Last Tuesday - Mission District again
I survived that weekend in San Francisco, and while in retrospect maybe that last story wasn't all that interesting, it's an experience I won't forget. With only two nights left in the area--maybe for a long time--I was determined to go back to San Francisco and press my luck again. Monday night I didn't, instead recuperating in Santa Clara and having the Global Thermonuclear wings at University Chicken, which no longer make me cry, sweat, or even sniffle. Some new chick customer was there and I talked her out of trying the 911 challenge, not because of the mouth hotness but because of the stomach issues that can occur only a few minutes after ingestion. She wasn't an amateur though because she did have the Global wings like I did and handled them pretty well. Her friends were having a bit of trouble with them, though.
Tuesday I headed up to the Mission District again and experienced more of my typical stupidness. I didn't want to do the half an hour walk/run again so I transferred onto BART from Caltrain. A one way trip takes about two hours, which when you start heading up there at 7 pm means you only have about 2.5 hours to spend up there before spending another 2 hours getting back home. I really wanted to go I guess! Part of my stupidness was wasting time once I got there. I had looked at the bar/band list before leaving but forgot to take it with me. Being a Tuesday it was very hard to find an SF Weekly but I finally found one at Safeway after walking around in circles (and having a warm-up beer at Delirium) about an hour after I got there. I chose to take BART back south a stop where there were three or so places to choose from at Mission & Valencia.
I chose The Knockout which had a nice cartoon of a guy drinking on their sign and a tricky to figure out door. Even though I could only stay a little more than a half an hour at this point, I got to see a full set by one band from west Oakland (I didn't catch their name). Yeah, their set was short. The bartenders were characters that I found quite amusing. One was older than me and was complaining about the death metal that the DJ was playing, something about it not being real music. Then they were both wondering about the amps the band was setting up, which seemed a bit excessive for the size of this small place. Somehting like "What's with all the amps? There's like five people here!" I liked the band alright, they were two guys, one on bass and one on drums. The bass had effects on it enough that I was fooled into thinking I was hearing guitar at first. It reminded me of Monotonix which just had one guitar player who fed two amps making it sound like guitar and bass. There actually was a pretty good crowd for the size of the place, maybe a dozen people gathered in front of the stage. The songs were short and original enough. Both guys sang. It seemed like only fifteen minutes or so and then the older bartender decided he had enough and told them they were done! They played one more song, which didn't anger the bartender more but he was glad when it was over. Then I had to leave and I was chuckling on the way out from the bartender/band interaction.
Now came the challenge of getting back home. Before I left the BART station to see the show, I studied the timetable and even asked the info guy about getting down to Caltrain because the timetable was a little confusing. He was completely wrong with the information he gave me, saying that any BART going to the airport does not continue on to Millibrae where the Caltrain connection is. Thankfully, I trusted my instincts and timetable reading ability instead, because that's exactly what that train did. I made the transfer successfully and was in bed by 2 am, a full 7 hours before I had to be at work. One thing to note about BART: as it speeds up it sounds just like the ascending synth part in "Blinded by the Light" in Manfred Mann's version of the song. Next time you hear the song you'll know what I mean. BART is very loud. Caltrain is quiet. That's the end of my trip. Wednesday evening I left for home from work.
Tuesday I headed up to the Mission District again and experienced more of my typical stupidness. I didn't want to do the half an hour walk/run again so I transferred onto BART from Caltrain. A one way trip takes about two hours, which when you start heading up there at 7 pm means you only have about 2.5 hours to spend up there before spending another 2 hours getting back home. I really wanted to go I guess! Part of my stupidness was wasting time once I got there. I had looked at the bar/band list before leaving but forgot to take it with me. Being a Tuesday it was very hard to find an SF Weekly but I finally found one at Safeway after walking around in circles (and having a warm-up beer at Delirium) about an hour after I got there. I chose to take BART back south a stop where there were three or so places to choose from at Mission & Valencia.
I chose The Knockout which had a nice cartoon of a guy drinking on their sign and a tricky to figure out door. Even though I could only stay a little more than a half an hour at this point, I got to see a full set by one band from west Oakland (I didn't catch their name). Yeah, their set was short. The bartenders were characters that I found quite amusing. One was older than me and was complaining about the death metal that the DJ was playing, something about it not being real music. Then they were both wondering about the amps the band was setting up, which seemed a bit excessive for the size of this small place. Somehting like "What's with all the amps? There's like five people here!" I liked the band alright, they were two guys, one on bass and one on drums. The bass had effects on it enough that I was fooled into thinking I was hearing guitar at first. It reminded me of Monotonix which just had one guitar player who fed two amps making it sound like guitar and bass. There actually was a pretty good crowd for the size of the place, maybe a dozen people gathered in front of the stage. The songs were short and original enough. Both guys sang. It seemed like only fifteen minutes or so and then the older bartender decided he had enough and told them they were done! They played one more song, which didn't anger the bartender more but he was glad when it was over. Then I had to leave and I was chuckling on the way out from the bartender/band interaction.
Now came the challenge of getting back home. Before I left the BART station to see the show, I studied the timetable and even asked the info guy about getting down to Caltrain because the timetable was a little confusing. He was completely wrong with the information he gave me, saying that any BART going to the airport does not continue on to Millibrae where the Caltrain connection is. Thankfully, I trusted my instincts and timetable reading ability instead, because that's exactly what that train did. I made the transfer successfully and was in bed by 2 am, a full 7 hours before I had to be at work. One thing to note about BART: as it speeds up it sounds just like the ascending synth part in "Blinded by the Light" in Manfred Mann's version of the song. Next time you hear the song you'll know what I mean. BART is very loud. Caltrain is quiet. That's the end of my trip. Wednesday evening I left for home from work.
Labels: music
posted by PlaysByEar at 10:19 PM
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