A Saturday in the Life

I went to the Hemlock Tavern on Polk St. on Saturday night to see a show.  My wife's friend from college plays drums in the band Social Studies, who are from SF I think, and they were first on the bill.  I like their shows, partly because they always attract an enthusiastic crowd.  It's fun to watch cute hipsters and dolled-up fashionistas stare at Natalia, the bands singer & chief visionary as she leads the band through a tidy set of edgy, poppy tunes.  Very clean sounding, even in the tiny backroom at the Hemlock.  Social Studies had by far the biggest draw of the 3 bands playing, it was jammed in there for their 10:00 set, and people were even singing along.  A douchebag up at the front actually hissed at my lady to shut up as she was talking (between songs) because he was so utterly under their spell.  (or maybe he was just a miserable twat) Anyway, their music is good, they definitely know what they're doing.  Check them out if you can, www.myspace.com/socialstudies101 .

Second up were a foursome from LA called The Parson Red Heads, who have a nice vocal-thing happening, with 2 and 3-part harmonies over some nice strummy melodies and 2-part guitar-riffery reminiscent of Television.  And a good-looking woman on drums is always fun to watch, especially when she's a tasteful player that can actually hit the things with force when necessary.  And the band had some power, but excelled particularly in terms of the restraint they showed. They never overplayed, and they let some really nice songwriting shine through.  Really nice guys (& gal), too.

Last up were The Donkeys.   www.myspace.com/thedonkeys  It's tough to headline a small show when you're from out of town, (San Diego).  Unless you have the hype-machine working for you, you don't get a big draw, and because you're on a shitty little tour and trying to live up to a rock n' roll ideal that is unhealthy and utterly void of substance, one tends to drink heavily.  Playing last at a rock show means you have had plenty of time to get royally hammered before you go on, and this did not bode well for The Donkeys on Saturday night.  They opened with a rollicking instrumental replete with sitar (?) and keys, but the next 2 tunes were so sloppy and drunken-sounding that I had to cut-out & save my eardrums.  Better luck next time guys.

The Hemlock is fucking ridiculous on a Saturday night.  The performance-space in the back is not very big, but one expects to be elbow to elbow at a rock show, so whatev's.  But the bar was insane.  What the hell is everyone doing there if they're not seeing the show?  $4 for a 22oz. PBR is a pretty cool deal I guess, but the attitude on the 3 bartenders was thick and they were perfecting the practice the art of taking orders from the cutest people while avoiding the gaze of the patient, thirsty ones who have been waiting longer.  And the noise was out of control in there.  Emerging onto the sidewalk for a smoke or just a pressure-release from the bar was necessary - about 5 times for me.  But what can I say, they must be doing something right.