review by: Roberto Martinelli

It must be kind of cool to live in a warehouse. Even cooler if that warehouse not only doubles as your practice space, but that if you also happen to be in two of the best metal bands not only in the San Francisco Bay Area, but the entire universe. I mean, you open your door onto the central living area/ mosh pit, and you can jam up a storm until you’re blue in the face.

This particular warehouse on 3rd Street in San Francisco happens to be the practice space of Hammers of Misfortune and The Lord Weird Slough Feg’s John Cobbett. Cobbett likes to invite his closest circle of supporters every now and again and have a free concert.

Hammers of Misfortune were first. Since their debut album under that name, Hammers have lost their bass player/vocalist Janis Tanaka to the pop band Pink. The elfishly pretty female bass player that they’ve replaced Tanaka with can hang. They’ve also added a full time keyboardist, a tall, striking, Scandinavian looking woman.

Hammers of Misfortune played large chunks of their The Bastard album, and a song or two from when they were known as Unholy Cadaver. If there was anything less than perfect, it was that the vocals weren’t loud enough. But in a sense, even that was great, because you could really get swept up in the beautiful, charging music and its harmonies.

I left the comfy computer chair that I commandeered to watch the set to take a look around the common area in which rows of couches were set up like a staircase. Behind the area where the band played was the kind of bar that you would imagine being in one of those hut/ outdoor clubs that you see in movies that take place in Hawaii. Beers were a couple bucks.

Strangely, some of the crowd had gone by the time The Lord Weird Slough Feg took center floor. Whatever. As great as Hammers were, Slough Feg were even better. The set just kept improving with each song, again in spite of not being able to hear the unique voice of Mike Scalzi all that well. Still, it didn’t keep the true faithful from singing along to such favorites as “Warriors Dawn.” As always, the band delighted the audience as much with its songs (including tracks from the brand new album, Traveller) as it did with covers of band such as Metal Lucifer.

The audience would not let Slough Feg leave, demanding more every time Scalzi said the set was over. The fervent faithful managed to get three encores out of the band, who were clearly delighted to oblige. Why can’t every show be as great as this?

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