Mouthfull featuring Mike Watt, Nels Cline, Herman Green, John Molo, Steve Mackay, Willie Waldman
January 10th at Red Devil Lounge

As I made my way down the hill, I could hear Mike Watt’s bass roar rumbling down Clay Street. In a way, this was my favorite moment of the night, the low drone permeating the crisp San Francisco night air, me rushing in to see Nels Cline and Stooges saxman Steve Mackay doing fusion battle! Inside, things weren’t as magical. Maybe it was the fact that they were playing with the archetypal “old dude who once jammed with Coltrane” or maybe it was the fact that Ron Asheton had just died, but nothing was really connecting.

That said, however, the second set was pretty good. Everyone begged Watt to play some Stooges and he finally relented, playing a fiery version of “Fun House” but then at the “BLOW STEEEEVE” part… the old dude instead soloed (him blowing mellow, oblivious to how we are all eager to hear Steve go apeshit at that moment). Actually, everyone on this night seemed eager to kill it, and when everyone is eager to kill it and there is no breath, things suffer. The best part though was Mackay, who was very, very intoxicated, so someone shouted “tequila!” and Watt fired up the two-note bass part and Nels locked in the avant guitar and Mackay played the little sax part and there came a magical 10-minute version of “Tequila” and I thought, “This is how it is supposed to go….” – Brian Brown

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]

The Botticellis, Geographer
January 14th at Café du Nord

It was definitely not ’80s Cover Night at the Café du Nord, but both the headliner and opener at the Botticellis show last Wednesday banged out unexpected and splendid reworkings of hits from that decade. Geographer was the three-piece opener, and they were a surprise knockout: They performed a faithful, schmaltz-free cover of New Order’s “Age of Consent” early in a set of otherwise original, tightly arranged, and stunning pop tunes. Set closer “Can’t You Wait” was particularly good: A pulsing, keyboard-driven bit of moody pop that evoked the best moments of Death Cab or Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. Surely a tough act to follow, but the Botticellis put on a fun, summery set (appropriate given the Bay Area’s unseasonably warm weather of late), complete with surfy reverb and silly banter: “Does the bass sound a little weird? …That’s just the way we want it.” The San Francisco group, who last year released a sturdy set of Beach Boys-y pop on their Old Home Movies album, for their part covered Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again”, a song that singer Alexi Glickman claimed was “a terrible song from a terrible year,” but their spin on the tune takes a dreamy “Dear Prudence”-like form. Their quiet, mellow beach-bum vibe is often charming and compelling, but the Botticellis are most fun to watch when they turn the volume up, as on songs like “The Reviewer.” For that song, they did an introduction that threw Alex Chilton fans for a loop by employing the entire wound-up intro from Big Star’s “O My Soul” before launching into their own excitable verses and choruses. A few songs were new and as-yet-unreleased tracks, all of which clicked nicely in the live setting, especially their final track, whose ’70s-AM Radio vibe was accurate to the point of evoking the verses from Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain.” Anybody who can channel the Buckingham/Nicks era is probably worth keeping an eye on. – Michael Harkin

Listen: The Botticellis [at youtube.com]

Girls
January 15th at Eagle Tavern

Among those who have heard them, there is little doubt that SF-based band Girls are gonna make a splash in 2K9. Judging by the excitement they’ve generated through the release of a seven-inch alone—last year’s double-A-side “Lust for Life”/“Morning Light” single on True Panther Sounds—and the stellar quality of the songs floating around on YouTube etc., the LP on the way should be awesome. For live performances, the core two-piece behind Girls—singer/guitarist Christopher Owens (also of Holy Shit) and bass player Chet JR White—have expanded to a four-piece, including John Anderson on guitar and drummer Garett Godard, and at the Eagle Tavern last Thursday they also featured some tambourine flourishes from a friend of theirs who stepped on stage mid-set. Honesty and melody are the two songwriting virtues most espoused by Owens and White in the interviews they’ve done to date, and one listen shows that they’re following through on these fronts: Avoiding metaphor and figurative language to the ABBA-th degree, songs like the effervescent “Lust for Life” and “Laura” gave excited grins to a crowd composed largely of actual “girls,” while the more melancholy tones of songs like the swirling, shoegaze-y “Morning Light” and the head-hanging slowdance of “Hellhole Ratrace” were equally moving. Even though the set largely consisted of tunes people couldn’t readily recognize, it didn’t really matter, as Girls have already found the way to slap people into instant fandom: Great songs! Their single is presently out-of-print, but both songs are streamable through their MySpace along with a couple other new tracks—dig ’em now so you can say you knew them when! – MH

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]

The Devil Makes Three
January 16th at the Independent

To a beer-fueled crowd on a balmy Friday night, the trio that comprises the Devil Makes Three took the Independent’s stage by moderate storm to regale a crowd of San Franciscans with their Santa Cruz-bred country-folk for the new millennium. Stand-up bass, guitar, and banjo thumped through a long set driven by twangy vocals and playful songs in the vein of Americana, bluegrass, folk, and country. Highlights to me were the tunes that found the whole trio harmonizing, lady Lucia’s vocals in particular offering a much needed lift to the band’s palette, which frankly, became a bit tedious to me after a while. I guess I just expected more of a punky swagger or hoedown kinda vibe. They work best with their up-tempo arrangements that bring a danceable beat to what could otherwise by construed as simply imitative of the precursors to this sort of acoustical country-folk. The Devil Makes Three creates the kind of music that I probably enjoy the most, I just really wish they seemed to be having more fun up there. – Angela Zimmerman

Watch: The Devil Makes Three [at youtube.com]

Read past installments of It Shows:

Will Sheff, Thee Oh Sees, Thievery Corporation, and Sex/Vid

Blitzen Trapper, maus haus, Wilderness, and Mudhoney

Love Is All, Of Montreal. Deerhunter, the Harbours, and Kami Nixon