Gabe's back giving the heads up on some music shows to check out and what horror films not to watch for 24 hours straight.

Hi again everybody. This is Gabe. I started doing a music-based blog last week and I'm back with some more of the same although I felt this last week was a little less hectic.

The sense of accomplishment was mediocre at best. I am by no means a nightlife enthusiast with a finger on the pulse but even for my unmotivated self I felt in a stupor. For instance, my last recreational activity of note was making two veggie pizzas with my house-mates and viewing all six Nightmare on Elm Street movies (minus Freddy vs. Jason) in less than 24 hours. After the first installment it became quite an endurance test wading through some of the most cliche and outrageously dated horror schlock that I've seen quite some time (at one point in part 5 Freddy Krueger references the Nintendo power glove). The reason why this is so shocking is because my entire house regularly entertains itself with the most horrendous explosive piles of shit that pass for film; so much so, that I'm pretty sure a thick mental layer has formed around our collective brains to withstand such crap that when something is so utterly terrible it burns right through this mental armor and slaps us awake in silent astonishment. With that knowledge I feel I am a fairly experienced veteran in sitting through a bad movie.

On some occasions, however, a truly fantastic film will end up in the usual batch of explosions, monsters and gratuitous nudity. For example, we recently watched a horror/thriller from 1971 called "Let's Scare Jessica To Death". I cannot do this film justice without ruining the allure; I will say though, that it may or may not involve a beautifully photographed New England backdrop, a town of geriatrics under a vampiric spell, a very stark but highly effective electronic score, grave rubbings, a toxic apple orchard need I say more? Watch it!

Powering up for a Nightmare on Elm Street marathon.

Two scenes from "Let's Scare Jessica To Death".

So what's new with 608C you may ask (or maybe you won't), well our new landlord decided we needed a front porch light installed at the top of our stoop that's what. Don't get me wrong, neither I nor are any of the other house-mates opposed to light but this contraption is a completely different entity. It is not a soft comforting glow that allows you to see your keys at the front door but rather a throbbing octopus of glare spreading it's long-reaching tentacles of blinding whiteness into the night and then wrapping them around your eyeballs to create a most unpleasant "welcome home". A literal eyesore.

Additionally, the light illuminates the tree outside my window creating an ominous radioactive quality that leads me to believe that at any moment said tree will crash through my curtain, grab me with one of it's claw-like branches and feast on my mangled remains (a la Poltergeist).

This light is our landlord and the neighborhood's response to the kids who occasionally sit on our steps, smoke weed, hang out with their girlfriends and sometime sell drugs. If they don't like it why don't they get retina damaging devices put on their front steps? These kids however, are actually nice and usually quite polite. They did get the message though and I haven't seen them since the light was installed, but now that the stoop appears safer we have random hipster dudes and adventurous tourists sitting out front eating french fries, giving you the stink eye and not moving out of the way when you just want to go to the store to buy some ice cream. I will take drug-dealing, weed smoking ne'er do wells over those guys any day of the week.

The new friend that welcomes us home.

My Toxic Tree.

That being said, NRSZ played at the Eagle Tavern for our fourth show of May with Black Rainbow, Airfix Kits, and Future Adults (sorry I didn't get any good photos of you guys). Before this past month we had a good track record of playing few and far between so it's been quite refreshing doing a little bay area tour of sorts. Not to mention that the original intent on having so many shows was a cleansing ritual after spending five days in a Canadian Immigration Detention Center which is how we ended our late March tour. Black Rainbow were solid as always. I do love Ivy's commanding and raspy croon.

I also had a chance to check out Bronze late Saturday night on Harrison street. Unfortunately I got there a bit late and missed the previous two bands. Oops. Bronze sounded pretty good although a little more blown out than usual, but that always works in a band's favor anyway. They are the only band that I go see where people are actively dancing. After the show I got into a brief conversation with my house-mate Brittany about whether a dancing crowd was a plus or minus. What do you think? Specifically in Bronze's case though, you can't help but at least tap a foot. They lay down some pretty heavy hypnotizing jams.

Airfix Kits @ Eagle Tavern (5.29.08)

Black Rainbow @ Eagle Tavern (5.29.08)

Bronze @ Harrison Street Warehouse (5.31.08)

Music Shows You Should See:

6/3 - one my good friends, Beaner who has been residing in Berlin for the past few years will be constructing the dance party with C.L.A.W.S.
6/6 - (also drummer of Bronze) at 222 Hyde Street
6/6 - @ Cell Space for Gentleman's Techno 7.
6/7 - Late Young will be playing @ Edinburgh Castle with Clipd Beaks and Mi Ami
6/9 - Bronze plays again @ The Knockout for Club Donuts
6/14 - T.I.T.S. brings it to Million Fishes
6/15 - NRSZ plays at RVCA with local gothic folk duo and buddies Pale Hoarse
6/19 - other buddies Thee OhSees play their first show home after a three week European tour with Dodos at the Independent

If you know of anything else which I'm positive you do please post it or email me (hot.to.death@gmail) and I will post it next week. I am simply grabbing from a limited pool of SF that basically revolves around my friends and their bands so there must be a lot I'm missing out on. Until next week...

{moscomment}

< Prev		Next >