Raven, Nefarious, Slackjaw, Shark in the Water
- Hectic
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
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. Truth be told, I dislike gimmicks in my music, and I did have a bit of dread about witnessing “surf metal” for the first time.
I have to say, three guys in silly shark costumes worked a lot better than I would have thought. The music was metal but had some unique guitar tones to it, and their non-stop aggressive shark attitude just worked (“Stoopid humans are food! Get in shark mouth now!”) That with some other ocean themed hate songs (don’t eat my squid, sushi will kill you, etc.) made Shark in the Water an entertaining opener.
Our second power trio of the evening was Slackjaw, a young 3 piece band from South Carolina. They had a large number of young fans wearing Slackjaw t-shirts, so I guess their rep preceded them. So much so that there was a bit of a “changing of the guard” between the first two bands and last two bands, with a lot of the younger crowd departing and older crowd taking their place. Good for ticket sales I guess.
Anyway, Slackjaw rocked out, some of the songs had a bit more stripped down modern metal influence that isn’t typically my thing, but these guys were good. I thoroughly enjoyed their set.
In the supporting slot was the only non-trio of the evening, Nefarious. This was the third Nefarious live performance since their debut in July 2025, and the second with new vocalist Sean Rivera. Rivera continues to expand Nefarious’ sound to a more operatic, classic metal influenced thrash metal, not unlike NWOBHM heroes and headliners of the evening Raven. Though I will admit I did feel more comfortable when it wasn’t a white guy singing “Master Plan” (yeah, I know it is political commentary, like most of Nefarious’ debut album, but still).
I’m far from objective, having put out 2 Nefarious records in the past years on Hectic / Bleeding Priest Records, but they treated the crowd to a great performance – fast and powerful. Look for Nefarious soon on tour, time to leave the comfort of the DNA Lounge for these guys.
The headliner Raven put on an amazing and epic metal show. I’d seen them before on their 50th anniversary tour at the DNA (1974-2024), so I knew what awesomeness to expect from this English band. Still, the Gallagher brothers, bassist / vocalist John and guitarist Mark (not to be confused with the Gallagher brothers of Oasis), put on a high energy, classic heavy metal show.
Raven played a long set, including interludes with a crazy long guitar solo, then a bass solo so the guitar player could rest. Though the bass was tuned or using pedals to sound like a guitar. In what I thought was the final encore, they did a medley of shortened covers – UFO, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and “Bread Fan” (a cover of which was popularized by Metallica). Though after that they played not 1, not 2, but 3 more songs – the metal just kept coming from these guys.
For a band that isn’t exactly young, the level of energy and enthusiasm of Raven, coupled with the great metal riffs and vocals, is impressive. I hope to see them again at the DNA in 2028!
–Hectic
