[This post originally appeared on Team Tinnitus]

Hmmmmm, Team Tinnitus has been a little quiet of late no? Yeah, it has, but let’s not get into any of that lame-ass navelgazing “well, this is why, because I, uh, had all this stuff to do and yaddayadda” – let’s not even get into it. Let’s just say we need some more CONTRIBUTORS up in this piece so if you go to shows a lot and you think you’d like to post something up in here please holler at yr blog.

Now let’s talk about this show I went to last night. It was a house show right near my house and my friends’ band was playing (The Hoofbeats) so when I saw the MySpace post I figured it’d be a nice way to spend a late summer night, and indeed it was. Javan and I first hit up the Egyptian Room, a lesbian drinking establishment right next to his house that we’d both been meaning to check out for a while. It was pretty chill inside, nice lighting, a little intimidating given that we were the only dudes in the place, but everyone was super nice. Also probably some good medicine for this straight white dude, given how rarely I’m put in that “other” position. Javan got a Makers on the rocks. I’ve never seen him drink whiskey.

We’d planned it so that this drink would take place during the first couple bands, seeing as we really just wanted to see the Hoofbeats (assholes!), but it didn’t work out like that. We ended up seeing all four bands. Here’s what I thought of those bands:

LEVEL ANCHORAGE

I caught my friend text messaging “This is the last house show I’m going to” during this set, and I couldn’t really blame him. Seemed like nice guys tho, so I’m not gonna go any further into the negazone.

THE HOOFBEATS

Now I know these people are my friends and all, but I swear they are actually pretty damn good. It’s an all female crew consisting of Jessica Jones from We Quit and, uh, Jessica Jones (bass) and two awesome girls I went to college with named Nell (drums) and (another) Jessica (guitar/vox). The music is kind of simple indie pop stuff, but Jessica has this wonderfully deadpan/flat voice (think Liz Phair) that makes puts just the right edge on that sweetness. The arrangements are also surprisingly deep in certain parts, and the choruses are totally smiley and great. This band is good, and these people are great. Hell yes to that.

THE MOST

Talk about stony x 5000 (right?) – turns out I went to high school with the drummer for this band. How random is that? She just moved to SF from Santa Cruz, but we both grew up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. Trippy… Anyway, it was awesome to reconnect with her and her band was really fun. Totally stripped down garage rock stuff, totally fun to bounce along to in a basement.

THE ICS AND ISMS

note: the kid second from right in the striped shirt has a new order patch on the back of his shirt, which is fucking adorable and awesome. way to subvert the macho punk paradigm kiddo! wuss-core 4 life!

This was a one man singer-songwriter deal. He set himself up right in the front of the living room, where you’d have to basically sit in his lap to get out the door. So I felt trapped at first – What if this sucks? Confrontation! Shit! – but it ended up being pretty good. Dude had a really nice voice, highish, tenor maybe. His songs were about really specific situations, like going to hook up some weed with a new lady friend then ending up doing coke at the dealer’s house then having another friend break up with his girlfriend and having to share a bed the three of you and not being able to sleep and thinking about stuff you shouldn’t then saying that stuff the next day and fucking up what little relationship you had. It was a little emo, yes, but delivered in this kind of sweet, optimistic way that made it ok. But then every song was about a girl and that got boring so we left.

ps: you can do better than this.

PROMO!!!

The Hoofbeats and The Most are playing together again at ACME this Friday. …Go!

photos by javan makhmali