Show Review: Subhumans, Neighborhood Brats, SMUT, Fissure at Echoplex 10/22/2019

“This is not an advert!”

Subhumans-1

Sometimes, you need to get the hell out of the house and go to a punk show. Especially in times as trying as these, perhaps because of times as trying as these, it just feels good to go somewhere where you can yell and get all that pent up anger at a seemingly unstoppable corrupt world with a bunch of like minded people. So, I hopped on the scooter and puttered off to Echo Park to the surprisingly dark-lit Echoplex for a night of punk rock fury.

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Show Review: Steve Ignorant and Paranoid Visions, Modern Enemy at The Fonda 5/26/18

Revolution Songs The Whole World Needs

Steve Ignorant and Paranoid Visions-6

Hardcore, Anarcho, Crust, Street, Pop: Five ways to describe various aspects of punk rock music — and that’s just five — of which I’ve happily run around in circle pits, been pressed against sweaty beer spilling individuals, and genuinely rocked my head off to in my life thus far.

For myself and a great number of friends who grew up in the ‘90s, punk provided a sense of community in a rural hippie town that was otherwise obsessed with reggae and country music — figure that out — where you could go 6 miles north where horses have the right of way or 10 miles south where meth seems to be lurking around every corner. It gave us an outlet for our anger and disillusionment in our supposedly sleepy little town in the Lost Coast. It should come as no surprise that by high school I was listening to heavy doses of Subhumans, Leftover Crack, Bad Religion, and Crass.

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Theater Review: The Go-Go’s Musical Head Over Heels at SF Curran Theater

Go-Go’s musical Head Over Heels misses the beat

Edited by Jessica Vaden

Peppermint (center) will become the first woman who is trans to originate a role on Broadway, starring as Pythio (The Oracle of Delphi), pictured here with members of the ensemble performing the Go-Go’s “Vision of Nowness.” All photos courtesy of Joan Marcus, 2018.

San Francisco got a peek at the new musical Head Over Heels before it heads to Broadway; it features hits from the iconic ’80s new wave band the Go-Go’s, known for their fun, cheeky songs. But underneath the funky stockings and pop sensibilities is a groundbreaking band led by five women, who ventured into what turned into the boys’ club of the late ’70s Los Angeles punk scene, playing legendary venues such as Whiskey a Go Go and The Masque. They wrote fierce lyrics, jammed with the rockers, made their way onto MTV, and paved the way for an entire generation of women who play. Continue reading “Theater Review: The Go-Go’s Musical Head Over Heels at SF Curran Theater”

Album Review: No Age – Everything In Between

In 2008, No Age became media darlings with their sophomore release, Nouns: a fuzzed out mixture of noise, pop and punk. Two years later they’ve follow it up with Everything In-Between. The adolescent angst under riding Nouns has now been filtered into a much more mature and complex sound in Everything.

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