Glowing Brain, HÖG, Trencher
- Hectic
- Sep 16
- 3 min read
Thee Stork Club
Oakland, CA
September 11, 2025
I don’t think I’d seen a show at Thee Stork Club in Oakland since the 1990s. Though it has been open for nearly 100 years, the club changed ownership in 2022, and has been updated and changed quite a bit. It is kind of fancy now, in a comfortable hipster sort of way, though it is on a stretch of Telegraph ave that is decidedly un-fancy. The current owners are the people behind the Mosswood Meltdown festival and Eli’s Mile High Club.
In the new setup the live room is separate from the bar, with no cover to get into the bar (or the large side yard, which was packed with people on a warm September evening). It is a bit of a strange disconnect, as there were kind of 2 separate scenes going on at the same time, the show crowd and the bar crowd, but both were cool and both very downtown Oakland.
First band of the night was Trencher, and it was a record release show of sorts, since their first record just arrived. Skullcrusher, featuring the Skullcrusher EP on one side and Trench Metal EP on the other, was just released on vinyl LP by our very own Hectic Records / Bleeding Priest Records.
Trencher always rips, and their brand of speed metal homage to greats like Celtic Frost, Destruction and Running Wild is a Bay Area metal crowd favorite. In addition to songs off the new release people were excited about, they also played 3 new songs off an upcoming new album. This is the first time I’ve seen a Trencher show without a pit breaking out, not that this old man missed it.
But the first couple of songs the house carnival lights were still on, and this was more of a stoner metal crowd (see: next 2 bands). It was also lead guitarist Mikey Herrera's birthday, so that and the record were certainly celebrated, just a bit less violently than we’re used to with Trencher crowds.
The supporting act was HÖG, a 3 piece stoner metal band from Portland, Oregon. They were fast and really tight, with a lot of 70s hard rock influences. I heard some Ted Nugent (sorry not sorry), Uriah Heep, Bad Company and Black Sabbath, while thankfully it stayed away from the derivative Black Sabbath worship you frequently hear these days. Really great band, I made sure to pick up their new record Blackhole afterwards.
Glowing Brain ended the night, another impressive 3 piece band blending metal and punk influences into rock and roll for a unique sound. A dash of noise rock in there too perhaps, though I am clearly not a music critic (or musician). They put out a new record Memory Distortion back in May of this year.
I thought I had seen them before, but must have just seen the name around. Doc, who manages the well-curated metal section at Amoeba Records in San Francisco, is the guitarist. Thoroughly enjoyable for those who don’t like cookie-cutter sounding bands, but still want their music fast, heavy and tight. Check them out in November supporting Terry Gross at Bottom of the Hill.
–Hectic
