Tired of drinking at the same watering holes every weekend? As luck would have it, the Downtown Sacramento Partnership are hosting a totally cool pub crawl replete with a history lesson, guided tour and a drink menu sure to please even the biggest cocktail snob. Starting at Old Sacramento’s infamous River City Saloon, the pub crawl kicks off in grand fashion in a bar that looks as if were transplanted from the prohibition era. This particular soiree will be led by history guru and Downtown Sacramento Partnership tour guide Shawn Peter in an effort to both educate and, more importantly, lead stumbling folks to their next destination. Learn about the Sacramento of yore and all of its purposely hidden history while drinking an old fashioned or a pint of beer. For only $15, you can reserve your spot and enjoy a night of drinking to remember (or not). This two-hour event moves along at a brisk pace so make sure you’re on time at 5 p.m. and have the drinking stamina to last until 7. Odds are, there is not a more entertaining ticket in the immediate area this weekend. Buy your passes now at Eventbrite.com (search Mardi Gras 2016)
The spectacle known as Monster Jam is back for one weekend and will this time out feature three, wholly different vehicles: ATVs, speedsters and, of course, everybody’s favorite trucks. Eight teams will compete against each other to win the most enthusiastic crowd approval by racking up points for stunts such as wheelies, donuts, freestyle, racing and more. For those who care to meet the drivers and take selfies in front of the trucks, a pit pass for an additional $10 gets you right in the thick of it all. $18-$55;7:30 p.m. Friday, January 29, and Saturday, January 30; 2 p.m. Sunday, January 31. Sleep Train Arena, 1 Sports Parkway; www.monsterjam.com.
Fans of dirty rock ’n’ roll with blazing solos, saucy hooks and more posturing than should be allowed can rejoice: Black Saddle Hookers are going to be rocking their favorite 10th Street haunt this weekend. The trio features a veritable who’s who of the local music scene, including T-Bone Hooker (vocals and bass), Gavin Zappatica (guitar) and John Cavanaugh (drums) and have been known to have special guests like Skid Jones join the fray when the spirit moves. Sacramento’s own rude-boy reggae outfit the Scratch Outs close out the night’s festivities. 1901 10th Street, www.facebook.com/ blacksaddlehookers.
Thirty-four-year-old organist Cameron Carpenter has made a name for himself in the classical music world by flaunting the rules and shirking the norms. And, while he’s received much criticism from the establishment, who resent his nouveau arrangements, elaborate costumes, and less-than-typical hairstyles, he has also gained an immense following. In fact, half the fun of attending a Carpenter show is not knowing what he’s going to play because that’s the other thing about him: He performs sans music charts and rarely divulges a show’s program in advance.
[jump] “Honestly, nobody really cares about the difference between composers and the next,” he told All Shook Down. “Most don’t even know the difference or who they’re even listening to.”
Carpenter started playing the organ at the age of four and had his own reasons for sticking with it. “I felt like I was touching time,” said Carpenter who attended the Juilliard School in New York for both undergraduate and graduate school. “That is something that doesn’t leave you.”
Jokingly, he adds, “However, I should add it doesn’t make great sense to choose the organ as an instrument for its many limitations and being stationary.”
Because of these limitations, Carpenter tours with a fully-mobile organ, called the International Touring Organ, that cost him quite a bit to purchase. (Its market value is $1.2 million, he said.)
When pressed as to why he went through the great expense to have the custom organ made, Carpenter was quite candid. “I have played the organs at both Davies Symphony Hall and Grace Cathedral. They are wonderful, but they are not my instruments,” he said. “I think the idea of the traditional pipe organ being considered the king of the instruments is nonsensical since it has so many drawbacks. I paid for this instrument myself and helped design it to make a one-of-a-kind instrument. It’s not meant to be a substitute for an organ because it does more than any pipe organ ever could. This organ is simply the beginning. One of my ultimate goals is the international standardization of the organ.”
Cameron Carpenter plays January 28 to January 31 at SF Jazz Center.
Sat., Jan. 23, 6:30 p.m., Auburn Event Center, $16.82
Oakdale’s greatest export (aside from the many crops grown there) is a six-piece musical group with a penchant for lazy country. The band quickly ascended to headliner status playing rooms like the 600-person capacity Great American Music Hall, where they not-so-coincidentally play the night before this Auburn soiree. Fans of bluegrass, Americana and everything within a couple points of separation need attend this show, as it will be one of the last for an indefinite amount of time. Opening the show are The Sumner Brothers and Jonny Mojo & Friends. 145 Elm Avenue in Auburn, www.facebook.com/ TheGoodLuckThriftStoreOutfit.
HEADBANGER Ernest Wuethrich is an architect by day and punk and metal promoter by night
North Bay fans of metal and hardcore may have noticed a resurgence in the genres since 2011. That’s the year Ernest Wuethrich took the reigns of the local metal scene as a music booker and promoter.
Wuethrich’s next major show is on Saturday, Jan. 23, at Annie O’s Music Hall in Santa Rosa, and features Mississippi rock and rollers Saving Abel sharing the bill with Petaluma’s Motogruv, who are celebrating a reunion after spending the last few years on hiatus.
The next week, Wuethrich hosts an album-release show on Jan. 29 at the Arlene Francis Center for Sonoma County doom-metal lords Oden Sun, lead by infamous North Bay metal icon, regurgitator and Skitzo frontman Lance Ozanix.
Wuethrich, a 36-year-old San Jose native, moved to Santa Rosa after getting a degree in landscape architecture from UC Davis. A passion for hardcore metal led him to booking live shows, though, with no previous experience in organizing concerts, he had to learn by trial and error.
“There was definitely some problems I had to overcome at first,” says Wuethrich. “I talked with [Phoenix Theater manager] Tom Gaffey at length about this. It seemed like the scene was very organic during the early and late ’90s, and everyone came out to concerts.”
Wuethrich wanted to recapture that spirit. Sonoma County didn’t have much of a local metal scene when he started in 2011, and aside from the occasional national act coming through, booking agents were largely passing on the market for shows in San Francisco and Sacramento.
By soliciting local bands and scouring the internet for national acts, Wuethrich soon started booking shows at underground Sonoma County venues like the Transient Lounge in Santa Rosa, a short-lived punk warehouse, under the name Gather Booking and Management, the moniker he still uses for his business.
In the last couple of years, Wuethrich has booked large-scale national, regional and local hardcore bands including Sacramento’s Conducting from the Grave, Santa Cruz’s Arsonists Get All the Girls, Los Angeles outfit Otep, Houston thrashers DRI, Baltimore’s Misery Index and many others.
Today, the bands are starting to come back to the North Bay because of Wuethrich’s efforts. Currently, he is booking events as Sonoma County Metal and Hardcore in an effort to bring some cohesion into a widely diverse music scene.
“There are kids who are starting to identify with a positive metal community,” Wuethrich says, “and that’s what I want to develop.”
Few can disagree that it’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks for fans of popular music. From David Bowie to Lemmy Kilmister, Glenn Frey to the lesser-known, but equally impressive, Mic Gillette (Tower Of Power, anyone?), we have lost a slew of musical greats.
Thankfully, at the ripe young age of 70, Irish singer / musician and Music Hall Of Fame inductee Van Morrison shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, playing three shows in Oakland directly following a successful run of dates in Southern California.
For the uninitiated, Morrison fronted Northern Irish band Them for a very brief period before launching his highly successful solo career. Morrison has won six Grammy Awards and spawned a number of hits, including “Gloria,” “Baby, Please Don’t Go,” “Here Comes the Night” and “Mystic Eyes.”
As evidenced by his spellbinding performance last night at Oakland’s Fox Theater – the second of a sold-out three-day residency at the venue – Morrison proved his staying power, yet again, to several different generations of new and older fans alike.
From the minute the opening notes of “Celtic Swing” – an odd, yet somehow fitting instrumental culled from his grossly overlooked 1983 album, Inarticulate Speech of the Heart – filled the Fox Theater, those in attendance immediately fixated on Morrison who drove the melody home with his alto saxophone. Aided by his able group – bassist Paul Moore, drummer Robbie Ruggiero, trumpet/keyboard player/ bandleader Paul Moran, singer Dana Masters, and guitarist Dave Keary – Morrison and company launched headlong into their set. Instead of spreading out across the vast Fox Theater stage, the group opted to play close together, with all musicians huddled closely around Morrison who barricaded himself among a handful of stage monitors.
Next, he played a wonderfully careless rendition of “Higher Than The World,” which kicked off the night in grandiose fashion with a hearty swing and swagger. Opting to avoid between-song banter, Morrison led his musicians through a 100-plus minute set that found the music, inevitably, doing much of the talking.
And, unlike the set lists at his Southern California shows just days before (and even the night before at the same venue), Morrison surprised the audience with some unexpected additional songs, like “Did Ye Get Healed” from Poetic Champions Compose (1987) and “Cleaning Windows” from Beautiful Vision (1982).
Other highlights included a wonderful medley that included a revved-up version of Them’s “Baby, Please Don’t Go,” along with a heady take on a blues staple popularized by Mose Allison called “Parchman Farm.”
Hit medleys and songs aside, it was the inclusion of his daughter, Shana Morrison, (who also opened the show with a very brief set) that was met with great approval from longtime fans and newbies, alike. Watching and hearing the father / daughter combo for two mid-set numbers — “Sometimes We Cry” and Johnny Mercer’s “That Old Black Magic – showed concertgoers just how much love and respect the two have for another. (Shana even kissed her father on the cheek as she exited stage right.)
If there was ever a time to see our musical greats before they leave this dimension, it would be now. When all is said and done, no price tag — tickets for these shows started at $89.50 and went up to $249.50 – is too much to witness a rare live music experience that lasts a lifetime.
Word has it that a few tickets were released for tonight’s show on the Fox Theater’s Facebook site, the last of his local run.
Yes, it’s time to splurge. You only live once.
Critic’s Notebook:
• According to one bartender who works at several different venues for promoter Another Planet Entertainment, there was a big upgrade to the venue’s sometimes faltering sound system. Last night’s show was the second official night it was used in public. By all accounts, the move to satiate those with sensitive ears was a rousing success as everything sounded terrific and near stereo quality.
•Unfortunately, it’s customary at this venue to close most of the downstairs bar due to noise during certain shows and tonight’s show was certainly no exception. In an effort to keep the theater patrons quiet during a set laden with softer moments, many bars were closed before his daughter Shana opened the show. The Den, also located downstairs on the main level, thankfully, was open to patrons in addition to the bar upstairs.
•Unlike noisier, more raucous shows with younger crowds, cell phones were (for the most part) silenced. Because the floor was seated, few stood until Morrison’s set-closing song, “In The Garden.” Heaps of applause followed as Morrison walked offstage repeating the line, “ No guru, no method, no teacher,” only to return minutes later for the night-ending encore.
Sacramento’s own local quartet Sonder—Chance Taylor (vocals and guitar), Jimmy Haddan (rhythm guitar and vocals), Linda Walker (bass and bird sounds), Spence Haddan (drums)—describe their music as “Acoustic Folk Ska Punk” on their Facebook page. And while the pairing of such disparate musical styles and genres would normally make for a nauseating listen, the band’s musical output would suggest otherwise. This special Friday show will be a celebration of sorts for the band’s aptly titled Unfamiliar Phases EP. For less than the price of a crappy value meal at McDonald’s, you can satisfy your musical palete with music from Killah Wail (surf punk from Modesto), Utmärkt, and Ricky! (from New Orleans’ own Name Calling). The all-ages event kicks off at 7:30 p.m. and continues until the last Volvo-driving soccer mom or dad picks up their punker teen. For those who’ve never been to a show at the tiny Cafe Colonial, do make sure you park your car in the gated adjacent lot. Parking on the street can result in possible car break-ins, random tires missing, and more. With all the money you save parking in the right spot, you can surely afford to buy some food at the cafe and a few merch items (yes, they will have buttons and stickers). Like Sonder at Facebook.com/sonderfolkpunk, where you can also RSVP to the show and impress your friends (yet again).
It isn’t March yet and it’s definitely nowhere near St. Patty’s Day. However, true Irish celebrations don’t operate by a strict calendar. This gathering of local Irish rock bands is sure to please on many fronts whether you enjoy the culture or not. Sacramento’s Whiskey and Stitches open this Friday night party and bring a wonderful concoction of nontraditional rock fare played with even more nontraditional instruments, such as the upright bass, accordion, banjo and mandolin. Also on the bill are Celtic/Americana act One Eyed Reilly, who will drop some green-colored science with their special brand of rock-infused folk. Closing out the night will be The Pikeys, who effectively mix punk, Celtic, Irish and rock into a mind-boggling stew. Fans of the fiddle and violin and such disparate acts as The Pogues, The Tossers, Tom Waits and Dropkick Murphys will find great reward in their set. The Irishpalooza party starts early (6 p.m.) and only lasts for three hours. When this party is over, you can roam the streets looking for another watering hole (preferably Irish in theme) to do even more damage to your liver and credit card. For the cost of one beer at most fine establishments, your $8 ticket secures you an early night you surely won’t remember. Buy your tickets now at Harlows.com
Whether you like it or not, nothing can prepare the world for the tidal wave of dollar store hairspray, synthetic lipstick, and nauseating color schemes that’s coming in 2016.
On February 26, Los Angeles mock-rock band Steel Panther will drop their acoustic record, Live From Lexxi’s Mom’s Garage. At its core, Steep Panther is Ralph Michael Saenz aka Michael Starr (vocals) who resembles a younger and much sassier David Lee Roth, Russ Parrish aka Satchel (guitar) whose tremolo has been known to make young girls cry and wet their panties, Darren Leader aka Stix Zadinia (drums) who plays to the beat of his own drum (and hands), and the ever-so important Lexxi Foxx aka Travis Haley (bass) who proves you can make loads of money playing a solid E or A string.
SF Weekly caught up with group’s singer, Starr, during his downtime from touring, while doing one of his many chores at his mother’s house. “My mom is making me clean the garage right now,” said Starr. “If I want to stay here, I gotta do my part.”
When pressed for song titles and a little more info (even though it’s readily available on the website unbeknownst to the band members), it was clear that the band’s new musical offering was being careful guarded like it was the Glam Bible. “It’s not because I hate you or anything like that,” Starr told me. “You actually sound pretty cool. But I can’t give you any more info since we’re not telling anyone anything. We’re looking to release the new record everywhere simultaneously.”
The secret to the band’s success, however, has been their image portrayed in their videos. And while many of the outlets that existed back in glam rock’s heyday are not playing much music these days, YouTube is still a great source for premiering and viewing the band’s larger-than life videos. Thankfully, despite the rising costs of stage outfits (of which Steel Panther has many), videos are now cheaper than ever to make. “Looking back, it’s crazy to see what we spent on videos, man,” Starr said. “It cost us $250,000 to make “Community Property,” and “Death to All But Metal” was another not-so-cool $180,000. Today, unless you’re selling million and millions of records, which we don’t just yet, that doesn’t work, does it? Now with technology, you can make videos on your Mac since the process is pretty simple…point and shoot.”
As funny (and cool) as Steel Panther is, the band still gets help making their videos. “We let our marketing guy know when we want to do a video,” said Starr. “After that, writers will submit treatments, and we just choose the best from those. We collaborate with all kinds of people since it’s the best way to expand ourselves and our stage personas.”
Costumes are important to Steel Panther and are as integral to their success as much as (if not more than) their own musical equipment. “Costumes are really, really, really, really, really really important for us. Once we got signed, we wore everything we had for years from our cover band (Metal Skool),” he said. “We’re getting our clothes now from Stephanie at Metal Threads in Australia who makes some really good, high quality stuff.”
Of course, these fancy and flashy wares don’t come cheap. “Clothes are probably one of our biggest expenses these days since pants can range from $100 to $600, and shirts cost anywhere from $80 to $300” said Starr. “It really depends on what you put on the clothes that makes them stand out, like tassels or sequins or whatever. It’s like guitar strings: You need ’em and you gotta have ’em.”
Here’s a list of some of Steel Panther’s best and most lavish, not to mention lewd, music videos for you to check out before their big soiree at the Regency Ballroom on Saturday, Jan. 16.
“Fat Girl” from Hole Patrol (2003)
“This was the video that got us signed” said Starr. “We were still called Metal Skool.” It’s also probably not the best video to play for your overweight friends who can’t stay on a diet for more than a week.
“Community Property” from Feel the Steel (2009)
Sharing is caring. Whether or not you have a venereal disease is not important. Steel Panther wants to share its love with anyone and everyone.
“Death To All But Metal” from Feel the Steel (2009)
If you don’t like metal, you best steer clear of this one. One of Steel Panther’s heaviest songs features some thoughtful lyrics like “Kill those fucking fuckheads who program MTV. They can suck my ass with all the record companies.”
“If You Really Really Love Me” from Balls Out (2011)
“I think all the videos are great and exciting and everyone has all their personality. However, there’s some fan videos that have my belly sticking out that I’d rather not have out there.” said Starr when asked about the band’s show recording policy. This one’s a ballad about those who gave all for their partner with nothing in return.
“Pussywhipped” from All You Can Eat (2014)
While the content of this video may leave much to be desired by the male gender – scrotums getting beat with a baseball bat – this song resonated with many hot chicks and now-drummer Stix Zadinia needs two bodyguards to fend off the lines of backstage trollops at their shows.
“Gloryhole” from All You Can Eat (2014)
Offended easily? Never rubbed one out in the bathroom stall? This one would never have gotten played on MTV in its unedited format. Thanks to social media, we now know there are 3,613,654 perverts who’ve watched the video (and climbing).
Steel Panther plays with Magnetico at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 16 at the Regency Ballroom. Tickets are $30 advance and $32 at the door. www.theregencyballroom.com.
Eddie
