Perhaps I should have taken the bolts of lighting flashing over San Francisco as an ominous warning. A warning of what was about to occur at the show I was about to attend. The scene at Cafe Du Nord was one of people escaping from the stormy weather and young hipsters gathering for a show.
Envision this: a beer-bellied, hairy, partly balding male in his late twenties. He takes the stage with a young female bassist and hip male drummer. The music is good- soulful dance-pop fused with R&B. The man in question, Har Mar Superstar, is quite the good vocalist but his downfall is in how disturbing his stage side behavior is.
It started with him feeling up and making out with a few women in the crowd. I could barely keep my mind on the music. He continued to do this to more women in the crowd, and I became scared as he made his way toward me; luckily I think the look of terror and disgust on my face made him back away. With the other ladies feeling him up while he flashed his buttocks on stage, running his hands all over almost every girl in the front row, and making out with them, I did not know if I could handle the show any longer.
The final straw was when he reached his hand down his pants, then sprinkled pubic dander on the crowd. I thought to myself, “This is how people get eye crabs,” and proceeded to leave. Even more shocking, though, was that the very misguided young women in the front seemed to be enjoying this misguided display of affection.
Mercy Mercy, the first band to take the stage, was a lively Bay Area dance-funk band. It did, however, get off to a rough start, with the cowbell-armed percussionist coming in a bit loud for the lead guitarist’s liking. But the audience responded jokingly with, “More cowbell!” which, much to the audience’s delight, there was, a few moments later. I must say that the percussionist really rocked his instrument.
nother highlight of this band was Lydia, the swinging female vocalist. She had so much power that it made me step back a moment and say to myself, “This chick is going places, as is the rest of the band.” This group was highly good times, and fun to dance to.
Tough Love, a highly entertaining thrash band, hit the stage next. Fronted by the President of Lookout! Chris Appelgren. This band rocked out in a most hardcore way. I must say, it’s hard to dance to thrash, but it can be done. They lose points, however, for their guitarist not showing up.
Tough Love’s guitarist was supposed to be Sean Lennon (spawn of Yoko Ono and John Lennon). Coincidentally or not, Lennon has left a trail of defunct bands behind him, like Cibo Matto. Some people speculate he’s the one who is behind all these breakups. Not surprisingly, this night Sean Lennon did not show up to the gig. They did find a replacement guitarist for the show, but let me say the normally drunk, happy, and dirty dancing Chris Appelgren looked angry, occasionally glaring at other band members, especially the replacement. At one point Appelgren snapped at the guitarist to “hurry up,” when he was taking too much time between songs to tune up.
To top it all off, gin and tonic in hand, Appelgren got a whiff of someone smoking an illegal substance. He went off on a rant: “That’s illegal, you know! Who ever it is better put that out right now, because if we can’t smoke it, neither can you!” The band finished up their set and walked off stage, Appelgren not so much walking off stage as storming, and proceeded to announce later that this was their last show because they broke up.
So, I give you this: the opening acts Mercy Mercy and Tough Love rocked, despite the amount of anger flowing through Tough Love, but what do you want from a thrash band that’s on the verge of breaking up? Mercy Mercy went a bit cowbell-happy, but one can never truly have too much cowbell. As for Har Mar, he sings very well, his music was smooth, but his stage show was just too much nastiness for this chick to handle. Check him out at your own risk.
