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Corrosion of Conformity, Whores, Crobot
Great American Music Hall San Francisco, CA July 13, 2026 Monday night in San Francisco at The Great American Music Hall. How rockin’ could it be? You’d be surprised. This particular Monday boasted Corrosion Of Conformity, Whores and Crobot. And the house was PACKED!! It may have been sold out but I’m not certain of that. Having just got off a 9 week tour (8 with Death Angel and 1 with Nefarious) I was a tad burnt on live music but I’m glad I was able to get one show in befor

Bleeding Priest
3 days ago4 min read


Death Angel End of Tour
Milwaukee Metal Fest! Feels like we were here last year…wait a second…WE WERE!! I think this might be the first time I’ve ever played the same festival 2 years in a row. Certainly with Death Angel. No complaints from me though. Death Angel had a great time last year and this one was more of the same. The MMF has come a long way from the borderline white power fest it was slowly becoming by the late 90’s. I went twice back then, once in 94’ or 95’ and again in 97’. The second

Bleeding Priest
Jul 116 min read


Record Release! Frolic, Blind Illusion, Broken Glass Sanctuary, Hemotoxin
Neck of the Woods San Francisco, CA July 3, 2026 Frolic’s record release party! On a Friday night starting off the July 4th holiday weekend, Frolic celebrated the release of their 2nd album Legacies of Cybernetica. Vinyl LPs are out now on Hectic / Bleeding Priest records and CDs/Cassettes at merch.frolic.band. Despite it being a holiday weekend when a lot of people leave town, the Neck of the Woods was fairly crowded. Luckily it was in the upstairs space, where there is more

Hectic
Jul 83 min read


Killswitch Engage, Machine Head, Iron Reagan, Havok
The Warfield San Francisco, CA June 27, 2026 I wasn’t planning on going to this show, even though I’m a big Iron Reagan fan. The modern metal sound of the bands topping the bill really isn’t my thing. But when the people from The Warfield / Goldenvoice reached out to SanFran666co to let us start giving away tickets to their metal shows, with a staff pair as well, I thought why not! Speaking of which: RSVP to any metal show at The Warfield to enter to win a pair of tickets! An

Hectic
Jul 15 min read


Nefarious, Defiance, Parabellum
Cornerstone Berkeley, CA June 26, 2026 It was night 2 of a 3 show mini tour of some of the Bay Area’s best thrashers - Nefarious, Defiance and Parabellum. Plus it was Rick Hunolt’s birthday (63, not 68 as Will claimed in a video on this site – sorry!) Having played Thursday in Sacramento, it was a Friday night celebration at the Cornerstone in Berkeley, before the band moved on to Reno Saturday night. A short tour to be sure, but it was Nefarious’s first ever tour and a solid

Hectic
Jun 292 min read


A Band of Orcs, WarTroll, Apraxia
Spats Berkeley, CA June 19, 2026 I hadn’t been to Spats, a dive bar near the UC Berkeley campus, in probably 20+ years. With a recent change of management they are now having regular shows though. So when a Friday night Dungeons & Dragons inspired local metal showcase came up, I had to go. Spats is really 3 separate storefronts on Telegraph avenue, a normal sized space with a bar, a room with 2 pool tables in the middle, and a small live room on the end. The live room is narr

Hectic
Jun 223 min read


Nefarious Summer Tour!
Nefarious is going on tour! After only playing at our favorite venue the DNA Lounge – 3 times, the first time nearly 2 years ago – the band is hitting the road. Finally. Nefarious is going to start out with a local mini-tour (Roseville > Berkeley > Reno) with Defiance and Parabellum. Technically it will be a multi-state tour, though just 3 gigs. A truly stacked lineup of Northern California Thrash metal! Then later this summer, Nefarious heads to Europe for the first time,

Hectic
Jun 171 min read


Wraith, Witchtrap, The Black Moriah, Burial Oath
DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA June 7, 2026 Sunday night at the DNA, and my second metal show of the day. Following the afternoon death metal show, it was time for some thrash, most of it blackened. This show wasn’t very well attended, but there were a ton of young people there. Good to see the next generation into some thrash metal. Crazy deep pit pushing us old folks to the back bar. The pit was pretty wild and took up practically the whole room! Us old folks had to retreat b

Hectic
Jun 92 min read


Bonecrown, PosthumanX, Viscelator, Eaten By Insects and Diablura
Kilowatt San Francisco, CA June 7, 2026 Sunday afternoon free metal show at the Kilowatt, what could be better? Due to a birthday lunch I was late to this show, and I missed the two openers. I heard that Eaten by Insects was particularly great, I guess this was one of their first few shows. I did manage to catch the last couple songs of Viscelator, who I’ve seen multiple times and always enjoy. Frontman Justin had some technical difficulties with his guitar during the last s

Hectic
Jun 83 min read


Death Angel ACT III Tour Part III
Maryland Deathfest! My first time attending or playing. It lived up to all my expectations. Death Angel played the main stage outside. We were sandwiched between a bunch of Death Metal bands. To some folks we probably sounded like a Rock n’ Roll band compared to the ultra-heaviness going on around us but the crowd went NUTS! Let’s talk about the lineup, the bands I saw, the record vendors I met and the day in general. Death Angel, Backstage in Atlanta, GA Photo by @cbvideom

Bleeding Priest
Jun 55 min read


Exodus Slay the Mabuhay
Mabuhay Gardens San Francisco, CA May 30, 2026 I’ve been to the On Broadway, the upstairs concert hall also known as the Rock on Broadway, but the Mab was closed a few years before my time in San Francisco. This legendary venue and Filipino restaurant at 443 Broadway in San Francisco was a key venue in the Bay Area’s punk scene in the 1970s and ’80s, hosting acts like the Dead Kennedys, Devo and Blondie until it closed in 1987. While the larger upstairs On Broadway was popula

Hectic
May 313 min read


Sepultura, Exodus, Biohazard, Tribal Gaze
UC Theatre Berkeley, CA May 28, 2026 This sold out Thursday night show at the UC Theatre was supposedly Sepultura’s last Bay Area show ever. I feel like I’ve now seen them several times on their “farewell” tour. After the antics of KISS and Motley Crue and their “farewell” tours, you’d think bands might stop doing that. But Quadra came out in February 2020, and I saw Sepultura twice on the Klash of the Titans tour in 2023 with Kreator and Death Angel, and then again in 2024 w

Hectic
May 304 min read


Death Angel Tour Blog #2
Holy hell a lot’s happened since the last blog. The tour has kicked into high gear with more shows and less days off. Let’s see, when we last spoke Death Angel were at Welcome To Rockville in Daytona. Since then we’ve played some rad shows and I’ve visited a ton of record shops. I’m going to cover the highlights here. Used Kids Records, Columbus, OH All the gigs have been pretty cool but the one in Asheville, North Carolina was especially rad. The crowd was electric and there

Bleeding Priest
May 254 min read


Phantom Witch, Drowning in Blood, Parabellum, Viscelator
DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA May 7, 2026 Thursday night thrash metal extravaganza at the DNA Lounge. Three local Bay Area thrash bands, plus a touring band from Montreal. The show was upstairs at the DNA, since in the main room they were showing the 1988 movie They Live with some sort of themed dance party afterwards. No idea what that was about, but I liked the signs promoting it: They Live promos with scary lenticular posters I’m normally not a fan of the upstairs space for

Hectic
May 93 min read


Death Angel Tour Week 1: The Fart Machine
Leg 2 of the Act III 35th Anniversary tour is underway and what better way to get things to a roaring start than with a day off! We left SF on Wednesday night and our first gig was on Fri. in Tempe AZ. So we had a day off in Burbank Ca. Fun day actually. In the evening my drum tech Zack and I went into Hollywood and had dinner at one of my favorite places on Earth, The Rainbow. And by complete coincidence my friends in Spirit World were playing next door at The Roxy. They pla

Bleeding Priest
May 94 min read


Haardvark, Gravedodger, Soothsayer
Makeout Room San Francisco, CA April 24, 2026 The Makeout Room is a venue in SF that I’ve been to only a handful of times in all the years living here. They rarely put on a show I’d be interested in seeing. In fact they rarely put on shows at all it seems like. Nevertheless I do like this spot and look forward to seeing more heavy(ish) shows there. The entertainment for this evening’s gig was provided by Haardvark, Gravedodger and Soothsayer. Soothsayer are a relatively new b

Bleeding Priest
May 33 min read


Death Angel Dress Rehearsal & Departure
DNA Lounge San Francisco CA April 29, 2026 I’ve never been in the DNA Lounge when the doors were locked and all the lights were up. Boy are those rafters dusty. On this Wednesday night it was the final dress rehearsal for the second leg of Death Angel’s ACT III 40th anniversary tour, and a few of us got to witness the culmination of weeks of practice before the band departed on tour. Death Angel dress rehearsal, DNA Lounge, San Francisco, CA, April 29, 2026 Courtesy of the D

Hectic
May 23 min read


Rainbow Bar & Grill 54th Anniversary
Rainbow Bar and Grill Los Angeles, CA April 19, 2026 I know our site covers Bay Area shows but this event I went to in LA was just too over the top to not cover here. The event I speak of is Rainbow Bar and Grill’s Anniversary Party. I believe they were celebrating its 54th year of business. The Bay Area Thrash scene in the 80’s was a fertile ground for LA hate. It was the norm for East Bay Thrashers to dub bands from LA as “fags” or “posers”. I never subscribed to that trai

Bleeding Priest
Apr 274 min read


Behemoth, Deicide, Rotting Christ, Immolation
The Regency Ballroom San Francisco, CA April 15, 2026 Dude, Deicide played “In Hell I Burn!!!” Ok, I’m getting way ahead of myself here. Sold out Death Metal show on a Wednesday night. Fuck yeah!! Anyone who says the scene in SF is dead has their head squarely up their fucking ass! The show was Behemoth, Deicide, Rotting Christ and Immolation. The venue, The Regency! All four of these bands could easily headline a show on their own, perhaps not at The Regency but they could

Bleeding Priest
Apr 225 min read


Ruffians, Hellfire, Lowcaster
Eli's Mile High Club Oakland, CA April 11, 2026 Third night in a row for Metal gigs brought me to Eli’s in Oakland. Sure it’s not nearly as cool as it was when the back patio was open but it’s still always a great time hitting this Oakland live music institution. The sound is usually the issue I have with Eli’s but Sonny from Necrot was working the board so the evening was in very capable hands. And it sounded better than ever! Hellfire, Eli's Mile High Club, Oakland, CA, Ap

Bleeding Priest
Apr 183 min read
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