(Click the image for more photos from Saturday night. All photos by Mike and Jenny Cash.)
Rock 'n' roll was never as rock and roll as it was on Saturday night at Betty's Rock Bar in Walnut Creek. The headliners, the infamous L.A. Guns, tore through a set of original hits and brought the crowd back to the stretch pants and ozone-depleting hairspray days of the 80s.
Flamingo Gunfight opened up the show with an exclamation point with their signature wall of guitars, youthful energy and machine gun perfect rhythm. Next up was Hellicious whose easy marriage of good old dirty rock and glam attitude stole the night in production value with a little help from the Hellicious Go Go Girls. The well-established Rubberside Down anchored the night with a Gibson-wielding classic rock-infused style that is suited to Betty's intimate environment but would fill every inch of an arena. --Michael Cash
Trent Reznor really loves you guys. He understood that sharing is caring when he produced Saul Williams' free Niggy Tardust album, and now he's carrying on the good will by offering Nine Inch Nails' new album, The Slip, available for free download. CD and vinyl formats are due to come out in July, but that good shit'll cost ya. And if all that free goodness just won't cut it, Nine Inch Nails make a tour stop at Oakland's Oracle Arena on Sept. 5. --Oscar Pascual
I took a road trip up to Sebastopol the other weekend and dined in the same little cafe as Tom Waits and his family. I didn't ask him about his upcoming "Glitter and Doom" tour, but if I did, it would probably sound a little something like this.... (Thanks to SF Weekly's Hiya Swanhuyser for passing this gem along.) --Jennifer Maerz
No snarky witticisms here, Stevie Wonder is an outright legend. Marvel at the world's 8th Wonder this summer when he visits the Shoreline Amphitheatre on July 5, and the Sleep Train Pavilion on July 8. Tickets for both shows go on sale Monday, May 12 at 10 a.m. --Oscar Pascual
Husband-wife photo team Jenny and Mike Cash of Calibree Photography shot the How Weird Street Faire on Howard for us yesterday. Click the photo to see the colorful oddities. --Janine Kahn
Warren Hellman, the generous bankroller behind Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, is financing a pretty incredible lineup once again. It was announced today that none other than Robert Plant will be headlining the free October festival. Sadly, Plant's apperance won't be for a Led Zeppelin day in the park, but fans of his disc with Alison Krauss (and featuring T Bone Burnett) will be happy to know they're all playing together at HSB this year. Other big names just announced:Louden Wainwright III, Gogol Bordello, Hazel Dickens, Bonnie Prince Billy, and more. The event goes down Oct. 3-5. Hit up Hardly Strictly website for all the details so far. It's going to be a crazy festival summer in San Francisco once again. -- Jennifer Maerz
Here’s a track not on that record for your downloading pleasure, called “Your Voice.” – Jennifer Maerz
Friday took ASD to one of three International Ms. Leather 2008 evenings at the Holiday Inn on Van Ness. In the bowels of the building we witnessed some interesting scenes...including (but not limited to) flogging, paddling, whipping and some mild knife play. Read all about that here. And do click the link to see some of the footage we took of the IMsL auction - including the bidding for Dominatrix Midori and a lap dance by another lovely lady up for bid, Peggy Sue. We also have a safe word slideshow for you featuring auctionees and their safe words of choice. (Aside: Doesn't B.C. Cliver -pictured- who we ran into at IMsL look somewhat like Michael Jackson?)
Also on Friday, our SoCal correspondent Christopher Victorio returned to Coachella's stomping ground for the first day of Stagecoach. Read his account, in which he documents how Shelby Lynn cursed at the crowd and gave those in the front row the bird, here. And do flip through CV's beautiful photos.
The Master's Tools (Decay Goes Both Ways)
Little Tree Gallery - 3412 22nd St. at Guerrero
Last year, artist Lacey Jane Roberts blocked Clarion Alley in the Mission with a chain-link, barbed-wire-topped fence, which was pink. It was pink because she covered every single hard, unyielding surface with "crank knit" yarn, resulting in just the most adorable industrial barrier you've ever seen in your life. She also knits her own colorful graffiti (using the name "Tink"), which she hangs on graffiti-strewn walls. Probably the cheekiest thing she's done, however, was her guerilla restoration of the California College of the Arts sign. Some of you recall the school used to be called California College of the Arts and Crafts, a name it had held since 1934. It was shortened in 2003, which caused a lot of people to think, My God, are you freaking kidding me with that? Of course you can imagine what Roberts did to her alma mater: "& Crafts," in bright red yarn, hung atop the building for a week in 2005.
For her solo exhibit "The Master"s Tools (Decay Goes Both Ways)," she raises another fence, nearly 10 feet tall and covered in silver yarn, which spills out from the installation like overgrown weeds. Also appearing is an unsteady antique spinning wheel, deformed nearly beyond recognition and use. --Michael Leaverton
