The Independent, San Francisco
October 9, 2012
Prior to the show I had an epiphany: Text messaging was invented so a friend could send me a blow by blow account as he witnessed a certain millionaire Rock Star and his manager being complete dicks to a hapless limo driver in New York City. Technology in the 21st Century is awesome. No, I'm not going to name names...
Sourvein were onstage as I entered The Independent and I immediately felt beard inadequacy because it seemed like every guy onstage and in the club had a beard. Sourvein have been around a long time and it was funny that every band friend who I saw during their set said how they had played with them at one time or another over the years.
Evidently Weedeater ran into some internal band drama and their drummer was not with them as they parked their van in San Francisco. As a result the two Daves (Collins and Shepherd) had to fire their salvos of Southern sludge volume with 3 different guys from the tour playing a couple of songs each on drums. It worked for the most part and added to the usual dementia of the Weedeater performance. It was a good set under the circumstances and their awesome cover of Skynyrd's 'Gimme Back My Bullets' closed the set.
I've seen Saint Vitus a half dozen times since their resurrection in 2010 and tonight was the lowest energy I've ever felt while being in the same room as them. There was literally no crowd action until the set closing kick 'White Stallions' and 'Thirsty & Miserable'... but this only happened after a guy up in the sound booth yelled at the crowd through the PA to wake up. Weird. This wasn't my favorite Vitus show by a long shot, but watching them perform 'I Bleed Black' and 'Dying Inside' made me forget the text messages from earlier in the night about that dickhead millionaire Rock Star. At least Saint Vitus are still the real deal.
The night was pretty routine by show standards. It was nice to get out of the house and the evening was made brighter by having local Rock Stars from Acid King, Black Cobra, Saviours, and a former member of Ludicra standing next to me. Oh, and Matt (High On Fire / Sleep) Pike was in the house too and he looked healthy and in a good mood... which was the best part of the entire night. HAIL.
Number of Motörhead shirts = 3. If you bought one of every Saint Vitus merch item you would have paid over $400. It was a pretty routine night... That's all I got.
