Annie’s Social Club closing at the end of the year
November 13, 2009
Sad news to report today on Friday the 13th from All Shook Down: Annie’s Social Club will be closing her doors on New Years Eve for good. The announcement was originally posted via E-mail to the ever-popular SF Indie List:
Subject: This Weekend at Annie’s Social Club, plus some sad news…
We hate to do this, but there is some sad news we feel its better to deliver directly than to let the rumor mill speculate and distort. After almost four years of bringing you live entertainment, karaoke, booze, and good times, Annie’s Social Club is closing its doors NEW YEARS EVE. We have had a blast partying with you these past few years and will miss each and every one of you, and want to give you enough notice that you can come down at least one more time to have a drink, catch a show, and say hi to us, as, well, you are part of our family…
And, we are not going out silently into that good night, but instead will be raging and partying through the end, so come down, throw some money at us, have a drink, bang your head, lose your voice singing karaoke, and celebrate not mourn…
Over the course of Annie’s nearly four year history The Bay Bridged has been fortunate to see some great shows, review them for the site, and we’ve even had the pleasure of interviewing a few bands in their back room before it turned into Punk Rock Karaoke for the evening. We’re sad to see yet another venue close it’s doors in San Francisco…
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Weekdays at Annie’s: Enforcer 9/2, Jucifer 9/3
September 10, 2009
Two raucous shows back to back at Annie’s Social Club last week; it’s hard not to feel bad for the Folsom Street venue’s upstairs neighbors. Whore for Satan Productions put together an atypical bill last Wednesday, replacing their usual down-tuned fare with something more high-pitched, and high octane. The ambiance evoked a bygone era, an uneasy time straddling the chasm between bell-bottomed, hedgerow-bustling 70′s metal acts and the thrash and sleaze-glam that were to follow by the mid-eighties. Interstitial bands like The Scorpions, Accept, and Saxon prefigured the popularity of these later trends, and the night unfolded in their image. Each of the four groups on the bill had an enthusiastic, retro-fied take on this fecund, classic period of metal, full of showy speed, strident, melodic vocals, and just the right amount of strutting testosterone.
LA’s Holy Grail set the bar high from the beginning, dazzling the crowd with the technical accomplishment of guitarists Eli Santana and James J. LaRue and the mindblowing pipes of singer James Paul Luna, who never met a note he couldn’t hit. A buoyant rhythm section and an unswerving commitment to songwriting kept the tunes from devolving into shred-fests, and the epoch of evening was further confirmed by the band’s unimpeachable cover of Accept’s “Fast as a Shark.”
Holy Grail (formerly Sorcerer) @ Relax Bar from dave vorhes on Vimeo.
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Jucifer: Thursday @ Annie’s Social Club
September 2, 2009
Jucifer is the loudest band I’ve ever seen, which is no mean feat. Despite having only two members and no permanent home base (instead proudly proclaiming themselves “nomadicâ€), the husband-and-wife team truck around a veritable wall of amplifiers, girding the back of the stage in wattage at every gig. Amber Valentine handles guitar and vocals, while skinsman Edgar Livengood plays drums that look more like cauldrons or industrial cable spools, the better to cut through the fuzz. Underscoring Valentine’s elastic, screaming-to-crooning vocals with explosive, digressive doom metal, the pair run roughshod over a dozen genres — the only constant is furious, cacophonous creativity. Their most recent album, L’Autrichienne (Relapse), boasts 20 tracks of the duo’s multifarious brand of mayhem — it’s so good I can spell the title without looking it up.
Jucifer_-_Hennin%20Hardine2.mp3
Jucifer – “Hennin Hardine”
Appearing in support are SF cello-prog heavies Grayceon, whose eerie melodies, cascading 16th-note grooves, and grand-scale arrangements make classification difficult. Openers Flood favor a more traditional fuzzed-out, syrup-slow approach, shouting vocals over psychedelic, flanging effects and percussion thunder.
Show is at 8pm, Thursday night at Annie’s Social Club (917 Folsom).
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Totimoshi @ Annie’s Social Club, Saturday
June 26, 2009
Enigmatic but electrifying, Alameda’s Totimoshi turned heads with 2006′s Ladron (Crucial Blast/Volcom). Having released 2008′s Milagrosa (Volcom), the trio teeter on the brink of something bigger, ready to take their idiosyncrasies to the top along with a catalogue full of grungy, jagged stoner rock. Co-conspirators in The Melvins and Helmet are important influences and tourmates, with Melvins producer Toshi Kasai (now of Big Business) presiding over the new record along with Helmet frontman Page Hamilton.
The tunes are an affecting mix of power and subtly, counterposing guitarist Antonio Aguilar’s skittering licks and declamatory vocals against the thrumming bass and booming drums of Meg Castellanos and Chris Fuggit. Employing both crackling fuzz and enveloping warmth, the band is equally adept at stomping riffs and sly interludes, always delivering an entertaining show, particularly during Aguilar’s energetic solos. Annie’s small confines will provide an intimate look at a promising band (with only one show scheduled this summer), so sidle up to the rock while you still can.
w/ Dusted Angel, Black Skies (NC), Hashishians
9pm, $8
Annie’s Social Club
