October 22nd, 2006. That was the final day for a San Francisco club known as The Pound, a smallish, low building stranded out in the middle of the dreary reaches of Pier 96 near Heron’s Head Park. For true metalheads of the Bay Area, it was a dark day in history, for no venue besides the Pound was better known for providing a consistent schedule of hardcore punk, furious grindcore, and every genre of metal under the sun (which, considering metal, is quite a lot). While larger clubs like Slim’s and the Regency Ballroom have stepped up to the plate to try and appease the hundreds of roaring voices that bellow out for the return of a good metal venue, they have been hard pressed to draw the same underground caliber that the Pound was able to pull in night after night. If the Mezzanine continues to host shows like Sunday night’s Metalliance Tour, however, then we may once again have a contender that fares well in the ring.
