So, last Friday my friend dode and I had decided to see a href="http://www.swinginutters.com/" title="$wingin' Utter$">Swingin’ Utters
show at Slim’s.
The show was part of the Rock Against Bush tour. We got there in time to see
The Reducers
SF play and then the Swingin’ Utters.

When the Utters came out I saw they had a different person on rhythm guitar.
Now normally this wouldn’t be to strange since they’ve had a few of them
since Max Huber left (or at least it seems that way). This time however the
guitarist looked familiar, and then I pinned down who it was before they
mentioned his name. It was Jack from href="http://www.byorecords.com/bandpage.php?band=onemanarmy" title="OMA @ BYO">
One Man Army (official site which
seems down). I know, double-eww tee eff, right? My only wish is that my
friend the
rotomonkey was already living out here because I know he would have enjoyed
it. By far it was the best Swingin’ Utters show I’ve ever seen, hands down.
Oh well, there will be more once he’s finally out here.

Last night I went with my friend Keith to his Landlord’s club, href="http://www.elisblues.com/">Eli’s Mile High Club for a mostly
unadvertised show by the band Cake.
I believe they told their loyal fan base because there was a line of about
400 people by the time we got in. Not everyone got in, but we got lucky
knowing one of the owners so he got us in early.

The band came on later than I would have expected and played some already
released songs and some new music that they are writing while working on
a new album. Of the new stuff I’d say it was on par with their albums, I
liked about half of it (same as the albums).

It was a good night, except for the getting home late and being tired today.

Last night I ventured to Slim’s once again. On the bill for last night were
(in performance order) The Vacancy, title="part of the remains of Kid Dynamite">None More Black, href="http://www.againstme.net/" title="wacky rockers from Gainesville">Against
Me!, Rise Against, and title="more Pitt, PA rockers with a message">Anti-Flag. I knew this was
going to be a good show when I first stepped into Slim’s. All the bar stools
had been removed and the house music was the Beatles all night.

Having been to a few shows in the last few months I was starting to hate (a)
large numbers of opening bands and (b) the quality of said opening bands.
Mostly I was just wanting them to not play. Last night, however, that was not
the case. I will now give mad apologies to my friend CB for taunting him
about my attendance to this show that he could not be at. While I was there I
wanted for CB and my other friend Matt to be there so bad it hurt. This was
the best show I’ve seen in a long time and to not be able to share it with them
was a real downer (ignoring the fact that I was at the show by myself). So now
I will recap the bands in greater detail.

The Vacancy was surprisingly good. They rocked really hard and I wish they had
a CD for sale with them. The only criticism I have is that the singers could
have been a bit more direct into the mics to come across a bit better, but it
was still good. None More Black was up next. I was already familiar with
their material and I think live they were nothing short of excellent. Tight
and very much in sync with one another. The only drawback was that the entire
time I kept thinking that I should be seeing Kid Dynamite up on stage. How
I wish they had never broken up. Such is life I guess.

Against Me! then took the stage. I had only heard one or so song from them
before. I was blown away. These guys know how to rock and do it well. They
have a good silly style and good lyrics. They were so good I bought the CD
right there. After Against Me! played the band I really came to see was up,
Rise Against. I just have one word to describe them: whoa! They were
everything I hoped to see and more. The amount of energy coming out of the
band was just incredible. Every song they played was a great one (which isn’t
that hard when all their songs are great), and even the new song they played
rocked. They had so much energy going and imparted it to the crowd that
during a couple of songs the pit looked like a giant pack of rabbit weasels
on some sort of accelerant. It was nutty to see.

After that Anti-Flag was up, but during the set change they played a
documentary about the San Francisco war protests and some Iraqi war stuff. I
couldn’t see it too well and the audio was a bit drowned out by the people so
I could only make out some of it. Anti-Flag was another energetic group, but
not quite to the level of Rise Against. It was also kind of funny that the
drummer looked like he was in pain the whole time.

Well, I don’t have any more shows planned for a while, and that’s fine by me
after this last stint ( href="http://danimal.org/SenorTaco/2003/11/03#hepcat-slims"
title="the past">Hepcat and href="http://danimal.org/SenorTaco/2003/11/07#rancid-warfield"
title="more past stuff">Rancid included).

Last night was a rainy crappy night. I went to the Warfield theater in San
Francisco to see Rancid. Unfortunately my friends with the tickets were
running late so I missed the opening acts of the Necromantix and Tiger Army.
Such is life. We got in and saw an amazing set from Rancid. They were so
on. I love how well those guys play together. Tim is goofy, Matt is super
solid (probably one of the best bass players around), Brett is solid on the
drums, and Lars anchors the band so well. I’m just glad I got to see them
again. They played a lot of stuff off of all albums (except maybe
Rancid(2000)) and even one song off their first album! All in all it was a
good time. The Warfield was good for seating because you could see the stage
from every seat.

src="http://danimal.org/SenorTaco/images/hepcathead.gif" alt="hepcat!" />
Well, as much as I love title="Hepcat">Hepcat I had never seen them play. So, last night Dode,
Ann Dial, and I went to Slim’s in San Francisco and saw them on their very
small reunion tour (I think it’s only a few dates). They were really good, but
seemed like they hadn’t played together in a while, still good though.

The crowd was definitely much older than the normal shows I see at Slim’s,
which was neither good nor bad, but just was. They played a good selection of
tunes from all their albums and even a new song. It was good to see Alex up
on stage, he had taken a brake from the band for a while in pursuing his acting
career (he was the blind vendor on the CBS show Becker, I’m not sure if
that’s even still on). At any rate, having both singers makes for a great
show.

Last night at Slim’s was
yet another in the current series of Excellent Punk Rock
Shows. This time around there were 4 bands (in playing order): Vision,
Strike Anywhere, Tsunami Bomb, and The Bouncing Souls.

Vision kicked off the show. This was my first time to see them and while they
rocked I felt their set was too short for me to really get into them much.
Next Strike Anywhere took the stage. They were loud, full of energy, and on
target through the entire set. They mostly played songs off of Change Is A
Sound with one from earlier demos and a couple off of the new album,
Exit English. I really kind of wish they had gone on after
Tsunami Bomb. While TB was good and ever so poppy and hooky in that TB way,
I just wasn’t into them. I could have used a shorter set from them and a
longer one from Strike Anywhere.

The Bouncing Souls were amazing. I had never seen them either and let me tell
you, they put on an energetic show for sure. They played a good mix of songs
from their albums with a good focus on the current stuff. I will see them
again for sure. Too bad I was so tired by the end of it all.

Dode always comes up with great comments about the shows we see. Last night was
One Man Army at Slim’s. I went with the afore mentioned Dode and the lovely
Ann Dial. Fun was had by all even though Dode has a broken collar bone,
scapula, and ribs. I’m glad he made the effort to see the show and get out of
his house.

One Man Army were so tight and on target (as usual). Their
set was really fast, and by that I mean they played a normal set really, really
fast. It was amazing. At the end of the set they played a little Clash
mixed into one of there songs (and there was another cover bit and darn it if
I can’t remember it). At the end of the set OMA actually smashed all their
instruments. It was wonderful.

The Reducers S.F. also played. I like them and they were pretty tight, but
the singer seemed a little horse. Oh well. It was a good time.

I really wish my friends CB and Matt (no relation) could have been there, they
would have loved it.

So, Chris, Athena, Dode, Ann, Rob, Rob, and Penny went to see the Swingin’ Utters play at Slim’s in San Francisco last night. We missed the first opening band (Youth Gone Wild I think) but we did see The Forgotten (some good stuff, I’m not a huge fan of theirs, but the stuff I have on comps is all good) and the the Utters. Slim’s is a really good place to go see shows. They have a nice geriatric section where you can see all of the stage. The Utters, while a good show, just didn’t seem to have as much energy as at previous shows. They also did some instrument changes and damn if it didn’t take a while to swap them out (acoustic guitar, accordion). I mean, they could learn something from the Dropkick Murphys in that respect. Anyway, overall I’m glad I got to see them, but I wasn’t impressed with the show that much.

The best part of the evening was when I was in the restroom. After finishing my business I turned around and there was Fat Mike. Crazy, and yet another reason I like living in San Francisco, I get to see my idols at a regular old punk rock show.

At least that’s how Dode described it, and I’m going to agree with him. What we were talking about was the Dropkick Murphys show at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz last night. The pit was non-stop, I saw more mohawks in one night than I ever saw in New York, and the Murphys were absolutely incredible. They played for an hour straight with no breaks. I love seeing DKM, their shows are always so good. When we pulled up Al (the singer) was out front with his crew making sure some troublemakers weren’t causing problems. He was pissed and didn’t want them in to be allowed into the show (I think it was skinhead of some ill-gotten pursuasion…and yes, I know there are good skinheads).

I just wish my friends Matt and CB could have been there. They would have enjoyed it. Oh well fellas, next time.

Update (Tue Jun 17 17:40:09 PDT 2003): I nearly forgot to mention. There was more stagediving at that show than I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately the people doing that were knocking mic cords out all over the place so the sound was a little off and on until the crew got it locked down. Some people did okay, one woman just looked like a dork trying to dance, she was so totally white and probably drunk. There was one injury that I saw, a guy that was easily 200+ lbs. dove off and squished a kid in the crowd. They took the kid out and his face was all bloody. I feel sorry for him, that big guy should have known better than to do that.