, white shoes, geometric designs on top? Very, very nice.” Then Colin joked, “If you don’t like it, we’ll play it again.” 

Near the end of the set, Greg finished his sax solo finishing “Can’t Take This Town”, then pretended to wheeze and asked the audience, “What’s the matter? Doesn’t emphysema turn you on? This is a song about where we come from!” The people cheered knowing what was coming next, then Greg said, “It’s not up here, it’s DOWN THERE!” and then they finished the set with their smash hit, “Down Under”. For their encore, just before they did “It’s A Mistake”, Colin said, “thanks for waiting for us for 15 years. We had a very long coffee break”. Sadly, this would be the final time I’d see Colin and Greg perform together. They would have a falling out in later years, predictably over royalties, and then Greg would die unexpectedly at the all too young age of 58 from a heart attack in 2012. Colin continues to tour under the name Men At Work, but he’s currently the only original member.

 

Frontline Assembly, Switchblade Symphony, Spahn Ranch, Kevorkian Death Cycle, Galaxxy Chamber, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., October 31, 1998

SETLIST : Vigilante, Circuitry, Resist, Predator, Mindphaser, Surface Patterns, Plasticity, Comatose, Liquid Separation, Gun, Millennium, Bio-Mechanic

I have always savored doing shows on Halloween, probably tied with New Year’s for the best night to be at a show. This year at the Hall, I was treated to a five band line up of electronic industrial acts headlined by Frontline Assembly, a radical departure from the Hooker’s Ball the year before. Such melancholy and theatricality lent itself nicely to the holiday, especially with the copious amounts of stage fog permeating the air. It had been a memorable holiday weekend, starting with DJ Spooky at the Hall on Thursday, then The Residents at The Fillmore the night before. I was missing The Residents playing there again as well as The Cramps at The Warfield and that stung a bit, though I’d had the pleasure of seeing them both before a couple times. Although I was working, I wore my latex skull mask for most of the night and never forgot a prank that Bones, the Maritime’s stage manager, pulled on me with it. I had taken it off for a bit while I was away from the recording room and he snuck in, put it on, and when I returned, leapt from the corner with it on, scaring the dickens out of me. Being startled easily as I always have been, I let out a blood curdling shriek which amused him no end. Rest assured, he went back upstairs and told everybody in the crew about it and I took the mild humiliation in stride. At least everybody got a good laugh and heck, isn’t that what Halloween is all about anyway?

Opening that night was local weirdos Galaxxy Chamber, the one act who had been at the Hooker’s ball the year before who was also on this bill. They were dressed appropriately again for the occasion in their ghoulish goblin attire and make up which they wore to every one of their shows regardless. Following them were Kevorkian Death Cycle from Riverside who had played the Hall earlier that July on the second of the two day stint with Front 242. The one opener of the evening that had yet to play the Hall were Spahn Ranch from Los Angeles, named after the infamous compound that the murderous Manson cult holed up in before doing their monstrous deeds in 1969. They had just released their “Beat Noir” album less than two weeks before this show with the help of Love & Rockets and Bauhaus bassist David J, who I’d just seen do two shows at the Warfield with Bauhaus that August. 

The last opener of the night was San Francisco’s own Switchblade Symphony who actually was the opener for the very first Maritime show I helped record when they played with Christian Death, back in September of 1996. I was touched that singer Tina Root remembered me and even addressed me by my name. I always liked that band and thought they were were underrated, not to mention a perfect opener for Frontline Assembly. They would return with them as well as Spahn Ranch the following April, but would disband later that year sadly. I discovered that they put out a live album a few years after that called “Sweet Little Witches”, but didn’t use any of the recordings we did at the Hall, instead using stuff from shows that they did at the Trocadero in Philadelphia in 1996 and the Ventura Theater in 1999. That makes me sad since, like I said, they were from here and between the three times they played the Hall, they had a lot of stuff we taped to choose from. But what’s done is done.

I knew the name of Frontline Assembly, being one of a handful of so-called Electronic Body Music or EBM bands making beats around that time, but hadn’t heard their music before this night. Their frontman, Bill Beeb, had worked previously with Skinny Puppy until parting ways with them in 1986 to start this band, and I talked to him briefly before the show began. He was a tall, lanky man with cropped blond hair from Canada and was very polite to me, as his countrymen were renown to be. I thought he bore a striking resemblance to veteran English actor Terrance Stamp who played General Zod in “Superman II”. In hindsight, it would have been awesome if he dressed like him that night and entreated the crowd to kneel before him. The real General Zod and his Kryptonian buddies, Ursa and Non, probably would have enjoyed his music. Seriously, even if it wasn’t Halloween, they would probably fit in with that crowd anyway. A year later, Siouxsie Sioux played Halloween at the Hall with her band, The Creatures, and let’s just say Ursa in the movie took a page from her look, but I digress.

Bill did ask that on the monitor mix for the evening that his voice be layered with his special vocal effects, partially because it was their style, but I think also because he was a little self conscious about his singing ability, or at least that was the impression I was getting from him. I reassured him that any effects could also be added to the multi-track mix later, but told him I’d do it anyway. I soloed his vocals during the show and thought he actually had a nice voice on its own. I was impressed by his music and thought it was easily as good as such contemporaries of theirs as Nine Inch Nails or Front 242. They had released their album, “[FLA]vour Of The Weak” the previous November, but the only song off that album they played that night was “Comatose”. They had brought a few of their own lights with their gear that night, helping to cut through the clouds of stage fog and giving Bill some creepy backlighting. It was a fun end to a long month, having a whopping 18 shows in only 31 days under my belt, probably a record for me, at least up till then. I’d get a slight reprieve in November, only doing 12 of them. 

The Residents, Fill., SF, Fri., October 30, 1998

SETLIST : Jesus Christ Superstar, In The Beginning, Kill Him!, How To Get A Head, Hanging By His Hair, Mr. Misery, Tent Peg In The Temple, God’s Magic Finger, Dinah & The Unclean Skin, Cain & Abel, Burn Baby Burn, Fire Fall, The Seven Ugly Cows, Melancholy Clumps, Bathsheba Bathes, Bridegroom Of Blood, They Are The Meat, I Hate Heaven, Judas Saves, Revelation, Jesus Loves Me, (encore), Smelly Tongues, Moisture, Picnic Boy, Walter Westinghouse

I went from the far out frying pan of DJ Spooky the night before at the Maritime into the true fire of the bizarre with The Residents at The Fillmore. This was Devil’s night, but I can think of no other band apart from The Cramps which is more appropriate to see on Halloween and they were playing at The Warfield. It was a tough call all around, since I had to work at the Frontline Assembly show at the Maritime for Halloween this year. I was just glad I could catch one of these three shows that The Residents did. They were in fact beginning their tour with these shows, having just released their new concept album, “Wormwood : Curious Stories From The Bible”, so we all had the honor of hearing this stuff for the first time live. As the name of the album suggests, each song was a musical exploration of some of the Bible’s more gruesome stories, all from the Old Testament as far as I know. 

Many were of ones most people commonly knew like Cain & Abel, Noah’s Ark, and King David and Bathsheba, and the decapitation of John The Baptist, but there were also ones more obscure and a few that only a real student of the good book would have even heard about. One particular song was about King Belshazzar and how a floating, severed finger appeared at one of his parties and wrote a message on a wall in blood saying his days were numbered. Another, “Burn Baby Burn” told of Jephthah who burned his daughter alive as a sacrifice to God for helping him win a battle. It was particularly haunting as it was told from the perspective of the daughter, who the Bible didn’t even have the courtesy of revealing her name, and had the unforgettable ear worm of a chorus, “Soon I will be burning for my, soon I will be burning for my daddy! God digs my daddy!” Yeah, that chorus is in my head for life. For each of these stories, the guy in the Black Skull mask would introduce the songs, giving a brief and humorous synopsis of each as he did the year before at The Fillmore for the “Have A Bad Day” and “Freak Show” songs. Likewise, Mr. Skull would put on different masks and sing, as well as guest vocalist Molly Harvey and drummer Toby Dammit, who also took turns singing, all the while backed up by the band in their traditional Eyeball masks and top hats.

They would produce all manners of stage props, giant wooden heads on sticks, and the lights would change to alter the mood of each tune, taking the audience on this wild biblical journey. This show was coming at an opportune time in my life intellectually, as I was becoming increasingly interested in theology and higher ethics. This was partially because of my friendship to Liz Farrow, who I had met through my brother and was a devout Jehovah’s Witness. We’d talk about Bible stories and such and after this show, I made a point to buy another copy of this album to give to her. Hearing these dark stories hammered home to me the power of the Bible’s imagery and moral quandaries that it posed upon its readers. Indeed, the good book, well, wasn’t so good until Jesus showed up and let’s just say that his death wasn’t pretty, even though he came back and was in a forgiving mood. 

The “good news” as it were that night was that there was an excellent poster for the occasion. I was so thrilled about what I witnessed, that I even bought one of their tour shirts. After that night, I was a fully fledged Residents fanatic and took it upon myself to find absolutely every possible album and DVD of theirs that I could lay my hands on. As luck would have it, Boots at the Maritime tried to book The Residents to play Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley at the end of their tour the following year, but had to cancel it due to low ticket sales. I was naturally disappointed, but figured that it would have been hard to sell enough for such a large venue, about twice the capacity of The Fillmore, and all those who had seen them at these three shows, probably wouldn’t shell out the loot to see them again so soon, though I would have. I would have to wait another four years until I got the chance to see them again when they played The Warfield, touring with the “Demons Dance Alone” album. I was able to find a half decent bootleg of the audio from the show they did at The Fillmore the night before this one on Youtube, but thankfully The Residents released an excellent DVD of their show from this tour that they did in Bonn, Germany. That one included previously unreleased songs, “David’s Dick” and “Attitude Is Everything”, about King David’s lewd and exhibitionist behaviors before he straightened himself out and wrote some Psalms. 

DJ Spooky, Plastilina Mosh, P.J. Olsson, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., October 29, 1998

I suppose it was appropriate that this show happened the day John Glenn went into space again. Mr. Paul Miller AKA DJ Spooky is a pretty far out guy, a real thinking man’s DJ and his education was a testament to that. He has a double degree in philosophy and French Literature from Bowdwoin College in Brunswick, Maine, not the typical credentials of your average turntable jockey. This would be the first time I’d see or hear of him, but I was impressed. One could lump him into the whole trip hop movement that had taken root in the UK, but his sound was different, moodier, ambient, and dark. He had just released his “Riddim Warfare” album which featured fellow hip hop weirdo Kool Keith, but also had a jam with Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore, a telling reflection of his eclectic tastes. I appreciated that he also went by the moniker of That Subliminal Kid, a reference to “Nova Express” by William S. Burroughs, one of my favorite writers. Spooky has since become a professor of music himself.

In a way, his live show was conducive to the Maritime’s atmosphere. There was lots of room and it seemed to meld well with the visuals on the walls, the oil plate projections, and stuff. I could see Spooky being an opening act for hippie shows even, he’s that far out. Likewise, the openers Mexican electronic group Plastilina Mosh and P.J. Olsson also brought beats to the Hall that night which made you think as well as dance. It would only be four months later until I would see Spooky again, opening the SnoCore show at The Warfield alongside Soul Coughing who I had coincidentally just seen there only a month before this show. I was glad Pete was gone for the night as well, giving me this gig since he had been at the helm of the recording room for the previous three shows. This was a good one and I remember distinctly how friendly he was to me at the end of the night when I gave him the tapes from his set. The world needs more DJ Spooky’s out there.

Gregory Isaacs, The Skatalites, Filibuster, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., October 28, 1998

Mr. Isaacs had played the Hall twice before, once in October of ’96 and then again in April of this year, and we had already released a live CD/DVD from our recordings, the second one we’d put out, just following our debut release of Lee “Scratch” Perry. Though there were likely no plans to release another, especially since he was performing practically the same stuff as before, we were there nonetheless to document the proceedings of the night. I had hoped however, that we’d get to put out a live album for the second opening act that night, the legendary ska band, The Skatalites. It ultimately wouldn’t happen, but I kept my hopes up all the same. I’d seen them a couple times before, once on the Skavoovee bill at The Warfield in 1993 with The Special Beat, The Selecter, and The Toasters and once more for the massive Tibet Freedom Concert in Golden Gate Park in 1996. Having grown up in the midst of the third ska wave in the bay area, especially around my brother’s band, the Dance Hall Crashers, I considered them to be ska royalty and it was a supreme honor to help Pete record them that night.

It would turn out to be crucial to see them at this time since their esteemed founding member, tenor saxophonist Roland Alphonso, would die suddenly just three weeks after this gig. Poor guy suffered a burst blood vessel in his head, which had happened to him once before in 1983, and he would pass away from it at Cedar Sinai in L.A. If that wasn’t bad enough, they had just lost their other saxophonist, Tommy McCook, to pneumonia and heart failure only that May, but at least the two made it to relative old age, being 67 and 71 respectively. Sadly, I never saved the recordings they made that night, nor the time they returned to play the Hall the following July when they opened for Michael Rose, but I did find a decent quality bootleg of their show in Detroit from that year and it was basically all the same songs. They had just released their “Ball Of Fire” album, and I know they played their lively cover of the James Bond theme song, the first track from that new album that show.

The Skatalites opened their set, as they always did, doing their countdown from ten to one and it took no time for them to get the crowd skanking. They had always been  primarily an instrumental band, known mostly for their cover of the theme to the old action film, “Guns Of Navarone”, but they did bring out singer Doreen Shaffer to do a few songs. Doreen is now the only surviving founding member incidentally. She would sing “You’re Wondering Now”, a song later made famous by The Specials, as well as the reggae classic “Simmer Down”. The Skatalites in fact had been the band that backed up The Wailers on the original recording of that song way back in 1963. As luck would have it, Bunny Wailer had just performed at the Hall only eleven days before this show with Andrew Tosh, celebrating his late father Peter Tosh’s birthday.

The Murmurs, Paradise Lounge, SF, Mon., October 26, 1998

SETLIST : Don’t Lie, Underdog, Sucker Upper, I’m A Mess, Big Talker, Genius, La Di Da, Misfit, You Suck, Smash, X-Song, (encore), You Suck, One & Only

Purveyors of music in San Francisco around this time would be remiss not to mention the Paradise Lounge, a multi-room brick building on the corner opposite of Slim’s down in the south of Market area. Though I didn’t spend much time seeing shows there, it was adored and respected by locals. It was hard not to feel like you were at home when you were under that roof. Everybody was so nice and the atmosphere was so relaxed that it felt more like a house party than an event when you were there. One would stroll between the main room to the smaller rooms and there would be people about talking casually and the sound level from the bands would seldom be too painful. Sadly, the Lounge went the way of the Dodo years ago like so many venues and I haven’t the foggiest of what the building is used for now, probably a dance club or dot-com start up.

This was likely the last time I set foot in that venue, though I can’t be sure. I can’t even tell you exactly what brought me to see The Murmurs there that night, though I think it was a safe bet that my friend Matt was able to get free tickets at the last minute which would explain why I didn’t tape the show that night. It was a informal night out, but I had seen The Murmurs before opening for Joe Jackson at The Warfield in 1994 and I liked them, so I was glad to be there. The two of them had been music students in New York before that, breaking themselves in busking in the subways. But with their hit song “You Suck” and their cover of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit”, they soon found themselves signed to MCA and touring. By this time, they had expanded their acoustic duo to a add bass player Sheri Ozeki and drummer Sherri Soliger. The two singers, Leisha Hailey and Heather Grody, had also since reverted their hairstyles from the fright-wig, Rainbow Brite look they had before to simply dark hair, almost black. Only they and their stylists would know if it was their natural color, but they looked nice regardless.

I do remember distinctly talking to both of them, the Lounge being so small it was easy and almost irresistible to approach artists there, and was delighted and even a little surprised how friendly they were to me. I told them that I was at The Warfield show and how much I was impressed by their talent and they were all smiles. I even got them both to to sign their setlist for me, Heather writing, “Thanks for everything! See Ya’!” In hindsight, I can’t imagine what she was thanking me for, other than coming out to see them and appreciating their music, but what the hay, I’ll take it. They had a new album out then called “Blender” which had been co-produced by Leisha’s then-girlfriend, singer K.D. Lang. They would break up three years later though. Also, that album had a song called “Smash” that had been co-written by Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey of The Go-Go’s. I didn’t know any of this at the time and didn’t even know they were lesbians, not that I would have cared. In fact, Leisha would go on to star in the Showtime series, “The L Word”, among other film, TV, and commercial roles in the years to come. It had been so many years passed, that I didn’t recognize her when she was in the HBO series, “Silicon Valley”, in 2017 where she played the wife of one of Richard’s business partners. Richard would have an impulsive sexual encounter with her and she would later complain to him how bad it was, specifically repulsed by their teeth clumsily hitting each other when they kissed. But this would be the last time I’d see The Murmurs. Leisha and Heather parted ways soon after this show, though briefly reunited to form the band Gush in 2001.

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Add N To X, Bob Log III, Fill., SF, Sat., October 24, 1998

It had been over a year and a half since I saw Jon rock The Fillmore for the first time with Sleater-Kinney opening and I was eager to hear more. He had just released his fifth studio album, “Acme”, with the help of legendary producer Dan “The Automator” Nakamura, and just started the new tour, playing the first gig of it in Las Vegas only four days prior to this one. It was easy to love this band, as Beavis & Butthead did, praising their video of “Dang”, Butthead declaring, “I didn’t know something could kick this much ass!”. And speaking of videos, Jon had just made a video for the new single, “Talk About The Blues”, which starred none other than Winona Ryder, Giovanni Ribisi, and John C. Reilly, playing the band members Jon, guitarist Judah Bauer, and drummer Russell Simins respectively. It was quite a sight to see Winona then in her pixie cut doing her manic impersonation of him, yet another reason I’m in love with her… and her talent of course. On top of that, Jon had recorded a cover of Dr. John’s “Right Place, Wrong Time” which would be in the soundtrack of the horror film, “Scream 2”, released the previous December. He also had a memorable appearance on the “Canal+” show, where in the middle of his performance, he ran into the audience, then jumped on the host’s desk, and finally shook the hand of fellow guest, martial arts film legend Jackie Chan, handing him a copy of the new CD.

I had seen Bob Log III once before when he was with his old band, Doo Rag, when they opened for The Cramps at The Edge in Palo Alto back in 1995, but didn’t know his name, or at least his stage name, when this show was booked. It was a treat to see him again, but this time as a solo act, a one man band, playing his slide guitar with his hands, hitting a kick drum pedal with one foot, a high hat with the other, and singing through a CB mic attached to a space helmet. It was quite a spectacle to see for only one guy and for such a short set. This was his first year playing as a solo act and had just released his first album as such, “School Bus”, that year. Fat Possum, his record company declared that Bob had a monkey paw grafted to his left wrist after a childhood boating accident took his human hand off, but Bob denies it, insisting that his hand is just “very, very hairy”. Some guy introduced him that night when he came on stage as “Bob Log III from Tucson, Arizona and he’s gonna kick your ears in the ass!” I’d see Bob quite a few more times in the years to come and especially enjoyed whenever he would invite young women to dip one of their bare breasts into a glass of scotch, then pass around that glass to people in the front row to take a sip while he played his song, “Boob Scotch”. I admit that Bob is correct when he says that scotch tastes better after having a boob dipped into it.

The second opening act was Add N To (X), an electronic or “electroclash” band from England. They apparently had to add the parenthesis to the X in their name for legal purposes, though I find the idea of someone claiming a mathematical formula legally for their own a little strange. Add N To (X) were a bit of an odd departure from the manic blues rock of the rest of the bill, but they at least shared one thing in common with Mr. Spencer in that they were LOUD! I have often said that English acts of all kinds of genres were notoriously loud, but these guys were up there, I mean like Motorhead loud. God help anyone there who didn’t wear earplugs for their set or for Jon’s for that matter. Jon was his usual hyperactive, brilliant self and though his lyrics are practically indecipherable, I did know that the second song was the aforementioned, “Dang” and he ended his set with “Blues X Man”. Unfortunately, my tape deck ran out of batteries that night and I only got a little over the first half of his show. Also, there was no official poster this time, though I found an image of what I assume was an official flyer of this show on line and it looked pretty cool. But worst of all, I didn’t hear about Jon playing a full set for free at Amoeba Records the following day and missed it. That and I had to wait another six years until I had a chance to see him again when he would play at Slim’s. 

Little Feat, Legion Of Mary, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., October 23, 1998

SETLIST : Hate To Lose Your Lovin’, Honest Man, Loco Motives, A Distant Thunder, Spanish Moon, Skin It Back, Rock & Roll Everynight, Dixie Chicken, Eden’s Wall, Sailin’ Shoes, Voices On The Wind, Home Ground, Oh Atlanta, The Blues Don’t Tell All, Let It Roll, (encore), Willin’, Don’t Bogart Me, Willin’ (reprise), Fat Man In The Bathtub

I was really pleased to see Little Feat was added to the calendar at the Hall that month, having been really impressed by their set at The Fillmore three years earlier. I knew Pete would be in the house taping the show, being one of the more respected hippie acts out there. Though they had plenty of live material out since their inception way back in 1969, I still hoped that they’d use the recording we did that night, but to no avail. It still was an enjoyable experience nonetheless. Little Feat had been long associated with New Orleans funk music and I had, as am sure many others did, assumed that they were from there, although they originally formed in Los Angeles. Still, they’re sound undeniably served as inspiration to many southern acts in the years to come like the Black Crowes, Steve Earle, and the Allman Brothers.

Another blast from the past would open that night, The Legion Of Mary. They were hippies through and through, being a very short lived Jerry Garcia side project formed in 1975, along with Jerry Garcia Band’s bassist John Kahn, the ever present veteran  keyboardist Merl Saunders, and Martin Fierro, the saxophonist from Zero. Jerry had of course past away three years earlier and John the year after, but there was Merl and and Martin to represent the original line up. This would be the only time I’d see this band together, an even rarer occurrence than the original who actually played less than sixty shows back in the day, so I guess I was lucky. Like I’d written before, Pete and I had long since given up recording Zero at the Hall, but it was still good to see Martin again, being his usual wise guy self on stage and performing different material for once.

PJ Harvey, The Rachels, War., SF, Thur., October 22, 1998

SETLIST : I Think I’m A Mother, Joy, Joe, Civil War Correspondent, Taut, Electric Light, A Perfect Day Elise, Hook, Meet Za Monster, City Of No Sun, Angelene, Missed, Dress, Snake, Heela, To Bring You My Love, (encore), The Wind, Down By The Water

It had been three long years since I had seen the one and only Madame Polly Jean Harvey play not one but two non-consecutive shows at The Warfield in 1995, the first in May, the second in September. I was itching to see her again, especially since her latest album, “Is This Desire?” had just been released a little over three weeks before this night. I picked it up right away and I found the music of the new album was an interesting and alluring departure from her previous work, and though it wasn’t as commercially successful, it still racked her up up a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Performance. Clearly she was branching out into new directions and I was eager to hear the new songs live. This show was important enough for me to leave the duties of recording at the Maritime to Pete, who did Arlo Guthrie there that night. I was sad to miss Arlo, especially if I had been there and Pete left it for me to tape alone, but to me, P.J. was more important. Besides, I’d already seen Arlo at The Fillmore twice in the last two years then. I suppose it was fitting that Pete did that show, since missing Bunny Wailer the night before, leaving that one to me. Both Bunny and Arlo talk incessantly between their songs, and I suppose it was wise to split them up between us to avoid being burnt out. 

I had just seen P.J.’s last boyfriend, Australian goth icon Nick Cave play on the very same stage a month before and the experience of their break up and recording the new album took their toll on her mentally and physically, speaking of being burnt out. Probably burnt Nick out too, but he was always so gaunt and vampirish, who could tell? It also didn’t help that P.J. received the ire of animal rights activists that year when she was quoted in an NME interview tacitly supporting fox hunting, saying “Seeing the hunt out on the fields is just so natural to me.” She would tour with The Dirty Three, fronted by Warren Ellis, Nick’s violin player and musical collaborator, later in the year in the U.K., for which I was jealous. We had a group from Houston there that night called The Rachels and they were nice all the same, coincidentally having a couple string players of their own in the band. Nick’s music was also taking a quieter turn at the time, his hauntingly beautiful ballad, “Into My Arms”, clearly inspired by her. 

Yeah, she was a lot more subdued than her maniacal performances I saw before there, but the new material was quieter, especially the four songs she played from the “Dance Hall At Louise Point” album she made with John Parrish in 1996. Then again, the song “Taut” as the name suggests was a tense, ranting one, no doubt about that. Still, hearing those and the new songs, edged out older tunes like “50 Foot Queenie” and “Oh My Lover” which I adored, but I will always take hearing a new song for the first time live over an old one for a second time. Still, I’m glad she played, “Dress”, always a favorite. 

P.J. had a new look that year as well, drastically cutting down the amount of make up she wore and cutting her hair to a sort of Raggety Ann shape. More or less every time I’ve had the pleasure of seeing her perform, she had a new look. I always thought she had remarkable taste in her aesthetics, personally and with the art in her albums. She even did a brief stint acting around then, playing in a film called, “The Book Of Life” by indy film director Hal Hartley. She played Magdelina in a sort of modern day biblical parody, though I can’t really speak about it, since I still haven’t seen it. I should check it out. Sadly, unlike the last Warfield shows she did, this one didn’t get a poster, though I saw that they made a really cool one for her show up in Seattle at The Showbox that tour two days before this gig. And like before, I would have to wait another three years to see P.J. play the Warfield yet again, but that one would get a poster. My tapes came out alright, but I was delighted to find an excellent bootleg of this set on YouTube.

Bunny Wailer, Andrew Tosh, Lasana Bandele, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., October 17, 1998

SETLIST : Benediction, Bald Head Jesus, Rasta Man, Blackheart Man, Armagideon, Fighting Against Conviction, Dreamland, Love Fire, Crazy Baldhead, No Woman No Cry, Legalize It, Rockers, Rock N Groove, Dance Rock, Rootsman Skanking, Cool Runnings, Rule Dance Hall, Rock Stone, Simmer Down, Walk The Proud Land, Jailhouse, I Stand Predominate, I’m The Toughest, Hypocrites, The Specialist, Keep On Moving

Bunny had just played the Hall a mere five months before this show and that night was a long one. We had plenty of material recorded from the May show to make an album and Boots had even booked time at The Plant in Sausalito to mix it down with Pete and legendary engineer Tom Flye. For some reason, that album was never released, but the good news was since Pete already had that one in the can, he let me have this night. Frankly, I was surprised he gave it to me regardless, it being reggae royalty with Bunny, one of the original Wailers and the son of his partner in music, Andrew Tosh. That and the fact that he’d been there the night before to record Jimmy Cliff with me. The show this night was billed as the “7th Annual Peter Tosh Birthday Celebration”, though in reality, Peter’s birthday was two days later on the 19th. Peter would have been 54 years old that year. This would be the fifth show in a row for me at the Hall that week and by the end of it, I was a little limp. Reggae shows at the Maritime almost always went late and this one did, big time, especially because it was a Saturday.

Andrew did his father proud, singing all his dad’s hits like “Legalize It”, which Bunny also played, “Equal Rights”, and “Stepping Razor” as well as a few originals of his own. Yes, he was a talent in his own right, and was nominated for his first Grammy in 1989 when he was only 22 for his album, “Make Place For The Youth”. Andrew didn’t have any new material that night, but would eventually release another studio album two years later called, “Message From Jah”. It was easy to like him. For starters, his voice was uncannily similar to his father’s and I mean naturally. I could tell if he was trying to impersonate him, at least I think. Often, many sons of famous singers have good voices, but don’t nearly sound as similar as Andrew did to Peter. One funny, random thing he and his father shared was their love of the unicycle, though I didn’t see if he had it with him that night. Bunny once again played a few of the songs he shared with Peter and that other guy… Bob Marley, I think his name was, “No Woman No Cry”, “Crazy Baldhead”, and “Simmer Down”.

I know it’s not nice to say, considering Bunny’s immense talent and impact on the genre of reggae, but I think half the reason Pete gave me that show to do was so he didn’t have to listen to Bunny drone on between songs. I said it before in the May show, but Bunny’s set would be an hour shorter if he didn’t ramble on as he did, but then again, he wouldn’t be Bunny if he didn’t. Besides, Pete went on five days later to record Arlo Guthrie at the Hall while I was at P.J. Harvey at The Warfield. God knows, Arlo could talk as long as Bunny. It would have been hilarious to record a conversation between the two. It probably would have gone on for days or until the first one would succumb to laryngitis. All kidding aside, it was a supreme honor for me to tape Bunny and Andrew and I was certainly willing to listen all night need be. After both their sets, I gave the tapes to both Bunny and Andrew and I remember each of them being very friendly to me, especially Andrew. Both of them would return along with the other opener, Lasana Bandele, a year later to do the birthday celebration again and once more, Pete allowed me the honor to do that one too. That year, they did it on the 10th, nine days early of Peter’s actual birthday, but who cares? I’d celebrate all month recording music like this.

Jimmy Cliff, Derek Trucks Band, Reggae Angels, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., October 16, 1998

This was an unexpected, but welcome show to come to the Maritime. Originally, Banyon, the musical collaboration between Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins and bass wiz Rob Wasserman, was supposed to play this night. But for some reason, they cancelled and Jimmy Cliff, a very different musical act, took their place. What made it stranger was that the original opening act, The Derek Trucks Band, was kept on the bill. Now this wasn’t the first time the Hall had paired a “deadhead” act with a “dreadhead” act. They all love weed and tended to get along as they did that night. Jimmy was sight for sore eyes, I having not seen him in five years, and it being the Maritime, was the rightful place for such a reggae legend to do his thing. Like Willie Nelson, Jimmy had that strange aura about him that made you feel as if there could be no harm that could come to you while you were in his presence. His music can melt the heart of even the coldest music critic.

Opening that night were the ever-present Fenton and his Reggae Angels band. I can’t even say how many times I saw them opening for reggae people and I don’t care to count. Derek was still a kid, just 24 at the time, two years younger than me, but already had a stellar reputation as a guitar hero, playing alongside the likes of Buddy Guy when he was only thirteen. He was the nephew of Allman Brothers Band drummer Butch Trucks and would join them as a member himself the following year, as well as touring with Phil Lesh & Friends. We had recorded Derek once before that January at the Hall when he opened for Zero, and though we skipped taping Zero for a host of reasons I’ve gone into plenty of times, we did get his set. Like that night, Pete recorded this one as well. I didn’t expect him to give me Jimmy and I didn’t mind. As reggae guys go, Jimmy was too important. He played all the old hits that show and I’m pretty sure he was doing his reggae cover of The Beatles’ “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La Da” back then. He had just released the “Journey Of A Lifetime” album that year, his 26th album in just over 20 years, depending on which ones you’re counting. Once again, he danced and sang up a storm all through his long set with the energy of a man half his age. 

Though it had been five years since I had the honor of seeing Mr. Cliff, I was happy to see him make a hilarious appearance on the Adult Swim animated talk show “Space Ghost : Coast To Coast” the previous year. There, Space Ghost asked Jimmy, “Do you think I’m Irish?” Zorak corrected him saying, “Irie”. Space Ghost then asked, “Do you think I’m Irie?” Jimmy graciously responded, “You’re very well on your way, yes.” Space Ghost then cheered, “Hey Zorak, guess what? I’m Irie!” which Zorak coldly replied, “Guess what? You’re an idiot.” Anyway, Jimmy would thankfully return to headline at the second One Festival the Maritime put on at Pier 30/32 the following year, but that would be the last time I’d see him. Derek would return to play the Hall opening for John Lee Hooker on New Year’s Eve in 1999, but Pete and I had left by then and Wade got to record that one. I would get to see Derek again personally opening for Eric Johnson at The Fillmore in 2001, then have the honor to actually help set up his gear at Outside Lands in 2014, when he was touring with his wife, singer Susan Tedeschi, in their group, the Tedeschi Trucks Band. I regret not mentioning the nights at the Hall to him then, but while working, I was too busy anyway and didn’t want to bother him.

Hieroglyphics, The Earthlings, New Born Sun, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., October 15, 1998

This would be the fourth time in just over a year I got to record the Hieroglyphics crew. Their breakthrough debut album, “3rd Eye Vision” had been out for half a year and they were home once again after a busy year of touring. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien had finished his third solo album, “Future Development” the previous November, but was unceremoniously dropped by Elektra a month later. The guys from Hiero released it themselves, though only on cassette tape at first, on their homegrown label, Hieroglyphics Imperium Recordings. They would later give it a proper full re-release in 2002. They would go on to play at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, a venue the Hall was also booking, two nights later.

It was strange to revisit the opening act, The Earthlings, for this entry, since I discovered, or rather bothered to check, that a few tracks on their live album, “Dues Paid”, were recorded by yours truly on this very night, three of them in fact, “Soujourn Response”, “Three MCs”, and “That’s How It Goes”. Furthermore, five tracks came from the show they did with the Mystik Journeymen five months later, though they gave credit to Pete for recording those, though I was at the helm on that occasion as well. Pete did however record one of the tracks, “Indie Fest”, when they played again with the Journeymen the following July. In addition there were another two live tracks on it for when I recorded them opening for Ol’ Dirty Bastard three months before this show. They even threw in Top Ramen’s freestyle at the beginning of the Lyricist Lounge the month before this show, when he came up on stage with a bunch of other random rappers to spit for three minutes. I know that wasn’t multi-track recorded on the ADATs, so I have to assume they simply used the DAT monitor mix.

Upon re-listening to the album again, I felt a tinge of nostalgia for these suburban white hip hop knuckleheads. Sure, they weren’t Hiero, but as I always said, they got better as the years went on. BOAC, Safari, Top Ramen, and the others clearly took a page from the Beastie Boys, but hey, everybody loves the B-Boys. They chose wisely who to emulate. And I have to face the fact that I saw these guys a lot back then, recording them a whopping seven times opening for all manner of hip hop royalty during my tenure at the Hall. Now that I think about it, I saw them there more times than anybody, easily. I especially am thankful for their meticulous detail in the liner notes of their album, documenting each and every song, where and when it was recorded. I’ve complained time and again about bands releasing live albums without so much as a year or location it was recorded, much less a specific date, venue, or who actually was running the tape decks that night. This pisses me off tenfold when it is with stuff that Pete and I recorded.

And like Hiero, The Earthlings themselves were having the time of their lives performing to the home crowd. It was hard not to like them when they were up there, all smiles, with a bunch of their cheering friends and family in the audience. I doubt they got a better reception anywhere else in the country. On “Sojourn Response”, you can hear one of them goading the crowd saying they can get “louder than Albuquerque!” Yes, they were only on these bills because little Boots, calling himself DJ Bootleg, the owner’s son and stage manager at the Hall was in the band and they all knew it. But seriously, no one can blame them for taking advantage of the situation. Show biz is cruel and fickle enough. I appreciated that they performed with a live bass player and little Boots’ samples were actually clever from time to time. He was a fan of the early “Transformers” cartoon as I was and used bits from the series. They definitely got their folks in the audience pumped up that night during their song, “That’s How It Goes”, getting them to chant and fill in the blanks for some of the lyrics. This would be the last time I’d get to record Hiero at the Hall, though Del and Casual would play there doing their solo stuff later the following year, and I’d see all of them together again twice at The Fillmore and once at The Warfield in years to come. I’d definitely see Del plenty of times in the future as well, playing solo, doing the Deltron 3030 project, and once with the Gorillaz. 

Cradle Of Filth, Enthroned, Sadistic Intent, Impaled, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., October 14, 1998

SETLIST : Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids, Summer Dying Fast, Funeral At Carpathia, A Gothic Romance (Red Roses For The Devil’s Whore), The Forest Whispers My Name, Queen Of Winter Dethroned, The Twisted Nails Of Faith, Desire In Violent Overture, Malice Through The Looking Glass, Dusk & Her Embrace, The Black Goddess Rises, (encore), Black Metal, The Eve The Art Of Witchcraft

The bands coming to the Maritime continued to come at a steady pace, bringing every manner of genre through, including a lot of metal, in this case, black metal. The broad genre of metal was splitting farther and farther leaving this one branch of dark, theatrical types to be led by such bands as Cradle Of Filth. Carrying on the vampirish makeup and overt anarchic and confrontational theatricality of such predecessors as Alice Cooper and King Diamond, the band from Suffolk in the UK had made a name for themselves in a very short period of time. 

The first band on the bill was Impaled from across the bay in Oakland. Their name is actually a “backronym” which is to say it is a word that is an acronym of an already existing word. Their name mean “Immoral Medical Practitioners And Licentious Evil-Doers”. I guess they have a well deserved bone to pick with the American health care system. They were going through a lot of line up changes during that time, having guitarist Jared Deaver and bassist Ron Dern leave, then adding from Exhumed vocalist Leon Del Muerte and bassist Ross Sewage. Next was Sadistic Intent from L.A, then Entroned from Belgium. They had just released their third album, “The Apocalypse Manifesto”. Their lead guitarist Nornagest was the cousin of the lead singer of Venom, Conrad Cronos. Venom was supposed to play the Hall that July, but the show was cancelled.

It didn’t take long for Cradle Of Filth to make an impression when they began their set. I mean, God, OK, they get points 10 out of ten in effort, but I guess that was the point especially since they were so new, this being their very first US tour. They looked as if their tailor was Pinhead from “Hellraiser”, head to toe in bondage gear, white face make up, and black painted fingernails and lips. They had brought, as many metal bands did those days, an array of lights of their own, theirs being ones on the deck in the back of the stage lighting them from behind. The Cradle had just released their third studio album “Cruelty & The Beast”, a concept album based on the legend of the Hungarian “blood countess” Elizabeth Bathory. They hated the mix on the album and eventually re-released it in 2011 remixed. On the album, there was narration by actress Ingrid Pitt whose first film role was that of her in the Hammer film, “Countess Dracula” in 1977. Well, there was one obsessed fan who thought she was the reincarnation of Bathory and that lead singer, Dani Filth was her prince, and as luck would have it, Dani had an encounter with her recently dumped boyfriend, who was supposed to drive him to a local Walmart on the tour. I can’t report exactly how that encounter was resolved, but one can assume there are some remaining hurt feelings.

I learned that Cradle’s drummer was almost had the same name as me, being Nicholas Barker, just one letter off. He would eventually leave Cradle to join Sadistic Intent, the opening act from that night, in 2011 and ten years later, have planned to return to the band to tour playing the “Cruelty & The Beast” album in its entirety. The first thing that I imagine most people notice about this band is Dani’s voice. Renowned for having a five octave range, which I’m sure he has, one can’t help but notice that he primarily stays between two particular voices. Like Golem, he seems to be one having a discourse between one high pitched scream, similar to that of Billy Corgan when he’s screaming at his loudest. But this voice for Dani, is one that starts at that level of screaming and just remains there. God, he must have a sore throat every time he does that. The second voice drops precipitously down low, being a guttural growl, like a person barely a level above consciousness. I liked that he was backed up by soprano Sarah Jezebel Diva, singing with their country’s Union Jack flag draped above the drum kit. 

All their theatricality that brought them attention, so much so, ultimately in fact produced the most controversial band T-shirt in music history. Around this time, they got it in their head that making a shirt with a nun masturbating on the front and the words “Jesus Is A Cunt” on the back would be a good idea. Yes, maybe after a minute or so, they realized that it might raise a few eyebrows, and even after the first couple printer’s declines to make the said T-shirt, gave them pause to think that this might anger a few people, but they pressed on. They finally found one printer who would do the job, and after paying him discreetly in cash in the back of the shop, they had a bunch and started selling them. 

It didn’t take long for that T-shirt to piss people off, especially the Catholics. Fans in several countries were arrested for wearing it and New Zealand banned it altogether. It didn’t help that when the band was visiting the Vatican then, they were arrested since their keyboardist, Lector, was dressed as a priest, a crime there if you weren’t actually one, and another member was wearing a “I Love Satan” shirt. They had machine guns pointed at them and everything, but when they found out that they were supposed to perform that night in town, they released them to avoid an international incident. Anyway, as you can imagine, the more people talked about it, the more the T-shirts sold, at least 25,000 of them.

Still, I’m happy to report that their show at the Hall that night went off without much ballyhoo. Dani came out in his leather regalia and grabbed his mic with fingers adorned with strange rings and an index finger claw and did his thing without incident. He dedicated the third song of the set, “Funeral At Carpathia” to Jake Beckora from Possessed, the Oakland death metal band which Larry LeLonde from Primus used belong to. Being the top story of the day, Dani also took the time to dedicate the song, “Gothic Romance (Red Roses For The Devil’s Whore)” to Monica Lewinski. Dani described the song, “Desire In Violent Overture” as a “musical excretion” and “Dusk & Her Embrace” as a song about the “retribution of the soul”. You get the idea. The darker these metal bands get, the longer the song titles.

Sevendust, Clutch, Stuck Mojo, Ultraspank, Maritime Hall, SF, Tues., October 13, 1998

I was seeing a lot of Sevendust back then at the Hall, this being the fourth time in only ten months, not to mention their second time with Clutch as well. They had come through headlining on their own that January, then opening two months later with Clutch who headlined that night since Limp Bizkit dropped out of that tour, and then once more that April opening for Coal Chamber. Between those shows and the one Clutch did opening for Slayer that May, there is little much more I can tell you about either of those bands from this show. Sevendust would end up joining Limp Bizkit to play at the disastrous Woodstock ’99 show the following year.

But this time, they brought with them the rap metal band Stuck Mojo from Atlanta. Stuck Mojo had just released their third studio album, “Rising”, which had the title track accompanied by WCW wrestling members Diamond Dallas Page, Raven, and The Flock. That song would go on to be played on WCW Nitro for some time and the image of their champion belt would grace the cover of Stuck Mojo’s album. I had since lost interest in pro wrestling since Wrestlemania 3, but I do respect the economic and social power it continues to amass to this day and their album would be a tiny part of that. Also on the bill was Ultraspank from Santa Barbara who had just put out their first self titled album that March. I would go on to see Sevendust one more time at the Fillmore in 2002, but this would be this last time I’d see Clutch live. They would end up touring together again exactly twenty years later, playing at the Regency, but I didn’t see it. 

23rd Annual International Comedy Competition, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., October 11, 1998

After seeing the testosterone fueled extravaganza of the Family Values tour the night before at the Cow Palace with Korn, Rammstein, and Ice Cube, it was a relief to lighten up with some stand up comedy. Like the year before, it was an easy one to tape, there being only a couple microphones to wrangle. But like the previous time, I didn’t save the tapes for myself, nor can I find any of the footage on line, though I did find some bits from some of the comedians who played that night performing elsewhere and naturally, they all were funny guys. This competition was going into it’s 23rd year, just three years younger than myself at the time and had such notable past entries as Robin Williams, Michael Winslow (the sound effects wizard from the Police Academy movies), SNL alumni Dana Carvey, Rob Schneider, and A. Whitney Brown, as well as Patton Oswalt, Louis C.K., Kevin Pollak, and Ellen DeGereres. 

The competition was once again hosted by veteran San Francisco comedian Will Durst and the winner on this occasion was James P Connolly, a local from San Mateo. He had also tied with comedian Dan Friesen for the win the previous year. James had served in Operation Desert Storm in Iraq where he helped write jokes for his Colonel before coming home to make comedy his profession. I liked his bit where he said if you’re ever late to work, tell your boss that you’re technically not late since you never intended to show up in time in the first place. Though James didn’t go on to the type of fame and fortune as the others I listed earlier, he continues to crack people up to this day performing stand up and appearing on the syndicated “Bob & Tom Radio Show”. Incidentally, I thought it a strange coincidence to see Will Durst the night after seeing Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit perform. I suppose there’s no relation between them, but who knows? It’s a small world.

Family Values Tour ’98: Korn, Rammstein, Ice Cube, Limp Bizkit, Orgy, Cow Palace, SF, Sat., October 10, 1998

SETLISTS :

(ORGY) : Dissention, Gender, Pantomime, Fetisha, Stitches, Blue Monday, Revival

(LIMP BIZKIT) : Cambodia, Pollution, Counterfeit, Thieves, Nobody Loves Me, Let The Attack Begin, Stuck, Faith, Jump Around

(ICE CUBE) : Natural Born Killaz, The Nigga You Love To Hate, Check Yo Self, Fuck Dying, Dow Down, We Be Clubbin, Straight Outta Compton, Fuck The Police, Wicked

(RAMMSTEIN) : Rammstein, Tier, Bestrafe Mich, Weisses Fleisch, Sehensucht, Asche Zu Asche, Du Hast, Buck Dich, Engel

(KORN) It’s On! Twist, Chi, Wicked (with Chino Moreno), A.D.I.D.A.S., Shoots & Ladders – Justin – Predictable – Ball Tongue – Divine – Kill You, B.B.K., Blind, Got The Life, Dead Bodies Everywhere, Faget, (encore), All In The Family (with Fred Durst)

Like I had written about the swing movement recently with the previous Royal Crown Revue show at The Fillmore, the nu metal scene was also in its heyday back then, though with much bigger numbers. Korn had brought the genre to its highest level of commercial popularity when they launched this brief but successful tour, bringing it to the Cow Palace, a venue that can easily hold over 16,000 people . They would make even more money with the Family Values tour the following year at the same place, but for some reason, I missed it, even though Primus was also on the bill for that one. Most likely, I had to work. Sort of the antithesis of the Lilith Tour, this one didn’t have a single female performer on stage all night and let’s just say the men that did perform, with the exception of one or two of the Rammstein guys, were a little butch.

I have made no secret for my hatred of the Cow Palace, despite the talent I’ve seen perform there. The acoustics are atrocious, the atmosphere positively toxic, the neighborhood it’s in is a war zone, and getting in and out of there always would prove tedious at best. All that and the fact that I had to get there for the show to start at 6:30 PM during rush hour traffic all added up to an unpleasant experience on a logistical level. I went with my friend Drew and yes, we got stuck getting in and missed not only Orgy, but Limp Bizkit before we finally made it inside. I wasn’t as upset as Drew, who was a die hard Limp Bizkit fan and I didn’t know Orgy from Adam, but anybody who knows me knows that I never miss opening acts if at all possible, even if I don’t like them and/or have a comp ticket, which was the case on this occasion. I had at least seen Limp Bizkit before also opening for Korn at The Fillmore in 1996 and I’d get to record Orgy the following year at the Maritime. As a sort of consolation prize, I was able to find bootleg recordings of everybody’s set on YouTube including theirs.

Orgy were brand new back then, but already had a hit doing a nu metal cover of New Order’s “Blue Monday”, which they of course played that night. Their guitarist, Ryan Shuck, had previously been in a band with Jonathan Davis, the singer of Korn, called Sexart, when they lived in Bakersfield, before Davis left the band to form Korn in 1993. Orgy’s debut album, “Candyass” was released a couple months before this on the same day Korn put out their “Follow The Leader” album, though they were signed to different labels. Their singer, Jay Gordon, yelled, “Make some noise Oakland!” between songs. Maybe he was giving a shout out to the city across the bay or maybe he really thought he was there at the time. They had a DJ spinning records between acts called DeeJay Punk-Roc, though he mostly spun hip hop songs.

Next up was Limp Bizkit with their already infamous frontman, Fred Durst. His boorish behavior alienated them off Faith No More’s tour the previous October, causing them to be replaced by Lowercase when they came to The Warfield. They went on to tour with Soulfly on their first European tour, then joining the bill on Ozzfest. Lynn Straight, the singer from Snot who would tragically die in a car crash that December, was arrested for indecent exposure during Limp Bizkit’s set at one of those shows when he emerged naked from a prop toilet they had on stage with them. Let it not be said that Fred couldn’t get the crowd’s blood up though, something he had infinite talent for good or for worse. Borrowing the old hip hop trick, he had the crowd split down the middle competing for which side was louder. They did an interesting instrumental interlude called “Let The Attack Begin” which included samples from what sounded like an old science fiction movie before playing “Stuck”. 

Fred asked the crowd, “How many people in San Francisco like Suicidal Tendencies? How many people in San Francisco like Primus? Primus is in the house! Do you guys know I used to live in Fremont?” The audience cheered but gave him a less than lukewarm response when he asked “How many people here like George Michaels?” They all knew their cover of “Faith” was coming next and he responded to them, “That’s fucked up. He’s still young man.” At the end of their set, Fred reminded everyone that it was a general admission show and that everybody could come down to the dance floor which he said earlier was “the biggest floor I’ve ever seen!” before finished with a truly cringeworthy cover of the House Of Pain’s “Jump Around”. Their cover of Ministry’s “Thieves” earlier in the set was at least slightly more tolerable. Now, as you might have gathered, I’m not the biggest fan of Fred or his band, but my friend Drew was and there are plenty of others who feel the same about them. However, I did appreciate their guitarist, Wes Borland, who had a unique style and always dressed up in absolutely bizarre costumes and face paint. Wes had just gotten married to his long time girlfriend Heather McMillan that April, though they would divorce three years later.

Thank God we arrived in time to see Ice Cube. It had been two years since I saw him at The Warfield and a full five years since he had released a new album, this one being, “War & Peace Vol.1 (The War Album)”, which wouldn’t even hit stores for over a month later. His DJ was set up on a giant riser shaped like a skull and Cube came out looking like a steampunk undertaker in a black top hat, dark goggles, and long coat and opened appropriately enough with “Natural Born Killaz”. Cube then pretended to be offended saying that that “the people in the back don’t wanna see Ice Cube. I’m outta this motherfucka’! Peace!”, and walked off stage. His DJ predictably worked up the crowd until he came back and used the frustration to egg them on to raise their middle fingers and chant, “Fuck You, Ice Cube!”, which continued as it always did when he played, “The Nigga You Love To Hate”. Afterwards, Cube admonished the crowd who chanted that, telling them that they had better “Check Yo Self”, then going into that song.

Korn and Cube had collaborated with each other recently, Cube contributing vocals to the song, “Children Of The Korn” on their new album, and Korn backing up Cube for “Fuck Dying” on his new one. So, it made sense that they would tour together, making it a perfect opportunity for one of Korn’s guitarists, I think it was Munky, to come out and play with him for the latter song. There was a strange interlude with a deep, English voice going off about Cube’s crew, the Westside Connection, before they went into their single, “Bow Down”. Cube then did the song, “We Be Clubbin”, a tune that was on the soundtrack for “The Player’s Club”, a movie Cube wrote and directed that came out that March. I never saw it actually, but was mightily impressed with his acting in “Three Kings”, that would come out the following year.

Yes, Cube would do a great deal of acting work in the future, but we were treated to a couple jams from his past when he dusted off N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton” and “Fuck The Police”. Like Limp Bizkit, he divided up the crowd with the other guy rapping with him to see which side was the loudest, even betting $300 that he’d win. He taunted the audience saying, “You all don’t smoke Indo, you smoke Pretend-O”. Taunting aside, I appreciated that Korn had brought him on the bill, exposing the predominately white, suburban crowd to some real hip hop, some there probably for the first time live. Those kids may have not run home and started reading “The Autobiography Of Malcolm X” right away, but it was a start. Cube finished his set with “Wicked” opening it up with the theme song from the movie “Jaws” which I learned researching this was his favorite movie. He joked before walking off stage that he was going to collect his $300 because his side of the crowd was the loudest. We were lucky to see Cube, especially since he would leave to tour ultimately to continue working on his film, “Next Friday”, and be replaced two weeks later by Incubus to finish the tour’s last four dates. I’d see Cube one more time at the Warfield two years later, but sadly haven’t seen perform live since then.

Hip hop music might have been foreign to some of the kids at the show that day, but they would all soon be in for a particularly jarring experience when Rammstein came on. I had already experienced their unique brand of insanity at the Maritime six months before, so I wasn’t surprised to see their singer, Til Lindemann, emerge out on stage in his heavy silver jacket with arms outstretched and engulfed in flames. Like Incubus would be, they too were a replacement on the tour, taking over for Rob Zombie. There were conflicting reports to why Rob dropped out or was dropped, some saying he didn’t think hip hop acts should be on the bill, others citing the exorbitant amounts of money it took to get him and pay his production costs. Either way, he and Korn made amends and toured together later the following year and then again in 2016. Rammstein pretty much played the same stuff as when I saw them, setting off their pyrotechnics again and again, much to the delight of the mosh pit. Til didn’t say anything between songs, but politely thanked the crowd at the end, even saying, “Danke Schon”. 

When the tour ended that Halloween in Worcester, Massachusetts, there was a bit of a dust up when Rammstein played on stage in various stages of nudity except for guitarist Richard Kruspe who was wearing a wedding dress. Near the end of their set that night, Til had grabbed keyboardist Christian “Flake” Lorenz by his leather leash, bent him over, produced a fake plastic dick from his pants, and pretended to sodomize him with it, finally ejaculating some unspecified fluid all over the stage, crowd, and both of them. They got dragged away by the cops and charged with “lewd and lascivious behavior”. Not the kind of stuff people are used to in Worcester I suppose, but a typical Saturday night for the folks on Folsom Street out here. To this day, Til has to explain this incident to customs officials each and every time he enters the country. 

At long last, Korn came out to finish the bill. They had erected a giant steel cage next to the band called the “Korn Kage” which held several of their fans who were lucky enough to be selected through a radio contest. Like I said earlier, their new album, “Follow The Leader”, had just come out and Drew and I were hearing the new songs live for the first time, including their hit, “Freak On A Leash”, a song I’m sure Rammstein could identify with. The video for that song, directed by “Spawn” and “Spider-Man” comic book artist legend Todd McFarlane, would be so successful, it would win Korn a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video as well as two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Editing and Best Rock Video. The album itself would eventually go platinum five times over. There had been no shortage of sex, alcohol, and drugs for the band leading up to this tour, but they were starting to clean up their act. Jonathan Davis got sober just before the tour and married Renee Perez, though they divorced two years later. Also, guitarist Brian Welch and bass player Fieldy would each become fathers to their second daughters, Brian’s daughter Jennea born that July, Fieldy’s daughter Olivia born later that December. 

As always, Davis busted out his bagpipes to introduce the song “Blind”. I learned he was inspired to play them after seeing Scotty play them for the funeral for Spock at the end of “Star Trek II : The Wrath Of Khan”. Strangely enough, Korn also played Ice Cube’s song, “Wicked”, that night joined on stage by Chino Moreno from The Deftones. One more cover, or at least part of one, they sang a verse of Cypress Hill’s “We Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That” before going into “Got The Life”. For the encore, Fred Durst came out to do “All In The Family” with them, a song comprised of he and Jonathan ripping on each other playfully. Light hearted as it was to them, the song did piss people off who considered their banter homophobic and Davis later confessed that this song was “dumbest fuckin’ track Korn ever did”. At least Drew and I got some consolation being able to see Fred do one song that night. 

Continuing their reputation of inspiring controversy, Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Ice Cube would all take part in the disastrous Woodstock ’99 festival the following year, Durst getting more than some of the blame for inciting that immense crowd to riot. But on the lighter side of the news, Korn did however take part in a hilarious episode of “South Park” aired later that October titled, “Korn’s Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery”, a clever parody of the old “Scooby Doo” mysteries with guest voices. I would see Limp Bizkit headlining Live 105’s B.F.D. festival at Shoreline two years later and then once again opening for Korn for my third time at The Warfield in 2003. Finally, in a strange coincidence, the comedy competition I would record at the Maritime the night after this show was hosted by veteran San Francisco comedian Will Durst. I wonder if he and Fred are related…

Agnostic Front, Dropkick Murphys, Maximum Penalty, One Man Army, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., October 9, 1998

I was a little familiar with Agnostic Front from my friend Hefe, who had been a fan of theirs since we were kids in high school. The New York City band had been one of the pioneers of hardcore punk music since 1980, providing the soundtrack for the (non-racist) skinhead movement. Agnostic Front had disbanded briefly in 1992 and reformed in 1996 and they had just released their fifth studio album, “Something’s Gotta Give”, three months before this show. In a strange coincidence, I had just seen Royal Crown Revue at The Fillmore singing the Louis Prima swing standard of the same name as well as the Beastie Boys a few weeks before that singing their own song of the same name. The good lord was trying to tell me something maybe.

The first opener was One Man Army, a local punk band that had been recently discovered by Green Day’s Billy Joe Armstrong. Their frontman, Jack Dalrymple, had been playing guitar for the Swingin’ Utters and had just dropped their first album, “Dead End Stories”, just ten days before this show. They were good, definitely taking a page from The Clash. Next up were Agnostic Front’s fellow New York hardcore punks, Maximum Penalty, who had been taken under their wing. The Front gave them their first matinee show opening for them at CBGB’s and took them on their first European tour. Maximum Penalty were some pretty tough looking guys, especially the singer James Williams, a big, bald mountain of a man. But I was impressed by the quality of his voice. That guy could really sing. US Bombs were listed on the bill for the Maritime’s monthly poster, but they didn’t make that show for some reason. 

But the band who stole the show would be the last opening act, the celtic punk band, the Dropkick Murphys from Quincy, Massachusetts. They derived their name from an alcohol detox center in their hometown, which is ironic considering their hard drinking fans. It would be the first time I’d be seeing them. The Murphys had just picked up their new singer, Al Barr who had spent the previous decade as the singer of a band called The Bruisers. He had replaced singer Mike McColgan only months before, who had left the band to become a fireman and later sing in the band, the Street Dogs. They were rowdy and fun, Al crooning and growling in his wife beater shirt, taking the sound of Pogues and adding a heaping spoonful of machismo. I would see them five years later opening for the Sex Pistols at The Warfield with the Reverend Horton Heat and later headlining there in 2005. They would forever be known for their song, “I’m Shipping To Boston”, which would be used as sort of the de facto theme song for Martin Scorsese’s Oscar winning film, “The Departed”, in 2006. But back then, they were brand new to folks on the west coast and I was proud to get to record them before they got big. In typical Maritime Hall fashion, Boots screwed up the monthly poster at least once, having them listed as the “Dropkick Murphy’s” with an apostrophe.

Sepultura, Vision Of Disorder, Earth Crisis, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., October 2, 1998

SETLIST : Spit, Choke, Rumors, Slave New World, Attitude, Cut-Throat, Old Earth, Floaters In Mud, Biotech Is Godzilla (with Jello Biafra), Forkboy (with Jello Biafra), Arise, Dead Embryonic Cells, Troops Of Doom, We Who Are Not As Others, Boycott, Breed Apart, Refuse/Resist, Territory, Inner Self/Beneath The Remains, (encore), Tribus/Kaiowas, Lookaway (with Mike Patton), (encore), Roots Bloody Roots, Against

It had been six long years since I’d seen Sepultura when they opened for Ministry at that unforgettable night at the Bill Graham Civic. As you might remember if you read the stuff I wrote about that one, I had accidentally taken a tab of acid a day early, showed up to the venue to find it empty, panicked, then collected myself and went to cool off at the Castro watching “Casablanca”. The show the next day and when they headlined the Warfield two years later were the only times I’d see Sepultura with their original singer Max Cavalera, though I’d seen him only five months before this show at the Maritime with his new band Soulfly. Sepultura was now touring with their brand new singer, Derrick Green, and I had to admit he was an impressive replacement for Max. He was tall, muscular, and handsome with a head of immaculate dreadlocks and not only had a powerful voice, but could also play guitar and percussion. He had a set of congas on stage with him which he pounded with mallets for a song or two.

Opening that night were two bands from New York, Earth Crisis from Syracuse and Vision Of Disorder from Long Island. Earth Crisis was a straight-edge hardcore punk band that were vegan and promoted animal rights. They had named themselves after the reggae band Steel Pulse’s album from 1984 and had just released their first major label album that September called, “Breed The Killers” and had just finished a tour alongside Hatebreed earlier that year. Rob Flynn of Machinehead who had just played the Hall three weeks to the day before this show had contributed to the album, lending his vocals to their song “One Against All” and he being a local from across the bay in Oakland, did them the honor of joining them on stage that night to sing along to that tune. In another strange coincidence, guitarist Logan Maher had left Soulfly to join Machinehead that year. Vision Of Disorder was also on the Roadrunner label with Sepultura and Earth Crisis and had just released their second album, “Imprint”. I liked their singer, Matt Baumbach, who covered in an impressive array of tattoos and screeched like Ad Rock from the Beastie Boys all through their set. 

Sepultura had brought their own stage lighting with them, a rack above and behind the band and a couple triangular truss racks on the deck on stage in front of their guitar amps with up lights attached to them. With their new singer, they were touring with a new album called, “Against”, which they had recorded in their native Brazil and it would hit the stores a week after this show. The mosh pit was predictably cray-cray sending up stage diver after stage diver, so much so, that by the end of the show there were at least one or two “redcoats” up front with their baseball hats on backwards, stationed there catching and dispatching them as fast as they could. 

We were treated to not one but two special guests that night, the first being Jello Biafra from the Dead Kennedys. As you might remember, I was all too familiar with Jello, having been an intern at his record label, Alternative Tentacles, a couple years before this when I was still in college. He would pop by the Hall and practically every other punk show that came to town, still does, and either hang out and/or join the band for a song or two. This time, he joined Sepultura wearing a Tribe 8 shirt, a hardcore dyke punk band Alternative Tentacles represented, to sing their song, “Biotech Is Godzilla”, then they did a song called “Forkboy” from Jello’s band Lard, which was basically Jello with Ministry as his band. That was one of my favorite Lard songs and I never tire or hearing it.

The second guest that night was none other than Mike Patton from Faith No More, amongst other musical projects.  In fact, one of the guitarists that night was wearing a T-Shirt from his band , Fantomas, a super-group which Mike formed just earlier that very same year with Buzz Osborne from The Melvins, Dave Lombardo from Slayer, and Trevor Dunn From Mr. Bungle. I’d see Mike play with Faith No More for their last bay area performance at the Warfield, before they split up the following April, though they’ve had reunions since. He joined them for the Sepultura song, “Lookaway”, opening the tune by making his voice sound like a didgeridoo, then singing in his usual voice, and then did a bunch of vocal tricks, tapping his throat with his fingers,finally finishing exchanging shrieks with Derrick. The crowd was loving it and chanted, “Sep-Ul-Tur-A!” over and over again during the encore breaks. Unfortunately, Sepultura wouldn’t let us record that night, though I was able to get the openers. Often, when a band is new or is breaking in new members they are a little skittish about being taped. Thankfully, there was somebody in the balcony that night who got their whole set on a video camera and posted in on YouTube.

Soul Coughing, War., Wed., September 30, 1998

SETLIST : Screenwriter’s Blues, White Girl, Collapse, (unknown), (unknown), Maybe I’ll Come Out, (unknown), (unknown), (unknown), Circles, I Miss The Girl, Bus To Beelzebub, (unknown), (unknown), (encore), Mr. Bitterness, Rolling, Super Bon Bon

I had a few days off between shows to rest for which I was grateful. September had been a doozy, me doing 17 shows in only 30 days and 11 of those shows were in a 12 day period. Soul Coughing was a good way to end the month for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, on an emotional level it helped me further closure with my grief over the untimely death of my friend Casey the year before. Soul Coughing playing The Fillmore that August was the last show I saw before he was tragically hit by a car and killed while riding his bike in downtown San Francisco the next day. David Byrne was the first show I saw after the accident and eventually seeing him as well at The Fillmore in 2001 also helped coming to terms with my grief. But on a happier note, seeing Soul Coughing at the end of this month was relieving since they were such a unique and talented band and because there was only a DJ opening, ushering the night was a breeze.

Like so often when a band is going through turmoil, I was blissfully unaware. The frontman of the group, Mike Doughty, was in throws of heroin, opiate, and alcohol addiction and he wasn’t getting along with anybody, especially his bandmates. They had literally just released their third and final studio album, “El Oso”, the day before this show, which is one of the reasons I only knew about half of their setlist. Nobody could have guessed the personal hell Mike was going through that night since he and the band were in perfect form and amongst a full house of devoted fans. I liked how they would splice in ransom samples between songs this time around. As I mentioned in the show four days prior to this, Royal Crown Revue at The Fillmore, that the opening act that night, The Crosstops, coincidentally also had a “Beelzebub” song which I thought was eerily strange. 

At the end of their set, Mike said, “We are Soul Coughing and we bid you adieu!” They came back and Mike joked, “Ah yes! Spontaneity, thy name is encore!” and they did three more songs, finishing with their hit, “Super Bon Bon”. For that song, he had the crowd repeatedly shout “Candy Bar!” a bunch of times after he did and also had them yell out “Through!” when he did the line, “Move aside and let the man go – Through!” It was a brilliant show and like the Revue four nights before, I was pissed there was no poster. I’d see Soul Coughing one more time also at The Warfield, five months later, playing alongside Everclear, Redman, and DJ Spooky at the Snocore tour show, but shortly afterwards, they broke up for good.

Royal Crown Revue, Fill., SF, Sat., September 26, 1998

SETLISTS :

(THE CROSSTOPS) : Nasty Dan, Beelzebub, I Was Drunk, Let’s Truck Together, Truck Drivin’ Man, Road Boner Blues, Bill Clinton’s Got A Boner, I’d Like To Fuck Your Brains Out, Sadie Divine, UFO & The Trucker

(ROYAL CROWN REVUE) :  The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly Intro, Zip Gun Bop, The Walkin’ Blues, The Contender, Who Dat?, Work Baby Work, Walkin’ Like Brando, Big Boss Lee, Spanky’s In The Kitchen, Something’s Gotta Give, Hey Pachuco!, I Live The Life I Love I Love The Life I Live, Morning Light, Salt Peanuts, There’ll Be No Next Time, Barflies On The Beach, Beyond The Sea, (encore), Hot Rod, Medley – Flintstones – Rumble

The swing music revival was having its heyday back then, though it is difficult to determine exactly when a musical trend comes and goes. Often musical movements have a significant death or series of deaths like that of Kurt Cobain in 1994 or of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison in quick succession in 1970 that one could mark the end of their genres era. The music never really dies, but it’s not quite the same. Swing music never got stadium big, but it was prevalent enough back then to embed itself into popular culture of the time with movies like “Swingers” in 1996. It was seeing the Royal Crown Revue’s residency at The Derby in L.A. which inspired Jon Favreau to make that 1996 comedy and both the Revue and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy played songs in it. Also, the Revue had a prominent role in the Jim Carey film, “The Mask”, playing their hit song, “Hey Pachuco!” as he and Cameron Diaz danced to it. This would be the second band that I’d see within a month that was in a movie with Jim, the other being Cannibal Corpse who I recorded at the Maritime, a very different band indeed. They played their song, “Hammer Smashed Face” in “Ace Ventura : Pet Detective”. I suppose if those bands ever meet, they’d at least have that in common and trade stories.

Swing music does have some things in common with punk and metal though. Back in the 30’s and 40’s, there was no shortage of repressed religious types to declare the genre as the devil’s music. Whoa, would they be in for a shock as the years went on. But the swing acts of the 90’s had quite a few ex-punks among their ranks and the Royal Crown Revue had a few of their own. Mark Stern, drummer of the Hollywood punk band Youth Brigade, helped found the band along with his brothers, Adam, Shawn, and Jamie, playing bass, guitar, and alto sax respectively. Although they were doing well, obviously as they were headlining The Fillmore for the second time in two years, they were mired in legal wrangling, first with the band The Amazing Royal Crowns. They sued them claiming that the similarities in their names was causing confusion with their fans and promoters. They relented eventually and agreed to change their name to simply, The Amazing Crowns. Also, they in turn were sued over their name by Royal Crown Cola of all folks. What a mess. At least Royal Crown whiskey stayed out of it. But the Revue were signed to Warner Brothers and had just released their second major label album “The Contender” for this tour that year, so things were otherwise looking up for them.

But as usual, I was blissfully unaware of it all when I saw this show. I was just glad to hear some real organic music played by folks with instruments after recording the electronic rave stylings of The Crystal Method the night before at the Maritime. A real highlight of the evening for me was the opening act, The Crosstops, a rockabilly band with a penchant for drinking and womanizing. Their first EP, just released the year before was called, “Drinkin’, Fightin’, Fuckin’, & Truckin’” for crying out loud. Like swing music, rockabilly was also considered the devil’s music in it’s day and likewise was populated often by ex-punks during this time. The frontman of The Crosstops was Barry Ward, one of the founding members of Rich Kids On L.S.D. Last time I saw him, he was throwing up on stage opening for Gwar at The Warfield in 1994. He was calling himself “The Wooper” in this band and was joined on stage by a fellow named Porkchop and another called Chatty.

I initially mistook their song, “I’d Like To Fuck Your Brains Out”, as a song done by Michael Shelley who opened for They Might Be Giants at The Fillmore the month before, since the recording of them playing it at their soundcheck mysteriously ended up on that show. I thought it suspicious since it didn’t sound like Michael, but didn’t figure it out until I eventually got to this show. I loved the hilarious chorus that went, “I’d like to fuck your brains out doncha’ know, I’d like to eat your pussy, lick your titties to and fro, you make my body tingle, you make my peeter grow, I’d like to fuck your brains out doncha’ know!” It’s vulgarity was only matched by its catchiness.Trust me, once you hear it, that chorus is in your head for life. But it wasn’t the only raunchy tune they would play that night for sure.

As most people remember, our president at the time was embroiled in an embarrassing sex scandal and well, it didn’t go unnoticed by The Crosstops. They did a real quick number for as The Wooper described “our pervy president” that went, “Bill Clinton’s got a boner that just won’t go away. Seems like there’s another story every other day on how he’s getting blow jobs and how he’s sportin’ wood. He might be a pervert but to me that’s good cus’ I’d rather have a president that tries to bust a nut than hear the Reaganomics fuckin’ us up the butt.” Pure poetry. Between songs of sex, trucking, and fornication, they made time to sing one song about the guy downstairs called “Beelzebub”. Coincidentally, I would see Soul Coughing four days later at The Warfield where they would play their song, “Bus To Beelzebub”. Alas, this would be the only time I’d see The Crosstops, but their set was one of the most entertaining openers that I’d ever see.

It was a pretty well sold crowd by the sound of it and as always, there were plenty of swing enthusiasts dressed to the nines in vintage clothing ready to party like it’s 1949. They took to the stage to the recording of Ennio Morricone’s theme from “The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly” and immediately went into their first song, “Zip Gun Bop”. I liked their slick, fast talking singer, Eddie Nichols. The palooka was like a time traveler beamed there from The Copa. He introduced the song, “Who Dat?” saying it was “about a speakeasy where you can smoke”. After playing a bunch of their original stuff, they got to a few covers starting with the Johnny Mercer swing standard “Something’s Gotta Give”. I thought it ironic since I’d just seen the Beastie Boys at Oakland Arena less than two weeks before this and they have a song with that title as well, though quite a different one stylistically. There was also some excellent drum and bass solos for “Hey Pachuco!”, extending the tune almost ten minutes long.

From there, they did covers of “I Live The Life I Love, I Love The Life I Live” by Willie Dixon and “There’ll Be No Next Time” by swing icon Louis Prima. The Revue had just released a live album the previous year called “Caught In The Act” where they debuted their song “Barflies On The Beach” which was their second to last song of their main set that night. The melody was actually a reworking of Prima’s hit “Sing, Sing, Sing”. They finished the set with Bobby Darin’s “Beyond The Sea” then came back for the encore starting it with the feverish instrumental, “Hot Rod”. It eventually morphed into a medley ending with a bit of the theme from “The Flintstones”, finishing it with Link Wray’s “Rumble”. I was disappointed that the show didn’t get a poster at the end of the evening, as I always am when that happens, but I was especially pissed since their show at The Fillmore they did they year before did get one and it was a real good one at that.

The Crystal Method, Taylor, Lunatic Calm, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., September 25, 1998

Like the Goodie Mob who had played at the Hall a few days before, I got to see The Crystal Method on quite a few occasions in a short span of time.  They had played the Maritime at the Electronica Hanukkah the previous December and they came back and played the Warfield just three months later. They brought along an impressive array of lights with them this time, blasting the living shit out of the retinas of anybody up near the front of the stage for sure. Their set was basically same as before, obviously playing their big hit at the time, “Busy Child”. There was another DJ named Taylor and a band from London called Lunatic Calm. They were pretty new then, their debut album “Metropol”, released the year before. I appreciated that Lunatic Calm had a live drummer, a tight one at that, and singer in the band. Their music would be used a few years later in movie soundtracks like “The Matrix”, “Charlie’s Angel’s”, and “Mortal Kombat : Annihilation”.

Though I didn’t save the tapes from this night, I did find a humorous video on YouTube of Lunatic Calm at various stops on the road during that tour with The Crystal Method, mostly between New Mexico and Texas. During their show in Albuquerque, there was a rain storm that caused a leak onto the stage at the ironically named “Sunshine Theater” and they joked that they needed to play while holding umbrellas. It was a little funny to see the fans lined up to get into the venues since the kids back then at those shows used to sport and show off pants with enormously wide pant legs, borderline clown sized. Coincidentally, at one moment in the video on their tour bus, they were listening to Soul Coughing, who’d I see at The Warfield five days after this gig. Though I never saw Lunatic Calm again, I got to see The Crystal Method a couple more times at The Warfield in 2004, one in March and then again in July of that year, yet another close grouping of shows with them.

Goodie Mob, Xzibit, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., September 20, 1998

I was lucky to see these guys as often as I did back then. The Goodie Mob had just played at the Hall four months before this opening for fellow Atlanta “Dungeon Family” contemporaries, Outkast. Also, they had opened for De La Soul there in 1996, who had just played the Hall only days before this show at the Lyricist Lounge. But this would be the last time I’d see them perform, though I’d get to see CeeLo on his own a couple of times, once opening for Musiq at The Fillmore in May of 2002, then again later that July at the Smokin’ Gooves tour at Shoreline, also with Outkast again. They also collaborated with Outkast for the hit single “Black Ice (Sky High)”. This was a prosperous time for CeeLo and the group, but on an emotional level, he was sinking into a bad place then. After his mother passed away, he fell into depression and ultimately left the band. He got through it eventually and went onto superstardom a few years later when he hooked up with Danger Mouse to form Gnarles Barkley and make a fortune with their hit songs “Crazy” and “Fuck You”. Still haven’t seem yet. Listening to him again made me appreciate not only how clever he was with his lyrics, but the speed and clarity of his diction, all with a thick Georgian accent. Very few rappers can perform that clear and fast, Sir Mix-A-Lot is the only one that I think can match him.

Like most hip hop shows at the Maritime, it was totally sold out and one hell of a party. One of the highlights of this show would definitely be the opener, Xzibit. This would be the only time I’d see him before he blew up and got famous, though he was pretty new then. He had recently moved to Los Angeles from New Mexico and had just put out his “40 Dayz & 40 Nightz” album less than a month before this show. I too was impressed by his intelligence, speed, and diction. It doesn’t surprise me that his star rose quickly either. But I wouldn’t have guessed he’d eventually find new fame and fortune from his work on television and in the movies. Most people remember him as the host of the “Pimp My Ride” show on MTV and for a role on the TV series, “Empire”. I admit I never watched either of them, but I knew they were popular as hell, the former running for six full seasons, the latter for five. I did however see Xzibit act in the film “8 Mile” and for one music video that is very, very dear to my heart. 

Seven years after this show, Xzibit acted in a video for the song, “Twisted Transistor” by the heavy metal band, Korn, that my brother Alex also had a key part in. Basically, Korn got four rappers to play the members of the band in a mockumentary about making the video and Xzibit played the bass player, Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu. Snoop Dogg, (who toured with Korn in Lollapalooza the year before this show), David Banner, and Lil’ John playing guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer, drummer David Sylveria, and singer Jonathan David respectively. Alex was playing the part of the erudite British tour manager of the band called “Little Sterling Assoff” who struggles hilariously to keep things running smoothly, having the funny line that he was the “buffer between Korn and reality.” Alex said that Xzibit was good at improv and that when he “threw stuff at him, he could return service you could say”. It figures that hip hop guys would have improv skills, having training doing freestyle and rap battles.

Xzibit berates Alex in the beginning over being given a pink colored bass guitar, then vomits into a bowl of potato chips. The band is being interviewed afterwards and Xzibit said that Korn was “like BBQ, different types of meat, but smothered in the same sauce”. Later, he’s woken up in the tour bus covered in empty, crushed beer cans and accidentally opens the bus bathroom door to find Alex sitting on the toilet. Xzibit pukes again during a video within the video shoot and there’s an epilogue at the end with the caption for him, “Fieldy won the first gold medal in Extreme Projectile Vomiting at the X Games with a record 12 meter hurl”. I guess Fieldy had a reputation for vomiting a lot, but he’s cleaned up since and is a Born Again Christian now. Anyway, it’s a very funny video, directed by veteran music video virtuoso Dave Meyers and frankly, I think it is one of Korn’s best songs. And lo and behold, as luck would have it, I got to see Korn three weeks after this show at the Cow Palace headlining the Family Values tour along with Ice Cube and Rammstein.

Dee Snider’s Strangeland Tour : Soulfly, Snot, Hed (PE), Day In The Life, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., September 19, 1998

One not need be a fan of heavy metal to know of Dee Snider, whose nightmarish harlequin visage as lead singer of Twisted Sister was burned into the memory of all who had so much of a glance of it back in the 1980’s. Though I didn’t think Twisted Sister was the best metal band around back then, I did appreciate his theatrical flair and the fact that he was freaking out the Moral Majority no end back then. I especially admired Dee’s contribution to the fight against music censorship, his efforts adding to a respectable and diverse roster of artists ranging from John Denver to 2 Live Crew. It was hard not like Dee, he is a natural showman and his gravitation towards the silver screen would not come to anyone’s surprise. He and his band had already made a famous cameo in the seminal film comedy, “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure”, but this time he had gone so far as to pen his own script, produce, and star as the villain in his slasher flick, “Strangeland”.

The film hadn’t even been released in the theaters, coming out 13 days after this show and I suppose it was a good thing since by all accounts, it was a stinker. Rotten Tomatoes has it listed with an anemic 6% rating, citing its terrible direction, laughable make up effects, and bad acting, despite having such notable thespians as Linda Cardellini, Elizabeth Pena, Amy Smart, and Freddie Kruger himself, Robert Englund. I haven’t seen it and have no desire to after learning about it, but I have to give Dee credit for having the vision to do one of the first films to address the dangers of meeting strangers via Internet chatrooms. It also helped bring about the trend of “torture porn” horror films such as “Hostel” and the “Saw” movies to follow. No offense to Dee or any of the talented people who made them. I like horror films as much as the next guy, but watching people being tortured, especially innocent people, really doesn’t do anything for me other than make me queazy. But hats off to Dee for making it happen and one couldn’t help but be impressed at the look of his character, Captain Howdy, meticulously adorned with numerous tattoos and an baffling amount of body piercings. It took about 10 hours in the make up chair to make him look like that, a patient man Mr. Snyder. There had been rumors of a remake in the works a few years ago, but as of today, all plans have been scrapped.

But this isn’t about the movie, it’s about the show. Dee had premiered this tour with an opening show in L.A. at the Key Club, but Static X was the headliner instead of Soulfly. The show at the Maritime would be the first show of the promotional tour to follow starting a couple weeks afterwards. Soulfly had just played the Hall the previous May, also with Snot and Hed (PE) opening and this tour was essentially the same all around, with the exception of the addition of the first opener, Day In The Life. They had played the Hall the previous April as well opening for Coal Chamber, so I was familiar with all of them. Each band had a song on the film’s soundtrack and Dee being Dee, was able to “scare” up quite an impressive amount of talent to add to it such as Sevendust, Megadeth, Pantera, Anthrax, Kid Rock, System Of A Down, and Marilyn Manson. One can easily see that Dee was a big influence on Marilyn, his look and his music.

It was a rowdy night, lots of action in the mosh pit just like the last time and they pretty much played all the same stuff. I really have to say it was an honor to meet Dee, who was there to emcee the show. He was very polite and friendly to me and I’ve never forgotten that. Dee was the belle of the ball and there were no shortage of fans and friends orbiting around him the entire evening. Speaking of “Strange”, in a strange double coincidence, Soulfly’s disgruntled recently ex-guitarist, Logan Maher, had just been at the Hall playing with Machinehead eight days before this show and less than two weeks later, frontman Max Cavalera’s old band, Sepultura, would also play there on their first tour with their new singer, Derrick Green. Small world, eh? Got to hear a lot of those songs twice. But this show will forever remain a bittersweet memory to me since it would be the last time I’d see Lynn Strait, the singer of Snot, alive and thus the last time I’d see them perform as well. Lynn would fall victim to a car crash less than two months later along with his dog, Dobbs the boxer, who had graced the cover of Snot’s debut album, “Get Some”. They were a great band, one of the founders of the “nu metal” genre, and still don’t get the credit I feel they deserve.

 

KVHW, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., September 18, 1998

SETLIST : (Set 1), Bad Hair, Slumber, Hillbillies On PCP, Spring Water, Why Can’t We All Just Samba?, Pandora’s Box, I’m So Lonely I Could Cry, (Set 2), Shotgun House – High Heeled Sneakers – Shotgun House, Boom-Digi-Di, Cissy Strut, Tangled Hangers, City Of Tiny Lights, It’s Impossible, (encore), It’s Up To You

My exhaustion from the countless shows with guitarist extraordinaire Steve Kimock’s other band, Zero, has long been documented, so I won’t go into that. But this time he was playing with a new group called KVHW. As you might have guessed, the name is an abbreviation, each letter the first initial of each member’s last name. Obviously, the K is for Kimock. Joining him was Bobby Vega on bass, Alan Hertz on drums, and Ray White also on guitar as well as vocals, they all being the VHW. Though along with Vega, the band was already half Zero, the others were just enough to tweak it out of the hippie zone to make them interesting. Alan had played drums with a number of jazz fusion acts like Garaj Mahal and Ray White had been a longtime collaborator and touring musician with Frank Zappa during the 70s and 80s. Ray would continue to honor Frank’s legacy after his death, touring with his son Dweezil in the Zappa Plays Zappa band. 

Together, these guys played a variety of original songs, Steve’s songs, covers of Zappa and others. They did a spot on rendition of The Meter’s “Cissy Strut” that night. It was the first and one of the only times the Brotherhood Of Light guys up in the balcony busted out a third oil plate projector and aimed it dead center on the stage, blasting their psychedelic projection onto a large sheet draped along the back wall. On top of that, they had a third video projector splashing stuff on it as well. Being a fairly new project, having only formed that January, people weren’t really familiar with them and the show wasn’t that well sold, hardly at all really, but being a hippie show, Pete was there to do the recording. Pete was showing up less and less as time went on, doing only two shows out of the ten the Hall had that month. Since it was just the four musicians on stage playing two sets with no opening act, it was easy as pie. 

I liked Ray’s voice and thought he was a pleasant guy, cracking jokes with the band and the audience between songs. After “Pandora’s Box”, he chuckled, “if that doesn’t deliver you from childhood angst, nothing will”. He also wished somebody in the crowd named Jason a happy birthday at the end of the first set. Steve was his usual subdued self, doing most of his guitar work sitting on a stool, but he did stand for a couple songs to play on a slide guitar, one of my favorite instruments to hear live. The tinge of funk and fusion was a welcome departure from the sounds of Zero and I had the honor of recording KVHW again personally when they played with Jazz Is Dead at the Hall the following April. Having recorded them both by then, Pete let me have that one. But this musical project was a short lived one. They would also do a couple gigs each at the Great American and The Fillmore in 1999, but they all went their separate ways at the end of the year. But being hippies, there remains plenty of bootlegs of their stuff around including an amateur video of their set that night on YouTube.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, 16 Horsepower, War., Thur., September 17, 1998

SETLIST : Far From Me, Do You Love Me?, Lime Tree Arbour, Red Right Hand, Tupelo, Brompton Oratory, Let Love In, From Her To Eternity, West Country Girl, The Mercy Seat, The Weeping Song, Nobody’s Baby Now, Into My Arms, Henry Lee, Where The Wild Roses Grow, Deanna, (encore), Plain Gold Ring, Stagger Lee, (encore), The Ship Song, Your Funeral My Trial

The gaunt, melancholy, Gothic idol Mr. Cave was booked for two sold out shows at The Warfield and as much as I’d have liked to have seen them both, I could only catch the second night, since I was at the Maritime the previous evening, recording the Lyricist Lounge with the Black Eyed Peas, De La Soul, and a fresh faced young man by the name of Eminem. Though an entirely different scene altogether, Nick Cave had been familiar with touring with hip hop acts, having spent the summer of 1994 touring with acts like Tribe Called Quest and the Beastie Boys on Lollapalooza, which had been the last time I’d see him and The Bad Seeds play. Most people agree that his playing that tour in broad daylight in the summer heat was incongruous to their dark, vampirish persona and sound, but it did expose them to unfamiliar people like myself, the few there who would appreciate his work and become fans. Yes, it had been over four long years since I saw his gloomy ass take the stage, but by then I had become a true believer, snatching up every album of his I could find, including his former band, The Birthday Party. By this show, his previous album, “The Boatman’s Call” had been out for a year and half and he’d just released a “Best Of” compilation that May and this time, I’d be seeing him indoors and in the cool of the evening.

On the first night, Clovis De La Floret with Vudi, the guitarist from American Music Club, opened, but on the second night was 16 Horsepower an Alt-Country band from Denver, who I’d seen open for Shane MacGowan & The Popes at The Fillmore two years before. 16 Horsepower’s sound fit well as an opening act for Nick Cave and one could clearly see and hear his influence on them. They had just replaced guitarist Jeffrey Paul Norlander with their touring guitar tech, Steve Taylor. It’s surprising how often touring tech guys would fill in and even replace members of bands, but as they say, necessity is the mother of invention. I liked 16 Horsepower and most bands that would play with an accordionist, reminding me of gypsy music or sea shanties. Mr. Cave was going through a transitional phase then personally since the time I saw him last. He had divorced his wife Viviane Carneiro in 1996, followed by a bit of a romantic fling with P.J. Harvey. Nick dedicated the song, “Do You Love Me?” to Viviane that night and one could gather that the brooding ballad “Into My Arms” which he finished his set with had plenty to do with both her and P.J. But thankfully, he would soon meet Susie Beck, a Viviane Westwood model who had been the lady on the cover of The Damned’s goth rock classic album, “Phantasmagoria”. She would go on to model on the cover with Nick of the Bad Seeds album, “Push The Sky Away”, in 2013, naked as a jay bird. Susie and Nick would marry a year after this show and they would have twin sons, Arthur and Earl, together a year later. Tragically, Arthur would later die at the age of 15, accidentally falling off of cliff near Brighton, UK.

It was good to see Nick after such a long time and to get close up front on the dance floor. The addition of violin virtuoso Warren Ellis from the Dirty Three to the band was a stroke of genius and he still plays with him to this day, even collaborating with him in a number of film soundtracks such as “The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford”, in my opinion one of the greatest film scores of all time. Warren did a scorching solo during the usually subdued, “Plain Gold Ring” during the encore. It was also nice to hear a handful of his newer songs, tender ballads such as “Lime Tree Arbour”, “Brompton Oratory”, and “West Country Girl”. Such tunes made the crowd shut up and listen too, which I always appreciated. They also played “Where The Wild Roses Grow”, a tune that had been a sultry duet he had recorded with fellow Australian, pop diva Kylie Minogue, an unlikely, though musically beautiful pairing. But it was wishful thinking at its worst to hope that Kylie would be there that night to sing it with him and she wasn’t. Mr. Cave is mostly all business on stage, though never rude, merely saying a polite thank you or thank you very much between songs. They did, however,  do a funny bit for the encore before “Deanna” where the drummer, Thomas Wylder, did a few false starts of it. Nick introduced him and they eventually did it. It would be another three years until I’d see Mr. Cave again, playing for once without the Bad Seeds band at the Palace Of Fine Arts for two nights. But he would return with them the following year in 2002 to the Warfield to play another two nights and I made damn sure to catch both of those as well. Thankfully, those shows got a poster because these shows didn’t.

Lyricist Lounge : Black Eyed Peas, De La Soul, Syndicate, Rah Sun, Ras Kass, Eminem, Last Emperor, Degree, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., September 16, 1998

SETLISTS :

(EMINEM) : Scary Movie, My Name Is, Bad Meets Evil, Role Model, Just Don’t Give A Fuck

(DE LA SOUL) : Chanel No.Fever, Ego Trippin’, Itsoweezee, Jenifa Taught Me, Buddy, Afro Connection at A Hi-5, Sh.Fe.

(BLACK EYED PEAS) : Movement, Fallin’ Up, Say Goodbye, Communication, Que Dices?, Joints & Jam, Head Bobs, (encore), Freestyle with Wyclef Jean

By this time, I’d seen my share of hip hop at the Hall, but this was a big one. The Lyricist Lounge was the brainchild of promoters Anthony Marshall and Danny Castro from New York City. From this festival’s humble beginnings as a modest open mic night there in 1991, they amassed an impressive line up of talent for their very first tour, rotating artists for every date. They would take the tour to L.A. to play the House Of Blues the day after this show, switching out headliner, the Black Eyed Peas, with Slick Rick. On this day, it happened to be Anthony’s birthday and it was quite a party indeed. The critics of artistic merits of hip hop were quickly losing ground to the undeniable truth of its commercial success. Almost every rap show booked at the Hall sold out including this one. We were lucky to get the Lyricist Lounge, this being one of only 11 cities the tour would visit. Before the show began, they had projected the words, “Hip Hop Is No Longer Homeless” on the giant screens on the sides of the Maritime’s walls. 

Danny would emcee the show for most of the evening and he started it off by inviting random artists in the house to come on stage and do some rhymes for three minutes each. There were a handful I recognized such as Top Ramen from Little Boots’, the son of Maritime’s boss, band The Earthlings, members of 7 Gin, but most were new to me like Realism, Sauce, E.P.I.C., and a couple whose names I missed completely. I’d see 7 Gin open for Xzibit at the Hall the following year and it being the Maritime, had plenty of nights with Top Ramen and The Earthings. The dreadlocked Mr. Castro thanked the open mic artists and made jokes about how cold it was in San Francisco, saying having come from New York, he had brought his bathing suit and slippers “thinking it was beach weather”, but “it’s like winter! It’s gonna snow out here!” He then whipped out the crowd bringing out a large cardboard box and egging on the audience asking them to guess what was in it. Danny opened it and started throwing around Lyricist Lounge T-Shirts to whoever would scream the loudest. There was plenty of noise going around and by the time he got to the last few shirts, he had to urge those struggling to get one not to fight over them. He joked that he hadn’t slept for three days and praised the scent of marijuana in the air that night, saying that they “don’t have bud like that in NYC!”

Keeping track of the roster of talent at any hip hop show always proved to be a challenge, but for this one, it was practically impossible, except for the last few acts. So, for a long while, I didn’t even label the artists on the various tapes I was recording with in the beginning and saved the ADATs for the headliners. This would prove to be a mistake for one particular artist, a fresh faced young man, a few months younger than myself in fact, calling himself Eminem, but I’ll get to him later. Throughout the night, one artist I did know who stayed on stage most of the night was DJ Maceo from De La Soul who spun records between acts and basically was the glue holding this willy nilly cavalcade of stars together. I was quite familiar with him and his compatriots in De La by then, they having played the Hall twice before already, once in September of ’96, one of my first shows recording there, and then again the following April. They had been non stop touring since releasing “Stakes Is High” in ’96, but would eventually release new material a couple years later with “Art Official Intelligence : Mosaic Thump”. Though all three members of De La were only a couple years older than me, they were already becoming veterans of the genre, having ten years of work under their belts.

One of the opening acts that night that made an impression on me was the Last Emperor from Philadelphia, who followed the first act, Degree. Last Emperor had been a protege of Dr. Dre, as Eminem was, and he had recently signed him to his new record label, Aftermath, and his talent reflected the good Dr.’s eye for lyrical genius. He had excellent diction, was hilarious, and left me and the fans screaming for more. Danny introduced him shouting, “Let’s get ready to rumble!” and the Last Emperor recited the famous intro from The Doors, “Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin…” I appreciated that his songs took some imaginative turns like one of them about turning into animals and another about comic book characters battling rappers like GZA fighting Dr. Strange, G.I. Joe and COBRA battling the Boot Camp Click, Duke versus Buckshot, and so forth. I especially liked his song, “The World Of Suzi Wong”, its chorus a definite ear worm. This would be the only time I’d see the Last Emperor, but he’s still around making music and if he ever came back to town, I’d definitely check him out and encourage others to do so. 

Now, to get to that fresh faced young man. Most of the people there that night like myself had no idea who Eminem was. His breakthrough album, “The Slim Shady LP” wouldn’t even be released for another five months, which would chalk up Grammys for Best Rap Album and Best Solo Performance for “My Name Is”, and catapult him to fame and fortune. In fact, when his set started, I assumed the main artist was his side man, Royce Da 5’9”, who he had met the previous December and collaborated with for his single, “Bad Meets Evil”. But I quickly saw that this scrawny, white kid waving around a white towel for the opening song, “Scary Movie”, was something altogether different. From his poverty stricken origins in Detroit, Eminem had gone from being fired from his job at Gilbert’s Lodge restaurant days before his infant daughters’ birthday in March of ‘97, to placing 2nd in a “Rap Olympics” in L.A., to having his demo heard by Dr. Dre, to the Maritime. It took him only a matter of a minute or two to drive the audience bananas with his brilliant lyrics, everybody waving their hands in the air and jumping to the beat. He then played his signature tune, “My Name Is”, which led me to believe that his name actually was Slim Shady and I labeled his tapes accordingly. 

I was transfixed by his stage presence and realized about halfway through his set that it was a colossal mistake to not have the ADATs rolling for him, but I did my best on the monitor mix. He lost his baseball hat briefly and asked where the fuck it was at briefly before his last song, saying he has a “new single coming out on Interscope Records on October 4th. We want you to run out and buy it… and if you don’t… I JUST DON’T GIVE A FUCK!!!” and he began that song. He put his middle finger in the air waiving it from side to side and had everybody in the house do the same. I was so blown away by what I heard that night from him, I made a VHS copy of his set as soon as I could and was watching it over and over again, something I never did with any other artist I taped there, or at least not watching it as frequently as I did. Furthermore, I made a point to show it to all my friends and family too, something I for sure never did with any other act. I’m not saying that I was prophetic or anything, his talent was unmistakable and it came to no real surprise that he went on to be big, though I wouldn’t have guessed exactly just how big. I regret that this would be my only encounter with the one and only Mr. Marshall Mathers. He did a show at The Fillmore the following May, but I couldn’t attend because I was recording Motorhead at the Hall that night. That Fillmore show was infamous too because he stopped a few songs into his set there and got into a fight with a heckler. From then on, he was playing huge venues and rarely came to the bay area anyway.

Suffice to say, following Eminem was a tough order and Ras Kass and Rah Sun really couldn’t match up what we all just witnessed. I thought it was strange that Rah Sun kept on saying “word is bond” over and over again, but chuckled when he asked the crowd between songs, “Who likes sex!?! Everybody say SEX!!!!”. The energy in the room picked up again with the female duo, Syndicate, a welcome change to the testosterone soaked roster that preceded them. I was very impressed at the speed which they rapped, faster than anybody I had heard up until then on record or live, male or female. Being a horny young man, I was also hypnotized by their beauty and the way their buxom, tank top clad figures bounced to the beat, especially for their last song “Here I Come”. There was a funny bit when the shorter of the two women nearly slipped on some liquid spilled on stage and she said, “see me slippin’? I’m gonna bust my ass up here.” Sadly, this would also be the only time I’d see them either. But once again, De La would take the stage and played a short, but excellent set. They did a bit saying they spotted a girl way in the back by the bar, wondering if it was “Jenifa” and got the crowd cheering, declaring that they going “old school” like “Kango” or “Adidas” asking, “Where my B-Boys at? Where my B-Girls at?” before launching into “Jenifa Taught Me”, one of their oldest songs.

They had a brief intermission to change the stage set for the Black Eyed Peas, setting up their drum kit, guitar, keyboard, and bass rigs. The guys from De La introduced them on stage and I’d be seeing and even hearing the Peas for the first time that night. Anyone who knows their old music or had seen them back then would tell you that they were quite a different band than the one they’d become a few years afterward. For starters, they all dressed quite casually, looking a little like college students frankly, not the weirdos from beyond the moon they are now. The bass player was even wearing a plain, long sleeved sweater. Also, this was four years before Fergie joined the band. Back then they had a female singer named Kim Hill, who sang back ups mostly, though was featured for the song, “Say Goodbye”. Though they were brand new to me, I really enjoyed the music they played for their set, just shy of an hour long.

There was a great bit during the song, “Communication” where the three main vocalists, Will.i.am, Taboo, and Apl.de.ap., took turns doing acrobatic hip hop dancing and all of them were really spry, doing backflips, handstands, and stuff. During the next tune, “Que Dices?”, my friend Tom Murphy who was working monitors that night, had to come out on stage to fix a mic chord or something, and on his way back to his board encountered Will.i.am, who hugged Tom and they took a moment to jump up and down to the beat. I’ll never forget the sight of Tom in his cut off sleeve shirt, smiling with his toothy grin as he did that. It makes me smile even now. Before they did, “Joints & Jam”, the first major label single for Interscope, Taboo introduced it repeating in a hypnotists’ voice, “ If you hear this on the radio… I’m not going to get tired of it…” They finished their set with “Head Bobs” and Danny Castro came out again with Anthony Marshall to thank the artists and the crowd. They had more shirts to give out, but first they asked if anybody could name all the MCs who performed on the last skit on the Lyricist Lounge album. A few audience members tried, but Danny eventually gave up telling Anthony, “ahh… just give it to them!”

But nobody on stage was going anywhere in a hurry, so the band members of the Peas stuck around and they decided to have another freestyle session for the encore and they brought out none other than Wyclef Jean, sporting a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt. He and Will.i.am went back and forth for a while, dropping rhymes with manic energy. Wyclef mentioned in one of his raps that he had been in the studio with Carlos Santana and heard about the show rhyming with Santana that joining in would be “no drama”. He presumably was working with Carlos at the time for the song, “Maria Maria” that would be on Carlos’ blockbuster album, “Supernatural”, recorded across the bay in Berkeley at Fantasy Studios and released the following June. Later, some crusty looking young woman with dark dreadlocks came on stage and took one of the mics and we all thought she’d sing or rap or something, but all she said was, “What up, motherfucka’?”. Wyclef immediate shut her down rapping for her to step off, that she “looked like a gypsy”, and shouldn’t take the mic unless she was going to bring it. 

From there, a handful a rando guys took turns on the mic and it looked as if security was about to shut the second to last one down until the Last Emperor took the mic, did a few good verses and ended the show for good. Danny Castro took the mic one last time to thank the artists and the crowd and then Boots, the Maritime’s boss, made sure to thank everybody and make a not so subtle request to “get home safe”. By the end there were at least 30 people on stage and Boots was understandably anxious that something violent might go down on everybody’s way out the door, but thankfully nothing did. The video recording ended with my buddy Dan, who had been dutifully operating the single camera in the balcony all night, putting up a piece of paper to the lens with the words, “HI NICK!”, written on it, illuminated by his flashlight. Dan had done it a week before at the beginning of the My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult show at the Hall and I always grin and giggle when he did it. There was an afterparty at the Paradise Lounge that night, but as you might imagine after this three hour hip hop spectacle, I was too exhausted to attend. It would be only two months later that the Black Eyed Peas would return to play the Hall opening for Outkast, another Atlanta hip hop band that would soon be hitting the big leagues. 

Tori Amos, The Devlins, Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, Tues., September 15

SETLIST : Precious Things, Iieee, Corn Flake Girl, Bells For Her, Sugar, Cruel, Happy Phantom, Hey Jupiter, Jackie’s Strength, Space Boy, Spark, The Waitress, (encore), She’s Your Cocaine, Raspberry Swirl, (encore), Horses

This would be the first and only time I’d see one Miss Myra Ellen Amos, better known to her fans and friends as Tori. Hers was the music I knew in my heart that I should have been following but didn’t for some reason, probably because I hadn’t had the opportunity to see her yet, she not having played either The Fillmore or The Warfield during my tenure as usher there. I did know my friend Drew was a die hard fan of this songstress with the head of flaming, red locks and living just up the street a few BART stops away, and he would assuredly be there with bells on, so I joined him on this one. Like I had written before, I had just witnessed the first of two shows of the Beastie Boys at the Arena immediately just before this one, making it the only time I had seen back to back shows of different bands there. It was quite a departure from the the rowdy set performed “in the round” set up in the center of the Arena, to this more subdued, traditional set up on a normal stage. Tori would have her grand piano, accompanied by Steve Canton on guitar, Matt Chamberlain on drums, and Jon Evans on bass. That was it.

There was an opening act that night, The Devlins from Dublin, Ireland. They had toured with her in Europe and Tori liked them so much that she had asked the brothers Devlin, Colin and Peter, to continue along with her in the States. I thought they were pretty good, a polite couple of guys. They said at the end of their set, “thanks a million” and “Cheers!”, but I haven’t seen them since. Tori was calling this the “Plugged ’98” tour, (perhaps a dig on the recent avalanche of “Unplugged” albums being released by people around that time), and doing an impressive 137 shows in only 8 months. Also departing from the piano driven ballads she had become famous for, Tori had recently put out the “From The Choirgirl Hotel” album, highlighting her band and more electronica sounding stuff. She played quite a few new songs from that album that night, including “Spark”, “Cruel”, “Raspberry Swirl”, “Iieee”, “Jackie’s Strength”, and “She’s Your Cocaine”. But I had none of her albums and frankly couldn’t name song one of hers, so I was coming in as fresh as a daisy, making this what I like to call a “sight unseen” show.

I was impressed with not only her masterful skills on the ivories, but the calm she was able to project, despite being surrounded by thousands of her screaming fans. Such poise is the trademark of a musician who had been performing in front of people all her life. At age 5, Tori was actually the youngest person ever to be admitted to the Peabody Conservatory Of Music. By the time I’d see her there, she had been recording her own songs for nearly twenty years. It was remarkable that she could go from playing such tender, delicate piano songs to jams with the riveting intensity of a band like Tool. Before “Hey Phantom”, she took a moment to greet the crowd and waived to the folks up in the cheap seats, saying, “How’s it going back there? I was always sitting back there. I was always late” then went on saying something about it being a “good thing” and that it made her “three times as smaller than I really am”. She then went on about “Dip-see” and something about being a “religious teacher” and “the markings of purity”. You got me. Though I had but one day off after a six day stretch before seeing Tori, I would continue my grueling diet of concerts with five more in a row starting with this one. That’s eleven shows in twelve days, 17 total for a month of only 30 days. Yep, September was a whopper that year.

Beastie Boys, Money Mark, Invisabl Skratch Piklz, Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, Sun., September 13, 1998

SETLIST : Tom Sawyer Intro, The Biz Vs The Nuge, The Move, Sure Shot, Pass The Pic, The Skills That Pay The Bills, Time To Get Ill, (unknown), Remote Control, Sabrosa, Body Movin’, Root Down, Egg Man, Paul Revere, Flute Loop, Lighten Up, Ricky’s Theme, Gratitude, Tough Guy, Beastie Boys, Super Disco Breakin’, Shake Your Rump, Slow & Low, 3 MCs & 1 DJ, Something’s Got To Give, (unknown), Heart Attack Man, So Whatcha’ Want?, (encore), Intergalactic, Sabotage

It had been quite a week, but I could think of no better show to end my six gig run than with the Beasties. It had been three long years since I last saw them at this very same venue, when their music whipped the entire floor of the Arena into easily one of the largest mosh pits I’d ever witness. Between that show, the two shows I saw them play at Shoreline for Lollapalooza in 1994, and the massive Tibetan Freedom Concert in Golden Gate Park, the injuries that must have been sustained by those rampaging crowds had to have kept the staff at Rock Med busy. But this time the Boys were touring with a special “in the round” set up, placing their gargantuan, round stage smack dab in the middle of the floor, making it next to impossible for those down on that level to whip up any mosh pit of more than a couple dozen at a time. Now, I can’t say if this design was a reaction to the previous tours, attempting to calm the crowds a bit, but it worked. These Boys were gradually morphing into the Men they would inevitably become. All three of them were married by this time, MCA tying the knot as well as becoming a father that very year. Ad Rock would divorce his wife, actress Ione Skye the following year, but would soon rebound, falling in love and eventually marrying Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill.

Though I wasn’t aware of it at the time, the tour had already lost Tribe Called Quest as their opening act. The fellow Lollapalooza alumni were at the end of their rope with each other and broke up mid tour the month before, just weeks shy of the release of their new album, “The Love Movement”. To replace them, the Beastie’s enlisted the help of the Invisabl Skratch Piklz, the DJ collective led by their new turntable wizard, Mix Master Mike. The addition of Mike to the band was already a match made in heaven. One could hardly think of a DJ more suited to join their ranks. The Piklz rotated several DJs through their roster over time including virtuosos of the 1s and 2s like Q-Bert and DJ Apollo, but this time around Mike had Shortcut and D-Styles by his side. Incidentally, I just saw Shortcut only yesterday spinning records between sets for the Thievery Corporation show at Stern Grove, almost 23 years later. Mike had an impressive rig on stage, surrounded by 18 giant video monitors, shaped in a U-Shape, 6 monitors each side, 2 rows of 3 stacked horizontally. Their set, though short, was truly a master class in the art of scratching.

Also opening up that day, culled from the Beastie’s band, was Money Mark, their keyboard player. Mark actually had met the band years ago working as a carpenter, tasked to repair a wooden gate at the property where they were recording the “Paul’s Boutique” album. He helped them finish putting their studio together and lo and behold, they roped Mark into going on the road with them. Mark eventually started doing studio work with other acts, even making the unforgettable keyboard riff used by Beck for his hit song, “Where It’s At”, and then went on to make his own albums. But he had a hard time keeping the attention of the crowd with his jazzy jam music, especially after we had just been floored by the jaw dropping skills of the Piklz. He did give a shout out to hip hop, saying that all music like jazz and funk, “all the noises in the world”, make up the genre. But we were here to see the Beasties one and all and I for one was excited to hear the new songs live.

Since I’d seen them last, they had taken their time releasing their new album, “Hello Nasty”, a day before my birthday that July and it was worth the wait, a master work easily as good as their last few albums. It would chalk up a couple Grammys for them, Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rap Performance By Dup Or Group, and the single “Intergalactic” would get them the Best Hip Hop Video trophy at the MTV Video Music Awards. They would also be one of the first bands to make MP3’s of the songs available for download on their website. The Boys were at the top of their game and part of me felt that despite this, that the tour would be sort of an end of an era for them. They would continue to make excellent music, but I got the feeling after this show, that they had nothing left to prove and they would play smaller venues from then on out. Not that they were phoning it in, not in the slightest, but it was if they were in a good place commercially and critically and no longer needed to struggle as hard to succeed. That and I imagine the logistics and effort involved to put on such a grand spectacle year in and year out would take its toll on anybody. MCA would continue his good work fighting for the rights of Tibetans with his Milarepa Fund and $1 of each ticket this tour would be donated to it.

But they were having the time of their lives that night as we all were, the first of two shows at the Arena. As luck would have it, I would return to that very venue two nights later to see Tori Amos, a very different act indeed. I believe this was the only occasion where I would see two different shows there back to back. The set started with Mix Master Mike scratching up an intro bit with Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” before going into the Beasties’ other signature intro song, “The Biz Vs The Nuge”. For there, the rest of the band ran on stage with their matching orange jumpsuits and went right into one of the new songs,  “The Move”. As usual, Mike D would take time to banter and joke with the crowd. Before “Time To Get Ill” he mused, “What goes on in Oakland Coliseum?… We got questions, you got answers… Q & A? It’s back to school time… Must annunciate and answer.” Some folks were raising their hands hoping to ask him something. He praised the “nice, warm evening in Oakland” before they played “Remote Control”, then asked if it was “better to say Oakland or Oak-Town?”

They would switch between rapping with just Mike on the turntables to picking up instruments, joining and trading places occasionally with other members like Money Mark again, Amery Smith on drums, and Alfredo Ortiz on percussion. Ortiz did an impressive solo leading into “Lighten Up”. As I had heard them do on previous tours, they did a long instrumental intro to “Gratitude” and Mike D did a spoken word intro to “Tough Guy”. For “Paul Revere”, they had the lights turned up and encouraged everybody, “if you know the words, please sing along”. Before the new tune, “Super Disco Breakin’”, they used the intro from “Check Your Head” where the singer for Cheap Trick announced, “This is the 1st song on our new album!”.  They played mostly the same stuff both nights, though this show we got “Egg Man”, “Beastie Boys”, and a couple punk songs I still don’t know, but the second night got “Alright Hear This”, “Egg Raid On Mojo”, “The Maestro”, and the new songs, “Putting The Game To Shame” and “Unite”. MCA made a plea for non-violence before “Something’s Got To Give” and dedicated it to such peacemakers as Ghandi. 

After ending their set with “So Whatcha’ Want?”, they returned to the stage via trap doors below, rising up hydraulically before launching into “Intergalactic”. While they performed, the center of their stage rotated slowly like a turntable, spinning the entire band around, a little trick they were obviously saving for the encore. But the night ended with what had become their signature showstopper, “Sabotage”, ending with confetti cannons blasting out streams of multi-colored, paper ribbons high and low. Funny that I had just seen another show, They Might Be Giants at The Fillmore, with confetti, but this was at least five times bigger. The clean up must have taken forever and I even found some pieces around the Arena when I returned two days later for Tori Amos. My good friend John was with me at that show and it would be over nine years until we’d both see them play again, one final time for me at The Warfield in 2007. But I’m glad I caught them there, having been out of town when they played Bill Graham Civic in 2004, since that would be the last tour before MCA would succumb to cancer five years afterwards. I was lucky to see them as many times as I did and this Oakland show was unforgettable. 

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, Cirrus, Beatmistress, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., September 12, 1998

SETLIST : And This Is What The Devil Does, The International Sin Set, Mr. & Mrs. Bottomless Pit, Fangs Of Love, Dope Doll Jungle, Disko Flesh Pot, Blue Buddah, Final Blindness, Kooler Than Jesus, After The Flesh, Ride The Mindway, Sexy Sucker, (encore), Rivers Of Blood, Days Of Swine & Roses, Lucifer’s Flowers

This was already my fifth show in a row and I had more to go the following night with the Beastie Boys in Oakland, but it’s never a dull moment with the Thrill Kill Kult. I remember seeing them with The Lords Of Acid at The Warfield three years before for the “Sextacy Ball” and let’s just say, that was one I still can’t forget. But this time I was recording them and getting to know them up close and personal. I was pleasantly surprised that their singer and leader, Groovie Mann, was not only amenable to us taping him, but he was downright nice to me. Strange how some of the members of musical acts that people would find the most disturbing to watch are some of the kindest and above all most professional people you meet in this business. He did however warn me not to turn up the vocals for the female singer in his band, saying that she was suffering from a sore throat. I obliged him, leaving her off the monitor mix, but kept her vocals on the ADAT masters just in case, though they never used anything we recorded that night for an official release. I soloed her vocal during their set, and he was correct. She sounded like hell, but she kept a smile on her face and danced anyway, swishing about her see-through shawl like Stevie Nicks.

The Kult had been around for about ten years by this time, joining an impressive roster of talent in Chicago on the Wax Trax! Record label, including such notable industrial acts as Ministry, KMFDM, and Front 242, the last one had just played back to back shows at the Hall that July. Groovie Mann and Buzz McCoy had been touring members of Ministry before striking out on their own and in those years had a whirlwind rotation of weirdos coming and going from the band’s line up. In fact, one of their old singers, Shawn Christopher, had just played at the Hall the month before, recently having joined the Chicago soul band, Sonia Dada. The Thrill Kill Kult had been also steadily making a name for themselves pissing off all the right people including the PMRC, led by Tipper Gore, the vice president’s wife, fruitlessly trying to censor popular music. I guess they had objections to the Thrill Kill Kult’s shall we say attitude towards Satan, Jesus, sex, and well… the various combinations of those things, which they would refer to in their songs. Didn’t harm their career, though. Despite the nay sayers, the band had been touring non stop, releasing their seventh studio album, “A Crime For All Seasons” the year before, and even landing songs on the film soundtracks of such mainstream movies as “Cool World”, “The Crow”, “Showgirls”, and believe it or not… “The Flintstones”.

Opening that night was a side project by the Thrill Kill Kult’s drummer Linda LeSabre called Beatmistress and following them was another band called Cirrus. The Thrill Kill Kult was one of those rare bands that had brought their own lighting gear with them on the road and it was pretty sophisticated stuff for the time. Computerized controlled lights were still in their infancy back then and it made a big difference, especially because of the Maritime’s primitive in comparison array of old school par cans and such. We at least had Steve and Chris upstairs with their hippie oil projections and the big video screen stuff to compensate. Speaking of video, I laughed watching their set again, seeing at the beginning of it my friend Dan taking a lighter in front of the balcony cam and illuminating a piece of paper with the words, “Hi Nick!” on it. Put a smile on my face. 

They had a fun set and there was plenty of boogying on and off stage, strobe lights flashing, and copious clouds from the fog machine. With all the hoopla and burlesque antics of the band, people sometimes overlook how good they were musically. Their songs were catchy, danceable, and the samples they mixed in were clever. I loved during “Disko Flesh Pot” when they dropped in lines from that MILF lady in the middle of the film “Midnight Cowboy” going off, “In case you didn’t notice it, I’m one hell of a gorgeous chick!” Funny, both Ministry and Faith No More do great covers of the theme song from that film as well. And for the classical music enthusiasts out there, the Thrill Kill Kult used a few bars from the climax of Orff’s “Camina Burana” for their tune, “Ride The Mindway”. Alas, this would be the last time I’d see them play, though God knows I’ve probably seen any number of their former members in various other musical projects since then. They have more ex-members than Menudo.

Machinehead, Spike 1000, Under, Spineshank, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., September 11, 1998

SETLIST : Ave Santari Intro, Struck A Nerve, Take My Scars, A Thousand Lies, Nothing Left, Roots Bloody Roots, Ten Ton Hammer, The Frontlines, Old, The Trooper, Devil With The King’s Card, A Nation On Fire, Davidian, (encore), Negative Creep, Block

I had gotten to know Machinehead a little, having seen them play the Hall a couple times already the previous year, once headlining and once opening for Corrosion Of Conformity, but they were branching out and trying new stuff by this time. The singer Robb Flynn’s looks reflected that change with his new cropped, dyed blonde haircut and jumpsuit attire, making him sort of look a little like Chino from The Deftones. They were also taking a few new musical left turns that would garner them further commercial and critical success, but alienate a few of their hardcore fans. Their next album, “The Burning Red”, wouldn’t be released until the following July, but they dropped a couple new tunes at this show, “Nothing Left” and “Devil With The King’s Card”. Guess the old fans didn’t appreciate the one song on the album with the disco beat, Robb’s attempt at crooning, and their cover of “Message In A Bottle” by The Police. But one can’t blame them for trying something new and after this night, one attending surely wouldn’t accuse them of going soft, even if they might have “sold out” in some fans opinion.

Opening the night was Spineshank from L.A., who were pretty new and were just about to release their first album, “Strictly Diesel” eleven days after this show. I wouldn’t have to wait long to see them again since they would return to the Hall with Fear Factory in January then again with Sepultura less than six weeks after that. Speaking of Sepultura, the founder of that band, Max Cavalera, had just played the Hall a few months before with his new band Soulfly and was touring with Logan Maher, Machinehead’s old guitarist. Maher had quit the band after developing a meth habit amongst some other bad behavior, and was recently replaced by Ahrue Luster. This show at the Maritime would be only the second time Luster had performed with Machinehead live. During their set, Robb made a not so subtle dig at Maher after they covered Sepultura’s song, “Roots Bloody Roots”, joking “too bad the guitar player for Soulfly can’t play it that good!” He shrugged and then said that he didn’t “know where that came from… I’ve got Tourette’s”. Maher wouldn’t last long with Soulfly either, leaving that band in January after only eight months with them.

I don’t remember the band Under, but I did enjoy Spike 1000. They had a female singer named Jen who had a deep, but strong voice. They’d relocated to the bay area recently, originally from Stockton, then Bakersfield, and been playing together since 1990. Machinehead is a tough act to open for and they held their own. But the crowd went bananas when Robb and the boys took the stage, introduced over the P.A. with the theme from the horror film “The Omen”, “Ave Santari”, always a hit with the metal crowd. Incidentally, the score from that movie was the only one that composer Jerry Goldsmith won an Oscar for, though he had been nominated a whopping 18 times! Most folks remember best his theme song for “Star Trek : The Next Generation”. Anyway, can’t say if Jerry was a fan of Machinehead, but I’m sure he’d have been flattered.

Being from Oakland, Machinehead had a packed house of local, die hard fans who would tear up the mosh pit and stage dive left right and center all night, keeping the security guys on stage busy. Robb would praise the crowd’s rowdiness throughout their set between songs, including before “A Thousand Lies”. He described that one as a “long song” that they “can probably drink two beers” while they played, introducing it as “A Thousand Beers!” The levity continued after that song as Robb did a little rendition of the theme from “South Park” by Primus, which had just began it’s second season that year, substituting one line with “goin’ down to Frisco to have myself a time”. One fan yelled out later for them to play “Bodies On Bodies”, one of the earliest songs from Robb’s old band, Vio-lence, recorded on their first album ten years before this show. Robb laughed, “I don’t even know who the hell that’s by!” Coincidentally, the only time I ever saw Vio-lence was with Primus at the Omni, also the only show I ever saw at that venue.

He went on a bit of a rant later against an unnamed heavy metal magazine that was questioning if heavy metal was dead, citing that Skid Row wasn’t doing so good anymore. Well, as you might imagine, that got a bit of a groan from the audience who agreed as Robb basically went on to say that Skid Row wasn’t exactly the best band to gauge the overall health of the genre. He growled that whoever wrote it, that “this dumb motherfucker never been to a Machinehead show” and seen these “rowdy sons of bitches” with “fire burning in their eyes”. Robb then egged the crowd on yelling, “If you’re alive and well, yell Fuck You!”. That was a pretty loud “Fuck You” in response. Machinehead surprised us a little later with a few bars of “The Trooper” by Iron Maiden, but gave up after a while, Robb claiming that he didn’t know the rest of the words. Maiden was supposed to play the Hall in July, but cancelled, so perhaps he thought it as an homage or a way to compensate for them. They did one final cover that night for their encore, “Negative Creep” by Nirvana, which is probably the most metal song Cobain and them ever did, top three at least. Though this would be the last time I’d see Machinehead at the Hall, I’d see them play The Fillmore four years later. Sadly, upon doing research for this, I just learned that their drummer Tony Costanza died last year in his sleep from unknown causes at the all too young age of 52. 

They Might Be Giants, Michael Shelley, Fill., SF, Thur., September 10, 1998

SETLISTS :

(MICHAEL SHELLEY) : The Pill, (unknown), Baby’s In A Bad Mood, Tonight (Could Be The Night), Think With Your Heart, Going To L.A., Surfer Joan, That Kind Of Girl

(THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS) : Whistling In The Dark, Doctor Worm, She’s Actual Size, Twisting, She’s An Angel, Working Undercover For The Man, I Palindrome I, Battle For The Planet Of The Apes, Absolutely Bill’s Mood, They Got Lost, I Am Not Your Broom, Why Does The Sun Shine? (The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent Gas), James K. Polk, Window, Your Racist Friend, S-E-X-X-Y, Birdhouse In Your Soul, Mr. Tambourine Man, The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight), No One Knows My Plan, Mammal, Particle Man, The Famous Polka, New York City, (encore) Exquisite Dead Guy, Spy, Lie Still Little Bottle, Istanbul (Not Constantinople), (encore), Shoehorn With Teeth, Don’t Let Start

It had been nearly four years since I saw the dynamic duo of John’s Linnell and Flansburgh, far too long for a fan like myself. I do have to admit, that the intervening years found me distracted all too much by work and other musical acts that I’d lost track of them. To my shame, I hadn’t bought any of their recent albums since “Flood” and seeing them this night was a bit of a refresher course for me. Incidentally, they used the emblem of my stagehands union, I.A.T.S.E., for their cover of “Flood”, a five sided crest sometimes referred to as “the bug”. They hadn’t released any new material themselves in a couple years and they had recently released their first (mostly) live album, “Severe Tire Damage” a day shy of a month before this show. That album did however have the single “Dr. Worm”, a new song which would become a hit and one of my favorites. Also, Flansburgh had made an appearance on the season 4 finale of “Space Ghost : Coast To Coast” earlier that year and Linnell strangely enough got nominated presumably by a few thousand of his fans to the People magazine poll for “The Most Beautiful People Of 1998”, garnering him 9th place between Madonna and Sarah Michelle Gellar. To be fair, Linnell is a fairly handsome man in my opinion, tall and slender with thick dark hair, though it’s understandable that Leonardo DiCaprio would get the top prize that year. “Titanic” had just swept the Oscars.

As luck would have it, singer-songwriter Michael Shelley was opening that night, who I had just seen only a few weeks before opening for Shonen Knife at the Maritime. Though I didn’t have the recording of his set that first time, I enjoyed listening to his stuff from this one. Funny guy, Michael, a good opener for the Giants. Michael did get intoa sort of playful back and forth with one member in the audience that night. Apparently, the guy in the crowd lost at least one of his shoes and asked Michael if he could have one of his. Michael said, “Yeah, I’ll give you my shoes for $25… I’ll even autograph them for you… Or you can just bend over, I’ll give you one of my shoes temporarily… Ok, $30”. They crowd jeered, then he quipped, “Well, they turn on you in San Francisco pretty fast… My shoes might be smelly”. 

Between sets, house manager Dave Repp came out as usual to make announcements, promoting new shows coming up and he made a point to mention the band 008, who were going to open for Meters’ bassist George Porter, Jr. The drummer of 008 was a fellow named Morgan who had been working hard his way up the ranks of BGP and coincidentally had been the one time roommate of my friend Kenny, a gentle giant of a man who I’d gone to school with when I did a semester in London back in 1992. I miss Kenny, nice guy. I would get to record 008 when they opened for Indigo Swing at the Maritime the following year and I remember they were quite good actually. I’ll never forget that Morgan described our video recordings as “German Television”, which I thought was quite astute. David also mentioned that they were raffling a poster that night, which they usually did, helmed by usher and now my neighbor, Raffle Box Annie. She’s an easy one to spot, her station parked by the merchandise booth and Rock Med people, she adorned with her head of long, red hair and always dressed in a harlequinesque hippie outfit. I was disappointed to learn that the show that night didn’t have a poster of its own and they were actually auctioning off a signed copy of the poster from their Fillmore show in 1994. Those are the breaks.

The Giants got on stage soon enough, opening with an instrumental intro that morphed into “Whistling In The Dark”, followed promptly by “Dr. Worm”. Flansburgh joked that “we have a nice, long show for you. It might go on forever”. He pointed out the copious, fragrant clouds being ehhaled by their fans calling it “a different kind of smoke” than they were used to at shows and was concerned that it might be misconstrued as a “performance enhancing drug”. The Giants were touring with a full band again, the three “Dans”, Dan Hickey on drums, Weinkauf on bass, and Miller on guitar. Miller busted out some excellent slide guitar work during “She’s An Angel”. Additionally, they had a trumpet and trombone player which added an extra layer of complexity and sophistication to their songs. After I was relieved from ushering, I went down to the dance floor to enjoy myself with the other fans and they were doing their usual amount of comedic banter between songs. Flansburgh introduced one of their newer tunes, “Working Undercover For The Man” as it being a “story about a band that goes on tour and makes records. There’s something that happens in their past and they had to make a deal with the cops like ‘The Mod Squad’”. That band would go on “infiltrating illegal activities among youth culture” and that John was worried that they’d be found out, but felt it was his duty to tell the truth and wrote that song about them. 

Later, they did a funny bit where they did the song “Battle Of The Planet Of The Apes”, one in a series of songs they did of the whole Apes saga on the new live album, each of those songs improvised. For this one, Linnell had the audience split up, half of them pumping their fists in the air chanting, “Apes! Apes! Apes” and then the other half following them, chanting “People! People! People!” For another one of their newer songs, “They Got Lost”, Flanburgh first suggested to the band that they “play it too fast then slow down in the middle”. Linnell then shouted to crowd quickly, “How many people want us to play it too fast then slow down in the middle again!?!?” They crowd cheered, then Flansburgh looked at the other members on stage and said,  “I didn’t hear anyone in the band cheering, John… For some reason, the band was silent. I don’t know what to do, please the audience or please the band”. Linnell responded, “I say compromise and please no one”. Flansburgh later praised his road crew as the “sexiest kind of road crew” and dedicated “S-E-X-X-Y” to them.

They did a few covers that night, the first being “Why Does The Sun Shine? (The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent Gas)”, which being such a funny and whimsical tune, I and probably most others presumed it was one of theirs. But that song actually had been written by a guy named Tom Glazer years before for a series of educational albums for kids, called “Ballads For The Age Of Science”. That one is on the “Space Songs” album. I could see why they liked it though, sounds like one of their songs as was “Istanbul”, a song original written by a group called The Four Lads. Speaking of educational songs, they did a historical one of their own, “James K. Polk”, about the 19th century American president and Linnell introduced it saying that “the next song features a confetti cannon… If there’s one last thing you see this year, let it be the confetti cannon”. Fun as they are, the maintenance guys at concert venues despise confetti. Those little bits of paper get everywhere and take forever to clean up. I’ve found confetti bits from New Year’s shows months after they happened.

One cover they did that everybody assuredly knew wasn’t theirs was “Mr. Tambourine Man”. Flanburgh said it wasn’t on the setlist and claimed that he and the band were discussing playing it earlier, but he was lying since I got the setlist and it was listed there as “Tambo”, though the songs were out of order. But I’ll forgive him. As Mark “Chopper” Read so eloquently said, “Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good yarn”, or maybe he didn’t know. Being the Fillmore, it was an appropriate place to cover the Bob Dylan hippie anthem, but they being They Might Be Giants, they might have just as easily been honoring William Shatner’s version of it. They followed that song with a lengthy version of “The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)”, which included a very impressive bass solo. Linnell goaded the crowd to form a conga line to the calypso beat, even singing to the beat, “I’m not fucking kidding… audience conga… everybody conga… put your hands on the hips of a stranger… go out the fire exit… until you can’t hear the band anymore…” They audience did it for a while, though I didn’t join in, having to maintain my duty recording the set. 

Afterwards, Flansbugh praised the Fillmore saying, “we play a lot of stages, most stages are pretty sticky. They’re covered in stuff and you don’t know what kind of stuff it is, but it sticks to your shoes. The great thing about being here is that you can walk around like a civilized human being instead of the itinerant, loser musician that you really are.” The band then played “Particle Man”, the horns and accordion making it reminiscent of a Zydeco, Mardi Gras song from a second line New Orleans troupe. They ended their set with one final cover, “New York City”, by Canadian “cuddlecore” band, Cub. When they came back on stage for the encore, they began curiously by having two puppet dopplegangers singing their parts for the song “Exquisite Dead Guy”, something weird even for them. It reminded me a bit of The Residents. They did a noisy instrumental breakdown for the song “Spy”, but then mellowed out again with the cool, jazzy “Lie Still, Little Bottle”. The horn guys were especially handy for those songs as well as adding the extra swing for “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” which they finished the first encore with after giving it an extra long instrumental intro, but their fans cheered for more. They obliged them and gave them a couple songs for the second encore being “Shoehorn With Teeth” and a rocking version of “Don’t Let Start”. Luckily, I wouldn’t have to wait another four years to see them again and they would return to play the Warfield the following year.

As an epilogue, I wanted to include a memory of something that happened recently as an homage to their then newborn song, “Dr. Worm”. Just as the coronavirus was taking hold of the planet last year, my wife, her parents, and I were in a middle of a vacation in New Zealand. My beloved Emily and I were visiting a cave in the south island that had iridescent glow worms in their water logged caves and we stopped by to visit. Halfway down, the tour stopped us in a cave that had a high, concave ceiling that would resonate singing with unique acoustics. The tour guide talked about how many famous people including Adele had come down into that cave to sing a song and asked if anyone in this tour wanted to sing a song and… yes, being the obnoxious nerd I was, I stepped forward. I sang, “Dr. Worm”, or at least the first verse of it, the best I could. Doing it spontaneously, I learned quickly that it isn’t that easy to sing, hats off to Linnell. After I was done, my wife as you might image was mortified, but eventually got over it. I wonder if Adele ever heard that song.

Culture, Pato Banton, Dani Spencer, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., September 9, 1998

It was a foregone conclusion that Pete would record this show, Culture being one of the greatest reggae acts touring back then, but I was really hoping I’d get to do Pato. Ever since I saw him at Slim’s in 1994, I loved his music, his positivity, and his stage presence. No such luck, but I was glad to be part of it all the same. Besides, Pete would mix it better as always and both acts certainly deserved it. Culture was a few years behind Bob Marley and the other founders in the genre, but like acts such as Third World, Black Uhuru, and Inner Circle, they were carrying on the torch and doing it admirably. By this time, Culture had been around over twenty years and Pato well over fifteen, so they were no amateurs. The opener, Dani Spencer had talent too, having collaborated with many great artists like the Twinkle Brothers. Dani would come back and play the Hall again the following October for the Peter Tosh birthday celebration show with Bunny Wailer and Peter’s son, Andrew. I wished that Culture could have made an album from the set they made that night or that I had kept a copy of it, but I’m happy to say that Pato came back to the Hall the following February and we used the set he performed on that occasion opening for Eek-A Mouse to make a live album, one of my favorites. Culture did a magnificent set, that I do remember, playing hits like “Jah Rastafari” and “The International Herb”. And like all reggae shows at the Hall with Pete, there were plenty of joints passed between us that night.

Whiskeytown, Dean Del Martin, Maki, Fill., SF, Tues., September 8, 1998

There are rare occasions for folks who see as many shows as I do, to witness a real train wreck, be it boorish, drunk, and or drug fueled behavior, a colossally shitty set musically, and in some cases, downright hostility and danger. The time Whiskeytown played The Fillmore is one such show which was all of these things. When something like this happens, it becomes impossible for one to separate the trauma from the artist for all time. The good news is shows like this, you never forget, even when you’re rapidly on the mental decline as I am. Yep, this one’s going to my grave and probably to all the others who witnessed it.

Now, nobody died and in fact, nobody even injured, so this might seem melodramatic, but Ryan Adams, the frontman for this band had a reputation that proceeded him by then, even in his then young career. He was part of the so-called Alt Country movement back in those years, joining acts like Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, Son Volt, and such. They had played Bottom Of The Hill the previous year, but I hadn’t heard of them by then. Whiskeytown had already gone to pieces once between then and this show, breaking up after playing The Hurricane in Kansas City the year before. During that tour his own guitarist Phil Wanderscher, once hovered around menacingly and threw beer bottles at Ryan on stage during their set in Arlington, Virginia. Later on the tour, a heckler even threw tomatoes at them in Lansing, Michigan. After the break up, Ryan completed the gigs as an acoustic duo with his partner, Caitlan Cary. They reformed with new people for this leg of touring and it had become such a joke that they had so many ex members in such a short period of time, that they actually printed T-Shirts saying “I Played In Whiskeytown & All I Got Was This Lousy Goddamn Shirt”.

Ryan was clearly a sensitive artist and a bit of a sad drunk, so touring brought out the worst of him. The name Whiskeytown actually comes from an expression in his native Raleigh, North Carolina which as you can guess means really drunk. He was just a few weeks shy of his 24th birthday, making him two years younger than me. I feel that one starts truly becoming an adult when the new rock stars around are younger than you. Despite his brilliance as a songwriter, clearly Ryan hadn’t developed the mental fortitude for life on the road. He was contractually obligated by his record company, Geffen, to finish this three weeks of touring for their major label debut, “Stranger Almanac”, and Ryan was taking it out on everybody and everything. At the show they did a few days before this in Vancouver, he had smashed a valuable 1964 Gibson Firebird guitar on stage. His manager, Thomas O’Keefe, actually kept the wrecked remains and eventually sold it on line for $1,302.77. Now by the time they took the stage, I knew nothing of this saga of mayhem, other than Ryan was a bit of a handful.

Opening that night was a band from Richmond, Virginia named Maki who I thought were really good. They had members from all sorts of mid-Atlantic acts including Sparklehorse who I saw open for Cracker on that same stage a couple years before and liked them very much. Maki had almost a shoe gazer quality to their Alt Country sound and hearing them again left me no impression of the turbulence to follow. They seemed happy and upbeat to be there, though the house was barely sold at all, maybe 200-250 people tops. You know it’s a poorly sold show coming in when you see that the house guys set up cocktail round tables and chairs down on the dance floor in an effort to make it look more well sold. Between sets, Dean Del Ray was up performing solo with his acoustic guitar and harmonica in the poster room. I was able to catch one of his songs on a coffee break. Funny guy, he’d go on to have a modest career as an actor and comedian in L.A. When house manager Dave Rep made the traditional announcements between sets, telling people to check out Dean, he said that “every other song will be dedicated to Mark McGwire”. Mark had just broken the record for home runs in a single season hitting his 62nd that very day and would on to set the record that year with 70, beating out Sammy Sosa’s 66. Though both of their records would be broken by Barry Bonds three years later with 73, all of them would be tainted by accusations of steroid use afterwards.

When Whiskeytown’s set began, they were already having trouble with the monitors on stage, hitting a few bad patches of high frequency feedback. I don’t know who The Fillmore had up there this gig, but clearly they were having a bad night sound-wise, a very rare occasion for the skilled audio folks that work there. They were only a song or two in before Ryan started complaining about it and complained even more bitterly that he was not allowed to smoke cigarettes while playing. Somebody in the crowd shouted, “We can’t hear you!” for which Ryan replied, “We can’t either!” Caitlan tried to smooth things over and asked the lighting guys to turn the chandeliers back up saying that they “were so pretty”. She sweetly joked, that was of “another midset” and “you can get more bees with honey than vinegar”. There was a moment of levity when they wished band member Mike Henley a happy birthday, Caitlan laughing that he was just turning 17. I couldn’t figure out their whole set, but I know for certain they played, “Piss On Your Grave”, “Bar Lights”, and “Don’t Wanna Know Why”. Caitlan described the song “I Don’t Care What You Think About Me” saying, “this one sounds like Moby Grape combined with U2”. The first song of the encore started with “My Heart Is Broken” with Ryan first creating a lot of static plugging in his acoustic guitar, then he laughed it off saying, “Yes, that’s the sound of real punk rock” and a couple songs later they played “Houses On The Hill”. One would think hearing such a sentimental, beautiful, and very un-punk acoustic duet like “My Heart Is Broken”, that the man who wrote it would be capable of such obnoxiousness. He defied the house guys and took out a cigarette, taunting them by asking a member of the crowd up front to light it for him. Ryan had become so incensed by the end of the encore, he shoved his monitor off stage sending in thumping loudly to the dance floor, startling everybody. Thankfully, it didn’t land on anybody’s foot. The long suffering monitor engineer leapt into action and jumped on Ryan before he could knock over a second one. Multi-instrumentalist Mike Daly grabbed the monitor guy and Ryan got free, and then stormed off stage yelling, “Fuck this place!”, and that was that. 

The crowd and I were understandably put off by this, some even booed, but quickly were all on our way. When a show has such few attendees and there’s no poster to be given out later, slowing people down as they are handed out at the door, the house empties quickly. So, what happened to Ryan next was something I didn’t witness personally, but was corroborated in detail by his manager Thomas O’Keefe in his book, “Waiting To Derail : Ryan Adams, Whiskeytown’s Brilliant Train Wreck”. After retreating from the stage, Ryan locked himself in his dressing room with Thomas and his drummer Steve Terry, pursued by angry Fillmore stagehands who pounded at his dressing room door demanding satisfaction. Thomas had them wait a bit until the pounding stopped and the house cleared out and then they bolted out of their dressing room and made a B-line for the side exit with the metal staircase where ushers and staff would come in at the beginning of the show. The offended stagehands caught sight of their escape attempt and gave chase, but Thomas braced his arms across the exit door holding the stagehands back as Ryan and Steve made their way down the staircase and across the street.

One of the stagehands protested loudly yelling at Ryan, “Hey man! That was bullshit what you just did!” for which Ryan retorted, “Fuck You!” Ryan and Steve went across the street to a bar to wait it out as Thomas went back inside to try to smooth things over. In spite of Ryan’s defiling of this sacred venue, Dave Rep was surprisingly gracious about it all, but did deny them their $1500 for playing that night, saying he’d take whatever the repair costs to the monitor would be out of it and mail them the remainder. Thomas found Ryan across the street later smoking a cigarette outside as the band’s gear was being loaded out, I imagine reluctantly and not with the greatest of care. He joked that when they got to their gig in L.A. they next day, he was going to buy Ryan two guns. Ryan asked why and he replied, “So you can shoot yourself in both feet at the same time”. 

Suffice to say, Whiskeytown never played The Fillmore again, but the band was finished after the tour ended anyway, playing only a handful of gigs in 2000 before splitting up permanently, though they did have a brief reunion in 2005. Ryan’s rough patch continued with his subsequent split with his long time girlfriend, music publicist Amy Lombardi, and even rumored later to having a brief affair with Winona Ryder. The good news is that in the years to come, Ryan would grow up a little and have a successful solo career soon afterwards starting with channelling his grief into his first solo album, “Heartbreaker” in 2000, then releasing an even more successful one with “Gold” in 2001 which would earn him three Grammy nominations. Friend and former roommate Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows would help sing back up vocals on that album. His new efforts would earn him respect and admiration from new and old fans alike, even from the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh. He would go on to tour and play with Phil with Ryan’s new band, The Cardinals, and I’m happy to say would find redemption playing the Fillmore years later with them in 2001, 2004, and 2008. Didn’t see any of those though.

One final story of Ryan’s bad behavior, he would further his infamous stage persona in 2002 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville when one of the presumably drunk patrons yelled out, “Summer of ’69!” between songs, a reference to the hit song from Canadian rocker Bryan Adams. Well, Ryan quickly got off stage, found the heckler, gave him the $30 it cost him to get in, and insisted that security throw him out, saying he wouldn’t play another note until they did. Eventually, Ryan would meet his Canadian doppleganger and they would become friends and as an olive branch gesture to those he might have offended, in 2015, Ryan actually played that song at that venue in Nashville. Ryan has since developed Meniere’s disease making him sensitive to flash photography and at his shows now, they post flyers in the first few rows of seats forbidding it. Though he has reformed from his wayward antics, I would advise anybody to do their best to get along with him and comply. 

Masta Ace, Zion-I, Nameless & Faceless, Business Mergers, Metabasin, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., September 5, 1998

This show was billed as the second part of the “Back To School Hip Hop Celebration” on the monthly poster, though they hadn’t had any shows called this in the previous years or the years after. I wasn’t at the first day or could even tell you who played on the bill, if even if that show ever occurred, me being at Foreigner at The Warfield on that night. To me, it was always heresy to miss a show if you can make it, but Pete had been around the block to know that if there’s no money at stake, then professionally, it’s ok to let it go. Pete didn’t care about rap shows anyway and by then was leaving them all to me. Still, I was adamant and made every single one that I possibly could, except for when Zero played after this, but that’s a whole other story. 

I hadn’t heard Masta Ace before and I’m ashamed that I had listed his name earlier in my records as “Master Ace”. On the surface, it doesn’t feel like a goof, but my misspelling made it synonymous with “Master Race”, which is a phrase I don’t want and I’m sure Ace wouldn’t want to be associated with. The rapper in question here was very talented and I regret that this was the only time I saw him. Masta Ace came out of Brooklyn and sort of got into rap gradually after graduating with a marketing degree at the University Of Rhode Island in the late 80’s. He got big when he was paired with Craig G, Kool G Rap, and Big Daddy Kane to make the hit single “The Symphony”, calling themselves the Juice Crew Posse. His first solo two albums, “SlaughtaHouse” in 1993 and “Sittin’ On Chrome” two years later, would influence a lot of rappers including Eminem, who played at the Hall just nine days after this show at the Lyricist Lounge with De La Soul and the Black Eyed Peas. Ace also collaborated to make the title track for the Spike Lee film, “Crooklyn”, back in 1994, which I consider one of Spike’s more underrated works. But by this show, Ace was becoming disillusioned with the music industry and had a falling out with his musical partners in his crew, the I.N.C., Lord Digga and Paula Perry. They would part ways, Perry having modest success with her following solo career, releasing her debut album, “Tales From Fort Knox” that year as well. She remains one of the more under appreciated female pioneers in rap. Shortly after this show, Ace made an effort to shift his attention to producing and put rap on hold for a while.

But another one of the reasons he sort of dropped out of sight after this show was that he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis two years later, claiming he contracted it when his medical syringes and vials were exposed during a police stop in the Czech Republic.  Though that short tour in Europe in 2000 left him ill, it was a surprising critical and commercial success and it got him back into rapping again. Though I never saw Ace perform after this show, this would be the first time I had the pleasure of seeing Zion-I and it wouldn’t be the last. The Oakland hip hop crew were just getting started then and wouldn’t release their first album, “Mind Over Matter” until two years later, but I was impressed with their skills that night. 

Foreigner, Dixie Star, War., SF, Fri., September 4, 1998

SETLIST : Long Long Way From Home, Double Vision, Head Games, The Modern Day, Blue Morning Blue Day, Waiting For A Girl Like You, Women, Starrider, Cold As Ice, Feels Like The First Time, Urgent, Juke Box Hero (w/ Whole Lotta Love), (encore), Dirty White Boy, I Want To Know What Love Is, Hot Blooded

This had to have been one of the guiltiest of guilty pleasure shows I’d ever attend. We all have to face the fact that we all know the songs and probably slow danced to one or more of the sentimental numbers they did at a junior high or high school dance. Yes, Foreigner was in town and I was working all night clearing one of the main aisles during their set. I’d been getting to work all night more and more as the years went on ushering and though the money always helped, I still preferred to volunteer, so I could get let go during the main act, have a beer or two, and relax. Even during the easiest crowd, I never can quite focus entirely on the band, having to be distracted watching the herd. But this one wasn’t too hard, as crowds go.

The news with the band was the recent recovery of their singer, Lou Gramm, from surgery to remove a brain tumor the year before. The docs injured his pituitary gland taking it out and he spend years recovering from it. He clearly had gained weight and would suffer from fatigue until he finally left the band altogether in 2003. But that night he was all smiles and grateful to be performing. After the opening song, he laughed, “San Francisco! Seems like we haven’t seen you in a long time! Has it been that long? Well listen. Let’s get to know each other again!” Being the first time I was seeing them, I couldn’t say how long it had been, but it had been four years since their last album, “Mr. Moonlight”. They wouldn’t release another album of original songs until 2009.

Before they played “Starrider”, which Lou described as “kind of a cosmic song”, he recalled the first time Foreigner played in San Francisco, being the opener on the bill at the Day On The Green show in 1977. They played bright and early at 10 AM, later to be followed by Heart, Steve Miller, and The Eagles. He mistakenly said it was at Candlestick Park, though all the Day On The Green shows took place at Oakland Coliseum. We forgive him. It was a long time ago and like I said, he was recovering from brain surgery. There was a lot of love in the room for Lou that night, one could easily sense that and he felt it too, saying, “it’s nice to come home sometimes”. Speaking of blasts from the past, Foreigner did a few bars of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” in the middle of “Juke Box Hero”, the last song of their set. For the encore, Lou got a handful of yeah shouts in after “Dirty White Boy” and had the entire house singing the chorus of “I Want To Know What Love Is”, myself and the other ushers included. There were plenty of lighters in the air for that one, I can tell you, and Lou praised our “mighty voices”. They wrapped it up with “Hot Blooded” and for a brief time that evening, we all partied like it was 1979.

Cannibal Corpse, Angel Corpse, Sadus, Vile, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., August 30, 1998

SETLIST : I Will Kill You, Stripped Raped & Strangled, I Cum Blood, Fucked With A Knife, Puncture Wound Massacre, Meat Hook Sodomy, Gallery Of Suicide, Perverse Suffering, Born In A Casket, Dismembered & Molested, Covered With Sores, Headless, Monolith, Staring Through The Eyes Of The Dead, Disposal Of The Body, (encore), Devoured By Vermin, A Skull Full Of Maggots, Hammer Smashed Face

It doesn’t get much more brutal than this. Yes, one needs to look no further than the titles of Cannibal Corpse’s albums and songs to get the picture. I saw these fellow freaks from Buffalo, who had the sense or non-sense to relocate to Tampa, open for The Misfits at The Fillmore back in 1996, but this time they were back, headlining their own show on tour with their sixth studio album called, “Gallery Of Suicide”. This also would be their first tour with their new guitarist Pat O’Brien, poached from the metal band Nevermore. They still had George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher singing for them, but in a strange coincidence, the former singer, Chris Barnes, had just played at the Hall less than two weeks earlier with his new band, Six Feet Under. I couldn’t do that show since I was seeing the first of two shows of Bauhaus at The Warfield that night. Since I last saw them, Cannibal Corpse had been making a bit of a name for themselves, their albums getting banned from both Australia and Germany. Both of those bans would ultimately be lifted in 2006. Also, doomed GOP presidential candidate lost the metal vote that year declaring that Cannibal Corse amongst other musical acts was undermining the national character of the United States. That might have just cost Dole Florida.

Anyway, two of the three opening acts were local, Vile from Concord, and Sadus from Antioch. Vile, even though they been around for a only a couple years, caught the attention of Cannibal Corpse, who became big fans, even wearing their T-shirts around. They would frequent the Maritime again soon, opening for fellow purveyors of the devil’s music, Deicide in November and Morbid Angel the following March. Sadus had been around considerably longer than Vile, having formed in 1985, but this was the first time I’d be seeing either of them. Speaking of Angel bands and Corpse bands for that matter, the penultimate band that night would be Angel Corpse, who like Cannibal Corpse, escaped their native Kansas City, Missouri to the greater hell hole of Tampa. It figures that these Corpses would get along and tour with each other eventually.

I learned a couple interesting tidbits about Cannibal Corpse while putting this together, first and foremost, their appearance in the Jim Carrey breakthrough comedy film, “Ace Ventura : Pet Detective”. God help me, I had seen that movie at least once, but totally forgot about their appearance in it. Apparently, Jim Carrey was a big fan of theirs and other metal acts like Napalm Death and asked for them specifically to be in his movie. At first, once they confirmed that it wasn’t a practical joke, they had to decline since they had already booked themselves for touring during the time they were to shoot. But Jim was adamant and even rescheduled the shooting of their scene to accommodate them. It was a short, but funny scene with Jim crowd floating during one of their shows while they played “Hammer Smashed Face”, pursued by bad guys who also crowd floated, but there was also a deleted scene with them where Jim actually sang with the band. Check out YouTube sometime. It’s pretty funny.

Secondly, I learned “Corpsegrinder” was the inspiration for the singer of Dethklok, Nathan Explosion, on the Adult Swim cartoon “Metalocalypse”. One needs only to watch Corpsegrinder swing his long head of hair around with that massively muscular neck of his and hear his cookie monster growl to know that they are practically twins. Finally, was the bizarre story of Pat O’Brien’s run afoul with the law recently. Two years ago, Pat broke into a house in Tampa, pushed some lady down, and hid in their backyard. When the cops came, he charged one of the deputies with a knife and was put down with a taser gun. Then it gets weird. Immediately before this, Pat had set fire to a house he was renting and when the fire was put out, the authorities found a truly impressive arsenal of weapons inside of it. For starters, he had not one but TWO flamethrowers. Now, one can understand wanting to own one flamethrower, but when you feel the need for an extra, that should be a red flag. Then for the main course, there were 50, count em’, 50 shotguns, 10 assault rifles, 2 Uzis, 20 handguns, thousands upon thousands of bullets, and for dessert… 3 human skulls. But, it being Tampa, he was given only 150 hours of community service and 5 years probation. They probably wouldn’t have been so lenient in Buffalo.

Any-who, back to the show. It was loud and rowdy as one might expect. There is a half decent video recording form the crowd on YouTube of their set. Somebody threw something on stage early on and Corpsegrinder, wearing a “Stalker Wear” T-shirt,  scolded whoever did it yelling, “Don’t be fuckin’ throwin’ shit at me! If ya’ see people throwin’, bust their ass!” There were no shortage of stage divers and Little Boot, the stage manager had his hands full trying to keep up snagging them and dragging them off into the wings with the other security guys. For the encore, the crowd chanted, “More Corpse! More Corpse! More Corpse!”. 

But the strangest event of the evening was something I actually didn’t witness unfortunately.  The folks working upstairs swear that this happened, but in the middle of Cannibal Corpse’s set, an attractive young, Asian woman emerged from the women’s bathroom and strolled onto the dance floor… stark naked. Of all the shows to do this at, this woman chose this one. Sheesh… Perhaps she had some macabre fantasy about being tackled, raped, and torn to bloody pieces by a horde of sweaty, long haired, muscle bound heshers, but they weren’t having any of it. Maybe they were just stunned in disbelief, but the security guys scooped her up pretty fast and that was the end of it. I’ve seen my share of naked folks at places like the Folsom Street Fair, but it’s sort of expected there, even kind of obligatory. Well, I can safely say that I’ve never seen or even heard of some fine lady pulling a Lady Godiva at any metal show since, or any other kind of show for that matter.

Yellowman, The Congos, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., August 29, 1998

Pete and I had already recorded Yellowman a few times at the Hall and the live album we made was in stores by the time he came to play this one, so why we recorded him again, I can’t say, but it was a good thing we recorded The Congos. Between this show and the one they did opening for The Abyssinians  the following March, the Maritime was able to release a live album from their sets in 2000, though I can’t say precisely which songs from which shows or both were used for that album. I’ve said it a million times, it frustrates me no end when live albums are released and there’s little to no information in the liner notes about the recordings. Half the time, one would be lucky just to get the year or city it was taped. So, just in case, I’m including the images from The Congos album this time. As for the show itself, I can once again report that it was a safe bet that plenty of joints were smoked between me and my partner and Pete’s mix was perfect as all his reggae mixes were. I do know for a fact that we didn’t have a video crew that night, so they were spared the nauseating task of tracking their shots of Yellowman as he would incessantly pace back and forth across the stage while he sang. Many a poor cameraman over the years had to endure the land based equivalent of sea sickness trying to stay with him. This would, however, be the final time I’d see Yellowman myself, though having seen and recorded him three times at the Hall and having the live DVD and CD of his under my belt, gives me the satisfaction, pride, and bragging rights that I maintain to this day. He turns 65 years old this year. Wherever he is, I wish him well and hope he is enjoying a well deserved sit down.

Brian Jonestown Massacre, Dura Delinquent, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., August 28, 1998

This is sort of a Bermuda Triangle kind of show, since both these bands had played the Hall the previous November. Not having the recordings handy of this time around makes me even question my memory of it happening. I have always feared something like this occurring which is why I have been so steadfast of late to get these “confessions” down pat before my grey matter finally and inevitably turns to mulch. One would think that seeing a band like BJM would stick in your mental craw, considering their frontman, Anton’s, penchant for hair brained idiocy on stage, but I can only assume that he was good behavior that night. Same goes for Dura Delinquent, who’s behavior was equally as wild, though funnier and less antagonistic than the headliner here. The show was a bargain anyway, the tickets being only $7, a steal even by 1990’s dollars. Whether of not this show actually occurred, I saw it, recorded it or not, I can say for sure that I’ve neither band since. The Maritime’s monthly poster and my personal list of shows taped there confirm that this one did happen, so I’m a little stumped. Sorry to all my readers. I want to be the most reliable narrator I can be and want to resist the temptation to, you know, just make stuff up. So, let’s move on.

Alpha Blondy & The Solar System, Boukman Eksperyans, Majek Fashek, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., August 21, 1998

It is a distant memory, that of seeing Alpha Blondy for the first time amongst so many other artists at the Reggae Sunsplash at the Greek in Berkeley. I can’t even say exactly what year that was, though I’m sure it was in the early 90’s, but I do remember the Ivory Coast reggae superstar making an impression, enough that I went out and bought both his “Best Of” album and the “Live Au Zenith” one. I’ve always considered the Zenith album one of the best live albums I would ever own, so I was delighted at the prospect of helping record him at the Hall, especially since he hadn’t toured in over 5 years. He took some time off apparently to hang out with his family and he would need to, having sired 7 kids with 7 different women. That would keep anyone busy. Seriously, the more I look into the reggae artists I saw back in these days, the more I’m astounded at their promiscuity, even from Bob Marley. The Wailers’ bass player, the appropriately nicknamed, Aston “Family Man” Barrett, had 41, count em’, 41 kids, and one can safely deduce that they all didn’t come from the same mother. Anyway, I digress.

But Alpha was back and touring again, having just released his new album on his own record label, “Yitzhak Rabin”, named after the Israeli leader assassinated three years prior to this show. Speaking of the promiscuous Bob again, Alpha was able to employ two of the three of Bob Marley’s original I-Three’s singers, his ex Rita Marley and Judy Mowatt, for the project, though they didn’t tour with him for this one. I was disappointed to say the least that Alpha Blondy didn’t want us to record. I came into the recording room to find Boots and Pete talking to a pleasant, young woman wearing African clothes and they broke the news to me. Impulsively, I lividly protested asking that we make sure to talk it over with Alpha’s manager, but was embarrassed to be informed that she was indeed his manager. She was gracious about it and I eventually cooled off. Actually, I was surprised Boots didn’t chew me out later from my reaction, but he didn’t and was uncharacteristically all smiles. God knows why. Maybe he was just grateful that they were there in the first place and didn’t cancel. Regardless, the show went on, we got to record the opening acts, and I had the consolation of the pleasure of going upstairs for Alpha’s set and enjoying it. 

The first opening act that night was singer/songwriter/guitarist Majek Fashek from Nigeria. Sadly, this would be the last time I’d see him, having just found out that he died a year ago in London from a battle with esophageal cancer at the age of 57. Following him was Boukman Eksperyans from Haiti, who I had seen once before at The Fillmore in 1995 opening for Baaba Maal who coincidentally had just headlined at the Maritime less than two weeks before this show. Small world, eh? Boukman Eksperyans were still in exile from their native country, fearing the military who they had criticized with their music before the fall of Aristide in 1991. Both openers were great and recording them helped ease the sting of losing my chance to record Alpha. Though I didn’t have enough time to run home and grab my own tape deck to get Alpha’s set myself, I would at least redeem the loss five years later when he returned to play in San Francisco at the Avalon Ballroom.

Bauhaus, War., SF, Mon., August 17, 1998

Bauhaus, War., SF, Tues., August 18, 1998

SETLISTS

(MONDAY) : Double Dare, In The Flat Field, A God In An Alcove, In Fear Of Fear, Hollow Hills, Terror Couple Kill Colonel, Silent Hedges, The Passion Of Lovers, Severance, Boys, The Sanity Assassin, She’s In Parties, Kick In The Eye, Telegram Sam, Ziggy Stardust, Burning From The Inside, Bela Legosi’s Dead

(TUESDAY) : Double Dare, In The Flat Field, A God In An Alcove, In Fear Of Fear, Hollow Hills, Terror Couple Kill Colonel, Silent Hedges, Severance, Boys, The Sanity Assassin, She’s In Parties, The Passion Of Lovers, Dark Entries, Telegram Sam, Ziggy Stardust, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, Spirit, Bela Legosi’s Dead

I was still a neophyte to the Goth scene, though I was a huge fan of The Damned, but I knew that these shows were important. Most Goth people would cite Bauhaus as clearly one of the founders of the genre, if not the well spring from which it was born entirely. From their humble beginnings in London, the brothers Haskins, Kevin and David J on drums and bass respectively, formed the group with Daniel Ash on guitar. He had been attending art school at the time and was friends with vampire-to-be Peter Murphy who he convinced to leave his job at the printing factory and join them. After only five short but intense years, they split up, Peter moved to Istanbul with his Turkish wife and pursued his solo career and the others with their new band Love & Rockets. They all had modest success with their endeavors, critically and commercially. Love & Rockets would also reform again and I would have the honor of recording them at the Maritime the following March.

It had been 15 long years since they had toured together as Bauhaus and were calling it appropriately enough, the “Resurrection Tour”. This would be the end of a long stretch of shows for me 5 in 6 days, though technically it was 6, since I did two shows in one day on the 15th, but who’s counting? On a funny side note, the first night was on the same day President Clinton admitted publicly to the Monica Lewinsky affair. Though as I wrote before, Monica was a fan of Sarah McLachlan who I’d recently seen at the second Lilith Fair, I can’t say whether either her or Clinton had ever heard Bauhaus. Still, impeachment for Bill must have been a real “Kick In The Eye”. (Ba-dum-boom!) Both shows were sold out and spookily spectacular. There was no shortage of fog machines those shows, that’s for sure. Like Tricky, who played there the night before, Bauhaus pretty much made up their genre from scratch and though it might not be the most complex music in the world, it is unique stylistically and their songs likewise improved as the years progressed. I was able to find a great bootleg of the first night on YouTube. That show I had an usher badge, so I worked all night clearing aisles, but I was just a volunteer for the second night, so I was let go shortly after Bauhaus got on and was able to have a beer or two and enjoy myself. My friend Dan was there ushering with me for at least one of those nights.

The sets between days were mostly the same, though they jumbled up the order a little and switched out a few songs between them. The first day got, “Kick In The Eye” and “Burning From The Inside”, the second got “Dark Entries”, “All I Ever Wanted Was Everything”, and “Spirit”. Both nights, they did versions of T. Rex’s “Telegram Sam”, “Severance” by Dead Can Dance, and “Ziggy Stardust”, the Bowie cover that was one of the main reasons they were famous. The other was for the seminal Goth anthem, “Bela Legosi’s Dead” which they ended both nights with, extending their live rendition well over twelve minutes. I’ll never forget the nightmarish sight of Peter swaying about in the fog, swirling his black cape around, and crooning out like he was Dracula announcing loudly, “Children of the night! What music they make!”. Pity neither of these shows were on Halloween. Bauhaus would in fact play at The Fillmore on Halloween in 2005, but I saw Jello Biafra play with The Melvins at the Great American that night. Tough choice, but I know I made right one. I’m happy to report that these nights got a well deserved poster and an excellent one at that. 

I made it a habit to go up to the balcony for the encores at Warfield show to hover behind the front of house sound board, seeing what kind of gear they were using, as well as to enjoy the view. The sound is always best up there naturally and at the end of the encore, I would be in prime position to ask the sound guy for a setlist, schedule, or stage plot if they were amenable. These nights, I couldn’t help but notice they were recording, having two stacks of three ADAT machines, recording 24 tracks, 8 on each machine, seamlessly starting on stack after the other, so they wouldn’t lose any songs. This is the same set up we did at the Maritime. Unfortunately for the sound guy on the second night, he launched his second stack of ADATs and forgot to format his ADAT tapes ahead of time. ADAT tapes, you see, have a leader space at the beginning of them that have to be formatted at first for a couple minutes before, so they can sync up together, and this guy launched his second stack and had to wait at the encore for the leader to run its course, losing the first minute or so of “Bela Legosi’s Dead”. He knew his goof and I had the good sense not to point it out to him. 

I can’t say if this goof cost the shows at The Warfield the distinction of being the ones used for the “Gotham” live double album they released the following year. They used the songs from their shows at the Hammersmith Ballroom in New York City that they performed there just three weeks later. Still, the setlist was the same, they played just as well, and I have these precious, melancholy memories to sustain me during my moments of ennui. It was a good thing I caught both shows because I would have to wait until late October 2005, a full seven years later, for Bauhaus to get back together and tour again, once more playing back to back shows at The Warfield. Those nights made up for my missing them at the aforementioned Halloween show at the Fillmore they played a a couple days afterwards. But I would be lucky enough to see Peter Murphy three more times touring solo between those years and then once more at a rare small club show at Bottom Of The Hill in 2011, though I had stopped bootlegging by then. But Mr. Murphy carries on to this day and continues to inspire his legions of Goth fans. On a side note, during the season 5 premiere of “Rick & Morty” that was just aired this week, I couldn’t help that Peter bared a strong resemblance to Mr. Nimbus. I’ll let you be the judge.

Tricky, DJ Pollywog, War., SF, Sun., August 16, 1998

It had been exactly a year to the day since I had last seen Tricky. I don’t think that has ever happened before or since. Yeah, last time he did his thing in my presence, he was on the Main Stage at the last Lollapalooza tour and now I was seeing him headline for the first time at The Warfield. Despite it being the fourth time seeing him in just three years and that I would see him quite a few more times in the future, I have always had a hard time following his music, even to this day listening to the tape again. It’s hard enough to understand anything the female singers are saying, but everything out of his mouth is practically indecipherable. Still, that doesn’t mean I don’t like him or his music, I do. Tricky is one of a kind, partially because he is mostly self taught. Bands like him, Bauhaus, who played the following two nights there, and U2 might not be the most technically proficient musicians in the world, but when you’re making it up as you go along in the beginning, you sometimes make something unique that’s actually good. He was highly prolific, and naturally got better, more sophisticated as the years passed. 

Anyway, in a strange coincidence, the night before, Tricky’s old band, Massive Attack, was supposed to perform at the Bill Graham Civic opening for The Verve, but they didn’t show up. They got fed up with The Verve’s shenanigans and bolted to headline their own tour and were replaced by some mystery DJ at the last minute. And speaking of mystery DJ’s, Tricky had renowned rave veteran DJ Pollywog spinning records before he and his band came on. She’s an easy one to spot, tall and always dressed extravagantly, not to mention a hell of a DJ. I was ushering as usual and could actually hear somebody complaining during her set, “That was my spot a little while ago!”. Tough luck for her. It was a pretty full house, the biggest crowd I would ever see for Tricky for one of his own shows.

Like I said, I still really didn’t know his songs, at least not by name, but after some research and close listening, I at least determined that they started with “Bury The Evidence”. They then did “Christiansands”, a song he recently landed on the soundtrack for the hit John Woo action film, “Face/Off” with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage.  And though I don’t recall the order or any songs in between, also played “Angels With Dirty Faces”, “Anti Histamine”, “The Moment I Feared”, “Tear Out My Eyes”, Carriage From Two”, and “Bad Dreams”. For the encore, he did “Vent”. This would be the first time I’d be seeing Tricky without his siren collaborator Martine Topley-Bird. Though they’d been together from the start and had a three year old daughter by then, things went sour and they went their separate ways. To fill in for the female parts, he now had Carmen Ejogo and Denis Ellington, who performed admirably. It wouldn’t be long until I saw Tricky again at Fillmore, returning to town just four months later. At least that show got a poster. To this day, whenever I think of him, the soundbite from the Playstation snowboarding game “SSX Tricky” whenever you score a on a complex trick, “TRICKY – TRICKY – TRICKY!” pops in my head. I miss that game. Spent a lot of hours on that one.

The ONE Festival : Toots & The Maytals, Burning Spear, Long Beach Dub All Stars, Young Dubliners, The Congos, Pier 30/32, SF, Sat. August 15, 1998

The Verve, BG Civic, SF, Sat., August 15, 1998

SETLIST : Space & Time, Sonnet, This Time, On Your Own, Weeping Willow, The Drugs Don’t Work, Lucky Man, History, One Day, Velvet Morning, Come On, See You In The Next One (Have A Good Time), (encore), So Sister, Bittersweet Symphony

This was one of those rare occasions where I did two shows in a single day, the first being The One Festival out at Pier 30/32, just down the hill from the Maritime. Boots, the svengali of this operation, was expanding his horizons, or more accurately trying stop the steady bleeding of money he was experiencing at the time by throwing this wing ding. I helped Pete put together a mobile recording station in the back of a box truck and parked it next to the stage, running our mic snake to the monitor board and patching in. We had the Mackie sound board, ADATs, the works, and luckily everything was functioning normally, being a bit concerned that the ADATs would seize up from the heat. Though it wasn’t sold out, maybe around three or four thousand folks out there, and probably just broke even financially, I have to give Boots credit for pulling it off. I liked seeing shows down at that pier, it having a spectacular view of the bay and the Bay Bridge stretching beside it. I’d go on to see a few shows there in the years to come, mostly the Van’s Warped Tour. There were plenty of food and craft venders, a Sony Playstation exhibit, and a couple DJ tents to entertain the kids as well, but Pete and I had our hands too full to enjoy them.

The line up that day was an impressive, though familiar one to the Maritime folks. Both Toots & The Maytals and Burning Spear had performed twice at the Hall in 1997, and the Long Beach Dub All Stars and The Congos had performed once that year as well. The only newbies were the second act of the day, The Young Dubliners, a Celtic rock band based out of L.A. They had just released a live album of their own that February called, “Alive Alive O’”, so they wouldn’t be interested in our stuff anyway. Likewise, Burning Spear had already used a couple songs for their “A(live)” double album and The Congos would eventually put out a live album from stuff we recorded at the Hall, so Pete and my efforts that day proved to be just wishful thinking. Still, always a pleasure to hear all these guys, especially Toots. That guy could get a paralyzed person to dance again with his music. I do regret that I had to bail on Pete for the aftermath of the show, but I gave plenty at the office that day. The Verve wouldn’t wait and I had to get across town to catch them in time.

The Verve were playing at Bill Graham Civic and I high tailed it up Market Street once Toots wrapped up his set at 6, grabbed a quick bite, and made it in on time. I and assuredly everybody else at that show were disappointed to discover that the opening act, trip hop pioneers Massive Attack, weren’t there to perform. Apparently, they got fed up with The Verve’s in fighting and split during that tour to headline their own tour leaving us to hear a last minute DJ replacement open the show. Guitarist Nick McCabe had left The Verve just two months prior in Germany after getting into a fight with singer Richard Ashcroft. McCabe broke his hand slugging him in the jaw and would have to be replaced with veteran slide guitarist and session player, B.J. Cole. Being 52 years old at the time, B.J. was probably the oldest person in the house that night, well, who wasn’t a stagehand anyway. Coincidentally, he had just finished touring with John Cale from the Velvet Underground who had just played two nights with The Creatures at the Maritime that June. Though The Verve were riding at the height of the popularity with their new album, “Urban Hymns” and the smash hit 90’s anthem “Bittersweet Symphony”, they would play their last gig just two weeks later at Slane Castle in Ireland. Speaking of Ireland or rather Northern Ireland, it was a somber occasion that day after hearing news of the infamous bombing in Omagh. Thankfully, the horror of that tragedy was the impetus for the Brits and the Irish to finally say enough was enough and make peace.

Certainly the news of what had happened in Omagh had added a additional weight to the emotional stress The Verve were experiencing at the time, but their set that night was a downer for sure. I mean, like most of their shoe gazer brethren, they were a melancholy bunch to begin with, but one couldn’t help but feel like their hearts were just just not in this, especially for Ashcroft. It was quite an emotional downturn from the uplifting set from Toots I had heard only hours earlier. I’d seen The Verve headline The Warfield only nine months before and I could tell the difference in their demeanor. It was almost if they were already saying goodbye to us all. Before they came out, they played a bit of a recording of Jimmy Cliff’s “Many River To Cross” adding to the funeral like feel of the night. Still, all the songs were beautiful as always and having Cole on slide guitar added an extra wrinkle to tunes like “The Drugs Don’t Work”. Between songs, Ashcroft dedicated the earlier tunes to “the old fans, the people who’ve stuck with us from the beginning” which I took pride being one of them.

Piling on to the sadness, the last song of the set, the eerily appropriate “See You In The Next One (Have A Good Time)”, was played acoustically as was “So Sister”, the first song of the encore. At least they went out with a bit of a bang, playing an extended version of “Bittersweet Symphony”, which Ashcroft introduced as “one of the greatest songs of all time”. During the explosive guitar jam near the end, he kept shouting, “California Soul!”. But that was it. The Verve were finito. They would reunite in 2008 playing a handful of festivals, including Coachella, but this would be the last time for me. Guitarists Simon Jones and Simon Tong would go on to play with the Gorillaz and drummer Peter Salisbury would do work with the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Charlatans UK. Ashcroft had a respectable solo career of his own, releasing his first effort, “Alone With Everybody” a couple years later, but would never achieve the level of success he had with The Verve. Sad to see them go the way they did, but like the song says, “I know I’ll see your face again”. 

Shonen Knife, Michael Shelley, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., August 14, 1998

SETLIST : Konnichiwa, Banana Chips, Flying Jelly Bean Attack, Lazybone, Catch Your Bus, Cookie Day, Riding The Rocket, Ice Cream City, Gyoza, Sushi Bar, Daydream Believer, Twist Barbie, Frogphobia, Antonio Baka Guy, One Week, (encore), Kappa Ex., Bear Up Bison, (encore), E.S.P.

Years before K-Pop swept the nation and the world, J-Pop was having its time in the sun and Shonen Knife were one of the bands leading the movement. It was a long time coming since they’d been playing since 1981, but most Americans like myself would eventually hear about them first from Nirvana’s love affair with their music ten years later. Kurt and and the gang fell under their ultra-cute spell and took them on their tour of the U.K. They would teach Kurt how to play “Twist Barbie”, a song he’d play at secret shows and Dave Grohl even helped them set up their drums on that tour. I’d first see them in person in 1994 on the side stage at Lollapalooza, but this time they were playing the Hall and I had the honor of recording them. I do remember being miffed at Beavis & Butthead for their not-so-kind review of their video, “Tomato Head”, one of the few times I didn’t agree with them, other than their cruel criticism of King Diamond, who coincidentally had just played the Hall with his band old Mercyful Fate eleven days before this show.

Opening that night was New York City singer-songwriter, Michael Shelley, who recently had members of Belle & Sebastian collaborate with him on his latest album, “Too Many Movies”. This would be the last tour bassist and founding member Michie Nakatani would be on with Shonen Knife, she leaving the band the following year. The band was arguably at the height of their popularity in America at the time, touring with their latest album, “Happy Hour”, and recently contributing a cover of “Top Of The World” by The Carpenters for the recent film remake of “The Parent Trap”. The show at the Maritime was probably about half sold, but the crowd was twice as enthusiastic as any, more than making up for it. I know it sounds like a wise crack, but Japanese shows always seem less sold because their bodies are smaller, (Sumo wrestlers notwithstanding), same goes for kids shows. Seriously, as an usher, I know, you can fit more small people on the dance floor. Obviously, the opposite is true for overfed older crowds like blues people and hippies.

The audience erupted in applause as they took the stage in their colorful, custom made outfits and played the appropriately titled, “Konnichiwa”. Early on between songs, somebody up front in the crowd handed singer-guitarist Naoko Yamano a stuffed animal. She thanked them for the “cute present”, though was unsure if it was a “lion or monkey”. Then she asked if anybody out there about the new album, asking, “Have you listened?”. They applauded loudly and she praised them saying, “You are genius!”, and then launched into their new song, “Catch Your Bus”. The new album had all sorts of songs about food items, such as banana chips, hot chocolate, gyoza, cookies, and sushi. For the “Sushi Bar Song”, Naoko first instructed the crowd how to clap for the chorus and they did loudly, very loudly in fact and kept going to the point where she said, “You are genius! Can you stop… please?” To this day, whenever I eat a cookie, I get that “Cookie Day” chorus of “Cookie Day! Cookie Day! It’s a beautiful Cookie Day!” stuck in my head. They also did a cute cover of The Monkee’s hit song, “Daydream Believer”.

Like the members of Shonen Knife, their songs were all short and sweet, leaving their set, just under an hour long. For both of their encores, the crowd’s clapping and chanting of their name was deafening. Naoko thanked them both times with a charming, “Domo arigato”. For the second encore, she told them about their merchandise booth in the back and their new book, “Shonen Knife Land”, that included amongst pictures of them, cooking recipes, how to make their custom clothes, and an original  science fiction cartoon. She cracked us up, complaining that the books were “very, very heavy to carry from Japan” and pleaded for them to relieve her of some of the weight. I know I saw them at least one more time years later at Bottom Of The Hill, but it was after I stopped bootlegging, so I can’t say exactly when that was, probably in 2010. But they are still around to this day and are actually celebrating their 40th anniversary as a band this year.

Baaba Maal, Zaoli West African Drum & Dance, Telefunken, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., August 8, 1998

I’ll never forget this show for a number of reasons, but for one in particular, which happened to be totally unrelated to Baaba Maal. I knew that Pete was going to be recording that night, so I took up an invitation from my friend Matt Riggs to see a movie under the influence of LSD early on in the day. What possessed me to do this for a screening of “Saving Private Ryan”, I can’t really say. Call it a lapse in judgement. It had just been released in the theaters two weeks before and I had seen it once already, so at least I would have been caught in there unawares of the horrific violence it contained, especially during the opening scene at the invasion of Omaha Beach. If I was to be punished for such a weird and disturbing thing to do, it came early when I met Matt before we went into the theater and he informed me that he changed his mind and decided not to dose for the movie. I had already dropped mine and was well on my way. At least I had Matt as my wingman.

Contrary to what you might imagine, I wasn’t scarred for life. In my experience, watching movies on LSD isn’t that strange. I tend to forget about it actually, becoming totally immersed in the film experience. Part of me was a little like Lance in “Apocalypse Now” when he was on acid and was watching the nighttime fighting at the scene at the bridge around the middle act of that movie. The most disorientating part of seeing a movie on LSD is actually when the movie ends and the lights come on again. Still, like anyone who has seen that war film on a big screen, upon leaving the AMC theater on Van Ness, I sort of had to regain my composure, mentally and physically. I mean, I wasn’t tripping balls by the time I left Matt and made my way downtown and up Rincon Hill to the Maritime, but I was still feeling it to be sure.

When I got to the recording studio, I did my best to act normally and concentrate on the task at hand. I labeled the tapes as always and helped Pete patch things in, but I was uncharacteristically quiet and I could tell Pete was wondering what was up with me a bit. When I thought we had everything well in hand, I confessed to Pete what I had done and he laughed about it. He knew something was up and laughed, “Wow… Nick is triiiiiiping…” By the time the show started, it pretty much had worn off and I had a couple beers to calm my nerves. I actually had seen Baaba once before in 1995 at The Fillmore, so I knew what I was in for and knowing it would be a fun and uplifting show, also helped me come down. Don’t remember much about Telefunken, named after the German radio and television company, but I as well as the crowd were impressed by the Zaoli dancers and drummers.

Baaba was a star in his home country of Senegal, but was continuing to make a name for himself in America and the rest of international stage. He had just released the “Nomad Soul” album, co-produced by Brian Eno that year as well as another album called “Djam Leeli : The Adventures”. Also, he had contributed a song called “Bess, You Is My Woman Now” to the “Red Hot + Rhapsody : The Gershwin Groove” album, raising money for AIDS research and awareness. Senegal and all of West Africa had been horrifically decimated by the AIDS virus in the 90’s, so one can appreciate his intention to help in the effort. As always, I had hoped Baaba would release some of the stuff we recorded at the Maritime, but as luck would have it, he had just recorded a live album in London called “Live At The Royal Festival Hall”. Strangely enough, KFJC, the radio station helping promote this show, also sponsored the Mercyful Fate show the week before, a musical experience different on a number of levels.

As he did when I saw him three years before at The Fillmore, Baaba brought along a band of virtuosos with him. Along with a drummer, guitar, bass, keys, and a couple horn players, he had a handful of guys with various percussion instruments, including one up on the front corner of the stage surrounded by an array of at least 7 or 8 congas on stands. They opened the show with one of them rhythmically hitting a simple beat with a stick on stage and Baaba joined him wearing a cymbal shaped straw hat, clapping along, then accompanying him with his hand drum, followed by the rest of the band. Once everybody was in playing, altogether, these guys were very tight, brilliant, and energetic. Baaba and his percussion playing back up singers all wore colorful traditional African clothes and danced skillfully throughout the set. These guys had their moves down cold, acrobatically jumping and prancing about with their lean, lanky bodies under their flowing robes, all while smiling widely. I was particularly blown away once again by the intense sound and power of Baaba’s voice. 

He sang in a language called Pulaar, native to the Podor region where he was born and raised, but he did ask the crowd in English about a half hour into the set, “San Francisco! Do you feel alright!?!” Of course, they responded in the positive. He also introduced on stage between songs the legendary Jamaican guitarist and songwriter, Ernest Ranglin, who joined him and a few members for a couple acoustic songs. Pete knew about Ernest, having played with well, basically every reggae and ska artist ever, but I hadn’t heard of him before that night, though I had obliviously heard his work with others plenty. Soon be floored by his masterful skills picking his wide body guitar. During the second song Ernest played with him, Baaba put a Fez-like hat on his head during one of his guitar solos. 

After Ernest left, Baaba sat in a chair in the center of the front of the stage and had his back up guys sit indian style on the floor, two each beside him, like he was telling a story to the village. The song picked up and then they all got up eventually and continued dancing as they sang. After, he did a bit of call and response with one of his drummers, singing a line and the drummer replicating it, before the rest of the band joined in full swing. The revelry would continue for nearly two hours in total, ending the night with the encore, a song about Dakar, the capitol of Senegal.  Though this would be the last time I’d see Baaba perform live, but his voice would be immortalized worldwide twenty years later in Ludwig Goransson’s score for the seminal comic book film, “Black Panther”.

Mercyful Fate, Mr. Sinister, Old Grandad, The Council, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., August 3, 1998

It had only been since April since I had my first and unforgettable audience with King Diamond at the Maritime and he was already back again, this time with his old band, Mercyful Fate. Formed way back in 1981, they had broken up and reformed twice already by this time and were touring with their latest album, “Dead Again”. Original guitarist Michael Denner had been recently replaced by another Mike, Mike Wead from Sweden. Wead would continue to tour with Kind Diamond for years to come. Hank Shermann, the other original guitarist was there and in fact had made surprise cameo to King Diamond’s show at the Hall, helping him play the Mercyful Fate song, “Come To The Sabbath” for his encore, which they played that night as well. This gig was being sponsored by radio station KFJC, who were also sponsoring the Baaba Maal show the following weekend. One could hardly come up with two more different bands in style and appearance, but good for KFJC for having eclectic taste, and good taste at that.

There had been a show at the Hall the night before with Blink 182, but knowing in advance that we weren’t being allowed to record, resigned me accepting that I had the night off. In hindsight, I should have shown up just to watch the show, but back then I had no idea who they were and was working so much that I actually wanted a night to rest. I would see them soon enough at The Warfield in 2001 and elsewhere in the future. Boots had made a first time joint effort with the production company Goldenvoice to put it on. I suppose they both considered joining forces would be mutually beneficial in their competition with BGP, who were still in flux structurally after the death of Bill Graham. Live 105 and Miller beer were there too promoting it. But back to the show at hand.

I can’t remember much about The Council, but I did recall liking local act Old Grandad immensely and made a point to see them again, once on New Year’s Eve in 2004 at a very small club in the Outer Mission called Sadie’s. They were a very, heavy-heavy metal group, much in the vein of Sabbath, Fu Manchu, or The Melvins, sludgy and dark as can be. I can’t recall Mr. Sinister either, though I do know that they are named after a Marvel super-villain who occasionally tussled with the X-Men. I’m sure they’re gone the way of the Dodo now, but there now is a different hair metal band with the same name out of Omaha, Nebraska that formed in 2011.

Though I didn’t save the recording of Mercyful Fate, I did enjoy the show and appreciated the fact that they walked on stage to one of the bits from the soundtrack of “The Omen”. I think it was from the part where David Warner got his head cut off, but it might of been the bit from “The Omen II” where that guy got crushed between train cars. Either way, it was creepy and thus perfectly appropriate for the evening. Like last April, the King once again donned his top hat and ghoulish make up, singing his unmistakable siren song of Satan through his bone cross microphone thingy. Likewise, there was again no shortage of devil hand sings elevated on high in the crowd and swinging full heads of long hair on stage from King’s fellow bandmates. Though this would be the only time I’d see Mercyful Fate perform, I would have the pleasure of seeing the King a few more times in the years to come.

Sonia Dada, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., August 1, 1998

For some mysterious reason, Sonia Dada’s show was postponed a couple weeks along with a string of cancellations in July at The Hall. I think Boots, the owner needed to take time off around then to oversee his wife Kathy’s experimental treatment for cancer in Germany, but I can’t remember if that was the reason for these cancellations and Sonia Dada’s postponement. Sadly, Kathy would succumb to her illness eventually, but Boots did everything he could to help her stay alive. As tyrannical as Boots was, we all knew he loved Kathy very much and God help her, she loved him too. I miss Kathy. She was a sweet woman and was always kind to me. There were rumors of some kind of pollution up in Marin County causing her and a string of others’ abnormal rates of cancer, but I don’t recall if anything was proven. Kathy was always a vegetarian and never drank, smoked, or did drugs. It’s not fair to say the least.

That sad story aside, Sonia Dada was an interesting show. It was one of those rare gigs where the band had brought their own engineer down to our recording room to mix their set. I wasn’t familiar with them in the slightest and he was a nice enough guy, so I didn’t put up a fuss over it. It probably was a fellow named Scott Steiner, who was their official engineer, but he might have been on front of house duty. They never released anything recorded that night, though they would go on to release a live album the following year called “Lay Down & Love It Live”. Dada had just put out their third album, “My Secret Life”, that June and they typified the Chicago Soul sound, good drinking music. Like many soul acts, they were also a band evenly populated by black and white people. They were founded by Daniel Pritzker, their guitarist, who unknown to me and probably most people was actually a billionaire. He was heir to the Pritzker family fortune. The Pritzer’s initially made their money as lawyers, but eventually established the Hyatt hotel chain, and diversified their empire from lumber to railroads to cruise lines. His cousin, J.B., is actually the current governor of Illinois. I suppose a band has to have money to tour with their own recording engineer to begin with. 

Between his philanthropic work, Daniel toured with this band and to his credit was a talented guitarist and songwriter. He actually bought Jerry Garcia’s famous “Wolf” guitar in 2002 for $790,000, but donated it to charity in 2017 for a whopping $1.9 Million. I suppose after having it around for 15 years, he didn’t really need it anymore. It for charity anyway. Good for him. His fortune surely allowed him to get the pick of the litter of Chicago musicians and Sonia Dada reflected that, especially the singers, though he discovered three of them, Michael Scott, Paris Delane, and Sam Hogan, busking in a Chicago subway. Another singer, Shawn Christopher, had just joined the band, she having spent years singing back up for Chaka Khan in the 80’s. Strangely enough, she also spent a few years singing for none other than the freaky industrial band My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult along side cult icon Lydia Lunch. As luck would have it, the Kult would play the hall only a month later, though without her and Lydia. Still, small world, huh? Sonia Dada would have modest success with their songs, “Lover (You Don’t Treat Me No Good)” and “You Ain’t Thinking (About Me)”, which naturally they played that night, but this would be the only time I’d see them live.

Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Mystic Journeymen, The Earthlings, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., July 26, 1998

The Wu-Tang Clan had made a name for themselves long before this show, but I believe that Dirty was the first of their members that I would see perform live. He more than any of his brethren had hogged all the attention in the media, especially that year, with his, shall we say, eccentric behavior. For starters, Dirty made headlines that February for bum rushing the stage at the Grammies interrupting of all people Shawn Colvin getting her award for Song Of The Year. Really, “Sunny Come Home” is not a song one would at first associate with Dirty or rap music in general. Anyway, he was pissed that Puff Daddy had won the Grammy for Best Rap Album earlier and felt he had to protest that Wu Tang didn’t get it since they were, “doing it for the children”. OK…

Then, Dirty’s luck took a turn for the worse less than a month before this show when he suffered a gunshot wound in the back and arm during a robbery at his girlfriend’s house. He tried to grab a gun from one of the two ski masked assailants when it went off. The perps got away with some jewelry and a diamond studded bracelet, leaving Dirty to get patched up at the hospital. Always on the move, he couldn’t stay still even after being shot, and walked out of the hospital against doctor’s orders after only 9 hours, driving home in his van. Only days later, he was arrested for shoplifting a pair of $50 shoes in Virginia Beach, despite having over $500 in cash on him at the time. His frugal nature was already infamous from a recent piece he did with MTV where he went with his family in a limousine to pick up food stamps. All the while, Dirty was changing his stage name over and over again, recently trying on “Big Baby Jesus” on for size.

So, his reputation preceded him, but like most rap shows at the Hall, this one was sold out and rowdy. Little Boots, the stage manager and son of the Hall’s owner, took advantage of the captive audience to open with his band, The Earthlings. I’ve said it before, but I will at least give him and his crew credit for their steady improvement as the years passed, but as soon as the Hall folded in 2001, The Earthlings basically did too. Also opening were east bay hip hop mainstays, the Mystik Journeymen. The show was sponsored by radio station KSJS and the Journeymen made a particular point to dis on KMEL for not spinning their records, saying, “for all you out there who hate country! 106 ain’t down with the real hip hop!” The crowd was packed up front, to the point where one of their members said he felt sorry for all the people getting crushed. For one of their songs, they had the lighting guys turn off the all the lights and one of them lit up the crowd with a pair of spotlights attached to a hat. As they finished they made sure to get one last dis in, getting everybody to scream, “Fuck commercial radio!!!”

I didn’t save Dirty’s set to listen to, but like most hip hop sets, I remember it was a short one. He certainly covered his hit song, “Shimmy Shimmy Ya”, reminding everybody of how he “likes it raw”. Yes, Dirty was not shy about as Dr. Evil so eloquently phrased it, his “penchant for buggery” and declared so publicly many times, even when not asked about it. His other big hit, “Got Your Money”, wouldn’t be released until the following year, so I don’t recall if it was played that night. Kelis, who did the chorus for that famous song, would play the Hall the following year though. Dirty had also a reputation for being a drug fiend though, and sadly he would die from an accidental drug overdose six years later at the age of 35, only three years older than me, making this the only time I would see him perform live. I would see and record a few other members of the Wu Tang Clan such as Method Man and GZA, and I would finally see the Clan altogether when they played The Fillmore in 2002, but Dirty was in jail then, having skipped out on a court mandated drug rehab stint. Clearly, the treatment was seriously in need, but alas, Big Baby Jesus had to eventually be recalled home to heaven. 

Morbid Angel, Incantation, Nile, Infestation, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., July 25, 1998

SETLIST : (unknown), Bil Ur-Sag, World Of Shit (The Promised Land), Nothing Is Not, Rapture, Lord Of All Fevers & Plague, Day Of Suffering, Prayer Of Hatred, Covenant Of Death, Invocation Of The Continual One, Blood On My Hands, Heaving Earth, (encore) Hellspawn : The Rebirth, Chapel Of Ghouls

Morbid Angel is one of those bands, like Deicide and Cannibal Corpse, where I take a moment, look up to God and say, “Hey… These guys don’t necessarily represent me. Don’t send me to Hell or nothing for this. I’m just doing my job.” Yes, Morbid Angel, the bombastic death metal band from Tampa who had been rattling out teeth fillings since 1983 were there along with three other heavy, HEAVY acts, all with impressive heads of hair. Morbid Angel had just released their new album, “Formulas Fatal To The Flesh”, deliberately using three words starting with the sixth letter of the alphabet. You get the idea. This was their first album with their new singer and bassist, Steve Tucker, who had replaced Dave “Evil D” Vincent. Dave would come back in 2004, then leave again and Steve would take over again in 2015. I would see Dave soon enough when he’d play at the Hall a year later with his wife, Jennifer “Gen” Zimmerman and her band, The Genitorturers. They were a whole other kind of disturbing. I’ll get to them eventually. 

We had both Incantation and Infestation that night opening. Metal bands notoriously use single word names that end with “tion”. Nile from Greenville, South Carolina was there too and they were a little more prog rock than the others, definitely taking on the mystical Egyptian angle. They were still pretty new back then. Both Nile and Incantation were signed to Relapse Records and as luck would have it both released their new albums on the same day that April. Nile’s album was actually their debut and I loved the title, “Amongst The Catacombs Of Nephren-Ka”, a reference to a story called “The Outsider” by H.P. Lovecraft. Yep, this was dark music to say the least, but I love the death metal crowd, nice people one and all, really. These guys were always on time to their sound checks and their drummers took care of their gear with immaculate care.

Like Front 242 who had played the Hall for the last two days before this show, the fog machine was getting a lot of use that night. Morbid Angel had also set up fans on stage to blow their member’s manes of hair majestically all through the show. I loved the way Steve would introduce the songs with his Cookie Monster voice saying stuff like, “You people are fucking sick! We salute you all! For the strong, this is the dawning of a new era! For the weak, this is the DAY… OF… SUFFERING!!!!” He did another one, growling, “Some pray for money! Some pray for greed! Some pray to false gods! This is a PRAYER… OF… HATRED!!!” and “This goes out to all sickness! This is LORD… OF… ALL… FEVERS… AND… PLAGUE!!!” Apart from their blasphemous lyrics, he would also do some parts of their songs singing in Sumerian. During “Covenant Of Death”, he belted out, “Zamanu Muh Lal-Li Zi-Pa-Gurud-Zuneme-E”, translating to, “Hostile ones, you soon shall reap what you earned”.

Listening to their set again, I thought my mix was pretty even, but when they returned in 1999, again with Nile opening, I was saddened to hear that they thought it was too bass heavy. I’m sure Steve Tucker wasn’t complaining. Having done so much reggae at the Hall, I tended, like Pete, to favor the kick and bass. They never used any of our stuff, unfortunately, but Morbid Angel had put out a live album in 1996 already anyway called “Entangled In Chaos”. Maybe they were just a little jittery about playing the new tunes with the new singer. They were also touring with Erik Rutan on guitar, he taking a break from his band Hate Eternal. Erik would go on to play with a number of other heavy bands including joining Cannibal Corpse just this year. We had just set up a wide shot for the video that night as usual, but somebody in the crowd did manage to get in a video camera of their own and you can find the set they played that night on YouTube in all its chaotic glory. 

Front 242, Project Pitchfork, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., July 23, 1998

Front 242, Project Pitchfork, Kevorkian Death Cycle, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., July 24, 1998

SETLIST : (same both days) Happiness, Masterhit, Motion, Moldavia, Melt, Soul Manager, No Shuffle, In Rhythmus Bleiben, Crapage, Body To Body, Religion, Headhunter, Welcome To Paradise, (encore), First In/First Out, Punish Your Machine

It had been five years since Front 242 toured with Lollapalooza and though they didn’t have a new album to speak of, they had remixed some of their songs and I was overjoyed to see that they were coming to play not one, but two days at the Hall. It had been a weird stretch at the Maritime for the past week before this since not one, not two, but three shows were cancelled, Venom, Israel Vibration, and Iron Maiden, all shows I would have loved to work, especially the last one. Furthermore, Sonia Dada got postponed until the first of August. Why all this happened, I can’t say, maybe bad ticket sales. I don’t remember, but at least I got a week off of shows and had some time off for my birthday. Speaking of my birthday, that weekend, Tsar Nicholas II of whom I was named after was laid to rest finally with his family in Russia in a proper funeral, 80 years after they were gunned down and buried in secret in the woods. Talk about a postponement…

Anyway, I was disappointed that we once again couldn’t raise anybody to do video camera work for either of these nights. I was hoping against hope that Front 242 would like our stuff and release it someday. But unluckily for me, they had just released a live album recorded earlier in this tour called “Re-Boot : Live ’98” featuring the exact same set they played both nights at the Hall. That album actually came out that Tuesday. Still, I can’t blame them for wanting a live recording made in their home country of Belgium, taking live songs from shows they did in Brussels at the beginning of their tour the previous September and later from their show in Marke that April. To make matters worse, the opening act, Project Pitchfork from Hamburg, Germany flat out refused to be recorded at all, so they were out. There was at least a second opening act on the Friday show, Kevorkian Death Cycle from Riverside, who I was able to tape. They were nice about it and would play the Hall again that Halloween opening for Frontline Assembly.

Like I said, we didn’t have a camera crew, leaving me to set up the wide shot of the stage up in the balcony. When I was doing it on the first day, none other than Front 242’s Richard Jonckheere, otherwise known as Richard23 or RichardJK, kind of gave me the third degree, wondering who I was and what I was doing. Nervous at first, I bluntly told him about the video projections on the immense screens on the sides of the walls and he was cool about it, even apologetic a little. I felt bad for my abrupt knee jerk reaction to his question and apologized myself, blubbering to him about how much I loved his band and I felt relieved that I broke the ice with him. They played great as usual and though most of their music was doled out by a single guy behind keyboards, they at least had a real drummer backing them up again. 

The fog machines and strobe lights were in overdrive both nights. Richard did his frantic, goofy dancing, dressed in his usual tack-vest and fingerless gloves while the other singer, Jen-Luc De Meyer, growled away beneath his sunglasses wearing a striped sweater that makes him look a little like Charlie Brown. Charlie was a melancholy cartoon character, so I imagine he’d of liked their music. The new remixed versions of songs like “Religion” and “Crapage” were definitely easier to dance to, but I still like the original versions better. Despite it all, I was glad to catch these shows, especially since I wouldn’t see Front 242 perform live again until 2017, nearly twenty years later, when they came to town to play at The Mezzanine. I almost didn’t make it to that one either, barely getting there in time after running to that venue after working up on Nob Hill at a union gig at the Mark Hopkins Hotel. I already had to miss AC/DC playing at the ballpark that night, so catching Front 242 again was a blessing.

Gal Costa, Vivendo De Peo, Maritime Hall, SF, Tues., July 14, 1998

Once again, the Hall would be the host for a rare performer from South America, this time from Brazil. The singer in question would be Mrs. Maria Da Graca Costa Penna Burgos, (whew!), otherwise known as Gal Costa. Strange that this show was billed on the monthly poster as “2B1 Eye For Talent Presents”, a moniker never used before and to my knowledge never again. God only knows what that was about. It was Bastille Day, the day before my 26th birthday and I was once again left alone to record this show. Unfortunately, Gal Costa didn’t want us to tape that night, so after the opening act, Vivendo De Pao, which translates literally to “living off bread” in Portuguese, a colloquial term for just getting by financially, had finished, I was done. So, I had it pretty easy. It still was a pity that we couldn’t record Gal Costa. She had an incredible voice. Though she was only 53 years old at the time, she had already been making albums since she was 19, having 25 studios ones under her belt as well as 4 live ones. She is a member of a short list of virtuosos such as Gilberto Gil and Catano Veloso who founded the “tropicalia” genre in her native country. Her new album, “Aquele Frevo Axe” had just been released that year and all the Brazilian ex-pats came out of the woodwork to see her. Gal was well known among world music and jazz people, often playing at the Montreux Jazz Festival. 

The thing I remember most about this show was indeed her voice. In fact, before I turned off all the gear down in the recording room, the front of house engineer, Jack Shaw had come down to listen a little with me. It was unusual for Jack to socialize with me at all. He tended to look down on me and my lackluster audio skills and honestly, he was right to do so. Jack was clearly very talented, even if he was a bit of a wise guy. But strangely enough, Jack was suspicious of Gal being a drag queen or transgender or something. We put her vocals on solo and listened closely to her pitch perfect delivery. I admit, Gal looked a bit mannish and her voice was a touch husky, but like I said before, she was middle aged by then. Upon further research, I can confirm that Gal Costa is indeed biologically female. As for Jack, I always wondered if he was gay. He kind of put off that vibe and often would play the song “Junebug” by the B-52’s during sound checks. Who knows…

The JGB Band, Juggling Suns, Maritime Hall, SF,  Fri., July 10, 1998

Pete had left me this one, a hippie show, Jerry’s old band. I suppose he figured nothing would come from this recording since there had been umpteen zillion live ones of Jerry when he was alive anyway, but I took it in stride. It was good practice and Melvin Seals was a hell of a keyboard player. By this time, Jackie LaBranch had left the band leaving Gloria Jones and Melvin as the only original members of the group when Jerry was still pickin’. Gloria had a young lady along side her whose name escaped me, but she also had a nice voice and filled in admirably. Stu Allen was on guitar and would go on to do several other hippie projects, becoming a regular at Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Station venue up in San Rafael. Melvin also brought in his cousin Elgin Seals to play bass. Like Melvin, he had considerable musical talent and also did work playing bass for The Four Tops, another nostalgia act with an ever shrinking roster of original members. Didn’t get a set list for this one, nor for the opening act, the Juggling Suns, but I’m glad I did the show all the same since this would be the last time I’d see Melvin and the JGB Band play live. Obviously, it was never the same without Jerry, but I wish them all well.

The Jesus Lizard, Firewater, Bottom Of The Hill, SF, Sun., July 5, 1998

SETLIST : Sea Sick, Postcoital Glow, Glamorous, Gladiator, I Can Learn, Nub, Eucalyptus, Puss, Killer McHann, Boilermaker, Soft Damage, The Associate, Happy Snakes, Cold Water, Then Comes Dudley, (encore) Mouth Breather, Horse Doctor Man, Wheelchair Epidemic, Until It Stopped To Die, (unknown), Monkey Trick

The Jesus Lizard, Firewater, Herbert, Palookaville, Santa Cruz, Tues., July 7, 1998

SETLIST : Sea Sick, Puss, I Can Learn, Gladiator, Killer McHann, Horse Doctor Man, Thumbscrews, Eucalyptus, Bloody Mary, Boilermaker, A Tale Of Two Women, More Beautiful Than Barbie, Glamorous, Cold Water, Then Comes Dudley, (encore), Mouth Breather, Now Then, And Then The Rain, (unknown), Monkey Trick

It had been over two years since I saw the divine abomination that is The Jesus Lizard and I had exhausted every record shop in town finding everything I could of theirs. This would also be the first time I’d see them as a headliner, they last playing as an opener for two days with Ministry at The Warfield and as one of the early acts on the main stage at Lollapalooza at both Cal Expo and Shoreline in 1995. So, not only would I be seeing one of their own shows, but I’d be seeing them up close and personal, much, much closer being Bottom Of The Hill. I was frankly surprised that they’d be playing a venue so small considering the exposure they’d been getting and being signed to Capitol Records, their new album, “Blue”, having been just released that April. That, and the show was only $10, though I had to pay a $2.25 service fee, was still a bargain, even at 1998 prices.

This would be the beginning of the end for the Lizard, at least for a while. Their original summer, Mac McNeilly, had quit the band shortly after the tour with Ministry to spend more time wife and two kids and was replaced by Jim Kimball. I liked Jim, a worthy, hard hitting drummer who swung his arms above his lowered head like a hyperactive spider monkey, but he would quit after only a couple years, leaving just a month after these shows. Jim would be replaced by Brendan Murphy, the drummer for Wesley Willis, another, shall we say, eccentric frontman like the Lizard’s David Yow. But he too would go by the wayside when the Lizard finally called in quits the next March, playing their final show in Umea, Sweden. It would be over a decade until they would emerge once more and I’d see them return to headline at The Fillmore. As usual, I and the crowd were blissfully unaware of the goings on with the band and enjoyed the show.

Opening both gigs were Firewater, the new band from Tod Ashley, or Tod A. as he was otherwise known, the former frontman of Cop Shoot Cop, who I’d seen once before at the Great American Music Hall. Firewater was an interesting stylistic departure from his old industrial punk band, dabbling in all sorts of styles, ranging from tango, to jazz, to gypsy folk music. I fell in love with their song, “Another Perfect Catastrophe”, a brilliant and unforgettable tune and bought their latest album, “The Ponzi Scheme” shortly after these shows. Tod got the crowd at Bottom Of The Hill worked up with a rowdy gospel blues number called “Knock Em’ Down”, getting the crowd to chant “Do You Believe!?!”. Afterwards, he gave props to the Lizard saying, “David and his performing monkeys will be out to entertain you. Fun for young and old alike!”

David Yow wasted no time and started crowd floating immediately for their first song, “Seasick”. Coincidentally, I’d just recorded the band Far at the Maritime a couple days before this show and they too have a song of their own with the same title. David did his usual amounts of wisecracks, saying “I’d like to dedicate this next song… but I’m not gonna…” before they played “Nub”. He thanked the crowd, saying it was “so nice not to have those motherfuckin’ children around again. Now we’re hangin’ out with the grown ups.”, Bottom Of The Hill always being a 21 and over venue. Before they played “Eucalyptus” he pointed out a a bald friend in the back with glasses and his sound person, saying, “She kicks ass and swallows. And there’s Todd and Jeff and some other fags…” Drunk as always, David encouraged the crowd shouting, “It’s July 5th! Drinkety-drink-drink!!!”, before they went into “Boilermaker”. 

Later, he asked the audience, “Is my hair OK? Do you think I have a nice body? I’m 63 years old! Wanna see my cock?” At the time, David was only 37 but he just turned 60 last year. He laughed and asked us to “please scream a whole lot louder because it gives me a hard on!” They finished their set with “Then Comes Dudley” before returning to the stage, where David declared “we planned a few songs for you, all of which one or maybe three of them really kick ass!” They played a long encore, playing six songs. I had previously thought David made the “What do you do if your girlfriend is stumbling around in the backyard all day?… Shoot her again” joke at Lollapalooza, but it actually was this show. Hi-larious.

Two days later, my friend Tory and I hopped in my car and made the trek down south the Santa Cruz to see them play at Palookaville, This would be the only time I’d see a show at this venue, or even go down to Santa Cruz specifically to see a band. Boots at the Maritime had been doing the booking at Palookaville and I in fact had put up The Jesus Lizard’s name on a suggestion page near Boots’ office door, one of the first names to go up. I remember even putting a dark square around that name so it would stand out. The Lizard never got to play the Maritime, but I wondered if my suggestion helped them land the Palookaville gig. Coincidentally, the Lizard had also just put out their self titled EP, the only album they’d released without a single word title, that was co-produced by John Cale on the Velvet Undergound who had only just played two back to back nights at the Hall with The Creatures a couple days before these shows. With our Maritime laminates, Tory and I had no trouble getting into the venue. The staff there were very friendly people. I ran into David Yow during the opening act’s soundcheck, it being early, he wasn’t drunk yet and I said hello. I reminded him of the time I ran into him two years before at The Warfield during soundcheck and I was wearing my cap and gown from graduating from collage that very day and approached him for an autograph. He signed it, “You know what, Nick? You gradu-fuckin’-ated!” It took him a moment, but the memory came back to him and we had a friendly little chuckle about it. 

There was a second opening act that night before Firewater, a band called Herbert. They were more of a straight rock & roll band with a singer who sounded English. I liked them, but they were having some sort of trouble on stage with their gear. The poor singer was periodically being electrocuted from presumably a short in her mic cable and was afraid to touch her mic stand during their whole set. Firewater had a tougher time getting the crowd’s attention on this show, taunting the distracted crowd asking, “Are we boring you?” and “Somebody napping or something?” The Jesus Lizard did mince words when they got on stage though, David immediately pointing to the folks upstairs, saying “You old people in the balcony! This is your chance to come down here! What the fuck!?!? You don’t have any friends!?!” I was used to seeing Mr. Yow drunk, but at this show, he was positively wasted. Somebody said something about the late G.G. Allen between songs and he immediately snapped, “Fuck you, G.G. Allen! Son of a bitch! I’m glad he’s dead!!!” G.G., a “performer” shall we say, infamous for defecating on stage and basically ingesting as much substances as he could get his hands on, had died of an accidental, though entirely predictable, drug overdose five years earlier at the age of 36.

David continued his shirtless insanity and crowd floating, keeping me on my toes, having to have one hand free to support him in case his diminutive, sweaty body would float by while I held the mic with my other hand. He shouted “I dedicate this motherfuckin’ song to everybody in the motherfuckin’ room!” before launching into “Thumbscrews” Considering the lyrics of that song about torturing his landlord, I couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy of his intentions. He lashed out at a young man who had gotten on stage, trying to say something in his mic, and punched him square in the mouth, sending the interloper back into the crowd, shouting “Don’t fucking touch it! Put it down! I hate everyone of you motherfuckers!… Except for him… and that girl who sucked my ass earlier tonight”. I can still hear the dull thud of his fist landing that punch in my memory to this day.

He quickly forgot about the bum rush guy and was back to making wisecracks, congratulating a young woman in the crowd, joking “Hey, today’s Anna’s 15th birthday! Security, throw her the fuck out!”. I was lucky that they mixed up the set lists from this and the Bottom Of The Hill show to hear most of the new songs between the two days, as well as hearing a couple I hadn’t heard before live like “More Beautiful Than Barbie”. He introduced “Mouth Breather”, the first song of the long encores at both shows, at this one, saying, “This is a song we wrote sitting around one day thinking about astrophysics”. Another crowd floater got up on stage and honest to God, threw up a little. David taunted him, for some reason yelling, “Pow wow! Pow wow!” The band finished up the encore with “Monkey Trick” as they had done at the Bottom Of The Hill show. I’ll say it once, I’ll say it a million times, I’m always amazed that the rest of the band stays so focused as David goes on with his shenanigans, especially since their songs are so musically complicated. Maybe since the crowd’s attention is so drawn to his outlandish behavior, it actually helps them center themselves on their music. 

Like I said before, I would have to wait over a decade to see this insane spectacle again, but the lads from the Lizard would find other projects in the interim. David would go onto join another band called Qui, which I would have the pleasure of seeing twice, once at Cafe Du Nord in 2007 and again at Annie’s Social Club in 2008. His antics at one of his shows in Pittsburgh, between the times I saw him, would get him a punctured lung, but he was all healed up by the time I saw him for the second time. He would continue his love of gourmet cooking, spend time with his cats, and even do some work as a graphic designer as well. Guitarist Duane Denison would join Mike Patton with his side project Tomahawk in 2001 and tour with Tool, which I regret not seeing them play when they came around to perform at the Oakland Coliseum that year. I think I was out of town for that one. I would however get to see him perform in 2007 when he was touring with Ministry bassist Paul Barker in their band U.S.S.A. They played to only a handful of people at the 12 Galaxies club in the Mission, the only time they toured as far as I know. 

David Wm. Sims, the bass player of The Jesus Lizard, would also pursue other musical side projects and I was tickled to hear that he also would become a Certified Public Accountant. I suppose such work would be a welcome relief from the unpredictable, frantic life performing in the Lizard. It was a thrilling and memorable couple of shows and I still have my long sleeve shirt I bought from their merchandise guy. It had on the front the distorted face of a man in a suit with a crew cut holding up a glass of milk saying above the picture, “Thirsty?”, and on each of the sleeves, one reading, “Eat”, the other reading, Drink” and on the back simply, “The Jesus Lizard”. Besides that, all I have is the ticket stub from the Bottom Of The Hill show, the tapes, and these joyful, yet disturbing memories. 

Far, The Gandharvas, Zebrahead, Born Naked, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., July 3, 1998

As time went on, I grew to realize that the Maritime was the place to play for the newly emerging “screamo” rock bands of the era. We’d have guys like Sevendust and Papa Roach frequenting several times, but other acts like A.F.I., My Chemical Romance, and Fallout Boy would ultimately take the sound to larger crowds. This show wasn’t put on the books at the Hall early enough to make it to the monthly poster and it turned out to be really poorly sold. When the boys from Born Naked first got on stage, you could probably count the people on the dance floor with both hands. By this time as well, any people I could scare up to do cameras for the videos at the Hall had at least one encounter with Boots and his antagonism and never returned, leaving the video shoot of every show to be a single wide shot of the stage. It would remain this way until Boots finally got the message and installed the robotic camera system that went online in January the next year. Furthermore, my partner Pete was getting fed up with Boots and with my modest recording skills intact, he left me to do most of the recording for the rest of the month. Pete wouldn’t return to do a gig until Baaba Maal in August and his work at the Hall would become more and more infrequent until his final falling out with Boots in November of 1999.

This would be the final time I’d record Born Naked at the Hall, but they sounded good as ever. Listening to them one final time from the tape of the night, I’ve come to appreciate Sal and his singing voice, a sort of blend of Chris Cornell and Mike Patton. That’s hard to do, especially when playing guitar. I’d see them one more time headlining a locals only show at the Fillmore in 2001, but I’ve seen hide nor hair of them since, or even their manager and my former flatmate Patrick. Second up was a band called Zebrahead from Orange Country. They had just released their first self titled album, already signed to Columbia. Like 311, they had a guitarist who sang and a fellow along side him that rapped. The rapper was funny and energetic, an Iranian-American named Ali Tabatabee. They would come back to headline their own show at the Hall a year later, though their turnout was about as low as this gig. I don’t remember the Gandharvas, but they had an interesting name. A Gandharva is a celestial being in Hindu or Buddhist mythology who have magical musical skills, the males being divine singers and the females being divine dancers. Some of them are part animal, often part bird or horse. Far, the headliner of the night, I had seen before opening for Helmet at Slim’s back in 1996 and thought they had some talent. Still, I thought it was a tall order for them, especially since they were so new to fill the place. Coincidentally, they had a song called “Seasick” which The Jesus Lizard had a song of their own with the same title and I’d see them play back to back shows right after this one and they would play their “Seasick” on both of those shows. Far would split up shortly after this show in 1999, but they’d have a reunion ten years later.

Curve, The Dandy Warhols, DJ? Acucrack, Maritime Hall, SF, Thur., July 2, 1998

SETLISTS :

(DANDY WARHOLS) : Be-In, Ride, Nothin’ To Do, (Tony, This Song Is Called) Lou Weed, I Love You, (unknown), Minnisoter, Genius, Every Day Should Be A Holiday, Hard On For Jesus, Boys Better

(CURVE) : One The Wheel, Coming Up Roses, Forgotten Sanity, Something Familiar, Alligators, Getting Up, Sweetback, Horror Head, Beyond Reach, Chinese Burn, Dirty High, (encore), Unreadable Communication, Recovery, Turkey Crossing, Die Like A Dog, Ten Little Girls

I was overjoyed to hear that these two great bands, two of my favorites really, were playing together and coming to the Maritime. I’d just seen Curve only three months before this show headlining at Slim’s and the Dandy’s also at Slim’s the previous December. They were on the top of their games and I was looking forward to having a professional live recording of each in my growing resume. But my hopes were dashed when I arrived for soundcheck and learned that they brought their own monitor board, so the recording room couldn’t get a hook up. Still, I was glad to at least have the night off to see the show and I still got a recording from my own tape deck, for what it was worth. On my way back in after retrieving my tape deck from home, I actually ran into Toni and Dean from Curve walking down from Rincon Hill. Toni noticed I had a cup of Starbuck’s coffee and asked where she could score one and I pointed them in the right direction. Like most American cities, they could of thrown a rock in this town and probably hit one.

They had a DJ duo from Chicago called DJ? Acucrack open the show. Why they had a question mark after the DJ or where the name Acucrack comes from is anyone’s guess. The show wasn’t that well sold, maybe a little less than half, but that was fine by me. It made it easier to get around, enjoy myself, and avoid people talking over my taping. This would be the only time I’d see the Dandy’s as an opening band, actually, but they played great as always. They didn’t perform “Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth” that night, which was unusual, since they always had before since the second album came out. They did however played “(This Song Is Called) Lou Weed”, the singer Courtney noting that they hadn’t played it “in fucking ever”. I thought it was ironic since fellow Velvet Underground member, John Cale, had just finished played two nights at the Hall with The Creatures. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why the Dandy’s dusted off that old song. He also mumbled something later between songs that he thought he was playing The Fillmore that night, which probably made the members of the Hall a little uneasy. Hopefully, Boots didn’t overhear that. It was great to see Curve and listen to their new songs once again so soon after their Slim’s show, but little did I realize that this would be the last time I’d see them live. I suppose I was taking them for granted at the time. There were rumors of a Curve reunion in 2017, but it never materialized. Thankfully, the Dandy’s would come back to play The Fillmore, (for real this time), a year and half later and they are still together touring and making albums to this day. Finally, the Hall had a new poster out for the month of July and it turned out to become one of my favorites.

Merl Saunders & His Rainforest Band, The Toni Brown Band, Donna Jean Godchaux, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., June 27, 1998

Seriously, it is hard not to like Merl Saunders. There is so much to like, from his talent as a keyboard player and singer, to his taste in covers, to just his overall upbeat and friendly demeanor. But this was my seventh, count em’, seventh time I got to help record him at the Hall. And I can help but feel a little miffed to find out that he released a live compilation album that year and didn’t use a single song from the stuff we recorded with him. Whatever. I’m sure he had his reasons. Not that this night was unpleasant, it wasn’t. Pete was at the helm, his third night in a row and this was hippie music, which was his wheelhouse, so he had it well in hand and there were plenty of joints passed between us to pass the time. It had been another long month of music, ending June with 15 shows under my belt in 30 days.

This show was being billed as the 25th Anniversary Party for Relix magazine, a publication devoted to all things hippie. Donna Jean Godchaeux opened the night, debuting her new band. Though she had joined Phil Lesh with a cavalcade of stars for the Philharmonia show the previous December at the Maritime, this was being billed also as “her first west coast band appearance in over 20 years”. I’ve made it no secret that I’ve never liked Donna’s voice and hated the period of when she toured with the Dead, so I was relieved when her set was over, never to see or hear her again. Following her was the Toni Brown Band, a group led by the editor of the magazine and I presume other members of Relix. She is often confused with the Toni Brown who was the singer of the veteran bay area hippie band, Joy Of Cooking. Merl played well as always, surely dusting off a Dead cover or two for the occasion. He’d return and play one final time later that year at the Hall for New Year’s Eve.

The Creatures with John Cale, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., June 25, 1998

The Creatures with John Cale, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., June 26, 1998

SETLIST : Lament, Riverbank, Fear Is A Man’s Best Friend, You’re A Ghost, Hedda Gabler, But Not Them, Tattoo, Take Mine, Pluto Drive, Miss The Girl, Westward Ho, So Much For The Evidence, All Fall Down, Magazines, Leaving It Up To You, Disconnected, Turn It On, Prettiest Thing, Beside Ourselves, Exterminating Angel, (encore), Thumb, Murdering Mouth, (encore), Think Like A Gun, (encore), Venus In Furs, (encore), Pablo Picasso

As big as a fan that I was of Siouxsie & The Banshees, I was utterly unaware of the side project Siouxsie and her husband Budgie, the drummer, had with The Creatures. So, I wasn’t entirely upset that Pete would be recording this pair of shows, especially since none other than the Velvet Underground’s John Cale would be opening. This was important and they deserved to have the best taping them and Pete hadn’t taped a show at the Hall for three weeks, so I took it as a sign to take a break. I would be lucky enough to tape them myself anyway when The Creatures returned to play the Hall on Halloween the following year. Siouxie and Budgie had parted ways with the other Banshees shortly after I saw them do back to back shows at The Warfield in 1995. They hadn’t toured together as The Creatures in almost a decade and had recently started collaborating with John Cale who helped produce the Banshee’s last album, “The Rapture”, and after playing a festival with him in Amsterdam. Speaking of festivals, I had just finished seeing the Lilith Fair at Shoreline a couple days before this and was reminded that Budgie actually played drums for the Indigo Girls briefly when they toured with a band. I thought actually that The Creatures would have been an interesting choice to play that festival, certainly a stylistic left turn. 

John Cale wasn’t so much an opener since he played with The Creatures’ band backing him up for five songs before Siouxsie joined them on stage and kept the set going. I’d seen John once before with the Red House Painters at The Fillmore and though I found his voice grating, I appreciated his music, especially his contribution to the Velvet Underground, clearly an influence on Siouxsie and all others in the Goth genre. I only kept the recording of the second night, but as far as I can recall, the sets were practically identical. They did a few covers that second night for sure, including the Banshee’s song, “Tattoo”, and the Velvet Underground’s “Venus In Furs” for one of their encores. John busted out his screechy violin for that one and it was ironic that Siouxsie would wail about “Severin”, an in joke referencing the Banshee’s bass player, Steve Severin.

Other than that, it was all Creatures songs. Siouxsie even joked with the crowd saying, “we’re only testing you tonight. It’s all new stuff. No comfort here, I’m afraid. You have to sit on that spike and like it!” She told us to “expect the unexpected” and they weren’t there promoting anything because they weren’t signed. That wouldn’t be for long, since they in essence signed themselves the following year, creating their won record label and put out “Anima Animus”. They did play a few songs that would eventually be on that album, such as “Disconnected”, “Turn It On”, Take Mine”, “Prettiest Thing”, and “Exterminating Angel”. Budgie was kept busy that night,  taking turns between his drum kit to hit a bongo drum with small mallets for “Westward Ho” and “Prettiest Thing”. Siouxsie asked the crowd if they knew anything by Samuel Beckett for the prior, but got an unsure response from them. She teased her husband when he came up to play guitar for “Beside Ourselves”, saying she was “just waiting for my husband to strap it on”, then playfully scolding for starting the wrong song saying he had the setlist form the night before. She coyly then asked him if he wanted her “to strap it on for you?”

Siouxsie played a few things on stage as well, shaking jingle bells and hitting a percussion block for “Miss The Girl” and playing a sampler on  “Exterminating Angel”. Somebody in the crowd gave her a bouquet of flowers, but she tore it open at the end of the night and passed around the flowers to the people up front. Always the fashion icon, Siouxsie wore a slinky black latex number, though she lost the top portion of it during the encores. Since summer had just begun, that outfit must have been hot to perform in. She donned a silver, sparkling cowboy hat for the encores as well. They finished the night with a hilarious cover of “Pablo Picasso” by The Modern Lovers, their fourth encore. Very seldom have I ever seen an act come back for more than three. Before they played it, a young woman got on stage and very delicately gave Siouxsie a hug. Siouxsie praised her as Little Boot, the stage manager, escorted her off, Siouxsie saying for “a stage-stormer”, she had grace.

Lilith Fair ’98: Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Merchant, Indigo Girls, Erykah Badu, Me’shell Ndgeocello, Shoreline, Mountain View, Tues., June 23

SETLISTS :

(INDIGO GIRLS) : Shame On You, Galileo, Scooter Boys (with Natalie Merchant), Diamonds & Rust (with Joan Baez), Get Out The Map, Shed Your Skin, Power Of Two, Water Is Wide (with Sarah McLachlan), Rockin’ In The Free World (with K’s Choice), Closer To Fine

(NATALIE MERCHANT) : Wonder, Life Is Sweet, Jealousy, Break Your Heart, Ophelia, Carnival, (unknown), Thick As Thieves, Kind & Generous

(SARAH MCLACHLAN) : Witness, Wait, Angel, Ice Cream, Black & White, Building A Mystery, Possession, Aida, Sweet Surrender, What’s Going On

This was the second year of the Lilith Fair, the brainchild of Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan. Named after Adam’s first wife in Jewish mythology who after weighing the prospects of an unequal standing alongside him, decided to to leave Adam and go it alone. Sarah made a point to call it a “Fair”, so it would have multiple interpretations, being a festival, beautiful, or a step towards equality. The idea that an all female festival wouldn’t be successful in hindsight seems preposterous, especially since Sarah was riding high on the success of her album, “Surfacing” released the previous summer with it’s smash hit single, “Building A Mystery”. But rock promoters and people in the industry were at first utterly dismissive and downright cruel. Mean spirited nicknames for this festival like “Lesbopalooza”, “Breast-Fest”, “The Other Bush Tour”, and so on circulated abound. OK, “Breast-Fest” was a little funny, but come on, guys, grow up please. 

After choosing Paula Cole to be her opening act on her 1995 tour, Sarah held steadfast that an all female festival was feasible and she wasn’t alone. Joan Osborne had been thinking about such a tour herself when Sarah beat her to the punch, though Sarah brought her along as a main stage act for the first tour. Tired of hitting a wall of sexism as they found commercial and critical success, other talented female contemporaries needed little convincing to join the party. Before she knew it, Sarah had such names as Sheryl Crow, Fiona Apple, Jewel, Tracy Chapman, and dozens of others stepping up and the tour left all those industry schmucks with egg on their faces. I regret not seeing that first year, but this year’s line up was equally as impressive and the size of the crowd reflected that. The Lilith Fair went from 37 dates the first year to 57 for this one, with over 100 acts over the course of this tour. And by the time the following year was over, these three tours will have been seen by 2 million people, grossed over $52 million dollars, $10 million of which went to charities. That first tour was in fact the highest grossing festival tour of that year.

I do confess, the primary reason I went to this show was because of my sister. Erica had been a fan of Natalie Merchant for years and had turned me on recently to the music of Erykah Badu as well. It is a rare occasion when I can get her to go to a show with me and I knew full well that this was one she wouldn’t have wanted to miss. Free from the filthy masses of musclebound brutish boys that permeated other summer festivals like Lollapalooza, Ozzfest, H.O.R.D.E., and especially Limp Bizkit’s Family Values tour, Erica would be amongst a very different and welcoming environment. Female acts on those icky boy tours were few and far between, if there were any at all. Not that I was unwelcome, though I was clearly outnumbered. I would say the woman to man ratio at this show was easily 20 to 1, maybe even 25. The obvious wisecrack men would make at this show would be about that they converted several of the men’s rooms at Shoreline into women’s rooms. But I wisely kept my mouth shut about it and understood that the optics of hundreds of women having to wait in line to pee while men roamed in and out of their bathrooms leisurely would have been bad to say the least. I had seen plenty of shows that the audience held a majority of females, but nothing to this size by far. I wanted to see this, not only for the level of musical talent, but as a show of support. There were plenty of fathers bringing daughters and mothers bringing sons. I like to think the Lilith Fair amongst so many other positive and constructive things it was, helped bridge the cultural divide between the sexes, even just a little.

There was a second stage at this festival, like most summer festivals, but I kept my attention to the main stage and hanging out with Erica. I didn’t want to do my usual mad dashing between stages. That would have been rude to her. On that side stage were Noelle Hampton and The Beth Lesick Ordeal, who I’d just seen open for Paula Cole at The Warfield less than two weeks before this festival. Though Paula was already committed to her own tour, riding on the success of her hit song, “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?”, her openers were on board. Noelle had won a spot on this tour in a competition with 500 other acts for the Alice radio station and along with Beth Lisick, K’s Choice, Billy Myers, Lhasa De Sela, Tara MacClean, and Autour De Lucie entertained people all day on that stage. Amongst the usual food and merchandise vendors, there were booths for all sorts of charities, services, and businesses like Planned Parenthood and Biore Cosmetics. 

But first up on the main stage was Me’schell Ndgeocello. As usual, I was a stickler for getting to the festival on time, but particularly because she was first up. I was impressed by her set when she played the Maritime the year before and was glad she was continuing to get recognized for her talent. The fact that she and Erykah Badu were the first two acts of the day also helped quell complaints that Sarah and the Fair the previous year lacked diversity both ethnically and stylistically. It would natural for my sister to be drawn to an artist that (almost) shared her name, but the music of Erykah Badu was indeed a force to reckoned with. Having just released her debut album, “Baduism” the previous year, Badu catapulted herself into stardom, that album quickly reaching triple platinum and chalking up a couple Grammy wins for Best R & B Album and Best Female Vocal Performance. She wasted no time releasing a live album, simply called, “Live”, that November, an unusual move for an artist with only one album under her belt. In her short set, she managed to talk quite a bit between songs, first getting a cheer telling the crowd to “give it up for Mother Earth!” She described “Baduism” as it “not being a religion. It is an experience, the way I feel, the way I light incense, light candles, using my power, building bridges, overstanding, understanding, destroying bridges” and so forth. She also did a great cover of Chaka Khan’s, “Stay”, making me think how good it would have been to have Khan on this bill as well.

Badu did another bit talking about what a cypher is, being a circle or completion, that 360 is 3 +6, which equals 9, the 9 months of life that a baby takes to be born. She told the ladies in the audience to put their hands on the womb and dedicated the next song, “Ye Yo”, which means mother in Swahili, to all the mothers out there. She wrote that song for her new baby, Seven, who she mentioned had coincidentally been born seven months before this show. Seven was the offspring between her and Outkast’s Andre 3000. And though their relationship ended the following year, Andre would immortalize their break up with the hit song, “Ms. Jackson”, a very public apology to her and Badu’s mother. Her music fit perfectly as a festival opener on a sunny day, soulful and cool. I’d have to wait another 14 years to see Badu again however when I caught her playing a New Year’s Eve show with The Coup at the Fox Theater in Oakland in 2012. I remember being super pissed for having to miss her show with the Dave Chappelle Block Party tour at The Warfield in 2006 because I was stuck working a gig at The Palace Hotel, a mere four blocks away from it. She finished her set with “Tyrone” which she described as a “song I made up on stage in London. This is grown folks’ music. Cover your kids ears up”.

The middle act of the day were the Indigo Girls, veterans of the first tour and would be for the tour the year after as well. I could see why Sarah wanted them on the bill. I just saw them play the Warfield in January and their fans adored them, especially in San Francisco. They would be an asset to the tour, bringing this collection of shy, introspective musicians together regularly backstage and on stage to collaborate with songs and socialize. And no other act had as manny guests during their set as they did, first bringing out the immortal Joan Baez to sing her song, “Diamonds & Rust”, afterward declaring, “Joan Baez is in the house! Our matriarch!” They then brought out Sarah McLachlan to sing, “Water Is Wide”, and side stage performer K’s Choice, to help them with their cover of Neil Young’s, “Rockin’ In The Free World”. Funny, I could hear Erica in between songs joining me with an abundance of food she got at the vendors that she couldn’t finish. She generously offered me the leftovers and then we smoked some herb. It was a little breezy, so we tried our best to cover up the lighter, but I nearly singed my eyebrows off lighting it.

Second to last was Ms. Merchant. Though she’d long left 10,000 Maniacs behind her years before, her star was continuing to rise then, she having just released her “Ophelia” album a month before this show, even having just performed weeks before as the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live”. The second to last act of most festivals is often considered a co-headliner and she proved herself worthy, though she would be the first one to dispel any notions of competitive backstabbing on this tour. Natalie would later describe her experience on the tour as being “utopian”, citing the camaraderie between her and the other acts and that “nobody was hiding in their trailers”. As luck would have it, she had just finished collaborating with Wilco and Billy Bragg on the “Mermaid Avenue” album of Woody Guthrie songs and I had just seen Wilco perform some of those songs for the first time at the Mountain Aire Festival just the month before, she singing lead on “Birds & Ships” and backing vocals on “Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key”. Sadly, she sang neither of those during her set. She was having fun on stage though as we were, even taking a moment to twirl around a ribbon on a stick. This would be the only time I’d see her live, but I’m glad I shared it with Erica.

Finally, Sarah wrapped the night. Like I said before, she was riding high with her success and her last album, “Surfacing”, would also get her a couple Grammys, one for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and another for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. I’d seen her only once before when she played The Warfield in 1994 and was utterly entranced by her beautiful voice. Yes, I thought she was pretty too but she would soon marry her drummer, Ashwin Sood, while in Jamaica. Her new album would also have the dubious distinction of being mentioned in the Starr Report about the Lewinsky Scandal. Apparently, Monica noticed that Bill Clinton had her CD and whenever she listens to the fifth song, “Do What You Have To Do”, she thought of him. Sarah didn’t play that one that night, but she naturally did play the hit, “Building A Mystery”, which has the more pleasant distinction of being the first song publicly played on an iPod when Steve Jobs himself dialed it up at the iPod product launch in 2001.

Continuing her accolades, Sarah would be given the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Visionary Award and appointed the following year to be an Officer of the Order Of Canada. The Lilith Fair would become a cultural milestone and a moment in musical history that would never be forgotten to all those who were involved and attended. As further, though more sinister, evidence of the tour’s impact on society, a month later there was even a bomb threat phoned in for their show in Atlanta because of the tour’s support for pro-choice causes. There was no bomb and the show went off as planned thankfully. I was a little surprised to learn that this tour was initially only for three years, especially because of its commercial success. But after 1999, Sarah gave birth to a couple daughters and one could imagine the urge to take a break from it all and to spend time with them would be understandable. Sarah tried however to revive the Lilith Fair in 2010, but it unfortunately had poor ticket sales and having a bunch of acts dropping out for fear of not being paid, the tour was cancelled after only 23 shows. The tour did play in Irvine, but nowhere in the bay area. But that bad news aside, this was a perfect day and Sarah was gracious, thanking all the bands and crews, praising all the amazing women who performed that day. They finished the evening bringing up most of the main stage artists to sing a blissful rendition of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”.

The Urge, Kottonmouth Kings, M.I.R.V., The Good Life, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., June 20, 1998

I do have to declare from the outset that this show is a little bit of a mystery to me, not because of the bands who played that night, but rather for who was supposed to play instead. The monthly poster declared that the night of the 20th was to be for Soul Brains, the triumphant return of Bad Brains, a show I was ecstatically looking forward to, but The Urge took its place for some reason. I know that Soul Brains would play the Hall that November and recordings from that show would ultimately be used for their live album, but I could have sworn that I recorded Soul Brains at the Hall twice. I know I didn’t do their shows in 2000 and 2001. Those Wade recorded. Still, I do feel a teensy bit of Bermuda Triangle stuff going on here. You’d think I’d remember a thing, being of such importance to me. 

That being said, I did enjoy this show and was glad that the Hall continued to promote bands that dabbled in ska. The Urge, hailing from St. Louis had toured with fellow mid-westerners 311 back in 1996 and I caught them together at The Warfield. The Urge had just had some modest success with new album, “Master Of Styles” and their hit single, “Jump Right In” which featured 311 lead singer Nick Hexum. I would once again be recording the Kottonmouth Kings as well, they just having played the Hall the previous April for the 4/20 Benefit show. They were still new then, their first album, “Royal Highness”, to be released two months later. I was really happy that M.I.R.V. was on the bill, a delightful, goofy band I’d seen numerous times by then opening for Primus, Les Claypool, and others, and I’d be able to tape them at the Hall for once. Brian Kehoe used to crack me and the office up when he’d pop in and visit Dave Lefkowitz when I was an intern there back in ’96. M.I.R.V. had just released their “Feeding Time On Monkey Island” the year before which featured Brain on drums, who was at the time touring with Primus as their new drummer.

First on the bill that night was another band from the mid-west, from Omaha specifically, 311’s hometown, called The Good Life. It was a side project of Tim Casher, the frontman for the band Cursive. He and that band just broke up that spring, so he was hitting the road with this one, but would soon reform Cursive the following year. All played well, though it wasn’t that well sold like the King Sunny Ade show the night before. I like The Urge and appreciated that they had not one, but two trombone played in the band, and their singer, Steve Ewing, was a black man, adding much needed diversity to the all too caucasian midwest. Their sound definitely took a page from Fishbone, Sublime, and their friends in 311. Sadly, this would be the last time I’d see them. They would break up three years later, but reform and break up a few more times in the years to come. I was amused to find out that Mr. Ewing went on to open a few hot dog restaurants called “Steve’s Sausages” and “Steve’s Hot Dogs”. If I ever find myself in the St. Louis area, I might drop in for a bite.

King Sunny Ade & His African Beats, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., June 19, 1998

It had actually been a couple weeks since I recorded a show at the Hall, probably the longest I had gone with out it since I first set foot in the place. This time I had the honor of taping the one and only Mr. Sunday Adeniyi himself, otherwise known as King Sunny Ade. Though he joins a long list of musical royalty such as King Diamond who had just played the Hall that April, Queen Latifah, Prince, and so on, King Ade in fact did lay claim to royal linage back in his home country of Nigeria, being part of the royal Yoruba family from the southwest area from there. He and his band sang entirely in the Yoruba language as well. His countrymen had fans the world over had given Sunny the title “King Of Juju”, the style of music he made popular, focusing on percussion. He’d been playing music since the 60s and in 1983, Sunny became the first Nigerian to be nominated for a Grammy award. His latest album at the time, “Odu”, would also be nominated for a Grammy.

I was pleasantly surprised that Pete gave me this night to tape myself. I thought surely he’d be all over this one, but maybe he was enjoying his time off as well, leaving me to run the place until he returned the following week to record two nights of The Creatures with me. I like to think it was a vote of confidence in my improving mixing abilities, but I had my hands full and probably could have used Pete’s help with this one, since the King had such a big band to mix. There were plenty of drummers and horn players along with a trio of dancing back up singers. Those ladies were beautiful and had voices of angels, making a handful of costume and headdress changes throughout the set. Their outfits as well as the clothes for the rest of the band were immaculate, very colorful stuff. Though the show wasn’t well sold, the folks who were there were enthusiastic and there was plenty of dancing going on down in the dance floor as well as the stage. I couldn’t find any of my recordings of Sunny in my stuff, but I did find footage of his set that he played at the Health & Harmony Music & Arts Festival in Sonoma on YouTube. He and the band most likely played that gig before or after the one at the Hall and I imagine the set was similar if not identical.

The Dirty Three, Calexico, GAMH, SF, Tues., June 16, 1998

SETLISTS :

(CALEXICO) : Milonga Del Angel, Sanchez, Return Of The Manta Ray, The Black Light, The Ride, Point Vicente, Over Your Shoulder (Never See It Coming), The Blue, Opening Aunt Dora’s Box in 6/8, Angel Of Death, Slag, Stray, Minas De Cobre (For Better Metal)

(THE DIRTY THREE) : Last Horse On The Sand, Sea Above Sky Below, Authentic Celestial Music, Hope, 1000 Miles, Sue’s Last Ride, Deep Waters, Everything’s Fucked, Dirty Equation

I’d already seen The Dirty Three four times in less than three years, including one time headlining the Great American already, but I was not and will never be sick of seeing them. That venue was a perfect fit for them, so much so, that they would come back to play there again and again for years to come and I would be at most of them, if not all. To this date, I’ve seen The Dirty Three at the Great American six times. They were gaining more attention, having received critical acclaim for their latest album, “Ocean Songs”, released three months before this show. Though they never grew large enough to play anyplace bigger, they were respected and violinist Warren Ellis would play to larger crowds elsewhere as he continued to tour, playing with fellow Australians, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.

But one of the shining memories of that night would be the first time I’d hear Calexico play. It is rare when an opening band makes this kind of impression on me and with ticket prices only $10, this night turned out to be quite a bargain. From Tucson, Arizona, Calexico’s sound was a perfect reflection of their name, a seamless blend of tejano Latin flavors with somber country rock. Their music was hypnotic and engaging live, literally haunting for one song, “Point Vicente”, a ghost story.  Joey Burns, the singer, before the song, said it was about a lighthouse down south near San Pedro and Palos Verdes where once a woman waited there for her sailor husband to return from sea. But during a wild rainstorm, she died, and people still see her ghost at night running around the brass rail of that lighthouse. 

At times gloomy and romantic, Calexico was the kind of music that was also good to drink to, which probably pleased the bartenders. They did an interesting cover of a singer songwriter named Rainer Ptacek, more commonly just known as Rainer, called “ Opening Aunt Dora’s Box in 6/8”. As the name literally says, the song’s time signature was in 6/8, giving it a swinging, almost Waltz-like quality. They were honoring their fellow musician from Tucson, who had just passed away from a brain tumor seven months before at the young age of 46. I’d have the pleasure to record Calexico twice at the Maritime the following year, both times opening for Pavement. Those nights I was able to record Calexico, but had to bail out early each time to leave Pavement to my partner, Pete. I had to go to a later night gig both shows to work a union gig at the Stanford Court Hotel on Nob Hill. I needed the money then, but in hindsight, it was a mistake. At least I got got to tape Calexico. There was another opening act at the Great American that night but I missed them, some band called Mirza. It’s not usual for me to miss opening acts, or maybe I caught them, recorded them, and somehow misplaced it. Never saw them again. 

But The Dirty Three were excellent as always. I can’t say for sure, but this might of been the first time I would see Warren with his beard. It certainly would be the last, he having that Karl Marx look to this day. A little off putting at first, it would be an appropriate look for him, matching his animalistic, passionate playing style. When he gets really into it, he makes me think he’s some kind of new found, insane castaway who was trapped somewhere for years being only able to play the violin. Indeed, during the beginning of the show just before playing their new song, “Sea Above, Sky Below”, he announced to the crowd that he hoped we “don’t have a job, have a home to go to. You’re never coming back from the Great American Hall with The Dirty Three!” Warren would continue his usual ramblings between songs, later declaring that “The iguanas are going to win the World Cup!” and something about armadillos and warning us to drive slowly. One distinct memory from this night, despite the numerous nights seeing them at this venue, was something that happened near the end. I think it was during “Everything’s Fucked” when Warren came down from the stage onto the dance floor to stomp around and play. We all gave him space, but I was right up directly in from of him. Eye to eye, I even remember whispering to him, “C’mon, Warren. We’re all with you, bro”. You can hear him stomping his foot a few times, coming down on the beat, and grunting, extra loud on the tape. It was a spellbinding moment, really.

The Jesus & Mary Chain, Sixteen Deluxe, Fill., SF, Mon., June 15, 1998

SETLIST : Degenerate, Snakedriver, Cracking Up, Moe Tucker, Happy When It Rains, Teenage Lust, Stardust Remedy, Head On, I Love Rock & Roll, Sugar Ray, Dream Lover, Supertramp, I Hate Rock & Roll, Virtually Unreal, (encore), Reverence (slow version)

This weekend was shaping up to be a bit of an emotional roller coaster, going from the gloomy train wreck of a show with Cornershop, to the drunken blues revelry of Kenny Wayne Shepherd, back into the darkness with The Jesus & Mary Chain. It was a roller coaster or rather a “Rollercoaster Tour” that seemed to start me on this musical journey to begin with, having bootlegged the Chain on that tour in Amsterdam in 1992, by very first bootleg. They would also have the distinction of being another first for me, being the first headliner I ever ushered for, when they played The Warfield later that year. Seeing those shows, plus the two times at Lollapalooza also that year and their show at The Fillmore back in 1994, would leave anyone with little doubt of my devotion to this band. It had been four years since I’d seen them, but I had no inkling that they would break up shortly after this show and I’d have to wait nearly a decade until the brothers Reid would kiss and make up.

Like I said, I had gone from one extreme to the next the previous days, but unlike Cornershop, the Chain’s melancholy and standoffish stage presence felt entirely natural. Their sound seemed to fit their demeanor. One could dismiss that Scottish people are a naturally gloomy bunch, presumably from their weather and having to be ruled by England. But like so many sibling acts, like the Beach Boys, Oasis, the Black Crowes, the Pointer Sisters, and the Everly Brothers, there would be bad blood. And behind the scenes on that tour, the relationship between the brothers, Jim and William, was steadily growing sour. Jim’s drinking was a real problem by then and tensions would come to a head three months later at a disastrous show in L.A. at the House Of Blues. William was having a falling out with guitarist Ben Laurie as well as his brother before things began, but after only 15 minutes into their set, William had enough and walked off stage, dropping out of the tour for good. Jim drunkenly knocked over his mic and the show was over, leaving the management to refund the tickets. Jim and the band would continue the tour without William, but ultimately call it quits two months later, making their show in Thessaloniki, Greece their last one. William went solo for while, having already released an EP that April from a side project of his called Lazycame. But the good news is that the brothers Reid eventually cleaned up their act, buried the hatchet, and in 2007, they would triumphantly return and I’d see them play together at The Fillmore once again.

So, internal troubles aside of which I was blissfully unaware, I was free to enjoy this night and really, it was a good show. Opening were Sixteen Deluxe, who I’d seen open for Luna at The Fillmore only nine months before this show. They were from Austin, though they had recorded their last album at Hyde Street Studios in S.F., just over the hill from where they played that night. Their bass player was Owen McMahon, previously of the Butthole Surfers, and their music actually took a little page from them, blending noisy feedback laden blues rock jams with the soothing Mazzy Star-like vocals of Carrie Clark. Sixteen Deluxe would struggle to get released from their contract with Warner Brothers and would bounce from label to label until ultimately disbanding in 2000. This would be the last time I’d see them play.

The Chain had just released a new album, “Munki”, though I never actually got around to buying it, despite having everything else they ever put out. I guess I was starting to take them for granted. But upon hearing those new songs again live, I find that they were in the ballpark of their previous efforts, even though it’s not their best work. I always liked the Chain’s later works anyway when they had a real drummer. Some bands put out their best music when they’re fighting. Speaking of live band members, they were also touring at this time with Phil King on bass. Phil had been the bass player of Lush, fellow Lollapalooza 1992 alumni, and with the suicide of their drummer, Chris Acland, in 1996, Phil was a natural fit to join the Chain, especially because of his silent demeanor and undertaker-like appearance. They did about 50-50 between new and old stuff, ending the show with a strange version of “Reverence”, starting slow, almost half speed, then speeding up in the middle, then slowing again at the end. Incidentally, I was thinking of the lyrics again while listening to this night. You know, I don’t think Jesus Christ or J.F.K. particularly wanted to die. Whatever. It’s just a song. There would be no poster for this show, but at least they got another when they returned to The Fillmore years later. 

Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Todd Snider & The Nervous Wrecks, Uma, War., SF, Sun., June 14, 1998

This would be quite a livelier show than the near empty Cornershop show at The Warfield that played the night before this. Blues guitar hero Kenny Wayne Shepherd would pack the house with a rowdy crowd of hard drinking party people. Kenny had just turned 20 years old when he played this show, a full six years younger than I was at the time. In fact, his birthday was just two days before, that Friday. He had already made a name for himself as a blues boy wonder, despite being self taught and not even able to read music. He’d just released his second album, “Trouble Is…” the previous October, recorded a The Plant just across the bay in Sausalito. It was such a hit, that it still holds the record for the longest running album on the Billboard Blues Charts, not to mention it went gold that year, platinum the next, and chalked up his first Grammy nomination.

There were two opening acts that night, starting with Uma. I don’t remember much from them, but I did learn that they originally wanted to be called Kiss, but as you probably know, that name was taken, so they settled for naming themselves after the Hindu mother goddess. Second on the bill was singer-songwriter Todd Snider and his backing band The Nervous Wrecks. He came on, introduced by the Booker T & The MG’s immortal instrumental song, “Green Onions” and went right into a cover of the Grateful Dead’’s “I Need A Miracle”. They were in a celebratory mood that evening, it being the last show they were doing with them on the tour and Todd even joked with the crowd asking them to “clap like they were The Beatles! Is that too much to ask!?!” They shredded on their set, particularly their guitarist Ken Shackleford.

Not to be outdone, Kenny shredded too and then some. He had already been on the road, playing night and night out for almost a year and a half, but his chops certainly reflected that. He spent part of that stretch as an opening act for Van Halen. It was mind boggling how this kid could play. He had a well rounded band too. I liked that his keyboardist did a little bit of Ray Manzarek’s riffs from The Doors’ “Riders On The Storm” during their cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstitious” near the end of the show. But for the finale, what better person for a blues guitarist to cover than Jimi Hendrix. They did a rousing rendition of his “Voodoo Chile”, mixing in a few bars of “Purple Haze” in the middle of it. Unfortunately, my tape deck started running out of juice during his set and it sped up the songs for the middle of the show, but I replaced the batteries in time to catch those last few numbers. 

I would have to wait nearly a decade to see him play The Warfield once more in 2007. By then he’d have just married Mel Gibson’s daughter Hannah the year before. And like his future father in law, Kenny would find himself eventually in hot water for allegations of racism. Apparently, Kenny had a replica car of the General Lee from the TV show, “The Dukes Of Hazzard” and though I liked the show when I was a kid, having a crush on Daisy Duke like most boys did back then, the show didn’t age well culturally. In fact, the Blues Foundation would rescind his 2021 nomination for Best Blues/Rock Artist at their Blues Music Awards over that car. He since apologized and painted over the Confederate Flag on the roof and put the offending Dodge Charger into storage.

Cornershop, Los Amigos Invisibles, War., SF, Sat., June 13, 1998

SETLIST : Sleep On The Left Side, Wog, Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), Brimful Of Asha, We’re In Yr Corner, Butter The Soul, Chocolat, Good Shit, 6 AM Jullandar Shere

I was seeing Cornershop a lot back then, three times within a span of only seven months, but I wasn’t sick of their music. Despite my repeated complaints about frontman Tjinder Singh’s frumpy stage presence, I loved their music and was glad to see them once again, this time headlining The Warfield. This show, however, Tjinder’s bad mood would be understandable since there was hardly anybody there to see them play. Seriously, this had to be one of the poorest sold shows I’d ever see at The Warfield, maybe 300 or 350 at the most. I was actually a little surprised that the show wasn’t cancelled or at least moved to a smaller venue. Perhaps they thought they’d get a big walk up being a Saturday night, but no such luck. Probably one of the reasons why it didn’t sell was specifically that they had played San Francisco so recently. Still, considering the new found success of their last album, “When I Was Born For The 7th Time” as well as the popular Fatboy Slim remix of their hit single, “Brimful Of Asha”, one would have thought they’d have fared better with their numbers.

The fact that there were so few people to speak of that night made ushering so easy, we hardly had to bother. To tell someone to move out of an aisle at that point would have been ridiculous to the point of being Kafkaesque. Having the break from duty helped me enjoy the opening act, a very lively bunch from Venezuela called Los Amigos Invisibles. It is a rare occasion that I would see any musical act from South America, but like Los Fabulosos Cadillacs from Argentina who I’d just seen play The Fillmore a couple months before this night, they would probably be the only act I’d ever see from their native country either. And also like the Cadillacs, they were a big band and a whole lot of fun. Actually, I thought they would have been a better headliner than Cornershop. They certainly were a lot cheerier. The Amigos had just released their new album, “The New Sound Of The Venezuelan Gozandera” that year and they rocked the house with their funky, latin disco sounds. These guys were funny too. The singer, Julio Briceno AKA “Chulius”, cracked me up when he yelled out for the crowd to buy their CDs to “help us with our visas” and to “buy new girlfriends!” This would be the only time I’d see them, but they continued to have an illustrious career, getting several Grammy nominations and winning one a couple years later for Best Alternative Latin Album.

When Cornershop came on, I couldn’t help but wonder, “are we really doing this?” Crowd or no crowd, the show must go on. Still, there were a couple interesting tidbits that happened at this show that didn’t happen at the previous ones I saw. Before they went into “Wog”, their second song of the set, there was a bit made by a disembodied computerized voice saying, “This is an announcement. Put your hands in the air. Waive them from side to side like you just don’t care.” Well, nobody did care and they didn’t do it. I did appreciate that they did sing their cover of The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” sung entirely in Hindi, a song I hadn’t heard them perform live before this. They did longer versions of their instrumental songs, “Chocolat” and “Butter The Soul”, showcasing some cool DJ scratching on the latter. Funny thing on my recording, I decided to take a load off after cashing in my drink tickets for beer after I was cut from ushering and went upstairs to the balcony. I kept the tape rolling as I went up and I said into the mic, “This is me going up the stairs”. At a steady pace, I could make it from the floor to the balcony in around 30 seconds, but totally could do it in about 10 or fifteen if I went at full speed. I wouldn’t do it unless I really had to though. Don’t want to give security any suspicions. At a show this slow, those guys were bored to tears and would have loved some action.

The lasting and I mean LASTING memory of this show was the final song of the night, predictably the epic “6 AM Jullandar Shere”. This was a long song to begin with, but at this gig, it was positively interminable. With the drum solo, it clocked in a little over 22 minutes, but it felt like 22 hours. Sung entirely in Punjabi, near the end Tjinder repeated the line, “Teri Aasis Chaunde”, translating to “your forgiveness is wanted”, again and again and again, probably two to three times longer than he usually repeated it. Even the most diehard Cornershop fan there there was probably not in the mood to grant him forgiveness for putting them through that endless barrage. When it finally did end, there was hardly a smattering of applause and they simply walked off stage and there was no encore, leaving us all with that “what just happened?” feeling. Thankfully, when Cornershop came back four years later to play The Fillmore, there was a full house and they were in a better mood.

Alice @ 97.3 Birthday Party: Paula Cole, Garrison Starr, Noelle Hampton, The Beth Lesick Ordeal, War., SF, Thur., June 11, 1998

The so called “Alice” radio station had been exchanging owners and changing formats for years as commercial radio stations do, but they had settled two years before this show to do modern rock stuff, leaning towards female artists and the line up at this show certainly reflected that. Why they called themselves “Alice” is still unknown to me, but from a marketing standpoint, I can at least appreciate that it made them easier to remember. Originally, the band Train was supposed to be on the bill, second to last, but for some reason they didn’t make it, (thank the fuck Christ). We dodged a bullet on that one. The less said about that band the better. This left us with an impressive line up of female artists for the night, headlined by Paula Cole. This show was being billed as Alice’s 2nd birthday, so I assumed that it marked the second year since their rebranding. The ushers were a little short staffed, so I was asked to work all night clearing aisles, but it wasn’t too hard, so I didn’t mind and I got paid for it.

The first act on was actually the only person on the bill that I’d seen before, Beth Lesick. Beth was still pretty young, only a couple years older than me, but had already made a name for herself around the bay area as a spoken word artist, poet, and author. I’d seen her at a couple open mics around town including at a bar in the Mission called the Chameleon where my brother’s buddy, Bucky Sinister, hosted the open mic there every Monday. I never forgot one of her poems called “Monkey Girl”, where she went off about being born in the Chinese zodiac year of the monkey and how she couldn’t be with a “rat boy”. I tried not to take it personally, I having been born the year of the rat myself. I thought she was clever and beautiful, but was disappointed to learn later that she swung the other way. Not that I had a chance in hell with scoring with her. I was just an admirer and I’m happy for whoever woman was lucky enough to win her heart. 

Though she had performed her poetry at musical festival side stages like Lollapalooza, here she had just expanded her repertoire into the musical arena with her new band, the Beth Lisick Ordeal. They were really good, jamming out tunes as she belted out her spoken word pieces. This would be the only time I’d see her with her band and sadly, she was only allowed enough time to do a few songs, but I liked what I heard. Beth would go on to continue her career, publishing several books and even did some acting, including recently starring in an independent film called “39 1/2”, directed by Kara Herald, a woman I had worked with at Tech Services at S.F. State as well as the stagehands union for a few years.

Next up was Noelle Hampton, a local artist from Mill Valley who also was a talented spoken word artist. With her band, she managed to beat out about 500 other artists that year in a contest from Alice to secure a spot on the second stage of the Lilith Fair tour that year. Her band had a vibraphone player which is highly unusual for most bands, though coincidentally I had just seen Charlie Hunter two times in row within a couple days with hid band Pound For Pound and they had one. Following her was Garrison Starr who had a very powerful voice and I was as impressed as the crowd. She got a lot of applause. She had been signed to Geffen Records and had just released her debut album, “18 Over Me”, the year before, and had a hit single called “Superhero” which she of course played at the end of her set. Garrison also was on the bill at the Lilith Fair as Noelle and Paula Cole were, though they were on different legs of the tour, so I didn’t see them again when I saw that festival at the Shoreline two weeks later.

Finally, there was Paula Cole. She had risen to stardom quickly during those years, first singing along side Peter Gabriel, replacing Sinead O’Connor on his tour in 1993-1994. She then went on to release her album, “This Fire”, which not only won her fame and fortune with her hit single, “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?”, but most assuredly a boat load of money in residuals when her song, “I Don’t Want To Wait” was used for the theme song to the hit TV show “Dawson’s Creek”. To top it all off, she received a Grammy for Best New Artist that year to boot. Like the Lilith Fair, there was no waiting for the Men’s bathrooms and and there would be a handful of impatient, intrepid, and/or urgently have to go young ladies who would dare skip the line to the Women’s bathroom to try their luck with us icky boys. Obviously, it’s not fair and I don’t blame those who do so in the slightest. Like most radio multi act line ups, Paula’s set was a short one and this would be the only time I’d see her perform live. But like Kraftwerk, who played the very same venue a few days before, her work would be immortalized by “The Simpsons” in an episode aired seven years later when Apu sang, “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?” at karaoke night at Bart’s school. Unlike the Kraftwerk show, they at least gave away a poster at the end of the night.

Kraftwerk, War., SF, Sun., June 7, 1998

SETLIST : Numbers, Computer World, Home Computer, The Man-Machine, Tour De France, Autobahn, The Model, Airwaves, Tango, Sellafield, Radioactivity, Trans-Europe Express, Pocket Calculator, The Robots, (encore), Tribal Gathering, Music Non Stop

I and the other ushers knew this was an important show, even if we weren’t too familiar with Kraftwerk. For starters, it was their first tour of the U.S. since 1981, a staggering 17 years for their fans out here to wait. Secondly, the closer the show came to be, the more I started to appreciate the influence the group had on not only electronic dance music, but genres across the board. I found that Kraftwerk struck a chord with rock, hip hop, and jazz people alike. In fact, one of the most distinct memories I had from this show was spotting David Boyce, the saxophonist of the acid jazz band The Braun Fellinis, walking past me in the aisle I was working. I would have never pegged him for a Kraftwerk fan, but then again, I never thought I’d be one either. After this show, I was a convert. 

I did know at least one of their songs, “Tour De France”, likely their most popular one. I feel a tinge of embarrassment having been familiar with it from my breakdancing days of my youth, or rather my feeble attempts to breakdance. It was featured in the classic 80’s breakdancing movie, “Breakin’”, way back in 1984, where one of the head dancers, Boogaloo Shrimp, did a bit doing smooth wavy dancing with a broom in an alley. Anyway, what I didn’t realize was just how long Kraftwerk had been around. They were indeed pioneers in their field, practically inventing electronic music as they went along, starting way back in 1969 in Dusseldorf, Germany. I had taken a four years of German in high school and been to Germany a couple times, so I knew at least that their name translated to “power plant”. Other than that, the only other reference I could think of was the episode from “The Simpsons” where Bart and his grandfather recovered artworks stolen by the Nazis, but had to give them back to the decedent of the original owner, a rude Baron, who complained that he was in a hurry to get “to Dance Centrum in Stuttgart in time to see Kraftwerk”. He then sped away in his sports car mocking Bart and Abe hugging on the side of the road, shouting, “Hey fun boys! Get a room!”. Incidentally, the dance music playing through the stereo in his car was a tune by DJ Keoki, who I had just recorded at the Electronica Hanukkah at the Maritime Hall the previous December. 

As a live act, Kraftwerk were a bit of an anomaly, the four members standing equidistantly apart on stage in front of small stations where their various laptops and electronic devices were, and pretty much stayed there all night. God only knows what each machine did as they performed, or if they did anything at all, but the composition of their songs were as inspiring as they were hypnotic. Like The Other Ones and Zero the previous nights were a stylistic left turn from Slayer before them, Kraftwerk was a definite departure from that organic hippie music. They didn’t talk at all between songs and in fact, only a couple songs had any lyrics at all, sang by lead vocalist Ralf Hutter through a headset mic, what I like to call a “Burger King mic”. Being electronic music, there wasn’t much differentiation between their songs performed live and their songs on their albums, but I was impressed by the video projections shown behind them. They kept me and the audience engaged with appropriately corresponding images to the songs, like numbers flashing for “Numbers” in the beginning, bicyclists for “Tour De France”, trains for “Trans-Europe Express”, and so on.

Probably one of the most memorable things that would stick in anyone’s brain from seeing them live is what happened at the end of the main set. The humans on stage departed and when the music began again the were replaced by robotic counterparts, appropriately for their song, “The Robots”. The sight of these animatronic doppelgängers, being only their top halves on posts, making their stilted movements to the music was both hilarious and unnerving. It was a pity that they didn’t get a poster that night for putting on such a spectacle, especially since it had been so long since they had been in our country. I am glad to say that I didn’t have to wait 17 years to see them again, but I did have to wait for almost 6, though when they did come back, they did two back to back shows, identical to this one, also at The Warfield. Furthermore, when they came back for those shows, they used the song  “Numbers” for a live double album released a year later called, “Minimum-Maximum”. 

Zero, Greyboy All-Star Sidecar, Will Bernard 4-Tet, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., June 5, 1998

Zero, 3:05 AM, Maritime Hall, SF,  Sat., June 6, 1998

SETLIST : (Saturday) : Tongue N’ Groove, Berm, Cripple Creek, No Expectations, Rigor Mortis, Home On The Range, Mona, Not Fade Away, Lovelight, Mona (reprise), Out In The Woods, Roll Me Over, La Fiesta, All Blue, La Fiesta (reprise), Anorexia, Like A Rolling Stone, Gregg’s Eggs, (encore), Little Wing

I had just finished seeing The Other Ones at The Warfield the day before these shows, so I was getting a heavy dose of hippie music to balance out getting my fillings rattled out by Slayer the previous Sunday. I had recorded Zero enough already at the Maritime to the point where we weren’t going to bother doing it at all anymore, but these shows were being billed specifically as “Recording Live” shows, so it was compulsory. We were given assurances that they would indeed use songs recorded from these two shows to be put on a live album and I can report that they did so. As usual, the albums, “Nothin’ Lasts Forever” and “Double Zero” which they would go on to release listed no dates or which songs were recorded when, but Pete and I were just grateful that our efforts were finally rewarded. I admit, I have been hard on Zero in the past and it’s not fair. Indeed, every time I see a hippie show, I can’t help but think of that episode of “The Young Ones” where Vyvian’s punk friends attack Neil at their party, screaming, “Kill The Hippie!” But Zero’s fans love them and it’s hard to deny their talent musically, especially guitarist Steve Kimock. He’d just played with The Other Ones and was doing double duty these two days, so one has to at least give him credit for his work ethic. 

They at least had some good acts opening for them for these two days. The first day, Will Bernard was there with his “4-Tet” and I’d been getting to know Will’s music over the past couple years, he having played recently with The Funky Meters at The Fillmore, and at the Hall a few times already with that band, as well as with T.J. Kirk. Following him was the “Greyboy All-Star Sidecar” which as the name suggests was an offshoot of the Greyboy band. That incarnation would eventually morph into Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe. They had actually just finished the film score to “Zero Effect” with Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller which had just come out that January. The second day was a particular honor since none other than Mr. Noel Redding, the bass player for the Jimi Hendrix Experience opened. Noel had recently met a fellow named Keith Dion, a musician and producer from San Francisco, at a plaque dedication by the English Heritage Society in London at one of Jimi’s old residences. They got to talking, quickly hit it off, formed the “3:05 AM” band and started touring. Keith would play guitar in the band as well as serve as their manager and musical director.

They had played Mick’s Lounge that Friday and did a set, appropriately enough, at the Haight Street fair that Sunday. Little did I know that they would eventually take the recording we made of their set that night and use it on a live album called “The West Coast Experience”. It was released in 2001, but I wouldn’t even be aware of its existence until a couple years ago, finding it and buying it online. Noel would use recordings from that tour including stuff from the aforementioned Haight Street Fair, and gigs at The House Of Blues in L.A., The Transmission Theater, and 14 Below. But like Zero’s live albums, I have no idea which songs were taken from our show and predictably Pete and I got neither credit or one thin dime from Noel. Still, it was an honor and he dusted off a couple of Jimi’s standards like “Stone Free” and “Hey Joe”. I’m just glad I got to see Noel at all before he would pass away five years later from liver cirrhosis at the all too young age of 57. But with recording ex-Band Of Gypsies drummer Buddy Miles at the Hall the year before, I can now say I have two Hendrix alumni under my belt.

I didn’t keep recordings personally of either days, but I was able to find a bootleg of the second day on line. Zero were their usual selves and Martin, the sax player did his customary wise cracks between songs.  After they played “Berm”, Martin declared, “You have just entered… the Zero Zone”. A couple songs later when the audience was conspicuously quiet between songs, he joked that “this is the time you’re supposed to talk to each other. Y’all gone all quiet. The bullshit light is on now”.  They actually did a pretty respectful cover of Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone” and as I mentioned in the previous entry, Kimock would play “Lovelight” as he did with The Other Ones two days earlier.

When they came back for the encore, Martin ribbed his fellow bandmates, telling them, “Get a grip!… Get real… Get a horse… Get a horn”, then looked down at his sax, laughed and said, “Oh yeah”. After these shows, we actually did take a break from recording Zero at Hall including two shows they did that December and the first of two shows they did the following April. It only was the the promise that the second April show was going to be the last show they’d ever play which compelled me to do that one, but it turned out to be a lie and Zero went on to play for years until Martin died in 2008. On a happier note, the first episode of “Sex In The City” debuted that weekend, which is about as far from hippiedom as a person can get.

The Other Ones, War., SF, Thur., June 4, 1998

SETLIST : (SET 1) Jack Straw, Sugaree, Minglewood Blues, Easy Answers, Loser, Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad, Scarlet Begonias, Fire On The Mountain, China Cat Sunflower, I Know You Rider, (SET 2) Box Of Rain, Friend Of The Devil, Playing In The Band, Space Jam – Drums, Preacher In The Ring, Banyan Tree, Playing In The Band (reprise), St. Stephen, The Eleven, Turn On Your Lovelight

I suppose it was fitting that I had three hippie shows in a row following seeing Slayer at The Warfield the previous Sunday, this one and two nights of Zero at the Maritime. The boys from the Dead having branched out into their own musical projects since the death of Jerry Garcia almost three years prior had finally coalesced into a band again, well, at least three of them and Bruce Hornsby. This time around it was Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Phil Lesh. Kruetzman had taken a pass, choosing to take some well earned R & R in Hawaii, scuba diving and such. But it wouldn’t be long until Bill would show his face on stage again. He would join Merl Saunders playing drums with his Funky Friends band opening for Toots & The Maytals at the Maritime for New Year’s Eve. After that, he’d join The Other Ones after Phil had a falling out with Mickey and went back to playing with his Phil & Friends project. Poor Phil fell ill with Hepatitis C three months after this show and would get a liver transplant that December. Mickey, being his usual boorish self, joked that “Phil might have gotten the liver of a jerk”. The falling out caused a unique dilemma in 2000 when both Phil & Friends and The Other Ones held competing New Year’s Eve shows that year, forcing their fans to make the musical equivalent of Sophie’s Choice. I was seeing Les Claypool that night at The Fillmore anyway, so it didn’t bother me, but if I had to choose, I’d probably have gone with Phil. He was playing the Henry J. Kaiser in Oakland and it also was a smaller venue than the Coliseum where The Other Ones were. Still, tough call. Alphonso Johnson, who I’d recorded doing Jazz Is Dead at the Maritime six weeks before this show, would replace Phil until they all kissed and made up and Phil returned to The Other Ones in 2002.

Anyway, the boys were together for the time being doing this benefit for the Rainforest Action Network and it goes without saying that the show was sold out. Backing up the founders were an impressive line up of young ringers. Dave Ellis, who I’d just seen the week before do a surprise cameo with his old bandmate Charlie Hunter, of whom he played in his old Trio, at The Fillmore, was on sax. He’d already been touring with Bobby in RatDog for a while along with fellow Charlie Hunter Trio alumni Jay Lane on drums. John Molo was filling in for Bill on drums for The Other Ones and would play with Phil & Friends for years to come. There was also Mark Karan on guitar and Steve Kimock would be having a busy weekend also on guitar playing that night as well as with Zero at the Maritime the next couple nights. So, there was plenty of talent there to make Bobby and Mickey look good.

Once again, the hippie crowd would prove to be a handful since I had to work through the first set, the set break, and the beginning of the second set, just like I had to for Jerry’s band. Folks were mostly cool and paid top dollar to get in, so I did my best to be polite and maintain my cool. It was a solid first set and it was nice that they later let Phil sing “Box Of Rain” and then do a verse during “Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad” and “St. Stephen” in the second set. Mickey also busted out a steel drum for “Scarlet Begonias” but Dear God, the band made the unspeakable atrocity of having Mickey do some kind of awful rap thing during “Fire On The Mountain”. Never had I missed Jerry more than at that moment. I’d never thought I’d be relieved to hear Bobby sing again, but I was when he continued singing afterwards with “China Cat Sunflower”. They had a long stretch in the second set after they started “Playing In The Band”, where Bruce did quite a bit of noodling on the piano, that went into the obligatory drum session, then into “Preacher In The Ring”, another jam session, then “Banyan Tree”, before finishing up with a reprise of “Playing In The Band”. It clocked in over a half an hour by the time it wrapped up. 

I appreciated that they dusted off “The Eleven”, their song that is played in 11/4 time before bringing the show to close with “Lovelight”. As luck would have it, Zero would close the second night at the Maritime with “Lovelight” as well. I guess Kimock already had it down pat anyway. As I written before, I didn’t tape the Dead myself when they were together since so many other people did, but I would go on to record all the offshoot bands myself. My recording got a little garbled for a couple songs during the second set, but thankfully, I was able to find a good bootleg of the show on line as expected. Though this would be the only time I’d see these boys together as The Other Ones, it would be one of several times The Warfield would put on with various Dead incarnations, most of which would be benefits like this one, and thankfully there would be a poster for all of them. God knows these hippies can afford it. 

Slayer, Clutch, System Of A Down, War., SF, Sun., May 31, 1998

SETLISTS :

(SYSTEM OF A DOWN) : Suite Pee, X, Sugar, Suggestions, DDevil, Mins, War?, Darts

(SLAYER) : Hell Awaits, Spirit In Black, War Ensemble, Death’s Head, South Of Heaven, Dittohead, Captor Of Sin, Die By The Sword, Black Magic, Stain Of Mind, Raining Blood, Altar Of Sacrifice, Jesus Saves, Dead Skin, Sex. Murder. Art., Chemical Warfare, (encore), Mandatory Suicide, Angel Of Death

It had been a long time coming, but I finally got to see the one and only Slayer. They had been synonymous with all things metal for years. Hell, even people at other metal shows would yell out their name. The most I knew of them at the time was their appearance in the long form music video of the Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right To Party”. Rick Rubin had produced both acts back then and he once again was collaborating with Slayer on their eight album, “Diabolus In Musica”, which was just about to come out only nine days after this show. That title is derived from a musical term for the tritone musical interval, composed of 3 adjacent whole tones which medieval people forbade, thinking that the dissidence would summon the devil. Whether the devil was in the house that night, I cannot say, but I think either he or God would have been impressed by the show. I was lucky to catch this one since when their old drummer Dave Lombardo rejoined the band, they would rarely play any of the songs from this album except for “Stain Of Mind”.

Before I go any further, I must first report of possibly the funniest thing I’d ever seen that occurred before this show, easily one of the funniest things I’ve ever witnessed in my entire life to this day. While waiting to get into The Warfield to usher that night, I was in front of the entrance as always with the other ushers. While waiting, I watched as the “Jesus Saves From Hell” people were picketing the show, one of them as always berating the fans in line with a bullhorn, telling them about how much trouble they were in and so forth. It’s always a badge of honor for any metal or punk show when these Bible thumpers show up. Well, one of Slayer’s minions decided that enough was enough, took one of the “Jesus Saves From Hell” signs one of them was carrying, and proceeded to beat that guy with the bullhorn about his head and shoulders with it. Seriously, I laughed for about two weeks straight after seeing that epic bit of physical comedy. I laughed so much that it hurt. I couldn’t help but imagine even God was laughing his divine ass off in heaven watching this unfold as well. The only way it could be funnier is if the sign went through the bull horn guys head, resting like a collar on his shoulders, him falling to the ground with cartoon stars and birdies circling his head, and Edwin G. Robinson pointing and mocking him, shouting, “Where’s your messiah now!?!?” At least, security and the cops were there to break it up before anyone was seriously hurt. To this day, the memory of that beat down sustains me in my darkest hours. 

This would be the first time Slayer would headline the Warfield, but wouldn’t be the last. I would see them play there a whopping four more times, including in 2001 when they recorded the “War At The Warfield” DVD. Bass player and vocalist, Tom Araya, was about to become a new father, his son, Tomas being born just two weeks later. It was a forgone conclusion that it would be a night of heavy music, but I was pleasantly surprised at the diversity of the acts on the bill. First up was System Of A down, who were pretty new back then. Their frantic, freaky punk style was original and in sharp contrast to Slayer’s, but I was impressed and I think the crowd was too.  Their first album wasn’t even out then, due to be released at the end of the month, so I was caught unawares, hearing the insane ratings of their singer, Serj Tankian. He opened the show denouncing the aforementioned Bible thumpers out front, screaming, “Freedom of expression, motherfuckers!!!”. 

He’d continue his cryptic rantings between songs, asking, “What killed the Kennedy’s!?! Hypnotic suggestions! Mind control at its best!”. Before their song “War?” near the end of their short set, he lamented loudly that he was “sick of seeing little children dying for profits! I’m sick of my life! I’m sick of your life! It’s time for a new war!!!” Serj did take a break from his ramblings enough once to thank Slayer. He definitely was on cloud nine, saying it was a privilege to be opening for them. I learned that they loved Slayer so much, they chose the name of their band specifically because it would put their albums close to them alphabetically in record stores. I’d see them one more time in 2000, that time as a headliner for the Snocore tour with Mr. Bungle and Incubus. After that they got so big, they would move onto larger arenas.

Unfortunately, my recording started breaking up as their set was nearing its end. I think the earbud I was using was having a short or it’s input jack was coming loose or coming out of the tape deck. This break up of the signal continued well into Clutch’s set, but ended thankfully in time to catch their last few songs. I’d already seen and recorded Clutch at the Maritime a couple times before, including a show they headlined, taking the place of Limp Bizkit there just three moths before this show, so I was familiar with them already. Like System Of A Down, they were heavy as hell, but not really a metal band. Still, the Slayer crowd liked them and moshed to their music. I can’t say what songs they played, since my recording was garbled for so long, other than “The Elephant Riders” and “Ship Of Gold” at the end when it cleared up at last.

The mosh pit exploded as one would expect the moment Slayer took the stage. I was understandably anxious at the prospect of having to usher for this crowd, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Slayer fans weren’t concerned about blocking the aisles. Indeed, the ones were steadfastly determined to get to the front did so without delay or apology, marching straight in without batting an eyelash. Tom welcomed the crowd announcing, “We’re Slayer and we’re here to rock your world!!!” before launching into “Hell Awaits”. I was cut from ushering soon enough and went back to the floor to witness this heavy metal spectacle. There were no shortage of crowd floaters, so many in fact, that the security guys at the barricade were having trouble keeping up with their sheer numbers. Tom even pleaded with the crowd between songs, “You guys are coming over too quickly. A guy was taken to the side of the stage, hurt pretty bad. Nobody’s saying you can’t have fun. Just be careful!” It was definitely loud enough that my recording came out clear, but I was lucky enough to find a half decent video recording done by somebody in the audience. One could hear a handful of Germans in the background between songs chatting to each other in their native language. There was no poster given out at the end of the night, but everybody not wise enough to wear earplugs got to go home with the souvenir of severe tinnitus. 

Funkdoobiest, Ras Kas, Psycho Realm, Delinquent Habits, Maritime Hall, SF,  Sat., May 30, 1998

SETLISTS :

(DELINQUENT HABITS) : 1 Adam 12, Lower East Side, Western Ways, Wallah, Tres Delinquentes, Here Come The Horns

PSYCHO REALM : Premonitions, Showdown, Sick Dogs, Stone Garden, Psycho City Blocks, Confessions Of A Drug Addict

I once again was given the reins of the recording room for this hip hop show headlined by Funkdoobiest. They had a couple songs from their first album, “Superhoes” and “Pussy Ain’t Shit” on the soundtrack of Ice Cube’s hit comedy, “Friday”  and they had just released their third album, “The Troubleshooters”. All that and the talent backing them up that night wasn’t enough to pack the house, the crowd being conspicuously sparse. But it still was a good show, especially because of the first band, Delinquent Habits. It was the first show of this tour and they did what they could to get what few people showed up on the dance floor to get into it. One of them goaded them on asking, “Is it too hot in here? We’re trying our best!” and saying that the folks backstage who were already smoking and drinking wouldn’t come out if people didn’t start partying harder. I liked their song “Tres Delinquentes” which used the famous horn riff from Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass’, “The Lonely Bull”. Don’t get that riff stuck in your head. It’ll be there for a while. As usual, Boots misspelled at least one name on the monthly poster, referring to them as the singular, “Delinquent Habit”.

The real draw from the show at least for me was the prospect of recording Psycho Realm which had none other than B Real from Cypress Hill rapping with them. He had seen the brothers, Big Duke and  Sick Jacken, perform at a End Barrio Warfare concert on Olvera Street in L.A. and decided to take a break from his endless touring with Cypress Hill to join these guys and produce their stuff. Sen Dog from Cypress Hill also produced the Habits first album and DJ Muggs helped produce Funkdoobiest’s first couple albums as well, making this show a Cypress Hill proxy extravaganza. I liked Psycho Realm and I could see why B Real took a liking to them, sounding a lot like Cypress Hill, and having a conga player backing them up as well. There was a predictable amount of weed smoking in the house and even they were introduced coming out on stage saying, “Excuse these guys. They’ve been smoking out all day”. At the end of their set, B Real made sure to give a plug for Cypress Hill’s fourth album, the appropriately titled “Cypress Hill IV” coming out that September. I would see them play their new stuff at The Fillmore that November.

But this would be the only time I’d see Psycho Realm because tragically Big Duke was shot in the neck only eight months later, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down, a bit of sad irony having met B Real at a benefit to end violence. Poor Duke was trying to break up a fight when he was stricken by a perp on parole. The perp would eventually be put away for attempted murder, but Psycho Realm was done for and B Real returned to Cypress Hill full time again. It’s a pity. Psycho Realm had just finished their second album. 

Ras Kass was there too, always being misspelled as “Ras Kas” when he plays the hall. His real name is John R. Austin IV which is understandably not a very effective name for a rapper. He took his stage name from the Ethiopian emperor, Yohannes IV, whose real name was Rass Kasa Mircha, another fourth in his family line with the same name. He’d played the Hall already twice before, opening for the Hieroglyphics both times the year before, and would show up again at various hip hop gigs there in the future. We were having trouble scaring up people to man the cameras for the videos back then, so there was only a wide shot from the balcony that night. Nobody wants to work for free in show biz, even if it does get them into the show and get some video experience under their belt. The cameraperson shortage would ultimately lead Boots to construct the robot camera system which would come online the following January. 

Bunny Wailer, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., May 29, 1998

I suppose it was inevitable that Mr. Neville O’Riley Livingston AKA Bunny Wailer would show at the Hall eventually. Every other reggae star was. But Bunny was special, being the only surviving founding member of Wailers, Bob Marley succumbing to cancer in 1981 and Peter Tosh murdered during a home invasion in 1987. Though Bunny had left the Wailers in 1973, eclipsed by Bob’s stardom, he went on to have an illustrious career of his own, winning three Grammy awards. This show was being billed as him touring with a 17 piece band, which I thought was a bit of an exaggeration. I mean, there was probably 17 instruments involved, a horn section for sure, but clearly there weren’t 17 members of his band. Whatever. The show also billed it as it was to be a four hour set, though it clocked out as two and change.

I have to admit, it certainly FELT like it was a four hour show. As reverent as I was to the reggae royalty in the house, I was astounded at the amount of talking Bunny did between songs. He’d clock in as much as five or six minutes some of the breaks. There are only a handful of artists that can go on that long, Robyn Hitchcock and Richie Havens come to mind. Between his verbosity and the endless parade of joints passed to me by Pete over the course of the evening, it felt as if I’d been there for a week by the time it was over. Not that it was an unpleasant experience, far from it. I found Bunny to be a warm and loving person, graciously thanking the crowd from the get go, saying, “it’s good to see the reggae family together again” and declaring it “the greatest music in the world” which “brought so many races together”. 

During one break, he talked of how people made mistakes, but the creator doesn’t make mistakes, creating the great garden of life and that creator lives in every living substance. He said everyone is acceptable in the sight of that creator. Later, he called on the crowd to “go back in time” to 2000 years ago speaking of a man of virtue. He said, “some call him Jesus, some call him Buddha, some call him Mohammed”, but it “doesn’t matter what he’s called, but what he stands for… unity, one love, one heart… to come together and make it right”. But then he said one thing you never do see is a bald headed Jesus and then played the song, “Baldhead Jesus”. He’s right of course, though people pretty much agree that Buddha was bald, or at least ultimately became bald. Seriously, I thought it would be fun to make a drinking game where one would take a shot every time Bunny said, “Jah Rastafari”. If one tried, they would be so drunk by the end of the set, that they’d need to get their stomach pumped.

As expected, Bunny broke out some of the classic Wailers material like “Chase Those Crazy Baldheads”, “No Woman, No Cry”, “Simmer Down”, “Hypocrite”, and finishing the night with “Keep On Moving” which he wrote personally. As lionized as Bob Marley is, people forget all the people he had around him in his band that helped write and perform the music. Coincidentally, the night before, Charlie Hunter played a cover of The Wailers’, “Them Belly Full” at The Fillmore. Small world, eh? Bunny also honored his former bandmate, Peter Tosh, covering his world famous marijuana anthem, “Legalize It”, and it goes without saying that it soon became cloudy in the recording room as well as upstairs at the show. He thanked the crowd before the last song saying it was “a pleasure and a privilege”. And as usual at these reggae nights, Rocky Allen Bailey was there to emcee, shouting out at the end, “What a show!… The reggae music!… The music with the message!… Do you get the message!?!”

Though I did’t keep a copy of the recording we did, I was able to find a half decent bootleg of it on YouTube. It was a touch overdriven, but sounded marginally better than anything I’d get on my tape deck, so I’ll take it. Speaking of tape decks, the bootleg I found was obviously recorded on one since you can hear during the recording in two places where the guy literally turns the cassette over which I found quite charming actually. Months after the show, Pete was given the go ahead to mix down the ADATs from that night to make an album which was stellar news to me, a real feather in my cap for my resume. God knows, we had enough material from that night to work with and I spent several hours with Pete at his studio in San Rafael as he painstakingly went over the songs, making them perfect. For some reason, that album was never released which came as a great disappointment to me as you might imagine. To this day, I still don’t know why that happened and it seems like a colossal waste. At least I’d get to see Bunny perform at the Hall again only five months later and since Pete had already done Bunny and mixed down the songs from this show, he let me record that one myself. The honor was doubly so, since opening that night was none other than Andrew Tosh, Peter’s son.

Galactic, Charlie Hunter & Pound For Pound, Fill., SF, Thur., May 28, 1998

I had just come home a few days before this show from the Mountain Aire Festival up in Calaveras County where both Galactic and Charlie with his new band, Pound For Pound, performed. I had only seen a bit of Galactic up there, they playing a late night set in a tent from midnight to 4 am and I was too shagged out from the trip up and the all day festival to see it to the end. I did, however enjoyed Charlie’s set, especially when he came out later during Spearhead’s set to play a Disposable Heroes Of Hiphopricy song with his old bandmate, singer Michael Franti. Charlie is a musical genius and any time seeing him play is always worthwhile. As happy as I was to be at this show, the joy of the evening was tempered with the tragic news of the death of comedian Phil Hartman. His wife, afflicted with substance abuse issues for years and facing their impending divorce, shot him and then herself. Terrible news, but selfishly my first thought hearing the news was that “The Simpsons” would be losing Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure, two of the series’ funniest characters. I still feel bad about that.

Charlie opened and closed his set with his covers of The Supremes’ “Keep Me Hanging On” and Bob Marley’s “Them Belly Full” respectively, both of which he had played up at Mountain Aire. Speaking of Marley, I would coincidentally be recording his fellow bandmate Bunny Wailer the following night at the Maritime. I was disappointed that he didn’t do his version of Steve Miller’s “Fly Like An Eagle” which had been the big hit off his new album, “Return Of The Candyman”, but it didn’t take anything away from the brilliance of everything else he played that night. Once again, vibraphone player Monte Croft masterfully hit the mallets at mind boggling speed. Lionel Hampton would have been proud. There were plenty of guests sitting in with Charlie including Galactic’s drummer, Stanton Moore, who himself had collaborated with Charlie and his contemporaries. Stanton had just released his own solo album called “All Kooked Out!” just nine days before this show and Charlie helped out on it as well. Guitarist Will Bernard also toured with Stanton’s trio and Will had been in T.J. Kirk with Charlie, playing at the Maritime the year before. Charlie also played with Stanton in Garage A Trois too and I’d see them play in that band together at the Fillmore 5 years later. John Santos showed to play percussion as he did on the Pound For Pound album and if that wasn’t enough, Dave Ellis, the saxophonist from Charlie’s old trio played too. Dave had been making a name for himself around hippie circles playing with various incarnations of the Dead, along with fellow Trio alumni, drummer Jay Lane.

Galactic played excellently as always, doing a satisfying two hour set. Charlie came out and played with them as well. The singer pumped up the crowd between songs, declaring, “We got the funk up in here!” They brought just that, a little taste from their home town of New Orleans. Though I didn’t really know their music or the names of their songs, I’m sure they played some new material that they would release four months later in their second album, “Crazy Mongoose”. I knew one song, “Something’s Wrong With This Picture”, for sure they played from their first album, but that’s only because the singer sang the title line repeatedly. Lastly, they gave out a rare horizontal poster at the end of the evening. I wouldn’t have to wait long to see Galactic again since they’d return to play the Fillmore just six months later with Robert Walter’s 20th Congress, but this would be last time I’d see Charlie play with the Pound For Pound band. At least I got to see them twice in a row within a few days to get know them.

Sonic Youth, Fuck, rRope, Fill., SF, Tues., May 26, 1998

SETLIST : Karen Koltrane, Female Mechanic Now On Duty, Sunday, Anagrama, Hits Of Sunshine (For Allen Ginsberg), The Ineffable Me, Hoarfrost, French Tickler, Wildflower Soul, Heather Angel, (encore), Stil, Shadow Of A Doubt, Death Valley 69

It had been three long years since Sonic Youth headlined the Lollapalooza festival, of which I caught them twice, once at Cal Expo and once at Shoreline. Between those shows, their set at the Tibetan Freedom Concert, and the four times I saw them at the Warfield, an early and a late show in 1993 and two shows in 1995, one would think that seven times in three years was plenty. But like I said, it had been a while and this time, I’d be witnessing them performing in a small venue for once. Likewise, they were seemingly in the mood themselves to put the big rock scene behind them for a spell with their latest endeavor, “A Thousand Leaves”, their tenth studio album, released two weeks to the day before this show. They originally called the album by its French translation, “Mille Feuille”, which is also the name of a pastry that has several layers of delicate, paper thin cakes. 

The band had taken their hard earned cash from Lollapalooza and put together their own recording studio in lower Manhattan, calling it Echo Canyon, and this would be the first of three albums they’d make there. The members were starting to settle down and have kids, including Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore who had a daughter together named Coco in 1994. They said she learned to walk while on tour with them at Lollapalooza. With their own studio, they were able to monkey around and experiment with their sound again, distancing themselves from the more structured radio friendly tunes, though their stuff has never been, shall we say, top 40 material… thank God for that. After 16 years of non-stop touring, they were looking to enjoy a more leisurely life and the new album reflected that.

This was the second of a three night stint at the Fillmore and like most runs at that venue that had more than two nights, there was a poster and it was a good one. The first on stage that night was a band called rRope. Why they spelled it that way is anybody’s guess, but one might surmise that Rope, spelled normally was already taken, and their spelling had the added bonus of being easier to look up and not be confused with any other rope related subjects. They started as a couple guys from Leadville, Colorado renowned for being the town with highest elevation in America, over 10,000 feet up. They descended from that high town and settled in San Francisco and played for a few years until this show. It was a good thing I caught them when I did, since they said opening for Sonic Youth was the last show they ever did. I don’t know if they played with Sonic Youth at any other gigs on the tour, but it is at least certain that this was the last time they played in San Francisco. I thought they were alright, playing a short, but bombastic half an hour.

The second opener of the evening was a band that needs no introduction… at least around impressionable children. That band was Fuck… you heard me. One would think that this would be an obvious name for a band to choose, being short, easy to remember, and ensured to evoke and emotional response. Still, their music wasn’t as confrontational as their name would suggest. Some of their songs were downright quiet. I suppose it is appropriate that a band with such a vulgar name would meet when the members were stuck in a holding cell in Oakland, (for unspecified offenses), and even wrote a couple of their tunes while they were in jail together. They bounced around record labels until they got signed by Matador and released the album “Conduct” the year of this show. Some brain-dead dipshit marketing clown there insisted that they change their name, so they took their business elsewhere. Maybe this marketing guy was hoping that he’d get them to play kid’s parties or something. Anyway, it was a good thing these guys hooked up with Sonic Youth, since the drummer Steve Shelley took a liking to them and signed them onto his label, Smells Like Records, after this tour. Though Fuck never made it big, unlike rRope, they are still around and even did a two night stint at the now defunct Hemlock Tavern in 2018, a block from where I used to live in the Tenderloin.

It is a blessing and a curse that Sonic Youth was showcasing their new material almost exclusively that night. In fact, they played all new songs except for the last two in the set and the two songs in the encore. The blessing is that we were all getting the privilege of hearing them live for the first time and in doing so, embracing the band’s new musical direction. The curse on the other hand was that those hoping for a greatest hits set would obviously leave disappointed and as it turns out, they never or very rarely played any of the songs from this album live ever again. Lee Ranaldo got to sing in a couple songs that show, including the opening song, “Karen Koltrane” and “Hoarfrost” later that set. Lee incidentally has the same birthday as my wife, February 3rd. Sonic Youth produced only one music video from the new album for the song “Sunday”, which was the third song they played at this gig. The video was creepy as hell frankly, starring a 17 year old Macaulay Culkin making leering faces, licking his lips, and making out with Rachel Miner in slow motion and the rest was teenage ballerinas dancing in fast motion. Figures that it was directed by the guy who wrote the movie, “Kids”. (shutter!)

The fifth song they played in their set was “Hits Of Sunshine (For Allen Ginsberg)”, a sprawling 11 minute jam on the album, truncated to only five minutes for the show. From the title, it clearly was an homage to the late beat poet who had passed away the year before this show. Being in San Francisco, maybe Allen’s ghost was in the house that night. At least the die hard fans were treated to one golden oldie, when they finished their encore with “Death Valley 69”, originally recorded in 1984 with Lydia Lunch. Keeping with the band’s new leisurely attitude, it would take literally another four years and a single day before I would get a chance to see Sonic Youth again. Once more, they would play the Fillmore, that time for the first night of a two day stint, and it would also have a poster. 

Actually, they did come back once in 1999 to headline their own so-called “This Is Not A Festival” festival with Sleater-Kinney, Guided By Voices, Superchunk, and other no-fi musical acts. It was at the Greek in Berkeley and though I can’t remember why I didn’t go, I do remember that tour had some very conspicuous rules for those attending. They forbade anyone attending from wearing floppy hats or having beach balls, which I have no real issue with, but I do remember being a little miffed at their rule that anybody caught playing hackey sack would be removed from the show. I enjoyed playing hackey sack back then. It was fun, creative, good exercise, and a nice way to meet people. Incidentally, the skill is also useful. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve dropped something and have either caught it with the top of my foot, or at least helped reduce the impact of the objects fall enough to prevent it from breaking. Then again, I’ve also hurt my foot instinctually trying to do the same thing with an object that was a little too heavy. Regardless, to impose such a rule in Berkeley is especially offensive when one need look no further than the flea market at Ashby BART station, People’s Park, or Sproul Plaza to find a circle of folks masterfully practicing the art. OK, kicking around the sack is probably not very punk, but I found their rule at that show rather oppressive. That’s not punk either. Maybe if the members of Sonic Youth had learned how to play hackey sack, they’d have been more tolerant of it.

Mountain Aire ’98: Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Leftover Salmon, Spearhead, Charlie Hunter & Pound 4 Pound, Calaveras County Fairgrounds, Angel Camp, Sat., May 23, 1998

SETLISTS :

(WILCO) : James Alley Blues, She’s A Jar, California Stars, Hesitating Beauty, Christ For President, New Madrid, Forget The Flowers, (Was I) In Your Dreams, I Got You (At The End Of The Century), Casino Queen, Passenger Side, I Must Be High, A Shot In The Arm, Via Chicago, True Love Will Find You In The End

(SPEARHEAD) : Chocolate Supa Highway, Runfayalife, Of Course Ya Can, Food For The Masses, Love IS Da Shit, No No No, Hole In The Bucket, Piece O’ Peace, I Feel Good, No Diggity, Simply Beautiful, Da Payroll (Stay Strong), Language Of Violence (with Charlie Hunter), Rollaskate (Let The Music Move Your Soul)

(BEN HARPER & THE INNOCENT CRIMINALS) : Don’t Take That Attitude To Your Grave/Concrete Jungle, Whipping Boy, Ground On Down, Faded, Burn One Down, Excuse Me Mr., Breakin’ Down, Homeless Child, Gold In Me/Fight For Your Mind, Roses From My Friends, The Will To Live

Though I had traveled great distances and even out of state a few times for the Grateful Dead, this would be the only time I’d ever do this for a festival. This wasn’t that long of trek, Angel Camp being only about three hours and change east of San Francisco, but it was far enough. The Mountain Aire festival takes place every year up in the Sierras and had been as far back as the 70s in this place which prides itself as the location where Mark Twain wrote his breakthrough short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog Of Calaveras County”. Story goes he wrote it after overhearing the tall tale from a drunk in a local saloon there. I knew the story well, but why I hadn’t heard of the Mountain Aire festival before this year is a mystery to me but better late than never. It took place in the Calaveras County Fairgrounds and attendees were allowed to camp in the parking lot, which I and my girlfriend Lisa did, but only for Saturday night. Tempting as it was to stick around for the second day of the show, we weren’t big enough fans of the headliner Widespread Panic, to shell out the loot, that and the fact that Train was playing the second day, a band I would actually pay money not to see. Still, I was jealous of those who got to see Ozomatli and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy who were on that line up, but one day would be enough for me. I regret not going up there again to see another of the Mountain Aire festivals. As far as I can tell, there hasn’t been one since 2010, but I hope that I am wrong and I’ll get another chance some day.

We made pretty good time getting there, but missed a couple of the opening acts including Pete Droge, a Canadian singer/songwriter who I’d seen once before at the Bridge School Benefit, and got to the stage as Wilco was beginning their third song which was “California Stars”, from their upcoming album “Mermaid Avenue” which would be released exactly a month after this show. This was a collaboration between them and the British singer Billy Bragg and was a collection of songs originally written by Woody Guthrie. Woody, nearing the end of his life was suffering from Huntington’s disease and frustrated that he couldn’t perform or record anymore, wrote lyrics to these tunes and more in the hope that someone would record them in the future. After Woody died, his daughter Nora approached Billy and he in turn recruited Wilco to be his band. Although or perhaps because the album was a critical and commercial hit, even getting nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album, Billy and Wilco were soon butting heads over the royalties and never played together again. 

Both Billy and Wilco would go on to play these songs separately, and we got three in a row that night, the aforementioned “California Stars” (arguably the best song on the album), “Hesitating Beauty”, and “Christ For President”. It’s easy to love “California Stars”, real sweet, catchy, and sentimental, and I even learned to play it on guitar myself. It’s pretty easy song to do actually, just three chords. Jeff Tweedy the singer joked that he hoped he got the words right” singing the new, or technically old material. Wilco also dusted off an old song from Uncle Tupelo, Jeff’s old band, called “New Madrid”. He joked between songs asking if any of the hippies in the crowd, “Anybody see Dylan in the 60’s?” I think they had trouble with their piano, Jeff complaining that it was out of tune. Unfortunately, my batteries ran out and I didn’t get the last three songs of their set, including the finale, the cover of Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You In The End”. This would be the first time for me seeing Wilco, but I’d see them a few more times in the years to come.

Next up was Charlie Hunter, who I had seen plenty of times before, though this was the first I’d see him with the Pound 4 Pound band. He’d moved to New York City and signed to Blue Note a few years back and just released his fourth album on that label called “Return Of The Candyman”. Along side him, he had Willard Dyson on drums as well as Monte Croft on vibraphone, an instrument one rarely sees in any band. It was good to see Charlie playing to such a large crowd and these being hippies, I imagine this was the first time any of them heard him. I suppose it was inevitable that he’d show his face to the hippies eventually, since many of his contemporaries like his former Charlie Hunter Trio bandmates Dave Ellis and Jay Lane had participated in various musical projects of the remaining members of the Grateful Dead. Charlie played incredibly as always, especially for his cover of Bob Marley’s “Them Belly Full” and ending the set with a cover of The Supreme’s “You Keep Me Hanging On”. I always get a kick out of people seeing him for the first time, astounded that he can play both bass and guitar lines simultaneously on his custom 8-string guitar. Though I’m used to see Charlie playing to the wee hours of the night indoors in dark jazz clubs, I thought he fit in well as a middle act in a festival, giving people a minute to relax in the sunshine. He should do more of them.

Third up was Spearhead, who I was already very familiar with having only seen them the month before at the Fillmore and they pretty much played the same set. Now Michael Franti had one of his giant feet firmly planted in the realm of hippies and would remain a favorite of theirs to this day. Before their set, Lisa and I spotted him and his band huddled in a circle in silent prayer. I clumsily pointed it out to Lisa as we walked past, though quickly realized that my voice might have been carrying and felt embarrassed. Thankfully, my thoughtlessness didn’t impact their set, for they were tip top, probably one of the best shows I’d ever see them play and I’d go on to see them plenty more times in the future. It mostly was the same set as their Fillmore show, but Franti and the band did their share of improvising. 

Early on, he did a little bit of freestyle, singing, “remember in Oklahoma… You tried to blame it on an arab…”, a reference to the hysteria immediately after the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995. Then during, “Food For The Masses”, they had a breakdown in the middle of the song where the bass player did a few bars of both “Walk On The Wild Side” by Lou Reed and “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugar Hill Gang. They also did a little of Bob Marley’s “Get Up Stand Up” and P-Funk’s “Knee Deep” in the middle of “Piece O’ Peace” as I heard them do before. If that wasn’t enough, they did bits of “I Feel Good” by James Brown, “No Diggity” by Blackstreet, and “Simply Beautiful” by Al Green. They covered a lot of ground, that’s for certain.

Trinna Simmons, Franti’s back up, or more accurately co-singer, got a lot of applause and laughs that day. Her voice was incredible, actually reminding me a lot of Karina from the Dance Hall Crashers, lots of power and razor sharp pitch. Between songs, she strolled over to the bass player and asked, “Is there anything more sexy than a bald headed brother playing bass?” Franti countered pointing out his keyboardist, saying “Is there anything more sexy than a woman playing keys?” They would playfully goad each other further on in the set trying to rile up the crowd on their sides, she ribbing Franti, “You’re just mad cus’ my side’s louder” and he countered, “Nah, you’re side’s weak.” He later mocked people on the news declaring that the El Nino was over, saying it was just because it was Sweeps Week on TV, mentioning Seinfeld’s last episode had just aired the other day. Trinna interjected, “Coincidence? I think not” and Franti quipped, “Now, it’s El Green-Yo!”

Then what I hoped would happen, happened at last. Franti started introducing Charlie Hunter, telling the story of how he met Charlie when he was working at Subway Guitars in Berkeley, which incidentally is still in business to this day. There, Charlie had strolled into the store with a basketball under his arm and they hit it off. Franti said, “Yo! If you a ball player and play guitar, you’re alright by me”. They then formed a duo and eventually collected a couple more members to ultimately form the Disposable Heroes Of Hiphopricy. I was fortunate to see them but once opening for Nirvana in 1993 at the Cow Palace and by that time Charlie had already moved on from the band. But the two were nothing but smiles on stage and they did the Heroes song, “Language Of Violence” together. I can’t recall if I ever had the honor of seeing them play together since.

Afterwards, Leftover Salmon played, mistakenly called the plural “The Leftover Salmons” by Franti as he ended his set. This would be the first time I’d see them and was absolutely impressed by the skill and commitment to showing the crowd a fun time. One of them declared after their first song, “It don’t get no better than Mountain Aire! Man, you thought the campground was fun last night?” Not only were they an excellent bluegrass band, but they would weave in and out of all kinds of genres like rock and zydeco. They were from Boulder, Colorado and one of them commented between songs that the campgrounds and cabins around there reminded them of their home. Unfortunately, my tape deck ran out of batteries AGAIN near the end of their set, so I missed a few of their songs as well. I was using a lot of half used AA batteries from work to save money and I never could predict just how much juice they had in them. I have to admit, it’s pretty funny hearing a band like them  when the recordings go faster and faster as the motors in the tape deck go slower and slower. Leftover Salmon plays their notes so fast to begin with, it’s like The Chipmunks on speed or crack or something. 

I hope that some day in the future when I have time on my hands or somebody else wants to do it, that these sped up songs can be digitally slowed down and corrected. We have the technology. It can be done. I was able to find a good bootleg of Spearhead’s set that day, but was only able to find a bootleg of Salmon’s set on the second day. I still can’t find a setlist from the first day and I imagine they are the kind of band that likes to mix up their sets every night, so I can’t rightly say all what they played. I do know that for a fact that they did “Bend In The River”,“Gold Hill Rail” and “Nothing But Time”, all three songs that weren’t played on the second day. I still liked them and always will. They are one of the few bluegrass bands that play loud enough that people shut up and listen, and if they don’t shut up, I can at least hear them play.

Finally, wrapping up the festival was Ben Harper and his band, The Innocent Criminals. I’d seen him the year before headlining for the first time at The Warfield. He had just released his album, “The Will To Live” only the week before that show, but by this time, he and his band had plenty of time getting the songs down pat and they certainly did. Ben had come into his own and it felt right that he was a headliner for a festival. The guy’s a star. Like the H.O.R.D.E. tour, I appreciated that every act that day got at least an hour to play. Lots of the rock festivals, especially hip hop ones keep the earlier sets frustratingly short. After Ben finished, Lisa and I pitched our tent in the parking lot and I caught a couple songs of Galactic, who played an after hours set in a tent from midnight to 4 AM, though I didn’t tape them. I might as well have stayed for their whole show, since I didn’t sleep well and never do when camping, sadly. I love the great outdoors, I just hate sleeping in it. 

No big loss since I kew I’d get my chance soon enough to see Galactic again as they played a show at the Fillmore only two days later with none other than Charlie Hunter & Pound 4 Pound. I think that show would be the last time I’d see Charlie play with that particular band, so I’m grateful I got to see him twice in short succession with them. God knows, I’ve seen Galactic plenty of times since, each time playing long sets, and there is certainly no shortage of their live material available around. One final memory of this show was when Lisa and I pulled over for a moment on our way back home to check out a river bank, probably the Stanislaus River. It was sunny and warm out, so I tried to convince her to strip down to our undies and take a dunk, but she was a little bashful about it. Lisa was wise not to because despite the warm weather, the water was freezing cold and I didn’t last long in it. At least I got a bit of bath, which after a night of camping, I’m sure I needed and it sure as hell woke me right back up. I admit, it is nice to hear Lisa’s voice on these recordings talking and laughing from time to time. That was fun trip.

Bjork, U-Ziq, War., SF, Thur., May 21, 1998

SETLIST : Headphones, Hunter, You’ve Been Flirting Again, Isobel, All Neon Like, Possibly Maybe, Immature, Come To Me, 5 Years, Venus As A Boy, Bachelorette, Hyperballad, Violently Happy, Pluto, (encore), Joga, Play Dead

It had been nearly two years since I’d seen Ms. Gudmundsdottir at the Tibet Freedom Concert in Golden Gate Park. On this day incidentally, Indo Suharto resigned after 31 years in power in Indonesia, speaking of things that were a long time coming. At that Tibet show, you might have read before, I had to cut recording her set short, having to flee from a Security Guard who spotted me taping, so this show was important, having to redeem that loss. It still haunts me to this day, since I had to ditch my friend Tory at the end of that show out of fear that the guard would spot me up near the stage where we agreed to meet at the end of gig. Thankfully, Tory found me at my car where we parked later and accepted my profuse apologies, But back to Bjork. She had released her latest album, “Homogenic” the previous September, a deliberate departure from her more danceable material, and a lot had happened to her in the intervening years, most of which was unfortunate and one particular incident, downright tragic and horrifying. First, the unfortunate. Bjork had a whole tour with the new material lined up the year before when she was stricken with a kidney infection and had to cancel it while she recovered. To make matters worse, she was supposed to go on the road opening for Radiohead, when they pulled the rug out from underneath her, saying that it would be too hard to change the bands equipment between sets. Bjork was touring with an 8-piece Icelandic string section and a drum and bass guy for this one. So, that was strike two. The final piece of bad news took a really, really, REALLY dark turn. Like most beautiful female rock stars, Bjork had her share of admirers, but one fellow named Ricardo Lopez from Hollywood, Florida clearly took it too far.

Lopez was so distraught that Bjork was having a romantic relationship with trip hop star Goldie that he plotted a murder suicide scenario with her. He had sent her a bomb in the mail filled with sulfuric acid, which thankfully was intercepted safely by the Metropolitan Police in London and safely detonated. Originally, he had dreamt up a scheme to put together a bomb that would spring out dozens of hyper dermic needle filled with HIV infected blood, but abandoned that idea when he realized it was logistically impossible. His idea was that in killing her, they would somehow be reunited in heaven. Lopez sat in front of video camera, shaved his head, painted his face red and green, put on Bjork’s song, “I Remember You”, looked into its dark lens, said, “This is for you”, put the business end of a revolver in his mouth, and pulled the trigger. To make this tragedy even worse, Bjork had just ended her relationship with Goldie just a few days before Lopez did the deed. As one might imagine, she was distraught hearing the news about all this and couldn’t sleep for a week. She sent a condolence card and flowers to Lopez’s family and got out of town. Bjork had already had a contentious relationship with the paparazzi, famously beating the shit out of one at the airport in Bangkok in 1996, so it was high time for her to skip out of town and lay low in Spain. There, she wrote and recorded the new album in peace as well as put together a short lived record label called Ear Records, a subsidiary of One Little Indian Records. Once all this unpleasantness was behind her, she was able to hit the road in earnest. There was nowhere for Bjork to go from there but up.

At the Warfield, she brought along a drum and bass artist named Mike Madadinas who called himself U-Ziq, pronounced “music”. He had plenty of other nom de plumes including Jake Slazenger, Kid Spatula, Gary Moscheles, Tusken Raiders, and Rude Ass Tinker. He had released an album called “Lunatic Harness” the previous June and like most DJs, was there up on stage all by his lonesome, leaving the crowd to meander about to his music and was consequently easy to usher. Bjork came on soon enough, dressed in a pretty white dress with angel-like wings under her arms and adorning white make up covering her forehead and extending down the bridge of her nose making her look a little like a fox. I enjoyed the new material and particularly her string players. I’ve said often that to have a single violinist in a band is rare, but to have a string section is a rare bird indeed. She still dusted off a few previous hits, though newly arranged for strings, but conspicuously left out her big hits, “Army Of Me” and “Big Time Sensuality”, from last time around. There has been a bootleg CD of this show circulating around and I might pick it up some day since it is a safe bet it is a better recording. Furthermore, during my recording, the batteries started running out, speeding up the songs in the second half of the show. Thankfully, there is a video on YouTube of her show at the Hammersmith Ballroom in New York City from that tour that took place nine days before the Warfield show and has the same set list.

The new material was still a hit, garnering her gold records, a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Performance, and a Grammy win for Best Short Form Music Video for “Bachelorette”. She got “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind” director Michael Gondry to do that one. She would go on herself to act in the disturbing Lars Von Trier film, “Dancer In The Dark”, which would get her an Oscar nomination for her song, “I’ve Seen It All”, as well as a Best Actress win at the Cannes Film Festival. At the Oscars, she famously raised eyebrows with her “swan dress”. The experience filming was so emotionally draining for her though, that she vowed never to act again. Sadly, this would be the last time I’d see Bjork live. I was happy to see later that year that Alex Borstein did a hilarious impression of her on “MadTV”, playing in a video dating parody called “Lowered Expectations”. As for her returning to play again live in the bay area, I know she did a show at the obscure Craneway Pavilion in Richmond in 2013, but I didn’t go to that one. Apart from that, I couldn’t really remember any other time she came to perform in the bay area. I was and remain a big fan of her work and usually I’m on the ball hearing about musical acts of note coming to town. I hope and pray that she comes to town again some day soon, especially since I’ve never had poster from any of her shows including this one. After 23 years, it’s been a long, long, loooong time coming.

The Roots, Goodie Mob, Witchdoctor, Ambush, Parental Advisory, Take One, Baku, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., May 17, 1998

By the time this show had come around, I’d already seen The Roots five times, twice opening an early and a late show with the Fugees at The Fillmore, once on the side stage at Lollapalooza, and recording them twice at the Maritime, but they were just on the cusp to a whole other level of stardom. Questlove and the gang were still a year out from releasing their seminal album, “Things Fall Apart”, but they showcased some of the new material that night, though I can’t say which songs. Lord knows, they had plenty to choose from. While recording the album, they had amassed 145 songs, whittling it down to only 14. The Roots were also touring now with an expanded band, now having a keyboard player as well as a couple human beatbox experts, Scratch, who had just joined that year, and Rahzel. It’s a pity none of my recordings from the Hall were ever used by the band, though they eventually did release a live album called “The Roots Come Alive”in 1999, a reference to Peter Frampton’s historic live album, “Frampton Comes Alive”, recorded from shows The Roots did in Zurich, Switzerland and New York City. I, of course, can’t help but be jealous, but it was a good live album and for that I can be happy for them.

It was nice to get a break from all the lily white prog rock noodling I’d been exposed to the past couple nights at the Hall with Keith Emerson and Dream Theater. There was a cavalcade of hip hop talent opening that show including the Goodie Mob from Atlanta, who we had already recorded at the Maritime once before . They had just released their album “Still Standing” and they too were playing new material that night. I do know that they opened their set with “Free” from their first album, “Soul Food”. The Goodie Mob had brought along their buddy Witchdoctor, a fellow member of the Atlanta musical collective, the “Dungeon Family”. As for the others, they all went by in a bit of a blur, handing off the mics to each other left and right. It was a long list of folks, so I’m glad they started the show a little early. One of the highlights of The Roots’ set was when Scratch and Rahzel took a moment to do a human beat box duet, Scratch doing the the treble, Rahzel doing the bass and beats. Having these guys around certainly saved The Roots and sound men the headache of setting up and mixing turntables. It wouldn’t be long until the Goodie Mob would return to the Hall in September and I would have the honor of mixing The Roots two more times there in 1999, once in August and again only three months later. That last Roots show would be the final one I’d record before Boots fired Pete, but it was a hell of a one to end our partnership there.

Dream Theater, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., May 16, 1998

A Clockwork Orange Intro, A Change Of Seasons : I The Crimson Sunrise, A Change Of Seasons : II Innocence, Just Let Me Breathe, Burning My Soul, Take The Time, Free Bird, Anna Lee, Speak To Me, Lines In The Sand, Caught In A Web, Lie, Peruvian Skies, Pull Me Under, Trail Of Tears, (encore) Metropolis Pt. 1 : The Miracle & The Sleeper/Learning To Live/A Change Of The Seasons VII : The Crimson Sunset, Under A Glass Moon

Like I said in the previous entry, it was a good week for prog rock at the Hall. Keyboard extraordinaire Keith Emerson had just played the night before and as luck would have it, Dream Theater would end up opening for Keith and his band Emerson, Lake, & Palmer at the Warfield three month later. I couldn’t attend that one, having to work at the Hall recording the Brian Jonestown Massacre, a very different musical experience altogether. Like Keith’s show, coming in, I hardly knew anything about the band, less even since they hadn’t been around as long. But likewise I would learn that this band is equally as musically trained and respected among their fans and piers. 

This is the kind of music that music students and their teachers are into, they and sound engineers, really. One need only look at the crowd and see that it is a total sausage party out there, with heads, (that still have hair), adorned with mullets. Ladies there that night would find their bathrooms weren’t that crowded. Prog rock has often been accused of being girl repellant, though my cousin Lynn refutes the idea that Rush is one of those bands that are. Speaking of which, the guys from Dream Theater first started as a band covering Rush tunes, as well as Iron Maiden. One can listen these boys and clearly hear their influences. Three of the four members of the band met, you guessed it, as music students at the Berklee School Of Music in Boston. By this gig, the only founding members still in the band were John Mo Myung on bass and John Petrucci on guitar, the two Johns as it were. They originally called their band Majesty, but changed their name learning predictably that somebody else already bagged that name.

It’s a pity none of the material we recorded was ever released, mainly due to the fact that they would release their own live album recorded in Paris the following month. They taped that one at Le Bataclan, which would become infamous years later when terrorists massacred 90 people there in 2015, wounding over 200, at an Eagles Of Death Metal show. Even thinking about it to this day still gives me sickening chills. But I digress. Like I said sound people are really into Dream Theater and their ilk, so you can imaging there is no shortage of bootlegs of their shows throughout the ages, though I couldn’t find one for this particular show. They did come back to play the Hall in 2000 and there’s footage on YouTube for that one, but I didn’t tape that show.

The guys in Dream Theater are good… too good. Their chops are on such a proficient level, that really it would take a music student to even understand what their doing, especially their guitarist, John Petrucci. There were times during the show when he would be playing notes so fast, I couldn’t help of thinking of when Weird Al Yankovic did “Eat It” and his guitarist, parodying Eddie Van Halen’s guitar solo, exploded at the end of it. Yes, after an hour or so of their stuff, part of me just wants to go on stage, put my hands up, and say, “OK, OK, OK. I get it. You guys went to music school”. They will always have their die hard fans, but guys like Dream Theater will never make it stadium big, until they can make prog metal like Rush and Tool more accessible. Still, I liked their cover of “Free Bird” and they did do a rare B-Side from their last album, “Falling Into Infinity” called “Speak To Me” that was only a Japanese 3” bonus disc and on an exclusive fan club CD in 1999. Despite my nit picking, I have to admit that I liked them and went on to see them a couple more times in the future at the Warfield, once in 2004 and again in 2006. Their fans adore them, many coming from miles away or even out of state to see them play. After their set that night, even the drummer Mike Portnoy came out and took pictures with some of their fans. 

Keith Emerson, Rork, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., May 15, 1998

Afterburner, Long Journey Home, Hoedown, Nutrocker, Close To Home, Honky Tonk Train Blues, Creole Dance, White Noise, A Whiter Shade Of Pale, Cover Me, Tarkus, Fanfare For The Common Man/Rondo, America, Blue Rondo A La Turk, Dreams

It would be a prog rock double bill at the Maritime that weekend starting with keyboard virtuoso Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake, & Palmer fame followed by Dream Theater the next night. As luck would have it, Dream Theater would end up opening for Keith and ELP that August at the Warfield, but I couldn’t go since I had to work at the Maritime that night recording the Brian Jonestown Massacre, quite a different scene indeed. It had been an eventful week with shows, but also because Frank Sinatra died the night before this show. Also, that night, the last episode of “Seinfeld” was aired. 

What I did know about Keith and his old band was mostly hilarious derision from punks in the 70s. Back then, the punk movement, especially in the UK, was driven in part as a backlash to what they saw as prog and glam rock excesses. It would be ironic that years later, Keith would move down the street from none other than Johnny Rotten from the Sex Pistols in Santa Monica and they would become friends. After getting to know him, Johnny even once referred to him as a “great bloke”. One thing I did know about Keith and would soon confirm was his talent as a musician. Yes, any rock keyboardist would have him front and center as an influence and after this show I saw why. Joined on stage by Glenn Hughes on bass and Marc Bonilla on guitar, Keith hammered out some impressive tunes. I especially liked “Nutrocker”, a rock medley of songs from the “Nutcracker”. One could see how Mannheim Steamroller took a page from him. They also did respectful covers of Procal Harum’s “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” and “Fanfare For The Common Man” by Aaron Copeland.

Impressive as the show was, I hadn’t thought about it until recently when I started to research as I do for all shows I write about and made a pleasant discovery. Apparently, in 2007, Keith took some of the songs we recorded and released it on an album called, “Boys Club : Live From California”. Of course, nobody told me about it then or after, and the album didn’t give me or Pete and credits in the liner notes. You better be damn sure I didn’t see one thin dime from it either. That’s show biz. But at least I have this credit under my belt now. This isn’t the first time I’d discover some of my handiwork after the fact. I remember finding a song I recorded for Public Enemy of their “Revolverlution” while shopping for CDs at Amoeba. They used the song, “My Uzi Weighs A Ton” and I was about to buy it when I was scanning over the liner notes on the back, reading, “Recorded… October… 1999… San Francisco… Wait a minute!!!” Like KRS-One did before them, Public Enemy probably just used stuff from the DAT tape from my monitor mix, as all bands get one of their sets along with the VHS of the video at the end of their set. I told Boots about it, but likewise didn’t get any credit or money. As I said before, on some level, I’m honored that our stuff was good enough to steal. But then again, Boots might have given Keith the ADAT masters and just kept it quiet, so he would get all the money. Wouldn’t put it past him. This would be the only time I’d see Keith live. Sadly, he shot himself in 2016, depressed from dealing with heart disease and years of alcoholism.

CPR, McKinley, Fill., SF, Wed., May 13, 1998

SETLIST : Morrison, Tracks In The Dirt, One For Every Moment, That House, Homeward Through The Haze, Little Blind Fish, Delta, At The Edge, Rusty & Blue, Somebody Else’s Town, It’s All Coming Back To Me Now, Yvette, In My Dreams, Thousand Roads, Deja Vu

It had been a year since Crosby played that six night run at the The Fillmore with his longtime chums, Stills & Nash, and two years since he gave me and Pete the stink eye at the Maritime. As I written before, he wouldn’t let us record on the latter and seemed rather suspicious of me and my partner, but figured he was just concerned about how well he’d play that night, considering his new musical enterprise, CPR, was brand new. This time, they had been on the road for a while and definitely had their act together, even releasing a live album a couple months before this show from that tour recorded at a Cuesta College, a community college in San Luis Obispo. Furthermore, they would release yet another live album from their show at the Wiltern in L.A. the following November. Finally, CPR would release their first studio album in just six weeks from this gig and I’m glad to say that they played a handful of songs at this show that didn’t get on either of the live albums.

Opening that night was a nice young woman with short blond hair calling herself McKinley, though I can’t say if that was a part of her name or a reference to the famous mountain near her home in Anchorage, Alaska. At one point she introduced one of her songs describing a night when he house nearly blew down in a wind storm when she was a little girl there. McKinley had a sweet, angelic voice, sort of like Patty Griffin’s. She actually spent some time living in San Francisco and joked about how before the show, her old friends took her to the strip club, The Lusty Lady. There, she put a bunch of quarters into one of the stripper booths and had a lovely conversation with one of the employees there. I, and I’m sure plenty of others in the house, were pleasantly surprised when she did a sweet, acoustic cover of Prince’s “When Doves Cry”.

CPR sounded great that night, but then again Crosby’s voice always sounds great. I don’t think he gets enough credit for it, truth be told. They opened their set with “Morrison”, the first song that he ever wrote for the new band. After they finished “Rusty & Blue”, Jeff Pevar shouted to the crowd, “David Crosby!” which received a round of applause. Crosby cracked us up when he shouted back “Rumplestiltskin!” Near the end, Crosby asked the crowd if they were having fun and if they liked the new songs and people cheered in the affirmative. But unlike Crosby’s last visit to The Fillmore, this show didn’t get a poster. As luck would have it, this show was preceded by a very different band with an abbreviated name, D.O.A., at the Maritime. Probably the only time that has ever happened. Like I said before, perhaps one should perform C.P.R. on someone who is D.O.A. (Ba-dum-boom!)

D.O.A., Zeke, Bimbo Toolshed, Dork, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., May 10, 1998

It had been two years since I’d seen D.O.A. for the first time at the Hall and I was eager to see them again. I was just ushering back then, but I was impressed by their raw energy and even expressed my opinion to the Hall’s booking agent that this show would be big. Turned out that I was wrong and it really didn’t sell well at all, though I still thought it was a fun show and I was happy that Pete had given me this one to record on my own. D.O.A. had been going through numerous line up changes through the 90’s, leaving Joe “Shithead” Keithley on guitar and vocals as the only founding member. They were touring with a new bassist, Kuba Van Der Pol, who had just replaced Wimpy Roy. One shining memory of this show was the sight of the band playing a round of hockey in their roller blades on the Maritime’s expansive empty wooden dance floor before the doors opened. Joe was wearing a hockey jersey which I imagine was from one of a number of teams from British Columbia, Canada where he’s from, though I couldn’t tell you which. I imagine Boots would have put a stop to it if he saw them, fearing that they would have scuffed up the floor. Speaking of Canada, I knew that D.O.A. had left leaning politics, but I had just learned that Joe was also a member of the Green Party up there and ran in their provincial elections in 1996. He ran again in 2001 and though he didn’t win that round either, still managed to rack up the most votes a Green Party candidate even amassed in an election, second only to his party leader. He eventually became a City Councillor up in Burnaby, BC in 2018. But back to show now.

I don’t remember Dork, though I liked their name and was surprised that no other band had bagged it first. Bimbo Toolshed made an impression though and I was happy to see that they had taken their copy of the video from that night and posted it on YouTube, allowing me to relive the experience. Finding their stuff online or any information about them was downright slim pickins, making that video really one of the only things around that prove they ever existed in the first place. They had a long drum intro before the band came on stage, fronted by a rather slovenly looking young woman with blond natty braids and tattoos, smoking and drinking while she sang. They were an L.A. punk band and to their credit, the other members were actually pretty tight, but this singer wasn’t shall we say, classically trained. Granted, it was punk music and clearly they were going for the dirty garage sound, but her voice started getting on my nerves after a while.

The guitarist, a young lady less disheveled than the singer, made a funny joke after the first couple songs, making fun of the empty venue. She said that she had “just got word from the management” that the show was too crowded and asked that people “take two steps back”, that way “people won’t get crushed up front”. The singer later proclaimed between songs, “We’re Bimbo Toolshed and we’ll play anywhere for cigarettes and beer! We’ll puke in your car!” The guitarist even said near the end of their set that if anybody got on stage and danced that they’d give them a free T-shirt, but sadly no one took them up on their offer. Their set only lasted a little over a half an hour, but they managed to belt out 13 tunes. Very sunk indeed. They were followed by Zeke, who had just released “Kicked In The Teeth” on Epitaph records that year. D.O.A. had a new album out as well called “Festival Of Atheists”. Pity there wasn’t a larger crowd for them, but I was glad they were there all the same. Boots would eventually record a show they did in San Francisco later and release a DVD in 2007, but nothing I did was used from that night. Strangely enough, the show the following night was for another, albeit very different band with an abbreviated name, C.P.R., making it perhaps the only time that has ever happened. Perhaps one should perform C.P.R. after someone is D.O.A. (Ba-dum-boom!)

The Funky Meters, Will Bernard 4-Tet, Fill., SF, Sat., May 9, 1998

I had the pleasure of seeing The Funky Meters at The Fillmore two years before this show, but was still too young and dumb to appreciate the honor of what I was witnessing. I like to think the more shows I was seeing, the more sophisticated my taste was becoming and to list these guys in my concert exploits was helpful. One can’t deny the sheer talent of these musical geniuses from the Big Easy. Though I’d seen them once before, as well as the Neville Brothers a couple of times and knew a few of their songs by then, I didn’t know anything of their history. Still, like their contemporaries P-Funk and James Brown, one can easily pick out riffs from their songs that have ended up in famous hip hop tunes. They played some of the same stuff they did in 1995, again covering Stephen Stills’ “Love The One You’re With” and the Allman Brothers’ “Midnight Rider”.

Of the original Meters that had disbanded in 1980, only Art Neville on keys and George Porter, Jr. on bass remained in this iteration. Guitarist Leo Nocentelli had left in 1994, replaced by Brian Stoltz of the Neville Brothers. One name that would be familiar to me years later would be that of Mr. Batiste, David Russell Batiste, Jr. to be precise, who had replaced Zigaboo Modeliste on drums. His father David, Sr. actually played keys for The Meters for a few years between 1977 to 1980. If the name Batiste sound familiar, it is probably because of their cousin, Jon, who became Stephen Colbert’s bandleader on The Late Show on CBS. Moreover, scores of that family permeate the New Orleans music scene and are revered and respected to this day. Hearing this Batiste and the rest of the band made me feel very cool and honestly gave me hope that I actually did have a modicum of good taste in music. 

They chose a good local opening act that night, being funk guitarist Will Bernard and his instrumental band the “4-Tet”. I’d recorded Will with T.J. Kirk at the Maritime a year before and was impressed with him, even playing alongside such a guitar god as Charlie Hunter. Will has since been a fixture playing around town regularly, especially at the Boom Boom Room just across the street from The Fillmore. This was the second of a two night stint and I was relieved that they once again were giving out a poster at the end of the show. Not only was it a good one, but a rare horizontal poster as well. Still, to this day I feel that to rename The Meters, “The Funky Meters” is sort of redundant. If I come up with a better name, maybe I’ll let them know some day.

Soulfly, Snot, Hed (PE), Papa Roach, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., May 6, 1998

SETLISTS : 

(HED P.E.) : P.O.S., Ground, Serpent Boy, Darky Circus, Ken 2012

(SNOT) : Snot, Joy Ride, I Jus’ Lie, Stoopid

(SOULFLY) : Eye For An Eye, No Hope = Fear, Spit, Bleed, Beneath The Remains/Dead Embryonic Cells, Wasting Away, Tribe, Bumbklaat, Refuse/Resist, Territory, Bumba, Prejudice, Fire, Roots Bloody Roots, Attitude, The Song Remains Insane, (encore), California Uber Alles (with Jello Biafra), Cockroaches, No

We weren’t even halfway through the year and already some of the same bands were starting to reappear at the Hall, though this would be this first time I’d see Soulfly. Papa Roach had just played in March with Salmon and both Snot and Hed (PE) had played with Sevendust in January, so I was already familiar with all of them. I’d actually see Snot three times that year at the Hall before the tragic death of their singer, Lynn Strait, that December in a car crash. Yes, I hadn’t seen Soulfly yet, but I had seen it’s frontman, Max Cavalera before in his old band, Sepultura, who opened for Ministry at the Civic in 1992. Go back and read about that one and you’ll understand, that show would be impossible to forget… for a number of reasons.

Soulfly was born out of tragedy. Max had been touring with Sepultura for years and had been employing his wife, Gloria, as their manager. Now, it’s always dangerous when a band mixes up spouses with their business, but things took a plunging turn for the worse when her son, Dana “D-Low” Wells, died suddenly in a car crash back in Gloria’s home town of Phoenix, Arizona. Apparently, Dana gotten into some dust up with members of a local gang called LCM, guns were pointed, and he tried to high tail it out of there, but ended up sliding over a curb, hitting a tree, and flipping the car. Distraught from the horrific news, Max left Sepultura to attend the funeral back home, making Sepultura’s show at London’s Brixton Academy in December of 1996 opening for Ozzy Osborne, his last one with them. Ozzy was even gracious enough to hire Max & Gloria a private plane to fly back home.

What happened next gets a little murky. Since things were already tense between Max and the rest of the band, they took it upon themselves to fire Gloria in their absence, siting conflicts in their scheduling over the funeral as one of the reasons. Well, this was the last straw for Max and he left Sepultura and quickly formed Soulfly in Los Angeles and started recording their debut, self-titled album which had just been released only two weeks before this show. Sadly, one of the more painful consequences of this break up was Max’s estrangement from his brother, Igor, who was Sepultura’s drummer. They weren’t on speaking terms for a decade after this, but the good news is that they ultimately reconciled in 2006 and have since began playing together, forming a new band together called the Cavalera Conspiracy.

This was obviously Soulfly’s first time in San Francisco, but they were among friends, a pretty well sold crowd, that was rowdy to say the very least. Maybe they were worked up after the Unibomber had just been sentenced to four life sentences only two days before this show. The afore mentioned openers got the audience all warmed up, especially Snot, though their set was pretty short. One of their guitarists that night wore a Jerry Rice 49er jersey despite the fact they were from L.A. Lynn got the heshers all riled by the second song, yelling, “Let’s break some shit!!!” There were no shortage of crowd floaters and stage divers that night, giving the stage security quite a handful. Lynn tried to mediate for a of them getting manhandled asking them to just drag the sleeveless mook out to stage right and not throw him out completely. He joked later that the song “Serpent Boy” was dedicated “to all your girlfriends”.

One thing I noticed re-watching the footage of the show was my friend Tom Murphy on stage taking care of business. Indeed, it has been so long that I forgot he worked at the Hall for a time. I’d first met Tom working with him at Tech Services at S.F. State, he being one of the managers and a cracker jack sound guy. He taught me a lot back then and I was glad to not only work with him also at the Hall, but on a few calls with the Union. I haven’t seen him in years, like I said, and he being at least twenty years older than me, a heavy smoker, and known to drink his share, I worry that he may not be amongst us anymore and I hope that is not the case. Perhaps any Maritime alumni reading this might know and hit me back. I miss Tom. He was a good friend and I can still close my eyes and see his smile and those big blue peepers of his.

Soulfly came on at last and wasted no time bringing the noise. Max, being Brazilian, thanked the crowd after the first song by saying, “obrigada”. By the third song, “Bleed”, they already had their first guest, Lynn from Snot, come out to help sing and if the mosh pit wasn’t hairy enough, somebody set off a Roman Candle in the middle of it. Since both Crash Worship and Rammstein had played the Hall recently, I guess people thought that this was the place to set off random pyro, but I assume nobody was hurt. Nobody I heard was hurt anyway. The second guest on stage that set was Jared Gomes, the singer from Hed (PE), who did the song “Prejudice”, even doing a verse from N.W.A.’s “Fuck The Police”. Clearly, this new musical project for Max was therapeutic and he was thankful to the crowd before getting them to chant along to “Bumba”. He dedicated the song “Attitude” to his deceased stepson and finished the set after with “The Song Remains Insane”. They got through a lot of their new material that night, but managed to play seven Sepultura songs as well as a cover of Nailbomb’s “Cockroaches”.

The third and final guest of the night was none other than Jello Biafra from the Dead Kennedys himself. Max introduced him at the beginning of the encore, graciously citing him as one of his biggest musical influences before they went into the punk classic, “California Uber Alles”. One of the things I love about that song is as the years go by, Jello amends the lyrics to have it sung about the most recent California tyrant in power and this time around, it was Pete Wilson. Being the Republican governor and proponent of the draconian Proposition 187, introduced a few years before, attempting to deny undocumented immigrants from receiving emergency medical care, public education, and other services. Thankfully, it was ruled unconstitutional a year after this show, but Jello revised his lyrics to, “I’m Governor Pete Wilson”, “Welcome to 2004” and “It’s the immigration police” accordingly. After the song ended, Jello took his turn to stage dive into the crowd himself. With all the stage divers and crowd floaters, it’s a miracle that my friend Dan manning one of the cameras up front escaped that night unharmed.

Finally, the one thing I never, ever forgot from this show was how Max introduced the final song of the night, “Soulfly”, of which they are named. He got the crowd to shout, “Fuck MTV!!! Fuck Hootie & The Blowfish!!!” Granted, I wasn’t a fan of the band or the network, (except for maybe “Beavis & Butthead”), but I didn’t see that one coming. I have since wondered if this ever got back to Darius Rucker or any other member of that band. They’d probably laugh about it, maybe even agree on some level. Either way, I thought it was hilarious. They ended the song gradually, one member at a time stepping away from their instruments. One of the guitarists jumped into the crowd, then the drummer. Max didn’t, but made sure to give everybody up front a high five before exiting the stage. It wouldn’t be long until I’d see Soulfly again at the Hall since they would return with Snot and Hed (PE) opening again only four months later. 

Tribestan Pro Invitational Bodybuilding Championship, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., May 2, 1998

I’ve done a wide variety of events in my humble career in show biz, but this was definitely a first, and to this day the only one of its kind. Why oh why the Maritime was chosen to host this parade of beefcake will always remain a mystery to me. In reality, I didn’t really need to be there, since Pete was there and there were only a couple mics used, primarily for the competition’s emcee and the ever present audience mics. To even record them multi-track on ADATs seemed excessive, but these guys were the boss and when one saw the size of the competitors, the thought of disagreeing with them in any way quickly passes. Incidentally, to have any show the day after having Lee “Scratch” Perry play would be a stylistic departure, but this was a sharp left turn to say the least. Yes, this was a body building competition. Prior to this night, my only knowledge of these things was what I knew from Arnold Schwarzenegger and his escapades in the 70’s, particularly with the seminal semi-documentary “Pumping Iron”. The event took all afternoon, having semi-final routines before the judges narrowed it down to the finals at the end.

Suffice to say, seeing these guys flex for hours on end made feel a little… shall we say, small. I’m not an overtly competitive man by nature, but in the presence of men whose very sport in founded on endless hours of torturous weigh lifting, one can’t help but admire their will, if not their biceps. I mean, these guys were huge, borderline freakish. Really, after hours of seeing them flex with those disturbing smiles on their faces, I was beginning to feel queazy. A little, not so secret about those smiles… when they’re flexing, doing their routines, those smiles are masking intense, agonizing pain. Indeed, I witnessed it myself the moments when these competitors strolled off stage, those smiles came off instantly and they would collapse onto the cold marble floors of the Maritime, gasping for air. It was quite a sight to say the least. Another little trick they do to make their muscles look more defined was to apply bronzer make up to themselves, accentuating the crevices between the muscle groups, especially their abs. Being good sports and comrades, they would help each other put it on. I’m sure the women in the audience would have been impressed at the sight backstage and seriously, I am confident in my heterosexuality, but the sight backstage would also probably have made most gay men swoon, at least I would image so. 

But I do appreciate the effort these hulks have put into their craft, as the evil Mr. Han in “Enter The Dragon” so eloquently phrased it, they “forge their bodies in the fire of their will”. Climbing the staircases of the Maritime for hours helped keep me in some modicum of shape, but this show reminded me that I had some work to do. Strangely enough, the one thing I remembered from this show the most was not who won, but of one competitor in particular. Competing that night was a fellow named Favio Bachianini and as his name suggests, he was Italian. Like all the other meatheads there, he was ripped head to toe in muscles, but unlike the others, he was only 4 foot 10, making him not only the shortest one there, but the shortest man to ever compete for the title of Mr. Olympia. Still, everybody loves an underdog and he had a winning smile and everybody seemed to like him. To see him along side all these behemoths, especially looking up pictures of him beside guys like Lou Ferrigno, who was 6’5”, made an impression. Personally, to knock points off him for height, I think would be blatantly unfair. After all, when it came to proportion and symmetry, he was practically the same as the others. Anyway, Flavio didn’t win, losing to some giant, bald, black fellow, but Flavio got lots of applause from the audience as well as my admiration, for what that’s worth.

One final footnote from this show was that at the end of the night, I gave the tapes to one of the organizers and included the ADAT tapes, as we all thought they would be used in the future for some broadcast, probably on one of ESPN’s channels. Well, the tapes got left behind accidentally and one of our stage guys, Bones, fessed up that the box that I had put them in was probably mistaken as garbage and thrown out at the end of the night. These things happen, I understand, but I can’t help but feel disappointed that footage from this spectacle of muscle will never be seen again. After all, it was the one body building competition, at least to this date, that I ever took part in… as a non-competitor. 

Lee “Scratch” Perry & The Robotiks Band, Mad Professor, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., May 1, 1998

I kicked off the month of May with the triumphant return of Mr. Perry. April had been a busy one, doing 17 shows in only 30 days, but May was close behind with 16 shows in 31. Lee had famously visited the Hall the previous year, performing for the first time in America in over 17 years, selling out two shows there. As I written before, those shows were used to make the Maritime’s first live album and DVD, so the notion of recording him again seemed a little redundant, though we did it anyway. He brought the Mad Professor and the Robotiks Band with him again and the setlist was practically the same if not identical. I can’t say for sure, but I can say with confidence that he at least played “Secret Laboratory” and “Roast Fish & Cornbread”.

Lee’s reacquainting himself with the Yanks again was a good career move, helping him land a spot toasting on a song on the Beastie Boys’ new album, “Hello Nasty”, which would be released a couple months after this show on July 14th, the day before my birthday incidentally. The song, appropriately titled, “Dr. Lee, PhD”, had him doing his usual insane, though entertaining ramblings, going on about the “Beastie Boys… and their Beastie toys…” He not only helped drop that tune that year, but also released two more albums, adding to his already ridiculously long list of album credits. They were dub reggae albums, similarly titled “Dub Fire” and “Fire In Dub”, but I can’t say if he played any tracks from them in his set that night either. It was good to see Lee again and I shook his his hand. He was grateful to Pete and I for the album we made with him and said so. That meant a lot to me.

Coal Chamber, Sevendust, Human Waste Project, Day In The Life, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., April 30, 1998

SETLISTS :

(COAL CHAMBER) : Sway, Big Truck, Bradley, First, Anxiety, Clock, I, Unspoiled, Not Living, Oddity, Loco

(SEVENDUST) : Black, Speak, Born To Die, Terminator, Will It Bleed, Face, Too Close To Hate, Bitch

I’d already seen Sevendust a few times by then, having just recorded them at their own headlining show at the Maritime just four months before this show. So, those no need to rehash old stuff I’ve written, just to say that they were good as usual, even if they were just an opening act for this one. I don’t remember much about Day In The Life, but I liked Human Waste Project. It’s rare that you get a heavy act like this with a female singer, especially one with a voice as good, strong, and controlled as Aimee Echo’s. Aimee sounded a little like Gwen Stefani, but a little raspier. She and her band only made one album, “E-lux”, released a year before this show, and it was a good thing that I caught them when I did. They played their last show together only two months later at the House Of Blues in L.A., which made this naturally their last show in San Francisco. It’s a pity that the stuff I recorded of them hasn’t been released. That band’s a rare bird now.

This would be the first time I’d see Coal Chamber, but not the last. They were still fairly new then, having just put out their debut and anonymous album a year before this, but they were already headlining act. To this day, I still never saw why they got as big as they did, especially as fast as they did. Good luck, I guess, show biz, you know. Still, it’s not that I hated them or that they didn’t have talent, it’s just that they always felt like an opening act to me. Human Waste Project and Sevendust were easily as good as they were, if not better. I felt that doubly so the next year when Coal Chamber came back and none other than Slipknot were opening for them. It’s not too often that I see a show where the opener was better than the headliner. Usually, when that happens, the headliner gets jealous and kicks the better opening act off the tour eventually.

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, Yeska, Fill., SF, Mon., April 27, 1998

SETLIST (CHERRY POPPIN’ DADDIES) : We’ll Always Have Paris, Dr. Bones, No Mercy For Swine, Night, Teenage Brainsurgeon, Hit Lo, Cosa Nostra, Mona Lisa, Zoot Suit Riot, The Ding Dong Daddy Of The D-Car Line, Shake Your Lovemaker

It is a rare occasion that I get to see a band from South America at all, but I believe this might have been the first and perhaps only time I’d seen one from Argentina. I suppose it’s fitting that it would be a ska band, or played ska amongst their various styles, considering my past experiences with bands like the Dance Hall Crashers or Skankin’ Pickle. Los Fabulosos Cadillacs at least started as a ska band way back in the early 80’s, being fans of Britain’s Two-Tone ska scene. They picked a strange time to emulate the Brits, since Argentina had just finished that unpleasant business with them over the Falkland Islands. Nevertheless, not only did the Cadillacs do well, they became one of the country’s most beloved acts. Before they came to the States for this tour, they had just finished playing to a crowd of 120,000 in their home town of Buenos Aires. So, seeing them in a venue that holds around a thousand was a privilege, even if I was totally unaware of who they were, which I was.

I didn’t know the opening act Yeska either, though I liked them a lot. They were a Latino instrumental band from L.A., their name a Chicano slang word for marijuana. I thought I knew most of the slang for herb, but that was a new one for me. Yeska definitely took a page from both Tito Puente and Santana, but did their thing well. The percussion guy got the crowd warmed up doing a solo and getting everybody to clap along. I can’t rightly say if I’d seen the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies from Eugene, Oregon before, but I can say they felt familiar. There were a lot of ska and swing shows back then, some I didn’t record. But even if I hadn’t seen them, I knew the genre pretty well by then. Like the Cadillacs, the Daddies started primarily as a ska band, but then they got roped, for better or worse, into the whole swing scene that erupted just a couple years before this, punctuated by the hit indy comedy, “Swingers”. They had a big hit with their album, “Zoot Suit Riot”, particularly with the title song from it. The Daddies were nominated that year for Best New Artist In A Video at the MTV Video Music Awards and they clocked in almost 300 shows in 1998 as well. It was a good year for them. And they were hot, too. I enjoyed the singer, Steve Perry (not the one from Journey obviously), as well as their razor sharp horn section.

In fact, all three bands had a lot of members, which made this show rather affordable at $15 considering all the talent that was in the house. The Daddies had actually just won the very first Grammy given out for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album the year before with their new one, “Fabulosos Calavera”. The crowd was dancing, drunk, and boisterous for sure. I think I even heard a soccer chant during the encore break. Pity there wasn’t a poster for this one. Now at least if I ever meet somebody from Argentina, I could look them in the eye and truthfully say that I saw one of their musical ambassadors.

Rammstein, Hansel & Gretyl, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., April 26

SETLIST : Rammstein, Tier, Bestrafe Mich, Weisses Fleisch, Sehnsucht, Asche Ze Asche, Seemann, Heirate Mich, Du Riechst So Gut, Du Hast, Buck Dich, Engel (encore), Spiel Mit Mir, Laichzeit, Wollt Ihr Das Bett In Flammen Sehen?

Oh boy, Gott Im Himmel, these guys. The Maritime had already gotten it’s share of pyrotechnics a few weeks before with Crash Worship, but Rammstein brought more. Indeed, for those folks who witnessed the spectacle of one of their shows back then, one can never forget the image of singer Till Lindemann slowly walking on stage for their first self titled song, wearing a thick, (presumably) fire resistant, silver jacket with his arms stretched out on fire. Unlike Crash Worship, at least Rammstein had genuine songs to play that night. This would actually be the first show that they would headline in the United States. Rammstein did a brief tour starting the previous December as an opening act for fellow German band, KMFDM. I don’t envy any band that has to follow these boys. Like Crash Worship, I wasn’t sure if the fire marshall was in the house, but if he was, he was either asleep or extremely nervous. Seriously, every time these guys set something off, you could feel the heat on your face.

Rammstein founded the “Neue Deutshe Harte”, or “New German Hardness”, musical movement and though they had only released their first album in 1995 to disappointing sales and reviews, their second album, “Sehnsucht”, released just the previous August was a big hit. It would become the only album sung entirely in German to be certified platinum by the RIAA. I actually knew a couple of their songs from the soundtrack of the David Lynch film, “Lost Highway” which had also come out the year before. Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails was clearly a fan, putting two of their songs, the aforementioned “Rammstein” and “Heirate Mich”, on it. It would be the first time Trent would assemble a movie soundtrack, but I’d have never guessed that he’d get not just one, but two Oscars in the future for his work with Atticus Ross on “The Social Network” and “Soul”.

Like I said, the band was pretty new back then, having formed from various acts shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. These guys were East Germans, though their name originally came from Ramstein, the US Air base in the west. They first called themselves, “Rammstein Flugschau”, a reference to the 1988 disaster at an air show there that killed 67 spectators, 3 pilots, and injured hundreds more. They claim the extra “M” in their name was initially a mistake, but later said their name came from a door stop device used for old gates, literally translating to “Ramming Stone”. Suffice to say, the band is both heavy and involves a great deal of fire, so either explanation would be appropriate. Despite their obvious weirdness and dangerous theatricality, one has to give them credit for maintaining their original line up for over 25 years, even to this day.

Til was impressive as a frontman, not only for his striking baritone voice, but for his muscular physique. Apparently, he was a professional swimmer for a time, even almost taking part in the 1980 Moscow Olympics at the young age of 17, but he eventually gave up competing after being injured somehow. He’d have to be in good shape to wear that flaming silver jacket in the beginning of the set anyway, since it weighs about 100 pounds. It comes to no surprise that Til has sustain several burns on his ears, head, and arms over the years and eventually became a licensed pyro technician himself. The amount of ordinance this band spins in a single tour could probably destroy the Maritime or any other venue for that matter. Before joining the band, Til had a number of odd jobs including being a basket weaver for a time. Who’d of guessed it? At least if he was the proverbial underwater basket weaver, he’d be safe from fire.

Rammstein had brought their own monitor board, so the Hall couldn’t record them, but just as well for me. This was my fifth show in a row, eight in nine days! It was quite a busy April to say the least and I was exhausted. So, I had a couple beers, hung out in the balcony with my tape deck and got the show myself. It certainly was loud enough. I found a half decent bootleg on You Tube from that night and heard somebody cheering between songs that sounded suspiciously like yours truly. Maybe the other bootlegger was sitting close by. Opening that night was industrial metal duo Hansel Und Gretyl, dressed in custom made lederhosen, though they weren’t actually Germans. They had met Rammstein at a CMJ Music Marathon show earlier that year in their native New York City and joined them for the tour afterwards. 

Considering the dangerous amounts of flame being used, the show went relatively smoothly. Any crash they can walk away from, eh? Their drum machine sampler did however take a dive at the beginning of “Du Hast”, so the opening for that song was a little shaky for the guitarists to join in, but they got the hang of it eventually. Richard Kruspe was breaking in his new keyboard for this tour that night and it was the first time the band played the song, “Buck Dich” live. I’d see Rammstein only six months later at the Cow Palace for the Family Values Tour with Korn and Ice Cube and they would return to play the Hall the following year as well. Sadly, I they would bring their monitor board with them again then, so I wasn’t able to record them at that show either, but again I at least got to go upstairs and enjoy the fireworks.

The Mother Hips, Liar, 4 Fathom Bank Robbers, Maritime Hall, SF, Tues., April 25, 1998

SETLIST : Two River Blues, Stunt Double, Mona Lisa & The Last Supper, Whiskey On A Southbound, The Cosmonaut, Stoned Up The Road, Such A Thing, Mother Hips, Gold Plated, Old Man From The Mountain, Been Lost Once, Spotless As You, Whiskey River, Esmerelda, Transit Wind, October Teen, Rich Little Girl, Later Days, Do It On The Strings, Hey Emilie, Two Young Queens, Can’t Sleep At All, Mr. Soul, (encore), Motorhome, Hot Lunch, Sing Me Back Home

This was an important show for me, not because of the bands who were there, although I appreciated them, but for who was in attendance for the show. Yes, this would be the one show where my parents came to the Maritime and most importantly the one time they met my partner Pete. I had a feeling that the show wouldn’t be well sold and it wasn’t, so I knew they would have an easier time getting around upstairs and wouldn’t have any trouble getting a seat in the balcony or have to wait for the bathrooms long. The Mother Hips weren’t a very offensive band, well, at least not compared to Rammstein who would play the Hall the following night. I could only grimace and imagine what my folks would have made of those freaks. Still, I was a little surprised it didn’t sell too well. The Hips and Liar were great bands and the tickets were only $12.

I wanted my folks there to meet Pete for a number of reasons. One, that he was my mentor and had been telling them about him ever since I became his right hand man. Secondly, I wanted to show them exactly what I did there which I knew they would find impressive. One always seeks approval in what they do professionally, especially from one’s parents. Lastly, I thought they would bond with Pete for no better reason than they were close in age, Pete being only a few years younger than they were. I think in meeting Pete, my folks could appreciate their shared generational experience and vicariously embrace Pete’s lifestyle and his stories as I had. My folks weren’t exactly “squares”, but they weren’t bone fide hippies either. Still, both my dad and Pete had served in the armed forces around the same time during the tense Cold War days of the late 50’s-early 60’s, my dad in the Air Force, Pete in the Navy.

I’m happy to say that they all hit it off. Pete took them aside and hung out in Grant’s office next door to the recording room and they chatted while I recorded the opening acts. Pete graciously praised me and my talent repeatedly to my folks and I like to think he wasn’t exaggerating just for my behalf. I was proud to be Pete’s partner and his approval to me was just as important professionally as my folks’ was, if not more. I can’t remember if my folks met Boots that night or if he was even in the house. I was understandably preoccupied. Part of me actually hoped that my folks would smoke a joint with Pete, probably the best chance they would ever have in their lifetime’s to be amenable to it, but it didn’t happen. Just as well, dad had to drive home that night anyway. 

I don’t recall 4 Fathom Bank Robbers, but I did enjoy Liar’s set at that show. Liar was fronted my local singer/songwriter Eric McFadden who I had just seen only nine days before this show opening for the Steve Miller Band at The Fillmore. This was Eric’s country rock band and he was wearing his straw, white cowboy hat instead of his black top hat, looking the part. He also was sporting a T-Shirt with a sort of Betty Page like cartoon girl on it from the rockabilly band, The Frantic Flattops, from Rochester, New York. The folks he was playing with were talented musicians, especially their beautiful, blond violin player, Sheila Schat. I’ve said it before, but I always appreciate when a band has a violin player, a rare occurrence. They actually had just played a bar called The Blue Lamp the night before that was on Geary, just a few blocks from my studio apartment of the time, but I was working The Wailers show that night anyway.

Eric joked at the beginning of their set how he likes “to boast we’re Madonna’s favorite band”. After a few songs, he mentioned the next song was “from our new CD that’s supposed to be in stores” and that he’ll give everybody the “number to complain to” for their record company, Toadaphile Records, later and then went into the song, “Blood Thirsty Morning”. Eric played remarkably, picking his electric guitar and he even busting out his mandolin for one of the tunes. He mentioned to folks that they should vote no on Proposition E between songs, which would have repealed rent control in the city, and thankfully it was shot down, as such attempts always have been before and since. Eric was a little miffed that his set got cut short a couple songs, but laughed it off saying, “Let’s have a hootenanny! Stomp your hands! Clap your feet!”, before finishing the set with “One Crazy Day”.

Pete took over to record The Mother Hips and I joined my folks for a while upstairs to watch the show with them and have a beer. I thought it was ironic that the one show I would take my mother to the Maritime to would be The Mother Hips. I think they liked them and I know they were impressed by my buddies’ work with the light show in the balcony, particularly the oil plates. I had seen the Hips a couple times already at The Fillmore, once headlining their own show in 1995 and again in 1996 opening for Johnny Cash. They even played Cash’s “Whiskey River”. That, and playing “Mr. Soul” by Buffalo Springfield as well as a couple Merle Haggard songs, “Old Man From The Mountain” and finishing their encore with “Sing Me Back Home”, at least gave my folks a couple tunes that would sound familiar. The Hips were just about to release their new album, “Later Days”, the next month and they played five new songs from it that night, “Gold Plated”, “Later Days”, “Esmerelda”, “Do It On The Strings”, and “The Cosmonaut”.

The Wailers, Michael Rose & The Fully Fullwood Band, Maritime Hall, SF, Mon., April 24, 1998

SETLISTS :

(MICHAEL ROSE & THE FULLY FULLWOOD BAND) : Short Temper, Sensemilla, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, How You Fi Do That, Shine Eye Gal, Cookie Jar, General Penitentiary, Black Maria, Abortion, Sponji Reggae, Mondays, Solidarity, Dance Wicked

(THE WAILERS) : Guiltiness, Keep On Moving, War, Heathen, Want More, Jah Live, Easy Skankin’, Rat Race, No Woman No Cry, Exodus, Get Up Stand Up

This would be an extra special show and has the unique distinction of being the only show where not one, but two live Maritime albums were recorded. Pete was at the helm as well he should have been for it, considering the reggae royalty that was gracing the stage that night. First off was ex-Black Uhuru singer, Michael Rose. Though I’d seen his old band just play the Hall the previous August, this would be the first time I’d be seeing Michael. Still, I knew his stuff, especially the “Anthem” album, which would be the first reggae album to win a Grammy. Michael had taken a few years off from show biz before touring again, retreating to his place in Blue Mountains of Jamaica to grow coffee, but he and his golden voice were in fine form that night.

Pete took to the show like a fish to water, even having a few friends in the house playing that night, like bassist Fully Fullwood, who was leading Michael’s band. Pete knew a lot of these guys from his days working on Reggae On The River. Fully had played and recorded with practically everybody before that, like Bob Marley, Mikey Dread, the previously mentioned Black Uhuru, Gregory Isaacs, U-Roy, but most notably leading Peter Tosh’s “Word, Sound, & Power” band and the Soul Syndicate band, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg with him. He even runs a charity in Long Beach called “Reggae For A Reason” that raises money to help homeless youth. Pete also was friends with Fully’s guitarist, Tony Chin, and brought him down to the recording room to shoot the breeze before the show. I’m glad that Michael used this show for an album and even more grateful that Pete mixed it himself instead of Boots, making it one of the best albums the Maritime ever put out. Why Pete did that one, yet Boots got to mix The Wailers album, I don’t know. I’m just glad Pete got to do at least one of them. I hung out for a bit of the mix-down he did months later, but as usual, I didn’t stick around long. I’ve never had the patience to endure studio work. 

Likewise, Pete knew a lot of the older members of The Wailers. Though bassist Ashton “Familyman” Barrett was the only original member of the band, he brought along a couple members of Marley’s touring band like Earl “Wire” Lindo, who had been his keyboardist on the road between 1973 and 1974. There also was Al Anderson on guitar who had played on the “Natty Dread” album and toured with Bob until taking a break in 1976. He rejoined the band two years later, played on the “Survival” and “Uprising” albums, and continued to tour with him until Bob’s death in 1980. He would go on to record and collaborate with a long list of stars, including producing and playing on Lauryn Hill’s blockbuster hit album, “The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill”. Strangely enough, he even produced and performed on an album done by action movie star Steven Seagal called “Songs From The Crystal Cave” in 2005. Weird, eh?

Familyman himself had a long and varied career up until then as well, being Bob’s bassist, song arranger, and bandleader, mixing his albums, “Catch A Fire” and “Exodus”, and being a mentor to reggae bass great Robbie Shakespeare of Sly & Robbie. He actually got the nickname Familyman before he had children, but he well earned that moniker, having sired a mind boggling 41 of them! It’s a good thing he’s done so much work. That’s a lot diapers to pay for. Both sets that show were stellar, especially Michael’s. I have always loved his songs and his voice. He’s the kind of guy who can scat out lines like “Nah-Nah-Nichy-Woy!” and it makes sense somehow. He wore a bid black turban and was dressed head to toe in black leather, which must have been sweltering playing his set under all those stage lights. I guess Jamaica is a pretty hot country, so he probably didn’t mind. Michael would release his own live album, “Party In Session : Live” later that October, which was a little bizarre, considering both live albums had mostly the same songs. No complaints from me anyway.

The Wailers were using a diminutive, dreadlocked kid, known as the “Young Lion” on vocals that night. Though having no previous formal training, Al Anderson discovered him one day singing in the back of a car, and was instantly smitten by his voice. He was good, really good. I mean, he wasn’t Bob, everybody knew that, but he definitely had Bob’s cadence and vocal style down. Those are tough shoes to fill to say the least. Their set had the usual assortment of Bob’s greatest hits, though they did include one or two lesser known numbers like “Guiltiness” which they opened with and “Jah Live”. Both our live albums recorded from that fateful evening wouldn’t be released for another year, but thanks to that show, the stack of CDs at home with my name on them would soon grow a little taller.

Keiko Matsui, Daniel Kane, War., SF, Thur., April 23, 1998

I didn’t know fact one about Ms. Matsui before this show, but I had seen Daniel Kane once and recently too. The solo Chapman stick player, known for busking at Fisherman’s Wharf, had just opened for Steve Winwood the previous November at the very same venue. I’m glad to say that the crowd was just as polite and attentive to his set and that I got all of it in its entirety. The crowd was a smooth jazz/new age crowd, the kind of people that listen to KBLX, “The Quiet Storm”. Whenever I hear music like this, particularly instrumental music, my thoughts turn to my high school friend Damon who listened to only stuff like that. Damon was the kind of guy, well, just imagine the character Finch from the “American Pie” movies, only perpetually drunk and chain smoking. That’ll get you in the ballpark.

Keiko is Japanese, as her name is dead giveaway, and quite a brilliant piano player. As you might recall from my introduction to this blog, my mother plays and taught piano and learning such an instrument to that level of perfection is no easy feat, especially at her relatively young age at the time. She had just released her “Full Moon & Shine” album that year and would also have a live special broadcast on PBS called, “Keiko Matsui : Light Above The Trees”. Furthermore, she had recently been doing charity work, raising money and awareness for breast cancer research, releasing “A Gift Of Hope” album for the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization. Like I said, this was the first time I’d see her. She had been touring with a very competent and talented band, including her husband, Kazu, who joined her on stage playing a traditional Japanese flute called a shakuhachi.

Kazu had been by her side since the beginning of her career, playing his flute and producing her albums. They even used the money for their honeymoon to record her first album, “A Drop Of Water” in 1987. It was well worth it, since Keiko would soon become one of the most successful artists in the genre, probably the most successful woman as well. I liked her stuff and appreciated that the crowd shut the fuck up and listened, making my recording loud and clear. Their soprano sax player, Greg Riley, was particularly talented, real smooth stuff. For some unknown reason, I didn’t have Keiko’s entire set, in fact only getting her first four songs. Maybe the rest of it will turn up some day. There was no poster and I didn’t even have an set list or a flyer to further document the show. Sometimes a show gets away from me a little and I’ve got to take what I can get.

Jazz Is Dead : Billy Cobham, Jimmy Herring, Alphonso Johnson, T. Lavitz, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., April 22, 1998

I’ve always said that the Dead were mostly a cover band to begin with, playing about half their songs from other artists and the songs they composed, at least their best ones, had their lyrics done by Robert Hunter. He, coincidentally, had just performed as a solo artist at the Hall only three weeks before this show. This one was an assembly of renowned jazz fusion artists, most notably the one and only Billy Cobham, here playing drums. Even I had heard about this guy and I knew next to nothing about jazz. Among his many accomplishments, he would be mostly remembered for collaborating with Miles Davis, especially for his seminal album, “Bitches Brew”.

The others included, guitarist Jimmy Herring, who played with Widespread Panic and Aquarium Rescue Unit, Alphonso Johnson, the bassist from Weather Report, and T. Lavitz, the keyboardist from the Dixie Dregs. Together, the hammered out an impressive set, covering an assortment of the Dead’s hits, but I have to say that the Dead already were a little jazzy to begin with, so their renditions weren’t that divergent from what most Deadheads were used to, though I think everyone could agree that Jazz Is Dead played their instruments more skillfully. OK, maybe Phil Lesh and Jerry get a pass, Jerry on a good night anyway. Pete was at the helm that evening, but Jazz Is Dead actually would return the following year and Pete let me record that one. By then, Pete was getting tired of Boots’ crap and letting me do most everything and lucky me, the recording from the show in 1999 would later be used for their live album, “Laughing Water”. Billy Cobham would not be in that line up, however, being replaced by drummers Jeff Sipe, also from Aquarium Rescue Unit, and Rod Morgenstein, who played with T. Lavitz in the Dixie Dregs as well as the hair metal band Winger.

Eek-A Mouse, Kottonmouth Kings, Harvey Mandel, Most Chill Slackmob, Clan Dyken, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., April 19, 1998

SETLIST (KOTTONMOUTH KINGS) : So High, What’s Your Trip?, Play On, Bump, High Society, Suburban Life, Psychedelic Funk, Misunderstood, Planet Budtron

This show didn’t take place exactly on 4/20, being a day early, but by the time Eek-A Mouse was done, it certainly was. Yep, this was a long night. The Hall had hosted the 4/20 Festival the year before with The Long Beach Dub All-Stars, the first show I would record at the Maritime all on my own, and The Sons Of Champlin also played the Hall the previous December, both benefits for the Cannibus Action Network, and this was another one for them. The legalization campaign was moving forward steadily and San Francisco always had a well earned reputation for tolerance of its consumption, especially at shows like this one. It had been two years since California passed Proposition 215, legalizing medical marijuana in California, the first in the nation. Despite continual resistance from the Feds, steps were being taken forward. During 1998, Alaska would pass Measure 8, Washington state would pass Initiative 692, and Washington D.C. would pass Ballot Initiative 59 all which also legalized medical marijuana, though the U.S. Congress blocked that last one. Guess it was a little too close to home for them then. There was an info booth near the merch guys that night that included a display featuring folks in lock-up dubbed, “Marijuana POWs”.

Pete gave me the reins of the recording room for the gig and despite his not being around, I was able to mine his Aloid tin filled with roaches that he kept hidden behind the amp rack, so I didn’t feel left out of the revelry. This show had quite the eclectic mix up of performers, a testament to the wide range of humanity that partake in the herb. First was Clan Dyken, a duo of brothers, Mark & Bear Dyken, from Calaveras, who in unto themselves played a wide range of musical styles. In 1992, they had the unique distinction of being the first musical act to record an album entirely powered by solar energy. They put their “Sundahai” album together in Hawaii and afterwards donated the solar panels they used to a local Native school. They continued their commitment to the renewable energy movement by touring with a solar powered mobile stage that unfolded from their old school bus that was fueled by vegetable oil.

Next up was the Most Chill Slackmob, which I had the pleasure of recording when they opened for Rakim, just three weeks before this show. Their frontman, Ngaio Bealum, did double duty that night, being the emcee for the evening as well as performing with his crew. It was a particular honor to record Harvey Mandel, the legendary rock guitarist from Canned Heat next. He was one of the openers for Dr. John when he played the Hall 1996, the tenth show I recorded with Pete there. That guy shreds, being one of the first guitarists to employ two handed fret board tapping, and his resume playing with everybody from the Stones, to Charlie Musselwhite, and John Mayall has earned him respect amongst his peers. 

Second to last were the Kottonmouth Kings, a collective of skater kid rappers from Orange County. They were still pretty new then, having just released their first EP called “Stoners Reeking Havoc” just that February. Even before that came out, their song “Suburban Life” was used in the soundtrack for the meta-horror film, “Scream 2” that came out the previous December. They were at first known as the P-Town Ballers, being from Placentia, then Cottonmouth, which I thought was actually a good name for a band, especially one that was as obsessed with marijuana as they were. But I imagine that name had already been taken, so they finally settled on the Kottonmouth Kings, a silly name in my opinion, but whatever. I liked them anyway. For such young punks, their songs were pretty good, catchy, funny, and memorable. There would be the unavoidable comparisons to the Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill and clearly they took a page from both of them, but at least they were derivative of bands that were actually good.

As I alluded to before, they were big weed heads and half their songs seemed to be about weed in some respect. Naturally, while they performed, joints were passed frequently amongst their members. All the while they did their thing, there was a dancer known as Pakelika on stage doing robot like movements and acts of contortion, even at one point putting one of his legs behind his neck. He was dressed head to toe in ski gear, a white ski mask, goggles, wool hat, a zebra pattern ski jacket, and boots. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was sweating profusely wearing all that having to dance under the lights of the stage as well. Sadly, Pakelika would die twelve years later at the young age of 34 from cardiac arrest brought on by an asthma attack.

Finally was Eek-A Mouse, the reggae artist of the night, who had already played the Hall twice the year before, once in May and again in November. Pete had recorded both those, being the master of all things reggae, but he left me to do this one, the second time in a month he’d leave me to record a reggae headliner. The first was Dub Syndicate whose set would be used later for their live album from the Maritime, one of my proudest achievements. Why he left me there again to record Eek-A Mouse was probably due to that he already had the last two shows under his belt and if any recording were going to be used for a live album, they were going to be his anyway, that and he was growing as sick of him as I was. Not that Eek-A Mouse and his music was bad, but he’d go on and on and on, doing his scat thing which would become intolerable, especially after a long, late night like this one, where I was already suffering from hearing fatigue. His schtick would get on any recording engineer’s nerves at that point. Indeed, nearing the end of it when he did his bit when he sings to the crowd, “Do you want the Mouse to go away?”, I would rub my temples in frustration and shout to the heavens, “YES!!!!” Understand, this was the fourth show in a row for me as well. I’d get to record one more 4/20 show the following year thankfully with with Vince Welnick from the Dead and his band The Missing Man Formation instead and the Most Chill Slackmob would return again as well. I never got tired of hearing them.

King Diamond, Pitbull Daycare, Prayer Wheel, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., April 18, 1998

SETLIST : Welcome Home, The Invisible Guests, The Spider’s Lullaby, Sleepless Nights, Eye Of The Witch, The Trial, The Candle, Up From The Grave, The Family Ghost, Louisiana Darkness, Voodoo, Salem, One Down Two To Go, Sarah’s Night, The Exorcist, Unclean Spirits, Abigail, (encore), Halloween, (encore), Come To The Sabbath

One cannot truly know the King until you’ve seen his gruesome spectacle live in person. Yes, the only exposure up until that point, as it was the case for many bands in the 90’s for me, was the critiques of Beavis & Butthead. Not only did the King get grilled by them once, but twice, and it’s not often, if ever, that I part company with their sage opinions. Like Roger Ebert and his poor review of “Blue Velvet”, I would grow bitter at these beloved two for the shabby treatment they gave to the one Mr Kim Bendix Petersen, otherwise known as King Diamond. First off, for the song “The Bellwitch” which wasn’t played that night, Beavis said of it that he kind of felt “sorry for these guys. It’s probably not their fault that they suck so much”. Butthead replied “Yeah it is. This might be the worst crap I’ve ever seen in my life”. Beavis asked if he was “The Turdburgler” and wondered why he was the only member of the band wearing make up. Butthead then went on to suggest that “he and the band got together and stuff and said, ‘OK,man. We’re all going to wear some scary make up tomorrow. It’s going to kick some ass! This dumbass the only one stupid enough to do it.” Then Beavis chimed in laughing, “The other dudes were probably like, ‘Did you put the make up on? You dumbass! We were just joking!’” 

And for the song “The Family Ghost”, which was performed that night, Beavis taunted the King saying that he “looks like that dude from ‘Sesame Street’, The Count”. Butthead then went on imitating the Count in a Romanian accent, “Yeah, 1-nuh, 2-wah, 3-yah, 4-butt knockers!” Their biting criticism finally did give way to a bit where Beavis commented on King Diamond’s iconic microphone stand. King Diamond always had this cross composed of a femur and tibia leg bones that held his wireless mic. I’m not a betting man, but I would guess that they were made of the real thing. During his shows, he would turn the cross sideways and play it like a ukelele along side one of his guitarists. Watching him, he strums along on that cross perfectly in time. He would be an excellent guitarist himself if he wasn’t so busy doing everything he does.

Anyway, back to the cross of bones, Beavis said, “If I had a mic like that, it’s like, I’d stick a mic into every end, so I’d like have four mics, then I’d be four times as loud!”. Butthead then retorted, “No, you wouldn’t. You can only sing into one end at a time, Beavis.” Beavis shot back, “Not if I spun it around really fast”. Then Butthead responded, “Doesn’t matter how fast you spin it around, you’d still be singing into one mic at a time” Beavis insisted that he’d “spin it around really fast” of which Butthead finally relented, “I guess that might work”. 

To this day, I still have trouble understanding Mike Judge, the voice and genius behind them, ridiculing the King so cruelly. Perhaps he had a bad experience at one of his shows. Perhaps there was a bully in his past that loved King Diamond, but I have a hard time reconciling that Mike wouldn’t appreciate King Diamond’s talent, much less his theatricality and humor. Thankfully, the King would contribute his voice to another groundbreaking animated show, “Metalocalypse” years later.  If I ever have the honor of meeting Mr. Judge, I will make a point to address the issue, though I’m sure there has been no shortage of King Diamond’s minions to give him grief about it. So, in the meantime, I will focus on the show. King Diamond will always have comparisons to make up wearing, heavy metal predecessors like Alice Cooper and Kiss, and despite their contributions to arena sound and theatrics as well as their undying ability to horrify the religious right, I think the music the King made was infinitely more sophisticated than they were. His songs are brilliantly composed and easy to remember, impossible to forget in some cases. In fact, I’ll never get the chorus of “One Down Two To Go” out of my head… “You used to be so beautiful, but now you’re gonna DIE!!!!”

The King had just released his new album “Voodoo” just three weeks before this show and he was showcasing many of the the new songs, as well as the corresponding bits of storyline embedded in it. This album tells the story of a woman named Sarah who becomes possessed and has to be exorcised by none other than “Father Malone”, a clear homage to “The Exorcist”.  Opening that night were metal bands Pitbull Daycare from Texas and Prayer Wheel from Sacramento. The former would go on to have a song named “You Make Me Feel So Dead” on the soundtrack for the seminal horror movie “Saw” in 2004 and the latter was named after the spindled cylindrical wheels embroidered with phrases from the Tibetan language that Buddhists pray. Both were good, but their memories were easily blurred by the spectacle that would follow.

One cannot of course speak of King Diamond without addressing the big, giant, gargantuan, high pitched, shrieking elephant in the room which is his voice. You need only to hear it once it remember it for life. His guttural muttering gives way to a harpy like screech that is beyond belief. I find myself to this day to behold it and still believe that such sound can be uttered by a human being, but he does… somehow. All the while, he inexplicably maintains control of this voice, hitting his vocal changes masterfully. People don’t give him enough credit for the what must certainly be a lifetime of discipline honing his act and skill. My God, just try to sing like that for 60 seconds, I dare you. Now imagine that for an hour and a half. Obviously, he makes it look easy.

Pete was recording that night and he made them sound good, much better than I could have as usual. The King was joined that night with his latest line up consisting of three members of the band Mindstorm, Chris Estes on bass, Darris (Anthony) Stull and Herb Simonsen on guitar. He also had John Luke Hart, the new drummer on stage that show. They were excellent one and all and after the first couple songs, the King thanked the crowd, vowing to play a song from every album he had before continuing with “The Spider’s Lullaby”. The stage was set like a spooky cemetery in the swamp, dark and adorned with gravestones, gates, and crosses. There was no shortage of their own lights, illuminating them from below. A small riser was set in front of the drum kit where a female dummy in a white dress and blond wig would lie all throughout the show.

The voodoo exorcism theme progressed into the song “The Trial” where a girl in a white dress, her hands bound, was brought out forcefully by a muscular, sleeveless man in a black hood, who watched over her with folded arms as the King interrogated her for the crimes of witchcraft. She then was brought up onto the riser where her immolation was simulated by red lights underneath her and a fog machine, followed by her collapse and being carried off by the hooded fellow. The lights dimmed completely, the King being lit by a solitary candle that he held for the song, appropriately, “The Candle”. We had a single camera up in the balcony that night to record, camera people being hard to come by increasingly as they were not paid, and it understandably had a hard time focusing on him. The girl came back again for “Sarah’s Night”, this time in a black dress, lying down on the riser, writhing from her demon possession.

The King would go into the song “The Exorcist”, trying to purge her of her demons, waving around a cross to her and the crowd, dabbing it forward as to douse her and them in holy water. All the while, the crowd was moshing, putting their devil horns in the air, crowd floating, and screaming their heads off. Even my friend Jerry who was working as always as audio support that night had double duty repelling folks threatening to breach the stage. Jerry even had to help tackle a guy who actually did make it on stage and tried to hug the King before he was dragged off of stage right. Eventually, the girl was carried off again by the hooded guy and the set was finished with “Abigail”, which the King did, serenading an unclothed doll with a long, blonde hair and missing its right leg. The crowd was loving it as I was and chanted “Diamond! Diamond! Diamond!” during the encore break, as well as the second encore break, and at the end of the show.

There was an added bonus at the end of the night, the song for the second encore being “Come To The Sabbath” by King Diamond’s previous band Mercyful Fate and none other than Hank Shermann, Mercyful Fate’s guitarist came out to join them for that one. Clearly, the King had a great time that night, thanking the crowd over and over again, which as most people would agree obligatory, but he seemed genuinely sincere about it, saying that the fans from San Francisco always amaze him. As further evidence of the good time he had that night, Mercyful Fate would reunite and play the Hall only four months later and I would have the honor of recording that one. I’d get to see the King a couple more times in the future, but I wasn’t at the the show he did at the Hall in 2000 for the “House Of God” tour. Sadly, none of the recordings made from his band or Mercyful Fate have been released and it’s a pity since as I’ve described, they are quite a sight to see. Maybe one day the people of his native land, Denmark will actually make him King. He’s got my vote.

Vinyl, Undercover S.K.A., The Cole Tate Band, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., April 17, 1998

This night was one of the local act nights with an affordable ticket price of only $12. The crowd was sparse, but I liked the performers at that show. Vinyl had been a reliable jam band opening act for a while, having seen them open for Boz Scaggs at The Fillmore the previous October, the Greyboy All-Stars at the Maritime in 1996, and T.J. Kirk also at the Hall in 1997. They had chops and honestly they deserved to headline their own show there, despite the lackluster turnout. Also there were Undercover S.K.A., a band renowned for also being an excellent opening act. It had been a good few weeks for ska bands at the Hall, having not only The Specials play there recently, but also the Ska Against Racism tour with Less Than Jake and The Toasters. They were a funny band, all dressed in two tone suits, dark sunglasses, and short brimmed fedora hats, kind of like The Blues Brothers. Their look contributed to their “undercover” persona. 

They did have a song they played that night that would probably cause some controversy if it came out today called “My Girl Became A Dude (The Transsexual Song)”. It lamented the singers despondency of his girlfriends transition and how he “cannot love a guy” and how he was “living in a bad dream” and so on. I suppose it was appropriate that the song came from an album the put out two years before titled “Socially Unconscious” and I’d be surprised if they have played it in the last few years. Still, I find it in my heart to forgive them. It was over twenty years ago and like the title of one of their other songs, they were all indeed “Super Nice Guys”. 

On a side and more somber note, Linda McCartney, wife and longtime collaborator of Paul, passed away that day from her painful three year long battle with cancer. She would get the episode “Trash Of The Titans” of the “The Simspons” dedicated to her when it aired the following week, showing a cartoon still of her when she and Paul had done the voices of themselves for the episode “Lisa The Vegetarian” in 1995, where they and Apu encouraged Lisa to continue to be a vegetarian.

Steve Miller Band, Eric McFadden, Fill., SF, Thur., April 16, 1998

It had been thirty years since Mr. Miller had released his first recordings and he was taking his crew around the country this year to celebrate, being billed as the “Space Cowboy” tour after the lyric from his song, “The Joker” which he naturally played that night.  It was appropriate that one of the stops on the way would be The Fillmore, where he played so many shows back in the infancy of his career and he honored the hallowed venue with three shows in a row, though I was able only to do the first. That was fine with me, it being his first time back since I saw him with his blues band there in 1995, and I have always liked first shows of a three day stint or more. The artists are energized and even a little nervous, especially playing a venue of such esteem. I’d be working at the Maritime the next two days for Vinyl and King Diamond anyway.

Opening that night was Eric McFadden, local musician who would play often either solo or with his band, Liar. He was easy to recognize, his head crowned always with an impressive set of dreadlocks and often with a felt top hat. Strangely enough, I’d get to see him with Liar only nine days after this show when they opened for The Mother Hips at Maritime Hall. Steve covered a lot of bases that night, playing most of the golden oldies, but doing a few covers as well. Showcasing his talent and eclectic taste in music, he did a respectful version of Sam Cooke’s smooth ballad, “You Send Me” early on the set. Though he had a laundry list of former bandmates, one of the old timers that night was harmonica virtuoso, Norton Buffalo, who had been touring with him for 26 years up to that point. Norton shredded on that mouth harp of his and one can easily see how John Popper from Blues Traveler took a page from him.

One song Steve dusted off for the evening that I frankly forgot was his was “Abracadabra”, a tune by his own admission had stupid lyrics but a catchy melody. I can’t blame him though. It came out in 1982 and that was a stupid time. Didn’t harm his career none, hitting the number one spot on the Billboard 100 for two weeks and undoubtably made him a mountain of cash. I liked that they played it with a little faster tempo than the album version that night. They also played a long instrumental version of “Fly Like An Eagle” before reprising it later in the set. Steve even had his keyboardist, Joseph Wooten, brother of Flecktones bassist Victor Wooten, do a verse of rapping during the first one. That was unexpected, but also a testament to Steve’s commitment to try different genres. It would have been criminal if The Fillmore didn’t have a poster to commemorate Steve’s shows there and I’m happy to say that they printed up a good one.  

This would be the last time I’d see him and his band perform live. But with this show, the show with the blues band in 1995, and his set at the Good Road festival at Shoreline in 1992, I can at least look myself in the mirror and know I had the privilege of seeing him three times. Who knows? Though Norton died in 2009, Steve is still kicking and I might get another chance some day, but probably not. Steve’s 77 now. As further evidence of Steve turning into a cranky old man, there actually was a bit of a dust up in 2016 with him when Miller was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Apparently, he was pissed that the Hall vetoed his proposal to have Elton John induct him and they had the band The Black Keys do it instead. Not knowing the band at all, Steve took it badly and publicly dissed the Hall calling the whole experience “unpleasant”. The guys from The Black Keys didn’t take his reaction well either and left the event after giving their speech.

Curve, Freaky Chakra, Slim’s, SF, Wed., April 8, 1998

SETLIST : Coast Is Clear, Fait Accompli, Missing Link, Chinese Burn, Something Familiar, Recovery, Forgotten Sanity, Dog Bone, Sweetback, Dirty High, (encore), Coming Up Roses, Die Like A Dog

It had been five years since I’d last seen Curve and I was beginning to wonder where they went. They had been on hiatus since I’d seen them at Slim’s back then and during their temporary split, singer Toni Halliday and bassist Dean Garcia had been pursuing solo projects. Toni had a band for a couple years called Scylla which would have a song called “Helen’s Face” in the soundtrack for the infamous 1995 Paul Verhoven movie, “Showgirls”. She would also collaborate with a fellow named Daum Bentley and his musical project, Freaky Chakra, who would be the opener for that night. He was a pretty good DJ, as DJs go, but most of his music was just driving, steady beats, not much in the way of dynamics. He did have one song that repeated a sample over and over again saying something about the “Year 2000”, which was impending, less than 20 months away. 

Dean had a musical project of his own during those intervening years, a band called Headcase. Toni had also married producer Alan Moulder, who had done Curve’s first two albums, “Doppleganger” and “Cuckoo”. To rehash Alan’s list of professional accomplishments would take a while, but lets just say he covered the gambit when it came to the shoegazer movement back then, mixing and/or producing bands like The Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Lush just to name a few. From there, he went into the big leagues, doing most of Nine Inch Nail’s albums and guys like U2, but enough about him. 

Speaking of the Jesus & Mary Chain, you might have read before that they were the first band I had ever ushered for when they played at the Warfield in November of 1992. Curve was one of of the opening acts, following Spiritualized, so on that distinction alone, Curve will always be special to me. I was impressed then, snatching up any records or bootlegs I could find of theirs, and was pleased that they were back on the road again with a new album called “Come Clean”, which they had just released less than two months before this show. The new songs were good, though a little faster and harder than their old stuff. Regardless, they played everything that night at ear splitting volume as usual, which was good since the recording on my tapes came out loud and clear. In fact, somebody else was taping in the audience that night and I see that their version can be downloaded on the internet as well, though I am wary to jump through some of the hoops these shady websites want me to do to get it, so I’ve let it be for now. I was delighted to find out that they would return less than three months later and even more ecstatic that they would be playing the Maritime and the Dandy Warhols would be opening for them. They would be bringing their own monitor board that time, so I wouldn’t be able to record them with the Maritime’s gear, though I would at least be able to go upstairs that night to enjoy the show and tape it with my own. Sadly, that would be the last time I’d see them, but I’ll get to that when I catch up to the shows in July.

Gregory Isaacs, Cornerstone, Native Elements, Maritime Hall, SF, Tues., April 7, 1998

This would be the first time Gregory would play the Hall since we recorded him in 1996, but it wouldn’t be the last. He would return again only six months later and then once again in February of 1999, so I got to know his music pretty well. If that wasn’t enough, the Maritime’s second live album and DVD would be his, taken from that first show, the ninth show I ever helped record at the Hall, and would be released the year of this show. My memory is a little fuzzy, so I can’t rightly say exactly when that album came out in 1998 or if it was out by the time of this show, but I’m including the images of the art and liner notes just to cover my bases. As any concert junkie would admit, once you see and artist a few times, especially when they play the same venue, differentiating between the shows starts to become more challenging, especially when you don’t have the recording of the night in question to fall back on. This is one of the reasons I’m doing this project in the first place, to get the details down of what I actually do remember before I go senile, well… more senile anyway.

A perfect example of this is to speak of the band Cornerstone. One can deduce that they were a reggae band and probably local, but upon investigation into the matter, I found multiple bands of that name. It’s not the first time that has happened too. In fact, I did find a reggae band of the same name from Canada, but they had only been around since 2005. I did remember the Native Elements though, primarily because I went to school with their drummer, Chris Cortez, a nice fellow and a talented musician. They were always a reliable reggae act to open for the old school guys like Gregory, which is why they turned up at these shows so often. I’m proud of that live album we did with Gregory, even if Boots’ mix wasn’t as good as if my partner Pete did it. I was grateful for any material released from the Hall, regardless who mixed it, whether I got paid, or even if I got credit for it.

Dub Syndicate, Word Sound I-Powa, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., April 4

SETLIST : The Show Is Coming, Emmanuel, Wake Up, 2003 Struggle, Glory To God, Hey Geoff, Wadada (Means Love), Dub Addis Ababa, No Lightweight Sound, Higher Than High

It is the height of irony that I nearly didn’t write about this show. In transcribing the list of Maritime Hall shows onto my list of bootlegs, this would be the one show I accidentally pass over and not notice, until by chance, I glanced at the Maritime’s monthly poster a couple days ago and realized that I missed it. Why, you ask? Because this is the one show, the first show, that a recording of mine at the Hall was used to make an album. I’m not entirely to blame for this, since at first, I didn’t think that the Dub Syndicate album released by the Hall in 2000 was mine to begin with. You see, they played there in 1996 with Burning Spear, just before I became Pete’s partner and since Pete was the master of all things reggae, I thought that his recording of that night was the one that was used on the album, he did so too at the time. That, coupled with the fact that my show wasn’t well attended, maybe 400 to 500 people tops, led me to believe that Pete was right. This is one of the misunderstandings that happens when live albums are released without information of exactly where, when, and by who they were recorded in the liner notes. It wasn’t until a couple days ago that I even bothered to look into it.

Well, as luck would have it, this one is indeed mine, and though Pete died last year, I at least feel a modicum of relief that I don’t have to break the news to him. Dub Syndicate was touring after releasing the album. “Fear Of A Green Planet” that literally only came out a week to the day before this performance. Their set included the new songs, “Emmanuel”, “Higher Than High”, “Wake Up”, and “Hey Geoff”. As further proof, I found a bootleg of the show they did on the same tour only three days before and the set was precisely the same. So, this one is mine… MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE!!!! OK… Sorry about that, my inner toddler is prime for a time out. It’s the sin of pride, yes. But I am proud of this one, particularly, since it would be the only reggae one I’d have under my belt. Though one or two of the Bad Brains songs were reggae, this would be the only complete concert I’d have all to my own.

So, with that out of the way, back to the show. I knew nothing about Dub Syndicate before coming into the Hall that night and why Pete didn’t show up to do it, as he usually did for reggae shows, is still a mystery to me. I like to think that it was evidence of his growing confidence in my abilities that he would leave such a show to me, but I imagine he had better things to do and am positive that he was becoming increasingly wary of Boots’ bullshit. He knew that I’d do the work gladly and he’d still get whatever money would rain down anyway, so there it was. Thankfully, it wasn’t a hard band to mix, partially, because they were only a drummer, guitarist, bassist, and a couple keyboard players. They didn’t even sing, relying on the lyrics for their songs to be played with samples. Dub Syndicate’s players were expert studio musicians, so mixing such a band, who were already so skilled, was a walk in the park.

They were the brainchild of producer and audio extraordinaire, Adrian Sherwood, an Englishman who helped bring dub music to life and the mainstream. But that was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to his producing and recording credits. He has a laundry list of who’s who under his belt, ranging from dark industrial types like Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Ministry, Prodigy, KMFDM, and Skinny Puppy to Sinead O’Connor and Primal Scream. Though he wasn’t personally accompanying this tour, the musicians he assembled to make his music were, including the drummer virtuoso Lincoln “Style” Scott, who would lead not only this band but many others like the Roots Radics, Suns Of Arqa, Creation Rebel, and Bunny Wailer’s band. Alas, poor Style died in 2014 at the age of 58 under mysterious circumstances in Manchester Parish. Though the cause of death has never officially been released, there were gunshots and explosions heard before his body was discovered.

Of what I remember, it was a subdued show, like I said, easy to mix, the musicians basically staying put all night. Even the lights on stage were turned down more than usual. It was dub music, so most people were just chilling out, myself included, leeching off the leftover roaches Pete had in his Altoid tin behind one of our amps. This is the kind of music that doesn’t really require much of a visual aspect, the kind of music one simply goes into a meditative state and sways back and forth for hours to the incessant beat. Not to say that this music is mindless, far from it. Indeed, Adrian and Style’s work is immaculate music. I would even go so far to say that this is one of the Maritime’s best albums, but I would be understandably biased. The one complaint I’d have over it as I do over all of the Maritime’s albums is that Boots mixed it. Considering he’s mixing, and I can say this without hyperbole, the music of one of the greatest audio engineers of all time, the audacity that he thought he could mix it better than Adrian still makes my blood boil to this day. That goes the same for the Lee “Scratch” Perry album, where he took the reins from the legendary Mad Professor. But like these albums and everything else the Hall put out there, beggars can’t be choosers and I’m proud beyond words that this one is mine. But suffice to say, other critics were not so forgiving, citing Boots’ mix as the recording’s chief detriment. 

Spearhead, Josh Jones & Hueman Flavor, Fill., SF, Fri., April 3, 1998

SETLIST : Chocolate Supa Highway, Run 4 Ya’ Life, ‘Course Ya’ Can, Sunshine, Food 4 Da Masses, U Can’t Sing, Luv Iz Da Shit, Slave Ship, Hole In Da Bucket, Piece O’ Peace, The Payroll (Stay Strong), I’m Coming Out, Red Beans & Rice, Why Oh Why, Red Man, People In Da Middle, I’ll Be There, Keep Me Lifted, Positive

Spearhead’s hard work was gradually paying off, they landing their first gig that night headlining a show at The Fillmore. I’d first seen them in one of their debut live performances at Slim’s in 1994, then opening for the Digable Planets at The Fillmore in ’95, and once more as one of the first acts on the roster of the Smokin’ Grooves tour at Shoreline in ’96, so by this time, I knew their music pretty well. They had just released their second album, “Chocolate Supa Highway” the previous March and this would be the first time I’d hear some of the new songs. They only played the title track, “Why Oh Why”, and “Keep Me Lifted”, but they were all great, easily as good as their previous work. They even had Zap Mama and Joan Osborne contribute their talents on a couple tracks. This would also be the year that Michael Franti started performing his annual Power To The Peaceful festivals, though I wouldn’t see my first one of those until 2001, which would have an especially somber significance since it would happen only a few weeks after 9/11. The festival initially was in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the imprisoned activist accused of killing a police officer, but it took on broader social issues as the years went on.

It had been a long week, this being the fourth show in a row for me and the night was tempered with the news of the tragic death of Rob Pilatus from Milli Vanilli, who passed away from an accidental alcohol and prescription drug overdose that day. As a fellow dreadlocked musician, I don’t know if Michael Franti was phased by it, but he carried on regardless. Michael also got married that year to Tara Franti-Rye and together they would sire a son named Ade. Opening that night was Josh Jones and his band Hueman Flavor. Josh, a Berkeley High graduate, had been a long time alumni of the acid jazz scene in San Francisco playing places like the Elbo Room and the Up & Down Club regularly, and I’m sure Franti was familiar with his work, having collaborated with Charlie Hunter and others from that genre. He was an excellent drummer backed by a skillful band, including Jeff Chimenti on keys, a former member of fellow acid jazz group Alphabet Soup. Jeff would go on to play with various Grateful Dead off shoots like RatDog and with Phil Lesh and the Dead. Coincidentally, I had just help record a show with the lyricist of the Grateful Dead, Robert Hunter, the night before at the Maritime. Small world, eh? We had an added bonus having none other than Money-B from Digital Underground come out and join Josh and his band, who I’d just see rapping with a multitude of others at the Kool Keith show also at the Maritime just that January.

Spearhead covered a lot of territory that night musically, including playing bits of several covers as the evening progressed. During “Food 4 Da Masses”, the bass player hit a few riffs from “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang and during “Hole In Da Bucket”, they would sing the chorus from “Get Up, Stand Up” by Bob Marley. From there, they did a little bit from “Knee Deep” by P-Funk, who I’d just help record once again at the Maritime for two shows the previous December. In addition to that, before they sang “The Payroll (Stay Strong)”, they did a medley which included James Brown’s “I Feel Good” and the disco classic, “Got To Be Real” by Cheryl Lynn. Finally, they did a little of “I’m Coming Out”, another disco classic by Diana Ross before they went into “Red Beans & Rice”. 

Franti took a moment that night to recognize the labor leader Cesar Chavez, whose birthday was only a few days before this show, coincidentally the same day as my mother’s. He had passed away a little over five years before this show and in his honor, Army Street in the Mission was renamed after him in 1995. Franti noted that the process would have been been completed overnight if they wanted to rename it after Joe Montana. I suppose he had a point. I’m sure Joe has a street named after him somewhere anyway. It wouldn’t be long until I’d see him and Spearhead again, since they would be on the bill at the Mountain Aire Festival the following month up in Angel Camp in Calaveras County. Spearhead had a good poster from the Fillmore that show and would go on to play that venue several more times in the years to come, though this would be the last time I’d see them there.

Robert Hunter, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., April 2, 1998

SETLIST : Mission In The Rain, Cumberland Blues, Jack Straw, Hilly & Gully Run, New Speedway Boogie, Dire Wolf, Crucifixion, Dead Man Dancing, Song Remains, Doin’ That Rag, Fishin’ Blues, Stagger Lee, Friend Of The Devil, Aim At The Heart, Wharf Rat, The Wind Blows High, Black Peter, Promontory Rider, Scrap Of Moonlight, Ripple, Boys In The Barroom 

There were numerous reasons why the Grateful Dead were as big as they were and the lyrics of Robert Hunter were no small part of it. Indeed, even the most devout Deadhead had their complaints about the band, like Bob Weir’s cheesiness, Mickey Hart’s arrogance, and the nights when the band simply wasn’t on their A game. Fans would look at each other, shrug a little, and just keep dancing. But one element of that band I never heard so much as a peep of complaint over was their lyrics, at least of the songs Hunter wrote. He was a poet at the very least, writing the words for scores of their songs, many of which would be their most beloved. To this day, I find myself moved when I hear his work sung in such tunes as “Ripple”, “Uncle John’s Band”, “Terrapin Station”, and “Box Of Rain”. 

Mr. Hunter passed away a couple years ago and he remains to this day the only person inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame who was a non-performer. When the Dead were brought in during the 1994 ceremony, it would have been criminal to leave him behind. Not to say that the man couldn’t perform, which leads me to this show. Yes, he wasn’t the most dazzling singer or guitarist in the world, but the songs were his own. In fact, he was one of the first people Jerry Garcia ever performed music with. When Jerry was only 18 and Robert 19, back when Robert was still known by his birth name Robert Burns, they met and formed the folk duo Bob & Jerry and from there, the rest was history. I had hoped that some members of the Dead would perform with him that night, but as far as I knew, none of them were in the house. I know for a fact that Weir was out of town with Ratdog, who would play in Philadelphia the following night.

This show, the third show of Hunter’s tour that year, was a benefit for the Street Outreach Services, a mobile charity group that assists homeless people on their own turf. I once again have to give credit to the Maritime’s tyrannical leader Boots for hosting so many charity events at the Hall during his reign. The more I write about these shows, the more of these events I discover were for good causes. Despite the absence of the Dead that night, there were plenty of devotees in the house to pay homage to their humble lyricist and everybody knew the words, at least to the Dead songs he played. This would be the only time I’d see Hunter perform, though he went on to collaborate and write songs for such other performers of note as Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, and one time Dead member and piano virtuoso Bruce Horsnby.

Crash Worship, Itchy Kitty, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., April 1, 1998

If there ever was a band that will leave one with that “what the fuck just happened?” feeling, it is Crash Worship. Seriously, the previous November when I saw the bacchanalian debauchery of Jane’s Addiction’s show at the Bill Graham Civic, I joked that if Moses had come down from Mount Sinai and witnessed it, he might have felt bad on how harshly he treated the Hebrews revelry with the Golden Calf. Well, if he saw what I saw this fateful April Fool’s Eve, he would have put his hands up, horrified, slowly backed away without a word, and gone back up the mountain. I’m sure anyone who has witnessed one of their performances would agree, it’s something you never will forget. Even my partner Pete, who had seen quite a lot in his day including a number of hippie orgies and the antics of the Mitchell Brothers, was impressed. He would take his copy of the video from that night and have perverse delight showing it to his friends from out of town afterwards as an example of a “typical night in San Francisco”.

To even say they are a band is misleading to begin with. They are more of an ever changing artist collective of musicians, drummers, dancers, performance artists, amateur arsonists, even a bagpipe player. Formed initially in San Diego in 1986, Crash Worship had been making the rounds playing underground raves and the occasional venue. Rumors of what went on circulated and I heard a few, but nothing too specific. They had the reputation for playing a venue once… once. And what I saw that night made it painfully clear why that was the case. Indeed, I imagine that Maritime Hall had the distinction of being one of the only if not the only venue to allow them back to play a second time in 1999, one of their final shows altogether. 

They were a band insomuch as they had put out albums, but they never played anything they recorded live and the stuff they did play, well, let’s just say that even the band members didn’t know where the songs were going. The music would primarily be driven by the drummers, at least two or three of them, most of which were shirtless and standing at their kits. One I know for sure was a fellow named Simon Cheffins, a founding member of the group. While they hammered away, one or two of them would blurt out gibberish, sounding like pentecostal snake handlers speaking in tongues. I was able to make out one time during the beginning of the show where one of the singers shouted something about everybody now being in “the 4th Dimension”, but that was about it. All the while this was going on, various buxom, topless young ladies, one wearing a giant bunny head, the others with thick black eye make up similar to Pris in “Blade Runner”, would bump, grind, and undulate to the rhythm. Technically, California law prohibits such nudity at a place serving alcohol, but as a horny 25 year old back then, no complaints were heard from me. 

But that was what was just happening on stage. Out in the audience was a different situation entirely. I don’t know if the Fire Marshall was in the house during this event, but if he was, clearly he wasn’t playing attention. Every manner of firework was being set off, stings of firecrackers and roman candles to be sure. Torches were everywhere and there even was an exotic dancer who had sort of candelabra-like fixtures on her hands and was swirling them around as she danced. At one point, a fireball went up in the middle of the dance floor, which would leave a conspicuous black mark on the floor afterward. It’s probably still there to this very day.  If that wasn’t enough, a couple women wearing G-strings were carried around in what looked like kiddie pools, or maybe it was an aluminum tub, who would periodically douse themselves and anyone in splash distance in blood.

All the while this is going on, random drummers, a couple carrying large bass drums, people spinning around glow sticks on strings, and all manner of weirdos would circulate, their glistening bodies aglow from the various flames, strobe lights, and pyrotechnics. One of the singers, I believe he was known as JXL, would ask the lighting guy in the beginning to turn off the all the lights, so the performance would be lit by only these sources, but I think he had the good sense to leave a dim wash of lights on stage, if only to provide a modicum of safety. He asked Chris upstairs by name to turn off the projections for one of the songs as well. One part of the show I’ll never forget for some reason was an interlude between songs where there was a recording played of a man and woman arguing with thick German accents. The woman would shout, “There is nothing to discuss!”, followed by a chorus of people shouting it after her. Then the man would retort, “There is plenty to discuss!”, he too followed by a chorus of people shouting what he said after him. This went on for a bit, interlaced with the woman shouting, “Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye!”. Where the hell this bit came from is anyone’s guess, but it probably was from some old cult movie. Traumatizing as the whole experience was, I was grateful to have witnessed it and even more grateful to have the honor to say I’d witness it twice, before Crash Worship would ultimately dissolve. Their legacy lives on in our scarred psyches now.

Portishead, War., SF, Tues., March 31, 1998

SETLIST : Humming, Numb, Cowboys, Wandering, Mysterons, Mourning Air, Half Day, Over, Elysium, Only You, All Mine, Glory Box, Sour Times, (encore), Roads, Western Eyes, Strangers

It had only been three months, but Portishead was already back playing the Warfield again, this time for a two night stint. I would unfortunately be only able to see the first night, since I’d be working at the Maritime the following night for Crash Worship, quite a different experience entirely I assure you. Even though it had been such a short time since I’d seen them, I was ecstatic to get the chance. Their last show really was incredible and I was in love with their music as well as literally in love with their singer, Beth Gibbons. I know I wasn’t alone in that sentiment. I just wish she didn’t smoke, especially on stage while she’s singing as she did that night, a strange and unhealthy thing for a professional singer to do. These shows had the added bonus of having an awesome poster given out at the end of the night as well as being the last shows of their tour. San Francisco is often the city where many US tours end or beginning, being geographically on the extreme end of the country. I like last shows of a tour. One can really sense the relief and gratitude the artists feel at the end of the night, especially when they’re all sick of each other. Incidentally, it was my mother’s 59th birthday that day and in hindsight, I should have bought her a ticket to this one. She probably would have appreciated their music.

Though each night’s set was identical, the second night had the distinction of being the one where Portishead’s hit song, “Sour Times”, would be recorded and used in their upcoming live album, “Roseland NYC Live”, released the following November. It would be the only song on that album that wouldn’t be recorded at Roseland. With the set lists the same, at least I didn’t miss any alternate songs and a good recording of the second day was easy to find on YouTube anyway. The show was the same as the show in December, though I wasn’t complaining, since it was equally as enjoyable. Even the DJ Andy Smith, pretty much spun the same tunes before their set, including the broke down version of “Come Clean” by Jeru Tha Damaja. Sadly, this would be the last time I’d see Portishead perform and I deeply regret not seeing their reunion in 2011. I missed Beth when she toured as a soloist as well, but I have enjoyed instrumentalist Geoff Barrow’s composing since, most notably the soundtracks for the films “Ex Machina” and “Annihilation”.

One strange thing happened at that show, which upset me initially, though I find it hilarious now. At the end of Portishead’s set, I went up to the balcony to ask the front of house sound guy if I could get the setlist as I usually did. He gave it to me without even blinking an eye and I went home with it. Upon inspecting it later, I noticed the word “ARSE”, written on the back of it in large black marker capital letters. I must have been drunk at the time, because my knee jerk reaction was that it was directed towards me. It never occurred to me that not only the sound man didn’t write it after I asked him, but also that he would have written it beforehand as a pre-emptive insult to any twerp like myself who would ask for it later. In hindsight, he probably wrote it to flash to somebody on stage during the soundcheck or the show to crack them up. Well, I called my girlfriend Lisa, who I knew would be ushering on the second night,  in a drunken tizzy and asked her to confront the sound man over this, leaving a rambling clearly intoxicated message on her phone. She left me a message later, totally and understandably miffed, refusing to do so, saying that I would have to “do my own dirty work”. Naturally, I apologized to her afterwards. “Sour Times” indeed.

Ska Against Racism : Less Than Jake, The Toasters, Blue Meanies, 5 Iron Frenzy, MU330, Kemuri, Bruce Lee Band, Critical Mass, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., March 29, 1998

Like I mentioned in the last show review, it was a good week for ska music at the Maritime. The Specials had just played the previous Wednesday and this show had an extensive line up of brilliant newer ska acts, with the exception of The Toasters, who had been around since 1981, though frontman Robert “Bucket” Hingley would be the only original member at this show. The Ska Against Racism tour was the brainchild of Mike Park, the singer/saxophonist from Skankin’ Pickle, who I knew from my video work I’d done with that band years before. He had moved on from his original DIY record label, Dill Records, to form Asian Man Records in 1996, and was already amassing an impressive roster of talent. He brought along several of those bands along for this festival to raise money for anti-hate groups like The Museum Of Tolerance and Artists For A Hate-Free America. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Mike has since become a minister in the Universal Life Church and officiates weddings on the side. Seriously, if I only knew, maybe I would have asked him to do mine. Incidentally, my sixth anniversary with my wife is this week.

Anyway, it was good to see Mike again, I having really not seen him since he left Skankin’ Pickle, who dissolved entirely two years before this show. I could tell Mike was impressed by the recording room and was amenable to the whole thing which was a relief to me. Since then, Mike had his hands full with his record label, but still found time to play sax with other bands, including a couple who were on the bill that night, Less Than Jake and Kemuri, a Japanese-American band from Oxnard. I really liked them and they wowed the crowd early, especially when they played a couple songs in Japanese. If that wasn’t enough, Mike had his own band there that night which he called the Bruce Lee Band. He had to change the name to the “B. Lee Band” when he released albums for legal reasons, but I’m sure Bruce would have approved of Mike’s good work if he had lived. Even if Bruce didn’t like ska, he would have undoubtedly admired Mike’s work ethic and generosity.

Also there was Five Iron Frenzy from Denver, who had the unique distinction of being a Christian ska band, though they made a point not to be dogmatic and denounce intolerance as well as the church’s less than flattering human rights record. They would do other charity gigs, even doing one called “Rock Your Socks Off” which had fans bring clean pairs of socks to donate, the one article of clothing that homeless need that usually never gets attention. I liked their name, derived from the roommate of one of the band members who became paranoid and tried to defend himself with a golf club. They had just released the album, the appropriately titled, “Our Newest Album Ever!” just four months before this show. Before them they had MU330 from St. Louis, named after their high school music class, as well as The Blue Meanies, and Critical Mass.

Rounding out the bill would be Less Than Jake from Gainesville, Florida. Their name was derived from drummer and lyricist Jake Fiorello’s English Bulldog, who his parents complained that their music was annoying. They were still fairly new back then, but would soon release the “Hello Rockview”, their second album on the Capitol Records label that October, and they were riding high on ska’s third wave. They would go on to play larger venues in the future which I’d have the pleasure to see, including a couple shows at The Warfield. It was great as always to see The Toasters again and they played “Matt Davis” and “East Side Beat” at the end of their set as usual. Ska fans are lucky to have had them all these years, they touring pretty consistently and with affordable ticket prices. Likewise, even though this was a fundraiser, the tickets were only $15, a steal for the amount of talent that performed at that show, about two bucks a band, really.

The Specials, Filibuster, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., March 25, 1998

I had the honor to see The Specials twice before at The Fillmore once in 1994 and the other the year before this, but having them at the Hall was different. This time I was recording them and like fellow Englishmen, The Damned, who played the month before at the Maritime, I was responsible for taping my heroes. Once again, Pete was gracious enough to allow me this one, knowing how important this band was to me and I was grateful. I did my best, but always knowing in the back of my mind that Pete would have mixed it better. His skills kept me on my toes and striving to do my best. This was a good week for ska music at the Hall, since coincidentally the Ska Against Racism show would play there the following Sunday. I’m sure there were fans there that attended both shows. 

The Oscars were on the weekend before this show and “Titanic” had their big night and we at the Maritime were oblivious that the venue would hit the proverbial ice in a couple years and sink as well as the doomed ship. Until then, I was sailing on high that night. The Specials had just released “Guilty ’Til Proved Innocent!” just the day before this show, their first album of original material in 13 years. The new songs were good, they sounded like Specials songs. One in particular, “Running Away”, was simply “Monkey Man” done over again with new lyrics. Otherwise, they played all the hits and Neville as usual, ran around shirtless, showing off his muscles and Rod filled in for all the Terry Hall vocal parts again. Naturally, I wished that something could have been released from the recordings done at this show, but alas, it never happened. Once again, like The Damned, The Specials had no shortage of live material released of their own.

Bow Wow Wow, Soulstice, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., March 21, 1998

The 80’s had been in the rearview mirror of history just long enough by this time that the decade’s music was just beginning to be revisited as golden oldies, or throwbacks, or whatever you’d like to call them. Some of the acts that had made names for themselves then, being one hit wonders like Bow Wow Wow, found themselves in the position to tour again with an audience willing to come out and buy a ticket for nostalgia’s sake. Some of them by this time old enough to have children, would bring them along, hoping to bond with them by exposing them to the music of their youth and in doing so reclaiming a little of their own. You know you’re getting on in age when you show up to shows and people are bringing their kids. 

So, the Hall got the chance to get Bow Wow Wow first when they decided to reunite and reacquaint themselves with the world, embarking on their “Barking Mad” tour. We weren’t actually allowed to record that night, sadly. Though I rarely know the reasons why bands shoot us down, I expect that since they hadn’t played together in 15 years, they were a little nervous and rusty and weren’t confident that it would be the best reflection of their talent. Bow Wow Wow had formed way back in 1980, the brainchild of Malcolm McLaren, the svengali who infamously concocted up the Sex Pistols. Malcolm had poached a couple members from Adam Ant’s band and recruited Annabella Lwin, an English/Burmese girl who was only 13 at the time. They had a huge hit with the song, “I Want Candy”, and would tour non stop to the point where the band would come apart and ultimately fire Annabella abruptly in 1983.

Funny story about that hit song, I as most people had thought that it was written by them originally, but it was in fact a cover written originally by a band called The Strangeloves in 1965. The Strangeloves were from New York City, and in an effort to make themselves stand out from the crowd, they adopted foreign personas. At first they tried to be English, but their accents were so unconvincing, that they switched to pretending to be Australian. Similar to bands like The Ramones and The Donnas, they adopted the band’s name into their stage names, calling themselves Giles, Niles, and Miles Strange and claimed that they were ex-sheep farmers. Anyway, I had the night off since we weren’t recording and enjoyed the show. Luckily, I’d be able to see Bow Wow Wow a couple more times in the future when they toured with fellow 80’s musical contemporaries, Devo, once at the Paramount Theater in 2005 and again at Bill Graham Civic in 2006. The latter show, performed on Halloween weekend, they would be part of an all 80’s nostalgia line up also including Missing Persons, A Flock Of Seagulls, and When In Rome. As you can imagine, there were a lot of people dolled up in full 80’s regalia, though I dressed up as Wolverine for that one.

Strictly Roots with Neal Schon, Boom Shaka, Caribbean All-Stars, Native Elements, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., March 20, 1998

Strictly Roots had been around for as long as I’d been seeing live music in the bay area, always as an opener, but in this tragic instance, it would be the one and only time I’d see them as a headliner. Less than two months before this show, their lead singer and founder, Jahson, died unexpectedly at the young age of 48, coincidentally the same age as I am writing this now. He had just finished performing at a show in San Francisco, went to sleep, and peacefully died of heart failure. I had heard that the last show was played at the Last Day Saloon, which would have been an ironic venue to play your last show in, but I can’t confirm that. This show would be a memorial as well as a fundraiser for his family and I have to give Boots credit for letting them put this on, another piece of evidence that the Maritime’s tyrannical owner had a heart after all.

The surprising thing about this show, other than Jahson’s untimely death, was the fact that Neal Schon was playing with Strictly Roots that night. Neal, the guitar wizard from Journey, had been playing professionally since the age of 17, having turned down  to opportunity to join Eric Clapton when he was in Derek & The Dominos to play with Carlos Santana when Carlos was just getting started with the Abraxas band. Not only did Neal do that, but he also played with the supergroup Bad English, Hardline, the Caribbean All-Stars (who were also on the bill that night), and had put out a few solo albums of his own, including the double album, “Electric World” which he released on my birthday the year before. My partner Pete, having recorded Santana’s album with the Caribbean All Stars years before at his studio and being an all around mainstay amongst musical circles in the north bay, knew Neal who popped by the recording room to touch base with him. I found Neal to be a warm and friendly fellow, making me regret not seeing Journey before and gave me a new found appreciation for his talent, despite how annoyed I would become with their hit song, “Don’t Stop Believing”. That tune would be the bane of every citizen in the whole bay area soon enough when it not only became famous being played at the end of the finale of “The Sapranos”, but would become the theme song for The Giants when they started winning World Series’ in 2010.

Neal had met Jahson and his band in San Rafael not long before this just by chance. He had been in the audience for one of their shows in San Rafael and was so impressed, that he asked near the end of their show if he could sit in with them for a song or two. Jahson obliged him, knowing what an honor it would be to have such a renowned guitarist to share the stage with him, though some of the younger members of the band had no idea who he was at the time. Jahson’s son, Rason Jahmal, would go on to take over the band for his father and was obviously there at the Maritime to lead them that night. Local reggae acts Native Elements and Boom Shaka were also there to lend support. Truth be told, I miss Jahson. I felt sorry for dismissing him as a white reggae pretender and comparing him to Chewbacca. I hope if I’m lucky enough to get to heaven and bump into him, he’d accept my apology.

Pigface, Tribes Of Neurot, FM Einheit, Not Breathing, Bagman, Fill., SF, Thur., March 19, 1998

Up till then, I was fairly well versed with the industrial metal crowd. I’d seen Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM, and Front 242 before, a few a number of times and even the first show I ever saw was Public Image, Ltd. But there were much more out there and Pigface was one of them. This was supergroup formed during Ministry’s 1989-1990 your by their drummers Martin Atkins and William Rieflin, looking to expand their musical horizons. Though Martin would remain as the bands sole founding member, the sheer volume of touring members and collaborators over the years would be breathtaking, perhaps even in competition for a a World’s Record. Former Pigface members would include such notable musicians as Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails, Paul Barker & Chris Connelly from Ministry, ohGr from KMFDM, David Yow from the Jesus Lizard, Flea from the Chili Peppers, and Lydia Lunch. Pigface had just released their latest album, “A New High In Low” the previous August, but were also just about to release an album of remixed songs called “Below The Belt” a month later. Incidentally, the Nine Inch Nails song, “Suck”, was originally recorded as a Pigface song.

This line up gracing the stage of The Fillmore that night was a cavalcade of stars from the genre and one of the brightest ones that attracted me to this show was Bagman, AKA Lee Fraser from Sheep On Drugs. It was just him that night without singer King Duncan, but I was glad to see his freaky, emaciated self all the same, spinning drum and bass techno stuff and grunting out gibberish to the crowd now and then. The band Scorn had been on other legs of that tour, but member Mick Harris, the former drummer from Napalm Death, couldn’t be there that night with the band, since he and his wife just had a baby girl. Multi-instumentalist Frank Martin Strauss, otherwise known by his stage name FM Einheit, was taking a break from his other band Einsturzende Neubauten, to do his weird thing next. Finally, there was the Tribes Of Neurot, a hybrid project featuring members of Neurosis and Scott Ayers, formerly of Pain Teen. They were strictly a noise band and frankly I thought they were unlistenable. When Pigface followed them, it was a relief, like somebody removing a phillips head screwdriver from one of my ear canals. But hey, some people like that stuff, I guess. Needless to say, each band was pretty loud and I was glad I was there since shows in this genre were rather rare for The Fillmore.

Pigface was no exception and proved to be quite the party on stage, a motley crew indeed. Altogether, there must of been nearly 40 musicians between all the acts. Though I thought Pigface’s music wasn’t as catchy as some of the more popular industrial acts I mentioned earlier, I have to admit, I’ll never, EVER, forget their song, “Hips, Tits, Lips, Power!” which they played for the first song of their encore. Part of the reason was they were repeating those four words over and over again, hissing each syllable like a snake, but I was also quite smitten by singer Meg Lee Chin who strutted around in her sexy black bra and bobbed black hair all the while. She even did a bit singing along, pointing to her hips, tits, and lips, as each word passed before finishing by flexing her bicep to “Power!” I regret this would be the only time I’d see her or Pigface. Turns out, she studied sound at SF State as well, though a few years before I went to school there. During their last song, they even did a few lines from Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs”, the disco hit, “Play That Funky Music White Boy” and “Flashlight” by P-Funk, who I’d just seen the previous December at the Maritime. Sadly, there was no poster given out that night.

Hieroglyphics, Rasco, Maritime Hall, SF, Thurs., March 19, 1998

After seven months on the road, the Hieroglyphics were back home in the bay area again and gracing the stage at the Maritime. Their first album, “Third Eye Vision” was just on the cusp to be released to the public, the following tuesday after this very show in fact. So, the whole crew and then some were there, the Souls Of Mischief, Casual, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, The Prose, as well as the Living Legends, the Mystik Journeymen, Grouch, Arata, Aesop, Eligh, Murs, and a few I’ve probably forgotten. Rasco was there that night as well opening the show and he was in fine form, warming up the crowd.

There was a bit of a dust up earlier when the pre-show DJ put on a track by Jermaine Dupri and received a chorus of boos from the audience. I guess Dupri wasn’t down with the real hip hop crowd, that or they resented his work producing Kris Kross. Other than that it was a real party in the crowd, on stage, and off. No better example of the revelry that night was Del, who clearly had too much to drink and God knows what else before he performed. He admitted that he was a little “juiced” and slurred his way through his hit songs, “Dr. Bombay” and “Mista Dobalina”, struggling to keep time, before shambling over to the corner of the stage to take a seat, watching the rest of the crew do their stuff. 

Del was going through a little bit of a rough patch at that time obviously. He managed to put together his third solo album the previous November, “Future Development”, his first album in five years, but was dropped from Elektra a month after its release. Jerks did it just before Christmas no less. That’s show biz. He was able to get the album out through Hiero’s independent record label shortly afterward, Hieroglyphics Imperium Recordings, but only in tape cassette form. Thankfully, they re-released it again in 2002. Other artists that night were a little more spry, such as Arata, who got some applause when he rapped in his native Japanese for a bit. Murs, dressed head to toe in battle fatigues, got the crowd jumping too. We were spoiled back then, especially me being able to record them so often at the Hall, and it wouldn’t be long, just until that October until the Hiero crew were back on that stage again, doing what they do best.

Clutch, Sevendust, Dork, Maritime Hall, SF, Tues., March 17, 1998

SETLIST : The House That Peterbilt, Wishbone, Big News 1 & 2, Rock & Roll Outlaw, The Elephant Riders, Ship Of Gold, Droid, Escape From Prison Planet, Texan Book Of The Dead, Green Buckets, Eight Times Over Miss October, The Soapmakers, 7 Jam

This show stood out at first primarily for who wasn’t on the bill, the supposed headliner Limp Bizkit. For whatever reason, they didn’t make it and Clutch was bumped up to be headliner and they added the local band Dork at the last minute. One reason they weren’t there might be that during this tour, dubbed the “Ladies Night In Cambodia” tour, Limp Bizkit was offering the first 200 women who showed up to see them free admission, 100 women in some other clubs. Personally, I think that was a smart move by that band, seeing that their fan base was primarily all too masculine. Knowing Boots, he would probably have none of this promotional concept, but I can’t say for sure. To compensate for their absence, the ticket price was lowered from $14 to $10, though I imagine those who had bought their tickets in advance were out of luck. Frankly, I was relieved that Limp Bizkit wasn’t there, as I was not a fan of their music, especially their nauseating cover of “Faith” by George Michaels.

Clutch on the other hand were a great band and we were also being revisited by Sevendust, who had played at the Maritime only a couple months before in January. They paired well together. I’d seen Clutch once before briefly in 1994 opening for Sepultura at The Warfield. They were from Maryland and by then were just about to release their third album, “The Elephant Riders” that April, their first album on a major label, being Columbia. Their singer, Neil Fallon, even mentioned that they had some cassettes to give away later that had some of the new songs on it. They had real talent, playing bluesy hard rock reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix’s Band Of Gypsies, if that band was fronted by an agitated drunk. Not that Neil was drunk, it’s just like he sings like one, though it was appropriate that night, it being St. Patrick’s Day. The new songs were brilliant, the album having the recurring theme of an alternate history of the American Civil War where cavalry would ride elephants instead of horses. They even had a banner with their logo of a mock cavalry badge with an elephant head and rifles. I wouldn’t have long until I’d get to see Clutch again since they would open for Slayer at the Warfield only two months later, though that would be the last time I’d see them play.

Rakim, Zion-I, Most Chill Slackmob, Cytoplasm, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., March 15, 1998

SETLISTS:

(MOST CHILL SLACKMOB) : You Might Not Know, 1 Step, The Underground, Deeper, (unknown), Funky Fresh, Criteria, Yum Yum, Over My Head

(RAKIM) : It’s Been A Long Time, Move The Crowd, My Melody, Paid In Full, In The Ghetto, Microphone Fiend, The 18th Letter (Always & Forever), I Ain’t No Joke, Follow The Leader, The Punisher, Guess Who’s Back, The Saga, Don’t Sweat The Technique, Juice (Know The Ledge), Eric B. For President, I Know You’ve Got Soul, freestyle, Mahogany

On this years Ides Of March, I had the pleasure of recording the one and only Mr. William Michael Griffin, Jr., otherwise known as Rakim Allah, or more commonly known by his stage name Rakim. After joining the Nation Of Islam in 1986 and changing his name, Rakim along with his DJ partner, Eric B. made some of the most brilliant hip hop music ever produced, typifying the east coast sound. They were even nominated to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2011. I appreciated Rakim right away for no other reason that he didn’t scream his lyrics, keeping a smooth as glass flow with his rhymes and cadence. There are really only a handful of cool rappers like Slick Rick, Q Tip, and the guys from Digable Planets who remind me of him. I’m sure live sound people appreciate that as well, though his hype men did plenty of yelling that night.

Rakim and Eric had parted ways in 1992 after “Don’t Sweat The Technique” came out as well as the movie “Juice” starring Tupac Shakur and the young Omar Epps, featuring their hit song, “Juice (Know The Ledge)”, as they were about to be released from their contract with MCA. Eric, fearing once released that Rakim would dump him, refused to sign and after years of legal wrangling, Eric would self fulfill his prophesy and Rakim would go solo without him. Rakim was touring this time around with his first solo album, “The 18th Letter”, that letter being “R” for Rakim, his first music since their split, though he also released a three song EP that year called “Stay A While”. The duo would eventually be reunited in 2017, though I would miss the show they’d do at The Fillmore on that tour, it selling out instantly. I remember my friend Zeph who was a DJ commenting about that show around that time at work casting doubt if Eric would show up as he had a reputation for being an unreliable drunk.

Opening that night were Cytoplasm and a surprisingly entertaining group called the Most Chill Slackmob.  Continuing the Maritime’s history of misspelling things on their monthly poster, they were billed simply as “Slackmob”. They were fronted by a jovial fellow with dreads named Ngaio Bealum, his rapping partner MoMo describing on stage as “220 lbs. of chocolate love”, who was not only a talented musician, but a comedian, writer, actor, and I just learned a juggler to boot. Ngaio would host and promote many marijuana legalization events as well and their music reflected their love for the herb repeatedly. He even taunted the crowd asking if they were “the only people who brought weed” and cynically dismissing one of the guys up front who offered them rolling papers instead. Both he and MoMo had excellent diction, their DJ scratched skillfully, and they had a rock study drummer named Scott, who Ngaio described as a “preacher’s kid, Italian, and naughty”. Ngaio would hit a pair of conga drums from time to time and MoMo would even play the harmonica on a couple songs. 

Ngaio even busted out a trombone during their reggae song, “Deeper”. That guy cracks me up with his lyrics. I’ll never forget one line he had saying he comes like “Latrell when I’m chokin’ the coach” during the song “Funky Fresh”, a reference to the recent event the previous December where Golden State Warrior Latrell Sprewell lost his cool and attempted to strangle head coach P.J. Carlesimo. Like I said, I liked these guys and the crowd seemed to respond mostly well to them, though they did one thing that I thought was a bad move on stage. Near the end of their set, Ngaio announced that they’s be doing a show at The Fillmore at the end of the month with Dub Nation and Native Elements, probably unaware that BGP was the Maritime’s competition. He even mentioned it twice but I guess Boots didn’t hear it or cared since the Slackmob would return to play the Hall again a couple more times.

Eventually, Rakim made it to the stage adorned in a simple black hoodie and one of his hype men was wearing a Brett Favre jersey and they opened with the apropos, “It’s Been A Long Time”. Song after song, Rakim played the hits and between songs halfway through the show, the guys on stage did a long bit trying to get their side of the crowd to scream the loudest, goading the others, shouting, “fuck that side!”. It was pretty hot in that show for being in the middle of March and Rakim helped give out water to people in the front saying it was “hot as a motherfucker up in here”. There were several shout outs to Oakland to the point where it was getting repetitive. When they got to the song, “Follow The Leader”, a chair was brought out on stage and Rakim sat and rapped in it all the way through the song, reminiscent of the way he sat during the music video for it. 

They were going to leave after “I Know You Got Soul”, Rakim claiming that he was “fucking tired”, but his hype man goaded him back on stage. They did a few minutes of freestyle before inviting a bunch of spry young ladies up on stage to join them, insisting that it be only ladies, repelling the men who attempted to join them. Those girls were definitely getting their freak on for that encore. They finished the night with “Mahogany” and that would be the last time I’d see Rakim. As impressed as I was, I didn’t really get into his music until a few years ago, picking up one of their greatest hits albums. Hopefully, he’ll tour again some day and I will make up for missing him and Eric at the show back in 2017.

Inner Circle, Emerg-MC, Earl Zero, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., March 13, 1998

Most people know this band from their hit single, “Bad Boys”, which would become forever joined at the hip as the theme song of the reality show, “Cops” ever since its inception in 1989. I would say that this song is one of the reasons it took off since anyone who knows anything about TV knows that a show’s theme song is the first impression that any new viewer experiences and a song like this one nailed it. Even hearing it today, reviewing this show, it haunts you. If that wasn’t enough, it would also forever be associated with the Will Smith/Martin Lawrence movie franchise of the same name. This song share the unique distinction of being one of only two songs I kept in my records from the stuff I have from the Hall as a song I kept alone, without the rest of the show. The other song was “Round & Round” by Ratt, when they played at the Maritime the previous July. It is something I’m not proud of in fact, since both bands, as divergent stylistically as they are, have a reputable repertoire of songs that deserve credit.

One of those songs for Inner Circle was “Sweat (A La La La La Long)”, which though most people would never know it was they that recorded it would recognized it instantly. The chorus of that song sticks in your head and stays there. Likewise, they had just released a reggae cover of The Beatles’ “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” on their most recent album, “Jamaika Me Crazy”, that year, a song equally as infectious. I’d never seen Inner Circle, but I was impressed by them enormously. They had been around for years, beginning as kids in Kingston. In fact, this show was their 30th year as a band, though the only two original members were the brothers Ian & Roger Lewis, the former on bass and vocals, the later on guitar and vocals. Some former members of the band split off to make the band Third World.

I was disappointed that Junior Murvin didn’t make it to open that show for some unknown reason. He will always be known for his song singing “Police & Thieves” with his haunting falsetto, though most the world and myself would first hear that song from The Clash cover of it. Sadly, I would never get the chance to see him again as Murvin would pass away in 2013 from diabetes and hypertension. Inner Circle had just released a greatest hits album when we did this gig and as always I’d hoped they’d release a live album from what we recorded, but it never happened, partially since they had already out a live album in 1995. Hearing them again, one can only wonder what life would have been like if that song never became the song for that show. Perhaps Inner Circle would would have faded to obscurity, perhaps that song would have been revered on its own merits. Regardless, it made the band a ton of money and led others to explore their music further and that is a good thing. I’m glad Pete was there to record that night, since I was exhausted from working The Crystal Method show at The Warfield into the wee hours of the night before and it was nice to hang with him, relax, shoot the breeze, and pass joints as always.

The Crystal Method, Flatboy Slim, David Holmes, Propellerheads, BT, War., SF, Thur., March 12, 1998

It had only been a few months since the Electronica Hanukkuh at Maritime Hall, but The Crystal Method were already back, this time packing in a sold out crowd at The Warfield. Though the rave scene had long since moved out of the shadows of warehouses in the dead of night, all these acts were still pretty new to people in the general public who weren’t in on it from the beginning. The Crystal Method had a big hit on their hands, “Busy Child”, and soon the opening act, Fatboy Slim would release “You’ve Come A Long Way Baby” in October. With such hits like “Right Here, Right Now” and “The Rockefeller Skank”, the world of EDM music would worm its way into every ear.

Speaking of Mr. Slim, I just learned only yesterday researching this show that he used to be the bass player for The Housemartins, until their break up in 1988. Not going into it with too many details, let’s just say that The Housemartins were a pretty radical departure from the kind of music, as he was known then as Mr. Norman Cook, would produce. It is understandable for anyone not to make the connection and I’m sure he hears similar overtures of disbelief all the time. He had only taken the moniker of Fatboy Slim two years before this show, leaving that band’s poppy organic sound for the turntables. In a side note, I thought it ironic that I recorded The Damned at the Maritime only less than two weeks before this show since it was when Slim’s brother gave him that band’s first album, that he began his interest in music. Small world. Incidentally, Slim holds the Guinness Book Of World’s Record for the most Top 40 hits under different names, using such humorous nom de pulme’s as Margaret Scratcher, Chimp McGarvey, and Yum Yum Head Food.

The Warfield didn’t do a lot of EDM shows, but as most people know, they went late, and that night was no exception. I didn’t mind though since the line up was actually quite brilliant that night. BT, AKA Brian Wayne Transeau, a recent dropout from the Berklee School Of Music, was on the bill, who like the others was still new having released his first album, “ESCM”, the previous September. He’d go on to have an illustrious career in the field, remixing songs for a variety of artists ranging from Sting, to Madonna, to N’SNYC, to Seal and would have the most dubious of distinctions of being the last official gig at Maritime Hall in 2001, a show that I would have the solemn honor of recording. The Propellerheads were there too, a band to only release one studio album, “Decksandrumsandrockandroll” that January. Though that would be the only time I’d see them, their memory would live on with their song “Take California”, which was used for the first iPod commercial in 2001.

Anyway, it was a long show and even the volunteer ushers like myself weren’t cut until well after 11. It was OK, though. With all the blinding light show and ever-present clouds from the fog machines, there wasn’t much to look at on stage, so the the crowd would circulate for most of the night. No problem hearing the music anywhere, since it was being blasted all night at ear splitting levels as well. They had a good DJ named Taylor to spin records in the beginning and before and after The Crystal Method as well, so the music came and went seamlessly.

Lady Saw, Rankin Scroo & Ginger, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat. March 7, 1998

Reggae was back at the Hall, so Pete was back again and the joints were flowing. I was relieved since the show with Salmon the night before went into the wee hours. This time it was Ms. Marion Hall, who back then was known as Lady Saw, a highly respected reggae artist and one of the few female ones. She was known as the Queen Of Dancehall and would go on to become the only female DJ to be certified triple platinum from her collaboration with No Doubt and their song, “Underneath It All” in 2001. Opening up the night was Rankin Scroo & Ginger who I had seen open for so many other reggae people, that they were starting to get on my nerves. Lady Saw had been around a few years, long enough that she had just released her greatest hits album, “Raw, The Best Of Lady Saw” and was working to release her fourth album, “99 Ways” that December. One thing I like about Lady Saw is unlike other Dancehall reggae artists like Buju Banton or Beenie Man, you can actually understand what the hell she’s saying, well, mostly. She has excellent diction.

As the name of that greatest hits album suggests, Lady Saw is renowned, at least in her earlier work, as having lyrics that were a tad suggestive with songs like, “Life Without Dick” and “Name Nuh Stand Fi Sex”. I’ve always said reggae was good getting busy music and there’s no reason why women can’t get in on the fun. But like so many musicians who start out horny as hell, Lady Saw found religion, got baptized, became a minister, changed her name back to her birth name, and her later work turned towards gospel. It happened to Prince. Hell, it even happened to Dave Mustaine from Megadeth. But for that night, she was the definition of raw and I’m sure some people got busy after that show. Strangely enough, I would always remember one song she did called “Sycamore Tree”, mainly because I used to live in the Mission on Sycamore Street, or as I liked to call it, Sycamore Alley, by the Elbo Room. On a final note of sour grapes though, I regret that there would later be release a DVD of Lady Saw playing the Hall recorded a year after Pete and I bitterly parted ways with Boots, the owner. Though I haven’t heard or seen that DVD, I can say for certain, Pete’s mix is better, always is. I suppose I can be happy for Lady Saw, or rather Marion Hall, that at least something came out.

Salmon, Born Naked, Papa Roach, Barim Som, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri,. March 6, 1998

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again that Salmon was a great, underrated band, a band that deserved more. But it comes as some consolation to me that the last time I’d see them would be at the Hall at a show I was recording and the only time I’d see them headline. The Hall would be charitable to local acts, smaller ones from time to time, giving them a show at a low ticket price. It was only $7 to get in on this one. That, and what I’m sure was a generous guest list, helped at least fill the dance floor of the Hall on this one. Salmon had recently hard an acrimonious parting of ways with their record label, Red Ant, but at least had a couple albums under their belt, “Paco, Drop The Chicken!” and “Flourished With Candies”. The singer, Lawrence Martinez, even mentioned it on stage saying that “they bent us over”. On a side note, it was my sister Erica’s 24th birthday that night, but I don’t think she was at the show.

Opening that night after Baring Som was a new, young act from Vacaville called Papa Roach. They named their group after singer Jacoby Shaddix’s step-grandfather, Howard William Roach, and had just released their “5 Tracks Deep”EP. That would get the attention of major labels and they would be signed to Dreamworks a year later and get big with their smash hit song, “Last Resort”. But for this show, they were on early and there probably was about fifty people watching them by the time they finished. I liked them back then though. I rightly thought they had potential and were skilled musicians. Their persistence in touring would pay off in the end, though tragically Jacoby’s step grandad would die by his own hand in 2006 after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis. 

On a happier note, this was yet another opportunity for me to record and hang out with Born Naked. My old roommate Patrick had been booking them all around town regularly then and they would play the Hall at least three or four times. This time, Born Naked moved up the ranks at this show being second to last instead of the first band of the night like they had been the times before. They would get the lion’s share of the audience at that show since as usual for a night with so many acts, it was running late. Lawrence Martinez made a note of it during the show saying that technically they were playing on March 7th instead of the 6th, since they got on after midnight.

I learned a few things about Salmon while researching this show. For starters, one of the reasons that most folks don’t know them is that there are at least three other musical acts that have the same name. One’s from Washington D.C., another’s from The Netherlands, and one of them most notably is a side project for Australian rock star Kim Salmon. I knew that (this) Salmon was from Gilroy, the garlic capital of America, but I was amused to hear that for some reason, probably the rowdiness of their fans, they were banned from playing in their hometown. Seriously, I’ve only ever heard that happening to a band a couple times like the Bay City Rollers or when Pantera made a mess of the Warfield in 1994. Lawrence, the singer, actually used to sell encyclopedias door to door, which is probably one of the reasons he’s so funny and charismatic on stage, having honed his interpersonal skills doing it.

He would crack me up all night with his antics doing stuff like asking the crowd between songs if they had ever heard of Hanson and saying that he looked like Ponch from “Chips” with his collar popped up. Lawrence thanked the people at the Hall saying that they “hooked us up, cooked us salmon & shrimp, and gave us beer”. That was nice of the guys downstairs in the cafeteria to do salmon that night for them. With their name, they had better like the fish. Maybe they’re sick of it now. Before they did “The Knack”, Lawrence described it as “the love song with a little bump & grind” and said it was “time to tap that ass!” He wished the drummer Pat an early happy birthday which would be on Sunday and said he “was money… so money”, a reference to the film “Swingers” which had come out in October of 1996.

Lawrence did another funny thing that night between songs, first talking about Michael Jordan when he just got out of college and how he bought a pair of his Air Jordan shoes around 1985 and it came with a commemorative pin. He took the pin out and gave it away to a member of the crowd up front and told him to “take care of it”. Then he announced, “Hey bartender! Free beer for everyone! Roll the keg over here!… Two kegs…. Seven kegs” That led into the band playing the song “Seven” next, but he first showed everybody his “rock star tattoo” of the number seven on his leg and joked how he got it hanging around with Tommy Lee of Motley Crue. “He would flap his big dick over and I’d flap my little dick over… Well, not little, just not as big as Tommy Lee!” He’d keep the improv going again introducing their new song, “The Midgets Of Peru”, then quickly correcting himself calling it, “Livermore”. Before they wrapped up the night, like many acts do, they mentioned that they were playing another gig later in the month. They were going to play the Cactus Club in San Jose again with Papa Roach and none other than System Of A Down, who like Papa Roach were new and would also go on to be huge. Lawrence once again did a riff saying that everyone there is going to “dress up as pigs… I’ll be Porky Pig”. Funny guy, Lawrence. I’ll still miss Salmon and honestly, I think of them from time to time whenever I eat the fish.

The Damned, Man Will Surrender, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., Feb. 28, 1998

SETLIST : Plan 9 Channel 7, Dozen Girls, Neat Neat Neat, Wait For The Blackout, I Just Can’t Be Happy Today, Disco Man, Shadow Of Love, Curtain Call, Noise Noise Noise, Melody Lee, Looking At You, (encore), New Rose, Love Song, (encore), Eloise, Smash It Up, (encore), Ignite

This was probably the most important show I’d ever do at The Maritime, at least the most important show to me personally. I’d been waiting for years, since I was a kid really, to see The Damned. The only show I’d ever hear about them playing growing up was a gig at the I-Beam on Haight Street and it broke my heart that I couldn’t get in since I was underage at the time and it was a 21 and over club and was notorious for taking fake IDs from kids who tried to get in. My brother Alex had introduced me to The Damned when I was still in junior high and I was instantly a fan. They would be the first band that would really differentiate me from my friends taste in music. In fact, I knew only one other fellow in high school, a guy called Trey Turner, who liked them. Most folks didn’t even know who they were. To me, The Damned were easily one of the most underrated bands in music history, even borderline as tragically overlooked in America, but to fans like myself, they were revered. It took years, 40 in fact, but I think they’re at least getting a fraction of the credit they deserve. I have always felt that they deserve to be in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.

When I saw that they were going to play the Hall, I was over the moon as you might imagine. I made sure that Pete let me record this one. Pete might have been twice my size, a Navy veteran, and been in dozens of fist fights, but I was willing to throw down to be at the helm for this one. He saw how important this show was to me and had no objections, though he was co-pilot that night. It was an interesting time to see The Damned. Their original drummer, Rat Scabies, had left the band by then. There was some acrimony between Rat and the band over the release of the “Not Of This Earth” or “I’m Alright Jack & The Beanstalk” album in 1995 and they never reconciled, which is a pity since I’d always admired Rat as a drummer. They had replaced him with a fellow named Garrie Dreadful, who had been touring with guitarist Captain Sensible with his solo act. Also new to the band was Monty Oxymoron, a goofy chap with a giant head of frizzy black hair, on keyboards. I think it was the first time The Damned had toured with a keyboard player. I suppose it was good training for Monty for life touring with The Damned that he once had a job as a psychiatric nurse. Incidentally, speaking of mentally illness and rock stars, both he and the Captain attended Syd Barrett’s funeral in 2007.

As I had mentioned earlier in my recollections of the Sisters Of Mercy show that happened at the Hall earlier that month, Patricia Morrison was now playing bass for The Damned. She had been with the Sisters years before, but had parted ways with them over being stiffed money, joining The Damned replacing Moose Harris who went on to play with New Model Army. She not only joined them in 1996, but would go on to marry the lead singer, Dave Vanian, shortly afterwards right after the band’s tour of Australia in 1997 and they would sire a daughter together named Emily. Patricia would play in the band until 2004 before retiring. The Damned had gone through several line up changes over their long career beginning in the mid 70s. They would have the distinction of being the first punk band in the UK to chart a single, “New Rose”, and one of the only bands to tour with the Sex Pistols while they were still together for their brief, but memorable career.

In the years just before this show, Dave had been tinkering with a solo project, Dave Vanian & The Phantom Chords, which I would see but once when they toured in 2000 and played Slim’s. Like I said, Captain Sensible had a surprisingly successful solo career, at least in the UK. He would gain notoriety not with punk music, but strangely enough with hits like “Wot”, a rap song, using the music from “Rapper’s Delight”, and a cover of “Happy Talk”, yes, THAT “Happy Talk”, the song from the musical “South Pacific”. What can I say, the Captain is a horse of a different color to say the least which is one of the reasons he and Dave a heroes to me. They were freaks like me. The Damned were a difficult band to categorize. Yes, they were at the forefront of the British punk scene and played many punk songs, really helping define the genre, but in the 80s, they would also typify the Goth scene, especially with their seminal album, “Phantasmagoria”. I’m glad they would play “Shadow Of Love” from that one, despite Captain having left the band by the time it came out. Dave always looked a bit like a vampire anyway. Contrasting his ghoulish, yet dapper appearance and manners was the Captain, a foul mouthed, beer swilling, harlequin guitar hero. This dichotomy between the two is one of the many reasons they make such a strong impression.

Tura Satana was supposed to open the show, but didn’t make it for some reason, leaving only Man Will Surrender, who I remember very little of that night. Just as well, since I was understandably distracted and eager to see my heroes for the first time. Monty came out first and started a little intro music on his keyboard, a riff that was reminiscent of Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen”. Captain came out next, prancing about the stage and even doing a backwards somersault before strapping on his guitar. He had been known for wearing a red beret and white rimmed sunglasses, but he had neither of those on that night. Instead, he wore small John Lennon round sunglasses and he wore some sort of black, soft cotton long sleeved outfit with white line trim designs all over it and a matching soft, brimless hat. The whole piece looked as if it came from North Africa. He broke the ice with the crowd by introducing himself as Phil Collins and asking them if anyone wanted to suck his cock before launching into their first song, “Plan 9 Channel 7”. Dave was his usual vampirish self, pale with his hair slicked back wearing sunglasses and a long sleeved silk shirt with wide lapels and a deep V-neck, though he took the glasses off after a few songs. Patricia wore all black, though sported a subtle pair of Halloween devil horns through her long, black hair.

I was nervous as hell to get the recording right, but with Pete’s help, I managed to get it pretty well balanced. I did have a little balancing to do with Captain’s guitar though. The sound level would dip when he was doing solos instead of chords and I’d have to ride the faders all night. It’s always a good thing to know the music of the band you’re recording to anticipate such changes and as I knew every song they played that night backwards and forwards, it wasn’t that difficult, though it kept me on my toes. Captain would continue to make jokes between songs, dedicating the next one, “Dozen Girls” to our lascivious President of the time, Bill Clinton. Bill had just made his infamous, “did not have sexual relations with that woman” speech only the month before this show.

Dave would improvise things between songs as well, even crooning a bit of “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” with his trademark baritone voice before busting into the explosive “Neat Neat Neat”, and during “Shadow Of Love” asking “Who knows what lurks in the hearts of men?… The Shadow knows”, a reference to the vintage radio show of the 1930’s. Dave also did a couple lines of Johnny Cash’s “Ring Of Fire” in the middle of a very long version of the MC5 song, “Looking At You”. Before they did “Wait For The Blackout”, Captain referred to it as “in my case, wait for the nob-out”. Dave would dedicate “Disco Man” to “all you fans of ‘Saturday Night Fever’ and John Travolta”. Captain also dedicated it to John Travolta and to the “pineapple up his asshole”.  

The crowd matched their rowdiness and penchant for dressing up. There were a few novelty hats around, one fellow in particular with a conspicuously tall top hat. There were probably more stage divers at that show than any I’d seen at the Hall. Little Boot and the security guys had no barricade and thus very little time to stop the endless parade of girls and boys from hopping on stage and jumping. My God, the girls up front were all over the Captain too, taking turns hugging and kissing him. One got up and kissed Dave before “Noise Noise Noise” and Captain pouted and then playfully scolded Dave to only have “the birds on your side”. Dave retorted, “But Captain, this is San Francisco. Can you be sure?” Not to be the only joker on stage, Garrie swiped the Captain’s guitar and strummed some riffs a little before handing it back to him and then the band played “Melody Lee”. I loved the placid keyboard introduction Monty did for that song before it ripped into the fast punk song it was and Monty comically jumped and flailed about for the rest of it.

They did three encores that night after ending their set with “Eloise”. For the first encore, Captain came out wearing only his black underwear, what the British refer to as “Y-fronts”, though we like to call them tidy whities. Doing another costume change for the second encore, he came out wearing a light pink summer dress and a blond, bobbed woman’s wig. It was quite a sight watching Captain roll around on the ground during the slow beginning of “Smash It Up” and french kissing a couple young ladies in the front. Dave and the band were looking at him almost impatiently for him to finish making out before they went into the faster second half of that song. One of those girls stole Captain’s wig briefly, trying it on for herself. I’ll never forget after the song ended, Pete was convinced the show was over and turned off the ADAT machines, though I told him to wait. To his defense, the band was off stage a little longer than the usual encore break, but they did come back and we managed to scramble, getting the tapes back in the machines and starting them before the last song began. They finished the night with an epic version of “Ignite” that went on over ten minutes.

To see them finally was a dream come true and that dream could only have been made perfect if they would have used my recording for a CD or DVD, but they didn’t sadly. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting them to since The Damned had several live albums out by then and countless bootlegs available. Still, a boy can dream. At least somebody posted the video from that show on YouTube and since only they had the other copy and I, Boots, nor Pete would post it, I can only imagine that one of them did it, at least I hope it was one of them. Their endorsement of my work would mean the world to me. As luck would have it, The Damned did return to the bay area shortly after this show to play at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma a month to the day after, the only time I’d ever see a show at that venue. Boots was booking the acts at the Phoenix at the time, so I was able to get in free to that show along with my girlfriend Lisa. I was glad especially since I wasn’t able to go upstairs at their show at the Maritime to watch since I was recording them throughout their show. 

My curiosity got the better of me and I went backstage that night to talk to them before their set and I did my best to not make a fool of myself. I told them who I was and asked them if they had a chance to watch the tape of the show I recorded, but Patricia simply said that they hadn’t and usually after a show, they’re so tired, that they just get in the van and go. I didn’t take it personally, but I’ll never forget the sour look on Captain’s silent face while I was talking to them in that small dressing room of theirs. They say that you should never meet your heroes, but I disagree with the absolute nature of that statement. I concede that when you do, try to read the room. I don’t know if I was annoying the Captain or if he was just not in the mood to talk to a jabbering fan like me, but I made it brief and rejoined Lisa outside to watch the show. 

There was only about a hundred or so people at that show, making more of a party than a concert, which is always bad for the band, but great for fans. I hope The Damned at least recognized my obvious enthusiasm and joy during their set, as I danced and sang along to every song they played that night. I must have been impossible not to notice up front. As you might imagine, I made a point to see them play each and every time they would come to town for their years to follow, at least six or seven more times since. But the memory of this first show will be seared into my brain until my dying day, easily one of the proudest moments of my life.

Outkast, Coca Bravas, Beatnuts, Maritime Hall, SF, Sun., Feb. 22, 1998

SETLIST : Hootie Hoo, ATLiens, Jazzy Belle, Wheelz Of Steel, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, Player’s Ball, Two Dope Boyz (In A Cadillac), Elevators (Me & You)

The “dirty south” hip hop scene was just getting its legs around this time and Outkast was riding high on the crest of that wave. Along with fellow Georgia natives the Goodie Mob and other acts like Nappy Roots, they were showing the world that hip hop wasn’t necessarily limited to New York or California. Outkast was still pretty new then at least to people out on the west coast, having only released their second and most recent album, “ATLiens” in 1996. Their third album, “Aquemini” would be released that September, but they didn’t play any new songs from it at this gig. But despite being new, they had no problem packing the house, even when the show was announced at such short notice that it didn’t even make it to the Maritime’s monthly poster. Andre Benjamin introduced himself by his normal name, instead of “Andre 3000”, that night nor wasn’t dressed like a Martian or some wigged pimp from the 1970s as he would do regularly in the years to come. In fact, apart from the colorful wool knit beanie hat he wore, he dressed rather informally. He was representing Atlanta baseball though, wearing a blue satin Braves jacket, but he took it off after a couple songs.

Opening that night were the Beatnuts from Queens, a remarkably talented and frankly underrated hip hop act. With songs like “Off The Books” and “Watch Out Now”, their songs would permeate countless DJ’s playlists back then, though their name would escape most people who heard their stuff. Also opening that night was Coca Bravaz from Brooklyn. They were once called “Smif-N-Wessun” but predictably had to change their name when the gun maker threatened to sue them. Like most hip hop shows, all the bands played pretty short sets. Even Outkast’s set was only 35 minutes long. But thankfully, Outkast would return to play the Hall that November with a little known band named Black Eyed Peas, before they brought Fergie into the band. They and Outkast would shortly get ridiculously popular in the next few years, leaving mid-sized venues like the Maritime far behind. 

Zen Tricksters, Puddle Junction, David Gans, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat., Feb. 21, 1998

There had been many jam bands that had already passed through the Hall by this time since Jerry Garcia died, but this one was a bone fide Grateful Dead cover band, one of the first in fact. The Tricksters had been covering their music, though I’ve long argued that The Dead were mostly a cover band to begin with, since 1979. Hailing from Long Island, they helped fill the gaps like fellow east coast acts like Phish for the times when The Dead weren’t around. We here in the bay area have always been spoiled by having these guys local and available to play multiple dates every year. The star player in The Tricksters was keyboard virtuoso Rob Barraco, who played The Dead’s songs so well, that he’d eventually be picked up to join such Dead off-shoot projects as Phil Lesh & Friends, The Other Ones, and The Dead themselves. He’d even join the Dark Star Orchestra, yet another Dead cover band, in 2005, after the untimely death of their keyboardist, Scott Larned, who succumbed to heart failure at the young age of 35. Though The Tricksters had by this time been playing together for nearly twenty years, it was only the year before this show that they would release their first album of original material called, “Holy Fool”.

Joining the bill that night was David Gans who with his band the Broken Angels, managed to coax Phil Lesh out of hiatus to play with him the year before, the first live shows he’d perform after Jerry died. I was able to attend the first of the two shows he’d play with Phil at the Maritime, but was unable to attend the second, being out of town for Christmas. David was alone this time with his acoustic guitar, no Phil in sight sadly. The Tricksters would also go on to collaborate with former Grateful Dead back up singer, Donna Jean Godchaux, in 2006, who also had come out of retirement recently at the Maritime, joining in with the all star hippie Christmas sing-a-long show, the Philharmonia, the previous December. Also playing was Puddle Junction, a jam band out of Chico that would be a frequent opener of hippie acts to come through the Hall. This show was being billed as a “Mardi Gras Costume Ball”, so there were plenty of colorful beads and novelty hats to go around and it being a hippie show, all manors of drinking and smoking herb. Can’t recall or find the setlist, but I’d say it is a safe bet that “Iko Iko” was played at least once that night by one of the acts. Like so many Dead cover bands such as the Dark Star Orchestra, The Tricksters were such skilled musicians, that clearly they were as least as talented as The Dead, if not superior to them.

Edi Fitzroy, Sister Carol, Maritime Hall, SF, Sat. Feb. 14, 1998

Reggae is good music for romance in general, so this one was a good Valentine’s Day show. Originally, Everton Blender was supposed to headline, but he was replaced for some reason by Edi Fitzroy. Whenever a replacement or cancellation happened at the Hall, I rarely ever heard the reason for it. Sister Carol opened up the show and was excellent as always, an absolutely reliable opening act for any show. I had been introduced to both acts the previous year, each opening for Eek-A Mouse at the Maritime on two separate occasions, Sister Carol opening for him the previous May and Edi the previous November. The show went smoothly thanks to Pete being at the helm again, being the master of all things reggae which was fine. The more time he spent with the deadheads and the dreadheads, the more likely he’d leave the rest to me. This would be the last time I’d see either Edi or Sister Carol. Sadly, Edi would pass away in 2017 at the all too young age of 61, but Sister Carol is still alive and well, so I might get another chance to see her again someday.

Sisters Of Mercy, Lucky Me, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., February 6, 1998

SETLIST : First & Last & Always, Ribbons, Come Together, Train – Detonation Boulevard, Amphetamine Logic, War On Drugs, Giving Ground, We’re The Same Susanne, One The Wire – Teachers, Will I Dream?, Dominion – Mother, Summer Russia, Anaconda, Romeo Down, Flood II, Temple Of Love, Comfortably Numb – Some Kind Of Stranger, (encore), Something Fast, This Corrosion

Though I was getting a comprehensive education in both reggae and hip hop at the Maritime, I also was privileged to get to know some of the Goth acts. After all, the first show I’d record with Pete was Christian Death. This time it was The Sisters Of Mercy, a band who I’d heard of, seeing their albums and T-shirts around growing up, but knew none of their music. It wasn’t a total surprise, since they hadn’t released a new album their 1990 album, “Vision Thing”. Their gaunt, moody singer, Andrew Eldritch, had been feuding with his record label, East West, having owed them two more albums, but producing nothing. He even went so far to make a side project album called “SSV” the year before this show which supposedly stood for “Screw Shareholder Value : Not So Much A Band As Another Opportunity To Waste Money On Drugs & Ammunition Courtesy Of Time Warner”. He eventually settled with the record company giving them that album, though they never released it. Bootleg copies of it have been circulating about, though I’ve never heard any of it.

I suppose this is one of the reasons why The Sisters wouldn’t let us record that night. It is always disappointing to me when a bad shuts us down, even ones like this who I didn’t know anything about. I didn’t put up much of a fuss, but when I was eating dinner downstairs in the cafeteria, the band came down to join the rest of us and I was complaining about it, making sure that Andrew could hear me. I made a point to say, “This could be the best show they would ever play and now it’s going to be lost forever”. Boo-hoo. It didn’t faze him. He just continued to eat his dinner emotionless and silent as the grave. The good news was that I was allowed to at least record the opening act, Lucky Me, and I liked them a lot. I picked up one of their records at Amoeba after this show. I was able to get The Sisters set with my cassette recorder and it was loud enough that it came out OK anyway.

One incident from this show, or rather before the show, I would never forget. I was upstairs before the doors opened, setting up the wide shot camera up in the balcony when I saw this happen. My friend and co-worker, Jerry, was on stage during the Sisters’ soundcheck and was on the stage left side. Where he was standing was a six foot piece of truss with lights on it that the band had brought, one of a pair that had been set up on the far sides of the stage in addition to the Maritime’s lights. Jerry had bent over to pick something up off the floor and had gripped the truss with one of his hands for balance. The truss clearly hadn’t been weighted down by sandbags or attached to a metal base or anything to secure it and fell over, narrowly missing Jerry. The sound of the metal crashing down onto the stage floor echoed throughout the Maritime’s cavernous structure and the members of the Sisters, already miffed about the recording thing, took their anger out on poor Jerry. He was given the night off and was clearly mortified by the experience. I felt bad for him, he being a great stagehand and friendly as the day is long. It was only an accident and the lighting truss was fine, nothing broken, but it only added to the negative vibes that had already been festering earlier. 

It came as some consolation that this show was indeed not the best show they would ever play, since it was the first of a two day stint at the Hall and from what I’ve read from fans who attended both shows, that the second day was better and more crowded. One of the fans in the crowd gave Andrew a bottle of wine on the first day and a pair of sunglasses on the second. I didn’t show up for the second day since I’d already recorded Lucky Me, so I couldn’t say, but from what I heard that night, I enjoyed it. We were spoiled actually, since The Sisters did only six shows in America on this tour and San Francisco got two of them. Lots of smoke machine fog was used that night to say the least. One song I knew for sure was their cover of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb”, a song that had been played to death, but they found a way to make it fresh again. I joined in the crowd after they got to part where he sings, “just a little pinprick… There’ll be no more-..” and then everybody shrieked at the top of their lungs. I think I was a little drunk, hearing myself on my tape whooping it up between songs.

In a strange coincidence, I’d get to record The Damned at the end of the month, a show I was thrilled beyond words to do, they being one of my favorite bands and I never had seen before, much less record. The Damned had just picked up Patricia Morrison as their bass player in 1996 and she had played with The Sisters Of Mercy years before after playing with The Gun Club, but had left the band after Eldritch stiffed her on money he owed her. She would go on to marry the singer of The Damned, Dave Vanian, in 1997 and they would even go on to sire a daughter together named Emily. One can only imagine how either Patricia or Andrew felt about being on the Maritime’s poster at the same time that month.

Busta Rhymes, Mystic Journeymen, 7 Gin, Maritime Hall, SF, Tues., February 3, 1998

SETLIST : Rhymes Galore, When Disaster Strikes, Do My Thing, So Hardcore, Flava In Ya Ear, Case Of The PTA, It’s A Party, It’s All Good, Get High Tonight, The Body Rock, Turn It Up, Scenario, Everything Remains Raw, Dangerous, Woo Ha! (Got You All In Check), Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See

It had only been since the previous September that Busta released his latest album, “When Disaster Strikes” and he played the Maritime with EPMD. That show was a bit of surprise, booked at the last minute and sold out instantly. But after a few months, the album kept selling and he was even bigger by this show. Luckily, Pete still didn’t know how big a deal he was and didn’t care at all for hip hop acts, so he left me to take care of this one on my own again. This would be the first time I’d see Oakland own Mystik Journeymen. The rap duo of Luckyiam and Sunspot Jonz had been a bone fide DIY hip hop force in the east bay, putting out their own albums for a few years and had a respectable reputation around. They had just released their new album on their Outhouse record label called “Worldwide Underground” that year and would go on to play the Hall several more times to come as themselves and with the Living Legends. They got the crowd all warmed up and it was easy to like them. The Journeymen have got real talent, always a reliable opening act.

Busta came out with a recorded intro from the new album warning that everybody was going to soon get fucked up and he took the stage screaming at the top of his lungs to the beat, accompanied by his hype man, Spliff Star, and DJ Scratchitor. Everything was going smoothly for most of the show, though there was one incident where a fight broke out in the crowd, but Busta nipped that in the bud immediately. He scolded the guilty parties involved declaring, “When we go to a party, we don’t want no bullshit! I see a little bullshit about to happen over here. I don’t want no bitch ass niggas to fuck up the party!” Someone up in the front was also grabbing Busta a little trying to pull him closer and he slapped their hand away saying, “Don’t pull me off the stage. I’ll bust my motherfuckin’ head!” 

He put that aside and quickly got back to getting his freak on. Busta even challenged some of the ladies in the front, asking them , “Do you wanna fuck? We can fuck, right?” Whether any of the ladies took him up on that offer after the show, I can’t say, but he played “It’s All Good” right after giving all who heard it little doubt of the sincerity of his horniness. After the song, he said, “I’m a freaky ass nigga’. I like to fuck… period.” He continued saying that he also liked to smoke after he fucks and went right into “Get High Tonight”. They finished the show with their hit song, “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See”, a song that would garner Busta a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance the next year. He also made sure to announce that he was working on a new album which would come out the following Halloween. That album would be the “E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event) : The Final World Front” album, though it actually would make it into stores until that December. It would be four years until I got to see Busta again, but I’d see him three more times between 2002 and 2003.

Kool Keith with Ice-T, Common, X-Ecutioners, Rahzel, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., January 30, 1998

SETLIST : MC Ultra, Funky, Ease Back, Two Brothers With Checks (San Francisco Harvey), Poppa Large, freestyle, Sex Style, freestyle, Girl Let Me Touch You, Blue Flowers, Plastic World, Keep It Real, freestyle

I believe it was my friend Tory who had introduced me to the one and only Kool Keith and when I heard that not only I would have the pleasure of seeing him for the first time, but I’d get to record him as well, I was overjoyed. Still, I knew very little about him, just the rumors of his mysterious personality and his sudden departure from the Lollapalooza tour the year before. Though he was riding high on the Dr. Octagon album, “Dr. Octagonecologist”, Keith disappeared just before the tour began and reportedly spent the time in a hotel room, blowing his record advance money on hookers and drugs. That wasn’t the first time he’d bail on a gig, and I would learn a few more times in the future personally, that it wouldn’t be his last. His follow up album, “Sex Style”, had been out almost a year and the bonus track from that album, “Get Off My Elevator” would go on to be used in the Mike Judge’s seminal comedy “Office Space” the following year.

But thankfully, Keith did make it to this show and brought along some talented people with him. Rahzel from The Roots was there, doing his human beat box wizardry. He’d come back to headline his own show at the Hall in 1999 and use what I recorded for interludes on his debut album, “Make The Music 2000”. I was honored, but pissed that I wasn’t listed in the credits. That’s show biz. Also there were the turntable virtuosos, The X-Ecutioners, who wowed the crowd with their skills scratching and various tricks on the ones and twos. But the big deal that night was that Keith brought along a promising young rapper named Common with him. This was the first time I’d see him and the first tour he’d do with his new stage name, abbreviated from his former moniker, Common Sense. He was impressive and charismatic and it was easy to see why he would later be successful as an actor. He was touring with a new album, “One Day It’ll All Make Sense” which had several notable guests on it such as Lauryn Hill, De La Soul, Cee-Lo, Erykah Badu, and Q-Tip. Good endorsements for his talent right there. He would go on to get picked up by the major label MCA a couple years later and is now a bone fide A-lister.

But ultimately, it was Keith’s night and he had a lot of company on stage. First off was his DJ, the young and talented Kutmasta Kurt from Santa Cruz. He was introduced to kick off the set and described to the crowd as the “Lurch lookin’” guy who had “just took the bolts out of his neck”. Keith came out wearing a black hoodie and a red hunting cap with the ear flaps down and would soon be flanked with about 15 other people. The capper for the evening was that none other than Ice-T himself showed up to join Keith on stage. I mean, even I knew about him, though this would be the first time I’d see him too. He announced that he was working on his new album, “The Seventh Deadly Sin”, on stage and thanked the crowd for letting him do his thing “for 14 years”. Seemed like a long time then, but now his career is pushing forty. He was prominent in the new HBO documentary, “Pimps Up, Ho’s Down” that year as well.

They quickly went through a handful of Keith’s hits with his first band, the Ultramagnetic MCs, before going into his solo stuff and periodic freestyle rap sessions with Ice-T and the others. Keith would muse strange stuff like saying people think he’s “livin’ off some computer shit” and that he didn’t go out to “buy cereal”. Ice-T declared that the whole “east west shit was dead”, a rebuke to the rivalry that cost the lives of Tupac and Biggie the year before, though he did freestyle some rather gun crazy freestyle stuff, but hey, he’s Ice-T. The man practically invented it, saying he was doing the gangster shit when “y’all were break dancin’”. When the song “Sex Style” came around, several spunky young ladies were brought on stage to dance and get their freak on. Ice-T, being impressed by one of the more promiscuous ones declared that she was “a star” and offered to her and others to “make you a star”.

Even more people came on stage to dance to “Blue Flowers” including a rather weird , skinny, young white guy who had dressed his T-shirt over his scalp like an Egyptian pharaoh. Keith said it was a song about some “acid shit” and for folks who were into “different things” and who “know their pills”. Maybe the white guy was on some of those, because his dance moves were downright bizarre, even doing a hand stand for a moment. Ice-T seemed a little miffed by him, but went along with it saying, “This music is for him! Now do you understand?” During one of the freestyle sessions, Keith made fun of Money B from the Digital Underground on stage, patting his belly rapping, “Yo, Money B, fat stomach G”, cracking them both up. It was a wild show and I made it a point to see Keith each and every time he’d show up to the bay area, even the shows he’d ultimately bail on. Luckily, he always made it to the shows he’d do at the Maritime and when he came back in 1999, footage from that show would go on to be used in the bonus features of the DVD he’d have released from the gig he did at the Mezzanine in 2006. Pity that none of the footage from this show was used though. It was quite a night.

Indigo Girls, Michelle Howe, War., SF, Tues., January 27, 1998

SETLIST : Power Of Two, Dead Man’s Hill, Least Complicated, Shame On You, The Wood Song, Cut It Out, Wish You Were Here, Get Out The Map, Shed Your Skin, Ghost, Don’t Give That Girl A Gun, It’s Alright, Thin Line, Chicken Man, Galileo, Romeo & Juliet, (encore), Blister In The Sun, Closer To Fine

This would be the first time I’d see the Indigo Girls headlining one of their own shows. I’d seen them twice before at the Bridge School Benefit and I liked their earlier works, even if “Closer To Fine” was starting to get on my nerves. It was just the two of them again on stage with their acoustic guitars and the occasional banjo. I don’t believe I’d ever seen them with a band backing them up actually and can’t even contemplate what that would sound like. I imagine it would be a little weird and even weirder if they went electric. So, I suppose it works out for them to stay a duo and would be cost effective, seeing that they wouldn’t have to pay a band or even shoulder the costs of moving the gear that comes along with one. Still, I did find out that they did have a touring band once in 1992 and their drummer was none other than Budgie, the drummer from Siouxsie & The Banshees, one of the best rock drummers in the industry. I would have like to have heard that.

This was the second of a two night stint at The Warfield and they being the lesbian and feminist icons they had risen to, there was no problem filling the place, especially it being San Francisco, and naturally the lines to the men’s rooms were remarkably sparse. I had a sticker badge from the night, so I must have worked the whole show, but it being a civilized acoustic show, it was easy. Once they started, people stood transfixed in their spots, not even moving, much less dancing. Not to say they weren’t enthusiastic, quite the opposite. Indigo Girls fans are committed, singing and clapping along to songs like “Least Complicated” and “Galileo”. They did a couple covers including Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”, which made me tear up and still does as I will always associate that song with the death of my friend Casey, who had just been killed on his bike less than five months before this show. On a happier note, they also covered “Blister In The Sun” by the Violent Femmes which was surprising actually in its selection and borderline punkishness. I’d see the Indigo Girls one more time that year when they joined Sarah McLachlan on her Lillith Tour at Shoreline, but that would be the last time I’d see them.

Oasis, Cornershop, BG Civic, SF, Mon., January 26, 1998

SETLISTS

(CORNERSHOP) : Sleep On The Left Side, Wog, Brimful Of Asha, We’re In Yr Corner, Butter The Soul, Good Shit, 6 AM Jullandar Shere

(OASIS) : Be Here Now, Stand By Me, Supersonic, Roll With It, D’You Know What I Mean?, Cigarettes & Alcohol, Don’t Go Away, Talk Tonight, Help!, Whatever, Don’t Look Back In Anger – All The Young Dudes, Wonderwall, Live Forever, It’s Gettin’ Better (Man!!!), Champagne Supernova, Acquiesce

The brothers Gallagher were back in town again and they’d brought Cornershop with them, an inspired combination in my opinion. I’d seen Oasis only six months before opening for U2 in Oakland at a very long distance away on the stadium’s third deck and was eager to see them headline their own show for the first time and get just a wee bit closer look at them. They had done a show at The Fillmore back in ’95, but I had to miss it for some reason. It wasn’t another show. I checked the list. The usher list probably filled up before I got a chance. Anyway, the bad boys from Britain were coming near to the end of the very long “Be Here Now” tour starting the previous May and would keep going for another month. By this time Noel and Liam were pretty wasted and really, really, really not getting along. But they got through the show without fighting, though Liam taunted the fans in the balcony for being “fat slobs”.

I’d just seen Cornershop as well just two months before when they did a free show at Slim’s. Their album, “When I Was Born For The 7th Time” had really caught on, especially their single, “Brimful Of Asha”. Norman “Fatboy Slim”  Cook would remix it that year and the new faster dance version would be an even bigger hit, becoming a staple at dance clubs. It was good to see Cornershop as an opening act again. I know it sounds like a dig, but they are one of those acts like The Mermen or Coolbone that seem to be suited for it perfectly. For not better reason, the crowd wouldn’t be so put off of Tjinder Singh’s notorious standoffishness. It’s strange to me that their music can be so uplifting and beautiful, yet live they can be so cold and distant.

Anyway, my brother Alex, was there with me that night, also being a fan of Cornershop and an even bigger fan of Oasis. We both were moved by Cornershop’s finale song “6 AM Jullandar Shere” which went on for nearly 18 minutes, a long time for any act to play a song, especially an opening one. Liam popped his head out from the wings during their set and got a cheer from the crowd and Noel came out and played bass on that last song as an added bonus. I’ll never forget the sight of Alex transfixed during that song and I swear I saw a tear down his cheek under his big blue sunglasses. Speaking of which, later during the show, he commented that Oasis had the same orange lighting as Cornershop. I carefully reached up without a word and took off his glasses and he was like, “Oh, Oasis have blue lighting!” No big deal. I think we were both pretty stoned for the show and it being Oasis, we were in good company on and off the stage. 

Like I said, Oasis was starting to hit a rough patch, well, their whole career up till then had been pretty contentious anyway. But the show went on, the boys talking the stage to the sound of “The Boys Are Back In Town” by Thin Lizzy playing over the speakers. The fans were enjoying themselves that night, as Alex and I were. There were several crowd floaters and we even saw one instance when a couple young ladies climbed and stood on the shoulders of their companions, holding hands with each other. Maybe they were cheerleaders, who knows?  Noel caught sight of them and was pleased, saying “Well done! That’s fucking top!”. They did a song that night called “Talk Tonight” which had been written by Noel about the time he left the band in 1994 after a fight with them at a gig in L.A. and him running away to San Francisco. There, he shakes up with a fan he’d met a few days before at the gig they played at Bottom Of The Hill. She eventually talked him into rejoining the band. Liam would get famously into trouble a couple weeks after this show on their Australian leg of the tour. The band had been getting complaints that they wouldn’t stop smoking cigarettes and Liam he threatened to throw a scone, yes, a scone, the pastry, at the pilot of Cathay Pacific flight. Very English of him. He was banned from the airline after they landed in Perth and Liam declared that he’d rather from then on “walk to Australia” then fly that airline again.

All boorish behavior aside, I still like Oasis and I’m sad to say that this would be the final time I’d see them. Even if you think “Wonderwall” and “Champagne Supernova” are corny and they are, they were catchy songs and their other material was equally as catchy. There’s something special about seeing brothers perform together and Noel expounded on that recently appearing in a popular documentary about another musical group of brothers, The Bee-Gees, called “How Do You Mend A Broken Heart”. Though I’d never see Oasis again, Alex went to see them one more time when they toured in 2001 with The Black Crowes and played at The Greek in L.A., ironically called the “Tour Of Brotherly Love”.  The Robinson brothers of The Crowes had a long reputation for fighting each other as well. Perhaps they should pair off and have a tag team wrestling match someday. Sadly, Alex got in too late partying in the parking lot of that show with his friends, thinking that Oasis would go on after The Crowes and missed their set. Well, maybe Oasis will tour again someday and I’ll get another chance. Maybe I’ll even see it with my brother.

Wailing Souls, Max Creek, Roots Awakening, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., January 23, 1998

SETLIST  (MAX CREEK) : Something Is Forming, Fire & Brimstone, Blood Red Roses, Back Street Woman, Boogie On Reggae Woman, You’re The Only One, Wild Side, King Of California, You Let Me Down Again

The Maritime continued its tradition of pairing up reggae headliners with jam bands, what I like to call the “Deadhead/Dreadhead” shows. It is an understandable pairing considering both fans penchant for marijuana alone. But their nice people, both sides, and they all get along. The Wailing Souls had been around for decades, being contemporaries of all the founders in the 60s and 70s. The singers, Winston “Pipe” Matthews and Llyod “Bread” McDonald had taken voice lessons alongside Joe Higgs and once sang back up for Ernest Ranglin. They were the only two original members playing in the band that night. The Souls had released a new album, “Tension”, the year before and were currently working on an album of covers called, “Psychedelic Souls”. On that, they’d do reggae covers of a lot hippie standards like “Love Her Madly” by The Doors, “Like A Rolling Stone”, by Dylan, “My Generation” by The Who, and so on. I think they played a couple cuts that night, but I’m not too sure. I think “Love Her Madly” was one.

On the hippie side of the equation that night was Max Creek who were quite good as I remember. They had actually been around quite some time, almost as long as The Dead. They were from Connecticut and being east coast hippies, certainly had some influence on Phish, particularly bassist Mike Gordon who would sit in and play with them from time to time. They had taken a break from touring for a while to take time off to raise their families, which is one of the reasons I hadn’t heard of them before this show. Their latest album released that year, “Spring Water” was the first one they had done in eight years. Though I’d see the Souls one more time at The Warfield in 2003, this would be the only time I’d see Max Creek. The Souls would later have one of their shows at the Maritime recorded and released as a DVD/CD in September of 200, the period after Pete and I were gone, which is disappointing, but I’m glad that something got made of it. 

Wyclef Jean, John Forte, Coolbone, Maritime Hall, SF, Wed., January 21, 1998

SETLISTS : 

(COOLBONE) : (unknown), Brass Hop’s Da Real, Gotta Sweat, (unknown), Get Ready, Doin The Butt, Woo Ha! (Got Ya All In Check), Mr. Magic, Funk Medley, Use Me

(WYCLEF JEAN) : No Woman No Cry, 1983 Jam, Anything Can Happen, John Forte freestyle, We Trying To Stay Alive, Medley, Gone Till November, freestyle, Guantanamera, Mona Lisa, Ooh-La-La-La

The second show of the year was also one I was able to record alone, Pete having no interest whatsoever in hip hop music. Thank God for that too since he didn’t realize just how popular this guy was at the time. Wyclef Jean, one of the members of ridiculously successful hip hop group, The Fugees, had landed a another hit with his new solo album “Wyclef Jean Presents The Carnival”, commonly referred to simply as “The Carnival”, which he released the previous June. Fellow members Lauryn Hill and Pras helped contribute to the album and Lauryn would blow everybody out of the water later that year when she released her even more meteorically successful solo album, “The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill” that August. So, though I’d seen The Fugees four times in 1996 alone, I didn’t realize that they’d all move on so quickly, but they did.

Wyclef’s new material, like The Fugees, seemed to rehash older soul and reggae standards, even doing covers of Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry” and the classic Cuban folk song, “Guantanamera”. He tweaked the lyrics of the former that night, singing it solo on his guitar and getting a cheer from the crowd when he sang, “in the government yard in San Francisco”. He even had the original I-Tals back up singers contributing to his new album, as well as The Neville Brothers and Celia Cruz. Derivative he might be, but at least he had good help. 

Speaking of which, opening that night was Coolbone, the New Orleans “brass hop” band. I loved these guys having seen them open for Ben Harper the year before at The Warfield, rapping to Big Easy style second line music, tubas, trumpets, and all. Their sound was inspired and original, making them one of those few bands like The Mermen that seemed that they were born to be the perfect opening act. Wyclef brought along John Forte that night, a brilliant producer and songwriter who helped make The Fugees’ hit album, “The Score”, as well as Wyclef’s new solo album. He was excellent rapper in his own right and would go on to release his first solo album, “Poly Sci” later that year in June, which Wyclef produced. Wyclef’s DJ, DJ Higgins also got the crowd worked up beforehand, exhibiting his skills spinning and especially scratching. He did all sorts of tricks like scratching behind his back, between his legs, and even gradually taking off his T-shirt while scratching the record one hand at a time, never missing a beat. 

I have to hand it to Wyclef for being a showman, though I’m not a huge fan of his meandering performances myself. He undoubtably has charisma and worked up the crowd getting shout outs between songs once, taking turns welcoming Asians, Mexicans, Blacks, Whites, Filipinos, and Japanese people. Wyclef also improvised lyrics during the chorus of “Anything Can Happen” asking questions like “Will The Broncos win the Superbowl?” and “Will Tyson get a rematch”, before answering with the song’s title. Incidentally, the Broncos did win four days later, beating the Packers 31-24. And yes, Tyson would eventually get a rematch with Evander Holyfield later that June. But that would be the infamous one where Tyson was disqualified after biting Evander’s ear off. I’ll never forget watching that match with my mother on the one time I took a cruise with my family in the Caribbean. We were watching it in the ship’s casino with about 200 horrified other passengers. My poor mom had never even watched a boxing match before and wondered aloud if this was normal. I assured her it wasn’t.

Anyway, back to the show. Wyclef took a “moment of silence” bit where he took his electric guitar alone on stage and played a solo for people who have passed, first hitting long drawn out notes, before ending it with a bunch of Eddie Van Halen-like hammer down notes on the frets. I have to admit that his song “Gone Till November” is catchy to the point of being an ear worm. For some reason, after that show, I always had my own strange line implanted in that song being “Tell Jerry Springer I’ll be gone till November”. Your guess is as good as mine how Jerry snuck into my head for that one. I guess I just liked the way the words sounded. Though this would be the only time I’d see Wyclef headline one of his own shows, he’d come back to play the Hall on a bill in September called the Lyricist Lounge with De La Soul, and bunch of new acts including the Black Eyed Peas (before Fergie joined the band) and a fresh faced new kid calling himself Eminem.

Sevendust, Snot, Hed (PE), Born Naked, Maritime Hall, SF, Fri., January 16, 1998

Happy New Year! It felt good to put the marathon year of ’97 behind me and though ’98 had slightly fewer shows to write about, I still have around 160 to hash out. I say around because I’m still discovering new ones from time to time that I didn’t record, plain forgot about, or was unsure which show I was at on a particular night in question. It was a busy time. This would be the last complete year I would serve out at the Maritime as my and my partner Pete’s relationship with the Hall’s tyrannical owner, Boots, would gradually become intolerable. But Pete and I wouldn’t have parted ways with the Hall full time until the end of ’99 and I would go in and substitute for our replacement, Wade until the Hall’s final sinking in early 2001. So, until then, I’ve got plenty to write about, so let’s get started.

It was the height of the so-called “nu-metal” movement back then typified by bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Staind, and the like. There was no shortage of talent and Sevendust was one of them and was brand new back then. They were from Atlanta and had just released their first self titled album the previous April. Sevendust derived their name from an insecticide powder called “Sevin” that was found in the garage of their bassist, Vince Hornsby’s grandmother. They originally were called Crawl Space but had to change it when they discovered a band in L.A. with the same name. Happens all the time to bands when they’re getting started especially as time goes on and more and more band names get snatched up. I saw them a few times over the next few years, including when they came back to play the Hall again in October. And though there are some other examples of black man singing for heavier guitar driven acts like Bad Brains, Fishbone, Oxbow, and Living Colour, it’s always good to see some diversity on stage. Their singer Lajon Witherspoon has an impressive set of pipes. As usual, Boots had a typo on the new monthly poster calling Sevendust, “Sevendusk” and the Space Children show never actually happened, whoever they are.

It was good fortune that the first band I’d see in this new year, opening that night was Born Naked, a band I was intimately familiar with having been roommates with their manager Patrick Dillman for a couple years in the Mission. I had moved out of that place for almost a year by this time, but it was always a pleasure to see them, hear them play, and catch up with Pat and the band again. This would be the first time I’d see Hed (PE) and they’d play the Hall quite a few more times in the future as well. Their name is an abbreviation of “Higher Education” and at first “Planetary Evolution”, but then later revised to “Planet Earth”. This would be one of only two times I’d have the honor to see Snot, a band with remarkable talent that ended all too soon and tragically at that.

Snot, like Sevendust, was also new having released their first and only album with singer Lynn Strait, “Get Some”. Lynn would be killed in a car crash that December along with his poor dog, Dobbs. That pooch was so beloved by the band that she graced the cover of that album and as luck would have it, give birth to a litter of puppies the day the album was released. Though I doubt any of those puppies are still living today, I can only guess if any of Dobb’s grandkids are barking. I hope so. Sevendust would go on to write a song called “Angel’s Son” for a tribute compilation album to Lynn called “Straight Up”, accompanied by a couple members of Snot. 

Putting the future tragedy aside, it was good to be back at the Hall again after having a couple weeks off after the New Years show with Toots & The Maytals. Pete was confident enough in my skills by this time to leave me at the helm of the recording room alone regularly and I had the honor of getting to tape the first two shows of the year myself. Lord knows, I had time on my hands having been unceremoniously let go from my AV job at the Marriott only a little over a month before this show, but I’d soon bounce back, beginning to work for the stagehands union. I’d take my first call with them that February and I’ve been with them ever since, though working with them and reconciling my schedule with the Hall and ushering proved to be dicey, at least until the Maritime folded, but that’s another story which I will get to when we get there. This night was a rowdy one and loud as hell and it was good practice to get back mixing full rock bands again after having not been at the the helm of the recording room without Pete since the previous November with the Brian Jonestown Massacre. The Electronica Hanakkuh a week after that didn’t really count as mixing since I had only two tracks and the audience mics to wrangle that evening.