We begin our Bay Area Noise Pop adventure at Benders, where Spyrals kicked off the festivities with a pub shaking racket. With looks like sweet alt darlings and a mean sound that attacks with deep spiraling waves; the SF trio set one helluva tone for sounds to come. East Bay's Buttons brought the electric bass thump and jump chords to jump start the evening, paying homage to the post-punk sound of those who dared to break the sound of anarchy into the pop streams. Comprised of members from Battleship, the Doodles, Gris Gris, and Spencey Dude, Little Queenie is far more than just a Jagger/Richards jammer, as frontman Mark “Icki” Murrmann entertained his inner monarch and queened out by throwing a hissy fit on stage. After imbibing and spilling some 3 cans of lager spilt into an on stage whiskey river, the mic stand became a prop as Murrmann spilt the aggression everywhere and into the crowd.
Later that night Michael Stasis opened things up at Brick and Mortar with full band, taking his lucid psych dream concoctions into the places that know no time, era and come from the East Bay's most fostered creative corners. And if you thought you heard everything from the Mumlers Will Sprott, than you had yet to hear Tuesday night's spirited performance that presented new, inspired collaborations and maybe some of Sprott's most realized performances to date.
Before Kim Gordon and Bill Nace took the stage as Body/Head, Horsebladder brought the found sample loops and riding crop banged percussion that turned the Rickshaw into a mausoleum fit for either Aleister Crowley or a jacked up Bela Legosi. Then there was the moment you waited for, where Gordon brought those oh so familiar and coasting squall of sound that a nation spent the 80s daydreaming about or fell in love to during the Dirty era.
