Giant Music Post: The Slackers at Slim's SF

Slackers Mosaic, originally uploaded by Buxtrosion.

Friday night we sent to see one of our favorite bands, The Slackers, at Slim's in San Francisco. You can see the large versions of the individual photos above if you click through to my flickr page.
I've always had quite a few "favorite bands", but I've come up with a new criterion- any band I've seen play more than 3 or 4 times gets favorite status. The Slackers put on a great show as usual, but this time I had a camera (Bryan's old digital point & shoot). Right now, my photos are still on the main page of the Slackers website (through a flickr group). Another awesome change from the ordinary was that both of us climbed up on stage (along with as many other people could fit) during the last song and danced as best we could without knocking over band members or equipment. I've done this before at a Dropkick Murphys show (it's traditional to invite girls up on stage during the Spicy McHaggis Jig,) but I can't say I've seen it at a Slackers show before. Bryan was so proud of himself. Later he was like, "I was skanking the hell out of it! Did you see my legs? It was sexy."

I really can't express how much I love The Slackers. They are the most "grown-up" band I listen to, and by far the best in terms of real talent and musicianship. They're a traditional-style 6 piece ska group equally adept at songs that are romantic, fun, political, sexy, and sad. Plus I have a huge crush on Vic, the singer/organ player. So please, please, please follow the links and check them out! Here's an NPR clip of The Slackers explaining ska and playing songs from their 2001 album. And a video on YouTube.

Another great surprise at the Slackers show was the opening band, The Phenomenauts. They're a really fun Bay Area crazy, retro, sci-fi, costumed sort of rocketbilly or something. We bought one of their albums on the way out the door. In terms of subject matter, energy, and general craziness, they reminded me of Gals Panic. I never got around to blogging about the Gals Panic reunion show (the 3rd one we've gone to) we saw at Emo's in June. You may already know Jerm of Gals Panic from his more recent solo offerings or from Mr. Sinus/The Sinus Show at Alamo Drafthouse. Jerm's great! At the 2nd reunion show I went to, I got an unexpected big sweaty hug from him. Once he accidently hit me in the head at a Voodoo Glowskulls show, and at the show in June, I ended up with an eyeful of Jerm spit. Isn't that how Siouxsie and Adam Ant got conjunctivitis? Anyway, some people posted video of that Gals Panic show on YouTube.

I'm really excited about the sheer number of awesome shows in the area. This is what Austin used to be like when I was in college. Since this spring, there's been some kind of weird punk drought in Austin.
The week before the Slackers show, we caught another favorite band, The Horrorpops, in Santa Cruz. Going to Santa Cruz was really fun. I found the most ginormous, awesome bookstore ever! The Horrorpops put on a great show as usual. How can you not have a great time when there's go-go dancers? Even though I've seen them so many times I think I know all the dances. The venue was a really nice VFW hall. It was cool to see a show at a venue without a bar for once.
Thursday, we may be going to see The English Beat. In the next month or so, there's Leftover Crack, Toots and the Maytals!!, and best of all, Tiger Army on Halloween!!!!

So that was a loooong post, but I haven't taken the opportunity to talk about music on this blog, and it's really important to me!!
For any knitters that are still reading, I've got the sock pattern written up and ready to post as soon as I can get Bryan to model for pictures. We've got a gorgeous slate floor in the new place that will look great as a background.