OFF: San Francisco scene report

[Doug Pearson]

"We are Motorhead ... and we're here to kick your ass!"

And they did, on friday night!  Great set (20 songs, plus "Ace of Spades"
& "Overkill" encore).  Lemmy's looking/sounding great.  Normally, hearing a
band cover "God Save the Queen" seems a bit overdone, like hearing a bar
band cover of "Satisfaction" or something.  But when you realize that it
was Lemmy influencing Lydon, and (mostly) NOT the other way around, it
makes a lot of sense.  Phil Campbell's Line 6 stacks gain points for the
blinky lights, but lose points for the thin sound and cheesy digital
flanger (but this is Motorhead we're talking about ... who CARES what the
guitar sounds like?).  Keith Graakl is completely correct that Lemmy's
4004LK signature bass looks more burgundy than walnut under stage lights.
At a couple times, at the right angle, I could make out the carved top, but
only for a brief moment (my bandmates had to put up with me whining, "but I
want miiiiine!").  And some older guy behind me yelled, "Play some
Hawkwind!" ;^)  (At least I thought I heard that ... if you're a
listmember, I was the skinny longhaired guy bobbing [not quite harsh enough
to be banging - my neck wasn't sore the next day] his head in front of you.)

And yesterday evening, I went to check out a couple of local bands I'm
friends with at the Hemlock Tavern, the coolest new bar in SF.  Mike
Desert, guitarst/singer of former Man's Ruin recording artists, the Jack
Saints, paid tribute to the fact that 'Doremi Fasol Latido' is on the
jukebox by throwing in Nik's "Watching The Grass Grow" intro ("We are the
survivors ... the eternal survivors ...") before one of their songs (they
also covered Radio Birdman's "What Gives" and "The Wind And More" by Roky
Erickson).

    -Doug
     jasret at mindspring.com

P.S. And on a completely unrelated subject, DON'T buy the 'Pink Jacket
Required' Shagrat LP on Arkama.  Paul Rudolph is NOT on it.  If Twink is
really on it, it's only because he dubbed himself on 30 years after the
fact.  The Shagrat album to get is the CD on Captain Trip, and the non-
Shagrat tracks on the Arkama LP are the same as on 'Think Pink'.  It takes
a lot for me to say I was ripped off (I'm *glad* I shelled out the cash
for 'Glastonbury 90', 'Text of Festival', even the pretty-awful 'Pinkwind'
album), but in buying this album ... I was ripped off (see
http://www.pinkfairies.fsnet.co.uk/twank.html and
http://www.arsydd.btinternet.co.uk/lazfe.html).