Keep Live Alive – Spinning Platters

Thee Stork Club Hath Returned

One night, maybe about a decade ago, I found myself bar hopping with a group of friends and, somehow, my high school girlfriend. It was already a weird night, and we landed on The Stork Club. I had heard about this place for years, but, somehow never entered it’s hallowed halls. There was a real drunken haze to the night already, but I am pretty sure there was a burlesque show happening when we arrived at like 11pm. Then at midnight it turned into an 80’s goth dance party. Then at 1am, I’m pretty sure a jam band started setting up. It was a very weird night. But it brought me much joy, too… So I was gutted when they ended up shutting in 2020.

Fast forward to 2022, and the folks behind Mosswood Meltdown, Eli’s Mile High Club, and Hemlock Tavern have gotten together to reopen the place. Only with an extra “e”, so it’s now Thee Stork Club! And there will be a retro cocktail bar, a live performance space, and what is especially vital in this day and age- THEY ARE OPENING UP IT’S BACK YARD!!! So you might actually be able to enjoy a drink with a limited threat of COVID!

Opening night is July 1st, and it will be a special show with John Waters, Shannon Shaw, and Budget Rock’s DJ Chris Owen. Sadly tickets are sold out, but there will be plenty more fun where that came from!

BFF.fm presents the inaugural San Francisco Music Scavenger Hunt

I’m just going to say it… I’m gutted that the Delta Variant has taken a toll on our ability to gather again. Yes, shows are happening. Yes, the vaccines we have are highly effective against even Delta. But, also, I’m not willing to put any loved one at risk that can’t get vaccinated yet. And, quite frankly, I don’t even want to put strangers at risk of getting sick. And I sure as hell don’t want the next mutation to be on my conscience.

But I also miss seeing my fellow music fans. So, in lieu of packing into and sharing germs with strangers at Bottle Rock on Labor Day Weekend, our good friends at BFF.fm have designed something super fun that will keep you moving so you aren’t taking in stale, COVID-infested air and hang with your music-loving friends and possibly make some new friends. They are doing a city-wide San Francisco Music Scavenger Hunt!!! This will consist of 100 different music-related trivia and challenges that will send you all over town over the course of the Labor Day weekend. And you can do it at your own pace- so you can sprint through it all in a day or take it leisurely over the three days—specifically, September 4th – 6th. Teams are limited to six people, and you can register here! All proceeds go to keeping the excellent BFF.fm up and running. Unfamiliar with BFF.fm? Try starting with t his episode of Slightly Sobbing that your’s truly appears on.

Single Of The Week: “I Miss The Band” by Alanis Morissette

This song came out last Friday, but it deserves a little more attention. This track literally made me cry. Like, not even gentle tears. A full-on sob. I have yet to hear a song that really hits the profound darkness and loss the world has suffered from COVID and how heavy and long this fight has been going. “I Miss The Band” is just a masterpiece of a song.

The proceeds from this single go to Backline Care, an organization that connects people who work in the music industry with mental health and wellness care. It’s not just musicians, but it’s road crew, box office staff, security, everyone that works in music. And we need it badly now.

“I Miss The Band” is available in all of the usual places. Lord willing, Alanis is scheduled to hit the road late Summer with Garbage and Liz Phair. Tour dates are here, and I really hope we get this thing crushed in time for these shows to happen. So, please, for the love of God, MASK UP, VAXX UP, AND STAY ISOLATING! We are almost there!!!!

WHOA! BULLY AND JULIEN BAKER HAVE NEW TOUR DATES (not together, sadly)!!!!

Sorry about all caps, but things are starting to look like this whole pandemic thing might really have an end date. For the first time since March of 2020, today saw full-fledged, all-new, legit tour dates getting released for later this year. Not “rescheduled from 2020 to keep these dates on a calendar and hope they actually can happen” tour dates. Not “virtual tour” tour dates. Not “limited capacity / social distancing in the venue” tour dates. Full cap, legit tours. From artists that seem to have been taking the pandemic seriously from the get-go! Continue reading “WHOA! BULLY AND JULIEN BAKER HAVE NEW TOUR DATES (not together, sadly)!!!!”

Keep Live Alive: Save Our Stages Fest is THIS WEEKEND!!!

For this of you somehow missing out on the biggest news story of the century, a horrific pandemic has upended any business where people congregate together. The industry ravaged most by COVID-19 might be the independent live entertainment industry. I mean, sharing airspace and transmitting aerosols IS the business model, so this industry is essentially on hold until the bitter end of this thing, which is still unknown. In order to help prevent this entire world from going under, over 3.000 independent venues, promoters, and festivals in all 50 states have gotten together to form NIVA- National Independent Venue Association. Continue reading “Keep Live Alive: Save Our Stages Fest is THIS WEEKEND!!!”

Keep Live Alive: SF Sketchfest & Noise Pop Open Their Archives

Before the COVID Virus decided to destroy life as we know it in the Bay Area, we were lucky enough to get to enjoy two of the best festivals the Bay has to offer: SF Sketchfest and Noise Pop. Both fests had banner years, and as a thank you to the venues that helped make them happen year after year, both SF Sketchfest and Noise Pop are opening up their rich archives of great shows. This gives you the opportunity to either relive these shows, or if you couldn’t make it, actually get to enjoy shows you missed, and all to raise money for these venues so they can reopen once the pandemic is contained, as well as other local charities!

Continue reading “Keep Live Alive: SF Sketchfest & Noise Pop Open Their Archives”

Keep Live Alive: How Alice Bag’s Workout Videos Are Filling The Show Void

Alice Bag is a living legend. Like, not only did she front the pioneering LA punk band The Bags, a band that made a very memorable appearance in the classic film Decline Of Western Civilization, but is also an activist and wrote an amazing diary of her time volunteering in wore-torn Nicaragua in 1986, published under the name Pipe Bomb For The Soul.

She’s also doing a really lovely thing while we are stuck in “Shelter In Place” mode. While every other artist is doing these incredibly melancholy livestreams from their homes, things that I am calling “sad streams,” Bag is working hard to get out energy levels up. She’s been producing these amazing aerobic videos sent to the music of young punk bands. She is giving you proper instructions for all of the workouts, guiding you along the way so you don’t get lost or hurt. She’s also pumping up the choruses, miming moshing, and all around giving the energy of going to a great punk show in your living room. Not only am I hearing some amazing new bands (holy shit that Special Interest song is amazing), but it’s also keeping me sane until I can be in a real mosh pit again. You can watch the videos here, or just dance around in your living room to the Spotify playlist!

Alice Bag’s latest record, Sister Dynamite, is available in all of the usual places right now! Remember that your local record store may not be open for browsing right now, but is doing mail order and needs your help, so give them a (virtual) visit today! Bag is also playing Burger Boogaloo on Halloween Weekend, and you know you’ll be ready for a show by then, so blow your lid off at the best party Oakland has all year.

A Letter From The Editor: Let’s Make Sure Live Music Stays Alive

So, as you may have noticed that this site has been quiet for a few weeks. That’s not so much because a lack of content, but, to be totally frank with you, this whole COVID-19 thing has left me feeling, well, really depressed. In a way where I just didn’t want to touch the site at all, because I didn’t want there to be a long stretch of “this is how we are going to handle things in the COVID-19 era” content with livestreams and think pieces and weird, meandering posts about whether or not the live event industry can overcome this without any real knowledge of when this will end. It all became more real when I lost my day job as Venue Success Specialist at Eventbrite, because, well, nobody can put on events pretty much anywhere in the world right now. Continue reading “A Letter From The Editor: Let’s Make Sure Live Music Stays Alive”