I recently spent a week in San Francisco and dropped in to The Eagle, a fun & spacious indoor / outdoor leather bar in the SOMA area of the city, where one night a week, they host a roster of live bands. My friends and I went to support a benefit for the indie film “Maggots and Men,” a re-enactment of sorts of the 1921 Kronstadt uprising in Russia where an almost all female cast (including M 2 F transgenders) portray the all male roles. (http://homepage.mac.com/gowithflo/krondweb/index.html)
One of the bands that played the benefit is named after the Mayor of San Francisco himself, Gavin Newsom. I don’t know much about this band, except that some of the members were from another band called Full Moon Partisans. And I do know this: Gavin Newsom (the band) is a must see. The lead singer (and guitarist) is this tiny white guy who turns tomato red as he growls through his lyrics, and in addition to a familiar drum kit / drummer scenario, 2 additional percussionists sat directly on the stage and banged the shit out of whatever they had in front of them. (The percussionists also periodically changed places, Musical Chairs-style, to work in some very short sprints to their punk rock aerobics routine.) Some seriously nice noise.
A few of my other favorite things about San Francisco:
Joey and Ian, designers and owners of the clothing line, Nice Collective
http://www.nicecollective.com/
My big, fat head with The NC
And Daisy, the Nice Collective guard dog, aggressively making sure no one runs off with any samples.
DINO DINCO
