In Shame, Semuta, Beach Master, Hazzard's Cure, Echo Death
- Hectic
- Oct 1
- 3 min read
Pussy Palace
Oakland, CA
September 28, 2025
The Richmond BART line was shut down for creating chaos, there was a light rain, and I was selling records to some of the best metal and punk record stores – another beautiful Sunday in Oakland. After dropping off the new Trencher record at 1234 Go and Econojam records, I headed to the Pussy Palace Punk house to take records to Cat-a-Comb records and check out their second to last show of the season.
Since the flyer said doors 3 PM, show 4 PM, I showed up around 4:30 hoping to catch the first band, only to find the show nowhere near starting. Ah the joys of punk time. And there was no keg of Ghost town beer this time to occupy my time. Doh! There was a guy doing BBQ, which looked pretty good but I had to remain focused on corner store High Life tall boys.
Time to go hang out in Cat-a-Comb Records, deliver the Trencher records, and smoke a bit. This hideaway brainchild of Gabriel of Braintooth (see what I did there) continues to evolve and impress, with a growing collection of metal and punk vinyl, plus quite a selection of t-shirts. Still small but mighty and full of gems, all from local labels and bands who have played at the house.
Not sure how often the shop will be open during the “off season” when they won’t be having shows (California natives call it Winter, when it rains occasionally). But get over there to check it out if you can.
Echo Death started the show off (finally), a one-man drummer vocalist with pre-recorded backing tracks for the bass and guitar/synth melodies. Not really my thing, but not bad certainly, and some of the crowd was quite into that style of music. Definitely some interesting compositions.
This show there were some lights on stage (useful later on) and a dry ice fog machine, which was pretty seriously active. With the light drizzle and no wind, there were some pretty huge clouds of dry ice fog coming through the crowd and around the band. It looked quite a bit like clouds of smoke were billowing out of the stage, and I was worried that the fire department might be called. Luckily this was West Oakland one block from the 580 freeway overpass, and no one cared what was going on.
The band I had come to see, Hazzard’s Cure, was up second. I’ve seen them many times over the past 15+ years of their existence, but it had been a couple of years since they had played live. I think the last show of theirs I caught was supporting Stygian Bough in 2022, though there might have been a gig since.
Hazzard’s Cure plays a unique blend of metal styles, from black metal to speed to doom, all blended together in metallic epicness. Laurie from Ludicra came on and sang the last 3 songs of their set with the band, it was intense and sounded great.
Next up was Beach Master, a heavy as heck 3 piece band from Reno, Nevada with a kind of odd name. Based on their bandcamp, perhaps it has to do with killer elephant seals taking revenge on humans for global warming and glacial collapse? Or druids. I dunno, odd name for a great band that also embraced a number of styles, from doom to slow melodic to fast screaming, all of it heavy. I would definitely check these guys out again, hope to see an album from them next time too.
Unfortunately after that it was time to make the trek back to SF, after a long Sunday of record sales, live music (and drinking), thoughts of getting up early for work the next day were starting to spoil the fun. So I missed In Shame and Semuta, maybe next time.
–Hectic
