shows

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

UC Theatre Berkeley, CA April 10, 2026 Night #2 of the trifecta of shows I went to this particular week/weekend was Testament / Destruction / Parabellum at The UC Theatre in Berkeley. Between the spots I had on the list and a friend having extra tickets himself I had to corral 5 semi-wasted Metalheads before going in. Never again! Parabellum had already started when we finally entered the theatre. There’s a lot of hype following these guys. But unlike a lot of bands that

California Theater Pittsburg, CA April 9, 2026 Holy fucking hell I’ve seen a lot of live music in the past 72 hours. Three different shows in three different cities all in the East Bay! And there were actually multiple shows on some nights with Rock or Metal bands playing at the DNA (Thursday was also Weedeater/Conan ) and Eli’s (Fri. was Birth , Tom Draper’s prog band). It almost felt like the 80’s with all this live music happening all at once. The first show I attended in

DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA March 29, 2026 Jeez, I’ve spent so much time at The DNA this week I may as well move in. The final show in a week full of kick ass Metal gigs at said club was Eyehategod / Crowbar / Bl’ast / Worship . I was a tad green around the gills being that Nefarious played that same stage the night before but I persevered. Plus, the music featured at this particular show was a great soundtrack for feeling like shit. Here we go…. Worship, DNA Lounge, San Fr

DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA March 25, 2026 Ok, I know I’m behind on this review but give a guy a break. In the past five days I was the DJ for three shows, DJd a Metal night at a bar and played a show with Nefarious. I’m trying to get all the info sorted out in my head….which takes a minute. So…this Onslaught show was a doozy for a number of reasons. Shall we discuss? Opening were Oakland favorites, Hectic/Bleeding Priest Records alumni and quite frankly one of the hardest

DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA March 28, 2026 Saturday night at the DNA Lounge for Nefarious ’ third show (and the band’s third show at the DNA – touring coming soon!). Plus a trio of metal power trios, headlined by the mighty Raven . Good things do come in threes sometimes. Opening the show was local band Shark in the Water . I’ve seen this band’s name on bills for years, my friend Dale even played drums for them a decade ago or so, but this was my first time seeing them live.

DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA March 21, 2026 Another Metal extravaganza at The DNA. This time around it’s Exhumed/Oxygen Destroyer/ No/Mas and Iron Front . Before I get into the show I want to quickly talk about what I did earlier in the day. After the Nefarious rehearsal in the early afternoon I went to go see the Kreator documentary HATE & HOPE . It was being shown as a part of the Berlin Film Festival at SF MOMA. It was a pretty cool little theatre with a great bunch of

The Kilowatt San Francisco, CA March 19, 2026 Hippie Death Cult and Glowing Brain , two bands I’ve been hearing about for a while but seeing for the first time. They did not disappoint. The Kilowatt was well attended this sweltering Thursday eve. It was a good mix of different folks from different scenes. I met the couple who put on the Punk Rock Record Swap in Alameda. Good people. Glowing Brain was first. Their music wasn’t quite what I was expecting. With the name I was

March 12, 2026 Neck of the Woods San Francisco, CA Second show of the night and what a DRASTIC change of audience from one show to the other. At Vicious Rumors I was arguably the youngest male there. I would say I was the youngest person across the board but I knew a girl there who is definitely younger than me. And at Trencher I was one of the oldest….one of. There were multiple bandmates of mine there who are at least 10 years older than me. But enough of this nonsense,

March 12, 2026 DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA San Francisco was jumping on this Thursday night. We had two Metal shows happening on either end of town. On one side we had Vicious Rumors and on the other there was Solicitor/Trencher/Phantasmal Abyss and others. Did I dare go to both? I dared! I hit the Vicious Rumors show first at the DNA (upstairs) being that it was an early show. I knew it was going to be a long night of loud music so I decided to show up just late enough t

March 7, 2026 DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA It seems like it’s been a minute since I did the DJ thing at The DNA. It felt good to be back behind the tables. And it was a hell of a night of blasphemous Metal for sure. The DNA was packed this Saturday eve and for good reason: Belphegor , Incantation , Hate and Narcotic Wasteland were in town. Let’s jump right in. Starting off the proceedings was Narcotic Wasteland . This band boasts the extraordinary talents of former Nile ax

March 3, 2026 Bottom of the Hill San Francisco, CA Tuesday night and The Bottom Of The Hill was sold the fuck out! The lineup was Swedish occult rockers Witchcraft , L.A.’s Candlemass worshipping doomsters Early Moods and returning locals Psychic Hit . A solid show any day of the week. Starting things off were Oakland’s Psychic Hit . This band was quite popular in the SF/Oakland scene pre-pandemic. They played frequently and every time I saw them the place was packed no mat

February 14, 2026 Great American Music Hall San Francisco, CA Hey, if Will can write about Weird Al Yankovic on this heavy metal website, I can write about weird psychedelic punk rock – NYC’s Alice Donut . At least Alice Donut wrote a song about Metallica . And weird is definitely the vibe with this band, kinda Frank Zappa meets the Butthole Surfers or the Melvins . I was a big fan in the early 90s, and saw them a few times over the years, but it had been quite a while. I’

February 13, 2026 Local Tap San Francisco, CA What else are you gonna do at happy hour on a Friday? See a KISS tribute band at a tiny watering hole near the ballpark of course. Destroyer are SF’s longest running and currently only KISS tribute band. There’s been three others in The Bay that I can remember, Detroit Rock City who predate Destroyer . Heroes , who if memory serves only played one gig. And Kisser , an all female tribute that I never got the chance to see. And