I got off Bart in West Oakland, walked down the platform and looked at the street in front of me; I didn't know which direction would lead me to the house show and which would lead me deeper into a foreign corner of Oakland. I magically picked, trusting my usually uncanny sense of direction and made off. I stopped at the liquor store and bought myself a tallcan and continued on my journey.
Eventually I found the cross street and naively assumed I was getting close. Long story short, after talking to three different people, handing out two cigarettes, knocking on the wrong door, getting yelled at by an angry bald dude, barked at by his dog, getting directed the wrong way by a group of tough-looking guys standing in the middle of the street, and knocking on a second wrong door, I found the house I was looking for. Actually the second neighbor I talked to was very nice, she had obviously dealt with people mistaking the upstairs apartment for the downstairs one before. I made my way to the downstairs apartment and finally knocked on the right door.
A guy answered the door and looked a little surprised to see me. It turns out I was right on time, the show starting at 7:00 but in Oakland that meant I was at least an hour too early. I ended up getting to hang out with the host of the show and his friend the guitarist in Stares. After making a beer run and listening to both sides of Iron Lung and Dropdead, people finally started to trickle in. First the bands, then friends of the residents made their way inside. The tiny, three-bedroom apartment began to fill up with people and equipment alarmingly quick. I got to meet Sean of Beau Navire and Loma Prieta and purchase their split 7" with Adobe Homes. I was thinking about writing a review for it but I can do it in three words: it fucking rocks (short and sweet like the two-song, five minute record). Our host gave us the low-down on the rules (which consisted of: don't hang-out out front and pick up your trash) and then the show was underway!
The first band to play was Stares. They are a hardcore/powerviolence group and they blasted through their set. I feel a little bad for them because people were still showing up and the attention wasn't fully on them. I wish I had enough money to get their demo cassette (even though I don't have my walkman in my dorm and would have had to wait until spring break to listen too it) but the Beau Navire record and a dope shirt were calling me. The apartment got filled with even more hip-looking twenty-somethings all with mandatory body piercings and creepy tattoos. Even the really cute girls with colors in their hair, the ones you know where the punk girls in high school, had decaying bird wings on their back or something similar. And even with all the people there, I was the only person to buy something. A girl asked the singer of Stares if they had any CDs and he said no, everyone must have gotten the message.
Next was Negative Standards, a group of obvious Agnostic Front fans that mixed sound clips, electronics, and two TVs playing the same odd VHS of confusing psychedelic footage and movie clips, over violent hardcore. It was quite the sensory experience and I would recommend seeing them live. I would imagine that their albums don't quite to that justice. The crowd really seemed to like them and started moving a lot more. Eventually the occasional shove escalated into a full blown pit in the living room. Thankfully there were no couches or coffee tables in the way just band members and equipment. Negative Standards finished their relatively short set and began the long task of packing up all of their stuff. I anxiously checked the time to make sure I could catch Bart.
The third band, which I thought would be Beau Navire because of their extremely close proximity to the show, ended up being Duke Nukem Forever. They also played a short, supercharged set that had most of the audience flailing into one another and getting knocked around. Everyone seemed to enjoy them the most, really giving off tons of energy during their set. I was quite impressed but I still couldn't wait to see Beau Navire for the first time.
Beau Navire played last and seemed to get short-changed the most by the audience. This really seemed like a hardcore crowd and Beau Navire's chaotic blend of screamo passion and start/stop noodlely guitars seemed to be a little over everyones heads. Only myself and as many as two others felt the need to rock the fuck out. For some reason the bassist played in his boxers, I think it was a dare, I'm not sure. The set started off really tight and ended in utter chaos with the drums knocked over and three of the four members on the ground. I didn't stick around to help clean up which I would have liked to, but I had to make the train. I found my way back the the station quite easily as my ears were ringing and my stomach was churning around all the alcohol I drank. All in all it was an amazing show and I had a really great time. Makes me wanna find a place where I can host house shows for ungrateful twenty-somethings with lame tattoos who don't shell out any money for merch besides the miniscule $3 cover charge.
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