Thursday, April 24th 2003
Club Galia - San Francisco, CA

We don't get this place. We really don't. And judging from the other bands that We've talked to, no one else seems to either. We finally got to talk to the one owner lady, "Paradise Barb", and she's pretty nice. And pretty down to earth, but there is some serious schedule/band stuff that they still haven't straightened out since we played there a year ago. There are two stages now. One upstairs and one down. And we spent the first hour listening tto Paradise Barb and the sound guy duke it out as to which band was to play where. The sound guy would tell us one thing, then Paradise Barb would tell us another. Then they'd both come back every few minutes with t a change of plan.

C'mon people. You've had a year to work this shit out. How hard can it really be?

Whatever, they're just really shooting themselves in the foo in a whole lotta ways, and the best way to really see that, is just go look in the bar next store. Every band and audience member is over THERE doing their pre-show drinking. Tells ya something, huh?

But they HAVE done some cosmetic updates on the place though. Looks like they raided the fabric store bargain bin, and got three cans of randomly colored paint, gave it to a three year old and told him to go to town. Add some christmas lights, and "POOF" insta-atmosphere. Hmmm...

How 'bout this for an idea: Black paint. Lots of it. It can do wonders to change an 80's WHAM club into a semi cool place for loud rock bands to play. They should invest.

Ok, well let's not dwell. We can move on to the bands now.

It was quite a lineup, all put together by Dan from Chinese Radio. We opened the night. No one was really there to see us, but the other bands seemed to like us, and Paradise Barb said that we were good. And that we should play again. But that we should bring more people next time. Yeah. She's right.

We tied the Two Gallants for bringing in the least amount of people. And they had to play upstairs. Not sure why they were the only ones. The whole point of having the second stage upstairs, is that when the band downstairs finishes, the band upstairs can start right away. That way there's music going on at all times. And it did. In fact it was cool how immediately they started after us. But then the next threebands both played downstairs. All in a row. That's weird.

Two Gallants, playing under the pseudonym A Few Belated Cowardices, of course gave us their beautiful, twangy, heartfelt ballads in all their simple glory. I love that band.

Then it was Chinese Radio. Four Minute Mile. Riot a Go Go. In that order. It was all rock n roll. With a little punk thrown in with Riot. Dan from Chinese Radio is a really good drummer. And I mostly watched him the whole time.

Four Minute Mile was really good. They had emotive song writing going on in an English band style sort of way. GREAT guitar work, excellent drumming and singing and all the rest. Plus they were fun to watch. You should catch them if you can.

And to be honest, we didn't catch much of Riot A Go Go cuz we had to take off. But the lead singer, Nova, was a sweet girl, and probably rocked.

Thanks for having us play Dan. You guys and the other bands made the evening worth it.