Slapstick / MU330 / The Chinkees at Slim's in San Francisco

Slapstick, Slim's, San Francisco, CA, 6/15/2011

Photo by Jason Duarte

So Slapstick played with The Chinkees, who haven't played since 1999, and MU330 last night. It was amazing. Brendan Kelly's voice has changed, but not for the worse. Dan Andriano fucking nailed it, and played fast and awesomely. It was cool to see Matt Stamps play live as well as Rob Kellenberger, Dan Hanaway and Pete Anna.

Mike Park came out and introduced himself, and the festival, and danced his ass off in a suit the entire time. It looked as if he didn't even break a sweat. It was awesome. He introduced his band, and the crowd was going nuts and skanking. During one of the songs, Mike Park called Matt Skiba up to the stage and made him skank during the length of one of their songs. It was pretty funny and great.

MU330 was up next, and they killed it. They played an amazing set, and again, the crowd was going nuts and it was obvious that it was all building for Slapstick. At this point, I hadn't slept in nearly two days, so when Slapstick took the stage around 11 p.m., it was like my mana had been recharged.

It was awesome. I mean, everyone knows Slapstick, but not everyone realizes how many amazing bands came from Slapstick. And to see Slapstick - the band that started off so many great things - live, was so surreal. I found a handy little family tree diagram on the Internet. It should get bigger if you click on it.

Brendan Kelly, Dan Andriano and the gang came out and opened with "Colorado," to which everyone just started going nuts, singing along, skanking and moshing. The set was incredible, but then it got a little awkward when Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio made his way very drunkenly to the stage, and started talking about Asian Man fest, and somehow got into throwing a jab at Asian drivers. I don't think he meant anything by it, but it was admittedly a bit awkward to witness. the best part was when Brendan said, "Now I know how Chris McCaughan feels." The show was amazing. I recommend you all YouTube it and see for yourselves.

And for everyone who couldn't make it (suckers!), and want to live vicariously through all of those who went, make an iTunes playlist of the songs below! Enjoy!

Slapstick Set List:

Colorado

Crooked

Not Tonight

She Doesn't Love Me

Ed

Eighteen

February One

My Way

There's a Metal Head In the Parking Lot

What I Learned

Good Times Gone

The Park

Almost Punk Enough

Cheat To Win

Sick of This Place

74 Fullerton

Encore:

Nate B.

Broken Down

The Chinkees / Photo by Jason Duarte

The Chinkees / Photo by Jason Duarte

My photos of MU330 all came out blurry. Apologies.

Slapstick / Photo by Jason Duarte

Slapstick / Photo by Jason Duarte

The Broadways / Bomb the Music Industry / Ratasucia / Spraynard at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco

The Broadways / Photo by Jason Duarte

This afternoon, The Broadways played their reunion show at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. There were three mystery slots before The Broadways' set. Right before the show, I found out that Spraynard, Ratasucia and Bomb the Music Industry were the opening bands.

First up was Spraynard, whom I have never seen, but have their split with Sundials, and I really like both sides of that split. Seeing them was awesome, and I'm excited to hear more by them, and maybe see them live again if they ever come through Chicago in the future.

Up next was Ratasucia, featuring Dan Hanaway of The Broadways and Slapstick. I really liked them. They were pretty progressive awesome heavier punk rock. The three-piece also featured Chris Carr of the Honor System. After them was Bomb the Music Industry, whom I've never really listened to all that much, but I've seen their name everywhere lately, and I know they've developed quite the following. They were awesome. Very high energy. The lead singer jumped into the pit and lots of people were singing with him for a while. People were going pretty nuts for them, and they were great.

Up next were The Broadways. They opened with "What Happened?" It was insane. They played a solid set of 17 songs, finishing the encore with "15 Minutes." It scared the crap out of me actually. I thought they were totally done, but they came back and played "Fifteen Minutes," which was incredible. That is easily my favorite Broadways tune. Well, here's the set list. Enjoy!

The Broadways set list:

What Happened?

Everything I Ever Wanted To Know About Genocide, I Learned In the Third Grade For Free

The Kitchen Floor

Police Song

Floundering

Not Necessarily the News

Broadway and Briar

Fuck You Larry Koesche, I Hope You Starve And Die Someday

Natural Disaster

We'll Have a Party

It Was Pancho Villa

Under My Belt

Lake Michigan

Rainy Day

Routine

The Nautical Mile

Encore:

15 Minutes

Spraynard / Photo by Jason Duarte

Ratasucia / Photo by Jason Duarte

Bomb the Music Industry / Photo by Jason Duarte

The Broadways / Photo by Jason Duarte

The Broadways / Photo by Jason Duarte

Asian Man Records 15th Anniversary Festival!

Squid Pro Quo is going to San Francisco! Er-is in San Francisco I should say, for the Asian Man Records 15^th anniversary festival! As I'm typing this, I'm 36,000 feet above sea level and Chicago is a distant anthill. I awoke sharply at 3 a.m., and got a ride from my roommate's dad to O'Hare International Airport, where we parted ways, and I headed to security with my essentials on my back. As I made my way to the place where they touch you, then yell at you for ejaculating, I ran into Katie Hovland – Chicago concert acquaintance and Jaded In Chicago photographer. We reveled in excitement to see Slapstick before the sun awoke in a sleepless, exhausting state, and then we passed through security. The other half of Jaded In Chicago, Bill, met us on the other side, as he actually works at O'Hare. The three of us trekked over to the food court near our C gates, and I got the cheese danish. I walked back to their gate with them, as their flight was scheduled to take off an hour prior to mine, and we talked music, travel, work, all the while crossing our fingers as the rain fell, the lightning flashed and the thunder rumbled. Katie and Bill's flight began boarding, and they got their two standby seats. I began heading across the way to my gate, when I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask if their flight was one-way or if it had layovers. The ladies said it was one-way, and I asked if they knew if the weather was going to improve. The one woman said it was supposed to get worse and that last week, they had a line all the way down the corridor. “Really?” I said, “Because mine's supposed to take off in an hour.” I asked if it was possible to hop on this one, as I already had a ticket for the 7 a.m. flight. She typed a bit and told me there was a $75 charge. “Ah, OK. No thanks,” I said. I began walking to my gate, and I hear the woman yell something. I wasn't even sure if it was at me, but I turned around and she waved me back over to the desk. She said she'd waive the fee because they want to get as many people out of the airport and on their flights as possible, and seated me next to my friends, Katie and Bill.

What luck! I stepped on the airplane, waited until the lightning cleared the area, and here we are, chugging along to San Francisco, California! Now I don't want to make this too rambling and off-putting, but I haven't seen a whole lot west of the Mississippi River, especially as far west as one could get. So the last couple of weeks have been nerve-wracking. Don't get me wrong – I'm super excited to get there and go to these shows, but I'm just as excited to see San Francisco and be as much of a tourist as I possibly can. I looked at the surrounding area via Google and noticed the Anchor Brewery is right by the venues I'll be frequenting all week. Being a homebrewer and avid beer connoisseur (so I pretend, anyway), I am excited if not to take the brewery tour, then to try a few fresh, tap beers. The weather's supposed to get up to 73 degrees today, so I am excited for that. I'm excited to be near the ocean. I'm excited to fill my lungs with slightly salted air. I'm excited to not be at work this week. I'm excited to get out of the Midwest. I'm excited to cross off a few more bands on my list of “Bands I Thought I Would Never See.”

I'm excited to meet and spend some time with Mike Park and my friend Mike Yannich and my roommate and his brother. I miss my other half, Susanne, already and know I will until I return, but I have her with me in spirit. That doesn't make me miss her less, but makes me feel better about getting to explore without her with me. I can't wait to tell her all about everything. I'm going to try to add to the hour and a half/two hours of sleep I accumulated last night. Stay tuned to us and Jaded In Chicago as well. They have some KILLER material coming and I can't say I'm not a bit envious. Westward!