shows

Heshers Pizza & Taproom Oakland, CA August 29, 2026 What decade is it? One of the best death metal shows I’ve been to in years (and I’ve been to a lot) was at a pizza place last night. Not the legendary Pony Express Pizza in Redwood City (before my time living in the Bay Area), where I’ve heard tales of many thrash and punk bands that played gigs there in the 1980s, but Hesher’s Pizza in 2026 no less. If you haven’t been to Hesher’s, you really must go. Their formula for su

Lagunitas Brewing Co. Petaluma, CA August 29, 2026 I hadn’t been to the Lagunitas Brewery and Taproom in over a decade, as it is a bit over an hour drive from San Francisco in southern Sonoma county. It is a magical compound on the outskirts of Petaluma, that still retains its attitude (and its fantastic IPAs) despite a decade of ownership by beer conglomerate Heineken. They’d upgraded the place since I last got there, with a large open barn structure so you don’t have to dri

The Regency Ballroom San Francisco, CA August 19, 2026 “This must be a metal show, how many women do you see?” “This ain't a metal show, this is a Stoner rock show.” I’m not sure the gender balance was much different than many metal shows, but there were certainly fewer long hairs than your typical Death Metal gig. My buddy and I had gone from a pre-gaming session at Benders to catch Spoon Benders, the opening band of a three band bill featuring Stoner / Metal / Doom / whate

Phase 2 of my extended Euro vacation has commenced. I’m now traveling with Nefarious but let’s wrap up the second half of the Death Angel tour shall we? Let’s pick up where we left off. After the trio of headliners we had a couple of days off in Germany. On one of those days I went to a pretty killer and true Metal record store in Essen called Yeah Records. Don’t let the name fool you, this place is the shit. The last time I was there the owner brought me into the back and go

Merchants Saloon Oakland, CA August 15, 2026 Saturday night with 3 great local bands, an eclectic mix of heavy music styles with some unique twists, in true Bay Area fashion. Better yet the show was at one of Oakland’s oldest of old school dive bars, Merchants Saloon. I started the day slinging records in the East Bay for the second time in a few weeks, first at Amoeba Records Berkeley to see what had sold and put the new Frolic and Deth Provider on consignment. I hate consig

The New Farm San Francisco, CA August 8, 2026 Lost Goat isn’t a metal band, more of a hard rock band. But given how important they were in San Francisco's Mission District 90s punk and metal scene, their first show in 25 years is worthy of a writeup here for sure. Singer / bass player Erica Stoltz also fronts another heavy trio, the NY-based metal band Sanhedrin, but that is now, this was then. Both Sanhedrin and Lost Goat are regularly part of my playlist. This was actually

Greetings from Europe! Death Angel’s out here celebrating the 10th anniversary of our 2016 record The Evil Divide. We’re about at the halfway point and I thought it was high time I checked in. The tour kicked off in Poland with a show sharing the stage with Biohazard and NY Hardcore legends Cro-mags. There were two other hardcore bands on the bill (Sworn Enemy and Striking 13) which made Death Angel the odd band out on the bill but surprisingly (or not) we went over well and

Listen to the YouTube show for the full experience, what follows is a slightly shortened version of the conversation between Will and Zach. Touring Europe with Two Bands Zach: Hell yeah, motherfuckers—Death Angel right there. Guess who I've got on the line with me right now. Dude, what's going on? How you doing? Will: Good, man. I just got home from Death Angel rehearsal like twenty minutes ago. Zach: Hell yeah! I know you guys are busy as hell, and you especially have all ki

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. Updated Nefarious European tour dates (August 14, 2026): 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 t

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

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

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

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

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