Author: Perry F. Shirley

Noise Pop Show Review: Film School with Apex Manor and Gregory & the Hawk at Cafe Du Nord, 2/24/11

Greg Bertens of Film School. (Photos by Abby Wilcox)

It’s certainly nice when one is soaking wet from the heavy downpour outdoors to go underground in a warm and friendly place such as Cafe du Nord and find a cute-as-a-button folk singer crooning softly, trading an acoustic guitar with a harp (!) for good effect. It helps warm cold limbs anyhow.

This was my entrance to Thursday night’s Noise Pop offering with headliner Film School, a band that acknowledged having its own breakthrough at the 2004 instance of the indie-rock festival, opening for Cat Power then. They ended the evening with its members hugging onstage and telling us, “we wanted to come down and play a really good show because we wouldn’t be us without San Francisco.” Continue reading “Noise Pop Show Review: Film School with Apex Manor and Gregory & the Hawk at Cafe Du Nord, 2/24/11”

Noise Pop Show Review: Dan Deacon with Altars, Oona and Ed Schrader’s Music Beat at The Independent, 2/22/2011

They're outside, but they're at the show. Confused? Read on.

At least for a couple hours, it’s Dan Deacon’s show and we just live in it. You know it right from the beginning; from before the show even, considering his reputation. The acts before him were pretty straightforward players (save for Ed Schrader’s Music Beat but more on that soon) but Deacon breaks it from the get-go: starts a piece that gets the crowd all riled up, plays just a few seconds and then abruptly stops “Okay that works,” he says. What a tease. Continue reading “Noise Pop Show Review: Dan Deacon with Altars, Oona and Ed Schrader’s Music Beat at The Independent, 2/22/2011”

Show Review: Dandy Warhols at the Regency Ballroom 12/11/10

When thinking about the place of the Dandy Warhols at this point in their career, in their genre, it’s hard not to think about the Brian Jonestown Massacre (an unoriginal thought considering the bands were contrasted in the rockumentary “Dig!”). BJM was another talented psych-rock 90’s band with a tendency to go far out and meander into extended riffs. Actually, the Dandys brought this history up all on their own when they called out in the audience to see if “Joel from Brian Jonestown” was around. Continue reading “Show Review: Dandy Warhols at the Regency Ballroom 12/11/10”