Bad Weather California came to the Hi-Dive to kick off its tour, but ended up opening for Love Like Fire, the headliner no one came to see. File photo by Brian Carney.
After fighting traffic, a headcold and St. Patty’s Day amateurs on the drive to , I faced tour kickoff show on March 14 with some trepidation.
Openers actually use the word “masturbation” in their own MySpace description, has only a smattering of reviews online, and fancy merch table made me wonder if the San Francisco band was trying to steal the thunder of local favorite Bad Weather California on their big night. Little did I know just how the whole headliner/opener dichotomy would be shaken up this particular Saturday night.
As Pink Hawks took the stage, I was prepared for the worst and not holding out hope for much more. I’ll admit I wasn’t in the correct mindset for a 35-minute jazz improvisation in which keyboardist/saxophonist Yuzo Nieto stripped down to his underpants. But perhaps the cold medicine hadn’t fully kicked in.
The musicians of Pink Hawks are talented, to be sure, managing to pull together a completely unscripted piece for each show. But they seemed an incongruous band to prime a crowd for a Bad Weather show.
Pacific Pride was up next, pulling the musical equivalent of shifting into reverse at 60 mph on the highway. Sweeping, tonal guitar and plaintive male vocals give this band a decidedly ’90s grungy feel, mixed with moments of poppy-yet-sad rhythms akin to mid-’80s The Cure.
By the time their set had finished, the crowd had grown to the standing-room-only volume I’d come to expect from BWC shows, and I was wondering what the next opener would have to offer.
And then Bad Weather California set up.
I’m not sure how the presumed headliners became the opening band for Love Like Fire, but as BWC started their set a palpable confusion bubbled up from the crowd. The band held it together for a fantastic set, with Chris Adolf’s now-trademark lyrical slipups and a few new sounds that expand the band’s realm beyond the their alt-country base.
Running the gamut from Wilco-esque sweetness to near-Clashlike chaos, this may have been the best Bad Weather California show I’ve ever seen.
Drummer Logan Corcoran got so into “Ain’t No Grave Deep Enough To Keep Me Down” that he upturned his kit and spent the rest of the song simultaneously reassembling it and playing it.
Being the headliners nobody came to see seemed to take the air out of Love Like Fire’s sails. Plagued with a dwindling crowd, sound-booth issues and frontgirl Ann Yu’s tangible nervousness, the band seemed to be trying to build up a head of steam their entire set. Once they finally hit their stride, they came off like without the punky urgency, and when they finished, it was so subtle that I barely noticed.
For those of us expecting to end the night with Adolf’s screamy vocals and jangling rhythm guitar, it was an odd feeling to take home.
Cassandra Schoon is an assistant manager at Sportique Scooters and a regular Reverb contributor.
