Ministry & RevCo @ The Fillmore, SF (5/26/06)

Friday night at the Fillmore in San Francisco featured two bands that were created, founded and feature one of industrial music's pioneers, Al Jourgenson -- The Revolting Cocks (RevCo) & Ministry.

RevCo took the stage at around 10pm and were a riot. I took a couple of crappy camera phone pix, but check out these pix from their show in San Diego a few nights earlier. Al played a back-up role on guitar, surrounded by 6 other bandmates. There were 3 main vocalists who took turns throughout the set. One of the guys looked like Hitler (as you can see from the pix.)

Ministry finally took the stage around 11pm and damn, is big Al getting old! I'm frankly amazed that the guy is still alive. He's typically photographed wearing black shades, and it's obvious that it's to hide the old bags under his worn eyes.

One other thing to note about Mr. Jourgensen... His recent music has been somewhat political. And when I say "somewhat", it's basically a rant against the current administration. So at least most of the Ministry set featured songs from the two most recent albums -- which I'm not all that fond of. I'm more of a fan of the classics -- not that I don't agree with his feelings toward the current administration, just that I think his older material was a bit more polished. The new material just seems to be a regurgatation of his recent albums. Oh, plus his fan base has turned a little more... let's say, 'rough'. The attendees at this show could have also been attending a Hell's Angels conference. No joke, I swear there were a TON of actual Hell's Angels roaming through the crowd. I probably stuck out more than usual at this one! ;)

I was hoping the show was going to end around 11pm -- like most traditional rock concerts at the Fillmore. Plus, there was an "after-show" party that featured Keith Hillebrandt performing a 30-minute DJ set. Unfortunately, the Ministry/RevCo concert didn't end until after 12.30... And by that point, I was beat and thought I would hit the road for the 30 minute drive home.

Anway, the setlists looked something like this:

RevCo:
Beers, Steers, and Queers
Stainless Steel Providers
Physical
Do You Think I'm Sexy?
Fire Engine

Ministry:
Fear is Big Business
Senior Peligro
No W.
Rio Grand Blood
Great Satan
Waiting
Lies, Lies, Lies
Worthless
Wrong
NWO
Just One Fix
Thieves
Khyber Pass

Encore 1:
So What
Stigmata
Jesus Built My Hotrod

Encore 2:
Psalm 69

Brazilian Girls @ the Fillmore (5/13/06)

Last night the Brazilian Girls performed at the Fillmore in San Francisco to what I thought was going to be a sold-out crowd, but I don't think the venue was completely full. I also thought that the show was going to start at 8pm, but instead, the doors didn't open until nearly 8.30. And instead of an opening band, there was a DJ spinning music for nearly 2 hours. When the band finally came on, it was close to 10.30.

Now for those of you who aren't familiar with the Brazilian Girls, there's really only one girl in the band -- the lead singer, Sabina Sciubba -- and no one is from Brazil... The other members of the band include:

• Didi Gutman - keyboards
• Jesse Murphy - bass
• Aaron Johnston - drums

There are a number of biographies on the band online and I keep reading about Sabina's use of masks. Last night was no exception as she came out wearing a white veil over her face for most of the night. Only towards the end of the night did she lift the veil just a bit to show her nose and mouth, but she never did expose her eyes. I took a few pictures with my camera phone and posted them on Flickr here.

Anyway, the show was great. Tons of people dancing along with the music -- which can only be described as a strange mix of electronica, jazz and reggae with a little downtempo lounge music in between.

For those of you interested, here's their video to the song "Don't Stop"

Dredg @ the Fillmore (May 11th, 2006)

Thursday was a busy day. Having spent most of the day in Los Angeles attending the E3 video game convention, I flew home to drive up to the Fillmore in San Francisco to catch a sold out show by the band, Dredg. This was probably the 8th or 9th time I've been able to catch Dredg over the past 4 years and they just keep getting better and better. They were supposed to be filming the concert for an upcoming DVD release too, but I didn't see a single video camera throughout the night, so I'm assuming their plans changed. Either way, they played for nearly two hours covering material from all 3 of their albums.

Having been a fan for the past few years, I'm amazed that these guys haven't exploded! Most likely, the biggest challenge for these guys is that their music isn't easy to classify. I like to compare them to a harder Pink Floyd, a pseudo hard-progressive-rock band with fantastic vocals and pounding drums, but their sound doesn't quite fit with the current rock-radio mold. The crowd was filled with young "myspace" kiddies and besides the bands' family members, I think I was probably one of the oldest people in the crowd. I'll try and post a setlist if I get the chance, but if you haven't already heard of the band, check them out asap. I've also posted a few crappy phone pix here.

Search on YouTube and you can find a ton of Dredg videos, but here's one from their recent performace at the Metro in Chicago.

Vrenna / Walsh and NCSoft's Tabula Rasa @ E3

This week I was able to attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles and besides having a packed schedule full of meetings, I was able to slip out of our meeting rooms and check out one performance by Mutaytor featuring guest appearances by Chris Vrenna and Clint Walsh. For those of you reading this, Chris Vrenna was a founding member of Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails. Chris left the band to form Tweaker with co-writer and guitarist, Clint Walsh. Besides the band Tweaker, they have also been keeping busy working on remixes for various artists and composing music soundtracks for games -- which was the reason they were performing at NCSoft's booth -- performing music from the upcoming video game "Tabula Rasa." They were scheduled to perform twice daily, and I had hoped to catch multiple performances, but was caught in what seemed to be endless, back-to-back meetings. Luckily, I was able to catch their last performance on Thursday afternoon, before catching my flight back home to Northern California. I took a few pictures from my phone that I've posted here on Flickr. Here's a really crappy video from my phone too. Overall, the 3pm Thursday show was a short (25 minute) set containing what I assumed to be music from the Tabula Rasa game. Pretty cool ambient, instrumental stuff. Plenty of drums, droning guitar and keyboards. Good stuff. After E3, I've heard that Chris and Clint are off to the UK to continue to perform in the Gnarls Barkley band. Check out the tour schedule here and be sure to catch them when they play on Conan O'Brien on May 24th.

Recent concerts...

So while I'm putting off packing a bag for a flight I need to catch tomorrow morning, I thought I'd post a quick note about two concerts that I caught earlier in the week.

First up was TV on the Radio, who played two sold out shows at the Independent in San Francisco on Monday & Tuesday (5/1 & 5/2) earlier this week. Besides the fact that we had to sit through an absolutely terrible opening band (Celebration), TV on the Radio played an explosive set lasting nearly 90 minutes. The crowd was an interesting mix of all sorts of people too -- which made for an interesting bit of people-watching in between sets.

The most thought provoking piece of info that I kept chewing on throughout the night was to think of how TV on the Radio will soon be touring as an opening band for both Bauhaus and Nine Inch Nails on an upcoming summer outdoor amphitheater tour in the U.S. I just don't see the connection that typical Nine Inch Nails & Bauhaus fans will get with TV on the Radio... But we'll see!

The other band/musician that I had the chance to catch this week was a performance by Mellowdrone at Cafe Du Nord. This was probably the 3rd time I've caught Mellowdrone over the past 3-4 years, and I still haven't seen as good as a show as his first when he opened for Matt Nathanson at Slim's *years* ago!

Although his new album, Box, is incredible, he just can't seem to break out as a huge hit as I think he should. I can't seem to understand if it's due in part to his publicist, or his management, or the labels that have signed him in the past. It's really a shame because he's truly a great artist that's running the risk of being forever undiscovered like so many other great musicians.

Mellowdrone's show featured plenty of songs off the new album, although in all honesty, the new album is really a collection of songs from his previous releases. So anyway you slice and dice it, it was basically a 'greatest hits' show -- without any traditional radio hits because his manager sucks. ;)

Here's an excellent video:



So after a quick weekend trip to Chicago this weekend, I'll be down in LA attending the E3 Expo, then back to SF for a concert on Thursday night at the Fillmore to see Dredg and then again on Saturday night to see the Brazilian Girls. Reviews for each show will follow shortly! Oh, forgot to mention that I'll be lucky enough to catch up-to 4 of 6 total performances by Chris Vrenna and Clint Walsh while I'm down at E3. Vrenna & Walsh will be performing twice daily at the NCSoft booth, so I'm hoping to slip out of a few meetings and catch at least a couple of their performances.

More to come...