Local Heavyweights Team Up At SF Eagle
By Dave Pehling
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Two San Francisco bands made up of local scene veterans team up for a high-powered heavy rock show Thursday when Pins of Light shares the stage at the SF Eagle with Feral Ohms.
One of the most unique sounding bands on San Francisco's experimental punk rock fringe, Pins of Light features a talented quartet of musicians with solid pedigrees including former and current members of such noted SF bands as Dead and Gone, Triclops!, Hightower, Peace Creep and Night After Night. Armed with a desire to push the boundaries of heavy music, the group put out it's eponymous debut for Alternative Tentacles in 2012.
The album showcased bassist Shane Baker's growling vocal delivery and a sound that split the difference between two bands anchored by late bass legend Lemmy: the pulsing, riff-driven space rock of Hawkwind and the pummeling, raucous attack of Motörhead. Last year, the group self-released a second collection of songs entitled Home that boasts more sci-fi sound effects and some of the group's most compelling songwriting yet.
Pins of Light will be joined by local psych juggernaut Feral Ohms. A corrosive power trio anchored by renowned Bay Area guitarist Ethan Miller who founded Comets on Fire and Howlin' Rain and more recently became part of the psych supergroup Heron Oblivion. Started in 2011, Feral Ohms delivers a deafening, fuzzed-out fury that recalls the lysergic caveman stomp of late '60s underground legends Blue Cheer and Sir Lord Baltimore while hearkening back to Miller's most unhinged early work with Comets on Fire.
After putting out a string of 7-inch singles for a variety of imprints including SF boutique label Valley King and the aforementioned Alternative Tentacles, last year the threesome issued a frenetic live recording tracked at the Chapel in San Francisco on Thee Oh Sees frontman John Dwyer's Castle Face Records. In the spring, the trio offered up it's self-titled studio debut released on Miller's own Sliver Current label that manages (barely) to contain the ferocity of the band's onstage assault. San Francisco garage rock outfit Smokers opens the show.
Pins of Light and Feral Ohms
Thursday, June 1, 9 p.m. $10
SF Eagle
