College Street House Show - July 26, 2009

Sometimes you don't have to pay a cover or even leave the neighborhood to catch some of the best entertainment and fun in the city. There have been countless Riverside house shows to varying degrees of magnitude over the years (I presume) but the most recent was the best I've attended so far.





A handful of local bands played, including Wudun, Matrix Infinity, and The Late Great Magic [Something-or-other] as well as Psychic Reality (SF) and Royal Chord (all the way from Australia). I still hear the label "noise show" in reference to these events which I find to be a misnomer. It can get noisy, sure, but it's simply experimental if anything and not a sonic assault necessitating copious amounts of psychotropic substances (although, they don't hurt). It might not appeal to everybody but if you've never heard these bands, you owe it to yourself to check them out.



Watching the bands meant crowding into the dining room and sweating your ass off but it was well worth it. And not everybody was there for the music. The entire house was full, plus the porch, plus the sizable front yard. There was no free beer but that didn't stop the droves from gathering and having a kick-ass Sunday night with friends and meeting new folks. Despite the volume of attendees, JSO merely crept by a few times and didn't harass anyone or try and shut it down.



If you missed it, no worries, these things happen all the time and hopefully ones in the future will be as successful as this one was. In fact, there just so happens to be one Saturday night featuring some super-awesome bands, so don't miss out.



You've been warned!

Click on an image for the full set. Photos by Jack Diablo.